Rifle in hand Gallik Halvalon slipped through a crack in the massive ivory wall. The air shifted, carrying embers into his face, where they bounced off the curved visor of his helmet.

He shook his head and pushed forward.

"Melanie." He called. "Sai'ah?"

He stepped forward, then leapt back as a Grineer scout dove to the ground before him. No, not dove, fell.

He pressed himself into the wall as a two gunshots from an unfamiliar weapon cut through the air, followed by a sickening snick.

A Grineer trooper reeled back, stumbling over the corpse of its dead comrade. Blood poured from a gaping cut in its neck, running in rivulets over and through the fingers trying to hold the wound shut.

It hit the ground with a grunt and shuddered and choked as the last of its life drained from it.

Galllik froze.

Something stopped over the twitching corpse, a tall white figure in what appeared to be a long flowing robe. A head, adorned with three spikes in the shape of a crown, turned to stare at him, a blue sigil blinking.

Then it was gone, crossing the street with long graceful strides.

Gallik stared after it.

"What in the Void was that?" He thought. "Is it.. is it hunting the Grineer?"

He paused. The soldier in him wanted to pursue it, the husband and father in him... the husband and father knew his family was more important.

He shook himself, and took a step forward. Something swept towards his head and he ducked instinctively. Something wet splashed across his back. He spun and brought his rifle butt up in a rapid strike targeting the enemy's chin. The weapon passed through empty space. Blood spurted from a jagged stump as the headless Grineer fell backwards onto the ground. Gallik stared. Only one weapon did that much damage without a sound.

He looked up.

Melanie, his wife, slid down the slanted roof of the house across from him. Relief flooded him. It increased as a small shape slid down the roofing after her. Sai'ah, his daughter, clutched a bulky Grineer pistol, the weapon massive in her tiny hands.

His radio beeped and he flicked it on.

"You're alive."

Her relief was palpable.

"Course I am." He said. "Had to make sure you got out."

She glanced up and down the street.

"That scout should be the last one." She said. "That... thing cleared out the rest in this area."

Gallik felt his breath catch.

"You saw it too?" He asked.

"Yeah," She said. "I saw it ambush a full squad of Grineer."

She was moving now, Sai'ah following her, edging along the wall towards where their paths converged.

"Gallik, it tore through them like... like..."

She shook her head unable to find a comparison.

"It's been hunting the Grineer through the city." She said. "What is it? Some sort of proxy? Some Orokin weapon?"

They met at the edge of the square and turned the corner together.

"I don't know." Gallik admitted. "I don't think it's Corp..."

What they saw stopped them dead in their tracks.

A Grineer Captain lay on the ground, hand clutched over a bloody stump. The entity from before stood over it, the Captain's bloody arm held in its grasp, fingers closed around something.

The Captain's voice was pained. He grunted something.

The entity took one step forward and brought its foot down on the Captain's face, smearing its brains across the paved stone.

Sai'ah let out a horrified squeak, and the entity slowly looked up.

Gallik felt its gaze sweep over him, lingering on his rifle, then over his wife and her weapon, before settling on their daughter.

Gallik gripped his rifle.

The creature stared at Sai'ah for a long time, then nodded to itself and raised a hand, beckoning all of them to follow. It disappeared into a side street.

Gallik glanced at his wife, then back at the alley.

The entity reappeared a moment later, motioning again. This time it seemed more urgent.

"Should we?" Melanie asked.

"Don't have a choice." Gallik replied. "Tunnels are that way, and they are the only way out of the city not under Grineer control."

"You can trust him." Sai'ah said. "He's here to help."

Both parents turned to look at their daughter.

"How do you know that?" Melanie asked.

"I read his aura." Sai'ah said. "It's very potent. Can't you feel it."

Gallik knelt. His daughter was young, and this prone to flights of fancy. But she also had a gift, one that had aided them in the past, an uncanny ability to read those she met.

"Are you telling the truth, Little One?" He asked sternly.

Sai'ah nodded.

