Untamed Fear

Max was flying to Phobos as quickly as he could. A few hours ago, Vanguard scouts were reporting dark anomalies spiking on the closest moon to Mars, not knowing what they were. What followed the anomalies were Cabal distress signals blasting on every single channel, and a large Cabal ship escaping their base. Max, fearing the worst, went alone to Phobos to investigate, with only Ikora Rey talking in his ear. "Be careful," she warned, "My Hidden have reported multiple dark anomalies around and inside the base."

Max ignored this and said, "Okay then." He kept moving through the Cabal Firebase, taking note of the absence of living Cabal and splatter of dark spectral goo on the floors, walls, and ceilings. He stared at one of the splotches, trying to figure out what the heck it was. As soon as he touched the goo, it felt like it was some kind of thick, syrupy, oil that suddenly caught on fire. "YOW!" he screamed through his helmet, "It burns!!" But when he looked at his hand and the goo he put it in, he noticed that neither were burning. "Weird..."

Suddenly, the power to the base was cut, Max rose, grabbing the yellow gun that he got from the Vault of Glass. Its aesthetic was mostly curved, its zoom lens looked similar to a Vex's eye, and the barrel shot individual solar bolts instead of bullets. Max, in his recent adventures to the planets of the solar system, called this weapon the Vex Mythoclast. And now, he trusted it more than anything.

He slowly moved down the hall and around each corner, carefully, cautiously. Lights flashed in front of him, casting quick shadows of a Centurion struggling for dear life, but struggling against what? The shadows didn't say. Another light flashed behind him, he turned around to find a Legionary falling on his face, right in front of The Warlock. Max screamed in fear, then slowly approached the dead Cabal. Max leaned in for a closer look, curious as to what killed the Cabal. The Legionary grabbed Max by the arm and squealed, "He is here! He is here!"

Max almost screamed before asking, "Who? Who is here!?"

"Eeeeeeviiiilllllll..." said the dying Cabal, "The...Face...of...Eeeeeviiillll..." and the Legionary died.

Now Max was freaked out, "Whoever this 'Face of Evil' is, he's scaring me."

"Max?" Ikora asked, her voice was now masked by white noise, "Max, can you hear me?... Get out...now..." and she was gone.

"Ikora? Ikora!?" Max tapped his helmet, then turned a small knob on the side to control the radio. Nothing worked. "What is going on here?" He kept advancing, despite his heart pounding with fear. His Ghost warned, "Perhaps we ought to turn around?"

Max shook his head, "No, we need to find out what cut my comms line, and who we are up against."

"I was afraid you would say that," the Ghost mumbled.

Max wandered into a large circular room in the middle of the Firebase, and that's when a high-pitched shrieking sound resonated throughout the base. Max covered his ears, turning his head away to hide his vulnerability.

A large image of a horizontal-horned Hive God filled the middle of the room, "MAX PRODIGY!" the image shouted. Max refused to look at the image as it accused him. "YOU TOOK MY ONLY SON AWAY FROM ME! SO NOW, I WILL TAKE YOU!!!" The image disappeared, leaving a giant black and white Knight in its wake. Max shivered in fear, the Knight roared, opening its head to spit out 5 fireballs at The Warlock. Max dodged all of the fireballs, then returned fire to the Knight. The Knight absorbed every single shot from Max's Mythoclast, and the Warlock widened his eyes. "New rules: RUN!"

Max ran out of the room, back the way he came, the Dark Twisted Knight following behind him, spitting more fireballs to block his path; Max jumped over each of the fireballs' remnants until he reached outside. Then, he tripped on a small crater, falling down and cracking his helmet. The armor's UI blared red warning lights with holographic text declaring, "WARNING! OXYGEN LEAK DETECTED!" Max was running out of breath as the Knight closed in. He fell back, drew the Mythoclast again, and fired. The Knight opened its head one more time, and to Max's luck, one of the Mythoclast's molten bolts of energy hit the Knight in the opened head, burning it 'alive'. Max breathed a sigh of relief as the Dark Knight exploded from the inside out.

Then, more growls were heard in the distance. Max stared up and through his warning bells to find darkened Cabal of all ranks, Legionnaires, Phalanxes, Centurions, Psions, and even Colossi. The Warlock's eyes bulged, "Ghost! Get us out of here!"

"With pleasure!" The Ghost summoned Max's ship and transported both of them inside. Max steered the ship away from Phobos, but a Dark Colossus fired a volley of missiles at the fleeing Guardian, damaging the ship and causing it to plummet to the surface of Mars.

