"Cloak... I'm picking up multiple Taken signatures approaching."

"How many?"

"Ermm... About two thousand."

"What? There's never been that many.. There wasn't even that many on that Strike against Sepik's Lair. How far?"

"They're.. already here.. Cloak.. NOW." She didn't need telling twice, cloaking herself and Ninikas, Varnsis having already done the same. Wave upon wave of Taken marched past, Taken of all type, all origin, an army practically on the Tower's front lawn. Cabal, Hive, Vex, even Fallen brothers and sisters of many Packs. For the first time in her entire military career, spanning nearly all her life since she was first enlisted at 18, nearly twenty years ago, Maekis genuinely held fear in her heart.

They had never been able to withstand small Hive and Taken forces, but one of this scale - they turn their glowing eyes to the Devils and atleast half the House will be wiped out before they finish the fight. Just a single Taken Captain was equivalent to atleast five of Devil's Reaver Noble's, and there's atleast three hundred of them right there.

She then noticed more signatures, Hive one's walking to meet these Taken, though their numbers were only a fraction of the Servants to Oryx. It was dead in the centre of the doorway when the Taken parted, giving Maekis just enough space to see the one at the head of the Taken force meet with what she assumed the leading Hive Knight.

"Ur Arukkir.." Growled the leading Taken in a tounge she recognized. 'Convenient' She mused. Before the Knight even had a chance to respond, the unique Taken form grabbed the powerful Hive and punched it straight in the head, shattering part of it's natural crown. Maekis gulped down her panic and fear. Hive Knights did not break as easily as this one, it took atleast five bursts from a Shrapnel Launcher to even leave a permeanent mark, not a simple punch.

He then forced the Knight back onto it's feet before releasing it. "You're Shrouder's have failed."

"Failed? My Lord, they completed their goal... They infiltrated the City without alerting the White Sun or the Guardians."

"Ha, the Traveler is weak.. Too weak.. The City, the Guardians and their precious Light is weak. One of the Lord's very Probes has infiltrated the Tower. Wait... I sense..." There! Fallen scouts!" The Taken's leader pointed directly at the cloaked Fallen. "You know your mission... Knight.. Don't fail Oryx. Now kill them!" Instead of staying behind, a vast majority of the Taken left with their leader, though the force that stayed behind was still too much for the two Fallen to survive.

"You heard him! Kill those scouts!" There were still atleast five hundred collective hostile signatures, about four hundred and fifty of which were Taken. She steadied her breathing, cocked her Rifle and swiftly unloaded the entire charge into the approaching Hive and Taken force, each shot landing a clean kill on the first wave of Thralls. In the time it took her to reload, Varnsis had dispatched a second group.

They continued to fire at the Hive back to back, not leaving enough of an opening in their assault for the Hive to get closer. Atleast, until they ran out of all their ammo and were forced to rely on their blades.

"Two verses four hundred.. I always liked a challenge." She chuckled, twirling her blades and thanking the Great Machine neither of their cloaks had worn off yet. The half robot took the lead, flawlessly killing two Acolytes, before dispatching a Taken Vandal without any difficulty. Varnsis was very close behind, cutting down the enemy as best she could as they both used their stealth fields to their advantage.

Why none of these could find them when they're literally stabbing them all one by one but the other leader could so easily baffled the two but they weren't questioning their luck. While luck was with them, energy was definitely not. They hadn't even had much chance to recover from their previous skirmish.

It took them hours, but with most of the enemy dead, and their energy drained completely, they collapsed to the floor after finally being caught. Once their shields and stealth fields were down, it didn't take the Hive Knight less than a minute to completely destroy the pair of them.

"C'mon then... Finish it Raksli." Maekis spot, using a pretty degrading old Fallen term.

"No.. I think Oryx could use a pair like you in his army."

"I'd rather die then serve your freakshow of a zombie. So kill me already." She glared challengingly at the Knight as he towered over her, Sword in hand. They still hadn't found Ninikas, and since she wasn't rushing around in a battle her stealth field would last way after these Hive had already moved on.

