Halo_ First Strike - Eric S. Nylund [67]
Fred turned off his display and watched his motion tracker. They were all together and another blip appeared, one that Kelly was leading them straight to.
Another twenty meters and she halted. "Look." Fred snapped on his heads-up display, and sapphire-blue light filled his vision. They stood before the source of the glow in the
middle of the room. There was a pedestal made of the same gold material as the symbols in the corridor, and floating above it was a fist-sized crystal, tapered to a point at either end. It spun, and the facets along its centerline folded and shifted like the pieces of a puzzle.
Dr. Halsey reached for it and then hesitated. "Radiation?" she asked. Fred checked his counter. "Normal background levels," he reported.
"We must take this with us," she whispered. "Study it. Or destroy it if necessary to keep the Covenant from getting it." She touched the crystal, and its light dimmed. For a moment the light appeared to be absorbed by Dr. Halsey's palm.
Static washed over Fred's display, his shields shimmered, a squeal blasted through his speakers, and his motion tracker momentarily made contact with a thousand targets swarming through the great room. His radiation warning flared red and then faded.
"Radiation spike," he said. "Analysis says lots of neutrinos, but I'm unable to determine the type—it's something not in the computer's database."
"Is it safe now?" Dr. Halsey asked, peering into the crystal she gripped in her tiny hand.
"Seems so," Fred told her, "but Doc—"
"No time for debate," she said. "Neutrino radiation will penetrate the rock between us and the surface."
"They'll be able to get a fix on our position," Kelly said. "All they need is three ships nearby to triangulate. We need to get out ofhere—fast."
"Which way?" Isaac asked Fred. "Back the way we came, or deeper in?" "There was no way out from the titanium mines," Fred replied. "So we go deeper." An explosion rocked the earth and deep thunder rumbled, but rather than diminishing, this thunder got louder, closer.
Fred's shadow lengthened, and its edges sharpened.
He whirled toward the source of the intense white light— directly overhead, a spot in the dome: The holographic scenery of stars and moons bleached and vanished. He spun Dr. Halsey around so she faced away, then covered her head.
The stone ceiling melted and peeled back as if it were thin plastic hit with a blowtorch—an angled shaft of dazzling white radiance appeared and blasted into the tiled floor, five hundred meters from their position.
Then it was gone and the room fell into darkness punctured only by a ray of faint sunlight that streamed in through the hole above. Where the beam of hard light had contacted the floor, a precision-milled hole had been etched fifteen meters deep.
Dr. Halsey said, "What was—"
"Energy projector," Fred told her, blinking away the black dots that filled his vision even though his step-down filters had absorbed the brunt of the light. "Only the big Covenant ships have them. There's got to be one of them—"
The cut shaft filled with a beam of purple light. It sparkled and shimmered with motes of dust.
"Grav lift," Fred shouted. "Incoming! Isaac and Vinh, take our six. Will, you're with me on Doctor Halsey. Kelly, find us a way out."
Kelly ran in a line directly away from the gravity beam. A dozen Elites floated down through the shaft, and fired while still in the air. Plasma bolts slashed at them from the distance.
Fred and Will grabbed Dr. Halsey and moved her behind the pedestal, out of the line of fire. Isaac and Vinh fell back and opened fire.
"Suppression fire!" Fred barked. "Keep them pinned in that crater!"
The Spartans fired several bursts, but more Elites were drifting down, along with a Shade—a portable plasma turret. If they stayed here, they'd be overrun.
"Fall back," Fred told them over the COM. "It's too hot."
Kelly sprinted, digging in her heals with such force that the tiles buckled and shot out behind her. "Passage," she reported. "Ground floor. Dead ahead.