But she was an AI close to rampancy. Jai wondered how much they should follow her plans.

He'd have to revisit that once they had their hands on Bonifacio and the navigation data.

Juliana faded, becoming almost a ghost in the bright medical bay, then she appeared again. "Okay," she almost whispered. "I can pass the fix I have on Distancia onto you, but I'm going to need some of you to help me. One team goes after Bonifacio, the other I need to do something a little bit trickier.

"There's a Kig-Yar ship still in the Rubble. I can't crack their encryption, but if I can physically get into one of their systems, that would let me figure out exactly what they're up to. If it's a full-scale attack, we need to know for sure so that we don*t make a big mistake. If we use non-Rubble attackers, then the Rubble can deny this little incursion was our doing if things turn out to be okay with the Kig-Yar."

Jai looked at the AI. "You want us to board a Covenant ship?"

"And plug me in, yes." Juliana nodded. "My higher functions. I'll be leaving a simple base copy to keep regulating the Rubble, of course. But the core me will go with the boarding party."

Juliana was rampant. Or just plain insane, Jai thought. He scratched his chin, then looked at Juliana. "We'll need a larger force. We need to free the crew of that UNSC ship that was captured. It'll have ODSTs aboard. Release those men and we have a force." Helljumpers weren't huge fans of the Spartans, but were somewhat like Spartans, Jai had to admit, but without the altered physiology and powered armor. And they were good fighting men; he was sure he could get them to storm a Jackal ship.

It was the sort of thing ODSTs would enjoy doing.

"I'm not the ruler of the Rubble," she said. "Only the Council can release them. Besides, most of those people are tagged with locaters. People will notice it if they start trooping out to help us."

"Do all of them have locaters?" Adriana asked.

Juliana smiled. "Not all. The ones who refused to become Rubble citizens don't."

"Then we can use some of them," Jai said.

"I won't open the doors," Juliana said. "That would draw attention. But if the cameras, were to malfunction, you could break the crew out and get them to help you before anyone would really notice."

"That'll have to do." Jai turned around. "Adriana, Mike, you take Bonifacio. Delgado, you're with me, I need someone who knows the inside of these habitats."

Delgado swung his legs over the side of the table with a wince. "You sure you're going to break up your little team?"

Jai grinned. "Who else will be able to talk the ODSTs into coming with us? Mike, Adriana, get on the navigation data, and quickly. I'll take care of things for Juliana."

The

Petya shuddered as Mike disengaged the ship. "I'll drop you off at the nearest working set of locks," he announced. "Then it's a full burn for Distancia."

Delgado stood up, wavering on his feet. "Do me a favor," he asked Adriana. "When you catch up to Bonifacio, make sure you shoot the thieving bastard for me. Preferably in the knee, or somewhere painful like that."

The

Petya thudded into another airlock.

"I'll go release the others," Jai told Delgado. "You and Juliana need to scare up another ship for the attack."

Delgado and Juliana exchanged a glance. "We're on it."

Jai ran a systems check of the Mjolnir armor, and walked down the corridor for a pair of M7 submachine guns and extra ammo.

Chapter THIRTY-EIGHT

THE REDOUBT, METISETTE, 23 LIBRAE

Reth quickly strode through the hall of one of the Redoubt's grounded ships. There were ten old decommissioned ships that had been landed around

"the Plaza," with the largest Kig-Yar ship towering over them all from the northeast corner. Docking tubes connected the ships like bridges high over the ground.

And if Reth chose, he could descend into the ground, where every day the Unggoy warrens spread deeper and farther into the warmed rock. The escape pod he had landed in still sat out on the landing pad of the Plaza, crackling and shimmering from the heat of reentry.

He'd lived in fear for several long minutes, convinced that the Sangheili would get the ship running in time to turn around for him, but they hadn't. The Sangheili had gotten the ship booted up and kept moving along their trajectory, headed for the Rubble.

Reth needed to order the

Infinite Spoils away from dock along with all the other Kig-Yar ships, but he was reluctant to do so. Soon the

Infinite Spoils would have human Slipspace drives, something the Hierarch hadn't even granted Reth, but something that all Kig-Yar wanted: a

Slipspace ship of their own. But first Reth needed to take the Rubble, and any human ships with the drives, for the Kig-Yar. The humans had been stockpiling the Slipspace drives they'd traded for to install in their own machine: the Exodus Project.

