Part One: The Fall and the Formation: We were not expecting the Fallen to fly from above. Nor were we expecting the Hive to erupt from below. The move to a new Clan Headquarters was a great idea - the current tower was too small to cater for over 600 Guardians. But marching that number of Guardians with Little Lights in tow was no small feat and ultimately, it lead to our down fall. A scout came across a Dead Ghost. That should have been our first warning. Rare and ominous, Dead Ghosts held the histories of the resurrected, our brothers and sisters. The Warlocks were in the rear guard, lost in thought. Tactics recommended we kept to our small fireteams (balanced, effective and deadly) but when many Warlocks gather in one place it’s like another plane has opened - talking to each other and not to each other. Well, it’s more than a Hunter can comprehend. By the time the Ghost was brought to the Warlocks for analysis the attack had started. Fallen snipers had taken out most of the frontline scouts. The Dead Ghost may indeed have saved the Hunters life. With a fifth of the Hunter force depleted in the frontline defence, the Titans in the middle picked up the pace. Lines of Fallen Dregs poured out of windows. In Titan Squadron threefold formation, machine gun bullets took them down as quickly as they fell from above, but the Fallen were limitless. Blood spattered across the cityscape like a velvet tsunami, equal part Vandal and Titan. Hunters and Titans fell back, their forces near half depleted, backing into the Warlocks now resplendent in fiery Radiance. The smell of burnt flesh was rancid, but the retreat of the vanguard Vandals and Dregs were halted by the mortar shell-like Nova Bombs transferring the very essence of life into it’s secular components, packaged for another time and another place. The battle seemed even, with the Guardian Alliance at an advantage, Vandal snipers having met with Golden Hunter vengeance. A bellowing piercing shriek sounded as a Vandal two stories higher cried its fury. Cut off permanently by the guided light of a cluster of missiles from a gilded Gjallarhorn, the scream no less inspired a fervent response. Above the cry of gunfire, Dregs and Vandals called out. The chorus was reaching a fever pitch, continued even as Fallen numbers thinned. We were surviving. The Hunter reached the centre of the Warlock’s bulk, weaving between bouts of void and solar. The Dead Ghost was delivered to the three most senior in the Light, an Exo and two Awoken. Their hands shimmering with the aftertouch of void, the sadness of a Dead Ghost for a moment overshadowed by the construct of mystery. A distinct CRACK was heard, resounding in the air with a shudder and the ground with a jolt. “Look out!” cried a Titan. He was running towards the Hunter and trio of Warlocks, the crest of Alpha Lupi of his chest gleaming silver in the light of the sun. A gleam came on in the Exo’s eye, the most expert suddenly alert, “Hive below!”. With such speed was the Titan running that he smashed shoulder-first into one of the Awoken. In the second before the fall the Titan weld the Ward of Dawn into an immersive void shield. The Ward saved their lives as they succumbed to the darkness below. The Awoken Warlock, still in shock from the barge of the Titan, was airborne and instinctively gliding when she saw the ground fall. As though a spherical vacuum was created and cut into the earth, a hundred metres either side of her position had dissipated and collapsed. Still gliding, the amalgamation of dug caves and man-made sewers below was riddled with Hive! She had never understood the motivations of Hive, and why would they be on Earth, of all places to be. “Is the Moon not enough?” she asked to the æther, and still expecting an answer. The Hive fell upon the two hundred odd Guardians that fell, many not understanding their position as they died by the claw of Thrall or the Arc-laden bolt of a Boomer shot. Several Sunsingers resurrected but were immediately set upon by the mortar shots of a Shrieker and the incessant charge of Thrall. The four Guardians inside the Ward were repelling the onslaught, but could not last much longer. Above, what remained of the mish-mash of Guardians fought on. The shrill call of the Vandal and Dregs had been answered by a battalion of flying Shanks and a score of Captains