A Soldier of the Light

by Reilly.216

From the very beginning, join Entity, the master sniper, and experience his triumphs and his defeats every step of the way. His victories and his losses. Battles that will mold the Hunter into a legend. After all, every legend has to start somewhere. (Set 17 years before 'In His Footsteps'/'O Brother Where Art Thou' and roughly a year before the events of 'His Own Path')

14. XIV - Allies New and Old

A Soldier of the Light

Chapter 14 - Allies; New and Old

As soon as they touched down on the Martian soil for the first time, different feelings manifested through all of them regarding their new surroundings. Perses, who, to his credit, was rather open-minded, could only become excited for their current mission and the prospect of meeting up with one of his old team-mates from his first fireteam. Erebus crouched down and took off her glove, feeling exhilarated as she touched the red sands with delicate fingers – as if contacting the grains of sand too heavy-handedly may destroy her illusion of this wonderful new planet.

Vixera looked around in fascinated, obvious awe. Her four blue eyes gazing over the landscape, hungrily taking in every last detail of the planet that so few Eliksni had ever visited. She was the first in her House – perhaps even the first female Eliksni to ever set foot on this planet, she felt pride and excitement swell in her chest.

Entity only grumbled, complaining of the ceaseless amount of irritation he was soon going to feel when the sand eventually made its way into his circuitry. Out of sheer instinct and sharpened repetition of the routine, his optics darted over the dunes of the planet – as if anticipating an enemy to attack at any moment.

When he had eventually settled and concluded that no threats were nearby to cause them trouble, he visibly relaxed and gathered the others into a small huddle to discuss their next move. It still felt odd that these people depended on him as their leader, as the one to look to when times got tough. He doubted he'd ever get used to such responsibility – and losing someone close to them, like Ferrum, only made him feel like he had failed in that respect. That he had lost some of their confidence in him as a leader. He inwardly sighed and focused on the job at hand.

"So, here's the deal." He began. "Perses says that we're going to meet up with one of his old buddies, and after a quick meet-and-greet, we're going to bunker down at an ambush point and have a quick see-and-shoot with a high-value Cabal target. Is everyone clear?"

A unanimous 'yes' came as the reply. Entity quickly checked his HUD for the objective. Once he found it, he pointed in its general direction with an out-stretched palm.

"Our objective is three-and-a-half clicks in that direction, so let's get moving. We're burning daylight, people. Move out."

They commenced their slow trudge towards Perses' informant, Argus, and made much of the journey in stoic silence, contemplating what they were about to do.

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Tekka awoke with an enormous head-ache, his hand instinctively going to his forehead in a futile effort to lessen his pain. After a few moments of massaging his leathery skin, he attempted to open his eyes. It was startlingly bright, with the Sol's rays piercing into his sensitive eyes, making the pain in his head increase tenfold. He slammed them shut and attempted to open them again, much more slowly this time. After opening them substantially wide enough, he proceeded to take in his surroundings.

Destruction. Everywhere.

Initially, Tekka was confused, and shot up onto his feet, doing nothing but increase his pain. His hand began reaching for a weapon on his back that wasn't there. After grasping the air where his gun should have been occupying, he drew his fists into a guard, as if anticipating a surprise attack from an unseen threat. Though he knew that his arms would do little to block the shots of a wire-rifle or Shrapnel Launcher.

After concluding that there were no threats in his immediate vicinity, he turned his attention to the sky. By his reasoning of the nearby star's position in the sky, he concluded that it must have been about noon. His gaze shifted once again to focus on his surroundings, particularly the debris that encompassed him. Shards of a ship's hull were strewn about and sticking out of the soil like vicious flora. Smoke stacks rose from multiple places off in the distance, telling him the incident must have been recent. It was too much for his pounding brain to take in and he covered his eyes and looked to the ground, hoping that the blackness would return to engulf him to the land of painless slumber. When of course nothing happened, he removed his hand and looked at the spot on the ground in front of him.

The dead remains of a drained Ghost lay before him.

Suddenly, all of his memories came flooding back to him. The Ketch crashing. The journey he made to scavenge off its remains. The pulsing light he had seen. And the pain, oh, the pain. It had been excruciating and numbing at the same time. Complete agony had encompassed his body, originating from his upper-left hand. He quickly snatched the hand up to his face to examine it for damage. It was odd. It seemed completely untouched.

But that couldn't have been right. He could distinctly remember feeling the agonising burning, the blood boiling, the skin bubbling and melting off. But the hand seemed to defy all of this. It was totally unharmed. Except for one thing, one mark on his palm that had never been there before.

A tricorn. The sigil of the Traveller.

Tekka's eyes widened in shock.

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After just under two and a half hours of slow marching, the group had finally reached their destination. They would have used their ships to travel there, but Cabal scouts would have spotted them from a distance and therefore ruined the mission. Vixera had offered to use her ship, as it had an efficient cloaking device, but the ship would not accompany all four of them at the same time. So they had walked.

When they finally met with Argus, they found him lying just behind the crest of a high sand-dune, overlooking what looked like the decadent ruins of a small city square. It had a handful of small pillars near it, and there was a dome nearby that may have once been an observatory back in the Golden Age, now it was just another derelict ruin to use as shelter from the variety of sandstorms that plagued this area of Mars.

Entity gestured for Erebus, Vixera and him to hang back around fifty paces from the unaware Guardian; for fear that he may shoot at Vixera, seeing that she was a Fallen. He allowed Perses to approach, but warned him to be wary. Surprising a Guardian was a good way to lose a few teeth, especially a Titan. Especially a Titan that was currently looking through a pair of binoculars at a distant object, and especially a Titan that had what seemed to be one of the biggest Rocket Launchers Entity had ever seen slung across his back.

Taking heed, Perses slowly crept up to Argus, who still had his back turned, and proceeded to crouch down next to him. When he was close enough, he leant down and slowly, ever so slowly, began to lie down next to him, almost rubbing shoulders with the much larger Titan. Of course, the other Titan had not seen his old team-mate creeping up on him, and so Perses lay down undetected.

