SUBROUTINE IKELOS

Marcus was amazed, "I am SO HAPPY! It's so good to hear your voice again, Max!"

"Same," I replied, "Do you remember what happened on November 8th, 2016?"

Marcus turned grim, "Yeah, the sleazebag named Drumpf won the electoral college! Man, we were pissed!"

"Would you believe me if I told you that history is repeating itself in the Tower?"

Marcus paused for a while, then said, "Zavala vs. Ikora? Yeah, I've heard."

"So you know how it's going down?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

Shin butted in, "If you two are done talking about politics, we need to get back to work."

I said, "Right, we need to-" At that moment, a WARSAT crashed down in the Scablands, "Hold on! I've got a WARSAT!" I hopped onto my Sparrow and rode to the impact site, but a Titan was already standing there, fighting off Cabal. I approached the WARSAT and started melting Vex with the Mythoclast as they spawned. The Titan asked, "Have you heard about the elections?"

I replied, "Yeah, I'm thinking about voting for Ikora."

"Really? You're choosing her?"

"I take it that you're voting for Zavala?"

She shook her head, "No, I wanted Ouros to compete against him, but the media blacked out on her because the Future War Cult already chose Ikora Rey in secret! And don't get me started on New Monarchy! They don't care about the City, they just want complete control over the government! They'll make the City hate again if you ask me!"

I nodded, "History repeats itself once again!"

The Titan was curious, "How so?"

"Similar things have happened about 745 years ago."

Through her helmet, her eyes widened. "Are you Max Prodigy?"

I looked at her, "Yes, why do you ask?"

"Max Prodigy, the Warlock of Legend?"

I jumped on top of the WARSAT and started to tear it apart. "No. Shin is."

"But you killed Crota and destroyed the Glass Throne."

I dove for the core, "Um, yeah, but Shin was there as well."

"Sure, but you faced off Oryx and lived to tell the tale!"

I tore out the component, "But Shin..." I stopped as rose to the surface again. "Yeah, I did. But Shin kept me in balance."

"Shin Malphur?"

"The same."

The Titan inquired, "Where is she?"

"She's on her own quest." I jumped out the WARSAT and into the sand.

"Well, what about you?"

"Same deal."

"Why are you hunting for a WARSAT?"

I hesitated, "It's for Malahayahti's...thing."

She was intrigued, "What sort of thing?"

I stumbled with my words, "It's...top secret."

"Alright," she said, "I'm coming with you."

"What?"

"You need me for whatever it is that you're doing. You need a partner while Shin is away."

I sighed, "Fine, but I need to talk to the others." I switched on the comms and said, "Can you hear me?"

Shin said, "Yeah, are you done with your scavenging?"

"Yeah, I've got my Relic Iron," then I looked at the Titan, "and a new team member."

Mark said, "Ooooh, what's their name?"

I nodded to the Titan, "Your name?"

"Annalie."

"Her name's Annalie, and wipe that ridiculous grin off your face, Marcus!"

He cried, "Aw, come on!"

I turned back to Annalie, "Channel frequency is 90.9."

She adjusted her headset accordingly then said, "How's it going, guys?"

Marcus beamed, "I'm fine, but I'd be better when I see you."

Annalie turned to me and shook her head. I mouthed, 'I know, right?'

"Actually, I can't wait to see ALL of you!" he corrected.

The Titan's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "OMNISEXUAL?"

"Yeah, jealous?"

"No, I'm just not interested in you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. In fact, Max is the only one who looks appealing."

I staggered back and fell into the sand. Shin barked, "HANDS OFF OF MY BOYFRIEND!"

"Relax, Shin," I said in a diplomatic voice, "I wasn't thinking about dating her!"

Annalie looked at me, "You're Shin's boyfriend!? How did you get so lucky!?"

I shrugged, "I don't know." I stood up, "But I know one thing: we need to pick up Shin, Mala, and Mark from their errands."

"Ok, then what?"

"We'll find out." The ship hovered above us and we were teleported on board. Then, piloting the ship over to Earth and the Moon, we grabbed Shin, Mala, and Mark, and we handed our components to the Sub-Mind.

"So, the next thing that we need is a Golden-Age blueprint," she declared, "And I think I know of a place on Venus."

"Is it the Ishtar Archive?" asked Shin.

"Yes," Mala gasped, "Do you have a blueprint?"

"My Ghost does," and Shin pulled out her Ghost to download the blueprint.

After all of the parts were attached, Malahayahti said, "Perfect! Now I just need to readjust a few wires, plug in an inductor or two, maybe use a few amplifiers and NAND gates, and that should be good! Time to start it!" Once she pressed the button, the core started to glow white. "Interesting, I just activated a new subroutine named 'IKELOS'. Now all I need is the shell and..." an explosion emanated from the Warmind's bunker "...that explosion could mean only one thing."

"What's that?"

"The Devils have resurrected their Shock And Ballistic Electronic Raider!"

"The WHAT?" we asked.

"S.A.B.E.R. It's the only thing that can crack Warmind bunkers!"

Shin let out a grin, "Well then, let's go kill it!"

Ikora Rey butted in, "After you help us with rescuing a Guardian."

I asked, "Where are they?"

"Deep in the Vault of Glass."

