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ERIC NYLUNO
147
The stone ceiling melted and peeled back as if it were thin
plastic hit with a blowtorch—an angled shaft of dazzling white
radiance appeared and blasted into the tiled floor, five hundred
meters from their position.
Then it was gone and the room fell into darkness punctured
only by a ray of faint sunlight that streamed in through the hole
above. Where the beam of hard light had contacted the floor, a
precision-milled hole had been etched fifteen meters deep.
Dr. Halsey said, "What was—"
"Energy projector," Fred told her, blinking away the black
dots that filled his vision even though his step-down filters had
absorbed the brunt of the light. "Only the big Covenant ships
have them. There's got to be one of them—"
The cut shaft filled with a beam of purple light. It sparkled
and shimmered with motes of dust.
"Grav lift," Fred shouted. "Incoming! Isaac and Vinh, take
our six. Will, you're with me on Doctor Halsey. Kelly, find us a
way out."
Kelly ran in a line directly away from the gravity beam.
A dozen Elites floated down through the shaft, and fired while
still in the air. Plasma bolts slashed at them from the distance.
Fred and Will grabbed Dr. Halsey and moved her behind the
pedestal, out of the line of fire. Isaac and Vinh fell back and
opened fire.
"Suppression fire!" Fred barked. "Keep them pinned in that
crater!"
The Spartans fired several bursts, but more Elites were drift-
ing down, along with a Shade—a portable plasma turret. If they
stayed here, they'd be overrun.
"Fall back," Fred told them over the COM. "It's too hot."
Kelly sprinted, digging in her heals with such force that the
tiles buckled and shot out behind her. "Passage," she reported.
"Ground floor. Dead ahead. I'll enter and clear."
"My apologies, Doctor," Fred said and unceremoniously scooped
Dr. Halsey up in his arms. "Everyone move! Vinh, Isaac, drop
those det sacks to cover our tracks."
Their acknowledgment lights winked on.
Will and Fred ran, weaving from side to side. Dr. Halsey clutched