[spoiler]Looking for a different chapter? Here's the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/205901906/0/0]Master Post.[/url][/spoiler]Avesk’s ship raced through the night sky. On the horizon, four floating blobs appeared. “There’s our target.” Avesk said, eyes narrowed as he watched the view screen. “When I give the signal, you two transmat down and get on your sparrows. I’ll stay in the ship to drive the Skiffs off. I’ll rejoin with you later. I trust you two to get into that Fallen fortress.” Validus and Cosmo nodded and prepped their weapons as the ship flew closer and closer to the Ketches. Like a swarm of angry bees, over a hundred Skiffs took to the skies, heading en masse towards the lone jumpship. All three Guardians tensed at the sight of the small army of dropships approaching them. “Now!” Avesk shouted, and the other two Guardians disappeared in a flash of light. Now they were riding their light personal vehicles under the ship. Avesk upped the speed of the jumpship, pulling ahead of the Sparrows. With a press of a button, he fired a small salvo of missiles at the swarm of Skiffs, downing at least two. Not waiting around to see the result of his attack, Avesk took a hard right, with the Skiffs in hot pursuit. Cosmo and Validus, however, were able to ride up to the base without being noticed. The two ditched their sparrows and continued on foot once they got within firing range. They knelt behind a small ridge of gray land. Validus nodded his head towards the base. Cosmo pulled out his sniper rifle and stared at the base. “What do you see?” Validus asked. “Hang on..” Cosmo said, “Yep, that’s a lot of bad guys.” “Then shoot them.” Validus answered. “Don’t tell me what to do.” Cosmo said as he pulled the trigger. The sound of gunfire echoed across the dusty gray plain. A Vandal patrolling the base was hit in the shoulder, and collapsed to the ground, wounded. All of the Fallen looked around looking for the source of the shot. Another round was fired off, killing a Vandal. The remaining Fallen snipers screeched and aimed towards the hill that Cosmo and Validus were hiding behind. The high pitched whine of the Arc beams signaled that the Fallen were firing at them. “Well, crap.” Validus said. “Now what do we do?” “Shoot them.” Cosmo replied. Validus responded wth an unamused stare. Cosmo stepped out from behind the hill, firing at the Fallen snipers, aiming to incapacitate or kill. From the other side of the hill, Validus charged the base, running straight into enemy fire. Any time a Vandal opened fire on him, Cosmo was quick to pick it off before it could cause more trouble. Eventually, Validus was able to close the distance to the base’s entrance. A Fallen Captain bellowed a challenge and began firing at him with his Shrapnel Launcher. Validus grinned beneath his helmet and adjusted his direction to meet him in battle. Validus slammed into the Captain with his shoulder, the impact breaking the Captain’s Arc shield and sending him stumbling. Not giving the Fallen the time to recover, Validus quickly followed the shoulder charge up with a couple of quick shotgun blasts, putting down the Captain for good. Validus turned to the cluster of Fallen standing close by. His fists became alight with Arc energy and he jumped up into the air, before bringing them crashing down into the ground. / They entered the old moon base, which has been remodeled to fit the Fallen’s needs. “We need to find this Baron before it’s too late.” Validus’ Ghost spoke inside his head as they traversed the winding hallways. “I’m detecting enough Fallen and weaponry to make an attack on the City.” Validus nodded and looked to Cosmo. “You’re a tracker. Can you think of a likely area where the Baron could be hiding?” “He’s either in the base here, or up in one of the Ketches. I say we check down here first, since we already made the trouble of entering the base.” Cosmo replied. Validus nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” Cosmo and Validus navigated the many hallways until they entered are large rectangular room. Fallen machinery littered the room, and most of the electricity was functioning. Fallen glyphs were sloppily painted across the room. “Look!” Cosmo pointed to a Fallen lift on the far side of the room. “We can get into a Ketch from there.” He said. They began to cross the room, when suddenly, a deep Fallen voice reverberated around the large room. “Sha’ir bo, ka do! Tus hoor tus ka!” Suddenly, a massive Fallen beamed down the lift. “There’s our target!” Cosmo shouted. The two opened fire on the Kell, but bullets barely seemed to impact the giant Fallen. “New strategy.” Validus said as he charged the Fallen. He jumped into the air and raised his fists, preparing to smash, when the Fallen suddenly lunged and grabbed hold of the Titan’s