2 The Extraction Of Misfit6

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Extraction FireTeam Misfit6 from some godforsaken Vex infested shit hole tucked away someplace out on IO. The Vanguard had lost contact with them right before it all happened. The Cabal's invasion of the Last City. That was nearly three days ago now.

They'ed been out on some classified recon mission for Sloan. Something about a Vex Hydra that been causing trouble. I'd been warned not to engage it, or the Vex as a whole, if I didn't have to. Didn't need to tell me twice. I'd much rather have fist-fighting with a Hive Ogre. At least those things bleed when you shot them. Vex, they'd just twitched, unless you hit that Milky crap in their chest.

I'd gotten the emergy signal from Zavala to rally on Titan but I couldn't do that yet. There was a FireTeam out there, somewhere. Missing, and without their Light. If they weren't already dead, then they would be soon. I couldn't live without myself if I abandoned them. If they were alive, I was going to find them and bring them home.

I wasn't lucky, just smart. The year before I'd uncovered a sliver of the Traveler's outer shell. I'd always intended to use to craft a new sniper rifle but never got around to it. Guess my procrastination saved me. My Ghost, Tianshang Shengmu, who's I'd nicknamed Mazu because fuck if I was going to say the whole thing every time I address her, couldn't use it to Revive me but it would be enough to fix me up if things got out of hand. They normally did.

That gave me an edge. If I could find them, then I could get them out alive. I'd done some work with the Praxic Order in the past helping transport Civilians safely to the Last City so I knew what I was doing. And these weren't scared, little children. This was a well known scouting FireTeam. They could fight. No, they would fight. But I wanted to get in and out as quietly as possible.

"I've got their signal!" Mazu chirped. She fed the coordinates into my visor. "You've got to be kidding me." It was coming from inside a Vex insulation. It was going to be full of the nasty little buggers. Worst still I needed to cross an open field to get to it. "Here goes nothing" Mazu evaporated into thin air.

Activating my camo I ran from one cover point to the next. Avoiding the speckled light cast from the canopy above. I couldn't give my position away, not even for a second, and a shadow could be all the Vex needed. One stray shot would be enough to kill me and there was no coming back from that. Not without my light.

"Made it" I whispered into my coms. Mazu fed me more info. The signal was stronger here but I needed to get inside. I needed a distracted. A way to draw off some of the Vex before making for the portal. Unlike most Guardians, I preferred tricks over brute force. I'd once read a book from the Pre-Golden age humanity called the Art of War by some guy named Sun Tzu.

He wrote, "All war is based on Deception." He was right. Rigging up a trip line wasn't difficult but waiting for a Vex to trigger it, that was. Every second I spent cut into the odds of finding Misfit6 alive, but I had to wait. I couldn't rush anything. Patience was my friend and eventually, it paid off.

I bolted for the portal, tossing a Spike grenade at the wall onto a wall once I got out the other side. I knew the Vex would follow me, or at least try. Portals always made a strang sound anytime something went through them. Sure enough, four in a box formation filed in. They never got more than a foot through before being spattered with Void Light.

"A little risky don't you think?" Mazu chirped into my com's. "By the time the other's realize these ones are dead, we'll be long gone." I reactivated my camo and took to the shadows again. Every opportunity I got I set up some sort of boobytrap. To either slow the Vex Down or outright kill them. Some traps I even set up to malfunction or to be harmless. Vex were creatures of logic. They'd eventually catch on if I set ever trap to kill them so I needed to confuse them. I hoped this would do the trick.

"Around this corner," Mazu said as I peered into a massive open cave of sharp-cornered rocks and bio-mechanical tech. "I don't see anything" "Single's strongest here." "That's doesn't tell me shit. I'm not crossing a fucking cathedral unless I know where here is first." Mazu sighed and rolled her singular eye. "It's not an exact science." I groaned. "Yeah, it kinda is. Never mind I'll figure it out myself"

Crossing a room full of Vex wouldn't normally be so difficult and finding the bodies of three dead guardians wouldn't be so sobering. "We're too late." "Then where's the signal coming from?" Mazu asked from over my shoulder. "We should get out of here. This could be a trap." "No wait, look!" Mazu zoomed past me. To a small outcropping of rocks.

There behind the leaves of some biotech plant play the cracked shell of a Red and White Ghost. Still flickering with a faint light. All wasn't lost. If the ghost was alive, its guardian could be revived. Later, when the Red War was over and the Light was restored to it. If the Light was ever restored. Yù huángdì could only hope.