Chapter 8

Phase One

Huntress Arla Nublier

Arla and Charli charged through the hole Maximus created moments before the deafening roar of an explosion. The Titan was just to her left as they exited. Those quick seconds passed, and Arla knew that the explosion drew near, one she knew their shields and armor would not be able to take. Taking the one possible chance Arla could come up with in that split second, Arla dove forward just as the explosion's shock wave was about to reach them. Their scenery changed immediately, and their footing became nonexistent, the relatively flat plane near the base becoming the slant of a dune. The pair tumbled painfully against each other until they got to the very bottom. Arla's vision was swirling as she tried to fight off the dizziness. Somehow, the got to her knees and was trying to make sense of her spinning world. Within the spinning, Arla could see Charli on her hands and knees trying to fight off similar effects. "That was close," the Titan said between quick gasps of breath. "Thanks."

Purely out of chance, Arla looked up to see a dark shape blocking out any light coming from above them, debris from the explosion hurtling toward them. She tried to yell some sort of warning but found herself unable to speak, queasiness and breathlessness leaving her unable to do so. Charli was now sitting on her knees and looked up just in time to see the debris, a combination of stone, metal, and a tank.

In one fluid motion, Charli scooped herself off the ground, spinning once with her arms tucked close to her chest and then planting her foot into the ground while extending both her arms out to her sides. A purplish-blue translucent dome of energy ushered out of her hands and surrounded both of them just as the wave of debris hit. Arla looked at the Titan's arms, arcs of blue and purple electricity streaked up and down both her arms as well as an ebbing purple light that seemed to surround her like an aura. Each piece of debris violently slammed against the shield, blue cracks spreading out from each impact. Arla flinched and shut her eyes with each impact, waiting for something to break through and make them only grease spots in the sand. Last but certainly not least, a tank smashed down on the dome, shattering it without much effort. In that same instant, the cracks simultaneously detonated in a blinding explosion of light blue.

When Arla opened her eyes, the world had stopped spinning, and the entire area of sand was flat, save for a distant wall of sand and debris that was at least a couple hundred yards away. The field was gone, but Charli was still standing, arms back to normal, her body heaving with labored breaths for a moment before she collapsed on one knee.

Arla was speechless. She'd seen a Ward of Dawn before, the purple dome, but she had never seen one crack and then explode, not to mention said explosion clearing the immediate area. Now she was speechless for an altogether different reason. Both of them were silent for several seconds as Arla could only stare at the Titan. Charli slowly turned her head over her shoulder, likely looking at Arla through her helmet. "Before you ask," she said, her voice clearly exhausted. "I have no idea what just happened."

Arla was finally able to get her tongue to respond. "I-I don't know either. Whatever it was, that was impressive." Arla stood up and looked around, noticing Maximus was not present. "Where's Maximus?"

Charli stood up as well, looking around as well. "Just before you tackled me, I saw Maximus fly over us in that direction." Just then, Arla saw a marker on her helmet labeled "Maximus." Charli continued. "My Ghost just picked up a message from Starco saying that Maximus is fine and return to the ship."

"That's ridiculous," Arla stated. "We're heading over there."

"Well, I'm heading back to the ship because my nose is bleeding pretty badly," Charli asserted.

Stargazer inserted her opinion. "We also need to get this data back onto the ship. If Starco says Maximus is fine, then I'm sure he'll be joining us in a minute."

Arla stared at the marker on her HUD until Stargazer removed it. She swallowed her instinct. "Fine," she muttered. "Call the ship, but send a message to Starco to get Maximus' butt in space."

Voidwalker Maximus

I woke up to darkness and an echoing pain pulsing throughout my body. Somehow I was alive. I moaned as I put my hands underneath me and tried to push up. The pain magnified itself as I did, my vision blackening with its intensity, but with one final push, I had successfully rolled over onto my back. Embracing the pain, I sat up and placed a sore hand on my head. "That hurt," I muttered.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Starco replied as he flashed into existence about a foot from my face. "It's a good thing you hit the downward slope of a dune, otherwise you'd probably be in a thousand pieces."

