They weren't attacking, yet they had to sense the Spartans inside. It almost looked as if they were guarding this dome.

Kurt steeled himself, resisting the urge to shoot such a close target. What good would it have done? He couldn't penetrate those shields.

He felt vibrations, and in the distance lights flickered along the rim of the crater.

The bulbous hull of a Covenant Seraph single ship appeared, then another Seraph appeared, then seven more… and then two dozen flying in formation.

Kurt held his breath, hoping this was just a search party.

A line of Covenant destroyers followed, so massive they blotted out the stars in the night sky. A second wave of cetacean-shaped vessels resolved, and then a Covenant carrier flew on overwatch, surrounded by a hundred Seraph fighters.

Kurt had never seen so many enemy ships so close—all of them headed toward his position. Twenty warships. The subsonic thrum of their antigrav units made his insides go soft.

The Sentinels circling the dome moved to intercept the new threat.

Pinpoint laser artillery shot them out of the air.

The two leading destroyers peeled off the battle group and drifted over the dome. Shafts of sparkling purple light flashed from their undersides—antigrav transporter beams. A hundred armored Elite shock troopers streamed to the ground.

Kurt looked for Dante and spotted him high on the dome's inner surface attached with a rigging of rope and suction climbers. He pressed blobs of C-12 onto the patterned stone.

Kurt directed his single beam at the COM relay on the landing pad. "Will, what's Dr.

Halsey's status?"

"She's found something," Will replied. "Says she needs ten minutes to get it ready"

"Get what ready? Never mind. We don't have ten minutes," Kurt told him. "Prepare for a hot reception."

Kurt watched Covenant assets pour down the transport beams and assemble in the city: more Elites with plasma rifles, titanlike Hunter pairs wielding fuel-rod cannons and nearly impenetrable shields, plasma turrets and their Grunt tenders, and a monstrous Scarab walker.

Spirit and Phantom dropships escorted by Banshee fliers buzzed the dome.

It was an invading army.

Kurt motioned his Spartans down the lines to the landing pad. They had to fall back— fast.

His teams silently slid to safety. After all had gone down their rope, Kurt followed.

Blue plasma splashed across the archway ledges.

Kurt loosened his grip on the rope and free-fell a dozen meters, squeezing the brake at the last instant before he hit the floor. He rolled and dove behind the starboard hull of their ship.

Lasers stitched the stone platform behind him.

Six dropships and their Banshee escorts entered through the archways. They circled, rapidly descending.

Fred and Lucy crouched, hefted SPNKr missile launchers, and fired.

The missiles streaked up and detonated on the cockpits of the incoming dropships. The ships hobbled out of control and crashed into the dome wall.

The other four dropships landed hard; Elites jumped out, took position behind the hulls, and opened fire.

The air filled with crisscross patterns of needier shards, plasma bolts, and streaks of MA5B and MASK tracers.

Kurt didn't want to leave the FENRIS warheads behind, but there was no way they could hold this position. Their cover was poor, and they'd have to contend with more air support soon. He started to order their retreat, but Covenant plasma spattered nearby, and a square meter of their dropship's hull blasted away.

A Hunter pair emerged and they hunkered down behind their overlapping battle-plate shields.

Linda took aim at the monstrous pair and waited for them to present a target.

One Hunter eased its fuel-rod cannon around the edge of its impenetrable shields— green energized rounds glowing with deadly radiation—and fired.

Fred jumped from cover, his MJOLNIR armor ablaze as if it was burning phosphorus.

The Hunter hit him dead center in his chest, a blast that would have destroyed their dropship. His energy shields flared brighter, failed, and Fred crumpled to the floor, his armor smoking.

"Cover fire!" Kurt shouted.

The Spartans sprayed the Elites and the Hunters, who turtled behind their shields.

Dante and Lucy darted out and grabbed Fred, dragging him back.

A fire team of five Elites popped from cover and unleashed a torrent of plasma and needles. They were riddled with bullets and dropped—but one managed to shoot at Dante and a plasma bolt glanced his side. He flinched, but didn't stop pulling Fred to safety.

The Hunter pair peeked around their overlapped shields.

Linda fired methodically—orange blood spattered from one Hunter's exposed midsection.

The Hunters dropped behind their shields, screaming, but still standing "Over the edge, everyone," Kurt ordered.

