CHAPTER 25

1456 HOURS, 2 AUGUST 2537 (UNSC MILITARY CALENDAR)

TARGET AREA BRONZE, ASTEROID K7-49, GAMMA SIRIUS SYSTEM

OPERATION: PROMETHEUS

DAY 7

Cole tossed the MA5K assault rifle he'd been using aside. He, Naomi and Leon had managed to burn through three weapons caches- two Alpha Company, one Covenant- in just a few short hours. And yet for all the hell they and the rest of the Alpha Company Spartans were unleashing, they were barely making a dent in the Covenant advance. There were simply so many to kill, and by now the Covenant were playing the rest of their hand. Squadrons of Banshees had been attacking Alpha for hours, but now there was practically a fleet of the alien flyers hammering on any Spartan within sight, which had forced them to abandon their previously-secure rooftop outposts. What was more, at least half a dozen squads of Seraph space fighters had descended onto the asteroid, and carried out bombing runs seemingly at will.

But nothing compared to the Wraiths. Time after time, they launched their plasma mortars in predetermined patterns, methodically clearing the way for the infantry forces to move through. The Spartans fought back at first, but between the deaths of the company's heavy weapons specialists and the sheer numbers of the tanks, resistance didn't last long.

"Fall back!" Leon ordered. "Magnums out, and fire ONLY if a kill is guaranteed!"

Cole drew his M6 as the surrounding Spartans obeyed the command. He didn't even bother aiming, though. Thinning the ranks wouldn't matter at this point.

Another plasma barrage struck, and the combined pressure waves slammed Cole into the ground. As he picked himself up for the umpteenth time, he noted how long it was taking- how slow he was getting. No, a small, metallic voice at the back of his head said. You're not giving in. Not here. Not like this. His teeth gritted and his breathing deep, Cole rose to his feet and ran after the rest of Alpha Company.

Several minutes later, in the burned-out wreck of a factory complex, the Spartans stopped to catch their breath. The ground continued to shake as plasma charges and fuel rod bombs impacted nearby, and the sky still echoed with the whines of Banshee engines. It was an extremely effective piece of psychological warfare, Cole admitted to himself. There was no break, no respite, no relenting in this assault.

Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and an impact ripped through what was left of the factory's roof. His view of the sky unobstructed, Cole saw four Covenant ships- two frigates, a cruiser and a carrier- appear in flashes of blue-white light. Even as he watched the ships, small specks began to appear around the ships, their aft sections ablaze with blue fiery exhaust. Seraphs.

"Low-orbit transition," Leon muttered. "Damn the bastards..."

Eve gave a low chuckle. "They've assembled an entire battle group to deal with a single company. Imagine what would happen if there was a battalion of us."
"Focus," Leon replied. "This complicates things- either we get off this rock, or we eat dinner with ghosts tonight. We need a plan."

"What are we going to do?" Eve asked. "Even if we take the Calypsos off-surface, they'll blow us out of the sky before we can charge up. Face it, Leon. We're stuck here- we're done. I say we hit them with whatever we've got left and take as many of them down as we can."

Leon turned to face her. "You're saying that we should disobey an ONI directive?"

Eve shrugged. "We'll die trying to follow it, and we'll die if we don't try. Same result."

Cole sighed noiselessly. Eve was right- their only chance at survival- the Calypso sub-prowlers- were no longer an escape option. Charging the Slipspace drives to full capacity would send a signal flare to nearby Covenant ships, and attempting an undercharged jump would-

Cole paused. Two undercharged transitions had been attempted in UNSC space-faring history, and both had resulted in the utter obliteration of the ships attempting the jump. Alpha Company didn't have an escape option, but they still had one last card to play. He pinged Leon and Eve, and both turned to look at him.

We still have an option, he typed into the TACPAD on his forearm. The Shaw-Fujikawa engines- we fire them up and attempt transition- blast radius will be several hundred meters, at least.

