Chapter Two:
The Way the World Ends

September 29, 2552
The Arrival

"Herzog."

"Who is it?"

"Standish."

"Is this connection secure?"

"I'm using a disposable line. Are you busy?" It was actually a cheap disposable chatter he had purchased several weeks before, shaped like a purple kitten. He always managed to find uses for such things, and collected them compulsively.

"Just catching up on paperwork while the car drives," Herzog said. "What do you want?"

"Uh, where- where are you?" Standish typed at his computer, triangulating the signal from the colonel's chatter.

"In a car, Standish," Herzog replied. Standish found that the nearest camera was on a crane over the river. He brought the view up on his computer, using a Navy Sentinel to hack into the network and intercept the video feed. There was the car, a point of reflected sunlight on the horizon, approaching the camera fast.

"Hey," Standish said, "you hear they're talking about dropping the speed on the beltway again? From 350 KPH to 300? Man, they say the road bed is so degraded it isn't safe, and it's too expensive to upgrade."

Herzog sounded annoyed. "You called me to talk about construction on the beltway?"

Standish wondered if the old man suspected any foul play. If he did, he didn't show it. "No. Uh... your girl. The one in Chawla. You'll be pleased to know the Admiral has put no-trespassing signs all over her."

"That was stupid, Standish," Herzog sighed.

"I know. They weren't supposed to kill her. Just scare her."

"Spare me."

Standish grinned. "Heh! You're right. They were going to kill her. She was a problem. But... she wasn't the real problem." Standish typed rapidly on his computer and another image came up, showing the car's unique signature moving on a map of Boston.

"No," Herzog said, "the real problem was that you're a dictator and we live in a democracy."

"The real problem is that you and I have always seen the world differently. I am willing to sacrifice principle for results." How many lives could his project save, he thought. How many soldiers would reap the benefits of it, with improved weapons? How many ships would survive because of technology derived from the artifact? This was it, he thought. The chips were down. Humanity was on the brink of annihilation. In such desparate times, the ends justified the means.

"Principles are results," Herzog said. "They are ends of themselves."

"No, results are results," Standish corrected. He finished writing his instructions for the Sentinel and pushed execute.

"Switching from automatic guidance to manual," Herzog's car cheerfully announced. Standish could hear Herzog straining to regain control of the vehicle.

Standish leaned in towards his computer display. "Herzog, at the bottom of this hill, watch out for the bridge."

He terminated the connection and watched from the camera on the nearby crane as the colonel's car began weaving from lane to lane. The car's deviations from its lane grew increasingly severe as the car accellerated uncontrollably. Men in orange construction vests scattered like ants as the car flew past them. After a matter of seconds, the car shot off the road into a stack of metal girders at over three hundred and eighty kilometers an hour and burst into flames. The girders had impaled the car and hidden the driver's seat from view, but Standish felt certain that if the deceleration trauma or the impact itself didn't kill the man, the explosion certainly did. Leak plugged, crisis over.

Standish closed the view from the crane camera on his holographic computer screen and brought up the memo he had been working on. The admiral wanted constant updates on his progress, and Standish would soon be able to send an upbeat report. Of course, his lab staff were making ground-breaking discoveries about the object daily, and this would form the bulk of his report. More importantly, though, his project could now move forward unimpeded by the idealistic meddling of an old man. There was still the junior analyst from Section I to deal with, but with Herzog out of the way, it might even be possible to let her live. Standish stole a glance at the clock and grinned. It was almost lunchtime.

# # # # # # #

CENSORED FOR: "ARTIFACT ON CORAL." - ESKO KORPIJAAKKO (UNSC ADJUNCT ORION ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION)

My Dearest Carrie, I know things are tense at home, so I hope this letter finds you and Oscar well, or at least bearing up. Our work continues apace, and while we are alone out here, at least we're busy, and this system remains unmolested by Covenant.

We've been joined by a UNSC science team, and what I believe are ONI agents. They're actually quite helpful, if secretive, and have supplied us with excellent tech. However, they're most definitely NOT archaeologists and have very different ideas of how long a dig should take.

