Halo: Meridian Divide by Cassandra Rose Clarke;

Author:Cassandra Rose Clarke;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2024-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Commander Marechal had called the remaining members of the militia together, ready to relay Captain Dellatorre’s orders. Evie found the rest of Local Team, still shaky from the meeting in the Command tent.

“Is everything okay?” Saskia asked. “What’s going on? What’s this meeting about?”

Evie shook her head. “It’s not good.”

“What do you mean?” Dorian said.

“I’ve got new orders,” Commander Marechal said, clomping into the center of the encampment. “We’re leaving Brume-sur-Mer.”

“Oh, wow, seriously?” Victor laughed. “Why were you keeping that from us, Evie?”

Dorian, though, frowned. “He said leaving Brume-sur-Mer. Not leaving Meridian.”

Victor’s laughter vanished. “What the hell does that mean?”

Saskia shushed him, led the group up to where the rest of the survivors had peeled themselves away from their resting places and into a ring around Commander Marechal and Owen. Evie’s throat was dry.

“We’ve made contact with ONI,” Commander Marechal said. “And I have some bad news.”

Dorian twisted around and looked at Evie. She just shook her head, hopeless.

“They can’t get us off Meridian. Not right now, at least.”

Angry voices rose up from the militia, an intense rumble of discontent. “So what are you going to have us do?” someone shouted. “Just sit around here until the Covenant come and pick us off one by one?”

There was a surge of angry agreement. The commander looked unfazed.

“The artifact we recovered contained a map,” he said, and then launched into a brief description of what Evie had accomplished earlier. “And because we are presently stranded here on Meridian,” Owen said, “ONI has decided to send us to Annecy. We’ll be moving out immediately, so as to avoid Covenant retaliation—they’re already scouring the area around the original camp, so we have to act fast.”

Saskia gave a sharp inward gasp, and Evie instinctively reached over and grabbed her friend’s hand. She felt that fear herself.

“Did they tell you that in there?” Saskia whispered.

Evie nodded grimly.

“What the hell’s in Annecy?” yelled Dubois.

Commander Marechal sighed. “We don’t know. It will be our job to find out.”

“I’m not asking about what that map is directing us to,” he snapped back. “I’m asking what the hell’s in Annecy. Is it Covenant-occupied? Abandoned? What?”

“Soldier, you’re being impertinent,” Commander Marechal snapped. “The city was evacuated yesterday. As such, we don’t have a full picture of what—”

Groans erupted from the group. The commander held up his hand, yelled, “Enough! I’ll remind you that we were sent to Meridian to secure whatever the Covenant was after. But the object in Brume-sur-Mer isn’t what they were after, at least not ultimately. Ergo, our mission has not been completed.”

Owen stepped forward. “Sir, if I may…” When Commander Marechal nodded, he turned toward Dubois and the rest of the survivors. “Extraction isn’t possible right now with the Covenant orbital presence. You all know we cannot stay in Brume-sur-Mer. Our options here are limited.”

Dorian stepped forward. “I’ve got a question.”

“No one can be extracted,” Owen said. “Not even Local Team. But all of you are capable of handling yourselves.”

“That’s not what my question is about,” Dorian said coldly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.