Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [115]
Ash paused and turned to see where the pursuing Sentinels were.
His eyes registered flashes. His training took over and his body moved before he cluttered his mind with thought.
He stepped right, pushed off, and jumped left. The floor exploded. Shrapnel tore through his SPI armor, and he was remotely aware that something had happened to his left leg, but he ignored it.
Ash rolled, turned, and chucked a grenade as three Sentinel pairs streaked over him.
The grenade bounced off their shields, and harmlessly detonated in the air.
At least this part of the plan was working; they were drawing fire.
He detected a dozen more Sentinels in the air, shooting at other targets, bathing the
factory in brilliant gold illumination, razor-sharp shadows, and glowing molten craters.
Ash broadcast on TEAMCOM: "Form up; accelerate approach to target."
On his TACMAP he marked the apex of the generator, and then placed a secondary
marker on the extraction point—a location three hundred meters distant over open ground.
Ash charged forward, running a crazy pattern—right, left, sudden stops, rolls and ducks. Energy beams fell around him. Fire washed over him. Liquid metal spattered his back, but he
didn't flinch. His eyes clouded red, and his vision tunneled on the glowing target ahead.
He had to get there. He would get there.
Ash sprinted straight ahead. Every muscle pumped and burned with lactic acid.
Olivia and Holly got to the dome, turned, and their Jackal
gauntlets crackled to life. They stood together, overlapping energy shields.
Behind them loomed the impossibly large pyramid of spheres, all eyes turning toward
them. "Hurry," Holy cried over TEAMCOM. She raised the bottom edge of her shield a half
meter. "Under—quick!"
Ash jumped, dove under their feet and behind the energy shields.
Light surrounded him, and the floor to either side melted and blasted away.
He stood between his teammates and snapped on his own Jackal gauntlet.
Mark joined them.
Ash hesitated, waiting for Dante to get there. He then realized his grim mistake. He wished his friend was here by his side… but he was gone, and Dante would have wanted the team to keep their heads. Fight. And win.
Ash watched the swarm of enemies surrounding them. There were about forty Sentinel pairs. They could have all fired, and blown Team Saber to hell, but instead they looked wary… like they were thinking this through.
Which was the one thing he couldn't let happen.
"Get their attention," Ash told Mark.
Mark nodded, and hefted their only SPNKr missile launcher. He angled it at a cluster of
Sentinels at four o'clock.
The missile streaked through the air and hit a pair dead center—mushrooming into thunder and smoke. The Sentinels, behind their shields, were untouched.
The hovering Sentinels ceased circling and seven aligned one behind the other to form a
line pointed at Team Saber.
"Tighten it up, guys," Ash ordered. "Olivia, eye on our six."
The Spartans huddled as close as they could.
"All clear behind," Olivia whispered. "Best exit vector at nine o'clock."
There was no way a few Jackal shields could withstand a combined energy blast that
had leveled an entire granite mesa.
Then again, they wouldn't have to.
The seven Sentinels adjusted their aim and their spheres glowed red, amber, and then
glistening gold.
"Stand by," Ash whispered over TEAMCOM. He crouched lower and gritted his teeth.
The drones contracted and the glare from their spheres intensified.
"Go!" Ash cried.
The Spartans of Team Saber jumped, rolled, and scattered.
The Sentinels fired a culminated beam of energy that struck where Team Saber had
been a moment ago—a direct hit on the glowing dome of the force-field generator.
Ash turned away, but the concussive blast rolled through his body. Shrapnel cut into his back, and skin blistered.
He focused on the second NAV marker on his heads-up display: the one thing that mattered now.
He ran toward