"I feel like I ought to be," I replied, willing myself to ignore the pain while trying to remember what just happened. I remembered the Nova Bomb, Charli and Arla rushing through, and then getting sent in the air, but anything beyond that was completely blank.

"Falling from that height would have if it wasn't for those shields on your suit. They absorbed a very large portion of the damage before collapsing. I will admit though, you had me worried. You were on death's door for about the first half hour or so."

I was still trying to wrap my head around what happened, fight through the pain until it subsided. When? I did not know. "How long have I been out?"

"A couple hours." I opened my mouth to speak, but Starco immediately interrupted me. "Before you ask if Arla and Charli know, I already told them. Sent them a rendezvous point in the atmosphere. They didn't like it, but they eventually agreed to it. The ship should be in the next minute or so."

"We're lucky," I admitted though somewhat quietly.

"Why is that?"

"Some people don't have a team that cares for the other members. Some don't even have one at all. While ours may not necessarily be voluntary, I like to think I would have been in one of my own volition." I looked up at the Martian sunset and could make out a light green shape sweeping down through the atmosphere in our direction.

"I hear that."

"Have you told the Vanguard about what happened here?"

"Not yet. I figured that you, Arla, or Charli would like to do the honors. After all, this was supposed to be a relatively easy exercise that gave you a good gauge of where Charli is on the battlefield."

"To be honest, I wasn't necessarily paying attention to that."

"Don't worry, I did, and I will say that she handled herself quite well. I do have one concern about her stamina though."

"So they were getting slower!" The ship was clearly slowing down its speed and descent to allow me to climb aboard.

"Yeah. Arla slowed down to make sure she didn't fall, but I will say she is carrying a significant amount of armor and equipment on her. From what I know about pilots, they generally wear little more than a flight suit and light protective plating, and that's from now. I can imagine that it was similar back then, perhaps a little less."

I tried to stand up. My left leg immediately buckled and sent me crashing into the grainy sand. The Soul parked a few yards above my head and lowered the ramp. Trying again and putting more weight on my right leg, I was able to stand up and limp onto the metal ramp. "Starco, you mind flying? I'm going to check on my leg in the room."

"You got it. Be careful." I waited patiently as the ramp began to glide upward and inward until it clicked solidly into place. The ship's systems immediately kicked in and set the atmosphere just like that of Earth. With the atmosphere stabilized, I shed all of my armor except for the pants and grabbed my tools from a drawer located near the bed. The tools inside the bag clanked as I gently tossed it onto the bed and laid down on the bed. Rather than trying to fix my leg, I shut my eyes and tried to imagine what or who was behind what happened in the Cabal base.

My thoughts first turned to Heksis. The carnage inside looked just like something he would do with his pair of customized Fallen blades. Arla denies that, but he was my primary suspect as I could not possibly think of what else could cause slices as deep and clean other than a Hunter's knife. A singular Guardian couldn't do that though. For one, that base was crawling with living Cabal not too long ago which meant that whoever did this had to have come here between the time Charli and I left and now. That could be anyone really, but how many actually knew the coordinates of this place? Destroying the base was a necessary action, but it wasn't the most immediate concern for the Vanguard, that would belong to toppling the Cabal leadership.

Back to the Guardian thing though, any one of them worth their salt would shoot rather than melee their way through a wave of enemies, especially when the Cabal were more than capable of destroying us in close quarters. Practically all of the holes punched through the Cabal were not the result of a gun.

Let's see...swords, cqc, ransacked and raided base. Sounded like pirates, but could it be the Fallen? Even if it was, that would mean that a group of Captains and Vandals. I pictured a squadron of those sneaking their way into the base, hiding from the shadows and killing at the nearest opportunity. I could see a single Vandal sneaking up on those guards at the top, backstabbing one and then dealing with the other immediately after. Vandals and Captains were certainly much more nimble than any of the Cabal, with the exception of the Psion, but could they take out an entire base without a single casualty? If they could, what House would possibly be willing enough to take that chance? These were the questions plaguing my mind.

