2000 hours, September 12,2552 (revised date, Military Calendar)\Aboard hybrid vesselGettysburg-Ascendant Justice, station-keeping in Eridanus system.
Admiral Whitcomb, the Master Chief, Fred, and Lieutenant Haverson bounded off theelevator and onto the bridge of the Gettysburg.
Cortana's image nickered on the holographic pad near the star map. "Covenant cruiser isonly two hundred thousand kilome.ters away," she reported. "Closing fast on an intercept course."The Admiral barked orders: "Fred, take the Engineering sta.tion, Haverson on NAV, andChief, you're on Weapons Station One; get it up and running and see if there are any systems we overlooked. Lieutenant, move us away from the enemy on course one-eightzeroby two-seven-zero.""One-eight-zero by two-seven-zero, aye," Haverson replied. He strapped himself into theNAV station, and his fingers danced over the controls. "Coming about, Admiral."Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice turned and moved deeper into the asteroid field.
The Master Chief stepped up to Weapons Station One. He was cross-trained on theweapons ops system of every class of UNSC warship, but he'd never actually fired any shipborne weapon be.fore. The MAC gun on this frigate was one of the largest weapons in the human arsenal. He wished they had rounds for it—he would've given anything tolaunch one of the six-hundred-ton de.pleted uranium projectiles at that Covenant cruiser. He carefully tapped commands on the keyboard, and the darkened screen262HALO: FIRST STRIKEcame to life. The Chief scrutinizenize'd the Gettysburgs weapons inventory.
Governor Jiles appeared on the number three forward display, his face placid except hislips, which pressed together so tightly that they were only a thin white line ofconcentration.
"Governor," the Admiral said. His voice was smooth and reso.nated with the absoluteauthority of command. "I'll maneuver the Gettysburg and take a shot at extreme range with our plasma turret. That will blow down that cruiser's shields. I want you tocoordinate with our AI and fire one of your nukes while their shields are down—blastthem to bits.""A brilliant tactic," Jiles said, and his lips parted in a mocking smile. "Except for one problem. We have no nuclear weapons. The ones you detected in the asteroid field were only neutron ra.diation emitters." He shrugged. "We bluffed."Admiral Whitcomb cursed quietly. "Very smart, Jiles.""You'll just have to use the seven plasma turrets on your ship, Admiral," Governor Jiles remarked. "That should be more than enough to—"The Admiral chuckled, and he smiled in the same mocking fashion as Jiles. "We bluffed,too. We only have one turret... and it's not working so well.""It appears we have both overestimated the other," Jiles said. "Under different circumstances this might be amusing.""Indeed." Whitcomb addressed Cortana. "Try and hail that Covenant cruiser. Maybe we can bluff them, too.""They're responding," Cortana replied. "Religious rhetoric aside, they're demanding thatwe stand down and hand over the artifact or they will open fire.""Give them our answer," Admiral Whitcomb said. "Fire when ready, Cortana."The turret on Ascendant Justice warmed, and plasma col.lected and focused into a thinruby line that lanced forward——and unraveled into a wide spiral that coursed over the bow of the Gettysburg. The superheated gases boiled away patches of remaining Titanium-A armor and revealed theship's skeletal superstructure.
"What the hell happened?" the Admiral shouted.
ERIC NYLUND263"Analyzing now," Cortana replied. "Plasma turret offline. Stand by, sir.""I can move my fleet to engage the enemy," Jiles said uncertainly.
Admiral Whitcomb surveyed the forward screens: Jiles, the approaching Covenantcruiser, and the asteroid field full of rocks floating on invisible currents. He narrowed hiseyes, then said: "They'd blast you out of space before you could sneeze, Governor. Andou don't have a weapon that'll get through their shields. No—I'll draw them off. Evacyyyour people.""Understood, Admiral." One of Jiles's eyebrows gracefully arched, and he bowed. "Thankyou.""Fred, move us at best speed. Haverson, come to course zero-nine-zero. Get us closer tothat moon-sized chuck of stone, twenty thousand kilometers to port.""Flank speed," Fred said. "Aye, sir.""Course change, aye," Haverson replied.
The Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice glided toward the large rock, and the Covenant cruiserrapidly closed on them. The enemy ship vanished on the displays as they rounded to thedark side of the asteroid.
"New course. Come about to one-eight-zero," the Admiral or.dered. "Full emergencypower to the engines and answer all stop."Thrasters spun the ship around, and vibrations rumbled through the weakened hull as itslowed and came to a stop, hidden behind the rock.
"Answering all stop," Fred announced.
"Sir, we are dead in space," Lieutenant Haverson said and nervously ran his fingersthrough his slicked-back red hair. "Tra.ditional tactics advocate speed andmaneuverability in ship-to-ship combat.""Not in this asteroid field," Admiral Whitcomb replied. "But you make a good point aboutstaying maneuverable. Align our nose toward the center of mass of the planetoid, andback us up, one half reverse. Keep us out of the enemy's gunsights as long as you can.""Firing ministers. Answering one half reverse," Fred said.
