Well, it has been a while hasn't it? Im not going to bother making up some excuse about being busy or anything because I simply stopped writing for a while. It went on the back burner and almost never got looked back into. But recently I noticed people were still following and favorting this little thing I made. So I figured, what the hell, why not keep going? After all we got all this new lore on the fallen, the darkness, motherfucking Oryx! Hot damn, lots of stuff to write about. I even got a timeline set up. As this happens before Crota and the House of Wolves, and will follow along with the events that unfold all the way until we reach Siva. So long as I keep up with this, which I will try to do. Anyways enjoy.

Things were not looking good. Though that was understandable from where Kilxis stood. Or in this case crouched, hunched over, holding the bleeding wound in her side with her lower right arm. Blood wept through the crumpled armor and the fingers desperately clutching at torn flesh. Pain shot through her body as she shook with spasms. The baron winced and ground her fang like teeth before sucking in a breath and moving from behind her make shift cover. The wreckage of some massive stone pipe of sorts had been good for something she supposed. This scrap yard was getting on her nerves however. The snow most of all. She hated the cold.

Kilxis could hear the sounds of gunfire, and not just of the guardians, but of fallen weapons as well. 'To many shots.' She mused internally as her vision swam for a moment as the pain threatened to overwhelm her senses. They had only brought a single squad with them. Vaxis, damn fool that he was, had insisted on not bringing to many soldiers lest the guardians believe they meant to attack them. When she got her hands on Vaxis she was going to show him exactly how idiotic he was, and what a mistake it had been to make him kell. She was regretting it with every painful breath.

The source of the gunfire was becoming apparent as the comm squawked with the chatter of her vandals. The large guardian, the one in the heavy armor, a titan was firing on them and nothing they did seemed to be able to dent it. The baron cursed and glanced around for any sort of elevated ground. She needed to be able to see. She had only a rough idea where her vandals were and something else was bothering her. She couldn't see Vaxis and that worried her. He was massive, and should have been the first thing she noticed, but she couldn't spot him anywhere, and the sounds of the fallen weapon fire had her on edge. 'There are to many shots.' The thought continued to play through her mind. Finally she made up her mind and took a breath before starting to scramble up onto the husk of some sort of hollow transport vehicle. It had many seats in it, and metal bars. She couldn't fathom this guardian transport, but now wasn't the time for that. It was a wreck anyways.

The comm hissed as she attempted to activate it and realized with a growl that it had been damaged when she was grappling with that blasted Warlock. The damn heretic had smashed her armor in and damaged her blasted communication. She could hear well enough, though it came in garbled at times, but it seemed she had no way to contact anyone or give orders. Kilxis wanted to scream. So she did, long and full of pain and anger and it drew a few looks she could tell as a number of shots stopped before starting back up as the shooters continued their onslaught.

Every single movement was agony but she continued to move even as her body screamed at her to stop. Blood slicked the hand she held to the wound but that didn't stop her. She didn't have the luxury of stopping, not at the moment anyways. Things had gone bad, and she needed information if she were going to be able to do anything. And where was the drop ship? She would skin the dregs responsible for its delay personally! Starting with Vaxis!

It took all of her effort to climb up the scrapped transport, the rusted metal giving slightly in some areas as her bulk clambered upwards. The folds of her cape kept snagging on loose metal and ripping, though the baron paid it no mind. It wasn't the first time her equipment had been damaged. She also doubted that it would be the last. Finally, she managed to get atop the hulk of metal and observed the field below her. From her vantage point she was finally able to pinpoint where her squad currently was. Trapped behind what appeared to be some sort of aircraft, based on the wings it seemed to sport, and were under constant fire by the titan as it walked towards them like judgment itself.

Growling, Kilxis collapsed to one knee and shuddered. Her arms were starting to feel cold, the ends of her fingers tingled oddly. It was bad, she knew what blood loss felt like. She would need medical care, and soon, or she knew that she would pass out. The armor could keep her alive for a short while, but it was no long term solution. However, she didn't have the time to worry about that, two things needed to happen. She needed to assist her squad, and she needed to figure out where Vaxis was, so she could shove her sword through his moronic skull, and drag him back to the ship in pieces so they could salvage something of this horrible mission. The rifle on her back felt immensely heavy as she slung off her shoulder and she had to stop herself from collapsing as she attempted to hold it steady.

The sight wavered back and forth as her ragged breathing made aiming difficult but she finally managed to get it still enough to find her target and fire a quick volley of shots towards the titan. None of them hit, her body simply wasn't in the shape it needed to be to aim. But the shots did distract the titan long enough for her vandals to open fire and force it to duck behind a large pile of bent and twisted metal. Kilxis would have grinned and lined up another shot had her body not finally given out and her knee went out from under her. Her helmet smashed into the metal below her and jarred her teeth, she could taste blood in her mouth and knew she had bitten the inside of her own mouth from the impact. Swearing softly, the Baron weakly glanced around and pulled her rifle back towards her, laying on her stomach to have any hope of aiming. This was bad, she could see blood starting to pool under her, even as she tried to remain as still as possible.

