AN: Finally getting into the action! So excited. I was late to the vine making community and only could make a few before it ended. Here's one for the story. https://vine.co/v/5nV9bLKtOZh

"Ew, why is this one sticky?" Malachi inquired, accompanied by a face of disgust. Macey took one look at the armor and shook herself out, as if she were also in disgust. She blinked a few times and ushered Malachi to pick out the piece of gray armor next to her.

Alaura stayed on the other side of the lockers. She rushed to put on heavy white armor that covered her entire body. She'd never worn head-to-toe armor before, so this was a first. "Just get some damn armor on. I can't have you two dying out there." Jarvis whispered some things into her ear, which caused her to chuckle to herself.

The trio was only in the locker room because Kai told them there was armor in there. If they were going to fight, they had to wear a uniform. He wasn't going to let them go out there unprotected. Kai watched the only entrance to the room to make sure no one would catch them. Impersonating army soldiers and taking armor was a serious crime. At a time like this, the government would have to understand. After hearing about aliens, death, destruction, and more, Kai gave in to the crazy idea of believing it all when Alaura gave him a certain look. He was still putty in her hands, even after all these years.

Tanis appeared clueless, but somehow, he knew what to do. As if...as if he's done this before. He put on the red armor in a haze, trying to remember something once lost to him. Wearing the armor and feeling The Traveler's light flow not only through the armor, but himself, brought back a sense of déjà vu.

Dinklebot watched him curiously. He couldn't hear his thoughts, but Tanis seemed troubled. Dinklebot bobbed up and down, notifying the other two ghosts to get ready. The ghosts glowed white for a second before disappearing into the armor. Dinklebot declared through the team's helmets, "Don't worry. We're still here. We're your personal communication line now."

"I guess that's better than an earpiece," Alaura commented sincerely. Earpieces were easy and portable, but inside of a helmet? That would be moist chaos with the possibility of it falling out. She grabbed her secondary weapon, a fusion rifle, and hooked it onto her back. Alaura got a good hold of her black automatic rifle and waved to the other two before leaving the locker room.

Malachi put his personal sniper rifle on his back. He set a baby blue hand cannon, a small six-chambered pistol, in his thigh holster. He could go on solo missions with confidence, but this? A war? And he'd have to work in a team? He exhaled slowly and thought it over. It's simple. Focus. Shoot. Reload. He watched Tanis as he changed magazines in his scout rifle like a pro. Malachi's forehead creased in confusion. As far as he knew, Tanis didn't have any experience with weapons.

Tanis looked up for a second and did a double take when he realized Malachi was staring. He put his sidearm in its holster and held the white scout rifle with both hands. A blue light behind his mouth flickered along with his words, "Are you okay?"

The ghosts stayed quiet and didn't point the strange behavior out. Malachi wanted to say something, but retracted the thought of it. Questioning a team member that just underwent something life changing, and not know it, was probably the worst move. Distractions at a time like this weren't needed. Malachi nodded slowly and followed Alaura. Tanis shrugged off the curious manner his teammate displayed and walked out.

Xavier and Sheyla came back, pale from shock. Sweat fell down Xavier's brow and he held his gun with shaky hands. He yelled out to the group, "What the hell is going on? I didn't sign up to kill aliens." His brown eyes glanced to his side and he murmured to himself, "Leroy always said they would come. I didn't believe the bastard."

Sheyla looked at Xavier and reassured him quietly, "None of us did. What...what do we do?" She took her small pistol out and checked the clip to make sure it was full. Her bottom lip quivered in slight fear, but she quickly bit it to get it to stop.

"Defend the city. The people need to be evacuated to a city that's farther away," Alaura ordered. It was the best idea she had. The civilians needed protection while they fought. Otherwise, the death count would be significantly worse. Alaura nodded to Malachi and Tanis, who returned the gesture.

"Wait, you can't boss us around anymore. Kai is our commanding officer." Sheyla furrowed her brows and looked at Kai angrily. She pointed her finger above the pistol at the trio. "And why are they wearing armor? You know you can get put in jail for letting them take that."

Kai stayed quiet and just watched Alaura. His expression set in stone as stern, but the care in his eyes shown brighter than it ever had before. Alaura tried to remain calm. This could be handled. It had to be. Quickly. She lowly stated, "You have no idea what you're getting into here."

"Oh, and you do?" Sheyla crossed her arms and narrowed her dark eyes at her.

