Halo_ The Cole Protocol Part 2

IN ORBIT, METISETTE, 23 LIBRAE.

Thel grumbled happily. They'd taken the Kig-Yar shuttle out farther away from the Rubble, slowly scanning the area until they'd found a larger Kig-Yar transport s.h.i.+p on its way to Metisette.They boarded it, fast and quick, before the few Kig-Yar on board had even realized what had happened.On board were several hundred Unggoy. The Kig-Yar had been in charge, but didn't have the numbers to run their own s.h.i.+ps. Now the Kig-Yar were dead.But the Unggoy had run the s.h.i.+p for the Kig-Yar. That made them useful. They were willing to work for Thel and his crew, or so the cowering Unggoy Deacon said as Thel stood on the purple-stained bridge. "It would be the Prophets' will," the Deacon yelped."It would be," Thel said from behind the Unggoy. "We are on a direct mission from a Hierarch."The Unggoy waddled about, s.h.i.+fting its mouthpiece, to face Thel. It looked up and spread its arms out. "I do not question. I serve. That is our fate," it moaned.Thel couldn't care less for Unggoy self-pity. "Tell your crew this s.h.i.+p flies where we command, or we will slaughter every last one of you. Saal will go down to engineering and watch over you. Veer will roam the corridors."Veer growled, and the Unggoy backed up. "Sirs! We will do our s.h.i.+p duties! Doubt us not."Thel turned to Veer and Saal. "Be wary. The slightest notion the Unggoy are playing games, hold nothing back."Veer and Saal grunted affirmatively and walked out of the c.o.c.kpit.The deacon turned to go, but Thel held up a hand, and the Unggoy froze."What is down there, Unggoy?" Thel asked. He pointed at the image of the planet on a screen at the front of the c.o.c.kpit.It was Metisette. Its sickly, yellow-orange-colored atmosphere swirled; thick, cold storms lashed the icy surface.The Unggoy stared at them, saying nothing.Thel turned back to the screen and folded his arms. "Zhar, my closest advisor, didn't want to come here. He wanted to turn this transport right around to attack the Kig-Yar s.h.i.+p docked by the humans, and take that right back to High Charity High Charity so we could warn the prophets about the Jiralhanae treason." so we could warn the prophets about the Jiralhanae treason.""A n.o.ble choice," the Unggoy said."It is not," Thel said. "We were captured, and jailed. When we return, we will be lucky if we hold our t.i.tles, if not our very names." names." The Unggoy trembled at Thel's anger. "What is your name, Deacon?" The Unggoy trembled at Thel's anger. "What is your name, Deacon?""Pipit," the Unggoy replied.Thel folded his arms. "Pipit, one of my ancestors, a kaidon of Vadam, lost a war to one of the keep's bitter rivals. The new kaidon put my ancestor in the cellars, jails where the defeated were left in the most dishonorable manner imaginable. They were fed sc.r.a.ps, and visited by the invaders to be mocked and laughed at. The most honorable among the jailed killed themselves or each other."The kaidon escaped after weeks of starving. He had become so thin he could pull himself through the bars of his window looking out over the Vadam keep cliffs. He scaled the cliff, and swam down the river, all the way to the valley."The kaidon walked for many days, eating vermin and sc.r.a.ps, becoming lower than low, until he came into the vast deserts that lie in the interior of all our lands. And out there, after wandering for many years, built his strength, his hardness, and made allies from other wanderers. They were the least of the least, yes, but with a will to fight, and a will to live no matter the odds."With this new tribe, my ancestor returned to Vadam keep and scaled the walls. He killed his enemies all, throwing their bodies to the river. It is said that it ran purple with blood for a week. And when the kaidon was done killing his enemies, he opened the jails and killed the Vadam who had been cowardly enough to remain alive in them. That was my kaidon. That is Vadam. Vadam. Our blood was forged in the desert, confirmed in the keep that day, and purified through Kaidon Ther's experiences. So it is carved on the Vadam saga wall." Our blood was forged in the desert, confirmed in the keep that day, and purified through Kaidon Ther's experiences. So it is carved on the Vadam saga wall."Thel looked over at Zhar, who asked, "s.h.i.+pmaster, do you have a point to retelling a stanza of your family's saga?"Thel sat down in the s.h.i.+pmaster's chair at the center of the c.o.c.kpit. "I can hardly turn my back on my lineage, can I, Zhar? I will not return to High Charity High Charity with a lost s.h.i.+p, knowing we were locked up by Kig-Yar, and little knowledge of what is happening here. I would be no better than the jailed Sangheili that Ther executed for being useless." with a lost s.h.i.+p, knowing we were locked up by Kig-Yar, and little knowledge of what is happening here. I would be no better than the jailed Sangheili that Ther executed for being useless.""It was a suggestion. An option," Zhar said."But it is not an option, as we are Sangheili." Thel now turned back to Deacon Pipit. "So you understand, Unggoy? We are here to stay. I ask you, again, what is on Metisette?""Dreams," Pipit sighed."Do not play word games," Thel growled. "Be plain.""When commanders need fighters, Unggoy are ordered to breed and expand. Then we die in great numbers. Unggoy, you all say: do this, do that. Some dream of free," Pipit explained. "And though we hate Kig-Yar, this one named Reth, high commander, says to those Unggoy that they can come to Metisette. Come, build a home. Help change this moon so it becomes a place you can live where the methane is free in all the air. Breed free."Zhar started to laugh. "And you believed this... Reth?"Pipit looked up, beady red eyes squinting in anger. "Kig-Yar always betray, yes, but the opportunity..." The alien shrugged.Thel looked down at the fatalistic little alien. "So Metisette has methane in the air that you can breathe.""A place for Unggoy," Pipit said. "A safe place, where we can live without interference, without controls on our population that are imposed from on high. Where we can walk around without these chafing harnesses and breathing tanks.""An Unggoy paradise," Thel muttered. "Where you can breed until you overrun the entire place." The Unggoy were well-known to reproduce like mad. During peacetime the Prophets monitored their population closely; the Unggoy had never cared for that. And even though they hated the Kig-Yar, it made sense that the Unggoy had jumped at the chance in this strange sequence of events to gain a world of their own.Thel scratched his lower mandibles.Saal called Thel over the intercom. "They have our infiltrator harness here," he said. "In their storage bay. The Kig-Yar stole it from our s.h.i.+p!"Thel stopped scratching as he thought about the news. "We have a change of plans. Take the armor down to the Kig-Yar shuttle. Get the shuttle warmed up as well. We are going down.""Into that murk?" Zhar protested from nearby."Yes. Zhar, the Prophets unleash the Unggoy to breed whenever there is a war; they stop mixing antibreeding hormones into the methane supplies. Now we have a renegade Kig-Yar breeding Unggoy. I think this 'Reth' is creating an army on the surface of Metisette for himself.""So we are going to see for ourselves?" Zhar snorted."I want to talk to Reth," Thel said simply."Why?""If he is in charge of Metisette, he knows what is going on with the humans and the Kig-Yar working together. And he knows about the betrayal of the Tiralhanae. Reth knows things we need to know.""And he is surrounded by hundreds of Unggoy," Zhar noted.The deacon cleared his throat. Thel turned to him, and Pipit said, "Not hundreds."Thel waited a moment. "Thousands?"Pipit still bobbed his head. "Tens of..." but already the alien had shaken its head again."Hundreds?"Now Pipit nodded eagerly as Zhar swore.Reth had quite an army at his disposal. This would make getting to him a lot more difficult.But Thel smiled. "We have our infiltrator harness back." That gave them an edge. They were not just Sangheili, but well armed, well armored, and also invisible Sangheili.Like his ancestor Ther, the ancient kaidon, Thel would come back against great odds, swarming into the middle of his enemy before they even knew what had happened."Get us ready, Zhar," Thel ordered. "We are going down there. Pipit, Veer will take over while we are gone; you will help him. Give us the coordinates to Reth. And if you deceive us, Veer will be here to make sure you suffer immediately for it."Pipit nodded and, in a voice that seemed to crack, gave Zhar the necessary coordinates."Thank you, Deacon." Thel looked around. "You will also need to have an Unggoy pilot meet us at the shuttle, Deacon. Talk to the Unggoy down there on Metisette, tell them you had an accident aboard, and need to be resupplied with methane for Unggoy to breathe."With that done, Thel stalked off the bridge with Zhar close behind."Three of us against hundreds of thousands of Unggoy," Zhar said."The little ones will cower with fear and run from us in floods," Thel proclaimed as they thudded down the corridors.Zhar laughed. "You are confident.""I am Sangheili," Thel said. "This is what we are."

