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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
0530 hours, September 13,2552 (revised date, Military
Calendar)\Aboard captured Covenant dropship, in
Slipspace.
The dropship rolled, inverted, and spun out of control. It tum-
bled and pitched, and one of the I-beams solidly welded to the
hull bucked and snapped.
The Spartans of Blue Team were strapped to the hull in
quick-release harnesses. No one, however, gave any thought to
the red quick-release button in the center of their chests. They
were all hanging on for their lives.
The forward monitor was black because there was nothing for
them to see in Slipspace. The only light inside the dropship came
from chemical light sticks activated and tossed inside before
they departed. Those plastic sticks had cracked, and their lumi-
nous contents had balled into a million microscopic blobs in the
zero gee.
Although the hydrostatic gel inside his MJOLNIR armor had
been pressurized to its maximum safe value, John's bones still
felt as if they were being shaken apart.
This violent ride started when they had cleared Ascendant
Justice's launch bay and entered the inky void of Slipspace. This
"normal" Slipspace was nothing like John had experienced
before. Without the smoothing effect of Dr. Halsey's alien
crystal—this ride was a thousand times worse.
Radiation levels spiked and dipped... but so far the dosages
getting into the lead-lined dropship were survivable.
"Now I know," Linda said, "why only big ships travel through
Slipspace."