Malachi stepped in and set one hand out, "It's complicated. Look, go tell some soldiers to take care of the city, and you can see what you're really up against." Alaura glanced over at him in respect for speaking up, even though she didn't need the help. Malachi nodded to her. He could see everyone's postures and immediately tell this conversation was heading south. Their gestures were closed off, defensive, and a little angry. Fighting right now when they needed to focus was a horrible idea.

Xavier stopped Sheyla from snapping back by setting his hand on her arm. She glared at him, but didn't say a word. Kai was grateful for Xavier stepping up. It allowed Kai to watch Alaura and carefully examine her expression for genuine reasoning. Her eyebrows knit together, blue eyes wide and full of urgency. Her cheeks flushed of color and she played with her hands in anticipation. A spark of care crossed Kai's eyes and he ordered his team, "Go tell fireteam Hailstorm to evacuate the city."

"On it boss." Xavier acknowledged and dragged Sheyla with him out of the building.

"I'm trusting you. Don't disappoint me again," Kai emphasized and gave Alaura a sincere look. Alaura bit her tongue and nodded. Disappointing him was the last thing she wanted to do. The three of them rushed outside with Kai to see what they were up against.

Soldiers scattered around the military base and yelling buzzed from outside of the building the fireteam was in. The surrounding area was mainly made up of dry, red sand. It was coarse in texture, but when the wind swept by, it flew up into the air like a tidal wave. Hills and ridges stretched for as far as the eye could see. Behind the small military base, way off in the distance, was a city. Skyscrapers reached for the sky; the glass panels the majority of the walls were practically made of entirely reflected the bright light from the sun.

The guardians and soldiers peered into the sky, and all fell silent for just a split second. Darkness expanded across the blue sky and swirled around the clouds. One of Mars' moons, Phobos, orbited around on the opposite side of The Darkness. If it were to be touched by it, who knows what would happen to it. The three guardians' breath caught in their throats. They knew what was about to happen, and none of it was going to be pretty. Giant garden green wormholes ripped through reality and big ships flew into Mars' airspace. The ships itself appeared to be in the shape of a nail's head, flat at the top and thinned down towards the bottom. A rectangular design was etched into the front and back of the ship. Green orbs lit up all around the designs and turrets flowered out of the opened hatches.

Huge purple bolts spouted from the tomb ships and headed towards the waking battlefield. The bolts exploded on the ground, the effect rippling the earth around it. The soldiers caught in the blast radius blew up into pieces. Other soldiers took one look at their fellow brothers and sisters, and raised their guns at the ships. They sprayed bullets at the enemy aircraft, managing to take out one of the turrets of the leading ship.

Jarvis' English accented voice echoed over their personal communications line, "Axion Darts, those wretched things. Stay away from them, or the Hive will get the upper hand when you're distracted."

Malachi snorted, "Oh, you mean I wasn't supposed to stand in its path and wait for death to whisk me away?"

Alaura glared at him. Malachi could feel her glare, even though she was wearing a helmet. She made sure the magazine in her weapon was fully in place. Never hurt to check. She peered forward onto the awaiting battlefield and stated lowly, "We've got work to do, boys. Let's lead this charge."

"Why can't we go back to the simple times where we wouldn't have to charge headfirst into death?" Malachi turned to the small pistol in her hands to check if it had a full chamber. He spun the chamber around, letting it roll many times before it clicked in place. He grudgingly followed Alaura as she ran ahead of the group.

Tanis stood there confused for a moment. His eyes clicked shut a few times before he questioned, "Were there simple times before now?" He held onto his scout rifle and stayed one step behind the other two.

Alaura caught onto Tanis' confusion and quickly diverted the conversation, "Your focus needs to stay on the enemies. We'll discuss things later." She abruptly stopped when the enemies started flooding the stretch of empty land in front of them.

A gray swirl of dust and particles fell from the tomb ships and came together to form a few dozen Hive acolytes and knights. The acolytes were smaller versions of knights, holding nothing but small guns in their bony hands. All of the Hive acolyte's pale bodies were bony and the cloth they carried on their torsos seemed torn like old cloth. The knights were much bigger and bulkier, as if their burgundy bones were their own hard shelled armor. Their heads formed a big half star shape. All of the Hive's three glowing green eyes stared ahead at the soldiers, bloodthirsty for battle. The aliens charged first, firing the first shot on the battlefield. The acolytes' guns fired a few shots at a time like a pulse rifle, while some knights blew out heavy shots that burst like a meteor impacting the Earth. Other knights took the lead, large bulky swords in hand just ready to dive into someone's chest.