Erebus only just managed to stifle her laughter, and Vixera let out a quiet, amused huff of amusement. Even Entity had to admit, this was going to be pretty damn funny.

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Argus was lying just behind the crest of a large sand dune, and was looking through his custom-zoom high-definition binocular lenses at a distant building. A building that his target, Bracus Edru'us, was scheduled to pass by later today. He was just about to put down his binoculars when someone whispered into his ear.

"What're you doing, Argus?"

This scared the shit out of him and he proceeded to flip onto his back and send the whisperer a strong punch to the face. His blow connected, and he heard the crack of a visor splintering into little pieces. He then heard muffled groans of complaint as Perses replaced his broken helm with another he had in his Vault.

"Asshole." Perses muttered, as two others approached, followed by a Fallen creature, all laughing.

Argus' eyes widened as he looked at the Fallen Captain behind and raised his Auto Rifle to fire, but the Hunter bearing a Sniper Rifle was faster, who had the weapon's barrel touching Argus' own visor within a moment.

"She's a friendly, okay?" Argus heard an Exo angrily say to him.

He slowly turned his Auto Rifle away from the Fallen and placed it on the sand next to him. He proceeded to stand up as the Hunter put away his own weapon. Argus picked up his rifle and quickly dusted it off before he slung it over his shoulder. He could feel the glare coming from under the Hunter's helmet as he addressed him.

"Argus, I presume?" The Hunter muttered loudly. Anger still evident in his electronic voice. The Titan only chuckled as he brushed off this underlying tone of contempt. An Exo, he should have known, they were volatile creatures.

"And you must be Entity. Good to finally meet you." He stuck out his hand.

The Hunter's hand also took his into a firm grip and proceeded to shake it – slowly, but purposefully. He could tell that this individual clearly had no love for him. Argus depolarized his visor and looked at the Hunter, who said nothing but gestured towards a female Warlock and the apparent 'friendly' Fallen female Captain in a way that was equally as purposeful as the hand-shake.

Argus strode over to the two females, and the Warlock also depolarised her visor, revealing the beauty of a young woman that gave him a dazzling smile that he almost became smitten with instantly. He thought to himself that whichever guy got to call her theirs was a lucky guy indeed. He shook her hand also, and flashed an equally dazzling smile. She smiled warmly at him and then looked over his shoulder at the Exo Hunter, who only shrugged. Then the penny dropped for Argus, who suddenly realised that these two must have been close, if not a item. He went over to Vixera, who was already offering her lower right arm. Argus was bemused for a short time, before regaining his composure and shaking it in turn. She gave a satisfied huff before stepping towards Entity and then crouched next him, who was looking out over the small town square with the pillars already. Something told Argus that this Hunter already knew what Argus' plan was to eliminate the Cabal Commander.

And if that was the case, then knew that this Hunter, no matter how much of an asshole he was, was going places.

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"So, here's the plan," Argus began, talking in a loud speaking voice to address each of the warriors present, "Vixera and Entity, you two are going to the top of that domed structure over there." He said, gesturing to a distant building. "It should give you a good sniping angle on the column of Cabal. I want you to focus fire on Centurions and Legionnaires. If you take those out fast enough, you can go weapons-free; just remember your primary targets. If we knock out those Centurions, it should cause chaos in their structure and sew disorder in the ranks."

"Understood." Vixera said in harsh-sounding English. Entity only nodded, and together they made off at a run towards the dome, but not before the Exo had a moment to speak to the female Warlock, undoubtedly offering words of encouragement and expecting promises of her safety in return. He turned next to Perses, who looked at him expectantly. Memories of giving orders like this when he was back in Fireteam Daemon came flooding back to him, causing a fountain of emotion to well up that he managed to force down out of sheer willpower.

"Perses, you're gonna be leading the charge with me, targeting the Phalanxes and such. They'll undoubtedly be protecting the HVT. If we knock those out, he's defenceless, and then we can really lay the hurt on him." Argus ordered.

Perses would have smiled broadly if he were still human, but he instead settled for a nod.

"It'll be just like old times." He commented before he came over and stood next to him.

Not without Theta… Argus thought solemnly as he turned to face Erebus, who as alone now, as Entity had proceeded to catch up to Vixera on top of the dome.

"Last, but certainly not least, Erebus, you'll be on medic duty. If one of us gets injured, you'll be the one to come to our aid. If we fall, it'll be your job to give our Ghost's enough Light to resurrect us."

Erebus swallowed anxiously.

"Okay, I'll try my best." She said nervously.

"That's all I'm asking for." Argus reassured her, before polarising his visor. She also polarised her own visor and headed towards the cover of the sand-dune that they had met on. It allowed her a clear view of the two Titans, so she could easily tell whether they were injured or not.

Argus looked at Perses, who looked back with a stern expression. But Argus supposed that he couldn't help looking like that if he was an Exo. The Titan in question then polarised his visor, before nodding and proceeding to head towards the square, where they would hide behind two of the pillars, out of sight of any of the soon-to-be-passing Cabal.

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Entity and Vixera waited patiently as they looked through their scopes towards the direction that a column of Cabal was scheduled to pass through in under a minute. The Exo had triple-checked that his sniper was in peak condition, as he knew that a jammed round in a clogged chamber could prove fatal to any one of his current allies.

It was not long after this, that he heard a faint roll of thunder approach their position. He gazed up into the sky, only to see a red-tinted atmosphere that gave a tell-tale sign of an impending sandstorm, but not much else. He cast a confused look at Vixera, but got no response. She seemed too preoccupied looking toward the building the Cabal were scheduled to pass near any second now.

"Contact." She said in a low voice. Entity immediately cast his gaze back through his scope, aiming towards the buildings corner. Sure enough, he could already make out the shapes of multiple Cabal troops, their rhythmic marching matching the sounds of thunder that resounded around the valley.

