"Living metal. Incomprehensible intelligence." - Grimoire of the Vex

Harley took a deep breath as he crouched behind a boulder. He listened to the whirrs and clicks of the Vex Goblins as they moved steadily closer to his hiding place. He had been on Mercury for three weeks since his revival now, each Earth-day marked by his Ghost, whom he'd decided to name Prism.

Currently, she was nowhere to be seen. She'd said something about joining her Light with his, then disappeared. He could still speak to her though and hear her reply. She'd altered his helmet again, giving it a HUD. With it, he could track the Vexs' movements. They were moving closer still.

Have I been seen? He hoped not. After weeks of nothing but sand and rock, this was the first Vex patrol they'd come across. If we're getting closer to Vex civilization, I don't want these three sounding the alarm. He looked down at his chosen weapon: a pointed rock. "...Prism, I don't like my odds of killing them before they warn others," he whispered.

"You'll be fine," her mechanical voice reassured, "Remember, don't aim for the head. The Vex's weak point is their abdomen."

"How will I know what to aim at?"

"You can't miss it. Just aim for the white spot."

He nodded. "Gotcha... White spot." He checked his proximity detector. They were almost upon him. Before they had the chance to see him, he sprang out, rock at the ready. Immediately, he noticed the spots Prism had told him to aim for - a glowing white area just below their chests. Moving as fast as he could, he grabbed the first Goblin's gun arm and jabbed his rock as hard as he could into its abdomen. It collapsed instantly, a whitish-blue fluid coating the ground. Harley swiveled to the left, grabbed the Goblin's gun and shot at the other two. He hit the second one right on the mark, sending it crashing to the ground. However, he missed the third one's abdomen, instead taking its head off. To his astonishment, the Goblin continued to head straight for him, gun firing wildly. He dodged it and, in the same agile motion, buried the nose of the gun in its abdomen. He came to a halt, breathing hard.

With a small beeping noise, Prism appeared in front of him. "Well done," she said.

Pulling down his kerchief, he grinned. "Think any of 'em had time to sound the alarm."

"I doubt it," Prism said dryly.

"Good. One less thing to worry about... Any parts we can scavenge?"

"I'll take a look." She scanned the Vex bodies several times before returning to his side. "Alright. I've gathered all the useful pieces I could find."

Harley nodded. "Are we still on the right trajectory to find that ship?"

A few days ago, Prism had come across a blip on her scanners that read like a ship. That was what they'd been making for before encountering the Vex patrol that now lay dead on the ground.

"Yes, we should be coming up on it soon."

Harley pulled up his kerchief again. "Reckon we'd better get going then."

Prism clicked to herself as she scanned the ship. It wasn't any design she was familiar with. The closest thing it resembled was one of the Kestrel models. She hoped they'd be able to repair it.

As if he'd read her thoughts, Harley asked the same question. "Think we can fix it?"

She hesitated, torn between optimism and realism. "I won't be able to do anything until it's out of the sand."

"But you can do it right?"

"...There's a good possibility," she said carefully, "But it's incredibly weatherworn from what I've seen, and I haven't even seen the whole thing."

"How're we gonna get it out?"

"I'll think of something. It's a good thing we aren't on Mars, though. Mars has a lot more sand than Mercury."

"What can I do?"

She turned to face him. "You can start clearing away the sand. We need more of it exposed if there are any hopes of repairing it."

"Won't the sandstorms just undo everything I clear?"

"No. The only reason it's buried is that this ship has sat here for decades, maybe even centuries. It might feel like there's a lot of sand in the sandstorms, but really there's much less than you'd think."

Harley nodded cautiously, not quite believing her. "Well, I guess the ship won't unbury itself," he said finally, "Let's get to work."

It took Harley several hours to clear the sand off the ship's surface and even then, one wing remained stuck in the sand. He was resting nearby with his back to a rock, helmet and kerchief off.

Prism flew over from where she'd been conducting more scans. "I've been able to get a more accurate idea of the ship's design. Nothing in depth," she said, "Of course, we'll have to finish uncovering the wing before we start repairs."

"I got it." Harley made to get back up but was stopped by Prism. "Leave it for now. You won't be good for anything until you get some rest."

She sounds worried about something. "What's wrong?"

"Hm? Oh, well...do you see that?" She nodded towards Mercury's horizon.

Harley glanced over. At first, he couldn't tell what she meant, but the longer he looked, the clearer it became. The Sun sat much lower on the horizon than before. The shadows were long and the air felt a bit colder now that he thought about it.

"Mercury is passing into its night-cycle," Prism said gravely.

"Oh." Harley remembered that conversation.

"Soon everything on this half of the planet will be cast into darkness," his Ghost said, "And it will stay like that for three months."

Harley's mouth set in a line of grim determination. "Then we'd better move fast. Wake me up in a few hours and I'll finish clearing that wing."

Harley woke to a persistent beeping in his ear. Remembering where he was, he flung his arm over his head, rolling to the side. He looked up, expecting to be surrounded by Vex Goblins, but was met instead with the sight of Prism rising from the ground, shaking herself to clear out the sand.

"If that's what you're like when I wake you up...you're going to be late a lot."

Harley grinned sheepishly, standing up. "Sorry," he said, "Sleeping on Mercury has made me kinda edgy."

"More like paranoid," his Ghost muttered.

He decided to ignore her. "Any developments?"

"Nothing so far. It was an oddly peaceful five hours. Even the sandstorm seems to be lessening."

