[u]ERRANDS[/u] Echo stumbled out of the transfer gate and immediately fell to his knees on the sand. "That was both the best and the worst experience of my life. At. The. Same. Time" Caesar chuckled. "Of your life? Might I remind you of that one time on Venus whe-" Echo made a failed attempt to grab Caesar. Caesar simply flew a meter back, with the result of his Guardian falling back on the ground. As he rolled onto his back, he said: "I don't even have the energy to try to shut you up. I'm feeling like that one time when I tried to see how long I could withstand the Vortex Beam of a Fallen Prime Servitor. Ah, what am I saying. This is MUCH worse. But at least we are on Mars now" "I almost forgot the 'Sepiks Incident'. I remember you puking non-stop for three hours! I even have pictures of you, sittting in the bathroom" Caesar started to imitate Commander Zavala's voice. "We still don't understand the full reason behind your... scientific... experiment. Nonetheless, you have provided the City with extremely useful information, and you should be rewarded appropiately. Unfortunately, you also disobeyed my direct orders to NOT enter the Fallen Devils' Den, as there was a Vanguard Strike team active in the area. Because of this unacceptable insubordination, all rewards that you would have got, are reverted. In addition to this, you will also- phahahaha!" Caesar couldn't keep up the imitation anymore and started laughing when he saw Echo's face. Echo slowly got up and mumbled some curses. "Shut up Caesar, a Ghost shouldn't laugh with his Guardian. By the way, I, as a lone Guardian, passed the whole Devil security perimeter before the Vanguard team could. Anyways, we should get moving. There's no way that the Vex won't have noticed someone going through their transfer gate" It only took a few minutes before the duo spotted the first hostiles. Echo quickly dived to the ground and readied his weapon. "Caesar, I need a scan. Now", Echo whispered. "On it... Okay, there's only three Goblins there, you should be able to take them on" Echo gave Caesar a suspicious look, but then stood up and aimed down his sights. He eliminated the Vex Goblins with amazing efficiency, only firing a couple of shots from his Pulse Rifle. The Goblins were no match for the three-round bursts coming out the deadly weapon, which was modified by Echo to reload automatically after each kill. The fight was almost over before it started. Echo put down his gun. "Targets eliminated. I'm still a pretty effective Guardian, considering that I haven't really been in active combat for a couple of weeks now" "Well, you did miss a full burst, so..." Caesar was obviously teasing. "I'm still a bit groggy, okay? Don't forget that I just traveled through space and time to get here. But I suggest we stop discussing futile matters, and figure out where we should be going next" Caesar thought for a bit. "Although it's funny that [i]you[/i] said that, you're still right. I've scanned the direct environment, and detected several heat sources a few miles south. I suppose we should go check it out" As they both started walking, and crossed the ridge of a small dune, they noticed large fires, lighting up the dark night. "I think we know what your heat sources are now. I'm pretty sure that's the work of the Virgo Prohibition", Echo said. "Agreed. Just so you know, according to my maps, there should be a Cabal miltary base on that location" When they finally saw the Cabal base, they were shocked with what they saw. Almost the entirity of the base was aflame, and the defensive structures were completely destroyed. Whole bunkers were collapsed and Harvesters were crash-landed in the Martian sand, never to fly again. The faint sound of explosions could be heard. Corpses of both Vex and Cabal were everywhere. However, it should be noted that there were much more Cabal casualties than Vex. After a long silence, one of the two, Caesar, finally said something. "Another massacre by the Prohibition. If even the Cabal can't stop them, who will? "These were Sand Eaters, normal line infantry. They didn't stand a chance against the elite Vex units", Echo said, as he pushed over a Cabal body with his foot, so he could see the insignia. After Caesar had performed a perimeter scan, Echo descended towards the ruined base. Once again, it was Caesar who broke the silence. "Unbelievable. All of my scans show 'no survivors'. The whole garrison is just... gone..." Echo replied: "This reminds of me of the Taken Invasion when Oryx first arrived in the system. The City needs to know, but just telling what we've seen won't be enough. We need more information" "Where?", Caesar said. "As you probably have noticed, this base isn't really operational anymore" Then, Caesar saw where Echo was pointing at. A watchtower, which was still burning heavily. "Nope, nope, I'm NOT going in there. You can go yourself if you want, but I'm not coming with you", Caesar declared as he floated away. "Come on, Caesar. Just ressurect me when I get burned alive, and everything should be f- KABOOM" The watchtower suddenly exploded, as the munition chamber caught fire. Echo slowly started walking backwards, away from the burning debris that was falling down. "Well, perhaps you're right. Maybe not [i]that[/i] tower" They continued walking through the base, until they found a command bunker, which they immediately entered. The holo-map in the middle of the room showed an image of Mars, with pulsing red dots everywhere. Caesar started hacking into the system, and quickly found the information he was looking for. "It appears thay this is an event that is happening on the entire planet. The entire planetary surface is under attack!" "Exactly what I was afraid of. Can you find exact numbers or statistics?" "No, I'm sorry. This was apparently just an outpost and-" When Caesar saw Echo's surprised face, he explained: "Yes, the Cabal certainly know how to build their bases! Anyways, as I was saying, this is just an outpost, they don't have the security codes for this kind of advanced information" Echo interrupted Caesar. "What do we need to do? Search for a 'real' base?"  "Yeah, probably. We'll need to find AT LEAST a Firebase if we want the information. The closest one is Firebase Chora, a little bit south from here. If we cross that rock field there, we'll get there in a few hours. That is, if we don't use your Sparrow, which makes too much sound anyways" Echo sighed. "I'm starting to feel like a migrating bird now" Caesar looked at him in a very strange way, so Echo quickly said:"Because we're always going south..." "That's honestly the worst joke I've heard in a long time. Congratulations, Guardian" Before leaving the bunker, Echo noticed a blackened spot on the ground. He asked Caesar to come back and showed him his discovery, as he started explaining: "I've been paying attention, and I've seen this black spots everywhere. I assume these are remains of a Vex warping in-" He was interrupted by Caesar. "What a genius. I alread knew that" Caesar already turned around and started flying away. But then Echo said something that made Caesar hang still in the air. "Yes, but these are inside. The Vex have been warping into the Cabal structures. They have found a way to bypass Cabal security and take over their bases from the inside!" "That's another reason to stop this madness. Let's get moving!" TO BE CONTINUED [spoiler]More stories will be added onto the main page, which I will link here. https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/226647634?sort=0&page=0[/spoiler]