Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [134]
their shields and across the deck. The Master Chief crashed into the Pelican’s hull. He pulled himself to the side hatch, opened it, and
crawled in. He got into the cockpit, released the docking clamps, and tapped the maneuvering thrusters once to break free. The Pelican lifted off the deck. The Master Chief said over the COM channel, “Marines and Blue-One: take cover behind me.” He
maneuvered the Pelican into the center of the docking bay. A dozen Jackals poured in through the passage that Blue-One had just left.
The Master Chief fired with the Pelican’s autocannon—cut down their shields and peppered the aliens
with hundreds of rounds. They exploded into chunks; alien blood twisted crazily in zero gravity. “Master Chief,” Linda said, “I’m picking upthousands of signals on the motion tracker, inbound from all directions. The entire station is crawling.”
The Master Chief opened the Pelican’s back hatch. “Get in,” he said. Blue-One and the Marines piled inside.
The Marines did a double take at Blue-One and the Master Chief in their MJOLNIR armor. The Master Chief turned the Pelican to face theCircumference . He sighted the autocannon on the ship’s forward viewports—and opened fire. Thousands of rounds streamed from the chain-gun and cracked through the thick, transparent windows. He followed up with an Anvil-II missile. It blasted through the prow and peeled the craft open.
“Take the controls,” he told Blue-One. He slipped out the side hatch and jumped to theCircumference . The inside of the ship’s cockpit was
scrap metal. He accessed the computer panel in the floor deck and located the NAV database core. It was a cube of memory crystal the size of his thumb. Such a tiny thing to cause so much trouble. He shot it three times with his assault rifle. It shattered. “Mission completed,” he said. One small victory in all this mess. The Covenant wouldn’t find Earth . . .
today.
He exited theCircumference . Jackals appeared on the level above them in the docking bay. His motion tracker blinked with solid contacts. He jumped back into the Pelican, strapped himself in the pilot’s chair, and turned the ship to face the
outer doors. “Blue-One, signal the dockmaster AI to open the outer bay doors.” “Signal sent,” she said. “No response, sir.” She looked around. “There’s a manual release by the outer
door.” She moved toward the aft hatch. “I’ll get this one, sir. It’s my turn. Cover me.” “Roger, Blue-One. Keep your head down. I’ll draw their fire.” She launched herself out the back hatch.
The Master Chief tapped the Pelican’s thrusters and the ship rose higher in the bay—up to the second level. The upper decks were the mechanic bays; the area was littered with ships that were partially disassembled in various stages of repair. It was also where a hundred Jackals and a handful of Elite warriors were waiting for him.
They opened fire. Plasma bolts scored the hull of the Pelican.
The Master Chief fired the chain-gun and let loose a salvo of missiles. Alien shields blazed and failed. Blue and green blood splashed and flash-froze in the icy vacuum. He hit the top thrusters and dropped down to the lower level—slammed the ship back into a berth for
cover.
Blue-One crouched by the manual release. The outer doors eased open, revealing the night and stars beyond. “You’re clear for exit, Master Chief. We’re home free—” A new contact on the Pelican’s targeting display appeared—right behind Linda. He had towarn her— A bolt of plasma struck her in the back. Another blot of fire blazed her from the upper decks and
splashed across her front. She crumpled—her shields flickered and went out. Two more bolts hit her chest. A third blast smashed into her helmet. “No!” the Master Chief said. He felt each of those plasma bolts as if they had hit him, too. He