The wind blew softly through the air causing the leaves of the oak tree and my cape to rustle. I was sitting down with my legs crossed as I stared at the cross in front of me. It was a marble stone cross dug into the ground, engraving covering the stone. It read
Here lies Cayde-6, loyal friend and eccentric Vanguard Hunter
I ran a gloved hand against black metal of my head, closing my blue eyes. I missed him, I missed my mentor. From the first time I stumbled into the tower fresh out of Russia to fighting in the Red War, Cayde has always been a friend and a mentor. Now he's gone, no chance at him being revived his Ghost's dead. I growled, remembering all those responsible for his death. I put every single one of them in the ground, including Uldren Sov. It didn't matter though, Cayde is still gone. Not many Exo hunters around these days, so it was nice having Cayde around to relate with. Also helps with dealing with mind wipes, since that isn't a thing Humans or Awoken deal with.
I unclipped my holster and pulled out my firearm, the one of the few things I had of Cayde-6. The Ace Of Spades. I ran my hand over handcannon, tracing every dent every scratch. Each thing that gave the gun character, I had given the gun a fresh coat of paint since it was starting to chip away. It had been months since Cayde died, in that time both the Ace and I have seen quite a bit of action cleaning up the rest of the Prison of Elders. Recently there had been reports of Fallen roaming around the outskirts of a town near the EDZ, myself and a few other Guardians have been looking into it but so far have found nothing. At the moment I was taking some R&R to go visit Cayde.
I sighed as I called on my Ghost, Cloud. He appeared right in front of me, his shell being a Peerless Precision Shell.
"Yes Rain?" He asked as he floated around me.
"Play it again," I said quietly.
Cloud said nothing as he played back the audio recording.
"This one's for the strong, silent type. You. Congratulations, buddy. I mean that. Always knew you'd outdo me someday. And if that means you had to do me in too...eh, you saved my life on Nessus, so I owed it to you anyway. Take care of the Ace of spades, will ya? I'm not just talking about maintenance; Banshee can help you with all that. I mean, take care of Ace. Use it well. Oh, hey, and...if you found any of those papers from my earlier...eh...deployments? Burn 'em. Don't want people poking through the lives of Caydes 0 through 5. So just...put it all behind you, OK? Every story has an end. This is mine.
Oh and also? Watch out for P.V. She has a good heart but is all work and no play if you know what I mean. Watch her back out there, she's one of the good ones. Just don't get caught in her blast radius. Goodbye Rain-4."
The recording ended. I closed my eyes and gripped the Ace tightly. I wasn't ready, I wasn't ready for Cayde's story to end. Unfortunately life doesn't stop for someone to grieve, there's been rumors of me being selected to replace Cayde as the Hunter for the Vanguard. There were still enemies of the Last City to be fought. I had no time to breakdown and mourn one of the people closest to me.
"Rain, Amaris is asking if we can stop by the tower for supplies," Cloud informed me.
"Tell her we'll be back soon," I say as I stand up and walk over to my ship.
Cayde's grave was on a small hill just a few miles away from the walls of the tower. Cayde did say he always wanted to be buried out in the wilds, 'Where a hunter belonged' he would always say. My ship was sitting at the base of the hill, an Alpha Umi class ship colored with the Frumious blue shader. Cloud transmatted me inside the ship's cockpit. From there I powered it up, pulling it off the ground and towards the direction of the tower. After I fired up the engines and started soaring towards the tower.
"I miss him," Cloud said breaking the silence.
"Me too," I said quietly.
From there we flew in silence for another 10 minutes before the wall and the Tower came into view. Soon enough I flew above the tower as Cloud transmatted me directly onto the tower while he set the ship to auto pilot. The tower was as bustling as ever, Guardians coming in and out of the tower, talking to one of the vendors stationed at the top of the tower. The Hunters were the easiest to spot out, ever since Cayde's passing we've all been wearing the same cloak and cape. It was a two tone cape with a giant Spade on it, Memory of Cayde cloak they called it. No one knows exactly who started making it but quickly caught on. Rarely were the Hunters ever unified. I quickly made my way passed everyone and spotted Zavala and Ikora overlooking the city on a balcony. As I walked over to them they both turned and looked at me, the titan with his ever serious face present while the warlock had a soft smile on her face.
"Greetings Rain, what brings you back from your post?" the Awoken asks.
"Amaris sent me to get supplies for the town," I answer as Cloud floats to the right of me.
Ikora opens her mouth to speak but is cut off as explosions go off in the distance behind us. Everything happening in the tower froze to a standstill as gunfire and explosions echoed from the distance. Everyone ran over to the edge of the Tower where the ships came by to see what happening. Out in the distance smoke was starting to rise over the horizon, the same direction that my post was.
