Halo: First Strike

by Eric S. Nylund

  Two other Spartans, Isaac and Vinh, sat along either side of the hallway, behind rock barricades. They gave slight nods to Fred and kept their eyes and weapons on the end of the corridor.

  "Where's the rest of the team? And the Marines from Charlie Company?" Fred asked.

  "They didn't make it," Will replied, his voice flat. "We were separated on the way here." He shook his head. "No contact since then."

  Fred was quiet a moment. He listed those three as MIA on his team roster as well as the other Spartans on Will's team. The list of Spartans he could account for had grown extremely short. Fred felt his stomach twist. "Any word from Beta Team?"

  "Negative. No contact, sir."

  Fred clenched his teeth and marked Beta Team as MIA as well.

  "Gamma Team?" Will asked.

  "They're out there," Fred replied. "I heard them on the COM, but I couldn't make out much. I warned them away from this position."

  "Good," Will whispered.

  The hallway dead-ended in a vault door.

  "The retinal and palm scanners are broken," Will explained. "There's voice access, which we've tried, but there's no response. This door must be a meter thick, so without cutting tools or a hundred kilos of explosive we're stuck on this side."

  "You spoke to the people on the other side?" Kelly asked. "The channel is open," Will said. "But there's been no reply. Everyone on the other side probably bugged out." "Or maybe you're just not saying anything they want to hear," Kelly said. She whistled a six-note singsong tune.

  Will nodded. "I didn't think of that."

  The tune had been the Spartan's secret code from when they were young and training on Reach. It was their all-clearit's-safe-to-come-out signal. No one but the Spartans and a few very select outsiders knew of it. . . a few outsiders who might be still here.

  Kelly keyed the mic and whistled the tune. She released the key and waited.

  Two minutes ticked off Fred's mission clock. Too much time sitting here, doing nothing, while the Covenant over their heads were undoubtedly figuring out a way to dig them out and tear them to pieces.

  "It was a good idea," he told Kelly. "We'll recon the shaft. Maybe it's not completely collapsed. Will you—"

  A mechanism thunked and then hummed within the titanic door. There was a hiss as the seams parted, and the meter-thick door swung inward on perfectly balanced, silent hinges.

  Bright light flooded the passage. A silhouetted figure stood on the threshold. As Fred's display compensated and enhanced the image, he saw it was human, slight of figure, female. She wore a gray pleated skirt and a white lab coat with a data pad stuffed into the breast pocket. He caught the glimmer of her eyeglasses, black-rimmed with faint bifocal lines. Her gray hair was coiled into a tight bun.

  But it was her face that caught and held his focus—he recognized the tight smooth skin that wrinkled only in the comers of her mouth and her gray-blue eyes. She was the intellect behind the SPARTAN-II program, and the one who'd invented their MJOLNIR armor.

  She was Dr. Catherine Halsey.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  0810 hours, August 30,2552 (Military Calendar)EpsilonEridani system, ONI underground facility, planet Reach.

  Dr. Halsey studied the five Spartans in the hallway and pushed her antique glasses farther up the ridge of her nose. Despite everything their presence here meant—Reach invaded, their mission to find the Covenant leadership compromised, everything she had worked for now in jeopardy—she was still pleased to see them. She steeled herself, though; an emotional outburst wouldn't be understood, or appreciated, by her Spartans.

  "Come in," she said briskly. "And hurry. From the sounds of things upstairs we haven't much time."

  The Spartans stood there a moment—undoubtedly communicating with one another through a mixture of externally silent COM channels and minute body language. She noticed the tick of a finger, the slight nod of a head. They then moved together, picked up their equipment, and walked through the threshold of the vault.

  Dr. Halsey greeted them as they passed her. "It's good to see you, Fred."

  "Ma'am," Fred replied. "Good to see you, too."

  She noted that Kelly's movements were off, a little sluggish.

  She was hurt, as were the rest of them, now that she saw them up close. "Kelly." "Doctor Halsey." She reached out and gave her hand a slight squeeze of greeting.

  "Isaac."

  "Doctor."

  "Vinh."

  ERIC NYLUND

  She nodded.

  "William."

