Filter
Top Products
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
TIME:DATE RECORD [[ERROR]]ANOMALY\Date
unknown\ Aboard captured Covenant flagship Ascendant
Justice, in Slipspace. Now.
"Cortana?" the Master Chief asked. "What's our status?"
The Chief and the rest of his team scrambled out of the Cove-
nant dropship. Fred carried a semiconscious Kelly out and laid
her on the deck of the launch bay.
"Same as ever," Cortana replied. "We're in trouble."
Video feed from the ship's external cameras appeared on the
Master Chief's heads-up display. Covenant cruisers surrounded
them, their plasma turrets aglow; they reminded the Chief of
pictures he had seen of fish that lived at the bottom of Earth's
oceans—swarms of phosphorescing lights and razor-sharp teeth.
He marched toward the edge of the launch bay and stood a
centimeter from where the ship's energy shield abutted the open-
ing to the space beyond. He looked directly into the vast blue
fields and the giant warships far too close for his liking.
"We jumped to Slipspace, didn't we?" Lieutenant Haverson
asked uncertainly.
"Yes," Dr. Halsey replied. "And no."
She withdrew the crystal from her lab coat pocket and frowned
as she discovered that it was no longer a slender shard. The
facets had rearranged like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle... but in a
configuration that differed from the one the artifact displayed in
the Covenant grav beam. This time it was a starburst of edges and
refracted light.