Sorry about the two week gap, you can blame the one extra week delay on my Thesis. Enjoy the new chapter… and really guys, leave reviews! Have fun!

Chapter 4: A-Helluva-A-Lot-To-Three

The Dashline was an Javelin LRv1 jumpship. It possessed a delta wing design, with two main engines and four smaller thrusters mounted along the middle provide it with good thrust and maneuverability. It had two tail fins that jutted out at a 45 degree angle. The two point-defense turrets on its underside would give anyone pursuing it a second thought. However, in the days after the Collapse, no one ventured into space much, too little of humanity was left to reasonably populate the earth, let alone space.

The other thing Dorian realized after his third day of occupying the passenger/gunner seat of the Dashline was, how empty space truly was. From the distance that the Dashline left warp, even the massive Venus looked tiny and insignificant. It made Dorian thankful to whoever it was who invented warp drives. The thought of travelling the dark and empty space between the planets sent chills through him.

"This Dorian, is Venus." Elsynn explained as the moved the ship closer to the planet. The underside of the ship grew hot with re-entry friction, "Much of it, like much of earth, is still unexplored. Too little resources to amount a massive expedition, and entire fire teams have been lost to the unknown expanse of jungle. What we have, and we fight hard to keep: the Ishtar Region. The Ishtar collective used to live there, who were mostly scientists and students of science. There lies archives and libraries, gold mines to the Cryptarchs." Re-entry fires wrapped their hands around the ship as it descended faster through the atmosphere.

"Just to clarify, Cryptarchs are those historians and archeologists right?"

"Yup," Elsynn banked the plane hard to the left as it pierced the topmost layers of the atmosphere. "By the way, how are you liking that new pulse rifle?" Elsynn asked referring to the weapon he traded for the day before. He hadn't had the opportunity to try out his Pulsar MSC much, but from the little experience Dorian had with it, he instantly liked it better than the scout rifle. The tight bursts of three meant he could send more rounds down the field at a single time—and since it did not have the kick of a scout rifle—with more control as well.

"I love it." Elsynn chuckled as the Jumpship pierced the clouds. The orange clouds in its atmosphere gave way to the scene that was the Shattered Coast.

"Welcome to Venus, Dorian."

"The Ishtar Sink," Said Dorian's Ghost said, materializing into air next to him. "Home to the Ishtar collective… and that is the shattered coast. Used to be home to millions if not billions. The best and brightest came from all over the solar system to be part of the Ishtar Collective. Some speculate that this was where the Vex came in. This was also where they studied the Vex, although they discovered but a fraction of it." Dorian wanted more information but his Ghost stopped there. He was about to ask when—

They studied it for some time, Dorian was still learning not to flinch whenever that voice came out of nowhere. The voice only he seemed to be able to hear. What they discovered nearly drove the best and brightest of this solar system to lunacy. The Vex came from a place far, far from here. Some question if it was still within this plane of reality. And in their mind they also ran a simulation of the universe so perfect it was indistinguishable from reality. Then the scientist began to doubt reality. But of course they tampered with it for far too long. Not long after that, its brethren came flooding through. Obliterating humanity on Venus and especially Mercury. Then they turned Mercury into a machine planet in days.

"ETA ten seconds, try not to fall on your face this time, Dorian." She chuckled in mockery as he readied himself. In a flash of blue he was on the ground, he still missed a step, but didn't fall completely. That counts a little, he thought to himself. The Dashline dropped them off, then flew back into the sky, where it would fly in geostationary orbit until summoned.

"Alright, Dorian, since you're new here. Let's get you access to a sparrow first." Dorian nodded to Tax as he began to slowly learn the modus operandi of arriving on a new planet. They would have to access the sparrow. Which took a ten minute jog. During which Tax explained to them their mission. "Alright our mission is to track down a Fallen Captain who takes pride in hunting libraries and burning them to the ground. The Cryptarch is giving us a big bounty for this, and I'm partial to the preservation of knowledge, so let's not screw this up."

