TIME:DATE RECORD [[ERROR]]ANOMALY\Date unknown\ Aboard captured Covenantflagship Ascendant Justice, in Slipspace. Now.
"Cortana?" the Master Chief asked. "What's our status?"The Chief and the rest of his team scrambled out of the Cove.nant dropship. Fred carrieda semiconscious Kelly out and laid her on the deck of the launch bay.
"Same as ever," Cortana replied. "We're in trouble."Video feed from the ship's external cameras appeared on the Master Chief's heads-updisplay. Covenant cruisers surrounded them, their plasma turrets aglow; they remindedthe Chief of pictures he had seen of fish that lived at the bottom of Earth's oceans—swarms of phosphorescing lights and razor-sharp teeth.
He marched toward the edge of the launch bay and stood a centimeter from where theship's energy shield abutted the open.ing to the space beyond. He looked directly intothe vast blue fields and the giant warships far too close for his liking.
"We jumped to Slipspace, didn't we?" Lieutenant Haverson asked uncertainly.
"Yes," Dr. Halsey replied. "And no."She withdrew the crystal from her lab coat pocket and frowned as she discovered that itwas no longer a slender shard. The facets had rearranged like the pieces of a jigsawpuzzle... but in a configuration that differed from the one the artifact displayed in theCovenant grav beam. This time it was a starburst of edges and refracted light.
214HALO: FIRST STRIKE"We jumped," she said, examining her reflection in the arti-fact's mirrored planes. "Butnot to the Slipspace we know."The Master Chief's radiation counter clicked and a shrill alarm screamed through hishelmet.
"Secure that, Anton," he said and nodded toward the glowing stone. "Get it into thereactor compartment of the Pelican."Anton relieved the crystal from Dr. Halsey, who only reluc.tantly released it from hergrasp. He sprinted toward the wrecked Pelican.
"There was a radiation surge, Doctor," the Chief explained. "And that thing is the source." The Chief noticed that the inten.sity of the radiation did not drop off as Anton moved itinto the Pelican.
"Whatever it is," Dr. Halsey said as she scrutinized the blue field outside their ship, "itwarps space. When we first ap.proached it in the great room, space curled around thecrystal. And again in the grav beam, it dispersed that field potential.""And now?" Admiral Whitcomb asked. "This tiling is affect.ing our passage throughSlipspace?""Apparently so," Dr. Halsey said, and stepped next to John to get a better look outside.
The Admiral joined her and watched as the Covenant ships' turrets heated. "Can theyeven fire those things in Slipspace? If they can, we're sitting ducks."The Master Chief could make out more shi s in the distance. The Covenant vesselsflickered, faded, disappeared, and then reappp eared in the fog. The nearest enemyCovenant ships fired. Amorphous balls of suppperheated gas belched from their turrets andaccelerated toward them, tingeing the blue space purple.
The Master Chief saw Locklear as he helped Polaski out of the Covenant dropship. Hekept her hand in his, and they watched together as the plasma sped toward them.
The balls of plasma streaked on—then curled and spiraled off their trajectories. Severalsimply winked out of existence, only to reappear somewhere else. The enemy shots racedup, down, sideways—any direction but toward Ascendant Justice.
"What the hell is this?" Sergeant Johnson said and he stepped next to the Master Chief towatch the display. "I didn't think their ships could fire in Slipspace. Ours sure as hellcan't."ERIC NYLUND215Dr. Halsey removed her glasses, and her eyes widened. "Nor.mally, they can't. If they can fire, then logically, we're not in Slipspace. And wherever we are," she murmured, "therules have changed."The Admiral frowned. "Cortana," he shouted. "Whatever you do, do not return—"Too late. Cortana returned fire.
Columns of fire streaked from Ascendant Justice—streamers that twisted and helixed,then vanished and reappeared.
The bubble of tangled blue space containing Ascendant Jus.tice and the Covenantwarships now contained at least forty bolts of superheated plasma circling in random directions and accel.erated to incalculable velocities.
Three spheres of roiling fire appeared in front of the nearest Covenant cruiser and splashed across its bow. The first boiled away its shimmering silver shield; the secondand third melted the armor and alloy skin beneath. Atmosphere vented and spun themassive ship like a child's pinwheel.
"Hot damn," Sergeant Johnson crowed. "All we have to do is wait for those trigger-happy bastards to take themselves out. Look, they're firing again."The Covenant weapons heated and squeezed out a second salvo of plasma. The guidedbolts of fire veered off course, swarmed, disappeared, reappeared, and spun out ofcontrol though the local.ized Slipspace bubble.
"No, Sergeant," Dr. Halsey said, her voice turning cold. "We're all in the same mess.""Cortana," the Master Chief said, "drop the launch bay blast door. Now!"The three-meter-thick door overhead shuddered and slid down.
A streamer of plasma on a parallel trajectory flashed through the dark not half akilometer from the Master Chief's face—so close that the external temperature rosetwenty degrees even through the ship's shields.
Red fire illuminated Ascendant Justice's starboard shield as plasma splashed across them;the film separating the launch bay from the external vacuum rippled like a thousandbroken mir.rors. Static crackled across the Master Chief's armor, and his shieldsresonated in sympathy.
216HALO: FIRST STRIKEAs the blast door lowered, the Chief saw another fireball spill across their port side.Energy sprayed across the bow in a blood red borealis. Ascendant Justice's shieldsflickered and faded... but they held. Barely.
The launch bay door touched the deck and sealed with a sub.sonic thud.
