Chapter 4
Countdown to the Death of a World
Let the eye of imagination sweep in from the empty wastes of interstellar space. A point of light draws it in, into a tiny plane mere light hours across. Nine planets circle a small sun. The mind rushes across the billions of miles of nothingness, towards a vast, red-brown planet composed of swirling gases. Tiny specks of greyish metal drift in orbit around it, but we're not interested in those, not now. Let your eye carry you on towards the small, constantly shifting orb of a moon that circles the giant: the volcanic moon Io.
A freak surge of tectonic activity sparks a sudden, massive eruption. A vast cloud of sulphur rockets upwards, spewing from the mouth of a newly formed volcano. Almost unaffected by the tiny gravitational pull of the moon, it fountains upwards in a hundreds of miles high column. As it starts to lose some of it's energy, the top billows out into a massive, surging cloud. Suddenly the centre of the cloud boils, streams of sulphur rushing outwards as streaks of red lightning flash within the burning mass. It is into this hellish inferno that the Divine Majesty quietly slips from the madness of slipspace - one insanity to another.
"Kendra!" Shouted Acting Captain Marne, "where in God's name have you brought us!"
"Computing Acting Captain," Kendra's voice lilted from the recessed speakers on the bridge of the Covenant vessel. A slight pause, then:
"Acting Captain, it would appear that we are, as per my calculations, at the unstable Lagrange point L1 in the Jupiter-Io system."
"The hell we are! Check your damn calculations again and then tell me why we are in the middle of whatever the hell it is we are in the middle of."
"Acting Captain, please try to remain calm. My calculations have already been confirmed by multiple stellar positioning satellites. The possibility of all of them suffering simultaneous system failures great enough to incorrectly verify this is so small it's negative power is somewhere around the million mark. The cloud of sulphur around the ship would appear to be a volcanic emission of freak force that happened to coincide with our slipspace co-ordinates at the same time as our exit. I could calculate the odds for you if you would like."
"No thank you Kendra, I'll take your word for it. Just get this ship to the Final Redoubt as soon as you can."
"Yes Acting Captain. Even as we speak we are clearing the cloud. If you look at the forward view screen you will be able to see our destination."
Marne glared at the screen, then tapped the holographic display that would enlarge it, and the picture suddenly leapt towards him. Helpfully highlighted by Kendra, he could see the tiny dot that was the Final Redoubt. Of course, as Marne reminded himself, it was only tiny as a matter of perspective. The enormous bulk of Jupiter dwarfed the orbital shipyard, which was in truth, more than sixty cubic miles.
And that wasn't all. The UNSC had really pulled out all the stops on this one - they had to really; it was Earth's last hope, quite literally it's final redoubt. Hundreds of huge, open ended ships trawled Jupiter's atmosphere, harvesting thousands of tons of gases every hour, then transporting them to the huge fusing stations that floated just outside Jupiter's event horizon - the point where no object could escape unaided from the planet's gravity well. There the simple gases were fused into heavier elements, which were in turn fused into usable materials. It was all extremely efficient - the power released from the fusion process powered the entire operation, from trawlers to shipyards. From the fusion stations the materials were transported to the vast shipyards that were stationed at the stable Lagrange points of eight of Jupiter's sixteen moons, where they were melted down, reformed, and welded into the frigates, destroyers, carriers and cruisers that were the human race's last line of defence should the Covenant return to Earth. And even more than that, the vast Orbital MAC Stations that were the backbone of the human defence network.
And still the UNSC had been even more ambitious. After the completion of the initial stage of the huge network of defence initiatives, some bright spark at ONI had made a suggestion, which had led to orders being given for the entire operation to be expanded. The ONI scientist had said that, if the fusing stations could power the shipyards, then why not the MAC Stations as well? After all, just one of the huge fusion plants could easily power four MAC stations, and still have enough power left over to contribute to the shipyards. ONI Section I - the Section in charge of stellar and naval defence, had demanded the size of the project be doubled. More trawlers had been built, more fusing stations were made to handle the extra loads of harvested gases, and another six of the huge shipyards were produced. The idea was that the excess power from the fusion platforms would be transmitted as microwave energy to the MAC Stations orbiting Earth, where they could be stored in immensely powerful magnetic fields - huge batteries that would never run dry...
Unless of course the fusing stations were destroyed. In that event Earth's MAC guns could fall back on their groundside generators, but they wouldn't last long, not with all the additional MAC stations that relied upon the power streaming in from the Jovian stations. It was hoped that this would not be necessary, that the Covenant would be so fixated on Earth that the Jovian operation would go unnoticed. However, in the event that it didn't, fully half of the impressively large number of MAC stations being churned out were being sent into orbit around Jupiter.
And it was still growing! Even now Marne could see the huge skeletal structures of new fusing stations being built, and as he watched a small cluster of what could only be MAC stations drifted towards a stable orbit point around Callisto. When he had first heard of this ambitious project he had wondered where all the manpower to keep this going was coming from, but that was soon answered; every month millions of refugees poured into the Sol system from the outlying colonies, and every one of them was more than willing to enter the program and be shuttled out to the stations, the shipyards, the gas trawlers, even if it was only to escape the terrible conditions of the refugee camps on Earth.
The inevitable outcome of this was obvious to Marne - Jupiter was fast becoming a fortress world. The name of the project itself was FINAL REDOUBT, like the shipyard his captured vessel was fast approaching. It was now clear to him how true that name was: in the event that Earth did fall, the defences of the Jovian system and the several million people living in it really were humanity's final hope.
Kendra's voice over the speakers jerked Marne from his reverie:
"All hands we are starting our final approach on the shipyard Final Redoubt."
Marne watched on the holo display as the sleek Covenant vessel slid into the docking area that had been allocated for it. Vast gantries swung out from the galleries that ringed the bay, and huge magnetic clamps fixed themselves to the sides of the ship, locking it firmly in place. The 2 km long ship was massive by anyone's standards, but held in the grasp of the shipyard's arms it looked nothing more than a toy.
"Kendra, any guess as to how long we'll have to search this thing?"
"My guess is at least two days Acting Captain. If my calculations are correct then the Invincible should emerge from slipspace here in roughly eighteen hours. If her slipspace co-ordinates were put in correctly it should take a further two hours for her to reach and dock at the Final Redoubt. Add to that the time required for the Firewall teams to recover from this mission and be briefed and prep for the next, and we should have, as I said, upwards of two days."
"Good. Do what you can to help the searchers would you?"
