1802 hours, September 22,2552 (Military Calendar) \ Aboard unidentified Covenant flagship, uncharted system, Halo debris field.
The Master Chief ducked as the hissing energy blade slashed at him. He dived toward theElite and slammed the butt of his ri.fle into the alien's midsection.
The Elite doubled over, and the Chief brought the rifle butt down to smash the alien's skull—But the Elite rolled back. There was a blur of motion as the en.ergy blade lashed out andneatly bisected the assault rifle. The two halves of the wrecked MA5B clattered to thedeck.
The blade of crackling white-hot energy narrowly missed the Chief. The MJOLNIR'sinternal temperature skyrocketed.
He couldn't risk dancing at this range, so the Master Chief did the last thing the creature expected: He stepped closer and grabbed its wrists.
The bands of muscle on the Elite's arms were iron hard, and it struggled to free itself from the Chief's grasp. The Chief wrenched the alien's sword arm and forced the blade away— but this took most of his strength, and he had to weaken his grasp on the Elite's other hand.
The energy blade blurred perilously close to the Chief's head. It missed by a fraction of acentimeter and sent a wash of static across his heads-up display.
The blade was a flattened triangle of white-hot plasma, con.tained in an electromagneticenvelope that emanated from its hilt. The Chief had seen such weapons slice battle-armoredERIC NYLUND 73ODSTs in half and gouge gaping wounds in Titanium-A armor plating.
Worse, this Elite was tough, cunning, well trained—and it hadn't spent days fightingnonstop on Halo. The Chief felt every wound, pulled muscle, and strained tendon in hisbody.
Haverson and Polaski moved onto the bridge, their pistols drawn, but neither of them hada clear line of fire.
"Move, Chief!" Haverson shouted. "Damn it, we've got no shot!"Easier said than done. If he let go, the Elite would cut him in two.
The Master Chief grunted, struggling to turn the Elite.
The alien fought back for a moment, then—instead of resisting—lurched back, right into the path of the Chief's ad.vancing teammates.
The Elite flicked the angle of its blade flat so the arc of energy whipped toward Haverson and Polaski.
Haverson screamed and fell to the ground as the energy blade sliced through his pistoland across his chest. Polaski cursed and fired a single shot, but it glanced off the Elite'sshield.
The alien glanced at the source of the fire and growled in its guttural, warbling tongue.
"Get the Lieutenant out of here," the Master Chief barked. He raised his knee to his chestand lashed out with a straight kick. His boot connected with the Elite's breastplate. The alien's en.ergy shield flared, then faded, and its breastplate cracked like porcelainbeneath the force of the blow.
The alien staggered back, dragging the Master Chief with it. It coughed up purple-blackblood that smeared John's visor, ob.scuring his vision. Its foot struck something on theground—the alien's fallen helmet—and it lost its footing.
Together they crashed to the ground.
The Master Chief kept his grip on the Elite's sword arm. The alien's other hand, however,wrenched free and grabbed the fallen plasma pistol. The weapon's muzzle charged withsickly green energy.
The Chief rolled to his right as the pistol discharged. A globe of plasma arced across thecompartment and splashed over the displays behind him.
The instruments flickered, then flashed and sparked as the en74 HALO: FIRST STRIKEergy bolt melted their systems. Before the displays went dark, however, the Master Chiefsaw one of the Covenant cruisers open fire. A lance of plasma rushed through spacetoward the flagship.
The Chief and the Elite struggled, rising to their feet. The Chief batted the plasma pistolaside, and it clattered across the control center.
The Elite's mouth opened, and it snapped at the Chief. It was angry or panicking now...and he felt it getting stronger.
His grasp on the alien loosened.
There was motion behind the Elite; Sergeant Johnson and Locklear still struggled to gettheir hatch open more than a crack.
"Sergeant—prepare to fire.""Ready, Master Chief." the Sergeant cried from the other side of the hatch.
The Chief tightened his grip on the Elite's sword arm, shoved his forearm into the alien'sthroat and drove it backward, across the bridge. He slammed the creature into thepartially opened hatch.
The energy blade cut into the Master Chief's armor, boiling through the alloy thatprotected his upper arm.