Leon and Eve glanced at each other. Eve nodded. "I don't think any of us are deluded enough to think we can actually escape. It's pretty good for a non-nuclear option."

"All right," Leon said with slight trepidation in his voice, "but one thing at a time. The natural gravity field will affect the rupture, but not by much. The artificial one, though..."

He let the thought hang.

Cole nodded once before starting to type again. We split what's left. One group of us goes down into the asteroid's core and destroys the grav generator. A second group makes their way to the ships and charges the Slipspace drives. Workable?

Leon nodded before immediately beginning an encrypted broadcast to the rest of Alpha Company. As he did, Eve turned to Cole.

"Do we even know where we find a tunnel to the core?"

Cole shrugged, but then his eyebrows perked. He then transmitted a TEAMCAM image of one of the foundry complexes to Eve, who looked at it for a moment before nodding.

"Bit of a rough ride, but it should get us at least some of the way there. Nice thinking. Isn't it weird that we're planning a suicide mission?"

A rock seemed to form in Cole's chest, and ice ran down his spine. He couldn't even find the strength to nod. It wasn't so much the idea that he was going to die- he'd been ready for that the day he left Onyx. It was the thought that he was hurtling willingly towards it. Tyler, Eve, Team Raven and so many others had died when their missions had gone wrong. This mission, though- Cole would die mo matter what, mission accomplished or not.

Would that be so bad, though? Cole started at the familiar voice in his head.

You want me to say no, don't you? Cole thought back consciously. It felt somewhat surreal to be talking in his own mind.

What do you think? Cole's face twitched in irritation.

Can you just give a straight answer?

Well, we'd see them all again- Mom, Dad, Theresa. We'd see everyone else, too- Tyler, Naomi, Pam. They're all there.

Cole's brow wrinkled. They're all-where?

A mental image of a small boy smiling formed in his mind. Cole couldn't quite place the face, but it seemed maddeningly familiar. You shouldn't be afraid to find out.

Cole sighed, and then glanced over at Leon and Eve. Not yet- they need me for this.

I expected no less. You're a Spartan. But if you're at ease, you can go into this thing unafraid. Just in case you're the one who has to push the button.

Cole frowned. What are the odds of that?

There was no answer.

"Cole? Are you ready?"

He blinked his acknowledgment light green. His armor was on and he had a working weapon- whatever else was true, he was combat ready.

"All right, Spartans, move out!" Leon announced. "All fire teams in target areas Iron and Cobalt gather at Reactor Complex Seven for the attack mission on the generator. Fire teams at Steel, Silver and Gold, move to secure the Calypso vessels. All other teams receiving this message, hold the Covenant up- keep their attention as long as you can. Falcon-Actual out."

Cole noted that only eighty-four acknowledgment lights were green.

The group that had been with Falcon in the factory- five fire teams- moved through the wreckage of the battle for K7-49. Coolant towers belched clouds of exhaust into the air, obscuring ten-meter high mounds of mangled metal and stone. Thousands of fires smouldered and burned through material, organic and inorganic alike, a macabre vigil observed by chemistry for the thousands that had died on the asteroid. The black sky above, formerly only lit by an orange sun, was now filled with a hundred cones of blue light. In the middle of it all, fourteen humans slunk through the rubble in random order. The imaginative might have seen some order in their march, but there was none. Their flanks were exposed, their read unguarded. Cover was abandoned, alternating movement overlooked.

The journey to Reactor Seven took two hours, and Cole was surprised that no Covenant were encountered. He was more than just surprised- his brows furrowed in suspicion. They had sent an entire assault fleet to the asteroid, and Covenant troops had been swarming Alpha Company everywhere else the Spartans had been. Why was it so quiet now?

A partially-intact wall loomed ahead of Cole. There was nothing that differentiated it from any over the other twenty reactors Alpha Company had destroyed- except for the two Spartans in front of the door arch, their assault rifles pointed towards anything that moved. As Cole, Leon and Eve moved passed, they whispered, "You're the last group- we're all ready to begin."

