The door opened and CPO Mendez halted in the doorway3. “Ma’am,” he said, and stood straighter. “Iwasn’t informed that you would be visiting today. In fact, I had understood that you were out of thesystem for another week. I would have made arrangements.”
“I’m sure you would have.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Our situation has changed. Where are mySpartans? They are not in their barracks, nor on any of the ranges.”
Mendez hesitated. “They can no longer train here, ma’am. We had to find them . . . other facilities.”
Dr. Halsey stood and smoothed the pleats in her gray skirt. “Maybe you should explain that statement,Chief.”
“I could,” he replied, “but it will be easier to show you.”
“Very well,” Dr. Halsey said, her curiosity piqued6. Mendez escorted her to his personal Warthog parkedoutside his office. The all-terrain combat vehicle had been refitted; the heavy chain-gun on the back hadbeen removed and replaced with a rack of Argent V missiles.
Mendez drove them off the base and onto winding7 mountain roads. “Reach was first colonized8 for itsrich titanium deposits,” Mendez told her. “There are mines in these mountains thousands of meters deep.
The UNSC uses them for storage.”
“I presume you do not have my Spartans5 taking inventory9 today, Chief?”
“No, ma’am. We just need the privacy.”
Mendez drove the Warthog past a manned guardhouse and into a large tunnel that sloped steeplyunderground.
The road wound down in a spiral, deeper into sold granite10. Mendez said, “Do you remember the Navy’sfirst experiments with powered exoskeletons?”
“I’m not sure I see the connection between this place, my Spartans, and the exoskeleton projects,” Dr.
Halsey replied, frowning, “but I’ll play along a bit further. Yes, I know all about the Mark I prototypes.
We had to scrap11 the concept and redesign battle armor from the ground up for the MJOLNIR project.
The Mark Is consumed enormous energy. Either they had to be plugged into a generator12 or useinefficient broadcast power—neither option is practical on a battlefield.”
Mendez decelerated slightly as he approached a speed bump. The Warthog’s massive tires thudded overthe obstacle.
“They used the units that weren’t scrapped,” Dr. Halsey continued, “as dock loaders to move heavyequipment.” She cocked one eyebrow13. “Or might they have been dumped in a place like this?”
“There are dozens of the suits here.”
“You haven’t putmy Spartans in some of those antiques?”
“No. Their trainers are using them for their own safety,” Mendez replied. “When the Spartans recoveredfrom microgravity therapy, they were eager to get back to their routine. However, we experienced some—” He paused, searching for the right word. “ . . . difficulties.”
He glanced at his passenger. His face was grim. “Their first day back, three trainers were accidentallykilled during hand-to-hand combat exercises.”
Dr. Halsey cocked an eyebrow. “Then they are faster and stronger than we anticipated?”
“That,” Mendez replied, “would be understating the situation.”
The tunnel opened into a large cavern14. There were lights scattered15 on the walls, overhead a hundredmeters up on the ceiling, and along the floor, but they did little to dissipate the overwhelming darkness.
Mendez parked the Warthog next to a small, prefabricated building. He jumped out and helped Dr.
Halsey step from the vehicle. “This way, please.” Mendez gestured to the room. “We’ll have a betterview from inside.”
The building had three glass walls and several monitors marked MOTION, INFRARED16, DOPPLER,and PASSIVE. Mendez pushed a button and the room climbed a track along the wall until they weretwenty meters off the floor.
Mendez keyed a microphone and spoke17: “Lights.”
Floodlights snapped on and illuminated18 a section of the cavern the size of a football field. In the centerstood a concrete bunker. Three men in the primitive19 Mark I power armor stood on top. Six more stoodevenly spaced around the perimeter20. A red banner had been planted in the center of the bunker.
“Capture the flag?” Dr. Halsey asked. “Past all that heavy armor?”
“Yes. The trainers in those exoskeletons can run at thirty-two KPH, lift two tons, and have a thirtymillimeterminigun mounted on self-targeting armatures—stun21 rounds, of course. They’re also equippedwith the latest motion sensors22 and IR scopes. And needless to say, their armor is impervious23 to standardlight weapons. It would take two or three platoons of conventional Marines to take that bunker.”
Mendez spoke again in the microphone, and his voice echoed off the cavern walls: “Start the drill.”
Sixty seconds ticked by. Nothing happened. One hundred twenty seconds. “Where are the Spartans?”
Dr. Halsey asked.
“They’re here,” Mendez replied. Dr. Halsey caught a glimpse of motion in the dark: a shadow againstshadows, a familiar silhouette24.
“Kelly?” she whispered.
The trainers turned and fired at the shadow, but it moved with almost supernatural quickness. Even theself-targeting systems couldn’t track it.
From above, a man free-rappelled down from the girders and gantries overhead. The newcomer landedbehind one of the perimeter guards, quiet as a cat. He punched the guard’s armor twice, denting25 theheavy plates, then dropped low and swept the target’s legs out from under him. The guard sprawled26 onthe ground.
The Spartan4 attached his rappelling line to the trainer. A moment later the writhing27 guard shot upward,into the darkness.
Two other guards turned to attack.
The Spartan dodged28, rolled, and melted into the shadows.
Dr. Halsey realized the trainer’s exoskeleton wasn’t being pulled up—it was being used as acounterweight.
Two more Spartans, dangling29 from the other end of that rope, dropped unnoticed into the center of thebunker. Dr. Halsey immediately recognized one of them, although he was dressed entirely30 in black, savehis open eye slits—Number 117. John.
