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270
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
"No," the Chief quietly said. "They can't win. They'll try. But
the Covenant will eventually take down one of the orbital
MACs, slip through, and pick off the ground-based generators.
Just like on Reach."
Fred visibly flinched.
Locklear twisted the red bandanna he had tied on his biceps.
"So we get to watch another fight in space?" he hissed. His fists
trembled with barely checked rage. "There has to be a way to get
to those bastards first—on the ground where we can win. Hell,
I'd even take my chances in hand-to-hand combat. Anything but
floating in zero gee and watching Earth get burned."
"What about our original mission?" Linda asked. "Find the
Covenant home world?"
"Our priority has to be to warn Earth," the Chief answered.
"Admiral Whitcomb would insist... and he has the authority to
scrub our mission."
"And there's no ground between here and Earth where we can
take the fight to them," Locklear said. He unclenched his fist and
dropped his gaze to the deck. "Sometimes," he whispered, "I
really hate this war."
Sergeant Johnson worked his mouth but said nothing. He set
his hand on Locklear's wide shoulder and whispered, "Stand tall,
Marine. Try to—"
The Sergeant's gaze fell on the data pad and the star map.
"Hang on a second. What was it you said about no ground to
fight on between here and there?" He grinned and picked up the
data pad. "What's this?" He tapped a dot on the map, squinted,
and read the tiny words. "This... 'Uneven Elephant'?"
"Unyielding Hierophant," the Chief corrected. "According
to Cortana, it's a command-and-control center, a mobile space
platform where the Covenant fleet will rendezvous before their
final jump to Earth."
"Well, there's your ground," Sergeant Johnson said. "On this
'elephant'thing."
Will got up and walked over to the data pad. "It fits with the
timetable. This station is on the way to Earth."
Fred offered, "We can drop out of Slipspace in a smaller craft.
Go in and—"
"And do what you Spartans do best," Locklear said. "Infil-