"Good," Leon replied. "Now let's finish this."

"Is it bad that I'm thinking about this whole mission as a 'blaze of glory'-type deal?" Eve asked, seemingly wondering out loud.

"Think of it any way you choose," Leon answered with a sigh, "we are officially disobeying ONI orders now."

For some reason, Cole couldn't help but smile.

Their descent into the asteroid's interior was through a series of metal shafts that ran below the reactor and foundry above. As Cole descended, he saw the metal lining the tunnels disappear, replaced by smooth stone. As he and the other Spartans went further, the rock became even less finished, and it was ultimately replaced by raw stone. These were the artificial 'lava tubes', which had run hot with ore when the reactors had still been active. Now that the gravity lifts in each foundry were no longer operational, the ore was no longer moving, either clogging up the tunnels, or draining out of them before metal cooled. The ground under Reactor Seven was a case of the latter.

Eventually, Falcon arrived at a fork in the tunnel. The lava tube itself continued on, but there was a hole in the tunnel's side that only ran for several meters before it reached a wide-open space. Cole left the tunnel behind Eve, and found himself on a half-kilometer metal platform. No other Spartans were visible besides the two surviving members of Team Eagle- Ian and Pietro.

"Phoenix coming in behind you?" Pietro asked. Leon, who by now was just exiting the tunnel, nodded. Just them, two figures in scarred and scorched SPI armor clambered out to join them.

"All points ready," the first of the two reported. Leon was already on TEAMCOM.

"Begin attack. Priority targets are the uplinks from their power grid to the gravity generators. All remaining heavy weapons- focus on their power grid. Now let's make this quick- we have Spartans topside counting on us."

Almost immediately, dull, distant booms and cracks sounded from elsewhere. Cole turned to Eve, tapped her on the shoulder, and pointed a thumb in the general direction of the gravity projector. He then spread his fingers as if to grasp an object, then closed his fingers and rotated his hand as if to encircle a round object. Understanding, Eve turned to Leon.

"Are all the spaces down here interconnected?"

Leon nodded. "The entire place is basically one hollow space that the Covenant built walls to divide up. This was in the ONI deep-scan schematics, in case there was ever a reason we'd need this."

"Well, now we got a reason."

Leon grunted in response.

After roughly one minute of running, the floor shook, and for half a second, Cole felt slightly lighter. But the sensation was only fleeting- everything returned to normal almost instantly.

"That was fast," Eve murmured.

"Must have caught the Covenant by surprise. They were only expecting us on the surface."

Just then, the walls seemed to vanish as the seven Spartans came up on an open balcony. Cole suppressed a sharp gasp at what he saw. Dozens, no- hundreds of walkways and platforms were set up in the asteroid's interior, all encircling a titanic purple metal sphere. At several points on the structure, beams of white energy from some of the platforms surrounding it fed into the generator, although as Cole examined the area, several platforms were on fire, and no beams reached the central sphere from these locations. There was one other concern, too.

"What the- they- they hollowed the core out?" Ian sputtered.

"Natural gravity must be close to zero with that..." Leon said. "Might complicate things down here, but could make it easier topside. We've got no time to speculate. Let's move."

And move they did. As they ran, all around them the fight raged. Spartans traded assault rifle fire with Elites, who retaliated with a storm of plasma bolts and needles. Thunder and fire cascaded from every direction as Alpha Company's explosives crippled the fusion units powering the gravity generator. Eve and Leon would occasionally fire concentrated bursts from their MA5K carbines, but Cole didn't join- at the range most of the firefights were taking place, using his M6 pistol would be like shooting in the dark.