Starco's voice suddenly aroused me from my contemplative stupor. "What?" I responded as soon as I recognized that he had spoken to me.

"I said, 'Arla and Charli want to talk to you.' Here." A black device as long as my little finger flashed onto the bed. I sat up and placed the device where my left auditory sensor was. "How's the leg?" the Ghost called back.

"It's, uh, fine."

"You haven't begun fixing it yet have you?" I opened my mouth to speak but stopped short. "Remember, I know your thoughts," he warned. "I think it's a logical hypothesis though, given what we found."

"Which was…" I prodded.

"I'll tell you in a minute. Focus on fixing that leg of yours."

"Fine," I mumbled and peeled back the leg armor to just above the knee. There were a few pieces of metal in my knee that had broken off of their attach points and seemed to be messing with the servomechanism at the knee joint as well. I turned on the headset and set to work.

There was only static for a moment until Starco patched me through. Once I was sure I was in, I said, "What's up?"

Immediately, Arla went off. "I watch you explode, fly through the air, and disappear out of sight, and all you can say is 'What's up?'" Her voice was a mix of anger and worry, mostly the latter.

I tried to find a witty way to respond, not to make her angrier, but maybe lighten the mood before Starco starts going into what he found. If he didn't want to tell me one on one, then that probably meant it was important and likely disturbing in some way. "Well, I could've said 'what's down' but then you would have just been so confused."

Arla sighed audibly. "I seriously don't understand you every now and again. Death, especially after what you pulled earlier, is not something you should be joking about."

"As far as I know," I responded. "I didn't die. Just woke up extremely sore with some slight damage to my leg."

"What kind of damage?" Arla intensely inquired.

"Just some things popped out of place during the landing. Nothing major. I'm fixing it as we speak."

Arla surrendered her anger. "Fine, but when you have a gaping hole in your chest and call it 'just a scratch' I may revive you just to kill you myself."

"Ah, but where would the honor be?" I teased.

"I can sleep easily knowing I killed off a liar." I could almost hear the smirk on her face.

I knew she wouldn't do it, and I certainly was not about to get a hole ripped in my chest, but that was one angle I had not considered. Ultimately, I decided to drop the jokes. "You there Charli?" I asked lightheartedly, noticing that she hadn't said a word yet.

It sounded like I woke her up from her own stupor much as Starco did to me. "Hmm…? Yeah, yeah. I'm here. Just trying to wrap my head around what could have caused all that."

"Same here," Arla and I said in accidental unison, prompting a short laugh from all three of us.

"So I'm going out on a limb and saying that a Guardian did not do that. All credit to you guys, I know you're good, but I don't think you can literally take on an entire army without any guns."

"Ok, so I'm not the only one who noticed the lack of bullet holes and plasma burns," Arla responded.

"I saw it too," I added. "And that was not any Guardian I could think of."

"Not even that Heksis fellow one of you mentioned?" Charli's voice was inquisitive but also cautious. She must have sensed that may be a touchy point given Arla's response earlier.

Arla jumped on the opportunity. "There's no way that was Hek. He could've done it, taken on an army alone like any of us could, but he wouldn't do it with just his swords. He's good, but even he would struggle against that many Cabal."

"Would he have had a way to isolate them? Take 'em on one by one. Sounds a lot easier that way."

"I don't think the Cabal would be courteous enough to stand in a line while he hacked them to pieces," Arla answered.

"Point taken," Charli responded.

I decided that now was the time to interject my theory. "I have an idea," I announced, bending my knee to make sure my repairs thus far weren't screwing anything up. The lights in the room were turned up all the way, but pieces of my knee cast shadows where I needed to work, making some aspects of my work a little more difficult than I would like. "A half-baked theory really, but hear me out."

