Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [75]
There was more activity here: a pack of black-armored Grunts meandered down the streets. Two vulture-headed Jackals sat on the corner, squabbling over a hunk of meat.
Something else caught his attention, though. There were other aliens on the sidewalk—or rather,above the sidewalk. They were roughly man-size creatures—unlike any he had ever encountered. The creatures were vaguely sluglike, with pale, purple-pink skin. Unlike other Covenant forces, they were not bipeds. Instead they had several tentacular appendages sprouting from their thick trunks.
They floated a half meter above the ground, as if the odd, pink bladders on their backs kept them aloft. One alien used a slender tentacle to open the hood of a car. It began to disassemble the car’s electric engine, moving with startling speed.
Within twenty seconds all the parts had been neatly arranged in rows on the pavement. The creature paused, then reassembled the parts with blinding quickness, disassembled and rebuilt it several times into different arrangements. Finally, the creature simply reassembled the car and floated on its way.
The Master Chief made sure his mission recorder had gotten that. This was a Covenant race never documented before.
He rotated the fiber-optic cable to point down the opposite end of the street. There was more activity another block away.
He retracted the probe and moved Blue Team a block farther south. He signaled the team to hold position, then climbed up a short series of metal handholds until he was just below a manhole cover.
He cautiously sent the probe topside again, up through the manhole-cover vent.
There was a Jackal’s hoof directly adjacent to the probe, blocking half of his field of vision. He turned the probe with excruciating slowness, and saw fifty more Jackals milling back and forth. They were concentrated around the building across the street. The building resembled pictures that Déjà had shown him years ago—it looked like an Athenian temple, with white marble steps and Ionic columns. At the top of the steps were a pair of stationary guns. More bad news.
He pulled the probe back and consulted the map. The building was marked as the Côte d’Azur Museum of Natural History.
The Covenant had serious firepower here—the stationary guns had commanding fields of fire, making a frontal assault suicidal.Why would they protect a human structure? he wondered. Was it their headquarters?
The Master Chief signaled for Blue-Two. He pointed to the accessway that led under the building. He held up two fingers, pointed toward her eyes, and then down the passage, and then slowly balled his hand into a fist.
Kelly proceeded very slowly down that passage to scout it out.
The Master Chief checked the time. Red and Green Teams were due to report. He had James attach the ground-return transceiver to the pipes overhead.
“Green Team, come in.”
“Roger: Green Team Leader here, sir,”Linda whispered over the channel.“We’ve scouted the residential section.” There was a pause.“No survivors . . . just like Draco Three. We’re too late.”
He understood. They’d seen it before. The Covenant didn’t take prisoners. On Draco III, they had watched via satellite linkup as human survivors were herded together and ripped apart by ravenous Grunts and Jackals. By the time the Spartans had gotten there, there was no one left to rescue.
But the victims had been avenged.
“Green Team: stand by and prepare to fall back to the RV and secure the area,” he said.
“Standing by,”Linda said.
He switched to the Red Team COM channel: “Red Team, report.”
Joshua’s voice crackled over the link:“Red Leader, sir. We’ve got something for ONI. We’vespotted some new type of Covenant race. Little guys that float. They seem to be some sort of explorer or scientist type. They take things apart, then move on, like they’re looking for something. They do not, repeat not, appear hostile. Advise that you do not engage. They raise a pretty loud alarm, Blue Lead.”
“You in trouble?” “Dodged trouble, sir,”he said.“But there is one snag.” “Snag.” The word was charged