There are things they don't wish us to discuss on open channels, and I'll respect that, but this artifact is truly remarkable.

The object on Coral was discovered during routine quarrying. Explosives revealed the top of the object, blasting out a depth of around 30 meters. Surrounding rock and dirt were evaporated- but this object wasn't even scorched.

It's undeniably alien. For one thing, it is made of a material we can't identify. It's a metallic crystal, although its mode of manufacture is unexplained. It's architecturally perfect. Walls are identical in height to a near-atomic scale. Symmetry is impossibly accurate. Yet it's rich in detail, and adorned with what appear to be purely decorative, artistic motifs.

We know that the eighty or so meters we've uncovered so far are likely the tip of the iceberg. There seems to be a complex of galleries and vaults beneath, but so far, its secrets remain sealed like a tomb.

Incredibly, it may not be Covenant origin. I fear however, that its age may mean its mystery is lost to time. I just pray that we find some clue, some data that can help in the war.

I love you and I miss you. Kiss Oscar for me.

Ever yours, Esko

# # # # # # #

The artifact was fascinating to say the least. Not wishing to risk touching it, Murdock instead inspected it visually by shining a light through it. Amazingly, it appeared to have symbols shaped on the inside of the green crystal as well as on its surface. It was an interesting chunk of stone. It was mostly covered with groups of simple geometric shapes: dots, lines, triangles, and squares. The only majorfeature on the surface of the crystal was a set of concentric septagons set on one side, significantly larger than any of the other symbols, with an unidentified ruinic character on it. He held the light on the other side of the crystal, allowing it to seep through it, and looked at the other side. What he saw astounded him. Two cubes, one inside the other, with all points connected. A tesseract, inexplicably etched inside the crystal itself. If he remembered correctly, tesseracts were symbols of the theoretical fourth spacial dimension, beyond height, length, and depth. How odd.

"How long has section III known about this?" he asked.

"It just got here a few days ago," Yuji Miyagi replied. "Do you think it had anything to do with that pulse?"

"Communications in the system were flatlined for seven seconds. At this point, it's possible, and in my mind it's very likely. Pull up all the files you have on it."

"Here it is. Obtained from an asteroid belt in the Epsilon Erdani system by a... Jacob Jiles. Made contact with an ONI stealth ship... the Applebee. Apparently he was the leader of some rebel faction that hid in the asteroid belt when the Eridanus colony was destroyed."

"You mean glassed?"

"No, Eridanus II is a gas giant. The colony was on the back of a gas mine in orbit, a repair-refit station retrofitted with a protective dome. It was something to see. They'd send smaller ships down to skim through the atmosphere and scoop up whatever gasses or trace minerals it was they were collecting there. Covies shot it down 22 years ago. No survivors."

"I see. And the artifact?"

"A Chiroptera-class vessel under the command of this Jiles guy made contact with the ONI vessel. Made a trade. They gave up the artifact in exchange fora couple of generators."

"Anyone besides Darcy work on this?"

"I don't think so, no. You may have noticed that the facility's awfully big for a staff of five people. We're just a skeleton crew. You've got the monitor for the slipspace probes, the net administrator... people whose jobs keep them here. Everyone else is at the dig site."

Murdock went rigid. "What?"

"The dig. The... whatever it is that they found quarrying out of town..." Miyagi trailed off and cringed, realizing how much he had just spilled through idle conversation.

Murdock reacted as if he had been slapped. "That's on Coral? Did nobody think I ought to know that?"

# # # # # # #

"Shit, I fold," Jim Stensland sulked. The ODST threw the playing cards, stained by gunpower, oil, and God-knew what else, face-down on the collapsable table. PFC Maria Cortez grinned viciously at the only remaining player, an ONI spook named Travis Schnaidt.

"I match your five hundred," Schnaidt said quietly, "and I raise you one thousand."

The soldiers, technicians, and mechanics around the table hooted.

"He's gotta be bluffin', man," Stensland said.