"Acting Captain please," Kendra said, her voice slightly pained, "I took a full schematic of the ship while we were in slipspace, and sent it on to the shipyards to be analysed as soon as we exited."
"My apologies Kendra, I should never have doubted you."
"Not a problem Acting Captain, you're only human. Please proceed to midship deck 17 for departure through the central grav lift."
A final glance at the view screen showed a huge, presumably airtight tunnel rising up to enclose the purple beam of the grav lift, before Acting Captain Marne left the bridge of what was now the most powerful ship in the UNSC fleet.
A rent in the fabric of real-space appeared some four million kilometres from Jupiter, and the glimmering ship Invincible shot out of the sullenly glaring slipspace dimension and into the light of her home sun. As she sped through space towards the red giant that was Jupiter a new star could be seen even from Earth as she reflected the Sun's rays so brilliantly that it looked like a nova speeding across the night sky.
Captain Strachan breathed a sigh of relief; they had made it safely back to Earth - no slip ups, no hitches, and only seventeen body bags.
'Not a bad tally, considering it was our first mission,' he reflected. And the death toll would only go down from here - at least in relation to the number of enemy casualties. Terrible though it was to think of his fallen brethren like this, he remembered that the first to fall in battle were the weakest, and that early skirmishes separated the wheat from the chaff.
It took slightly under two hours for the blazing ship to reach it's destination; the huge shipyard Final Redoubt. As it approached the docking bay the massive magnetic clamps reached out and, gently so as not to break the ship's mirror-like casing, fastened on to the hull. More conventional debarking tunnels than that which had greeted the Divine Majesty snaked out and attached themselves like leeches to the boarding hatches, and the crew and compliment of the UNSC Invincible streamed out, headed for some well deserved R&R.
Gathered around the table in the Final Redoubt's securest conference room, the dark figures gazed intently at the holo display in front of them slowly rotating, a foot of the metallic surface of the table, was a schematic of the Divine Majesty, shrunk down to a perfect, three foot long replica of the Covenant vessel. Kendra's voice spoke softly over the room's speakers, and her foot-tall 'body' - a tiny figure swathed in a Japanese kimono, with a small samurai sword at her waist - looked on from her perch atop the holo-pedestal.
"So far our R+D team have successfully mapped out and partially constructed replicas of the shield generator and one of the plasma torpedo turrets," the appropriate sections were highlighted, and blinked on and off, "however, due to the necessity of not removing any parts of the ship, as this could leave it vulnerable in it's next mission, the team is finding it much more time consuming than was originally predicted. At this rate, pending further developments, we will be lucky to get a decent knowledge of the ship's engines before it departs.
It may be necessary, after their mission is complete, for the Firewalls to capture another Covenant vessel - if we can get this much information in such a short..."
"Yes yes, thank you Kendra," interrupted Colonel Philips impatiently, "but if we could stick to the mission in hand." Captain Strachan raised a hand,
"With your permission Colonel?"
"Go ahead Captain,"
"Why exactly do we need to search the ship? I thought you, Kendra that is, had already sent a full schematic to be analysed."
"Yes Captain, but there is a world of difference between looking at a blueprint of a fantastically complex device, the technology of which is so far in advance of our own it makes us look like a bunch of cavemen scratching in the dirt, and seeing how it works by getting inside it and watching it go."
Captain Strachan looked slightly crushed, and slumped back into his chair, muttering under his breath about the AIs these days being 'too damned smart for anyone's damned good.'
"So Kendra," Philips said eventually, "the mission."
"Yes Colonel. It would seem that we have pulled both the long and the short straws in capturing this particular vessel. According to it's data banks, which have been completely purged of the Covenant AI, hah," Kendra gave a derisive laugh - it was clear what she thought of the alien construct's abilities, "it would seem that the Divine Majesty was on a diplomatic mission of sorts; it was en route from somewhere called 'High Charity' - I'm not entirely sure what that is, but it sounds like a kind of shrine - to the Prophet's homeworld, a planet whose name roughly translates as 'Veritas Dei' - it's the closest match we could find. It's Latin, it means 'God's Truth'. As you may have guessed, the ship's data cores have the exact slipspace and realspace co-ordinates for this world, and also for this 'High Charity'. This 'Veritas Dei' is surprising close to Earth - a mere 12 000 light years away, With the our current slipspace drive that puts them a little more than a month's direct flight away.
However, for security reasons that remain unknown to me, the ship's data files were purged of any information concerning other Covenant worlds. This will mean a small change in the objectives of our next mission.
Instead of simply landing on the planet, planting a NOVA bomb then bugging out as soon as possible, it will now be necessary to land near a population centre - which in itself will greatly increase the risks involved. Having landed, we will need to locate an appropriate data bank, from which we will download the co-ordinates of any other Covenant planet we can - preferably the homeworld of the Elites. In addition, we will extract any other information - technology, hierarchy and so forth - as time and circumstances allow.
Following that, we shall then proceed according to original mission parameters - plant the bomb, then get the hell outta there."
Colonel Philips sighed heavily, and exchanged glances with Captain Strachan and Acting Captain Marne. Then he spoke,
"Thank you Kendra, that was a fully... complete summation. Well Captain, Acting Captain, any questions?"
Marne spoke out;
"Yes sir. When we land, and the Covies see that we're not friendlies, what's to stop them from melting our fine Trojan Horse into slag?"
"Good question Acting Captain," Philips answered, "Kendra - any ideas?"
"Hmm, let me think a moment." The briefest of pauses followed, then, "yes Colonel, I have a plan. Upon arrival at the Covenant planet, I shall transmit an emergency distress signal from one of their Prophets - there was one on board, but it was killed during the fighting. With any luck they will not fire on one of their beloved leaders - after all, our 'invasion force' will look pretty paltry compared to their armies. Surely they will rather just retake their vessel than destroy it."
"Hmm, it might work. It'll need every ounce skill our troops have, plus a healthy dose of luck, but so far it's the best plan we've got. Alright gentlemen, unless we come up with a better idea, that's what we'll go with. Anything else you wish to..."
The doors burst open, and a flustered looking woman in the uniform of a tech specialist rushed in. The men sitting around the conference table whipped around and stared at her as she hurried down the ramp from the doors to lean on the table, panting. It took her a few moments to catch enough breath to speak, then she gasped,
"Sorry... to interrupt you gentlemen... but we've just found... something that you... should definitely know about." She took a huge breath, then carried on, more normally.
"We were carrying out a detail spectroscopic analysis of the ship - you know we've never been able to really get a good look at them, since they've usually been trying to vaporise us, and long range spectro- from ship board equipment is sketchy at best. Until now we've never been able to figure out what they're made of, and we still can't be sure.
