“What are you doing, ma’am?”

“You’re going to need a copilot if you want to avoid this storm. And seeing as I’m the only other person on this chopper, I believe that makes me copilot by default.”

The pilot paused, his thick goggles emitting a fiery red glow. Rather than argue with her, he asked, “Do you know how to read radar?”

Sophie bit her lip and studied the controls. “I’ll figure it out, Captain,” she said confidently.

The pilot returned her smile with a sly grin. “Whatever you say, ma’am. Just keep an eye on that screen,” he said, pointing at a translucent holographic image of the landscape. “You see that blip in the corner that’s heading right at us?” She scanned the image and then nodded. “That’s the dust storm, and by the looks of it, a big one. If we even come close to it, we’re worm food. You may want to buckle in,” the pilot said, eyeing her unclipped belt.

Sophie grabbed the harness and shot the man a quick glance. “I need to get to this site, Captain. Crashing isn’t an option. Consider that an order.” She knew she wasn’t in any position to be barking orders at an NTC soldier, but she figured her assertiveness might motivate him to fly a little faster, and perhaps a little safer. She watched the pilot’s grin fade as he spoke into his com.

“Black Echo, this is Halo 1. Stand by for report. Over.”

Static crackled over the radio. The pilot cursed under his breath before raising the transmitter to his mouth again. Sophie watched the curl of his lip as he spoke. “Black Echo, this is Halo 1. Come in. Over.”

Nothing but the hiss of white noise followed. He slammed the transmitter back onto the dashboard. “Looks like the storm already knocked out radio transmissions. We’re on our own.”

“Then you’d best keep focused, Captain,” Sophie replied.

She turned to watch the red blip of the dust storm on the screen. With a flick of her index finger, she enlarged it and mentally computed its distance.

“Look,” the pilot said suddenly.

Through the armored glass she could see a brown cloud swirling on the horizon, the storm slowly swallowing the crimson sunset. The sight was chilling.

The pilot glanced over at her. “Hope your belt’s tight, ma’am.”

Sophie didn’t bother lifting her gaze from the storm. “Just get us to the site in one piece. A lot of people are counting on my safe arrival.”

The pilot grinned again, his lips twitching slightly as if he wanted to respond, but his fiery red goggles rotated and focused on the storm. He gripped the cyclic tightly in his hands, shaking with the effort to keep it steady.

“Can you go above the storm?” Sophie asked anxiously.

“Negative, ma’am. Our only chance is to go around it, but by the look of it we won’t be able to.”

“Well, there has to be something we can do. Why not turn around?” she yelled over the increasing sound of turbulence.