Filter
Top Products
130
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
There was one last file in the S-III folder.
As Dr. Halsey tapped it open, Kalmiya said, "That is only a
fragment. It had been erased, but I managed to reconstruct it
from trace ionization in the memory crystal."
Dr. Halsey examined its contents. There was only CPOMZ fol-
lowed by a 512-character alphanumeric string. "This longer por-
tion is a star chart reference," she whispered.
"Yes, Doctor, but it's not a destination to any location in
UNSC-controlled space."
What the hell had Ackerson been up to? "No good at all," she
murmured and ran her finger over the first word in the file:
CPOMZ.
"I'll have to deal with this later," she said. She downloaded
the files to a nearby data pad. "Let's see what else the good
Colonel was up to." She opened the folder marked KING UNDER
THE MOUNTAIN.
There were only three files.
The first was the original construction blueprints of this base; it
appeared on her desk. Dr. Halsey noted that this holographic
representation of the base was much larger than she had been led
to believe. While her security clearance was the highest possible
for a civilian, she apparently had seen only a third of the facility
she had worked in for the last decade.
Dr. Halsey tapped open the second file. It was the transcripts of
the debriefing at Camp Hathcock, August 12,2552. That was the
inquiry of John's destruction of the city on Cote d'Azur and the
alien artifact the Covenant had tried to procure there. Curious.
A third file was an analysis of the symbols John had captured
from the alien artifact. According to Ackerson's notes it, too,
was a partial star map. Dr. Halsey returned to the stellar chart
reference in the Spartans' files.
No good. This location had nothing to do with that reference.
The stellar reference in the alien artifact was ... she did the
math in her head—
"I'll be God damned," she muttered.
She pulled up star charts and NAV records for confirmation,
and checked her math one last time.
No question: It was the Epsilon Eridani system.
Here.