Wind whistled through the wrought metal and twisted frames of derelict buildings, Through holes blown in the sides of the buildings. Their structure ruined and depressed from centuries of solitude and neglect. At the feet of these towering metal tombstones were smooth red dunes. These dunes covered all of Freehold, masking entrances and burying any evidence that the ruin once harbored life...well, human life. Now the city was inhabited by two warring factions.

On one side, the towering war mongers known as The Cabal. These "Space Turtles", as guardians liked to call them, plagued the city. They used their armaments to rend metal and stone in search. What they were searching for is unknown at this point in time. But what we do know is that they have a strong hatred of the other squatters of the city.

These other squatters were space-time bending mechanical beings known to us as The Vex. We know much about the Vex but yet we also know very little. This is because they can predict what we know and change it in the blink of an eye. All Vex units are built with a "Juice Box" as the Hunter Vanguard likes to put it. These boxes glow a stark white and when damaged it will kill the vex unit, regardless of the condition of it's body.

And it is this war between The Cabal and vex that have brought the attention of Guardians.

The Vanguard of the tower often s-

"God Dammit! Shut up! I already know this!" A Warlock complained as she sped through the dunes and old buildings of Freehold. Her golden-bronze armor gleaming in the waning light of dusk. "Guardian, you asked me to break the silence. So i did." Her ghost replied in her thoughts. Ghosts possessed the ability to bond and meld with their Guardian, becoming a part of them and only materializing when needed. The guardian scoffed and rolled her eyes beneath her helmet.

They had picked up a patrol beacon in the Scablands. When they did the voice of the Titan Vanguard, Commander Zavala, emanated from it. The recording briefed the pair on what their mission would be.


Three hours earlier…

"Guardian, we have recieved reports of heavy Cabal movement deep within Freehold. Clear them out and if you can, find the reason for the increased activity. Coordinates have been pinged to your Ghost. Good luck. Zavala out." The voice cut out. The Warlock turned to her Ghost who was floating silently next to her. "Coordinates recived….oh wow, it is deep within Freehold."

"How deep are we talking?" She replied in her smooth but stern voice.

"Calculating...about three hours on your Sparrow. Seven hours on foot."

"I just got it polished!"

"Well we can just go on foot then." The Ghost deadpanned as it glared at the guardian with his one blue eye. The Guardian opened and closed her mouth as she tried to formulate a response. In the end she sighed and called in the Sparrow. In less than a second the sleek and ostentatious form of the Iron Gjallerwing materialized in a show of blue light and sparks. She lifted her leg over and locked it into the pedal, doing the same with her right foot. She leaned forward as the Sparrow stayed in the air due to it's hover tech.

She took a deep breath and plunged both accelerators forward. The Iron Gjallerwing launched into action, flaring a large dust cloud behind it.


"Wait guardian, we're getting close. I suggest you proceed on foot." The ghost informed. Te sparrow twisted to the side as the Guardian kicked out her right leg. The sudden stop kicked up a lot of dust and sand, some of it clinging to the clean stark white of her robes. "Well that's just great! Sand on my robe! Fuck!" The guardian threw her hands up in a fit as she stepped off and the sparrow dematerialized. "Guardian, why does it even matter?"

"It just does, Curse! It just fucking does!" She complained to her Ghost, which she so lovingly named Curse.

Curse did not remember the exact reason why she had named him that, but he did remember arguing to her about it. It may be on account of his voice: Deep and imposing. He also no longer wore the standard white shell. Instead he wore the Diaspora Shell. A grey shell with small extra plates on the top and bottom front-facing wings. His side wings were colored in a mottled purple and dark blue blue camouflage.

He decided to abstain from responding and focus on the mission. Curse used his advanced scanners to map where they were. He eye snapped to a white dome beside the Guardian and Ghost pair. Inside the dome was an old elevator shaft that would lead into an under ground complex, which is where the waypoint ping was located. "Guardian, see that dome?"

"Yeah, what about it?" She asked as she crossed her arms, her voice still carried a trace of anger.

"I need you to blast a hole in it, it's fairly thin so you should be able to." She only grinned devilishly. She reached behind her and called forth her favorite weapon. Truth. The heavy rocket launcher finally appeared and she crouched, hauling the weapon of death over her shoulder. The Truth launcher she wielded carried the Prototype ornament. Disguising the weapon as a piece of experimental tech. Believe it or not but this had saved her a few times,

The Warlock took aim. Connecting the sighting interface to her helmet in order to activate it's tracking, though it wasn't need as she would just be firing at a piece of old metal. Her finger tightened around the trigger, Truth responded by launching one of it's purple, void powered payloads. It streaked toward the wall, hissing with power until it made contact. Sure enough the launcher was in fact enough. The initial explosion blew the plating inward as the void energy dissolved it. Making a nice human sized hole. She put Truth away, whispering a promise to it as it faded from sight in a show of Blue. "Your..attraction to that armament worries me."

"Best friend a girl could ask for." She replied in a seductive tone as she strode toward the entrance. Curse shivered in his own ghost way before he followed. This inside was fogged with dust. The metal plating and support being laden with rust. Each step she took made the floorboards groan. "Curse, where to?"

"Marking it on your HUD" A small grey diamond appeared on her visor interface. She followed it by crouching down and taking out a floorboard from it's frame. She slid through, landing softly on the concrete below.

She looked up, taking in the sad site of an abandoned subway. But not only that, but a large unit of Cabal. Blind Legion. They towered over her in thick white plating. Most guardians were up to about their chest due to being around 6 feet tall, however she was only around 4'10, barely coming up to their waist.

