Cold air clung to Iliana's body as it permeated the air of the small red planet. She was thankful for her long, tightly wrapped red scarf and the hooded fur jacket she wore over her Kamarov Hunter's Armour. The cold couldn't bear through her mask either, though it somehow filled the entire observatory that the two had decided to use as shelter from the frequent dust storms in order to get some rest. A pair of thin, but quite well-insulated sleeping bags were unrolled on the metallic floor. Iliana's eyes scanned the massive console which controlled most of the goings-on in the massive complex. Materializing beside her, the Ghost companion which all Guardians had would look over the computer and begin to run a scan. Within mere moments, he began to speak.

"I can close the airlocks and seal the complex for the night from here and then turn on the oxygen pumps, but the heating systems need to be visited manually in the sub-basements in order to turn on any remote heating. You two could survive the night in cold, but you risk exposure as well as weakened immune systems due to the temperatures. I could return it to only this room for the duration of the night," He said before dematerializing.

Iliana thought for a moment before looking over to Asurya, "Well, I know I don't wanna sleep in my mask and this coat all night," She said honestly, a soft 'psst' sounding as she removed the pressure-locked mask from her face, taking a lungful of freshly pumped oxygen in. She stared down the sight of her Shingen autorifle and took note of the number at the base of it, where the number of rounds her in her magazine were displayed. She pulled a few of the ones she had emptied throughout the day from her bandoleer and began to refill them with the stores in extra stores she had packed, having relieved the weight from her Sparrow before entering the building. From the ammo box, she began to load the rounds into each of those empty magazines. Once finished, she refilled her bandoleer and checked the cylinder of her hand cannon, the barrel coloured in a deep, glossy crimson. She spun the cylinder once before flicking it back into the gun and shoving it into the holster on her hip. After ensuring that everything was ready, she chambered a round for her rifle and readjusted her hooded fur jacket which kept her warm under the protective Kamarov body armour.

"I'm heading to the basement - do you want to keep setting up, or join me? The complex seems to be pretty barren, but I don't want to bar the option of having a battle buddy," She said, firmly pulling the butt of the rifle into her shoulder as she held tightly to the foregrip and it down across her chest. Her index finger was loosely pressed parallel to the gun, above the trigger. She shook her head, tossing her short hair back and out of her eyes.

Why they came to this red planet, Asurya would never know. Actually, she did know why. While her kinsmen fought throughout the galaxy, pushing back the fallen, she and her partner were sent here. The vanguards wanted confirmed intel of the activity that was reported by scouting space probes that were sent from Earth. So here they were. The Awoken shivered as she pulled her white trench coat around. Even with the layer of armor and skin suit that she wore underneath, none of it could halt the cold from rushing through her with fanatical fury. It was manageable however. At least the Fatekiller hood her father gave to her kept her face relatively warm. It was a charitable thing that her father did. The armor that is. It had saved her on many occasions while amplifying what abilities she received from the blessing of the Traveler.

Asurya's ghost materialized as she was off to the side trying to get a console to work. It wasn't as big as the one Illiana was at, but it controled something of vital importance. The observatory that Illiana and her decided to take cover in seemed secured enough. However, if there cameras, sensors, anything that they could use, it'd be just downright stupid to pass it up. "Can you do anything about this?" she asked her ghost. "If fallen converge on this position, I'd like to know beforehand."

The ghost hovered on over as it's eye began to scan the console. "It'll take some time. I can re-route what remains of the infrastructures power to give us the full capabilities of the facility," it said. "Unfortunately, it'd conflict with heating the observatory."

"Can you find a balance? At least cameras? Prioritize the heating, if you could. The planet's one big ice cube."

"Let me see what I can do."

Asurya walked over to Illiana. When she saw the woman take off her helmet, she did the same. Her briliant fire white-blue eyes punctured through the darkness. Her helmet dematerialized as she felt the reassuring weight of her Hawkmoon hand canon and the weight of her shotgun slung across her back. Though she was armed with a pretty devastating arsenal, she used her weapons only in the most desperate of circumstances. Instead, she relied heavily upon her powers that she spent years learning, practicing, studying, and mastering. Her belt still had plenty of ammo and other miscellaneous things. She felt her power amplify in her hand giving it a blue shimmer. She looked at it then dissipated the blue glow.

"Let you go down there by yourself? Please Illiana, someone has to look after you," Asurya said as she made sure her hand canon was loaded before joining her partner. "I've asked my ghost to see what he can do with the cameras for the facility. I think they can handle themselves for now. The layout of the building didn't seem too complicated. The basement should be through that door over there. Stairs. Gotta love them."

