The Frontier: Part Nine - The Shadow of Doubt

The rust-red coloration of Mars, the Red Planet, loomed outside of Orion’s port side window. Cabal land tanks and outposts made little dots on the surface, and enormous craters dotted the planet from above like inverse pimples. “Did you know that the reason Mars is read is because the sands on it are made of Iron, and they are rusting? That is why the planet has a rusty coloration!” Orion said. “Thanks Mr. Encyclopedia but no thanks.” Lyla said snarkily. Anibus, Despite himself, snorted with laughter. Orion blinked. “What is an encyclopedia?” Lyla laughed. “For all of your years, combat, and intelligence, you don't know what an encyclopedia is?” “It never seemed important when battling the forces of evil to know what a pre-golden age item was-”“Just like your comment wasn't important.” Lyla interrupted. “I thought that fact was pretty cool.” Anibus muttered. “ANYWAYS” Orion said unnecessarily loudly. “Let us review the plan again.” “Locate Cadmus.” Anibus said. “Surround him. Take him down. Eliminate other threats.” Orion nodded, and realized that they couldn't see him. Stupid. “And remember. We are taking him ALIVE.” Orion reminded Anibus. “Wasn't planning on killing him.” Anibus said tonelessly. Orion sighed. “You know what I mean. Spark, ghosts, get us in there.” They felt their bodies tear apart into individual molecules, and disappeared. Their molecules reassembled themselves into the orange dunes of the Exclusion Zone. “Sparrows?” Lyla asked. Orion nodded, and all three guardians summoned their vehicles to reach the location of Cadmus. “How will we find Cadmus!?” Lyla shouted, driving next to Orion and Anibus. “Lyla. You don't have to yell, this is a communications system.” Anibus said. “Oh. Right. Well, how do we find him? He didn't exactly give us any obvious clues. In fact, the only clue he left us was that he was on Mars.” Anibus shook his head. “Something seems off about this. However we did manage to get something out of that mercenary Titan.” He then turned his head to Orion before again focusing on driving. “The Titan told us that he had a base on Mars. Close enough to the Reef for relatively easy access, but remote enough so that he could hide. Clever. He also told us that Cadmus had a base where the vex were, whatever that means.” Orion said. Lyla thought for moment. “We need to find confluxes.” She muttered. “What?” Anibus said. “If this Cadmus guy is wherever the Vex are, perhaps we can find the location of the epicenter of the vex confluxes to find his base. It's just a hunch tho-” Orion jumped off his sparrow. The others slowed down. “Lyla! That's brilliant! In fact, I know how to find out.” He said excitedly. “Spark, give Ikora a call for me, will you?” The ghost did as he asked, and quickly a separate channel connected to the vanguard mentor. “Hello?” Asked Ikora. “Ikora. This is Orion-24. I have a favor to ask you.” She sighed. “Orion, I am in over my head. Eris Morn keeps bothering me and droning on about this hive god named Crota coming, Fallen area doing strange things in the BDZ, and everyone seems to be anxious.” “Ikora, please.” Orion begged. The warlock vanguard mentor sighed again. “Fine. What do you need?” “You have hidden on Mars, right?” Orion asked. Ikora snorted. “Don't answer my question with another question, Orion. What do you need.” She said flatly. “I need you to find the concentration of Vex Confluxes on Mars, and then find the epicenter. Can you do that?” Orion said. Ikora ignored the fact that he had asked another question, and affirmed the fact. “Yes. I can relay the information from the data my Hidden provide. I will give it to you in about thirty seconds.” She disconnected from the comms, and went to find the Data. Lyla and Anibus gave him odd glances, and he shrugged. Ikora returned. “Here it is. According to my data, the epicenter of the confluxes appears to be located in a location known as the Dustbowl. I will give you the coordinates.” She rattled off some numbers, and the ghosts quickly found its location using algorithms they had deployed many times before. “Got it. Thank you so much, Ikora. I really owe you something.” Orion said. Despite herself, she gave a tired smile. “You are very welcome. If I have need of you, I will call you. Goodbye.” The warlock vanguard disconnected from the comms and went off to work on something else. Orion turned to his team. “Well gang! Time for some more driving!” About 15 minutes later, they arrived in the Dust Bowl, which was accurately named. It was a large crater that slowly sloped down. They saw vex structures and confluxes looming over the side, and tons of vex in and out of the crater. And it was dusty. The floor of the crater was covered in loose dust, that would spray into their faces even if a slight wind blew through. Through the dust, they saw a ship landed further down Crater, and dozens of the Virgo Prohibition firing on