Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [121]
2115 HOURS, NOVEMBER 3, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDARS \ ZETA DORADUS SYSTEM \ UNDETERMINED LOCATION IN THE FORERUNNER CONSTRUCT KNOWN AS ONYX
Kurt motioned back to Fred and Ash, Linda and Mark to close the gap.
Two by two they moved up the corridor, gliding from pillar to pillar, the SPARTAN-IIIs on point barely visible in their armor, part shadow, part striped onyx patterns. The SPARTAN-IIs closed behind like liquid mercury rolling over velvet, smooth and silent.
The differences between their two generations had been left behind. Teams Blue and Saber worked as a single unit, family who had pulled together in a crisis.
Kurt watched his motion tracker, IFF tags overlaid on the grid. The Spartans had the best positions possible—set along each of the pillars that stretched up to the ten-meter-tall corridor. Kurt, Tom, and Lucy had point.
Olivia was on recon, her IFF disabled, so Kurt wasn't certain of her precise location in the room ahead.
This corridor was tiled with interlocking Forerunner symbols of jade, turquoise, and lapis. Dr. Halsey surmised it was an epic poem depicting a struggle in the Forerunners' long-lost past.
All Kurt knew was it was a kill zone, with scant cover and long sight lines. A good place to get ambushed.
Olivia flashed her green status light three times: the all-clear signal.
Kurt motioned for Tom and Lucy to follow him, and they slinked into the room ahead. Shadows shrouded rows of squat machines, and the only light came from eight podlike sarcophagi clustered in the center.
These pods were semitranslucent, and within each lay a person, their features obscured.
Olivia moved next to Kurt. "Five of these have to be Team Katana," she whispered. "This one is still tagged with the lime-green 'kill' flag from top-honors exercise."
Kurt smoothed his gauntlet over the pod's surface. Were they alive inside? Dead? Somewhere in between? He had come here first—not gone after the technology that the UNSC needed, risking everything for Team Katana.
You never leave a fallen comrade behind.
But there was more to it than that: given a choice between alien technologies that might save all of humanity and these five Spartans… he had picked them first. He would have done anything to protect them.
"Let's see what we're dealing with here," he said.
Kurt flickered on his helmet's tactical lights, and panned them over the chamber. Organometallic appendages cradled each pod and radiated branches that connected to banks of two-meter cubes.
On closer inspection, Kurt saw a faint light leaking from these cubes… and staring closer, he noticed they were not at all cubes—their edges distorted and radiated extra dimensions.
He staggered back, hands reflectively grasping for his temples. Disorientation washed over him as he tasted the faint green light, inhaled the dusty odors of meaning from the symbols on the floor, and heard the bell-like tinkling of the organic electronics of the pods.
He sank to one knee and the tangled sensory input faded.
"Stand back," Kurt warned the others. Over the COM he said, "Will, escort Dr. Halsey up here."
Another wave of disorientation hit Kurt and his vision swam. When he again could see. Dr. Halsey knelt next to him.
"Move him away from the machines," she told Will.
Will dragged him back to the room's entrance, and Kurt's vision immediately cleared and the dizziness vanished.
"What was that?" he asked Dr. Halsey.
"Unshielded Slipspace field," she said. Her face was a mask of concentration, staring at the cubic machine housing. Frowning, she crossed to the pods. "Linda," she said, "your assistance please."
Linda moved up to Dr. Halsey, her sniper rifle aimed at the floor.
"Use your weapon's range finder; point at the interior of the pod."
Linda nodded, raised her rifle, and aimed at the Spartan inside the pod. After a moment,
she lowered the weapon, checked her Oracle scope's settings, and then repeated the procedure. She shook her head.
"You are reading an infinite range?" Dr. Halsey said.
"Yes," Linda replied, uncharacteristic annoyance in her tone. "There must be something