Taking a deep breath of air, Asurya started to move towards the spot she had just pointed out. She kept her hand canon pointed towards the floor but high enough to raise and fire quickly if need be. When she reached the stairs that descended down, she took note of the darkness. "Illiana, care to light the way?"

Iliana rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say," She said as her ghost rematerialized in a soft blue flash.

Green scanners ran down the halls in front of them for some distance before he spoke, "You're clear to move from here, proceed with caution, my scan only goes so far," He warned as he lit their surroundings and they proceeded. The gentle 'tap, tap' of their boots echoed for a few feet in front of them down the hallway before dissipating. The air in the observatory was slightly damp, which was a bit uncommon for Mars. Stranger things have happened, Iliana mused to herself, but she stayed on her toes. Her hand released the underbarrel of her rifle and pulled her knife from its sheath latched to her belt behind her and gripped the weighted handle in preparation. Ambidexterity: one of the most useful traits to possess as a Huntress. There was something simply... melancholy about the observatory. It was almost depressing, but that didn't explain why small bits of moisture would drip from the ceiling onto the floor. Had the water reserves been left behind and eroded away, humidifying the entire complex? She shook her head: always assume the most dangerous option. Her voice was low, "Keep your eyes peeled for Hive..."

Minutes later, they were in the basement and Iliana chose to cut the light for a moment as her gaze scanned the room, looking for anything glowing or movement in the darkness. She took a knee and whispered something nearly inaudible to her Ghost, soon a black matte metal case appeared in front of her and her hands deftly lifted the sniper rifle from it. She didn't need to see to know exactly where every part of it was. However, all she did was rest it on her knee, remove the scope and peer through the night vision tube before placing the gun back in its case, letting her Ghost transmute it to her Jump Ship. The girl scanned the room with the night vision, as her Ghost hadn't picked up any movement or life signs. Something appeared rather sharp in her view and she furrowed her brow, standing up - it seems a pillar was blocking her line of sight as she silently siddled along the edge of the room toget a view around it. There was a clear glow that she could now see that had been harder to distinguish before... It was green and looked membranous. Iliana tucked her scope away and pulled her knife back out, returning to Asurya's side.

"Egg sacs..." She explained quietly, "Hive nearby, looks like the console is just beside them. We've a decision to make here, we can get the heat and ventilation turned on... it'll dry out some of the air - if we leave and let it run until the power drains, there's a good chance those eggs won't survive, but no guarantee. We can restore it to just the room we're in and slip in and out undetected... Or we can ensure the death of those eggs and tear them to shreds, alerting the Hive. We'll be fairly safe in our room, but we'll have to actually get back there first... Not to mention, we'll need to escape the complex after nightfall. What do you think?" She asked, deftly letting her knife twirl between each of her fingers as she stared at her partner through the Darkness that filled the room. "There's no telling how large their forces are... But this call is on you."

"You're clear to move from here, proceed with caution, my scan only goes so far."

Illiana's ghost didn't have to remind her to be diligent. Gripping her hand canon in her right hand while she felt energy tingle in her left, she studied the corridor. There was a time - back on Earth - where negligence almost earned them a free trip to the Ethereal. The two were tasked with procuring addition space vessels for a batch of freshly indoctrinated guardians. The mission in its entirety was nearly uneventful. Asurya remembered the moment well. While Illiana was out scouting the room that led to the abandoned hangers, she forgot to clear a room on her left. Several dregs were waiting for her on the other hand. The only reason why she was still alive was greatly owed to the traveler's gifts that she received; the other portion was Illiana. Ever since then, she grew to respect the hunters. Thinking them nothing more than shade stalkers and assassins, the senses and reactions of theirs were unparalleled. They were able to recover the ships. Asurya just left with wounded pride.

Hearing her partner mention the Hive, Asurya gave Illiana a thumbs up. She hated the Hive. The common ones reminded her of dead corpses reanimated. A terrible thing to think about. She waited behind the huntress as Asurya's keen eye sight looked ahead. While she couldn't see what the darkness shrouded away from them, she felt something. Some alien presence - aura - permeating from the thickness.

