An acolyte came up behind Alaura and went in for a close ranged kill. Kai dashed to cover her and kicked the Hive creature away, but the blaster still fired. The three icy blue bolts clawed its way into Kai's stomach. Kai let out an ear-piercing scream as he fell to the ground. He accidentally knocked Alaura off balance in the process and she cried out as she fell in surprise.

Malachi and Tanis killed the remaining Hive and took a second to breathe. The two men set their guns to their sides and swayed back and forth, unsteady on their tired feet. Tanis felt tired, but he didn't feel like he wanted to sleep. That's where Malachi differed. All he wanted to do was sleep. He couldn't stand battles this long. Back alley fighting was never this long.

Alaura scrambled on her knees to Kai and set her gun down beside her. Her lungs wouldn't let her take in too much air and she felt like she was choking. Her runner's high faded and was now replaced with urgency and fear. He saved me. Alaura carefully Kai's helmet off and held him up. Her voice wavered for a second, "You haven't given up on me for all these years. Don't give up now." Alaura took off her helmet so he could see her face. At this point, tears trailed down her cheeks, and she tried to wipe them away quickly.

Kai's expression lit up as much as it could at the sight of her. It was as if he couldn't feel the excruciating pain coming from his abdomen. Blood stained his armor and stuck to Alaura's white armored hands as she grazed the wound in an attempt to cover it. Kai chuckled lightly, but he choked on a gasp before recalling words he had said to her long ago, "It was an order."

"I've let you down again..." her heart cracked at the thought of it. The memory of Kai getting hit with a rocket on that hilltop flashed through her mind. The fear, the anger, the flash of pain at the thought of losing him, she remembered all of it. Now, here she was in a similar situation. She ran over to protect him, not get him killed. A flood of emotions came over her, and the death of her original teammates finally hit her. Their screams. Their pain. What they thought of her all these years. They thought she abandoned them for a better team. God, no....They were family. She could never leave them on purpose.

"You didn't..." He set his hand on her cheek and smirked his signature smirk where he lifted one side of his lips. Some of his yellowing teeth showed, but all Alaura could picture was when he looked like when he was younger. The way he would smile and it would just melt her heart. The way he would gaze at her, so lovingly and full of happiness. His dark, fading eyes locked onto her blue ones. "I've always loved you, Alaura. I'm so sorry. I wish I could've said it to you a million times over."

"Don't be sorry. Don't." Alaura cracked a small smile through the pain. She didn't want her pain to be the last thing that Kai saw. "We couldn't..." she paused and decided not to continue on with that sentence. It only brought up the horrible fact that they lost all that time together. There was nothing they could do to get it back. She sniffled and her smile wavered. "That doesn't matter now. What matters is that I love you, Kai." Alaura ran a hand down his scruffy face and kept smiling, even though tears poured out of her eyes like a river. She blinked a few times and caught the last remaining light in his eyes before he passed away.

Not a lot of people truly know how difficult it was for Alaura and Kai. Small flirting led to a fling, which in turn led to one of the best weeks of their lives... Only to find out that they were assigned to the same team. Over the years, their attraction grew stronger with every moment they shared. Love bloomed. She loved him and he loved her just as much, if not more.

Alaura set Kai down on the sand gently. She shakily grabbed his dog tags and clutched them in her hand. Her heart shattered and her sobs grew louder with each short breath. Her lungs couldn't take in more air; for a second, she truly felt like she was drowning in her sorrows.

Alaura tuned everything out. Her environment blurred around her. Her head felt numb. First her mother and Leroy were dead. Then her brother never wanted to see her again. Now Kai? Alaura's hands grew warm and heated up. A blue spark danced throughout her veins and caused her hands to glow an electric blue.

Now, he's dead.

Dead.

Alaura's best friend was dead.

A sheer, broken cry erupted out of Alaura's throat and echoed over comms. Malachi and Tanis' attentions snapped to her to see if she was okay. Tanis lowered his gun and watched as Alaura sobbed loudly. His mouth dropped; he blinked a few times as his mind raced with calculations. He had calculated that at least two of them should have survived around that area. They shouldn't have died. Maybe his calculations were wrong. The guardians certainly underestimated what the enemy could do. The ghosts said the enemies were dangerous, but Tanis didn't take into consideration of what that truly meant. He had never been in combat. How would he know? But...something in the back of his mind recalled something familiar about being in battle. The sight, the sounds of death and war cries, the non-stop fire of weapons, it all felt so familiar...

Malachi's jaw clenched. His heart stopped when he saw Alaura holding Kai in her arms. His reality distorted and he fell back into a memory.

