Third Person's POV

"Let's move out."

The three Guardians made their way into the cluster of small structures spread throughout the Moon's surface.

Jaeger entered the first building cautiously, before quickly throwing himself behind the door and yanking his two comrades with him.

"What's the big id-"

"Shush." Jaeger interrupted Alpha, pushing his head down. "We're not alone here."

He peered from behind the door to catch a glimpse of the two New Monarchy agents who had entered the building. Something seemed off about them, Jaeger noticed. They reeked of darkness.

He watched as they accessed a hidden panel on the wall, summoning an elevator that took them underground. The three jumped out of their hiding spots and made their way to the panel as soon as they assured the agents were gone.

"I knew we'd find something here." Talos grinned, slapping both arms around the Hunters' shoulders. "Now, how to gain access without being detected..."

"I've got this." Alpha said confidently as he summoned his Ghost. "Do your thing, North."

The Ghost promptly began to scan the panel. Before long, the elevator reappeared for them, opening its doors to reveal a beckoning aura.

"Good job." Talos nodded. "Let's get going then."

"Wait." Alpha interrupted. "We're just gonna barge in there without a plan?"

"We don't need a plan." Talos replied calmly. "We just need brute strength."

"That's easy for you to say." Alpha murmured so the Titan wouldn't hear him.

"I'm starting to like this guy." Jaeger chuckled as both Hunters followed him into the elevator.

There were only two options on the elevator's panel for them to choose from. Talos was quick to punch the bottom button that would take them underground. The elevator shook a bit before beginning it's descent.

"They won't know what hit them." Alpha said excitedly. "You think Ling will be down here?"

"Even if we don't find her, we should definitely find a lead of some sort." Jaeger reassured him. "Get your weapons ready. It seems we're about to arrive at our stop."

The trio summoned their weapons as the elevator doors opened, revealing a large underground laboratory.

"These guys are gonna have a lot of explaining to do." Alpha growled.

"Let's focus on the task at hand." Talos ordered, hurling an incendiary grenade out of the elevator. Sounds of screaming soon followed as the room began to fill with smoke, causing an alarm to go off.

"Don't you think it would have been a better idea to burn the place down after finding Ling?" Alpha insisted.

"Oh, don't worry." Talos reassured him. "These grenades only burn people."

"Charming." Alpha shuddered.

The room quickly began to fill with workers investigating the alarms. Alpha and Jaeger exchanged quick nods before unsheathing their swords.

"I'm ready."

"Let's go."

Talos gunned down the first few they encountered while the duo rushed further into the room, cutting down anything that stood in their way. As Talos had said, the fires began to extinguish soon after they finished their work, easing away Alpha's fear of being burned alive with the rest.

"Okay, where should we start looking?" Alpha asked the others after having killed the remaining workers in the room.

"They must have a lot to hide if they decided to take their work underground." Talos remarked, scanning through the other rooms.

"Or they're hiding from us 'cause they know we'll kick all their butts!" Alpha cheered, pumping his fist into the air.

"Let's split up and investigate the area." Talos ordered. "There has to be a reason for them to be abducting refugees, and we're going to find it."

"Jaeger and I will stick together to look for Ling." Alpha told him, looking towards Jaeger.

"Do as you will. I'm going to look for any information that could be of use to us." Talos nodded before heading off.

"You think we'll find anyone in here?" Alpha asked as the two made their way into a separate room.

"That's what we came to see." Jaeger replied bluntly.

"And do you really think that we should have trusted this Talos guy so easily?" He continued, looking back to make sure he was out of earshot. "We just got in his ship with him without even thinking about it."

Jaeger stopped in his tracks, finally turning to face his teammate.

"You're forgetting that our fireteam takes priority. Li Ling was taken, and this man had a lead as to where we might find her. Now whether Talos is a refugee, a New Monarchy agent, or the Speaker himself, finding Ling is my priority." He tilted his head and pulled Alpha's hood off playfully. "And besides, we can take on anything, remember?"

"Sure." Alpha grinned.

~~~

They only had to enter the next room to learn the fate of the abducted Guardians.

"These are... cages!" Alpha gasped, running towards the nearest one. "There's someone in here, Jaeger!"

He summoned his Ghost to open the lock, but the man inside refused to leave the cage.

"Please..." He begged shakily. "No more. Just let us leave...!"

Jaeger approached the cage and pulled the man out rather roughly, causing an outburst of hysteria from him.

"Calm down." He barked, notable annoyance in his tone.

"Hey, we're not here to hurt you." Alpha attempted to soothe him. "We're refugees."

"You mean we're free?" The man gaped, barely containing his excitement.

"Yeah, but first we need to find a few more people." Alpha sighed.

"Stay here until we come back." Jaeger ordered sternly, dropping the man by the door.

The man's praises echoed along the hall as the two Hunters continued looking through the cages. The reactions of the other prisoners were similar to that of the first man. First fear, followed by endless praise and excitement.

"Will all these people even fit on the ship?" Alpha wondered aloud as his Ghost opened another lock.

"They've been undergoing experiments down here for several weeks." Jaeger stated. "They can handle cramped spaces for a few more hours."

"That's really harsh." Alpha frowned, looking into the cage before letting out a large gasp. "Jaeger! Come here!"

The Hunter stood close to Alpha as he reached into the cage and pulled out a sobbing woman.

"Li Ling," Jaeger breathed, kneeling down beside them.

"This is my fault." Alpha gulped, taking her in his arms. "I'm so sorry, Ling. We should have protected you. I'm so sorry..."

The woman refused to acknowledge either of them, burying herself into her teammate's arms in a heavy fit of sobs.

"Let's find Talos and get out of here." Jaeger said quietly before standing up to address the rest of the people they had rescued. "How many of you can walk on your own?"

Two of the seven refugees raised their hands, causing a loud groan to emerge from the Hunter's lips.

"Then wait a few more minutes while we find our Titan."