There was a moment of silence over the comms, probably Arla giving Charli a look that I couldn't see. "We're listening," Charli eventually said. "A half-baked theory is better than nothing."

"I think this was the Fallen. Think about it. The place looked like it had been raided without any regard for life, just for intel and resources. To me, that sounds like piracy, and the largest pirate threat we have in our solar system is the Fallen. They have the motive and, frankly, the numbers."

Arla jumped in. "But what about the lack of plasma burns? The Fallen would attack from range rather than get up close and personal with their victims unless they're forced to."

"Remember how our Ghosts said that there was a virus copying, sending, and deleting files?"

"Yeah."

"I think its because this House is a little more discreet than the others. More skilled with blades than ranged combat. Good at lurking in the shadows and hiding in plain sight. Charli, Arla, to my knowledge this was the first coordinated attack of the House of Illusion."

Charli gasped like she knew who we were talking about. "They're dead! The Fallen killed them off centuries ago. This must be some derivative or copycat clan. Have you considered that this may be something you're yet to face?"

"I gave that some thought, and I haven't stopped considering it. Arla and I have had a couple of run-ins with them in the last several months. Each of those was just one agent. This was an entire squad, a shadow that infiltrated its enemy without it even knowing and killed it from the inside. They probably replaced the leader with their captain, and none of them knew the difference."

Both the Titan and Huntress were quiet for several seconds. In that time, I finished the repairs on my knee and started packing the tools back in the bag. I exited the room and began picking up my armor pieces from the floor in the fuselage. Arla responded first and taking that time to mull it over. "Sounds a little more than half-baked," she commented.

"Agreed. Honestly though, I want to see what is on the Ghosts. Maybe something they found can confirm our suspicions."

I stooped to the ground and pulled my arms through my robe, fastening the appropriate latches and making sure the collar was uniform around my neck. I still ached, especially in that one knee, but time was not something we had in excess if my hypothesis was right. I sure hope it isn't.

I took off the device Starco gave me and tossed it to him, the Ghost despawning it in about the same instant someone would catch it. On the ship's HUD I saw Arla sitting in the chair of her ship as well as Charli sitting in the seat of my old ship, an old ARCADIA that I had used to escape the Cosmodrome shortly after Starco revived me. Looking past that, I could see Arla's brand new ship, a purple Kestrel with gold stripes and trim, an elegant piece of spacefaring art. I sat down in my chair and nodded to both of them. I turned my eyes to my old ship. It felt odd to see it from the cockpit of another ship, almost like I was betraying it, but I didn't need two ships in truth, and Charli had none ready by the time we needed to leave. Maybe Arla and I could pull a few favors back at the Tower. "We ready?" I asked.

"No time to lose," Charli said. She was certainly right.

I started the discussion off. "Starco, Stargazer, do we have a definite who?"

It was Stargazer that spoke first. "I tried tracing the signal, but the encryption was too strong and had results literally just bouncing off into deep space with no intended target. Other signals were bounced all over the solar system, pinging off of other bases' comm centers, including several in the City and surrounding beacons before disappearing completely."

"Wouldn't that mean that someone in the City would have picked up the data signal?"

"The only problem with that is the signal also carried a modified version of the same virus, an advanced form of a trojan that activated whenever someone tried to access the system. If someone was able to harness the signal and start saving the files that was not on the designated list, the virus would immediately set to work destroying that network until nothing remained, much like the one we encountered. At the same time, the signal also deleted itself from any manifest besides the one in that server room. It's almost like whoever sent it wanted its target to only have a split second opportunity to have the intel before they missed the opportunity."

"Any idea why they would jump it like this?" Charli asked.

