Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [40]
So who was doing it?
Forty meters to the north v/as the triple fence surrounding Zone 67. Electrified razor wire, motion sensors, and lanes of minefields made an effective barrier. If pressed, Team Saber could have gotten around it—but they wouldn't. The LC's orders had been crystal clear: DO NOT CROSS. It would count as an instant disqualification for top honors.
What about the other teams? Just a quick hop over and lateral move to flank him? No. None of them would risk a disqualification.
There was a dust storm about three kilometers into Zone 67, a wall of sand, swirling smoke… and fire.
A distant mesa exploded—vaporized into a mushroom of glittering quartz dust, a hail of boulders, and roiling flame.
Ash instinctively ducked, and his insides clenched.
He'd seen big explosions before. Nothing like that, though. "Two kilometers," Dante said. "Felt that one in my bones." They watched the stones rain from the sky. "A few Archer missiles maybe…" Mark murmured. Dots swirled about the edge of the expanding cloud of dust. If Ash didn't know better he'd
have sworn they were vultures. But Onyx didn't have raptorlike avian species. Ash zoomed magnification on his faceplate. At five-times he saw the dots had a three
fold symmetry.
He unslung his sniper rifle and sited through the scope.
They were drones of some sort. But not UNSC MAKOS. Not Covenant Banshees fliers,
either. They were a few meters long.
Three dull steel booms that surrounded a centra! eye, glowing like molten iron. No obvious jets. No cockpit. There were a dozen of them.
"Has to be an experimental prototype," Dante said. Maybe Zone 67 is a testing range for new weapons."
"They wouldn't be 'testing' a megaton worth of destructive force while we were so close," Ash countered.
Or was this part of the final test? Some new threat that the three squads would have to band together to defeat? That would be Chief Mendez's style: change the rules in the middle of a test.
The drones moved away from the atomized mesa, drifted closer to Team Saber's location, stopping short just on the opposite side of the Zone 67 fence, where they circled another butte.
Ash spied motion atop that formation. Shutters from a a camouflaged bunker popped open, and heavy machine-gun fire strafed the drones.
The lead drone's three booms snapped forward to make a triangular flat plane. A
glimmering film of gold popped into place and fifty-caliber rounds impacted and bounced off.
"Energy shields!" Dante said. "Has to be Covenant."
Ash reluctantly agreed with this assessment. This was no game, no final honors test.
The war had arrived on Onyx.
He broadcast over an open COM channel: "Currahee C and C, come in. This is Saber
One. We have an emergency."
No answer. His radio light was green. He was broadcasting, but no one was listening.
"Radio check," Ash said to his team. "Everyone try to get the Lieutenant Commander or
the Chief. Try to raise the Agincourt, too." Ash used his sniper rifle and tracked the drones.
The remaining eleven lined up behind the one distorted to form an energy shield; their red eyes aligned and pointed directly at the mesa top. Men emerged from the bunker with M19 missile launchers. The drones' eyes flared to a brilliant gold—energy projected forward, flicking like a rapier
strike.
The men and bunker wavered a moment, erupted into flames, and vaporized. The mesa top then detonated into a cloud of dust and molten rock.
The ground tilted and cracked. Team Saber retreated into the tunnel and debris rained
over them.
Ash squinted back through the haze.
The drones had scattered and moved forward, zigzagging over the rocky terrain: a
search pattern.
He moved to the opposite end of the tunnel and risked another open COM broadcast. "Team Katana, Team Gladius, Covenant activity in Zone 67. Forget the test, guys. We've got a situation."
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CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
0700 HOURS, OCTOBER 31, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)