Halo Lighting System First Strike Games - Manual (Page 84)

80 HALO: FIRST STRIKE
Cortana experienced a moment of triumph—then squelched it.
There was a new problem: The concussion from that blast had
altered their flight path. The heat and overpressure wave had
thinned the atmosphere ... just enough to cause the flagship to
drop seven hundred meters. Wisps of ice crystals washed over
the prow.
They were too deep now. They didn't have enough power to
break orbit. They would spiral into the atmosphere, and would
ultimately be crushed by the titanic gravitational forces of
Threshold.
The Chief spun in midair and planted his feet on the "ground."
The gravity had been disabled in this elevator shaft. That had
made traversing the many intervening decks easy . . . as long as
he'd been willing to jump and trust that the power in this part of
the ship wouldn't be restored.
The Engineer clutching his shoulder tapped the tiny control
panel on the wall. The doors at the bottom of the shaft sighed and
slowly slid apart.
Funny how the creature didn't care what or who John was.
Didn't it know their races were enemies? It was clearly intelli-
gent and could communicate. Maybe it didn't care about ene-
mies or allies. Maybe all it wanted to do was its job.
There was a corridor ahead, five meters wide, with a vaulted
ceiling. Past a final arch, the passage opened up into the cav-
ernous reactor room. The ambient lights in the hallway and room
were off. Along the far wall of the room, however, the
ten-meter-high reactor coils pulsed with blue-white lightning
and threw hard shadows onto the walls.
The Master Chief adjusted his low-light filters to screen out
the glow from the reactor. He made out the silhouettes of crates
and other machinery. He also saw one of those shadows on the
wall move ... with the distinct slouching waddle of a Covenant
Grunt. Then the motion was gone.
An ambush. Of course.
He paused, listened, and heard the panting of at least half a
dozen Grunts, and then the high-pitched uneasy squeaks the
creatures emitted when they were excited.
This came as a relief to the Master Chief. If there was an Elite