But, there is something that we are completely definite about. Running throughout the entire hull, there are microscopic strands of this."
The scientist threw a clutch of photos down onto the table. On them the officers could see the characteristic glistening, insectoid purple metal of a Covenant hull. Cut into the metal was a thin, opened slit, and shining from within the slit was...
"What is that!" Exclaimed Marne,
"Good God," whispered Philips, gazing at the photos, almost in a reverie,
"That can't be what I think it is can it?" Strachan murmured.
"We've run a complete cross-analysis through every data bank we could find. The only one to come up with conclusive results was the one containing all the data on the Ascendant Justice. It seems that Dr. Halsey and the other survivors on Reach found an object of identical atomic structure buried beneath Menachite Mountain. It was a crystalline structure, very similar in colour and appearance to what you can see on those pictures, the only difference being the shape.
According to Dr. Halsey, and the AI Cortana's report verifies this, that crystal they found was very, very important to the Covenant, although they were unsure why. They also stated that it caused unforeseen fluctuations in the nature of slipspace. When they attempted to jump through slipspace from Reach to the Unyielding Hierophant, the space around them was very different to normal - I can't explain fully how, but the report is generally available within Navy ranks. It also made the journey go far faster. What should have taken perhaps several weeks only took them a matter of days!
We are unsure as to why this is, but the leading theory is that the crystal produced a gravitational field so intense that it distorted the fabric of slipspace, causing it effectively to collapse in on itself, making everything everywhere much closer.
Now, Covenant vessels under normal circumstances do not experiences the same distortion - we have the testimony of Acting Captain Marne and his crew to back that up. So we know the effects of the crystal in the ship's hull isn't exactly the same. But, Covenant slipspace journeys have always been far quicker than our standard Shaw-Fujikawa drives. This," she indicated the pictures on the table, "could explain why! Our scans show that veins of this crystal are embedded throughout the entire structure of the ship! That would mean that it's relative slipspace mass would be vast! Big enough certainly to cause the fabric of slipspace to fold in on itself, however slightly - it would easily be enough to explain the difference in speed!"
"Excuse me Miss," Captain Strachan said, "but isn't it possible that the Covenant simply have better slipspace drives than we do? Couldn't this crystal thing be there for an entirely different reason?"
"No Captain - in slipspace all things travel at the same speed. It's many, many times faster than the speed of light, since normal physics don't apply there, but one of the things we do know is that once an object has entered the slipstream, whether by Shaw-Fujikawa technology, or by whatever means the Covenant use, they will move at exactly the same speed. The only thing that affects journey time is distance! So if this crystal acts to reduce the distance of a journey by collapsing slipspace, it would therefore reduce journey time quite significantly."
"How come the Divine Majesty navigates slipspace quite normally, yet the Ascendant Justice didn't? After all, they both had this crystal in them."
"We're not entirely sure, but we think that the added effect of the Menachite Mountain Crystal was responsible for the anomalous results."
Colonel Philips stared intensely at the photos in front of him. Suddenly he spoke, his voice tight with excitement,
"Do we need to know how it works! Don't any of you see what this means? This discovery will reduce the required mission time hugely! If this crystal in the ship will reduce the journey time, we could be at the Prophets' homeworld in a week! And all the better, since none of us know how long we'll have before the Covenant return. The sooner we can cripple their leadership the better! Captain, Acting Captain, tell the Spartans of this development - we'll brief the men, then move out as soon as possible."
Sergeant Neary sat in front of the small hole that had been cut into the wall. Within he could just make out the gleaming thread of light that was the vein of crystal. As soon as they had made the jump to slipspace, just off the gravity well of Europa, the crystal had begun to glow and pulsate with a faint gold-blue light. He had checked the two other holes that had been cut, and the crystal within them was glowing exactly like this one. He sat, and stared.
"Amazing isn't it?"
The soft voice startled him out of his trance. He wondered how long he had been sitting there.
"What?"
"I said 'amazing isn't it'". It was Kendra, speaking over the ship's comm. system. A moment later her tiny figure flickered to life atop the small pedestal Neary had been leaning against.
Neary stood to his feet and gazed down at the shimmering little AI.
"See anything you like?" SHe joked, twirling so her kimono flared out.
"I was just looking," Neary said, wondering whether he had meant at the crystal, or at her.
"Mmm, I noticed," she said, fluttering her eyelashes at him,
"Don't flatter yourself honey, I like my women a little more... well, substantial for a start." Kendra contrived to look artfully crushed at his words, but only held it for a few seconds, before her face split into a grin, and her light, synthesised laughter came to him over the speakers.
"I was just checking on you - d'you know you were sitting there for almost a hour? I thought you might have slipped a little, so I made sure your mind was OK."
"And is it?"
"Within an acceptable human limit of sanity."
This time it was Neary's turn to laugh, a small chuckle that escaped his lips.
"I can't help it, it's hypnotising."
"I gathered."
Neary went to pat the tiny 'woman' on the head, but his hand passed right through her, and tapped the warm facets of the holographic projection unit that lay beneath her feet.
"Ah well," she said, watching his movements, "it's the thought that counts."
Neary smiled, and walked back to his quarters. Kendra watched him go from her vantage point on the pedestal, and wondered what it was like to really laugh.
"All hands to battle prep stations, we will be emerging from slipspace in one hour."
Kendra withdrew from the comm. system, and began a shakedown of the ship's weapon systems. Despite her constant monitoring of all the systems, perfectionism was built into her being.
She took a final look at her prepared message - the artfully constructed deception that would keep the Covenant off her back while the Firewalls infiltrated the Covenant city. It was built from stored images they had of all the Prophets so far encountered, and subtly altered to make it a good non-specific, and unidentifiable as any individual Prophet. She layered an additional layer of shadow over the video image, then ran it through at high speed, just to ensure there were no glitches, which there weren't.
She checked the engines, and then the exhaust piping. There was a slight clogging on exhaust number seven. Sending a signal to the engines, she directed a large pulse of energy to the exhaust pipe, burning it off in the intense heat. Checking again, she saw to her satisfaction that the engines were running flawlessly.
She noted an anomaly in the fore plasma turret, and instantly recalibrated it more to her satisfaction. The torpedo fields were fluctuating flawlessly, and the plasma drives were ticking over nicely.