When Illiana finished her survey, Asurya frowned as she listened to Illiana's choices. They were both logical. Truthfully, she wanted to slip in and slip out. The extreme conditions of Mars was intolerable enough. Why add the Hive to the mix? Why anger the sleeping beast when it had not spotted them? But, what if they evaded the Hive and another fire team came to this location? The observatory, though severely run down, offered a tactical location for a permanent forward base on Mars. While the fight was concentrated on Earth and the Moon. Recently, however, the Vanguards had adopted the policy of expansion. While Earth wasn't anywhere close to being secured, the Hive remaining stubborn in the caverns of Luna, establishing footholds was sound. It was an insurance contingent should the worse every come to pass. An exodus with catastrophic consequences.

Asurya sighed. Checking the clip in her firearm, she let a flicker of energy spread across her hands. "I'm going to smash those eggs with a bit of gravity," Asurya said. Willing for her ghost to come to her, she heard the sound of materialization. "My ghost will illuminate the way for me. You have night vision, right? Get somewhere where you can cover me. The Hive wouldn't leave their unborn offspring alone. I'll head to the controls and see if we can't warm this place up. Or at least our room for the night. Feel free to join me once the eggs are gone, if you'd like. I just offer a potential course of action."

When she didn't hear too much of an objection, Asurya materialized her helmet and locked it in place. The darkness peeled back slightly, but she needed her ghost. Moving forward, she relished in the tingling sensation as her arm lit up with bright, sparkling, light of her arcane arts. When nothing approached her, her ghost illuminated the way before her as she quickened her pace from a brisk walk to a full on sprint. Forgoing stealth, she jumped into the air. As her body fell back due to the planet's gravity, seismic force smashed onto the cluster of eggs as energy imploded before her and created an awesome blue light.

Hearing a shriek from behind her, Asurya spun around quickly as she fired off a round into the face of a Hive soldier. She heard a few rounds echo around her. She could only assume it was Illiana. Moving quickly to the council, she ordered her ghost to reactivate the generators that ran the heating and ventilation. When all was still, she felt another shudder ripple through her. She could feel them. They were coming.

She opened a communications link to Illiana. "I think I woke the whole damn family," she said as she glanced at the console's reactivation process. "You might want to shift. Did you bring any charges along? We need to establish choke points until ghost finishes the reactivation process."

The patrols from the hallways beyond were quick to move when they heard the eggs smashing. No doubt, the entire group of them had even felt it. The minds of Hive species were a wonderment to biologists everywhere - they had the mentality of ants and other colony-based insects, but they had a sort of psychological link to one another. Iliana, on the other hand, was no scientist. She relished the opportunity to show off, and was more than satisfied with Asurya's decision. The Warlock's ability to make decisions was almost enviable. Iliana was less of a leader, that was clear, but they made an excellent team because of it. Her rifle was weightless in her hands as her mind stopped moving and her muscles began to act of their own accord. Several of the different openings into the room echoed with shrieks and the cretins of the Hive were driven down by rounds from Asurya's hand cannon. Iliana was happy to join in, her Shingen's muzzle flashing as it expelled torrents of rounds into the attacking creatures. The power systems were slowly ticking on and it wasn't long before the sight on her rifle no longer needed to compensate for the darkness. Lights flickered dimly, but enough for visibility. Sadly, this only made the Hunter a target for a number of the monsters and she let her gun spin around to her back. Without skipping a beat, she whipped her combat knife out with her right hand and kicked forward from the ground, her other hand reached back for her grenades.

The claw of a Thrall came sweeping within mere seconds, but she threw her weight to the ground, slid forward, and pivoted. Her momentum broke for only a moment as she used her upper body to throw vault forth from the floor and turned her knife to an ice pick-grip. The Thrall, momentarily confused, was thrown to the ground from behind as a knife was embedded deeply into its skull. It wasn't long before the spawn-grenade was thrown from Iliana's hand to mere feet in front of her. An incoming Acolyte had lost control of its own speed for just long enough to be in the baby grenades' spawn and it was mercilessly hunted down by them and obliterated. It was rather gruesome, the pieces parts of the Acolyte being thrown into the midst of its brethren. It was also something the two Guardians were quite used to. Iliana instinctively stuck a trip mine to the wall just beside her and thrust herself in the opposite direction, twisting swiftly and throwing her knife directly into another Thrall's face, downing it in a mere instant. She drew her own handcannon and thrust the barrel directly into the face of an Acolyte and pulled the trigger. The revolver twirled in her hand and she gripped the barrel, whipping into into the head of another incoming Thrall which she quickly kicked in the abdomen before stooping low and retrieving her knife. Seconds began to melt together until minutes had passed and bodies littered the floor. One by one, however, they were disintegrating.