fists, before violently throwing him across the room. The Titan slammed into the metal of the warehouse wall, making a sizable dent. “Ge e sha’ir dress aba sha’ir!” The Fallen laughed maliciously. It turned and began rapidly firing at Cosmo with it’s Shrapnel Launcher, forcing the Hunter to dive behind cover. “Ugh, what did he just say, Ghost?” Validus groaned as he extracted himself from the Titan-sized dent. “I’m not sure, but it was probably an insult.” Ghost replied. Validus shook his head, and evaluated the large Fallen, who was still taking potshots at the cornered Cosmo. “We need to re-evaluate our strategy.” Validus said, “This isn’t working.” “You need to come up with a strategy, you mean.” His Ghost responded. “Quiet you.” Validus narrowed his eyes as he watched his opponent. “Hm.. no reinforcements.” He said to himself. “He must be extremely confident that he can beat us. We can use that to our advantage.” Validus opened a communication channel to Cosmo. “He’s all alone. If we hit him together, we might be able to break his guard long enough for one of us to hit him really hard with a super.” “It’s worth a shot.” Cosmo replied. They burst out from behind their respective cover and began firing together at Skoriks. The Kell stumbled underneath the combined firepower of the two. Validus wasted no time in rushing towards the Exile Kell as Cosmo gave him covering fire. Validus jumped up and punched the Kell straight in the face, sending the Kell reeling. He followed up the blow by unloading a full magazine of his Pulse Rifle into the Fallen’s face. The Kell reached out blindly and grabbed Validus’ Rifle, before snapping the weapon in half. “Aw crap.” Validus said. The Kell laughed and grabbed Validus by the helm before lifting him up and ramming him straight into the ground, the impact crushing the Guardian’s bones. The Kell bellowed a victory cry and teleported next to Cosmo. Skoriks smashed the ground, creating a shockwave that tossed the Hunter back several feet. “Hurry up and revive me.” Validus’ voice sounded over the comms. Cosmo slid, dodging Shrapnel Launcher shots, over to Validus’ body. He poured a small amount of Light into Validus’ Ghost, and the Ghost completely reconstructed Validus in an instant. “Thanks.” Validus dusted off his shoulder pads and equipped a rocket launcher. “This guy’s going down.” He fired two rockets into the Kell's chest, knocking the Fallen off his feet. He quickly charged and brought a Fist of Havoc down onto the Kell. Skoriks yelled in pain and teleported to the Fallen lift. “Ki vi-vos she’lot.” The Kell laughed and disappeared into particles as he used the lift to teleport up to the Fallen Ketch. “After him!” Validus yelled. Cosmo and Validus lept into the lift and ascended into the hold of the Exile Ketch. / Skoriks quickly made his way to the bridge of the Ketch, where he was approached by his most loyal Baron, Treksis. "My Kell, you are injured." Treksis said. "It is nothing that I can't recover from." Skoriks replied. "The Guardians," Treksis asked, "they have been slain?" "No." Skoriks growled. "They proved to be mightier than I had anticipated. It is no matter. Once we reduce their city to rubble, Guardians will never again pose a threat to the Eliksni." "Two intruders detected on the lift." A Splicer monitoring a security terminal declared. Skoriks cursed. "Activate the Prime." He ordered. "Treksis, hold the Guardians off with your forces until the Prime can assist you." "It will be done at once, my Kell." Treksis said. He departed from the bridge immediately. / "Hey Guardians. You two still alive?" Avesk's voice came over the comms. "Yeah. Where are you?" Cosmo asked. "Heading back towards the moon base." Avesk replied. "I managed to give all of those Skiffs the slip." A brief silence permeated the air. "Okay, yeah, that's a lie." Avesk said. "They're still chasing me." Validus groaned and facepalmed. "Where are you guys anyways?" Avesk asked. "I'm having trouble pinning down your location." "We're in the lead Ketch." Cosmo answered. Avesk was silent for a moment. "Okay, I was not actually expecting that." He said. "Coming to you now. And get ready to shoot stuff; these guys are pretty angry, if I do say so myself." Validus merely chuckled and cocked his shotgun.[spoiler][b]Fallen Translations:[/b] "Sha’ir bo, ka do! Tus hoor tus ka!" = Guardian Banner will burn! Come, face me and burn! "Ge e sha’ir dress aba sha’ir!" = Guardian the Kell; soon Guardian the Dreg! "Ki vi-vos she’lot." = The Traveler Thieves are strong foes. Credit to [url=https://www.bungie.net/en-US/Forums/Post/122860874?sort=0&page=0]Sarison[/url] for translating some of the Fallen language into English. [/spoiler][quote][url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/219607964?sort=0&page=0]next chapter[/url] [/quote]