One by one the Spartans slipped to the edge and jumped into the darkness.

Kurt set three grenades on the floor, grabbed a zip line, and rappelled down. One wide swing into the open and he pendulated back, landing on the curve of spiral stairs under the platform.

Dull explosions whumped overhead and the ropes fell away.

Kurt saw that Dante and Lucy supported a groggy Fred between them. Fred's MJOLNIR armor was carbonized black. His bio signs were erratic but strong. All their bio signs were pushing the redline.

"Blow the dome," Kurt told Dante.

Dante nodded, passed Fred over to Mark's shoulder, and he limped to the far edge of the stairs, remote detonator in hand.

Kurt motioned for Olivia to take point, and the rest of the Spartans followed her down the stairs.

Thunder echoed off the dome walls, and chunks of rock thudded onto the landing platform overhead. Elites screamed and blue plasma detonations lit the air.

Three revolutions around the stairs and Olivia held up a hand. They all halted.

"Gotcha in my sights," Kelly said over TEAMCOM. "Stand by, defusing the mines… okay, come ahead."

Kurt and the others entered the chamber. Kurt noticed the LOTUS antitank mines stuck on this room's walls and ceiling, making it a good kill zone.

Will and Kelly crouched to either side of the opening to the bridge of light, hidden by its glare.

Kurt did a quick count. All present… save Dante.

Dante brought up the rear, limping into the room, one hand holding his side. He stood straight and saluted Kurt.

"Sir," he said, "I think I got nicked."

Dante's bio signs flatlined and he collapsed.

Kurt dropped to Dante's side and unlatched his SPI chest piece. He'd seen him grazed by plasma on his left side, and sure enough, there were second- and third-degree burns there that had boiled off the liquid-ballistic layer. Under his arm and across his chest a half dozen needier shards had lodged and detonated. The bones of his rib cage were exposed, and deeper, black congealing blood pooled.

He was limp. Cold. Bio signs flat.

Dante was dead. There was nothing Kurt could do.

Kurt had watched Shane, Robert, and Jane die. He had listened to Tom tell how Beta got wiped out on Pegasi Delta. Now Dante. One more gone on his watch.

It would be easy to blame Ackerson and Parangosky for the deaths of his Spartans.

Designed for high-risk missions, they were all going to die, weren't they? And Kurt had played along and followed orders. What other option was there?

He examined his hands, covered in the Spartan blood.

Linda set a hand on Kurt's shoulder. "We'll bring him with us."

His training reasserted itself. Move—fight—live. The alternative was to sit here and join Dante.

Kurt gently set Dante onto the floor.

He had to focus. They had a mission: get the Forerunner technology. Get the rest of his team out alive. Kurt promised the scales would be balanced for Dante. Somehow. He'd see to it himself if he had to.

Linda and Olivia moved to Dante and picked him up.

"Grab your gear and follow," Kurt said to Kelly.

He marched over the bridge of light and entered the holographic map room.

Dr. Halsey stood at the Forerunner console, hieroglyphs swarming over its surface, the symbols' meaning changing as they aligned into higher-dimensional patterns for a moment, then rearranged into new kaleidoscopic formations.

Olivia and Linda set Dante's body down.

Mark, Ash, and Holly knelt next to him and gingerly set his hands together on his chest.

"Dr. Halsey?" Kurt said.

She held up one hand and with the other she furiously typed on the laptop that Mendez held for her. The laptop's tiny projection pad emitted a mote of light that flitted among the symbols like a bee gathering nectar.

Mendez handed Kurt the thumb-sized datapad. "Codes locked and ready to go, sir."

Kurt checked it out: Detonation codes for the FENRIS warheads streamed across the tiny screen. He slipped it into his gauntlet's data port and clenched his fist.

"There's so much here," Dr. Halsey whispered. "I've confirmed this world is part of the Forerunners' plan together with the Halo rings—their 'sword' and 'shield.' Other parts still elude me. There is a reference to the 'ark.' I have yet to determine if something went wrong… why they are not here."

"Doctor," Kurt said more firmly, and he stepped closer. "We have a Covenant armada over our heads, and an army about to swarm through this building. Is there a way out?"