"Cloud get the ship," I ordered.
I switched on my Red Moon Phantom mask as I pushed past everyone and leaped over the edge. I could vaguely hear Zavala barking out orders but all I could hear was the wind as I dove downwards. Thankfully Cloud brought the ship around and teleported me inside. I quickly brought the ship around, firing the engines at full throttle towards the town.
"Why didn't Amaris or the other Guardians call for back up?" I asked my Ghost.
"I think that all communication is being jammed, I already tried contacting the town but no one is answering," Cloud answered.
I frowned behind my mask as I tried to push my ship even faster, this was getting really bad. No contact with the other Guardians and we don't know what's attacking the town. Suddenly Zavala patched into my comms.
"Rain, I've gathered three fireteams and are heading your way. Whoever is attacking will know retribution," Zavala stated before closing the channel.
It was nice to know I'd have some back up, although so many Guardians does sound like overkill but I'm not complaining. Soon enough the town was coming into view and it was not pretty. Smoke and fire blanketed the entire town, I could see arc blasts and tracers going back and forth in between firefights. I spotted Skiffs flying all over the town specifically the south side, confirming that the attack was orchestrated by Fallen. Two Skiffs were flying towards the north side of the town where a large group of civilians and militia were trying to flee.
"Cloud when I say so drop me out of the ship," I said as checked to make sure I had as much ammo as I could carry.
"Rain," Cloud tried to warn me.
"Do it," I ordered.
Without another word I was falling to the ground as the Skiffs began to circle the around the civilians. I wasted no time as I gathered enough light to form the Golden Gun causing my entire form to be covered in flames. I fired six shots in rapid succession, each one sounding like a thunderous clap. Three shots for each Skiff causing them to explode violently and the debris slamming into the ground. All the townspeople looked up at me in awe as I double jumped to slow my descent. Finally I landed in the middle of the crowd before standing up and observing everyone. They all had some type of injury whether minor or severe, it was a tragic sight. It doesn't make sense for the fallen to be attacking so close to the wall.
"Everyone! Get out of the town and find shelter, more Guardians are on the way. We will push back the Fallen!" I shout as I pull out the Ace Of Spades and raise high in the air.
All the civilians cheered while the militia worked hard to move the crowd out of the city. In the meantime I double jumped over the crowd and ran deeper into the city, fortunately the north side of the city had been spared most of the destruction and chaos. But as I went further towards the south it became evident this was no simple hit and run, the Fallen were clearly trying to wipe out the town. Entire buildings had crumbled, those that hadn't had caved in walls and roofs or were completely on fire. For every Fallen corpse I found I saw about 7 or more Human corpses lying on the ground.
"This is a nightmare," Cloud whispered.
I said nothing as I tightened my grip around my handcannon. I turned to the right of an intersection to find a group of Fallen Dregs and a pair of shanks flying behind them. What was odd however was that they all had black and white armor. The Dregs were surprised to see me as I threw out a swarm grenade right in the middle of the Dregs. As the explosives sought out the Fallen I fired two shots to destroy the armed robots. The swarm grenade killed off most of the dregs except for two that were trying to reach for their sidearms. I calmly shot both alien raiders in the head, causing them to explode into solar energy. I don't know what Cayde or Banshee-44 did to this gun but it's abilities were powerful, no wonder it was labeled as an exotic. I swapped out cartridges for the gun causing it to be covered in white like ethereal flames, the next 6 shots would deal extra damage. I then sprinted straight towards the direction that the Fallen had came from. I needed to hurry as the sound of gunfire was beginning to be droned out arc blasts and cannon fire. The closer I got towards the center of fighting the even worse the city looked, practically no buildings were left standing and bodies littered the street by the dozens. I wondered how many survivors were there left. Just as I made another turn onto a small shopping plaza an object slammed into a vendor's stall completely obliterating it; I covered my face with my arm as debris showered the area. Just as I was about to leave Cloud stopped me.
"Wait! Light is emanating from that stall, but somethings wrong with it," He called out as he appeared right in front of me and flew over to the crater.
I stopped and followed my Ghost as we stood right in front of the crater, waiting for the dust to settle. When it did we were in complete shock. It was one of the titans that had been assigned to this town, but something was wrong. Black smoke like energy was covering the Guardian, slowly enveloping him until there was just a black fog covering the body. Then just as suddenly as it appeared it faded away as if it was never there. When it did I knelt down and inspected my former comrade. There were scorch marks and scratches embedded into the armor but nothing to indicate what had killed him.
"His light...it didn't just disappear...it was drained, into that dark energy!" Cloud exclaimed.
