Halo: Envoy by Tobias S. Buckell

Author:Tobias S. Buckell [Buckell, Tobias S.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2017-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

In the ready room, Jai crouched on the floor with his back against the wall. Melody sat at the side of the table on a chair a few feet away.

“You are persuasive,” Jai told her. “But I can’t convince this team to do anything right now. Not after what we’ve been through. We were forced to make a big decision out there, on our own. That call is still breaking us.”

“I gave you the information so you’d hear what was at stake. Your team listened. That’s all I can ask.” Melody leaned forward. “What are you going to do, Jai Zero Zero Six?”

She was using his number on purpose. A call to duty, Jai thought. She was good, the envoy. And she wasn’t wrong. The long, silent inner turmoil that he’d carried across the desert had eased slightly when she’d made the request that they assist. “I’m going to try to help you. This is what I was built for, wasn’t it? This is the information we have, what you gave us. That’s a hell of a fog of war. Doesn’t seem like there’s much of a question.”

“I truly believe this is the right fight, Jai,” Melody said. “I wouldn’t have put everything on the table if I didn’t think you guys should know it all.”

“I know.” He cocked his head. But believing something strongly didn’t make a person right. Insane asylums were filled with people who felt the same way. Conviction was a poor substitute for tactical thinking. “But the intel you just shared is the reason why I’m going to do this.”

“What about the rest of Gray Team?” she asked.

“What happened on . . .” Jai paused as he struggled with the way he’d phrased those words. “What we did to Glyke. I don’t know how we’ll ever come to terms with that. How I will. Yes, maybe it has broken us. But right now, because of the stakes, because of what’s at risk, we’ll fight. That we know how to do.”

An explosion shook the rock walls. Alarms blared. The comfortable brightness snapped off, replaced with emergency red lighting. Van Eekhout leaned around the doorframe with a BR55 battle rifle in hand. “Something violently breached the south entrance. Sensors show mass but no visuals. Computers are running through visual analysis, but they’re already inside.”

The Sangheili had arrived. Jai stood up. “Active camouflage,” he said.

“Probably,” van Eekhout agreed. “And once you get close enough, even to a shielded bunker like this, their sensors would be able to show them enough to get in.”

Adriana skidded to the door behind van Eekhout. “We need to get to your armory,” she said.

Mike thudded in to join them. “Sangheili?”

“Yes,” Jai said, and looked back to van Eekhout. “The armory?”

“There’s no time,” van Eekhout said. He tossed the BR55 at Jai. “Take my rifle. You can do more with this than I can. You need to get out of here, now!”

“No,” Jai said. “We’re Spartans. We fight.”

Van Eekhout stepped inside the ready room and squared off against Jai.

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