The ship drifted through the darkness, silent and waiting. No engine idled on standby, no lights illuminated the cramped interior. One might think the small craft was abandoned, if it weren't for the faint flow of power through the life-support. Just barely enough to keep the ship's sole occupant alive. From a distance, a passing traveler would probably mistake the craft for an asteroid, if they detected it at all.
The heat had been a problem. Even with temperature controls turned all the way down, the interior of the ship was still a hundred times hotter than the stark vacuum of interplanetary space. It would shine like sun on the infrared spectrum.
The solution had come in the form of a pair of dynamic heat sinks, reclaimed relics of the lost Golden Age. Purchasing them from Dead Orbit had taken months of saved glimmer, but it was absolutely worth it. The exotic technology reduced the jump-ship's heat signature to zero for hours on end. It wasn't true stealth technology, a far cry from the mythical Promethean Code, but it let her linger unseen and unnoticed. Hiding.
Hunting.
And so Telysa waited. She sat in the pilot's seat of her silent ship, alone with the stars and the abyss. The sun was distant and dim, its life-giving glow faint and thin. There was barely anything out here, at the edge of the Deep Black, between the tangled Reef and the enigmatic Jovians beyond. Hours passed without a sound.
She meditated to pass the time. She was drifting on the border between the sun and the night, the Light and the Dark. When she closed her eyes and released her thoughts and let her mind go blank, she could almost feel them sliding against each other, whispering their secrets. A telltale heartbeat of the universe that only an Awoken could hear. Eons slid past in her mind.
A deafening alarm blared through the cockpit.
Telysa's eyes snapped open. She shook the chill out of her limbs and located the source of the alarm. A single light blinked on the controls, accompanied by a soft beeping. The proximity alarm.
Pins and needles shot down her arms as she typed a command into the controls. The main view-screen flickered to life. She restored partial power to the long-range sensors, only enough to get a read on the disturbance. They showed a solitary heat signature, 50,000 kilometers out, moving parallel to the asteroid belt.
Azul appeared above the control panel and scanned the data readout. "Let's see, it's big, half a kilometer long, the pattern matches the emissions of a Fallen stealth drive, trajectory comes from Earth…and their current course takes them straight to 1036 Ganymed. You were right. It's him."
Telysa smiled. "See, I told you Shiro's tip was good. We saved months of waiting."
"Yes," the Ghost replied, "but twenty thousand glimmer for the Dead Orbit tech? Surely it would have been easier to just wait and follow him."
"Doesn't matter now. We know he's here, and he doesn't. The bounty will pay it back ten-fold."
The Ketch was almost out of sensor range, about to vanish from the screen. It was no matter though. She knew exactly where it and its pirate captain were headed.
"Boot up nav-systems," Telysa said, "but wait until they're near the asteroid to fire up the engines. Take us the long way around, approach from the rear. We don't want to tip him off, not when we're this close."
The Ghost chirped in acknowledgement. Telysa slipped out of the cockpit and into the small hold tucked behind it. She opened up her gear locker and sorted through her weapons.
Khariss the Forsaken was an enigma to the Vanguard. A mysterious Fallen baron who struck refugee settlements and City expeditions with furious speed and ruthlessness, leaving no survivors. His attacks were so swift, he was never seen in person. They had earned him massive bounties from not only the Vanguard, but all three major factions as well. Telysa was going to bring them his head on a stake.
After some deliberation, Telysa selected her pulse-rifle and her shotgun from the locker. His lair would likely be too cramped for a scout-rifle or a sniper. She also grabbed her gray hand-cannon and strapped on the holster so it sat across the small of her back. She kept the battered old piece mostly for sentimental value, but it was always good to have a backup.
The jump-ship swayed slightly as the impulse engines hummed to life. Telysa retrieved her helmet and a pair of extra knives, and sat back down in the cockpit.
"We're about eighty-thousand kilometers out," Azul said, his deep blue shell reflecting the lights on the controls. "ETA of 7 minutes."
Vanguard scouts hadn't been able to get a clean read on Khariss. He would sometimes strike two different places at once. Shiro-4, the Tower's foremost expert on Fallen, had once spent seven months tracking him, but didn't even come close to finding his base of operations. The pirate had repeatedly eluded the best Guardians across the system.
Until now. Nearly a year of chasing down leads and collecting intel form other scouts had finally led Telysa to 1036 Ganymed, a wandering asteroid that drifted between Mars and the outer edge of the asteroid belt. A suitably mysterious hideout for one of the most notorious pirates in the system.
The asteroid itself was just barely visible in the main view screen. From a distance, it didn't look like much, just another random lump of rock drifting through space. Infrared spectrum revealed a very different picture; a massive Fallen Ketch parked on the far side, with a sizeable warren of tunnels carved into the ground beneath it.
"That's a lot more ground than I can cover," Telysa noted, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
"He probably has some sort of central command center," Azul commented, "If he's not on his Ketch, then that's where he'll be. I should be able to locate it if I you get me into their systems."
"Okay then. Put us down at the edge of the complex. We'll work our way in from there."
The Ghost beeped in acknowledgement and adjusted their course. With any luck, they would be in and out, and the pirate captain would be dead, before his crew even knew what was happening.
Minutes stretched on for what felt like hours. The asteroid slowly grew in the view screen until the potato-shaped rock loomed above them. The jump-ship swooped in a low arc, skimming the dull gray surface. Telysa slid her helmet on and pulled up the hood of her cloak.
"Transmat range in fifteen seconds," Azul said.
Telysa checked her weapons one last time. "Ready for transmat."
