The Cole Protocol

by Tobias S. Buckell

  “They won’t say,” the Kig-Yar by his feet said.

  Reth sat up, wincing as split skin on his shoulder recracked and started bleeding again. “Send word to all Kig-Yar in the Rubble to pull out. Have them stand ready to act as our front wave. The humans may be getting wind of our plan, somehow. Let’s not leave our brothers sitting within easy reach of the aliens.”

  “Yes, lord. But . . . we have worked with these humans for so long. We have built good things with them. Are you sure we must destroy them?”

  Reth sighed. “Any day now the Hierarchs will arrive. Do you wish to look like you were helping heretics? Our task is to fetch the location of Earth, and destroy them. Now we are to do this.”

  Time was growing short, Reth felt, if the humans were getting antsy. He was going to have to launch Kig-Yar ships against the Rubble before the Unggoy were even on their shuttles for the invasion.

  No matter, he thought. That would just soften up the Rubble before he took it.

  Once he had the Exodus asteroid, Reth thought, all these stolen baubles in his room would be meaningless compared to that fat prize.

  CHAPTER

  FIFTY-FIVE

  PETYA, JUST OFF HABITAT TIAGO,

  THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

  Keyes turned to Jai at the back of the cockpit. “You and your team should leave. The Council seems to think things are unchanged; they might even fight to prevent us getting back aboard the Midsummer Night. I don’t see the sense in us weighing you down.”

  “I don’t see the sense in leaving either,” Jai said.

  “I could make it an order,” Keyes said.

  “You do outrank me. You may well order me to do it.” Jai looked at Keyes. The unspoken second half of the sentence in the air was that Jai would refuse.

  Keyes raised an eyebrow and drew in a breath to ream the Spartan out, but from behind him Mike spoke up. “Say what you will about Spartans, Lieutenant, one thing we don’t do is leave fellow soldiers behind to die.”

  Jai raised a finger. “With us at your side retaking your ship will not be hard to do. With Petya’s navigation charts and the computers synchronized—”

  “We won’t be leaving citizens behind to be massacred,” Keyes interrupted. He already had to live with leaving Charybdis IX on its own. He couldn’t bring himself to run away from yet another fight.

  “The Rubble has no love for the UNSC,” Jai said. “They are mostly Insurrectionists.”

  Keyes wondered if the Spartan was really that cold, having been trained to do nothing but kill Insurrectionists, and unable to shake that training. Or if Jai was somehow testing him.

  “There are children, Spartan, and citizens. They will be slaughtered. I will offer my services to them, and we will be ready to fight for the Rubble.”

  Jai folded his arms. “Look—”

  “The Jackals are moving out of the Rubble,” Dante Kirtley shouted.

  Keyes snapped his head up in interest. “They’re moving out?”

  “He’s right. Take a look.” Up at the front Mike tapped one of the many screens before his seat.

  Jackal ships all eased their way out from the Rubble, according to the contacts on the radar and reports from all over the Rubble. “Like rats from a sinking ship,” Keyes muttered.

  Jai moved in for a closer look himself. “Does the Council know? Where’s Juliana? Get that damn AI here, she has to have spotted this.”

  Keyes stepped back. The Spartan sounded agitated.

  “My, my, temper, little Spartan,” Juliana said. She’d appeared at their sides.

  “Time is short!” Jai said. “We don’t have the time to sit around and debate things. We need to move quickly.”

  “What’s going on?” Keyes asked, realizing that Jai’s frustration mainly came from leading a small team, alone, and now being part of a committee trying to figure out how to defend an entire community.

  Jai was somewhat out of his element.

  Keyes, on the other hand, had expected something to happen. The Rubble was basically a very large, slow ship, and it was constantly making course corrections.

  “I come bearing news,” Juliana said. “The Council has rethought their approach based on this behavior. I had them recast their votes. They’re willing to consider our plans. Second: aboard that Kig-Yar ship I stole some encryption keys. I’ve been tracking their chatter. We’re in even more trouble than just the Kig-Yar attacking—according to the Kig-Yar, they’re expecting high ranking officials from the very top of the Covenant hierarchy, and possibly a Covenant fleet, to arrive shortly.”

