[u]ERRANDS[/u] Echo examined a small spot of the roof of the vast Cabal base. After a few seconds, he sighed, and started moving again. "Nope, not here. Perhaps over there, next to that broken down AA gun? They should have some maintenance hatches here, am I right?" Caesar materialized next to him. "You do realize that we are literally ON TOP of the enemy? There's clearly no [i]hatch[/i] here, and why would there be? Aren't the Cabal afraid of spies infiltrating their bases?" Echo chuckled, as it appeared he had found a way to get into Firebase Chora. He used some of his Void Light to discharge the magnetic lock, and opened the hatch. Before jumping into the dark hole, he said: "I once spoke to a Ghost who never found a Guardian. He wasn't able to return to Earth, so he stayed and spied the Cabal. He never got caught, so they either don't care or they just never found him. Anyways, the Cabal are not willing to invest in advanced contra-spionage technology" They landed in an abandoned part of the base, light flickering due to power shortage. Echo walked past a wretched Vex chassis and summoned Caesar. "I need you to find out where we are and where the central command is. After that, we'll have to continue in silence" "We are in the northwestern part, which has been locked down by the Cabal. I'll mark the location of our target on your HUD. Also, before you shut me up for a couple of hours, I'd like to mention that the Cabal fighting for their lives outside don't know that the base is already taken..." Echo started walking towards the other side of the room, not willing to continue the conversation. Caesar slowly floated behind him, was about to ask why he didn't answer, but then realized that there wasn't really much to be said. He knew that Echo was thinking of the poor soldiers, desperately fighting for a literally lost cause... Caesar suddenly realized that Echo hadn't stopped walking. He quickly followed him, as he didn't want to be left behind. Echo silently sneaked through the long hallways, carefully staying in the shadows. Despite the recent Vex attack, there were still quiet a lot of Cabal troops, trying to hold their ground. Echo never saw Vex units, so it seemed that the Vex had decided that there was no need for their presence in the base. Suddenly, a Cabal voice, which could be understood by Echo, was heard on the base intercom. [i][Attention, all troops! By order of the Valus, immediately set up defensive positions at the west entrance. Stand vast, and hold the line at any costs. For the Empire! May the blessing of the Emperor be foreve....krfthz...krggg...kzrzrzz...*click*][/i] Echo quickly hid around the corner, before a platoon of Legionaries ran past him. "Phew, that was too close", he muttered to himself. He followed another empty hallway and suddenly saw a lone Psion standing with his back to him. He didn't say a word while he sliced the Psion's throat with his combat knife. The lifeless body fell on the ground with a muffled sound. A little bit further, Echo saw a gateway, and he jogged towards it. He once again used his Light to open the lock and the door opened. Unfortunately, some Legionaries were guarding the room, which appeared to be a storage area. The first Cabal was quickly dispatched and Echo pulled out his 77 Wizard, a custom Fusion Rifle that he had found in an old research station in the Russian Cosmodrome. As he ran towards his next target, he charged up the unusual weapon and fired it off right in the face of the Legionary, instantly killing him. As the Cabal soldier was dying, Echo turned towards a new opponent, all the while holding the rifle's trigger, charging it up. He unleashed the deadly bolts just as the Cabal lunged towards him. When the final Legionary engaged him, Echo merely gestured his hand in the enemy's direction, and a wave of Void Light erupted from it, throwing the poor guy across the room. Then, the room went silent again, although the faint sounds of the battle, going on outside, could still be heard. He started walking towards the other door, but then saw that it was already open, and that the hallway behind it had collapsed. Echo sat down on a box and summoned Caesar, breaking the ongoing silence. "This seems to be a dead end. Do you have any suggestions on how to get to our destination" Caesar materialized, but remained silent. Echo sighed. "I hereby grant you permission to speak. Now, get to work!" "There seems to be a ventilation shaft leading directly to the command room. It's shorter too, so we're lucky!" Echo looked sceptically. "Ventilation shaft [i]ex machina[/i]? That's seems too good te be true. There has to be a catch here..." "Well, the ventilation shaft is quite small, and you'll have to be a bit...'supple' to get through", Caesar admitted. "That doesn't seem to bad. Estimated time to arrival?" Thanks to the supercomputer inside Caesar, he was able to reply almost instantly. "ETA is one hour, 34 minutes and about 12 seconds. That is, if you don't rest, like you organisms have to do sometimes. Can I keep talking no-" Echo interrupted Caesar. "Ehem... I hereby shut you up for the coming one hour, 34 minutes and 12 seconds. Can you mark the shaft on my HUD?" Caesar grumbled something about respect and common politeness, but did as he was told. Echo walked towards the shaft, lifted the hatch and pulled himself up. "This is already painful. I'm going to hate this", he said before he started crawling. Echo dropped from the ceiling and landed in the middle of the abandoned command room. Most consoles were burning but some were still intact. He chuckled. "That's the second time now that I enter a highly secured area by dropping from the ceiling. The Cabal really need to fix the security of their hatches!" Caesar appeared. "I assume I can talk now?" Echo simply nodded. "I'll start scanning for a message, but first I'd like to say that I'm impressed, Guardian. It only took you one hour and 17 minutes to reach this place, and you even rested!" Echo vaguely heard Caesar speak, as he was already investigating the various monitors. After a while, he discovered something, and told it to Caesar, who was still scanning. "There are practically no Vex left, because they were pushed back by the Cabal. For some reason, they stopped warping in, although reports here-" Echo pushed away a dead Cabal soldier "-confirm that the Virgo Prohibition has recommenced warping in troops at the western gate about 20 minutes ago. They're clearly looking for something, but it doesn't make sense for the Cabal to store a valuable item at the outskirts of their base" Echo suddenly realized something. "Not something. Someone! Let me check which Legions are stationed here... Obviously Sand Eaters... a cohors of Siege Dancers... some Dust Giants... no important leaders here, strange..." Caesar had finished scanning and turned towards Echo. "Perhaps check the category 'visitors'?" Echo thought for a bit, and then returned to his monitor. "Oh Traveler. There was a visit of the leader of the Blind Legion today, Primus Sha'aull himself!" "That certainly is interesting, maybe that's why the Prohibition attacked tonight... But you need to get over here, I've found something of interest" Echo walked towards Caesar, who started the recording of the message, the reason Echo was here in the firsy place. 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]