After a few moments, Aiden-12 came back with a futuristic rifle, "Here, use this. You might have seen a few guardians with it in the Tower. It's an old SUROS weapon called the Regime, went out of production a long time ago. It's one of the best auto rifles you'll ever find. Smart matter, too. Whenever you aim down sights, the bullets shift caliber. Fires slower, but hits a hell of a lot harder."
Galen caught the rifle and examined it closely, "Of course, SUROS can't compare to Omolon. It should serve you well enough, though, so have fun with it."
Galen let out a low whistle, this was far more advanced than anything he had ever used before. He noted an ammunition counter, meaning he didn't have to load tracers at the bottom of his magazines anymore, a compass of some sorts, and even bar graphs at the bottom of the electronic suite. "I can expect the caliber change to be a bit jarring at first, but I'll get used to it. Thanks." He said. Their squad leader appeared and sat down on the couch. Galen didn't pay much attention however, he was busy learning his new SUROS Regime. Where the safety was, what everything did, reloading and unloading the gun. Until she tapped him on the back, “Those are for you so you can enter the game, no need to pay me back.”
Galen looked at her, then at the table, finding ten strange coins in front of him. He set his SUROS Regime down between his legs, and picked one up. It was... Strange. It was warm to the touch and vibrated slightly. "Thanks. I'd rather keep these in a bank or something." He said, putting eight in one of his many pouches. "But I'll leave two out to play."

[Timeskip - 2 Hours Later]

Galen found himself winning quite a bit. He shrugged. "Me and the guys used to play this a lot back in basic. I've gotten kind of good at it." He began to count the coins and stow them away when Andro suggested a new game. Galen shook his head, declining the offer to play. He knew what this game was, having played a few times in his youth. The game was as ancient as he was, and the last thing he needed was to have his cheeks hurting from laughter during a mission. He was content with counting his new earnings, although he wasn't sure of the value of these strange coins. He saw Kazik drinking some tea, and Galen wondered if Fallen had tea of their own. He played with the thought of what kind of cuisine Fallen had, what kind of art or music.

Spectre turned to him, "Hey kid, sorry if I rambled their. Your new right? Technically it's against Vanguard code to give rookies high grade gear."
"R-Really?" Galen stammered, getting a little nervous. He never enjoyed getting chewed out by the Drill Sergeants, and if he broke some equipment rules, the Quartermasters would undoubtedly tear him a new one.
Spectre just smiled. "But Hunters aren't exactly the most keen on rules. So you can have something Holiday and I scrapped together, never been tested but I figure if your about anti-armor this is the toy for you." His Ghost summoned a strange weapon, at first glance Galen thought it was some sort of beam weapon. As Spectre introduced it, he learned its name, The Sleeper Simulant, and what it was. A handheld Railgun. An Anti-Armor troopers wet dream. During his time, handheld railguns weren't a thing, but speculation gave it a very good reputation, even before its introduction to the armed forces. Spectre patted Galen on the shoulder and told him to take care of it before moving to speak to Kazik.
"Uh, yeah." Galen replied quietly, with the Sleeping Simulant on his lap. He was speechless. Railguns supposedly had unparalleled armor penetration, with none of the drawbacks that HEAT warheads had. While shaped charges were excellent at armor penetration, once they penetrated the first layer of armor, their effectiveness was reduced immensely, making spaced armor an effective deterrent to shaped charges. A Railgun, firing a solid slug, would not have that weakness. A solid projectile, while having its velocity reduced after penetrating the first layer of armor, would still have enough energy to go through a second, or even third layer of armor. The only worry that Galen had was reduced spalling effects and overpenetration, but those could be resolved by good aim. He carefully picked it up and examined the railgun, studying it in the same way he studied his new SUROS Regime.

"Ouch." Spoke the cybernetic voice of Simon's Ghost in his head.

Simon stared in utter disbelief, gazing over his awful set of cards in his hands. He eyed the Black Spade Seven and Red Heart Two grimly; it was considered the worst hand to start out with. This was but another string of upsets that had staked against him despite his best efforts within the past two agonizing hours. The Defender Titan was unable to hide his frustrated and defeated face, fully knowing and feeling the wieght of an imminent loss was upon him.

When it came time for everyone to reveal their holdings, Simon hesitantly showed his to the community. There was much sighing and grunting in the room as almost everyone but Galen revealed inadequate hands. With a groan, Simon placed his head on the table with a light thud, pushing his remaining Strange Coins into the ever growing pot that now belonged to the rookie Guardian.

"Beaten by the newcomer...That must be a new record-" Cipher was formulating a nudging telepathic insult before being cut off.

"I don't want to hear it." Simon mentally hissed.

Most of the party backed off from the table, likely finished and grown tired with the game for personal reasons. Simon of course was quite done supplying Galen's skillfully developed hoard of coins out of his Vanguard provided budget which he had tapped into once his on-hand amount was forfeited out of the suffering of multiple bad plays. Simon leaned back into his own chair and stretched his body, placing both hands on his face while staring face up at the ceiling of the shuttle.