"Think you can just walk in here and walk out with the paychecks of a couple of us ground-pounders, huh?" Cortez said.

"I have my motives. And yeah, the main one is money." More hoots. Cortez didn't like ONI spooks as a rule. They were either painfully blunt or viciously secretive, and both traits annoyed the hell out of her. The guy would learn soon enough, though.

"Call," she said. She tossed ten blue chips on top of the sizeable pile. There was probably five grand there.

The spook laid his cards face-up on the table. Two queens, three kings. Full house.

Cortez made a thin-lipped smile and slapped down her cards. Straight flush. Cheers went up from the others as Cortez swept in the chips, despite the fact that most of the money was theirs. The spook had lost, and that was all that mattered. ONI spooks never lost.

"Want to go again?" Cortez asked, handing Schnaidt the deck. He looked at the chips in front of him. Significantly fewer, but enough.

"I'm game," he said, shuffling the deck. Eight players anted in, crowding around the table. Schnaidt began dealing the cards, but Cortez grabbed his wrist. He was surprised by the strength of the woman's grip.

"Try again," she said, "and this time from the top of the deck."

The other players made their various reaction noises. Schnaidt cursed under his breath and began shuffling the cards again. The woman had cost him nearly a week's pay already, but what was he supposed to do? Accuse her of cheating better than him? That seemed to be the real game around here. He distinctly remembered dealing the nine of clubs to one of the ODSTs, but it had ended up in her straight flush. The hell with it. She was not going to beat him again. He began dealing the cards around, greedy hands snatching them up and trying to hide them from the others in the confined space around the table.

"Last to lose names the rules," Stensland said. "And, on a personal note, you might want to stick away from five-card draw. It ain't treating you too kindly."

Schnaidt glared as the others laughed.

"If that's the way you want it," he said, "Texas hold-em this time."

The base alarm went off.

The card game instantly forgotten, the temporary hab capsule the group was playing in quickly emptied, with the Marines grabbing their weapons on the way out the door. Cortez clicked off the safety of her BR55, setting the weapon to full-auto. No immediate threat was in sight, but the entire compound was a flurry of activity. Warthogs sped here and there, carrying equipment and technicians. She planned to meet with the rest of her squad, but Schnaidt intercepted her near the motor pool.

"Private," he said, "listen to me."

"What's going on?"

"Listen! I just got word on my palmtop. There's been a contact in slipspace, multiple signals-"

"Just tell me!"

"They're here."

# # # # # # #

The implications were beginning to sink in. The Covenant prisoners had been found on Coral. They hadn't even been moved to a base on a different planet. That meant the Covenant knew where Coral was, but... no evacuation notice had been posted so as to keep the capture under wraps. The rest of their forces could arrive here at any time without warning, and all the while Section III planned to do nothing about it. Something they were working on was so secret that they didn't want to risk exposing it by moving the prisoners or posting an evacuation... the crystal, perhaps?

Whatever it was, there would be hell to pay for this.

Joshua Murdock stood up from the table and walked out of the room when the base alarm went off. He sprinted down the hall and almost ran into Laura Conners.

"What the hell's going on?"

"The covies are here! They just showed up! One scan and the slipstream was empty, the next scan-"

Murdock cut around her and ran towards Communications.

# # # # # # #

The Fleet of Persistent Regret had exited slipspace ready for a fight, with weapons fully charged and Seraph fighters exiting their launch bays seconds after entering normal space, but they found no significant resistance. Fleetmaster Aya 'Daulanee thought this odd. No carriers, none of the devestating orbital platforms that had been so effective at Reach. He did not know what to believe. There was negligable military presence here, but somehow, three of his ships had vanished here without a trace.

"Navigations, report," he said.

"I see nothing out of the ordinary, my lord," the puzzled navigator replied. "There is no debris from our ships, no unusual energy signatures, and only two dozen human ships. A scan has shown only one point of interest on the planet itself."

"See to their fleet's destruction," 'Daulanee said. With two dozen human ships against his thirty, the battle was sure to end quickly. Then he would wait for word of what to do with the planet itself.