"Sergeant, now! FirerGunfire exploded from the hatch, oddly muffled because the rounds impacted directlyinto the Elite's back. The alien snarled and contorted, but it held on to the Master Chief.The alien war.rior sawed the blade deeper, cutting through the tough crys.talline layersof the MJOLNIR armor. Hydrostatic gel oozed from the wound... mixed with the Chief'sblood.
"Keep. Shooting."A bullet hole ap eared through the Elite's broken chestplate— bits of shattered armorand torn flesh spppattered over the Chief.
The Master Chief slammed the Elite into the bulkhead, and a control panel behind thealien sparked. The door to the escape corridor hissed open, and the creature reeled back.
The alien was off balance, and the Chief finally had leverage. He bulled the Elite backwardand hammered its arm into the wall. The alien metal rang like a gong, and the Elitedropped its energy sword. The blade guttered and went dark as its fail-safes permanentlydisabled the weapon.
The Chief forced the alien back, step by step. The deck wasERIC NYLUND 75slippery with blood. Finally he twisted the Elite to the right and launched a powerfulopen-handed strike into the alien's wounded chest.
The Elite howled in pain and flew back, through the open hatch of an escape pod.
"Get off this ship," the Chief said. He hit a control stud and the hatch slammed shut. There was a sharp, metallic bang as the locking clamps released. The pod screamed away from the hull.
The Chief exhaled. Sweat dripped in his eyes, momentarily blurring his vision.
"Good work, Sergeant, Locklear," he panted. His shoulder burned. He tried to move it, butit was stiff and wouldn't respond.
The ship lurched.
"Plasma impact on the starboard foredeck!" Cortana called out. "Shields down to sixty-seven percent." She paused and then added, "Amazing radiative properties. Chief, you need to disable the navigation override so I can maneuver."Haverson and Polaski strode toward the Chief. Haverson clutched his chest and grimacedin pain from the sword wound. Polaski set her hand on the Master Chief's shoulder."That's bad," she whispered. "Let me get a first-aid kit from the Pelican, and—"The Chief shrugged off her touch. "Later." He saw her con.cerned expression melt into one of... what? Fear? Confusion?
"Cortana, show me what to do," the Chief said and made his way to the raised platform inthe center of the bridge. "Polaski, you and Haverson get that other hatch open.""Aye aye," Polaski muttered, her voice tight. She and Haver.son went to the hatch and gotto work.
The Master Chief glanced at the control surfaces. As his hand hovered over them, the flatcontrols rose and became a three-dimensional web of the distinctive Covenant calligraphy. "Where?" he asked.
"Move your hand to the right half a meter," Cortana said. "Up twenty centimeters. Thatcontrol. No, to the left." She s"ighed. That one. Tap it three times."Faint lights traced the surface as the Chief touched it; they flared red and orange andfinally cooled to brilliant blue.
"It worked," Cortana said. "NAV controls coming online. I can finally move this crate. Hangon."76 HALO: FIRST STRIKEThe ship spun to port. On the displays that still functioned, four more Covenant cruiserstracked them—and fired.
The flagship accelerated, but the plasma torpedoes arced and followed them. "No good,"Cortana said. "I can't overcome our inertia in this tub. They're going to hit us ... unless Ican get us into Slipspace."A rhythmic warble pulsed from one of the displays. It flashed red.
"Oh no," Cortana said.
The leading plasma torpedo impacted. Dull red fire smeared across the viewscreens.
"Oh no, what?" Haverson demanded.
"This ship's Slipspace generator is inert," Cortana replied. "The disabled NAV controlswere a trick. It must have been the Covenant AI; it lured me here while the drive wasphysically de.coupled from the reactor. I can maneuver all I want, give orders to theSlipspace generator—but without the system powered up were not going anywhere.""There's a Covenant AI?" Haverson muttered, and raised an eyebrow.
"Upload the coordinates to power coupling," the Master Chief said. "I'll take care of it."Two more plasma torpedoes impacted and splashed across the shield. "Energy shieldscollapsing," Cortana said. "Brace!"The last shot collided with the flagship. The hull heated, and plasma boiled layers ofarmor plating away. The ship rolled as plumes of superheated metal vapor outgassed.
"Another hit like that will breach the hull," Cortana said. "Moving this tub at flank speed.""The power coupling coordinates, Cortana," the Master Chief insisted.