They crammed into the tiny shuttle. Spec ops armor lay on the benches where Unggoy would have lined up and sat. Now there was only one Unggoy, a terrified pilot who remained strapped in and staring at the Sangheili in terror.Thel felt the warmth that came to him when he had a direct plan. "Take us down, Saal."Once they'd broken through the worst of the deceleration in the upper atmosphere of Metisette, Thel unstrapped himself and walked back to don his spec ops armor, and helped Zhar with his. The shuttle shook and rattled its way through the thick atmosphere, but they remained balanced on their feet easily enough.Once suited up, Zhar flicked the armor on, and faded away into invisibility."It works," Thel said. Then tested his own.Zhar and Saal switched places. As Saal struggled into his armor alone and Zhar flew the shuttle in, Thel walked up to the edge of the c.o.c.kpit to look down.Nothing but thick orange clouds and haze-at least until they broke out under the clouds to fly over a jagged, ice-cold landscape whipped by constant storms.Zhar banked them slowly through the orange murk toward a ma.s.sive crater. As they flew across it the sides reached up like distant mountains, and Thel could see a ma.s.sive lake at its center.In the distance stood what looked like a keep, straddling a giant river of liquid that tumbled over the edge of the crater down to its floor. The keep was ramshackle, made out of parts of old, ruined s.h.i.+ps that had been rudely deorbited and landed near the lip of the immense waterfall.But it stood high with additions that had been built in between the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps' hulls, with tubes and domes that hung like carbuncles pocking the rock faces and rising above the river. Thel saw that it could house hundreds of thousands.Elevators ran down along the sides of the thousand feet of waterfall to structures around the giant lake.Metisette wasn't a world one could breath in. Its mostly nitrogen atmosphere would leave Sangheili, or Kig-Yar, or most races with nothing to breathe.The liquid on the very cold Metisette was methane. Thel watched as a stream of it fell off the lip of the crater. Methane mist hung strong in the air all throughout the natural valleys and low areas of the crater, thanks to the falls."Giant reactors heat the land all around the crater," the pilot spoke up, pride suddenly more powerful than its fear of the Sangheili. "It makes more of the mists."Zhar skimmed the lake and approached the falls. The shuttle hit the mists, and then rose up near the falls, pressing Thel against the seat."We pop over the edge and land, Zhar," Thel shouted. "Make sure your armor is tight, Saal. It will give us air until we are inside the structure. If Reth is breathing and Kig-Yar are in there, then we will be okay."If there is only methane, we go in as far as we can before coming back. Zhar stays with the shuttle, hiding, as this Unggoy has the other Unggoy load up our shuttle with tanks of methane."Thel watched the remains of a large Kig-Yar merchant s.h.i.+p appear over the lip, and Zhar arced over it into a large landing area marked out in plasma-melted rock.As soon as the shuttle touched rock, the three Sangheili activated their camouflage and flickered and vanished. Zhar sat across from the Unggoy who was supposedly piloting the shuttle, and Thel and Saal jumped out the back of the shuttle.The Unggoy pilot had not lied-the land here was bitterly cold to Thel, but it was tolerable. Like an arctic waste. Not nearly as cold as the rest of the moon.Silent ghosts moving through the orange murk that hung in the air, they maneuvered across the field, keeping well clear of the Unggoy who waddled out across the landing pad toward the shuttle, barking and shouting in their language.Thel kept an easy lope going, covering the ground so fast that any Unggoy who noticed a wavering in the air would surely shake their heads and dismiss it as a trick of the light.They slipped in through a series of giant airlocks, where Unggoy still had to wear their harnesses and tanks.Thel looked around. "This is Kig-Yar territory," he whispered to Saal. It made sense that the lesser aliens were here in a re-purposed old s.h.i.+p, mounted near the lip of the falls. It made for a commanding view, because although the Unggoy felt like this was their world, Thel would imagine that the Kig-Yar saw it differently.Saal found a lone Unggoy, and an empty room in the back of what had once been the large hangar bays of the Kig-Yar s.h.i.+p.It didn't take long to get the Unggoy to give up the location of Reth."The c.o.c.kpit room, at the very top."Saal snapped the Unggoy's neck and they took the emergency maintenance tubes up through the s.h.i.+p. Thel panted heavily and his mandibles were wide open, his tongue flicking the air, by the time they arrived at the top.Four Kig-Yar guarded the c.o.c.kpit's doors, but two of them were looking out the windows down to the launch pad, bored, their plasma rifles slung over their backs.They never had a chance to turn and see what attacked them. The two Sangheili were in their midst in a split second, firing point-blank into their faces with their own plasma rifles.The other two Kig-Yar had a second to squall loudly before they met the same fate, and Thel blew the c.o.c.kpit doors apart with a grenade.Inside the carpeted, lavishly furnished room sat a single Kig-Yar, his large eyes staring at the s.h.i.+mmering flaws in the air before him. Thel shut his invisibility off."Sangheili," the Kig-Yar hissed. "d.a.m.n you, what have you done? Do you know who you cross?""You are Reth?" Thel asked."Yes," the Kig-Yar said."You let Unggoy breed without control. You pretend to be a voice of the Prophets here. You are a heretic." Thel raised his plasma rifle and struck Reth in the head with it."Pick him up," Thel ordered Saal. "Let us return to the shuttle."A loud warble echoed across the corridors. Thel looked around. "That sounded like an alarm."Saal walked over to the front of the c.o.c.kpit, Reth slung casually over a shoulder. "It is. We should call Zhar, have him fly up here. We can get outside onto the top and get him to pick us up there."Thel stepped forward to stand next to Saal and looked down. Saal murmured into the air, talking to Zhar."Zhar needs just a minute. Too many Unggoy inside the shuttle."Hundreds of feet below in a courtyard formed from the superstructures of three or four mothballed s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps, thousands of Unggoy streamed out. The crowds ran to surround the building they were in."They cannot enter," Saal said. "Almost all of them have no harnesses or air. The methane mists out there let them breathe. Where are their harnesses?"Thel looked at the unconscious Kig-Yar on Saal's shoulder."The Kig-Yar either have not made them many, or are keeping them under lock and key.""But why?" Saal asked."Because they cannot leave Metisette, or even attack this Kig-Yar structure in the center of their own keep, if they have no tanks.""Doesn't help us right now," Saal said, looking at the quadrangle fill with Unggoy. "Enough Unggoy seem to have harnesses to cause us us trouble." trouble."Thel turned and looked back down the corridor, hearing the sound of Unggoy screeches. "It tells us who's really in charge of all this.""The Kig-Yar."Thel looked back at Reth's limp form. "Yes. That one in particular. Wake him up. We may have to put a gun to his head. What is Zhar's progress?"Saal c.o.c.ked his head, listening to an update from down below. "Zhar is closing the ramp and warming the shuttle up.""The timing will be tight," Thel said. He walked over to the doors with his plasma rifle up and ready. "Be ready to blow the windows out when he gets airborne.""My honor," Saal grunted. He set Reth down and slapped the Kig-Yar's face. "Wake up," the Sangheili zealot growled.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

ASUNCION HABITAT, INNER RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE.