A two minute skirmish with Fallen patrol later, they arrived at the Sparrow station. His Ghost took ten seconds to link him to the sparrow station in the Ishtar Sink—Dorian was on his sparrow in no time. Their target location was a skyscraper where the Captain was last reported. The overgrowth worked to highlight how much the Shattered Coast had deteriorated. The Fallen were only too happy to finish the job. The captain's residence was no big secret, his house banner as well as his own personal "graffiti" was like a big arrow floating in the sky, pointing right at his residence. Both Tax and Elsynn seemed to know exactly what the Cryptarch was talking about as soon as the man finished describing the graffiti found on the libraries. The only problem was the five klicks between that Skyscraper and the sparrow station.

After two days of riding the Sparrow, he felt like he hadn't mastered anything at all. He always fell behind on the sharp curves because he was unwilling to bank as hard and as fast as Tax and Elsynn. He still jumped out of his skin whenever the booster fired.

Whatever happened to walking?

He shouldn't feel bad about it. No one got that good at driving a sparrow in forty hours. Elsynn and Tax drove theirs with both instinct and purpose. Their movements were clockwork, practiced over thousands of hours into perfection. Don't be so severe on yourself, you don't even know where you're going. Dorian could at least agree to that, whoever it was that seemed to suggest that to him. It was part of the job Dorian figured, doing this, and flying around the solar system, and shooting at aliens. Honestly, Dorian could almost relate to the way this particular Fallen Captain thought. It was a real estate game. Between Humanity trying to take back earth and sending its Guardians out to reclaim land that were once theirs, and every Fallen captain trying to carve out a little kingdom for each of themselves—finding what that captain had found here on earth would have cost him so much more resouces. In fact, Dorian wasn't even sure that he was a problem, he didn't pose a immediate threat to Earth. But then he had to go burn those books…Dorian didn't feel as though this was something Tax or Elsynn understood that well, but to burn the libraries meant there could be so much information. So much about humanity that was literally going up in flames. As a Warlock, and a curious person in general, he simply couldn't let all that information be destroyed. Perhaps he was taking Vanguard Rey's words about Golden Age knowledge too seriously—but until he was sure what Ikora Rey meant, he was sticking to his own belief. Slowly the cityscape turned into canyons then into cityscape again.

"Do you see that tall spire," Tax called over the comms, "The one with the glass on the tops floors still intact."

"Yeah." Dorian said looking over.

"That's where we're headed. I know that after combat on earth, you might be feeling be feeling confident about taking the fallen here," In all honestly he wasn't, "But this is Venus now. The rules are different. There's more enemies, more dangers. Sure, there's more action, but if you play it wrong then you're putting you and your fireteam at risk. Got that?"

"Affirmative."

"Good, you stick with me. If you plan on sticking with this fireteam for long, it'll do you good to pay attention to how we work. There's not a lot of guardians out here. Later we'll probably be outnumbered a-helluva-lot to three," Both Elsynn and Dorian cracked a smile. "But when a team comes together those buggers won't stand a chance.

"One thing I don't get."

"What?"

"If you've recognized that Captain's mark that means that he's been around long enough for someone to kill him. So why hasn't anyone buggered him off before now?"

"Maybe he slipped off the radar until he started burning those books."

"But like the Cryptarch said, they've already been burning books for a long time. Why now?" Dorian pondered

"Something in the libraries then…"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

"Shut it." Elsynn said all the cordiality gone from her voice. It was replaced by a cold razor-sharp tone that emitted an air of lethality. "Kill the engines." By the time Tax and Dorian obliged, Elsynn had deftly dismounted her sparrow and landed on her feet, Hunter's knife out. "Dorian remember, listen to whatever I or Tax tell you to do. It might just save everyone's life." Dorian nodded in affirmation but she was already gone navigation the debris to the spire. The street were all filled with all sorts of junk; vehicle husks, plants, debris and shattered ground. So to the pair of Fallen patrolling the area and the dozen or so Dregs and Vandal's guarding the door, Dorian and his fireteam was invisible.

Elsynn picked up and stone and hurled it over the head of the patrol. He followed the sound and by the time his head had faced the same direction again, Elsynn had melded unseen into the bush. Poised in the bushes, Dorian now saw that she hadn't switched to her green shaders just for the fun of it. Now he knew. Elsynn leaped out the bushes and sank her knife into the throat of the Vandal. Using the dead body as a fulcrum she swung around and threw another knife into the Dreg following it. In the space of two seconds a Fallen patrol was gone. Dorian sat, amazed at the efficient brutality Elsynn worked with. Tax tapped him on the shoulder; a signal to move on.