264HALO: FIRST STRIKEThe ship slowly angled toward the center of the large asteroid and backed away.
"Cortana?" the Admiral asked. "Do we have a weapons turret or not?""Yes, sir," Cortana said, "but the turret's magnetic coils that shape and aim the plasma charge have overloaded."The Admiral inhaled and sighed explosively. "Master Chief, you got anything on Weapons Station One?""Archer missile pods depleted," the Master Chief answered. He scanned the display,hoping he had missed something. "No rounds for the MAC gun. All Shiva nuclear missiles fired as well, sir. The only things left in the tubes are three Clarion spy drones.""No plasma and no missiles," Admiral Whitcomb said. "We might as well open an air lockand throw rocks at 'em."Throw rocks? The Master Chief wondered if they could fash.ion a slug to shoot from theMAC cannon. Let its magnetic coils propel the mass to supersonic velocities and—Magnetic coils?
"Sir," the Master Chief said. "We may have a way to fire the plasma turret after all. The Gettysburg's MAC gun has seventeen superconducting coils. Cortana might be able to use them to shape and aim the plasma.""Yes," the Admiral said, nodding.
"Maybe," Cortana amended and stared off into space, think.ing. "Calculating fieldstrength drop-off now." The mathematic symbols scrolling across her body increasedthreefold. She frowned. "This would be easier if the Gettysburg was oriented bottom toAscendant Justice's top. I'll have to guess at the inter.ference from the intervening hulls,but it still might work. Chief—power it up. I'll need to recalibrate the pulse generation tomatch the plasma output.""MAC gun magnetic fields coming online," the Master Chief said as he tapped incommands. "Rerouting power from Ascen.dant Justice's reactor.""We won't have enough power to move fast if we have to," Fred remarked, watching theenergy fed to the Gettysburg's en.gines drop to nothing.
"That's okay." The Admiral absentmindedly tugged at the endERIC NYLUNOof his mustache. "We wouldn't be able to outrun that Covenant cruiser even if we had fullpower. Our only chance is to take them out before they take us out. Launch those Clarion spy drones, Chief. Target the region abeam that planetoid—so we can see around thecorner."The Master Chief kept one eye on the fluctuating magnetic field strengths of thesuperconducting coils as he programmed a course for the spy drones. Set to either side ofthe large asteroid, they'd effectively give them another set of eyes to see past theobstructing rock.
"Drones away," the Chief said and launched them; their feath.ery propellant trailsvanished into the distance.
"Cortana," Admiral Whitcomb said, "slave your targeting sys.tem to the feed from those drones. I want a clean shot fired before the cruiser crosses that rock's shadow and shootsat us.""Working," she replied. "Getting magnetic field variations from the Ascendant Justice-to-Gettysburg energy transfer.""Drones in position and images online," the Master Chief said and pushed the video feedto the forward screen.
Doubled images of the Covenant cruiser appeared. Along its three bulbous sections,lateral plasma conduits glowed and every turret bristled with energy, ready to fire. Theirlaser batteries oblit.erated the large asteroids in their path, while the smaller ones sim.ply bounced off their shields. The warship accelerated as it entered the gravitationalinfluence of the planetoid between them.
"They're going to slingshot around," the Admiral said. "Cor.tana, give me your besttargeting solution and fire at will!"Cortana narrowed her eyes and calculations flashed across her body. "Extrapolating theircourse and speed," she breathed. "I got them."On Weapons Station One the Master Chief saw the accelera.tion coils of the Gettysburg'sMAC pulse—then redline with power. Magnetic field lines ballooned, overlapped, and distorted asymmetrically. Static washed across his MJOLNIR armor's shields, and every electrically conducting surface on the bridge sparked as the magnetic lines of force penetrated through the ship and toward the turret on Ascendant Justice.
Their only working turret heated, and plasma gathered at its266HALO: FIRST STRIKEtip; streamers looped upon themselves like tiny solar flares, vi.brated, intensified toorange and then blue-white.
"Almost there," Cortana cried. "Hang on."The ball of squeezed plasma imploded. It instantly boiled away a thirty-meter section ofarmor and hull from Ascendant Justice; the plasma vanished for a split second—then abolt of coiled energy corkscrewed toward the edge of the planetoid.
The Covenant cruiser rounded the planetoid, targeted the Get.tysburg, and fired.
Cortana's single shot impacted on the nose of the enemy craft first. The cruiser's shieldflashed solid silver for a moment and was gone. The supercompressed plasma tore intothe hull of the warship—exploding the metal where it touched. The plasma forked anddetonated outward as it chained through the vessel. Secondary explosions rippledthrough the alien ship's hull.
