Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (8 page)

There was a ripping sound and something unraveled from his pack.

Shane jerked straight, his legs whipping after him, and his teeth snapped together from the sudden bone-jarring deceleration.

The spinning world stopped.

Gasping and blinking away his tears, Shane saw the last bit of amber light fade from the edge of the world, and the stars gently rock back and forth around him.

Overhead the wind whistled and rippled though a black canopy. Ropes connected Shane to this wing, and his hands instinctively grabbed them. As he pulled, the wing turned and angled in that direction.

The sudden motion made him dizzy again, so he let go.

Shane squinted and made out shapes swimming around him: black on black like the bats on Harvest. Those had to be the other kids, gliding like he was.

His face heated as he remembered how he'd chickened out at the last minute in the Pelican… in front of everyone. Even that little girl had jumped.

Shane never wanted to be scared like that again. Maybe if he imagined that he was already dead, then there would be nothing to be afraid of. It'd be like he'd died with his parents on Harvest.

He mustered this mental image—dead and nothing to fear— and to test it, he looked down. Past his dangling feet there was a two-centimeter green square. After a moment, he realized it was the field where all the Pelicans had landed. Tiny lines snaked from the field illuminated by tiny firefly pinpoints,

"Nothing to be scared of," he whispered, trying to convince himself.

He forced himself to pull the ropes, angle downward, and speed toward the green field.

Wind whipped through the black silk wing, and tore at Shane's face. He didn't care. He wanted down fast. Maybe if he was the first one down, he'd show everyone that he wasn't scared.

Shane saw tiny people and scorch marks where the Pelicans had burned the grass. And no other parachutes yet. Good. He'd be first, and he'd land right in front of the Green Knight.

Shane hit the ground. His knees pistoned into his chest and knocked the wind out of him.

The black wing caught a breeze, jerked him back on his feet, and dragged him across the grass and dirt. He gasped for air, but he wasn't scared. He was angry that he'd look so stupid having to wrestle with this parachute.

The Falcon Wing hit the fence, and stuck there, fluttering.

Shane got up and undipped himself from the harness. Something hot trickled down his legs. There was no way he'd been so scared he pissed his pants. With dread, he looked. It was blood. The skin on the back of his legs was raw. He took a tentative step and fire

crawled up both thighs.

He laughed. Blood or piss, what did it matter? He'd made it.

"Hey, dumbass. What's so funny?"

Shane turned and saw the kid who had pushed him. He lay on the grass, half tangled in

his harness.

Shane marched over to him, ignoring the pain in his legs.

The kid got to one knee and held out his hand to shake. "I'm Rob—"

Shane hit him square in the nose. Blood gushed from the kid's face and he reeled over.

He was going to pay for shoving him. He was the only one who knew that Shane had

frozen on the edge and chickened out. He'd have to pay for that, too.

Shane started pounding him with right and left fists.

The kid held up his arms to fend off the blows, but Shane landed a few good ones,

skinning his knuckles.

Robert headbutted Shane, and he fell off.

Robert stood, shook off his harness, then growling, leapt onto Shane.

They rolled on the grass, kicking and punching.

Shane heard a loud snap and he wasn't sure if it was his or Rob's bone breaking; he

didn't care, he kept hitting and hitting until blood spilled into his eyes and he couldn't see anymore.

Large hands grabbed Shane and pulled him off. Still swinging, Shane connected with one of the Navy men, bruising the bone over his eye.

The man dropped him.

"Stand down!" barked a voice with godlike authority.

Shane blinked and wiped blood from his eyes. The silver-haired man who had given the order to jump stood between him and the other kid.

The Navy man he'd hit pressed one hand to his swollen eye and said, "Chief, these two were going to kill each other."

"I see that," the old man said. He nodded approvingly at Shane, and then turned to Robert.

Robert ignored the old man and took a step toward Shane with his hands raised
. "I said STAND DOWN!" Robert dropped his hands and staggered back as if he'd been struck. "I think you're right, Sergeant," the older Navy man said. "They really might have killed

each other." He smiled, only it

wasn't a smile. It was more like he was baring his teeth. "Very good. That kind of fight left in them after their first jump? A night jump? My God, I only hope the rest of them are like this."

CHAPTER

SEVEN

0000 HOURS, JANUARY 19, 2532 CMILITARY CALENDAR) / NARROW-BAND POINTTO-POINT TRANSMISSION: ORIGIN UNKNOWN; TERMINATION: SECTION THREE, OMEGA SECURE ANTENNA ARRAY, UNSC HO EPSILON ERIDANI SYSTEM, REACH MILITARY COMPLEX

///AUTOMATED REROUTE UNSC SHIP REG-96667 ABY/// FILE ACCESS GRANTED///WORM-PROTOCOL FIREWALL ENABLED/FILE ERASED/// PLNB TRANSMISSION XX087R-XX ENCRYPTION CODE: GAMMA PUBLIC KEY: N/A FROM: CODE NAME COALMINER TO: CODE NAME SURGEON SUBJECT: PROGRESS REPORT/OPERATION HYPODERMIC CLASSIFICATION: EYES ONLY, CODE-WORD XXXX XXXX TOP SECRET (SECTION THREE X-RAY DIRECTIVE)

/
FILE EXTRACTION-RECONSTITUTION COMPLETE/ /START FILE/ INSTITUTIONAL RECORDS ALTERED AS PER INSTRUCTIONS. INITIAL CONTACT WITH BASE AI MADE. HELPFUL, BUT I DON'T TRUST IT . PACKAGES DELIVERED. SELECTION PROCESS STARTED. OPERATION UNDERWAY AND ON

SCHEDULE
. CANDIDATES EXHIBIT MARKED AGGRESSION WELL OUT OF BOUNDS OF THE SMITH

K
ENSINGTON INDEX . AS MUCH WORK TRAINING THEM AS IT IS KEEPING THEM FROM MURDERING EACH OTHER. THEY'RE REAL HELLCATS . LIEUTENANT CLAIMS ALL UNDER CONTROL. HE HAS A PLAN FOR EVERYTHING. UNSURE

WHERE HE
'S GETTING THIS CONFIDENCE, BUT I DO BELIEVE HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING. ARE YOU SURPRISED?

