Halo: The Cole Protocol (25 page)

CHAPTER

FORTY-NINE

HABITAT TIAGO DOCKS, THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

The sound of the ship’s airlock doors shutting echoed throughout the spare cavern that the Kig-Yar had as a docking bay. The lanky aliens paused, looking over at the doors. Two of them ran for the lock, banging on the door, as loud clanks and hisses told everyone in the docking bay that their ship was undocking.

Delgado watched the panic spread through the Kig-Yar as they realized what had happened. The Kig-Yar had kept bunched up on the far side of the docks, close to their ship’s airlock. That had made getting out onto the docks a dangerous exercise, but the Kig-Yar had realized that letting the humans get
off
their ship was better than trapping them in it. Now they were no doubt wondering who the heck was taking their ship.

Keyes, hunkered down on the far side of a shipping container they were both using as cover, waved Delgado over. The immense bulk of the gray Spartan Jai stood behind the lieutenant.

“I’m sorry to hear about Faison,” Delgado said. The word had spread as they’d remained pinned down by the Kig-Yar. The aliens, with their energy shields and snipers, were doing far better now in the large, open docking bay than in the tight confines of the ship.

Keyes nodded. He looked tired, Delgado thought. These men were all his responsibility. The four dead in the open area of the docks were on Keyes. Now so was Faison.

“Jai has an idea,” Keyes said.

The Spartan stepped forward. “You had them all suit up, Keyes. Everyone’s vacuum ready. Only a few Jackals are equipped. If we figure out how to flush the air out of the entire dock…”

“We’d need Juliana for that,” Delgado said. One couldn’t just flush the atmosphere out of a habitat without extensive overrides.

Keyes pulled the large chip out of his pocket that held Juliana. “Jai will cover you; you just need to get somewhere to plug this in. Get Juliana back up and have her flush the bay. We’ll pick off the stragglers.”

Delgado almost reverently placed the AI’s chip into his pocket. She’d been created to manage the mining operations of a Madrigal corporation, helping guide asteroids to processing plants around the system. She may have been commercial AI, nothing like the industrial strength thinkers the UNSC used, but she’d somehow managed to keep the entire Rubble together since the fall of Madrigal. Juliana had been a protector of the Rubble for so long she was almost like a technological deity, a god everyone in the Rubble looked to for help with their troubles.

And she fit in his pocket.

He scanned the docks. “Over there.” He pointed Jai at a console used by supervisors to run the docks. “That should be doable.” It was well away from the bulk of the firefight.

“So go!” Keyes said.

The rate of fire from the ODSTs picked up as Jai and Delgado made a run for it, ducking from one set of containers and large structural spars to another.

They stopped a mere fifteen feet from the console.

Delgado swallowed. From where he had been, the console looked out of the way. Up close, he realized it was in the open. Though far away from the Kig-Yar, they were good shots.

Jai realized it too, because the Spartan turned and held out a gauntleted hand. “Give her to me, I’ll plug her in.”

Delgado stared at the Spartan’s hand. He’d be just handing over one of the most important assets the Rubble had.

How much
did
he trust these UNSC Spartans?

So far they’d worked toward the same goals. If you didn’t start trusting someone at some point, he thought, then you’ll never trust again.

This Spartan was offering to risk his life to get out in the open and try to save them all.

How much proof did Delgado need?

He took a deep breath and handed Juliana over.

Jai cupped the chip in his hands and darted out. For a brief second it looked like the Kig-Yar hadn’t spotted them, that Jai would make it to the console and back before they noticed anything.

But as the Spartan stood and inserted the chip, plasma fire struck the wall overhead.

Delgado leaned out and wildly fired his battle rifle at the Kig-Yar.

Several plasma shots grazed Jai, but he kept the chip guarded until Juliana’s form appeared over the console.

“Get back!” Delgado shouted. “She’s in the system.”

Near misses blackened the gray armor as Jai ran back to cover, firing his battle rifle as he did so. Three Kig-Yar fell over, dead. Delgado marveled at the Spartan’s accuracy. At this range, across hundreds of feet of dock, all Delgado had done was harass the Kig-Yar.

Jai slammed his back into the container as plasma slapped the other side, boiling metal.

Delgado’s earpiece crackled, and Juliana’s voice filled his ear. “Thank you, Delgado, Jai. What do you need from me?”

“Blow the air out of here,” Delgado requested.