# # # # # # #

ONI Captain Derek Krist's mouth fell open at the sight. Over two dozen Covenant ships, including a flagship and numerous assault carriers, emerged from slipspace in perfect formation, obviously looking for a fight. The ONI stealth ship Applebee, which he was commanding, was utterly unarmed and stood no chance against the Covenant fleet.

"Uh... sir? Sir! What are we going to do?"

"The fleet is preparing to engage! Your orders?"

Krist found his chair and eased himself into it. Twenty-three UNSC cruisers and destroyers formed an attack formation in a futile gesture of defiance, a suicidal attempt to save Coral. A volley of hundreds of Archer missiles exploded uselessly against the silver shields of the Covenant ships. Three UNSC vessels were destroyed before the capacitors for their MAC cannons could even charge.

"Sir! Your orders!" the ensign shouted.

"Initiate Cole protocol and get us the hell out of here!"

The ensign's face went from fear to shame. He saw the action as cowardly, but he was under direct orders. The ship's computer downloaded a viral data scavenger that would erase navigational information that could lead the Covenant to other colonies. Meanwhile, the UNSC fleet fired its volley of MAC rounds, concentrating all of their firepower on the Covenant flagship. The small MAC rounds didn't even succeed in lowering the flagship's shields. The fleet began evasive maneuvers as the Covenant poured fire into them, but they had nowhere to go. One by one, the UNSC ships were hit with plasma which took up to a minute to eat through the ships' hulls, and all the while the Applebee drifted, pretending to be a hole in space.

The Covenant fleet poured fire into the debris, and Krist sucked in a deep breath. They apparently hadn't been noticed... yet.

"Cole protocol almost complete. We're almost ready to jump."

Krist realized that the jump would leave a detectable hole in slipspace and that they would most likely be pursued, but with luck, the Covenant would be preoccupied with Coral and leave him alone.

"Contact Alpha is scanning us! Contact Alpha locking on!"

Krist blanched. He typed navigation coordinates into the ship's computer, but received a message reading "Cole Protocol Violation: Purge In Progress."

"Contact Alpha has fired it's main weapon!"

"Evasive-"

The plasma impacted the Applebee's thin titanium hull and incinerated the ship before he could finish his sentence.

# # # # # # #

"The Covenant is here, they're likely going to glass the planet," Schnaidt said.

"But..."

"Private, take that warthog to the research headquarters and pick up Esko Korpijaakko. That's Esko Korpijaakko. Take him to Hall of the Mountain King. He'll show you the way."

"But..."

"That's an order, private! I have work to do here! Now move!"

Cortez jumped in the driver seat of the warthog, tossing her BR55 in the passenger seat, and gunned the engine. The tires kicked up a cloud of dust before they caught and the vehicle jumped forward. She swerved to avoid another Warthog and floored the accellerator. The research headquarters was on the other side of the compound, which was split down the middle by the dig site. She crossed the temporary instacrete bridge over the 10- by 80-meter rut that had been dug up and turned to drive parallel to the artifact, looking at it as she passed. The artifact was apparently the ceiling of some sort of tunnel complex, and the reflection it made in the sunlight didn't seem to match the position of the sun. The ornate grooves cut into it flared past her as she drove along the instacrete road, past a row of portable generators and communications equipment. She ground to a halt in front of the research center. Dozens of people sporting security passes and wearing civilian clothes were milling around the hab pod, looking confused. Dammit, what the hell was that guy's name?

"Doctor," she shouted. "Doctor Korpi... Korpi... Esko? Is Esko here?"

A dark-skinned man in his early thirties jogged over to her.

"Korpijaakko? I am him," he replied. His voice had a peculiar accent that Cortez couldn't place right away.

"Get in!"

The doctor hopped into the passenger seat of the warthog and Cortez peeled out, pulling away before the doctor was truly seated. She drove the warthog through the gates before the sentry could stop her, now moving due east along the road towards the city.

"Where are you taking me?" the doctor asked. "What is going on?"

"The planet's about to be glassed, that's what!" Cortez shouted. "Where the hell is the Hall of the Mountain King?"