Keyes watched his people being herded toward gates. They huddled together and stared down at their feet as they moved forward. Men in gray uniforms, rifles slung at the ready, moved about the edges, pus.h.i.+ng the crew back into line toward the five checkpoints the rails led everyone toward.The Midsummer Night Midsummer Night had been docked with an asteroid. From the cargo bay they'd all been herded out at gunpoint, down a long corridor in the endcap of the habitat, and walked out into the interior. had been docked with an asteroid. From the cargo bay they'd all been herded out at gunpoint, down a long corridor in the endcap of the habitat, and walked out into the interior.But the tall rails, all enclosed in chicken wire with razor wire wrapped around that, effectively prevented them from walking out into the habitat until they'd pa.s.sed through five stations. Humorless-looking officials stood by small podiums in the stations with computer pads."Stay single single file," a guard shouted. file," a guard shouted.The lines formed up, people jammed against each other, wondering what came next. They were face-to-face with the enemy: Insurrectionists.Captured.A woman in a black uniform with yellow trim walked up to a dais mounted over the gates. She brushed back a long lock of black hair, then folded her arms at the small of her back in a sort of parade rest.When she spoke her voice was amplified so that the entire crowd could hear her. "Welcome to the habitat Asuncion," the woman said.Keyes leaned back and looked up at the far side of the asteroid's interior, far on the other side from where he stood. Patches of gardens and trees could be seen. It was odd, seeing something almost pastoral in a megastructure like this."And welcome to the Rubble," the woman continued. "My name is Maria Esquival. I am here to help orient you to your new situation."Keyes was surrounded by his remaining bridge crew. Lt. Dante Kirtley had folded his arms and was watching the woman, but Junior Grade Rai Li checked out the crowded crew, looking worried.Behind Keyes loitered a handful of ODSTs, with Faison standing in their midst. He raised an eyebrow at Keyes.Maria Esquival continued her speech. "After the destruction of Madrigal, as we escaped into the asteroids and rocks here, we had some very tough decisions to make about who we would become: refugees struggling to exist, fighting over sc.r.a.ps? Or a civilization?"We chose civilization. We worked hard to build the Rubble. We worked hard because we knew we had something to build. A world like nothing the UNSC has ever known, with its strict hierarchies and militaristic command."Keyes looked over at Dante, who rolled his eyes. "More Insurrectionist bulls.h.i.+t," the comms specialist muttered."Free of the trappings of being a colony, we reinvented ourselves from the ground up. The Rubble is a technocracy. All of its munic.i.p.al functions, all its laws, are voted on by our members. Some of us are Insurrectionist, some of us are refugees from Madrigal. Others are miners who were here from the beginning. Some are smugglers who made it here from the Inner Colonies. All are welcome."We mean that. All are welcome to have the right to vote. This includes you, crew of the Midsummer Night Midsummer Night."Esquival paused to let that sink in. In the crowd, Kirtley leaned back toward Keyes. "They all vote on everything. Like even security? That'd be insane.""Because we believe in freedom, the Rubble invites you to join our democracy. You have a choice in what happens next to you. You can choose to turn your back on the imperialist nature of the UNSC. Many of you may have come from Outer Colonies. Colonies that fell to the alien Covenant while the UNSC took their time to enact methods of dealing with the aliens. Colonies that you know were not as well protected as they could have been, because the UNSC's loyalties are to Earth first, the Inner Colonies next, and the Outer Colonies last. Here in the Rubble, you are equal among all."Rai Li sniffed. "How many crew you think are going to buy that c.r.a.p?"Keyes looked out over the crowd of heads. How many crew were survivors of border colonies, or had family in the Outer Colonies?He thought of his sister for a second, a twinge of pain at the thought of her dying without UNSC protection, out there alone in the Outer Colonies.Or maybe, Keyes suddenly thought, maybe they'd survived. Just like the Rubble had.The idea captured him for a second, and then Keyes shook himself. No, he had to remember what the Covenant was really about. The Rubble was some strange anomaly..."Too many." Keyes rubbed his jaw, thoughtfully. "And can you blame them? We have no options. We're stuck out here. Behind the lines. They might as well start trying to find allies, figure out what the new game is. We're refugees, now."His eyes burned. He hadn't slept since they'd been boarded, running from place to place to make sure things went smoothly.Now it was over.Everything was over.He'd read about POWs in past wars, unlucky b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who'd been the first shot out of the air and stuck in a camp for the length of a war.If he lived, he'd be one of those footnotes.Maria Esquival cleared her throat. "But, as you are UNSC, and have a checkered background, there are some concessions that have to be made when integrating you into the population of the Rubble."You will have to swallow a motion tracker, in the form of a pill. This will let the Rubble's AI monitor and track your location. You will have to report for counseling and you will be a.s.signed a case officer who will review the integration process. However these things are a small price to pay for your freedom."Keyes wished he had his pipe to fiddle with. He had to leave it aboard the s.h.i.+p, along with any other personal effects or objects as they were moved to Asuncion."Those of you who wish to become citizens, have only to ask when you reach Processing. You will be split off to a separate location. Those of you still loyal to the UNSC, who refuse the pill, we will, of course, be forced to jail you."With that, Esquival turned around and left her perch. The large lines staggered forward."A lot of them are asking for citizens.h.i.+p," Faison said from behind Keyes."Can't blame them," Keyes said. "One can understand what's going through their minds.""You're not going to do anything about it?" Faison asked."We're trapped. We have nothing. What do you want me to do? They're doing the rational thing."Faison grabbed Keyes by the shoulder. "Either we're soldiers or we're not. Defeat or not, we should never forget that, Keyes.Give them a speech. Say something something to counteract all that, because whatever this is you're doing right now, this isn't leaders.h.i.+p. Where's the man who had us all jump out of that freighter?" to counteract all that, because whatever this is you're doing right now, this isn't leaders.h.i.+p. Where's the man who had us all jump out of that freighter?"Say something.Keyes cleared his throat, then jumped up onto the railing. He wobbled for a second. "Crew of the Midsummer Night," Midsummer Night," he shouted. he shouted.The snaking line paused. And Keyes suddenly felt like a blank sheet of paper. Nothing came to him.Faison punched his s.h.i.+n, and Keyes sucked his breath in. "Crew of the Midsummer Night, Midsummer Night, we have had a hard blow, I know. Some of you, after hearing all this, will have a hard choice to make. we have had a hard blow, I know. Some of you, after hearing all this, will have a hard choice to make."Just know this. No matter who we are, or why we give our service, we all joined to fight a common enemy. The people here, although they fled the destruction of their own world, think that the Covenant can be allies. The same creatures that destroyed their world. I think this is an illusion. So I hope that you will, if the time ever comes, stand by my side again if the need calls for it. With no hard feelings. I will not be joining their citizenry. I remain ready to fight the Covenant and protect humanity, as I swore to do when I joined the fight. As did you all."Keyes got back down.There was only silence. Rai Li finally shook her head. "That was an awkward speech.""Doesn't matter," Faison said. "What mattered was that he gave it." And Keyes knew he was right; he was stumbling toward being the leader they all wanted . . . and needed.Keyes grabbed Faison by the shoulder. "By the way, why are so many ODSTs at the front of the line? They look like they're going to be citizens."Faison nodded and looked Keyes in the eye. "Well, of course.You know the h.e.l.ljumpers: first in and all that." that." He gave the last word in emphasis. He gave the last word in emphasis.Then he winked.Keyes got it. He could still trust h.e.l.ljumpers to be h.e.l.ljumpers. Faison was just making sure he got men out into the general populace in case they needed them out there."You've got company," Lt. Kirtley said.Maria Esquival and several black-clad men pushed through the crowd of crew toward Keyes."Lieutenant Jacob Keyes, I gather?" Esquival said."Yes ma'am," Keyes replied."No more speeches."Keyes laughed. "I thought we were all equals here."Esquival tilted her head. "You just announced you gave up the right to citizenry, right?""Yes..."One of the black-uniformed men punched Keyes in the stomach. Faison stepped forward, but Keyes waved him back as he coughed."Then I'm pleased to report I'm under no obligation to treat you as a citizen, Lieutenant Keyes." Esquival smiled. "The problem is, you have a position of power over your men. Such speeches, while admirable, are given from that position of power. Many possible citizens might feel compelled to go to jail who wouldn't otherwise.""It'll all end," Keyes said. "When the Covenant gets bored of whatever game it's playing here."Esquival sighed. "You're so sure of yourself. The war with the Covenant is something the UNSC somehow started back on Harvest, we're sure of it. This is not our war, we just got caught up in it. It's your your war. While you all fight to the last man with your brotherhood of arms, we've built something here. I don't know if the UNSC has noticed, but the Covenant is comprised of a number of varying races. Many of these were allowed into the Covenant. We here in the Rubble are looking for ways humanity can war. While you all fight to the last man with your brotherhood of arms, we've built something here. I don't know if the UNSC has noticed, but the Covenant is comprised of a number of varying races. Many of these were allowed into the Covenant. We here in the Rubble are looking for ways humanity can join join their ranks. As a junior race, perhaps. But we're adept, Lieutenant Keyes, we'll work our way up." their ranks. As a junior race, perhaps. But we're adept, Lieutenant Keyes, we'll work our way up."Keyes shook his head. "You conspire with the enemy." Esquival sighed. "Take him and his bridge crew to the jails. Get them out of here."They zip-tied his hands, and then led him off. Several junior officers started applauding, but it died out nervously after a few seconds.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.