Max screamed into the radio, "MAYDAY! MAYDAY! THIS IS OMEGA LEADER, MAX PRODIGY! I'VE BEEN SHOT AND I'M FALLING ONTO THE MARTIAN SURFACE! REQUESTING ASSISTANCE! I REPEAT: REQUESTING-" The ship hit the Martian red sands outside the buried Clovis Bray facility in the lost city of Freehold. Max fell unconscious on impact.

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The Taken Colossus who shot down Max Prodigy looked beyond the edge of the Phobos Firebase, staring at the surface of Mars. It stared at the small explosion of sand caused by the ship's crash-land, confident that Max was dead. "REPORT!" A voice boomed behind the Colossus.

All the Taken Cabal turned to face a pitch black figure of Oryx and bowed, their white eyes piercing the darkness of their bodies and souls, "Sire," The Colossus softly growled, "Max is dead. He crashed into the planet's surface below.

The Echo of Oryx frowned, "NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I WANT YOU TO GO DOWN TO MARS AND MAKE SURE HE STAYS DEAD!"

"At once, my king."

The Echo disappeared, then the Taken Cabal also disappeared, transporting themselves to the Martian desert, searching for Max.

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The Dantalion Exodus left Phobos' orbit at alarming speeds, slamming all Cabal into their seats, regardless of rank. Once they were far away from Mars, Ta'aun stood up on the bridge and said, "Establish a link with the Emperor, channel 4779." The Psions pressed some buttons and Cabal Emperor Calus Valu'uzar's obese face materialized on the holographic screen. "Emperor," started the Primus, standing up and kneeling in respect, "We lost Sol 4 and its moons."

The fat Emperor growled in disgust, "YOU IDIOTS! IT WAS AN EASY SMASH AND GRAB! HOW DID YOU, THE BRAVEST AND FINEST WARRIORS OF MY GLORIOUS EMPIRE MANAGE TO LOSE SUCH AN EASY TARGET!?"

"My Emperor, we encountered a new race of beings with unknown powers. They call themselves 'Guardians', and they..." he paused, trying to explain how they got their powers, "...they think they channel the Light."

Calus shook his head, "IT SHOULDN'T MATTER! I PERSONALLY TRAINED YOU TO DEAL WITH ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS! DO YOU NOT REMEMBER WHAT WE DO!?"

"Yes, my Emperor," Ta'aun chanted respectfully, "We are Cabal. We live for battle, die for the throne, and crush everything in our way."

"Then why," Calus asked with a nasty tone, "Why have you not DONE THAT!?"

"We tried!" Ta'aun said desperately, "We tried to conquer Mars!"

"AND YOU FAILED ALL THE SAME!! YOU ARE ALL PERMANENTLY EXILED FROM THE EMPIRE!!!!!!" Calus cut the line on his end, leaving the Dantalion full of Skyburners in silence.

After 10 minutes of silence, Tlu'urn and Mua'aul asked their Primus, "Primus Ta'aun, what now?"

Ta'aun slouched back in his seat. "I don't know." Cabal were usually exiled from their homeworld until they came back victorious, but ever since Calus started pushing for total domination of the universe, almost every Cabal warrior, soldier, and army trainee was sent on all kinds of missions to claim strong assets for the Empire. But for all of the Cabal's wars in history, not one defeat has resulted in permanent exile. For once, Primus Ta'aun didn't have a plan.

The hologram blazed to life again, this time with the face of the Cabal Empress, a Psion who was considered to be forgiving to her empire on her best days, but was also meticulous and manipulative on her worst days and towards her enemies. Today, no one knew what kind of day it was. She whispered into her mic, "Primus, I know that I shouldn't contact you, but I have seen your battles, and this permanent exile is extremely rare for the Empire. Therefore, I believe that you can redeem yourself, if you can earn it."

Ta'aun nodded, "Yes! Yes, I can!"

Empress Rehla smiled and said, "Good. Now, I want you to crash this ship into a Dreadnought floating in the Rings of Sol 6. We've received reports of an omniscient being known as Oryx, the one who 'took' your fellow soldiers. Find and kill him, then use his Dreadnought to conquer the Sol Empire."

"It shall be done, Empress."

The hologram fizzled out, and Primus Ta'aun grinned, "It's time we reclaim our lives! For the Empire!"

The other ranking officers gave a giant Cabal salute and shouted, "For the Empire!"