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ERIC NYLUND
109
One tiny secondary fragment impaled Fred's Banshee and
detonated. The port canard of his flier deformed from the explo-
sion, and the craft wobbled.
"Down!" he shouted, but Kelly was already a dozen meters
below him and plummeting to a distant dry riverbed. He fol-
lowed, trailing smoke.
Fred confirmed his position and guided his wounded Banshee
onto a course that followed the flash-dried riverbed below. The
path wound through the forest, and sinewed close to Menachite
Mountain. With luck, they could ditch the Banshees and make a
short run to the ONI facility.
Overhead, tangerine borealis pulsed from the north. Sheets of
silver crackled across the sky, and the black clouds boiled, lit by
the raging fires beneath them. They piled into thunderheads and
spat lightning.
The massive warships that had been overhead moments ago ac-
celerated back into the upper atmosphere. Their engines screamed
and left blistering wakes across the swollen sky.
For a split second panic seized Fred's throat. Then his training
kicked in and his mind turned cold and metallic, and filtered
through every fact he had on Covenant plasma bombardments.
He had to think or die.
So he thought.
Something didn't fit. Covenant plasma bombardment had al-
ways proceeded in an orderly crisscrossing pattern across a
planet until every square centimeter of the surface was glass and
cinder. The ships above hadn't finished their work here.
He risked a glance to the left and right. One hundred thousand
hectares of forest—the same forest that Fred and his fellow
Spartans had trained in since childhood—was being devoured
by walls of flame. Coils of heat and thick black smoke spiraled
into the sky.
A wave passed over Fred and Kelly—he couldn't see it, but
he felt it: A thousand ants had gotten into his armor and bitten
him. Static fuzzed his display, and then vanished with apop. His
shields dropped to zero and then slowly started to recharge. The
grav pods on their fliers flickered and sputtered.
"EMP," Kelly shouted over the COM. "Or some plasma
effect."