SOMEWHERE NEAR HABITAT CARIBO INNER RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE.

Jai eyeballed the Insurrectionist smuggler in the distance. They'd been tagging along far behind it until it had docked.Now he flew in the weightless vacuum toward it.He struck the surface, absorbing the impact with his knees. Even as he rebounded, he threw a magnetic grapple at the hull to stay attached.Adriana hit the hull next to him. She grabbed his leg with one hand to stop him from bouncing back off. She had a large plastic case tucked underneath the other arm.Jai looked at her helmet. "What does Mike have for us today?""Electromagnetic pulse bomb. Mostly harmless-except to anything electronic aboard the Kestrel. Kestrel. It'll wipe it all clean," Adriana said. She opened the case and pulled out a large, disc-shaped device that looked like a landmine. "He's been saving this one." It'll wipe it all clean," Adriana said. She opened the case and pulled out a large, disc-shaped device that looked like a landmine. "He's been saving this one."With a thud the EMP attached itself to the hull. Adriana leaned over it and tapped out a code. "It talking to you, Mike?""We're live," Mike reported. "Now get well clear of that thing. The EMP pulse is strong enough to fry a whole s.h.i.+p. Usually our armor can recover from those bursts pretty quickly, but it will still knock out your MJOLNIR briefly if you're too close. I want to wait until we're all back aboard and well clear before-"Jai spotted movement. "We have company. They're coming from the airlock."Two black s.p.a.ce suits, hardened-looking affairs, coasted quickly at them. A burst of flame from their backs jetted them down the hull even faster."Hostile or curious?" Mike asked.Muzzle flash answered that; the two suits had machine guns in either hand.Adriana bent down and leapt at them, pulling out her battle rifle and firing. Her rounds sparked and pinged off well-hardened material and the two suits curled up in a ball."They were expecting us," Jai said."We've been here a while, it's obvious something's something's happening," Mike replied. "Not too surprising they've rustled up a response of some sort. I'm jockeying happening," Mike replied. "Not too surprising they've rustled up a response of some sort. I'm jockeying Petya Petya in closer." in closer.""No," Adriana said. "Get ready to hit the EMP; we don't want to give these goons a chance with it. They've probably raised the alarm. We also don't want to give them time to get the data off the s.h.i.+p somehow."She grunted as she smacked into one of the suits.Jai leapt at the second one while paying out the rope on his grapple with one hand. He didn't bother shooting at the man until they collided. He ripped the rocket pack off the back of the combat s.p.a.ce suit and threw it away, did the same with the man's two guns, then yanked himself back toward the smuggler with the line.The black suit hung still, unable to move anywhere.Adriana had smashed in the faceplate of their other opponent. The man's dying breath hung in the air between the two, a crystalline and fading cloud.She threw the suit away, the motion pus.h.i.+ng her toward the hull."Four more of them," she said. The glare of their packs marked them, flying right at them from the asteroid."Let's get out of here."With all the strength available to them from the combination of their physique and the MJOLNIR powered armor, they crouched and leapt for the Petya, Petya, over a mile away. over a mile away.Halfway across, Mike triggered the EMP bomb with a dramatic electric fireshow that crackled across the Kestrel's Kestrel's hull. hull.It also left their chasers immobile, their electronics burnt out by the invisible wave of electrical energy the bomb had released.Jai's heads-up display flickered slightly. "Cutting it close, Mike?""A little," came the response.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.

THE REDOUBT, METISETTE, 23 LIBRAE.

