0530 hours, September 13,2552 (revised date, Military Calendar)Aboard capturedCovenant dropship, in Slipspace.

The dropship rolled, inverted, and spun out of control. It tum.bled and pitched, and oneof the I-beams solidly welded to the hull bucked and snapped.

The Spartans of Blue Team were strapped to the hull in quick-release harnesses. No one,however, gave any thought to the red quick-release button in the center of their chests.

They were all hanging on for their lives.

The forward monitor was black because there was nothing for them to see in Slipspace.

The only light inside the dropship came from chemical light sticks activated and tossedinside before they departed. Those plastic sticks had cracked, and their lumi.nous contents had balled into a million microscopic blobs in the zero gee.

Although the hydrostatic gel inside his MJOLNIR armor had been pressurized to itsmaximum safe value, John's bones still felt as if they were being shaken apart.

This violent ride started when they had cleared Ascendant Justice's launch bay andentered the inky void of Slipspace. This "normal" Slipspace was nothing like John hadexperienced before. Without the smoothing effect  of Dr. Halsey's alien crystal—this ridewas a thousand times worse.

Radiation levels spiked and dipped... but so far the dosages getting into the lead-lineddropship were survivable.

"Now I know," Linda said, "why only big ships travel through Slipspace."296HALO: FIRST STRIKE"You know those SS probes?" Fred asked. "They're almost solid Titanium-A."The Master Chief checked his team's biosigns: erratic but still within normal operationalparameters. Grace's heart skipped a beat or two, but then returned to a normal strong rhythm. No broken bones or signs of internal  bleeding yet, either. It was also a good sign that Blue Team were reasonably calm about their dire situation. The Chief knew it was allthey could do until they cleared the Slipspace field generated by Ascendant Justice.

He ran a diagnostic on his MJOLNIR shields. They still re.charged faster than they were drained by the ambient radiation that stormed invisibly around them. He wished the realCortana were with him. She would have said  something to distract him.

"Status?" John asked.

Four blue acknowledgment lights winked on, and four Spar.tans gave him thumbs-up signals.

Fred chimed in, "This isn't so bad. The last insertion I made, we hit the ground before thedropship. Now, that was a rough ride. We were—"The dropship lurched violently and cut off Fred's story.

Cracks appeared along the armor welded to the port wall. Molten lead oozed from therupture.

Despite the hydrostatic gel and the padding, a jolt slammed the Master Chief's headagainst the front of his helmet with force enough to make black stars explode in his eyes.Another jolt slammed his head into the back of  his helmet. The inside of the dropshipwent entirely dark.

"Chief? Chief?" Cortana's voice whispered through his hel.met speaker. "Chief, respondplease."John's vision came into focus. His biosigns sluggishly pulsed on his heads-up dis lay.Beyond the display, it was completely dark. He activated his external lights and pppointedhis head along the interior of the dropship.

His Spartans hung limp in their harnesses. Aside from spheres of lead that had meltedunder the hull armor, resolidified, and now floated like champagne bubbles in the interiorof the vessel, there was no other discernible  motion.

"We made it?"ERIC NYLUND 297"Affirmative," the cloned Cortana answered. "I'm picking up a tremendous volume ofCovenant COM traffic on the F-through K-bands. They've pinged us three times alreadyfor a response, Chief. Awaiting orders.""How can you pick up any signal inside this lead-lined hull?""The hull is breached in many sections, Chief. The COM traf.fic is also unusually strong,indicating extremely close proximity of Covenant forces.""Stand by," he told her. He hit the quick release on his harness and floated free. He calledup Blue Team's biosigns and found them all unconscious, but alive. He grabbed a first-aidkit, in.jected them each with a mild  stimulant, and released them from their safetyrestraints.

"Where are we?" Will asked.

The Master Chief looked instinctively to the forward moni.tors, but they were dead."There's only one way to find out," he replied. "I'll take the portside hatch. Fred, you're onthe starboard.""Roger, Blue-One," Fred replied.

The Chief rotated the manual release of the hatch and it eased open. Beyond was thevelvet black of space, filled with stars that shone yellow and amber and red. He clipped atether onto his suit and then onto the hull  and leaned out the hatch.

As Cortana had indicated, there were Covenant forces in close proximity. A cruiser glidedsilently past them three hundred me.ters away. All John could see was its silver-blue hull,its plasma turrets with their lateral lines aglow with fire, and the flare of its engine cones as it passed... and then John saw the rest of  them.

There were Covenant cruisers and larger carriers; there were even bigger vessels withfive bulbous sections that were two kilometers stem to stern and had a dozen deadlyenergy projec.tors. Motes of dust swirled  between the numerous ships: Seraph fighters,dropships, and tentacled Engineer pods.

"How many ships," he asked Cortana, "are we looking at?""Two hundred forty-seven warships," she replied. "Estima.tion of the total population based on the sampling from your lim.ited field of vision puts that total number at more than five hundred Covenant warships."For the first time the Chief froze; his gauntlets locked onto the298HALO: FIRST STRIKEedge of the hatch, and his arms failed to respond. Five hundred ships? There was more firepower here than he had ever seen be.fore. This fleet would easily overwhelm any UNSC defensive force—whether or not the  Admiral got through with his warn.ing. Theiropening salvo would be a tidal wave of plasma, and it would obliterate Earth's orbitalfortresses before they could fire a shot.

A thousand kilometers below, space rippled, parted, and seven more cruisers appeared innormal space. They maneuvered to join the rest of the pack.

John realized he had seen this magnitude of destructive power: Halo. The ring was a weapon designed to kill all sentient life for dozens of light-years in every direction.

And he had stopped that threat. He could stop this one, too. He had to.

His plan called for the infiltration and destruction of their command-and-control station.But how would that stop this gathering offeree? It wouldn't... but it might buy Earthenough time to come up with a plan to counter  this seemingly invincible armada.

"You said they've pinged us three times?" John asked Cortana.

"Affirmative. They've been curious about our status, but not as much as you might expect.There's a tremendous amount of COM traffic. They're probably only interested in us as a naviga.tion hazard.""Send a signal and explain that our engines are crippled and we'll need assistance tomove. Let's see if we can get them to take us to this central station for repairs.""Sending message now."The Ma............