Slowly she scanned the area around her, ignoring the cold that was starting to creep into her body. She knew this area of the planet was cold, but the armor should have insulated her, and no cold she had ever felt was this bone chilling. A flash of movement grabbed her attention and she focused in on it. It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at was the cloaked guardian and one of the small drones they always had with them. However what made her seethe was that they were standing over the collapsed form of Vaxis. The massive body could be no one else. She flicked a switch on the rifle and felt it hum as the charge built to almost dangerous levels. Shield or not, this shot would tear through most anything. And she aimed it straight for the guardian's cowl covered head.

Cayde was trying to figure out what exactly he had just witnessed, and it was something he couldn't exactly figure out. As a result he was simply standing there dumbly and watching as his ghost scanned the now unconscious? Dead? Body of the kell. "Did you… kill a kell?" He asked the ghost as it continued its scans.

"Hmm? No, why in the world would I kill him?' Castle responded without a pause in its rapid scans.

"Because, said kell is currently laying on the ground, not moving. And I don't know how you did that. He was also trying to kill Ikora. And me, and I'm sure Zavala would have been next on the list." Cayde retorted with what would be a frown if his facial structures allowed for the proper range of movements needed for that to occur. Sometimes being made of metal wasn't all-good. "What did you do?"

"If we are being honest I am not even completely certain what just happened myself. Something just… came over me." The small ghost zipped back and forth as it examined the unconscious kell.

Cayde wanted to bang his head on something, preferably until the world started making sense again. "Then wha-" He was cut off by Zavala suddenly barking at him over his comm.

"CAYDE! DUCK!" Zavala boomed through the comm.

Years of working with the vanguard had taught Cayde two things. The first, Ikora always, ALWAYS cheated at cards. She was worse than that damn bowman. The second was that Zavala never made jokes. So when he yelled at him to duck, Cayde instantly dropped to the ground. Just in time for two very odd things to happen. The space where Cayde had previously occupied suddenly hummed, as the oxygen in the air was super heated by the energy passing through it. And the stealthed vandal that had been about to impale Cayde from behind slammed into the ground. The majority of its chest and upper rights shoulder missing from the shot that had ripped through it. The creature let out a garbled rasping choke before it moved no more. The smell of scorched flesh rapidly filled the air around them, and Cayde was reminded of why he loved their helmets having filters.

The Exo hunter was so caught up investigating what had been happening with the Kell he hadn't even noticed the red blips on his HUD until they were about to make him into a Cayde-kabob. 'Oh that's a good one, I should write that one down for future.' He thought as quickly scanned the area from his position in the dirt. Once he saw he wasn't about to be stabbed, or shot for that matter, he rolled over behind the Kell using it as makeshift cover. Hopefully the other fallen wouldn't risk shooting their leader to get him. He glanced at the dead vandal and frowned. It bore the gold coloring of the house of kings. Meaning it was one of the advanced scouts. The main force would be there soon.

He tapped his comm and checked to make sure it still worked before speaking rapidly. "Zav, you got incoming. House of kings most likely. Stealthed. Watch your back." He didn't get a reply, but he heard gunfire.

Hearing the sounds of rapid pulse fire as Zavala's auto-rifle open fire on a large bus nearby, Cayde watched as a large Fallen rolled off of it and collapsed on the ground before dragging itself behind cover. The damn thing had been trying to shoot him! The nerve! Here they were trying to help these ingrates and the first thing he got for his troubles was being used for target practice. "Thanks for the heads up Zav, if you hadn't caught that I would be needing a new head completely. And despite what some people may say, we cannot function without a head. We have tried. Doesn't work. Just saying."

Zavala's grunt came as expected. "I don't care about your jokes right now Cayde. Where is Ikora?"

The Exo glanced around before quickly running over to the downed guardian. He checked to see if she was still breathing and let out a sigh of relief when he found that she was just unconscious. Her body had already started to repair itself and he could see that whatever damage she had taken was quickly regenerating. He knelt next to her prone form and poked her helmet a few times. "Ikora. Wake up."

Nothing.

He poked again. "Ikora~" He said in a sing song voice. "I'm going to use your arcane tomes as a cup coasters."

Ikora Ray shot up and gasped as her body hunched in pain, the damage to her ribs not having been fully repaired. "Cayde, if you DARE to-" Cayde cut her off with a wave.

"Yeah, yeah, you will rain fire and darkness down on me and use my metal remains to train the arc wielders, I KNOW. Save it. We got to help Zavala. The kings are here, and the winter house is less than pleased with us." He gestured at the downed kell.

"And… we got this guy here." Ikora blinked.

"You took down their kell?" She sounded like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

To his credit Cayde had the nerve to be offended. "Hey! I am the hunter vanguard, give me some credit!" He even folded his arms as if to show how offended he clearly was. Castle picked that moment to chime in. "Actually he just stood there while one of my subroutines disabled the kell. I am not certain exactly which one however. It was designed by the Traveler and I have no access to it."

"Castle! Come on! I was trying to play it up!" Cayde cried out in disbelief at being sold out by his own ghost. The little machine simply blinked at him. Or did what he assumed was blinking as the lens in the center did a swift shift.

