This is the first chapter of something great. Liam_Gue and I have teamed up to bring you an Anibus and Frontier crossover! Liam and I have been hyping it up with those “Ghost Fragment” type stories, and Liam has been starring Orion and Co. for a few chapters in his Anibus series, but now I will officially have Anibus star in The Frontier. Enjoy! Orion waited by the Hangar with Lyla. “Are you sure he is going to show up?” she said. “He’s been pretty elusive.” Orion shook his head. “He knows that he has to be with us, whether he likes it or not. Although he is acting pretty strange.” “I hear that” Vulcan said, turning the corner. “And I’m not acting strange. I’m just angry at you, Orion.” Orion sighed. “Henry, I-” Don’t you ‘Henry’ me!” he interrupted, stewing silently. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed” Lyla whispered, knowing that Vulcan heard her. The titan just crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Orion heard footsteps, and immediately knew who it was. A titan in Blue and Black Mangonel armor approached them. Orion acknowledged him with a grunt. “Anibus.” the gunslinger said begrudgingly, with a little bit of rivalry. Anibus the Titan held out his hand. “Orion. Long time no see.” he said with fake happiness. The two shook hands, and Lyla tensed up. Just being this close to Anibus and Orion together made her instincts scream at her to run. The two just seemed to emanate power. “Let's go, team.” said Orion awkwardly, and his team heeded it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A large howler monkey clung to the branches of a large tree. It surveyed the ground below, balancing precariously, and gave a loud whoop as a warning to the others of its troop. Vulcan jerked his weapon into the trees and looked down his sights. “Relax, hotshot” Orion said. “Just a monkey.” the annoyed sunbreaker brushed a leaf off of his shoulder pad. “Shut up. I thought that they were extinct?” Orion gave him a puzzled look. “I thought you wanted me to shut up?” Vulcan glared at him. “No, the animals here are not extinct, obviously. According to some old document I found in the Washington Dead Zone, a treaty was signed between 20 countries to protect their wilderness. Probably didn’t stop people from harvesting it, but now that nobody is here to cut these trees down, they are back.” Shadows patterned Anibus’ armor. “Don’t want to be blasting monkeys out of the trees, Vulcan. Save your bullets for the Fallen.” Vulcan respectfully said “Yes, of course Anibus.” Orion sighed at Vulcan’s childlike behavior and moved on. They stopped in their tracks at a grotesque sight. About a dozen or more spears were sticking out of the ground, and ran through them were the remains of dozens of jungle creatures. Lyla wrinkled her nose at the smell. “Ugh, that’s disgusting.” Orion nodded. “Yes, it is. We must be in the right place.” Anibus allowed himself a small smile, and said “Lyla, if it smells so bad, why don’t you put your helmet on?” Lyla brushed a strand of red hair out of the way, and responded “To feel the warmth of the sun on my face, and see the sights without constantly being behind a HUD.” Anibus didn’t respond. “What, are you too high and mighty to be connected to nature, Mister Badass?” she said. Anibus didn’t respond and scanned the treeline for enemies. The voidwalker snorted. “I thought so.” The three of them continued to walk, and before long they reached a dead end, overgrown with vines and gnarled, twisted tree trunks. “Dead end.” Lyla said. “I guess we’ve got to keep looking.” Anibus ignited a grenade. “You’ve got to look more closely, Lyla. Otherwise you’ll miss it.” he threw the explosive at the wall of greenery, and it was shredded to splinters. “Go on, genius.” Lyla *humphed*, and used her superhuman strength to rip the gnarled vines out of the way. The rest of the fireteam followed, and Anibus took up the rear. The four of them had reached the Winter Lair, all right. Mushrooms, scraps of metal and rusted machinery were strewn around the cave, and bones were strewn across the floor. “Watch the walls, Fallen can climb like spiders.” Orion said, scoping out and searching the nooks and crannies of the cavern. Anibus gazed down his scope, and reacted minimally as a dreg opened it’s eyes and yelled at him. “Circle up, it’s a trap!” he yelled, backing up into the center of the cave. Their gunfire lit the semi darkness of the cave with orange flashes as more and more Fallen fell from the