Halo First Strike 13

The Chief caught a motion in his peripheral vision: An Elite in jet-black armor materialized from the wall display, its light-bending camouflage dissolving. It strode toward the Chief, roaring a challenge. The Chief's rifle snapped up, and he squeezed the trigger. Three rounds spat from the muzzle, then the bolt locked open. The ammo counter read 00-empty. The shots flared on the Elite's shielding; a lucky round penetrated and deformed its shoulder. Purple-black blood spattered on the deck, but it shrugged off the wound and kept
coming.

Haverson charged into the room and leveled his pistol. "Hold it!" he yelled, and thumbed off the weapon's safety. The Elite drew a plasma pistol and fired at the Lieutenant- but never took its eyes off the Chief. Haverson cursed and scrambled out of the room as the plasma charge slashed at him.
The Chief altered his grip on the rifle and crouched in a low fighting stance. Even with the shield malfunction, he was confident he could take a single Elite.-Chpt.8 pg.91


The Master Chief ducked as the hissing energy blade slashed at him. He dived toward the Elite and slammed the butt of his rifle into the alien's midsection. The Elite doubled over, and the Chief brought the rifle butt down to smash the alien's skull. But the Elite rolled back. There was a blur of motion as the energy blade lashed out and neatly bisected the assault rifle.

The two halves of the wrecked MA5B clattered to the deck. The blade of crackling white-hot energy narrowly missed the Chief. The MJOLNIR's internal temperature skyrocketed. He couldn't risk dancing at this range, so the Master Chief did the last thing the creature expected: He stepped closer and
grabbed its wrists.

The bands of muscle on the Elite's arms were iron hard, and it struggled to free itself from the Chief's grasp. The Chief wrenched the alien's sword arm and forced the blade away--but this took
most of his strength, and he had to weaken his grasp on the Elite's other hand.
The energy blade blurred perilously close to the Chief's head. It missed by a fraction of a centimeter and sent a wash of static across his heads-up display.-Chpt.8 pg.93

The blade was a flattened triangle of white-hot plasma, con-
tained in an electromagnetic envelope that emanated from its hilt. The Chief had seen such weapons slice battle-armored ODSTs in half and gouge gaping wounds in Titanium-A armor plating. Worse, this Elite was tough, cunning, well trained—and it
hadn't spent days fighting nonstop on Halo. The Chief felt every wound, pulled muscle, and strained tendon in his body. Haverson and Polaski moved onto the bridge, their pistols drawn, but neither of them had a clear line of fire.

"Move, Chief!" Haverson shouted. "Damn it, we've got no shot!"

Easier said than done. If he let go, the Elite would cut him in two. The Master Chief grunted, struggling to turn the Elite. The alien fought back for a moment, then-instead of resisting-lurched back, right into the path of the Chief's ad-
vancing teammates. The Elite flicked the angle of its blade flat so the arc of energy whipped toward Haverson and Polaski. Haverson screamed and fell to the ground as the energy blade sliced through his pistol and across his chest. Polaski cursed and
fired a single shot, but it glanced off the Elite's shield.

The alien glanced at the source of the fire and growled in its guttural, warbling tongue.
"Get the Lieutenant out of here," the Master Chief barked. He raised his knee to his chest and lashed out with a straight kick. His boot connected with the Elite's breastplate. The alien's energy shield flared, then faded, and its breastplate cracked like porcelain beneath the force of the blow.
The alien staggered back, dragging the Master Chief with it. It coughed up purple-black blood that smeared John's visor, obscuring his vision. Its foot struck something on the ground-the alien's dropped helmet--and it lost its footing.-Chpt.8 pg.94


Together they crashed to the ground. The Master Chief kept his grip on the Elite's sword arm. The alien's other hand, however, wrenched free and grabbed the fallen plasma pistol. The weapon's muzzle charged with sickly green energy.
The Chief rolled to his right as the pistol discharged. A globe of plasma arced across the compartment and splashed over the displays behind him. The instruments flickered, then flashed and sparked as the energy bolt melted their systems.

Before the displays went dark, however, the Master Chief saw one of the Covenant cruisers open fire. A lance of plasma rushed through space toward the
flagship. The Chief and the Elite struggled, rising to their feet. The Chief batted the plasma pistol aside, and it clattered across the control center.
The Elite's mouth opened, and it snapped at the Chief. It was angry or panicking now. . . and he felt it getting stronger. His grasp on the alien loosened.

There was motion behind the Elite; Sergeant Johnson and Locklear still struggled to get their hatch open more than a crack.

"Sergeant-prepare to fire."

"Ready, Master Chief!" the Sergeant cried from the other side of the hatch. The Chief tightened his grip on the Elite's sword arm, shoved his forearm into the alien's throat and drove it backward, across the bridge. He slammed the creature into the partially opened hatch. The energy blade cut into the Master Chief's armor, boiling through the alloy that protected his upper arm.

"Sergeant, now! Fire!"

Gunfire exploded from the hatch, oddly muffled because the rounds impacted directly into the Elite's back.-Chpt.8 pg.95

The alien snarled and contorted, but it held on to the Master Chief. The alien war-
rior sawed the blade deeper, cutting through the tough crystalline layers of the MJOLNIR armor. Hydrostatic gel oozed from the wound. . . mixed with the Chief's blood. "Keep. Shooting." A bullet hole appeared through the Elite's broken chestplate-bits of shattered armor and torn flesh spattered over the Chief. The Master Chief slammed the Elite into the bulkhead, and a control panel behind the alien sparked. The door to the escape
corridor hissed open, and the creature reeled back.
The alien was off balance, and the Chief finally had leverage.

He bulled the Elite backward and hammered its arm into the wall. The alien metal rang like a gong, and the Elite dropped its energy sword. The blade guttered and went dark as its fail-safes
permanently disabled the weapon. The Chief forced the alien back, step by step. The deck was
slippery with blood. Finally he twisted the Elite to the right and launched a powerful open-handed strike into the alien's wounded chest.

The Elite howled in pain and flew back, through the open hatch of an escape pod. "Get off this ship," the Chief said. He hit a control stud and
the hatch slammed shut. There was a sharp, metallic bang as the locking clamps released. The pod screamed away from the hull. The Chief exhaled. Sweat dripped in his eyes, momentarily
blurring his vision.-Chpt.8 pg.96