They must be the source, Entity thought, as he lined up a shot to the nearest Centurions head. He took note of wind speed and his angle, as well as bullet-spin and trajectory. All of these were calculated in an instant thanks to his inner systems and processors. He briefly mused and inwardly complained about how Vixera didn't need to worry about hardly any of those variables, as her 'bullet' was actually a high-pressure beam of plasma that travelled so fast, it could pretty much fire straight to her target instantly, whereas his bullets would have a slight delay.

"Argus, we have visual contact with the column. Permission to engage?" Entity reported over the channel.

"Denied." Argus replied. "Wait for my go."

Entity hummed his disapproval, but saw sense in Argus' logic. Attacking too early would allow the HVT to retreat, and this whole operation would have been for nothing.

Soon after, Entity's hyper-sensitive electronic receptors in his 'ears' picked up the low humming of an anti-grav engine. He narrowed his eyes in momentary confusion, but soon recognised the misshapen hump of a Goliath Tank rounding the corner just behind the rows of emerging Phalanxes.

"Shit." Entity cursed under his breath, eliciting an agreeing huff from Vixera. "Argus, I have visual confirmation of a Goliath Tank supporting the column of Cabal. Copy?"

Argus echoed Entity's initial response before replying.

"My intel indicated something about heavy support, but I didn't think they'd actually bring a goddamn tank with them!" There was a moment of quiet. "We continue with the plan, stick to your targets. The tank might be heavily armoured, but if we can knockout its main cannon, it shouldn't be too much trouble whilst we eliminate the infantry support."

"Copy that." Entity muttered, aiming his sights towards the tank's cannon. If I could just get one good hit. "I have the tank in my crosshairs. I can eliminate the threat temporarily by destroying its main battery feed, cutting off its supply of ammunition for a brief time."

"Understood. When I say, take the shot. Wait for my go." Argus ordered. Entity bristled with annoyance and anticipation. "Headcount, are all of you in position?"

"Fenrir-1, in position." Entity muttered.

"Fenrir-2, in position." Erebus echoed.

"Fenrir-5, waiting for the shot." Vixera growled, clearly agitated that she hadn't killed something yet when her prey was so tantalisingly close.

"Daemon-1, ready." Argus commented.

There was a moment's hesitation before Perses said anything; he was clearly indecisive about which callsign he should report as.

"Fenrir-4, ready." He spoke in a low tone, clearly missing his old callsign, as well as the absence of his blood-brother, Ferrum, Fenrir-3.

"Fenrir-1 and 5, be ready to open fire on my go." Argus spoke up.

Entity placed his finger on the trigger, his crosshair aimed at the Goliath's main battery.

"Hold…" Argus spoke.

The column of Cabal proceeded to march on.

"Hold…"

Out in the open.

"Hold…"

With no hope of retreat.

"Fire."

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Legionary Muala Jok was obediently following orders, acting as one of the front-runners of his squad, grumbling about the sweltering heat of the red planet they had beach-headed for their occupation of the globe. Complaining about the stale taste of the breathable gas that his helmet fed to him, he turned to his comrade on his right flank, Caylon Brik, and spoke something in their grunting gargled language of snorts and growls and gurgles.

"Brik, how much longer will it take to reach the Rubicon Outpost? My underweave is beginning to itch." Jok impatiently asked. Their Commander, Edru'us, had pushed his battalion to the brink of mutiny with his harsh march schedule. They would walk for hours upon hours, sometimes all the way from dawn until dusk, and they would continue well into the night. They would only sleep in short bursts, before being ordered to pick up their equipment and move on.

"Not much longer. It should only be a few leagues away from our current position, through that tunnel, over there." Brik said as he gestured towards a tunnel that, to Jok, still seemed far away. "Besides, you shouldn't complain so much. You know how the Commander punishes insubordination."

Jok's blood ran cold and a shiver worked its way up his spine. A few nights ago, the upset at the harsh marching had come to a head, and a number of Legionnaires and Phalanxes had roused themselves to go to the Commander, complaining of the cruel treatment he gave them.

Their punishment had been severe. The Commander, who was the size of a Colossus, but had the reflexes and intelligence of a Psion, had exited his Goliath Tank and ordered other Legionnaires, loyal to him, to remove the mutineer's masks. There had been a scuffle, but eventually Edru'us' troops had subdued the 'insubordinates' and had removed their helmets and breathing equipment.

Their suffocation to the Martian atmosphere had been a long one, and the Commander had ordered all of them to watch as their comrades died, grasping their throats in a futile effort to keep some air in their lungs, or else suffer the same fate.

Jok had not approved of this action, as these Cabal were not mutineers. They were not 'insubordinates'. They were exhausted – desperate for rest for more than three or four hours. The Commander had had no need for rest, as he almost always occupied the inside of the Goliath Tank.

Jok was about to reply to Brik about how he was not saying anything deserving of being called 'insubordination', when his friend's head was blown off of his shoulders by a superheated beam of plasma. The shot was quickly followed by a bullet that incapacitated the feed of ammunition leading into the tank's rear-mounted cannon.

Then all hell broke loose. But Jok didn't live to see it, as his own head was decapitated by another beam of super-heated plasma in the next moment.

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"Main battery is down. Assuming primary targets. Fenrir-4, Daemon-1, begin your assault, you're good to go. I repeat, begin your assault." Entity's voice crackled through Perses' intercom.

His report was clear, and without a second thought, the Titan leapt over the pillar he was taking cover behind and unleashed a Fist of Havoc onto a section of Phalanxes below him. In the next moment, he unslung 'Face-Breaker', and began gunning down as many Cabal that were stupid enough to get in his way. His newly-acquired on-board systems as an Exo kept flagging his next target, showing him what to kill next.

Instants later, Argus joined him in mowing down their adversaries - his own auto-rifle spitting lead at his opponents at an exceedingly high rate of fire. His aim, however, seemed to be unaffected by this, as his shots were almost always successfully making contact with Cabal skulls.

This was when the Cabal finally reacted.

"On your right!" Argus called out.