Malachi held a woman in his arms as he screamed. He attempted to stop the bleeding, but she had lost so much already. Her blood stained his skin and her skin paled. The warmth that emanated from her seemed to grow cold and distant with the sound of her heartbeat. Her once bright brown eyes now faded into nothingness.

"No! No! Don't leave me! Please..." Malachi's voice broke and he lowered his head. His fresh tears fell like soft rain onto the woman's corpse. He let out a quiet, broken whisper, "Don't leave me alone..."

Malachi snapped back to reality when Macey flashed red lights inside of his helmet. Don't get attached... He grimly reminded himself. Never again. Getting attached was a surefire way to losing some sanity. Right now, he needed as much sanity as he could. He clenched his teeth and tried to avert his attention to his hand cannon. He checked to see how much ammo he had left. Thirty six bullets. Better make those last. He thought bitterly.

Any of the remaining soldiers left had ran towards the city. Some left for medical attention, others felt the sense of need to protect the people from this monstrosity of a race. The red sanded battlefield was now full of lifeless corpses and heavy air. Smoke, sulfur, metallic, and putrid death all clung together in the air and mixed together. If Tanis had a sense of smell, he would probably vomit.

A new wave of tomb ships floated in from portals that tore through reality. Hive soldiers transported down, but this time, it was just acolytes and thralls. They seemed to appear in larger numbers than the knights and wizards, so they must've been the regular common soldiers. The higher up the chain, the smaller the numbers.

"Oh, come on," Malachi whined. He tilted his head back in exhaustion and groaned. He just got his breath under control. Now there's more? "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

"How many do you think there are?" Tanis questioned and set his gun down.

Alaura put the dog tags around her neck and stuffed them inside of her armor. She put on her helmet and exhaled loudly to steady her fast heart rate. Her hands lit up brighter and brighter by the second. She grit her teeth and growled lowly, "It doesn't matter."

Alaura broke out into a sprint towards the new wave of Hive. The acolytes and thrall screeched back before charging at her. Rage coursed through her illuminated veins. She picked up speed and screamed out before she jumped into the air. Alaura threw her fists down onto the ground at the same time as she landed. The blue spark of electricity from her hands jumped into the earth to cause an big explosion of light around her. The Hive creatures got caught in the blast and crumbled apart.

Malachi and Tanis peered at each other in worry. They wanted to stop her from getting out of hand, but that would mean they had to actually confront her. In her moment of pure rage and loss, they decided it would be best to let her finish off the wave. Intervening only meant conflict. Conflict meant one of them was going to get knocked the hell out, and in this situation, it wasn't going to be Alaura.

Alaura jumped up from the ground and aimed for the thrall coming her way. They all seemed to line up perfectly for the shot. The blue electricity still danced across her fingers, so she super punched all of the thrall as hard as she could. They all fell to the ground and disappeared into little flecks of darkness.

Before she knew it, the wave was over. No more Hive spawned in from incoming tomb ships. The Mars terrain fell silent. The breeze carried some red sand away, along with smoke and some of the strong stench of death. The sun beat down on the guardians hot and heavy. Alaura and Malachi baked in their outfits, and Tanis felt as if he were overheating.

Alaura threw her helmet aside. She fell to her knees and just screamed as loud as she could. Her cry echoed through the Mars terrain, bouncing off of small hills and cliff sides. She hurt so much that all she could do was scream without taking a breath. Her heart felt like it was ripped out of her chest and incinerated before her blue eyes. Nothing could bring them back. Nothing.

Malachi and Tanis glanced at each other and took off their helmets. The fresh air hit their faces. It felt cool against Malachi's sweat-glistening skin. The cool air soothed Tanis' heated metal face and he closed his eyes in delight for a moment. When the moment of brief delight passed, both of them walked to Alaura and sat on either side of her. She kept shrieking in agony until she couldn't any more. Her team members waited patiently next to her. They saw how much she hurt. How much her old team meant to her. Malachi felt bad for her. A sense of care swept over him and he tried to brush it off. Tanis worried for her mental health and set his hand on her shoulder, letting her know he was there for her.

The ghosts appeared from outside of the armor and surveyed the situation with their own eyes. They remained quiet and bobbed up and down in the air slowly. Dinklebot watched the area around them carefully. A part of the ghost was in disbelief, but a few thoughts processed in its mind. Macey went over to Malachi when she saw his sad expression. Jarvis bumped Alaura a few times to get her attention and then nuzzled up next to her. She was in distress and it hated seeing his guardian in such pain. She held onto the little ghost and hugged it gently.

Dinklebot's eye zoomed in on something in the distance. Vex traveled down a ways away on the Mars terrain. They marched in formation and in sync, weapons held to their cold metal chests. A few hefty built Vex, known as minotaurs, traveled at the back of the group. Goblins, which were regular foot soldiers, and hobgoblins, the snipers of the pack, surged forward in their journey.