They crested a jutting shoulder of rock, and the Fallen encampment came into view. Telysa glimpsed a tangle of structures beneath the sleek, beige Ketch, and the world around her vanished.
For the briefest of moments, Telysa felt the molecules of her body stretch and fray apart. They pulled almost to the breaking point, her existence stretched between two locations. A heartbeat later, her body snapped back together, and she materialized in a ripple of light.
She immediately snapped her rifle up and scanned her surroundings for hostiles. Nothing. Telysa slowly lowered the weapon.
She stood on a broad rectangular platform, jutting over the abyss. A stack of Fallen equipment sat in the far corner, illuminated by one of the aliens' orange glow sticks. Azul had dropped them on what appeared to be an auxiliary landing pad.
That was odd. Telysa didn't recall seeing any large fissures or pits on the flight in. She walked over to the edge of the platform. It extended over empty space, nothing but stars beneath. The distant sun glared in her visor, almost level with her line of sight. Telysa turned and looked up. The façade of a Fallen structure extended above and to the left. Why hadn't she spotted the huge structure on the way in?
It finally clicked, and Telysa realized what she wasn't seeing. Khariss's crew hadn't dug down into the asteroid, they had cut sideways into it. They treated the surface of the rock like a cliff-face, not the ground, and used artificial gravity to reorient the whole thing. Telysa had transmatted onto the bottom corner.
She shook her head and started moving. She didn't have time to get distracted by the odd design choices of a bunch of pirates.
"This place is a lot bigger than I expected," Azul said through her ear piece, "Maybe we should call for some backup."
"No, I've invested way too much time into finding Khariss," Telysa replied as she crossed the platform, "I'm not going to share the bounty when I've already done the hard work. Besides, the nearest Guardian is hours away. They wouldn't get here in time."
The doorway at the back of the landing platform was sealed. Azul appeared by her side and unlocked it. It slid open, and Telysa slipped inside.
The dim corridor on the other side was empty. Shadows clung to the arched support beams. A few crates sat against the far wall, probably left there after being unloaded.
"Try to find a computer terminal," Azul said, "If I can get into their systems, I can figure out where we need to go."
Telysa nodded in acknowledgement. After a moment of deliberation, she turned left and jogged silently down the hallway. She reached an intersection, and right at the corner was a monitor and control pad. Azul flew over and started hacking his way in. The monitor flickered to life and displayed a schematic of the den.
"Perfect," the Ghost said, "This base was built around the docking bay for the Ketch. There's a central command right above it…and a vault of some sort deeper in the asteroid."
"He'll be either there, or still on the Ketch," Telysa said, "The vault must be where he keeps his loot, but I don't imagine he spends much time there. Which will be faster, the control room or the Ketch?"
"The control room is closer, so we-"
A distant boom echoed down the corridor.
"What was that?" Telysa asked nervously.
"Uh…not sure," Azul said, "Wait a minute, an alarm just went up across the base."
Telysa raised her weapon and put her back against the wall. "What happened? Did they see us coming in?"
"I don't think so…there's a lot of activity near the central hangar. Not sure what though."
Another boom sounded down the hall.
"It sounds like some kind of fight. Take us to the control room. We need to know what's going on." Telysa said.
Azul vanished in a puff of light as Telysa started running.
It quickly became obvious that the twisting warren of chambers and tunnels was built with very little central planning. Stairs and passages doubled back on themselves, or just ran into dead ends. Without Azul's marker on her helmet HUD, she would be hopelessly lost.
The sounds of battle grew louder as she navigated the complex. She could hear the faint pops of weapon fire, occasionally punctuated by the deeper rumble of an exploding grenade.
"I'm picking up movement behind," Azul said.
Telysa immediately ducked into a shadowed recess in the side of the corridor. She knelt down and drew a thin film of Arc Light around her. Her outline shifted and warped, and she vanished from sight.
A pair of vandals rushed past, their white triangular helmets glinting in the dim orange lighting. They ran in the direction Telysa had been moving, towards the center of the complex, completely oblivious to the invisible Guardian.
She waited until their footsteps faded in the distance. Once she was sure they were out of earshot, she stood up and let the light-warping Arc film evaporate.
"Thanks for the heads up," Telysa said. She started running again.
"We're getting close," Azul said a moment later, "There are a lot of heat signatures ahead."
"Take us as far around as you can. Whatever's going on, I don't want to get in the middle of it," Telysa replied.
"I'll do my best, but that's not going to be easy in this mess of a building," the Ghost replied, sounding annoyed. "They could at least follow some basic design principles, but no, they just pile everything together."
Telysa rolled her eyes as Azul ranted. A moment later a new marker appeared on her visor, down at the far end of the corridor. She followed it past the corner and up a short stair well.
The stairs deposited her in a small storage room. The marker pointed to a walkway around the top of the room. Telysa took a running start and jumped up towards the balcony. Her leap only carried her a few feet through the air, but at the top of her path, she reached into the Arc and pushed.
She felt the pressure resist at first, like it did every time. She pushed harder and held the brief impression of a membrane tearing. The Arc enveloped her.
Blink.
Telysa landed on the walkway. Wisps of mist from the teleport curled off her shoulders. She kept moving and approached the door at the far end. It was locked.
Azul appeared and unlocked it. She slipped through and continued making her way up twisting stairways, down darkened corridors, until she finally reached the control room.
Floor to ceiling windows covered half the walls, giving the circular chamber sweeping views of the huge hanger bellow. The prow of Khariss' Ketch cut through the cavernous space, almost touching the glass.
Numerous control panels and monitors dotted the room, arranged around an imposing throne at the center. Three Fallen stood at the front, watching the hangar below. One was a captain, who towered a foot and a half over his two vandal guards.