Perses rolled left without a second thought. His trusted his old friend implicitly. After recovering from his impromptu roll, he tossed a flashbang towards his attacker, whose punch had left sand kicked up and floating around him for a moment before falling back to the ground. The flashbang exploded, letting off a blinding flash and a loud boom, leaving a residual ringing in the ears of anything around it.

The Centurion that had struck out at Perses received the full effect of the grenade, and doubled over, clutching its presumably ruptured ears in obvious pain. It was put out of its misery not a moment later, as Perses fired a single shell from 'Face-Breaker' that went straight through its skull.

If Exo's could smile…

The thought went through Perses in a fleeting moment before he turned back to the fight.

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Entity had been letting off shot after shot at any Legionary he could see, reloading with quick, practised movements before aiming down his sights to look for more targets. He attempted to conserve ammunition by primarily aiming at available headshots on his targets, but seeing as he didn't have a plasma-fuelled auto-reloading sniper like Vixera did, he soon ran out of ammunition.

From his vantage point, he could tell that this battle was beginning to turn their way, but a handful of tactical manoeuvres from the Cabal would soon change that. He just hoped that the disarray they had inflicted with their ambush would last long enough to decisively win the battle.

But of course it was never that simple…

While the Goliath's automated reparation system attempted to restore the damage from Entity' first shot, the Exo in question had been monitoring a small number of Legionaries and Phalanxes that had retreated to the somewhat cover of a dome-shaped building. The very same dome-shaped building that he and Vixera had decided to roost on top of whilst the ground warfare raged on.

A plan began to formulate in Entity's head as he looked down into the inside of the dome through one of the many tears in its ceiling. He spotted a Centurion amongst the eight or so Cabal soldiers that hastily began fortifying the door they had entered through. He seemed to be separate from the rest, with a hand raised to where his ear might have been, if he had been a humanoid like the Exo's or Awoken. Perhaps he was calling for reinforcements from the nearby Rubicon Firebase? Well, Entity couldn't have that now could he?

Turning quickly to Vixera, he hastily explained what he was about to do. She nodded her understanding and went back to shooting.

Entity focused on the Centurion, then glanced at his wrists, where his newly acquired blades resided in their guards. He ejected them a couple of times to practice the manoeuvre. Both Acmon and Erato flicked out without delay on his command. Satisfied with their responses to his movements, he unslung his sniper from his back and tossed it next to where Vixera was lying, he did the same with his Scout Rifle. However, his Hand Cannon - 'Arbiter' - remained on the small of his back, and his throwing knife that also served the secondary purpose of a machete - 'Last Resort' - hung from his belt where it always did. HE quickly took out 'Arbiter' and checked its ammunition count by ejecting the extractor and checking each individual cylinder. When he was satisfied with the firearms condition, he flicked the roller back into place and placed back into its holster.

He looked towards the Centurion about thirty feet below him, sized up how far he'd need to jump to achieve the correct angle. He loosened his motor receptor drives in his neck by rolling his head to the right, rewarding him with a satisfying series of small crack sounds as each gear and flywheel loosened and snapped back into place. Then, without a second thought, Entity leapt, springing the blades from their sheath's with an almost inaudible 'snick'.

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For the most part, Erebus had had quite an easy ride on this mission so far. She hadn't been shot at once. She of course didn't mind risking her life to be shot at by numerous slug rifles the Cabal seemed to constantly wield, but seeing the two Titans fighting in the middle of a clearing about fifty metres away from her made her jealous. She wanted to fight, she realised. But at the same time, she felt the ever-present urge to run away and just hide in a corner until it was all over. Erebus knew that she would never give in to this impulse. She was a Guardian. A Protector of the last safe city on Earth. A Soldier of the Light. She'd give her life if need be, but that didn't necessarily mean that she wanted to.

She wasn't afraid of death, but she didn't have any particular wishes to die just yet.

The only problem was that she felt the urge - the need - to go out and fight. She craved that she could see some serious action today.

Later, when this was all over, she would scorn herself to be careful what she wished for.

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Acmon slid easily through the soft rubbery mesh of the Centurion's underweave, and then straight through the leathery material that could be called its skin. The blade lodged itself deep within the Cabal's jugular, and when Entity ripped the edge across the throat of the doomed Cabal, a fountain of blood and gore erupted from the deep gash. The wound violently spat a black fluid that Entity could only assume was its lifeblood. Its hands went to the wound in a futile effort to keep itself alive.

To no avail, as the dying creature soon succumbed to the fatal wound, lying face down on the sandy ground it had been marching on not ten minutes before. None of his allies had seen the violent act happen, and so Entity crouched next to his first victim, undetected by the other Cabal. He stalked over to a Legionary that had failed to notice him, and dispatched the inattentive Cabal by sliding Acmon through his underweave between his helmet and body armour, straight into its upper vertebrae. He quickly severed the spinal cord, a moment before his second victim had the opportunity to realise what was going on and fight back. The Legionary went limp and fell onto its side, still alive, but probably in agonising pain. It would be unable to move, as Entity had sliced through the motor neurone that its brain would need to send the signal for certain parts of its body to make an effort to move. It was helpless to do anything but watch as Entity continued on his crusade to kill the other six Cabal in the room.

Sheathing his wrist-blades, Entity drew 'Last Resort' out of its scabbard. He spun it a few times in his hand before sprinting at yet another Legionary and embedding his blade into the front of the Cabals neck with a wet thunk! Much like what had happened with his first victim, the Centurion, as the Exo removed his cutting edge, a cascade of gore spew out of the cavernous laceration he had made with his weapon. The Legionary sank to his knees as his eyes glazed over.

This kill had not gone unnoticed, as the five remaining Cabal turned to face the Hunter, who stood over the corpse of their comrade like some poacher about to harvest their prey.

There was a moment of stunned silence before the Phalanxes raised and banged their shields, and the Legionaries shouted a war cry. It was a moment that these Cabal foolishly wasted in an attempt to intimidate an opponent who was already smeared with the blood of three of their number.

