Kei stared down the scope of his sniper rifle and centered it on a Vandal's forehead.

Bang!

The four-armed Alien fell to the ground, throwing up a small cloud of light-grey dust as it impacted.

"That looks like we're good for now.", Kei concluded, looking up a Xor who was crouching beside him. The Exo nodded, raising his hands to make a pair of binoculars under his helmet's visor and proceeded to scan the horizon.

"Yes my good friend I do Believe that was the last of them.", the Exo stated sarcastically.

The three Guardians had given up on the caves, as they were soon filled with countless numbers of Fallen patrols. So they returned to the surface and were now making their way carefully across the small moon towards their destination: another cave on the edge of a large crater that was just big enough for someone to walk through.

The crater itself was littered with large boulders and craters. This made the three guardians jobs at least a little easier as they hadn't the need to be as careful while weaving around the rocks. Once again, Trinity had taken point, Kei in the middle, and Xor took up the rear. They trekked for half a mile before Trinity held up a fist, forming an "L" with her arm. "Get down, we've got Skiffs on the horizon."

They crouched and hid themselves among the dust-colored rocks, Xor simply vanished in a wisp of barely concealed light. Soon enough, the hum and groan of three Fallen Skiffs drew loud and Kei looked up from his hiding place to see them pass directly overhead. Heading in the direction they had come from.

Once their rumblings had faded completely, Trinity rose to her feet, nodding at Kei (And presumably Xor as well) to continue. The Hunter in the group flickered into reality beside Kei, staring in the direction the Skiffs had gone, "You don't think it's possible they found our ships… Do you?" He turned to Trinity and repeated his question, "Do you?"

The Titan stopped and turned to look back over her shoulder at the Exo, "I will be honest with you Xor, the thought had crossed my mind." Then she turned and continued walking as if that was the end of the conversation. Xor quickly walked up behind reached forward, catching a firm hold on the armor around her shoulder. The Titan visible tensed and Kei felt a chill run down his spine.

"Trinity… Are the ships safe? We all know that those ships are the only things we can use to get off this rock. And I for one don't want to be stuck here with a Ketch full of Fallen." The Exo's voice had turned strangely cold and he stood with his feet planted firmly on Triton's frozen ground. He seemed not moving an inch as he waited for the Titan to respond.

In one quick, fluid movement, Trinity had grabbed Xor's wrist and used the hunter's body weight to flip him over her shoulder. He landed with a thud and then grunted as Trinity dropped her knee on his chest, now the weight of the Titan's heavy armor pinned him to the ground. Xor gasped and his neck went limp.

"Have I ever told you how much you infuriate me?", she growled through her helmet, leaning forward until her head was only a few inches from the front of Xor's own, "I Hate you…", the air grew thick with the venomous tone in her voice, "You are lazy, you are selfish, and I for one think you should not be on this mission…", she rose from the Hunter's chest, permitting him to gasp and cough within his helmet, "It should not matter to you what condition the ships are in. You need to be prepared to die for this mission." Xor stopped struggling with Trinity's knee and let his head fall back against the dusty ground, but Trinity wasn't done yet. "Why do you insist wasting time while you have orders given to you from the most senior guardians at the tower. Do you not know what we stand for? We are Guardians. Guardians who protect the lives of those who cannot protect themselves, that is our one and only purpose in this life, and those that will follow. We lay down our lives over and over again, struggling to one day end this war." She finally stood, never taking her eyes off the Hunter, who was staring silently through the visor of his helmet. "Run if you want…But I will fight this war until I cannot fight any longer as it is what I was born to do." With that she huffed and stalked off in the direction of the distant outpost. Not even bothering to see if the others were going to follow.

Kei glanced down at Xor, the Hunter was sitting with one knee bent upwards, his left arm rested across his leg while his other hand stroked his the respirator on his helmet, as if deep in thought. Kei walked over and offered a hand to help him up. Xor dismissed the Warlock with the wave of his hand and stood up on his own, turning slowly to follow in the direction Trinity had gone. Not a word was said to Kei as he passed him.


The group traveled silently after that, except the occasional warning from Trinity about incoming fallen transports. Every few minutes Kei would glance worriedly between the Titan and the Hunter. When two members of a fireteam disagreed it tended to throw a wrench into the team's flow as a group, especially if they tended to get violent.

Finally, after almost a whole solar rotation, the three came to a small mound of rocks on a ledge that overlooked the base's landing platform. Xor had pulled out his sniper rifle and cloaked, jumping down the slope, sending up small clouds of icy dust until he cloaked completely, not even leaving footprints in the grey dusty ground. Kei stared down the scope of his pulse rifle, the ranges lenses of his scope granting him the view he needed to make out the distant shapes of the Fallen as they worked.

"What are they doing?", Kei mumbled to himself as he watched the Dregs shove large heavy-looking boxes around while Vandals and even a few Captain's stood above them on raised walkways, sometimes taking one of their four arms and making gestures towards one thing or another. He scooted backwards, away from the ridge where he was watching and pressed the side of his helmet, activating the comm channel, "I've got eyes one easily thirty Dregs, twelve Vandals, and four Captains. Trinity, Xor, can you confirm those numbers?" He crawled back up the hill to once again peer over the ridge of stone.

Trinity was peering through the scope of a sniper rifle, scanning the landing platform as Kei had done, "Confirmed for thirtyfive Dregs, twelve Vandals, and four Captains."

Kei rolled his eyes and focused his attention back on the platform. "Xor can you confirm?" Dead silence was the only answer.

"Xor? You copy?"

"Xo-"

"Shut up!", the harsh response from the Hunter made Kei jump.

"Xor what's wrong? What's happening?"

The hunter's only response was an annoyed huff…

Kei lowered his hand from his head and left the comm channel, covering his eyes with a hand in a subtle facepalm. "What does he think he's doing?" Trinity's only response was to sigh and shake her head in disappointment, folding her arms against her chest.

A few minutes later, Xor flickered out of active camouflage, "What I was doing was scouting their Ketch you idiots…", he stated, now standing not a meter away from Trinity and Kei. "Y'know, the biiig Fallen Ketch that we're supposed to blow up? The big one carrying the army of fallen? Well I was just on it.", he stomped in frustration and turned his back, huffing to himself inside his helmet.

Kei turned around to look back at the platform through his pulse rifle's scope. "How did you get inside it? No scratch that- Where did you find it?"

The Exo let out an aggravated sigh and reached down to pick up an icy rock. Then he suddenly marched up the ridge and chucked it as hard as he could, sending it as far as he could in the direction of the landing platform. Kei stood up abruptly, eyes widening in shock as he rushed up and grabbed Xor's arm before he could throw something else, "What are you doing!? You're going to give away our position you fool!" The Hunter only pointed as the small grey stone flew farther away.

His rock sailed through the space well over the Fallen working on moving the crates. Kei was surprised to hear a loud clank as the rock hit something solid and fell heavily to the ground. He was even more surprised when an area the size of several skyscrapers flickered for only a few seconds. The disruption was short but Kei could immediately tell what it was.

The Human took a few steps back, eyes growing wide as he realized the truth, "Travelers light…", he muttered in awe.