Edges of its shattered hull glowed red and then white hot as their superheatedatmosphere vented. The bolt ripped through the engineering compartment, shatteredtheir reactors—and the entire warship blossomed into fire and ejected trails of goldensparks and dying flickers of static electricity.
The five plasma bolts that the Covenant cruiser fired at the Gettysburg dispersed into ared haze. There was no longer any magnetic force to shape and guide them to theirintended target.
The bridge crew watched the explosions fade from the for.ward screens. The Admiralsaid, "Status?"Fred tapped the screen of the Engineeri station and re.ported: "Engines and reactoroffline. That magnetic pulse did somethingngng to them."Static washed over Weapons Station One as the Master Chief looked up and said, "MACaccelerating coils intact. Drone one destroyed. Retrieving drone two, sir."Cortana's holographic presence was missing, but her voice sounded triumphantlythrough the bridge speakers: "Turret number three destroyed. But if we ever get any ofthe other six turrets in working order, we'll have a formidable arsenal.""We may not get that chance," Lieutenant Haverson remarked as he bent over the NAVstation. "Contacts inbound. Small ships. Dozens of them. Transferring to the forwardscreens."Armored Pelicans, exoskeleton welders, a handful of Long-ERIC NYLUND267sword singleships, and the odd stealth Chirvptera-class vessel appeared on screen.
"Jiles's fleet," Haverson stated. "And he has us exactly where he wants us—dead in thewater.""Incoming transmission," Cortana said. "Piping it through.""Admiral Whitcomb?" Jiles's rich and resonant voice flooded the bridge. "Can I be of some assistance? A tow, perhaps, back to our base so we can expedite repairs to your ships?""That would be most kind of you," the Admiral said and eased back into the Captain's chair.
Two Laden-class cargo ships came alongside the Gettysburg and attached; their engines rumbled.
"I don't understand," Haverson whispered. "He had us.""No, he didn't," Admiral Whitcomb replied. He scowled and added, "Governor Jiles may not like it, but he needs us now. The Covenant aren't going to send just one ship. After thisone goes missing for a while, there'll be more. A lot more. This is only the start of thebattle, son."John and his six remaining teammates sat in the Gettysburg's machine shop. The room was large enough to fit a Longsword in.side, and the walls, ceilings, and deck had roboticarms tipped with welders, multitools, and hydraulic presses. Three of the arms had high-intensity spotlights directed onto the walls and provided a clear, cool, indirectillumination that the Master Chief found soothing after having one too many plasma blasts etch his retinas.
They were here because Admiral Whitcomb had ordered the Spartans to repair theirequipment and get at least six hours of sleep. The machine shop was a solid room,reinforced, and un.likely to breach in case they were attacked again.
Linda sat in the corner with her helmet, back torso, and shoul.der MJOLNIR armor sections removed.
Fred and Will used two robotic arms to hold her armor in place. They swapped outdamaged plates and components with the spare parts they'd found in ONI's CASTLEfacility on Reach.
Angry red scars crisscrossed Linda's pale body—the only external trace of her doubletransplant operation. Against Dr. Halsey's advice for strict bed rest, Linda had hobbled down here268HALO: FIRST STRIKEwith her team. She sat cross-legged before a disassembled SRS99C sniper rifle and selected gyro compensators, optics, and adaptive texture barrel sheaths. Linda proceededto re.assemble the precision-made weapon with the care of a loving mother caressingher newborn child.
Without looking up from her rifle she said, "Now I know what you have to do to get acouple of days' R-and-R in this outfit.""I heard," Fred remarked, "that you spent the whole time sleeping, too.""That's why she likes to snipe," Will replied. "I caught her snoring last time she posted inthat tower on Europa."John was glad they could joke about her return from the dead. He couldn't bring himselfto join in, though. He had accepted the mantle of command, and CPO Mendez had taughthim to re.press his external emotional reactions to preserve his authority. Right now, heresented that.
Kelly rolled over and woke up. She nudged Grace, and they sat up, shaking their helmets."0400," Kelly told them. "That was six hours.""Felt like a fifteen-minute nap," Grace muttered. "I just closed my eyes. You're kidding,right?"Kelly looked over to Linda and drew her two fingers across her helmet in the smilegesture. Linda returned a rare, bare smile to her.
The smile looked odd to John. He wanted to smile, too, but nothing much—apart from Linda—in a long time had given him cause: not the hordes of rebels crawling over andthrough the Gettysburg whom Admiral Whitcomb trusted too much, nor the imminent return of Covenant forces before their engines and weapons could be repaired. .. andcertainly not the hundreds of dead crew members aboard the Gettysburg, whom they hadcol.lected and placed in cargo bay seven.
The slight click of metal on metal alerted every Spartan in the room. Pistols drew in a blur of motion and rifles leveled at the side hatch as it eased open with a squeak.
