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THE TAKEN WAR

A great shadow descends upon the Last City as Oryx comes to extinguish the light of the Guardians who killed his son. Much time has passed since the Legends last came together, but now the Taken King will force their hand. They must reunite if they are to have any chance of defeating him and protecting humanity from his wrath.


Where is my son? Where is Crota, your lord, your princely god, your godly prince? Tell me no lies! I feel his absence like a hole in my stomach.

Where once his tender tribute whetted burrowed mouths, now only hunger remains.

Hear me, O waning stars, O tattered rags of Sky — I will stopper up this tearing gulf with vengeance.

- Oryx, The Taken King

Dearest Eris, Crota's Bane (now we shall see how well you wear that title!),

It's not all bad.

Yes, the father of all your burdens comes to you with hate on his sword and hunger in his heart. But don't look at it that way. Did you not, when you lost your sight, gain another?

Sharpen your intentions. When life is strength and strength is death, what is death, if not hope?

You just have to reach out and take it.


Bolas the Psion looked out at the empty landscape of Phobos. As usual, there wasn't a thing out of the ordinary in sight. He emitted a soft click that expressed his distaste at having patrol duty again. Warfare was what they were bred for, not sightseeing. Maybe a Guardian would come along in the coming months, and there would finally be something interesting to-

A flash, somewhere off to his right. Bolas peeked out from the main entrance to the Cabal fortress to see what it was. He couldn't see anything over there at all, not anymore at least. But he could have sworn that a Phalanx had been patrolling in that direction…

The other Psion next to him, Krafet, issued a guttural growl. He wanted to know what Bolas was looking for. The latter was about to reply when he saw another flash out of the corner of his vision.

Turning quickly, he spied a shield fall to the ground with no one around it. A Phalanx shield.

Krafet noticed as well, and raised his weapon in defense. While he remained at the door, Bolas jogged over to the shield and flipped it over. Aside from the fact that there was no Phalanx soldier attached to it, it seemed normal enough. There wasn't any damage or inclination that something was out of the ordinary.

He turned to tell Krafet this, but realized that the entrance to the base was completely devoid of any sign of him. Bolas quickly stood up, and he felt something that the Cabal didn't feel very often.

He felt fear.

A wet smacking noise emanated from behind him, and he turned only to be blinded by a white flash. Something had opened in the air above him, some kind of portal or tear in space. A vaporous tendril snaked its way toward him, and ensnared him in its coils.

Cold washed over him, a wave of nausea overcoming his body. He could feel his body emptying itself of him, and creating room for some foreign entity, some other creature's will to invade. His mind dissipated until it was no longer his own.

Unable to fight, he was whisked away into the void, just another victim amidst the countless souls who would be taken tonight.

—X—

A light lit up on the wrist interface. Drowsily, the person to whom it belonged to moved to answer it. "This is Eager-11, head of the City Task Force."

"Eager?"

Recognizing the voice, he leaned closer and stared at it more attentively. "Ikora? I don't usually hear from you, not since… well, you know."

"Something has come up. We don't know exactly what, but… I need you to bring them in."

Eager sighed. "Like, them?"

"Eager…"

He groaned. "Okay, okay. I got it. I'll get on it immediately."

"Thank you, this is of the utmost urgency. We'll brief them when they come."

"If they come," he muttered.

"What was that, Eager?"

"Nothing!" he exclaimed with a mockingly cheery tone. "Just that I'm contacting them."

"We'll see you soon."

The connected ended, and he held the area where the bridge of his nose would be if he had a nose. "They aren't gonna be happy about this."


A/N: This is the fifth book in an ongoing series of mine, "Guardians Never Die". Though they will not be absolutely necessary to read before this story, it is highly recommended that you read it first before continuing with this one in order to understand who the main characters are, and many references to the previous stories. You can access the previous stories on my author page.