Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [88]
Maybe Admiral Stanforth was right. Maybe the fleet needed this win more than he had realized.
They had beaten the Covenant. Although not widely known, there had been only three small engagements in which the UNSC fleet had decisively defeated the Covenant. And not since Admiral Cole had retaken Harvest colony had there been an engagement on this scale. A complete victory—a world saved.
It would show everyone that winning was possible, that there was hope.
But, he mused, was there really? They won because they had gotten lucky—and had twice as many ships as the Covenant. And, he suspected, they had beaten the Covenant because the Covenant’s real objective hadn’t been to win.
Naval Intelligence officers had come aboard theIroquois immediately after the battle. They congratulated Captain Keyes on his performance . . . and then copied and purged every single bit of data they had intercepted from the Covenant planetside transmission.
Of course, the ONI spooks left without offering any explanation.
Keyes toyed with his pipe, replaying the battle in his mind. No. The Covenant had lost because they were really after something else on Sigma Octanus IV—and the intercepted message was the key.
“Sir,” Lieutenant Dominique said. “Incoming orders from FLEETCOM.”
“Put it through to my station, Lieutenant,” Captain Keyes said as he sat in his command chair. The computer scanned his retina and fingerprints and then decoded the message. He read on the small monitor:
United Nations Space Command Priority Transmission 09872H-98
Encryption Code:Red
Public Key:file /lightning-matrix-four/
From:Admiral Michael Stanforth, Commanding Officer, UNSCLeviathan / USNC Sector Three
Commander/ (UNSC Service Number: 00834-19223-HS)
To:Captain Jacob Keyes, Commanding officer UNSCIroquois / (UNSC Service Number: 01928-19912
JK)
Subject:ORDERS FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE CONSIDERATION
Classification:SECRET (BGX Directive)
/start file/
Keyes,
Drop whatever you’re doing and head back to the barn. We’re both wanted for immediate debriefing by
ONI at REACH Headquarters ASAP. Looks like the spooks at Naval Intelligence are up to their normal cloak-and-dagger tricks. Cigars and brandy afterward. Regards, Stanforth “Very well,” he muttered to himself. “Lieutenant Dominique: send Admiral Stanforth my compliments.
Ensign Lovell, generate a randomized vector as per the Cole Protocol, and make ready to leave system. Take us out for an hour in Slipstream space, then we’ll reorient and proceed to the REACH Military Instillation.”
“Aye, sir. Randomized jump vector ready—our tracks are covered.”
“Lieutenant Hall: start organizing shore leave for the crew. We’re heading back for repairs and some well-deserved R and R.”
“Amen to that,” Ensign Lovell said.
That wasn’t technically in his orders, but Captain Keyes would make sure his crew got the rest they deserved. That was the least he could do for them.
TheIroquois slowly accelerated on an out-system vector.
Captain Keyes took one long last look at Sigma Octanus IV. The battle was over . . . so why did he feel like he was headed into another fight?
TheIroquois plowed through a haze of titanium dust—condensed from a UNSC battleplate vaporized by Covenant plasma. The fine particles caught the light from Sigma Octanus and sparkled red and orange, making it look like the destroyer sailed through an ocean of blood.
When there was time, a HazMat team would sweep the area and clean up. In the meantime, junk— ranging in size from microscopic up to thirty-meter sections ofCradle —still drifted in the system.
One piece of debris in particular floated near theIroquois .
It was small, almost indistinguishable from any of a thousand other softball-sized blobs that cluttered radar scopes and polluted thermal sensors.
If anyone had been looking close enough, however,