A series of flashes illuminated the hangar. Telysa couldn't see their source from where she hid in the doorway. The captain growled and shouted a harsh command at the vandals. The vandals hesitated a moment, then left through the door opposite Telysa, shock rifles in hand. The Captain continued to watch, completely engrossed in the battle below.
"That's not him, is it?" Telysa whispered, "He's too short."
"I agree," Azul replied through her earpiece, "Even as an exile, Khariss should have access to enough Ether to reach at least twelve feet."
Telysa slowly backed out to the corridor. "So where is he then?" she wondered aloud, her mind working. Fallen leaders preferred to stay in places of power. That meant either the bridge of the Ketch, or up here. Perhaps he was fighting down below? But…Fallen social convention didn't allow underlings to sit out a fight. Maybe the captain was trying to stage a coup and take control of the complex from Khariss? If Khariss was down bellow though, that meant he would be surrounded by dozens of Fallen that she would have to fight through.
"I need to see what's going on down there," Telysa decided.
She slung her pulse rifle over her shoulder and pulled out her shotgun. She checked the ammo. Four rounds in the magazine, and one in the chamber.
Telysa coated herself with invisibility and slipped back into the control chamber. The Captain stood exactly where she had left him, transfixed by the battle. A ragged, burnt ochre cloak hung from his shoulders, and he clutched a massive shrapnel launcher in his two upper arms. The swept horns of his helmet were painted with dull gray symbol. Telysa's knowledge of the Fallen language was spotty, but she was fairly certain it meant "vindicate."
Telysa knelt down and snuck around the side of the room. Years of practice let her feet to move silently across the metal flooring. She stopped five feet to the Captain's side. He had no idea a Hunter was standing right next to him.
No one ever did.
Telysa raised her shotgun and pulled the trigger.
A deafening boom ripped through the chamber as ten fingernail sized pellets of lead slammed into the Captain's helmet at twice the speed of sound.
The captain reeled back. A web of cracks appeared on the side of his helmet and started leaking misty ether. He stumbled into a control panel, disoriented by the impact. Telysa pumped her shotgun and fired again. The spray of pellets scattered across the armor of his neck and chest.
He blindly aimed his weapon in her direction. Telysa dropped into a roll as a spray of molten shrapnel spat from the gun. She came up with a knife in hand and lunged forward.
The captain's hand lashed out with startling speed and grabbed Telysa by the throat. He hoisted her up by the neck and slammed her against a control panel. Telysa gasped as her breath was forced from her lungs.
The captain picked her back up and aimed his weapon at her head. Telysa blindly struck out and jammed her knife down the weapon's claw-like muzzle, even as the captain pulled the trigger.
The shrapnel launcher exploded.
A spray of burning metal ripped through Telysa and the captain, sending them both flying. Telysa felt her knife shatter in her grip as her whole arm, side and chest erupted in pain. She landed with a thud and a smear of blood, her flesh flayed through in a dozen places.
Azul appeared above her and immediately coated her body with soft white light. Telysa's vision started to go dark as electric tingling raced down her limbs.
The aching pain slowly faded and gave way to electric numbness. Shards of metal popped out of her body as the dozens of cuts pulled themselves closed. Burnt skin peeled away and regrew. Finally, the rips and tears in her clothing filled in and mended themselves.
Telysa groaned and sat up. A dull headache pounded between her temples. The captain lay unmoving on the other side of the room. Several twisted scraps of metal sprouted from his chest and face.
"You know, you were invisible," Azul said, "If you wanted to see what's going on in the hangar, you could have just ignored the captain."
"I could have," Telysa said, climbing to her feet, "But what's the fun in that?"
"Maybe the part where we're on a stealth mission?" Azul replied.
She ignored him as she retrieved her shotgun and crossed to the windows. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the chaos below.
Dozens of Fallen corpses littered the hangar, a bloody trail of bodies from the loading bay of the Ketch to the near side of the chamber. Closer to the control room, flashes of energy and gunfire filled the air. Dozens more Fallen stood directly below, firing their crackling Arc weapons at a line of crates further out. Blasts and burn marks coated the floor. Off to the side, a crate had been torn open, spilling cubes of glimmer on the ground.
The Fallen below were mostly dregs and vandals. Two more captains stood at the back, but they were normal captains like the one she had just killed. No sign of Khariss.
Telysa squinted. The Fallen were all focusing their fire on a single spot. A lone armored figure crouched behind the crate. As she watched, the muscular figure jumped out from behind her cover and opened fire at the Fallen. She took several blasts of Arc energy to the chest, but cut through three of the alien pirates with her machine gun. The Titan ducked back behind the crate and reloaded.
"It's another Guardian!" Azul chirped in excitement.
Telysa turned away from the window and cursed.
"Uh…correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't having backup a good thing?" Azul asked.
"I told you earlier, Azul, I'm claiming that bounty. I spent twenty thousand glimmer on that stealth drive. If she kills him first, we'll be flat broke with nothing to show. I don't know how she found this place, but I've been tracking him for months. I alone have the right to kill him."
Telysa stormed out of the control room and turned left, heading to the stairs at the end of the hallway. "We need to figure out where Khariss is, now. It won't be long before that Titan punches through the rest of those Fallen. We need to get to him before that happens."
"Well," Azul said, "I'm sure you saw the trail of bodies coming from the Ketch. The Guardian already searched the ship, which means he isn't there. I'm willing to bet Khariss is holed up in the vault I noticed earlier. It's very secure, and it only has one way in and out. The Titan would have to fight through his entire crew to get to him."
"Right. Get us there as fast as you can."