As Simon's Fireteam leader went around the space, serving tea to those whom were interested, he silently acknowledged with a thumbs up and soon took hold of the cup once Andromedai supplied it. Taking a sip before resting the cup back on the table, Simon laid withing his seat eyes closed, allowing himself to drift away in the the comfort of the ergonomically refined cushioning and the nearly too classy music. The atmosphere was pleasant enough to calm his agitated nerves after the grueling losses.

In an attempt to maintain the field of play, Andromedai had gestured another game in mind but at this point, almost everyone was quite though with competing against one another; even Nova's situational report shot that idea down too. Not a minute had passed by as Simon, nearly falling asleep had then began to hear the banter between the Fireteam leader and Specter over duty and position. Honestly the racket was unwelcomed but at the same served as a reminder that he was on a mission and half an hour away before their firearms were likely to discharge soon. With a growl, Simon sat straight up and half paying attention only to see Spectre and Kazik beginning to converse about something he didn't quite pick up.

Simon then took notice of Galen once more whom now had a fragging railgun in his observant grasp. He blinked several times in stunned amazement with how loaded this rookie was becoming; being well-armed with Exotic classified armaments and stealing everyone's prized currency meant for transactions with the mysterious and enigmatic Xur. He watched Galen analyze and examine the potent heavy weapon before speaking up.

"You know how to use that?" Simon interjected. It was a silly question to ask someone who job was to put holes through anything large and heavily plated but in all honesty, this was a new wild age and as a mentor himself, Simon was naturally concerned for the rookie.

“Am I truly the only one that wishes to play this humorous game?” asked Andromedai while she looked at her squad, waiting for a reply that never really came. It was clear to see that her squad was no longer in the mood for card games after what just happened. “Very well then.” the hunter stood up and carefully made her way off of the couch before walking over to a seat on the right hand side of the ship and sitting down. The seat leaned back quite a bit as the lights dimmed even more. Moving her head to the right, she watched as the world outside passed by her. “Orion, please wake me up when we are about to arrive.” There was a pause before Nova interrupted them “I am picking up movement very close to us, unsure if…” Nova never managed to finish her sentence before the ship jolted violently throwing off the Gyro-stabilizer. “Son of a bitch we are hit, I thought this ship had stealth capabilities, it does have stealth capabilities! I am going to try and bring us down and get you into the forest without getting…” The side door of the shuttle blew off with a deafening sound followed by the roaring wind outside of the craft.

The concussion blast was so powerful that it threw Andromedai against the ceiling so hard that it knocked her out cold then sucked her out the side door in a blur of motion. “EVERYONE OUT!" yelled Nova into her Com before the ejection seat could be seen igniting followed by a low roar as it shot far into the sky above. Andromedai was lying in the snow when she finely came to, the soft blue evening sky above her. At first, Andromedai was worried she was paralyzed or severely injured but thankfully her Ghost Orion appeared in front of her face, hovering a less than a foot away from her face. “Andromedai? I did a medical scan and you are in better shape than I thought you were going to be in. Thankfully you only broke both of your arms and I can tend to those immediately, oh this is going to hurt quite a bit.” Andromedai opened her mouth to speak but was quickly cut short from the pain she was experiencing. Her Ghost Orion had immediately gone to work with healing the broken bones in her arms, she could hear them pop back into place causing a wave of intense pain to run through her whole body like an electrical shock.

“All done, get on your feet Andromedai, we have House of Blight Fallen moving in on us.” Andromedai sat up and pushed through the pain before finely making it to her feet. "The pain should pass very shortly." said Orion before Andromedai noticed the ship had crashed only five feet away from her. "Shit, that would have been the end of me..." said Andromedai, there was blood around her but no wounds on her body. "Orion, is there something you want to tell me?" Orion spun around Andromedai a couple of times before speaking "Later but we have...in front of you!" A few rounds flew past Andromedai almost hitting her in the head. Quickly, she took cover behind the crashed shuttle and noticed that Nova had ejected, safely getting away. "I count six Fallen troopers, just scouts but their aim is much better than I was expecting." A few more rounds flew past the shuttle and went off into the distance before exploding in small pops of blue light and sparks. "Special ammunition as well, just keep your head down and I will report targets to you via your com." Orion vanished leaving Andromedai alone by herself in the snow, wondering where her squad was. "Two are trying to flank from the right side Andromedai, take them down." said Orion.

Andromedai quickly but carefully moved to the right side of the ship and took aim with her primary weapon, the shots thankfully were passing through a silencer so they made very little noise. The rounds hit the Fallen but they kept heading towards her. More shots were taken but they merely bounced off the armor of the Fallen. They were now close enough to engage in melee combat. Andromedai was using her fists at first until one of the House of Blight fallen scouts stabbed her in her left shoulder, causing her to yell out in pain due to the super heated blade that went so deep it scraped across bone. Andromedai hit the fallen as hard as she possibly could in the face with the butt of her weapon causing the Fallen to fall back before being shot in the face multiple times. The other Fallen tried to same move with its knife but Andromedai was quickly to shove her sniper rifle into the Fallens face and and fire. The Fallens head exploded before the body fell to the ground and clawed at the snow for a couple of seconds before becoming still.