A route appeared on his heads-up display. The engineering rooms were twenty decksbelow the bridge.
"Those won't do you any good," Cortana told him. "There are bound to be Elite hunt-andkill teams waiting for you. And even if you managed to remove them, there is no way tore.pair the power coupling in time. We don't have the tools or the expertise."ERIC NYLUND 77The Master Chief looked around the bridge. There had to be a way. There was always away—He leaned over the edge of the central platform and grabbed one of the CovenantEngineers that cowered below. He dragged it up by its float-sack. The creature squirmedand squealed.
"Maybe we don't have the expertise," he said and shook the Engineer. "But this thingdoes. Can you communicate with it? Tell it what we need?"There was a pause. Then Cortana replied, "There is an exten.sive communications suitein the Covenant lexic—""Just tell it I'm taking it to fix something.""All right, Chief," Cortana said.
A stream of high-pitched chirps emanated from the bridge speakers, and the Engineer'ssix eyes dilated. It stopped squirm.ing and grabbed hold of the Master Chief with itstentacles.
"It says 'good' and 'hurry,' " Cortana told him.
"Everyone else stay here," the Chief said.
"If you insist," Haverson muttered, his face pale. Blood trick.led from the wound in hischest.
The Master Chief looked at Johnson and Locklear. "Don't let the Covenant retake thebridge.""Not a problem, Chief," Sergeant Johnson said. He stopped to kick the dead Elite once inthe teeth, then slapped a fresh clip into his MA5B. He yanked the weapon's charge handle,fed a round into the chamber, and stood at arms. "Those Covenant sissies are going tohave to tango with me before they set one foot in this room."On the display two of the Covenant cruisers fired again.
The Chief watched as the plasma raced toward them, fire that spread across the black ofspace. "Cortana, buy me some time," he said.
"I'll do what I can, Chief," Cortana told him. "But you'd better move fast. I'm running outCortana was annoyed. She had let the Covenant AI—for that's what this other presence inthe system undoubtedly had to be— trick her. She had gone straight for the simplelockdown of the NAV systems. She never performed a thorough systems check78 HALO: FIRST STRIKEof the ship, assuming that there had only been one point of sabo.tage. It was a mistakeshe would never have made if she'd been operating at full capacity.
She checked every system of the flagship. She then locked them out with her own securitymeasures.
Cortana turned off her feelings of anger and guilt and concen.trated on keeping the shipin one piece, and the Master Chief alive. No... she reconsidered and kept her emotionsactive. The "intuition" provided by this aspect of her intelligence template was toovaluable to deactivate in a battle.
She maneuvered the flagship toward the gas giant, Threshold. The incoming plasmamight be disrupted by the planet's mag.netic field—if she dared get close enough.
Cortana diverted power from the foreshield to the aft por.tions, distorting the protectivebubble around the flagship. She turned all seven plasma turrets aft and fired a pair ofplasma tor.pedoes at the incoming salvo.
The plasma turrets warmed and belched superheated flame— but it dispersed into a dullred cloud only a few meters from the point of fire, thinned, and then dissolved.
She saw a subsystem linked to the weapons control: an ac.companying magnetic fieldmultiplier. That was how the Cove.nant shaped and guided their charges of plasma. Itacted as a sophisticated focusing lens. Something wasn't right, however— something hadalready been in this directory and had erased the software.
Cortana swore that when she caught this guerrilla Covenant AI, she'd erase it line by line.
Without understanding how the guiding magnetic fields worked, the plasma turrets wereno more useful than a fireworks display.
The enemy Covenant plasma charges, however, were tight and burned like miniaturesuns; they overtook the flagship and splashed over its reinforced aft shields. They boiledagainst the silver energy until the shields dulled and winked out.
The plasma etched a ortion of the aft hull away like hot water dissolving salt. Cortanasensed the dull thumppps of atmospheric decompressions.
ERIC NYLUND79She checked on the Chief. His signal was still on board, and his biomonitor indicated thathe was still alive.
"Chief, are you there yet? I'm down to one last option."There was a static-filled pause over the COM, and then the Master Chief whispered,"Almost.""Be careful. Your armor is breached. You can no longer func.tion in a compromisedatmosphere."His acknowledgment light winked on.
