You ever seen one?” “Nah, you?” Alfren shook his head, though his intense eyes never left the body in front of him. “Heard of them sure. Seen their vapour trails in the sky, but never seen one up close. I didn’t think they come this way”. The guard whistled through the sizeable gap in his front teeth and gestured at the body. “What kind of armour is that?” Alfren peered closely. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen. See that on the chest? ‘FWC’. What does that mean?” The guard shrugged. “Some sort of designation? Rank? Like a sergeant maybe?” Alfren walked around the table chewing his lower lip thoughtfully. The guard licked his lips nervously. “Big bugger eh?” Alfren nodded as he leant forward. “Maybe there is a clasp or something to undo this breastplate. If it weren’t for that moan earlier I wouldn’t have know he was alive – I think it’s a ‘he’ anyway. If I can get inside I might be able to see what’s happening, how he’s hurt”. He reached out to the brightly coloured armour. “If I can just…” As soon as Alfren’s fingers touched the bright laquer blinding white light burst in the small room with a sound like clashing, smashing crystal. Alfren fell back with a yell and the guard desperately fumbled at the pistol hanging low on his waist as their surroundings collapsed into monochrome from the glare. When their vision returned, a small monocular angular machine was hanging over the Guardian, its central lens focusing and refocusing on the pair with a distinctly alien mechanical sound. Finally pulling the weapon free, the guard stood his ground and pointed the gun at the shape. Eyes wide and white, he glared at the device, teeth bared with his jaw clenched and fired. The shots never landed. Each shell seemed to vanish before they reached the object, dissolving. The guard swore and continued shooting. The machine continued to regard him, lens rotating curiously. Finally the chamber ran dry and the guard stood shaking slightly, panting with fear as he continued to pull the trigger, his gun snapping empty over and over. Alfren slowly stood, eyes wide and transfixed on the angular mechanism, which spun to stare at him as he moved. He raised his hands in the air. “We mean you…” The object vanished leaving Alfren and the guard to stare at each other in shock. Mattaus watched Hausen walk away from the guards at the room's entrance and caught his eye. The older man grimaced and shook his head. Mattaus sighed and scratched his head. "-blam!-ing hate not knowing what's happening". Felicia grunted and cast a wary eye to him. "I know you don't". Mattaus looked her in the eyes for a moment and then dropped his gaze. "I know I'm..." Felicia waved a hand at his face. "Enough". Hausen watched the exchange as he walked to them, taking a deep breath and dropping to sit next to Mattaus. "You guys doing ok?" Felicia shrugged and rubbed her eyes. "I don't know what to think right now Haus," she said, taking a deep breath herself and holding it a moment before exhaling. "I almost wish we were back out there". "You can't be serious", Hausen scoffed. "Why the hell not?" she replied. "We knew what we were doing out there and we were in control of what we did. Now", she gestured around her, "we are what, prisoners? Captives? Suspects of something – anything they want to be suspicious of? When we were on our own we made the rules". "How did that work out for Jaspiel?" Hausen's asked in a flat voice. Felicia glared at him, but he didn't give her a chance to respond. "We need this. You know every day was like our last out there. Jaspiel was not the first and he would not have been the last - Mirim is fighting for her life right now and would be dead already if not for this place". "This is hope for the future. This could work". He looked at the guards fidgeting with their weapons nervously. "We just have to be patient with them. We are the outsiders here. We need to give them time to het to know us, to trust us". [i]Cayde... Cayde can you hear me? I can't keep bringing him back Cayde. We need help. Cayde? I'm transmitting our location and details on what we found here. I hope you can hear me...[/i] "I know what you're saying", Felicia sighed, "but we are family". She cast narrowed eyes at Mattaus. "Even him". Mattaus grimaced and opened his mouth to speak. Felicia held her hand up to stop him. "You're a -blam!-ing jerk and I am never going to forget what happened. You nearly killed me for -blam!-s sake!" She ground her teeth as she glared at the young man, then after a moment she visibly calmed herself. "But I get it. We can leave it. We don’t need to go over it”. She returned her eyes to Hausen. "I know this place is the best thing that has happened to us. I know this can and has saved us. I know we can make a future here". Her hands curled into fists. "I know all of this, but I just can't make myself believe it. Everything we have ever had has been taken from us. I just can't believe that this won't be". Hausen nodded and smiled sadly. "I know. Believe me I know. We have to hope though. We have to dare to believe. What other choices do we have? Turn our backs and head back out there?" He looked at each of them. "We have to try. We have to give this a chance. Give ourselves a chance". The first Skiff appeared over the desert with a crack of thunder and the protests of sharply decelerating engines. The blunt nosed craft momentarily reared up in the arid air as brake systems scrubbed away its forward momentum before settling back like a breaching whale. For a moment all that could be heard was the whine of alien technology pulsing across the desolate land. A second loud explosion suddenly burst nearby and another Fallen vessel abruptly appeared, its actions mirroring the first as it came to rest slightly above and to one side of the other vessel. The third and fourth skiffs appeared almost at the same time. Then the rest came. "Holy shit!" Wensly squinted as she tried to make out what was happening out in the desert. "What is it?" she asked her companion whom continued to swear as he stared through the binoculars. "What are they?” she pushed as she watched the dark shapes appear, but in the pit of her stomach she knew. She just did not want to believe. "Fallen. Holy mother of shit it's Fallen". He dropped the binoculars to hang around his neck and stared at Hensley with wide terrified eyes. "Get Petrisen. The Fallen have come". The noise the Ketch made when it arrived was suitably more impressive than the smaller ships of its fleet. Where they had been defiant cries daring the world to oppose them, this was a triumphant uncompromising roar that demanded subservience There was no sudden attempt to slow, it smashed its way into the world and banked smoothly as it decelerated, circling the assembled skiffs like the alpha it was before coming to a halt high above them The huge ship presided proudly over its pack, hanging silent and dominating. Everything paused it was as if the world was taking a breath to steady itself, preparing itself for what it knew was to come. The wind died to a whisper. Not a cloud dared to contest the nights sky and the stars seemed to dull, fearful of shining too brightly. Troop drop cradles abruptly snapped into motion on every skiff. One by one they disgorged their invaders. Dregs and Vandals landed on crouched limbs to scamper forward. Shanks and servitors fell gracefully to within a few feet of the ground before bobbing forward on their anti-gravity propulsion systems. Within moments hundreds of the chattering and howling creatures stood on the desert surface. And still the cradles worked and still more of the Fallen joined the horde. [i]Hear me.[/i] The voice of their Kell filled every ear and voices fell silent. [i]What we seek is finally found. The power to rise above all others is here. We have sought the weapon for a long time. Across this land we have searched, but it has always evaded us, yes? Many of us have fallen. But we have never stopped. Eliksni never give up. Here we caught the scent, we found the trail. Yet still it hid from us. But we grew ever closer. It tried to hide itself from us, but it knows not the ways of Eliksni. Eliksni always win. It tried to hide from us. But no longer. Our destiny is in the mine. And yet still something stands in our way. A ghoul of the Great Machine is here.[/i] A growl, a chatter of hate grew amongst The Fallen [i]It will try to stop us. Captains, take your charges. You know your orders. For those directed to the mine, take it. Find the weapon. For the rest. Scour the city. Find the Guardian. Kill it. Then nothing will ever stand in our way again. [/i] Within their growing mass the Captains drew their swords and screamed to the heavens. Throwing their arms back the army echoed their leaders eagerness. Then they surged forward. Towards the distant city.