But when the

Infinite Spoils got its drives it would mark something new, as long as the Kig-Yar could spirit it out of the Rubble before the Hierarchs heard of it.

Everything was about to change, Reth felt, as he took an elevator up into the tall, grounded ship that was the Kig-Yar refuge inside the Redoubt. There were many, many more guards around now than when the Sangheili had broached it.

He entered his room. The remains of the firefight had been cleaned up, the glass replaced so that he could, once again, look out over the Plaza, and the Redoubt as a whole.

The river of methane on the surface of Metisette rumbled underneath their creation. Its passage turned giant turbines, creating power for the entire complex. The Unggoy thrived here among the mists of methane reclaimed from the rivers and pools.

Shuttles were already descending from the reddened clouds to touch down on Metisette's surface. Kig-Yar were forming up in the square below the

balcony, as well as Unggoy Deacons. All per his command.

Several of his key advisors hustled up behind him. They looked shocked at the wounds all over his body, and his hunched position. Reth paid the stares no mind.

"We have planned for the invasion of the Rubble for a long time," Reth said, doing his best to straighten up against the twinges of pain the Sangheili had left him.

"Is it time?" they asked.

Reth smiled. "Yes," he said. "It is time. Send the orders. Gather the Unggoy out onto the Plaza. Give them their harnesses and masks. Prepare for the attack. We will take it all for our own, and once we have that data, we will continue to their homeworld as well."

The Kig-Yar in the room warbled happily. They had been waiting patiently as the humans developed asteroids that the Kig-Yar considered prime for Kig-Yar nests.

Now they would be rewarded.

"Go," Reth snapped. "Tend to your functions!"

The Kig-Yar advisors scattered out of the room, bumping into a slew of Unggoy that waited outside.

They were not rocketing into the Rubble just yet. But for all intents and purposes, the invasion had begun.

Chapter THIRTY-NINE

HABITAT

ASUNCION, INNER RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

The first sign for Keyes that something was happening were the shouts from the guards who had been walking the corridor outside. Two of them ran full tilt past Keyes's cell. Keyes walked over to the bars as the guards dogged shut the thick, metal door leading to the corridor. They pulled out handguns and stepped back from the door.

"Faison?" Keyes shouted down the row of cells. "What's going on?"

"Don't know," came the response.

The guard on the left side of the door looked back at them. "Quiet!"

Keyes pressed his face against the bars to get a better look. As he did, the large metal door exploded inward between the two guards and bounced down the corridor. A heavy cloud of dust hung in the air, making everything hazy.

Something large and gray blurred through the door. The guards shot at it, but not before it smacked into them, knocking them both out with quick blows to the head.

The figure paused, and a golden faceplate scanned the rows of cells. Keyes heard Faison's incredulous voice: "Holy shit, a Spartan."

Dirt settled on the gray armor, then shook off as the Spartan thudded down along the cells.

"Who's the commanding officer?" it asked loudly from behind the helmet.

Keyes put a hand out through the bars. "That would be me, Lieutenant Jacob Keyes."

He still couldn't believe this. Had the Spartan come just for them? Where had he come from?

The Spartan stopped in front of Keyes. "Back up."

Keyes stepped back, and the Spartan gripped the bars and yanked them off their hinges, metal squealing in protest and more dirt falling from where they'd been set into the rock.

The Spartan tossed the door onto the floor behind it and walked into the open cell. "I have a proposition, Lieutenant Keyes."

By the entryway between the bent bars the face of an AI appeared. "We may have a way to help you get your crew back to where they belong as well. If you're interested."

Keyes leaned out of the open cell. "I'll listen to you both. You can explain what you're doing here and what's going on while you free my men."

The gold faceplate looked him up and down. "Of course. I'm Jai, Spartan double-oh-six, Gray Team."

Keyes shook hands with the large, gauntleted hand.