Cortana pushed the Covenant reactors to overload and plotted a course around Threshold. She had to slip into the outer reaches of its atmosphere. The heat, ionization, and planet's magnetic field might protect them from the plasma.
The flagship rolled and dived into the thin tendrils of clouds. Bands of white ammonia and amber ammonium hydrosulfide clouds snaked in sinuous ribbons. A red-purple spotof phospho.rus compounds cycloned and lightning arced, illuminating an in.tervening layer of pale blue ice crystals.
But their ship no longer had shields. The friction heated the hull to three hundred degrees Celsius as she brushed against the upper reaches of Threshold.
On her aft cameras Cortana saw the trailing Covenant ships open fire. Their shotsfollowed her like a pack of predator birds.
"Come and get me," she muttered.
She adjusted the attack angle of the flagship so it nosed up, which produced a slightamount of lift. She concentrated the building heat toward the ship's tail. A turbulent wakeof super.heated air corkscrewed behind them.
"Cortana?" Polaski said. "We're approaching the viable edge of an exit orbit. You're getting too close to the planet.""I am aware of our trajectory, Warrant Officer," she said and snapped off the COM. The last thing she needed was a flying lesson.
The leading edge of the plasma overtook them. It roiled in their wake, churnedexplosively with the atmosphere. The flag.ship pitched and dropped in the unstable air,but the plasma dif.fused and caused them no further damage. Behind the flagship was anunfurling trail hundreds of kilometers long, a wide flam.ing gash upon Threshold. kilometers long, a wide flam.ing gash upon Threshold.
80 HALO: FIRST STRIKECortana experienced a moment of triumph—then squelched it.
There was a new problem: The concussion from that blast had altered their flight path.The heat and overpressure wave had thinned the atmosphere ... just enough to cause theflagship to drop seven hundred meters. Wisps of ice crystals washed over the prow.
They were too deep now. They didn't have enough power to break orbit. They wouldspiral into the atmosphere, and would ultimately be crushed by the titanic gravitationalforces of Threshold.
The Chief spun in midair and planted his feet on the "ground." The gravity had been disabled in this elevator shaft. That had made traversing the many intervening decks easy ... as long as he'd been willing to jump and trust that the power in this part of the shipwouldn't be restored.
The Engineer clutching his shoulder tapped the tiny control panel on the wall. The doors at the bottom of the shaft sighed and slowly slid apart.
Funny how the creature didn't care what or who John was. Didn't it know their races were enemies? It was clearly intelli.gent and could communicate. Maybe it didn't care about ene.mies or allies. Maybe all it wanted to do was its job.
There was a corridor ahead, five meters wide, with a vaulted ceiling. Past a final arch, thepassage opened up into the cav.ernous reactor room. The ambient lights in the hallway and room were off. Along the far wall of the room, however, the ten-meter-high reactor coils pulsed with blue-white lightning and threw hard shadows onto the walls.
The Master Chief adjusted his low-light filters to screen out the glow from the reactor. He made out the silhouettes of crates and other machinery. He also saw one of those shadows on the wall move ... with the distinct slouching waddle of a Covenant Grunt.Then the motion was gone.
An ambush. Of course.
He paused, listened, and heard the panting of at least half a dozen Grunts, and then thehigh-pitched uneasy squeaks the creatures emitted when they were excited.
This came as a relief to the Master Chief. If there was an EliteERIC NYLUND 81here, it would have maintained better discipline and silenced the Grunts.
Still, the Master Chief hesitated. His shields were gone, his armor breached. He had been fighting almost nonstop for what felt like years. He was forced to admit that he was at thelimits of his endurance.
A good soldier always assessed the tactical situation—and right now, his situation was serious. A single lucky plasma shot could inflict third-degree burns along his arm andshoulder and incapacitate him, which would give the Grunts an opportunity to finish himoff.
The Chief flexed his wounded shoulder, and pain lanced across his chest. He banished hisdiscomfort and concentrated on how to win this fight.
It was ironic that after facing the best warriors in the Cove.nant, and after defeating theFlood, he could be killed by a hand.ful of Grunts.