"Simple. Not to get caught. Bounce the signal enough times in different directions and the trace begins to lose ground which is ultimately what happened to me. I tried tracking each bounce but only found myself on a wild goose chase. It was then that I realized that I had been looking in the wrong place. I remembered that there had been one destination that I had immediately ruled out purely because it seemed obviously wrong at the time. I don't remember the exact coordinates, but I do remember that it was moving. If it was indeed the Fallen as you said Maximus, then it could have been their Ketch or a Skiff. At the same time, it could have been any other spacecraft."

I placed a finger on my temple. "So we don't have a where?"

"Afraid not, but that was only my side of things. I'd venture to say Starco found something with his digging."

Starco floated forward by my head, taking a position about a foot to my right and slightly in front of my face. "In fact, I did find some rather interesting things." Several files appeared on my HUD as well as on the others. As Starco talked, he opened and closed them as exemplar pieces of data, visual aids while he spoke. "A lot of the data was deleted or in the process. To avoid having it spread to my memory, I had to avoid a substantial number of partially intact…"

"So what did you find?" Charli interrupted.

"Most of what remained was logs, scouting and intelligence reports to be specific. Several of them caught my eye because they made one fact abundantly clear: the Cabal had hacked a nearby Fallen House on Mars."

"What House?" Arla asked, intrigued.

"I couldn't make sense of the symbols on the map." He pulled up a literal map of the facility we just investigated and escaped from. "This was downloaded a couple weeks ago from a Fallen server aboard a completely black Ketch that wandered too close to a Cabal communication satellite that began hacking through the firewalls in place. Apparently whatever House this was had been planning to take over this base and use it for their own purposes. The hack had just accelerated the process"

"So what stopped them?" I asked. "Did they bail when they detected our ships?"

"I think that may have something to do with it yes, but at a different time. I'd venture to say that you finding Charli gave our Fallen friends the perfect opportunity to get in because an unidentified squad identical to the one we fought entered the base five minutes after we left. That's just a hypothesis, but the evidence points to this being the Fallen."

"So then how did all those Cabal end up the way they did?"

"Once more, I think your hypothesis is becoming fact. Several Cabal bodies were logged in the incinerator shortly after the mystery squadron turned up, one of them being recognized as Valus

Tre'Lon, but the base's internal logs show his credentials being used since his death, namely to gain access to the server room via an elevator once he could use. That's what was behind the door I believe. Or at least at some point beyond that door."

"So are you saying that there is a dead House on the march?"

"One with the capabilities of causing destruction far beyond what we're willing to admit they're capable of."

"Why do you say that?" Arla questioned.

Starco brought up several files that divided the HUD in two. The ones on the left was a string of white pages with numbers written across the top seemingly at random. On the right was a singular file: a perfect map of the City. I wandered my eyes back over to the string of files. Starco opened the bottom one labeled with the lowest number at the top. In the file was a picture of a blue Exo with piercing yellow eyes. The name just to the right of the photo: Maximus.

Starco opened the one right on top of it that revealed an Awoken woman with brown hair and glowing green eyes. The name in the same place as the first: Arla Nublier.

I sat back silently in my chair as I watched both Arla and Charli gasp in abject horror, their eyes going as big as saucers. They had been watching.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The Queen's Private Chambers, Royal Palace, The City

"It is so nice of you to join me my dear Speaker," The Queen of the City called out as a Guardian dressed in white armor from head to toe entered her chambers. He was taller than she and much more intimidating, but he, in essence, was a soldier like those he advised and the guards she kept here. The room was bathed in natural light from the elegantly crafted glass ceiling and similar windows draped in a translucent white curtain. The Queen herself was a rather petite figure, much more attuned to politics than anything else. She was a master of words, able to weave arguments that many found hard to dispute. Of course, those who argued against her policies were not the man that stood before her, her equal in almost every sense of the word save for one glaring exception.

