Karn-7 had been on Mars for a week now. The task board at the Tower had a scouting mission to investigate Cabal movements across multiple quadrants, indicating a large push against... something... but who? This had been the question growing in Karn's mind for several days now. He had tried everything. From simple observation, to having Scribe hack multiple highly encrypted terminals, to a parley with some dust eaters. And when that last one didn't work, he had tried interrogating the Commanding Officer of a land tank. He attempted to blow it up afterward, but eight deaths later Karn left the way he came through the front door. That wasnt his assignment anyway.
As Sector four rotated away from the sun beginning the night cycle, Karn was forced by Scribe to sit and think. They were in an old apartment complex who's upper floors were still above the sand enough to keep an eye on the area. He gazed down his rifel's scope towards the entrance of a Cabal occupied tower as Scribe went over what they knew.
"Nothing regarding movements on ANY Cabal terminals suggests verbal orders amongst Commanders. Large scale, off-world transportation suggests invasion, calculated rendezvous point is out of the Sol System which would suggest retreat if they weren't Cabal. Several reports across Sol con-"
"They retreated pretty fast upon meeting Oryx." Karn-7 mused, still looking down scopes.
"Oryx was an exception, and an obvious one at that. Scribe replyed patiently. "We haven't encountered anything to suggesting a threat of such a grand scale."
"They havnt even secured this planet against the Vex, and from what I can tell that has been one of the main focus points for the Legions in Sol. This is bigger than we know, we just cant prove it yet." They sat in silence for a while. "Verbal orders are unusual, only used when they want to hide something from a local guardian. What would a planetwide verbal order indicate under such assumptions?"
"An attack against us?"
"That's what I'm afraid of, but we need to be sure. We also need to know which of our strongholds they plan on targeting and why."
"That would probably require infiltration. May I remind you we arnt exactly stealthy."
"I know. Is Eks available yet?"
"Still in the Tower, not mission approved."
Karn nodded, sitting up and placing the rifle on his lap. "What of Nat?"
"Patrolling NAZ as usual. She could probably be bothered if we asked."
"Its been a week, it may be too late but we have to try. Ask her to meet us here, in the meantime let's hack some more terminals, try and find any Cabal high command who have requested meetings with one another recently. We will need a target for her."
"Certainly. Let's try that rock fortress four clicks west of... oh..."
"What is it?"
"I cant contact Earth, or the Tower."