Azul's marker appeared on her visor. Telysa followed it back down through the complex. It took precious minutes to navigate the bewildering layout.
"I'm picking up heat signatures ahead," the Ghost said after a moment.
Telysa slowed. She was fairly certain they were approaching the back of the hangar. She could hear the muted sounds of battle far to her left.
"How many?" Telysa asked.
"Not sure. At least eight, probably more like a dozen."
"Let's not take any chances then." Telysa knelt down, and in a moment, she was invisible. She continued forward and came to a junction filled with Fallen. The assorted vandals and dregs all faced the large blast door that blocked the left end of the corridor. To the right, the hallway continued deeper into the asteroid.
"The vault's down that way," Azul whispered in her ear. Telysa crept forward, finger near the trigger of her shotgun. The corridor was deathly quiet. She could even hear the soft hiss of the Fallen's breathing. They were waiting for something.
Telysa slipped past the first vandal and crept behind a dreg. She inched further along, away from the door. A distant boom shook the floor. Telysa froze as the Fallen collectively jumped a little. Some of them fiddled and adjusted their weapons. Their nervousness was palpable.
She continued past another pair of dregs and a floating shank, perfectly silent. Titans were masters of combat. Warlocks were masters of the Light. But no one would ever know stealth like the Hunters.
Two more vandals remained between her and the open corridor. They were close enough to touch. Telysa turned sideways and inched her way between them.
The door exploded in a fiery blast.
The vandals flinched and brushed against Telysa. The sheath of invisibility around her dissipated with a pop. The two vandals spun to find a cloak-wearing Guardian standing between them, and then all hell broke lose.
A crackling ball of blue energy flew through the smoking remains of the door. Telysa drew her knife and rammed it down the left vandal's neck. The ball of energy exploded in a flash of light that stunned the nearby Fallen. Telysa pivoted on her heel and dragged the first vandal's body in front of the second. The second vandal's shots struck his dead comrade.
The armored figure of a Titan emerged from the smoke at full tilt. She dropped into a slide and unloaded her shotgun into a dreg's face. A pair of hovering shanks locked on to the Titan and fired. The blue bolts of energy popped off her armor.
Telysa yanked her knife out of the dead vandal and lunged and the second one. It dodged right.
She dragged herself through the Arc and blinked across the floor. She hit the vandal like a battering ram and slammed it against the wall. Her knife dug into its upper forearm as she snatched its sidearm from the holster with her other hand. Three shots to the stomach dropped it.
The rest of the Fallen were recovering from the flash-bang and finding themselves caught between two Guardians. Most of them fired at the Titan, who returned the favor with a spray of bullets from her auto rifle. Muzzle flash lit up the dim corridor as she mowed down three dregs and a shank.
Telysa ducked behind a support beam as two other dregs and the remaining shank fired a salvo of Arc bolts at in her direction. They fizzled harmlessly against the metal wall. She brought her pulse-rifle up and stepped away from the beam. Three quick bursts of bullets, and the dregs and shank were down.
Two vandals and two dregs remained standing. The dregs rushed the Titan, while one vandal retreated down the corridor. Telysa summoned a ball of Arc in her hand, and shaped it into a grenade. She ignored the sickening crunch of the Titan caving in a dreg's skull and threw the cube of Light against the ground.
The grenade shattered into four twinkling shards. The bolts locked on to the fleeing vandal and darted towards it. The vandal exploded in a spray of ether.
Wait, where was the second vandal?
It's behind me.
Telysa spun and reached for her knife as hissing alien leapt out of the shadows. Too slow.
A hollow boom rang out and the vandal jerked sideways in the air. It landed with a thud at Telysa's feet.
Telysa released her breath and turned to where the Titan stood, a shotgun in her hands. Smoke curled up from the dozens of burn marks on her red and yellow armor. She stood straight and tall, with a solid and muscular body underneath the plasteel plate.
"Well crap," the Titan said after a moment. She pulled off her cracked helmet, revealing amber eyes and pale skin framed by a mop of red hair. "And here I thought I would have to kill the baron on my own."
Telysa didn't reply, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach.
The Titan motioned at the dead vandal with her shotgun. "Uh, you're welcome?"
"What are you doing here?" Telysa finally demanded.
The Titan frowned. "Uh, killing a bunch of Fallen so I can put an end to a notorious pirate? Let me guess, you're here for the lovely view."
"Khariss is mine," Telysa snapped, "I've been tracking him for months. I don't want or need your help."
The Titan rolled her eyes. "You Hunters are all the god-damn same. All about the pride and glory." She tucked her helmet under her arm and walked down the corner.
Telysa fumed as she walked past. The Titan completely ignored the fact she had just ruined nearly a year of planning and preparation.
"Wait," Telysa shouted, "You don't get to just ignore me. That bounty's mine."
"I'm not ignoring you," the Titan said, reloading her shotgun, "I'm helping you. You can keep the bounty for all I care. I just want Khariss dead." She slid the last shell in and pumped the action. "I was hoping you would want the same thing, but apparently Hunters can't do anything without a reward." She rested her shotgun over her shoulder and held out her helmet so her Ghost could repair it. "Name's Linvana, by the way. Pleased to meet you, even if you're not."
"I've heard that name before…" Telysa muttered. "Wait, you're that Titan everyone's talking about, aren't you? The one who killed Sepiks Prime?"
"Yep. That's me," Linvana replied, "Though, everyone always seems to forget the other two. I wasn't exactly alone."
"The other two didn't publically refuse the Speaker's reward because they 'don't need compensation to see justice done.' You know you're famous for saying that."
"There you go with rewards again. Not everyone wants to be a big damn hero. Some of us just want to make sure the City lives to see each new day." The Titan slid her helmet back on.