"My God..."

"Hall of the Mountain King? Where is it?"

"It's... go into the city. Near 94th and Atiph street, a commercial building. Perfect cube. Black windows."

# # # # # # #

Murdock punched his code into the door of communications. It didn't open. He slowed down and typed it again. No change.

"Dammit, open this door!" he shouted. The door opened three seconds later and Murdock came face to face with Michael Jones.

"Where were you?"

Jones stammered for a moment. Murdock shoved past him and began typing furiously at one of the consoles as Jones slipped out the door.

SENDID: .ueg
DESTID: .ueg
SUBJECT: COVIE POWS / SECTION ZERO FINDINGS

Few details cimpiled. HOMK/Ackerson conduvting illegit ops. Unreported covie(?) ardifact/crystal/monolithd iscovered/activated(?), created shockwave/anomaly. Revealed Coral to the Covenant(?). Fleet detroyed. Glassing imminent. Enclosd record of findngs, incomplete.

Video of interrogation sessions encrypted/enclosed # # # # #
HOMK raw data/official report (draft) encrypted/enclosed # # # # #

Many spelling errors littered the report. It came across as very rushed... unprofessional. At this point, Murdock didn't give a damn. He had more important things to tend to than reporting evidence for an investigation that would never take place now. He sent the encrypted slipstream packet. His mission accomplished, he opened up his personal phone book. He looked through the alphabetically-arranged names, mentally filtering out those who weren't family. Sweet Jesus. Kyle, his brother... he had no chance. Too far away, in another city. Him, his wife, their two-year-old daughter...

Murdock forced his eyes further down the list. His parents lived on a farm two hundred miles south of the facility. Too far!

Julia. His fiancee was only seven miles off. He dialed on the computer and leaned over the microphone.

"Honey? Jules, are you there?" he said urgently.

"Yes, what is it? My God, Matthew, what happened? You sound-"

"I need you to come to 94th and Atiph right away. You have to do it, right now, do you hear me?"

"What is going on?"

"It's the Covenant, Julia. They're here."

"Oh, my..." Sirens sounded in the background, low, mournful sirens that had never before sounded and never would again. "Oh, my God."

# # # # # # #

Fleetmaster Aya 'Daulanee received High Charity's response quickly, and it was exactly what he had expected. The last of the human resistance had folded quickly, and now the fleet could begin its work. He spoke the order and the Fleet of Persistent Regret began to map out the surface of Coral along lines of latitude and longitude.

The entire planet would then be bombarded with plasma until there was nothing left alive.

'Daulanee felt a pang of emotion, looking upon the planet. The humans were despicable creatures, yes, that deserved to be eradicated, but still... was this degree of overkill truly necessary?

His fleet began to approach the equator of the planet, where the process would begin. 'Daulanee looked upon the blue-green ball of Coral in a new way. The planet was beautiful. Swirling white clouds arced over the calm, vast oceans of the world. From orbit, one could see deserts, vast forests, icy plains, lakes, and mountain ranges. Soon, he knew, it would all be gone, replaced by a sea of glass and molten rock from which nothing would ever grow again. He had done it before, on Reach, on Troy, and on Harmony, but it was never enjoyable to watch as nature's beauty was replaced with something utterly unnatural.

And there were cities. Vast cities that covered much of the planet's surface as gray patches, like mold on a piece of food. Such was the disease he was to rid this world of, but here there were so many! This world was home to far more humans than any world the Covenant had yet encountered. Could it be their homeworld? No. Surely no. They would surely have defenses hundreds of times more powerful than these around their home planet. But that was a battle for another day, one that he looked forward to, and would eventually participate in.

There was no time for regrets, and he would not second-guess the Hierarchs. He gazed upon Coral for the last time, and spoke the command.

Covenant ships, from the equator to the poles, began saturating the world in liquid fire.

Coral began to die.

