The wind howled as the sun set on the Siberian steppes, blowing cold powder around their ankles in swirls of crystalline dust. From the west the fading light of the sun just barely touching the horizon painted the dreary, rusted landscape a marvelous reddish gold.

Winding their way through the remnants of a far-flung long-forgotten past, the warlocks walked side by side, alert and ready for almost anything.

Koru's ice-white coat billowed on the wind and his helmet, an angular facade reminiscent of an eagle whose beak extended out to hood the visor, glinted in the light, painted white and streaked with red.

He admired Eve in her full combat gear, especially her helmet, a modified version of the standard hooded design complete with an intricate engraving of a deep-rooted wide-reaching tree on the top and extending down the back.

"So," Koru started, glancing down and kicking at a small rock absently. He swallowed hard and clenched his jaw. It had barely been five minutes since touching down, but the silence had made it feel like an eternity. "What kind of missions do we have?"

"The usual. Investigate the area, report enemy numbers and movements, kill a few problematic targets, and go home." She hummed softly to herself and led the way up a rocky slope that overlooked a cluster of rusty and bombed-out buildings that Koru guessed were once a military outpost that had since been lost to time. Though she carried herself with an air of nonchalance, Eve's trigger finger twitched with anticipation. "Weird. The last guy reported a squad of Fallen squatting down there, said he couldn't clear them out on his own."

"Huh. Yeah," Koru agreed, speaking quickly. "Yeah, uh, that is weird."

A soft crackle in his ear was followed by Phoenix talking in a low whisper. "Hey buddy. I can see you from here. I'll pay your tab if you can tell me where."

Koru stiffened and looked around, scanning the crags and hills on the horizon, the gully at the base of the hill the outpost was built upon. He didn't find a sign of his teammates.

"Dude, don't look around like that, she'll get suspicious. All right, me and Roy cleared out that Fallen squad for you. Ask her about that place."

Koru almost nodded but stopped himself. "You sound disappointed. Did you want to fight those Fallen?"

"Kinda, yeah. I figured with two of us it could be really fun." She stood looking at the base, the wind ruffling the hem of her red trenchcoat.

Another faint burst of static. This time it was Roy. "Our bad, brah."

"Well," Eve turned to Koru, "We should check it out anyway. If they moved on, they might have left tracks."

"Oh, I don't think there'll be much of them left." He offered with a chuckle, but was met with an unwavering stare from Eve.

"What does that mean?" She asked.

He recovered quickly, "Well, you see, they're Fallen. They're remarkably good at covering their tracks. Still, we should go and investigate."

She was slow to comply. "Right. Of course." She turned and made her way down the steep riverbank into the dry ravine. Koru followed.

Phoenix spoke to him again, "Hey, ask her about her teammates. It's a good ice breaker. Get it?"

Koru dug his boot into the scree and thin layer of ice as he slid down about twenty feet into the ravine. "Hey, could you tell me about your teammates? What name did the Speaker give you?" He asked her. "We're Fireteam Pluto."

She responded with a lightness to her voice, "We're Fireteam Hades." She responded simply.

He smiled and looked over to her. "Hmm. Seems appropriate."

Phoenix chimed in: "Wow, what a coincidence."

Roy added: "I don't get it."

"And my teammates? Why would you want to know about them?"

Koru took a split second pause before coming up with an answer. "It's good to know what company one keeps, isn't it?" He hoped it was a good enough question.

"I see. Well, my teammates are…" She walked on, up the rising slope of the old river, stepping on smooth rocks once at the water's bed. She paused to think of the perfect word. At last finding it, she continued. "They're eccentric, to say the least. Great girls, salt of the earth, but very interesting. Quirky, even."

"We have that in common." Koru offered.

Eve went on, barely hearing him. "Lilei is really possessive and wicked with a knife. You met her."

"The one in yellow armor who threatened my life, right?"

"Yeah, seems about right. She's really into me, so don't take it personally. Hmm." She pulled herself up and over a boulder and reached down to help Koru before beginning the climb up the hill to the outpost. "And then there's Ozara. She's a real sweetheart, and very protective of Lilei and I. But she is prone to acts of extreme violence."