The first trio of Unggoy to turn the corridor walked right into Thel's line of fire. Short bursts of plasma struck them in the center of their torsos.Footsteps pattered behind Thel. He turned around and saw Reth trying to run away from Saal. Saal grabbed the Kig-Yar leader and dragged him back toward the windows and out of the direct line of fire."Do you two realize what you are doing?" the Kig-Yar asked.Saal c.o.c.ked his head. "We are kidnapping you."Reth did not find it as amusing as Saal seemed to. "There are hundreds of thousands of Unggoy out there, all who are at my command.""They are out there," Saal said. "But you and I know they cannot all get in here." And Saal chuckled."So you plan on doing what then?" Reth hissed. "You are meddling in extraordinarily important affairs."Thel ducked behind the doorframe as more Unggoy spilled out into the far side of the corridor. One stumbled when he saw Thel duck back around with his plasma rifle. "Sangheili! Defend the Redoubt!" it screamed, and the back of its methane tank exploded from another accurate shot. Flaming debris struck other Unggoy, who lost their cohesive charge down the corridor and scattered, trying to pat the flames away before they got burned."That should hold them for a bit," Thel muttered. But then to his surprise, the Unggoy turned back toward him again.These were some very determined Unggoy."They have something to fight for," Reth shouted. "Sangheili, you don't understand what's going on. You must free me. I can save your lives. I swear it."Thel watched the Unggoy charge. There was little love between the Kig-Yar and Sangheili-Reth's kind resented the position Sangheili held in the Covenant. And the Sangheili regarded the Kig-Yar as little more than scavengers.Thel suspected Reth was lying and would happily have them killed the moment they set their weapons down.But Reth pressed on nonetheless. "You are the Sangheili from Retribution's Thunder, Retribution's Thunder, am I right?" am I right?"Why was Zhar taking so long? Thel shot another handful of Unggoy."Yes."More came up the elevators and stairs and ran forward."It was a mistake. We should not have betrayed you to those Jiralhanae," Reth said in as soothing a voice as a Kig-Yar could. "But we needed you to not interfere! Not after all the work we've done so far."Thel shook his head. "What is done is done. You have made your choices. Now we are making ours." Way too many Unggoy were rus.h.i.+ng up to the top floor, flooding over dead bodies in the hall. Thel knew they were going to continue until he ran out of the charge in his plasma rifle."You go against the Hierarchs!" Reth shouted.Saal backhanded the Kig-Yar. "We are on a direct mission for for the Hierarchs. Do not dare blaspheme like that. As if you speak for the Hierarchs..." he muttered. the Hierarchs. Do not dare blaspheme like that. As if you speak for the Hierarchs..." he muttered.Thel saw out of the corner of his eye that the Kig-Yar looked stunned. "Which Hierarch?""The Prophet of Regret himself," Saal proclaimed proudly.Reth shook his head. "Wrong Prophet," he muttered, the feathered spines on his head wavering in confusion.Wrong Prophet? Saal and Thel looked at each other, and then Saal shouted, "Zhar is up!"Sure enough a column of disturbed air rippled just outside the windows."Blow the windows out!" Thel ordered. He shut the doors and locked them against the Unggoy.Saal used a sticky grenade on the thick windows. The blue light pulsed, and then Thel grabbed Reth to s.h.i.+eld him as the explosion shook the room.Gla.s.s shards flew out, and the thunder of engines filled the room, bringing the acrid clouds of methane mist with it.Thel hoisted Reth onto his back. "You scream, struggle, or move about, you will regret it dearly. Now take a deep breath while there's still some air!"He followed Saal out onto the lip of the window, looking at the slope of the repurposed s.h.i.+p stretching out before him. They didn't want to go that way. Slide off the edge, they'd have a very long fall.Thel pulled himself and the weight of the Kig-Yar up, using his hands and legs to crawl up onto the slope of metal above the windows. Saal scrambled up ahead, unenc.u.mbered, to the top of the s.h.i.+p, where the shuttle hovered, waiting for them.They needed one last tactic to gain them some time. Thel pulled out a pair of grenades and let them roll down toward the slope of the hull. As they dropped by his feet he kicked them in through the window.He scrambled up after Saal as fast he could, the grenades' explosions blowing red flame and debris out of the windows underneath him as he ran.The Unggoy pilot stood in the back of the shuttle, eyes wide in stunned surprise as he watched them run toward him. Zhar gently touched the top of the old Kig-Yar wreck with the shuttle and Saal and Thel leapt aboard. The tips of other grounded s.h.i.+ps poked out of the thick, ruddy mists all around them like towers."Take it up!" Saal shouted forward, and they accelerated away, the structure dwindling at the top of the falls, the crater lake falling into the distance.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.

HABITAT EL CUIDAD, INNER RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE.

