CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)

UNSC Pillar of Autumn , in orbit around Epsilon Eridani System, Reach Military Complex Captain Keyes tapped the thrusters of the shuttle pod Coda . The tiny craft rolled and the Pillar of Autumn came into view.

Normally, Captains did not ferry themselves around the space docks of Reach, but Keyes had insisted.

All unauthorized personnel were restricted to a narrow flight path around the Pillar of Autumn , and he wanted to take a careful look around the outside of this ship before he took command.

From this distance, the Pillar of Autumn could have been mistaken for an elongated frigate. As the shuttle pod moved closer, however, details appeared that betrayed the ship’s age. The Pillar of Autumn ’s hull had several larger dents and scratches. Her engine baffles were blackened. The portside emergency thrusters were missing.

What had he gotten himself into by signing up for Dr. Halsey’s mission?

He moved within a hundred meters and circled to the starboard. The shuttle bay on this side was sealed off. Red-and-yellow hazard warnings had been painted on metal plates that had been hastily welded over her entrance.

He closed to ten meters and saw the plate was not a solid sheet of metal—he could see armored ports, heavily reinforced . . . almost solid titanium A. Honeycombed throughout this section were the round covers of Archer missile pods. Captain Keyes counted: thirty pods across, ten down. Each pod held dozens of missiles. The Pillar of Autumn had a secret arsenal to rival any real cruiser in the fleet.

Captain Keyes drifted toward the stern and noticed concealed and recessed 50mm autocannons for defense against single ships.

Underneath were bumps—part of the linear accelerator system for the ship’s lone MAC gun. It looked too small to be truly effective. But he would reserve judgment. Perhaps, like the rest of the Pillar of Autumn , the weapon was more than it appeared to be.

He certainly hoped so.

Captain Keyes returned to the port side and drifted gently into the shuttle bay. He took note of three Longsword single ships and three Pelican dropships in the bay. One of the Pelicans had double the normal armor plating and what looked like grappling attachments. A serrated titanium ram decorated the dropship’s prow.

He touched down on an automated landing platform and locked the controls down. A moment later the shuttle descended belowdecks and was cycled through the airlock. Captain Keyes gathered his duffel bag and stepped onto the flight deck.

Lieutenant Hikowa was there to meet him. She saluted. “Welcome aboard, Captain Keyes.”

He saluted. “What do you think of her, Lieutenant?”

Lieutenant Hikowa’s dark eyes widened. “You’re not going to believe this ship, sir.” Her normally serious face broke with a smile. “They’ve turned it into something . . . special.”

“I saw what they did to my starboard shuttle bay,” Captain Keyes remarked sourly.

“That’s just the start,” she said. “I can give you a full tour.”

“Please,” Captain Keyes said. He paused at an intercom. “Just one thing first, Lieutenant.” He keyed the intercom. “Ensign Lovell, plot a course to the system’s edge and move the Pillar of Autumn on an accelerating vector. We will jump to Slipstream space as soon as we get there.”

“Sir,” Lovell replied. “Our engines are still in shakedown mode.”

“Cortana?” Captain Keyes asked. “Can we have power to move the ship? I’d like to get under way.”

“The engines’ final shakedown is in theta cycle,” Cortana replied. “Operating well within normal parameters. Diverting thirty percent power to engines; aye, sir.”

“And the other systems’ status?” Captain Keyes asked.

“Weapons-system check initiated. Navigational nodes functioning. Continuing systemwide shakedown and triple checks, Captain.”

“Very good,” he said. “Apprise me if there are any anomalies.”

“Aye, Captain,” she replied.

“We finally have an AI,” he remarked to Hikowa.

“We’ve got more than that, sir,” Hikowa replied. “Cortana is running the shakedown and supervising Dr.

Halsey’s modifications to the ship. We have a backup AI to handle point defense.”

“Really?” Keyes was surprised; getting a single AI was tough enough these days. Getting two was unprecedented.

“Yes, sir. I’ll see to the initialization of our AI as soon as Cortana is through running her diagnostics.”

Captain Keyes had meet Cortana briefly in Dr. Halsey’s office. Although every AI he had met was brilliant, Cortana seemed exceptionally qualified. Captain Keyes had posed several navigation problems and she had figured out all the solutions . . . and had come up with a few options he had not considered.