There were four more and being already wounded was going to make things interesting. Leaning to the left side of the ship she noticed that the four other scouts were gone. "No contacts, as if they vanished." said Orion before reappearing and floating back down to Andromedai to inspect the injury. "The knife you were stabbed with is super heated with small barbs to inflect as much pain as possible."I can heal the wound in a couple of moments but as of now you are going to have to fight through the pain. There is a snow storm moving in and it is going to interfere with my sensors, we need to find the rest of the squad before taking shelter." Andromedai glanced at her shoulder and noticed that she could see bone. It did not hurt, was the strange thing, there was no pain as of now. "There is no pain Orion, just this injury..."she motioned at it. Orions light flashed brightly a couple of times before he spoke. "You are not in shock and are currently in great condition besides your shoulder." Orion flew up above Andromedai and looked around before speaking once more. "We need to move, the core inside of the ship can be overloaded to cause a massive explosion that will draw all allies and hostiles in the area to our location.

In your condition we should wait until we are quite a distance away and it can be used as a distraction giving us time to evacuate the area." Andromedai nodded her head but felt as if she was being watched. "Send a message on all friendly frequencies, tell them where I am and I need assistance immediately or they are going to loose their squad leader." Orion agreed then sent the message to everyone in the squad, wherever they were.

"You know how to use that?"

"Orion, please wake me up when we arrive."

Kazik had settled into a passive state of observation when there was a crash against the ship, sending it careening off course. Instinct took over, and he formed a tripod of sorts against the seat and the wall using his arms, and drew his sidearm with the one not in use. The pilot commanded that everybody abandoned ship, something which Kazik was none too eager on. Regardless, he acknowledged it to be the safest course of action, and prepared for an exit. This squad leader violently bucked upwards and crashed into the ceiling, only to be thrown out the blown-open side of the ship. Firmly grasping a pipe connected to the wall, Kazik remained in control before the ship stabilized a bit. Another round passed by the hull, looking remarkably similar to…

Oh no.

Kazik leapt from the ship in a twenty meter base jump, and landed with a roll followed by a stumble. In the distance, arcs of Fallen weaponry could be seen discharging towards who he could only assume to be Andromedai. Recalling that Guardians could be torn back from death in most situations, Kazik noted that he would not be so lucky. Making a quick glance around, he concluded that he was safe.

With a short blur of purple, a small servitor warped out of Kazik's armor.
"Scan for walkers in the area," he commanded in Fallen tongue, and the little orb began releasing a faint, radar-esque pulse. As he began to settle into an uncomfortable wait, Kazik heard a familiar sound behind him. Turning to face the threat, Kazik saw a Fallen captain uncloaking behind him.

"You fell from their ship."

"They had me imprisoned. I only grabbed my weapons in my escape."

"I do not recognize your banner."

"Ancient House, long forgotten. Worn for nostalgia. I am a mercenary now." Kazik was nervous that his lies would be seen through, but kept his voice bold and powerful, glad to have his face hidden behind such an aggressive mask.

"You will come with me for… debriefing." Kazik knew what that meant. He had said that to many before, always before their death, torture, or kidnapping. Usually the first. Reaching for his hip, his hand floated through the air where his sidearm had been. Looking to the ground, he realized that it fell out of his hand during his fall. The opponent did not respond to this well, and with impossible speed, drew a shrapnel launcher. With a single pull of the trigger, Kazik was sent flying back, his Void Shield trembling from the impact. He would not survive another. As he lay on the ground, dazed, Kazik saw the stealth captain approach him slowly, methodically, sadistically. He pointed the shotgun at his chest. He made a sound not unlike a chuckle.

"You are a bad liar, traitor. House Sin should have stayed de-," he was cut off as a small bolt of purple appeared as though from nowhere, knocking out the leftmost two optic sensors on the captain's helmet. Looking over, he saw that a tennis-ball sized Servitor floated boldly, almost defiantly, awaiting destruction. In a moment of tactical stupidity and rage, the captain moved his weapon from Kazik to the Servitor—a foolish decision.

Kazik sprung from the ground, having drawn his shock rifle during the captain's distraction. He emptied a magazine into the creature, only for most of the rounds to leave pathetic burn marks against the armor. The captain retorted, but not before Kazik drew a shock blade, using the extended reach to knock the shrapnel launcher from the Fallen's hands. With a lunge, Kazik impaled the foul creature, the razor-sharp edge and arcs of scorching electricity piercing the armor effortlessly. For a moment, the captain was stunned, a moment which Kazik took to calmly reload his weapon. Withdrawing his blade and kicking the captain to the ground, Kazik stood in a position much similar to the one he had been in before. Plunging the barrel of his shock rifle into the hole made by his shock blade, Kazik burrowed upwards as the captain howled in pain. Without mercy, Kazik held down the trigger. At first, there was just a muffled splattering. As the magazine drilled on, however, the sounds became less muffled, until shock rounds poured out of the captain's exploding head.