Suddenly, a ripple in the air in front of them exploded in a shower of blue as a trio of Elites uncloaked. One hung back as it drew a meter-long needle rifle- it fired projectiles similar to the needler pistol, but these did not track targets. On the other hand, though, they traveled more quickly and impacted with much more energy.

Its two comrades drew energy swords and charged. As they did, time seemed to slow to a crawl, and Cole felt as though he had all the time in the world choosing a course of action. He tucked in his legs and rolled past the two sword-wielding Elites as they sprinted, inch by inch, towards him and his teammates.

He finished the roll in a crouch just in front of the rifle-wielding Elite, which rapidly tried to bring its weapon back down for a shot at Cole. He didn't let it, grabbing the barrel of the weapon and forcing it aside with his left hand while his right drew his sidearm. The Elite snarled and let go of the weapon entirely. Surprised by the lack of resistance, Cole continued moving with the rifle he'd been forcing off to the side. The Elite took the opportunity opened by delivering a vicious backhand across Cole's visor, which, miraculously, did not crack.

Cole landed flat on his back, needle rifle in one hand and M6 pistol in the other, as the enraged Elite closed in. On the back of one gauntlet, an energy blade, similar to the energy sword the other two Elites were carrying but only fifteen centimeters in length, sprang into being. The Elite drew the hand sporting the blade back, and with its other reached towards Cole. Without thinking, Cole pointed his pistol directly between the Elite's eyes and fired three shots.

The three slugs never reached the Elite's head, but a blue-silver shield snapped into placed at the points of impact. The charging Elite stopped for a split second. In that moment, Cole rolled aside and rose to his feet. Dropping his pistol, he assumed a firing stance and brought the needle rifle to bear. Its moment of disorientation over, the Elite turned towards Cole and attacked with a thrust of the energy blade, which Cole sidestepped. Undeterred, the Covenant soldier threw a backhand slash.

Again, time began to slow. Cole stepped backwards to avoid the slash, but his heart quickened as the shining blue shard of death crossed his field of vision not two centimeters from his head, burning away a tiny hole in his faceplate. And then, the moment was over, and the world seemed to accelerate to make up for lost time. Cole blinked rapidly to clear the thin white line the gleaming blade had drawn across his vision and let loose with the rifle, all the while backing away. Depleted from the pistol rounds, the Elite's shields only withstood several more shots before collapsing. As the bubble of incandescent energy expanded and popped, Cole felt his heel meet an edge. Not bothering to glance back, he took aim and fired.

The Elite, confident it had cornered its opponent, bared its four mandibles in a triumphant roar. But as a glowing crystal entered its mouth and then its brain, it started. As the needler round detonated inside its skull, the Elite jerked once more before collapsing forward. Cole leapt aside to avoid the falling alien, which was almost a meter taller than he was.

Turning back to the battle, he found the Spartans and Elites engaged in a strange back-and-forth. The six Spartans had superior ranged weapons, but the Elites moved too quickly to let them line up shots on the restricted space of the walkways. And while the Elites could avoid fire, they could not close with their opponents- Falcon, Eagle and Phoenix were as fast as any Elite. And unlike the Elite Cole faced, these two had a two-meter radius kill zone.

Cole aimed at one of the Elites and fired the needle rifle. The round pinged off its shields, and the alien whipped around to face Cole. Its weight shifted to its forward foot, and the Elite lunged forward. But before it could take a second step, the Elite stumbled as Leon landed on its back, combat knife in hand. The larger alien whirled around, attempting to dislodge the smaller human, but it wasn't quick enough. There was a flash of silver, and blue blood began spurting from a join in the Elite's neck armor as the Spec Ops trooper crashed to the metal floor. Without hesitating, Leon snatched up its energy sword and spun on the spot just as the second Elite brought its sword around in an arc.

Plasma met plasma as the two swords connected, and crackles of energy leaped across both weapons as the electromagnetic envelopes around the swords shifted in frequency, trying to protect their wielders from plasma release. Before Leon could pull his sword away, the surviving Elite brought up its other hand- which was holding a plasma pistol on overload charge.