/END FILE/ /SCRAMBLE-DESTRUCTION PROCESS ENABLE/ PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE.

CHAPTER

EIGHT

0900 HOURS, JULY 30, 2537 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ABOARD UNSC
POINT OF NO RETURN,
LOCATION CLASSIFED (15 YEARS AFTER ALPHA COMPANY INDOCTRINATION)

Lieutenant Ambrose and SCPO Mendez had been escorted to this catwalk through a series of corridors and high-security biometric vaults into the bowels of the stealth cruiser
Point of No Return.

The security officers had then left them standing at attention on the catwalk, and sealed the vaultlike door behind them. Below the metal grating of the catwalk, the shadows swallowed all sound.

Three meters to Kurt's left was a slightly curved white wall. No door. Beyond was Odin's Eye, the high-security conference room where he'd first been told of the SPARTAN-III program by Colonel Ackerson.

"Think this is some Section Three test?" Mendez finally whispered. "Or maybe someone doesn't like getting news about the lousy selection results for the Beta Company candidates?"

"I'm not sure," Kurt replied. "My requested upgrades for the Mark-II SPI armor were over budget."

Mendez raised an eyebrow. "Where did you hear that?"

"The new AI talks a lot."

"'Deep Winter,'" muttered Mendez. "I wonder if AIs pick their own names, or if some officer in Section Three does it."

Kurt was about to offer his opinion when he noticed there now was a door in the curved white wall. Colonel Ackerson stood there. "Gendemen, join us." Ackerson then retreated into a brightly lit chamber.

Kurt noticed that he hadn't met their eyes. That was always a bad sign.

They entered, and as he crossed the threshold, Kurt felt static crawl over his skin. The concave illuminated walls of the chamber were disorienting. Kurt focused on the center of the half-spherical room, on the black conference table. Two officers sat there, gazing at holographic screens that floated in the air over its surface.

Ackerson waved them closer.

A woman sat with her back to them; opposite her sat a middle-aged gentleman.

The man was gray and balding. The woman appeared older than regs permitted before mandatory retirement. Her osteoporotic slump, slender frail arms, and thinning white hair indicated extreme age.

Kurt froze as he spotted the one- and three-star rank insignia on their collars and snapped off a salute. "Vice Admiral, ma'am," he said. "Rear Admiral, sir."

The Vice Admiral ignored Mendez and scrutinized Kurt. "Sit," she said, "both of you."

Kurt didn't recognize either of these high-ranking officers, and they didn't bother to introduce themselves.

He did as he was ordered, as did Mendez. Even sitting, though, his back was ramrod straight, his chest out, and eyes forward.

"We were reviewing the record of your SPARTAN-IIIs since they went operational nine months ago," she said. "Impressive."

The Rear Admiral gestured at floating holographic panes that contained after-action reports, still shots of battlefields filled with Covenant corpses, and ship damage-assessment profiles. "The insurrection of Mamore," he said "that nasty business at New Constantinople, actions in the Bonanza asteroid belt and the Far-gone colony platforms, and half a dozen other engagements—this reads like the campaign record of a cracking good battalion, not a company of three hundred. Dammed impressive."

"That was only a fraction of the SPARTAN-III program potential," Colonel Ackerson said. His eyes stared at some distant point.

"I'm sorry, sir," Kurt said. " 'Was'?"

The Vice Admiral stiffened. It was clear that she was not accustomed to her junior officers asking questions.

But Kurt had to. These were his men and women they were talking about. He'd kept his eyes and ears open for news on Alpha Company, and had cultivated intelligence sources outside ONI, Section Three, and Beta-5. Being Commandant of Camp Currahee had its privileges, and he had learned how to use them. He had managed to track his Spartans during the last seven months, until his sources had mysteriously gone silent six days ago. Only the AI Deep Winter had given a clue as to their whereabouts: Operation PROMETHEUS.

"Tell me about the selection process for the next class of SPARTAN-IIIs," the Vice Admiral asked Kurt.

"Ma'am," Kurt said, "we are operating under Colonel Acker-son's expanded selection criteria, but there are not enough age-appropriate genetic matches to meet the larger second-class target number."

"There
are
sufficient genetic matches," Colonel Ackerson corrected. His face was an impassive mask. "What's missing are data to find additional matches. We need to proscribe mandatory genetic screening in the outer colonies. Those untapped populations are—"

"That's the last thing we need in the outer colonies," the Rear Admiral said. "We're just getting a handle on a near civil war. You tell an O.C. they got to register their kids' genes, and they'll all be reaching for their rifles."

The Vice Admiral steepled her withered hands. "Say it is part of a vaccine program. We take a microscopic sample as we inject the children. Inform no one."

The Rear Admiral looked dubious, but offered no further comment.

"Go on. Lieutenant," she said.

"We have identified 375 candidates," Kurt said. "Slightly less than we started with for Alpha Company, but we have learned from our mistakes. We will be able to graduate a much higher percentage this time."

He nodded toward Mendez to give the Chief the credit he richly deserved. Mendez sat completely still and Kurt saw he wore his poker face.

Every instinct Kurt had screamed that something was wrong here.

"But," the Rear Admiral said, "that's nowhere near the one thousand projection for the second wave."

A brief scowl played over Ackerson's lip. "No, sir."