Halo_ Ghosts of Onyx - Eric S. Nylund [44]
The day suddenly brightened, and an extra set of shadows crisscrossed the jungle floor.
Kurt slowed the Warthog, and looked up at the sky The canopy obscured his view, so he turned off the track and drove into the jungle, bouncing over exposed roots, and then down the bank of the Twin Forks River.
Here Kurt had a clear line of sight to the sky, and he noted the sun had moved to a new position lower in the sky.
No, it hadn't moved. There were two suns.
This new sun faded and a ring of smoke expanded around its center. This fireball seemed to pause, and then it shattered in a starburst of glittering molten metal.
In high orbit, the Agincourt exploded.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
0715 HOURS, OCTOBER 31, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ZETA DORADUS SYSTEM, NEAR ZONE 67, PLANET ONYX
Ash ran for his life over the rocky ground. He wasn't sure how the thing was tracking him in his SPI suit, but it was.
He looked over his shoulder and saw the three booms and single eye of the drone flash in the sunlight. It accelerated and skimmed over the ground in pursuit of Team Saber.
"Scatter!" he ordered over TEAMCOM.
That drone's beam weapon could melt through their armor in the blink of an eye. Ash wasn't going to take the chance of it wiping out his entire squad with a single shot.
Mark and Dante broke left. Holly went right. Ash didn't see Olivia; she had to be stealthing.
Ash decided to flat-out run straight ahead, hoping to draw its fire.
He risked another glance back: the drone veered left after Holly. She sprinted up a slope.
Ash saw this slope ended in a sheer cliff a hundred meters ahead of her. When she got there, she'd be trapped. Even if she jumped, and survived, then the drone would still have her, firing from above.
He wouldn't let that happen. He ran back.
Holly skidded to a halt at the cliff's edge.
The drone angled above her, and its central spherical eye burned red.
Ash fired his MA5B assault rifle. A translucent gold energy
shield shimmered around the drone, and the rubber rounds bounced off. The central eye continued to heat.
He wasn't giving up that easily.
Those shields weren't like Covenant shields, invisible until they interacted with projectile or energy. Ash had seen these pop into place just before his round had struck.
He had to try something else.
Ash picked up a rock and sidearmed it at the drone. It was nowhere near as fast as a bullet, but it was a great deal heavier.
The stone hit, and spanged off one of its metal booms, scratching it.
No shields this time.
The drone hesitated, and one boom looked like it twitched. Ash noticed that the three booms were not connected to the center sphere. They all just floated there. What was this thing?
It closed on Holly. She fired at it, but its shields snapped into place once again, deflecting the rounds. She looked over the cliff's edge and took a deep breath.
She was going to jump.
"No way," Ash whispered.
He grabbed a fist-sized chunk of onyx and hurled it with all his strength.
It connected—dead center with the drone's spherical red eye. "Yes!" he cried.
The drone rotated to face Ash.
His elation instantly evaporated as the thing glided toward him, picking up speed.
Ash turned and ran; he jinked right and then left.
The ground exploded. Heat washed over him, and he flew head over heels. He landed flat on his back, slapping at the last moment to break the fall.
Ash rolled, and with only a slight limp, he kept running.
He hoped the other squads were having better luck. Olivia had picked up Katana squad's signal. They'd reported they were
being forced into Zone 67. They'd lost their signal shortly thereafter. They'd never gotten word from Gladius squad. Either they were dark or dead.
He looked back: the drone was almost on top of him. Its single eye heated to a cherry-red cinder, preparing another blast of energy.
Ahead there was a crevice in the rock, a sinuous two-meter channel that could have been a deep river a million years ago before this place dried up.
He sprinted for it and dove.
The channel was much deeper