Alaura fired her automatic rifle at the enemy. God, she loved a good automatic. The smell of the sulfur, the fire rate, it all felt satisfying. Her heart was as steady as a ticking clock. Tick. Fire. Tick. Fire. Tick. Fire. A few of the enemies crumbled to pieces when they died. "Reloading!" She called out to her teammates.

Malachi focused in on the scope of his sniper rifle. He let out a breath and fired five rounds, one after the other. Five acolytes went down and their corpses disappeared. He fired off the last two rounds at a single knight's chest, but he kept surging forward. "Aim for the head! Reloading."

Tanis covered Malachi and peered down the scout rifle's scope. The enemies became easier to see and closer, allowing him to line up the perfect headshot on the knight. Bam. Down for the taking. He fired one bullet after the other consecutively and took down acolytes. When one got too close, he thrust his hand out and quickly retracted it. The acolyte glowed purple before disappearing. Tanis felt more energized than before and he glanced down at his hand. It glowed the same purple color. He vaguely remembered something about a grenade-like ability that he had that ate up the playground days ago, but he wasn't sure if that was the same as now.

Alaura noticed Tanis holding back for a second and she shot at every enemy that came at him. All she could hear was her heart beat and the rapid burst of bullets firing from guns. Enemies had tore past the three of them and pushed some of the soldiers back. Others screamed in horror as they fell to the ground with mortal wounds. A blue glow surrounded her hands and she immediately punched the acolyte next to her. Electricity sparked through its body and stunned it long enough until it died.

Malachi whipped out the hand cannon and pointed it directly in front of him in one swift move. Bang. Bang. Bang. It had a little kick to it that caused his continuous firing to be off by a hair. He paused for a second between each shot to get the perfect aim on the enemies that charged forward. Bang...Bang...Bang...

The tomb ships fired at the field. The Axion Darts didn't effect any of the Hive in its path, but the soldiers caught in the blast were obliterated. Some of them were pinned down in the middle of all of the enemies, so they could do nothing but keep firing until their demise. Fireteam Riptide saw an Axion Dart head their way and they scattered. Xavier didn't make it far enough and his side got clipped in the blast. Fireteam Riptide scrambled to get back in formation. Xavier screamed as he lay on the ground, holding what was left of his left shoulder. His feet kicked the sand and he writhed in pain. His whole arm had been blasted off, leaving nothing but just a burnt shoulder.

Alaura whipped around to look at the problem. She could barely see Xavier on the ground through the waves and waves of bodies of enemies and soldiers. She quickly turned to her team to make sure they were doing okay.

Malachi launched a knife towards Alaura, which caused her to quickly duck. Before she could say anything vulgar, an acolyte shrieked behind her. The knife lodged itself between its three glowing green eyes. The creature crumbled apart and disappeared, its cries still echoing in Malachi's mind. Alaura looked at him warily. For a second, she thought he was really aiming for her. He chuckled lightly and pointed out, "I got you."

Thralls teleported down from the tomb ships. Their bony white bodies appeared to have small bits of armor encrusted into their skin. The thralls' small roundish heads were black on top, while their jaw and bony cheeks were white. They had no eyes, but somehow, they could sense where the soldiers were at. Their short screams echoed through the air and drew everyone's attention. They ran at quick speeds towards the soldiers and their three fingered claws lit up in a blue color. They tore through armor without any trouble, killing some soldiers on impact. Others scrambled backwards and shot the thrall, but quickly got overwhelmed and surrounded by others.

Floating Hive witches spawned on the ground and immediately flew around the battlefield. Their ancient armor appeared torn up in places, and their long, crumbling cloaks floated behind them. A red aura surrounded each one, almost like a shield. They threw their three fingered hands out and bolts of blue electricity flew towards the battlefield from afar.

The knights around the three guardians put one hand out in front of them when they were attacked, and a black wall of darkness formed in front of them as shields. Tanis remained as focused and steady as he could. He killed thralls with ease and without thinking, he threw out a grenade from thin air. It fell in between some of the Hive, and a big purple ball formed in the air. The Hive around it got sucked into the vortex field and died. "Did I really do that?" He wondered out loud. Even he was in disbelief, which shook him out of focus.