Entity unslung Arbiter from its holster and pulled back the hammer and aimed down the muzzle, firing five consecutive shots in quick succession, followed by the deaths of all but one of the Cabal, who had moved slightly to the left, and so the bullet had impacted its right shoulder, wounding but not killing the stubborn Legionary. In frustration, the Hunter sprinted at the injured Cabal, and wasted no time in throwing Last Resort at the Legionary. The blade impaled in its chest, the Legionary letting out an agonised rasp as the weapon undoubtedly punctured a lung or some other vital organ.

Shouting, Entity jumped and ejected Erato from its sheath in his wrist guard. The blade sunk deep into the Cabals throat, and Entity lowered the Cabal onto the ground slowly, so as not to cause unnecessary pain to the wounded humanoid. The Legionary's wheezes soon became death rattles, and the soldier breathed his last breath in honour of its Emperor.

"Rest now, your loyalty is rewarded with the respite of peaceful demise." Entity spoke softly to the Legionary, who was dead long before the Exo finished his verdict.

Entity removed Last Resort from the chest plate of the dead Cabal, moments before the panicked voice of Erebus hailed him from his radio located on the shoulder area of his cape.

"Entity, hurry! I need you! Perses has been hurt, and the Goliath is back online! You need to get out here – now!" She screamed. The Exo in question was sprinting for the exit towards the sounds of battle before she finished her sentence.

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Erebus blindly fired another clip from her newly-acquired sidearm into the dust-storm that encompassed her. She had no idea where the majority of her team was, as the sandstorm had rendered her HUD near useless. Her radar flickered and glitched, her Ghost unable to get a fix on her location.

She heard the whistling winds of the gale all around her, it kicked up sand that would have shredded her to pieces if she wasn't wearing her armour. She was currently crouched over the injured and crippled form of Perses, who groaned in pain. A Phalanx had been able to get a lucky shot that punctured a chink in the Titan's armour. The micro-rocket that the Cabal used for ammunition had damaged several of his mainframe neuro-relays, causing the Exo large amounts of pain, as well as difficulty to move.

The situation had only gotten worse due to the sandstorm starting up. The whipping winds had forced some sand particulates into the inner workings of his spinwheel matrix, making almost any kind of movement for the Exo damn near impossible.

She just hoped that Entity would be able to find them in this desert storm, before the Cabal did.

It would have to be soon.

A thunderous banging of Phalanx shields boomed somewhere to her left, not long after, she could make out the sounds of marching towards her position.

It would have to be very soon.

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Vixera landed in a large pile of sand with a heavy thud. She had been forced to jump from her roost up at the top of the dome-shaped building and onto the hazardous terrain below due to the sandstorm that blocked from seeing more than five feet in front of her. The sand had severely damaged her armour, and any skin that was open to the Martian environment felt as if were being stung by hundreds of tiny shards of glass. She snarled in frustration and irritation at the constant pain she felt across most of her body, but she attempted to block out the pain by focusing on finding her squad. She knew Entity was nearby, as he had told her that he would be attacking some Cabal in the building they had been sniping from.

So instead, she looked for the Titan and the Warlock. She did not know where they were, but she had no doubts that the pair were alive and fighting. They were a hardy pair of Guardians, no doubt about it, but they wouldn't stand a chance alone against the remaining troopers of the column of Cabal. The Goliath Tank was still operational and was somewhere nearby, and presented a significant threat against them all. They needed to find it, disable it and destroy it – and they needed to do it soon.

That was when she heard it, the low humming of a Guardian's Sparrow. The purring of its relatively small anti-grav engine suddenly ceased next to her. Presuming it was one of her squad mates, she turned to the source of the noise. A Hunter disembarked from the vehicle, and strode over to her. Vixera raised her hand in greeting, along with a spoken announcement of who she presumed it to be, Entity.

But the Hunter suddenly drew his weapon on her, the muzzle of his Scout Rifle mere inches from her face.

"Who the fuck are you, and what are you doing in my territory?" A human voice spoke in a gravelly and not too friendly tone.

His question was answered by the friendly tapping of Entity's Hand Cannon on the back of his helmet.

"Leave her alone, she a friendly." He stated in a commanding tone. The Hunter replied by upturning his own weapon towards the hand, his other hand raised in a non-threatening manner, as if surrendering. "Now, if we're able to be civil people again - who are you?" Entity continued, after lowering his own weapon.

The Hunter turned to face Entity, regarding him with an annoyed look, hidden only by his helmet.

"I asked first." The Hunter replied. Entity squinted his optics, as if doing so would reveal the man's intentions.

"Entity. This is Vixera. We're here on deployment from the Tower to eliminate a high-value Cabal target. Not that it's any of your business, mind you. Now, answer my questions, or we might have a problem, and my Fallen friend over here isn't someone you want to piss off."

As if to support his claim, Vixera let out a low growl that was heard, even over the constant whistling of the sandstorm that raged around them.

"The name's Lancer. And trust me, it's definitely my business when it comes to killing Cabal. Especially this one. I've been tracking him, following his movements until I could eliminate him easily enough." Lancer replied.

Entity remained stoic, not trusting this new comer.

"Listen, before you guys came along and messed my whole thing up, I had a pretty good plan to wipe this asshole of the face of the planet." Lancer continued, jerking a thumb to his right, in the general direction of the tunnels bridging the gap between the Hollows and the Scablands." Lancer complained, but Entity was already figuring out his plan.

"So you want to… what – crush the Goliath with tonnes of rubble?" Entity questioned, a cynical eyebrow raised in interest. Lancer pointed a finger at him, a smile in his voice.

"Exactly! If we could just lure him in there, throw some rockets and maybe a few trip-mines into the mix, and poof!" Lancer made an explosion motion with his hands. "No more Edru'us."

Entity had to admit, the guy was onto something, but it was just a question of baiting the Cabal commander into the underpass. Easier said than done, more than likely. Entity put a hand to his chin in thought.

"Okay, I'm in. But how do we get him into the tunnel?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out." Lancer said as he made his way back onto his Sparrow. "I'll go set up some trip mines and rig some charges into weak points of the tunnel. Gimme… let's see, five minutes, and then get Edru'us into the tunnel. I don't care how you get him there, but you need to be well clear when that thing blows." Lancer commented cockily. "Unless you want to end up as a Guardian pancake…" He added before whooshing away on his Sparrow, presumably towards the tunnels.