The three of the took up positions in a ditch with a direct line of sight to the gate, which was more of a former lobby now guarded by a dozen Dregs and Vandals. Tax's machine gun materialized in his hands the same time Elsynn pulled her Fair and Square pulse rifle from behind her. "Ready?" Elsynn asked.

Tax nodded curtly and said, "Go." At which Elsynn jumped to an inhuman height Light formed in her hand in the form of a skip grenade.

"When I shoot, you shoot," Tax said to Dorian from behind him. He nodded vigorously. As soon as the skip grenade landed on the ground, the Light split off into smaller spheres that attached itself on the nearest Fallen. Then they exploded.

The dregs were ripped to shreds, but the Vandals with better armor survived. Though only to face Elsynn as she lifted her pulse rifle to her shoulder. Burst after burst tore into the surviving Vandals until they were no more and Elsynn's gun clicked empty. Which was of little consequence because by then she had slid to her knees and concealed herself behind the wreckage of a car. Dorian wondered at how well the fireteam worked and got that done with such machine-like precision.

"Shoot." Tax's machine gun fired ripped the dregs charging at him. A second later Dorian fired his pulse rifle at the dregs. "Get the Vandals. Don't let them get to their weapons." Dorian raised his pulse rifle, then pointed it at the rising Vandal. A Vandal tried to get off of its feet and grab its gun, which didn't succeed as Dorian filled him with two burst of the pulse rifle. Which was a mistake because he should have gone for the one who was closer to his weapon. He shifted his aim to the right and the gun was empty. Shite.

There was nothing Dorian could do but panic. Remembering what little training he had, he practically punched the gun trying to hit magazine ejector. When it did work and the magazine flopped out, he scrambled to get the next one. He brought it up to find it was the facing backwards. He flipped in the magazine and stuck it up the magazine well and cocked the mechanism.

He aimed once more with his rifle, the Vandal was square in his sights. But before he could pull the trigger, the Vandal exploded to the side with bullets. Dorian glanced to the his left in time to see Elsynn put away her pulse rifle and wipe away some Fallen blood of her armour. Dorian felt Tax slap his on the back. "That was well done." Which felt a little condescending—like whose little children classes where everyone was a winner.

Then, as if on cue, Elsynn chimed in. "Your reloading's a little sloppy and you could use some practice. Crucible matches are good chances to practice if you need to."

"Thanks," Dorian said but she already started walking the other way. You asked for it. Said the voice again

"Shut up!" He muttered.

"What?" Taxon-4 asked.

"Just talking to myself."

Hmm, so that's what you think of me.

Elsynn continued on, her head constantly swiveling left and right, scanning what used to be a intersection for anything lurking. She seemed like she was dissecting the entire area, cutting to pieces everything, and then examining them with surgical care. She paused for a split second before she continued, "This is sniper country, move fast."

Dorian was all too happy to move when he heard the word 'sniper', quickening his pace beside the Titan as the they moved across the intersection to the Fallen base. The gate was situated on the corner of the block, in what was once a lobby, hundreds of years ago now. "Where are they?" Dorian asked quietly as if the Fallen was just waiting to hear his voice and jump on them.

"As you probably have realized, they're not very environmentally aware. Outside of their own comms, they have terrible hearing. They resupplied when they arrived at the lobby of the building.

They took some ammunition of the dead vandals. Dorian replenished his supplies as well—just the one magazine to be exact—as Elsynn and Taxon-4 examined the bodies for anything useful besides the ammunition. His Ghost conveniently had the ability to find any ammunition as long as it's of the same weapon class as Dorian's, and convert it to fit his pulse rifle. Dorian imagined that Elsynn and Tax's Ghosts were doing the same thing

"It's them alright." Elsynn reassured, stripping a patch of cloth of the Vandal armor, it was the Captain's own sign.

"These almost look separatist," Dorian thought aloud. "It was almost as if he was starting his own house."

