Beneath Infinity

War Games

The Warlock pressed herself against the rough yellowed wall of the Vex structure, striving to make her frame as small as possible so not to be seen. Above her, the titanic silhouette of Maat Mons spewed blue sulphuric magma into Venus' atmosphere with a rumble, blanketing the sky in a cyan haze.

There was gunfire in the middle distance, the sharp echo reverberating from the mechanical walls. Her pulse rifle poised, the Warlock crept around the corner, silently searching for targets. An unassuming Hunter ran across the columned courtyard in front of her, yellow dust kicking up from his boots at every step. He probably thought he was being sneaky, trying to get the drop on whoever was doing the firing. Typical, she thought. Raising her rifle, she readied herself to loose a burst into the back of his helmet.

Then, she died.

Without having time to think about what was happening, she was blown away from behind by another Hunter wielding a shotgun, the pellet tearing through her armour like it was paper. He flew past her and spotted the other Hunter, the Warlock's previous target, who had turned towards the sound of the discharging shotgun, only to receive a long, curved throwing knife through the frontal lobe. The Ghosts of the two dead Guardians entered orbital form and channeled their Light into the bodies of their Guardians, both reviving them and TransMatting them to a different part of the arena.

The Warlock's Ghost sighed as she rose to her feet again for the fifth time that day.

"You need to try to be more observant, Ghali. That's three times today Alziel has hit you with that shotgun."

"He's modified it, Ganzúa, he must have. No shotgun has that sort of range on it. Stick a slug in that and you've got a marksman's rifle. Where did he get it anyway?"

"It looks like it was build by the Iron Lords, it sports Felwinter's crest."

Ghali sighed. "There's a suprise, sucking up to Lord Saladin. I'll get him back, he hasn't met Plug One.1 yet."

Pulling an orange fusion rifle from her back, Ghali sprinted from her revive point back into the Vex buildings with payback in mind.

Across the arena, Jacob Darrow was engaged it a long-distance gunfight with a different Warlock. His Jigoku kicked against his shoulder as he scrambled from cover to cover, dodging bullets all the while. He had played well today, all of his relentless practice really shining though onto the battlefield. He enjoyed the challenge presented by the Crucible, the Guardian competative war programme. It was a way to hone skills against other equally-skilled opponents without the fear of dying and being unrevivable. The Crucible quartermaster, Lord Shaxx, kept Light in abundance in the various Crucible arenas in order to ensure that Ghosts had plenty so that they were able to easily and fully revive their downed Guardians. This arena, known as the Shattered Coast, was an ancient reclaimed Vex Temple, strewn with columns and tight corridors, offering a varied and realistic battlefield to practice. It was one of Shaxx's favourites.

Two well-placed shots from the Jigoku knocked the Warlock off-balance as he crouched behind a rectangular block of machinery and stone. A third broke through his chestplate and he fell back with a short cry of pain. His Ghost TransMatted the body elsewhere for revival. Jacob advanced into enemy territory, his confidence at an all-time high, searching for further targets. That was his fourth victory this game, a personal record. He cautiously crept through a dark corridor, Vex machinery whirring around him, when a Hunter trailing a golden cape suddenly appeared, blocking the light at the end of the corridor, and sped towards Jacob, a bronze shotgun pointing at his chest.

---

Jacob knelt in the yellow dirt, a pulsating pain in his abdomen and his head swimming.

"What was that? Felt like a cannon or something!"