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254
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
"Lieutenant Haverson," the Admiral barked, "open a channel
on the D-band. It's time we introduced ourselves."
"Aye, sir. Frequency matched and channel open."
The Admiral stood. "This is the UNSC frigate Gettysburg" he
barked, his voice full of authority and colored with his Texas ac-
cent. "Respond." And then he reluctantly added, "Please."
Static filled the COM. The Admiral waited patiently for ten
seconds, and then his boot started to tap on the deck. "No need to
play possum, boys. We're not here for a fight. We want to—"
He made a sudden throat-slitting motion toward Haverson,
and the Lieutenant snapped off the COM.
Tiny doors appeared in the two-kilometer-wide rock; from
this distance they looked no larger than the pores on an orange. A
fleet of ships launched, using the asteroid's rotational motion to
give their velocities a boost. There were approximately fifty
craft: Pelicans modified with extra armor and chainguns mounted
on their hulls; sleek civilian pleasure craft carrying missiles as
large as themselves; single-man engineering pods that sputtered
with arc cutters; and one ship that was fifty meters long with
oddly angled black stealth surfaces.
"That's a Chiroptera-class vessel," Haverson said, awed. "It's
an antique. ONI decommissioned them all forty years ago and
sold them for scrap."
"Is it a threat?" the Admiral asked.
Lieutenant Haverson's forehead wrinkled as he considered.
"No, sir. They were decommissioned because they broke down
every other mission. They had far too many sensitive components
without a central controlling AI. The only reason I recall them at
all is that they had the smallest operational Shaw-Fujikawa
Translight Engine ever produced. No weapons systems, sir. Like
I said, it's not a threat... it's a museum piece."
"But it has Slipspace capability?" Dr. Halsey asked. "Maybe
we can use it to get to Earth."
"Unlikely," Haverson replied. "All Chiroptera-class vessels
were decommissioned by ONI—critical components removed
and the ships' operating systems locked down so tight I doubt
even Cortana could reactivate them."
"I wouldn't bet on it," Cortana muttered.