"How is that possible? As far as we know the Fallen have no method of taking away a Guardian's light?!" I ask, still thrown off by what I had witnessed.
"This is more than just Fallen at work here...," Cloud said before he disappeared.
I took in a deep breathe as I stood up and continued running. Watching the Guardian's light reminded me of how Ghaul captured the Traveler. If we were facing something similar then the entire Last City was at risk. At this point I had been running for 10 minutes straight before the gunfire died out completely.
"No.." I whispered before I ran even faster.
I finally made it to the south entrance of the town to find what was left of the firefight. A couple collapsed Fallen walkers had crashed into buildings while Fallen corpses littered the ground. What caught my eye though were the bodies of Guardians scattered around the area. This is where they made their last stand. But I didn't see Amaris, where was she?
"Guardian!" I heard a synthetic like voice call out.
I turned to the side and immediately aimed my handcannon. It was a Fallen Vandal hiding out in an alleyway, with the same black and white armor. Whoever was attacking was either a new House or just a new group of bandits. One of its lower arms was pressed against its side while it's top arms was holding a wire rifle but it was pointed downward. It's last hand was holding another hand, a human hand. Hesitantly the Fallen stepped out of the alleyway walking towards me while behind it were two children, one boy one girl. The vandal was holding the little girl's hand.
"Young must flee, before Taniks return," it said as she gestured for the children to go towards me. The boy immediately ran towards me, hiding underneath my cloak while the girl continued clutching the Fallen's hand.
"Taniks?! He's leading the attack?!" I asked in astonishment. The same Fallen that had killed one of the Hunter Vanguards, this was bad.
Before I could say anything else gunfire exploded to the right of us. The Fallen ducked back into the alleyway with it's rifle trained in the direction of some damaged buildings. I quickly picked up the boy and jumped over to the alley, I didn't have time to question the how or why but I handed the child to the vandal. They seemed to trust it and that was good enough for me. After that I took cover behind one of the destroyed walkers and aimed the Ace of Spades. A wall collapsed for one of the buildings as a Warlock stumbled through holding a broken auto rifle, I recognized her as Amaris and she was in bad shape. Her armor had been damaged and punctured in multiple places. I holstered my firearm and leapt out of cover running towards her. Amaris noticed me and held her hand out.
"No Rain don't!" She tried to warn me.
Before I could make it to her in time a large orb of the same black smoke energy from earlier was shot towards her from behind. Amaris had no time to move as she was hit, the energy completely consuming her. She started to scream for a second before she was silenced as she fell to the ground, completely still as a black fog consumed her. Right after the energy disappeared and Amaris was left on the ground unmoving. I wasted no time as I rolled backwards and double jumped all the way back into cover. When I landed I pulled out my handcannon and aimed at the hole the energy came from. Whatever just killed Amaris was more than enough to kill a Guardian. Soon enough loud thuds were heard as a Fallen the size of a Kell if not larger bursted through the damaged building. The Fallen had the same color armor as the Vandal, black and white. This Kell was armed with a scorch cannon but what I noticed was the multiple robotic arms. It was Taniks. He spotted me and began to laugh sinisterly.
"Good, another Guardian. One more to add to my kill count," He said in between laughs.
I didn't bother to respond as I fired as many shots as the Ace would allow. Unfortunately all the shots had been blocked by Taniks shield that quickly activated. In response Taniks lifted one of his lower arms and pulled it back as dark energy began to swirl around him.
"Watch out! That's the same energy that killed Amaris!" Cloud cried out.
Taniks then threw his arm forward launching another orb of the black energy. I waited till the last minute as it was about to hit where I was hiding to double jump over it. The orb slammed into the walker and debris lasting only half a second before dissipating. In the mean time I holstered my gun and brought my heavy weapon from storage. I shouldered the Bad Omens and aimed it at the Fallen quickly getting a lock on. Taniks started to move to the side but it was too late as I fired causing a missile to fly out towards the Mercenary. Taniks was lucky enough for the explosive to not impact him directly but the resulting explosion stunned him and threw him to the floor as his shields wavered. I started to reload my heavy weapon when a Skiff flew in right above us. It's turrets immediately opened fired on me causing me to take cover, I wouldn't be able to take too many hits from the drop ship. I dove behind a broken roof as Arc bolts peppered all around me. I was able to peek out and saw Taniks get up to his feet and carry himself onto one of the buildings so he could grab onto the Skiff. The moment the ship turned to leave it stopped firing; at the moment I ran out of covered and shouldered my rocket launcher. Taniks spotted me and fired his scorch cannon one handed, it wasn't accurate enough to injury me but it did cause me to roll to the side. Enough time for his ship to fly out of range.
