Kal:

Kal lifted up another bush of spin metal and held it up allowing his ghost to digitize it back to their ship. "Here's one, how many does that make?"

His little red ghost, Sal-E, appeared next to him and looked at it. "Forty-three. Remind me again why we are doing this?"

"So I can get a better reputation with the vanguards." He said, letting go of the spin metal as it disappeared. "Kinda need to considering that all these youngsters living around are already being noticed."

"Youngsters? You are and were only twenty-three when you died and I brought you back. You don't get to tack on the dead years because it makes you sound wiser." His ghost said to him, poking him in the face with a corner.

"So, are you saying that my years in death don't count. Because I think they do and you are a robot so you don't even understand."

"Ah, the whole 'you're a robot thing', got anything else to try and win an argument with?"

"Uh, okay I got nothing." Kal answered standing up. "Got anything else around here to do?"

"It looks like you completed your bounties and have enough spin metal for a few trades. Might be time to fly back to the tower." Sal-E suggested, poking him in the face with one of her corners. "C'mon, lets get going to the tower."

Kal clapped his hands together and smiled. "Alright, lets go… how do we do that?"

"Heh, I'll do it." Kal felt himself lift up into the air and get digitally deconstructed one second only to be reconstructed in his ship.

"Okay, lets do this." He said, sitting into his seat and setting the coordinates. "Lets go."

Terra-23:

"With a haul like this, we should be set for supplies for at least a few weeks. Maybe longer if we conserve it," Halios said as he surveyed the contents of the chest. Behind him, Terra-23 paced about in the cramped cave. She thumbed the hammer of her handcannon as she thought over his words. EXO's had no need for food or rest, something she found convenient when teaming up with humans like Halios. It left plenty of opportunities for her to take advantage of. Like right now, while he was distracted.

"There are bits of sapphire wire here. If I remember right, Banshee had an interest in getting these for some experiment of his," Halios continued on. Titans held the coveted title of being the most honorable among the guardians. They were at the forefront of anything having to do with righteousness. Strong, fast, enduring. To the forces of Darkness, a Titan was the closest thing to a nightmare those fiendish things were capable of having. But their most well-known trait, their honor, was also their most fatal flaw.

"Yes, Banshee was willing to pay an exorbitant sum for the wires. A thousand Glimmer for a good batch, if we recall," Terra said. She glanced at the mouth of the cave. No Fallen had dared to venture inside. No guardians were scouting near their position either. For all intents and purposes, they were both alone.

"We can take this to him and split it evenly. Fifty, fifty. It'll be just enough to get that auto-rifle I've been needing," Halios remarked. Terra checked the chamber of her handcannon. Full as usual. But she only needed one bullet.

"I have a better idea," Terra said. Halios stood up after gathering the materials into a pouch. He turned around and came face to face with the barrel of Terra's handcannon.

"Woah, woah, woah! What are you doing?!" he shouted in surprise. Terra blinked once and pulled the trigger. The deafening bang echoed in the small cave as the bullet tore through Halios' knee. The Titan cried in pain and fell to the ground, dropping the bag of valuables with him. Terra recovered the loot, keeping her handcannon trained on Halios' head.

"Do yourself a favor and don't follow us. You wouldn't be the first Titan I've killed," she pulled her handcannon away and walked towards the cave's exit. Behind her, she could hear Halios shouting curses at her. Reaching onto her belt, Terra pulled out a spherical shaped object. Just before she left the cave, she planted it on the rock wall. A slow beeping noise gradually increased until it detonated, collapsing the rocks and closing off the exit.

Titans were nothing if not persistent. It was only a matter of time before he crawled out. The rocks were only meant to slow him down. Same for the bullet she lodged into his knee. If he made it out before Terra left Mars, her little fib about killing Titans should have been enough to discourage him from trailing her.

"Gaia," Terra said aloud. Instantly, her ghost manifested in front of her, its lavender colored optic lenses flickered briefly before she spoke.

"Y-Yes, Terra? What can I do to help?" Gaia asked, as nervous as always. Her voice was soft and smooth, its synthetic tone nearly indistinguishable from its otherwise ethereal sound. A strong gust of wind blew past Terra, her torn grey cloak flapping violently.

"Once we get to the tower, plant another one of your bugs into the security enforcement mainframe. Keep it there for about two months. Plenty of time to lay low," Terra commanded. It had become routine whenever she dealt with a fellow guardian. Grab her prize, leave her team incapacitated, and plant a bug to wipe any mention of her betrayal in official logs. After disappearing for months at a time, her actions would have utterly disappeared. Then she'd do it again.

