【英文文学】Halo Series 光晕：洪魔 The Flood.docx

【英文文学】Halo Series 光晕：洪魔 The FloodACKNOWLEDGMENTSThanks go to Steve Saffel for charting the course, to Doug Zartman forcoordinating the pieces, to Eric S. Trautmann for polishing til itsparkled, to Eric Nylund who led the way inThe Fall of Reach , to NancyFigatner and the Franchise Development Group for their support, and to JasonJones, who, along with the rest of the outstanding Bungie team, created onehelluva pulse-pounding game.PROLOGUE0103 Hours, September 19, 2552 (Military Calendar) /UNSC CruiserPillar of Autumn, location unknown.Tech Officer (3rd Class) Sam Marcus swore as the intercom roused him fromfitful sleep. He rubbed his blurry eyes and glanced at the Mission Clockbolted to the wall above his bunk. Hed been asleep for three hourshisfirst sleep cycle in thirty-six hours, damn it. Worse, this was the firsttime since the ship had jumped that hed been able to fall asleepat all .“Jesus,” he muttered, “this better be good.”The Old Man had put the tech crews on triple shifts after thePillar ofAutumn jumped away from Reach. The ship was a mess after the battle, andwhat was left of the engineering crews worked around the clock to keep theaging cruiser in one piece. Nearly one third of the tech staff had diedduring the flight from Reach, and every department was running a skeletoncrew.Everyone else went into the freezer, of coursenonessential personnelalways got an ice-nap during a Slipspace jump. In over two hundred combatcruises, Marcus had clocked fewer than seventy-two hours in cryostorage.Right now, though, he was so tired that even the discomfort of cryorevivalsounded appealing if it meant that he could manage some uninterrupted sleep.Of course, it was difficult to complain; Captain Keyes was a brillianttacticianand everyone aboard theAutumn knew just how close theyd come todestruction when Reach fell to the enemy. A major naval base destroyed,millions dead or dying as the Covenant burned the planet to a cinderandone of Earths few remaining defenses transformed into corpses and moltenslag.All in all, theyd been damned lucky to get awaybut Sam couldnt helpbut feel that everyone on theAutumn was living on borrowed time.The intercom buzzed again, and Sam swung himself out of the bunk. He jabbedat the comm control. “Marcus here,” he growled.“Im sorry to wake you, Sam, but I need you down in Cryo Two.” Tech ChiefShephard sounded exhausted. “Its important.”“Cryo Two?” Sam repeated, puzzled. “Whats the emergency, Thom? Im nota cryo specialist.”“I cant give you specifics, Sam. The Captain wants it kept off thecomm,” Shephard replied, his voice almost a whisper. “Just in case we haveeavesdroppers.”Sam winced at the tone in his superiors voice. Hed known Thom Shephardsince the Academy and had never heard the man sound so grim.“Look,” Shephard said, “I need someone I can depend on. Like it or not,thats you, pal. Youve cross-checked on cryo systems.”Sam sighed. “Months ago . . . but yes.”“Im sending a feed to your terminal, Sam,” Shephard continued. “Itllanswer some of your questions anyway. Dump it to a portable pad, grab yourgear and get down here.”“Roger,” Sam said. He stood, shrugged into his uniform tunic, and steppedover to his terminal. He activated the computer and waited for the uploadfrom Shephard.As he waited, his eyes locked on a small two-dee photograph taped to theedge of the screen. Sam brushed his fingers against the photo. The prettyyoung woman frozen in the picture smiled back at him.The terminal chimed as the feed from Shephard appeared in Sams messagequeue. “Receiving the feed, Chief,” he called out to the intercom pickup.He opened the file. A frown creased his tired features as a new messagescrolled across his screen.>FILE ENCRYPTED/EYES ONLY/MARCUS, SAMUEL N./SN:18827318209-M.>DECRYPTION KEY: PERSONALIZED: “ELLENS ANNIVERSARY”He glanced back at the picture of his wife. He hadnt seen Ellen in almostthree yearssince his last shore leave on Earth, in fact. He didnt knowanyone on active duty whod been able to see their loved ones for years.The war simply didnt allow for it.Sams frown deepened. UNSC personnel generally avoided talking about thepeople back home. The war had been going badly for so long that morale wasrock-bottom. Thinking about the home front only made things worse. The factthat Thom had personalized the security encoding was unusual enough;reminding Sam of his wife in the process was completely out of character forChief Shephard. Someone was being security-conscious to the point ofparanoia.He punched in a series of numbersthe date of his weddingand enabled thedecryption suite. In seconds, the screen filled with schematics and techreadouts. His practiced eye scanned the fileand adrenaline suddenly spikedthrough his fatigue like a bolt of lightning.“Christ,” he said, his voice suddenly hoarse. “Thom, is this what . . .who Ithink it is?”