"Yes and no," she replied, still not looking at him. "There is a room in the core of this world," she explained, "where the Forerunners were to secure something precious. Perhaps the technologies you seek. The room is normally inaccessible, but the arming of the Halo rings triggered something within this planet." She ran her fingers across overlapping streams of hieroglyphics struggling to read. "There is an entrance to this room, open now, but closing. In one hour seventeen minutes the core entrance will shut.

Forever."

"Core of the planet?" Kurt said. "There is no way to get to the core that fast."

"We must gather what is within, and make our escape." She finally looked up at him, excitement glistening in her eyes. "And there is indeed a way to get there. This map room can access a Slipspace translocation system similar to the one Cortana used on the Halo ring."

She pointed down.

Kurt saw they stood upon a matte-black surface flush with the floor. It was four meters wide and had seven sides. His gaze seemed to slide deeper into the surface like he was looking at something infinitely deep… or nothing at all.

He blinked, looked away. "Slipspace translocation? A tele-portation system."

"In effect, yes."

The room shook and dust rained from the ceiling.

Dr. Halsey focused past Kurt into the room. She made a slight cutting motion over several gold symbols.

The bridge of light connecting to the outer chamber vanished. The door to the map room closed.

She spotted Dante and her face drained of color. "Oh…" she whispered.

"You must get us to the other SPARTAN-IIIs locked in cryo first," Kurt told her, "Of course, I believe I understand the intricacies of the transportation system well enough," she said. "I must caution you.

though, not to detonate the FENRIS warheads. The EMP will render the system inoperable."

"Understood," Kurt said. "Just activate this 'translocation' device. Get me to my Spartans."

"There is still so much to learn here," Dr. Halsey said. "I suggest you leave me. I can—"

A tremendous shudder shook the room. Chunks of rock rained from the ceiling. Dr.

Halsey fell, and Kurt caught her, shielded her with his back as baseball-sized stones bounced off the hardened plates of his SPI armor.

Outside the chamber there were four gut-jarring detonations— the LOTUS antitank mines Kelly had set up.

"We've run out of time, Doctor," Kurt said. "They are here."

She stood, brushed the dust from her lab coat, and straightened her glasses. "So it appears." She tapped a handful of symbols. "There is a translocation platform"—she consulted the holographic map—"within a kilometer of the other Spartans."

Beyond the holographic map of Onyx, the wall of the room cracked as the stones heated to dull red.

The Spartans positioned themselves between the wall and Dr. Halsey.

Kurt stepped directly in front of the Doctor and Mendez took up a position at his flank, his MA5B leveled.

Ash dug into his pack and passed out Jackal shield gauntlets to his team. Together they crouched before the SPARTAN-IIs, forming a shield wall.

Dr. Halsey shifted the Forerunner symbols. "There," she whispered.

The heating wall exploded and rubble bounced off the Spartans' shields. From the breach in the wall, plasma bolts and crystal shards crisscrossed the air.

The Jackal shields deflected it all—but were draining fast.

Will, Kelly, and Fred popped up and sprayed suppressing fire into the darkness.

Linda maneuvered between them, leveled her sniper rifle, and squeezed off three rounds.

The enemy ceased fire.

"Now would be good. Doctor," Kurt said.

"Activating," Dr. Halsey said. "There may some disorientation." She reached for a glowing symbol.

Kurt's COM crackled to life and Endless Summer's voice filled his helmet. "Come in, Ambrose," the AI said. "I have a high-priority mission redirect."

He grabbed Dr. Halsey's hand.

The mote of light on her laptop stretched into a bare-chested Indian warrior.

"I thought you were destroyed," Kurt said.

"The Sentinels did find and destroy the COM launcher, but I had my escape well planned." He held his hand apart and a globe appeared. It rotated to the north polar region, zoomed into ice fields, and then down a volcanic caldera. "These coordinates are the latest thermal images provided by a UNSC prowler in high orbit. You must go there. Now."

"We have other matters to take care of first," Kurt told him.

Technically Endless Summer had the authority to order him anywhere it liked, but under the circumstances, Kurt wasn't listening to an ONI-controlled AI—not when his people's lives were at stake.

"This site is a Sentinel manufacturing facility," Endless Summer said, glowering. "In orbit there is a battle raging between a Covenant fleet and these alien craft, one that will likely destroy the Covenant forces."