Halo: The Rubicon Protocol by Kelly Gay;

Author:Kelly Gay;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2022-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

Unggoy Pit

Zeta Halo

April 15, 2560

Day 125

“Bender, you got eyes on them?” Murphy’s low voice buzzed through the team’s salvaged comms.

Spartan Kovan magnified by five, meticulously scanning the target area from eighteen meters above the ground in an ancient evergreen. As she unslung the SRS99-S5 sniper rifle, she left one leg hanging over the thick tree limb, drew the other up, and then rested her rifle-bearing forearm on her knee for added stability. She cocked her head in a stance that was as natural as breathing and sighted through the S5’s standard scope, once again wishing she hadn’t had to ditch her custom sniper rig, Abbey Lime, during the attack on the Mortal Reverie.

This weapon she’d picked up a few weeks ago from the edge of a blackened-out missile crater—a lucky find, but it didn’t compare.

“I got nothing,” Bender replied.

“Kovan?” Murphy asked. “You see them yet?”

Cam and Dimik hadn’t reappeared from setting the salvaged C10 charges along the perimeter of the biggest Unggoy camp they’d come across to date. The area had two portable atmosphere pits the size of heavy Scarabs. Dug into the ground and fed by cylindrical methane tanks, the pits were covered by white reinforced tents and airlocked to prevent leakage and provide access in and out of the enclosures. They were designed to mimic the Unggoys natural atmosphere, a place where they could ditch their portable methane tanks and move freely without asphyxiating in Zeta’s oxygen-rich environment.

All that methane just waiting to blow sky-high… Naturally, it made the perfect target.

Movement near the trees caught her eye. “They’re coming, southeast tree line.” Cam and Dimik were hauling ass back to the cover of the rocks. “Should be in range in five seconds.”

As soon as they hit comms range, Murphy made contact. “Hurry it up, you two. We’re running out of time.”

Soon the large detachment of Grunts relaxing in the pits would be replaced by another incoming unit. For three days they’d watched the routine, and now it was just a matter of timing.

Two birds. One stone.

Multitasking was something she and Murphy had in common, and it made them a pretty effective team. Though, to be fair, there was no one more skilled at it than Bonita Stone. Kovan shoved the thought of her missing teammate away; they’d been good at so many things, yet reuniting didn’t seem to be one of them. She hadn’t seen or heard from Stone since fleeing the Mortal Reverie.

“In position,” Cam said between breaths.

“Once this thing blows, remember the plan,” Murphy said.

Blowing stuff up wasn’t the part that worried her; it was what came after.

When she and Murphy had devised their latest raid, making the decision to hunker in place—instead of running like the Banished would expect them to—had been the smartest tack to take. It still was. But it was also risky. With the Grunts’ playground only a klick away from a heavily guarded Banished armory, they’d had little choice. Blowing the camp and then running, scattering, and potentially being chased down by highly armed enemy guards was tantamount to suicide.

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