Chapter 1:
Towerfall
The City's walls were unbreakable.
They had survived centuries.
When the Fallen houses united, they did not fall.
When the factions within fought, they did not fall.
When the Vex brought their god to Mars, they did not fall.
When Oryx came, they did not fall.
When SIVA was stolen by the Fallen, they did not fall.
The Cabal broke them in minutes.
I'm sure I've had worse days, though I'm not sure when.
Cayde jokingly calls me "Everyone's second favorite Guardian", but I'm probably lower on the scale than that. Just ignore the fact that I alone go back to the Oversoul Throne every other week to re-banish Crota. Never heard of it? Probably because no one ever talks about it. Of course, the 'Ultimate' fireteam was busy in Oryx's realm, so it was just me. Something about the Oversoul realm being intertwined with the Vex network because Crota had-
Boom! A Cabal drop pod hits the city ground right next to me, jarring me back to the moment. I stash Immobius in favor of Hakke's Arminius-D, feeling the familiar buzz of the rifle in my hand. According to the Cryptarchs, there had been a machine gun produced around-about the 1900's (or maybe 1800's, 2000's?) that had been infamous, nicknamed 'Stalin's buzzsaw', or something like that. Just another dictator that had, oh, just forget it. This gun was better, I decided, as three Cabal fall limp towards the ground.
Brad! Stop monologuing and watch your six! More gladiators heading towards the north-east evac points! My ghost buzzes in my headset.
"Geez, how many there in that command ship? What's this, two hundred?"
Try thirty-seven, nimrod.
Rolling my eyes, I swap weapons again, sprinting towards the cross-sections of the streets. Did I mention that the city was on fire? The city's on fire. Makes it really hard to concentrate when the battlefield is less than a mile from where you sleep. Not any easier when you consider that they average seven feet, eight hundred pounds, and live for over a thousand years.
ON AVERAGE!
Not to mention that the literally have blown up planets, moons, and stars for getting in the way of their ships.
I slide into the intersection, pivoting into a lunge as I feel void energy pulse down my arm, vaporizing a legionnaire as I punch it in the chestplate. The familial empowerment of the force strike's shield engulfs me as I continue sprinting into a centurion, blasting its shield away and blowing the helmet off with the follow-up shot of my shotgun. My HUD flares as my overshield breaks and my normal shield takes a blow from Cabal slugs. The two others in the small drop group, a phalanx and an flame guy (my ghost is two busy as I blast my auto-rifle at the pair to correct me). The shield is different from the normal phalanx I've encountered on Mars, larger, and expandable to form a barricade nearly thirty feet wide. I try to hit the central power core and aim for the arm raised over the shield, launching miniature rockets the size of paintballs at me. One flies past my head, plowing through plywood and plaster from the sounds behind me. The shield collapses, exposing the whole group. A few seconds of 'bullet hosing' later, and the group is dead. I check the motion detector in my Commando Custom helmet.
Nothing.
"Box?" (Yes, I call a sentient AI marvel box) "How much time do we have until the ships leave?"
"Schedule says you've got ten minutes."
"How far have I got to go?"
"About a kilometer. Better start running"
I get to the hangar seven minutes later. Ships are being loaded up, frames buckling people in to wall-mounted seats.
"Look who we have here! You decided to show, after all."
Greeting me is Shi-2, an exo warlock who decided that a loose translation for death would be a good name. Shi has her favorite armor set on, complete with her solar Nothing Manacles , Tlaloc in her hands and Murmur on her back. She walks towards me and we bump fists. "Kyle's up in the rafters, as usual."
"How are the civilians?" I ask. "Seemed like I-4 had some encounters with a gladiator on the way here." Though her helmet remains expressionless, I can almost feel the hatred seeping through her.
"It was rough going. We lost four, a small child and her parents, and another adult." She shakes her head. The slim metallic head reflecting little light off of its matte grey finish, a faded white 7 barely visible past red eyes. Her mouth flashes, also red. "Sometimes I wish we all had the Traveler's gift. Poor souls tried to lure it away from the group. It worked but I wasn't able to get there soon enough."
"I know you did your best. You always do, after all."
"Well, it's your turn for that. Not many people, Guardian or not, can lift a half-ton package of rations. D*mn*d forklift broke down a few minutes ago."
I laugh. "At least it wasn't in the middle of the race course!" Grunting, I lift the pallet and slide it up the ship's loading ramp.
Kyle is suddenly next to me. If I hadn't been with him when fighting Aksis, I might have been startled, but years have conditioned me to the hunter's... annoyingness?
"I remember that." He says, feet sliding as he tries to help push the foodstuffs in the ship.
"What was your last count?" Shoving the materials the last few inches into the bay, I turn and look at him. His short-cut "Ninety-seven?"
"Oh, shut up. The sparrow only blew up eighty."
Just a few months ago, Shaxx had gotten together with the rest of the tower and, in festiveness of The Dawning, plotted out two new SRL courses for Amanda. An rusted forklift had been at the end of a blind turn, claiming hundreds of places in the race, and most Guardians' dignity with it. The prongs of the forklift hung near his hydra skull for weeks.
"How do you forget about it that many times?"
"I was more concerned about pushing you off the course."
Shi pulls herself into the ship. "Though it only ever worked on Venus." She punches me in the side, lightly. "Why are you so good at racing? You always finished at least ten seconds ahead of anyone else."
