TIME:DATE RECORD [[ERROR]]ANOMALYDate unknown Aboard captured Covenantflagship Ascendant Justice, in Slipspace. Now.

"Cortana?" the Master Chief asked. "What's our status?"The Chief and the rest of his team scrambled out of the Cove.nant dropship. Fred carrieda semiconscious Kelly out and laid her on the deck of the launch bay.

"Same as ever," Cortana replied. "We're in trouble."Video feed from the ship's external cameras appeared on the Master Chief's heads-updisplay. Covenant cruisers surrounded them, their plasma turrets aglow; they remindedthe Chief of pictures he had seen of fish that lived at the bottom of Earth's oceans—swarms of phosphorescing lights and razor-sharp teeth.

He marched toward the edge of the launch bay and stood a centimeter from where theship's energy shield abutted the open.ing to the space beyond. He looked directly intothe vast blue fields and the giant warships far too close for his liking.

"We jumped to Slipspace, didn't we?" Lieutenant Haverson asked uncertainly.

"Yes," Dr. Halsey replied. "And no."She withdrew the crystal from her lab coat pocket and frowned as she discovered that itwas no longer a slender shard. The facets had rearranged like the pieces of a jigsawpuzzle... but in a configuration that differed  from the one the artifact displayed in theCovenant grav beam. This time it was a starburst of edges and refracted light.

214HALO: FIRST STRIKE"We jumped," she said, examining her reflection in the arti-fact's mirrored planes. "Butnot to the Slipspace we know."The Master Chief's radiation counter clicked and a shrill alarm screamed through hishelmet.

"Secure that, Anton," he said and nodded toward the glowing stone. "Get it into thereactor compartment of the Pelican."Anton relieved the crystal from Dr. Halsey, who only reluc.tantly released it from hergrasp. He sprinted toward the wrecked Pelican.

"There was a radiation surge, Doctor," the Chief explained. "And that thing is the source." The Chief noticed that the inten.sity of the radiation did not drop off as Anton moved itinto the Pelican.

"Whatever it is," Dr. Halsey said as she scrutinized the blue field outside their ship, "itwarps space. When we first ap.proached it in the great room, space curled around thecrystal. And again in the grav beam, it dispersed  that field potential.""And now?" Admiral Whitcomb asked. "This tiling is affect.ing our passage throughSlipspace?""Apparently so," Dr. Halsey said, and stepped next to John to get a better look outside.

The Admiral joined her and watched as the Covenant ships' turrets heated. "Can theyeven fire those things in Slipspace? If they can, we're sitting ducks."The Master Chief could make out more shi s in the distance. The Covenant vesselsflickered, faded, disappeared, and then reappp eared in the fog. The nearest enemyCovenant ships fired. Amorphous balls of suppperheated gas belched from their turrets andaccelerated toward them, tingeing the blue space purple.

The Master Chief saw Locklear as he helped Polaski out of the Covenant dropship. Hekept her hand in his, and they watched together as the plasma sped toward them.

The balls of plasma streaked on—then curled and spiraled off their trajectories. Severalsimply winked out of existence, only to reappear somewhere else. The enemy shots racedup, down, sideways—any direction but  toward Ascendant Justice.

"What the hell is this?" Sergeant Johnson said and he stepped next to the Master Chief towatch the display. "I didn't think their ships could fire in Slipspace. Ours sure as hellcan't."ERIC NYLUND215Dr. Halsey removed her glasses, and her eyes widened. "Nor.mally, they can't. If they can fire, then logically, we're not in Slipspace. And wherever we are," she murmured, "therules have changed."The Admiral frowned. "Cortana," he shouted. "Whatever you do, do not return—"Too late. Cortana returned fire.

Columns of fire streaked from Ascendant Justice—streamers that twisted and helixed,then vanished and reappeared.

The bubble of tangled blue space containing Ascendant Jus.tice and the Covenantwarships now contained at least forty bolts of superheated plasma circling in random directions and accel.erated to incalculable velocities.

Three spheres of roiling fire appeared in front of the nearest Covenant cruiser and splashed across its bow. The first boiled away its shimmering silver shield; the secondand third melted the armor and alloy skin beneath.  Atmosphere vented and spun themassive ship like a child's pinwheel.

"Hot damn," Sergeant Johnson crowed. "All we have to do is wait for those trigger-happy bastards to take themselves out. Look, they're firing again."The Covenant weapons heated and squeezed out a second salvo of plasma. The guidedbolts of fire veered off course, swarmed, disappeared, reappeared, and spun out ofcontrol though the local.ized Slipspace bubble.

"No, Sergeant," Dr. Halsey said, her voice turning cold. "We're all in the same mess.""Cortana," the Master Chief said, "drop the launch bay blast door. Now!"The three-meter-thick door overhead shuddered and slid down.

A streamer of plasma on a parallel trajectory flashed through the dark not half akilometer from the Master Chief's face—so close that the external temperature rosetwenty degrees even through the ship's shields.

Red fire illuminated Ascendant Justice's starboard shield as plasma splashed across them;the film separating the launch bay from the external vacuum rippled like a thousandbroken mir.rors. Static crackled across the  Master Chief's armor, and his shieldsresonated in sympathy.

216HALO: FIRST STRIKEAs the blast door lowered, the Chief saw another fireball spill across their port side.Energy sprayed across the bow in a blood red borealis. Ascendant Justice's shieldsflickered and faded... but they held. Barely.

The launch bay door touched the deck and sealed with a sub.sonic ............