# # # # # # #

Esko Korpijaakko looked to the horizon in horror. In the far-off distance, slow moving blue-white streaks of plasma arced down from the sky, the ships that launched them hidden by the glare of the setting sun. He crossed himself, whispering in Latin. Cortez didn't even look up. The Warthog plowed down the road at breakneck speeds, but it seemed infuriatingly slow to her. There was no traffic in either direction, but the city was only a mile away. Word had spread quickly.

Esko watched the string of plasma bombs fall out of sight on the horizon, hidden one-by-one behind the mountains. The impacts created a constant, thunder-like rumbling. The direction of the wind shifted away from the mountains at at least thirty miles an hour as the heat forced the air to rapidly expand, and the air was several degrees warmer. The line of plasma bombs continued from one horizon to the next, proceeding far faster than the warthog, but in the distance, the next wave was appearing, closer than before. They were running out of time.

# # # # # # #

"Where are you?" Joshua asked.

"I'm half a mile out," Julia replied, remarkably calm. "The train just stopped. Everyone's getting off, including the operator. I'm going on foot. I'm-"

A scream sounded over the chatter.

"Julia!"

"I'm fine! I'm okay! Someone just threw himself off a roof! It's crazy out here! I'm running now... where do I need to go?"

"94th and Atiph, there's a big building shaped like a cube, all black windows. Go in the underground garage, and there's elevators. Second one to the right. Hit the 'basement' button. I'll take care of authorizating it. You can do it, honey, I know you can."

# # # # # # #

The warthog entered the city limits, turning down side streets that were filled with crashed and abandoned cars. Cortez looked constantly at street signs and grid references, at first trying to avoid civilian vehicles. A series of muffled whumphs echoed through the streets, barely audible over the sirens. The winds were now at least forty miles an hour, whipping between the crumbling lower-class buildings. Signs flashing "Evacuation Alert" were everywhere, but the civilians had nowhere to go. Many huddled inside buildings, more tried to flood into the subway system. Any panicked, last-ditch idea that could lead to survival was being exploited, but none of these people had long to live. Some were actually looting. Cortez drove the warthog over the tops of the since-abandoned civilian vehicles in the trash-littered street as the whumphs grew steadily louder.

# # # # # # #

Stensland stopped what he was doing and looked to the horizon. A string of plasma bombs was again dropping in utter silence, but these were on their latitude. Death was approaching.

The covies, he thought. Don't even give us a chance. Not a fucking chance!

"Why don't you fight?" he screamed at the sky. "Why don't you fight! We're right here! Wide-awake and physical! You fucking cowards!"

He drew his M6C and began shooting randomly in the air, heaving the empty pistol into the air as its clip was depleted and sinking to his knees in defeat. Stepping through the grass, Travis Schnaidt placed a steady hand on the ODST's shoulder, and he looked up.

"You're a brave man," Schnaidt said, "and that makes you their superior. Remember that."

Stensland paused, drawing heavy breaths, and watched as the waves of plasma approached, destroying all in their path. He turned and faced Schnaidt, remembering something. He reached into his right sleeve... and pulled out the nine of clubs.

The men laughed voraciously.

# # # # # # #

Sweat broke out on Esko's forehead from the temperature, now in the upper nineties. Both gasped for breath in the now ozone-rich atmosphere.

"We're a block away," Cortez shouted, wiping her face.

"Left! Go left!"

The warthog careened around a corner, two tires hopping up on the curb. Civilians jumped out of the way and continued running aimlessly. Cortez saw a red blotch on the exterior of a building where a man with an M6 had decided to end his own life, watched in horror as a young woman picked the gun up off the street and followed suit. Mere feet away, a terrified child stood and watched. The sound of the plasma bombs was growing quieter as the ships dropping them moved off into the horizon, but that meant the next wave was coming, the one that would hit the city, and it was coming fast.

The building was there. Cortez slammed into the gate, the warthog completely destroying it. She pulled into the underground garage and the two jumped out a second after the vehicle crashed.

# # # # # # #

"I'm at the main gate," Julia said. "It's been broken down."

"Good, good!" Joshua half-shouted. His console changed to show a security camera in the garage, facing the elevators. "You're almost home! Just go into the garage, it's right there! I'm working on the authorization!"

