Tuesday; four days until the Guardian Assault Ajax hit the brakes of his sparrow and drifted to a stop. He jumped off, then ran to the fight. Gunshots and cannon fire echoed off the high tower walls. The hunter team, Discovery, had already engaged the Cabal force. Finally, the rest of the Desert Foxes had arrived. Now, the twelve Guardians had the street blocked off. "What happened?!" Ajax yelled as he crouched down by Alexander, Discovery's lead hunter. "I don't know! These bas****s just got smart all of the sudden! We didn't even get outside the complex before they attacked!" Alexander pulled a pin free from the grenade, then tossed it backwards over the car that they were hiding behind. Moments later, it exploded. The hunters looked up to see three dead Cabal laying around a large scorch mark in the sand. After the first wave of Cabal were killed, the second wave marched forward. Two large lines of phalanxes covered legionaries that followed behind. Behind the several legionaries, were five centurions launching mortar fire. The war machine pushed down the road, causing the Guardians to pull back. "Where are the reinforcements?!" Alexander asked as he shot at the advancing Cabal. "They won't be here until tomorrow! That's why we were supposed to take out the bracus! TO BUY THEM MORE TIME!" Ajax screamed over the sound of gunshots. "Just a little more..." Rory whispered as he adjusted the sights of his sniper rifle. He was hiding on some scaffolding, so he had an angle above the shields. "Almost there..." he said as the cross-hairs lined up on the helmet of a phalanx. POW!! The Cabal's head exploded with blood and brain matter, braking the wall of shields. However, a phalanx from the second line filled the gap. As the Cabal marched forward, Ajax sat behind an air conditioning unit. He peaked around the corner, and watched for the moving wall. He pulled a tripmine from a pouch on his armor, then stuck it to the side of the wall. He ran away, then hid behind another stranded car. The phalanxes passed through the laser trigger, detonating the mine. When the smoke cleared, two Cabal were ripped to pieces by shrapnel. A hunter from Discovery was hiding behind a box. He was waiting for the wall to pass him so he could strike from behind. He was terrified, and was breathing deeply. His eyes were closed, but he was listening to their footsteps. When it sounded like the Cabal passed him, the hunter ran out! He gasped! A phalanx was waiting for him. The beast swung the massive shield, breaking the hunter's neck. The dead body fell back into the corner. When his ghost appeared to revive him, the Cabal slammed it to the ground, then crushed it under its boot. Rory continued to pick off Cabal from his nest up high. POW!! Reload... POW!! Reload... POW!! A centurion finally found where the hunter was hiding. It aimed the projection rifle at him and fired. Rory shuffled backward, and covered his head as the micro rockets exploded around him. One projectile hit the leg of the scaffolding. The leg broke, and it began falling. Rory braced himself against the steel rods as his nest plummeted to the street below. The hunter opened his eyes to see that we was ground level. The Cabal were still marching forward. Rory tried to move, but his foot was pinned by the crisscrossing metal. He tried to free his leg, but the Cabal were getting too close. Before the Cabal could do anything, Rory's ghost flew away with the rest of the hunters. The trapped hunter watched his ghost fly off. Most of the Cabal had passed the hunter, but a centurion stood over Rory. It drew a massive ceremonial sword and forced it through the hunter's heart. "Rory!!" Ajax yelled. The remaining ten Guardians had retreated to a 'T' in the road. The Cabal had pushed down the entire street. Ajax summoned a raging Golden Gun and aimed it at the remaining Cabal forces. "Boss!" Khanan yelled before getting shot by a Cabal harvester. Ajax turned around to watch another hunter fall to the ground. In Ajax's eyes, the body was falling in slow motion. Troop transports were dropping off more Cabal on either side of the intersecting street. They were surrounded. "We need to go!!" Alexander yelled as he hopped on his sparrow. The other Guardians got on sparrows, too. Ajax picked up Khanan's body and set it on the sparrow, behind him. The nine hunters rushed down road to the south, but one huntress was knocked off her sparrow and killed instantly. "We need to call for reinforcements!" Alexander yelled. [spoiler]I want to apologize for the sporadic schedule that I'm posting these chapters. To keep myself actively writing new chapters, I'll post them once I finish them. I will hopefully get a routine going again soon.[/spoiler]