Three sets of weapons were lowered between a ring of adversaries, and the sets of eyes above them stared holes into the each others. No one made move, none dared capture even a breathe. The Titan, Ringer-7, watched the dreg and the stranger through slitted eyes. Normally, an encounter like this would not have overly concerned him, but his ghost was lying unconscious in the snow and as in any combat scenario, one mistake can lead to you uttering your last words. Ririksis the dreg, the Branded, watched the sword tip pointed toward his neck with one pair of eyes, and with the other he watched the mysterious stranger to the side. He would give a good account of himself to the world he thought. After all, he had no one else to prove it to. The Will of the Mountain, a stranger to the invaders of his home, watched the two with a kind of interest. He scoffed at the tiny dreg as it stood braced for combat, and the Titan didn't belong out here in the wilds. He should have left his mountain alone and stayed in his city. Suddenly, The Will lifted his crossbow, aimed and fired right at Ririksis in the blink of an eye. The dreg's only chance was to throw his legs out from under himself to dodge the shot. As he did so, the laser scraped the dreg's shoulder painfully. The moment the shot rang out, Ringer was already on the offensive. With his rifle he shot the weapon out of The Will's hand. He followed it up with a shoulder charge which threw snow in the air as he ran. But before he could connect with the man, the Will had sidestepped and countered with a Warlock's hand blast. Ringer steadied himself after the blow and looked at the figure with curiosity. "Who are you...?" He gestured to him with his sword point. "You're a guardian?" Even as he spoke he never let down his guard. "To be a guardian one must have something to guard, Titan , " the man said coldly, or perhaps it was just the weather. Retrospectively, he added. "Maybe I am...of this Mountain." Ririksis had ducked his head down as soon as he felt the blast hit his shoulder. He knew the two light bearers would keep each other busy for a while, so perhaps now was the perfect time to make a quick getaway. The moment the unfortunate dreg made to slip away, however, both the Titan and the stranger turned their weapons at him. "DON'T MOVE!" They yelled in unison. Ririksis made the closest thing to pouting his Eliksni face could. Curse his luck....Actually, Ririksis was beginning to wonder if there were no such thing as luck and that all this was purposeful, an attempt to make poor Ririksis go insane. Seeing as he did not have much of a chance at survival in an case, the dreg plopped himself down onto the downy snow. His eyes seemed to dare the two to kill him. Turning his attention back to the stranger, Ringer addressed the man. "If you're not a traditional Guardian, then are you a Risen?" "Mhm..." The man's eyes never left either the dreg or the Titan before him. "You here to take this mountain for your City?" " No. I'm hunting a Devil, the Last One. " "Fine job you're doing, you've backed yourself into a corner, my corner. You're City pushes all the filth into the wild. Who do you think keeps them festering over here?" Gun and Sword still in hand, Ringer answered levely, "I'd imagine it's you?" "Smarter than you look, Titan." With his free hand, the man made a broad, sweeping gesture to the wide ranging mountain side. "This is my Mountain, and I don't suffer trespassers." Ringer decided to take a gamble here, he knew that one way or another weapons would need to be put aside at some point if they were not to fight, so he slowly lowered his sword and gun point away from the man. He kept the gun loosely trained on the indignant Ririksis on the ground, however. "Well," the Titan exclaimed. "You'll be pleased to know that I was thrown here. If it were up to me, I'd never have stepped foot on this-- your-- Mountain." "Hm." Ever so slowly, the Will of the Mountain lowered his own weapon from its ready position. Great, they're friends now, Ririksis' mind said. From where he stood, his Destiny was looking very dim, and spent. The Mountain Man scrutinized Ringer for a minute or few before making up his mind. "Fine," he said . "You can leave, but first you're going to help me get these insects of my Mountain." As he was planning on doing so anyway, the Titan readily agreed. He looked to the Fallen Ketch still in orbit above the Mountain. It made no sign of moving any time soon, they were in for a siege. "Don't have much of a choice now do I?" He covered his eyes from the sun's glare as he surveyed the massive Ketch floating above. " Well, seems we're stuck together for a while. I'm Ringer-7. " The stranger nodded in approval, "Not the name I would've picked for you, but if that's your name that's your name. My name is Phillip Rooks." He pointed to the dreg with his weapon . "Now what to do about you..." *** Erica Lockhart had been locked out of Ringer's comms by the fall he had sustained. Whatever had happened couldn't be good. She sat back in her chair for a minute as she decided what to do. Finally making a decision, she opened a small box and pressed a round, yellow button. Instantly a message was sent out, and instantly two guardians received it. Meanwhile, Erica put on her shawl as she stepped into the City streets. She had an appointment, an appointment with the highest court of appeal in detection. *** /Dive into the Trenches?/ https://www.bungie.net/en/Groups/Post?groupId=3422633&postId=249426639&sort=0&page=06