Min was just reaching the top of another rise at speed, both Gen and Saladin on her heels, when Binky called out a warning.

{There's a skiff! Be careful, there's a skiff -}

Her words coincided with a strange, high pitched sound that belled through the air, and a shadow loomed over the horizon. Min reached the top of the slope, her jaw dropping open.

The Fallen skiff had dropped out of FLS and was now hovering over what had originally been the Fallen Camp. Min could see the broken boat easily. A couple of flares of blue light and the crack of gunfire said that Kalina was still up and fighting, but she couldn't see her from here. As she started down toward the boat, still moving at top speed, the skiff suddenly blossomed with great white roses.

It was firing!

"Down!" Saladin shouted, and tackled her. End over end the two Guardians fell down the slope. Dirt exploded up in fountains all around them, debris raining down.

Min tore herself away from Saladin, her ears ringing madly even with the protection of her helmet. A dim shape through the haze to her left resolved into Gen, who seemed to be on his feet.

"Kalina!" Min shouted, for the skiff was still firing, its target now the former Fallen camp.

With a scream of tortured metal, the fishing boat tore itself apart, sending rusted shrapnel spinning in all directions.

Min started to run again, toward the scorched craters that had once been the camp and the boat. The skiff was rising into the air again, still sending shot at random behind it. They came nowhere near the Titan, and just as she reached the edge of the ruined camp the Fallen ship seemed to wobble, ripple, and then vanish.

"They're insane, warping that close to a planet!" Lev said in her ear, but Min barely heard him. She grabbed hold of a still smoldering hunk of rusted iron hull and heaved it out of her way.

"Kalina? Kalina! Where are you?"

She was just starting to fear that somehow the Archon had actually taken the Hunter prisoner and that Kalina was now aboard that Fallen skiff, warping away to God only knew where, when she heard Binky.

"Over here! We're over here!"

Minerva zeroed in on the voice and there was Kalina, half sitting against one of the larger slabs of boat hull with Binky's healing beam working over her. Her helmet was gone, and she had one hand to her head. Her face was covered in blood, a nasty gash on her forehead slowly shrinking and knitting itself under Binky's ministrations.

"Kalina?"

"I really hope you got their license plate," the Awoke said with a dizzy grin that looked absolutely ghoulish under all the blood. "I'd like to file a complaint."

Minerva crouched down beside her as Saladin and Gen caught up, touching her knee a moment before she looked around. "I'll try and find some paper and a pen," Min said. "I'll help you write a strongly worded letter."

Kalina let out a laugh, then winced. "Ow! Don't make me laugh yet, she hasn't healed my sternum."

"What happened?" Saladin asked. Kalina looked up at him, the cut on her forehead now sealed, and halfheartedly backhanded some of the blood from her face.

"He got away," she said sourly, then picked up something beside her. "But good news, I got my knife back."

Planting his hands on his hips, Saladin shook his head. "You are a stubborn little Wolf, aren't you? You remind me some of Jolder."

"Was she a dashing and gorgeous Hunter like me?" Kalina asked, taking Min's hand and letting the Titan pull her to her feet as Binky finished her healing.

"No, she was a Titan," Saladin replied, and something about the faraway sound in his voice prevented Kalina from asking any further about her.

"They didn't find Site Six," Gen said in the silence afterward.

"No, not this time," Saladin said. "But they got far too close for comfort, and I have no doubt that Archon will be back with ten times the number of Fallen under his command. For now-"

He broke off as Fenris, hovering at his side, suddenly brightened and began to speak in a voice not his own. {Lord Saladin, we have a situation.}

"Shiro, what is it?" Saladin asked.

{I think your little venture into the Plaguelands was in part a ruse. I've got Fallen skiffs triggering the grid all over Felwinter Peak.}

"Blast those Devils!" Saladin snarled. "You three, ships. We need to get back to the Peak now."

As the Ghosts summoned their jumpships out of orbit, Gen asked, "Who is Shiro?"

"He's one of the Vanguard's scouts. He keeps an eye on the Peak's security grid whenever I am not there."

"Why would the Fallen attack the mountain?" Kalina asked.

