Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [126]
As his vision continued to adjust, a hill resolved in the center of this "room." There was a uniform slope to the floor that gently rose and then arced up hyperbolically a dozen meters. It reminded Kurt of an anthill. Around the apex of this hill sat a crown of fins raised to the sky; buttressed at their bases and pronged at their tips, they towered another ten meters above the structure.
"If this is the core of the planet," Kelly whispered, "there should be little, if any, gravity. It feels normal."
Dr. Halsey rechecked her laptop. "Translocation confirmed," she said. "We are at the center of Onyx. The gravity is artificial."
"Teams of two deploy, spread out, recon," Kurt said. "Doctor, Chief, Ash, we're going to that structure."
Green acknowledgment lights winked on.
"Sir," Holly said, "what about Team Katana? The pods?"
"Leave them on the platform. They'll block incoming Covenant translocations." It felt wrong to leave them here alone, so he ordered Holly "Guard them."
They moved off, and as Kurt marched over the floor, the symbols under his boots smoothed into a golden path. Static clawed along the inside of his SPI armor and the exterior was a riot of colors as the photo-reactive circuits attempted to blend into the local Harlequin terrain.
Mendez halted and held up a hand toward Dr. Halsey. "Watch your step, ma'am." He pointed to the floor.
A ridge rose a quarter meter, difficult to see because Forerunner icons glowed along its smooth side as well as the top.
Dr. Halsey knelt and tapped the frames of her glasses, glancing right and left. "A ring… circumscribing the entirety of the central structure." She then gazed at the hill. "In fact, the entire deformation is a series of similar concentric circles."
Kurt stepped onto the raised surface. He scrutinized the hill and counted the finlike towers: there were thirteen. He increased the magnification factor on his faceplate and noted the curved surface of the center formation was indeed a series of staircase rings.
"Reminds me of Dante's Inferno," Mendez said, and offered his hand to Dr. Halsey.
She took his hand and eased onto the ridge. "Dante's hell was a series of descending
rings," she said. "These are more representative of—"
The floor shifted.
Kurt instinctively crouched to keep his balance, but there was no need; it had only
dropped a few centimeters.
The entire room settled, however, the distortion propagating toward the hill with a subsonic rumble.
"If the core room is in the center," Dr. Halsey said, hastening her pace, "we should
hurry."
"Something here, sir," Fred announced over the COM. "You better see for yourself."
Kurt turned toward Fred's and Mark's IFF signals on his heads-up display. They were
silhouettes against the glare, 150 meters away.
"Ash, Chief, escort the Doctor to the structure. Keep me posted."
"Roger that, sir," Ash said.
Kurt jogged to Fred and Mark and saw the Spartans standing at the edge of a black hole,
a seven-sided smooth patch devoid of Forerunner iconography. A holograph console stood next to it, icons moving.
"Translocation platform," Fred whispered. "Active, if I'm reading these controls right."
"We'll use another pod to block it," Kurt said.
He started to key the COM, but Ash then broke in: "Sir. I've got some height, and I can see… dots on the floor."
"Black dots?" Kurt asked.
"Yes, sir. Counting a dozen—no, make that at least thirty of them scattered in a rough circle."
Kurt's heart sank to the pit of his stomach.
There were too many points of egress to block. They potentially faced an enemy with superior numbers and firepower, and all they'd have was a single semidefensible position.
"26:00" morphed to "25:59" on his countdown timer.
They were close to that core room, a possible treasure trove of Forerunner secrets. With a sizable Covenant force on their trail, it wouldn't be enough to get there first. They had to prevent the enemy from getting