She pondered the results of the Firewalls' assault on the ship - the weakness in the ship's shields had been it's generalised cover. She examined the workings of the generator, and instantly saw why. The data scavenged from the Divine Majesty's core about the history of the Covenant space flight showed that the earliest known shield generator was completely identical to the one installed on the Divine Majesty. As various people from the late Captain Keyes, Dr. Halsey, and her sister Cortana had noted, the entirety of the Covenant society was imitative rather than innovative, and it showed here more than ever; despite it's imperfections and it's weaknesses, they had refused to change or improve it. She flowed through it's workings, examining it in minute detail. Once she had a full knowledge of it's practicalities, she redistributed the shield strength to be responsive to attacks. It would need constant monitoring and cross-checking with the external sensors, but the benefits were enormous; it would now, with her help, concentrate itself onto the areas under fire, while maintaining a strong enough base layer to safeguard against surprise attacks. A normal shield would withstand one, maybe two plasma torpedoes before they failed, and at least two MAC rounds, but her newly efficient shield could, she estimated, stand up to at least seven plasma torpedoes, perhaps more.
Her shakedown and check-over complete, she insinuated herself back into the comm. systems and spoke,
"Repeat, all hands to battle prep stations, we will emerge from slipspace in fifty nine minutes, fifty eight seconds and counting."
Captain Strachan braced himself against the jolt that came as the ship decelerated suddenly, slowing in a matter of moments from the macro-light speed of light speed to a mere few hundred thousand kilometres per hour.
"Kendra, report."
"All systems fully operational, and powering back up to maximum efficiency. We are orbiting at a distance of three hundred million kilometres from this system's... suns!" Kendra's voice with filled with incredulity and awe as she analysed the data pouring in through the ship's monitors.
"Captain? You'd better come and have a look at this sir!"
Strachan strode to the viewscreen that floated in mid-air above the navigation console. On it he could see a truly astonishing sight; three blindingly bright blue suns spun through space, orbiting in a tight triangle so fast that they were visibly moving. Seventeen planets danced their celestial waltz around them.
"It's beautiful," Kendra whispered, awe-struck, and Strachan couldn't help but agree.
One of the planets - a lush, green-blue planet, not dissimilar to Earth in appearance - began to blink as Kendra highlighted it.
"That's our boy. We're about six million kilometres from it. At top speed we should be there in a little over three hours. Alternatively we could jump there and arrive in a few minutes."
"Thank you Kendra. Enlarge it." This to Lieutenant Carson, his navigation officer. The planet leapt towards them, and the bridge crew could now see it in much better detail. It was roughly twice the size of Earth, and was about 65 covered in water. Three huge continents floated serenely in the midst of the vast oceans. At this magnification Strachan could see that large patches of them were the same metallic purple as covenant ships, and assumed that these areas were cities.
"Any idea where we'll be landing Kendra?"
"Accessing... got it. This area here," one of the city areas began to pulse faintly, "is the capital city - Shanakae. Based on the Covenant's centralised governmental system we can assume that all the main scientific research will be carried out here, and so therefore there will also be the main data storage areas. If not there will certainly be a decent communications system, from which I can access the appropriate mainframes."
"Okay Kendra, time is currently of the essence, so let's jump there."
"Aye Captain, engaging the slipspace drives now."
Strachan felt the familiar sensation of intense acceleration as he walked over to the bridge's comm. panel and opened the ship-wide channel.
"All hands this is Captain Strachan. We are approaching our target, and i want everyone and everything ready when we get there. All hands to battle stations, come to full battle readiness. Firewalls get down to the landing bay double time. Fireteams get ready to repel boarders. Good luck everyone."
Colonel Philips ran through the corridors of the ship towards the central grav lift, his heavy pack nestled firmly on his shoulders. When they reached the huge central chamber the four hundred and seventy two Firewalls, three Spartans and the Colonel fanned out through it, dividing themselves smoothly into their four division, and then further into their individual fireteams. Waiting outside the doors of the chamber were the six hundred ODSTs that were assigned to guard the central grav lift - along with any other weak points - against boarders.
Colonel Philips looked out over the mass of faces staring at him, and felt a surge of pride swell within him. He stepped forward to address his troops:
"Firewalls, we don't have long so I'll keep this brief. This is the moment we've all been waiting for, the mission you've been trained for. I know that you won't let me down, not today, not ever. When we go down there, we will be surrounded by enemies, enemies who won't think twice about killing us. Just do what you've been trained to do and we'll be fine."
As Philips finished his speech Kendra's voice spoke over the speaker system,
"Two minutes to contact with atmosphere. Transmitting landing request now."
Fred winced as the AI's voice rang through his external microphones and in his head as well. He had, stored in the little slot at the base of his helmet, the small chip that carried Kendra. She had left behind her just the necessary systems to transmit the required messages to the Covenant planet - including their little deception - and to monitor the ship's systems and defence. All the rest of it rode with Fred.
"Keep it down would you?" He silently admonished.
"Sorry, wasn't thinking."
"An AI that doesn't think? That's a scary thought."
The assembled troops waited silently, expectantly, until,
"Touchdown, hit it Firewalls!"
Neary floated gently down the purple beam of the grav lift. He stared in wonder at the enormous purple buildings that reached up hundreds of feet to the sky. Even they, though, were far below his feet now. He had to admit that if wasn't for the imminent danger, the view would have been spectacular. As far as the eye could see the massive skyscrapers, which bulged like the keels of ancient seafaring ships, stretched out their fingers to the sky, flashing brilliantly in the blue light from the three suns that blazed fiercely overhead. Stretching between them purple veins of light carried tiny black dots from building to building.
Neary, despite the view, hoped like hell that this damn lift would hurry the hell up - they only had so long before someone down there noticed they weren't seven foot tall and blue.
"Kendra," he muttered into his comm-link, "can you hurry this thing up? I'm feeling a little exposed out here."
"I'll get right on it, just thought you might want to enjoy the view for a bit."
Neary laughed sarcastically into his microphone, then gripped his battle rifle tightly as the bottom dropped out of his stomach, and he dropped like a stone.
He landed eight hundred metres below on the great landing pad with a loud thud. It was quickly followed by a rapid succession of similar thumps as the rest of his fireteam, then the rest of his division followed suit. The hundred and eighteen Firewalls of Beta squad ran forward and secured one of the two energy travelators that led onto the landing platform. Behind them Alpha squad moved to secure the other.
"Listen up Firewalls!" Kendra called through their comm-links, "the building we want is over that bridge and through a few buildings. If we get in there quickly we can get through the main transport lift and get into the city's library before they shut it down! Move out Beta squad, the others will be right behind you. Stay frosty Firewalls and GO GO GO!"