"Doubtlessly to get the location of Site Six. There are records sealed up inside the Temple that contain everything we know on SIVA and the Site. Cleverer and cleverer, that Archon. They hit here to draw us out of the Peak, away from those records. If they had found Site Six all the better, but that's not what they were truly here for. There will be ten times the number on Felwinter by now, breaking into that Temple- Darkness take them all!"

"Wait, does this mean we'll be able to get into the Temple?" Kalina asked, a grin on her face as her helmet reappeared around her head. "Wicked."

Saladin gave her a stunned and confused look, and it was still on his face when their Ghosts transmatted them all into their jumpships.


The air of Felwinter Peak was sharp with the smell of cold and snow. They had transmatted to a sheltered crevice near a wide path that led up the peak. Shiro had contacted them again just before they arrived to indicate that most of the Fallen had reached the Observatory and were setting up what looked like a beachhead.

Min was starting to head forward for the path, rifle in hand, almost the very moment she appeared, but Saladin caught her arm. "Hold a moment, Titan," he said, and looked at Kalina. "Young Wolf, are you as good with a sniper as I hope you are?"

"Better," Kalina said without hesitation, and Forge smiled, then pointed along the downslope path.

"Go that way. In about fifty yards you'll see a crack in the wall. You can use it to scale, the distance is a little far for your jets. At the top, you'll see another path. It will lead you to an overhang that lends an excellent view of the Observatory and the bridges."

She nodded, Gen clapping her on the shoulder. As her eyes caught Minerva's, the Titan smiled. "Watch over us, ok?"

"I will. It'd be no fun getting to see the inside of the Temple without my clumsy ice-skating partner."

Min rolled her eyes, and the Hunter was gone down the slope, leaving only her laugh behind.

Gen, Forge, and Min started up the path the other way, and as they turned the corner toward the Observatory Min could see ancient cable cars hanging like ghosts in the distance. Min had only half glanced toward them when something zipped like a wasp just past the front of her helmet.

She recoiled, ducking and saw the shadow of a Fallen sniper atop the nearest car. Almost the instant she spotted him, he visibly jolted and then fell, a thin scream trailing him downward.

"Nice shot, Kal," Gen said.

{Naturally. I've just got into position. There's two more snipers up on top of that docking station, and it looks like they've left another half dozen in the station itself with a small servitor. Something looks…odd about them.}

"Can you clarify?" Saladin asked.

{Not really. I can see them well enough in my scope to peg them but I can't get a clearer idea. Something just…off about their armor. I've taken the two off the roof of the station but the others have taken cover now. Just be careful.}

"They're trying to slow us down, get us trapped in a firefight at the docking station," Saladin said. "You two, keep on this path. Clear them out if you can and get up to the Observatory. There's an alternate route around to the Temple but it's tricky if you don't know just where to set your feet. I'll circle around, flank them at the Temple and keep them off the doors until you get there. Shiro?"

{Here, Boss.}

"Do we have any reinforcements coming from the Tower?"

{I alerted the Vanguard and they have the call out. We'll have to see if anyone shows up.}

"Understood. Circle around and meet me around the back side of the Temple if you're able. You know the spot."

{On my way.}

"Fight well, you three. I'll see you at the Temple doors," Saladin said to them, then turned and ran off along the thin, icy path, soon vanishing from view.

Gen and Minerva kept on, and with Kalina's skyward view efficiently picking off any Fallen that actually ventured out of the docking station, the fight didn't go too badly. When the last servitor exploded, Min and Gen exchanged looks.

"No holes this time?" Min asked him. He looked down along his coat as if hoping to notice some great gaping wound that he'd missed, but even brushing his hand down his chest didn't reveal anything.

"I seem to be intact. You?"

"Not a scuff," she said.

{You two almost sound disappointed,} Kalina said. {You're clear across the bridge to the Observatory. I'd suggest hurrying. Forge, I can't see them too clearly at this distance but it looks like you may have some kind of Prime near the fountain, and about fifty Devils with it.}

{We're on it,} Forge replied, even as Gen and Minerva started toward the bridge. {Keep where you are until they clear anything in the Observatory, then come down and join us.}

{On it.}

Minerva reached the edge of the bridge and paused, regarding it. While it bore marks of repair that were at least dated to the last decade, most of the bridge seemed to be held up by coils of iron cord taut with more rust. Slats were missing here and there, and in the higher winds up here the whole thing was rippling and swaying. The cord, bolted in iron posts on either side, made ghostly groaning sounds as it shifted.