Cole's finger was pumping on the needle rifle's trigger, ejecting the glowing projectiles as fast as the weapon's mechanism would allow. But he wasn't fast enough. The green globe of sparking energy was released at head level, and Leon's helmet seemed to peel back from the plasma as it connected with him.

Falcon Actual fell backwards without another sound. The Elite wasn't finished. Like a whirlwind, it spun on one foot and caught Eve, who had charged its unprotected back while it had been fighting Leon, by the throat, and in one move, ran her through with its sword. All the while, needles collided with, and splintered on, its shields, until they finally dissipated. One needle sunk into its back, and then two, and then finally a third connected as the trigger on Cole's rifle went click and the energy coil dimmed. Just then, a violent violet explosion chained across the Elite's back, ripping the armor apart and hurling the alien, still grasping Eve's body by the neck, off the walkway.

Cole's eyes widened. Needler pistols needed to land seven shots in a target before they would co-operatively detonate. He stared at the spent needle rifle, trying to digest that he'd only needed three shots to utterly devastate that final Elite's body. After several seconds, he looked away from the weapon.

Five corpses and two living humans greeted his eyes. Ian and Pietro were conducting field repairs using parts from Team Phoenix's SPI suits- a necessity Cole understood, but couldn't undergo. He walked over to Leon's body. His right fist still clasped the handle of the energy sword, while his left was spread as if to stop or catch something. There seemed to be no serious damage to him, except above the chest. The plasma had boiled away everything- Leon's helmet was simply gone, and the rest of the shot had melted away much of what it had struck, exposing muscle and, in some places, bone. In one area, even the bone had been seared away, leaving a gap. Cole turned away, unable to look any longer. He forced his breathing to slow as he focused on Leon's hands. With shaking fingers, he pried Leon's right hand open and took the energy sword.

Working hard to fight back a sob, Cole flipped Leon over onto his front and removed the MA5K from the magnetic panel on his back. He took his remaining magazines as well- he'd need every last one. Cole stood and glanced over at Ian and Pietro. Pietro met his gaze for a moment, nodded, and gave him the thumbs-up sign. Cole nodded back and set off. Ian and Pietro may have been Spartans, but they weren't Falcon.

Cole sprinted the rest of the way. Needles, plasma and tracer rounds zipped across his path as he charged towards a small white beam that lanced into the gravity generator. When he started, it had seemed like a tiny white strand, but as he moved, it grew and grew until he could make out individual Jackals and Elites standing around it. He charge on nonetheless.

Out of nowhere, something collided with him, bowling him over. Cole whipped out the energy sword and split the intervening body in two, but the impact caused him to glance around, in case there were more.

Dozens of Covenant Engineers, their luminous, bulbous bodies rippling as they moved, floated towards the gravity generator, entering it in the locations the energy feeds had previously occupied. Cole frowned. Something didn't add up.

It was then that he noticed what was being said on the E-band. While his comm had been open the entire time, he hadn't focused on a word being said. This, though, was clear.

"-rendezvous on surface to assist in securing ships. I say again- the Covenant are attempting generator self-destruct- they're trying to bury us here! All points rendezvous on surface to assist- what the- DAMN! All points, fall back ASAP!"

There was the sound of assault rifles and plasma weapons firing before that broadcast went quiet. There were still many other channels open, though, and Cole, mouth open in shock, listened.

"-they're all over us! Fall back to Platform Seven- ABBY! AAARGH- fall back now!"

"We've lost Calypso Three-"
"-set off those charges, cut them off!"

"-into the tunnels, NOW!"