Her Ghost moved on to the rest of her armor, repairing the damage to the smooth plate. "You know," the floating orb noted in a chipper voice, "We'd have a lot more glimmer left over if you weren't constantly breaking everything."
"So how did you find this place?" Telysa asked after a moment, curiosity finally overwhelming her anger. "It took me months of waiting to track Khariss down."
"Well," Linvana replied, "I followed him. I was running salvage mission on an old Ishtar station on the Lakshmi Plains. Me and two others were babysitting a trio of cryptarchs. They were getting all excited about some super-rare Golden Age thingamajig when the Fallen showed up. Came straight out of the blue and started blasting us from the skiff. Me and my team split up, they got the cryptarchs to safety while I distracted Khariss's crew. They stopped giving chase as soon as I was out of range, started loading up the artifacts the Cryptarchs had found."
Linvana shrugged. "So, I ended up circling around the site, and found myself right next to their skiff. I snuck past the guards, slipped a transceiver on the side, and waited for them to leave. So, here I am."
Telysa frowned. "You put a beacon on their skiff? The only ship I saw coming in was a Ketch, and its trajectory traced back to Earth."
"Nope. Definitely a skiff, and definitely Venus. My machine gun still has the acid stains on it."
"There is a chance I miscalculated," Azul said, "They were at the outer edge of sensor range."
Telysa didn't respond. Ghost's weren't often wrong. There was something else going on here. She could almost put her finger on it…
"Movement ahead," Linvana's Ghost said.
"We're close," Azul added, "The next room is the antechamber to the vault."
The two Guardians rounded a corner and found themselves face to face with another blast door. Azul flew out and started working on the door. Linvana seemed disappointed she didn't get the chance to blow it up. Typical Titan.
"Right then," Linvana said, swapping her shotgun out for her auto-rifle, "I'm sorry I crashed your party, but we're both here, and two guns is better than one. Like I said, I don't care about the bounty or anything. I just want to see this monster in the ground. Will you help me do that?"
Telysa sighed. "Fine."
"Perfect. I'll take point, clear some space for us. I'll draw their focus, and you can work up the flank. They probably have a servitor or two, so you might want to-"
"Do what you need to, Titan," Telysa interrupted, "I'll just make sure everything's dead."
Linvana stopped short. She started to reply just as the door slid open and revealed a room full of Fallen.
The Fallen opened fire immediately. Telysa and Linvana dove behind the doorframe as a torrent of Arc bolts tore through the doorway. Linvana blindly lobed a grenade into the room. She waited for it to detonate and charged in, gun blazing.
Telysa rolled her eyes. Well, if the Titan wanted to be the diversion, she would be the diversion. Telysa made herself invisible and slipped through the doorway.
The low, dim room had quickly turned to chaos. Dozens of crates and pieces of Fallen machinery littered the floor, giving both the Fallen and Linvana ample cover. Several vandals and a captain stood on a low platform at the back, guarding a larger, even more intimidating door. A pair of servitors hovered behind them, watching like a pair giant black mechanical eyes.
She snuck along the right edge of the room, looking for an opening. Their attention was directed towards Linvana, who was currently pinned down behind a stack of warsat platting.
There was too much open space between Telysa and the servitors. She would take a hit and promptly get cut down if she tried to go straight for them. She needed to work her way past the rest of the Fallen to the far side of the chamber.
Well, if she couldn't be subtle about it, she could at least be thorough.
She stood up behind a pillar and drew her knife. It occurred to her that she was about to do exactly what the Titan had told her to do. Oops.
Telysa called upon the Arc, and it answered with the fury of a thousand storms.
Lightning exploded across her clothing and into the floor. Telysa forced the crackling current down her arm and into her knife. The Light wavered and formed into a glowing blue sheath around the blade, turning it into an electric sword. Arc energy hummed in her chest, urging her to move.
The nearby Fallen looked up as a crackling specter of electricity charged at them. They were the first to go. She dashed forward with impossible speed, the Arc making her body nearly frictionless. She swung her blade in a low slice and slashed three dregs and a vandal. Their bodies burst into clouds of ionized vapor.
Telysa sliced across the center of the room. She cut three more down as the vandals in the back realized there was a second Guardian in the room. Telysa bisected another dreg as one of the servitors fired a pulsating blob of Void energy.
She blinked behind cover as the purple blast disintegrated the section of floor she had just been standing on. She rounded the stack of boxes side and flicked her knife towards a clump of dregs sneaking around her flank. The motion sent a pulse of Arc through the floor. It struck the dregs and burnt them to a crisp. Telysa ducked back behind her cover as a molten wire bolt from a vandal traced through the air.
Most of the Fallen had retreated to the left side of the chamber to try to escape from Telysa. Their mistake, really.
Telysa blinked next to the nearest group and ended them with a single slice. She teleported away before the sniper vandals could get a bead on her. The Hunter worked her way up the left side of the room, never staying still long enough to get pinned down.
She was getting close to the snipers when she felt the Arc start to abate. She stabbed her blade through one vandal and decapitated another as her storm dissipated in a snap of lightning.
A vandal, the captain, and the two servitors remained. The rest had been turned to ash by Telysa's blade-dance. The captain roared in anger, threw down its shotgun, and drew a pair of swords with its upper arms. Telysa recognized the challenge for what it was and pulled out her second knife with her other hand. The captain growled and charged.
It was a direct attack, no finesse or grace, just straight-up trying to impale her. She spun aside and slashed at the captain's side. It blocked the attack with unexpected speed. Their blades locked with a metallic rasp. Telysa brought her second knife up to stab the captain's gut. It dodged backwards.
