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CHAPTER NINETEEN
TIME:OATE ERROR \ Estimated 0530 hours, September 23, 2552
(Military Calendar)\Aboard captured Covenant dropship,
Epsilon Eridani system, en route to surface of Reach.
The Master Chief stood on the deck of the Covenant dropship.
He stood because the crash seats had been designed for Elites
and Jackals and none of the contours fit his human backbone. It
didn't matter—he preferred to stand.
They drifted through the upper atmosphere of Reach, de-
scending like a spider on a thousand-kilometer thread of silk.
They passed close to a hundred other ships moving in orbital
arcs—Seraph fighters, other dropships, scavenger craft with
grappling tentacles that dragged sections of salvaged metal.
Dominating the skies were a pair of three-hundred-meter-long
cruisers.
The cruisers accelerated toward them.
The Chief moved up to the cockpit where Polaski and
Haver-son sat in the seats they had removed from the Pelican
and welded in place.
"They're pinging us," Polaski whispered.
"Nice and easy, Warrant Officer," Lieutenant Haverson whis-
pered. "Just use the programmed response Cortana gave us."
"Aye aye, Lieutenant," Polaski replied and concentrated on
the Covenant scripts that scrolled across the display on her left.
"Sending now." She tapped a holographic icon.
Sergeant Johnson and Corporal Locklear stood two meters
behind the Chief, both of them nervous. Johnson chewed his
stub of cigar and scowled at the incoming Covenant warships.