Despite being left alone, Ignatio Delgado had still not managed to free himself.The thing was, trying to use a sliver of metal to pick the lock of a pair of handcuffs was a challenging proposition. And Delgado couldn't even get the sliver to reach the keyhole.With a loud sigh the one guard in the warehouse stood up and folded up whatever he'd been watching and pocketed it. "Alright, Delgado, things are settling down. Time to get you moved out."Delgado nodded, filled with a sense of foreboding. This was it, then.The guard noticed the look on his face. "Come on, Delgado. It's not like that.""Really?" Delgado looked the heavily muscled man up and down. "How is it, then?"The man shrugged. "All Bonifacio and the Security Council know is that the data keeps getting found out. Better to keep you on close watch."Delgado shook his head. "Then why are you doing this? Why the hired muscle, the empty warehouse?""It keeps you under his eye. He doesn't trust you, Delgado. You're a wild card, man." Delgado was unshackled from the chain, then handcuffed to the man's right wrist.With a shove, Delgado was pushed forward."What's your name?" Delgado asked."Owen.""Your real name?""What do you think?" "Owen" asked, looking down at Delgado as he herded him outside to a waiting tube car."Where are we going?" Delgado asked.Owen smiled. "One of Bonifacio's working s.h.i.+ps."Delgado frowned. "Working s.h.i.+ps? He have a lot of broken ones?""Look." Owen leaned in close, almost whispering. "Relax a little, Delgado. Bonifacio's going to be in a foul mood because his smuggler s.h.i.+p, it just got fried.""What?"Owen was laughing. "The best-laid plans... Someone really doesn't like Bonifacio. They fried his s.h.i.+p. It's structurally intact, but nothing inside it works; the data got wiped out."Delgado swallowed. The Spartans had struck again. "So now Bonifacio needs me.""Pretty much."The tube car stopped after making its way between a handful of coupled asteroids. Owen opened the door, and Delgado quickly followed him to avoid being yanked along.Peter Bonifacio stood near an airlock, along with a handful of Security Council members. Including Diego Esquival.Owen unlocked the handcuffs, and Delgado ma.s.saged his wrists. "What's this all about?""Where's the navigation data, Mr. Delgado?" one of the suited Security Council members asked.Delgado stood still for a second. "Safe. As we agreed on."Diego pursed his lips. "Bonifacio presented evidence to the council that there are Earth-first elements within our population that have attacked any navigation data that might lead s.h.i.+ps of any sort back to Earth or the Inner Colonies. The data you have needs to be transported to its final destination, where it will be better safeguarded.""Final destination?" Delgado looked around at them. "What final destination? The Kig-Yar? Come on, you know where that will lead.""We're moving it to the Exodus Project," said one of the councilmen, an older man with scars across his face. "It's final. We've all voted. So please, Mr. Delgado, give up the data. You've served the Rubble well. It's time to hand it over now.""What the h.e.l.l is this Exodus Project?" Delgado snapped."It's just a big emergency plan," Diego said. "We can't talk about the particulars.""And it needs nav data?" Delgado looked at Diego."Yes." Diego nodded, and spread his arms. "It really does, Ignatio. Please, trust me on this. Trust the Council as the Rubble's elected leaders."Delgado looked at the other members. They didn't look like they meant him any ill.But was it the right choice, whatever they had in mind? Delgado took a deep breath. It wasn't his decision to make, was it? The Rubble had elected the entire Council for a reason. The Council had hired Delgado.He was no longer keeper of the data."Okay," Delgado said. "It's aboard Distancia. Distancia. I have to key everything open." I have to key everything open."Diego laughed. "In plain sight, huh?""The best place." For a quick moment, everything felt okay. Maybe even normal. Delgado relaxed slightly.The sensation was shattered as Peter Bonifacio stepped forward. "I'll take him over to Distancia, Distancia, then meet the rest of you at Exodus. The then meet the rest of you at Exodus. The Distancia Distancia only has a light guard on it. It's an easy target. My guards aren't just Rubble Defense volunteers, they have actual fighting experience." There was accusation in his glare, and Delgado saw a few nod in agreement. It looked like Bonifacio had been knocking Delgado's ability to keep the data safe. only has a light guard on it. It's an easy target. My guards aren't just Rubble Defense volunteers, they have actual fighting experience." There was accusation in his glare, and Delgado saw a few nod in agreement. It looked like Bonifacio had been knocking Delgado's ability to keep the data safe.Diego came forward. "I go with you." He and Delgado shared a glance.Bonifacio shrugged. "I'd be delighted to have you aboard, Councilman, as well as anyone else who wants to come. Keep in mind, my s.h.i.+p's quarters are cramped. This way." He held out his hand, indicating that they should go first.His guards had already cycled through the airlock into the s.h.i.+p Bonifacio had waiting for them.It was a cramped s.h.i.+p, a converted tug of some sort. It had probably once grappled dirty asteroids and pushed them into new orbits to be harvested by the miners and their processing plants. Now it was Bonifacio's personal transport. Quick enough, Delgado thought, looking around the extended c.o.c.kpit once they'd come in through the airlock. But still a bit over the top. Who had a personal s.h.i.+p just for transport in the Rubble? It was part of Bonifacio's desire to preen and make a point of showing how special he was.Bonifacio got inside, gave the order to leave, and turned to Delgado. In the darkly lit c.o.c.kpit he looked birdlike, his eyes pools of beady darkness. "Someone fried my s.h.i.+p, everything electrical was shorted, and several good men guarding it are dead. That costs. costs. A lot." A lot.""I'm sorry to hear it," Delgado said, eyeing the three large guards now surrounding him in the tiny c.o.c.kpit.Diego chuckled, and Bonifacio turned to him. "This amuses you? The future of the Rubble is laughable? I'm working hard to make sure we have a future, despite your meddling.""A future?" Diego shook his head. "You're full of s.h.i.+t, Bonifacio. You care about future profits, not the future.""Yeah?" Bonifacio reached into his pocket, hands trembling slightly, face red. "Were you all so high-and-mighty when the Covenant first came? Tell Delgado the real story, and how you all, in your democratic glory, turned to one one person when it all came to a head." person when it all came to a head."Diego didn't say anything.Bonifacio shook his head and pulled out a Sweet William. He pointed the cigar at Diego. "They tell you how the Kig-Yar contact really really happened? I'll bet not. Because it doesn't make those men look good." happened? I'll bet not. Because it doesn't make those men look good."He lit the cigar and drew in a long pull, then laughed, cigar smoke puffing out of his mouth. "They c.r.a.pped their pants when that first Kig-Yar s.h.i.+p swung by the Rubble, scanning us, checking everything out. Wanted to know what to do. Attack it, or try to pack up and run to some other part of the system? And if attack, how? But they were taking so long to deliberate, I did something else."I hailed it. And I offered to trade. Sent them a manifest of everything I could imagine we had in our storage areas. I explained we weren't UNSC, that we hated them. That we were rebels. Because, really, even other species have to know about trade, right, Delgado? Economics, that's universal. Everyone wants to better themselves.""That was the real first encounter?" Delgado asked. "So it's the second where their s.h.i.+p appeared and offered to trade and set up in the Rubble?""A month later. Some sort of Kig-Yar big shot named Reth had a box that could translate their speech into ours. Like they've been studying us," Diego said. "And they wanted to trade."Bonifacio nodded. "We took guns off them to sell to our brothers, where we could smuggle them back to the colonies, in exchange for goods. The Kig-Yar, in turn, wanted Slips.p.a.ce drives.""Slips.p.a.ce drives?" Delgado frowned."Turns out the Kig-Yar are pretty low on the Covenant totem pole." Bonifacio smirked. "They're not allowed to build drives for their own s.h.i.+ps. Its engineering is all done by the ones they call Prophets. Closed boxes for the Kig-Yar. See, they're not the monolithic juggernaut the UNSC makes them out to be, this Covenant. They have divisions and inequalities. And where those exist, we have what you call a market, Mr. Delgado. Combine the engines with Earth's location, and the Rubble will do more for the Insurrection than any other place in history.""But what happens when the Kig-Yar slip up and we're all found out?" Delgado asked. "The Covenant will be back to gla.s.s us.""We leave," Diego muttered."Ahhh, exodus, exodus, exodus," Bonifacio waved his cigar around. "Diego, we have spent so long building all this. And you want to run away from it?""I don't," Diego said. "But it's irresponsible to not have a backup plan.""I'll tell you what's irresponsible. Irresponsible is promising the Kig-Yar Slips.p.a.ce engines, taking their payments of nifty little weapons and s.h.i.+pping them back to the colonies, but then pretending to warehouse those engines until you've got them all gathered up. When you never intended to hand them over.""d.a.m.n it, Bonifacio," Diego shouted, "the council voted to proceed with the Exodus Project. It's a backup plan. Once we have enough Slips.p.a.ce engines installed, then we'll hand the rest of them over.""The Kig-Yar know what you've been doing anyway," Bonifacio said dismissively."What?" Diego stared at Bonifacio."You can't take an asteroid habitat as big as the Exodus Project and hang it way back off the Rubble, and not expect them to miss it. Plus, they really want their engines. They haven't believed your official excuses for not getting as many delivered to them as promised-not in the slightest. They are our allies, our business partners. We stand a chance to live on. Let the Covenant and UNSC fight, while we make money and trade instead."Delgado stared at both men. "The Exodus Project is a giant habitat?""He's pretty much told you what it is," Diego said, annoyed. "The largest rock in the Rubble was held back from the beginning. The surface was coated to try and stealth it. Back at the start, it was an emergency in-system retreat: get as many civilians in it if the Covenant came back in force and try to sneak out to the Oort cloud far on the edges of the system where no one ventures."Now the Exodus Project is being outfitted with Slips.p.a.ce drives. A lot of them. The idea is not to hide in the system, but to head out away from the UNSC, and the Covenant. Just get into the stream and keep going until we're well away from all of this.""That's audacious," Delgado said. "How many citizens can it hold?""It's big," Diego said. "Big enough for a million citizens.""And you've hidden it away, all this time?" Delgado couldn't believe it. In the Rubble, where everything was voted on, the Security Council had pulled off something significant: a major secret.The tug fired a series of thruster bursts and slammed into a docking collar.Bonifacio grabbed Diego by the shoulders. "Look, Diego. I know you and I don't exactly agree on everything. But I'm a Council member, just like you. I want to see the Rubble continue and prosper. I'm not your enemy. You know that, right?""I know that," Diego said. "I'm sorry.""I want that data on Exodus protected, but not out here in the Rubble where people are attacking it-whoever the h.e.l.l it is that's doing that. Understand?"Diego nodded."Good." Bonifacio pulled Diego tighter. "Now tell Delgado here to let us onto his s.h.i.+p so we can get it and do our duty."Diego looked at Delgado. "Give him what he needs."Delgado bit his lip. "You sure about this?""Yeah." Diego sounded subdued. "It'll be okay. And we'll need to talk to you about the Exodus Project. You can't repeat any of that to anyone.""I can keep a secret," Delgado said, as the airlock doors opened.Diego laughed. "I know. And after this, we'll make everything right for you. You took shots for us. They can't forget that."They trudged out from Bonifacio's tug down an access tube to a set of quiet docks that Delgado had chosen. The rock ceilings sloped fifteen feet overhead, and only four or five docking collars led into this small chamber, as it was an old mining depot.Delgado crossed the silent chamber to the airlock where Distancia Distancia was docked. They all crowded into the airlock and cycled through and in. was docked. They all crowded into the airlock and cycled through and in.Delgado took a deep breath, pulling in the smell of metal, oil, and sweat. Distancia Distancia had once hauled miners out from Madrigal orbit across the system to the Rubble. Now she ferried cargo in and around the Rubble, from one end to another. Quicker than tube cars, as he didn't have to route through each habitat, pausing for traffic. had once hauled miners out from Madrigal orbit across the system to the Rubble. Now she ferried cargo in and around the Rubble, from one end to another. Quicker than tube cars, as he didn't have to route through each habitat, pausing for traffic.It felt good to be back aboard.Maybe if Bonifacio was telling the truth, and he was really just a maverick Security Council member, then Delgado could just go back to ferrying things about the Rubble. Like before Diego had called, talking about the disappearing navigation data, asking him if he'd take on hiding it for the council, as he knew the Rubble the best. And he was the only person Diego personally trusted.Going back to ferrying sounded good, Delgado thought, as he walked the small group over to the safe hidden under the floor grates of the tiny kitchen on the s.h.i.+p, halfway toward the c.o.c.kpit.It opened on his fingerprint, and Delgado pulled the oval container of hard plastic that held the chip out. He offered it to Diego.Bonifacio reached out a hand, and Diego shook his head. "I think I'll be the one who keeps it on his person until we get it to the Exodus.""I was afraid you'd say that," Bonifacio said.Delgado turned around, eye to eye with the barrel of a very large pistol in Bonifacio's hand. "Hand it over to me, me, Delgado." Delgado."Diego swore, and was. .h.i.t in the ribs by one of Bonifacio's men."Thank you," Bonifacio took the navigation data away from him. "Thank you very much, Delgado. I'd hoped to just take it and promise to meet you two aboard the Exodus and never show, but Diego had second thoughts. You're rubbing off on him. Either way, Reth is really, really going to appreciate this."