something just beyond it. The vex kept being cut down by an unseen force, but Anibus had an idea of what was going on. “That's the ship from Venezuela! It is Cadmus’ ship. We must be in the right place.” He said. Lyla scratched her helmet. “Well, if that is his ship, then where is Cadm-” a figure smashed through the Cex, covered in Radiolaria, and holding a large machine gun. “Never mind.” Lyla said quickly. Orion pulled out his hand cannon and Knife. “Well, let us join him!” The three of them rushed into battle against the Virgo Prohibition. Anibus launched a rocket from his Ash factory launcher, and took out half a dozen Vex with it. Lyla started cutting through the Vex with her bladed shotgun with unmasked glee, while Orion attempted to make his way over to Cadmus himself. “Ah, guardians! I was wondering when you would show up. I have been killing time destroying these… things while I waited.” Cadmus said easily. Orion blinked. “You wanted us to find you?” He said, failing to mask his surprise. The cyborg blasted a goblin in half with his machine gun “Of course. I can't let you live, after all. You know my name, have seen my face, and know where my secret base is. I will not let you leave alive. So in that case…” he backhanded Orion with his robotic arm. “You are dead.” The hunter slammed his knife into Cadmus’ chest, making him fall back and bump against a hobgoblin. The vex unit blasted him in the back with a void attack, and made him stumble again. “I don't think so. “ Orion snarled, and kicked Cadmus in the face with a jumping kick. He lifted a trashed Vex unit and threw it at the Cyborg as hard as he could. Cadmus caught the metal corpse, tossed it to the side, and lunged at Orion, despite the dozens of wounds that he suffered from Orion's Dan the vex units. Orion struggled against the machine-man, but realized his own physical strength was outmatched by that of Cadmus. “You're wrong.” Orion said. “I'm more alive than you.” Cadmus blinked. “And why is that? I am at least partially human. You are an Exo.” Orion laughed. “I have friends.” Cadmus was grabbed and torn from Orion, and dragged along the ground by his legs. Anibus had mounted his sparrow and snatched Cadmus off of Orion as he was driving by. The cyborg felt his armor run off on the sand, and tried to fight out of his predicament. His body was hurled bodily away, and he did a clumsy roll to regain his footing. A hammer of Sol materialized into Anibus’ hand with a clank, and made him awash with Solar light. Cadmus drew a sidearm from his pocket and opened fire on the solar Titan, but Anibus fought through the pain and kicked Cadmus in the chest. He threw a hammer next to Cadmus, which blossomed into an orange sunspot that let off incredible heat. Anibus threw him into the fires, and watched him writhe. Cadmus screamed, and before the eagerly licking flames could finish burning him alive, Anibus grabbed him by the leg and threw him out. “I don't want to kill you, I have done too much of that already. You are in my way. I will push you aside for now, but if I see you again… you won't be so lucky.” Anibus said threateningly. Orion came up to join him. “Yeah. What he said.” They both turned around to leave, but Orion stopped at the sound of Cadmus’ voice. “You ever wonder why the vanguard never sent guardians to the BDZ until now?” Asked Cadmus, as if he already knew the answer. An unsettling feeling washed over Orion, starting in his artificial navel and swallowing him. “No. I always assumed that they had their reasons.” He said, his face neutral, his words challenging. Cadmus gave a bitter laugh. “It was because of Toliks, that murderous, treacherous piece of sh*t. Every time they sent fireteams there, the Devils swallowed them up. Toliks crushed their ghosts and tortured the guardians to death. The Vanguard covered it up until it was absolutely necessary that they open up the place to patrols again.” Cadmus grew more heated and bold, despite his current condition. “Instead of bringing him to justice, they just prevented him from killing. He stayed in the BDZ, of course, because he wanted to. They let him live! They let that psychopath live! And you let them command you like pawns… how does that make you feel?” Cadmus sneered at them. Orion was at a loss for words. “Come on, Orion. His words mean nothing. The words of a madman.” Anibus said, and Lyla agreed with a nod. But Orion knew, deep down, that what Cadmus said was true. It struck a chord with him. Since his ghost woke him, he had never questioned the Vanguard, and obeyed them whenever they had need of him. But now… his faith was falling apart. He hardened. “What I do, I do not do for them. I do it for humanity.” He said simply. “Let us go.” He said to his team. “And what of you, Titan?” Do you feel good about yourself? Doing this for revenge?” Cadmus shouted as they left. “You are lost!” He yelled. The team dematerialized into molecules, and departed.