  “When?” Keyes asked.

  “Even they don’t know. Just . . . soon.”

  Keyes looked at Jai. “Still think we can even make a stand now?”

  Jai slowly shook his head. “A whole Covenant fleet? Not without some minor miracle. These people are all doomed.”

  Keyes felt he had to agree. It was a chilling feeling.

  “The Council agrees,” Juliana said. “They have decided to launch the Exodus habitat and evacuate the Rubble.”

  “The Exodus habitat?” Keyes asked. “You mentioned the name before. I need to ask, what is it?”

  Jai turned back to look at him. “Right, you need to get caught up a bit.”

  CHAPTER

  FIFTY-SIX

  OUTER RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

  Thel stalked across the bridge. “All the Kig-Yar ships are leaving the Rubble?”

  Zhar exhaled through his mandibles in an audible sigh of happiness. “Yes. Now we won’t have to worry about firing on them. One less reason the Prophets may seek to damn us when they arrive.”

  “Contact Reth,” Thel ordered, tamping down his annoyance with Zhar’s obsession about the wills of Prophets. They were Sangheili—noble warriors. This dithering didn’t bode well. “It is time we spoke since his escape.”

  Zhar bowed his head and fiddled about. Thel ignored Zhar’s mutterings with distant Kig-Yar, moving his way up the chain of command, until Reth’s long face appeared on one of the screens.

  Thel faced the image. The Kig-Yar still wore bandages over the wounds Saal had inflicted on him.

  “Shipmaster,” Reth said, the words dripping with fury. “You have stolen Infinite Spoils, the pride of my fleet.”

  Thel ducked his head. “I am not here for recrimination, Reth. You will do what you have been asked. I can only do the same, for we are both soldiers of the Covenant. I have offered to stay away from your main target, but I am also going to start attacking the humans.”

  “Do what you wish. Keep them occupied, Sangheili. The longer their eyes aren’t looking toward this moon, the better.”

  The Kig-Yar’s image flicked off. Thel looked around at the nervous Unggoy, and the now petulant Zhar. “That Kig-Yar will do his best to assassinate us with words to his Hierarch,” Zhar said. “Why talk to him like this, Shipmaster? It serves nothing but to remind him that we’re here.”

  Thel ignored Zhar. “Prepare this ship’s weapons.” He walked over to a screen showing the image of their first target, a small asteroid on the edge of the Rubble with mining equipment on it.

  The long-barreled mass drivers could sling ingots of metal across the Rubble to wherever they were needed. The larger machines could send these slugs across the entire system, from planet to planet.

  They made effective antiship weapons in a pinch, Thel knew. He’d encountered a few repurposed mass drivers in the service of canny humans before.

  “Destroy it,” he ordered, and watched as several balls of energy barreled their way across the empty space between them to plow into the asteroid, ripping it apart in fiery destruction.

  Normally his heart leapt when dealing fire to his enemies. In this case, Thel felt as if he was merely going through the motions.

  He had no idea what the Prophets would think of all this. But he had to do his duty.

  And Sangheili knew all too much about duty and nobility.

  It ran in the blood.

  CHAPT
ER

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  PETYA, HABITAT TIAGO, THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

  The first attack on the Rubble came from the Infinite Spoils.

  Keyes had Mike put the information up on one of Petya’s larger screeens.

  “They’re going after the mass drivers,” Juliana reported.

  “They realize they’re damn good weapons,” Keyes said. Another blow. He’d hoped that the Jackals hadn’t realized the defensive potential of the mining equipment. It would have been a useful surprise.

  Delgado joined them, out of breath from running across the dock to get to the Petya. “They’re starting the attack?”

  “The Council is calling for the Rubble to evacuate to the Exodus habitat,” Juliana told him. “There are ships moving in to defend the mass drivers and the most populated habitats while the evacuation proceeds. Exodus is being moved toward one of the limbs of the Rubble, so that civilians can get to it by tube car. I’m initiating emergency routing, all cars are one way.”

