Kei's Ether Eater drifted through slipspace, sandwiched tightly between two smaller fighters as the three guardians made their way to Neptune's moon, Triton. Trinity's Wolf Hunter flew close on his right while Xor's more streamlined Gloriole Jump sailed effortlessly to his left. The Ether Eater rumbled as it struggled to contain what was essentially three guardians' worth of supplies in its large cargo hold.

"So what do we do when we get there?", an anxious Xor spoke through the comm channel. Kei reached up above his head and flipped a switch, turning on his mike in order to reply.

"We've gone over this a million times Xor. as soon as we get out of slipspace we cloak, then work ourselves to our landing point." Kei recalled that said landing point was in a crater about a three and a half miles from the actual base, giving them plenty of headway in case of any Fallen ambushes. He continued as he recalled the plan to Xor, "After that we unpack and make our way through a series of caves discovered and mapped by other guardians. Once we are close enough to the base we break into the rear entrance.", he stopped to let Xor process the knowledge, "Got it?" He pictured the Xor nodding to himself as he sat in his own cockpit.


The collage of colors in slipspace finally dissipated as the three ships warped into orbit around Martian moon of Triton, immediately cloaking and hiding their presence.

"Huh...", said Xor over the comms. "Thought there'd be more, well, anything"

As Xor reported the aerospace surrounding Triton was completely devoid of anything that would be considered abnormal.

"As unorganized as the Fallen are they are not stupid.", Trinity explained. "Nobody would leave such a large fleet open for guardians and Awoken from the Reef to lay siege to."

Kei looked out of his own cockpit as well, taking in the empty lifeless feeling that emitted from the moon. He stared at its cratered surface, searching for any signs of Fallen activity as the three ships drifted silently to their destination.

The landing point came into view shortly after, a large flat crater far from the lost base. They landed without a hitch, engines hissing as they were turned off. Xor jumped out, not even bothering to put on a helmet before pulling his hood over his head and running to the rim of the crater. He cloaked as he materialized a sniper rifle, laying down on the crest of the crater and scanning the surroundings. "No sign that we were spotted…" He said into a comm on his wrist.

Kei looked over in the direction the Exo had vanished, "Try not to stray too far… Ok?" The last thing they needed was for the Hunter to go awol, taking down the Ketch already seemed like a daunting task without taking a member off of the fireteam. He turned to Trinity nodding to her as she jumped from her cockpit to the ground, beginning to check her weapons' ammunition in preparation for their journey.

"The caves that lead to the base are over that way, I recommend beginning our journey as soon as possible.", Trinity spoke as she opened one of the maroon cargo containers on Kei's Ether Eater. Kei watched as she pulled out a few packs of extra ammunition. He jumped when he realized that Xor was standing right behind him.

"Boo…", the Exo stated in a bored voice, a somewhat disappointed expression plastered to his blue-plated face. He sighed, "I thought you wizards were supposed to be magically enhanced or something…"

Kei raised an eyebrow in his helmet, "First of all, I'm a Warlock, not one of those creepy wizards in the hive. Second, where did you hear that? Since when have Warlocks ever been magically enhanced?", the Hunter only shrugged in response before walking over to his ship and grabbing his helmet out of the cockpit, it sealed itself with a hiss and he turned back to Kei.

"Well I know you can teleport and you do have magical powers and all. Seriously I dare you to try and find a Hunter who can shoot lightning out of their fingertips.", he stated before turning back to his ship and pulling a hand cannon out of the cockpit. He checked the drum before snapping it back in place and slipping it into a holster on his thigh.

The two of them were suddenly aware of their third party member standing a short distance away. Her arms were crossed impatiently as she stood there. "If you two would focus on the mission instead of what magical powers you mages have, we'd already be on our way to our destination. Hurry up and get equipped." She turned towards the edge of the crater and glanced back over her shoulder, "I'm going to scout the entrance to the caves. If you do not join me soon I will assume the two of you dead and continue without you." With that she marched off towards the dark entrance of the cave on the far side of the crater.

"Is is normal for the Awoken to be unusually cold and commanding?"

"Okay Xor. Lets not go down a possibly racist path here…", Kei replied pressing the palm of his hand to the front of his helmet.

"Mages?"

"Oh shut up…"


The dim lights of the cavern buzzed faintly as the three guardians made their way through the icy dark caves of Triton. Trinity was in the lead as she had been on the scouting mission to map the caves in the first place. Kei walked along behind her, almost asleep on his feet as he subconsciously set his mind to autopilot. Xor was having the hardest time out of the three, gasping and stumbling around the cave. At one point Trinity stopped and turned, almost growling as she stomped over to the seemingly exhausted Hunter. "What are you doing? Out of all of us at least you should be functioning at top priority. You do not have lungs, you are not exhausted!"

The Exo looked up from his place leaning on the wall. He was hunched over, one hand on the stone surface of the cave, the other hung limply at his side, a scout rifle clutched loosely in his hand. "Ok missy I guess you have a point. But doesn't this make you two feel better about your biological selves?" Trinity took in a breath as if to say something back but then shut it as the Hunter suddenly placed a finger where helmet her mouth would be, "Hold still… Nobody move… ", he whispered as he slowly raised his rifle, inching it to the point where it looked like it was pointed directly at Kei's face.

"Xor man… W-what're you doing buddy?", Kei began to sweat in his helmet, eyes darting nervously from Trinity to Xor to the dark barrel of the MIDA Multi-Tool pointed at his left eye.

"Don't. Move. An inch… you'll mess up my headshot…", he paused, "Ok I'm gonna count to three then I'll shoot, just trust me…" Kei nodded ever so slightly.

"One…"

"Two…"

BANG!

"Shit!"

Kei almost wet himself as he felt the force of the bullet sail no more than a centimeter from the metal of his helmet.

Xor pushed himself from his place on the wall with the hand supporting him and walked past the now jibbering Warlock, patting him on the shoulder as he did so. "Good job buddy, I don't know many guys who could stand that still with a gun pointed at their head." The hunter was crouched over something a few meters further in the tunnel. He poked at whatever was on the ground with the barrel of his rifle for a minute or two before making his way back to the group and tossing what remained of a Dreg helmet on the ground.

He took off his helmet and the metal plates of his face shifted to form a grin, "Welp, good news! Well good for me at least, is that I got the first kill today." Then his glowing white eyes took on a more grim expression, "Bad news is that we need to hurry." An ominous screech echoed through the cavern and they all turned to face the noise. "I think I might have made them mad…"


Hey! This is the third and final revision of the second chapter of FH.

Btw, I have already finished the first chapter of part 2 and will post it as soon as I am done editing the first part of the story.

Happy reading!