Halo: The Cole Protocol (26 page)

PART IV

CHAPTER

FIFTY-THREE

PETYA,
NEAR HABITAT TIAGO,
THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

Delgado sat down in the cockpit of the Spartan’s freighter, finding it strangely reassuring to be back aboard.

Keyes had joined the Spartans aboard the
Petya,
along with Markov and Delgado. The other ODSTs remained out on the docks, cleaning up after the firefight.

Things were happening all across the Rubble, Delgado felt. Juliana was off in some vast, spread out, processing mode that made it hard for her to focus on one small area. But she’d asked them all to get ready for a conference. So now they were just waiting, Mike running checks on the
Petya,
Jai and Adriana in the back examining his armor after the battle.

Keyes paced the cockpit, waiting for information, frustrated. Markov just stared at the metal floor, somewhat shell-shocked at the death of his commanding officer, Faison.

Everyone surged into the cockpit, though, when Juliana finally returned to manifest herself.

“I’m sorry for my absence,” she said, appearing over the communications console. “I was verifying the data I had taken from the Kig-Yar ship. I’m also presenting this information to all members of the Rubble Security Council.”

She faded away, and in her place the moon Metisette appeared. It zoomed large, until its clouds hung in front of the crowd in the cockpit. The image increased, until an irregular oval appeared on the rocky ground of Metisette’s surface.

Another leap in perspective showed it to be the remains of a crater. Liquid covered the very bottom, filled by a river of some sort with a waterfall. Delgado looked at the shapes by the waterfall’s edge. “Are those structures?”

“The Kig-Yar have created a natural home for hundreds of thousands of Unggoy,” Juliana’s voice said. “This structure, parked over a methane waterfall where the mists are thick enough with methane that the Unggoy can breathe out in the open, is called the Redoubt. Right now, as we speak, Unggoy are being readied for an invasion of the Rubble.”

Juliana let that sink in.

“When do they mobilize?” Keyes asked.

“Within the next twenty-four hours,” Juliana said. The image of Metisette faded, replaced by pictures of Kig-Yar ships moving out of orbit down to Metisette. “As soon as they pick up the Unggoy.”

Those images faded as well, to be replaced by Juliana. She cocked her head, listening to someone else. “The Council wants to know what our Kig-Yar contacts are saying about all this.”

“That would tip the hand of any defense the Rubble might need,” Keyes muttered.

Juliana nodded. “May I offer another point of importance?”

“Please,” Jai said from the cockpit’s entrance. He’d removed his helmet, and his brown eyes were fixed on Juliana.

“The Kig-Yar know about the Exodus project.” Juliana had dropped a bombshell, Delgado realized. Their most tightly held secret, something he hadn’t known about, had been in the Kig-Yar databanks. It angered him. “And once Bonifacio had delivered the navigation data to them, the Kig-Yar were going to use the asteroid as a troop carrier to invade Earth.”

Delgado felt vaguely sick.

Keyes looked confused, but didn’t ask any questions for now. This was the first he had heard of the Exodus project, and while he could infer what it might entail from the AI’s statement, he was hoping it would let something more solid slip.

Juliana waited for this, too, to sink in. “I’m unwilling to lose the Rubble. It’s everything I exist for. I say we attack first. We use our mass drivers like MACs. We get Keyes and his men back aboard the
Midsummer Night.
If we start attacking them while their main force is on the ground, we have a chance of winning this.”

Keyes fiddled with a pen as he looked around. “The
Midsummer Night
has the capacity to go up against that big Jackal ship, but we could get overwhelmed by sheer numbers with all these other craft they have parked throughout the Rubble. And then there’s the other issue: have these Jackals been working alone? Because if not, all they have to do is call in support. One stealth frigate won’t be much use against what the Covenant usually bring to a fight.”

“I can’t speak to that,” Juliana said. “But now we have another problem. The Security Council is getting ready for a meeting. They’re shutting me out. This isn’t something I can override without drawing attention. Delgado, Maria was Diego’s closest relative, and has been given a temporary seat on the Council to represent him. Can you get down there? I don’t want us out of the loop here.”

Delgado was already up. “Take me there, I’ll go in.”

Jai and Mike looked at each other. Jai shook his head. “We don’t want to risk taking
Petya
into the heart of the Rubble. We’re already exposing ourselves enough with the AI and Delgado aboard.”

