0810 hours, August 30,2552 (Military Calendar)Epsilon Eridani system, ONIunderground facility, planet Reach.

Dr. Halsey studied the five Spartans in the hallway and pushed her antique glasses fartherup the ridge of her nose. Despite everything their presence here meant—Reach invaded,their mis.sion to find the Covenant leadership compromised, everything she had workedfor now in jeopardy—she was still pleased to see them. She steeled herself, though; anemotional outburst wouldn't be understood, or appreciated, by her Spartans.

"Come in," she said briskly. "And hurry. From the sounds of things upstairs we haven'tmuch time."The Spartans stood there a moment—undoubtedly communi.cating with one anotherthrough a mixture of externally silent COM channels and minute body language. Shenoticed the tick of a finger, the slight nod of a head. They then moved together, picked uptheir equipment, and walked through the threshold of the vault.

Dr. Halsey greeted them as they passed her. "It's good to see you, Fred.""Ma'am," Fred replied. "Good to see you, too."She noted that Kelly's movements were off, a little sluggish. She was hurt, as were the restof them, now that she saw them up close. "Kelly.""Doctor Halsey." She reached out and gave her hand a slight squeeze of greeting.

"Isaac.""Doctor.""Vinh."ERIC NYLUND 121She nodded.

"William."Will grunted. He had never liked his formal name.

She knew this annoyed them all—how she was always able to tell who they were despitethe MJOLNIR armor. She had grown up with them, knew their every gesture and theirindi.vidual walks. She could have never called them by their num.ber designations:

SPARTAN-104, -087, -039, -029, and -043, respectively.

Dr. Halsey tapped a control pad. The vault door eased silently shut, its seams vanished,and, with a sharp, metallic click, it locked.

"We have access to Aqua, Scarlet, and Lavender Levels," she told them. "Follow me to themedical wing." She proceeded down a concrete hallway with a high arched ceiling,recessed lights, and security cameras. "I know  the Covenant entered the Epsilon Eridani system at approximately oh-five-hundred hours. ONI Section Three staff evacuated thisfacility at oh-five-thirty hours. I assume you're not here to let me know it's safe to come  out?""Yes, ma'am," Fred replied. "I mean, no, ma'am. It's not safe. The Fleet engaged theCovenant, but the enemy managed to land ground forces on Reach. We were sent to thesurface to protect the orbital-gun  generators." He stopped, took a deep breath, andcontinued. "We were not successful in that mission. Covenant forces overwhelmed our position." He glanced back at Kelly and the other Spartans. "We fell back here...  we thought it would be secure."They continued down the sloping passage; titanium doors irised open for them andclosed as soon as they passed.

"I see," Dr. Halsey replied. "And Captain Keyes? John?""Unknown," Fred told her. "The Master Chief and part of our team attempted to retrieve an unsecured NAV database from an orbital station before the Covenant got to it.Assuming he was successful, and given Captain  Keyes's record of combat against theCovenant..." Fred's voice trailed off.

"I'm sure they accomplished their mission and escaped," Dr. Halsey said, finishing thethought for him. "John has never lost.""No, ma'am," Fred replied.

122HALO: FIRST STRIKE 5They walked in silence for a moment past a display of cap-Ztured insurgent flags that had been mounted under glass alongthe curved concrete wall. Most were emblazoned with an arrayof gaudy insignia—family crests, bloodied dragons, and scorchedcrossed swords. They continued past these remnants of a rebel-Zlion the UNSC no longer had to worry about. 5"Doctor Halsey?" Fred said. "Permission to speak freely?""Granted," she said. "I don't stand on ceremony, particularly S given thecircumstances. Speak your mind.""Ma'am, something isn't normal about this Covenant inva.sion," Fred told her. "They'vewon, but they aren't glassing the planet. At least not completely—as near as I candetermine, they've only hit the poles and a  portion of the lower latitudes.""And they had digging equipment in position over this fa.cility," Kelly added.

"Curious," Dr. Halsey said. "They've never taken an interest in any human or humantechnologies—" She halted at a large metal iris, big enough to drive a Warthog through,and set her hand on a palm scanner. "The  medical wing," she explained. She spoke intothe nearby microphone: " 'I shall do no harm.' " The door opened for them.

High-intensity lights flickered on in the large room beyond. There were a dozen medicaldiagnosis tables and a row of dis.plays along the far wall. The lime-colored floor wasbrightly polished and sterile. The walls glowed with  a faint pink lumines.cence. Sevendoors led to adjacent offices and surgical bays with windows looking out into this centralroom.

"Kalmiya?" she said. "Status?""Yes, Doctor," re lied the disembodied voice of her personal AI, her replacement forCortana. "I have ppprepared the Spartans' personal medical files and sent runners to fetchstocks of blood plasma and other medical supplies from cold storage, as well as tools toassist in the removal of their MJOLNIR armor."The doors to the tiny service elevator at the far end of the fa.cility opened, and a roboticrover rolled out, its telescopic arms holding piles of liquid-filled bags. Rows of tools wereneatly lined up across the rover's top tray.

"Very good," Dr. Halsey said. "Continue to track seismic ac-ERIC NYLUNO 123tivity overhead. Interface with the Spartans' biomonitors and patch the output to thedisplay on bay three."She strolled over to a table, and a bank of holographic dis.plays hummed to life, floatingserenely. Graphs and figures scrolled across them.

"Give me a spotlight here, prepare a sterilization field, and lower the ambient lighting byforty percent. And a little Mahler, please. Symphony number two.""Yes, Doctor." Music drifted from the speakers.

Dr. Halsey examined the graphs, tapped tiny human-figure icons, and summoned MRIimages of" the Spartans' internal structures—holographic bones, organs, and muscles appeared and slowly rotated.

