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144
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
The corridor emptied onto a landing that overlooked the
largest room Fred had ever seen.
Kelly stepped onto the landing, looked, and waved them
forward.
They stood on one of a dozen tiered levels that encircled the
room; there was no railing. Fred leaned over the edge. It was at
least one hundred meters to the floor below. The room was ap-
proximately circular and three kilometers in diameter. The floor
was blue and seemed to shift as a billion tiny tiles flexed and re-
arranged themselves into frustratingly familiar patterns. The
ceiling was a dome with a holographic golden sun, blue sky, and
cottony clouds that morphed into spheres, puffy pyramids, bars,
and cubes. And in the center of the floor was a pedestal flickering
with a faint light.
Isaac held up his hand. "Listen," he whispered over the COM.
They all froze, and Fred strained to hear. There was nothing.
Fred turned up his aural amplification to maximum gain. He
heard the creak of their armored joints and five faint heartbeats
but, other than that, silence.
"They've stopped," Fred said, and pointed overhead. "The
digging."
"I don't like it," Dr. Halsey said. "The Covenant aren't known
for giving up on anything they start. We'd better continue."
Kelly removed the clip from her magnum, cleared the cham-
ber, and then slid a self-installing piton down the length of the
barrel. She shot it into the stone wall, and the metal shard im-
planted ten centimeters and blossomed with sharp talons, secur-
ing the shaft to the wall.
Vinh handed her a coil of black rope. She clipped one end to
the piton, then tossed the rest over the edge.
Isaac and Will stood on the lip and swept the vast open region
with their weapons.
Kelly jumped and rappelled to the bottom. A moment later
she gave the all-clear signal.
Will and Isaac followed her to the floor. Fred tied the rope
around Dr. Halsey's waist and lowered her gingerly down after
them. He and Vinh took up the rear.
The floor of the great room wasn't the same tile as in the cor-
ridor above. It was still blue tile, but these were squares and