The Queen sat at an expertly crafted table made of cedar, a rarity nowadays, in the center of her lavish chambers. No expense was spared in terms of the carpets and other furnishings. She had essentially two armies at her disposal, her own and the New Monarchy followers in the Tower. Two pairs of ornate doors adorned the right side of the room and then at the back. The former leading to the corridor where the Speaker had just entered from, and the other to her sleeping chambers. A guard was stationed at each side of the door outside of the room itself.

The Speaker came unarmed, but his white helmet remained as always, covered in some fashion of a black wrap that looked to only further seal his identity. The armor he wore looked much like the garb of a politician but harder, tougher, as if he were ready to go to the field if he desired it. Obviously, he was years out of practice but still...To her, this man was an enigma, their agendas both similar and dissimilar. Both strived for a unified City, but he wasn't much one for the people, electing to stay in his observatory in that Tower of his as opposed to making public appearances. By comparison, the Queen wore a dress bathed in the red and whites cherished by her followers, the primarily red material emblazoned by a white sash stretching from her left shoulder to the right of her hip, her face visible to all the moment they saw her.

He spoke with a smooth British accent that commanded respect but also retained a polite wisdom about it. "I hope you pardon my tardiness. There were a few matters I had to attend to first. Not to say that you are unimportant, but you understand…" His words sounded slightly awkward compared to their previous meetings, nervous, like he was hiding something.

The Queen decided to play it off and use her words to make him unintentionally divulge this secret. "I understand completely my dear Speaker. Maintaining a rather unique army I can imagine is rather...tedious."

"I wouldn't call it that, but it certainly has its struggles every now and again."

The Queen sensed that she may be getting somewhere much quicker than she had imagined. However, it sparked her suspicion. "Like what?"

"Well, the same ones that you deal with really."

The Queen smiled. "Humor me then for a moment and explain anyway," she requested politely.
"No two situations are exactly identical."

"Indeed. Just trying to maintain our public image and still defend this fine City at the same time. Unfortunately, I believe we may have to add another front soon enough."

The Queen noticed that he was yet to sit down. She gestured to a chair across from her. "Then by all means, take a seat. Don't tire yourself needlessly."

"Thank you your Highness." He pulled the indicated chair back and sat down, placing an arm on the table and looking through the glass ceiling.

The Queen waited for him to turn his attention back to her before she spoke again. Once he turned back to her, she said, "Please just call me Miranda. There's no need to be so formal here. We speak as equals here."

"If it's alright with you, I'd rather retain my name. Brings back too many memories."

"I see. I thought you buried your past long ago."

The Speaker shook his head. "It's really just a precautionary thing."

"Do you not trust me?"

"Please don't mistake my motives for mistrust. It's that if some people knew who I was, I fear that some things we discuss would leak out."

"I assure you that our conversations are one hundred percent confidential. You can trust me on this. Have we not known each other for years?"

"The last time I trusted someone fully, I lost nearly an entire fireteam of my most powerful Guardians."

"That is unfortunate to hear, but we must remember our past so we don't repeat it, right. Let's get working on a better tomorrow right now shall we?"

The Speaker nodded and scooted his chair closer to the table. "Indeed. So how is the City doing these days?"

"We've definitely seen better days, but not many. Ever since those two Guardians returned, the sun has seemed a bit brighter, the people happier. Our economy is thriving beyond what anybody predicted this year."

"Quite the turnaround from when we met right after the Wall incident."

"Yes, those were some dark times, but as I said earlier. We learn from the past. I presume that our agreement is still working."

"I have patrols outside the Wall at all hours of the day just as we discussed. Any Fallen activity out there has been dealt with. In truth, it's been rather quiet there the last couple weeks."

"So how about beyond the Wall. How are things out there?"

"The Vex are still out there despite the Garden being destroyed, but I believe there numbers will wane as time passes. The Hive have been rather dormant since we talked last. We still run across them, but they're not as active as they usually are. The Fallen are up to their usual pirate antics across everywhere except Mars, but it's the Cabal that concerns me the most."

"Why is that?"

"They're mobilizing at an unprecedented rate. I'm not sure why, but something has them riled up."

