Blind Watch, Mars. Eris’ first set of coordinates had led us here. A pre-collapse research station, turned Guardian outpost, abandoned and left to be buried in the sands. The Dust Giants overran this place years back, driving us out of our last foothold on the planet. The high standing tower looked out far over the Exclusion Zone’s ruined cities, rolling, red dunes, and Cabal infrastructure. “Looks like there’s nothing here…” Sierra said, disappointedly, as we wandered along the roof of the abandoned complex. “Maybe Eris was wrong…” I added, “or this place has some other kind of significance.” “Don’t be so sure,” said Echo, “I’m picking up an anomaly inside. Similar energy signature to those orbs we saw on Phobos.” Hastily we made our way into the building, to find a flickering light casting long shadows from the pillars that held the cracked concrete roof above us. An orb hung in the air two feet above the ground. Unlike the ones we had seen before, this one burned intensely, illuminating the room. “So, uh… what do we do with it?” I asked, rhetorically. “Hang on, let me take a closer look.” Echo replied as he cautiously drifted toward it. Just as he approached, it began to burn even brighter, enough to make me shield my eyes. The ghost flashed away, and reappeared by my side. “I swear. I didn’t do anything.” He claimed, as the orb began to descend to the floor. It touched the ground and spread slowly, almost like a liquid, in a perfect circle almost two meters across. Both Sierra and I took a step back as the burning pool began to sink through the floor, leaving behind a fiery green rune. It was inlayed into the ground, and looked much like the one that Crota’s fortress bore. The ground beneath us began to shake, and tiny black balls appeared all around us. They began to grow rapidly, swirling with darkness, and disappearing from existence as they spit forth groups of Taken. Taken hobgoblins, acolytes, thralls and vandals swarmed all around us. Sierra and I stood back to back, fending off the waves of thrall. “Down!” I shouted as a hobgoblin hurled a trio of projectiles at us. The explosives whizzed over our heads as we hit the ground. “Switch!” she called. She spun right, and I did the same to the left. I let out a torrent of arc light, disintegrating the Taken on my side, and turned to help Sierra pick off the last few of hers. The last vandal’s body hit the ground with a thud, and again the building rumbled and shook. The blazing rune on the floor flashed brightly, and the floor exploded violently, from beneath. I hid behind a pillar to escape the barrage of debris. Peaking around the corner, there stood an enormous knight, easily a dozen feet tall. The bone plates on its head and shoulders were long and its armor was a dark, murky green. It crawled out of the pit where it had slept and swung its massive staff, smashing down the buildings walls, and forcing us out from where we hid. I rolled out into the open, and Sierra blinked past me, as she landed she drew the launcher from her back. She fired a shot and I tossed a deluge grenade at the exalted Hive. The knight merely turned and looked at us, unphased, its three eyes glaring with a burning rage, a desire for only one thing. Death. Prologue/directory [url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/139146382/0/0[/url]