*officially the longest chapter of LU to date Legend Untold Chapter 19 Blank Slate Chapter 33 [i]Freehold Part 12[/i] “Alright, stand back sissies,” Sierra ordered, and I looked to see her on a dune, raising her rocket launcher to her shoulder. “Harvester incoming!” Hae yelled, making Sierra pause for a moment in confusion. The skies looked clear to me. An explosion sprayed up sand where Sierra had been standing, and after a moment I was able to make out her form tumbling down through the smokescreen. A moment later a Harvester flew into sight over the dune and came to a stop above the Goliath tank. I rushed to Sierra’s aid and found her half-buried in the sand. Pulling her out revealed a missing leg and I looked away queasily as I dragged her towards a boulder. Null joined me and we jogged with her coming back to awareness between our arms. “My leg!” She shrieked, then started trying to yank herself loose from our hold, “I’m gonna scrap that clunky piece of-!” The boom of another rocket from the Harvester drowned out the end. “What?! AGAIN?!” Null exclaimed. Sierra’s leg sprouted back into existence and she automatically flipped around the rock with her rocket launcher. “The tank!” I grabbed her and tried to angle her at the Goliath instead of the Harvester, “You can’t destroy the Harvester!” “Hands off!” Sierra shouldered me away, “Suck this you- *her rocket fired with a loud hiss* -ers!” “WHAT THE-?!” Null’s swearing was unheard over the explosion from the Goliath Tank exploding. I sighed in relief as its hull thudded to the ground and troops dropped from the Harvester without a tank to back them up. “That was annoying,” Welkine grumbled. “Does no one else notice the censor on all of us?!” Null flung his arms into the air. “I notice the Cabal about to shoot you in the back,” Ilya laughed, dismissing his conspiracy. Null grumbled irritably at that, but dropped the matter and got back to fighting. The Cabal from the Harvester scattered around cover as our force of Guardians opened fire on them, but they were joined by more who arrived late from a neighboring building. To my alarm, the Harvester did not leave and instead continued to pick at us with its rocket turret. “Do these guys ever quit?” Nat asked rhetorically. “No, no they do not,” I muttered, thinking of a way to chase off the Harvester. There was only one weak point. “Keis? Can you take out the Cabal beneath the Harvester?” “Yes,” the Exo answered simply. Peeking around the rock, I saw Keis change course and head straight towards the Cabal. His approach attracted the attention of many of the enemies. I took my chance and sprinted straight out at the Harvester. A few Legionaries took interest in me, but I was moving too fast to be shot more than a couple times. Unfortunately, I heard the soft thoom of a rocket firing and was flung off of my feet by a small explosion. I landed in a roll and quickly came back up to my feet, continuing my run straight at the Harvester. I was close now and it was still hovering low, so when it fired again I changed course and ran up a slope of sand that was wrapped around a building. Focusing on my feet, I made it near the top before determining I was high enough and sprung towards the Cabal transport, using my Light to propel myself further. But then I heard the click of a rocket being loaded and saw the turret aimed straight at me. Everything slowed as fire flared from the barrel, immediately followed by the metal tube of a missile. I was going straight at it; no chance of dodging. But I needed to take out that turret. The fingers of my left hand clenched into a fist. I needed to be closer. I pulled at the air and everything blurred in a white haze. It felt as if everything around me shifted, and when the haze lifted I found that there was no longer a rocket heading at me. An explosion from behind announced that the rocket had hit the building behind me. I had moved through the missile! I had Blinked! “GUYS! I DID IT! I BLI-!” my head smashed into the Harvester with a solid thunk and I spun head over heels to the ground below. I landed on my back in the sand, looking up at the transport above me. My rifle landed back-end-first on my stomach like an axe blow and plopped to the ground next to me. “Ow…” I groaned, “Screw it.” Hoping I had guessed correctly, I summoned my blue machine gun to my hands and pointed it straight up. Bullets spewed out and peppered the underside of the Harvester, most hitting the turret where I was aiming. By the time the clip was empty the turret was in shambles; dotted with holes and tears and barely hanging onto the ship. After several moments the pilot seemed to realize that they couldn’t fire and the transport jolted into motion. Unfortunately, that made a large chunk of the weapon fall off and I was hit again in the stomach by a piece of metal weighing at least several pounds. “Ow…that…that one really hurt…” I curled into a ball for moment, waiting for the pain to heal. At least the ship was leaving… “This day just keeps getting better,” Rush laughed as I sat up with a wheeze. “Little Blue is officially more useful than you,” I told my Ghost as I reloaded the machine gun. “Naming your gun is still weird,” Rush chided. “Everyone else does it,” I argued. “And that’s weird, too,” Rush replied. “The Cabal have been eliminated,” I heard Keis’s voice and turned to find him standing amongst the corpses of all the Cabal that had been taking cover around the supplies. “When did he do that?” Rush whispered to me. “I guess while we were busy with the Harvester,” I answered. “But that only took a few seconds, and we didn’t notice any fighting,” Rush pointed out. “Blanc wants me to tell you that you did well,” Keis said flatly, then walked back towards the others. Blanc appeared next to Keis and called to us, “He wasn’t supposed to say I told him to! Nice Blinking!” “That guy gives me the creeps,” Rush shuddered, “At least Blanc is nice.” “You idiot!” Sierra tramped into hearing range and started yelling at me, “Why didn’t you just tell us we could break the blasted turret?” “I didn’t know we could shoot it!” I defended myself, “I thought I would need to disable it by hand.” “Thus the face smashing,” Rush snickered. “You recorded that, right?” John asked, appearing next to Sierra. “Oh yes I did,” Rush cackled. “You,” Sierra turned on John, “You always know everything, why didn’t you tell us how to scare off that ship?” “Hey, we’ve never fought the Cabal before. None of us knew,” John retorted, then turned to me, “She’s just upset you figured out how to beat that thing before she did.” “I’ve fought the Cabal,” Drew raised his hand, “Flew one of those ships before.” “What?!” I gaped. “Well…Sally did the flying, actually,” Drew admitted, “When I tried…not exactly flying.” “This bloke’s been to Mars?” Yvan scoffed, “And lived?” “Well I died once, but that was the wall’s fault,” Drew elaborated. “…What?” Yvan didn’t understand. “Yeah, that was a tough wall,” Drew reminisced. “Yvan, Keis, and I have been to Mars, too,” Null commented, joining us and sitting on a small crate, “It wasn’t too long ago, and it’s where I first met Keis.” “I was revived here,” Drew boasted, pointing his thumb at himself. “So all of you knew how to take out a Harvester and no one said anything?” Sierra grated. “Huh? No, those things have way too much armor. I never once thought about taking out their weapons,” Null explained. “I flew one. Didn’t fight one,” Drew shook his head. “All the ones I saw flew off after dropping troops,” Yvan shrugged, “Never had to think about it.” “Why do I even talk to you people?” Sierra facepalmed. “I always ask myself that,” Yvan sighed dreamily, as if thinking of a life without annoyances or troubles. “WILLIAM! THINK FAST!” I heard Nat shout, and turned just in time to take a Phalanx shield’s edge to the stomach. I was shoved to the ground, and had to lay there clutching my stomach for a moment. “SORRY!” Nat ran up and lifted me to my feet, then gave me an apology hug, “I thought it would make a good frisbee!” “It’s fine,” I wheezed, her crushing embrace not helping me recover my breath. “I told her not to!” Quintel reported while Ilya ran up and made sure I was okay. “This is not your day,” Rush chuckled. Pt11: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/245635673/0/0 Pt13: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/245636354/0/0 ToC: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0