"I am Papa." She said. "Cross my heart and everything."

The sincerity in her gaze made him feel guilty.

"Alright." He said, rising to his feet. "We'll follo...By the Void!"

He turned and leapt back, hand reaching for his machete. The entity was right behind him. What was it made of, to move to silently?

It was gazing at Sai-ah, head tilted. Gallik stepped between them, hand on his machete, his stance saying all that need to be said. To his right Melanie stood, rifle trained on the creature. It stared at both of them, and then took a step back, raising its hands.

The gesture was so human... Gallik felt curiosity tug at his mind. What was this thing? Armor, for some silent warrior? An Orokin combat proxy? Or something else... something from the Void?

It turned, gliding towards another crack in the wall. This time Gallik followed. Sai'ah trailed him and Melanie took the rear, covering their retreat.

Together parents, child, and anomaly descended into darkness.

—-

Torak Krul glared in silence at the indigo and red clad Seeker before him.

He had ruined everything.

When the order to eradicate the colony had come through, Torak had been elated. Morale had been low due to Corpus gains in the skirmish on Phobos. Here was the perfect chance to gain some favor with the Kweens, while boosting the morale of his troops. The plan had been beautiful in its simplicity. Turn the town around the Tower into a crater in a stunning display of Grineer firepower, then sweep in and loot the remains, while a team of specialists raided the Tower itself.

The cannons had just begun to spin up, when He had arrived, and ruined everything. He had ordered the troops deployed after the bombardment, which had been greatly reduced, and with orders to proceed directly to the tower.

Troops who had begun the day looking forward to a good old fashioned pillaging now lay dead in the streets, their lives spent for a prize that was still beyond their grasp. And now this Thing was hunting his soldiers through the city while the one who had ruined everything simply watched.

"It is killing them!" Torak snapped. "We need to pull them back and bombard the entire..."

The Seeker held up a hand.

"Are you Grineer?" He asked softly. He was Nightwatch, genetically engineered to be better than the rank and file, a difference his voice accentuated.

Torak nodded.

"Yes." He said gruffly.

"And your soldiers, they are also Grineer?" The Seeker asked, as casually as one might inquire about the weather.

Torak senses the trap a heartbeat after it was sprung.

"Yes." He said, then clamped his mouth shut.

"And yet they cannot kill a single warrior, so recently wakened from its sleep." The Seeker murmured. "I have heard tales of defective clones before, but never on this scale."

Torak stared, horror rooting him to the spot. Being declared defective was a fate worse than death. His men deserved to die on the field of battle, bathed in the blood of their enemies as true Grineer. Not screaming and thrashing on a dissection table like a mistake.

He shook his head.

"You disagree?" The Seeker asked.

"With all due respect." Torak said, trying to summon at least some. "Perhaps the blame lies in their deployment."

He realized his mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. He opened it to retract them and...

"Explain."

He wracked his mind.

"This creature is clearly found of bladework and ambushes." He said. "There are two among my ranks who have studied such skills extensively. They are far better suited to such a foe than the rank and file."

He met the Seeker's gaze.

"Allow me to lead them against this creature and I will personally carve its head from its shoulders and present it to the Kweens." He said.

The Seeker stared back. For a second Torak worried he would not accept.

"Perhaps you are right." The Seeker said. "But I see no reason for you to risk your life in the proving. If they are as good as you say, then your hunters should have no problem completing this mission on their own."

He waved his hand dismissively.

"See to their deployment." He said. "At the very least this will be... educational."

—

Their mysterious guide was a being of few words... in fact it was a being of no words. All information was relayed by surprisingly familiar hand signals, passed down generations of the militia. That this creature knew them only served to deepen the mystery around it.

Only one thing was certain. Whatever this being was it hatedthe Grineer. Several times it motioned for Gallik and his family to hold, vanishing into a side passage, only to return moments later, cleaning blood from its blade, the dying screams of the clone soldiers hanging in the air. At first Gallik had believed it was clearing a path, but as time passed it became apparent that this was more than pragmatism.