"We need an attack force," the Spartan said as he moved from cell to cell. "To get the AI Juliana into a Jackal ship and back out. To figure out what the Covenant are up to in this system, and whether they're readying an invasion force."

"You're a Spartan. You haven't tried going after the ship already?"

The gold faceplate shifted. "Those are long odds. Not something I want to try unless I absolutely have to, and am feeling extremely lucky."

"Fair enough," Keyes said. "You said you could get my crew out?"

A few more mangled bars clattered to the ground. Faison and his ODSTs had rifled through the pockets of the guards-for key cards. Now they moved door to door, unlocking cells with less drama. A crowd of officers and crew now milled about.

Jai paused in front of Keyes, now that he no longer needed to free prisoners. "The ship we came in has navigation data. We can join its computers with your ship's by docking for a Slip-space jump. It'll be awkward, but your frigate should be large enough to clamp us on."

Keyes looked over at Faison behind the Spartan. "Your men willing to jump a Jackal ship?"

"You kidding?" Faison said. ODSTs behind him nodded. "Beats rotting here."

The AI tilted her head. "Ignatio Delgado has a ship ready for you all. The alarms are shut down, but the guards change shifts soon. You'd better all clear out."

"She's your ship's AI?" Keyes asked Jai.

"No," Jai replied. "I'll explain later."

Chapter FORTY

HIGH ORBIT HESOID, 23 LIBRAE

Thel idly scratched at a small piece of charred carbon that had been flaking off his armor while the Unggoy before him trembled, wondering about its fate.

He finally stopped. "So Reth escaped."

"Lords ..." The Unggoy shook as it started to speak. "Reth is devious.

And he has commanded all within this system. You can imagine, most Unggoy are eager to please our masters. It is easy to be confused at times like these, when lords turn against lords."

Thel stood up from the pilot's seat. Saal looked up from his console. The Sangheili winced as he moved, the crisscrossing scars of his shame scabbing and causing him pain. Which was the point.

Saal refused to look at Thel; he kept his eyes cast down at the floor. Another sign of his shame, a refusal to meet another Sangheili's eyes.

The message had gotten across to Saal, Thel thought. It was a shame it had taken so long to control him.

Thel leaned closer to Saal. "It will only bring shame if you do not perish triumphantly in battle."

Saal looked up, a glimmer of hope brimming in his large eyes. "I will redeem myself before you and my ancestors -- by my blood I swear it," he said.

"I know you will," Thel replied. "That is why I ordered you to remain by my side for now."

Ahead, on their screens, the Rubble grew larger as they got closer.

"I want you to lead the charge on that Kig-Yar ship," Thel said. "The

Infinite Spoils.

It is powerful enough and large enough for what I have in mind."

"I'll destroy anything in our way," Saal said.

"Good."

Thel returned to the shaking Unggoy. "And you, will your soldiers do their job, by the Prophets? Or will they risk the chance of damnation by disobeying?"

"Sirs! They will fight. They have seen the error of their ways," it said.

"Then you will follow close behind Saal," Thel said. "Saal, get weapons for yourself and the Unggoy."

"My honor," Saal said, and left to go equip himself.

Zhar, still in the cockpit, scratched a mandible. "You think the Unggoy will really fight hard to take the ship?"

"Do they ever really fight hard?" Thel wondered. "I just need them to cause confusion while we do what needs to be done. With that ship, we can destroy this 'Rubble' and get things moving back in the direction they're supposed to be moving."

Zhar nodded. "And Saal will fight like an unleashed army to regain honor."

Thel grumbled happily. "Yes. Yes, he will."

Chapter FORTY-ONE

HABITAT

ASUNCION, INNER RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE

Delgado ached all over. His throat felt like someone had taken steel wool and shoved it down to his stomach, and he couldn't help stumbling a bit as he walked from the bridge down to the airlock of a decent-size freighter, not all that much different than

Distancia.

But adrenaline kept him moving.

Juliana had run through a list of ships they could commandeer on short notice in the name of the Rubble Security Council and found this old bucket.

Delgado had moved and docked it near the prison.

He reached the airlock and flicked switches to power the door. Jai marched through first, with a quick nod at him. A long stream of UNSC Navy types trailed behind him.