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HALO: FIRST STRIKE
On screen he saw fire explode out the opposite side of the
cruiser. The warship tilted and rolled belly-up, plasma disinte-
grating the interior from stern to stem until it reached the fusion
core. The ship detonated in a ball of flame. An instant later the
explosion twisted and curved as the warped Slipspace field
swept away all traces of the enemy ship.
Lieutenant Haverson exhaled and wiped his brow. "Excellent
maneuvering, Admiral."
"Don't waste your breath on victory speeches yet, son." The
Admiral scrutinized the tactical display and spotted the other
ship. "There. We've got a new target."
He pointed to a ship half obscured in the plasma fog: the car-
rier, intact, with a cloud of gnats swarming about it. Seraph
fighters dived and intercepted plasma and meteor bolts that got
too close. The resulting fireballs deflected the impacts from
the hull.
"She's got a smart Captain," the Admiral muttered. "So we
can't use the same trick twice."
Five explosions rattled Ascendant Justice, and the ambient
blue light on the bridge flickered.
"Meteor impact," Cortana replied. "We just lost plasma tur-
rets two and three. All functionality on decks eight and below
has been lost. The structural integrity of this ship, sir, is in danger
of imminent collapse."
"Another minute, Cortana," the Admiral told her and contin-
ued to search the tactical display. "We either take out that carrier
here—where their shields can't regenerate—or we face them in
normal space."
He tapped the TAC map. "Gotcha! Cortana, come about to
zero-three-zero by one-four-five, calculate the fastest accelera-
tion and deceleration burns this ship can handle to get us to this
object, and move this ship ASAP."
"Yes, Admiral."
Lieutenant Haverson looked at the map and located what the
Admiral pointed at. "That object is just part of a Covenant ship,
the aft section of a cruiser."
The Admiral nodded. "Exactly, Lieutenant. Cortana, how's
the structural integrity of our ship's nose?"