As the weapon clicked empty, Kazik withdrew his rifle and reloaded it again. He was breathing heavily.

Let's not do that again.

In the distance, Kazik saw storm clouds approaching. It was now that he received a transmission, commanding him to aid Andromedai. Grabbing his pistol from the ground, he headed towards where the fight that he saw had been in a fast gait, the Servitor trailing just behind him, still sending out pulses intermittently as it searched for the machine which Kazik had no doubt felled their ship.



Disgregarding the dead Fallen and pool of blood Kazik stepped up to his commander, identifying himself with the symbol on his cloak.

"Where are others? We should leave now. Virisk scanning for enemy artillery. I would not want to be here if he finds any."

Zeruel had watched the card game for a time, but as it dragged on he began to zone out becoming completely lost in his own thoughts during the trip until the ship violently shook as it was hit by anti-air artillery, snapping him out of his daze in time to see Andromedai be thrown out of the ship followed by the fallen jumping out after. Veruna phased out as He bolted for the opening as well only to be thrown off by the ships rocking and slam into the side before falling out to the forest below.

He hit a couple of trees as he fell and landed in the snow along the forest floor. He rose again rapidly, Thorn drawn, to make sure there were no Fallen or Hive nearby. When he saw that there were none he laid back down and Veruna appeared to assess any damage. He sat up again and they both found that his arm had been majorly damaged, it sparked and jerked as Veruna set about repairing it. Zeruel kept Thorn drawn and looked around while the repairs were being made, he eventually received a message set from Orion requesting help for the squad leader shortly before they were finished.

He stood up and flexed the arm and gripped the fingers to make sure it was in working order before turning to his ghost. He didn't need to say anything, or at least do whatever the remaining bit of his speech function allowed him to do, as Veruna answered "The ship's crash site seems to be in that direction" The ghost turned to face toward the source of the distress call "i'm not detecting any of the others nearby" Zeruel holstered Thorn and took out his rifle, setting out toward the crash with Veruna hovering over his shoulder.

"You know how to use that?"
"Huh?" Galen looked up puzzled, he was getting a lot of attention from these experienced Guardians. "I uh, think so. I read some papers on railgun mechanics in training. My company commander made all the AT guys read it." He began, unholstering his old weapons and placing his new weapons in their place, "He kept on saying, 'that gun is the anti-tank gun of the future. In a year, we would all be lugging around infantry sized rail weapons.' I guess I'm the only once in my unit to use the stuff we read." His voice got quieter near the end, he was looking at the floor. "Anyways," He spoke up, looking up, "I've already got a few ideas of how to-"

He was cut off when the ship suddenly lurched to the side. He grabbed the side of the table and couch to brace himself, knowing that if one shell hit them, there would be more coming. He remembered the storm of flak he saw out of the windows of his dropship before he died. It was kind of like a wild roller coaster, only scarier. The second shell hit the side of the ship, tearing the door out of the hull. There was a deafening roar as the ship decompressed, Galen saw his squad leader fly out of the hole where the door used to be.
“EVERYONE OUT!"
By now the ship had equalized more, Galen quickly got up, ran towards the hole and leapt out. Remembering his HALO jump training, he splayed out his arms and legs in the correct manner, as he was in freefall. He then noticed he had no altimeter, or parachute. "Cryptid! Altitude!" He yelled. That familiar robotic voice spoke up in his head, giving him his current altitude. He was sure he was at terminal velocity by now, and that he didn't have much time. "I don't have a chute!"
"Oh you'll be fine." She replied.
"I- What?! Uh, okay!" He nervously said, looking back down at the approaching ground. Just before hitting the ground, he attempted the PLF technique. Turning himself upright, once his feet landed, he threw himself sideways, trying to distribute the shock of the landing between his feet, calf, thigh, hip, then back. Which didn't end very well, once he was on the floor, his feet and back were in pain. He grunted and did his best to keep himself silent, not wanting to give his position away.
"See, fine." Cryptid appeared in front of him,
"I think my le-"
"You have some pretty bad fractures your legs and ribs. Your suit absorbed much of the shock."
"Shit, that's going to make my job a lot harder." Galen thought about rolling over to crawl, but opted against it at the time.
"I can fix you." Cryptid replied. Before Galen could get a 'what' out, Cryptid floated upwards and a wide beam of light shot out from her eye, going over Galens body. He grit his teeth and felt needles all over his legs and side. Then, the feeling was gone. He slowly got up and stretched, testing his body.
"Well... That was unpleasant." He muttered, "Cryptid?" She appeared in front of him, "Stay hidden, less chance of us being seen." She nodded and disappeared once more. Galen grabbed his SUROS Regime and took a few steps, almost into view of a Fallen patrol. Luckily he ducked behind a dead tree before they spotted him. They were on the hunt. In a few seconds, something had grabbed their attention, and they darted away. Galen peeked out and counted six of them as they were running. "I'd rather not follow them..." He muttered, and he started to carefully walk in the other direction.
"There is an ice storm thing coming soon. We should find shelter." Cryptid spoke up,
"A blizzard?" Galen corrected,
"Yeah, an ice storm." She said, Galen turned around when he heard faint gunfire where that Fallen patrol was heading too. "I'm getting a message from Andromedai, I have her location." A navpoint appeared in Galen's heads up display, and he began to travel towards the beacon.

