"I'm fine," Mark said. He smoothed the inner lining of his armor, making sure it was perfect, and then slipped the helmet back on.
They called Mark "The Mark," because he was their best marksman—good with a sniper rifle, but better with a rifle on full auto in all-out target-rich free-for-all. The more pressure on him, the cooler he got.
Ash spotted bands of rough onyx along the tunnel wall, black and white and streaked with flecks of gold. He ran a gloved finger over the patterns, intrigued by the geological oddity.
He then snapped out of it and focused on the here and now. He slipped his helmet back on.
"Audio check," Ash whispered over TEAMCOM.
Green status lights winked back. Good. No one was deaf.
A dull thump echoed off the distant mesa walls, and dust rained down from the cave ceiling.
Team Saber instinctively dropped to a crouch. Ash pulled his sidearm.
"Big one," Dante muttered. "Artillery? One of the new four-forties?"
"I don't think the Lieutenant Commander would use artillery on us," Ash whispered.
"Not normally," Holly replied. "But this is the last test. Maybe he's pulling out all the stops to figure out who'll get top honors."
Top honors. Ash had pushed Team Saber to stay on top for the last three years: honing their specialties; learning every lesson Endless Summer threw at them; and thinking, moving, and acting together as a single razor-edged weapon. Only two other teams were even close in the rankings. Gladius and Katana. Top honors would mean bragging rights and respect. It would mean they were the best. That they'd won.
Over TEAMCOM, Ash said, "O, you get a direction on that blast?"
Olivia's status light winked red.
"Okay," Ash said, "we'll assume it's artillery for now. I can't believe the Lieutenant
Commander would be using it… but Mendez is another story. You hear incoming, scatter, and take cover."
Four green LEDs lit on his heads-up display, acknowledging the order.
Ash had read somewhere that you never heard the artillery shell that killed you. He had no desire to personally test that battlefield legend.
"What's the plan for Katana and Gladius?" Mark asked.
"Katana's down one," Ash replied. "We'll focus on the weaker of the two. We'll find—"
Another thump and the ground shuddered.
"Closer," Olivia whispered over TEAMCOM. "Vector north."
Ash stepped out of the tunnel and took cover by a large boulder. The others followed and their SPI armor blended into the rocky terrain.
If this was another trap, then they were probably stepping
out right into a sniper's line of fire. But Ash didn't think so. No one would use ordnance that big so close, not even Mendez.
An explosion like that wasn't something you could throw together from rocks and branches and a couple of flash-bang grenades, either… so that eliminated Teams Katana and Gladius.
So who was doing it?
Forty meters to the north v/as the triple fence surrounding Zone 67. Electrified razor wire, motion sensors, and lanes of minefields made an effective barrier. If pressed, Team Saber could have gotten around it—but they wouldn't. The LC's orders had been crystal clear: DO NOT CROSS. It would count as an instant disqualification for top honors.
What about the other teams? Just a quick hop over and lateral move to flank him? No. None of them would risk a disqualification.
There was a dust storm about three kilometers into Zone 67, a wall of sand, swirling smoke… and fire.
A distant mesa exploded—vaporized into a mushroom of glittering quartz dust, a hail of boulders, and roiling flame.
Ash instinctively ducked, and his insides clenched.
He'd seen big explosions before. Nothing like that, though. "Two kilometers," Dante said. "Felt that one in my bones." They watched the stones rain from the sky. "A few Archer missiles maybe…" Mark murmured. Dots swirled about the edge of the expanding cloud of dust. If Ash didn't know better he'd
have sworn they were vultures. But Onyx didn't have raptorlike avian species. Ash zoomed magnification on his faceplate. At five-times he saw the dots had a three
fold symmetry.
He unslung his sniper rifle and sited through the scope.
They were drones of some sort. But not UNSC MAKOS. Not Covenant Banshees fliers,
either. They were a few meters long.
Three dull steel booms that surrounded a centra! eye, glowing like molten iron. No obvious jets. No cockpit. There were a dozen of them.
"Has to be an experimental prototype," Dante said. Maybe Zone 67 is a testing range for new weapons."
"They wouldn't be 'testing' a megaton worth of destructive force while we were so close," Ash countered.
Or was this part of the final test? Some new threat that the three squads would have to band together to defeat? That would be Chief Mendez's style: change the rules in the middle of a test.
