This story takes place in between the Warmind and Forsaken expansions “I -blam!-ing hate the Reef” groaned a visibly frustrated Dian “Any excuse to polish off a few fallen is good enough for me” shrugged Anki-9 as he twirled his brilliant hand cannon around his pointer finger “You should serioisly be more concerned. Did you read the Vanguard brief?” “Vanguard brief? I stopped reading those a long time ago.” Dian let out a massive sigh and handed Anki-9 the pad he was reading from. Anki-9 flipped through it quickly and handed it back. “Seems pretty simple to me. Theres a new Kell on the reef whose calling himself a guardian slayer. We get in, put his name to the test, get out. Nothing new here.” “Havent you been reading the scouting reports? Mass exodus of fallen from the cosmodrome. Huge piles of burnt house banners. Ether crises across the system. Now all of a sudden theres this ‘guardian slayer’ amassing hundreds of fallen on the reef. It doesnt help that we haven’t heard anything from Petra since the Red War. I didn’t like the Reef when we had friends there, but now were pretty much going in blind.” [i]Guardian, we will be arriving at the Reef in 5 minutes[/i] “Hm” Anki-9 pours himself a drink and sits back down. “What about that Uldren character, shouldn’t he be minding his domicile?” “His ship crashed into mars after the siege on the Dreadnaught, hasn’t been seen or heard of since.” “Good riddance. He was always such a dick. Never seemed to like that the Queen was working with the Vanguard.” Their ship lurches back out of warp, the Reef’s purplish glow lighting the interior of the cabin. “Hasn’t changed a lick” Anki-9 tightened his holster against his leg “Is that the only gun you brought? Seriously?” Dian rubs his temples in frustration. “What if we run into something big out here?” “Well I’ve got 8 big bullets in here ready for whatever comes our way. What did you bring mister holier-than-thou?” “Mida set. Its the most tactical choice, especially when we have no idea what were getting into.” “Blegh, you sound like Zavala, makes me sick.” “Well someone here has to be the responsible one. Anyway, I figure we start at the Vestian Outpost just to see if anyone has heard anything about this guardian slayer” “Sounds like a plan. I’ll call in.” Hitting a few buttons on the control panel, Anki requests landing at the outpost. Minutes pass with no response. “Somethings not right.” Dian strokes his chin, eyeing the outpost cradled in rock and debris. “We didn’t even get buzzed by any of their patrol ships.” “Well the only way to go is down.” “I suppose you’re right. Keep your weapon drawn, there’s no telling what we might run into down there.” Dian checks the clip in his multi-tool. “Ghost, take us down” Anki-9 and Dian transmat into the Reef. They slowly creep out onto the platform. “Ghost keep the ship close and let us know if you hear anything.” [i]Okay Guardian[/i] The outpost, once a shining example of the fruits of the cooperation between the last city and the awoken, is now in complete dissaray. Tarps and cloth lay tattered, trash and debris float through the overhead, and not a soul to be found. “This place has seen some better days. I wonder if they have any tech laying arou-“ “Anki! This is not a scavenging mission, now can you let the tower know we landed.” Dian continues to scan the perimeter of the outpost with his multi-tool “Tower-1 this is Fireteam Alpha, we have landed at the Vestian Outpost.” The comms returned static. “Tower-1? Hello?” “Did you reach the tower?” “No all I got was static.” [i]Guardian, I think theres a Servitor jamming the comms, I don’t know where it is but I know it’s not alone[/i] “Thanks ghost” “Oh no...” “What?” “Dian... look over by Varik’s old tent” At the foot of the tent lay three slain awoken guards. One lay decapitated next to his comrades with fallen lettering painted on his vest. [i]traitor[/i] “This is savage even by fallen standards. And thats saying something.” Suddenly, the howl of fallen echo through the outpost, and a massive servitor emerges through under the walkway. “Anki, on me!” in an instant, Dian drops a barricade and opens fire on the crowd of fallen charging their position. From the hip, Anki fires three shots, killing two. “Now its a party!” The servitor continues to hum around firing blasts of energy down upon them. Shots whiff their heads as they duck behind the barricade. Dian nods to Anki-9: “You ready?” “Always” The barricade dissapears and Dian drapes himself in void light, drawing his shield and drops to one knee. Anki-9 engulfs his hand cannon in shining flame and ember, firing 6 quick shots at the servitor, reducing it to char and ash in an instant. Anki finds cover behind an outcropping of metal crates and gives Dian his signal to charge. In a haze of void energy Dian unleashes on the remaining fallen, scattering them for Anki to pick off. “Excellent work Anki!” Out of nowhere, a captain emerges from behind Dian and slams him on the ground. “Anki!” The captain picks him up by the throat and slams him again against the wall. Writhing, gasping for air, Dian struggles with the captains massive grip. [i]This is the strongest Captain I’ve ever seen. [/i]In his last breath he makes one last struggle, right as a loud shot drops the captain to the floor. Dian, gasping for air, looks up to see Anki shotgun in hand. “You’ve had that thing this whole time!?” “You know what they say, never show your full hand to anyone.” Once Dian recovered his breath he inspected the fallen that attacked them. “No house banners anywhere. Not even repainted banners.” “What’s this?” Anki motioned Dian over to a cuff around a vandal’s wrist with a strange marking on it. “I’m no fallen expert but I’m damn sure that isnt a house banner.” “No you’re correct... This is a Prison of Elders sign. These fallen were in the Prison of Elders.” “Probably broken out by our guardian slayer” “Guilty” “Who was that!” Anki turned to see a dark visage with eyes of yellow standing across the room. “I recognize those beady little eyes from anywhere. Uldren Sov.” “You guardians do have a way with words” Dian turned to see two stun grenades roll towards their feet. “Anki run!” But it was too late. The flash of the grenades disoriented them enough to allow the stealthy fallen behind them to bind their arms. They awoke to see Uldren standing over them, surrounded by fallen. “You -blam!-ing bastard.” Anki worked out in a slur, still dazed by the stun grenade. “I’ll kill you and every single one of your minions.” “Thats big talk coming from the guy on his knees.” Uldren motions towards a Wretch to hand him his Shock Spear. “This’ll teach you to mouth off.” With the butt of the spear Uldren slams Anki in the side of the head, shattering his helmet. “Why are you doing this?” Dian asks. “To rebuild the empire that you so greedily destroyed.” “You know you won’t get away with it.” “Clearly I’m getting away with this.” Uldren motions to Ankis motionless body “-blam!- you!!” Anki shouts, “Unbind me and fight me like a man!” Uldren motions for one of the fallen behind Anki to prop him back up. “This is getting tiresome.” Uldren faces Dian with the Shock Spear, “You can blame your uppity friend here for this.” and plunges it deep into Dian’s chest, twisting, and yanking it back out. Dian drops face-first into the sanguine pool beneath him. “No!” Anki lifts his knee up into his chest and slides a blade out from under his sleeve, cutting the bindings from his hands and standing to face Uldren. Fallen charge at Anki but Uldren motions them off. “If he wants to fight me like a man so be it.” Fists raised, Anki charges at Uldren landing a punch in his gut. Uldren retaliates with a swing that catches Anki in the side of his head, and falls onto the ground on top of him, pounding him over and over again. Anki unsheathes the blade on Uldrens leg and stabs it into his arm and pushes him off. As Anki rises, Uldren pulls out a sidearm from his hip and unloads it into Anki’s chest. Anki falls to the ground. “You wont win.” “Ah but I already have.” The crowd of fallen erupt in screams and claps of excitement. Uldren silences them. “I am Uldren Sov, Kell of Kells, Guardian Slayer.”