The Ancient Ones
"Knowledge is the path to Victory. Wisdom is the path to Knowledge." –Creed of The Ancient Ones
The hunter was being hunted. We holed ourselves up in one of the rooms down inside this dank earth. I should have turned us around, but now we hide and pray their shrill hiss don't find us. My team stranded in the heart of the Hive's lair, we wondered if we could make it out alive. Then their piercing screams echoed just outside our door, and hundreds of heavy stamping feet shook our bones.
It was until we heard the crack of a familiar sound that hope sprung back up in our soul, hearing their sharp cries cut short. Second by second, we could hear their unholy screech grow weaker until the final shriek was silenced. We all felt a brief solus within that eerie calm until the door creaked open. There stood three Guardians, our saviors, welcoming us back home.
Back in the safety of the Last City, we were more than curious as to how our saviors were able to dispatch the Hive with what seemed like ease to us. We asked them to teach us, for guidance, but it was apparent they seemed reluctant for some reason. However we counted ourselves lucky as they decided to invite us in the end and were to meet at dawn the next day. But strange, we were invited on the condition that we would only observe and nothing more they vehemently asserted. We didn't give it much thought at the time.
My team decided we should be early at the rendezvous point. The sky was red with the sun still under the horizon of the cosmodrome. We waited for what felt like hours. We saw a couple of Fallen scouts and almost fired on them until remembering we were to only observe. We began to wonder if we were played a fool, that is until the sky split open.
Before we could figure out what was going on, several Fallen drop ships converged on the field in front of us. There, three Devil Walkers were deployed with several platoons of Fallen. There numbers were beginning to swarm the place like an incoming tide. We kept our heads low. Being found would undoubtedly be the end of our team.
Suddenly my fellow Guardian shook me and pointed across the field. Hidden behind the small cracks of a broken wall, I could see the clear outline of a Guardian before it retreated back into hiding. No mistake that was a rocket launcher he had readied on his shoulder. Another one, this time they were melding in with the foliage like predators. A trio of capes slipped out and slit a couple of dregs' throats before dragging all three into the bushes. More and more, I can see Guardians all around me as I swelled up with awe.
The Fallen slowly marched forward until they were stopped. There they were, our saviors standing impetuous out in the open! The Fallen quickly fell into place, forming a semi circle of guns and knives. Was there a plan? There had to be. No sane man would walk out just to stare down at their own death. My thoughts were cut short as the Fallen open fired. The Devil Walkers' plasma missiles would rip them apart, but a purple light engulfed the lone Guardians from harm's reach.
That moment in time was short yet felt so long within the sudden maelstrom of weapons firing and explosions. I could hardly keep up with what was happening. Within a few minutes, a Devil Walker was felled before a second one followed suit. Several Fallen Captains tried to rally a retreat but their heads were sniped off in seconds. It was clear; none of them were getting out alive.
Once again the field grew quiet, reminding me of that eerie calm inside the Hive's lair. We joined the others as they combed through the enemy remains. Our saviors were resting by a destroyed Servitor and greeted us by saying, "Hey, they behaved like good kids. I told you, didn't I? Now you owe me a weeks worth of drinks."
"Yeah-yeah, I'm just glad we didn't botch the whole operation by inviting a couple of whelps." An awoken hunter droned uninterested while cleaning the scope on his rifle, "You lot did good. If you had fired on those scouts, they might have aborted their landing. This is the fifth company we've wiped out without a snag, and I don't want to break a good streak."
All three of us breathed a sigh of relief, dodging a bullet there with our newfound mentors. But we stiffened up once more feeling a warlock's shadow over us.
"So did you learn anything?" He asked.
My team stared at each other wondering what he meant, until the titan from their team blew a hearty laugh. Irritated I replied, "Excuse me but what were we supposed to learn?"
"Well, that's for you to decide." Was his curt answer.
Dumbstruck to say the least, we demanded, "What do you mean we decide? Tell us!"
The warlock ushered us in close and said with a mysterious tone, "It is easy to give and take answers, harder to seek and know it."
"Once again, what's that supposed to mean?" Their cryptic words flew past us.
"We're not just going to tell you the answers, but we'll point you in the right direction." They all began to chuckle amongst themselves, "Placements, Angles, Terrain advantage, Weapon selection, Tactics and Movements, I'm not saying you saw everything but you noticed some of it in all that chaos. Am I right?"
His words were true. While enclosing their enemy into a tight space, they silently picked off any stragglers that strayed too far from the center formation. A frontal diversion allowed the other fire teams to finalize their positions. In an instant, over half of the deployed infantry were neutralized then focusing on the Walkers before they could fully utilize their laser guided cannon. Speed, precision, guile, they had it all.
"There is an ancient creed that we follow everyday: Knowledge is the path to Victory. Wisdom is the path to Knowledge."
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