"Do they look like preparations to invade?"

"Not exactly. My patrols have reported heavier fortification on Mars. More tanks, troops, and supplies. To me it looks like they're playing the defensive. Against what? I'm not sure. The Vex were there biggest rival other than us, and their numbers have only thinned in the Meridian Bay area."

"That is odd. Is it possible that they are going to move in the Black Garden? Maybe find and utilize some of the Vex secrets hidden there?"

"It's plausible. The door never sealed after Maximus and Arla killed the Heart. We'll have to see I guess. Times are certainly changing."

The Queen smiled again. "As they always are. So how are my favorite Guardians doing? I'd love to have Arla and Maximus over to the palace again."

"Ah yes. I believe they're wrapping up a mission the Vanguard sent them on. Investigating a Cabal base not far from Olympus Mons. They haven't sent a report yet, but I can keep you informed when they do." The Queen seemed to flinch slightly at the mention of a base near Olympus Mons. Like it meant something to her.

"Ah yes. Please do. I don't mean to sound rude Speaker, but I just realized that I have some matters to attend to. Would you mind continuing this meeting at a later date?"

"Of course not. You're a busy woman. Would you mind meeting in the Tower next time? I have some people I'd like you to meet."

"I'll make the necessary preparations. Until we meet again," the Queen responded, eyeing the door. The Speaker walked towards the door leading to the hallway but stopped short of opening it. "Something wrong?" she asked earnestly.

"You almost fooled me Miranda," the Speaker stated flatly. "I admit it. I fell for your little game this time around."

"What game could you possibly be talking about?" The Queen flicked her eyes from the door, to a corner in the room, and then back to the Speaker.

"You put two sets of Guardians to protect the room rather than just the set I brought with me. Did something happen to Kenny?"

"Who?" the Queen asked, confused.

"Kenny Lambert. Your head of security."

The Queen tried to deflect the conversation. "Ah yes, Kenny. Sorry, I didn't know which one you were referring to."

The Speaker gave a grim chuckle. "Typical. You think that you're perfect, above all of the others, but your tactics are imperfect."

The Queen stood and and stared at the Speaker, flabbergasted by his comment. "I'd hardly call myself above anybody. I'm grateful just to be in this position." She flicked her eyes in that same pattern of the door, the corner, and the Speaker again. "If you're going to accuse me of being a pompous braggart, then by all means say it to my face. I assure you, I've heard much worse."

The Speaker turned toward Miranda. "You of all people would know your head of security. His name is not Kenny. Rather it is Stuart Heinz, and that he has saved your life no less than three times. You would know this if you truly are the Queen." The Queen flickered her eyes in that pattern again, much more urgently this time. "I see that look in your eye, that pattern you just did. You're calling for your assassins. I assure you. They won't prevail." Suddenly, the Speaker spun around and deflected a blade that was sure to run straight through his chest. He then immediately, parried another swipe from a once-invisible form on his left. Two Vandals dressed in deep green now surrounded one of the most powerful Guardians.

Not wasting any time, the Vandals launched a flurry of swipes, trying to kill this one man, but the Speaker was much more agile than his rust would have let on. He used his gauntlets to block any attack that he was unable to evade. Otherwise, he easily sidestepped or rolled out of harm's way. Slowly but surely, the Vandals were backing him into one of the corners of the room while the Queen watched on in silence, watching the two Fallen slowly kill their prey. Suddenly, the Speaker grabbed hold of a Vandal's hand and twisted the blade out, the horrific sound of bone breaking accompanying the theft. The Speaker quickly put a boot in its face and fended off another attack from its partner before putting a single stab through one of his assailant's heart.