She prepared herself as the Knight raised it's blade, and she waited for the strike that never came, instead, when she opened her eyes to look at what was taking her killer so long, she saw something she never expected to see. A young girl Captain of House Kings dueling with the Knight, and effortlessly cutting down any remaining Hive. While the two fighters were completely distracted with each other, Maekis struggled to her feet, and, with help from Varnsis, collected Ninikas and escaped unnoticed by the King Or, so they thought.

"Nice, now... C'mon big guy, let's see what you really got."

Chuckled the Captain, twirling her Shock Blades with flawless fluency. Parrying the sideway's slash from the Hive Cleaver, she charged up and unleashed a powerful discharge into the Knights midsection when her blade collided with it, sending a small shock to run through the Undead's body, then, the Knight did the unexpected and struck the female with her own Arc blades energy.

The Knight then delivered a powerful kick into the Captain's stomach, sending her tumbling along the ground a short distace before coming to a halt. She shook her head to rid the slight daze she had been knocked into, and quickly charged at the Knight once she was back on his feet. Parrying the strike, the Captain used the Knights strength and weight against him by suddenly removing her blade, causing the Hive warrior to stumble forwards.

After being banished from the House of Kings for letting a Guardian survive and escape certain death, the young female had to learn quick to continue surviving. She had met Storm on a few occassions since their first encounter at the Sanctuary, and had secretly learnt some tricks to surviving against Hive threats such as this one. This was ignoring ALL the survival tricks she learnt from her own Warlock companion in the Valley.

She performed a X shaped slash against the Knights back, ducking under his retaliating swing before slashing both blades diagonally across his chest. The Knight growled in anger at the mere fact he was losing to a... Vash Nurgor. She swung at him again, only to stare in surprise and fear when he grabbed the blade and yanked it from her grip, throwing it far to the side, then, with a heavy strike, completely knocked the other blade flying from her grip.

She charged at the Knight unarmed, evading the downwards strike he made and delieved a large series of kicks and punches to the Knights chest, stomach, sides and legs. The perks of a Captain's ether status meant that she could actually fight a Knight unarmed and win with enough skill. Something she had attained alot of. Elbowing the Knight in the face, she grabbed the Knights head with her upper left arm before delievering a powerful punch directly into his face with her upper right.

The Knight stumbled backwards with a growl, before dissipating admist a green vortex-like sphere that formed around him. "Ha, he ran." She made her way over to her blades, retrieved them and sheathed them on her hips, before activating her cloaking field and dissappearing into the distance.

~...~

The Skiff had just returned from collecting the teams sent to capture the rouge Captain, and the first thing Drakois noticed was the lack of the Baroness' Maekis and Ninikas, as well as the Captain Varnsis. He addressed Nakaniks without any delay, a dark growl in his throat.

"Why do only you return, Nakaniks?"

The Captain bowed before the Archon, head lowered in respect as he addressed the Archon with a tone of fake regret and distress. "Noble Archon... Ninikas, Maekis and Varnsis did not survive... We were ambushed after defeating the rouge... They bought us time, at the cost of their own lives. Noble Archon... My Lord, they perished in Honour, Honour of the House of Devils." The Captain had two excuses planned, but knowing how close the Archon was to Ninikas, the second would only get him into trouble.. Calling them traitors.

It was difficult to lie to the Archon after all he has done for the House, but his orders came from his Kell, to be carried out in the name of the House. No Fallen, no matter how much they've done for the House, will stand in his line of duty for the House.

Rising to his feet, he bowed his head a final time in respect before departing from the hanger to his quarters. Once inside, away from prying ears he opened a secure channel on his frequency-regulator. One of a different source to the Devil's frequency.

"My Lord... It is done, and Drakois suspects nothing. Ninikas has been disposed of, with the added bonuses, Varnsis and Maekis are also dead."

"Good, resume to your duties. You know your next mission." Ending the communication, he growled softly, pulling a Shock Blade from beneath one of the weapon racks. Facing it downwards, he pressed it to his chest and gripped the handle woth all four hands.

"Great Fallen of Devils past... Know I only act to protect our race... This House MUST fall, Wolves must rise..." Once he finished this mission... The Wolves and Devils would go to all-out War... With Winter and Exile both already under Skola's command... Devil's would fall.. Rising in the Wolves. Either way, he would not live to see the glory of one united Fallen House.