Neary leapt to his feet, waved his squad forward, then sprinted towards the hatch that was marked in his eyepiece, battle rifle pressed firmly against his shoulder. He was outstripped by Fred as the Spartan pelted at top speed across the energy bridge. The hatch sprang open and the figure in green armour barrelled through.
Hot on his heels, Neary darted through the open doorway, and looked quickly around. They were surrounded by aliens. He levelled his battle rifle, backed up until he felt the smooth static of Fred's shields against his back, and prepared to die.
The humans stood there, guns levelled at the startled looking aliens, for the briefest of moments before one of the Covenant - an Elite - gave a scream, but not of fury, of terror. The cry was taken up by all the others, and the entire crowd turned and fled. Neary stood, stunned, until Fred gave a short laugh, and spoke through his comm-link.
"Civilians!"
Neary laughed with relief as the realisation struck him; these aliens, Elites, Prophets and the occasional Grunt, were all slightly smaller than usual, and they were all unarmed. Neary pondered this for a moment while the rest of his squad thundered through the hatch and on through the large corridor that apparently led to the main express way, before Kendra spoke quietly in his ear,
"Females, and children."
Neary nodded to himself, then sprinted after his squad.
Philips checked his CNI signal, and saw to his satisfaction that, as planned, Beta squad were hurrying straight for the central express route through the city, with Alpha squad hot on their heels. His own squad, Delta, was a brief way behind them, moving as fast as they dared, in a protective circle around the large object that floated in the middle, drifting swiftly along on it's gravity plates.
The NOVA nuke was about the size of a desk, and was fastened underneath a large tarpaulin. It was supported on the gravity plates they'd plundered from the Divine Majesty, which floated some two feet above the ground.
He checked his CNI and noted that Charlie squad was moving about a hundred yards behind them, their rearguard.
"How are we doing Kendra?"
"It's another five hundred yards to the express route. Beta squad are already moving along it. Alpha squad are holding at our end until we get there, then they'll go ahead and secure the far end. It's about two kilometres down the express way - should take us about fifty seconds if I've got my calculations right. From there it's a four storey climb - there's a grav lift that'll take us to the right level - then a few rooms away and there's the data banks. Ah, hang on a second Colonel... there, I'm in."
"In?"
"The city's computer networks. The Covenant have figured out we're not friendly, and they've scrambled a response team. They'll reach the ship's grav lift in five. I'm transmitting our video, hopefully they won't fire on the ship. Unfortunately they'll reach the data banks long before we do, so we can expect heavy resistance there."
"Warn the boys back at the ship that they're coming would you?"
"No need Colonel, they deployed as soon as we were off the pad."
"Good. Let's hope they're as good as they're paid to be."
Two hundred ODSTs poured down the grav lift and immediately split into two groups as they hit the ground. A hundred moved instantly to secure the two entrances to the pad, and the other hundred supervised the deployment of the equipment now coming down from above.
Slabs of pre-fab concrete landed gently on the pad, followed by numerous stationary guns, weapons and huge ammo crates. The Helljumpers worked to set up covered bunkers at the entrances, with the stationary guns deployed inside. Within minutes they had the pad sealed off, with formidable fortifications blocking both entrances. Once they were set up the second hundred joined the first, taking up positions until the blockades were bristling with readied weapons.
One Helljumper glanced over the edge of the pad, swayed slightly, then swore vociferously.
"What is it?" His buddy asked,
"Don't look down."
"Huh?" His buddy said, and immediately looked down, "Jeeeesus!"
A vast, yawning chasm stretched away below them, so deep that he couldn't make out the bottom.
"How high are these damn buildings? I mean come on! We must be at least six hundred metres from the top!"
Kendra's voice spoke into his ear.
"You are currently three thousand, eight hundred and ninety four metres above ground level - the buildings themselves stretch some four thousand five hundred metres above ground level, with a certain amount of variation, and also several kilometres below ground. Each structure houses some eight million inhabitants."
"Mother of God - and we're supposed to find their central library in all this?"
"Yes, but I wouldn't worry about that right now soldier. Instead, I'd worry about the several hundred Covenant troops currently converging on your position."
"Roger that ma'am." The ODST faced front and gripped his rifle tightly, waiting.
"Up ahead team, see 'em there?" Neary gestured to the end of the travelator, where a small group of Elites waited, crouched, weapons ready.
"Take 'em down Beta squad!" Fred shouted. The four fire teams with clear lines of fire opened up, bullets slicing through the air. Eight of the fourteen Elites dropped before the rest could even react. The remaining six returned fire, back-pedalling swiftly, looking for cover. Blue bolts of plasma sizzled past the Firewalls, most of which went wide. A few, however, connected with their targets, and a Firewall was thrown to the side, a hole burned through his chest. His dying body was hurled off the travelator, and dropped like a stone down the gaping pit. His dying scream could be heard for a sickening length of time, before it faded into the emptiness of the chasm.
By the time the first of Beta squad had touched down on at the end of the energy span there was just one Elite left. The solitary warrior roared with fury and primed a grenade. He drew back his arm, and was about to hurl the grenade at Fred, when a dozen rifles barked, and the arm flew off, severed at the elbow. The grenade fell out of the twitching hand and fused to the Elite's side, where it detonated, vaporising the alien instantly.
"Through that door - up the corridor there's a grav lift that'll take you up to the right level."
"Thanks Kendra. Let's move Firewalls!" Fred raced off up the corridor towards the purple strip of light five hundred years away, followed by Beta squad. Sergeant Carella, in the rearguard, glanced back across the light bridge, and saw the first fire teams of Alpha squad racing towards him. Nodding in satisfaction, he turned and sprinted away up the corridor.
"Here they come marines!"
The hatch at the far end of the light bridge opened, and hundreds of Covenant troops poured out. A hundred ODSTs opened fire with stationary guns, battle rifles and sniper rifles. Despite the heavy fire pouring across the bridge the Covenant rushed forwards, soaking up their losses with frightening indifference. Whenever an Elite fell, three more ran forward to take it's place, until they reached the far end of the shining span.
Just as the first warrior set foot on the bridge, a brilliant beam of blue light speared down from the sky, burning into the middle of the surging mass. The Divine Majesty's underside pulse laser, made for burning through starship-grade hulls, vaporised hundreds of Covenant warriors in a single shot, and left a huge crater in the metal of the deck. Still the Covenant came on.
"Kendra, again!" Yelled Major Giddan, commanding officer of the ODST division.
"I can't," shouted Kendra in anguish, "it has to recharge!"