  “How long will it take to get everyone evacuated?” Keyes asked.

  “A million citizens, once Exodus is docked, will take twelve hours. With me presiding. But then there is another question,” Juliana said. She turned to look at the Spartans. “The Exodus can hardly go anywhere without the right data.”

  “The Cole Protocol is absolute,” Keyes said. “We cannot risk handing that over.”

  “Not even to save a million lives?” Delgado asked.

  “Because it risks billions more,” Keyes said. “Don’t even look at the Spartans, you turn and look at me. I’ll carry the weight here. We cannot turn risk back on whole planets.”

  Juliana practically hissed her next sentence. “I have not held onto the edge of rampancy for years trying to save all this, just to watch the UNSC walk away from it.”

  Keyes closed his eyes. The weight of the entire million lives felt as if they were crushing his skull. He wanted to find a way to help. Anyway. But . . . “Juliana, there are hundreds of thousands of trained Grunts getting ready to board Jackal ships, and a suspected Covenant fleet getting ready to hit this system. You calculate the odds: what would you do if you were me?”

  Juliana paused for a moment, running through simulations and possibilities, no doubt. “Give us something, Lieutenant. According to the records on your ship you’re known for thinking outside the box. Now would be a good time, Lieutenant Keyes, to do some serious out-of-the-box thinking.

  “We need your help,” the AI whispered. “A last stand isn’t what’s needed. They need to be saved.”

  Keyes sat heavily in a seat. He looked at the images of Unggoy Grunts lining up amid the large structures on the waterfall of liquid methane.

  He started flipping through the Jackal ship numbers. Hundreds of them perched on the ground on Metisette, except for the handful that had just withdrawn from the Rubble and were targeting mass drivers, as well as other weapons-like systems.

  He tapped his pen against the screen, missing the heirloom pipe he usually held. It was still back on the Midsummer Night, with all his other effects. “Juliana, the habitats and asteroids, the parts of the Rubble—you keep them all aligned, correct?”

  Keyes looked up and saw the AI nod.

  He looked back down at the Covenant forces. They were all on the ground.

  Vulnerable, if you had the right weapons.

  Or something close enough.

  Keyes stood up, and the eyes of everyone in the cockpit tracked him. “The Exodus is not the only habitat with engines— the entire Rubble can move. Juliana is constantly keeping the entire structure of the Rubble aligned. Which means they all have engines. Which also means, given enough time, the Rubble can be used as a weapon itself as it’s emptied and abandoned.”

  Juliana hadn’t seen it, Keyes realized, because it was almost a form of suicide. The AI lived for the Rubble. It was a part of her.

  But it was lost to them. The Exodus was how these people would survive. So why protect the Rubble anymore?

  Keyes pointed at the forces marshalling on the surface of Metisette. “The Covenant has destroyed us from orbit. Why not return the favor for once?”

  He looked over at the Spartans, and was surprised to see a trio of grins.

  Gray Team was in.

  CHAPTER

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  PETYA, HABITAT TIAGO, THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

  Jai realized there was excitement building in the air. They’d gone from looking defeat in the eye, from contemplating a million lost lives, to realizing that Keyes had come up with a seed of a working strategy.

  Juliana was glowing, abstract figures flowing faster and faster over the holographic space of her body. It was as if she was breathing faster and faster, as if having a panic attack, and then she slowed.

  “I . . . I think I see what you’re thinking, Keyes.”

  Jai saw that Keyes had been watching her closely. “Juliana, can you help us do it?”

  “It . . . it won’t be easy,” she said.

  Jai and Keyes exchanged glances. This was their best opportunity. If the AI stood in their way, it could all fall apart.

  Jai moved close. “Juliana, they all need you now more than ever.”

  She focused on him, as if seeing him for the first time. “Ah, Spartan, are you worried about me?”

  Jai blinked, not sure what to say, and Juliana laughed. “You’re worrying about me, aren’t you? It’s flattering, Spartan. So flattering. But what I meant was that it’s going to be hard to dodge the Jackal defenses and sensors.”