She was somewhat high-spirited, but that was not necessarily a bad thing.

Lieutenant Hikowa led him into the elevator and punched the button for D deck.

“At first,” Hikowa said, “I was concerned with all the ordnance on board. One penetrating shot and we could explode like a string of firecrackers. But this ship doesn’t have much empty space—it’s full of braces, honeycombed titanium-A, and hydraulic reinforcements that can be activated in an emergency.

She can take a tremendous beating, sir.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to test that,” Captain Keyes said. He checked that this pipe was in his pocket.

“Yes, sir.”

Their elevator passed through the rotating section of the ship and Captain Keyes felt his weight ease and a flutter of vertigo. He grabbed hold of the rails.

The doors opened and they entered the cavernous engine room. The ceiling was four stories high, making this the largest compartment in the ship. Catwalks and platforms ringed the hexagonal chamber.

“Here’s the new reactor, sir,” Hikowa said.

The device perched within a lattice of nonferric ceramic and leaded crystal. The main reactor ring was nestled in the center of what appeared to be two smaller reactor rings. Technicians floated nearby taking readings and monitoring the output displays on the walls.

“I’m not familiar with this design, Lieutenant.”

“The latest reactor technology. The Pillar of Autumn is the first ship to get it. The two smaller fusion reactors come online to supercharge the main reactor. Their overlapping magnetic fields can temporally boost power by three hundred percent.”

Captain Keyes whistled appreciatively as he scrutinized the room. “I don’t see any coolant pipes.”

“There are none, sir. This reactor uses a laser-induced optical slurry of ions chilled to near-absolute zero to neutralize the waste heat. The more we crank up the power, the more juice we have to cool the system. It is very efficient.”

The smaller reactors flickered to life and Captain Keyes felt the ambient heat in the room jump, then suddenly cool again. He removed his pipe and tapped it in the palm of his hand. He would have to rethink his old tactics. This new engine could give him new options in battle.

“There’s more, sir.”

Lieutenant Hikowa led him back into the lift. “We have forty fifty-millimeter cannons for point defense, with overlapping fields of fire covering all inbound vectors.”

“What is our least defended approach vector?”

“Bottom fore,” she said, “along the lay line of the MAC system. There are very few gunnery placements there. Transient magnetic bursts tend to magnetize the weapons.”

“Tell me about the MAC gun, Lieutenant. It looks under-powered.”

“It fires a special light round with a ferrous core, but an outer layer of tungsten carbide. The round splinters on impact—like an assault rifle’s shredder rounds.” She was talking so fast she had to pause and take a deep breath. “This gun has magnetic field recyclers along the length that recapture the field energy. Coupled with booster capacitors, we can fire three successive shots with one charge.”

That would be very effective against the Covenant energy shields. The first shot, maybe the first pair of shots, would take down their shields. The last round would deliver a knockout punch.

“I take it you approve, Lieutenant?”

“To quote Ensign Lovell, sir, ‘I think I’m in love.’ ”

Captain Keyes nodded. “I notice we have several single ships and some Pelican dropships in the bay.”

“Yes, sir. One of the Longswords is equipped with a Shiva nuclear warhead. It can be remote-piloted.

We also have three HAVOK warheads onboard.”

“Of course,” Captain Keyes said. “And the Pelicans? One of them had extra armor.”

“The Spartans were working on it. Some sort of boarding craft.”

“The Spartans?” Captain Keyes asked. “They’re already onboard?”

“Yes, sir. They were here before we got on board.”

“Take me to them, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir.” Lieutenant Hikowa stopped the elevator and hit the button for C deck.

Twenty-five years ago Captain Keyes had helped procure the Spartan candidates for Dr. Halsey. She had said they might one day be the best hope the UNSC had for peace. At the time he’d assumed that the Doctor was prone to hyperbole—but it appeared that she’d been correct. That didn’t make what they had done right, though. His complicity in those kidnappings still haunted him.

The elevator doors opened. The primary storage bay had been converted into barracks for the thirty Spartans. Every one of them wore MJOLNIR battle armor. They looked alien to him. Part machine, part titan—but completely inhuman.