  Will grunted. He had never liked his formal name.

  She knew this annoyed them all—how she was always able to tell who they were despite the MJOLNIR armor. She had grown up with them, knew their every gesture and their individual walks. She could have never called them by their number designations: SPARTAN-104, -087, -039, -029, and -043, respectively.

  Dr. Halsey tapped a control pad. The vault door eased silently shut, its seams vanished, and, with a sharp, metallic click, it locked.

  "We have access to Aqua, Scarlet, and Lavender Levels," she told them. "Follow me to the medical wing." She proceeded down a concrete hallway with a high arched ceiling, recessed lights, and security cameras. "I know the Covenant entered the Epsilon Eridani system at approximately oh-five-hundred hours. ONI Section Three staff evacuated this facility at oh-fivethirty hours. I assume you're not here to let me know it's safe to come out?"

  "Yes, ma'am," Fred replied. "I mean, no, ma'am. It's not safe. The Fleet engaged the Covenant, but the enemy managed to land ground forces on Reach. We were sent to the surface to protect the orbital-gun generators." He stopped, took a deep breath, and continued. "We were not successful in that mission. Covenant forces overwhelmed our position." He glanced back at Kelly and the other Spartans. "We fell back here. . . we thought it would be secure."

  They continued down the sloping passage; titanium doors irised open for them and closed as soon as they passed.

  "I see," Dr. Halsey replied. "And Captain Keyes? John?"

  "Unknown," Fred told her. "The Master Chief and part of our team attempted to retrieve an unsecured NAV database from an orbital station before the Covenant got to it. Assuming he was successful, and given Captain Keyes's record of combat against the Covenant..." Fred's voice trailed off.

  "I'm sure they accomplished their mission and escaped," Dr. Halsey said, finishing the thought for him. "John has never lost." "No, ma'am," Fred replied.

  122 HALO: FIRST STRIKE 5

  They walked in silence for a moment past a display of cap- Z

  tured insurgent flags that had been mounted under glass along

  the curved concrete wall. Most were emblazoned with an array

  of gaudy insignia—family crests, bloodied dragons, and scorched

  crossed swords. They continued past these remnants of a rebel- Z

  lion the UNSC no longer had to worry about. 5

  "Doctor Halsey?" Fred said. "Permission to speak freely?" ■

  "Granted," she said. "I don't stand on ceremony, particularly S

  given the circumstances. Speak your mind."

  "Ma'am, something isn't normal about this Covenant inva

  sion," Fred told her. "They've won, but they aren't glassing the

  planet. At least not completely—as near as I can determine,

  they've only hit the poles and a portion of the lower latitudes."

  "And they had digging equipment in position over this fa

  cility," Kelly added.

  "Curious," Dr. Halsey said. "They've never taken an interest

  in any human or human technologies—" She halted at a large

  metal iris, big enough to drive a Warthog through, and set her

  hand on a palm scanner. "The medical wing," she explained. She

  spoke into the nearby microphone: " 'I shall do no harm.' " The

  door opened for them.

  High-intensity lights flickered on in the large room beyond.

 
; There were a dozen medical diagnosis tables and a row of dis

  plays along the far wall. The lime-colored floor was brightly

  polished and sterile. The walls glowed with a faint pink lumines

  cence. Seven doors led to adjacent offices and surgical bays with

  windows looking out into this central room.

  "Kalmiya?" she said. "Status?"

  "Yes, Doctor," replied the disembodied voice of her personal

  AI, her replacement for Cortana. "I have prepared the Spartans'

  personal medical files and sent runners to fetch stocks of blood

  plasma and other medical supplies from cold storage, as well as

  tools to assist in the removal of their MJOLNIR armor."

  The doors to the tiny service elevator at the far end of the fa

  cility opened, and a robotic rover rolled out, its telescopic arms

  holding piles of liquid-filled bags. Rows of tools were neatly

  lined up across the rover's top tray.

  "Very good," Dr. Halsey said. "Continue to track seismic ac

  tivity overhead. Interface with the Spartans' biomonitors and patch the output to the display on bay three."

  She strolled over to a table, and a bank of holographic displays hummed to life, floating serenely. Graphs and figures scrolled across them.

