A Hunter and his prey on a windswept planetary surface... “Hunter Aexuron to Mars Expeditionary Command, reporting hostile synthetic forces near the eastern end of the Valles Marineris. Over.” “MEC to Hunter Aexuron, say again? We have no records of hostile mechs, droids, autonomous killing machines, etc., in the badlands here. Over.” “Well I’m standing on one’s sparking carapace right now, MEC. Looks like Vex.” “Hunter, are you sure it’s not a Cabal drone of some kind? Vex have only been seen on Venus so far.” “Positive, MEC. On the insertion flight, saw no sign of Cabal forces. You know they’re bunkered up over a hundred clicks east after that crazy Titan’s fireteam pushed ‘em back. I know what I shot – I don’t put a round through something’s head without ascertaining what it is first, or at the least that it’s hostile… and this robot was very damn hostile. Over.” “Copy that, Hunter. Forwarding your location to the Guardian network. Are you requesting backup at this time?” “Negative, MEC. My fireteam’s already inbound. We’ll recon and prosecute any further targets…” * * * I might have to disqualify myself right away by stating this was started a while ago, but I happened to finish it this morning and figured I might as well add it to the thread given the serendipitous timing. In case that link's broken: http://microcosmicecology.deviantart.com/art/A-Successful-Hunt-383517477