“Damn right. Get down to Cryo Two on the double, Sam. Weve got animportant package to thaw outand we drop back into real space soon.”“On my way,” he said. He killed the intercom connection, his exhaustionforgotten.Sam quickly dumped the tech file to his portable compad and deleted theoriginal from his computer. He strode toward the door to his cabin, thenstopped. He snatched Ellens picture from the workstationalmost as anafterthoughtand shoved it into his pocket.He sprinted for the lift. If the Captain wanted the inhabitant of Cryo Tworevived, it meant that Keyes believed that the situation was about to gofrom bad to worse . . . or it already had.Unlike vessels designed by humansin which the command area was almostalways located toward the ships bowCovenant ships were constructed in amore logical fashion, which meant that their control rooms were buried deepwithin heavily armored hulls, making them impervious to anything less than amortal blow.The differences did not end there. Rather than surround themselves with allmanner of control interfaces, plus the lesser beings required to staff them,the Elites preferred to command from the center of an ascetically barrenplatform held in place by a latticework of opposing gravity beams.However, none of these things were at the forefront of Ship Master OrnaFulsamees mind as he stood at the center of his destroyers controlroom and stared at the data projections which appeared to float in front ofhim. One showed the ring world, Halo. Near that, a tiny arrow tracked theinterlopers course. The second projection displayed a schematic titledHUMANATTACK SHIP, TYPE C -11. A third scrolled a constant flow of targeting data andsensor readouts.He fought a moment of revulsion. That these filthy primates somehow meritedan actual namelet alone names for their inferior constructsgalled him tohis core. It was perverse. Names implied legitimacy, and the vermin deservedonly extermination.The humans had “names” for his own kind“Elites”as well as the lesserraces of the Covenant: “Jackals,” “Grunts,” “Hunters.” The appallingtemerity of the filthy creatures, that they would darename his people withtheir harsh, barbaric tongue, was beyond the pale.He paused, and regained his composure. Fulsamee clicked his lowermandiblesthe equivalent of a shrugand mentally recited one of the TrueSayings.Such is the Prophets decree, he thought. One didnt question suchthings, even when one was a Ship Master. The Prophets had assigned names tothe enemy craft, and he would honor their decrees. Any less was adisgraceful dereliction of duty.Like all of his kind, the Covenant officer appeared to be larger than heactually was, due to the armor that he wore. It gave him an angular,somewhat hunched appearance which, when combined with a heavy, pugnaciousjaw, caused him to look like what he was: a very dangerous warrior. Hisvoice was calm and well modulated as he assessed the situation. “They musthave followed one of our ships. The culprit will be found and put to deathat once, Exalted.”The being who floated next to Fulsamee bobbed slightly as a gust of airnudged his heavily swathed body. He wore a tall, ornate headpiece made ofmetal and set with amber panels. The Prophet had a serpentine neck, atriangular skull, and two bright green eyes which glittered with malevolentintelligence. He wore a red overrobe, a gold underrobe, and somewhere,hidden beneath all the fabric, an antigrav belt which served to keep hisbody suspended one full unit off the deck. Though only a Minor Prophet, hestill outranked Fulsamee, as his bearing made clear.True Sayings aside, the Ship Master couldnt help but be reminded of thetiny, squealing rodents he had hunted in his childhood. He immediatelybanished the memory of blood on his claws and returned his attention to theProphet, and his tiresome assistant.The assistant, a lower-rank Elite named Bako Ikaporamee, stepped forwardto speak on the Prophets behalf. He had an annoying tendency to use theroyal “we,” a habit that angered Fulsamee.“That is very unlikely, Ship Master. We doubt the humans have the means tofollow one of our vessels through a jump. Even if they do, why would theysend only a single cruiser? Is it not their way to drown us in their ownblood? No, we think its safe to surmise that this ship arrived in thesystem by accident.”The words dripped with condescension, a fact which made the Ship Masterangry, but couldnt be addressed. Not directly, and certainly not with theProphet present, although Fulsamee wasnt willing to cave in completely.“So,” Fulsamee said, careful to direct his comment to Ikaporameealone, “you would have me believe that the interlopers arrived hereentirely bychance ?”