"Yeah, you did. It was kind of awesome," Malachi admitted. One of the thralls hit him in the arm and he clenched his jaw. He put the gun to its head and shot one round off. He watched it as it fell and moved on to the next target. He asked through his clenched teeth, "Remind me again of how he's so good at fighting, ghosts?"

"Macey is getting on that now. She's trying to hack into the army's database. It might take some time," Jarvis spoke up, which echoed in all three of their helmets.

Alaura swung around and punched a thrall square in the face. When it didn't die, she hit it again, but with much less energy. It flew backwards and disappeared. She was getting out of breath and sweat dropped down from her forehead. "What would the army know about Exos?" She asked, her voice unsteady. When the knights' shields went down, she fired her gun at them.

"We don't know, but we're going to see if they know anything. We never designed the Exos to be capable of fighting like this," Dinklebot stated clearly, his deep voice soothing to their sore ears.

Xavier Jules' deep scream filled the air. He was surrounded by thralls; all of them dug their sharp claws into him. Xavier choked out another cry before falling limp on the ground. Sheyla Yan screamed in anger and pain when she saw her teammate die. She shot a round off of her grenade launcher, which landed in the middle of the group and exploded. The thralls collapsed all at once and fell lifeless. She ran over and kicked one of the bodies out of anger and threw her knife at a live acolyte.

"Yan, nine-o-clock!" Kai yelled out in a hurry. He raced to her and shot at the two witches that were firing at Yan. Sheyla quickly looked up at the witches and dove to the side, but a blast that was originally not going to hit her collided with her chest. She yelped out in pain, allowing both witches to fire everything they had at her. Sheyla's body was torn to pieces by the bolts of electricity, and her communications fell silent. Kai cried out, which caught Alaura's attention. When she noticed what had happened to Xavier and Sheyla, she bolted towards Kai.

"Where the hell are you going?" Malachi called out to her. He stuck his knife into an acolyte and pulled it back out. He kicked its fading body aside and threw the small weapon at an incoming thrall.

"To help Kai! Cover me!" She yelled back in determination. There was no way in hell she was going to let Kai fight alone. No back up. Nothing. He needed the help. Kai reloaded his gun and threw the old clip aside. Alaura fired at one of the witches, eventually breaking down its red solar shield. "That one! Two-o-clock! Kill it!" She ordered and Kai acknowledged it. Both of them fired at the witch, and before it could flee, it died and melted before it could hit the ground.

Soldiers were dying left and right. Hive bodies fell and disappeared. Blood stained the battlefield, and little inklings of Darkness were left behind in the sand. The smell of iron and sulfur became heavier by the minute. As the Hive got close and personal, the stench of death clouded everything else. Gun shots still rang out, but at this point, ammo was running out for most of the army soldiers. Darkness loomed ahead and more of its spawn fell onto the ground.

Malachi and Tanis slowly backed their way up to Alaura and Kai. Malachi's golden gun appeared in his free hand and he joyfully accepted it. His hands were on fire, the flames also engulfing the gun. Piecing two and two together, he two shots at the other witch that hung in the air. Its shield fell down easier than it had with regular weapons. He fired the last shot at its head and it shrieked before disintegrating into nothing. He mentally patted himself on the back for that. Since his teammates didn't have the same color ability, he waited to tell them the news.

Tanis switched over to his sidearm when he got tired of firing slow, consecutive shots. He fired the pistol rapidly at the acolytes and thralls headed towards the group. Some of the Hive fell and distracted others, who followed the same fate.

Alaura shot at everything that came her way. A sense of urgency washed over her. The sting of her old teammates dying hadn't hit her yet. She was stuck in the runner's high of killing Hive off. The light from The Traveler flowed through her and energized her in a way she had never felt before in battle. She kicked an acolyte to the side and punched a knight in the chest. When that didn't work, she dodged its attack with the sword and shot it in the head a few times. Protecting Kai was her mission right now. She just got him back. He just got her back. They couldn't just let go so quickly.

"I'm out of ammo!" Kai called out. He hit one acolyte in the face with the butt of his gun, causing it to stumble backwards.

"I don't have the same ammo as you...Just..." Alaura's mind raced with ideas, but all of them seemed horrible. Everything was hazy and she tried to get a grasp on a good idea. She was too focused on the battle to do anything. Survival was the only option.

Suddenly, there was screaming. Shots were fired at close range, the heat and sulfur hung heavy in the air. Alaura cried out and fell to the ground.