Hikari watched silent as more of humanity fell into the folds of death.
"Zoom the lens in closer, T900" she ordered.
The frame turned the dial too far, making the video feed grainy and indiscernible. It was just a simple automata, so she couldn't blame the thing. Besides, most of its processing power was focused on piloting her fireteams' jumpship. She sighed.
"Zoom back twenty percent."
The frame did so, enough for Hikari to make out the citizens of Moscow being cut down by the Fallen swarming the city. Streaks of arc energy zipped across the sky, while molten projectiles consumed the masses leaving nothing but clouds of blue cinders. And there was nothing she could do.
Hikari flinched as a hand touched her shoulder. "Why do you do this to yourself?" The voice belonged to Desmond, resident titan and one of the last American guardians. "You're making yourself suffer for no good reason."
"It's not healthy for one's mind," said a woman's voice in a light Indian accent. It was Vi, their resident hunter.
They're right you know, agreed Hikari's ghost in her head.
Hikari didn't respond. She had to focus. If she couldn't do anything to help these people, then she would watch them die out of respect. It was the least she could do. Orders from above were sending her to Astana, Kazakstan where the last fleet of colony ships were being overrun by the Fallen. If the airbase was lost, millions more would die. Time was too precious to waste. So she watched until burning cityscape turned to woodland and there was nothing to do but wait until they arrived at their destination.
A gentle alarm sounded. It was Command.
"Guardians," said the voice, crackling with static. "Report."
Vi cleared her throat. "We're one hundred miles out from the Russian Federal Bureau of Aeronautics. "We should be there soon."
"Not soon enough," said the operations specialist. "The Fallen have breached the western quadrant of the cosmodrome. Only a detachment of defender titans are keeping the alien forces from slaughtering the refugees. Every grand colony ship are at fifty percent right now, not nearly enough for them to take off. You need to hurry."
"Affirmative." Hikari cut the connection. "T900, boost the jumpship."
It didn't take long for Hikari to spot the massive wall surrounding the cosmodrome and the last of the colony ships in the entire region. Mounted energy cannons kept the Fallen ships at a safe distance, but the ground troops outnumbered the guardians ten to one. Fifteen large bubbles glowed purple in the distance, packed tight between a broken section of the wall, absorbing hundreds of bullets while safeguarding the fleeing refugees.
"We're here!" cried Desmond.
The T900 slowed over the battlefield, just as several Wards of Dawn collapsed. Hikari fit her helmet over her head, as did the others, and watched her body burn white from activating the short-range teleportation pad. In a flash, her fireteam was deployed among the defender titans. Cheers went up.
"Guardians!" cried Hikari over the din of battle. "You've all done well, but now I need you to assist the refugees and make sure everyone makes it safely inside the ships! My team will take care of the rest!" She waved a hand at Desmond.
Her defender titan spread his arms out and light from the Void burst from his body. It arced out so far it touched both sides of the shattered wall and had enough room left over to house a row of ten defender bubbles end to end. Hikari smirked. Desmond was one of the most powerful titans in the star system. He could do things with the Ward of Dawn no one has discovered even with centuries of use. More cheers went up from the guardians behind them who soon seemed to realize they were only getting in the way.
They dropped their forcefields and began to make their retreat.
"By the Light," whispered Vi. "Desmond, you've outdone yourself."
Desmond glanced at her. "There's more." He rotated his wrists clockwise and a ring of runes burned itself along his Ward of Dawn. "I've made the shield porous, now we can shoot from within and keep the four-armed freaks out there. It's a little thing I've been testing out."
The Fallen pounded the shield with renewed vigor.
"You're a show off," said Hikari.
She activated her sunbreakers and instantly felt the molten warmth radiate along her arms. She lifted her hands and several specks of light swayed to the lilt of her fingers, growing until they were the size of baseballs. She cast them out. They erupted into giant balls of fire, ruining whatever ranks the Fallen were attempting to organize. Hikari lifted the solar grenades with the power of her sunbreakers and crisscrossed them across the battlefield to incinerate whatever stood in their way. Floating sentinels exploded upon impact. Dregs went up in flames. They could do nothing to stand up to her Light as she turned them to ash. Her hands came together and so did the grenades. They merged into one burning sphere and she held it in the sky like a second sun, letting the Fallen see beauty before they perished. She dropped it.