The drones moved away from the atomized mesa, drifted closer to Team Saber's location, stopping short just on the opposite side of the Zone 67 fence, where they circled another butte.
Ash spied motion atop that formation. Shutters from a a camouflaged bunker popped open, and heavy machine-gun fire strafed the drones.
The lead drone's three booms snapped forward to make a triangular flat plane. A
glimmering film of gold popped into place and fifty-caliber rounds impacted and bounced off.
"Energy shields!" Dante said. "Has to be Covenant."
Ash reluctantly agreed with this assessment. This was no game, no final honors test.
The war had arrived on Onyx.
He broadcast over an open COM channel: "Currahee C and C, come in. This is Saber
One. We have an emergency."
No answer. His radio light was green. He was broadcasting, but no one was listening.
"Radio check," Ash said to his team. "Everyone try to get the Lieutenant Commander or
the Chief. Try to raise the Agincourt, too." Ash used his sniper rifle and tracked the drones.
The remaining eleven lined up behind the one distorted to form an energy shield; their red eyes aligned and pointed directly at the mesa top. Men emerged from the bunker with M19 missile launchers. The drones' eyes flared to a brilliant gold—energy projected forward, flicking like a rapier
strike.
The men and bunker wavered a moment, erupted into flames, and vaporized. The mesa top then detonated into a cloud of dust and molten rock.
The ground tilted and cracked. Team Saber retreated into the tunnel and debris rained
over them.
Ash squinted back through the haze.
The drones had scattered and moved forward, zigzagging over the rocky terrain: a
search pattern.
He moved to the opposite end of the tunnel and risked another open COM broadcast. "Team Katana, Team Gladius, Covenant activity in Zone 67. Forget the test, guys. We've got a situation."
← ^ →
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
0700 HOURS, OCTOBER 31, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) ZETA DORADUS SYSTEM, NEAR CAMP CURRAHEE, PLANET ONYX
Kurt scanned the horizon with his binoculars. He watched the pattern of the wind in the tree line, the birds that had taken wing, and a whisper of smoke that snaked up from the canopy.
There was trouble in the air.
From his perch in the "tree house" he couldn't see the source of the disturbance near the Spartan test area.
The tree house was a platform a hundred meters off the jungle floor in the titan arms of a banyan tree. The only electronics here were the radio and the AI projection unit. Everything else was low-tech: optic binoculars and telescopes, parabolic sound collection dishes, good old-fashioned signal flags.
"What's the Agincourt got?" he asked Mendez.
Chief Mendez turned to Kurt, pressing the bud receiver into his ear. "A lot of static. Encountering broadband interference. They're moving to h
igh orbit to get a clear picture."
The Agincourt had just delivered supplies for the incoming Delta Company. Kurt had asked for a little observational assistance before they broke orbit.
"Pass my thanks to the Commander," Kurt said.
Chief Mendez's face darkened. "They're breaking up."
The dish-sized AI projector sparked to life, and warm red sunlight sparked and filled the tree house. It solidified into a tall Cherokee brave, bare-chested, wearing buckskins, feathered spear in his massive hand. This was Endless Summer, the ONI AI stationed at the ultrahigh-secure facility thirty kilometers to the north, a place that technically no longer existed, it was so secret.
The AI gestured for Kurt and then he vanished, replaced by the lightning-bolt symbol for a UNSC priority flash communique.
The AI that had replaced Deep Winter was aloof, had barely tolerated Kurt and his staff, and it never initiated communication. This was trouble.
Kurt stepped closer and the pad scanned his biometrics. Several files were beamed directly onto his retina, a top-secret protocol that gave a new twist to the phase "eyes-only"
security.
He read:
UNITED NATIONS ENCRYPTION PUBLIC FROM: SPACE CODE C OMMAND CODE KEY: PRIORITY NAME TRANSMISSION FLASH: ENDLESS 91762P-06 BLACK FILE/SEASONAL/ SUMMER
TO: / LIEUTENANT KURT AMBROSE, SPECIAL ATTACHE. LOGISTICAL OPERATIONS COMMAND (NAVLOGCOM) , OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS UNSCMID: 045888947 SUBJECT: EMERGENCY ALERT STATUS CLASSIFICATION: RESTRICTED (XXX-XD DIRECTIVE)
/START FILE/DECRYPTION PROTOCOL/
FLASH TRANSMISSION TO CAMP CURRAHEE COMMAND AND CONTROL
ENDLESS SUMMER DIRECTED TO LIEUTENANT COMMANDER AMBROSE-EYES ONLY
ZONE 67 UNDER ATTACK.