“No, of course not,” Ikaporamee replied loftily. “Though primitive byour standards, the creaturesare sentient, and like all sentient beings, theyare unconsciously drawn to the glory of the ancients truth andknowledge.”Like all the members of his caste, Fulsamee knew that the Prophets hadevolved on a planet which the mysterious truth-givers had previouslyinhabited, and then, for reasons known only to the ancients themselves,subsequently abandoned. This ring world was an excellent example of theancients power . . . and inscrutability.Fulsamee found it hard to believe that mere humans would be drawn here,the ancients wisdom notwithstanding, but Ikaporamee spoke for theProphet, so it must be true. Fulsamee touched the light panel in front ofhim. A symbol glowed red. “Prepare to fire plasma torpedoes. Launch on mycommand.”Ikaporamee raised both hands in alarm. “No!We forbid it. The human vesselis much too close to the construct! What if your weapons were to damage theholy relic? Pursue the ship, board it, and seize control. Anything else isfar too dangerous.”Angered by what he saw as Ikaporamees interference, Fulsamee spokethrough gritted teeth. “The course of action that the holy one recommendsis likely to result in a high number of casualties. Is this acceptable?”“The opportunity to transcend the physical is a gift to be sought after,”the other responded. “The humans are willing to spendtheir livescan we doless?”No,Fulsamee thought,but we should aspire to more. He again clicked hislower mandibles, and touched the light panel. “Cancel the previous order.Load four transports with troops, and launch another flight of fighters.Neutralize the interlopers weaponry before the boarding craft reach theirtarget.”A hundred units aft, sealed within the destroyers fire control center, ahalf-commander acknowledged the order and issued instructions of his own.Lights began to strobe, the decks transmitted a low frequency vibration, andmore than three hundred battle-ready Covenant warriorsa mix of what thehumans called Elites, Jackals, and Gruntsrushed to board their assignedtransports. There were humans to kill.None of them wanted to miss the fun.Section I Pillar of autumn Chapter 10127 Hours (Ships Time), September 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)/ UNSC CruiserPillar of Autumn , location unknown.ThePillar of Autumn shuddered as her Titanium-A armor took a direct hit.Just another item in the Covenants bottomless arsenal,Captain Jacob Keyesthought.Not a plasma torpedo, or wed already be free-floating molecules.The warship had taken a beating from Covenant forces off Reach and it was amiracle that the hull remained intact and even more remarkable that theydbeen able to make a jump into Slipspace at all.“Status!” Keyes barked. “What just hit us?”“Covenant fighter, sir. Seraph-class,” the tactical officer, LieutenantHikowa, replied. Her porcelain features darkened. “Tricky bastard must havepowered down and slipped past our sentry ships.”A humorless grin tugged at Keyes mouth. Hikowa was a first-rate tacticalofficer, utterly ruthless in a fight. She seemed to take the Covenantfighter pilots actions as a personal insult. “Teach him a lesson,Lieutenant,” he said.She nodded and tapped a series of orders into her panelnew orders fortheAutumn s fighter squadron.A moment later, there was radio chatter as one of theAutumn s C709Longsword fighters went after the Seraph, followed by a cheer as the tinyalien ship transformed into a momentary sun, complete with its own system ofco-orbiting debris.Keyes wiped a trickle of sweat from his forehead. He checked his displaytheyd reverted back into real space twenty minutes ago.Twenty minutes ,and the Covenant picket patrols had already found them and started shooting.He turned to the bridges main viewport, a large transparent bubble slungbeneath theAutumn s bow superstructure. A massive purple gas giantThresholddominated the spectacular view. One of the Longsword fightersglided past as it continued its patrol.When Keyes had been given command of thePillar of Autumn , hed beenskeptical of the large, domed viewport. “The Covenant are tough enough,”he had argued to Admiral Stanforth. “Why give them an easy shot into mybridge?”Hed lost the argumentcaptains dont win debates with admirals, and inany case there simply hadnt been time to armor the viewport. He had toadmit, though, the view was almost worth the risk. Almost.He absently toyed with the pipe he habitually carried, lost in thought. Itran completely counter to his nature to slink around in the shadow of a gasgiant. He respected the Covenant as a dangerous, deadly enemy, and hatedthem for their savage butchery of human colonists and fellow soldiers alike.He had never feared them, however. Soldiers didnt hide from the enemythey met the enemy head-on.He moved back to the command station and activated his navigation suite. Heplotted a course deeper in-system, and fed the data to Ensign Lovell, thenavigator.“Captain,” Hikowa piped up. “Sensors paint a squadron of enemy figh