Chapter 8
So, what happened?" asked Holland, I hear the mission was successful, but why do you all look so glum?" He looked around the briefing room, where the entire Noble Team sat, in deep thought.
Darkwolf looked up at him. "The ring didn't just explode the way we planned it. The whole thing was obliterated, but Cortana didn't say anything about that, did she?"
Cortana's face appeared on a hologram projector in the middle of the table. It was one possible theory that it could explode as you have described. Did any of the missiles hit off target?"
"Well, one of the missiles did not hit the ring..." said Tim, Could that have something to do with it?"
"No." Cortana said, "in fact, the ring would barely have exploded at all."
Well, what if someone ordered the ring to self-destruct?" said Jewel.
Completely impossible. The Covenant believe the rings to be sacred, and would not allow one to be destroyed at all costs."
Holmes sat forwards, "Also, most of the Covenant fleet left. The only trouble we had was from some squads of fighters, not anything else."
Cortana stopped to think. This was unusual; the Covenant would never let so much as a human satellite to come near one of their rings. What could have happened