...

A prone Galen peeked over a small hill, seeing the wreckage of the ship they came in. He saw a distinctly two armed figure near the ship, and a distinctly four armed figure standing near the two armed figure. Must be Andromedai and Kazik, he thought, judging by their non-hostile body language. He glanced down at his SUROS Regime to check its compass before opening his communications.
"Friendly coming in from east north east." He spoke quietly, but just loud enough for Andromedai and Kazik to hear, once he was sure they were looking in his direction, he pulled out his flashlight and flashed it twice. He waited a second, then got up into a crouch started moving to them, careful not to kick anything or step on anything loud. Once he got to their position, he knelt down on one knee and put the buttstock of his SUROS Regime on his knee, resting the firearm. He gave a quick salute to Andromedai and nodded to Kazik, "Galen Vassar, in one piece, ammo good."
After he gave that quick update to Andromedai, he moved behind a piece of wrecked shuttle keeping himself in cover. He shouldered his rifle to be at the ready in case any more hostiles came over, keeping his eyes on the horizon.

Aiden hissed in pain. His Ghost was frantically trying to repair his near-severed arm. Pumping the trigger of his Hard Light, he grimaced. Something was wrong with it. Laboriously pressing the magazine release and popping the magazine out, he squinted down into the weapon. Groaning, he tossed it aside. The receiver was bend to the side, stopping the polymerized bullets from reaching the barrel and firing mechanism. He could fix it, but he'd need both time, a worktable, and both of his arms. Reaching to his hip, he quietly slid the Vestian Dynasty into his hand and held it shakily in his intact hand.

His ghost beeped, and then spoke: "There's a message from Andromedai. She's calling for a rendezvous near the fallen shuttle. I can make a nav marker for you, but you should wait for me to fix that arm before you move.

Aiden nodded tightly and heard a beep as the small gray-and-white marker appeared on his heads-up display. "Thanks, Ghost," he muttered.

---

Perhaps ten minutes later, his arm was working again. Still holding his Vestian Dynasty (lacking in any heavy ammunition), he began to move towards the map marker, squinting through the ever-increasing snowblindness. His eyes suddenly flicked towards the motion tracker, which was lighting up all around him in varying shades of red. Swearing colourfully, he switched on his comm system.

"Hey, if anyone can hear me, it's Aiden-12. I'm about 250 meters off, surrounded by hostiles, presumably Fallen. Primary weapon nonfunctional. I may have problems, so any reinforcements would be much appreciated. Over." Readying his handgun, he waited in silence.

There was a glowing blue light off to his right and he swung around, rolling only a foot underneath the flashing bolt of blue light and coming up with his barrel pointed at a Vandal. Squeezing the trigger four times, he dropped the Vandal. Rushing over to the creature's body, he grabbed the wire rifle and armed it, checking the ammunition. Only three shots left in it. All idea of stealth abandoned, he sprinted towards Andromedai's campsite. Bolts of blue energy and shards of shrapnel flashed by, occasionally bouncing against his projected shield. He gritted his teeth, turning and taking a quick shot with the wire rifle into a Captain's head, barely taking down his arc shield.

About 140 meters off from Andromedai's beacon, he slipped in the snow, losing his footing and a split second of time. Immediately, a burning blue bolt of arc energy blew through his head and he collapsed to the ground. His ghost floated above him, broadcasting a wide signal across all of his ally's arrays. Just two words:

"Guardian down!"

You 'think' so? Simon thought, seemingly amused if not concerned with the rookie Guardian's answer, considering the powerful heavy weapon he now wielded. The Defender listened to Galen's history reminiscing description of his time as an anti-tank soldier and the eventual deployment of the super accelerated weaponry of the Golden Age. It amazed Simon that Galen would have a perfect memory of his previous life, especially being dead for several centuries. Simon himself hardly had any recollection of who he used to be or what his career was before he died. Then again, all Guardians had different physical and mental responses when being resurrected by their Ghosts for the first time; apparently for him, it was the loss of memory and the silvering of his hair.

He then caught Galen in the moment of basically identifying himself as being the only one of his squad left alive, noticeably toning his voice down as if thinking about the statement. It seemed clear that the young Titan was still coming to terms with his new life and accepting that he was chosen to wield a power many couldn't possibly understand nor obtain. It was a rough road most Guardians walk down before taking hold of their Destiny.