He turned, his eyes passing over a cup of coffee. Increasingly strong ripples played across its surface. He looked to the other console, showing elevator control.

"I'm in the garage," Julia said, "The elevator..."

Joshua stared at the display in mute horror.

"...it's in use!"

# # # # # # #

Cortez gasped deep breaths, leaning against the wall of the elevator. Korpijaakko was standing, his access card still pressed tightly against the camoflaged panel that read it. He coughed once and turned to the private.

"Thank you, thank God for you," he said. "My wife, my son, he's only four. He wouldn't have understood."

Cortez didn't reply. Her thoughts were with those on the surface who had already died, and those who were still going to. Why me? she thought. Why do I survive when everyone else dies?

# # # # # # #

"No, no! This can't be happening!" Joshua shouted. He typed frantically at the console.

"Matthew..."

"I think I can stop it! I think I can save you!"

"Matthew, it's all right," she said calmly. "It's all right."

He stopped typing at the console.

"You did everything you could. You did. You saved me."

"Oh, my God..."

"It'll be all right, it's all OK. Those people in the elevator... keep them safe. Do that for me."

Joshua looked at the elevator control display, watching the elevator's progress down the 250 meter-long shaft. The plasma could still reach down the shaft, destroying the elevator and the facility. A button marked 'lockdown' flashed on the display. The button that could save the facility. The button that would condemn his fiancee to death.

"Do it, Matthew," she said.

The elevator passed the safe level and Joshua forced his hand to push the button.

# # # # # # #

Twenty meters above the elevator, ceramic-titanium gates four meters thick slammed shut on the elevator cable. The elevator came to a crunching halt, throwing Cortez and Korpijaakko to the floor. The gates soon severed the cable, and the elevator was in free-fall for about ten meters before its emergency brakes kicked in and brought it squealing to a stop. Its counterweight's cable was also severed, however, sending the counterweight crashing down one hundred and ninety meters to the bottom of the shaft. It crushed a circuit breaker at the bottom, plunging the elevator's jostled occupants into darkness. Above them, a water main opened and water began filling the rest of the shaft, pooling above the closed lockdown doors and -- hopefully -- serving as a heatsink, but also blocking the only possible exit from the facility.

The Hall of the Mountain King was a chaotic mess of winding tunnels and rooms built 250 meters underground with only one shaft leading to the surface. Constructed before the discovery of the Covenant by a crackpot separatist group, abandoned, and later reopened and modified by the Office of Naval Intelligence, it was built to withstand a direct hit from a 180-megaton nuclear warhead. It was about to be put to the ultimate test.

# # # # # # #

The ground began to shake, first light tremors, but increasingly violent, in steady pounding rhythms. Joshua looked at the low-resolution image of his fiancee standing outside the elevator door in the garage, a quarter of a kilometer overhead. He gently touched the screen as she looked up at the camera.

"I love you, Julia," Joshua said. "I always will."

"I love you too."

# # # # # # #

A series of thuds rocked the entire facility, growing in strength until it was a single continuous roar. In the elevator, effectively jammed in its shaft, Cortez and Korpijaakko screamed and covered their ears in the stiff darkness. Michael Jones braced himself in a doorway as he had learned to from Californian earthquakes. Keom 'Yerumee closed his eyes, waiting for his glimpse of paradise. Tyler Blancett sat on a metal chair, staring coldly at the cells as the lights failed. In the Core, Yuji Miyagi's sweating hands tightly gripped the console in front of him and he stared at the ceiling. Laura Conners knelt at her cot and quickly ran a rosary through her hands, whispering a desparate prayer. Joshua Murdock stared through tears as the feed from the camera in the garage was cut off.

The lights flickered, the ground jumped underfoot, and an earth-shattering thud tore through the facility, leaving everyone's ears ringing and throwing equipment to the floor.

The lights came back on. The vibrations grew less violent as the wave passed.

Hours had yet to pass before the Covenant's work would be complete. But to those who remained, Coral was already dead.