Iliana stepped gracefully over them, out of the intrinsic courtesy she gave to all things, be they living or dead; savage or civilized; sapient or merely sentient. She was soon standing near the console with Asurya, a rather disgusted look on her face as she examined her own state. "GOD! They got their stupid Hive blood all over my god damned... Ugh! I love this jacket..." She rolled her eyes in pure irritation as a rather noticeable scraping sound came down one hallway. "U-uh..." She turned her gaze to the corridor from which it came and furrowed her brow. "Huh... Took the Knight long enough - must have been on the other end of the complex," She noted before pulling out a fresh spawn grenade. The red line of her trip mine still cut through the room at a strange angle and it seemed that their opponents had managed to avoid it. However, as the hulking, crimson-armoured Knight stepped through the large doorway, it seemed even larger than the typical Knight. The trip mine blew as it ignored the thick red laser and the impact staggered the behemoth as he placed a hand on the wall. His other hand held a thick blade-like object which had been forged in quite a crude, primitive fashion. It was still menacing, though.

The Huntress looked to Asurya with a knowing grin before throwing out the spawn grenade, every baby centering on the Knight and hitting it from all sides. She whipped her Shingen Rifle around and lined up the sight, pulling the trigger. Click it sounded. She patted her bandoleer and belts, checking for her magazines... all empty. The girl swiftly released it and reached for her Hand Cannon. Empty. "Where the fuck is all of my ammo?!" She screamed in agitated agony before throwing her knife at it in frustration. The blade embedded in the monster's right shoulder, but it was only growing closer. She had nothing left and she looked over to Asurya. If she were alone, she'd be about to die. It was close enough to block all escape, but there was still room between them, almost like a true face-off. There was a knowing smirk on her face, "After you," She said, stepping back to allow her Warlock friend the last move. They would need to restock their ammo from the corpses or their Sparrows as soon as they had the time...

When Iliana finished setting up the perimeter and joining the warlock near the console, she chuckled hearing the rant of Iliana's dirtied clothes. For being a hunter whom recon in almost all types of terrains, Iliana was still a woman at heart. Asurya was no different. When they weren't out fighting the Fallen or Hive to push back the darkness, she was quite the fashionette. Keeping track of the newest trends in the last city on Earth, she used her credits from her service in the Guardians to pay for the garments and wear them. It was a shame that they didn't have more leave; the Fallen were pushing hard these days.

"It's battledress dear; it's suppose to get messy," Asurya said as she checked her pistol's ammo count. She deftly exchanged the current clip for a new one. Asurya too heard the footsteps as the Knight drew nearer. She frowned. Out of all the Hive soldiers she had encountered so far, the Knights and Wizards were the most problematic. If the knight's didn't stick you, the wizard's gladly left their mark. Looking away from the explosion, Asurya narrowed her eyes as she noticed how larger this knight was compared to its kin. The thing most've been an alpha. "Lets deal with the guest, then we'll worry about getting the blood of your coat."

Readying a handsome amount of energy in her hand, Asurya's eyes flickered between the Knight's center of mass and its gargantuan blade. While she was fairly confident her shielding could hold out against a hit from that thing, the impact would hurt. After the spawn grenades did their damage and Iliana clicked empty, Asurya aimed her hand cannon and fired at near point blank range at the thing's head - or what she thought was its head anyways. The creatures all looked the same to her. Feeling the arcane energy build up even further, Asurya ran towards the knight. Dodging a swing from the massive blade, she released her energy into the creatures chest. An alien scream filled the air as it roared in rage. She lashed out with a gravity burst as the thing staggered backwards and fell. Seizing the initiative, Asurya raised her hand cannon and emptied her clip in the creature's face. It didn't move.

Stepping back, Asurya felt a slight light headedness take her. While she possessed much more stamina than the average warlock - even some of the seniors - using magic took a great deal out of her. She remembered talking to a titan about it. When he asked how taxing using the traveler's powers were, she compared it to his extended marches in the training grounds. Though a Guardian tempered their bodies to be as deadly as possible, the training still left him or her fatigued. Arcanic arts were no different. No matter how much a Warlock mediated to further their mental capacity, using magic was still difficult.

"I don't hear anymore foot falls, do you?" she asked Iliana as she handed the hunter a few clips from her belt. Hand cannon ammo. They used the same type. "I think the console is good to go here. Should we head back? The Vanguards will also want an update on this location. They were talking about making a forward base on Mars, if I recall correctly. Why not here?"