"Damn it!" I swore as I sat down on the floor while leaning against my rocket launcher.
Suddenly the sound of multiple ships sounded from the north. I looked up and saw multiple Guardian ships fly into the town. Hunters, Titans, and Warlocks dropped into the city and soon enough multiple firefights broke out in the town. Just as quickly as that happened then Skiffs began to fly away in retreat. Four ships flew right above me, releasing more Guardians. One of the Guardian's was Zavala while the rest was a standard fireteam. Zavala landed in front of me while the fireteam secured the area.
"Rain, what happened here?" Zavala asked he surveyed the area. Before I could respond he spotted something causing him to draw his auto rifle.
"Release the children Fallen!" He yelled.
The fireteam noticed their commander and moved to his side with their own weapons at the ready. I turned to see the Vandal had slowly walked out of the alley with both children holding onto its lower arms while it still head the wire rifle. The young boy quickly let go of the alien's hand and stood in front of it with his arms out stretched.
"No stop! She saved us!" He said while trying to be brave although he was clearly shaking. The Warlock that was with Zavala tilted his head curiously.
"She saved them?" He mused out loud. The boy nodded quickly.
"She protected me and my sister from those aliens while the Guardian Warlock distracted the big bad guy," He explained.
His sister nodded from behind the Fallen. The Vandal continued to remain silent. Zavala glanced down at me, a questioning look on his face.
"Is this true Guardian?" He asked. I stood up as I put Bad Omens back in storage.
"Yes sir, when I first arrived she asked me to escort the kids to safety. The little girl refused to leave her side so she must have done something to earn the Children's trust," I explain as I stand by the two kids and alien. Zavala looked skeptical but slowly lowered his weapon.
"She even warned me of who was leading the raid. It was Taniks," I stated. Zavala frowned at this. The Fallen stepped forward.
"Taniks has created his own House. The House of Eclipse. This was not a mere raid," She gravely said. Zavala stood there his face set as stone before speaking.
"You need to come with us so we can gather more information,"
The Fallen stared down at Zavala before sighing as she dropped her weapon. She then slowly walked over Zavala allowing for the fireteam to take the children although the little girl was persistent to stay with the Fallen. Zavala escorted the female Fallen to his ship in the mean time. Zavala glanced back at me as he continued walking.
"Come back to the Tower, it's time we find out what's Tanik's plan is," He ordered before looking forward.
Without another word Cloud brought the ship over to our location, from there I flew right behind the Titan Vanguard. It would take about another several minutes to get back to the Tower. Zavala at one of the private hangars towards the lower part of the Tower. I jumped out of my ship and landed right next to Zavala and the Fallen as they stepped out of the starship; the alien looked surprise while Zavala had a ghost of a smile on his face.
"Dramatic entrance, now who does that remind me of?" He said rhetorically. I said nothing but I did smile under my mask, Cayde would've found it funny.
"We haven't interrogated anyone at this facility, stay here with out 'guest' while we prepare something temporary," Zavala said before he walked into the tower.
For a couple minutes the Fallen and I stood in silence before Cloud materialized in front of me and hovered in front of the alien.
"Do you have a name?" He asked.
"Yalas, we don't have time to waste Taniks is gathering an army to assault your city," She explained while clenching her fists. Both Cloud and I were surprised by this.
"But three Fallen Houses tried to take the City and were beaten back. Why does Taniks think he can succeed?" my Ghost asked.
"You saw what he did to your Guardians. Taniks has the means to kill Guardians with ease. He is also gathering more Eliksni to his side, more than any House," Yalas explained. Cloud looked at me curiously before looking back at Yalas.
"How?"
"Taniks gave each Eliksni the ability to naturally produce ether,"
Hearing this caused both Cloud and I gasped. This was beyond worrisome, this was ground breaking. The Fallen always needed their Servitors to create ether but if they could produce it biologically? Then they didn't need Servitors or worse, use the Servitors to create surplus ether and grow stronger.
"But that's impossible!" I exclaimed taking a step towards Yalas. She didn't move as leaned in.
"Taniks has made it very clear he can do the impossible, and he won't stop till he reclaims the Great Machine," She whispered. Cloud got in between us and got into the Fallen's face.
"But how did he do this? Last I checked he was a mercenary, let alone have the means to alter the physiology of the Fallen?" He questioned.
"I don't know, each Eliksni that served him was knocked out for the procedure. When we came to we could already produce our own ether,"
Just as soon as she finished explaining Zavala came back with a guard of 6 Redjacks. The Awoken Titan stood in front of them all with a grim face.
"We're ready to begin,"