Ikora however seemed to miss Cayde's exclamation of heroics and was more focused on the kell. "You say a subroutine that the Trawler implemented did this?"

"Yes, though again. I have no idea what it was, or what it did. I have no record of it within my systems, nor can I access the area within my system where I believe it to be located. It is like it doesn't exist, yet I know it does." The small ghost explained as it hovered around Cayde's shoulder.

Ikora tapped at her helmet for a moment before seeming to nod. "This, this requires furtherer investigation. Do you think we can get the kell back to the tower? In one piece, and alive mind."

The ghost let out a hum before projecting a display before them. "We have transport available to the tower from here. Though I do no believe the system is calibrated to handle a… That's odd." Castle said suddenly as it observed the coding that allowed for them to transport and materialize elsewhere.

"What is." Cayde asked as he poked the unmoving kell with his boot.

The ghost was silent for a moment. "The kell is programed into the transport system." Cayde and Ikora stared at the small floating AI.

Cayde was the first to react. "Uhhhh… what?"

Ikora rolled her eyes at Cayde's amazingly intelligent reponse and focused back on the ghost. "How?"

"I am unsure. He simply is. He even has a designation. Similar to the guardian's verification, though it is in the Fallen tongue. Lord Vaxis, Kell of the House of Winter. Ketch Master of Carrion's Feast. " Castle replied as it displayed the designation within the elaborate system the guardians used for teleportation to, and from the tower, as well as their ships.

Ikora's frown could be felt through her helmet. "Are you telling me that this fallen is a guardian?" The very idea was beyond insane.

"A guardian? No, I do not detect light within the kell, none of the indicators of a guardian's power either. No, whatever happened to this 'Lord Vaxis', he isn't a guardian. But he is in our transport system. The only thing that can alter the transportation system at will is the Traveler. " The ghost seemed troubled, though it was difficult to tell, they often had very neutral voices.

Zavala broke up the conversation by speaking up over the comm. "I heard all of that. However we will have to deal with it later. If we take the kell back to the tower it will be impossible for it to do any damage. The sheer number of guardians would crush it instantly. And I just spotted a drop ship, two actually. One has the marks of winter; the other belongs to the kings. We need to leave, now."

"You heard him Castle, beam me up." Cayde said with a thumb up as he grabbed ahold of the kell's massive form with one arm and did his best to hold onto the massive Fallen.

Ikora frowned but didn't say anything, her curiosity over what had occurred overriding any safety concerns she might have had. Opting instead to grab ahold of the Kell as well, hoping that their combined efforts might make any transportation easier. She needn't have bothered. Within a moment the familiar gut churning rush of rapid movement engulfed her and Cayde, and they vanished in a flash of light, the Kell vanishing with them.

Kilxis watched in horror from her hiding place as the Guardian's vanished in flashes of light. The robed one that Vaxis had kicked had been standing back up as if nothing was the matter, and here she was, bleeding to death. It made her growl, the sheer failure of this situation was unfair. Their kell was gone, captured or killed by the Guardians. And the enemy hadn't even suffered losses. She was about to bark out an order to kill everything in sight but something distracted her, the sudden feeling of lightheadedness that threatened to send her toppling over. However the sounds over her comm snapped her back to reality, and let her know two things as she stared at where the guardians had been. The first was that their own drop ship had arrived, and the second was that they needed to leave now, as the king's own drop ship was due to arrive at any moment.

One of her vandals rushed over to her and helped her lip towards the ship before they were rapidly dematerialized and drawn into the hanger of the vandals and dregs moving about the hanger instantly rushed towards them and she could see one of her fellow barons making their way towards her and her squad. Kilxis proceeded to collapse onto the ground, her vision dark as her many eyes raced about in her sockets, trying to understand what had happened. Vaguely she could hear a familiar booming voice barking orders before she felt herself being lifted and carried. A face swam into view as her vision shifted.

"Tyranis?" She asked weakly as the old Baron looked down at her, his multiple eyes tracing over her damaged armor and wounds.

He shook his head. "Don't speak, you lost to much blood. You need treatment, now. "

However she couldn't just lay there without telling him. She HAD to tell him what happened. With a strength she didn't realize she still had she seized the clasp of his cloak and dragged him to her face until there were only a hand's breadth apart. "They. Took. Our. Kell." Tyranis blinked all of his eyes once, and nodded. Kilxis collapsed back down onto whatever was being used to carry her. A stretcher she supposed.

In the background she could faintly hear Tyranis barking a single order. "Gather the ketches, we move to The City. We will show the guardians the folly of taking the lord of winter."

Darkness filled her vision, and she knew no more.

Well alrighty then. Thats it for the very start of things, and the end to the action for the moment. Things will get very... errr, explainy before long. As I need to hash out alot of details, as well as figure out a way for the exposition to happen in a way that feels semi organic. Anyways, if you enjoyed feel free to say so. Any critism is welcome, and comments are appreciated. The next chapter should be out before the end of the month. I hope.(Edit. I spell checked it, so it should all be fixed now. Hopefully.)