"How long will that take?"
"I can't say - I overpowered it, it'll have to cool down first. You're on your own for a few minutes. Hang in there, I'm sending down some help!"
Giddan fired the last three bullets in his clip, which sliced through a Jackal's skull, and dashed to the entrance of the bunker while he reloaded. Looking into the beam of the grav lift he grinned in relief; dropping down towards him were eight Wraith tanks.
"Marines, we've got some artillery coming down, I want eight of you out on the pad to meet it - go!"
Eight black-clad figures sprinted from the bunkers and skidded to a halt as the Wraiths hit the floor. They jumped into the drivers seats, and turned the purple behemoths towards the massing Covenant troops.
Fifty ODSTs from the unattacked side of the pad ran across the pad to reinforce their beleaguered brethren. As they sent volley after volley at the advancing aliens the Wraiths opened fire, lobbing burning white balls of plasma racing through the skies to drop on the Covenant. Newly reinforced the humans dropped the aliens in droves, until they finally fell back, howling.
"Don't be fooled Helljumpers, they're just prepping for their next attack," Giddan called, as he reloaded his rifle and replenished his depleted ammo reserves. Sure enough, barely a minute later, the aliens advanced again, this time covered by portable shields. Giddan opened fire - the fight was on again.
"Colonel, I need your squad and Charlie squad to head left through this next door."
"But what about the library?"
"Alpha and Beta squads have that covered, your job now is to take care of that bomb."
"Got it, I'm on it." Philips waved his fire team through the door, and dashed forwards, keeping an eye on his CNI to make sure both squads followed him.
Neary glanced over his shoulder, saw two hundred looking past him down the corridor, nodded at Fred, and followed the big Spartan at a jog towards their objective - Shanakae's main library.
Fred halted ten yards from the huge double doors and held up a fist. The Firewalls stopped dead in their tracks, then Fred motioned forward with his hand, very gently. Two hundred pairs of feet crept silently down the last few yards, then crouched as the doors swept open to reveal...
"Colonel, I need you to enter this lift. It'll take you down a few levels, then drop you near a larger express lift that goes all the way down to the bottom of this tower."
"We're not going all the way down are we?"
"No, but we're going to send our package all the way down."
Philips stepped into the grav lift, and plummeted down through two hundred metres of tower. Above him he could see a hundred Firewalls of Delta squad, along with the NOVA device, dropping towards him - Charlie squad and the other sixteen remaining Firewalls of Delta would guard their exit. He alighted gently on the exit pad, and stepped quickly off, freeing the pad for the rest of his troops.
"Okay Colonel," said Kendra, once they were all down, "get your techie to arm this baby, and then we'll send it down. And hurry up - the Helljumpers can't hold that pad forever."
Philips called his tech specialist forward and gave him the key-code to arm the nuke. The techie went to work, swiftly unbolting hatches and entering codes, while the hundred Firewalls spread out, establishing a perimeter.
"How long will it take?" Philips enquired in a low voice,
"A few minutes I'm afraid - these things were purposefully designed to be hard to arm. Disarming, that's easy, but arming takes a while."
Philips muttered under his breath, then moved away to join the perimeter guards.
The library was huge. It was basically a vast dome carved out of the middle of the tower, and filled with endless banks of consoles. High above the humans, a giant pillar of light slipped down through the ceiling, and split into thousands of tiny strands that reached down and into the consoles that stretched away as far as Neary could see.
"Fibre optic cables," he whispered to his fire team, "They must carry the data to the consoles. Which one Kendra?"
"Any one will be fine Sergeant, although I should really tell that to you, Spartan."
Fred nodded and walked over to the nearest console, hesitated, then strode away through the banks of panels until he was out of sight of the door. Then, picking a panel at random, he walked over and pulled the cube of crystal from the slot in his neck and slid it into the receptacle on the console.
A fountain of light spiralled up from the pedestal that stood next to Fred, and a giant figure of Kendra swirled together from the cloud of motes. She gave a stretch of her shoulders and sighed with satisfaction.
"Right, let's get to wo..." she cut off with a wince of pain.
"What's wrong?" Fred asked sharply.
"Kill systems, quite advanced for Covenant constructs. They wouldn't be such a problem if there weren't so damn many of them. It's taking a sizeable chunk of processor speed to block and melt them... that's odd - they're just swarming me, there's no plan to their attacks, it's like they're," she winced again, "just trying to slow me down, stop me from noticing..." her voice trailed off, and a look of horror crossed her face.
"What is it?" Fred shouted.
"Look out!" Kendra cried, "ambu..."
But before she could finish the sentence hundreds of Covenant troops sprang from where they had lain concealed behind the multitude of panels and consoles that filled the room. The Firewalls suddenly found themselves fighting for their lives.
Kendra gazed in horror at the scene in the library - despite their enhanced reflexes several of the Firewalls had been caught completely off guard by the attack, and already, barely seconds into the battle, some dozen had fallen. The casualties were dropping now as the Firewalls found cover behind the consoles and returned fire.
For the briefest moment she was frozen, ineffective. Then, coming to her senses, she resumed her search. She frowned in irritated concentration as she liquidated another swarm of Covenant kill-systems. There seemed to be less of them now that they had achieved their primary purpose, but they still buzzed around her like a swarm of gnats.
It would be so much easier, she mused, if she wasn't at part strength from leaving part of herself on board the ship, and didn't have to monitor so many different things at once. Obviously she had been designed to be able to multi task, but no-one had ever suspected that she would have to crack alien security barriers on an alien planet at half strength, while simultaneously fighting off swarms of hostile constructs, maintaining as steady a stream of fire from the ship's pulse lasers as she could, keep track of the situations of Colonel Philips, Fred, Linda, Will and Major Giddan, and keep the supplies flowing smoothly down and the wounded up the ship's grav lift.
Closing her 'eyes' she halted all her other sub routines for the briefest of moments, focused her entire formidable processing power, and obliterated all the remaining kill systems. There, much better. She resumed her routines, and fired a pulse laser at a crowd of Covenant soldiers that were dangerously close to overrunning one of the Helljumpers' positions. She took a quick count of how many were left, thanked fortune that the other side of the pad remained unthreatened, and sent an additional hundred ODSTs floating down the grav lift with more pre-fab bunkers and orders to construct a secondary line of defence around the perimeter of the lift.
She checked the status of the other squad leaders, then turned her attention to the security barriers that floated in front of her.