“I’ll take tube cars,” Delgado said.

Outside of the tall faux-marble columns of the Council Chambers, Maria Esquival looked over at Delgado. The chambers were buried deep in the heart of Korrah, one of the first Rubble habitats, and he had rushed to get there. “You got over here quickly.” She looked like she hadn’t slept in days, with bags under her eyes. She pushed a stray wisp of hair aside.

Delgado broke protocol and gave her a long hug. “I’m so sorry about Diego.”

She let go and looked up at him. “They said that bastard Bonifacio is in an escape pod somewhere with the Kig-Yar?”

“As far as we know, yes. When this crisis is over, I will personally hunt that cockroach down.”

Maria cleared her throat. “The Security Council just had an emergency meeting to figure out what to do next. I stood in for Diego. I had no voting rights, but I could talk if needed.”

“I know. What can you tell me?”

“The summary is that we’re grateful for all the risks you’ve taken, though I think half the Council is ready to string you all up for releasing the UNSC prisoners without locators, or without authority.”

“We didn’t have a lot of time to confer or ask permission, and Juliana was helping.”

“That disturbs them almost as much as anything. You know the AI is well past her useful age.”

Delgado nodded. “She’s unpredictable. But I think, deep down, what she cares about is the Rubble. What is the Council going to do?”

“You’re not going to like this.”

“Really?” Delgado raised an eyebrow.

“They’ve called the Kig-Yar. They want to see if there is any negotiation to be done.”

Delgado stared at Maria. “They
what
?”

“Understand—from their position, the Kig-Yar have only helped. And don’t lecture me about the destruction of Madrigal. The fact is, you know a lot of people trust the Kig-Yar here. They’ve worked with us to build the Rubble. They’ve traded with us. They consider them allies.”

“They really did it?”

“Yes. We’re waiting for a response.”

Delgado walked away, shaking his head. “We’ve completely tipped our hand.”

Maria looked down at the ground. “I don’t know. Maybe not. We’re just asking for meetings. I’m not sure what else we can do except get ready to defend ourselves. We have a Council, it’s the way the Rubble works. They’ve spoken.”

“But they were wrong,” Delgado snapped.

“What would you have us be?” Maria asked. “We’re ruled by representatives, and by our votes.”

“This is a disaster.”

“Maybe not.” Maria grabbed his arm. “Again, all we’ve done is ask for meetings. We haven’t asked why. Certainly with all the recent activity around the Rubble it would make sense that we’re jumpy.”

Delgado looked at her. “I really hope so.”

CHAPTER

FIFTY-FOUR

THE REDOUBT, METISETTE, 23 LIBRAE

Reth lay in a soft collection of pillows in an approximation of a nest. His skin had been bandaged, cuts and bruises covered with medicines that stank, and he was giddy from pain medication. The damage the Sangheili had done to him still throbbed, but he was beginning to feel like the worst of the pain was over now that a Kig-Yar healer had spent time with him.

The soft sound of air fans lulled him near the edge of sleep when the door to his room opened.

“I was not to be disturbed during this sleep cycle,” Reth snapped, his eyes still closed.

“It is the humans.” A lesser Kig-Yar groveled by Reth’s feet. “They keep contacting us, requesting meetings.”

“About what?” Reth opened his eyes. The room was decorated with bits and pieces of art from around Covenant space randomly piled in corners and hanging off shelves in random chaos and clutter. All were pieces stolen or traded from all the species the Kig-Yar dealt with—a riot of shapes, colors, sizes, and function. It may have looked like random junk, but any Kig-Yar in the room would know it was Reth’s hoard. In the corner was a handmade Sangheili practice helmet, carved out of a hard wood and painted black. Reth’s most prized piece of the collection.

Sangheili didn’t part with their handmade gifts easily. Reth had to work hard to pilfer that particular item.

“They won’t say,” the Kig-Yar by his feet said.

Reth sat up, wincing as split skin on his shoulder recracked and started bleeding again. “Send word to all Kig-Yar in the Rubble to pull out. Have them stand ready to act as our front wave. The humans may be getting wind of our plan, somehow. Let’s not leave our brothers sitting within easy reach of the aliens.”

