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280
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
The Admiral watched as Jiles's fleet of single ships and tech-
nicians in jet packs abandoned the Gettysburg, swarming across
the dark of space back to the safety of their asteroid. "Rats leaving
a sinking ship?" he wondered aloud.
The Master Chief wasn't sure if that was a question directed at
him, but he decided to reply anyway. "They're just men who
want to live, sir."
The Admiral nodded.
"Covenant cruiser accelerating," Cortana announced. "Bear-
ing on a vector otrtsystem. It's transitioning to Slipspace."
"Master Chief, get this tub moving. Now! Bring us up to half
maximum speed."
"Aye, sir." He tapped in commands. "Answering one half for-
ward." The radiation warning on Ascendant Justice's reactor
flickered, but stabilized and subsided.
The combined mass of the two attached ships groaned as their
recently repaired superstructures overcame their inertia.
"Heat up our plasma turrets, Cortana."
"Aye s—" Her translucent lavender hologram faded to ice blue.
"Sir, additional contacts at system's edge. Three. No—additional
transitions from Slipspace; counting eighteen—now thirty Cove-
nant ships of various classes. Positions zero-three-zero.
Zero-nine-one, one-eight-zero... Sir, they have us enveloped."
The star chart vanished in a wink, and a map of the Eridanus
system appeared with tiny triangles representing Covenant ships
now encircling the perimeter. The map turned to a side profile
and revealed half a dozen additional ships scattered along the
nadir and zenith of the system.
Admiral Whitcomb stared at the map and shook his head.
"You know the story of the Alamo, Chief?"
"Yes, sir. A famous siege with a handful of defenders holding
off overwhelming forces."
The Admiral smiled. "Texan defenders, Chief—there's a big
difference. Colonel William Barrett Travis with one hundred
fifty-five men held off more than two thousand Mexican invaders.
They hunkered down inside a tiny fort and fought like wildcats.
Travis got a handful of reinforcements later—thirty-two men."
The Admiral's smile faded. "You know there were fifteen
civilians inside that fort, too?" He looked at the map again. "Well,
when the