PER GENERAL ORDER 98.93.120, I AM AUTHORIZED TO TAKE COMMAND OF ALL MILITARY PERSONNEL ON ONYX UNDER EMERGENCY CIRCUMSTANCE. I HEREBY EXERCISE THAT AUTHORITY AND ORDER ALL UNDER YOUR COMMAND TO IMMEDIATELY DEFEND ZONE 67 FROM EMINENT DANGER.
ATTACKER IDENTITY: UNKNOWN. NONHUMAN ORIGIN.
ATTENTION: POSSIBLE COVENANT VECTORS.
ATTENTION: POSSIBLE NON-COVENANT VECTORS.
YOU ARE AUTHORIZED WITH CODE-WORD CLEARANCE PATRIOT-SEVEN-BLUE TO REVIEW THEFOLLOWING CONDENSED MATERIAL OF IMMEDIATE BENEFIT. ANY BREACH OF CODE-WORD CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIALITY IS PUNISHABLE BYTHE DEATH PENALTY AS PER UNSC MIL-JAG 4 4 65/LHG, THE WARTIME ARTICLES OF SECRECY, AND THE AMENDED ARTICLES OF THE UNITED SECURITY ACTS OF 2162.
/END/
/ATTACHED FILE 1 OF 9/
MAY 6, 24 91 (MILITARY CALENDAR) FIELD REPORT A76344-USNC . ENGCORP SUBJECT: SURVEY PLANET XF-0 63 REPORTING OFFICER: CAPTAIN D. F. LAMBERT UNSC. ENGCORP/ UNSCMID: 03981762
XF-0 63 IS A RARE JEWEL OF A FIND. THERE IS AN OXYGEN-NITROGEN-INERT GAS ATMOSPHERE OF SUITABLE PRESSURE AND A MODERATE WEATHER CYCLE. THERE IS A SURPRISING ABUNDANCE OF INDIGENOUS FLORA AND FAUNA, WHICH UPON CURSORY INVESTIGATION POSES NO DANGER. IN FACT, EDIBLE SPECIES PRESENT. (SEE ADDITIONAL REPORTS FOR DETAILS.) TRANSPLANT OF EARTH SPECIES POSSIBLE.
NOTABLE ANOMALIES: NO DETECTABLE TECTONIC ACTIVITY, BUT THERE IS STILL AN UNUSUALLY STRONG PLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELD. SLIGHTLY HIGHER THAN NORMAL BACKGROUND RADIATION MEASURED, BUT WELL WITHIN TOLERABLE STANDARDS. ADDITIONAL GEOLOGICAL TESTING RECOMMENDED.
NO TERRAFORMING EFFORT REQUIRED. COLONIZATION RECOMMENDED.
/END/
/ATTACHED FILE 2 OF 9/
FEBRUARY 19, 24 92 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
FIELD REPORT A7 90 52-USNC. ENGCORP
SUBJECT: GEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION FOUR, PLANET XF-063
REPORTING OFFICER: LIEUTENANT W. K. DAVIDSON UNSC.ENGCORP/ UNSCMID: 0772 9654
THE NORTHERN PLATEAU REGION OF THE MIDLATITUDE LANDMASS HAS AN ABUNDANCE OF GRANITE AND QUARTZ VARIETIES FORMING HILLS AND MESAS. BREATHTAKING ONYX QUARRIES .
ADDITIONAL EXPLORATION OF THIS REGION HAS REVEALED LIMESTONE OF ORGANIC ORIGINS, SPECIFICALLY AN ANCIENT CORAL REEF WITH A RICH FOSSIL HISTORY.
CURSORY INVESTIGATION HAS YIELDED SEVERAL ANCIENT SPECIES OF UNKNOWN ORIGINS, AND ENTIRE PHYLUM FOUND OF POSSIBLY ALIEN TAXONOMY.
RECOMMENDATION: FOLLOW-UP SURVEY. SPECIALIST REQUESTED IN PALEO-AND XENOBIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY.