Dinklebot glanced back at the guardians and announced, "Not to rain on any of your parades, but there are Vex marching towards the city. As tired as you may be, we need to take care of them."

Malachi wiped sweat from his brow. He resisted from putting his hand on Alaura's shoulder as a sign of comfort and sat back in the sand. He scoffed in exhaustion, "We? Be my guest, Dinklebot. You go slay some robots."

Tanis peered at his teammates. Malachi appeared troubled. His flat expression and dead eyes told it all. Alaura was in distress. She had finally stopped screaming and allowed the setting to fall quiet, but the way she held herself in such a broken way screamed louder than her voice ever could. This was definitely not the time to move on to the next battle. He followed Malachi's lead, "Yeah, I think we're going to stay here and rest for a second."

Alaura let go of Jarvis; he flew up into the air and continued to watch her silently. Alaura wiped her nose and sucked in a breath. Her hoarse voice cracked in several places, "He's right. We have to kill them."

Tanis quickly disagreed, "Right now? I think you deserve a breather."

Malachi stared off into the distance to avert his thoughts to another topic. He agreed with Tanis and asked Alaura, "Are you sure you're up for more?" That question wasn't completely aimed at her. He also questioned himself. Was he up for more fighting? Heartbreak? Death? Loss? It was bound to happen, but he didn't feel completely sure he was up for all of the suffering.

Alaura grimly reminded herself of what had happened to her team. The pain scrambled up inside of her and twisted into anger. Those emotions turned into her drive to eliminate any hostiles in her path. She grit her teeth harshly and put on her sandy helmet. "I'm sure."

"What about reinforcements?" Tanis reloaded his scout rifle slowly. He performed the action without thinking about it, as if it were a reflex. Questions floated around in his mind, yet he pushed them aside to ponder later on when things weren't so hectic.

Jarvis responded to his question, "Macey has already done so, and none can be deployed so quickly. They aren't coming." He flew towards Alaura's helmet and vanished in a white light before he hit it. The other two ghosts did the same with their respective guardian.

Malachi scoffed in reflex, "Figures. That's great government action right there. Typical." He never trusted the government to get any job done. Government employees were all pathological liars with unfulfilled promises. If they stopped caring about their own salaries and raises, they could give a little of that to the lower class. If they wouldn't have been so damn selfish, Malachi wouldn't have resorted to doing what he did to survive. He looked out towards the Vex and pulled out his hand cannon.

Tanis looked down at the ground for a short period and sighed. "I guess it is just us then."

Alaura stood up on her wobbly legs and almost fell over. She balanced herself out, allowing some sand to fall off of her helmet. Her hand yanked the fusion rifle off of her back and examined it. "Jarvis, how the hell do you shoot this gun?"

"Hold the trigger and then release it. The longer you hold, the more powerful the blast," Jarvis' British accent echoed inside of Alaura's crowded helmet.

The Vex spotted the trio and changed their path to head towards them. The minotaurs twisted their weapons and adjusted them. They fired off a few warning shots, the giant bolts exploding on impact just a few feet ahead of the guardians. The smaller robots took charge and teleported closer, their forms surrounded by a purple light. The minotaurs teleported faster and more aggressively than the others, screaming a high pitched whine.

The guardians aimed their weapons at the Vex, all set and ready to go. Tanis hesitated as this feeling of warmth and immense light washed over him. He lowered his gun and blinked a few times. A voice inside of his mind whispered joyfully, It's back! It's here! It's here. Tanis set a hand on his metal head and closed his eyes. "Guys, something's coming."

"Yeah, our impending doom," Malachi retorted.

Alaura glanced over at Tanis. Even though he couldn't move much of his face, Alaura could tell he was either confused or frustrated. She questioned, "What are you talking about, Tanis?"

A loud crackle ripped through the sky. Everyone's attention snapped up to it. Bright white lightning dashed across the darkened sky, causing The Darkness to hiss and reel back in pain. The Traveler came into view against some blue sky. White light emanated off of it, and it sent another set of bolts towards its enemy. The Darkness shot its own inky blackness at it, but it didn't work. The light and the dark canceled each other out. The Traveler surged another attack and managed to push The Darkness farther away.

The Darkness retreated towards the asteroid belt. With the asteroids and its surroundings, it thought it would be safe. As long as it had a foothold in the galaxy, its spawn of worshippers could travel through it.

The Vex witnessed The Darkness' retreat. They knelt down as if they were worshipping something and vanished into thin air. The trio was prepared to fight, but god, did it feel good to not have to. They holstered their weapons and let out a sigh of relief.

This battle was only the beginning.