Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [45]
The Captain looked to Dr. Halsey. She shrugged and then nodded. “The Longsword interceptors?” Captain Wallace turned his back to them and covered his face with his one hand. He sighed, nodded, and
clicked on the intercom. “Longsword Squadron Delta, this is the Captain. Get your ships into the black, boys, and engage the enemy ship. I need you to need to buy us some time.”
“Roger that, sir. We’re ready to launch. On our way.”
“Turn us around,” the Captain told the nav officer. “Give me best speed on a vector toward Chi Ceti Four orbit.”
“Coolant leaks in the reactor, sir,” the ops officer said. “We can push the engines to thirty percent. No more.”
“Give me fifty percent,” he said. He turned to the weapons officer. “Arm one of our Shiva warheads. Set
proximity fuse to one hundred meters.” “Yes, sir.” TheCommonwealth spun about. John felt the change in his stomach and he tightened his grip on the
railing. The spinning slowed, stopped, then the ship accelerated. “Reactor red-lining,” the ops officer reported. “Meltdown in twenty-five seconds.” Over the speakers, there was a crackle, a hiss of static, then:“Longsword interceptors engaging the
enemy, sir.”
On the remaining aft camera, there were flickers of light—the cold blue strobes of Covenant energy weapons, and the red-orange fireballs of the Longswords’ missiles. “Launch the missile,” the Captain said. “Meltdown in ten seconds.” “Missile away.” A plume of exhaust divided the darkness of space. “Five seconds to meltdown,” the ops officer said. “Four, three, two—”
“Shunt drive plasma to space,” the Captain ordered. “Cut power to all systems.” The Covenant ship was silhouetted for a split second by pure white—then the view screen snapped off. The bridge lights went dead.
John could see everything, though. The bridge officers, Dr. Halsey as she clutched onto the railing, and
Captain Wallace as he stood and saluted the pilots he had just sent to die. The hull of theCommonwealth rumbled and pinged as the shock wave enveloped them. It grew louder, a subsonic roar that shook John to his bones.
The noise seemed to go on forever in the darkness. It faded . . . then it was completely silent. “Power us back up,” the Captain said. “Slowly. Give me ten percent from the reactors if we can manage.”
The bridge lights came on, dimly, but they worked. “Report,” the Captain ordered. “All sensors offline,” the op officer said. “Resetting backup computer. Hang on. Scanning now. Lots of
debris. It’s hot back there. All Longsword interceptors vaporized.” He looked up, the color drained from his face. “Covenant ship . . . intact, sir.” “No,” the Captain said, and made a fist. “It’s moving off, though,” the op officer said with a visible sigh of relief. “Very slowly.”
“What does it take to destroy one of those things?” the Captain whispered. “We don’t know if our weaponscan destroy them,” Dr. Halsey said. “But at least we know we can slow them down.”
The Captain stood straighter. “Best speed to the Damascus testing facility. We will execute a flyby orbit, and then proceed to a point twenty million kilometers distant to make repairs.”
“Captain?” Dr. Halsey said. “A flyby?” “I have orders to get you to the facility and retrieve whatever Section Three has stowed there, ma’am. As we fly by, a dropship will take you and your—” He glanced at John. “—crew planet side. If the Covenant ship returns, we will be the bait to lure them away.”
“I understand, Captain.” “We’ll rendezvous in orbit no later than 1900 hours.” Dr. Halsey turned to John. “We need to hurry. We don’t have much time—and there is a great deal I
need to show the Spartans.” “Yes, ma’am,” John said. He took a long look at the bridge, and hoped he never had to return.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
1845 Hours, November 27, 2525 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Damascus Materials Testing Facility, planet Chi Ceti 4
How far down was the testing facility? John