Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [81]
sky.” “Archer missile pods armed, sir,” she replied smoothly. Her hands moved gracefully over the controls. “Firing.”
Archer missiles streaked toward the Covenant stealth ship—but as they closed with the target, they
started to swerve from side to side, then spun out of control. The spent missiles fell toward the planet. Lieutenant Hikowa cursed quietly in Japanese. “Missile guidance locks jammed,” she said. “Their ECM spoofed the guidance packages, sir.”
No other choice, then,Keyes thought.They can jam our missiles—let’s see them jam this.
“Run them over, Ensign Lovell,” Keyes ordered.
He licked his lips. “Aye, sir.”
“Sound collision alarm,” Captian Keyes said. “All hands, brace for impact.”
“She’s moving,” Lovell said.
“Keep on her.”
“Course correcting now. Hang on,” Lovell said.
The eight-thousand-tonIroquois slammed into the tiny Covenant ship.
On the bridge, they barely felt the impact. The diminutive alien vessel, however, was crushed from the
force. Her crippled hull spun toward Sigma Octanus IV. “Damage report!” Keyes bellowed. “Lower decks 3 through 8 show hull breach, sir,” Hall called out. “Internal bulkheads were already
closed, and no one was in those areas, per your orders. No systems damage reported.”
“Good. Move to her original position, Ensign Lovell. Lieutenant Dominique, I want that transmission beam intercepted.” The ventral cameras showed the Covenant ship plunge into the atmosphere. Its shield glowed yellow,
then white—then dissipated as the ship’s systems failed. It burst into crimson flame and burned across
the horizon, a black plume of smoke trailing in its wake. “TheIroquois is losing altitude,” Ensign Lovell said. “We’re falling into the planet’s atmosphere . . . bringing us about.” TheIroquois spun 180 degrees. The Ensign concentrated on his displays, then said, “No good, we need more power. Sir, permission to fire emergency thrusters?”
“Granted.” Lovell exploded the aft emergency thrusters and theIroquois jumped. Lovell’s eyes were locked on the
repeater displays as he fought for every centimeter of maneuvering he could get. Sweat ran down his forehead and soaked his flight suit. “Orbit stabilizing—barely.” Lovell exhaled with relief, then turned to face Keyes. “Got it, sir. Thrusters
to precision station keeping.”
“Receiving,” Lieutenant Dominique said, and then paused. “Receiving . . . something, sir. It must be encrypted.” “Make sure you’re recording, Lieutenant.” “Affirmative. Recorders active . . . but the codebreaker software can’t crack it, sir.” Captain Keyes turned back to the tac displays, half expecting to see a Covenant ship in firing position. There wasn’t much left of either the Covenant or UNSC fleets. Dozens of ships drifted in space,
billowing atmosphere and burning. The rest moved slowly. A few flickered with fire. Scattered
explosions dotted the black. One undamaged Covenant destroyer turned, however, and left the battlefield. It came about and headed straight for theIroquois .
“Uh-oh,” Lovell muttered. “Lieutenant Hall, get me theLeviathan —priority Alpha channel,” Keyes ordered. “Yes, sir,” she said. Admiral Stanforth’s image appeared in the holotank. His forehead had a gash across it, and blood
trickled into his eyes. He wiped it away with a shaking hand, his eyes blazing with anger. “Keyes? Where the hell isIroquois ?”
“Sir,Iroquois is in geosynchronous orbit over Côte d’Azur. We’ve destroyed a Covenant stealth ship and are in the process of intercepting a secure transmission from the planet.”
The Admiral stared at him a moment unbelievingly, then nodded as if this made sense to him. “Proceed.” “We have a Covenant destroyer leaving the battle . . . bearing down on us. I think the reason for the Covenant’s invasion may be in this coded transmission. And they don’t want us to know, sir.”
“Understood, son. Hang on. The Cavalry’s on its way.” On the aft screen, the remaining eight UNSC ships broke their attacks and turned toward the incoming
destroyer. Three MAC guns