"Great," Kurt replied. "Let them."
A new volley of plasma bolts streamed through the breached wall.
Ash's shield unit sputtered and overloaded. He rolled flat to avoid getting burned.
Fred and Kelly tossed grenades. Distant explosions and screams echoed.
Another section of wall heated… and another. The Covenant weren't going to give up so easily. They'd open as many holes as they needed to penetrate their defenses.
"You don't understand," Endless Summer said. "Once the alien forces have finished with the Covenant ships, they will focus on the lesser threat: the UNSC battle group in orbit. The one sent here to rescue you."
The strategic picture instantly shifted in Kurt's mind. The fate of this battle group and his Spartans were linked. Save the ships and they'd have a way off this rock. Fail… and they'd be stuck here fighting Sentinels and Covenant ground forces until hell froze. Rescuing the other SPARTAN-IIIs in cryo would have to wait.
"This Sentinel factory produces a new unit every six seconds," the AI explained. "At that rate they will soon overwhelm any force the USNC can send."
"Can you find this place?" Kurt asked Dr. Halsey. "Can you move us there?"
She chewed on her lower lip. Her hands moved quickly over symbols, rotating the holographic projection of the planet around them at a dizzying rate.
"Got it," she said.
Endless Summer bowed and winked off.
Kurt motioned for the Spartans to fall back to the center of the room.
"Do it," he said. "Now."
The walls of the chamber exploded inward.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
2050 HOURS, NOVEMBER 3, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ZETA DORADUS SYSTEM, PLANET ONYX \ SENTINEL MANUFACTURING FACILITY UNDER NORTHERN POLAR REGION
Kurt crawled to the edge where Linda and Chief Mendez had posted, and peered out upon the vast factory, although the word "factory" was wholly inappropriate to describe the engineering wonderland.
From his perch stretched a cavernous space so large that he detected the slight arc of the planet's curve in the distance. The roof was beyond the range finder on Linda's Oracle sniper scope, and thin black clouds drifted two-thirds of the way from (he ceiling.
A machine the size of a battleship spewed a river of molten alloy into the air. This liquefied metal arced up and then cascaded into a hollow tower that pulsed with bioluminescent colors. From the bottom tumbled countless tiny parts winking with light.
These parts were whisked away by ribbons of shimmering energy so thick with distortion that Kurt couldn't see what occurred within… but from the opposite end streamed a never-ending procession of three-meter cylinders.
A pyramid five times the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza sat kilometers from Kurt's vantage. Instead of stone blocks, however, the structure was composed of floating golden spheres that turned and glowed with Forerunner hieroglyphs etched upon their surfaces.
Every six seconds a sphere from the apex of the pyramid ascended in a shaft of silver light. As it rose, the light intensified so even with maximum polarization on his faceplate Kurt could not discern what occurred there. When the sphere emerged, three rods accompanied it, all parts spinning in null gravity, flexing, until the pieces settled into their deadly recognizable configuration— a Sentinel of Onyx.
The new drone flew off into the clouds overhead… which Kurt could only estimate were thousands of completed units.
He blinked, wondering how they were going to shut this place down, and backed away from the edge.
Deeper in the shadows of the wide ledge sat a four-meter-diameter platform and a tiny holographic console: Dr. Halsey's "translocation" device.
She knelt in the middle, scanned the drifting symbols, and occasionally tapped one that interested her.
She had saved them—moved them from the map room to this Sentinel factory in the blink of an eye.
Fred, Kelly, and Will crouched around the platform, sniper rifles leveled. Not that shooting would have done any good, but at least they'd see any approaching Sentinel.
In front of the SPARTAN-IIs sat Ash, Holly Olivia, Mark, Tom, and Lucy—a collection of mottled blacks and grays in their camouflaging SPI armor. They held }ackal shield gauntlets, ready to activate them to protect the others.
There had been serious nausea effects during the translocation. "Uncertainty errors," Dr.
Halsey had called them.
It felt like Kurt's guts had been untwisted, and then dumped back into his body, inside out.
Holly had thrown up during the ride. She shook her head, clearing as much of her visor as possible. She didn't dare remove her helmet on hostile ground. There was a defogging vent that could dry the stuff, but that would take a few minutes.
She moved closer to Dante and set a hand on his shoulder.
The young Spartan's body lay against the wall, shrouded in a thermal blanket.
Kurt looked away—it was too painful, and he was grateful that no one could see his twisted expression.
"Are you certain we can't use nukes?" Kurt whispered to Dr. Halsey.
"The electromagnetic pulse will disrupt the translocation system for days." She glanced at her wristwatch. "In sixty-eight minutes what was set in motion by the arming of Halo rings comes to completion on this world. The doorway to the core room of Onyx closes. Without the translocation system we will have no way to move in, recover the technologies, and escape."
Fred nodded out to the factory. "If those things get out, engage the UNSC fleet, and win, then we're stuck here."
Dr. Halsey unfolded her laptop computer. She tapped a few keys and then turned the screen to face the Spartans. On the display was an overhead view of the factory. "Here, here, and here," she said pointing. "Take out these structures and Sentinel production will halt indefinitely."
The targets were a crystal energy emitter the size of a three-story building, a U-shaped object as large as a UNSC cruiser, and a titanic sphere that extended ten thousand meters under the floor.
"Oh… easy," Kelly quipped.
"If we use the rest of the C-12," Will said, "and a few SPNKr missiles, we might be able to shatter that crystal."
Fred shook his head. "Look at the map scale. The targets are thirty kilometers apart. It's going to take too much time to get there and set up."
Holly coughed, and said, "So we have to be in three places simultaneously, and we need ten times the firepower we currently have. That's not possible."
Kurt winced at this, reminded of the "nothing is impossible for a Spartan" credo. How many lives had it cost to prove that? Maybe this time they were in an intractable tactical jam.
They all stared at the diagram, stumped.
"… Rabbit," Ash whispered.
Kurt waited for an explanation, but Ash just continued to examine Dr. Halsey's map.
Kelly snapped her fingers. "I get it!" She snorted a single laugh. "Gutsy plan, kid."
Ash faced them. "We can be in three places at the same time," he said. "And we've got a hundred times the firepower we need." He turned and gazed out to the factory. "We're going to all be rabbits."
Ash resisted the urge to vomit. This was the stupidest plan he'd ever thought up. Too late now, though, to back out.
One moment he was on the ledge looking at Dr. Halsey while she manipulated holographic symbols—the next Team Saber was on the factory floor, his insides twisted around, and they were running for their lives.