She padded over to a bench, using it as cover. In her hands materialized a Suros ARI-41. A factory order that she entrusted her life with. Looking over the edge she counted 4 Legionnaires, 2 Phalanxes, and a single Centurion. The centurion was at the console where her waypoint was located. "1,2,3." The warlock whispered before vaulting over the bench. As she did her hand flew forward and expelled a blue ball. This ball, in reality a grenade, landed between the phalanxes. Suddenly cloud formed above them and rained pure lightning. Two legionnaires had gotten over the shock of seeing the bastion of light. One raised it's gunned and uttered a guttural war cry, the other taking aim and firing micro rockets at the charging guardian. Without aiming she emptied her clip into the crowd ahead of her, the roaring legionnaires helmet popped off, spewing black liquid as it's owner collapsed. The other staggered from the bullets. Her side arm whipped out at lightning speed and made his helm going flying as well. By now she was enclosing the remaining three. The centurion took aim with his projection rifle and fired a powerful salvo at her. The warlock didnt have time to react and let her shields take the hit. She poured her strength into her legs and closed the gap. Her hands sparked. They flung forward and unleashed so much energy that it disintegrated the remaining legionnaires.

The centurion had been aggravated, he flared his shields and threw his gun down, charging in for the kill. Then..she wasn't there. "Bye Bye!" The centurion heard her yell behind him. He turned just in time to take a payload straight to his face. He didn't feel it though, the rocket killed him on impact. "Indra...you're getting sloppy."

"No i'm not! I'm fine!" She stomped her foot on the hard floor indignantly. Curse only deadpanned as he replied. "You should've been able to take them out in half the time."

"I...Well...You see!..uh...go fuck yourself." She conceited, blushing with embarassment. She stepped over to the console, Curse followed behind her and emitting a blue set of lines to scan the device. "Hmm..oh...Intriguing, but yet, highly disturbing."

"What? What's wrong?"

"Well from what i can tell another sect of SkyBurners have an asset that they were to deliver to Mars. But it's arriving late. Digging deeper into the comms. Got it, apparently once they had this asset they were...oh god." Curse ended on a concerned tone which carried over to Indra.

"What!? What's going on!"

"Well once they have this asset they're going to commence a full scale invasion on the system!"

"...Curse..we have to get this asset. Where is it?"

"A neighboring system. Ikora has theorized before that there may be some remnant of the golden age there."

Indra pondered for a moment, tapping her foot with her hand on her his. "So we go this system, get the asset, then return it to the vanguard for containment."

"I would advise we see the van-"

"No! We are leaving ASAP. Send the Vanguard a message. We're off!" She then turned and sprinted back to the hole and used her glide to give her enough height to reach up and clamber the hole. Curse stayed behind. He let out a mechanical sigh and transmatted them both into her ship. "Curse, coordinates!" But she need not ask. Curse had already punched them in. The ship slingshotted into light speed.


Zhua'aul, you fool. Trapping me inside a cage that binds me with the very thing i control. Your Cabal are weak as well. They slump and trudge, not stand at attention and march. They cannot hold me.

Zoloz thought as he drank in the void, arc, and solar energy that made up his binds. He had let himself get captured by the Primus and his legionnaires. He had been waiting till they neared a body in the system. He drank in the last of the power he needed. His arms pulled forward and easily snapped the binds. His left hand raised and the door was blown out, the shrapnel slaughtering the one guard.

Zoloz then continued down the corridors, not taking in the scenery, he was focused on one thing and one thing only: The engine core. His plane was to make the core overclock, which
would cause it to melt down. The explosion would be more than enough to eliminate every last traitor on the flying piece of scrap. He noticed an alarm had sounded. It was no matter, none of the legionnaires would even touch him.

His small feet had been carrying him for several minutes when he reached the core, already having blown and torn a room of Colossuses and Centurions to dust. The one psion in the core room had no chance to fight, or even breath. It's throat had been crushed without Zoloz even moving a muscle. He raised his hand and started to warp the energy inside it, exciting it to the point of near meltdown. His manipulation was not enough on it's own. He wasn't prepared for this. Zoloz cast his gaze across the room, landing on the dead psion. He strode over to the still form and pried the slug rifle from it's still warm hands. Quickly Zoloz took aim at the core and let off a few rounds.

The micro rockets impacted the glass and tore a hole it in, alarms blared, fire poured out. Perfect. Zoloz then paused for a moment, going over a choice in his head. He could find the Primus and torture him some, but that ran the risk of melting along with the ship. On the other hand he could simply channel his power and phase shift to the planet close to the space fairing hunk of junk Zhua'aul called a Land Tank. Stupid name since it was neither a tank nor on land but that didn't matter now. Zoloz then channeled his arc energy, strips of it flowing from his collar rings.

He had misjudged his phase shift and came to in air. His body not having any way of slowing down the fall impacted the soft ground. He pulled his hand from out under him and pressed it into the soil to try and right himself. Zoloz stood with the front of his armor clad body being covered in brown, slick mud. He tried to wipe off as much as possible but the marshy earth was adamant in clinging to him. The flayer let out a groan of defeat. One ringed in his helmet and another registered behind him. At the speed of sound he whipped 160 degrees, where he was face to face with a black creature. The thing had a long thick black scaled body with large round red eyes and fangs about the size of his torso, it also had some odd white and red color on the top of it's head.

'What is that?' Zoloz thought to himself as he readied the slug rifle.


Hey guys, BrokenDeathtrap again and yes, this is a re-write. The previous version was too fast paced, kinda poorly written, and i just didn't like starting in the emerald forest.

I didn't notice that myself, Ptabs did. Thanks Bro!

Anyway, I'm much happier with the way this turned out. And i honestly can't wait to write more.

Oh and that SRL Spandex..Can't friggin wait! And if you're wondering what Indra looks like, well you'll find out next chapter heheheheeheheh. Probably anyway.

That's all for now, BrokenDeathtrap, signing off