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.

METISETTE ORBIT, 23 LIBRAE.

The Kig-Yar named Reth screamed, a primal roar of pain and horror that echoed throughout the corridors of the s.h.i.+p, all the way up to the c.o.c.kpit, where Thel sat poring over Kig-Yar estimates of human strength in the Rubble.Zhar stood up, but Thel held up a hand. "I ordered Saal not to do this. I will go."For a moment Zhar remained up, then he folded back down into his chair. "What-""That is my concern, Zhar." Thel walked out of the c.o.c.kpit, past the Unggoy cl.u.s.tered in the halls. They chattered nervously and cleared a path as Thel strode by.Thel walked to Reth's cell. The Kig-Yar had been strapped to the wall, his arms and legs splayed out in a large X by strong straps.On the other side of the energy bars, Saal stood in front of the Kig-Yar. As he leaned forward, the horrendous screams began again. "Why are you really here in this system?" Saal bellowed. "What is it you seek to gain?"Reth spit purple blood and screamed.Thel shut off the containment system, and stepped into the alcove. "Has he said anything new to justify continuing this interrogation? Maybe something different?" Thel asked softly.Saal spun around, turning off his energy sword. Purple blood stained the hilt in his hand and dripped from his fingers. "No, honor. He has not. He's still sticking to his story. That a Hierarch commands him to have done all this.""Have you forgotten your orders, then?" Thel stared Saal straight in the eye, neck bared, as if daring Saal to try for it.Saal backed away from the implicit challenge of confidence, moving closer to a wall. Reth gurgled in the background."I wanted to break him of his heresies," Saal said. "What he's saying cannot cannot be true." be true.""It is a poor soldier who insists on seeing things not as they are, but as he wants them to be. One day reality hits, and his illusions fail him, and he dies stupidly. What honor is there in that?" Thel stepped closer to Saal, cornering him, dominating his s.p.a.ce.Saal straightened. "But if the Kig-Yar is right, then one Prophet ordered him to come here and do this, and another ordered us to come here and-""It is not up to us to pick apart what the Prophets may or may not have ordered, Saal. It is also not up to you to decide what orders of mine to follow."Thel patted his waist, where his own energy sword was clipped, and kept his eyes locked on Saal, who finally looked toward the ground."I have failed you, honor," Saal said."You have." Thel sighed."I have lost n.o.bility. I will do what is right." Saal's energy sword flared into being."You will not take your life," Thel said. "You will scar your forearms with the mark of disobedience."Saal closed his eyes and s.h.i.+vered. "Please...""It is an order," Thel stood up straight and high over Saal. "Now leave."Saal walked out of the cell with his head low from shame. Thel walked over to the slab of a bed and sat on it, facing Reth."Sangheili are insane," Reth hissed. "What is the mark of disobedience?""He will use his energy sword to burn marks into the skin of his arms. Crossing lines all up and down, where all can see and know him for what he is. It is shameful. Death is preferred. But for now, I need all my fighters. He can kill himself later, and we will destroy the body so that his lineage will not suffer. If he performs well in battle."Reth shook his head. "Sangheili...""We are strong, Kig-Yar. That is why we sit at the right hand of the Prophets."Reth laughed. "One day that shall pa.s.s.""Not as long as we remain strong." Thel stood. "But Saal's worries do trouble me. You still claim that it is the Prophet of Truth who sent you here?"Again Reth laughed. "You should worry. I speak the truth. And it was Truth who sent me here. He doesn't believe that the Prophet of Regret has come even close to the human home-world."Thel leaned closer. "But this here is not the human home-world."Reth blinked, focusing his memories. "When that Kig-Yar s.h.i.+p took back recordings of these humans begging to trade for their lives, Truth realized he had found a way to easily find the core of their infestation.""These heretical weapons," Thel said."Humans have rebels among them. Something Truth wants to use. The weapons are traceable. We could map the entire human population if we got these rebels to smuggle back enough of them. Sadly, the humans have a new directive that has killed this opportunity.""They destroy data on their s.h.i.+ps before they are captured, yes," Thel said."But we still have a chance to get the location of their home-world from them here. There are opportunists who will sell it to us. Once we have it, these habitats are ours to keep, the Prophet promised us. The Kig-Yar will hold a special place then, Truth has promised us."Thel shook his head. "The Sangheili will remain by the side of the Prophets.""You are too arrogant," Reth spat. "The Jiralhanae betrayed you. We are given this special mission by the Prophet of Truth. Both seek to minimize your kind. You have dominated things far too long.""We are in the midst of a holy war with the humans," Thel hissed. "That is not the time for such things.""But it is," Reth said. "We will use our Unggoy army from Metisette to destroy the humans here once we have the data that leads us to their homeworld. And we will be favored in the Prophets' eyes. Not you, Sangheili.""You are an obnoxious creature." Thel broke the straps around the Kig-Yar and freed him."When we hand over the humans, we will be honored. The Prophets will look kindly on us in the final journey." Reth staggered over to the bunk and lay down. "We will be holier and more blessed than you, Sangheili. You will see. You will see."Thel walked away, back to the c.o.c.kpit, where Zhar looked up. He'd overheard their whole exchange."Do you believe him?" Zhar asked."I think Reth believes what Reth is saying." Thel sat down, suddenly tired."What games are we caught in the middle of?" Zhar asked."I do not know," Thel said. He toyed with the image of the Kig-Yar s.h.i.+p on his screen. It was the closest thing the Kig-Yar had to a true fleet s.h.i.+p, similar to the designs of refitted Kig-Yar raiders that had fought the Covenant from asteroid belts before the Kig-Yar were granted a place within the Covenant.He wondered if the Kig-Yar had managed to put a Slips.p.a.ce drive on it.It looked likely, though Thel wondered if the cobbled-together affair would make it through. It certainly didn't look like it.But it had weapons. Thel made a decision."We will take that Kig-Yar s.h.i.+p. We will use it to destroy all this heresy. If the Prophet of Truth shows up and tells me to stop, then I will do so. Tell the others to prepare, and tell these Unggoy to ready themselves to be useful."Until the Prophet of Truth himself showed up here, Thel had to follow the orders he was given. And since the Jiralhanae would be back with the High Prophet of Regret soon, Thel wanted his actions to show that he had done his duty.Yes. The human habitats here would burn, just as their world Charybdis IX had burned.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.