/END/
/ATTACHED FILE 3 OF 9/
JANUARY 3, 2511 (MILITARY CALENDAR) ORDER 178.8.64.007 SUBJECT: SECURITY RECLASSIFICATION ISSUING OFFICER: REAR ADMIRAL M. 0. PARANGOSKY, OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, SECTION THREE/ UNSCMID: 03659271
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY ALL MATERIALS MENTIONING, REFERENCING, OR CONTAINING REPORTS, SURVEYS, PERSONAL NOTES AND LOGS, IMAGES, OR ANY OTHER DATA PERTAINING TO OR ABOUT THE PLANET CATALOG NO. XF-0 63 (ALSO KNOWN COLLOQUIALLY AS "ONYX") IS HEREBY RECLASSIFIED TO TOP SECERT, EYES ONLY.
UNSC SYSTEMWIDE NETWORK PURGE AUTHORIZED BY OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE (REF NO. 0097833), UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MIL.AI. ID: 477-SSD.
/END/
/ATTACHED FILE 4 OF 9 /
OCTOBER 22, 2 511 (MILITARY CALENDAR) ONI FIELD REPORT A84110 CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET, CODE-WORD SUBJECT: STATUS OF RUINS IN ZONE 67 REPORTING OFFICER: LIEUTENANT COMMANDER J. G. ORTEGA, OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, SECTION THREE/ UNSCMID: 7631073
CONCERNING THE ALIEN RUINS DISCOVERED IN ZONE 67, WE CONTINUE TO FIND EVIDENCE OF AN ADVANCED CULTURE WITH A SUPERLATIVE GRASP OF MATHEMATICS AND ASTROGATION, WITH SOME POSSIBLE ARTISTIC REPRESENTATIONS THAT SUGGEST A SPACE-FARING RACE (SEE ATTACHED DIGITAL IMAGES OF ONYX CARVINGS).
THEIR NUMEROUS HIEROGLYPHICS, WHILE AT FIRST GLANCE COMPARABLE TO ANCIENT TERRESTRIAL AZTEC VARIANTS, ARE, IN FACT, NOTHING AT ALL LIKE THESE PRIMITIVE EARTH COUNTERPARTS . SEVERAL LAYERS OF SYMBOLOGY SUGGEST A HIGHER-DIMENSIONAL APPROACH TO THEIR
LANGUAGE, IF IT CAN EVEN BE TRULY THOUGHT OF AS WRITING OR LANGUAGE IN ANY HUMAN SENSE .
TRANSLATION CONTINUES TO ELUDE ALL EXPERTS, HUMAN AND AI.
RECOMMENDATION: INCREASED FUNDING AND EXCAVATION WILL UNDOUBTEDLY YIELD HITHERTO UNKNOWN TECHNOLOGIES.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: NO FURTHER INFORMATION HAS BEEN DISCOVERED REGARDING THE GLOWING SPHERE DISCOVERED BY BETA COMPANY TRAINEES. THE SUBSEQUENT DETONATION OF THE SPHERE OBLITERATED ALL CLUES OF ITS ORIGIN.
/END/
/ATTACHED FILE 5 OF 9/
SEPTEMBER 2, 2517 (MILITARY CALENDAR) ONI FIELD REPORT C384409 CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET, CODE-WORD SUBJECT: STATUS OF RUINS IN ZONE 67 REPORTING OFFICER: COMMANDER J. G. ORTEGA, OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, SECTION THREE/ UNSCMID: 7631073
NEW FACILITIES WENT OPERATIONAL AS OF 0500 HOURS TODAY. SMART AIS FUNCTIONING IN TANDEM AS PER SPECIFICATIONS WITH SOME PRELIMIANRY SUCCESS ON SOME OF THE SIMPLER, LOW-DIMENSIONAL HIEROGLYPHICS.
CONTINUED EXCAVATIONS OF MILLIONS OF CUBIC FEET OF EARTH IN ZONE 67 YIELD RUINED BUILDINGS, CARVINGS, AND TABLETS, BUT AS WITH THE OTHER REGIONS NO DISCOVERIES OF A TECHNOLOGICAL NATURE DISCOVERED (OR IF THERE ARE, WE LACK SUFFICIENT UNDERSTANDING TO DISCERN THEIR FUNCTION).
