Halo: Oblivion by Troy Denning;

Author:Troy Denning;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2019-09-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

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Ninth Age of Reclamation

41st Cycle, 151 Units (Covenant Battle Calendar)

Plain of Devout Patience, Mountains of Tremulous Faith

Planet N’ba, Eryya System

A full half-unit after his turbulent descent to N’ba’s scorching surface, Nizat’s stomach continued to roll. He was leading his warriors across a scrub-covered plateau toward the human salvage ship, and his legs continued to shake. His hearts were pounding in counter-tempo, and he could not draw the parched air through his mandibles quickly enough to disperse his metabolic heat. Even his tympanic membranes were still buzzing with after-roar, a temporary consequence of the friction flames that had enveloped his breaching carapace during its fiery insertion.

The wise thing would have been to stay aboard the Steadfast Strike—the “downed” frigate he was using to bait the ONI discovery priests—and spend a few units recovering in its climate-controlled interior. But Nizat did not have time to be wise. His breaching carapace had barely left orbit before a message had come over the comm system, warning that the Fleet of Swift Justice was moving fast. Its assault carrier had launched a single dropship, on a trajectory that suggested a landing site within striking distance of the Steadfast Strike.

Nizat had not allowed fear to overwhelm him.

A single dropship carried no more than thirty warriors, so in all likelihood, the insertion was just a scouting band sent to check on the Steadfast Strike. But once the scouts saw a human salvage ship nearby, and realized what the enemy intended, the Fleet of Swift Justice would act quickly to neutralize the threat. Before that happened, Nizat needed to plant the Luminal Beacons on the humans—and motivate them to escape N’ba while they still could.

That motivation would be easy. Despite appearances, the Steadfast Strike remained launch-worthy, and when it departed, the humans would have no reason to stay.

The challenging part would be making sure they took the Luminal Beacons with them. The first Beacon was still hidden inside a personal energy shield unit, which Nizat intended to drop aboard the salvage ship during a feigned capture attempt. As long as his boarding cadre made it through one of the hatches, he could simply drop the shield generator and feel confident that the humans would find it and carry it back to the ONI discovery temple.

The second Beacon was concealed inside a small anti-gravity harness shaped like two small pods linked by an integration cable. Unfortunately, those particular devices were used only to help Yanme’e fly, and he did not have any Yanme’e in his boarding cadre. It seemed unlikely that an ONI discovery priest would know of the limitation, but Nizat still intended to plant it aboard the human ship. It was a risk, but so was changing plans at the last moment.

“Why have they not opened fire?” ‘Lakosee asked. He was at Nizat’s side, at the head of the boarding cadre. Like Nizat, he was wearing full combat armor, and the effects of their rough insertion still showed in his unsteady gait. “We have just closed to eight thousand units.

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