Just as Galen recovered himself from his own thoughts, a commotion had arisen between their fireteam leader and Nova, mentioning something about some sort of activity on the ground. Soon afterwards, the entire shuttle shook immensely as if something had hammered it violently, throwing Simon out of his seat. Things were apparently clear that they fallen under attack by someone and now the craft was losing altitude fast as he felt his weight sink into the floor at an angle. To make matters worse, the side door that he had caught a glimpse of suffering the worse of the hit to his knowledge gave way and crumpled outward, causing the inside of the shuttle to depressurize. Anyone who had not been sucked out clutched whatever they could to keep themselves from getting ripped out too.

Things still further decline as Nova demanded everyone to abandon the craft over the comms as the shuttle continued to dive back to earth, wings clipped and probably on fire. Simon was not going to argue with the order and proceeded to quickly pick himself back up once his environment stabilized. Following his comrades, Simon bolted and jumped out of the dying craft and into the open sky.

===

“-up Simon, now’s not a good time to be lying around unconscious!” echoed the voice of Cipher from the outside the darkness.

Simon’s eyes flickered open upon hearing his Ghost calling out to him, awaking from his momentary black out. His sense of feeling steadily returned to him, feeling a brisk breeze. The light of the white sky at first blinded him but eventually he could see things clearly.

"I'm up. I'm up..." Simon groaned as he attempted to recover himself from the ground.

Brief memories poured back into his consciousness, reminding him of what had occurred minutes ago. After jumping out of the doomed shuttle, Simon had entered into a long freefall back to earth. Admittedly, this was the first time he jumped from something from such a high altitude before and with such momentum adding to his velocity, timing his jump jets to counteract his rising speed was difficult maneuver to pull off. Thankfully however, his experiences from literally jumping into Crota’s insidious realm for post-intelligence gathering after a raidteam vanquished the Hive Prince for good served him well as he made it out of the fall with only minor injuries and concussion.

"I picked up weapons fire not too far away from here, it could be the others”

Now that he was on his feet again, Simon gave the motioning gesture of placing something around his head to which Cipher replied by materializing the replicated Helm of Saint-14 into the Guardian’s hands, locking it to the docks of his lightmail. The armored helmet visual sensors glowed a deep purple upon its connection, feeding visual information to Simon’s HUD. Scanning his surroundings, he noted the snow across the landscape and the thick grey clouds coming in from high above as the wind grew colder.

“We should start looking for them, I’d rather not be out here once that blizzard hits.” said Simon as he equipped his auto rifle still magnetically sealed to his back plate.

Just before heading out, his motion sensors pinged movement behind him. Not bothering to look at the IFF read, he quickly turned his head and swerved his body around, bringing his primary weapon bear. Luckily however, what he found was a familiar Hunter sliding down from the edge of the crater to greet him. Apparently Spectre had also made it out of the shuttle almost at the same time he did and thus landed close by. That’s what Simon theorized anyway.

“Sorry about that…” Simon lowered his auto rifle just as he stood down.

Upon a brief interaction with the Hunter, Spectre detailed the location to the crash site, possibly wanting to check for anymore survivors and to possibly try to reach out to anyone. With that said, Spectre then moved forward, leading the way to the crash site and passing a snide line the process. Simon tried not to let the Hunter’s personality get to him as he picked up the pace with the Hunter. Titans moved faster anyway.

Spectre had not been buckled, being light and nimble he'd been sucked out of the ship almost instantly. He managed to right himself and figure out which way was down just in time jump and roll. Now standing at the edge of crater near a Hive seeder the man groaned. "Like we didn't have enough trouble." He grumbled drawing both his hand canons.

Torren appeared at his side. "You should move."

"Why?"

"A Titan is falling, right towards us." The Ghost replied calmly as Spectre scrambled to try and move from the impending large object.

He'd seen a Guardian get hit by a Warsat before, Titans had to be half as heavy. The shockwave of the Titans landing threw snow over the hunter and sent him into a snow drift. Groaning he sat up in the snow brushing it off himself. "You really know how to make an entrance huh big guy? Ship is south of here, we need to regroup and find a beacon check in with the Tower." He said fishing out both his guns from the snow placing them on his back her drew his sniper rifle then stood up, fixing his cloak.

After he had righted himself he started walking off towards the wreckage. "Now lets get moving, I'll go slow so you can keep up big guy." You could hear the grin in his voice. "I'll find a vantage point overlooking the site, give you some cover to get in their and protect them. Once your in I'll uncloak and feed them lead, I'll lead off the remaining forces then cloak and come back to you guys." He told the Titan his plan as they ran along the snowy hills.

Kala had been shuffling and reshuffling the cards since the poker game had ended. She was a bit suspicious of the winning streak of Galen, and was making sure the cards were plenty shuffled. She had shuffled the deck for the fifth time when the ships impact threw her to the floor, the cards exploding into the air. Looking back and forth, Kala saw some of the crew jumping out, some falling. This was a disaster. Not knowing what else to do, Kala got up and ran through the door, barely managing to not stumble as another projectile rocked the ship. Leaping out of the open door, the wind rushed pass her as she barreled down to a field of snowy white. Some 20 feet up, she activated her glide ability, slowing down until she was able to safely fall down to her feet. Her head whipped around, looking for any signs of enemy activity. There wasn't a soul around, neither foe nor ally. She was alone.