  "Give me a spotlight here, prepare a sterilization field, and lower the ambient lighting by forty percent. And a little Mahler, please. Symphony number two."

  "Yes, Doctor." Music drifted from the speakers.

  Dr. Halsey examined the graphs, tapped tiny human-figure icons, and summoned MRI images of" the Spartans' internal structures—holographic bones, organs, and muscles appeared and slowly rotated.

  She winced at the extent of their injuries.

  "Fred, you have a torn Achilles tendon and three cracked ribs. Both kidneys have moderate contusions." She glanced at the rest of the team's data and after a moment's consideration told him, "You're fine.

  "William, you have a cracked tibia and some internal bleeding. Get some biofoam into that wound and avoid strenuous motions for the next day." She turned to face Fred and Will. "You two are in the best shape. I want you to go to Level Aqua, Section Lambda, and retrieve a few things."

  "Yes, ma'am," Fred said.

  Dr. Halsey was only a civilian, but the Spartans had always accepted her authority. Perhaps because she had acted as an equal among the Fleet Admirals and Generals who were constantly trying to co-opt her work. Or maybe it was more than that. She wondered if the Spartans viewed her as some sort of mother figure. As much as this notion amused her, she doubted that they viewed anyone outside their team as family. Not even her.

  William retrieved a can of biofoam from the rover and inserted the tip into the tiny injection port in his armor—pushed it through the skin between his fourth and fifth ribs. He filled his abdominal cavity with the space-filling coagulant/antibacterial/ tissue-regenerative polymer.

  "Cold?" she asked.

  "Nothing worth noting, ma'am."

  She nodded, not making much over William's courage. She'd

  HALO: FIRST STRIKE

  always kept her admiration for her Spartans to herself. The last thing she wanted was to do make them feel different. They got enough "special" treatment from everyone else.

  Dr. Halsey picked up a clipboard, tapped a few items onto its display, and handed it to Fred. "New weapons arrived for field-testing last week," she told him, "as well as parts for the MJOLNIR Mark Five armor system. We'll swap them out for your damaged components. Kalmiya, show them the way, please, and give them access to the restricted areas."

  "Yes, Doctor," Kalmiya said. The med bay doors opened. "This way."

  Fred studied the items on the clipboard. "Very, very good," he said, and his voice was thick with satisfaction. He nodded, took a long look at his teammates, and then he and Will departed.

  Dr. Halsey returned to her medical readouts. "Vinh, you have a torn deltoid muscle, three broken fingers, and a herniated disk. Isaac, internal contusions and both shoulders have been dislocated and reinserted incorrectly, which is pinching off the blood vessels. I'll get you both fixed up in a moment, but first I want you to survey the route we took here and suggest further perimeter defenses."

  "Yes, ma'am," they replied, cast a look at Kelly, and left.

  Dr. Halsey concentrated on Kelly's internal scans. Her injuries were by far the worst. She had seen that from the extremely low blood pressure and high body temperature even before she'd glanced at the MRI. There was moderate bleeding in her liver— a fatal condition if not treated—and her right lung was completely collapsed. That the woman was still on her feet, let alone fighting, was tantamount to an act of God.

  Of course, that's what the SPARTAN-II project was all about, wasn't it? Playing God for the greater good.

  "Doctor Halsey," Kelly asked. "Where are the others?"

  "As I said, they evacuated," she replied. "On the table, please. I'm going to perform some minor repairs." Kelly complied. "Then why aieyou still here, ma'am?" Dr. Halsey picked up a curved, long-handled magnetic wrench,

  built specifically to fit this, and only this, access panel. She inserted it and popped open a fist-sized section of Kelly's battered MJOLNIR armor. Blood and hydrostatic gel bubbled from Kelly's wounds.

  "I volunteered to be the fail-safe option," she told Kelly. "In the lower levels of these caverns are enough high explosives to level the facility—in case we were ever overrun by the enemy. I'm here to make sure no one gets access to our technology."