Koru kept in line next to her as they crested the somewhat steep slope of the hill at last. "Is she a titan?"

Eve took a glance at the surroundings before coming fully up and over the hill. "Yes, why?"

"Oh, just noticing a trend. That's all."

The base was built as a square. To the south was the entrance, paved road chewed and broken by centuries of elemental abuse. To the east was a large, flat and open area possibly used as an overwatch position, firing range or even parking lot. On the west side was a thin-walled rectangular structure with a caved-in ceiling and long-gone windows that Koru had supposed had been the barracks. On the north side of the square was the large operations building. In the center between all of these stood about half of an old radio communications tower.

The wind blew the unmistakable stench of blood and gas through the eaves and weather worn holes of the old ops building.

It was built as an almost perfect cube, about thirty feet wide and tall with huge barn doors to accommodate a lot of movement in and out. Inside was bathed in dim light except the imperfect dappled beams of amber sunlight streaming through moth-eaten holes in the thinning walls and bowing ceiling. Strewn about the single, large room were worn out computers, desks and tables turned over centuries ago. Draped over the old office furniture in a macabre mimicry of a drunken brawl were the fresh corpses of the Fallen squadron. At a glance, Koru counted six bodies.

"Holy shit." Eve muttered as she bent at the knees slightly to inspect a Fallen captain. His helmet was caved in between his four eyes and leaking white ether gas from the mouthpiece with a weak hiss. He was slumped against the wall, held up only by the two shock swords in his gut that pinned him to it. "Koru," Eve glanced at the captain's torn and tattered cloak, gold thread spattered with blood. "This was a House of Kings patrol unit." She moved to inspect some of the other bodies.

"You are correct." Koru nodded, almost in appreciation of his teammate's silent handiwork. One vandal had been beheaded with his own sword, another was missing half of its face from a point-blank shot from a wire rifle. A third vandal was missing an arm, Koru spied it lying a few feet away, and its helmet showed signs of severe damage from blunt-force trauma.

He counted three dregs cleanly cut in half laying in a pathetic pile of limbs toward the back of the room, bringing the body count up the seven.

"I wonder who did this. It's clean, and quiet. There's three options: The House of Devils, houseless Fallen, or Guardians; likely hunters." Eve paced back and forth slowly in front of the scene.

Phoenix piped up, "Wow, your girlfriend is pretty smart, dude. What's her favorite animal?"

Koru tilted his head slightly. "Does that even matter?" He realized too late he had said it for Eve to hear, as well.

She stopped and looked over to him. He seemed to shrink back against the row of old computer terminals. "Of course it matters. Depending on who did this they could still be around, or prompt the Kings to send a recovery unit. Or even worse, a counter strike team to this location and I don't want to deal with that right now."

"Well-" Koru was interrupted by a short crackle of electricity followed by a sharp exhale and eerie silence from the back of the room. He turned and stepped closer.

Beneath two dregs' lower halves lay a full dreg, keeping completely still except for its rapid, almost silent breathing. It looked up to the warlock with four glowing blue eyes rimmed with gold.

Eve approached. "Well what? I…" She paused at seeing the dreg and was quick to produce her assault rifle, blood-red with a bayonet on the underside of the barrel. She leveled it at the Fallen.

Koru brought his arm up and pushed her back behind him slightly. "Hold on. Don't shoot. It's scared."

The dreg gave up on trying to hide. It crawled out from beneath the limbs of its fallen comrades and scrambled to stand up on its feet. It pressed its back against the wall just a few feet down from where its captain hung impaled on his own swords. The dreg brandished a small knife that crackled with electricity in one shaky hand. It chittered and rasped at them, half-threateningly.

Eve looked from Koru to the dreg and back again. "Can you talk to it?"

"What makes you think I could do that?"

She shrugged slightly. "I don't know. You're Awoken, don't you have Fallen out in the Reef?"

