Halo Lighting System First Strike Games - Manual (Page 67)

ERIC NYLUND 63
The Chief grunted an acknowledgment as he eased his way
through. There was a scraping sound and a flash of sparks as his
energy shield brushed the wall. It was too tight a fit. He powered
down the shields, which left him just enough room to squeeze
through.
Locklear followed behind him, then Polaski, the Sergeant,
and finally Haverson.
The Chief pointed at Haverson, then at the door. The Lieu-
tenant frowned, then nodded. Haverson closed the hatch and
ripped out the circuitry for the control mechanism.
There had been dozens of Engineers in the launch bay—
and there were enough on the ship to merit their own access tunnel.
The Chief hadn't seen anything like this on the Truth and
Reconciliation.
In fact, he hadn't seen a single Engineer on that ship. What
made this ship different? It was armed like a ship of war... yet
had the support staff of a refit vessel.
"Stop here," Cortana said.
The Chief halted and killed his external speakers so he could
speak freely. "Problem?"
"No. A lucky break, maybe. Look to your left and down
twenty centimeters."
The Chief squinted and noticed that a portion of the wall ex-
truded into a circular opening no larger than the tip of his thumb.
"That's a data port. . . or what passes for one with the Covenant
Engineers. I'm picking up handshake signals in shortwave and
infrared from it. Remove me and slot me in."
"Are you sure?"
"I can't do much good in there with you. Once I'm directly in
contact with the ship's battlenet, however, I can infiltrate and
take over their systems. You'll still need to get to the bridge and
manually give me access to their engineering systems. In the
meantime, I may be able to control secondary systems and buy
you some time."
"If you're sure."
"When have I not been sure?" she snapped.
The Chief could sense her impatience through the neural
interface.
He removed Cortana's data chip from the socket in his helmet.