Arial nodded in recognition and closed her eyes, slowly taking deep breaths. The sounds of the whipping winds died down as she focused on what she needed to do; then she found her courage, but by that time the Leviathan was about to fly over her drop point. “Come on!” Yelled Whisk. “Now we have to-” Before he could finish his sentence, Whisk was grabbed by Alec and thrown out of the Leviathan, letting out a curse at Alec as he disappeared in to the sandy winds. “He’ll get over it,” Alec yelled over the high winds of the opened door. “Same plan, just different sides. Don’t miss the next one!” With that Alec jumped; falling fast, Alec let Ithamar handle the fall. The wind whipped around Alec violently, but the sounds of battle could be heard clearly below. Alec noticed a meter counting the distance to the ground and how fast he was falling appear in his vision. He could also see some Guardians, seven to be precise, that were scattered around the area surrounding the main mine shaft in the center. There was crater, freshly made the morning of the strike from the Guardian artillery bombardment. As Alec was 300ft. from the ground, Ithamar moved himself into a position like he was going to land feet first… Three Cabal stood with their backs to each other, shooting in all directions of any Guardians that they could see. Just as the young soldiers had given up, they witnessed a Guardian falling from the sky and landing with immense force in the center of the three Cabal standing back-to-back. A blue flash was emitted by the blast and the three Cabal were sent flying in three directions: One was thrown into the canyon wall, the second landed 100yrds away on some burning remains of a ship, and the last one fell down the main mine shaft (letting out a loud roar as it fell, shortly before crashing at the bottom with a loud thud and crash). Alec looked like he was kneeling; his right hand was balled up into a fist and was placed on the ground. Slowly, he stood up… “That…” Alec began. “Was pretty cool, I must admit.” “Hmm,” Ithamar hummed. “I don’t know why, but it felt…good.” Alec turned and looked towards the east side of the mine and saw Arial fall from the sky and disappear into the mine on the other side. He then took to noticing his surroundings; mining equipment, dead bodies of Cabal and young Guardians. He also noticed large tracks… “Looks like a big one,” Ithamar remarked, kneeling down and touch the large boot print. “I haven’t encountered Cabal before…” “Lucky you,” Alec remarked, unslinging his rifle. “Those are some big tracks Alec than began to look for any of the first assault team that had come in, particularly any leaders. He was mighty curious about what was going on down in the primary mine but decided to wait until Arial and Whisk arrived. Alec ran across the center of the mine, dodging gunfire from the Cabal, as he thought what he saw was a young Titan holding his own against the Cabal. “Come on,” Taunted the Titan at two Cabal who stood before him, motioning with his hands for both of them to charge him. “I don’t have all day…” The two Cabal looked at one another, and then both charged the young Titan. As they drew close, the Titan jumped up in the air and came back down driving his elbows with incredible force onto the tops of the back of the Cabals necks. The one Cabal wasn’t quite done yet, knocking back the young man. As he got himself up on his feet and had started to draw his weapon; the Legionnaire grabbed his arm and delivered a powerful blow to the man’s body (breaking his armor) knocking him down. As the Cabal raised his foot to crush the Titan under his heavy boot, a shot rang out. The bullet entered from the left of the Cabals helmet, but it didn’t puncture through to the other side; the front of the helmet was blown off from the force exerted from the bullets arc charge. The young Titan looked up to see the Guardian responsible for his rescue. “Get up,” Alec said, walking over and helping the young man up. “This fight isn’t over yet.” “I know sir,” The Titan said, bending over on his knees, trying to catch his breath. “Private First class Bruce Kinney, 32nd brigade. Didn’t catch your-” “Alec Blackwater,” Alec responded. “Okay,” Bruce responded. “Where are the rest of the strike force and your team?” “My team is in route to the center of the mine with any other Guardians they could find,” Alec responded. “I don’t why anyone else hasn’t responded yet. Fill me in on what has been happening here.” “Well,” Bruce began. “I’m all that remains of my unit from what I can tell and I have no clue where everyone else is. We were scattered from the beginning of this whole operation; worse than that, you want to hear something strange?” “What?” Alec asked. “As we were dropping in,” Bruce continued. “The Cabal was ready for us; at first we thought it was just coincidence you know? No movement, no signs of any kind that they were doing ay thing, like they were staying indoors for the storm. Then boom, they came from nowhere; emerging from the mines and hidden fortifications in the walls. But that isn’t the weirdest part, the weird part is this: The FWC began to bombard us with artillery from above, destroying many of the Guardian ships in the process.” Alec looked around the canyon walls; he thought he could hear a roar somewhere above the cliffs. “We need to find as many Guardians as we can,” Alec said. “There is one more thing,” Bruce said with a start. “There is a really big Cabal, HUGE! (Bruce held up his arms to imitate Zars size.) “Where did-” Alec had begun to say. Suddenly, a very large Cabal landed on top of Bruce, crushing him. The Cabal roared at Alec as it grabbed him, bringing them both face-to-face. Alec looked deep into the Cabals eyes and the Cabal did the same to Alec; before Alec could do anything, the large Cabal threw Alec at the main mine shaft. As Alec plummeted to the bottom of the mine, he tried to send a warning out to Arial and Whisk, but it was to no avail (for there was no reception in the mine). Alec hit the bottom of the mine with loud crash onto a large drilling machine (on his stomach). Looking around, Ithamar activated his night vision to see into the darkness. He got off the drill and looked around at the equipment and tools lying around the ground. The Cabal that Ithamar had knocked down the mine shaft when he landed, was lying on its back and blood was seeping everywhere from underneath of the corpse. There was several different mine shafts leading to different places that the Cabal had dug too; some had glittering minerals being dug out while others only had reddish rock being brought out. Signs were everywhere directing where the shafts led… “Boy, what a fall!” Jk-Bx rang out. Alec turned around with a start. “What are you doing here?” Alec demanded. “Oh, you know me.” Jk-Bx said. “Can’t leave my buddy alone.” “Do you mean me or Ithamar?” Alec inquired. “Hmm,” Jk-Bx thought to himself. “Both!” With that, Alec turned his attention to getting out of the mine. He walked over to one of the walls and looked up… “Wait,” Ithamar said. “Let’s go the vault.” “Why?” Alec asked in hesitation. “I want to be sure there aren’t any surprises in the vault we don’t want to surface.” Ithamar remarked. “I thought you were confident the Cabal wouldn’t get inside of the vault?” Alec asked. “I don’t think that they will,” Ithamar began. “Without help, that is. I also want to get inside and see what is inside of it exactly.” “You also want to find a way to connect to the servers,” Jk-Bx broke in. “Don’t you?” Ithamar didn’t respond. [b]Continued below...[/b]