"I'm not from the Reef." Koru replied. He stood still, watching the dreg's gold-rimmed eyes flicker between the two guardians.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought that…" She trailed off when she realized he wasn't listening.

"Uh huh." Koru responded, then muttered low under his breath, "Hey, Dari, real-time translate into Eliksni and mute my direct mic."

"That's a complicated order." Dari, Koru's ghost, responded directly to his mind. "Can't we just kill it?"

"Just do it." Koru hissed.

"All right, fine, okay. Let me know when you're done. Make it quick."

With that, Koru felt Dari's presence fade into the background again. He cleared his throat and spoke, pleased to hear that his mic's only output was the translation into the hissy, chittery Fallen tongue. "We will spare you, little one." He said, "Go. You may survive with the Kings, or," He paused, "You may seek out the House of Spirits and live as a warrior-kell should. The choice is yours, but I do not recommend wasting my generosity on a House that does not value your own life." He held his hands up, palms up and out.

Eve took a surprised step back when Koru began speaking the Fallen language.

The dreg locked eyes on Koru's helmet visor, and nodded slightly in understanding. Still keeping its knife raised and crackling, it circled around the computers closer to Koru, well away from Eve, as it made its way out of the building. It paused near Koru to sniff at him curiously before emerging into the light of sundown outside the building.

Eve kept her rifle trained on the dreg until it finally reached the comm tower and turned its back to them. She at last lowered it and watched as the dreg turned to watch her over its shoulder warily until it began its descent down the southern slope. "Okay, what the hell?" She finally allowed herself to ask.

"Dari, translate off. Mic back on." Koru whispered.

"Whatever, man." Dari responded dryly. Though he was always compliant, Koru's ghost still managed to get on his nerves.

Koru sighed. "I told it to leave."

Eve rested her hand on her hip. "That's it? Because I thought you couldn't speak Fallen."

"I never said that." He admitted.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing. We're on patrol."

"Really? Just patrol? I-" Her voice rose and she held up an accusatory finger to him, but stopped mid-sentence. "Hold on. I have to take this." She lowered her head slightly and walked out of the operations building, leaving Koru alone among the dead. "Yes, what is it?" He heard her ask faintly.

Static, then Phoenix's voice. "Smooth, dude." He sounded far from genuine.

Koru paid it no mind. "You left one alive."

"We did? Roy swore he counted."

The warlock watched Eve pacing nervously outside. "Fallen squads are usually eight individuals."

Roy mumbled, "Is that more or less than five?"

"I guess that explains it. Hey," Phoenix stopped to listen carefully a moment. "Who's she talking to? Her boss? Her ex?"

"Not a clue. Could be her teammates." Koru suggested.

"I don't think so." Phoenix replied.

"Hey," Eve called out to him before he could respond, "Come here."

Koru left the building behind and stood face to face with her.

"All right, look. I don't know what's going on and you are definitely explaining yourself later, but right now I need your help." She spoke very evenly and plainly.

"Understood. What's going on? Who was that?"

"That was Ikora."

"The warlock vanguard called you personally?"

"Yes. She knew I was in the area and had an urgent assignment."

"Why not a patrol beacon?"

"That would attract too many guardians. And she needed someone she could trust."

"Does that mean you trust me?"

"It means that shit might go down and I might need backup. Are you in?"

"Of course."

"Good. Ikora said she caught very faint Vex signals from the south of our position."

"Vex? This close to the Tower? On Earth?"

"It's a delicate operation. She thinks it's being masked, like it's deep underground."

"Makes sense. Doesn't seem to be anything topside. We need to find a way down."

Eve looked to the southern horizon, bathed in shadow as much as light. "There," She pointed, "A large drainage pipe in the gully. It's our best shot. Let's move."

They made their way down the hill, each glancing around for the freed dreg out of curiosity, but saw nothing. At the bottom Koru asked, "It's not just a patrol date anymore, is it?"

She let herself smile. "No, I guess not. Now it's a mission."

"But it's still a date, right?" He asked a little too seriously.

Eve laughed softly but did not respond.