I'M BACK!!! Forget about me? honestly, I don't blame ya. Sorry for making you all wait this long, but rest assured, I will finish this tale if it kills me! Enjoy :) Eleven of us stood around the holotable that gave off a faint blue glow in the dark room. Ikora, Cayde, Zavala, and The Speaker stood to our left, and five others on our right. Each position had a small touchscreen input display connected to the table at about waist height, the three heads of the Vanguard had larger displays with live information feeds of ongoing operations. “Looks like this is… all of us.” Zavala said, a certain solemnity in his voice. The twelfth place at the table sat empty, normally, it would have belonged to the sixth field commander. Today there were only five. Two warlocks, two hunters, one titan. “We’ll worry about finding a new FC when we have less pressing matters on our hands.” Cayde interjected, trying to change the subject, but he too spoke with an air of grief. After a brief moment of silence, one of the warlock field commanders, a female awoken, spoke up, “What are we going to do about these “Taken”? Every day we get intel reports that they’re gaining ground and every hour our casualties are ticking up. We need to take the offensive.” “I don't think you fully grasp the situation.” The Speaker replied with a subtly intimidating tone. “Then please, enlighten us. Guardians are dying because we’re not taking action. What else is there to grasp?” shot one of the hunters. “We can’t act without the approval of the consensus,” Ikora responded calmly, “but i agree that we’ve waited long enough. With the intel we have, i think we are very much aware of the situation actually.” “This is hardly the time to be discussing a democratic solution with the factions. This is a war, and we, are losing.” Sierra exclaimed, putting both hands on the edge of the table and leaning in. “It is also not the time to be making hasty decisions.” countered the white robed politician. “Better than no decision at all.” retorted the other hunter, “Another Twilight Gap is the last thing we want.” “If Oryx could destroy us outright, he would have done so by now.” Zavala’s voice boomed over the argument. “And even if it comes to it, we’ve held the walls before. It can be done again.” “No. Not against this. This would be no Six Fronts. It would be a massacre.” The titan across from me said with a mixture of fear and anger. “Will be a massacre, if we keep waiting. We’ll give up all the territory we’ve spent so much time and effort reclaiming, and then be slaughtered here.” Added the male exo warlock. “You suggest we push forward to be slaughtered in the wild instead?” Zavala retorted. “Oryx’s final goals remain unclear. If he wishes to wage war, why does his dreadnaught reside beyond the Reef?” The Speaker intervened, each word he spoke, a meticulously chosen dagger. “Yeah,” Cayde-6 chimed in sarcastically, “Maybe the king of the Hive is here to collect resources.” “Oryx can strike from anywhere.” The room fell silent as I finally spoke up. All eyes were on us, the two newbies walk in here like they know what's going on, “We’ve seen Taken appear out of nowhere without warning. He’s waiting out by Saturn because he doesn't need to be anywhere near the front line.” “And he knows we’ll waste away our time arguing until we’re weak enough to be crushed in a single strike. He’s had time to plan his revenge for Crota, and I'm fairly certain he’s thought this through…” Sierra backed me up. “All the more reason to start sending out fireteams.” The awoken warlock added, “If he’s waiting for us to tear ourselves apart, then why play into his hand? I’d rather die by Oryx’s hand on his ground than here on ours.” “Look,” Cayde said, bringing up a three dimensional map of the system on the holotable, “this is the situation as it stands, or sits, up to you.” The blue hued projection shifted to show large parts of each core planet covered in splotches or masses of red. “This is territory currently occupied by Hive and Taken forces.” Zavala continued, he waved his hand and the map zoomed in on Mars, showing the division of the planet’s surface in greater detail, “Intel we’ve gathered from Cabal computer systems shows that since Oryx’s arrival, they’ve lost almost thirty percent of their total ground strength, with many of those losses being turned back against them. Numbers are likely similar for the Fallen and Vex.” “On the other hand, the Hive have become more active across the Eastern Flood Zone and Old African Republic, along with the other hotspots on Earth and Luna.” Cayde said on a more serious note, the projection of Mars changing into Earth, “Long story short, we’re running out of time. The City’s defenses are at forty percent strength, and Dead Orbit’s plan is a lost cause.” “The only two viable options at this point are devoting all of our resources to either a defensive or offensive strategy. Regardless, we have to appeal to the consensus as soon as possible.” Zavala stressed the end of the phrase. “So… all in favor of taking the fight to these extra dimensional freaks?” A heavy tension hung in the room as the holo display changed to a poll and the display in front of me shifted into a new window that showed two options, listed simply as two crests featuring a sword and shield respectively. I looked around the room, as did a few others, then turned my head to Sierra who met my gaze and nodded before reaching down to her own display. I did the same in short suit, pressing two fingers to the crest emblazoned with the sword. I looked up to see the poll displaying a result of eight to three in favor of taking the offensive. Zavala held a straight face, making not the slightest sound or movement. “That’s that then, let's send these sons of darkness screaming back to hell.” Cayde said, I could hear the grin in his voice. A round of applause echoed through the room. With a smile on my face, I looked over to The Speaker who stood from having both hands resting on the table and walked to the door from which we had entered. Once more, silence broken only by humming electronics filled the room. “I regret to tell you that this shall not come to pass, guardians. You will only bring the anger of a god down upon us all. And I cannot allow this to pass.” Behind him, the doors slid shut with a dull thump. “So be it.” The human male hunter said, his voice filled with fiery determination, “If we’re going to die, we’ll go down swinging.” Prologue/directory [url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/139146382[/url]