Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [132]
Kurt got up, ignoring the near-blinding pain, and limped to the edge.
Will stood between both Hunters at the base of the hill. He kicked the nearest in the unarmored middle and it staggered back.
Around him were a dozen Elites who, confronted by the sight of a lone Spartan engaging two Hunters in hand-to-hand combat, were momentarily too stunned to act.
Kurt and Lucy opened fire, suppressing the Elites, before they regained their senses.
One Hunter lashed out with its shield. Will ducked, darted inside its reach, and battered its bruised midsection—punching through flesh and ripping out wriggling chunks of the composite eel colony.
The second Hunter angled away from the fight and brought its cannon to bear.
Will spun around.
The Hunter shot him.
Will's energy shield vanished, and the front of his MJOLNIR armor melted. He took a
step toward the beast, and collapsed.
The Hunter turned and roared at the Spartans at the top of the hill, and then started to bring its tremendous shield back in line…
A SPNKr missile screamed past Kurt's head, leaving a spiral of propellant exhaust, streaked toward the Hunter, and impacted dead center of its mass.
The air erupted into a blurred sphere of explosive force. The nearby Elites were tossed aside like rag dolls, their shields flaring. The Hunter burst into a cloud of snakelike parts that wetly spattered upon the floor.
Kurt turned and saw Fred kneeling next to him, his spent SPNKr tube smoking.
It was silent. Nothing moved. Not the Elites, the Hunters, or William. Kelly and Linda finally rose, shaking off the concussion from the fuel-rod cannon
detonation. They stood with Kurt and Fred and stared at their fallen comrade.
Ash was on his knees where Holly had stood a second ago. There were the outlines of two bootprints on the stone… nothing else.
Two Spartans down in a matter of seconds. One an old friend, the other a girl Kurt had known since she was four years old. Yet, he couldn't stop and think about it—not when they
were surrounded by enemies. There were still many lives that were his responsibility.
Kurt looked away and assessed the remaining threat.
Olivia, posted at seven o'clock, waved Kurt closer. He limped to her.
"They just pulled back," she whispered.
From the hill base, the Hunter and the surviving Elites had re-formed their line and were
retreating, already fifty meters away.
Kurt made his way to the twelve o'clock point, to Mendez, Mark, and Tom. Chief Mendez met him. The old man had never looked so grim.
"They're pulling back here, too, sir," Mendez said. "Doesn't make sense. Covenant always fight to the last one."
Kurt called up the roster on his display, still stained by his own blood, and checked
TEAMBIO.
Will's vitals were flatlined. Holly's signal… was entirely missing.
Over TEAMCOM he said, "Eyes peeled, everyone. Kelly, get Will. Linda, cover her."
They moved, but no green acknowledgment lights flashed, the only sign of their numbing
grief.
Kurt sat down, suddenly too tired to think.
Then he noticed his bio signs: failing blood pressure, erratic heartbeat, electrolytes all
wrong. There was internal bleeding. He found a can of biofoam, inserted its tip into his armor's mid line injection port, and emptied it.
The expanding liquid polymer chilled his chest.
He closed his eyes, and when he looked again his blood pressure had stabilized. His head had cleared.
Fred made a short come-here gesture and Kurt groggily rose and went to his comrade.
"There." Fred pointed to far side of the core room. "Three hundred fifty meters. Step up polarization to ninety-five percent, sir, and you'll see them." His voice trembled with rage.
Kurt darkened his faceplate, and then understood the reason for the Covenant's retreat.
Over a hundred fresh Elites massed behind energy-shield generators. Banshee fliers zipped back and forth over them. Plasma cannons were assembled by squads of Grunts. In the very front, Kurt spied a glint of gold armor, their leader— staring back at him.
"They softened us up before the