Finally he had had enough.

The creature drew its blade, and Gallik reached out, laying his hand on its shoulder.

It stiffened at his touch, every muscle tensing.

"I do not know what they have taken from you." Gallik said. "But is it truly enough to risk your survival, and ours, to avenge?"

The entity turned and Gallik found himself staring into the strange sigil that seemed to function as its eye. For a moment he worried he may have overstepped his bounds. It was, after all, trying to save them for no other apparent reason than pure altruism.

A hand fell on his shoulder and patted it, a wordless gesture of agreement. Then the entity turned, away from the side passage that echoed with Grineer voices, and towards the primary tunnel that led to safety.

Gallik turned back to his wife, flashing a hand signal.

"Success." It read.

She rolled her eyes.

From then on the creature seemed to restrain itself, killing only when necessary. Even then the journey seemed to take a lifetime, and Gallik felt his muscles relax as he saw the end of the tunnel. He had only taken two steps outside the hidden entrance when a strong hand thrust him back inside.

Confusion gave way to instinct as the sound of metal on metal rang out. He drew his own blade in a second, pushing his family behind him.

Ahead the entity stood, blade locked with a small wiry Grineer female. A Scorpion. Twin machetes were held in her hands, straining to hold the entity at bay.

Something else entered the picture, a giant hulking Grineer raising a massive hammer.

Gallik reached for his rifle, knowing he would not reach it in time.

He did not need to. Melanie's rifle hissed, and the massive Grineer stumbled, a round sparking off his leg near the joint. The hammer fell, missing their guardian by inches. It leap back, into the tunnel as the hammer flew into the air and came crashing down again. A shockwave tore through the air, staggering them. The smaller Grineer darted in, blades seeking flesh. The entity did not dodge. Instead it threw its arms out, as if making itself a target.

The air grew cold. A barrier shimmered into place, the air filling with small white stared as the smaller Grineer, now encased in ice, slammed into the wall. The ice shattered and it grunted in pain. A series of hand gestures flashed.

"You take her." They read. "I got him."

Then the entity was gone, darting around the massive Grineer, blade flashing in the light.

Galll threw himself at the downed Scorpian, intending to finish her before she could recover. He almost made it, his blade sliding off hers.

Then she was on her feet, and it was all he could do to survive. He heard his wife's rifle hiss and the Scorpion staggered, but did not fall. Another shot, but this time she was not there, she twisted around him, keeping him between her and his wife's weapon, her blades seeking his heart.

—

Sai'ah watcher her father fight the monster.

He is going to lose.

She shook her head. Her father was...

Old and tired.

She shut her eyes, trying to drown out the voice.

Don't you want to help him?

She did. But what could she...?

He taught you how to shoot didn't he?

No no no. She clenched her fists, trying to stop the whispers. It always wanted her to hurt things. To break things. She didn't...

You don't want to save him?

The pistol was in her hands.

You know you want to. You know you can.

These weren't people. They were...

"Monsters. It's okay to hurt monsters."

It was her father's voice, pulled from a memory.

'If the monsters come for you I will make them stop.'

Shouldn't she do the same?

Yes.

She felt her arms raise the heavy weapon. Saw the sights align on the monster's head.

No. Not there.

It fell slightly.

There, center mass.

The monster swung its blades again, lunging. The pistol tracked effortlessly, the weight forgotten.

Hold, hold.

It stumbled slightly as her father dodged around it. Her mother's rifle sang and it jerked, off balance.

Remember what he taught you.

"Take a deep breath." Sai'ah thought. " Hold it. And..."

Pull the trigger.

—

The blades swung in, too fast to dodge, his own blow too far off center to counter.

A pair of shots split the air. Not a rifle, a pistol.

The Scorpion gasped, a hole opening in her side, the blades angling upwards as she fell back.

Gallik's next strike took her hands off. He pressed the attack as she stumbled, hammering blow after blow down.