~~~

"And another one." Talos drawled, holding out a hard drive for his Ghost to carry. "Man, this place is a gold mine." He chuckled before getting up to investigate the next room.

The door was locked tightly, though it was easy for the Titan to simply kick the door down and walk in casually.

"I could've taken care of that, you know." His Ghost sighed, obediently following its Guardian into the room.

"H-hey!" A woman stood up from her seat abruptly, addressing Talos. "How did you find this place? Y-you're not supposed to be-"

CRICK

Her lifeless body fell to the ground without a sound, her head laying at an unusual angle as the Titan simply stepped over her. He scanned the room quickly before resting his eyes on a large series of machines that connected to one thing.

An Exo woman.

"Don't tell me these people can make their own Exos now." Talos mumbled, looking over the machines until coming across a computer.

"That's impossible." His Ghost interjected. "That kind of information and technology has been lost to us for centuries. Perhaps she is another refugee."

"Well whatever was going on in here, they sure did make use of her." Talos pointed out, looking through numerous files of data that he didn't dare open. "This is definitely something the Future War Cult should see."

"She appears to be inactive." The Ghost observed before returning to Talos by the computer. "Let me take a look at this."

He stood and let his Ghost do his job, turning back to the Exo woman. "I'm gonna see if I can get her out of this mess."

"Talos, wait...!"

He had already gone to grab the numerous cables connected to her cranium, forcefully yanking them all out at once.

Her optics immediately began to glow a bright hue of blue, meeting the Titan's own eyes instantaneously. She gripped his armor firmly and nearly threw him off of her, promptly getting up from the table and taking stance.

"You are not an authorized personnel." She stated in a monotonous, near robotic voice.

"No, but you'll listen to me either way, right?" He grinned a reply, only to have to dodge a roundhouse kick aimed at his face. "Rude, but alright then."

He grabbed the Exo's leg before she could land another kick and threw her against the wall. She stood back up with unnaturally smooth movements and lunged at him again, this time landing a solid kick to his chest that sent him stumbling back.

As he recomposed himself, the Exo began to gather Solar Light, summoning a pistol with an intense, fiery aura about it. The Titan reacted quickly and began to summon his Solar Light as well, forging it into a hammer that burned like the sun.

As the heat from both weapons began to soothe into the atmosphere, the two looked at each other once again, as if having a sudden moment of understanding between them.

Only a moment, however.

The Exo was the first to attack, firing a scorching bullet in his direction. Talos put his hammer before him, allowing it to absorb the bullet before retaliating.

With a powerful throw, the Hammer of Sol found its target. He watched as the Light began to combust within the Exo's core, sending her flying back in a fiery explosion.

Talos took a deep breath before approaching the Exo slowly. She lay sprawled about on the floor, her torso's plating brutally scorched from his attack. For a second, he thought he saw her optics staring back up at him.

But they flickered off.

"I finished transmatting all the information that was on this computer." His Ghost spoke up, breaking the peaceful silence in the room. "We should get going."

Talos nodded and took a deep sigh, bending down to gently pull the Exo over his shoulder.

"Let's get you home."

"Talos?" Another voice came from just outside the room. "Are you okay? What was that explosion?!"

The Titan looked up to see Jaeger and Alpha rush into the room.

"Nothing, really." He replied cockily. "Just a refugee trying to give me a hard time."

"Man, you really thrashed the place." Alpha gaped as he looked about the room in awe. "Huh, she's the first Exo we've seen today."

"It's Ivory." Jaeger pointed out from behind Talos.

"What?!"

Alpha rushed to his side to see for himself. Sure enough, he recognized his friend immediately.

"She's... dead." He noted sadly.

"Not necessarily." Talos replied. "She can still wield her Light. Our Ghosts could bring her back at any time."

"Then let's do it now." Alpha exclaimed, summoning his Ghost before Talos stopped him.

"I'd prefer to have our own mechanists take a look at her first." He explained. "Whoever this person is, well, she's not in there anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"From what I was able to see on their computer, they did some kind of system wipe on her. She's a blank slate, and will most likely come back as such if we revived her now."

"Let's get going, then." Alpha replied. "We found the other refugees, but we need your help carrying them to the ship."

"I can do that." Talos grinned.

"We've collected a lot of people, though." Jaeger told him. "We're not sure how they're all going to fit on the ship. Especially now that we're going be smuggling a metal corpse with them as well."

"We can make two trips." Alpha chimed in. "Someone can take a few of them back to Venus now while someone else watches over the rest. Then they come back for us."

"Good thinking." Jaeger nodded. "Let's get moving. These people are getting desperate."

"Alright."