"Eric Nylund - Halo - First Strike" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nylund Eric)

mark of Random House, Inc.

www.delreydigital.com

ISBN 0-345-46781-7

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition: December 2003

OPM 10 98 7 6
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank the personnel at Central
Command: Syne Mitchell and the newest officer on our team,
Kai Nylund.

The Intel Officers at Microsoft's Franchise Development Group:
Doug Zartman, Nancy Figatner, and Edward Ventura, and most
notably Eric S. Trautmann (Special Ops field agent).

The people in Section Two, a.k.a. Microsoft's User Experience
Group: Jo Tyo, Matt Whiting, Dana Fos, and Jason Groce.

Logistics officers at Ballantine/Del Rey: Keith Clayton, Nancy
Delia, Betsy Mitchell, and Steve Saffel.

And the Bungie troopers who are slugging it out on virtual
battlefields across the universe to bring you the best game ever:
Jason Jones, Peter Parsons, and, of course, Joe Staten, Jaime
Griesemer, and Lorraine McLees.
SECTION

REACH
CHAPTER ONE

0622 hours, August 30,2552 (Military Calendar)\ UNSC
Vessel Pillar of Autumn, Epsilon Eridani system near
Reach Station Gamma.
SPARTAN-104, Frederic, twirled a combat knife, his fingers
nimble despite the bulky MJOLNIR combat armor that encased
his body. The blade traced a complicated series of graceful arcs
in the air. The few remaining Naval personnel on the deck turned
pale and averted their eyes—a Spartan wielding a knife was gen-
erally accompanied by the presence of several dead bodies.
He was nervous, and this was more than the normal pre-mission
jitters. The team's original objective—the capture of a Covenant
ship—had been scrubbed in the face of a new enemy offensive.
The Covenant were en route to Reach, the last of the United Na-
tions Space Command's major military strongholds.