[url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/254979692/0/0]Table of Contents[/url] Hendal falls again. There’s a hole punched straight through the slender visor of his helmet, right over his eye. I can’t see any blood this time; just the scorch mark. Hendal lies motionless in the snow for a moment before his Ghost materializes above him. It hovers over his chest and scans him with a beam of light. The Titan jolts, his life renewed, and quickly starts to stand. “Four,” he growls under his breath, sparks of Arc Light dancing down his arms. He’s been counting his deaths. The Fallen snipers have us pinned, and every mistake made is rewarded with an electrified rod of alien metal delivered directly to the head. The sky splits with a resounding boom like striking thunder. I cover my ears in a vain attempt to block the sound. Another Skiff has arrived, closer than the last. “You think it’s recklessness or strategy?” Elena asks, sitting cross-legged in front of me in the snow. She seems oddly tranquil given our current position. Her blood from her last life is still staining the snow a few meters away. “Maybe both?” Olly guesses, leaning against the side of our ruined City Hawk. “Are we hoping it’s strategy?” Hendal mutters. No one replies, but I know what he‘s implying. If these Fallen have a strategy, they have a leader. If they have a leader, then Draksis is here. That is what the Guardians are hoping for. But will they be able to slay the Winter Kell? Will they be able to keep us safe? Javier, the pilot, Elta, and I are still huddled against the wreckage of our City Hawk. We haven’t even seen the Fallen yet, thanks to the defense of the Guardians, but we’re trapped and the pirates don’t show any signs of giving up. Elena rises to her feet, rolling her shoulders, “I’ve got one more in me.” “Looks like they’re comin’…” Olly warns, carefully peering around the back of the crashed ship. Something makes a crackling sound, and I look back to the nose of the ship. The air blurs and sizzles as something nearly-invisible rounds the corner, mere feet away from us. Elta gasps and I instinctively recoil into Javier. Hendal is upon the haze before it can come any closer. He crashes into it with his whole body, smashing it into the side of the Hawk like a nail under a hammer. The air parts to reveal a Vandal, already dead and slumping to the ground. I watch in horror as two more Vandals materialize, advancing on the Titan and brandishing electrified blades. Hendal reacts quickly and sends one down into the ground with a swift haymaker. The head of the second explodes in a plume of blueish vapor, pierced by a well-aimed shot from Elena’s rifle. “Olly, stay where you are!” The Warlock commands, holding a hand up to the large Titan in a halting gesture, “Cover that side!” She doesn’t even have time to turn back to Hendal before another pair of Vandals rushes around the Hawk’s nose. Hendal takes a fighting stance but a third pirate suddenly leaps over the nose of the Hawk, coming down on the Titan in a whirlwind of cold steel. Hendal roars in pain and fury as the blades bite into the thick armor of his upraised arm and the two collapse in a pile of flailing limbs. Elena shoots one of the Vandals, but the other jumps over Hendal and his opponent. It lands right in front of Elta and me, kicking up a spray of snow. Four blue eyes turn to look at me, sending a shiver down my spine. I’m too scared to even move. But the monster’s gaze doesn’t linger on our huddled figures. We aren’t important enough to waste time killing now. Instead, the Vandal lunges at Elena. The Warlock swings her rifle, sacrificing it to block the alien’s swords. What happens next is too fast for me to follow, but the Vandal disintegrates instantly into a plume of embers. “Light,” Hendal swears, and I look to see him rising to his feet, kicking aside the corpse of his attacker. “Guys!” Olly calls, his voice strained with panic. The howls of the Fallen rise in unison around us.