  On one of the screens three large structures were highlighted, then picked out of the picture and zoomed.

  “Item number one is the central processing unit for their sensor grids. A big building. Kill that, and you take out their ability to see anything coming.

  “These other two are Covenant antiship weapons, mounted to keep their Redoubt safe. They’ll be firing at any non-Covenant ships coming in. You’ll be dodging them to land. Not only that, they may be powerful enough to strike at any pieces of the Rubble that I throw at them.”

  Jai studied them. “We’ll have to jump right into the heart of the attack to disable these?”

  “Do that,” Juliana said, “and I’ll rain Armageddon down on them, I promise you.”

  Keyes leaned over and looked as well. “For this you’ll need ODSTs. Can we get the Council to let us back aboard my ship?”

  “I’m sure they’ll be cooperative at this point,” Juliana said.

  “You’ll need to be moved,” Keyes said. “I can offer you space aboard Midsummer Night; we have the processing power for you. That is, if Exodus does not have the power yet. I know it’s not completed.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, I’ll be staying with the Rubble,” Juliana said. “To hit Metisette and the Redoubt from here will require tricky calculations. I need to ride the pieces down where I can make instant adjustments for the best effect.”

  No one said anything for a moment.

  Keyes looked at the hologram. “Are you sure about this, Juliana?”

  “I lived for the Rubble. What am I without it? And who else can do this? You all know I’m approaching rampancy I certainly know I am.” Juliana chuckled. “How many get to choose how they will die. And how few in such a poetic manner? Besides, you can’t get away with all the heroism here.”

  The words hung in the air as everyone let that settle in. They were all taking similar actions, and could well share the AI’s fate.

  Jai touched the lieutenant’s arm. “The Exodus. What do we do?”

  “Have the Petya stand off by the Exodus with the navigation data. If we fail, Petya makes a run for it. The moment we’re successful, though, I think we should take a risk, don’t you? We give them the navigation data, to be handed over when the ‘all clear’ goes through. Petya and Midsummer Night can pair up and cover the Exodus as it launches off to . . . wherever it’s going to go. We go our own way. They head off into the depths of the galaxy,
far from the Covenant, using random jumps.”

  “We’ll still face a court-martial,” Jai said, curious to see what Keyes’s reaction would be.

  “We’ll still have saved a million lives,” Keyes said. “I think it’s worth it. We keep with the Exodus, long enough to make sure its well clear.”

  Jai stood fully up from their quick conference. “So now we move.”

  Adriana stepped forward. “I want in on dropping to Me-tisette.”

  “Adriana . . .”

  “You took on the Jackal ship alone. You’re asking me to sit this one out as well?”

  Mike stood up, and Jai shook his head. “Petya needs its pilot. We can’t afford to lose the ship.” The three of them hadn’t worked as a team in combat since all this trouble erupted in the Rubble, but then, their missions always seemed to be a by-the-minute sort of thing.

  And Jai didn’t relish the thought of trying to even stop Adriana this time out, now that she knew there was a big fight ahead on Metisette.

  For as long as he’d known her, Jai knew she was actually looking forward to it.

  CHAPTER

  FIFTY-NINE

  MIDSUMMER NIGHT, LEAVING EL CUIDAD,

  THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

  Delgado had offered his services as a pilot, and Keyes had accepted. Now Delgado trooped his way aboard the Midsummer Night, surprised by all the tight corridors, low bulkheads, and lack of confusion in the flurry of returning people on deck. Everyone had a mission: get the Night on its way toward Me-tisette at the highest possible speed.

  When he got to the bay of the Midsummer Night Delgado was shown a Pelican.

  “We lost a damn good pilot back on Charybdis IX,” a grizzled fellow pilot with blond hair and a strong jaw said. His uniform had a patch naming him as Finlay

  “I’m sorry to hear it,” Delgado said, walking around the long-tailed machine.

  “Damn Insurrectionists,” Finlay said. “Shot him right out of the sky.”