[b]Schrödinger Crater, Luna[/b] He watched the field through binocular technology built into his helmet, but the image was clear enough that he could swear he was there. In reality, he was hundreds of meters away, safely behind the hastily built encampment secured around the crater’s inner wall. His attention focused on the far side, where several tall clefts rose from the lunar dust. At the base of one was a dark hollow. He checked the timestamp on his HUD. It was time to begin. “Mark,” he called out over the comms. Three seconds later his vision was obscured by a massive wave of dirt erupting from the crater’s basin. A few more seconds later he felt the energy of the seismic charge ripple through the ground and up his body, causing him to shift his footing to maintain balance. After the dust settled, he relocated the tunnel entrance, fully expecting something to emerge. Two very long minutes later, something did. If he had zoomed his magnification out, the Hive Thrall pouring out would have looked like ants, recently riled up from having their hill disturbed. He could hear their shrieks in his mind as they lunged across the lunar surface. The Thrall were stopped by a steadfast barrier, comprised of dozens of reinforced Cabal Phalanx shields. As the first Thrall struck the shields, Legionnaires leapt over the Phalanxes with their jump packs, landing on and flattening at least two Thrall each on the other side before engaging with slug rifles. The tactic proved effective, with only a couple handfuls of Cabal being buried under waves of Hive only to be gunned down by more Legionnaires. Then the Acolytes, Knights, and Wizards emerged from the tunnel. The remaining Cabal, held their ground as the Hive rushed them for a good distance. “Mark,” Lieutenant D’Ssoad called again. From the cliff faces another swarm crawled over the rocks to attack the advancing Hive force from behind: several hundred Eliksni armed with wire rifles and shock pistols. Many of the four-armed beings dropped to the crater floor brandishing swords and daggers to fight hand-to-hand. The Hive force hesitated in its charge toward the Cabal, and the Phalanxes bellowed, raising their shields. Rushing out from under and between the broad plates, humans wearing armored space suits ran toward the Hive army, assault rifles blazing and joined by the Legionnaires. The battle that ensued was raucous and violent. The Cabal were large enough to go toe-to-toe with Knights while humans and Eliksni engaged more Thrall and Acolytes. Psions among the ranks fought on an unseen battlefield with the Wizards, hoping to disrupt their telepathic communication with the swarm while Centurions reorganized different fronts. Both sides incurred noticeable losses this time, but the Hive kept leaving the tunnel like an open faucet. “You wish you were down there, don’t you Lieutenant?” a deep voice chuckled behind him. The sound buzzed through a universal translator equipped in his armor, standard issue among the Cabal. “’Wish’ isn’t the word I’d use,” D’Ssoad replied. “Not to fight [i]against[/i] an enemy,” the voice continued, “but to fight [i]alongside[/i] your allies. Such a good soldier.” Ignoring his superior’s remarks, he reported, “They won’t stop coming. The Eliksni are almost completely gone and the humans are about the same. We could really use some Risen here.” The being behind him barked a sharp laugh. “Now I can see what you really want, D’Ssoad. How unoriginal.” “A little Light could go a long way.” He felt the ground vibrate as the being behind him stepped toward him, resting a clawed hand on his shoulder. The belt of Hive skull fragments and Vex head cases that his commander had at all times brushed against his back. “More accurately, we are a long way from the Light,” Riksis growled beside him. He was about to reply when something across the crater caught his eye and he zoomed back in to look. D’Ssoad cursed. From the tunnel mouth emerged the largest, palest Hive Ogre he had ever seen, its wrists and ankles shackled in broken chains. The monster roared in anger as a brilliant purple laser cut through swaths of humans, Eliksni, Cabal, and Hive alike. Phalanxes rushed forward to protect some of the forces, but only provided a brief respite before their shields were sheared in two. Beside him, Riksis followed suit and hissed at the sight. “Phogoth,” the Eliksni spat. “How did they expect us to win against a Reborn Ogre?” He was answered by a crack suddenly splitting the ground between them and their army. Green, sickly light shone out of the chasm, and more Hive Thrall, Acolytes, and Knights clawed their way out of the ground. Half the force charged to the army bracing against Phogoth. The other half charged toward their encampment. “Sentries!” Riksis roared through the comms. “Mount the turrets and prepare your sniper rifles. Target the Knights. Everyone else, meet them on the slopes.” The Eliksni smiled under his helmet. “Looks like you’ll see some action after all, Lieutenant.” D’Ssoad unhooked his scout rifle from his back. “I could have done without.” Turrets and sniper barrels blazed to life against the oncoming Hive. Several Knights fell before they halted their charge and the rest summoned barriers of darkness. Several of the Acolytes held boomers and took position behind the Knights, lobbing rotting starfire at the mountainside while the Thrall and Acolytes with Shredders continued. The human and Cabal Legionnaires stationed at the encampment fire from around boulders and jutting rocks. D'Ssoad chose a position that overlooked most of the charging Hive and provided decent cover to reload. His versatility with his rifle was exceptional. Even Thrall screeching at a dead sprint toward him had bullets perforate their skulls somewhere around their glowing green eyes. He ducked back to reload his rifle, but another Thrall leapt over his cover and landed on his back. It gnawed at the reinforced plating around his neck long enough for D’Ssoad to drive a combat knife into its face. The weight dropped off his shoulders in the form of chalky powder. “Can’t let that happen again,” he muttered to himself, peeking out of cover to see if anything else was coming. He shoudn’t have worried. The Hive were now focused on Riksis. The Eliksni was only a couple heads taller than the Acolytes he engaged, but his strength was unmatched. In each of his larger arms he grasped a live Thrall by the throat and used it to batter the other creatures while his lower arms held a shock rifle. He spun and shot through the swarm like a berserker, and D’Ssoad knew that his superior was cackling under his helmet. [i]How did I get assigned to him?[/i] he groaned inwardly. Riksis piled into the line of Knight shields, breaking the line and drawing their fire. Then he crushed the Thrall’s necks he held as he swung his arms, kicking up a cloud of Hive dust before grabbing two more within reach and repeating the action. The cloud he kicked up enveloped him and the Knights. When the ashes settled, he was the only one standing, buried half up his shins in dust and bone fragments. D’Ssoad looked around and saw that the remaining Hive swarm was being taken care of, with relatively low casualties on their side. He stepped from around cover and approached Riksis, whose armor was terribly but superficially damaged with thousands of claw marks. [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Groups/Post?groupId=1371758&postId=244991280&sort=0&page=0]Table of Contents[/url]