Only On Paper

6 - Outstanding Efforts

The Vex are relentless. Even after their initial attack, the platforms are returning in increasingly greater numbers.

From everything I have read of the Cabal, they are supposed to be some kind of masters of strategy and war-waging. I don't know if they really are as good as everyone makes them seem, or if the sheer volume of explosives with which they tend to fill the skies is what contributes to their victory campaign.

I sit watching from afar, at the peak of the mountain nearby. I'm far enough out of the Exclusion Zones here that I'm noy in any danger of being picked up on Cabal instruments. If the Vex are tracking me, either they aren't interested in me or they aren't threatened by me. Even so, it appears they have bigger fish to fry. Watching the calculated fervor with which they strike at Cabal forces, it is apparent that the Vex certainly feel threatened by them.

Despite the Vex platforms getting decimated whenever they appear, it hadn't taken me long to note the casualties they inflicted. They were hitting all Cabal defense fronts at once.

"The best way to eat a whale," the mechanical voice comes unbidden from my back. "Is one bite at a time."

I nod in agreement, but keep silent in hopes the machine gun will keep talking. When it doesn't continue the thought, I focus my attention on the extraordinarily large Vex timegate sitting on the fringes of the Valley of Kings. The small Cabal force that was once studying the ancient relic have now more than quadrupled into what appears to be a siege force occupying the land around the gate.

It was not three days after my crippling of the Imperial Land Tank that I was notified by the Vanguard that Primus Sha'aull had been killed. The Primus was - like Ta'aurc - an apparent thorn in the side of the Vanguard. The message from Ikora had been somewhat vague, but it was clear that I was now tasked with cleaning out a swath of that Cabal force by the Vex gate. The Guardian who had killed the Primus was heading back to Mars and it was vital that his fireteam make it through that gate untouched.

This was a setback. I had been hoping to make my trip back to the Guardian's Tower on Earth after I located Ta'aurc. Contrary, I hadn't even received acknowledgement that I had stalled Ta'aurc in a damn good assault location.

I wasn't about to leave this team of Guardians to twist, though. As much as I hated not getting my recognition, I wasn't about to abandon a team that needs my help.

My Ghost is transmitting the arrival timer to my HUD. The fireteam would be arriving in a little less than four hours. I hadn't planned nearly as well as I would have liked, but I knew what I was going to need to do in order to draw the Cabal occupation away from that Vex gate.

I had strung together a fair few anti-personnel charges that I had liberated from Cabal hands. I used to use them as early-detection traps for my various hideouts, but now they were going to be used for my - albeit incredibly stupid - distraction run. I TransMat my sparrow in front of me and tie the string of explosive to the back grab railing and primed them.

The proximity switches within them I have rigged to detonate upon encountering signals that are generated within the Cabal armor's subsystems. This means I have to get really... really close to Cabal foot troops in order to do any damage.

With all my preparations ready, I mount the sparrow. I can feel the speeder vibrating gently, ready for action. I grip the throttle firmly and wrench it open.

The feeling of going from full stop to full speed in less than a few seconds is something that one must experience to truly comprehend. It's... more than exhilarating. In fact, it's a lot like charging into enemy gunfire. This time however, the two will coincide.