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ERIC NYLUND
205
discovered ... and they want it bad enough to let us shoot at
them and not so much as spit in our direction."
"Sir," the Master Chief said. "We're to rendezvous with
Cor-tana and the captured flagship at oh-seven-fifteen hours.
That gives us only twenty minutes, sir."
Admiral Whitcomb consulted his watch and then glanced at
the Covenant ships gathering around them and edging closer.
"Polaski, get us out of here. Plot a course to your rendezvous
point—and make this crate fly as fast as you can!"
"Aye aye, sir." Polaski angled the ship into the upper atmo-
sphere of Reach; the sky darkened from turquoise to slate gray to
midnight blue and then inky black, filled with stars.
As their dropship left the cruisers behind, it moved painfully
slow compared to the agile Seraph fighters. They formed up
around her, four to the port and four on the starboard of their
craft. A pair of the teardrop-shaped singleships pulled ahead of
her, slowed... and blocked their path.
"They're boxing us in," Polaski said and decelerated their ship.
"Warrant Officer," the Admiral said and set a hand gently on
her shoulder. "Ram them. Full speed."
Polaski swallowed. "Aye, sir." One of her hands cinched her
crash harness tight. The other hand passed over the velocity
stripe on the control panel, and shoved it to full power.
The dropship jumped—straight toward the Seraph fighters in
their path. The two fighters tumbled aside with a scant three me-
ters to spare, and the dropship raced past them.
Locklear peered out of the port display and whistled. "Does
anyone else," he whispered, "think it's a little crowded up here?"
The Master Chief looked over Locklear's shoulder. There had
been a dozen small warships when they had descended only a
few hours ago... now there were three times that number in orbit
around Reach.
There were light cruisers that looked like luminous manta
rays; there were four carriers with their bulbous sections, and the
space near them was aglow with swarms of Seraph singlecraft;
there were a handful of destroyers, sleek and fast, bristling with
plasma turrets.
There was also wreckage: Pieces of Covenant ships tumbled in
orbit, raw ragged chunks of the alloy plating, tangles of plasma