"Chief," Cortana said over the COM. "Are you there yet? I'm down to one last option."The Master Chief replied in a whisper, "Almost.""Be careful. Your armor is breached. You can no longer func.tion in a compromisedatmosphere."He flashed an acknowledgment to Cortana and concentrated on the problem at hand.Using grenades was not an option; a plasma grenade or a frag near those reactor coilscould breach the containment vessel.
That left stealth—and outwitting the Grunts.
Maybe he'd use his grenades after all. The Master Chief set a plasma grenade in the center of the elevator shaft. He took his re.maining two frag grenades and set them aside as well. He felt along the elevator shaft walls and found what he needed—a length of hair-fine optical cord. He pulled out a three-meter length.
The Engineer gave a huff of irritation at this destruction.
The Master Chief threaded the line though the rings of his frag grenades and tied eachend at anchor points ten centime.ters off the floor. He wedged the grenades into the slotof the open door.
82 HALO: FIRST STRIKEThe trap was set; all he needed now was bait.
He set a plasma grenade on the far wall of the shaft and trig.gered it.
He pushed into the corridor, fast. Four seconds to go. The gravity, still active in thisportion of the ship, pulled him to the deck. He melted into the shadows and sprintedalong the wall two meters farther in, and halted along the inside of the first sup.portbrace. Three seconds.
One Grunt emitted a startled cry and a plasma shot sizzled down the center of thehallway.
Two seconds.
The Master Chief pried the Engineer off his shoulder and pressed the creature firmly intothe join where the brace meet the wall.
One second.
The Engineer squirmed for a moment, then stilled, perhaps sensing what was about tohappen.
The plasma grenade detonated. A flash of intense light flooded the hallway and the roombeyond.
The rest of the Grunts cried out; plasma bolts and a hail of crystalline needles filled thepassage, impacting inside the ele.vator shaft.
The Grunts ceased fire. A lone Grunt cautiously stepped out from behind a crate and creptforward. It gave a barking, nervous laugh and then, encountering no resistance, waddleddown the passage toward the elevator.
Four more Grunts followed, and they passed the Master Chief, oblivious that he hidbehind the wall brace less than a half-meter from them.
They approached the elevator, sniffed, and entered.
There was the gentle ping as the frag grenade rings pulled free of the trip wire.
The Master Chief covered the Engineer.
One of the Grunts squealed, high and panicky. They all turned and ran.
Twin blasts of thunder enveloped the elevator shaft. Bits of meat and metal spatteredalong the corridor.
A needier skidded to a halt a meter away. It was cracked, itsERIC NYLUND 83energy coil dim. The Master Chief grabbed it—ducked as an.other plasma bolt singedover his head. He withdrew to the cover of the bracing support. He tried to activate theweapon. No luck. It was deadThe Engineer snaked a tentacle around the weapon and tugged it away from John's grasp.It cracked the case and peeled the housing open. The tip of one of its tentacles split into a hun.dred needle-fine cilia and swept over the inner workings. A mo.ment later itreassembled the weapon and handed it, grip first, to the Master Chief.
The needier hummed with energy, and the glassine quills the weapon fired glowed a coolpurple.
"Thanks," he whispered.
The Engineer chirped.
The Master Chief edged around the brace. He waited, needier held tightly in his hand, andbecame completely still. He had all the time in the world, he told himself. No need to rush.Let the enemy come to you. All the time —A Grunt poked its nose over a crate, trying to spot its enemy; it took a blind shot down thecorridor and missed.
The Master Chief remained where he was, raised the needier, and fired. A flurry of crystalshards propelled down the passage and impaled the Grunt. It toppled backward, and theshards detonated.
The Master Chief waited and listened. There was nothing ex.cept the gentle thrummingof the reactor.
He moved down the corridor, weapon held before him as he cleared the room. He was careful to watch for the faint rippling of air that would alert him to the presence ofcamouflaged Elites. Nothing.
The Engineer floated behind him, and then accelerated toward the disengaged power coupling. It hissed and chittered as it rapidly manipulated a small square block of opticalcrystal, un.scrambling the internal circuit pathways.
"Cortana," he said. "I've gotten to the coupling. The Engineer appears to know what it'sdoing. You should have power for the Slipspace generator in a moment.""It's too late," Cortana told him.