Juliana didn’t reply, but a second later all the airlocks feeding into the docks blew open with the bass warbling of emergency sirens and strobing warning lights. Air rushed out into the vacuum, thundering past, and the sound of plasma fire stopped.

It was over in a few minutes. ODSTs popped up and shot the few remaining Kig-Yar that were in full gear and still able to breathe and fight.

The other aliens died horribly, flailing around, asphyxiated, their long mouths open and frozen in silent screams.

Keyes and the ODST Markov looked out over the carnage once the docks repressurized. Keyes looked a bit horrified at the carnage. Markov looked slightly pleased.

Jai stood behind them, towering high, battle rifle in hand. “The
Petya
has caught up to us,” he told Keyes. “I would suggest you use it as a temporary command center. It’ll keep you from getting recaptured, at the least.”

Keyes ran a hand over his silvering hair and nodded. “Thank you, Spartan. We’ll need it. Juliana reported that this is just the beginning, the Kig-Yar are up to something. Juliana might as well brief us aboard your ship.”

Jai slung his battle rifle and plodded off toward one of the nearby airlocks. After a moment, Delgado followed, both glad to be out of the dock full of dead Kig-Yar.

CHAPTER

FIFTY

SANGHEILI-OCCUPIED SHIP
INFINITE SPOILS,
THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

Thel looked over the reports that Zhar had patiently gathered for him. The humans had dug around the Kig-Yar battle net, which had been poorly secured.

“These are details on where the Unggoy Redoubt is,” Zhar said. “Including force strength, ships, how they will shuttle the Unggoy to the Rubble for an attack, and plans for an invasion of one of their habitats called ‘Exodus’. The humans have the whole Kig-Yar battle plan for themselves now.”

“Well, they are clever creatures,” Thel said. He shut the display down. “You yourself admired that, if I remember correctly.”

“This is troubling, though,” Zhar said. “It means the Kig-Yar, Reth, may have been telling the truth.”

Thel sighed. “That they plan to trick the humans out of the location to their homeworld?”

“Yes. And that he was doing a holy duty for a Hierarch. You must admit the possibility, looking over those plans to attack the humans. These have been in place for years.”

Thel rubbed the bottom of a mandible thoughtfully. “It is a possibility, now. I agree.”

“Then we may have crossed the Hierarch,” Zhar said. “You of all should know how that chills my heart.”

“
A
Hierarch,” Thel said, cautiously.

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that we were given a set of orders that put us in conflict with orders given by another Prophet.”

Zhar shook his head. “These things border on heresy.”

“Then do not speak of them ever again,” Thel said. “But it does not change our situation.”

“But—”

“So we shall also send a message to Reth,” Thel said, trying to add a note of reassurance to his voice. “We will not approach or attack the Exodus asteroid that the Kig-Yar want. We will attack the other human parts of the Rubble, working to destroy the humans there.”

Zhar swallowed. “Will that be enough to convince the Prophet of Regret that we did what we were asked?”

Thel grumbled. “We will destroy the Rubble. We will grind it to pieces from this Kig-Yar ship. How will they doubt our zealotry, then, Zhar? We offer Reth our agreement to leave their habitat alone, and maybe we will come out ahead.”

“Maybe?” Zhar left the cockpit in a dark mood, and Thel sat down on the shipmaster’s chair with a sneer. This was not Covenant standard; it was designed for Kig-Yar. It was an insult and an expression of their rebellious impulses. And even worse, it was an uncomfortable fit for the Sangheili. Nonetheless, it would be a good spot from which to oversee the destruction of the Rubble.

The sooner this mess was wrapped up, the sooner Thel imagined a more normal life would resume. Betrayals and intrigues were not his strong suit.

Sangheili were almost always more… direct.

Thel punched the console in front of him in frustration, shattering the screen and denting the metal.

CHAPTER

FIFTY-ONE

METISETTE, 23 LIBRAE

Peter Bonifacio unstrapped himself from the pilot’s seat of the escape capsule. The long-burn engine had run out; he’d kept the thing maxed to get well clear of the damn Spartans that had hunted down
Distancia.

Now he coasted toward Metisette.

What was that damn Kig-Yar’s code? Bonifacio hunted through scraps of paper in his pockets until he found the tiny card.

He plugged the frequency into the escape pod’s controls and transmitted the emergency.

Then he waited nervously until the speaker crackled with the sound of Kig-Yar voices. “Peter Bonifacio. Proceed.”

“I need help,” Bonifacio blurted out. “I’m in a capsule, headed toward Metisette. I need to be picked up!”

