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6
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
"Knife Two-Six to Bravo-One," a terse, female voice crackled
across the COM channel. "Keep your pants on. Business is good
today."
Too good. No sooner had the fighters taken escort position
over his dropship than the approaching Covenant fighters opened
up with a barrage of plasma fire.
Three of the Pelican's four Longsword escorts peeled off and
powered toward the Covenant ships. Against the black of space,
cannons flashed and missiles etched ghostly trails; Covenant
energy weapons cut through the night and explosions dotted
the sky.
The Pelican and its sole escort, however, accelerated straight
toward the planet. It shot past whirling wreckage; it rolled and
maneuvered as missiles and plasma bolts crisscrossed their path.
Mitchell flinched as Reach's orbital defense guns fired in a
hot, actinic flash. A white ball of molten metal screamed directly
over the Pelican and its escort as they rocketed beneath the de-
fense platform's ring-shaped superstructure.
Mitchell sent the Pelican into the planet's atmosphere. Va-
porous flames flickered across the ship's stunted nose, and the
Pelican jounced from side to side.
"Bravo-One, adjust attack angle," the Longsword pilot ad-
vised. "You're coming in too hot."
"Negative," Mitchell said. "We're getting to the surface fast—
or we're not getting there at all. Enemy contacts on my scopes at
four by three o'clock."
A dozen more Covenant Seraphs fired their engines and an-
gled toward the two descending ships.
"Affirmative: four by three. I've got 'em, Bravo-One," the
Longsword pilot announced. "Give 'em hell down there."
The Longsword flipped into a tight roll and rocketed for the
Covenant formation. There was no chance that the pilot could
take out a dozen Seraphs—and Knife Two-Six had to know that.
Mitchell only hoped that the precious seconds Two-Six bought
them would be enough.
The Pelican opened its intake vents and ignited afterburners,
plummeting toward the ground at thirteen hundred meters per
second. The faint aura of flames around the craft roared from red
to blinding orange.