Decorated in sandy gold and green armor, with 2 fins shooting out from his back and a large gun in hand, whose rounds were likely as thick as Bo’Ark’s fist, if not thicker, stood a large and confident figure. “Shit that’s a Centurian” Aegis exclaimed as the beast began to turn his attention to them. “We need to LEAVE, that gun will kills us before we –“ Before he finished his statement Bo’Ark lunged at the Centurian, catching it off guard and wrapping around its neck. His weight and momentum rocked the beast but it quickly regained its balance and began to grab for the gutsy exo and throw him to the ground. By this time however, Bo’Ark had wrapped his arms as tightly as he could around the collar of its helmet as possible, determined to not let go. Unfortunately the large size of the Centurian made any attempt to reach his exo attacker futile as the beast waddled and tipped trying to shake free. While Bo’Ark was being flailed around like dog tags on a soldier he felt a presence building in his body; a strange power manifesting itself in his circuitry, pushing him beyond the normal Exo limitations. As he righted himself mid-air a white haze formed around his knees, presumably to act as a shield for what he planned next. Holding onto the helmet with enough force to dent it he forced his knees into the back of his behemoth foe with a thunderous boom. With a loud snap and crack, followed by a popping sound, he pried its helmet, releasing the valuable pressurized gasses with a violent hiss of black and blue vapor. The Centurian’s body dropped to the floor with a loud thud, gasses still escaping where its helmet once rested. Bo’Ark had let go of the body in time to drop to his feet, sliding across the sandy floor a short distance due to the energy from the beasts fall. Finally he stopped, looking back at what he had done and said “What THE HELL did I j…” but was interupted by the Cabal foot soldiers shooting at their leader’s murderer, clearly made alert by either the hissing or the thud involved with its death. He ducked behind the door frame to avoid the incoming fire and was joined by Aegis, who after congratulating him mentioned that he still needed a gun or at least a plan if they were going to get out of here. The Exo thought for a few seconds, looking around for anything that could turn the odds in their favor when it dawned upon him that he had killed a Cabal Soldier, and not just any soldier, but a Centurian. He even made note of its gun before fighting it. Without another second of delay he made a rush for it, lifting the dead owner off of the weapon with surprising ease and grabbed it. Aegis had told him about this type of gun; it was recognized by guardians as a projection rifle. He pondered for a second what the Cabal name for it might be, but quickly remembered the situation at hand and hefted the giant grenade launcher in the direction of the enraged Cabal. Planting his legs firmly onto the floor to brace for the next shot he lined up the sights and pulled the trigger, launching an explosive projectile straight for the nearest enemy. The force from the gun made his body recoil, not as much as he expected but enough to prevent any sort of accurate follow up shot. Just as it looked like the shot was going to connect the target rolled out of the way, leaving it to hit the back on an unsuspecting Cabal a good way behind him who was still fighting the Vex. Not the target he had planned but it would have to do. His original target continued its charge, firing its slug rifle in his directions hoping to either take Bo’Ark down or make him flinch before his next shot. But he was undeterred, allowing his target to close the distance before he fired his second shot. There was not enough time for him to dodge this shot, and after the satisfying sound of the explosive head detonating on its chest he lined up for another shot on a more distant Cabal. He saw that two had fallen to the Vex, and he knew that he killed two more with the projection rifle, leaving the last two still fighting the other intruders. “Let them be, we NEED to get out of here before either group gets reinforcements.” Said his ghost before he was about to pull the trigger. He stopped, lowered the gun and nodded, and grabbed some extra rounds before leaving the skirmish. ***************************************************************************** Hours had passed since their encounter, and night began to descend upon the Martian sands. They found a cave high atop a rocky out cropping overlooking a large dusty expanse and used it as refuge for the night. As he walked out from the cave toward the peak of the rock he looked to the sky, admiring all of the beautiful stars, wondering if the Cabal’s home world was among them. He turned in place and laid upon the slab, looking up at the stars as he crossed his arms behind his head. His ghost materialized by his side, looking at him and following his eyes to the stars. Aegis spoke up, breaking the silence “So… that was, fun. Perhaps not something I would like to repeat, but it was certainly invigorating.” Bo’Ark chuckled a bit, turning his head to look to his float-y companion “I suppose that is one way to put it.” His face grimaced as he continued “Still… I wish I didn’t have to take its life, or the lives of its underlings.” Breaking contact with his ghost he looked back at the stars. A moment’s pause filled the air before his little light spoke up. “Aegis… it has a nice ring to it don’t you think?” Bo’Ark turned his head, his face contorted to express confusion. “Truth be told, that is a name I chose for myself, not long before I found you; in a matter of perspective. Did you know that very few ghosts are born with a name? Even fewer come across a name they like on their own.” He stopped for a second, looking back to the stars. “I came across a story, long forgotten lore in my search for you. It was a tale of Kabr the legionless and his actions in a place known as the Vault of Glass. Though the man was real very few believe the stories of the Vault. The story states that he and his ghost sacrificed themselves to create a weapon to combat a being so formidable that even a Guardian as great as Kabr wasn’t able to handle it. That weapon, so the legend goes, was a shield called the Aegis… From that moment on I took a liking to that name, determined not to let it fall prey to the sands of time, as you surely would have had I not found you.” He met Bo’Arks gaze again and spoke “My point is, what they did was necessary for our survival, possibly for the survival of all things in the universe. You did that so you could continue, so you can live on to learn more about them. Your future has yet to be written, and I am determined to not let you fade into time.” Bo’Ark held his gaze, thinking on what his ghost had said “…not to let it fall prey to the sands of time.” And finally it hit him, in a manner similar to how he imagined it would have felt to be hit by that Centurian earlier. He reached down into the pocket of the garments he had since his awakening and retrieved the thumb drive he grabbed earlier, drawing Aegis’s eye away from his face and directly onto the device. He flitted over to it excitedly; segments of his shell twisted and rotated like a Rubik’s cube in the hands of a kid further expressing his enthusiasm and surprise. “Where – when, how did? This is fantastic!” He said before a beam of light traveled from his eye to the memory unit with a subtle humming noise. “Not ONLY does this date back to before the collapse, but it’s also a limited edition case! We are going to have to be careful when we bring the back to the tower, the Cryptarchs would LOVE to get their hands on this.” The exo looked a little confused by the statement, responding “Cryptarchs? I thought you said this Tower was a friendly place?” Aegis stopped scanning and looked to Bo’Ark again before erupting with laughter, finally relaxing enough again to say “Y-you don’t understand yet just how funny that is. Speaking of, we still need to get off of this planet. If today gave you any perspective to our situation then you have to see the urgency here… we have potential access to pre-collapse information, this NEEDS to make it back to the Tower. There is no guarantee that we can find a working machine to read this on Mars.” With a solemn expression Bo’Ark looked away “I… understand. We will start looking for a way off tomorrow.” With that he went back gazing at the stars, unaware that today’s actions would only be the first of a series of unfortunate events. Here it is, part 3. Truth be told I am actually more excited for the upcoming parts, but those are still a ways off. Anyways, feel free to offer constructive criticism and I really hope you enjoyed the story. Part 1, if you missed it. https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/91487475/0/0 Part 2, if again you somehow missed it XD https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/104774903/0/0/1