Beneath Infinity

An Occupied Dustbowl

"Get down!"

The sand of the rolling dunes of Opportunity's Belt erupted in blasts of brown and red, casting the Martian soil into the atmosphere only for it to cascade down again onto the frantic figures of the Guardians below. Ghali ran as hard as she could, pushing Cleo-9 ahead of her, keeping as low as possible in order to avoid the relentless hail of Cabal slug rounds and solar charges. She could see Jacob and Brazen-61 out of the corner of her visor, sprinting in the same manner as she was. They were being bombarded by an Interceptor, a squat Dust Legion assault vehicle, and did not look to be able to outrun it for very much longer. Jacob was doing all he could, sporadically shielding himself and Brazen with his his void force barrier whenever the fire became too heavy, but he was obviously tiring.

Sighing in frustration about having to use what little reserves of Light she had left, Ghali peeled away from her intended path and headed towards the two Titans. She noticed, with unintentional humour, that even the enourmous Brazen-61 looked tiny compared to the wall of Cabal Legionaries pursuing them. As she neared a huge boulder lodged in the sand she leapt and ran vertically up the side of it for a few steps before kicking backwards from the rock in the general direction of the advancing Interceptor. She channeled Light to her hands as she sailed through the air, in the same way that a grenade would be formed, though through relentless training she was able to craft her ball of void energy more powerful by nearly a hundredfold. She released it with a cry, launching it from her palm with a force that could sheer reality itself. The bomb curled towards the Interceptor and struck the sand just beneath its chassis, detonating in a supernova of crackling purple energy. The interceptor flipped on its axis, the front of the vehicle decimated as if it had been crushed by Mjolnir itself, and exploded in mid air, showering pieces of machinery and the unfortunate Cabal that had been driving it over the advancing legions of tank-like soldiers.

Landing softly in the sand, Ghali spun on the balls of her feet and sprinted off again after the other Guardians. They had not stopped to watch the carnage that she had caused. At any other time this would have frustrated her - she always enjoyed a chance to show off, the same as anyone - but the circumstances allowed her to make an exception. Her breath rattled in her helmet, she was exhausted. They all were. The Cabal war patrol had appeared from under a rudimentary cloaking field and caught them off guard, forcing them to abandon their outpost in a Martian cave on the east of Opportunity's Belt, near Meridian Bay, and send the Warpath back into orbit for safekeeping. They fought until the Cabal reinforcements arrived. Then, they ran.

Ghali could feel the heat of the solar rounds skimming her back; the mechanical popping as they slapped into the sand, throwing up little red blooms of dust as they did so. She boosted forward, propelling herself with thrusters powered by Light, until she was in a scrambled formation with the other Guardians.

Every now and then one of them turned around to loose a few bullets at the encroaching force, but the thickness of the Cabal armour prevented their wild shots being effective. They were all becoming too tired to run much further. Something had to be done.

"We can't keep this up!" Shouted Jacob through his headset, his voice only slightly louder than the sharp cracks of gunfire from behind them.

"I agree," replied Brazen. "We need to either find a place to hide or a location that we can hold against the Cabal. There are too many for us to take head on, we need to funnel them into a choke point."

Cleo-9's mechanical vocals replaced Brazen's. Though she still sounded like an Exo, her voice was softer than the great Titan's.

"The Cabal are masters of war. There will be no way that they would fall for such an obvious lure and we do not have time to come up with something more intricate. They must be flanked quickly, before they can react."