Entity looked to Vixera.

"Find the others, get them clear. I'll distract the tank so you can make you escape, radio me when you're at minimum safe distance and I'll make sure that Goliath is turned into paste. Got that?" Entity ordered. A strength in his voice that gave him an authoritative emphasis.

"What about you, how will you escape?" Vixera asked, worried. Entity smiled beneath his helmet.

"Leave that to me, right now, you need to get Erebus, Perses and Argus away from here. Go." Entity commanded once again. When she didn't move, he almost shouted. "Go!"

She took a hint and ran back into the sandstorm to try and locate her fellow squad mates.

Entity watched her until she was engulfed by the sandstorm so that he could not see her anymore. Then, he counted in his head to sixty, then hopped onto his Sparrow and went in search of the Goliath Tank.

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The Cabal had him outnumbered, outgunned and surrounded.

Argus looked around in equal measures of anger and worry as the Cabal approached him, brandishing slug rifles and other beefy-looking weapons. They grunted and gargled orders at the Titan, presumably for him to stand down by the wishes of their Emperor or some other bullshit. Argus' Ghost, who he has nicknamed Dodge, materialised behind him, out of sight of the large soldiers that were in front of him.

"It seems that they want you to hand over all of your weapons, and be ready to face their Emperor's justice." Dodge told him. Argus smiled beneath his helmet.

"Sure thing." He spoke, cockily. He threw his rifle at the Cabal, so that it landed on the ground halfway between him and them. Next, he unslung his Rocket Launcher, 'Happy Boomer', and threw it so that was next to his discarded rifle.

"I guess they'll want my grenades too." He smirked as he took out a pair of unarmed Lightning grenades and tossed those on the pile too. When he didn't seem to do anything for a few seconds, one of the Legionaries grunted an order and a Cabal moved forward to claim the thrown firearms.

"Dodge, I want you to transmat my guns, but leave the grenades where they are. When you've done that, dematerialise, you don't want to get hurt." Argus whispered to his Ghost, who still hovered behind him.

Moments later, the weapons disappeared and so did Dodge. The Cabal that had stridden forward to collect them exclaimed his confusion and shot an accusing glance at Argus. The Titan shrugged as if playing dumb. The Cabal that seemed to be in command grunted his anger at Argus and probably swore a few times.

That's when Argus made his move.

Before the Cabal could react, his right fist charged itself with his inner lightning, and he jumped twenty feet into the air. He activated his Fist of Havoc and threw it down onto the red sands, but not onto the Cabal. Instead, his fist impacted onto one of the two Lightning grenades and it exploded in a large ball of electricity that was super-charged by Argus' Light and disintegrated everything around him, the confused and enraptured Cabal included.

After the dust settled, Argus stood up and called Dodge back into his hand to reclaim his weapons. Once his rifle was back in his grip, he began to walk to where he had been separated from Perses and Erebus when the Cabal had cornered him.

"We should do this again sometime." Argus said, conceited.

Suddenly, somewhere nearby, Argus heard the sounds of gunfire being exchanged somewhere off to his right. Cracking his neck, Argus gripped his rifle tighter and ran in the direction of the shooting.

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Vixera eventually found a desperate and terrified Erebus in the midst of a Cabal attack. Multiple slug rifles were firing their deadly micro-rockets directly at the female Warlock and the Exo Titan she was crouching over. The Eliksni had no idea how, but Erebus had seemed to be able to concentrate her Sunsinger abilities into a protective shield that surrounded the pair of them. Every time a projectile hit the shield, it flared and sparked with solar light. Her 'magic' seemed to take a toll on her though. Vixera could see her limbs shaking with exhaustion, her faced screwed up into an expression of agony and fatigue. It looked as though every hit the Cabal inflicted upon her ward seemed to drain her more and more. The Warlock looked ready to collapse into a heap and let the sweet release of death claim her, but Vixera knew she was stronger than that.

Her knowledge of Erebus' resolve didn't stop the Fallen warrior from rushing at the Cabal though. Vixera drew her Wire Rifle and shooting down a few of the Cabal, drawing their attention to her. The Eliksni wasted no time in drawing her twin swords and rushing the aliens head-on. She cut them down like the pathetic creatures they were before running to Erebus, sheathing her blades and placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. The warlock's eyelids drooped and she looked ready to faint.

"Glad… you could finally… join us." Erebus told her through panting breaths. The Eliksni smiled slightly before shaking the Human gently to jolt her awake.

"Entity told me to get you two out of here. He has a plan to get rid of the target, but we need to get somewhere safe. We have to go, now." Vixera spoke in a commanding tone.

"Perses… can't move. He… needs help." Erebus panted.

Despite the howling winds of the sandstorm surrounding the trio, Vixera managed to make out the heavy foot-falls of someone running toward them from somewhere behind her. She swivelled on her heel and drew her swords expecting trouble – only to see the sprinting form of Argus running headlong towards them. When he got to her, she quickly repeated what she had said to Erebus to him and Argus nodded, making his way over to Perses to pick him up and sling him across his right shoulder. Then, he ran as fast as he could with the Titan on his back in the way he came. Vixera did the same with the now unconscious form of Erebus and followed the Human Titan into another barrage of the sandstorm, the granules still hitting her skin like thousands of tiny shards of glass.

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"Entity, we are far enough to avoid the blast." Vixera reported over the radio that was positioned on the upper right section of Entity's cloak, just as the Exo had asked her to. "Whatever you're going to do, do it now."

"Understood. Wish me luck." Entity replied. The intercom buzzed with static for a moment before Vixera said something else.

"If you are half the Guardian you claim to be, Entity, you do not need luck." The Eliksni commented. Entity inwardly smiled at her belief in him before focusing on the task at hand.