BEEP

A little noise filled her ears as her Ghost materialized in front of her. It was a distress signal from Andromedai, along with her location. Pulling out her SUROS Regime, Kala began to run towards the coordinates. She needed to reunite with her team soon. Constantly looking around, she saw no Fallen moving in on her during most of the trip there. After a while, she could see there was a smoke cloud billowing upwards. That had to be the crash site. Quickening her pace, Kala is stopped by another message from her Ghost

"Guardian down!" it screamed, alerting her of the nearby ally in trouble. Checking the location with her Ghost, she seemed to be the closest to the downed teammate. Running to the location, she was about 50 meters off when she saw the Ghost of Aiden-12, frantically trying to help him. That would take too long. Taking a cautious path, she yet again found no enemies. It was like they were being attacked by a phantom. Lowering her weapon, Kala sprinted over to the lifeless body, Velox materialized above the body a began working on bringing Aiden back to life. With two Ghosts working together, the job was finished in no time. As Aiden-12's head came back into existence, Kala grabbed him by the hand, ready to help him up.

"You okay? We have to hurry up, If we want to get back to everyone else. Plus, looking at that smoke pillar, they're gonna need our help, and they're gonna need it soon."

“Guardian Aiden is down Andromedai, we need to move to his position immediately to recover his body for resurrection.” Said Orion as he healed the rest of the Hunters wound upon her shoulder. “The storm in the distance is moving faster than expected as well, we need to find shelter before it poses a threat to our mission.” Pushing herself up from the ground, Andromedai used the destroyed ship as cover as she moved to the rear, weapon at the ready for any remaining hostiles. “No hostiles remain in this area Andromedai, Aiden-twelve is one hundred and forty meters away from our current position. We can reach him and hopefully find cover before the storm arrived but we will be cutting it close.” There was no response from Andromedai as she ran through the snow, keeping an eye out for any hostiles that may have been planning to ambush her or the rest of the squad.

“I have eyes on Aiden, I will retrieve the body and meet you back at the ship for our next course of action.” Said Andromedai as she ran up to the fallen Guardians side, quickly grabbing onto his body and pulling him across the ground leaving a trail of crimson. “Hostiles to your left, I count two of them with line rifles.” Orion highlighted the targets for Andromedai who dropped the body and quickly took aim at the remaining hostiles, picking them off with her sniper rifle. Once more, Andromedai bent down and grabbed onto Aiden and dragged him across the snow as quickly as she could until they arrived at the heavily damaged shuttle. “Ghost, I need Aiden-twelve up and ready to go as soon as possible.” Pointing at Aidens ghost, she gave an order to it before looking over each of her squadmates.

“No more injuries? Good, we need to move immediately once Aiden is up.” Now pointing with her left hands index finger, she spoke. “Our objective is three hundred meters away from our position, you can see the military complex from where we are now.” In the distance was a large military compound, planets had grown over parts of it and the building was ageing quite well despite how long it had remained abandoned. “Orion, stay with Aiden and report back to me once he is fully resurrected.” Orion did not say anything though his light did pulse a couple of times which meant he understand. “Everyone follow me, that means you as well Spectre, do not run off and turn into a lone wolf.” There was quite a bit of blood on her armor now, unsure if it was from her own incident or from Aidens. As the group walked, the storm in the distance behind them was rapidly catching up and would be upon them shortly, greatly obstructing their vision.

“I’ll breach the back door, the rest of you give me cover while I enter first. We move as a team quickly and quietly, my guess is that if there are any hostiles inside of the building that they will be on the second floor, not the first. I am not entirely sure why, but the Fallen seem to like to build above ground level.” Once they were close enough, Andromedai took a knee and used her range finders to scout the building. “Exterior is clear, interior appears clear as well but I highly doubt that, keep moving and keep down.” Moving to the back of the compound, Andromedai drew her sidearm and took an offensive position before quickly kicking open the door and aiming down the sight of her weapon. “Negative contacts, stay on alert, they most likely know we are here now.” Motioning with her left hand, she moved forward and checked over every room on the first floor to find it empty. “First floor is clear, let’s breach second floor, who wants to take lead?”

Zeruel took up a position on on top of the ships wreckage and kept overwatch with his rifle as Andromedai dragged Aiden's body to cover, stepping down when she made it back but still keeping an eye out in case more scouts came. He glanced back at the storm as the started walking towards the complex, he held up his hand as he turned to follow and Veruna came down to hover over it. He went through his inventory changing his manifold seeker armor out for Seraph armor, the two set looked very similar but he also equipped an armor shader to change it's color, it turned his armor a grey color. most of the time he uses shaders for camouflage, lacking the cloaking abilities of a hunter, simply a habit he picked up wile hunting with Helia. one he was done he let his arm down as the new armor formed on him and Veruna floated back up over his shoulder as they kept walking. Once they reached their target and Andromedai scouted it they breaching in through one of the doors. Zeruel followed her in with his rifle up, checking rooms as well. When it was deemed clear Andromedai asked someone to take point to sweep the second floor. He turned toward the stairs, his motion accompanied by Veruna saying "We'll take the lead", and started walking toward them with his rifle raised again.