"A mystery, I suppose." I look around at my misfit of friends, proudly, glad that they can't see my face or read my mind. "Get ready for flying." They both nod, and after a few more seconds of small talk, we split, each heading to a ship.
The cockpit is mediocre. I'm suddenly glad that I've had the Arcadia Jumpship from the beginning. I flip switches both on the console in front of me and above, starting the dual turbine-rocket engines.
"Where're we headed?" I ask.
"North-east cosmodrome, Sector B7-A" The radios in these civilian transports are actually radios, so his voice is backed by static. Makes it sound fake, you know? Like it's a movie or something.
"You hear that?" I yell to my fireteam over our private coms. "Get ready to fight off some more Eliksni!"
"Honestly, anything beats the Cabal right now." Shi says, her transport lifting and flying up and out of the hangar. "If I can get away from the d*mn*d drop pods."
"Maybe you're just bad?"
"If you don't shut it, I swear that as soon as we land, I'll tear your face off."
As I leave the shuttle bay, I say a silent prayer to the Traveler. Who even knows if it listens? What if it isn't sentient at all. It might just be a giant machine ball that floats around…
My thoughts trail off, and I listen to Kyle trying to come up with a retort. My ghost phases next to me, Just on the edge of your vision.
"Don't worry about it." He drifts closer to me, voice sincere. "We'll do everything we can to protect them." I nod in silent agreement. I jump into the conversation, cutting Kyle off mid-sentence.
"Maybe you're right Kyle." I say. Shi mouth starts working, but I cut her off again. "Besides, you know everything about just being bad."
It takes us half an hour to get to the landing point with the other ships. But instead of landing, we see the ships that are already grounded with their bay doors open, people squeezing inside. Normal capacity is seven to ten, but they can support four tons of cargo, so as long as there's room that people can fit into, it works. I land hastily, opening the ramp before I'm even on the ground.
"Shi, what's happening?"
"Not sure."
"Me neither. Patching in radio channel-" Kyle pauses for a second. "Aaaaand… done-" His voice is cancelled out as the shouts of the other pilot's panic.
"How much time?"
"Get as many people as you can and get your a-"
"I saw three of them on the lower path."
"Hey!" My abnormally loud voice quiets them, briefly. "What's going on?" Over the clamor of responses, I manage to find one voice to listen to.
"Richard here says he saw a pack of three Goliaths heading towards the DZ. Got two minutes until they have a clear sightline, maybe less."
Shi expresses her feelings in a strong verbal fashion.
"Richard?!"
"What?"
I pull off my restraints and disembark the cockpit. "Find another pilot and get them into-" I look at the hull's plating- "the Promethean Star immediately! And when I tell you to leave, you have all better get out quick."
"And we should listen because..?"
"Because my ghost can only make so much ammo. Now hurry!"
All of the voices flood onto the channel as they realize that some of their 'volunteer resident pilots' are Guardians.
"Box?"
You in a Gjallarhorn mood? I smile beneath my helmet.
"Yes I am."
"Brad, what the h*ll are you doing?" Shi yells.
"I'll catch up to you later. For now, get all of these people out and find somewhere safe."
"Like h*ll" Shi blinks and walks next to me. "You're not the only Guardian here."
Kyle sits behind us, twirling his staves. "Good thing you live in the industrial districts." He smiles up at me, sliding the metal bars up his sleeves. "Plenty of pilots. Plus, I finally got my hands on a Radon Flux. You wouldn't want that to go to waste, now would you?"
"I'm pretty sure he doesn't care."
"As long as your ghost doesn't die, I don't care what you two do. Just don't make out or anything."
Kyle wrinkles his nose. "Eww! You know we're just friends!"
I heft Gjallarhorn as Box finally transmats it into my hands. I slide the top forward, loading two wolfpack rounds into the tube. "Better you do it with her and not me. I know your computer search history, you know."
"I told you to stop!"
I bump armored fists with him, helmet materializing and replacing my natural view with the all-familiar HUD.
"See you on the flip side"
You've likely seen a Goliath before. Terrifying when I saw one for the first time. We were assaulting a land 'tank' the size of a city when a harvester swooped in and dropped the Goliath right in the middle of the only path to the Valus. Twenty plus resurrections later, and we finally broke one of the vertical thrusters.
Shi is likely thinking about the same experience.
"You guys remember that Valus?"
I hear grunts as Kyle talks as he climbs to a vantage point.
"I still- think- we should have- snagged it- for the- tower."
"You know we can only transmat so much." Kyles ghost says, annoyed. "Especially because that purple ball you took had residual void light."
"We truly lost some of our greatest possessions during this assault."
"Got it!" I tell them, staring down the scope of my Longbow. "Got a pack of three Goliaths, two Interceptors, and a support squad of ground troops."
"Got eyes"
"I've got Eyes too. When do we start?"
I keep an eye on my motion radar. They're too far away to have shown up on it, meaning that we'd have to start compensating for noticeable bullet drop.
"Hold- just a little bit longer-" I switch to Gjallarhorn, aiming the red dot in the middle of the optics at the tank's front-left engine. Seconds later, the optic is outlined in red and the weapon starts beeping.
"Light'em up."
AW: Here it is! A new (hopefully) decent. If you have any suggestions I will gladly take them! I have a few ideas, and this is eventually going to turn into a crossover with Overwatch, a game that also has a lot of 'hidden' story, and my brother plays it, so... yeah. I've got around ten pages at the moment, and will try to find a good way to pace the chapters.
Box the jabber and waddle on!