He had managed to locate the Goliath, its infantry support having been completely wiped out by his team. The lone tank was unaware of his presence due to the fact that he was made practically invisible by the engulfing sandstorm that raged around him. He soon put a stop to that, by drawing Arbiter, the only firearm he had left due to him stupidly leaving his other weapons on top of the dome building, and aiming it at the tank. He cursed inwardly about having to find replacement weapons when he returned to the Tower, before lining up the weapons sights.

He fired three rounds into its hull, and the tank turned to face him achingly slowly. He made a friendly wave to the driver by sticking up his middle finger; an insult that he had learned had been quite popular during the Golden Age. The tank responded appropriately, warming up its main flak cannon in an effort to destroy the rude Exo.

The shot impacted the sand where Entity's feet had been not a second earlier, having jumped high into the air to avoid the blast. He summoned his Sparrow in mid-air and landed in the pilot seat.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Entity tormented. The tank was appropriately provoked, already warming up its next shot.

But Entity was already zipping away on his Sparrow, not too fast though. He didn't want to lose the Goliath in the middle of the sandstorm. Instead, he remained just in sight of the vehicle. Just enough to provoke chase, but out of range of the tanks cannon. Again the tank proved to be expectantly slow, and Entity continued the chase at what felt like a casual running speed. Eventually though, they reached the tunnels, and Entity dashed inside them, the tank following like an obedient dog. He increased his pace and reached the rendezvous point where Lancer was supposed to be. Seeing Entity, the Hunter in question hopped on his own Sparrow before Entity swung his own round to face the direction he'd come from.

"Are you ready?" Entity questioned, the tank not fifty metres away.

In response, the Hunter adjacent to him brought out a detonator with a flashing red light, signalling that it was armed.

"Oh, yeah. I've rigged the entire passage to blow. Time to see some fireworks." Lancer replied. Entity nodded and readied himself, the tank just about to turn the last corner before it came into view.

As his gripped the handlebars of the speedy vehicle, ready to fire his booster. He cracked his neck the same way he'd done before killing the Cabal in the dome building, and leaned closer to the Sparrow. Suddenly, the tank rolled around the corner and into view, its cannon primed to fire. Just as its shot was let loose, Entity shouted;

"Go!"

The pair of Hunters wasted no time in speeding past the Goliath, its flak left behind them, hitting nothing but empty space. As they zipped past the tank, Entity stuck his finger up at the vehicle once more, trying to piss off the driver as much as he could. The Goliath was achingly slow to turn around, and by the time it had done so, Lancer and he were past the corner the tank had emerged from just before shooting at them. As soon as the Goliath was out of sight of the pair, Entity gave Lancer a thumbs-up for him to blow the charges.

The Hunter in question nodded and took out the detonator once more, this time flipping the lid of the button and pressing it in.

Almost immediately, a series of explosions rocked the tunnels, and licks of orange flames rounded the corner they had just navigated and proceeded to slowly catch up to them. Concrete, debris and sand were flung at the pair by the large explosions. Entity could already hear the tunnel crumbling behind them, the heat of the rushing fire burning his back and scorching his cloak. Entity and Lancer rounded the last corner and saw the light of day bursting in through the entrance to the underpass, the lip of which was beeping with even more charges. Entity shouted out to his Ghost.

"Call down the ship! Open the bay doors! Now!"

Within moments, Entity's ship was directly in front of the entry to the tunnel, its cargo bay doors open, with a ramp ready to take them in. The engines were facing the pair, so the ship would be able to take off as soon as they were inside. The heat of the blaze behind them was becoming unbearable now; and Entity let out a roar of desperation as he exited the tunnel and almost crashed into the ship's cargo bay. Lance quickly followed him inside and the ship zoomed off from the red sands, mere moments before the entrance erupted by the flames of the explosion. This eruption was quickly shadowed by the follow up detonations of the entrance. As they flew towards the Barrens, Entity stood next to Lancer, who was busy admiring his handiwork, and put a hand on the destructive man's shoulder.

"Do you think… maybe that was a bit, you know, over the top?" Entity asked, with a hint of a smile in his electronic voice.

"Nah, it's art. Just appreciate the little things." Lancer shrugged. Entity chuckled softly.

"Yeah, right. Well, Edru'us is definitely dead now." He said rather sarcastically, his hands gesturing towards the tunnels.

"Oh, yeah. Trust me; I'm a professional Cabal killer." Lancer chuckled. Entity raised an eyebrow before retreating into the flight cabin to direct the ship towards the rest of his fire-team.

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By the time they landed, the sandstorm had let up to the point where it was almost gone, with only a strong breeze and a few grains of sand to mark its passing. As soon as Entity touched down on the red sands, he ran over to where Erebus sat, propped against a rocky outcrop. She looked around dizzily, as if not quite remembering where she was. Entity knelt next to her and gave her a quick kiss. When he pulled away, she smiled an affectionate grin to him that would have melted his heart if he had one.

"You did really great out there today, Erebus. I'm proud of you." Entity spoke, as tentatively as he could. She raised her hand to his face and stroked his cheek with her thumb. The Exo put his gloved hand onto hers and looked deeply into her beautiful brown eyes. A few moments passed before Vixera approached and knelt down beside Entity, telling him of the incredible feat she performed with her Sunsinger abilities, saving Perses from harm. The entire time, he looked into Erebus' eyes, becoming increasingly proud of her as Vixera told the story of her heroics. After she had finished her tale, she stood back up and made her way over to Perses. She had removed some of his suits armour-plating earlier, and had carefully detached some of his Exo cladding that he wore as skin. Ripping off shreds of her cloak, she attempted to wipe away some of the sand that was embedded in his circuits.

Only after she had dusted off most of his arms and legs did Perses regain limited movement of his appendages. She would relent from tampering too much for fear of damaging her friend, instead allow the Exo engineers back at the Tower to clean the rest of his circuits, but in the meantime, she was glad to help him. The Titan looked at her with gratitude, before slowly standing and making his way over to his waiting ship, ready to wait for his fellow team-mates to return to the City.