Everything turned white as solar energy crashed against the Ward of Dawn.
The smoke cleared seconds later and there was nothing left but blackened ground. Of course, it wasn't enough to deter the Fallen. They took the places of their dead comrades, unafraid.
Hikari, said her ghost. The colony ships are at eighty-percent. If you hold the line a little longer we might be able to evacuate with them. I for one want to evacuate. Don't you want to evacuate? Because I do.
Hikari clucked her tongue. Stop whining.
The ground began to shudder and Vi unsheathed her blades. Beyond the Ward of Dawn, Hikari could see hundreds of indistinct shapes moving towards them, and then she realized they were stealth vandals. Electricity rippled in violent waves along Vi's body, her blades twirling between her fingers. She nodded to them and stepped out.
It wasn't much fair to the vandals battling Vi. She was a bladedancer of the Third Echelon, accomplished in skill and master in death. Invisibility meant nothing to her. She killed the Fallen as easily as a scythe cuts wheat. The vandals fell, their guttural screams filling the air as limbs went flying and bodies were eviscerated. The hunter twirled and shot knives every which way, and there were times where it really was like watching a dance. Desmond and Hikari were backing her up with their own assault rifles, but it wasn't like she needed their help.
The ships are at ninety percent, said the ghost.
A reaver captain emerged over the tangle of bodies and swung his sword. Vi blocked him at the last second, but lost her grip on one of her blades. She lunged with her other blade. The captain's head spun free from his body and disintegrated as Hikari jammed bullets into several heads as they rushed Vi.
"There's too many," said Desmond. "She needs to back off."
Something lifted Vi into the air. It was a sword, and it raised her up slowly until her chest slid against the hilt, the hilt a second captain had held as he plunged his sword through her back. Hikari barely had time to register this before an explosion rocked the Ward of Dawn.
Desmond's knees buckled and the forcefield he attempted to maintain trembled.
"What was that?!" muttered Desmond, lifting his hands to pour more Light into the shield. "If it happens again I don't think I can withstand it."
Hikari squinted through the haze of shrapnel and made out three gigantic shapes side by side. Her heart sank. She realized she was staring at spider tanks, the heavily-armored assault vehicles of the Fallen. A single laser pressed against the Ward of Dawn.
Desmond cursed and flourished a tracking rocket launcher from his back.
"Cover me!"
The titan slid out of the forcefield while more dregs found bullets from Hikari. He fired three missiles into the legs of the spider tank to the right. The legs shattered and gave way, tilting its laser into the wall beside them. Another flash of light. Another explosion. The wall absorbed the impact and collapsed into rubble, but this time, the Ward of Dawn held.
The spider tanks' main cannons adjusted slightly.
The ships are at one-hundred percent, said Hikari's ghost. They're taking off.
Hikari widened her eyes in understanding just as three lasers found one of the massive colony ships, lumbering in the air, engines blaring. She couldn't live with herself if more people perished on her watch. The same thing happened in Osaka, her home, and only one colony ship had escaped. Because of her. She couldn't let it happen again. She wouldn't.
Hikari let the Light out from her body and channeled the Traveler's arcane power into something that changed her. Something that made more out of her. Pure Light flared from her body and leapt from her shoulders. It coursed through her hair and between her feet. She pulled the solar energy from the sun out of the air, amplifying her strength. It gave her unadulterated power.
I guess we won't be evacuating then, said her ghost.
Hikari grinned. Nope.
The warlock dove out of the Ward of Dawn and flexed her hands, forming ten solar grenades in the air. She somersaulted over a wave of vandals and hurled her blobs of light expertly onto the foreheads of several captains. They didn't have time to bring their hands to their head before the grenades detonated and were given to the Light. Only seconds left. She jumped with every ounce of power the Traveler could grant her and glided onto the main cannon of the middle spider tank. She laid her hands against the gun to melt it closed. The intense heat just wasn't enough. Hikari screamed until more Light erupted from her body, of all places her back, and wrapped around the cannon's tube, squeezing it shut.
She closed her eyes and smiled. For a second she probably looked like she had wings.