Checking the programming to be sure there were no deadfalls, she set to work shredding them piece by piece. She tore the first layer apart with almost no effort at all, and wasn't surprised to see still more barriers stretching away before her. She bent her mind to the task.
"How much longer Kendra?" Fred's voice sounded almost panicked as he shouted into his internal microphone.
"Not much longer now, hang in there. Just a second, I'll give you a hand."
She turned a portion of her attention to the library's security systems, and found what she was looking for. A moment later the turrets set into the walls powered up and unleashed a wave of plasma onto the startled Covenant troops, who quickly sheltered between banks of consoles, taking cover from both the humans and their own security devices, but not before scores of them had been cut to ribbons.
In the library itself, Neary breathed a sigh of relief as a brief silence fell over the huge chamber. Fred's voice sounded quietly over his comm-link, ordering him to deploy his squad just so. Neary raised his hand slightly and pointed his fingers in complex patterns. His squad split into two man teams, and spread out among the maze of computer consoles. The battle now evolved into a great, deadly game of cat-and-mouse, as a hundred and ten Firewalls hunted, and were hunted by, packs of Grunts, and individual Elites. Although the Firewalls had a great advantage over the Covenant soldiers, they were heavily outnumbered, and steadily they were whittled down one by one.
Neary crouched behind a large holo-pedestal and readied himself. He checked his ammo counter, took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. He glanced quickly around the pedestal, rolled out into the middle of the aisle, rose to one knee with his rifle up, and loosed twelve rounds at the four Grunts that lurked at the far end, looking around the wrong corner. He rolled again, and came up behind a metal screen.
Looking across the aisle he caught his partner's eye, nodded, and whipped around the corner, his rifle levelled at the startled Elite that had whipped around, looking for who had killed his team. The alien started with surprise, then staggered backwards as twenty bullets hammered into it's shields and skull. It fell dead to the floor, it's head caved in.
"How much longer Kendra?" Neary whispered into his mike.
"A few more minutes, there's something here - a construct in the mainframe. It was buried in the security layers. It's strangely potent - I don't think it's a Convenant construct. It feels... older. Far, far older. I think it might be of Forerunner origin. I wonder if the Covenant know it's here?"
"Just keep going, we need to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"Roger that, I'll send Alpha squad to help you out - they should arrive just as I finish - LOOK OUT!" Forewarned by Kendra's shriek, Neary threw himself to the ground as a volley of plasma skimmed over his head. His partner, however, was less fortunate. Without the benefit of the AI's warning, she was caught full in the chest. Her polymer body suit was never designed to take that much firepower, and it evaporated. Her scream was choked off as the plasma burned a gaping, smoking hole through her body. She fell back, her finger squeezing the trigger of the battle rifle reflexively. Three rounds fire wildly into the air, and hit the shining fibre optic cable that hung above their heads. The cable severed, and the aisle was plunged into darkness. Neary flipped the visor of his helmet down, and the aisle was brilliantly lit by the green glare of night vision. Ahead of him, milling around in confusion, was a small pack of Jackals, their shields glowing faintly, but only enough to illuminate about two feet ahead of them.
Neary stood gently to his feet and crept silently down the aisle towards the vulture-like creatures. Just outside the circle of light cast by their shields he paused, felt on the floor, and found what he was looking for - the helmet of the dead Elite. Taking care to make no noise he pried it off the dead alien's crushed head. He stood to his feet, drew back his arm, and tossed the helmet down the aisle. It landed just past the circumference of the glow emitted by the shields. The Jackals instantly whipped around, their shields raised, their backs to Neary. He allowed himself a smile as he drew a frag grenade, primed it, and laid it very gently behind the foot of one of the Jackals - so gently that it didn't activate. He edged quietly back down the aisle, and coughed, very gently. As he had hoped the Jackals spun back round towards him, and as they did so, the foot of one of them knocked his primed grenade.
Neary couldn't help but laugh out loud as the creature bent down to see what it had kicked, and the half-second fuse sent white hot shrapnel sawing through it's body, and those of it's companions.
"Hey, nice plan." Kendra complimented him, and plunged the entire room into darkness. A flurry of quiet curses, both alien and human, could be heard in the pitch darkness. Neary hauled himself on top of the computer banks to his right, deactivated his night vision and gazed around. The cavernous library was completely dark, apart from one small area - a tiny circle of light that surrounded Kendra's illuminated body.
"Get to it Sergeant, I'll start messing with their heads." Kendra's voice had a definite note of malice in it.
Neary slipped down to the floor, reactivated his night vision, and moved off at a silent crouching walk. He edged silently down several more aisle before he next encountered any Covenant troops. Kneeling behind a console - Kendra had even shut them down to stop them glowing - he spun silently round the corner to see two Elites blundering about blindly in the dark; apparently the big aliens had forgotten to bring a torch.
"Get as close as you want, I'll distract them," Kendra whispered over his comm-link. Neary was about to ask how, but then thought better of it - much easier to act now than sit through some long winded explanation.
He glided noiselessly down the aisle towards the Elites, hoping that whatever Kendra had in mind she would do it soon. Suddenly, on the opposite side of the Covenant warriors to him, he heard running footsteps. The aliens spun towards the noise and unleashed a blistering volley of plasma. Neary saw his chance and crept up behind them...
His first blow slammed the Elite's spine through his chest - the alien dropped noiselessly, and his partner, in the strobe-lit aisle, failed to realise anything was amiss until it was too late - the 10 inch combat knife speared up through his neck and penetrated his brain. Warm blue blood sprayed over Neary's face and hands as he ripped the knife out.
"Nice job on the distraction genius," he muttered,
"But that was me!" She protested, "didn't you think it was a bit odd that someone would be stupid enough to make that much noise? Or that no-one was hit by that little firestorm?"
"Hmm, ok then, how did you do it?"
"There are speakers built into all these consoles - it was a simple matter to simulate someone running along the aisle." Neary whistled softly, impressed.
"D'you think you could do that again? For anyone else I mean - it could swing this fight in our favour..."
"Shhh..." she admonished him, "listen." Neary fell silent and strained his ears. All around him he could make out a multitude of tiny sounds, and the muffled sounds of plasma fire. It sounded like there were hundreds of Kendra's little distractions going on all around him. He grinned wolfishly in the darkness.
"Got it!" Kendra cried triumphantly into his ear, almost making him jump out of his skin.
"Got what?" He whispered, alarmed.
"The co-ordinates for every single Covenant owned planet in the galaxy. Plus..." her voice drifted off for a moment, "a whole lot more. But for now let's just get the hell outta here. I'm calling in Alpha squad now."