"…uh…um…A-Are you sure?" Gaia asked, even though she already knew the answer. Terra gave a curt nod as she ascended a sandy dune.

"Positive. You should know this by now, Gaia. We realize it pains you, but I have to do it," Terra said. Gaia floated closer to Terra, almost leaning against the EXO's shoulder before replying.

"O-Okay. I'll get right on it."

Gaia vanished in thin air, leaving Terra alone as she traversed the sandy terrain. It was obvious that Terra's backstabbing made Gaia uncomfortable at the very least. Guardians were never supposed to fight one another outside of the Crucible. Even then, it was in sportsmanship and fair combat. Intentionally hurting another guardian for personal gain was unthinkable. But it was necessary. That was how Terra justified it.

Amidst the howling wind, the roar of Terra's ship engines entered her hearing. She turned around as the sleek blue and white interceptor broke through the brewing sandstorm, settling itself in front of her. Terra felt an odd tingling sensation before her vision went white. Before she knew it, she was sitting in the cockpit of her ship. Flipping a few switches, she set a course for Earth and its last city. Punching in the final set of coordinates, Terra pulled her grey hood down and removed her helmet. Blue optics stared at the displays in front of her. The monitors spilled white light over her green plated face.

She felt a subtle vertigo as her ship broke atmosphere. Feeling a little more relieved she was off the planet, Terra leaned back into her seat. A metallic hand grazed one of the handcannons on her hip. It's been years now. Years since she committed herself to this life. There was no other option for her. No option for him.

An invisible force pressed her further into her seat. Her ship had made the jump towards Earth. It'd take several hours to arrive to her destination. Plenty of time to shut her eyes and reflect on her actions. But no matter which way she looked at it, it was always the same.

It had to be done. We have no other choice.

Marvin Haythem

"Must you blather on when we both know you shall not convince me?" Marvin said to his ghost as it trailed along behind him.

"I am simply SAYing that if you were to DO that bounty before you turned the others in, you would have room for ANOther one in the Crucible." Lethos said in his oddly digitized voice.

The warlock half glared at the ghost, blue longcoat trailing at his ankles as he walked. "And why would I deign to humiliate myself in that area for a few additional marks? These bounties will be more than enough to increase my notoriety for the Future War Cult."

"And how do you plan on BUYing anything from THem without marks?"

"I don't plan on buying from them at all 'Lightbulb.'"

The blue and black ghost narrowed his eye as well as he could in an approximation of a glare at the nickname.

The awoken did not notice it. "Once I get my rank with them to a certain point, and increase their...positive notoriety, they will surely give free...gifts, which should be more than sufficient. Perhaps I shall build my ranking in the other groups as well...or simply go back to the vanguard. Their marks are far easier to earn, especially with all the strikes they offer the chance to go on...and I find it distasteful to fight my fellow guardians anyway." He admitted with a grimace. "Were the combatants to much improve, it would at least make us better prepared to face the darkness, but it seems that those who are strong dominate, and those who are not ready have to get experience in the field before dealing with other guardians...I suppose it has a purpose as a motivator then, but not much beyond that."

A dreg appeared from behind a rock and was almost casually shot in the head by the warlock. He walked over and searched the body a moment. "Ah- there it is. Do we have enough of these yet?"

"That should be SUFfiecent for the shipWRIght."

"Good- that's 6 patrol tasks, so the bounty should be completed- let me look at what we've got."

The ghost projected a list of their current inventory. Marvin tapped his foot as he waited for it to load, then leaned in closer to look. "The only other one I can do here is killing multiple enemies with a single super use several more times...I'll do that once here since I'm mostly recharged anyway, but the rest I'm sure I'll do on other missions regardless."

He suddenly heard something behind him, and spun around to smash his palm into the face of a stealth vandal, Light coursing through him out his palm. The vandal was sent flying, smoking as it burned. Its fellows were obviously there- light distorted around them, but it was still clear they were there. Three of them. Excellent- perfect timing as well.

He channeled light through him and lifted into the air as its orange aura surrounded him. A grenade flew from his hands at two of them as he scorched the one in front, and a moment later another grenade was ready for a fourth that tried to run. Orbs littered the ground, ready for another guardian to pick up when needed. A pity there were not more. He thought as he waited for the Radiance to wear off.