CARVINGS DEPICTING THE INHABITANTS OF ONYX STILL NOT FOUND . WHATEVER THESE CREATURES LOOKED LIKE, FOR THE MOMENT, REMAINS A MYSTERY .
THE SENIOR STAFF NOW BELIEVES THAT A SUDDEN CATACLYSM CLAIMED THE INHABITANTS OF THIS WORLD. UNKNOWN IF PATHOLOGICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL, OR RADIOLOGICAL IN NATURE. THIS MAY, HOWEVER, EXPLAIN THE HIGHER-THAN-NORMAL BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS.
RECOMMENDATION: INCREASED STAFF AND FUNDING. THE RUINS ARE SO EXTENSIVE THEY COULD TAKE SEVERAL LIFETIMES TO UNEARTH THEM ALL. THIS ENTIRE WORLD MAY BE COVERED IN SIMILAR RUINS. NEW TECHNOLOGIES CERTAINLY MUST HAVE SURVIVED AND AWAIT DISCOVERY.
/END/
/ATTACHED FILE 6 OF 9/
MARCH 6, 2525 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
ORDER 276.8.91.848
SUBJECT: ZONE 67 FUNDING
ISSUING OFFICER: ADMIRAL M. 0. PARANGOSKY, OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, SECTION THREE/ UNSCMID: 03669271
GENTLEMEN, I'LL BE BRIEF. AFTER ALMOST FIFTEEN YEARS OF CONTINUOUS AND RUINOUSLY EXPENSIVE RESEARCH WITHOUT A SINGLE NEW USEFUL TECHNOLOGY DISCOVERED, THE BUDGET OF THE ONYX INITIATIVE HAS BEEN REPRIORITIZED.
ALTHOUGH THE ALIEN ARTI
FACTS AND HIEROGLYPHICS CONTINUE TO BE OF INTEREST, RECENT REBEL ACTIVITIES IN THE OUTER COLONIES DEMAND THAT WE FACE REALITIES AND REALLOCATE OUR FINITE AI AND MILITARY PERSONNEL TO COUNTER THIS NEW THREAT.
ONYX IS TO REMAIN CLASSIFIED, CODE-WORD TOP SECRET. ALL MATERIALS AND FILES HAVE BEEN REDESIGNATED UNDER THE NOMENCLATURE KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN.
PURSUANT TO ORDER 178.8.64.007 ANY BREACH OF CODE-WORD CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIALITY IS PUNISHABLE BY THE DEATH PENALTY AS PER UNSC MIL-JAG 4465/LHG, THE WARTIME ARTICLES OF SECRECY, AND THE AMENDED ARTICLES OF THE HOMELAND SECURITY ACT OF 2162.
A SKELETON CREW AND ONE AI WILL CONTINUE TO PROBE THE MYSTERIES OF ZONE
67. MAYBE THEY'LL HIT PAY DIRT. IN THE MEANTIME, THE REST OF US HAVE A WAR TO FIGHT.
/END/
Kurt never finished reading Endless Summer's flash transmission.
An explosion darkened the horizon with a mushroom cloud of fire and dust, and the holographic page dissolved before Kurt
could scan the rest of the files. The projector sputtered, sparked, and died.
The intel Endless Summer had just sent swam through his mind. Alien ruins? Possible Covenant invasion? What did the AI mean by possible non-Covenant vectors?
"We have to get out of here," Kurt said.
Chief Mendez continued to stare at the distant blast. "Artillery. Maybe a missile strike?"
Kurt scrutinized the shape of the blast cloud. "No, it's highly asymmetric. There are uneven heat blooms. I'd guess a directed energy weapon."
The Chief picked up the radio and again tried to raise the Agincourt. "This is Camp Currahee C and C. Come in, over?"
Static.
"Try the squads," Kurt said.
Mendez nodded. "Saber, come in. Katana? Report, this is Chief Mendez. Gladius." He clicked the mic. This time, there wasn't even static, only dead air. "You think"—Mendez looked up at the sky—"the Agincourt did something?"
The Chief crinkled his silver brows together, worried. It was an emotion Kurt had never before seen on the old man's features.
Another detonation shook Zone 67. What had been a distant granite bluff turned into a disintegrating rain of dust.
"We've received orders to defend Zone 67," Kurt said.
Mendez sighed and shrugged. "I've got my M6 sidearm." He patted his holster. "And a knife in my boot. You?"
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx Page 10