Telysa pressed forward. She refused to let the captain go on the offensive. She forced it back towards the center of the room, but couldn't find an opening. It had the reach advantage, and it was good. Very good.
A loud crack rang out. Telysa caught a flash of motion in the corner of her eye. She ignored it.
She changed track and tried to force the captain into a corner. The captain realized what she was doing and circled so his back was towards the center of the room.
Telysa growled. This was taking too long.
The captain lunged right, leaving its side exposed. Telysa raised her knife to block.
Blink.
Telysa materialized behind the captain. She blindly stabbed backwards and felt her blade sink into something soft. She spun around and slit its throat with her other knife. The captain dropped like a sack of bricks.
She stood there a moment, heart hammering from the exertion.
An angry robotic roar drew her attention to the back of the room. Too late, Telysa realized she was standing in plain sight before two servitors, with the nearest cover thirty feet away.
"Duck," a voice said in her ear-piece.
Telysa hit the ground as the rocket wooshed from behind her and struck the left servitor. The blast shattered it into a dozen pieces. The second servitor reeled back, its armored plating cracked and splintered. A spray of bullets tore across the room. They ricocheted off the armored shell.
Telysa forced the Arc into her palm. She lobbed the grenade at the servitor, and it stuck like a magnet. The servitor exploded in a spray of sparks, and the room was still.
"That's twice," Linvana said, stepping out from behind the stack of warsat parts.
"Twice what?" Telysa shot back, standing up and brushing off her cloak.
"Twice that I've saved your life," Linvana replied. Her Ghost appeared and transmatted the rocket launcher away in a flash of light.
Telysa rolled her eyes. "Please. That hardly counts."
"You would have to have revived without me."
"So? That's what Ghost's are for."
Linvana shook her head. "Just sayin', having someone to watch your back isn't a bad thing."
"If you say so."
The Titan stared at her for a few moments, then shrugged and brushed past Telysa to inspect the vault door. Her Ghost appeared and scanned the mechanism.
"Oh dear," he said, "Well, you can't blame the Fallen for lack of trying. They outfitted it with Golden Age zero-proof encryption. It will take me a few to crack it."
"Okay. I'll see if I can find Master Allry's salvage while you do that." The Titan opened the nearest crate and started rummaging through it.
Telysa watched the Titan for a moment, then went and sulked in the nearest corner. She pulled out her knife and started inspecting it for damage.
"You know, she does have a point," Azul said, appearing by her shoulder.
"What do you mean?" Telysa asked.
"Having a partner might not be a bad thing. It's been a while since we've been on a fireteam, so maybe you've forgotten what its like, but I for one like having someone else to open doors every once in a while."
"It's not like having a partner helps either. This was supposed to be a quick in and out. Slip in and kill Khariss, then escape before anybody noticed. Then the Titan went and set off every alarm in the entire asteroid."
"You can hardly fault her for that. It's not like she ruined the mission. She killed most of the Fallen all on her own, and we still have Khariss cornered. Besides, she didn't know you were taking a shot at Khariss because you didn't notify the Vanguard of our intentions. You know, the whole 'lone wolf with no regard for authority' thing you have going."
"She still could have ruined everything. Besides, when she caught up to me, the first thing she did was act like she was in charge and everything. Never mind the fact I've invested months into this strike. I deserve this kill. I worked for it. She has no right to just barge in here."
"Well," Azul continued, thinking, "She's already said we can keep the entire bounty, so you're not mad because of the money. Is it really about your pride? Is the prospect of getting help that offensive to you?"
"It's - it's not about my pride…" Telysa began, then trailed off as she realized her Ghost had a point.
"Do you even remember why we decided to go after Khariss in the first place?" Azul asked.
Telysa sighed. Her eyes unfocused as her mind drifted back to a year ago, when she was standing in the Tower plaza, reading a long line of reports about a Fallen pirate who's atrocities rivaled those of the infamous Taniks the Scarred. Khariss had killed hundreds of City citizens, and there was no end in sight.
"We took the bounty," Telysa remembered slowly, "Because we saw a monster on the loose, a monster nobody else could stop. We decided that one way or another, we would put an end to it."
"Well there you go," Azul said, "One way or another, we are ending it."
Linvana's Ghost chirped, causing Telysa to jump. "I've almost got it," he said, "but they definitely know we're here, so be prepared."
Linvana closed the crate and went to the door. Telysa reluctantly stood and approached.
"Are you ready?" Linvana asked.
Telysa nodded. "Let's put the bastard down.
"Alright." Linvana turned to the door. "Knock knock…"
Her Ghost bobbed and opened the door.
The door opened and revealed not one, but two Fallen barons. They stood twelve feet tall, clad in gray and gold armor. One clutched a smoldering scorch cannon, and the other held a pair of enormous swords.
Several vandals stood around them. Their armor and clothing was newer and better, and their weapons looked less shabby. Reavers, elite Fallen fighters.
A column ran up the middle of the cavernous room, with several circular walkways hanging off it. Platforms also jutted from the rough stone of the walls. The entire space was cluttered with salvage and loot. Stacks of City-issue boxes and crates sat next to pieces of old and dented technology pulled from old Earth ruins.
"Well," Linvana's Ghost said, "I wasn't expecting two of them."
"That explains how Khariss could be in two places at once." Telysa laughed as she finally put it together. "Of course that's what it was. There were two of them all along. I followed one in, and you followed the other."
"Why are they working together?" Linvana asked, "Siblings? Partners? Mates?"
"Does that really matter?"
"I guess not."
Telysa stepped forward. "I'm guessing you know why we're here. Best get on with it then."