This is what I got so far. The other half will probably be breaching the facility.

Simon maintained his pace with Spectre, as the Hunter lead the way towards where the rest of the fireteam was located at. Both Guardians ran through the building snow and icy winds as the inevitable blizzard was upon them, undeterred by the natural elements while they raced to their objective. But even the wisest warrior of the Light knew better than to fight in a raging snow storm and that fact alone probably kept them going aside from chance of coming across any hostiles.

"Looks like everyone got scattered across the plateau; I can't pinpoint anybody and this weather is certainly not helping." Cipher complained while continuing to try and make contact with anyone nearby.

That was worrisome. If they couldn't detect any of their fireteam members before the blizzard hits, they would practically be on their own and stranded from any friendly support. Simon began to plan ahead if in fact they needed to take shelter to outlast the storm.

"Located any beacons by any chance, Spectre?" Simon called out to the Hunter, "If we can't rendezvous with Andromedai or anyone before this storm scrambles all communications, we'll have to find some other way in get in contact with them. May have to get a hold of the Tower if need be."

Just as Spectre gave his input, two loud sudden bangs from a discharging sniper rifle could be heard echoing close by, over by a large rock formation they had been sprinting around. Cipher was quick to localize the origin of the gunfire and marked the point of detection on his HUD. In quick response, Simon jerked his head to the right, facing the direction of the source of the shots.

"Spectre, Did you hear that? Three o'clock over that small cliff face!" alerted Simon as he drew his auto rifle from his magnetized back panel.

Using his armor's jump jets, he boosted over slanted cliff, using any natural steps as leverage as he continued his ascent. Upon reaching the top, Simon could clearly identify the crashed shuttle, now looking nothing more than smoldering clump of metal. Unfortunate as it was to lose such a finely built craft, the two Guardians had more pressing concerns to worry about. Overlooking the wreckage, Simon could then identify Andromedai holstering her rifle and Kala, both tugging the downed body of Aiden-12 into cover. Scanning the area, the Titan could not make out any other signs of hostile opposition.

"Guardian down. Let's get over there to provide backup." as he began to slide down the other side of the cliff face. He was unsure if Spectre had heard him but is motion sensor confirmed that the Hunter was moving with them.

Apparently everyone else who had already been on their way or were lured by Andromedai's gunfire had arrived, all accounted for too except for their pilot whom was not among them as Spectre queried. However no reply back had been given, possible in part due to Andromedai's concern with the rapidly approaching storm as she ordered everyone still able to fight to converge on the nearby military complex. Upon learning of facility's location, it almost seemed more unfortunate that there they were shot down so close by.

Given the amount of time Simon and Spectre had be traversing the snowy landscape, trotting as a team over the the complex didn't take much long until they reached the perimeter. Andromedai observed the military facility possibly for a minute, looking for any signs of any hostile activity before ordering the fireteam move onto the complex itself once more. Instead of taking the main entrance, it was tactically more efficient as their leader pointed out to breach the rear entrance; Simone couldn't happily agree more as he stowed his auto rife away for his Invective auto-fire shotgun.

Once the door had been kicked down off from it's rusty hinges, everyone surged through the first floor, checking all rooms and corridors, undeterred with with the messiness of years of without human touch to the place. As was displayed from the outside, there were no hostiles to be identified here. However, there were still several more floors to clear out as Andromedai pointed out and going by the fact how loud they were getting in, anyone who was inside would have been alerted right away. Veruna, Zeruel's Ghost, spoke up for him in taking the lead in the next breach into the second floor. Likewise, Simon and his other teammates formed up on him.

Spectre had been leading the Titan threw snow storm, his cloak blowing around behind him wildly. He heard the Titan say they might need to locate a beacon. "My ghost has one we can set up if we get desperate. It can also serve as an emergency transmat zone. Vanguard has a few up this way but normally it's a Hunters up here drawing maps or looking for lost caches of tech. So Hunter even hide their stashes out this way." He told the Titan, as he finished two sniper rounds rang out. Spectre turned invisible by thumping his own chest.

Spectre moved to top of the large sheer snow drift getting out his patience and time. He heard the Titan say something but he was already moving to a better over watch location. He didn't say a word but as the Titan moved he watched the grounds near him then slide down to the others as he reached the bottom. "Someone call for the cavalry?" He asked drawing the Hawkmoon and the Last Word. "Anyone know if the pilot made it out?" He asked knowing most pilots didn't have the luxury of a ghost transmat before hitting the ground.

He followed the others taking up the rear of the group. "So whats our plan? I vote we locate the pilot and contact the Tower. Were blind and that storm makes this their game not ours, Fallen have more experience with these weather conditions and I don't have Omolon target identifiers." Spectre told as holstered the Hawkmoon using the Last Word to cover there path. "What ever we do we do it fast, I don't want to be the Fireteam Tuyet."