Sergeant Johnson and Corporal Locklear stood in the doorway— frozen.
"No one told me this was target practice," Locklear muttered. "Else I woulda painted abull's-eye on my chest."ERIC NYLUND269"Master Chief," the Sergeant said. "Reporting as you requested."John nodded and lowered his gun, as did the other Spartans. "Come in, Marines."As he holstered his weapon, John's hand brushed against the belt compartment that heldDr. Halsey's data crystals. He hadn't decided which to give to Lieutenant Haverson. Did hesacrifice the Sergeant to save billions from potential Flood infestation? Did it evenmatter? He had every reason to believe that the Flood had been destroyed with Halo—but what if he was wrong?
"I wanted you both down here to help us discuss our tactical options," John told them.
The COM pulsed to life. Dr. Halsey said, "Master Chief?""Yes, Doctor?""I need Kelly to report to Medical Four," she said. "She re.quires one last injection ofdermacortic steroids. And I could use her assistance on another matter."John nodded to Kelly.
She slowly stretched, stood, sighed, and marched out of the room. "I'll be right back," shesaid, flexing her burned hands. "Don't plan the overthrow of the Covenant Empirewithout me.""She's on her way, Doctor."The COM snapped off.
The Master Chief turned to his Spartans and the Marines. "Let's go over what we knowand see if we've missed anything— any way to exploit the enemy's plan." He set down adata pad with a star map glittering upon its surface.
"The Covenant are on their way to Earth," he told them. "They are gathering at a battlestation and then jumping en masse to the Sol system.""What happens then?" Fred asked.
"Assuming we get to Earth first," Linda answered, "our Fleet will be waiting for them,and"—she pulled back the bolt on her rifle with a clack—"they'll give them a warm reception.""But what chance will our forces "have?Will asked. There was no fear in his voice, justcool logic. "You saw Cortana's re.port. There will be hundreds of Covenant warships. Idon't think our Fleet or even Earth's orbital MAC platforms can repel a force thatpowerful."f270HALO: FIRST STRIKE"No," the Chief quietly said. "They can't win. They'll try. But the Covenant will eventuallytake down one of the orbital MACs, slip through, and pick off the ground-basedgenerators. Just like on Reach."Fred visibly flinched.
Locklear twisted the red bandanna he had tied on his biceps. "So we get to watch another fight in space?" he hissed. His fists trembled with barely checked rage. "There has to be a way to get to those bastards first—on the ground where we can win. Hell, I'd even takemy chances in hand-to-hand combat. Anything but floating in zero gee and watchingEarth get burned.""What about our original mission?" Linda asked. "Find the Covenant home world?""Our priority has to be to warn Earth," the Chief answered. "Admiral Whitcomb wouldinsist... and he has the authority to scrub our mission.""And there's no ground between here and Earth where we can take the fight to them," Locklear said. He unclenched his fist and dropped his gaze to the deck. "Sometimes," hewhispered, "I really hate this war."Sergeant Johnson worked his mouth but said nothing. He set his hand on Locklear's wideshoulder and whispered, "Stand tall, Marine. Try to—"The Sergeant's gaze fell on the data pad and the star map. "Hang on a second. What was ityou said about no ground to fight on between here and there?" He grinned and picked up the data pad. "What's this?" He tapped a dot on the map, squinted, and read the tinywords. "This... 'Uneven Elephant'?""Unyielding Hierophant," the Chief corrected. "According to Cortana, it's a command-andcontrolcenter, a mobile space platform where the Covenant fleet will rendezvous before their final jump to Earth.""Well, there's your ground," Sergeant Johnson said. "On this 'elephant'thing."Will got up and walked over to the data pad. "It fits with the timetable. This station is onthe way to Earth."Fred offered, "We can drop out of Slipspace in a smaller craft. Go in and—""And do what you Spartans do best," Locklear said. "Infil-ERIC NYLUND271trate, kill, and blow shit up. If there's room in this operation for an ODST, pencil me in."The Master Chief looked to the data pad, then to his team, Locklear, and the Sergeant.They were right: For the first time, the 'd know when and where the Covenant would be.If they hit the enemy hard enough, theyyy could stop them before the Cove.nant hit Earth...and delay Armageddon.
The Master Chief gave rapid-fire orders:
"Fred, Will: Get Linda's suit back together ASAP.
"Locklear, you're on weapons detail again. Scrounge every pistol, rifle, ammo bag, andscrap of explosives on this vessel and haul it to Ascendant Justice's launch bay.
"Grace, Linda, and Sergeant Johnson: Get that Covenant drop-ship ready for its last flight.Reinforce the hull for a Slipspace-to-normal-space transition.
"And I'll take this plan to Admiral Whitcomb—make him see that it's the only way. We'regoing to take this fight to the Cove.nant. We're going to launch a first strike."