He made sure to say goodbye to Argus first though, who was busy laughing about the Bracus' fate with a gleeful Lancer. When the Human Titan saw his comrade approaching, he turned to face him, a wide grin behind his depolarised visor. He stuck out his palm for a handshake. Perses gripped his outstretched limb and shook it as firmly as he could with his limited mobility.

"It was great to see you again, Argus." Perses said to him in his electronic voice.

"Likewise, Perses." Argus' smile dropped slightly at the mention of his name. "Hmph. I don't think I'll ever get used to calling you that. You'll always be Josh to me." Argus chuckled, regaining his cheerful expression.

Perses gave him a stern look.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Listen, call me whatever, I don't mind – you'll always be like a brother to me." Perses told him. Argus embraced him and patted his friend on the back. After they pulled away from each other Argus looked the Exo opposite from top to bottom.

"Besides, how'd they make you an Exo anyway? I'm a bit confused." Argus commented, his puzzled expression matching what he had spoken.

"Listen, I don't know the details, I've never been one for science mumbo-jumbo, but apparently it was an exceedingly risky procedure. Most people that undergo it never survive, and if they do, it's normal that the person loses all of their memories as a Human and starts anew as an Exo. So, yeah, I was lucky, to say the least." Perses told Argus, who stood next to him listening intently. "Anyway, are you going to be alright out here by yourself?" Perses questioned his friend, placing a hand on the titans shoulder. At the question, Argus beamed.

"Oh, don't worry about me. Lancer and I have started talks about becoming our own fire-team. So I won't be on my own anymore." Argus smiled warmly at his old friend.

"What are you thinking of calling it?" Perses asked, raising a questioning eyebrow.

At this, Argus looked at the Exo Titan a little sheepishly.

"Well, we were throwing some ideas together and… well, we may have settled on…" Argus looked at Perses nervously. "…Daemon."

Perses was slightly surprised to hear that his old fire-team callsign was now being adopted by someone he didn't really know, but didn't say anything to show it. Instead, he patted Argus' shoulder with the hand that rested there.

"Hmm. Good name. I think it's got a nice ring to it." The Exo said, attempting his own interpretation of a smile.

Argus didn't say anything more, instead opting to embrace his compatriot once more and allow him to return to his ship that waited for the Exo a few dozen metres away. Vixera strode behind Perses and boarded her own ship. She warmed its engines and engaged its stealth capabilities, turning the ship from a black blip on the Martian surface into a shimmering spot on the sands of the red planet.

Not long after, did Entity carry Erebus onto his own ship, so that he could tend to her if she fell unconscious again. She smiled weakly at him, and asked her Ghost to navigate her ship back to the Tower. Her Ghost obliged and the four jump-ships steadily rose from their still positions and into the sky of the planet, heading towards its atmosphere. Once in the gloomy, inky blackness of space, the group engine their ion- hyperdrives and plotted a course to the Tower, to the Last City of Earth.

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Sorric watched the four ships depart from the sands of the red planet from his vantage point, high up in one of the Hollows many surrounding skyscrapers. He continued to observe them until they were well out of his sight and he instead cast his gaze to the duo far below that had aided 'Fenrir' in taking out the Cabal target. Even he had to admit, the way that they had put down the target by collapsing a tunnel on it was inspired. It served as a reminder to him to not underestimate the group, and to be careful of any traps that they may think up. He slowly clambered out of the window he was using for shelter from the sandstorm that had now passed and made his way down the skyscraper to touch the sands of the Martian planet.

He calmed his mind to focus on his objective. Now he was on the hunt.

Sorric stalked his way around the buildings that surrounded the pair of Guardians he was stalking his way towards. Sorric turned a few more corners and laid eyes his targets, a Titan and Hunter. He quickly paused for thought to make up a plan to get close to them and had an idea. Positioning his body in a manner that suggested that he was injured, Sorric walked from cove, and 'limped' his way over to the pair of Guardians. He didn't get too far before they both turned to face him, drawing the weapons from where they were slung on their backs.

As a sign of good faith, Sorric threw his shock-spear in between him and them, just as he had seen the Titan do earlier. Then, he said in broken English.

"Need help… shot by… Ganut…"Sorric said weakly, so as to help his wounded façade. He spoke in Eliksni to pronounce name of the Cabal, as he didn't know how to pronounce their name in the Human tongue.

When the Guardians heard this, they lowered their weapons slightly and discussed what they should do between themselves, occasionally glancing up at the Fallen in front of them. Eventually they re-slung their weapons on their backs and walked cautiously towards Sorric. When they were close enough, Sorric made his move.

Moving blindingly quickly, the Captain, drawing a blade from his back, launched himself at the two Guardians. They had little time to react and they were quickly knocked unconscious by the large warrior. Regaining his usual stance and walking to pick up his shock-spear, Sorric turned to the Guardians lying unconscious on the sand beneath him, and drove the weapon through the Titan's heart, killing him. Just as Sorric had planned, moments later, his Ghost materialised and Sorric swiped it from mid-air, clasping it in a large palm. The Ghost's single blue 'eye' looked at him in equal measures of fear and anger.

"What do you want?" It chirped bitterly in Sorric's language. The Ghost shot a livid look at Sorric and the Eliksni laughed half-heartedly.

"What do I want? Well, that's an awfully long list, little light." Sorric chuckled, looking towards the sky. "I want a sharper weapon, a House to rule over and a personal Ketch - and so much more." He looked back at the Ghost with his most malevolent look. "But you needn't worry about any of that. What I want from you are your emergency situation frequencies. Think you can do that for me?" Sorric spoke, adding some pressure to the Ghost's fragile shell, cracking it slightly to illustrate his point.

The Ghost cried out in pain, and hastily transmitted the frequencies to Sorric's helmet; the codes scrolling down his feed, Sorric let the Ghost free. It dropped to the ground, unable to hold itself aloft.

"Thank you… for your co-operation." Sorric spoke maliciously, before walking in the direction of his waiting Skiff, ready to take him into orbit. The Ghost watched him leave, before its systems eventually cycled down and it succumbed to the encroaching wave of unconsciousness.