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ERIC NYLUND
39
saw that what he thought was a single pod was in fact three of
them, affixed side by side.
Three possible survivors out of the Pillar of Autumn's total
complement of hundreds. He wished there were more. He wished
Captain Keyes were here. In the Chief's opinion Keyes had been
the most brilliant spatial tactician he had ever encountered ...
but even the Captain would have thought twice about approach-
ing seven Covenant warships in a single Longsword.
He risked feeding more ship's power to Cortana's systems. If
they were going to make it through this, he needed her as effec-
tive as possible.
"New contact," Cortana said, interrupting his thoughts. "I
think it is, anyway. Whatever it is, it's stuck onto a chunk of rock,
half a kilometer in diameter. Damn, it just rotated out of my
view."
On the display Cortana replayed a partial silhouette of an
oddly angled shape on the surface of the rock. She highlighted
its contours, rotated the polygon, and overlaid this onto a sche-
matic of a Pelican dropship.
"Match with a tolerance of fifty-eight percent," she said. "They
might have parked there to avoid detection, as you suggested."
The Chief thought he detected a hint of irritation in her voice,
as if she resented him for thinking of something she had not.
"Or," Cortana continued, "more likely, the craft merely crashed
there."
"I don't think so." He pointed at the display. "The position of
that wing indicates it's nose-out—ready for takeoff. If it had
crash-landed, it would be faced the other way."
Another Covenant cruiser moved toward this new ship.
"Coming about, Chief," Cortana told him. "Brace yourself,
and then get ready to retrieve the pods."
The Chief unsnapped his harness and drifted aft. He grabbed
a tether and clipped one end to his suit, the other to the bulkhead of
the Longsword.
He felt the maneuvering thrusters fire, and the ship rotated
180 degrees.
"Decompression in three seconds," Cortana said.
The Chief opened the empty weapons locker and climbed
partially inside. He braced himself.