Swords clashed, slashed, blocked, and parried for several seconds as the remaining Vandal attempted to get another advantage over the Guardian, but the Speaker took every opportunity it gave him, exposed every hole in his defense until he locked swords with the Vandal. Having two blades compared to his opponent, the Vandal raised its free hand to bring one final blow to its target. The Speaker suddenly surged forward, throwing the Vandal off balance enough so that he could deflect the blade with his arm, spin, and thrust his own blade through the bottom of the Vandal's mask.

Just as the Speaker did this, two blades stabbed through his own chest from behind. He dropped his stolen blade and silently watched blood begin to pour from the wounds, the flow increasing as the "Queen," now directly behind him, withdrew her weapons.

She began to speak in a Fallen tongue, unique to this House, her House, the one that would rule all others. "Your deed is done Commander. My cover is still intact." Pleased laughter came from the other side of the room. A heavily armored Fallen with dark green armor similar to a Captain's but stronger and more agile looking materialized out of the far corner closest to the bedroom doors.

"That is very good Vulkra. I am pleased with your victory. I expected nothing less from my first female Captain."

Vulkra, disguised as the Queen, looked down at the two Vandal's bodies. Such talent lost because of their caution. In the old days, none would have stood for how long it took them. In the time that they waited, the Speaker could have been killed several times over. "I apologize for my troop's insolence Commander. They nearly jeopardized the mission," the female Captain stated in a matter-of-fact manner.

The Commander looked over at the two bodies with a displeased look wrought upon his face. "They met a deserving fate. There is time for caution and then there is time to take action. These two obviously did not know the difference." He placed an armored hand on Vulkra's shoulder and looked her dead in the eyes, lowering his voice as he spoke. "You almost blew it as well, but your success atones for it, so all is forgiven. My only requirement is that you don't let it happen again."

"Yes sir. What's our next move?"

The Commander held up a hand and withdrew a cylindrical device out of a pouch on his waist. The device was small with a needle at one end that protruded rather awkwardly. It was silver in color and just larger than the Commander's hand. "My next move is to become one with the Great Machine, just as our ancestors did," the Commander said as he squatted over the Speaker's body and pushed the needle into the corpse's neck. A piece of metal pushed up and out of the top as the Commander drove the needle ever deeper into the Speaker's neck. When its deed was done, the device gave off a small beep. "Ah yes," the Commander laughed. "The wonderful sound of a perfect disguise." He held the device upside down and tapped it with each of his three remaining hands and attached the end of it into a small area on his neck, pushing down the metal until it disappeared back into the device. Almost immediately after he began pushing, his form began to flicker, morph. In a matter of seconds, a perfect rendering of the Speaker stood in front of the "Queen." Dispose of the body. Then, continue building your cover. Learn the names of the allies and don't jeopardize yourself. The last thing we want is a repeat of what happened on Mars.

Yes, sir, the Captain affirmed, walking out of the room and down the hallway where more of their troops were hidden in plain sight.

He kicked the Speaker's corpse and uncovered a small spiky form with a glowing blue eye. He picked it up and delivered a steady stream of electricity from his fingertips into it, rendering it paralyzed. The Ghost of perhaps the most powerful Guardian who ever lived. I wonder what secrets you hold. The Commander grabbed his device again and stabbed it directly into the eye of the Ghost, downloading all of its data before crushing it in his hand and sprinkling the pieces on the Speaker's body. Moments later, Vulkra returned with a pair of disguised soldiers and began preparations to get rid of the body for good.

Stage One was complete.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Wazzup! It's the SFR again.

Once again, just adding a note here at the end that Heksis is not a character that I own or have come up with personally. He is one that my good friend PegLegDregsNeedTheirMeds (a mouthful I know). He is a character that I plan to have recur over the course of this story and want to give credit where credit is due because I am explicitly using a character that I do not "control" or "own." Check out my buddy's stuff if you would like, but I will warn you that some of the things that will happen later will lose their impact by seeing Heksis through the scope of his creator.

I know, cheesy plug, but by all means he does good work over there. So show some love if you feel so inclined. Tell him I sent ya ;)

Thanks for the support once again!

Peace!