"Blast door locked and secured," Cortana announced.
"Let's get this boat under way," Admiral Whitcomb barked. "While we still have a boat." He looked around and frowned. "Chief, lead the way to the bridge.""Yes, sir." He marched to the passage that led deeper into the alien ship. His Spartans andthe rest of the crew followed.
Admiral Whitcomb turned to Dr. Halsey. "Catherine, explain in layman's terms just whatthe hell is going on here. If we can see those cruisers and they can see us, why aren't ourshots connecting?"Ascendant Justice rolled to port, and explosions chained over.head. The artificial gravityfluttered, and the deck tilted. The crew stumbled, and Dr. Halsey fell to the deck.
"Turrets one and seven destroyed," Cortana announced.
Whitcomb helped Dr. Halsey up off her knees. She glanced nervously up and down thepassa e. "I'd guess the alien artifact we've brought with us into Slipspace has expandedthe regggion. Physicists believe Slipstream space is a highly compressed ver.sion of normalspace, layered over and under itself, like a ball of yarn. Now, imagine that our ball ofyarn"—she interlaced her ringers—"is looped and knotted. These threads are not solid,however; plasma, light, and matter jump from one thread to an.other given the slightestquantum fluctuation.""If that's the case, Doctor," Lieutenant Haverson said, "then what about our ship? Whyaren't we tangled and spread along a trillion alternate spatial pathways?""Because of the mass of this s"hip.She pushed her glasses higher onto her nose. "Imagine a rumpled sheet that represents this space. If you set a heavy mass upon that sheet, itdraws it taut, smooths it out."The Chief came to the heavy bulkhead door and held up his hand, telling the rest of them to halt. He opened the door andERIC NYLUND217stepped onto the bridge, sweeping the space with his rifle. "Clear," he told them.
Admiral Whitcomb and the others entered the bridge. Lieu.tenant Haverson steppedonto the raised platform and said, "Cortana, project tactical on the displays."Enemy ship positions and plasma tracks appeared on the inte.rior walls. Contactsmultiplied and coalesced, making the plasma appear like waves sloshing about in a bowl.Another bolt broke across the prow of Ascendant Justice.
Through the deck the Master Chief felt the successive thumps of explosive decompressions.
"Hit on subengineering decks," Cortana said. "Sealing those regions. Fire in the lower levels. Attempting to isolate and pump out the atmosphere."John's childhood AI teacher, Deja, had taught the Spartans about the great Naval battles on Earth's oceans before humans traveled to the stars. They had studied victories in thePunic Wars, and at Midway, as well as the disastrous defeat of Xerxes by the Athenian Navy. Deja had told them, however, that one thing was greater than any human enemy on the sea: nature. Tidal waves and typhoons could crush the mightiest of battle.ships ... andignored the tactics of the most brilliant captain.
Ascendant Justice was in the center of a sea of fire ... and it was being battered apart.
Thunder ripped through Ascendant Justice's hull; a geyser of flames shot out thepassageway to the bridge. The air jumped and hissed as it escaped the pressurizedchamber.
The bulkhead door slammed shut, and the air stilled.
Sergeant Johnson shook his head clear from the sudden drop in pressure. "Let's drop outof this mixed-up Slipspace and start fighting.""Yeah, or just get rid of that crys" "tal,Locklear said. If it's the cause of all this mess." Hedrew his pistol. "One round and boom! Problem solved.""Don't do that!" Dr. Halsey snapped. "A drop back to normal space has us facing a dozenor more cruisers. And if you destroy the crystal, the expanded Slipspace bubble we're inwould in.stantly collapse. Every separate mass in the bubble will compact into a singlemass. We wouldn't survive the transition."218HALO: FIRST STRIKEWorry creased Admiral Whitcomb's features. "That leaves just one option. Cortana, giveme flank speed and heat u every weapon we have. We're going to run right over theseCovenant ships. Tangled spppace or not, we're going to blast them right back to normalspace from point-blank range.""Yes, Admiral," Cortana said. "Engines answering flank speed."A dull thump echoed from the aft section.
"Stand by," Cortana said. "There's a problem with the primary engines—a power dropoccurred just as I engaged."On the bridge displays the external cameras turned and focused on the aft hull ofAscendant Justice. A snakelike plasma conduit came into focus. Cortana adjusted theimage, and a three-meter-wide hole in the conduit snapped into view. Streamers of blue-white gas vented from the breach.
"That's our main drive conduit," Cortana said. "It's taken a hit. I'm shutting down enginesto conserve power."The Master Chief squinted. "That was no plasma hit," he mut.tered. "It was too preciseand too inconvenient—this had to be sabotage."Admiral Whitcomb scowled. "Chief, take your team and pre.pare for a zero-gee repair ofthe plasma conduit.""Yes, sir."Polaski stepped forward. "I'll go too, sir," she said. Locklear grasped her by the arm andtried to pull her back, but she shrugged his hand off. "I can pilot the dropship—get theSpartan team in and out faster."The Admiral narrowed his eyes, assessing the young woman. "Very well, WarrantOfficer." He added so softly that the Chief almost missed it: "Too many damned heroes inthis war."Polaski turned to Locklear, handed him back his bandanna, and whispered, "Hang on tothat for me, Corporal. I'll pick k "it up when I get back.
Locklear's hand clenched, then relaxed. He took the token, nodded, and looked away. "I'llbe here," he said and tied it around his arm.
"Chief," Admiral Whitcomb said. "Make sure you come back alive. That's an order, son."