John landed, braced31, and kicked one guard. The man landed in a heap . . . eight meters away.
The other Spartan jumped off the bunker; he flipped32 end over end, evading33 the stun rounds that filled theair. He threw himself at the farthest guard and they skidded34 together into the shadows. The guard’s gunstrobed once, and then it was dark again.
On top of the bunker, John was a blur35 of slashing36 motions. A second guard’s exosuit erupted in afountain of hydraulic37 fluid and then collapsed38 under the armor’s weight.
The last guard on the bunker turned to fire at John. Halsey gripped the edge of her chair. “He’s at pointblank range! Even stun rounds can kill at that distance!”
As the guard’s gun fired, John sidestepped. The stun rounds slashed39 through the air, a clean miss. Johngrabbed the weapon’s armature—twisted—and with a screech40 of stressed metal, wrenched41 it free of theexoskeleton. He fired directly into the man’s chest and sent him tumbling off the bunker.
The remaining quartet of perimeter guards turned and sprayed the area with suppression fire.
A heartbeat later, the lights went out.
Mendez cursed and keyed the mike. “Backups. Hit the backup lights now!”
A dozen amber42 floods flickered43 to life.
Not a Spartan was in sight, but the nine trainers were either unconscious or lay immobile in inert44 battlearmor.
The red flag was gone.
“Show me that again,” Dr. Halsey said unbelievingly. “You recorded all that, didn’t you?”
“Of course.” Mendez tapped a button but the monitors played back—static. “Damn it. They got to thecameras, too,” he muttered, impressed. “Every time we find a new place to hide them, they disable therecording devices.”
Dr. Halsey leaned against the glass wall staring at the carnage below. “Very well, Chief Mendez, whatelse do I need to know?”
“Your Spartans can run at bursts of up to fifty-five KPH,” he explained. “Kelly can run a little faster, Ithink. They will only get quicker as they adjust to the ‘alterations’ we’ve made to their bodies. They canlift three times their body weight—which, I might add, is almost double the norm due to their increasedmuscle density45. And they can virtually see in the dark.”
Dr. Halsey pondered this new data. “They should not be performing so well. There must be unexplainedsynergistic effects brought on by the combined modifications46. What are their reaction times?”
“Almost impossible to chart. We estimate it at twenty milliseconds,” Mendez replied. He shook hishead, then added, “I believe it’s significantly faster in combat situations, when their adrenaline ispumping.”
“Any physiological47 or mental instabilities?”
“None. They work like no team I’ve ever seen before. Damn near telepathic, if you ask me. They weredropped in these caves yesterday, and I don’t know where they got black suits or the rope that for thatmaneuver, but I can guarantee they haven’t left this room. They improvise48 and improve and adapt.
“And,” he added, “theylike it. The tougher the challenge, the harder the fight . . . the better their moralebecomes.”
Dr. Halsey watched as the first trainer stirred and struggled to get out of his inert armor. “They might aswell have been killed,” she murmured. “But can the Spartans kill, Chief? Kill on purpose? Are theyready for real combat?”
Mendez looked away and paused before he spoke. “Yes. If we ordered them to, they would kill quiteefficiently.” His body stiffened49. “May I ask what ‘real combat’ you mean, ma’am?”
She clasped her hands and wrung50 them nervously51. “Something has happened, Chief. Something ONI andthe Admiralty never expected. The brass52 wants to deploy53 the Spartans. They want to test them in a realcombat mission.”
“They’re as ready for that as I can make them,” Mendez said. He narrowed his dark eyes. “But this is farahead of your schedule. What happened? I’ve heard rumors54 there was some heavy action near Harvestcolony.”
“Your rumors are out-of-date, Chief,” she said, and a chill crept into her voice. “There’s no morefighting at Harvest. Thereis no more Harvest.”
Dr. Halsey punched the descent button, and the observation room slowly lowered to the floor.
“Get them out of this hole,” she said crisply. “I want them ready to muster55 at 0400. We have a briefingat 0600 tomorrow aboard thePioneer . We’re taking them on a mission ONI has been saving for the rightcrew and the right time. This is it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Mendez replied.
“Tomorrow we see if all the pain they’ve been through has been worth it.”
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1
pilfering
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| v.偷窃（小东西），小偷( pilfer的现在分词 )；偷窃（一般指小偷小摸） | |
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wafting
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| v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的现在分词 ) | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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spartan
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| adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人 | |
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spartans
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| n.斯巴达（spartan的复数形式） | |
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piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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colonized
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| 开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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inventory
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| n.详细目录，存货清单 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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generator
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| n.发电机，发生器 | |
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eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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infrared
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| adj./n.红外线(的) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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perimeter
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| n.周边，周长，周界 | |
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stun
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| vt.打昏，使昏迷，使震惊，使惊叹 | |
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sensors
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| n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 ) | |
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impervious
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| adj.不能渗透的，不能穿过的，不易伤害的 | |
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24
silhouette
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| n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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25
denting
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| v.使产生凹痕( dent的现在分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等） | |
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26
sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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28
dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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29
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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32
flipped
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| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
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evading
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| 逃避( evade的现在分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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skidded
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| v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的过去式和过去分词 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区 | |
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blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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slashing
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| adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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hydraulic
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| adj.水力的；水压的，液压的；水力学的 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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40
screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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41
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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42
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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43
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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45
density
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| n.密集，密度，浓度 | |
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46
modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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47
physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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48
improvise
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| v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成 | |
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49
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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50
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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51
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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52
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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53
deploy
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| v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开 | |
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54
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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55
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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