Halo_ First Strike - Eric S. Nylund [149]
"Where's the Admiral?" the Master Chief asked. "And Lieutenant Haverson?"
The Sergeant's half smile vanished, and his eyes darkened. He moved to Weapons Station One. "I'll show you. A Clarion spy drone is nearly in position."
The center viewscreen fuzzed with static and then resolved to show the Ascendant Justice moving out of the shadow of the moon. The once formidable Covenant flagship was a wreck; its hull was breached in a dozen places, its skeletal frame exposed, and only a handful of plasma conduits flickered with life.
"I don't understand," the Chief said. He stepped closer to Cortana's hologram. Being near the real Cortana—not one of her fragmented copies—reassured him that everything was under control. "What's going on?"
"Stand by, Chief," she replied. "I'm attempting to attune Ascendant Justice's Slipspace drive to the Gettysburg's mass and profile."
"That's what we were up to while you were off sight-seeing," the Sergeant told him. "We pulled the Slipspace matrix out of our piggybacked ship and slapped it into the Gettysburg."
John wheeled and faced the viewscreens. Ascendant Justice couldn't jump? Then why was it headed straight toward the Covenant fleet? A decoy? He glanced at the countdown timer:
2:09 left.
"Not a decoy," he whispered,"... a lure. Sergeant, get a signal to Ascendant Justice. Bounce it off that spy drone if you have to."
"Roger, Chief," Sergeant Johnson said and tapped in commands. An error warning blared. He shook his head, puzzled, and tried again, carefully retyping.
"Linda, take the NAV station. Fred, you're on Ops. Will, give the Sergeant a hand at Weapons One."
Blue Team jumped to their assigned stations.
Will edged the Sergeant aside and quickly tapped three buttons. "COM patch established," he reported. "On viewscreen two."
The bridge of Ascendant Justice appeared on screen. Lieutenant Haverson and Admiral Whitcomb stood on the central raised dais, adjusting the holographic controls. Behind them, the wall displays showed Covenant ships closing on their position.
Admiral Whitcomb smiled. "Glad to see you made it safely aboard, son." "Sir, that fleet will destroy you before you can fire a single salvo."
"I don't think so, Master Chief," he replied and tapped the holographic display. A slim blue crystalline shard appeared— an exact copy of the alien artifact they found on Reach. "I'm sending this image to every ship in the system and letting them know it's theirs for the taking ... if they dare to board this ship and face Earth's best warriors." He laughed. "I think that'll appeal to those Elites and their overinflated sense of honor."
John nodded. "Yes, sir. It will."
He looked at the countdown timer: 1:42.
The Covenant fleet turned and moved toward the incoming Ascendant Justice. A cloud of cruisers and carriers. Hundreds of them. Impossible odds.
"Fire turret four, Lieutenant," the Admiral ordered.
"Firing!" Haverson replied, his face set in grim determination.
A lance of plasma discharged, arced, and impacted upon the nose of the nearest carrier. The energy splashed over their shields and dissipated.
"Turret five, Lieutenant. Take them down."
"Firing five, sir," Haverson said.
A second plasma bolt followed the first. It blasted the carrier's weakened shields and melted armor and hull, exploding through the foredecks. The ship rolled and crashed into a cruiser that had come too close.
"Nice shooting, Lieutenant," the Admiral murmured.
The Covenant fleet responded with a blinding volley of laser fire. Pinpoints of energy concentrated on Ascendant Justice's aft decks, boiled armor off in thick layers—sheared through to the other side, severing its engines.
The Admiral smiled. "A sound tactical response. Good thing they don't know we're just using that slingshot around the moon and our inertia to do the rest of the job." He glanced