As Neary abandoned any semblance of stealth and sprinted for Kendra's glowing figure he heard a door slide open, followed by the sound of many pairs of feet hurrying quietly into the room.
Neary reached Kendra's terminal just as Fred removed her chip and replaced it in his neck port. Tapping the Spartan on the shoulder, Neary gestured to the door, and hurried off into the darkness, the huge warrior right behind him.
They tumbled through Alpha squad's perimeter, and the whole two hundred and forty eight strong company withdrew quietly through the door. As it closed behind the last of them the lights in the room flashed back on, throwing the confused Covenant troops inside into complete chaos.
Far below them, the techie looked up at Philips and nodded. The Colonel smiled and waved three Firewalls over to him. Together they heaved the large device over to the grav lift that waited to draw it down, deep into the crust of the planet. Philips laid his hand on top of the bomb, and whispered a quiet blessing. Then, breathing shallowly, he armed the device, set the timer for one hour, and pushed it into the purple beam.
Looking over the edge, he watched it fade out of sight, then signalled his squad to move out.
"I've locked down that lift - no-one will get in or out at all," Kendra informed him, "I've also slowed it down quite dramatically. At it's current speed, the NOVA will reach the bottom of the shaft exactly as it detonates."
"Tell me again Kendra," Philips murmured as he sped up through the smaller lift they had come down, "why are we sending it all the way down?"
"To make sure that everything on this planet dies - we don't want any survivors just because we didn't go deep enough," she said, mercilessly.
Some distance below them, the chunky weapon sank slowly through the earth. On it's timer, displayed in red, it was slowly counting down, counting down to the death of a planet: 59:47... 59:46...59:45.
The four squads, reunited at the far end of the express route, pounded down the twisting corridors, sprinting for all they were worth back to their vessel. The three Spartans in the lead were by now almost a hundred yards ahead. They slowed ever so slightly as they approached the hatch that led to the Divine Majesty's landing pad, and ducked through it to see a truly awesome sight.
Covenant troops swarmed the pad, held at bay by a formidable barrier of concrete bunkers, which were being desperately defended by three hundred and fifty of the remaining four hundred active Helljumpers. Only fifty remained on the ship to repel boarders, of which there had been a surprising amount; Elites sporting jetpacks had forced their way in through some of the ship's airlocks, and more than once a few aliens had made it up the grav lift. These minutiae were swiftly dealt with however - the real problem lay below.
As the Spartans waited for the Firewalls to catch up, they appraised the situation. It was clear that if they didn't get help soon, the ODSTs wouldn't last long. They were set up well, but were simply hugely outnumbered.
Fred waved the Firewalls forward, and they rushed forward in a silent mass. Taking up positions behind the abandoned bunkers, they opened fire, shredding the rear ranks of the Covenant in seconds. The others reacted with astonishing speed, returning fire on the Firewalls.
Kendra saw her chance, and opened fire with every weapon she had on the ship's underside. Four pulse lasers stabbed down, vaporising dozens of the Covenant soldiers. The nearly eight hundred human soldiers puled out the grenades they had been reserving for just such a moment as this, and lobbed them into the ranks of aliens before them.
A huge chain of explosions tore through the Covenant masses. Hundreds of Elites, Grunts and Jackals were shredded instantly. The remaining few dozen retreated hurriedly, hurried along by the constant harrying of the ODST's and Firewall's rifles.
"NOW!" Bellowed Fred, and all the Firewalls leapt over the bunkers and sprinted hell for leather across the landing pad. Running at full speed they hurdled the second line of defences without slowing.
Seeing their retreat, the three hundred ODSTs left their positions and fell back to the landing pad. Kendra instantly activated the lift, and eight hundred odd troops streamed up the eight hundred metre beam, and vanished into the great maw of the ship.
"They're all on board Kendra, let's kick this pig."
"Aye Captain, taking us out now."
Strachan gripped the side of the navigation console as the ship accelerated up into the atmosphere.
"This isn't right," he muttered, "Kendra! Why aren't we being shot at, or even chased?"
Kendra gave a girlish little giggle,
"They won't be going anywhere for a while Captain; I locked down all their defence systems and launch pads before we left. We're in the clear - so let's get clear, before this planet becomes a lump of radioactive rock."
"Amen to that! Take it away Kendra."
The ship swiftly cleared the planet's gravity well, and vanished into slipspace. A few moments later it reappeared a few million miles away from the planet.
"Hold us here Kendra, and we'll watch the fireworks."
The ship drifted, immobile, and everyone on board was gathered around the viewscreens, watching the planet. In one corner of the screen the red numbers of the NOVA's timer ticked quietly away.
As it reached one minute, Kendra sent a brief message on a wide band width, transmitting to every receiver on the planet:
You brought death to our children
On a hundred worlds you wreaked your slaughter
Now we return your gift of death
Be thankful we destroy just this one.
A huge pillar of flame suddenly erupted from the planet's surface, spewing white hot chunks of metal and rock into the sky. On the magnified viewscreen a huge shockwave could be seen rippling across the surface of the planet, leaving nothing but rubble and dust in its wake. Chasing it, like a fiery hound after an intangible fox, a wall of white hot, radioactive flame roared across the globe, leaving a scorched and burning landscape behind it. The vast oceans were flash-boiled, and massive clouds of super heated steam billowed up into the atmosphere. Contained beneath the surface, the massively powerful force of the NOVA proved too much for the planet's crust, and a massive section of the planet, at least a third, was blasted out, fragmented, into space. Beneath it the crew of the Divine Majesty could see the solid core, and the liquid outer core, spewing from the vast hole, to cool and solidify in the cold void. A giant dust cloud was already forming above the planet - an impenetrable radioactive screen that would wrap the dead planet in nuclear winter for millennia to come. Lazily spinning in orbit around it, the remnants of the destroyed chunk of the planet circled the body, gently forming into a huge asteroid belt. Fully two kilometres of solid rock had been blasted off the planet's surface by the explosion, cities, mountains and all. The destruction was absolute.
"Gracious God," Philips whispered, "I didn't realise it would be like this."
"How many?" Marne asked, a strange hunger in his voice.
"At least twenty billion Acting Captain," Kendra replied, her voice dull, mechanical.
"All gone - in such a short space of time."
Everyone on board was silent for a few moments, before Strachan spoke again, his voice heavy - not with guilt, but with responsibility.
"Kendra, make the jump. We can discuss our next move while in slipspace."
"Where to Captain?"
"Set in the co-ordinates for the Elites' world. We have a duty to fulfil."