with their Shrapnel Launchers at ready. Few Guardians would survive this fight. ‘This is a massacre’ thought the Warlock, sill gliding, with no more view of the above and slowly descending in a deathly spiral towards the underworld below. Super charged, the Warlock fired her most powerful Nova Bomb into the hell below, landing it upon a score of Knights rushing the Ward of Dawn, removing their essence from this instance. She landed within the Ward as it expired, wisps of once-protective void vanishing into the not-there. The other Awoken Warlock then enflamed and blazed a trail of concentrated solar through the ranks of a hundred Thrall descending upon them, satisfied he got the level of heat and magnitude just right. The Hunter then began trephining Hive heads with a Super Happy Machine Gun and the Titan disintegrated Acolytes with a Discharged Storm fists, turning sinew and bone into unrecognisable clumps of flesh. Two dozen Guardians remained in the Hell below, the ranks of Acolyte, Thrall and Knight much less intimidating. A roar came through the makeshift cavern and the familiar whirr and purr of shields brought five Wizard’s to the fore, their welcome announced by the void beam of an Ogre bringing up the rear. Seven Guardians fell with the first Void Beam, 3 more in taking down a Wizard. “To me!” yelled the Titan, the only one left in this under-hell. Ignoring him, the score of Warlocks and Hunters charged. The 3 Warlocks to the right fell immediately, their Sunsinger Supers still charging. A Hunter got the solar shield of a wizard down before falling foul to the Cleaver of a Knight lunging from behind. Super Good Advice avenged him a half second later in the hands of the Hunter with the Dead Ghost, followed by an incisive trepanning of the shield-less wizard the other Hunter had died taking down. The same Voidwalker and Sunsinger from the Ward took down two Wizards in quick calculating succession, completed with a well-placed Firebolt grenade followed by another charged Nova Bomb. Shield-less the Wizards disintegrated into the what-was left by the Nova. Another 3 Guardians were caught mid-reload and bled out from the Arc laden-missiles right-most of the remaining Wizards,. Two shots rang out loud in the air, the Titan calmly and unusually walked forward (not charging?) with Thorn piercing what was left of the Wizard shield before lodging a bullet in what used to be its skull. In all this, seven Guardians remained. The leftover Acolytes and Knights had regrouped and started to assault the right flank, defended by a Warlock and Hunter duo. Sniper and Shank Arc-laser beams rained down from above as the Fallen organised around the rim of the canyon, destroying Hive and Guardian alike. The Warlock on the right fell, taken by the void from a Shredder shot fired by a crouching Acolyte now with a flux-grenade attached to his chest. The Acolyte dissolved in a flash of Arc light as the Hunter activated the Bladedancer Super and flies through the score of enemies on the right flank, destroying 5, 8, 12, 13 Hive before exhaustion hits her. The slain bodies of Knights and Acolytes at her feet, the Void Beam of the Ogre’s eye destroys her before her strength can return. Enraged by her not-Death a heartbroken Warlock holding the centre attempts to leap into the arms of the Ogre and unleash a Nova Bomb at point blank range, but she is stopped mid leap by the gnarly claw of the last remaining wizard. Hurled down at the feet of the Ogre, the Warlock misfires the Nova and envelops herself into the no-longer, blinding the ogre to the shimmer of the Void light. The last five Guardians were allayed around the centre. The Hunter with Dead Ghost still in tow; the Titan; the Exo Warlock and the Awoken Warlocks. The Ogre was temporarily blind. The remaining Wizard was harmed by the defunct Nova created in unstable emotion, but its shields were still active. The Titan grimaced in pain from his left shoulder. ‘That damn warlock must be made of bricks’ he thinks, but he says “This time. To. Me.” The Warlocks and the lone Hunter nod. The Wizard charges. The Hunter heads right with the Exo Warlock, firing. The Awoken Warlocks head left, firing. The Titan jumps backs and unleashes a Gjallarhorn missile into it’s maw. Shields down from the flanking fire, the Wizard turns into ashes before the Titans very eyes.