“And do you have our navigation data with you?”

“Is this Reth?” Bonifacio asked.

A moment as the question was transmitted, and then translated. “This is Reth,” came the response. “Our data?”

Bonifacio swallowed nervously. This was indeed Reth, he told himself. He’d done a lot of business with the Kig-Yar. This was about business. And a partner like Reth would understand a setback. He was dealing with a trade-oriented species, just like himself. Reth would understand. “The data was stolen from me,” Bonifacio finally admitted.

“Stolen? What use is this to us? Why did you bother even calling to admit this?” Bonifacio couldn’t tell because of the delay and monotone of the translation device, but it felt to him that Reth sounded angry.

“I know where they will be taking the data,” Bonifacio said quickly. “Please, if you come help me I’ll help you get the data.”

Another pause before the reply, then, “You are a useless lump of nothing that once glittered to us, Bonifacio. We gave you weapons to smuggle, and make a profit on. We gave you docking rights, and helped you in every way we could imagine. And all we asked is this one favor, for which you failed us.”

“No!” Bonifacio screamed over the radio. He started babbling. “You can’t just abandon me, you owe me. We worked well together. We were good together.”

Only silence came from the other end.

“I’ll tell you where they are taking it, if you do me this last favor,” Bonifacio begged.

“Where are they taking it?” Reth asked.

“To the Exodus asteroid,” Bonifacio said. “And if you do me the favor of picking me up, I’ll tell you where it is.”

Reth laughed. “I already know where it is, thank you. We will be taking it for ourselves soon enough.”

Bonifacio’s mouth dried with fear. He’d been wrong, he realized. About the Kig-Yar. Probably about everything. But he still had his life to save. “But…”

“I will do you this last favor, Bonifacio,” Reth said. “I will not come pick up your pod. Because right now, were I to pick you up, the last moments of your life would be horrible indeed. Good-bye, human.”

The radio went silent.

Bonifacio was alone, floating toward Metisette, looking out the tiny portholes of his escape pod at the distant ruddy orb.

He wondered if the air would run out before the heater stopped.

CHAPTER

FIFTY-TWO

SOMEWHERE NEAR CHARYBDIS IX

The Prophet of Regret stood in front of a giant screen that showed his fleet assembled in the far distance: tiny specks of light waiting to be flung through space wherever he wished.

He turned his chair about to regard the other body in the room: the Prophet of Truth.

Regret frowned as Truth rebuked him. “You are, as ever, too hasty.”

“How is this?” Regret whined. “I have sent my hunters out to find the source of what I thought was trouble. I have hunted the humans. I have
acted
.”

“You have not acted well. My plan was more elegant.”

Truth, Regret thought, always did like working his intrigues. He shouldn’t have been this surprised to find out Truth was behind the design of these smuggled weapons.

They were all just an attempt to furtively find the human homeworld, Truth had said, without further fleet engagements. Never mind that Regret knew they could smash the humans, one world after another. Truth worried about the secret of humans, and their first encounter with them. Particularly since the three Hierarchs had worked so hard to hide that secret.

“Does it matter now what we have done?” Truth said. “There is a mess, and it needs cleaning. The fleet needs to return to this world. If the Kig-Yar have the location of the human homeworld, we can use it and the Unggoy quartered there. If not, then we destroy all traces of this… experiment.”

“I agree,” Regret said, finding himself once again following Truth’s lead.

“The Jiralhanae who betrayed your Sangheili shipmaster, they will need to be destroyed. Their loyalty is commendable, but the knowledge of what they saw must die with them. We do not need any in
High Charity
speaking of this.”

Regret agreed. “You will travel to this world with us, and watch the fleet in action?”

The Prophet of Truth bobbed his head. “I want to see this all concluded, yes. I have had my effects brought onto your flagship. We will have joint command. Together we will fix any problems. As we always have.”

Regret turned and looked at the screen, with its live images of the fleet. Truth had platitudes, words about being brothers, now that his experiment had failed. But they were only brothers with a shared secret while the humans lived.

If they ever got rid of the threat humans presented, then Truth would have no need of Regret. More than ever, Regret realized, if he ever had the chance to destroy the humans first and keep control of his position in the Covenant, he would have to move fast in the future. Faster than Truth’s intrigues.

Regret shook himself from his thoughts. “Then it is time for us to go there,” he said. And using the controls on his floating throne, he keyed in a channel to the ship’s bridge and gave the order for the fleet to make the jump.