Cole shook his head, turned, and then tore off back the way he had come. As he ran, numerous dull thuds and booms behind him announced the tunnel system's extremely short life expectancy. Around him, both above and below the catwalk he ran on, hundreds of Covenant dropships swarmed to the platforms, retrieving the thousands of troops in the underground space. Noise blared in his ear and blinding light assailed his eyes. His muscles burned with lactic acid, and he let out a wordless, agonized cry as a stray needle detonated in his lower back. But Cole pushed on, running and running for the exit. He didn't know why- his part of the plan was complete. Any Covenant below the surface would die, and the Spartans on the surface would kill hundreds more.

But it wasn't enough. Cole wasn't ready to go. Not yet. He needed more. If Leon and Eve had been there with him to destroy the fusion plant and watch the generator's destruction with him, maybe it would have been enough to die down here. Maybe.

But they weren't here. So he needed more. His mind, his heart, his muscles- even his blood burned, decrying the loss of all he'd had. They called out for death- the Covenant had meted out death at his previous home, at New Corinth on Eridanus. They'd taken his family from him- his parents, his grandparents, his sister. The Covenant then took his new family- Alpha Company, and especially Team Falcon- away from him.

Cole urged himself forward, moving his legs even faster, and he felt as though his chest might give out from the effort. He gasped for air, and his heart thundered in his chest as he exceeded fifty kilometers an hour. As the entrance to the tunnels that would lead him to the surface drew closer, a ripple passed through the ground at his feet moments before a deafening BOOM resounded through the cavern. Cole's face contorted in pain as his eardrums absorbed the sound, but he kept going, climbing into the tunnel entrance as the explosion rolled through the asteroid's core.

Cole hurried through the tunnels as quickly as he could, which became more difficult as he began to notice the pain in his back. As he struggled on, his breathing slowed and deepened with his pace. His sprint slowed to a walk, and it took an effort to stop that walk from becoming an amble.

And then the shockwave hit. The rock snapped and cracked beneath his feet and over his head, and loose stones fell from the low tunnel ceiling. The rolling wave itself slammed Cole into the walls before a blast of air roared through the tight passage, forcing him on, all the while buffeting and slamming him with loose metal and rock.

Finally, it died out, and as the artificial wind died down, Cole collapsed, dazed by the lack of support the wind had been giving. Gritting his teeth, he attempted to rise to his feet, but found that he couldn't. Between the pain and the sheer exhaustion, it was simply too much. Angered, Cole reached out with one arm, grabbed the rocky floor with his fingers, and pulled. His arm burned and his ears protested as his body scraped along the rock dust. But he had to keep going- he had to. And so, at a snail's pace, Cole-A299 crawled through the tunnel leading to the surface.

He didn't know how long it took him, but after what seemed like a year of crawling, he saw a gap in the tunnel that didn't seem like it had walls. What was more, there was light. It was dull, and it was orange, but it remained light. His chest heaved as it extracted precious oxygen from the atmosphere, and his arms, depleted but dedicated, hauled the rest of his struggling body along. Every time his muscles jerked in pain or in fatigue, he tried with another limb, and while he couldn't say anything, his mind was at work.

Just one more, he thought as he moved his right arm forward. He took a breath. All right- just one more. The other arm reached forward and then pulled. He coughed and spluttered for a good ten seconds before resuming. One more- let's go. And his right arm lurched up again.

The final stretch of crawling towards the light was as long as the entire crawl up until he saw the light- at least, it seemed that way to Cole. But then his fingers felt an edge, and with a heave, Cole flopped onto the floor of Reactor Seven, utterly and completely drained. He tried to rise, but all his legs would do was twitch. He tried to get his arms to pull himself up, but his arms- the arms that had taken him through the tunnel- did not respond, only spasming feebly as he summoned them. Only his breath continued to come, as even his eyesight seemed to fail. The corners of his vision were beginning to darken.

His heart rate went up as his brain recalled that first exercise on Onyx, and his mind fought the encroaching shadow. But it didn't last long- the darkness grew, until all Cole could see was a tiny pinprick of orange light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.

Finally, the darkness became absolute.