Into the Fire

The fireteam ran into the large chamber, and were met with large Cabal resistance. Each Guardian flanked different sides, swiftly eliminating the main Cabal force.

"Cayde, shouldn't he be here by now?" Samantha questioned, while dodging a Phalanx's shield.

"He's probably waiting for his main forces to kill us – which isn't going to happen." Cayde responded, immediately after launching a throwing knife into a Psion's armored skull.

As if on cue, Spectre ran across the large room and pulled out his Deep Fix T76 assault rifle and began to spray and pray against the Cabal. Legionaries swooped down with their jetpacks to try and stop Spectre, but to no avail.

Finally, after ten minutes of fighting, these Cabal soldiers had been taken down.

"So, Cayde, I repeat – where is Valus Ta'arc?" Samantha reminded Cayde, but just as he was about to respond, the large doors at the far end of the room slowly pulled open. "Right there." Cayde responded.

Samantha ran out from behind the right flank and shot a few rounds from her Red Spectre auto rifle, to get the attention of Valus. He turned, and immediately started firing up his machine gun. She jumped up, and activated Nova Bomb, but was shot by a Legionnary's Slug Rifle, and she missed completely. The resulting blast caused her to fall down onto the ground. She got back up, but was immediately launched across the room by a Phalanx's shield charge.

"No!" Spectre screamed, as Samantha's lifeless body fell to the ground, and with Iris shattered into pieces across the floor.

"There was nothing you could've done.." Coal said.

Spectre knew to believe in his Ghost, but he felt like a part of him had just been torn apart. He knew what he needed to do. His Ghost knew it, too.

"We don't have to do this, Spectre. We and Cayde could bail out and mourn for her." Commented Coal, sitting there reading his thoughts.

"Do WHAT, exactly?" questioned Cayde. The man was happy to get out of the tower, but not if it meant losing more people.

Spectre ran forward, outright ignoring Cayde's shouts. Valus Ta'arc turned to face him, and swiftly caught a sniper round to the chest. This behemoth wouldn't let up, though. The Cabal leader brought his machine gun to arms once again, and started to fire it up, with the intention of taking Spectre down. Spectre, however, wouldn't let this happen. He immediately darted to cover, as Valus peppered the area with rounds.

"Cayde! Are you just going to sit there or are you going to help me!?" shouted Spectre, barely heard over the warcries of the Cabal beast.

"Working on it!" replied Cayde, as he dashed up the left flank's stairway. He steadied on a ledge, hoping to get an angle with his Truth rocket launcher. "Spotlight, get me some aim-assist!"

"I'm on it!" came his Ghost's reply.

Cayde looked to where Spectre had been, only to find he had abandoned the position. Where did he go?, he thought. Just then, Cayde saw a flash of light in front of him. "Oh no…"

Spectre burst into flames, wielding his Hammer of Sol. He swung and threw the Hammer at Valus.

"What the – Spectre! No, get outta there!" shouted Cayde.

"Tell the Tower what happened here, Cayde. Tell them that Valus Ta'arc is dead." Responded Spectre.

"I will not lose both of you!"

"Seems like you don't really have much of a choice. Goodbye, Cayde." And with that, Spectre brought the Hammer down onto the head of the beast, igniting him. Valus managed to get out one final attack – his shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. He fired, and in Spectre's dying breath he pulled out his own Gjallarhorn rocket launcher and made sure he took Valus Ta'arc with him.

Cayde watched as his fellow Guardian, his friend, was incinerated in his own flames. The Cabal warbeast fell with a cry. Spectre had done it – he'd ended the reign of Valus Ta'arc.