Among the many worlds humanity had taken for its own in ages past, Mars was always considered one of the harshest of them. Even so, the vast expanses of desert proved to be an oasis for many, and even now the footsteps of three Guardians could already be seen dissipating into the wind as they traveled down the well-worn paths formed by human, machine, and alien alike. Jadis, Tempest, and Lazarus reached the crest of small sand dune, emerging from the Giant’s Pass and into the Valley of Kings. A well-worn path of trampled sand continued into the valley and into the heartland of Cabal held territory. On one side of the valley, there lay a modest Cabal research outpost. Several legionnaires and phalanxes could be seen patrolling the seemingly vulnerable open-air structures the hulking brutes seemed to enjoy so much. Three centurions could be seen gesturing and barking angrily at each other in the confines of a command structure isolated on the top of a sand coated plateau, pointing animatedly with their thick fingers to sensor nodes that dotted the rock faces and cliff sides of the wall of rock that circled the back of the research outpost. On the other side, set precariously close to the edge of a cliff was a Vex portal. Calling it such would not do such a structure justice. The portal was made of the burnished, bronze like metal that made up the bodies of the Vex, and looked similar to the portals that similarly dotted Venus, besides the fact that it was ten stories tall. The air around the portal shimmered and warbled like a mirage, and if one listened closely, the portal itself seemed to buzz and hum rhythmically, pulsating like a beating heart. “Have you two noted anything peculiar?” Tempest stood rather stoically atop the crest of the dune, his arms crossed across his chest, the ends of his faded robe flapping in the wind. Jadis was in a low crouch, ready to spring into action as she bounced back and forth on the tips of her feet. “Besides the fact that Itami has stopped sending Guardians to slaughter the Cabal, not really. Unfortunately, if there aren’t any Guardians on the surface, your plan of stealing a ship is a complete bust.” “Not necessarily,” mused Tempest. “We could head over to the Rubicon Wastes and take control of a Harvester…” “I haven’t been back at the Tower in some time, but I don’t think the denizens of the Last City are going to take too kindly to a Cabal transport vessel flying towards the Tower,” remarked Lazarus as he sat comfortably in the sand. “With the Vanguard dead, all previous rules and regulations regarding transportation to and from Earth are out the window. It’s not as if I can contact anyone I know. Even if they aren’t captured or dead, I was never the most…sociable of Guardians.” Jadis snorted quietly as she tried to hold in her mirth. “What about the gate?” Lazarus pointed towards the enormous Vex portal that loomed over the skyline. “That Vex gate only allows one to enter the Black Garden. I wouldn’t trust anyone to try and alter the space-time pathways linked through that gate. Not even myself.” Lazarus turned his gaze outwards towards the Valley of Kings, worry lines crinkling the skin around his eyes. “Even so, I still don’t think that---“ With a mournful wail, klaxons rang mournfully throughout the valley. Cabal could be seen scrambling frantically throughout the outpost. One of the centurions leaped out from the command structure and landed into the center of the outpost, barking orders at the other Cabal. Lazarus stood up wildly in a swirl of sand, his head jerking erratically in every direction as he searched for the disturbance that had tripped the Cabal alarms. “What tripped those sensors!?” Jadis glanced over her shoulder to look at Lazarus, and tilted her head in the direction of the Vex gate. The gate seemed to shudder as a hue of black energy appeared to steam off of fringes of the structure. A low eerie whine could now be felt resonating through the air, and even Tempest’s body seemed to vibrate in time to the mechanical cries of the Black Garden gate. With a cry that resembled the lonely lamentations of a once great beast awaiting his impending death, a monstrous Vex gate lord emerged from the depths of the Black Garden. Instead of a frame composed of the alien metal that resembled burnished bronze, the gate lord’s body was composed of a bright, white metal, making the two story tall Vex appear as if it had been carved from marble. Its right hand reflected the natural design of a human one, but instead of a hand, its left arm was attached to a weapon none of the Guardians could recognize from their fights with previous Vex entities. It resembled the closed head of a flower bud, with wires and cables wrapping up its arm before disappearing around its back. The machine’s bulbous chest did not show any signs of containing a bright Vex power core, but there was instead a large, curiously shaped semi-spherical pit in its chest, where an ominous glow seemed to pulsate behind it like a heartbeat. The gate lord raised its head to the sky, and from its body erupted a piercing wail that caused the windows in the far away city of Freehold to shatter into sprays of powdered glass. Jadis and Lazarus both fell to the ground in a fit of convulsive limbs, clutching their heads as the sound ripped through their heads like knives. Jadis touched a fingertip to her ear, and felt a trickle of blood running down the side of her face. She turned towards Tempest, who regarded the two of them with a bemused expression. She tried to respond back, but she couldn’t even hear her own voice. Shaking his head, Tempest kneeled down next to her, gently took hold of her chin, and turned her head toward the direction of an ongoing battle. All of the centurions were now standing in different spots in the outpost, right next to a small group of Cabal legionnaires, with a few phalanxes standing with their hulking shields at the ready. With a roar of unison from the centurions, the Cabal released a hailstorm of rockets at the approaching Vex. The gate lord let out a startled shriek as it stumbled back under the blast wave and a cloud of smoke. As the debris cleared, the gate lord still stood, it’s once beautiful armored casing now blackened with soot. The gate lord stood motionless, before the pit in its chest began to open, the purple light inside beginning to pulsate faster and faster. With a flare of purple light, a column of Void energy shot out of the gate lord’s chest and swept upward through the desert before vaporizing a wide swath through the very middle of the Cabal outpost, transforming metal into a molten slag, Cabal bodies into charred meat, and red sand into blackened glass. “What do you want to do now?” mouthed Lazarus. Tempest merely continued to point his gaze forward, as a simple black helm materialized over his head. [b]Chapter Index[/b] https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/116093772/0/0 [b]Continue On to Chapter 13[/b]