“Then get in the--" Blake thought for a moment. “We’re under attack!” he yelled. Everyone ran for cover, but there was little cover to get to.     “You want us to get the bird in the air?” Kaber asked like a child seeking approval.     “Preferably,” Blake replied. The titan summoned his ghost and requested his Gjallarhorn rocket launcher; a moment later, the elegant white and gold weapon appeared from a spark of light.     Kaber and Iota ran into the cockpit and started the engines of the hawk. The Awoken took the pilot's seat and gripped the throttle. “What are you doing?” Iota asked as she also instinctively headed for the chair.     “I'm sorry. Were you wanting to fly?” Kaber asked.     Iota’s eyes shot side to side as she pondered the question, then she dropped into the copilot’s seat and barked, “No…” Icarus appeared beside her, a grin spreading across his shell. Iota pushed him aside and continued to pout.     As soon as the hawk was above the hilltops, Cabal harvesters opened fire. Kaber screamed as he dodged around the torpedoes. He made a wide swing around a mountain, which dragged him and Iota into their chairs, as he inspected the controls. “This thing doesn't have any guns!” the Awoken shouted.     “Yes it does,” Iota replied condescendingly. “They're on the joystick. The machine gun is controlled by the trigger, and the missiles are fired by the button on top.”     “Oh…” Kaber said as he looked at the firing mechanism. He lined up the targeting reticle with a harvester and fired the chain gun on the chin of the ship. It tore through the harvester’s engine and caused it to spin out of control; however, most of the soldiers on board were able to bail before it crashed. “Hey, I got one!” Kaber cheered.     “Pilot the plane!” Iota screamed in a panicked voice. She instinctively threw a switch, which gave her the controls, and steered the hawk away from a mountain peak.     Three phalanxes deployed large barricades around the legionaries still recovering from the fall. Blake kept his rocket launcher aimed at the ground close to their feet--all he needed to kill them were the shields to drop. Kendrick, who wielded two submachine guns; and Lafayette, who carried a small hand cannon; and everyone else hid behind crates as they waited.     Blake gripped his weapon tighter as he saw the last legionnaire stand up. As the humans waited for the phalanxes to drop their barricades, three grenades were launched over the wards and around the crates swarmed by humans. Everyone scattered as they exploded, but not everyone was fortunate enough to get away unscathed. The Cabal took this moment of chaos to retract their shields on open fire on the refugees. Dirt kicked up from the craters where slug rounds detonated, bodies exploded from the micro-rockets that pierced them, ears were deafened by the explosions. Kendrick dropped to the ground as a bullet dented the upper portion of his chest armor.     Blake, while ducking his exposed head, managed to fire one rocket; it did not kill any of the Cabal, but it produced a smoke screen that neither team could see through. He and Lafayette used the time to drag the wounded behind the crates while the rest re-composed themselves. While the humans waited once more for the Cabal to make their move, a slug round buried itself into the ground, and a man red with blood dropped.     “Behind us!” Lafayette shouted as he caught the man's body and laid him down gently. A second harvester was deploying more troops behind the refugees. Headhunters, like the one that fired the killing shot, stayed on the ship for the aerial vantage point.     “We need assistance down here!” Blake shouted into his radio.     “Take the controls!” Iota said as she flipped the switch on the dash. Kaber resumed flying the ship, but his maneuvers were less daring, giving the Cabal opportunities to strike them. The hawk shook violently as a torpedo impacted its hull. “Keep it steady,” the exo said as she walked into the cabin of the ship.     “I never had to evade enemies when I--What are you doing?!” Kaber shouted as he banked the ship sharply to the left.     “I said keep it steady!” Iota screamed after catching herself on one of the chairs inside.     “What are you doing?” Icarus asked.     “Just wait here,” she said as he typed in a code on her wrist. Suddenly, Iota's oriental skin turned metallic, silver and blue; she now resembled the exo that she was. “I'm going to need you to hold onto my armor…” she mumbled. Icarus stared at his Guardian for a moment, but he eventually complied and transmatted her jumpsuit and combat harness without a word.     “Are you seriously undressing?!” Kaber shouted after overhearing the conversation.     “Shut up!” Iota demanded. She hit a button causing the rear hatch to open; the hissing of pistons was immediately drowned out by the sound of escaping wind. Iota took many artificial breaths as her body was gripped and tugged by the air. Her frame tried to hold itself together but bit by bit, nanite particles drifted out of the ship and into the open air as a dense cloud until Iota was no more.     Icarus watched with suspense as the harvester in pursuit passed through the cloud. He zoomed in then saw a hand clinging to the outer hull of the Cabal ship. Icarus expanded his shell out of glee as Iota slowly pieced herself back together. “That's my Guardian!” he exclaimed.     Iota crawled over to the engine of the ship and reached her arm into the intake, albeit hesitantly. As soon as her fingers came into contact with the motor, she yelped and drew her hand back. She looked up to see the hawk take another shot, causing pieces of burnt metal to fall off. “I can do this… I can do this…” Iota typed another code into her wrist, deactivating all synthetic nerves in her right arm. She reached down again, ignoring the grinding sound the metal against metal made.     The engine burst into flames, and the ship nosed toward the ground. Iota drew the remains of her arm back and held on as the ship tumbled through the air. She closed her eyes tight after seeing a snow-covered peak come into view. The ship exploded into a ball of fire, but the snow quickly buried it and every piece of debris that scattered.     Blake held a legionnaire at bay, his feet digging into the dirt and snow. He snapped the Cabal's arm-blade off, then shoved it through its lower abdomen. He took the slug shotgun from his kill and shot another legionnaire manhandling a frantic woman. A centurion ripped the gun from the titan, then punched him to the ground. Kendrick tried to deter the beast, but its shields absorbed the bullets. The centurion raised its massive boot and stomped down, but Blake managed to roll just enough to avoid the crushing blow.     Kaber, no longer chased by a harvester, saw that the remaining Cabal were gathered close to a steep drop. He inspected a damage report and saw that one of the engines were malfunctioning, and he concluded that the hawk was now beyond saving. “Icarus,” he called.     “Yeah?” the ghost asked as he flew into the cockpit.     “What are my chances of surviving a plane crash?” the Awoken asked as he looked intently at the ground battle below.     “Less than a 10% chance,” the ghost replied.     Kaber’s demeanor shifted dramatically. “All right, let's not do that.” As he continued to inspect the environment, it became clear to him that the drop off made enough of clearance for his ship to maneuver in close. “This will be easy,” he said unconvincingly. “Just like docking… without stopping.” Kaber tilted the ship downward, then leveled off. He flew close to the Cabal centurion and legionnaires, and Blake--who scrambled to get away--then flattened them with the engine.     Blake took this opportunity to grab his Gjallarhorn once again and destroyed the last harvester. While it fell into the valley, Kendrick gunned down the first squad of Cabal. Eventually, gunfire ceased. After five minutes of conflict, everything finally calmed down. [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/246800840/0/0]CONTINUE TO PART 2[/url]