Gen hurried out without hesitation and paused a third of the way over when he realized Min was still standing at the far end.

"It's a lot sturdier than it looks," he said. She gave him a nod and headed after him, keeping her eyes focused on the far side.

A dreg, clearly keeping an eye out, came from around a rock on the far end and lifted his pistol, but almost the moment Minerva saw him his head spat out half its contents and he fell.

"Thanks Kalina," Gen said.

{You got a couple more among those rocks. Just dreg. They're getting wise to me though, aren't poking anything out bigger than a thumb for me to shoot at.}

Gen reached the far end and sent in a sweep of Arc. Lightning lashed and crackled among the rocks and as if goosed, a dreg suddenly leapt up with a bellow of pain and Kalina erased it.

By the time Min reached the far end of the bridge, Gen was nearly already to the observatory door.

"I'll just follow along quietly, shall I?"

"That'd be nice, thank you," Gen said without hesitation, and Min laughed.

Something bellowed. Min jolted, both her and Gen turning their heads toward the Temple. "That sounded like a servitor," Gen said. "But…not."

{Looks like the fight's started at the Temple doors.} Kalina said. {Pick it up you two, I'm coming down.}

Rather than pick it up, however, Gen instead crouched beside one of the dreg that he'd shot. He gestured at Min as she reached his side, and she crouched as well.

"This one is different," he said. "Do you see this? I think this is what Kalina was seeing in her scope."

He poked a finger at the armor the corpse was wearing. At first glance it looked the same as any other armor she'd ever seen, but as Gen shifted some of the cloth, she could see what looked like thin red threads woven in and out of the metal and ceramic. Frowning, she caught sight of something near the ear, and turned the Fallen's head.

"That is not normal," she said. What looked like a scarlet tentacle was growing out of the dreg's neck, and seemed to be joining to its mask somehow.

Another of those bellows, and Min started to her feet. That hadn't been near the Temple doors.

"Gen!" she grabbed the warlock and dropped on top of him as an orb of purple light sizzled past where they'd just been standing. Getting off Gen she sprayed a round of fire toward the Observatory and then dropped down behind some of the rock. Gen had just vanished behind his own rock as well.

"I think I'm going to need something bigger," Min panted softly to Lev. Her rifle disappeared and she found her heavy rocket launcher- the same she'd used to open the doors back on the moon- in her arms.

Setting it quickly she leaned out of her cover and called out "Fire in the hole!"

The servitor- if it was a servitor, it looked like an unholy abomination from under some primal ocean- fired again. A great glut of purple energy sailed out from it just as Min fired her rocket. Stone exploded up into the air as the servitor's shot hit her cover. Several chips zinged and twanged off her helmet and pads. The rocket just missed the servitor's shot and exploded on its right side. The blast tore off several of the growths and red tentacles that seemed to be growing out of the monster and tore a rather satisfactory hole in its side.

Had it been a normal servitor, it likely would have exploded completely. This one was not normal, not like anything she'd seen. In addition to looking like it was swathed in red tentacles, it was easily five times as large as any other servitor she'd ever seen.

It rocked to the side as the rocket exploded, but as Min stared at it, it slowly righted itself again. The hole she'd punched in it looked like it was dripping or bleeding but-

"Gen, servitors don't bleed, do they?" she said nervously.

{What? Bleed? What are you-} Kalina said. She sounded out of breath as she was hurrying down from her nest.

"No," Gen said. He, too, was watching the servitor disquieted. "No, but I don't think it's bleeding. I think it's…regenerating."

It was true. As Min watched, the drops of blood seemed to sprout tiny tentacles of its own. These were reaching toward one another, tangling in one another, closing the hole.

{Regenerating?} Saladin sounded more alarmed than any of them had ever heard them. {Hit it! Hit it again, you have to take it down before-}

The thing let out another blare that seemed to move through Min's chest like a gong, and its oculus began to brighten.