"Alright," I said, "Ras, are you done?"

"Yes," he said.

"Then get your bunker in working order! Meet with Marcus and Mala in the Forgotten Shore, they'll explain later."

"And you?"

"Shin, Annalie, and I will go to Venus to find a Guardian lost in time."

"Alright, I'll be there in a minute."

Mala and Mark waited two whole minutes for Rasputin to show up, then raced over to the main entrance that was outside the Hive Grotto. Rasputin inputted his code, and the doors opened. As they ran through the tunnels, he said, "If the S.A.B.E.R. reaches the central complex, then we have 2 minutes before the entire Cosmodrome explodes, or worse."

"Like 'Warmind guns pointed at the City' worse?" asked Mark.

"I was going to say solar system."

Marcus widened his eyes, "For you, I won't let that happen."

Rasputin sighed, "I'm not interested."

Once they reached their first room in the bunker, the Hunter said, "Oh, right, because you were interested in Charlemagne. Hate to break it to you Ras, but he had a wife and two children."

"WHAT!?"

"Yeah, he married Aphrodite and created two Sub-minds."

Rasputin clutched Mark's throat, "When!?"

Mark chuckled, "Oh, you and I are going to get along nicely."

He tightened his grip, "ANSWER ME MARK!"

"Ok, ok," choked the Hunter, "They were married in 2584, I was the one who married them, and you're killing me." Ras dropped Mark to the ground. "Aphrodite was the first to fall to the Vex, and with her went Eros and Pippin. They died on Mercury."

"Why?"

"I don't know, something to do with their fascination of your kin; they wanted to become like you." Marcus stood and said, "Looks like we're trapped in here until we find a way out."

"Yeah, but whatever you do, don't destroy the-"

Mala threw a Voidwall grenade down a coolant hatch, and the vent doors opened up. "Sorry dad, it had to be done."

They ran through the ventilation shafts, descended into another room into the two-lined tunnel but were stopped by Arc streams flowing across these lines. "Oh great, what do we do now?" asked Mark's Ghost.

"What we always do, push forward!" answered Mark. He weaved around the piles of junk to avoid the streams and get the Arc source. As soon as that happened, Exploding Shanks dropped from the ceiling. Mark pulled out his Sidearm and fired at the Shanks as he weaved again. Mala fired her Bad Juju at the Sniper Shanks at the end of the line, and Ras watched out for more surprises. Mark placed the source into a socket, and the streams disappeared.

In the next room, Dregs, Vandals, and various Shanks ambushed the strike team. "MOVE!" shouted the Warmind. He took out his Hammer of Sol and charged at the Fallen, lobbing it at everything he could see, and ending his supercharge with a slam on a Servitor's eye, destroying it. They ran through some more hallways until they reached Bunker War-4, and proceeded to one of the side doors to the testing chamber. As soon as they fell into it, Rasputin typed a prompt into the system, drawing the Servitors out, and destroying them. "Hold on, guys! I've got a lock on the S.A.B.E.R. It's right below us, but I can pull him out of his hole!" He typed in a prompt, and the hatch in the center opened up.

The S.A.B.E.R.-II popped up and prepared to fire its sniper at the Guardians. Mark prepped his Omolon Scout Rifle and aimed at the tiny canisters in the Shank's front. Turret shanks spawned out of the side tubes and surrounded them, firing at will. As they avoided the barrage of bullets, Ras fired at the canisters from his Vision of Confluence, rupturing them and causing the S.A.B.E.R.'s sniper to explode. The large Shank swapped to Void machine guns and destroyed the heatsinks surrounding the chamber. The alarms blared, signaling that the Bunker was overheating and all of the coolant vents are blocked off. Mala fired her Bad Juju at any Exploding Shanks that popped out from any of the hatches, then fired a Void Arrow at the S.A.B.E.R. to pin it down, and everyone unloaded at the Void guns, sending explosions across the Shank's armor and exposing its shock cores. "ПРЕДУПРЕЖДЕНИЕ!" screamed the alarms, "БУНКЕР ОХЛАЖДЕНИЯ ПРОТОКОЛ НАРУШЕНИЕ! ДЕТОНАЦИЯ за 60 секунд!"

The Warmind shouted, "That's not good!"

"What's wrong?" asked Mark.

"This Bunker is going to explode!"

"It'll bury the Shank..."

"...AND US WITH IT!" yelled Mala.

"ДЕТОНАЦИЯ за 30 секунд!" shouted the alarms.

Mark fired two rockets at the S.A.B.E.R., blowing it up, and said, "Let's go then!"

The alarms blared again, "ДЕТОНАЦИЯ за 15 секунд!

Mala typed in a command prompt, which brought forth an empty Warmind Fusion Rifle shell that looked different from the other Dvalin shells, different in the sense that it was heavier and more polygonal than the rest. She took it, warped back to the ship, and the other two followed suit. Ras drove the ship away as the Bunker's explosion ripped apart the Forgotten Shore. "No turning back," she said as she inserted the IKELOS core. When she closed and locked the shell, the reticle said "SUBROUTINE IKELOS: Status = Complete. ROUTINE MIDNIGHT EXIGENT: Status = Still in Progress." She huffed and said, "We still have more work to do."