“Intercept in twenty seconds,” Lovell said.

“Lieutenant Hikowa, arm Archer missile pods A through D. Blow that Covenant son of a bitch out of the sky.”

“Archer missile pods armed, sir,” she replied smoothly. Her hands moved gracefully over the controls. “Firing.”

Archer missiles streaked toward the Covenant stealth ship—but as they closed with the target, they started to swerve from side to side, then spun out of control. The spent missiles fell toward the planet.

Lieutenant Hikowa cursed quietly in Japanese. “Missile guidance locks jammed,” she said. “Their ECM spoofed the guidance packages, sir.”

No other choice, then, Keyes thought. They can jam our missiles—let’s see them jam this.

“Run them over, Ensign Lovell,” Keyes ordered.

He licked his lips. “Aye, sir.”

“Sound collision alarm,” Captian Keyes said. “All hands, brace for impact.”

“She’s moving,” Lovell said.

“Keep on her.”

“Course correcting now. Hang on,” Lovell said.

The eight-thousand-ton Iroquois slammed into the tiny Covenant ship.

On the bridge, they barely felt the impact. The diminutive alien vessel, however, was crushed from the force. Her crippled hull spun toward Sigma Octanus IV.

“Damage report!” Keyes bellowed.

“Lower decks 3 through 8 show hull breach, sir,” Hall called out. “Internal bulkheads were already closed, and no one was in those areas, per your orders. No systems damage reported.”

“Good. Move to her original position, Ensign Lovell. Lieutenant Dominique, I want that transmission beam intercepted.”

The ventral cameras showed the Covenant ship plunge into the atmosphere. Its shield glowed yellow, then white—then dissipated as the ship’s systems failed. It burst into crimson flame and burned across the horizon, a black plume of smoke trailing in its wake.

“The Iroquois is losing altitude,” Ensign Lovell said. “We’re falling into the planet’s atmosphere... bringing us about.” The Iroquois spun 180 degrees. The Ensign concentrated on his displays, then said, “No good, we need more power. Sir, permission to fire emergency thrusters?”

“Granted.”

Lovell exploded the aft emergency thrusters and the Iroquois jumped. Lovell’s eyes were locked on the repeater displays as he fought for every centimeter of maneuvering he could get. Sweat ran down his forehead and soaked his flight suit.

“Orbit stabilizing—barely.” Lovell exhaled with relief, then turned to face Keyes. “Got it, sir. Thrusters to precision station keeping.”

“Receiving,” Lieutenant Dominique said, and then paused. “Receiving... something, sir. It must be encrypted.”

“Make sure you’re recording, Lieutenant.”

“Affirmative. Recorders active... but the codebreaker software can’t crack it, sir.”

Captain Keyes turned back to the tac displays, half expecting to see a Covenant ship in firing position.

There wasn’t much left of either the Covenant or UNSC fleets. Dozens of ships drifted in space, billowing atmosphere and burning. The rest moved slowly. A few flickered with fire. Scattered explosions dotted the black.

One undamaged Covenant destroyer turned, however, and left the battlefield. It came about and headed straight for the Iroquois.

“Uh-oh,” Lovell muttered.

“Lieutenant Hall, get me the Leviathan—priority Alpha channel,” Keyes ordered.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

Admiral Stanforth’s image appeared in the holotank. His forehead had a gash across it, and blood trickled into his eyes. He wiped it away with a shaking hand, his eyes blazing with anger. “Keyes? Where the hell is Iroquois?”

“Sir, Iroquois is in geosynchronous orbit over Côte d’Azur. We’ve destroyed a Covenant stealth ship and are in the process of intercepting a secure transmission from the planet.”

The Admiral stared at him a moment unbelievingly, then nodded as if this made sense to him. “Proceed.”

“We have a Covenant destroyer leaving the battle... bearing down on us. I think the reason for the Covenant’s invasion may be in this coded transmission. And they don’t want us to know, sir.”

“Understood, son. Hang on. The Cavalry’s on its way.”

On the aft screen, the remaining eight UNSC ships broke their attacks and turned toward the incoming destroyer. Three MAC guns fired and impacted on the Covenant vessel. Its shields only lapsed for a split second; it took a round through her nose... but it continued toward the Iroquois at flank speed.

“Transmission ended, sir,” Lieutenant Dominique announced. “Cut off in midpacket. The signal was terminated at the source.”

“Damn.” Captain Keyes considered staying and trying to reacquire that signal—but only for a moment. He decide to take what they had and run with it. “Ensign Lovell, get us the hell out of here.”

“Sir!” Lieutenant Hall said. “Look.”

The Covenant destroyer was changing course... along with the rest of the surviving Covenant vessels. They were scattering, and accelerating out of the system.

“They’re running,” Lieutenant Hikowa said, her normal iron calm replaced by astonishment.

Within minutes, the Covenant ships accelerated and vanished into Slipstream space.

Captain Keyes looked aft and counted only seven UNSC ships intact, with the balance of the fleet destroyed or disabled.

He sat in his command chair. “Ensign Lovell, take us back the way we came. Make ready to take on wounded. Repressurize all uncompromised decks.”

“Jesus,” Lieutenant Hall said. “I think we actually... won that one.”

“Yes, Lieutenant. We won,” Keyes replied.

But Captain Keyes wondered exactly what they had won. The Covenant had come to this system for a reason—and he had a sinking feeling that they may have gotten what they had come for.

2010 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Sigma Octanus IV, Côte d’Azur

It was time to arm the nuke.

The small device held the power to destroy Côte d’Azur—wipe the Covenant infection clean off the planet.

John carefully removed the bonding strips on the HAVOK tactical nuclear device and attached it to the wall of the sewer. The adhesive on the black half sphere stuck and hardened to the concrete. He slipped the detonator key into a thin slot on the unit’s face. There were no external indicators on the device; instead, a tiny screen winked on his heads-up display indicating the nuke was armed.

HAVOK ARMED, flashed across his HUD. AWAITING DETONATION SIGNAL.

The device—a clean thirty-megaton explosive—could only be detonated by a remote signal... a problem here in the sewers. Even the powerful communications package on a starship would be unable to penetrate the steel and concrete overhead.

John quickly rigged a ground-return transceiver, placing it on the pipes overhead. He’d have to set up another unit outside to relay the signal underground... a hot line that would trigger a nuclear firestorm.

Technically, his mission parameters had been fulfilled. Green and Red Teams would have the civilians evacuated soon. They had scouted the region and discovered a new Covenant species—the strange floating creature that disassembled and reassembled human machinery, like a scientist or engineer stripping down a device to learn its secrets.

He could leave and destroy the Covenant occupation force. He should leave—there was an army of Jackals and Grunts—including at least a platoon of the black-armored veterans—on the streets above. There were three medium Covenant dropships hovering in the air as well. The advance Marine strike forces had been slaughtered, leaving the Spartans no backup. His responsibility now was to make sure his team got out intact.

But John’s orders had an unusual amount of flexibility... and that made him uncomfortable. He had been told to reconnoiter the region and gather intelligence on the Covenant. He was positive there was more to be learned here.