His vision was a red tuned tunnel focused entirely on her. He was dimly aware that he was yelling something.

"And this is for. My. Home!" He screamed.

The machete whistled down, splitting ferrite, skin, and bone, lodging itself in the scorpion's head just above the jaw.

He heard an enraged bellow and whipped around.

The other Grineer, abandoning its fight with the strange entity, was barreling down on him. A sound rang out, an almost musical "plink". The massive Grineer stumbled. Gallik grabbed his machete, and, acting purely on instinct, ducked under the hammer swing, thrusting upwards with his blood soaked blade, smoke trailing from the plasma edge. It hooked under the behemoth's chin, sliding and melting through the ferrite.

The behemoth howled and he released the blade, diving out of the way as it grasped at the weapon. The Grineer tore the blade free, a stream of blood splattering across the ground as it did so. It gave a single gurgling cry and fell. The handle of the machete struck the ground, thrusting the behemoths head back with a sickening snap.

Gallik took a deep shuddering breath, staring at the two. His brain refuses to accept that he, a mere mortal, had killed them. True he had had help, but he had been the one to strike the final blow on not one, but two foes that should have been far beyond him.

There was another sickening crack as the entity wrenched the massive Grineer's head to the side, turning the machete upwards. It grabbed the handle and pulled the blade free.

It looked slightly winded, it's great rising and falling. So it was alive, or at least imitating life.

He became aware of sobbing, and soft murmurs. Melanie knelt, rifle abandoned, holding Sai'ah.

"I don't want to." His daughter said. "I don't want to."

The Kraken lay at her feet, tossed there by shaking hands.

"Shhh." Melanie crooned. "It's okay. It's okay."

A hand entered his vision, offering him the machete. He took it, watching as the entity stride towards his wife and daughter. He knew it meant them no harm, yet he still tensed as it approached them.

He expected it to hand them their weapons and encourage them to move. It did not. Instead, in a gesture far too human and far too gentle for the unstoppable killer it was, it knelt and place a single hand on his daughter's shoulder. It's other cupped her face, wiping away her tears with its thumb.

Sai'ah's cries softened and she looked up. The pain on her face meted into something unreadable. She tilted her head and reached out. Her small hand cupped the lower edge of the entity's helmet. It did not shy away from the touch, in fact it seemed to relax every so slightly. It met Sai'ah's gaze and nodded every so slightly.

Gallik watched his daughter nod back, and withdraw her had. She leaned forward, picking up the pistol and sliding it into the holster that ran nearly the length of her small legs.

"Time to go." She said. "He says the Grineer will be here soon."

Gallik blinked.

"Who?" He asked.

Sai'ah had mentioned a voice in her head, offering advice. But it was female, not male, and as far as he knew had never functioned as a sort of living radar. His daughter's calm certainty worried him.

"The Tenno of course." Sai'ah said. "Don't worry. We're friends now."

She reached out and took the hand of the "Tenno".

Melanie fell in beside him as he followed. He could feel his unease mirrored in her.

"This may be the overprotective parent in me." She murmured. "But I don't like her being 'friends' with something that takes such joy in killing."

Gallik nodded.

"Agreed." He said. "Her... gifts have not led us astray yet, but that does not make them infallible. Everyone has an agenda. And I am curious how our 'friend' here will react when ours diverge."

It could not possibly have heard him, and yet as he watched, it turned back towards them. Gently it pulled its hand free from Sai'ah's and gave her a little push. She nodded at it and fell back to where her parents stood.

"It's okay." She said. "He won't hurt us."

She took her mother's hand, humming something.

Gallik's blood froze as he heard it. It was a tune she could not possibly have heard. Only one place played music that haunting.

He turned back, staring through the trees at the burning colony, and in the center, the massive golden spire that loomed over the ruins. The hole near the top glimmered in the flames and sunlight, like a giant eye watching him.

Gallik felt a chill race down his spine. He shook it off, tightening the strap of his pack, then turned and followed his family into the tangled thicket of the forest.