The room was filled with motion—Spartans unpacked crates, others cleaned and field-stripped their assault rifles, and a pair of them practiced hand-to-hand combat. Captain Keyes could barely follow their motions. They were so fast, no hesitation. Strike and block and counter-strike—their movements were a continuous stream of rapid-fire blurs.

Captain Keyes had seen the news feeds and heard the rumors, like everyone on in the fleet—the Spartans were near-mythological figures in the military. They were supposed to be super-human soldiers, invulnerable and indestructible—and it was almost the truth. Dr. Halsey had shown him their operational records.

Between the Spartans and the refitted Pillar of Autumn , Captain Keyes was beginning to believe Dr.

Halsey’s long-shot mission might work after all.

“Captain on the deck!” one of the Spartans shouted.

Every Spartan stopped and snapped to attention.

“As you were,” he said.

The Spartans relaxed slightly. One turned and strode toward him.

“Master Chief SPARTAN 117 reporting as ordered, sir.” The armored giant paused, and for a moment, Keyes thought the Spartan looked uncomfortable. “Sir, I regret the unit was not able to ask your permission to come aboard. Admiral Stanforth insisted we keep our presence off the COM channels and computer networks.”

Captain Keyes found the reflective faceplates of the Spartans’ helmets disconcerting. It was impossible to read their features.

“Quite all right, Master Chief. I just wanted to extend my regards. If you or your men need anything, let me know.”

“Yes, sir,” the Master Chief said.

An awkward moment of silence passed. Captain Keyes felt like he didn’t belong here—an intruder in a very exclusive club. “Well, Master Chief, I’ll be on the bridge.”

“Sir!” The Master Chief saluted.

Captain Keyes returned the salute and left with Lieutenant Hikowa.

When the elevator doors closed, Lieutenant Hikowa said, “Do you think—I mean with all due respect to the Spartans, sir—don’t you think they’re . . . strange?”

“Strange? Yes, Lieutenant. You might act a little strange if you seen and been through as much as they had.”

“Some people say they’re not even humans in those suits—that they’re just machines.”

“They’re human,” Captain Keyes said.

The elevator doors parted and Captain Keyes stepped onto his bridge. It was much smaller than he was accustomed to; the command chair was only a meter from the other stations. View screens dominated the room, and a massive, curved window afforded a panoramic view of the stars.

“Status reports,” Captain Keyes ordered.

Lieutenant Dominique spoke first. “Communication systems are green, sir. Monitoring FLEETCOM

Reach traffic. No new orders.” Dominique had gotten his hair shorn since he had been on the Iroquois .

He also had a new tattoo around his left wrist: the wavy lines of a Besell function.

“Reactor shakedown eighty percent complete,” Lieutenant Hall reported. “Oxygen, power, rotation, and pressure all green lights, sir.” She smiled, but it wasn’t like before—an automatic gesture. She seemed genuinely happy.

Lieutenant Hikowa took her seat and strapped in. She gathered her black hair and tied it into a knot.

“Weapons panel shows green, sir. MAC gun capacitors at zero charge.”

Ensign Lovell finally reported: “Navigation and sensor systems online, Captain, and all green. Ready for your orders.” Lovell was completely focused on his station.

A small hologram of Cortana flickered on the AI pedestal near navigation. “Engine shakedown running smoothly, Captain,” she said. “All personnel onboard. You have half-power now if you wish to move the ship. Fujikawa-Shaw generators on-line . . . you can take us into the Slipstream at your pleasure.”

“Very good,” Captain Keyes said.

Keyes surveyed his crew, pleased at how they had sharpened up after Sigma Octanus. Gone were the bleary, haggard expressions, and the tentative, nervous mannerisms.

Good, he thought. We’re going to need everyone at the top of their game now.

The crew had been briefed on their mission—part of it anyway. Captain Keyes had insisted. They were told they would be attempting to capture Covenant technology, with an aim to disabling one of the aliens’ ships and bringing it back intact.

What the crew didn’t know were the stakes.

“Approaching Reach system’s edge,” Ensign Lovell reported. “Ready to generate a Slipstream—”

“Captain!” Lieutenant Dominique cried. “Incoming Alpha priority transmission from FLEETCOM HQ at Reach . . . sir, they’re under Covenant attack!”