  Dr. Halsey injected a local anesthetic and inserted a flexible laser-tipped catheter into Kelly, carefully monitoring her progress on the MRI. She pulsed the laser, fusing the lacerations in her liver. Dr. Halsey then inflated her lung. Kelly would lose half of that organ, regardless of her treatment. The tissue was already turning blue and mottling necrotic brown.

  "Kalmiya, prep the flash clone facility and retrieve Kelly's DNA sequence from the archives. I'd like to get a new liver and right lung started for her.

  "You're fine for now," Dr. Halsey lied. "I just want to get replacements made for you, in case we're down here for a long time."

  "I understand," Kelly rasped.

  Dr. Halsey wondered if she did—if Kelly understood that getting shot and burned and having your internal organs traumatized wasn't supposed to happen to you every day... unless you were a Spartan. She wished the war were over. She wished her Spartans had some measure of peace.

  "Doctor?" Kalmiya whispered through the tiny private speaker bud in Dr. Halsey's glasses. "There is an anomaly in SPARTAN087's DNA files. You may want to review this in private."

  Dr. Halsey sealed Kelly's injuries with biofoam, removed the catheter, and cauterized the incision. "Rest," she said.

  "No, ma'am. I'm ready to—" Kelly tried to sit up.

  "Down." Dr. Halsey set a hand on her shoulder. She had no illusions that she could have stopped Kelly with the gesture—but it reinforced her words and her will. "Doctor's orders."

  Kelly sighed and lay back.

  "I'll be in my office just over there"—she pointed to the next room—"if you need anything."

  Dr. Halsey left Kelly and moved to her office. Two walls were covered with giant displays; old disposable coffee cups littered the floor; a holographic projector flooded with data, lines, rotating graphics, and unanswered correspondence overflowed her

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  desk. She turned down the blinds that separated her office from the medical bay, but only halfway, so she could keep an eye on Kelly.

  "Let's have it, Kalmiya."

  Kelly's medical history scrolled across a display.

  "Here," Kalmiya said, and highlighted a surreptitious data request at the end of the file. "It's dated three months ago. That's Araqiel's routing code." Dr. Halsey picked up the snowglobe off her desk, shook it once, and set it down, watching the swirls of particles.

  "Araqiel? That's Ackerson's
watchdog, isn't it?"

  "Affirmative, Doctor."

  "Can you trace the request?"

  "Done and terminated contact at node FF-8897-Z. Access restricted to X-ray level clearance."

  "Restricted?" Dr. Halsey gave a short, soft laugh. "Does that mean anything now? There's no one here to stop us, is there, Kalmiya?"

  "Entering those files without proper clearance is a treasonable offense, Doctor."

  "They can come and arrest me, then. Do as I have instructed, Kalmiya," Dr. Halsey said. "Override your ethics center subroutine four-alpha. Nullification code: 'Whateverittakes.' "

  Dr. Halsey found a half-full cup of coffee on the floor and gingerly picked it up. She sniffed its contents and, satisfied it wasn't rancid, swirled it once then downed its cold contents.

  "Yes, Doctor. Working. Done."

  Kalmiya was Cortana's older "sister." Dr. Halsey had designed and tested the software intrusion routines on her. Once the process had been debugged and streamlined, she'd incorporated the routines into Cortana. The brass in ONI Section Three had been quite explicit in their instructions to destroy any prototype routines—an order that Dr. Halsey had promptly disobeyed.

  "There is an unusually voluminous amount of counterintrusion software, Doctor."

  "Show me," Dr. Halsey said.

  The holographic display flickered and solidified into colored crystal blocks representing the code barriers. Dr. Halsey traced a seam with her forefinger along a shard of ruby to the ninety-degree angle made by a stair-step-cut emerald. "This data cluster here. Spike that and backfill with a neutralizing pulse."

  "Yes, Doctor."

  The holographic crystal shattered into a thousand glittering fragments and swirled upward into a helix. "I'm in, and—" The shards pulsed and coalesced. Facets and hard shimmering

  planes fit together into curled horns, an elongated jaw, and oversized eyes that flickered with holographic fire. It turned and smiled at Dr. Halsey, baring razor jags of teeth.

  "Civilian consultant 409871," it said in a deep bass rumble that contained a crackle of thunder. "Doctor Catherine Halsey."