The Moon

As the team passed over their transmat zone, Bill reached over for his helmet and put it on. The seals engaged, and his readout came to life. His ammo counter popped up in the bottom left as it synced up with his weapons. He took a deep breath as the transmat sequence engaged, and in a split second he had boots on the ground. He looked to the sky as his ship veered away, remote piloted to a safe distance by Cee. Dak and Kahlee soon materialized next to him, and as he exhaled, he felt the power of the Void Light that coursed through his body swell. He felt ready for the impending mission.

He reached over his shoulder and drew his rifle, a SUROS model nicknamed "The Regime." It was a very rare make and model, and rather unique in the fact that it possessed a function that delivered more velocity per shot, at the cost of its rate of fire. In this fire mode, rounds that found their mark left gruesome wounds that only the toughest of his enemies could withstand. Cee could also provide him with a shoulder-fire rocket launcher outfitted with the ability to track large targets. Bill also now carried the small handgun given to him by the Future War Cult, though he hoped he wouldn't put himself in a position to be forced to use it.

Dak preferred to engage enemies at long range, and his deadly efficiency had inspired Banshee-44 to gift his fellow Exo a pair of custom weapons. The old gunsmith had given him a powerful sniper rifle with an integrated suppressor, and the rifle's scope was synced to his helmet's heads-up display, allowing him to keep an eye on his motion tracker, even when sighting down on a target. For his sidearm, Banshee had given him a powerful revolver, dubbed "Ace of Spades." The gun itself was not as special as its ammo, however. The rounds were able to detect when they had struck an enemy in a vital area, and rapidly expand in a microsecond. When Dak inquired as to what that meant, Banshee's simple reply was: "aim for the head, get a nice boom." Being the keen eye that he was, Dak also carried a set of throwing knives that he used with deadly accuracy.

Kahlee preferred to let her Light do the fighting for her, mainly relying on a sidearm as her main weapon, while unleashing a fierce amount of Solar energy at close range. But the Earthborn Awoken was no fool. Her backup weapon was a shotgun, one that she had dubbed "The Matador", after stopping a charging Cabal soldier dead in its tracks with one blast at point-blank range. The gun almost never left her side, and it rested on her back as she scanned the ridge through the sights of her pistol.

"Where to, boss?" She asked.

Bill pulled up his nav beacon. "There. Just over that rise. The h3 plant is about a klick and a half Northeast. Let's get walking."

"No Sparrows?" Dak asked, barely able to hide the relief in his voice.

"No Sparrows. We go in quiet. I'd like to be able to see what we're up against without alerting them, if possible."

"Thank the Traveler. You just made my day, Bill."

"The day's still young, buddy. You may not be thanking me later."

"Uh, I believe I thanked the Traveler, actually." Dak nodded his hawk-like helmet towards his friend, and readied his sniper rifle.

"Fair point. Let's move. Keep an eye on your trackers. I'd prefer to avoid being ambushed today."

The path to their mission start point proved uninteresting for the most part, save for the lone Pike patrolling the area. As Bill and Kahlee ducked out of sight, Dak used his enhanced agility and reflexes to move ahead of the lightly armed hoverbike and quietly eliminated its operator. Leaping with amazing speed, he tackled the Dreg rider and dispatched him with a single strike to the throat.

He hid the Pike and it's rider in a nearby cave, and walked back to his team, shaking off the ether dripping from his knife. "Can you smell it?" He asked, looking at Bill.

"Surprisingly, no." Bill cocked his head towards Dak, who held up the knife.

"You want to?"

"Gross. Can we please move on?" Kahlee held up a gloved hand and turned away from the pair.

"By all means." Bill shook his head, laughing under his breath as Dak sheathed the blade and fell in step behind him and Kahlee.

As the winding paths through Archer's Line widened, the team of Guardians got their first real sight of the Fallen. Ducking behind several large rocks, they discovered a sizeable contingent of Devils lurking all over the helium-3 plant.

"Well, I'd say direct action might be necessary here, guys." Dak sighted down his rifle, scanning the building.

"Wait, let's be smart about this. Cee, scan the area, how many hostiles?" Bill held out his hand as the Ghost appeared.

"Looks like we've got a dozen contacts. Can't tell you exactly what their standings are, but I'm getting four non-organic signatures as well. Three of them aren't giving off much power."

"Shanks, most likely. Hate those little buggers." Dak muttered, still looking through his scope. "Which would mean that last energy sig can't be anything else but a Servitor."

"Precisely." Cee nodded at Dak's deduction.

Kahlee frowned underneath her helmet. "If they have a Servitor, they have to have at least a Captain with them, maybe a Baron if the Servitor is big enough. Can't tell without getting a good look at the thing. And no, I'm not volunteering."

Bill sighed. "Well, if it was a Baron, there would be a lot more Fallen than this. Barons usually command a bigger force than this. We've probably got a Captain. My best estimate is we're dealing with four Dregs, three vandals, the three Shanks, the Servitor and the Captain."

"Good bet. I've already eyed a pair of Vandal snipers and three of the Dregs. The last Vandal is probably the Captain's personal bodyguard, likely has a shrapnel gun or shock blades. The Captain probably has whatever his guard isn't using."

Even though they had done this hundreds of time in the past, Bill was still amazed at his team's ability to decipher the makeup and tactics of enemy squads as well as they did.

"Okay then, what's the plan?" Dak asked.

"Where are these two snipers you mentioned?"

"One is about 50 meters up at your 11 o'clock. The other is on top of the plant, in between our 12 and 1."

"Think you can get some high ground and take 'em out?"

"Please… remember who you're talking to."

"Wonderful. Kahlee, can you give me a flare?"

"Of course. Wait, why?"

Bill made eye contact with her through their visors. "I wanna try something stupid."