She winced at the extent of their injuries.

"Fred, you have a torn Achilles tendon and three cracked ribs. Both kidneys have moderate contusions." She glanced at the rest of the team's data and after a moment'sconsideration told him, "You're fine.

"William, you have a cracked tibia and some internal bleed.ing. Get some biofoam into that wound and avoid strenuous mo.tions for the next day." She turned to face Fred andWill. "You two are in the best shape. I want  you to go to Level Aqua, Section Lambda, andretrieve a few things.""Yes, ma'am," Fred said.

Dr. Halsey was only a civilian, but the Spartans had always ac.cepted her authority.Perhaps because she had acted as an equal among the Fleet Admirals and Generals whowere constantly trying to co-opt her work. Or  maybe it was more than that. Shewondered if the Spartans viewed her as some sort of mother fig.ure. As much as thisnotion amused her, she doubted that they viewed anyone outside their team as family.Not even  her.

William retrieved a can of biofoam from the rover and in.serted the tip into the tinyinjection port in his armor—pushed it through the skin between his fourth and fifth ribs.He filled his abdominal cavity with the space-filling  coagulant/antibacterial/ tissue-regenerative polymer.

"Cold?" she asked.

"Nothing worth noting, ma'am."She nodded, not making much over William's courage. She'd124HALO: FIRST STRIKEalways kept her admiration for her Spartans to herself. The last thing she wanted was todo make them feel different. They got enough "special" treatment from everyone else.

Dr. Halsey picked up a clipboard, tapped a few items onto its display, and handed it toFred. "New weapons arrived for field-testing last week," she told him, "as well as parts for the MJOLNIR Mark Five armor system. We'll  swap them out for your damagedcomponents. Kalmiya, show them the way, please, and give them access to the restrictedareas.""Yes, Doctor," Kalmiya said. The med bay doors opened. "This way."Fred studied the items on the c"lipboard. Very, very good," he said, and his voice wasthick with satisfaction. He nodded, took a long look at his teammates, and then he andWill departed.

Dr. Halsey returned to her medical readouts. "Vinh, you have a torn deltoid muscle, threebroken fingers, and a herniated disk. Isaac, internal contusions and both shoulders havebeen dislo.cated and reinserted  incorrectly, which is pinching off the blood vessels. I'llget you both fixed u in a moment, but first I want you to survey the route we took hereand suggest furtherppperime.ter defenses.""Yes, ma'am," they replied, cast a look at Kelly, and left.

Dr. Halsey concentrated on Kelly's internal scans. Her injuries were by far the worst. Shehad seen that from the extremely low blood pressure and high body temperature evenbefore she'd glanced at the MRI. There was  moderate bleeding in her liver— a fatalcondition if not treated—and her right lung was com.pletely collapsed. That the womanwas still on her feet, let alone fighting, was tantamount to an act of God.

Of course, that's what the SPARTAN-II project was all about, wasn't it? Playing God for thegreater good.

"Doctor Halsey," Kelly asked. "Where are the others?""As I said, they evacuated," she replied. "On the table, please. I'm going to perform someminor repairs."Kelly complied. "Then why aieyou still here, ma'am?"Dr. Halsey picked up a curved, long-handled magnetic wrench, built specifically to fit this,and only this, access panel. She in.serted it and popped open a fist-sized section of Kelly'sbatteredERIC NYLUNO125MJOLNIR armor. Blood and hydrostatic gel bubbled from Kelly's wounds.

"I volunteered to be the fail-safe option," she told Kell . "In the lower levels of thesecaverns are enough high explosives to level the facilityyy—in case we were ever overrun bythe enemy. I'm here to make sure no one gets access to our technology."Dr. Halsey injected a local anesthetic and inserted a flexible laser-tipped catheter intoKelly, carefully monitoring her progress on the MRI. She pulsed the laser, fusing thelacerations in her liver. Dr. Halsey then inflated her lung. Kelly would lose half of thatorgan, regardless of her treatment. The tissue was  already turning blue and mottlingnecrotic brown.

"Kalmiya, prep the flash clone facility and retrieve Kelly's DNA sequence from thearchives. I'd like to get a new liver and right lung started for her.

"You're fine for now," Dr. Halsey lied. "I just want to get replace.ments made for you, incase we're down here for a long time.""I understand," Kelly rasped.

Dr. Halsey wondered if she did—if Kelly understood that getting shot and burned and having your internal organs trauma.tized wasn't supposed to happen to you every day...unless you were a Spartan. She wished the  war were over. She wished her Spartans hadsome measure of peace.

"Doctor?" Kalmiya whispered through the tiny private speaker bud in Dr. Halsey'sglasses. "There is an anomaly in SPARTAN-087's DNA files. You may want to review thisin private."Dr. Halsey sealed Kelly's injuries with biofoam, removed the catheter, and cauterized theincision. "Rest," she said.

"No, ma'am. I'm ready to—" Kelly tried to sit up.

"Down." Dr. Halsey set a hand on her shoulder. She had no il.lusions that she could have stopped Kelly with the gesture—but it reinforced her words and her will. "Doctor'sorders."Kelly sighed and lay back.

"I'll be in my office just over there"—she pointed to the next room—"if you needanything."Dr. Halsey left Kelly and moved to her office. Two walls were covered with giant displays;old disposable coffee cups littered the floor; a holographic projector flooded with data,lines, rotat.ing graphics, and unanswered  correspondence overflowed her126HALO: FIRST STRIKEdesk. She turned down the blinds that separated her office from the medical bay, but onlyhalfway, so she could keep an eye on Kelly.
............