The one with the cannon replied by firing a slug of burning metal. The projectile bored into the metal flooring between the two Guardians and started glowing with heat. Telysa and Linvana dove to the side as it exploded.
Telysa rolled and came up in a crouch. The Reavers advanced, weapons in hand.
"We split them," Telysa said, "I'll take Swords, you take Cannon."
"Wait!" Linvana shouted, but it was too late. Telysa was already on the move, firing bursts of bullets at Cannon Guy. Behind her, Linvana sighed and smashed her fist into the nearest Reaver. Swords hissed and charged the Titan.
She ignored them as Cannon turned to face her and shouted a guttural string of commands. Five of the Vandals started chasing her as he readied his weapon.
Telysa took off running. She had his attention, now for the fun part. She jumped on top of a crate and blinked. The teleport deposited her on one of the lower walkways.
A chain of Arc bolts from below sizzled across her legs as one of the Reavers leapt onto the walkway in front of her. Telysa blinked forward as she drew her knife. The motion planted the blade in the vandal's chest.
A solar slug struck the wall behind her. Telysa jumped and blinked again, landing on the central pillar as the slug exploded. There was a flash of movement below as Linvana hurled a vandal at Swords like a discus?
Telysa kept going. She had her own fight to focus on. A second vandal fired its shrapnel launcher at her. She felt a line of pain slice up her arm as a molten scrap struck her vambrace. She dropped back to the ground and brought up her shotgun as the nearest Reaver slashed at her with its swords. Telysa slid bellow the swing and emptied a shell in its stomach.
Cannon stepped around the pillar and fired. The explosion caught her cloak on fire as she blinked away. She ducked behind a tangle of machinery and swapped out her shotgun for her pulse-rifle.
There were three Reavers left that were focused on her, and at least three of the ones fighting Linvana were down. Telysa couldn't deal with Cannon until she killed them first.
She peaked above her cover and a molten arc-wire nearly took her head off. She got a look though, and that was all she needed. Linvana and Swords fought on the other side of the room. Cannon stood in the middle, near the pillar. Two Reavers on the ground were making their way towards her, while the sniper stood on one of the balconies, using the vantage to pin her down. The problem was, Hunters weren't so easy to corner.
Telysa blinked away from the equipment. The two nearest Reavers fired at the movement, but only hit empty air. She blinked again and landed on the column. Another jump carried her to over Cannon's head and onto the wall. A wire bolt tore through her cloak, missing her side by inches. The sniper was learning to predict her moves. Not good.
Cannon growled and opened fire. A trail of Solar slugs followed her as she dropped off the ledge. She ran across the floor, lines of Arc vapor and smoke slicing through the air around her. One misstep and she was toast.
She doubled back and ran right between Cannon and the sniper. She counted to three, jumped in the air, and blinked.
Cannon and the sniper fired at the same time. The Arc bolt passed inches from the molten slug and smashed into Cannon's shoulder. The Solar slug hit the sniper in the chest and exploded.
Telysa landed on the pillar with a grunt. Linvana was dodging strikes from Swords, but Telysa didn't have time to help. Bellow, Cannon shouted an order at the two remaining Reavers. The vandals dropped their rifles and drew their shock blades. They jumped up on to the lowermost ledges and started climbing.
The Hunter smirked under her helmet. Cannon didn't like having a target he couldn't pin down. The Reavers were fast and nimble with their four arms, but Telysa was faster.
She climbed higher and higher, pausing occasionally to slow down the Reavers with her pulse-rifle. Most of the shots went wide, but it forced them to watch their step. Cannon glared at her from bellow, having given up on trying to hit her.
Telysa scrambled up a ladder, and blinked to the very top of the chamber. Dozens of platforms hung from the ceiling, almost forming a dim floor across the upper third of the cave. She knelt behind a stack of crates and waited.
The soft clap of composite on metal announced the Reavers' arrival a moment later. One set of footsteps moved in her direction, while the other circled around the edge. Perfect. She drew a thin film of Arc around her and went invisible.
The Reaver slowly stalked past her hiding spot. It paused for a moment and cocked its head to the side, listening. Maybe it heard the soft hum of Telysa's invisibility, or maybe it caught a hint of Telysa's breathing. Either way, by the time it turned towards her, it was too late.
Telysa lunged forward and forced her way inside the vandal's guard. The Reaver tried to step back as she grabbed its arm and struck its wrist with her palm. The Reaver dropped its dagger. Telysa caught it, spun around, and rammed the blade through its chest. The Reaver collapsed in a puff of white mist. Telysa dropped the sword and raised her rifle. One down.
The air to Telysa's right warped and split. Telysa turned as the vandal's stealth drive dropped and it brought its sword down at her. She blocked with her rifle. The blade sliced clean through the weapon and sent a shock of numbness up her arms. She stumbled back as the broken pieces of her rifle clattered on the ground. The Reaver stabbed forward. The blade missed her neck by inches. She reached behind her back and fumbled for her hand-cannon. Her fingers slipped off the grip. The Reaver drew back for its finishing blow.
A brilliant flash of light illuminated the chamber. Telysa swayed and blinked spots from her vision. She grabbed the rail at the edge of the platform to stabilize her self. The vandal hissed and turned to the disturbance. Telysa's hand finally closed on the pistol.
She put three bullets through the Reaver's face. Telysa huffed and stood back.
A solar slug tore into her leg and exploded.
Telysa's vision went white with pain. Her head spun as she fell off the platform. There was a sickening ripping sensation in her leg.
She hit something hard. Vertebrae snapped and more pain shot up her spine. She kept falling and landed with a crunch.