"Good. Make it easier to clear the wing." He strolled over to examine the ship. "Well, there's definitely one major repair that'll have to be done."

Prism floated over. "What's that?"

"Needs a new paint job." She gave him her best eye roll. "Just sayin'...Anyway, let's see what we've got."

It took him just under an hour to get the other wing cleared. Once all the sand had been removed, Harley groaned in dismay. The wing was utterly shredded. Larger amounts of metal were missing there than anywhere else, not to mention any internal mechanisms. "Fan-freakin-tastic...Prism, how long'll it take to find replacement parts?"

"Hmm...Hard to say." She scanned the wing. "Luckily, it seems like the only parts we really need are metal plates. The other stuff might help, but it's the plating that will have to get us through space at warp speed." "

Great. Where the hell are we gonna find that?"

"Well, for once I'd say we're lucky to be stuck on a planet belonging to the Vex. We should be able to get the parts we need from them."

Harley sighed. "How many more am I gonna have to kill?"

"...Based on the parts I got from those other three, I estimate it to be upwards of 40." Harley's aggrieved look got him no sympathy. "Look, it's either kill some Vex or be stuck on this planet for a whole lot longer."

He sighed, knowing she was right. "Fine. Where're the nearest Vex?"

She paused for a moment. "There looks to be a squadron about 3 klicks east of here."

"Wonderful, let's go." Harley put on his kerchief and helmet, and slung his Vex gun across his back before striding off.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Harley bemoaned as he ducked behind a spire to avoid getting shot. They'd found the Vex alright, only there had been a lot more than Prism's appraisal. He'd taken out two Goblins and was feeling very accomplished when a sudden attack from the side had forced him to run for cover. "What's shooting at me?!"

"It seems you're being targeted by a Hobgoblin, but that's not the worst of it."

"Surprise, surprise. What's the worst?"

"Apparently it's called for reinforcements."

Harley leaned out, taking two more shots at the Hobgoblin before ducking back. "Where are they? That guy's the only one out there." Suddenly, his proximity detector lit up like a flare gun, showing enemies on all sides. He spun and saw clouds of grey smoke as the Vex warped in behind him. "Shit! We're surrounded!"

As the smoke cleared, he spotted three Goblins advancing on his position. He fired, but failed at hitting their weak points. "Damnit!" He dodged their fire, shooting again, and managed to bring down two before his gun started making clicking noises. Cursing louder, he drove the butt of the gun into the last Goblin, grabbing its weapon as it went down. His PD flashed again, and he whirled around. Approaching him from around his former hiding place were five more Vex. Two were Goblins and two were Hobgoblins, but there was another that he didn't recognize.

"That's a Minotaur!" Prism's alarmed voice sounded in his ear. "You need to find cover quick!"

Looking to his left, Harley saw another spire. As fast as he could, he dashed towards it, shooting at the Vex as he went. He pressed himself against it, out of the range of their fire.

"Might I suggest taking down the Goblins first so you can focus on the others uninterrupted?"

"Yeah, cuz I was thinking of not doing that," Harley muttered, "Well...here goes nothing."

He edged out, taking time to aim his weapon right at their weak spots. Bang! Zap! Both Goblins went down in a white splatter. Grimacing, Harley swiveled to face the Hobgoblins. He took down the first in one shot, but only grazed the second. Instantly, it dropped into a crouch, radiating an aura of golden energy. Harley shot at it two more times, hoping to bring it down while it was defenseless, only to be surprised when both shots deflected. "What the hell?!"

"It's projecting a Solar Shield!" said Prism, "Wait for it to get back up!"

A couple seconds later, the Hobgoblin rose and Harley took his chance. Blam! It was down. That leaves only the Minotaur… Harley couldn't see it anywhere. He leaned out further. The Minotaur was nowhere in sight. "Where'd it-" A huge force slammed into him from the side, followed by a metallic screech. Harley was knocked onto his back. "Shit!" He reached for his gun, only to discover that it had been flung some distance away. That thing is gigantic! The Minotaur's red eye glared at him as it readied its weapon. As he backed toward his gun, Harley noticed that it's whole body was glinting with a purple light. "Why's it shimmering?"

"It has a Void Shield. You'll have to break through if you want to kill it."

The Minotaur took aim. Harley closed his eyes and looked away, knowing he was about to be obliterated, when his fingers closed around his gun. Eyes flying open, he rolled to the side. The ground shook under him as the Minotaur's projectile hit, leaving a scorch mark. Swinging his gun around, Harley shot at its stomach. Unsurprisingly, the shots didn't land. Harley cursed and started thinking up a Plan B when Prism interrupted.

"You're weakening its shield! Keep doing what you're doing!"

Jaw set, Harley got off three more shots before he had to roll to the side again to avoid the next missile of purple energy. Upon the impact of his next shot, the Minotaur's shield went down. "Finally!" His final shot sent it crashing to the ground.

"Good job!" said Prism, appearing next to him, "You got them all!"

"Damn straight!" said Harley, trying to regulate his breathing, "Got some decent parts, too."

The Ghost gave an agreeable beep. "My only worry is that they've alerted others to your presence here."

Harley's face fell. "What exactly does that mean?"

"It means that an entire planet's worth of Vex now know that a Guardian is on their homeworld… I can't imagine they'll be too thrilled."

A/N: A huge thank you to everyone who favorited/followed! Your support means a lot. It might be a little while before the next chapter, so feel free to review in the meantime. Feedback is always appreciated :)

- TheWolfParadox