HABITAT EL CUIDAD, INNER RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE.

Delgado didn't even think twice-he grabbed the gun and kicked Bonifacio in the stomach. But in that split second Bonifacio's three men piled onto him, trying to yank the gun away as they smashed his ribs.As he gasped from the pain, Bonifacio shouted, "Shoot them both and throw them out the d.a.m.n airlock!"But Delgado had the gun up and pointed at Bonifacio despite the pain of getting pummeled by the bodyguards. "Get away from me. Or he dies."The three overly muscled men backed away, their guns now out and trained on Delgado.Bonifacio smiled and held his hands up. "Now, easy, Delgado. Come on. We can work something out here.""Screw you, Bonifacio." Delgado wasn't in the mood for his bulls.h.i.+t now."Give me a gun," Bonifacio snapped. The nearest heavy tossed him one. Delgado hesitated, not really wanting to fire a gun inside his own s.h.i.+p. That hesitation cost him, because now Bonifacio had a gun of his own pointed at Diego. "I'm going to shoot Diego if you don't hand that over."Delgado thought about it for a second. Giving away the data would certainly endanger the Rubble. Bonifacio, it was now obvious, would not be taking this data to the Exodus Project. No, he was going to sell it to the Kig-Yar. All signs pointed to it. Delgado shook his head.Bonifacio shot Diego in the chest. Blood sprayed and hit the floor as Diego collapsed, clutching the wound with a look of shock on his face.Delgado leapt over to Diego as he shot at Bonifacio, who ducked out into the corridor and ran for cover.Delgado waved the gun at the bodyguards. "Back up. Back up." They were hired help-their hearts weren't into the idea of a close-range shoot-out, luckily. Only Bonifacio was insane enough to fire inside a d.a.m.n s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, Delgado thought. He grabbed Diego's collar and pulled him out of the kitchen and down the corridor.Bonifacio fired down at him from the c.o.c.kpit, the bullets sparking off the metal bulkheads.Delgado fired back as he dragged Diego to the airlock. This was all messed up. Very messed up.Diego moaned as Delgado pulled him into the lock and cycled into the habitat's lock.A very loud bang startled him.The airlock seal broke as Distantia Distantia abruptly cut loose, her engines firing. abruptly cut loose, her engines firing.Air whistled out of cracks in the warped airlock. Red alarm lights blinked, and Delgado kicked at the door leading into the habitat.It wouldn't open, of course-with the outer seal broken emergency systems had kicked in. As long as the simple sensors on the outside detected loss of air the inner door was locked.Delgado grabbed the emergency phone, and got Bonifacio's voice. "I just used an emergency Security Council code to override communications from your airlock," Bonifacio said flatly. "And I canceled the airlock's alarm."The strobing lights shut off. It would look like a false trigger. A mechanic would be sent out at his leisure instead of an emergency crew."You b.a.s.t.a.r.d.""Good-bye, Mr. Delgado.""Go to h.e.l.l, Bonifacio." Delgado slammed the phone against the wall until it broke.Bonifacio had killed them. Almost as good as a bullet, Delgado thought.He sat down next to Diego, holding a hand to his chest. Diego stared up at the ceiling, his breathing irregular and gasping."I'm sorry, Diego," Delgado said, looking down at his old friend.Diego bubbled blood up from his mouth, but said nothing. Delgado closed his eyes and bit his lip.Already the air seemed to be getting thinner. Delgado lay down, breathing shallowly.Then he reached down into his right shoe and tugged out the small beacon Adriana had given him.Delgado opened the casing and pressed the red switch. A small green light flickered on, and started pulsating.He closed his eyes and waited.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX.

METISETTE ORBIT, 23 LIBRAE.

Reth lay curled up on the uncomfortable slab, thinking about the warmth and closeness of a Kig-Yar nest, and how far away such things were from him at the moment.He hurt everywhere, thanks to his treatment by the Sangheili. Oh, they'd pay for this. Reth followed the orders of a Prophet. Prophet. Who were they to treat him so cruelly? Who were they to treat him so cruelly?The Sangheili thought they were lords of it all, but they were just thugs, Reth thought. Little different from the Jiralhanae and their violent approaches to everything in the world.Soon the Prophets would listen to all Kig-Yar, Reth thought. Reth was here, working to find the secret of the human home-world. It would have been his already, if not for the Sangheili meddling."Unggoy!" Reth carefully got off the bench, his limbs protesting, his steps dizzy.The Sangheili would have to go. Things were so close to being finished. Soon his human agent would have the location to Earth for him. Once Reth had that, then the army of Unggoy he'd gathered on Metisette would be ready to be unleashed on the Rubble. The asteroids would make wonderful Kig-Yar nesting grounds."Unggoy, where are you? You must attend me. Are you not believers in the mission the Prophet of Truth himself gave to me, and thus to you?" Reth collapsed to the ground in front of the energy bars that kept him jailed.Once he had the Rubble, he thought through a haze, and the location to Earth, the humans' Exodus Project would provide him the vehicle he needed to then bring the Unggoy to attack the human homeworld.A daring plan.A Kig-Yar plan.A plan the Prophet of Truth had agreed to when Reth presented it after returning with the secret of the Rubble and the humans' desire to trade. He'd kept it a secret from his own s.h.i.+pmistress, a violation that would have gotten him castrated if found out, but it had paid off handsomely."Unggoy!"Now they'd been discovered, the Jiralhanae were returning to broadcast the news about the discovery of the Rubble to a different Prophet.The Kig-Yar couldn't stop them. But they could move the plan up, so that they wouldn't look like traitors, trading with the humans.No, it was time to destroy the humans and their homeworld and show the Prophets that it was the Kig-Yar, not the Sangheili or Jiralhanae, who were the most cunning and loyal and holy subjects of the Covenant.The shuffling steps of two furtive Unggoy soldiers got Reth to focus on the ground in front of his long face."Sangheili kills us i