The pain was unimaginable. Telysa screamed and forced through it.
She rolled to her side. The lower half of her leg was gone, and the charred stump was oozing blood. She couldn't move her other leg. She flailed out with her hand and tried to pull herself forward.
A shadow loomed over her. Cannon grabbed her by the front of her cloak and threw her across the room like a rag doll.
She hit hard. Bones snapped in her chest and blood trickled down her temple. Her shattered helmet rolled away. She tried to scream, but all that came up was a spatter of blood. She was dying.
Azul appeared above her and bathed her body with a beam of Light.
No, Telysa thought, panicking, not while he's still-
A claw closed around Azul and dragged him from Telysa. Cannon held the Ghost up to his face. Azul squirmed, but Cannon held tight. He glanced between the two of them and laughed in triumph.
The baron knelt down close to Telysa. She watched in horror as he raised his cannon and put the smoking barrel against the Ghost.
"No!" Telysa croaked as he pulled the trigger.
The tip of a sword blade burst through the front of Cannon's chest. The slug went wide and hit the wall. Linvana appeared behind Cannon and yanked the blade out of his chest. She raised it and swung it at his neck.
The last thing Telysa saw was Cannon's head hitting the ground.
Telysa returned to life with the smell of ozone, burnt flesh, and gunpowder. The acrid scents mixed in her nostrils, nearly making her gag.
Her hearing was next, the sound of Linvana talking slowly fading into range.
"…met one from the Reef a few weeks back. Just like you. Even the Earth-born are pretty stuck up. And well, the Hunters are always full of it, so I guess it makes sense that you're both. Didn't expect you to be so cute though."
Telysa peeled her eyes open. She was sitting against the wall. She groaned and pulled herself into a sitting position. Her leg hurt. Her chest hurt. And her head really, really hurt.
Azul floated above her, scanning her freshly regrown leg. The pink flesh was still soft and tender. Azul finished his inspection and synthesized a new pant leg and boot over the limb.
"Azul," Telysa whispered with a shaky voice, "are you okay?"
The little Ghost shuddered "Yeah, no damage or anything, though his claws were sharp. I'll be fine."
Telysa sighed and closed her eyes. That was close. Too close.
"I got to admit, I've had some pretty damn spectacular deaths, like when I punched in that cursed thrall's head in, but I think you win. Taking a scorch cannon to the leg, and getting half the bones in your body smashed to bits? Damn that was gory. It'd almost be funny if he hadn't nearly killed your Ghost."
The Titan sat on a box a few feet from Telysa, her helmet off. Her auto-rifle leaned next to her, and she had collected the crushed remains of Telysa's helmet. She set the helmet down and offered her hand to Telysa.
Telysa hesitated a moment, then reached up and accepted. Linvana pulled Telysa to her feet with a vice-like grip.
"Thank you," Telysa said, looking Linvana in the eye, "I owe you."
Linvana shrugged. They were about the same height, but the Titan's sturdy muscular build gave her a weight and presence to her posture. "I'm just looking out for a fellow Guardian," she said, "I hope you'd do the same for me." The Titan seemed to think that was all there was to say about it and turned away. She waved her hand at the vault. "All of this, it's top-end technology. Foundry prototypes, warsat parts, stuff dug from Golden Age ruins. The rest of the Fallen scavenge to survive, but these two were just hoarding it all."
Telysa started strolling around the room, trying to get her leg back under her. "Khariss, or rather, the Kharisses," Telysa said, "have been hoarding for decades. This must be worth a fortune."
"It is," Linvana said, "I already called it in to the Tower. Rahool didn't believe the telemetry my Ghost sent. They're sending some Cryptarchs to comb it over, and they're giving the Guardian who found it a massive reward. I told them it was you."
Telysa gaped. "What? You just said it was worth a fortune. Why would you throw away-"
"Like I said, I'm not in it for the loot. I just want to kill some monsters." Linvana smiled and stopped in front of a battered metal box. "I was going to take this, but, well, it's more your style."
Telysa approached the box. Inside was the most magnificent rifle she had ever seen. A sleek white, perfectly smooth body, and a long silvery bayonet extended past the barrel. Telysa picked it up and peered down the sights. The narrow stock perfectly fit her shoulder. Two words were etched on the bottom. Monte Carlo.
"My Ghost says it's an old show piece," Linvana said, "but the firing systems has Golden Age tech that converts energy from the recoil into Light. Sounds pretty dangerous."
Linvana picked up her own rifle and started walking away.
"Wait," Telysa called after her, "That's it. You're leaving?"
Linvana turned and held out her arms. "Yeah. Khariss the Forsaken is dead. That's one less Fallen monster to worry about. My job is done."
She continued walking, but stopped a few feet later. "You know, you don't have to do this on your own. Just 'cause you're a Hunter doesn't mean you have to fight by yourself."
"Are you saying…you want to work with me?" Telysa asked.
"I'm saying I'm thinking about putting a fireteam together, and I want you to be a part of it," Linvana replied, "I saw you fighting. They couldn't touch you. And earlier, you took out thirty of them without breaking a sweat. You've got skills, and I'd love to have them."
Telysa hesitated. She had been dismissive and outright rude to Linvana. Despite that, the Titan had just turned a major reward over to her and invited her to a fireteam. Guardians were supposed to compete with each other to prove they were the best, and Linvana ignored it completely. She really did believe there was a better way.
"You don't have to say yes," Linvana said, sensing her hesitation, "But at least promise me you'll consider it."
"I will," Telysa replied. Linvana nodded and left.
Surprisingly, Telysa realized as she wandered around the chamber, she had meant it.
She was even more surprised when she eventually said yes.