[url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/257167447/0/0]Link to Chapter 1, Part 1[/url] [spoiler]All chapters of the War of Lies will be linked to the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/257167399/0/0]Table of Contents[/url] as they are posted every Monday[/spoiler] The passage lit up with the sounds and flashes of gunfire. Luckily, I was a decent shooter and we had the element of surprise. The first man fell down to a knee when I shot his ribs. Derre missed his shot and yelped when our second opponent fired his full-auto weapon and landed a couple bullets. I took a graze to the arm as well, but when I fired again the second man backed up from the corner and his comrade managed to stumble back while laying out wild fire. At the same time that they moved, I grabbed Derre around the waist and began dragging him backwards while constantly shooting at the corner to keep them from coming around to finish us. “Sergeant!” I heard one of them shout over my shooting, “We’ve encountered hostiles in the neighboring mine! Request reinforcements and medical aid at sector…!” I stopped listening. Derre was writhing and groaning in my hold so I couldn’t reload. These folk were clearly trained in combat, and experienced enough to work with a gun wound. Not to mention equipment that far outmatched ours. Holstering my sidearm, I grabbed my handheld radio from its pouch on my shoulder and held down the button. “Boys we got a gunfight!” I warned, “S’posed ta be only one crew but they’re serious!” “One crew?” the captain of another ship with our group questioned, “I ain’t turning tail from a couple mercs just cuz you got spooked, Hal. This is an important load.” “Shut yer mouth and get o’er to where mah boys are,” I bossed, “That’s where they’ll be comin’ from. Mah boys, ya either drop an run with me or ya hope ya live ta get paid.” “Gettin’ the engines hummin’, Hal,” Simon reported. “Get those medicines out, we need ‘em,” I commanded. Only the ship captains in charge of the dig and the ships themselves had full radio sets instead of ear pieces, so I didn’t get any other responses, but in a minute I started to hear men shouting ahead of us. The problem was that I could hear it behind, too. I straggled out past the crate we had dropped earlier and then into the cavern where we had parked the cargo ship. Sunlight filtered down through a gaping hole in the stone ceiling, marking our way in and out. Only our ship was here since the others found entrances at other points, and the engines were already lit up. The shouting stirred up more when we came into sight, and a few people raised their weapons, but some quick smacks to the heads and curt words let them know we were on their side. A couple members of my crew and one of another’s rushed to help me. Derre was quiet, limp, and breathing heavily as he was pulled from me and dragged to my ship by two of them. The third accompanied me as I walked. They needed time to get Derre aboard, anyway. “These boys’re trained!” I warned everyone who was lining up at the mouth of the tunnel and crouching behind crates and machinery, “Hope ya can prove meh wrong an get meh spoils!” “Your portion is all mine, Hal!” the captain from earlier boasted, “Show ‘em what we learned on Venus, men!” He received boisterous cheers from his crew, making me scowl. They were an experienced bunch, those ones, but so were mine, and the other crews likely had almost no members who’d seen combat. I sure hoped I had the wrong impression about those two we had run into. A couple rounds of gunfire cut over the yelling, and then hell broke loose. I pulled my gun and fired a few shots off, but I was far away and didn’t really expect to hit anyone. We made it to the ramp and climbed into the ship. A couple more of my men were there at the bottom, shooting into the tunnel with longer-ranged weapons. I got up to the hold and looked over the inside. We only had several crates, but I was counting the men. A few boys from other crews had defected from their bosses and joined us, which wasn’t uncommon in situations like this, and all of mine were accounted for. All except… “Clys!” I roared, walking back down the ramp a short ways, “If ya don’t die ‘ere I’m ‘onna kill ya!” “Not if I kill ya first, sir!” Clys laughed back from several meters in front of the ship, “Go! We’ve got this!” “Ya bloody…! BLOODY! GAH!” I flung my hand up in frustration, “DON’T DIE YA MORON!” Without waiting to see if he’d make another quip, I boarded with my boys and pounded the button to close the hatch. After a moment, the ship rocked as we lifted off of the ground and began winding up to the cavern’s roof. I stalked over to the hold console and turned on the outside cameras. Watching the feed, I saw a few bodies from our boys lying dead amongst the rest, and a few unfriendly corpses just outside the mouth of the tunnel. But then, as I watched, a fresh wave of gunfire erupted from the tunnel, followed by more enemy forces clad in red and grey. Over half of our boys dropped, either dead or wounded, and the rest were getting overwhelmed now that our numbers were less than the intruders’. They were clearly on a much higher level of performance, picking off shooters with precise shots while our boys fired wildly. “That’s a lot for one crew…” one of my boys muttered, peering over my shoulder with a few others. “Must have a big ship to hold all them boys and equipment,” another pondered, “And valuables like them pretty guns on board.” “Smart thinkin’ boys, but we’ll pro’ly meet the same fate as dem other boys if we try,” I told them grudgingly, watching more of the men I had known for months or years fall in far greater numbers than the originally smaller enemy forces. No one tried pressing the matter; I had gained a reputation over the years of making good calls and keeping my crew alive, which was why so many were on my ship at this moment. And with what was happening below us right then, there was no way anyone would argue against me. “Son of a… not Clys and Tom…” someone mourned, watching them fall on camera. Some of the few boys that were left began throwing their weapons and raising their arms in surrender, but they were shot anyway. “What do we do now, sir?” one of the former members of another crew questioned. I kept my eyes on the screen as I mulled over our options, growing increasingly frustrated. Finally, I pounded the console. “E’eryone be ready ta get treated like dirt. Don’t hide tha load, if we’re lucky they’ll still pay fer what we got,” I commanded, “The head missy ‘erself’ll wanna know what happened.” The hold grew silent except for a couple muttered curses and groans. But one in particular stood out to me, probably because I agreed with it. “That Light-forsaken Seren.” [spoiler]Seren is the leader of the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/218618986/0/0]Reef Mob[/url], from the series created by Azidamadjida[/spoiler] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/257213019/0/0]Link to Chapter 2, Part 1[/url]