“Yes, lord. But… we have worked with these humans for so long. We have built good things with them. Are you sure we must destroy them?”

Reth sighed. “Any day now the Hierarchs will arrive. Do you wish to look like you were helping heretics? Our task is to fetch the location of Earth, and destroy them. Now we are to do this.”

Time was growing short, Reth felt, if the humans were getting antsy. He was going to have to launch Kig-Yar ships against the Rubble before the Unggoy were even on their shuttles for the invasion.

No matter, he thought. That would just soften up the Rubble before he took it.

Once he had the Exodus asteroid, Reth thought, all these stolen baubles in his room would be meaningless compared to that fat prize.

CHAPTER

FIFTY-FIVE

PETYA,
JUST OFF HABITAT TIAGO,
THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

Keyes turned to Jai at the back of the cockpit. “You and your team should leave. The Council seems to think things are unchanged; they might even fight to prevent us getting back aboard the
Midsummer Night.
I don’t see the sense in us weighing you down.”

“I don’t see the sense in leaving either,” Jai said.

“I could make it an order,” Keyes said.

“You do outrank me. You may well order me to do it.” Jai looked at Keyes. The unspoken second half of the sentence in the air was that Jai would refuse.

Keyes raised an eyebrow and drew in a breath to ream the Spartan out, but from behind him Mike spoke up. “Say what you will about Spartans, Lieutenant, one thing we don’t do is leave fellow soldiers behind to die.”

Jai raised a finger. “With us at your side retaking your ship will not be hard to do. With
Petya’s
navigation charts and the computers synchronized—”

“We won’t be leaving citizens behind to be
massacred,”
Keyes interrupted. He already had to live with leaving Charybdis IX on its own. He couldn’t bring himself to run away from yet another fight.

“The Rubble has no love for the UNSC,” Jai said. “They are mostly Insurrectionists.”

Keyes wondered if the Spartan was really that cold, having been trained to do nothing but kill Insurrectionists, and unable to shake that training. Or if Jai was somehow testing him.

“There are children, Spartan, and citizens. They will be slaughtered. I will offer my services to them, and we will be ready to fight for the Rubble.”

Jai folded his arms. “Look—”

“The Jackals are moving out of the Rubble,” Dante Kirtley shouted.

Keyes snapped his head up in interest. “They’re moving out?”

“He’s right. Take a look.” Up at the front Mike tapped one of the many screens before his seat.

Jackal ships all eased their way out from the Rubble, according to the contacts on the radar and reports from all over the Rubble. “Like rats from a sinking ship,” Keyes muttered.

Jai moved in for a closer look himself. “Does the Council know? Where’s Juliana? Get that damn AI here, she has to have spotted this.”

Keyes stepped back. The Spartan sounded agitated.

“My, my, temper, little Spartan,” Juliana said. She’d appeared at their sides.

“Time is short!” Jai said. “We don’t have the time to sit around and debate things. We need to move quickly.”

“What’s going on?” Keyes asked, realizing that Jai’s frustration mainly came from leading a small team, alone, and now being part of a committee trying to figure out how to defend an entire community.

Jai was somewhat out of his element.

Keyes, on the other hand, had expected something to happen. The Rubble was basically a very large, slow ship, and it was constantly making course corrections.

“I come bearing news,” Juliana said. “The Council has rethought their approach based on this behavior. I had them recast their votes. They’re willing to consider our plans. Second: aboard that Kig-Yar ship I stole some encryption keys. I’ve been tracking their chatter. We’re in even more trouble than just the Kig-Yar attacking—according to the Kig-Yar, they’re expecting high ranking officials from the very top of the Covenant hierarchy, and possibly a Covenant fleet, to arrive shortly.”

“When?” Keyes asked.

“Even they don’t know. Just… soon.”

Keyes looked at Jai. “Still think we can even make a stand now?”

Jai slowly shook his head. “A whole Covenant fleet? Not without some minor miracle. These people are all doomed.”

Keyes felt he had to agree. It was a chilling feeling.

“The Council agrees,” Juliana said. “They have decided to launch the Exodus habitat and evacuate the Rubble.”

“The Exodus habitat?” Keyes asked. “You mentioned the name before. I need to ask, what is it?”

Jai turned back to look at him. “Right, you need to get caught up a bit.”