"To the ship then?"

He nodded, and a light filled his vision for a moment before he was inside the cockpit of his Kestral CX.

He sighed as he pulled off his helmet, running a hand through his mohawk and fluffing it up a bit. "Set a course for the Tower- nothing to do now but wait for new bounties to be available. Then see what strikes are available for after."

"Why do you alWAYs have me do it for you? You are PERfectly capable of doing it yourself."

"Because that is how this relationship works. I am the one that shoots and is shot at, you are the one who does everything else." He glanced at his reflection in a panel and leaned closer. "Blast- I'll have to reapply those at the tower." He said, frowning at the red marks under his eyes where they'd been smudged by sweat.

"Would you like YOUr coat redyed as well?"

"I do not believe that will be necessary for sometime."

"I was being SARcastic."

He smirked and leaned back in his chair before he would've been slammed into it by the jump. "Perhaps you should leave the sarcasm to those capable of using more than one tone of voice."

"You say that as though YOUr voice is ever not COndesCENding or rude."

The Guardian ignored him as he grabbed the book-unit he had been reading earlier and turned it on to pass the time until he arrived at the tower.

Terra-23:

"What have we got here?" Banshee-44 leaned over his table, watching with peculiar interest as Terra dropped the bag on his merchant's stand. Banshee emptied the contents of the bag, his eyes lighting up at the pile of sapphire wire that tumbled out.

"Prime samples. With this much, you should be preoccupied for weeks. Months if you conserve it properly," Terra pitched as she crossed her arms. Banshee withdrew a metal case and deposited the samples inside before sliding it under his table.

"You did good, guardian. Take this," Banshee placed a wrapped box in front of her. Immediately, Gaia appeared and scanned its contents.

"1,000 glimmer…a-as promised," she reported before disappearing again. Terra gave Banshee a curt nod before turning on her heel.

"One more thing, guardian," Banshee said as he reached for a nearby rack. He grabbed a shotgun and held it out to her, giving it a quick cock, "Got some gunk in the mainspring. Locked it up. The coolant inside the arc coils was contaminated too. That's the problem with these older models. Get too close and the blood will get inside. Makes for annoying repairs."

Terra took her shotgun back and strapped it to her lower back. Shotgun's were pricey to repair, doubly so if it was an older model due to scarcity of parts. But a new one was even more expensive. Terra couldn't afford to spend glimmer on what she considered a luxury. As long as it killed, Terra would make do with what she had.

"We appreciate the help. How much do I owe you?" she asked. Banshee stroked his cheek, shrugging after a while.

"It was a pretty simple repair. Didn't take much time at all. One hundred glimmer."

Gaia materialized in front of Terra, her outer shell spinning as she transmitted a pile of glimmer in front of Banshee. Terra gave a final nod before departing.

The courtyard was unusually quiet as she crossed it. Most times guardians would gather in this area during one of them few moments of respite they could have. Terra stopped in front of the postmaster, both sharing a mutual glance before Kadi-55 handed her a voucher stamped by none other than the Speaker.

Terra stared at the voucher, unsure of what to make of it. She tended to keep her head down and not make any attempt to gain attention or notoriety. For a second, she panicked; fearful that her betrayals did not go unnoticed before she shook the thought from her head. She made every possible precaution. It was highly unlikely that anyone would have suspected her wrongdoings. But still, she couldn't ignore an invitation. Especially one from the Speaker himself.

Terra shut her eyes, inwardly sighing. She slid the voucher into her pocket and hurried to the North Tower, every worst case scenario running through her head.

T117: Well, this is a train wreck waiting to happen. A very entertaining trainwreck.

JustAFerret: One where you still can't look away.

S7: I think it's more of a donkey kong minecart train wreck.

T117:...Actually, that does still seem like a valid description.

JustAFerret: So...many...terrible...memories!

S7: Look out Ferret! It's a jump!

JustAFerret: Don't you joke about that stuff man! Those stages were the bane of my existence. They're my final boss in the grand game of life.

T117: On second thought, I think I prefer the train crash metaphor.

S7: Okay, well, are we gonna say anything really about this chapter or leave it for when the real first chapter goes up on Wednesday?

T117: Hmm...nah. Kinda self explanatory, really.

S7: Okay, so next chapter will be up Wednesday night. Any questions audience?

T117:...Sayonara.

S7: I'll take the silence as a no. 1473I2.

JustAFerret: A bid adieu!