walls and emerged from the tunnels. “Watch out!” Vulcan said, igniting a fusion grenade onto a bulky vandal, tossing it, and priming his weapon in the same three seconds. Lyla threw a Vortex grenade and stabbed a dreg with the bayonet, and pounded it with slugs. Vulcan pushed forwards, and ignited his Hammer of Sol with a mighty shout, lobbing fiery hammers at the Archon’s Claw. Suddenly, Anibus saw him. Karas. The Baron emerged from another tunnel in front of the fireteam, and directed a squad of Claws’ to deal with them. Vulcan spotted the towering fallen too, and thundered towards him. A dreg squawked and screamed as it exploded into a fiery Solar blast, scorching a vandal and burning it. Karas picked up a piece of metal and cracked the sunbreaker over the head with it. Barely fazed, Vulcan swung his hammer, but gasped when Karas stabbed him through the chest. Vulcan tried to hit him again, but Karas pulled out his Shrapnel launcher with his left upper arm and blasted the Titan. Vulcan staggered, and died. “Guardian down!” yelled Anibus, moving to revive him. Karas directed a sniper, and the Titan felt a molten hot Arc bolt slam into his helmet. Dazed, he rolled out of the way and hid behind a piece of scrap metal the Claws’ had dragged into their lair. “We’ve got to come up with a plan” Lyla said, igniting another Vortex grenades and throwing it blindly. “Else we won’t succeed.” Anibus spoke up. “I’ve got one. We move for the Baron. Ly-” he paused as his words were cut off with a massive boom. Karas had nodded, satisfied that he had outwitted and scrambled these barbaric Shal’r. He gave a short bark to one of his Elder Claws’, and stretched his mouth in a toothy grin under his mask. The detonator went off, and the cavern echoed with sharp, booming explosions. “Plan B” Orion said. “Let’s get out of here!” the fireteam agreed, and Vulcan’s ghost revived Vulcan. “Come on Henry, let’s go-” the ghost buckled and was blasted against the ground, erupting in sparks from a Wire-Rifle shot. Vulcan screamed for his ghost, and a piece of rubble fell. Vulcan rushed to his ghost and cradled it, ignoring the falling rocks and debris, and screamed in anguish. Anibus tried to shoot as he saw Karas give him a kind of wave, but he was smacked in the head by a falling rock. Orion ran towards Vulcan, but a large rock crushed the Titan underneath it. “Leave him!” Anibus said, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to reach Vulcan and that Orion knew it. “But…” “It won’t do him any good if we die too! Come on!” they hurried out of the cavern, and Vulcan watched them go helplessly as his whole world crashed down around him. Darkness consumed him. He felt his connection to the light wavering, because of the loss of his Ghost. Felt the familiar tug of a far off being loosen. A flame burned within him. He was a sunbreaker, forged in the fiery forges of Ouros and the titans of old, he thought. Born from Sol! Born from light! He would not be consumed by the Dark! He felt the heat within him burn, and he released it in a painful scream. The pile of Rocks on top of him exploded and melted against the impossible heat of his armor. He heaved, and then fell on his knees. A sinister shadow loomed above him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orion sat on a large crate with his head in his hands. “I don’t know what to do! Vulcan is missing, and he still hated me! I want to find him, but the Vanguard won’t let me. They say that a real strike team needs to be assembled, and-” “Orion” Anibus stopped him. Titan and Hunter stared each other in the face. “I’ll get him.” Anibus said. Orion stuttered. “But Anibus, what about-” “I owe him for starting this fight.” Orion nodded slowly. “Ok. Go get em’. Go get my boy.’” Lyla just walked to where Orion was when she saw Anibus exiting. “Where’s he going?” the warlock said. Orion stood up. “Anibus is an artist of death, and he paints in broad strokes.” “Ok.” Lyla said, “And how is this related?” Orion looked her square in the face. “He’s about to make a masterpiece.” I hoped you enjoyed this first episode of the start of something great. Yes, the feels are real after Orion called Vulcan “My Boy”, and Anibus is about to make a masterpiece (kudos to Liam for helping me come up with that phrase). Feel free to leave criticism, feedback, or just a plain old Bump in the comments, see you later! (Btw Liam is making a chapter of Anibus soon that follows Anibus’ perspective after this episode)