Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [127]
the Master Chief increased his display’s magnification to maximum. They looked like men in thruster packs— No, they were definitely not men. These things had elongated heads—and even at this distance, the Master Chief could see past their
faceplates and noted their pronounced sharklike teeth and jaws. They wore armor; it shimmered as they collided with debris—which meant energy shields.
These must be the elite warrior class Dr. Halsey had conjectured. The Covenant’s best? They were about to find out.
Linda shot one of the EVA aliens. Shields shimmered around its body and the round bounced off. She didn’t stop. She pumped four more rounds into the creature—hitting a pinpoint target in its neck. Its shields flickered and a round got through. Black blood gushed from the wound and the creature writhed in space.
The other aliens spotted them. They jetted toward their location, firing plasma rifle and needlers.
“Take cover,” the Master Chief said. He unclipped himself and clung to the side of the dropship.
Linda followed—bolts of fire spattering on the hull next to them, spattering molten metal. Crystalline needles bounced off their shields
“Blue-Two,” the Master Chief said. “I said fall back.”
James almost had the explosives rigged to the nose free. A shower of needles hit him. One stuck the tank of his thruster harness—penetrated. It remained embedded for a split second . . . then exploded.
Exhaust billowed from the pack. The uncontrolled jets spun James in the microgravity. He slammed into the station, bounced—then rocketed away into space, tumbling end over end, unable to control his trajectory.
“Blue-Two! Come in,” the Master Chief barked over the COM channel.
“Can—control—” James’ voice was punctuated with static. “They’ve—everywhere—” There was more static and the COM channel went dead.
The Master Chief watched his teammate tumble away into the darkness. All his training, his superhuman strength, reflexes, and determination . . . completely useless against the laws of physics.
He didn’t even know if James was dead. For the moment, he had to assume that he was—put him out of his mind. He had a mission to complete.If he survived, then he’d get every UNSC ship in the area to mount a search and rescue op.
Linda shrugged out of her thruster harness.
The suppressing fire from the aliens halted. Covenant landing pods descended toward the station,
touching down at roughly three-hundred-meter intervals. A pod landed twenty meters away. Its sides uncurled like the petals of a flower. Jackals in black-andblue vacuum suits drifted out. Their boots adhered to the station’s hull.
“Let’s pave a path out of here, Blue-One.” “Roger that,” she said. Linda targeted spots their energy shields didn’t cover—boots, the top of one’s head, a fingertip. Three
Jackals went down in quick succession, their spacesuits ruptured by her marksmanship. The rest
scrambled for cover inside the pod. The Master Chief braced his back against the dropship and fired his assault rifle in controlled bursts. The microgravity played havoc with his aim.
One Jackal leaped from his cover—straight towards them. The Master Chief switched to full auto and blasted his shield with enough rounds to send the alien flying
backward off the station. He spent the clip, reloaded, and got out a grenade. He pulled the pin and lobbed it. He threw it in a flat trajectory. The grenade ricocheted off the far side of the pod and bounced inside. It detonated—a flash and spray of freeze-dried blue vented upward. The explosion had caught the enemy
on their unshielded sides. “Blue-One, secure that landing pod. I’ll cover you.” He leveled his rifle. “Yes, sir.” Linda grabbed a pipe that ran along the station and pulled herself hand over hand. When she
was inside the pod, she flashed him a green light on his heads-up display. The Master Chief crawled toward the prow of the Pelican. As he crested the ship he saw that the station
was swarming with Covenant troops: a hundred Jackals and at least six Elites. They pointed toward the Pelican and slowly started to