"As if we needed Fallen houses. Atrium ahead," She said as the lobby opened up to a large atrium well lit with natural light from the glass ceiling above. Each level had an indoor balcony that ringed the perimeter over a open space was a floor below where several Fallen sat around a fire. No doubt a resting shift, Elsynn took point with Tax guarding the rear, and Dorian—still feeling inept—was torn between disappointed and happy at being placed in the middle. The protected one. But as they walked out, Dorian nearly jumped when Elsynn spun in a blur of green, and stopped with one hand extended to the space above Dorian's head. He turned and looked up just in time to see the Dreg corpse land on top of him.

At least you muffled the fall

"Sorry." Elsynn said quietly, as they all regrouped behind the balcony's railing. Dorian nodded, still wiping Fallen blood from parts of his armor. "How do we take this, Tax?"

"Pincer, I move in the right, you move in the left. Surround those around the fire."

"They'll be patrols all over."

"We're going to have to hit them fast. Hard and fast, then vanish." He had his machine gun out and was ready to go. "When all hell breaks loss, there are bound to be stragglers that survive. Pick em off before they get too far, or before they get to us. Stay here use the overgrowth for cover. Both Elsynn and Tax was off before Dorian could utter a word. He shouldered his rifle just in time to see Elsynn get a running start on a patrolling Vandal. She grabbed him by the mandibles then yanked him down and into the lethal embrace of her blade. Tax however was in trouble, he got jumped by a Vandal behind him. The two struggled before they went tumbling over the railing and down unto the ground floor. It was about then that all hell broke loose. The ones by the fire, turned to see the commotion. When they saw a guardian had managed to sneak into their midst, they scrambled for their weapons. Fallen began to emerge from out of nowhere, but Elsynn seemed to be concentrating on covering Tax's position. The Fallen shooters were positioned along the balcony opposite. The problem was, with her eyes down a scope, she could not have seen the Fallen gathering on the opposite balcony. So which one was it, he could warn Elsynn about the Fallen, but that meant the Fallen would get to their guns and have Tax surrounded in no time. What was he going to do? What was he—

Calm down, stop breathing so hard, it gets in the way of your efficiency. Take the one's in the middle of the atrium. Use a Vortex grenade.

A what?

Use the Void. Almost instantly, he felt the Void energy filling his arms. As Elsynn moved to take out the Fallen on the ground floor, Dorian took action.

"Elsynn above you, opposite side," Luckily she registered, but before she could do anything else he continued, "I'll take the ones on the ground floor."

"You sure?"

Dorian felt himself moving more by instinct, it wasn't smooth but he moved nonetheless. He vaulted atop railing then pushed off it. Only when he was in the air did he begin to question the prudence of his action. Extend your hands and push off the ground. Dorian didn't think but listened to the voice like he did after Returning. The power in his body had increased in such a great measure he had to let some of it vent out. Then he felt his weight decrease and decrease until he was able to float to the ground like leaf. Much like he would shift his weight, he stopped the venting of that energy and shifted the focus of the energy from below him to his hand. A iridescent purple ball formed in his palm. The Fallen around the fire were scrambling for their weapons. But they were still around the fire.

Throw it.

Dorian did, and watched as a ball exploded into a much larger sphere that encompassed nearly all six of the Fallen sitting around the fire. He saw the Light travel from the center of the circle into each Fallen searing out the Darkness within them. They screamed in pain as the Darkness that they so keenly depended on was purged in Light. The sphere however didn't last forever, much to Dorian's disappointment. In the time it took for the Fallen to shake out their pain and look for Dorian, he had run to the side, where Tax was finishing off a Vandal with the butt of his machine gun. Dorian grabbed him and tackled them both into a corridor just as gun fire lit up the space behind them.

Tax chucked in what seemed to be genuine humor. Humor in a time like this? Tax let his Machine gun fall and phase out of reality and pulled out his auto rifle, then began to pepper the approaching Fallen with bullets. Dorian still lay on the ground breathing roughly from behind his mask.

"Quick thinking on your part Dorian!" Tax congratulated in between bursts of his auto rifle. It worked as good as anything to bring Dorian out of his trance and back on his feet. Joining Tax, he took the Pulse rifle and joined Tax, taking out the Fallen as they charged at the two. "Can you handle them down here? Elsynn looks like she could use some help."

Tax stole glance at Elsynn then said, "Go."

Dorian began to pool energy in his hand again but stopped short when the energy stopped flowing. Dorian recoiled in surprised.

The Light comes through destroying the Darkness, it's flows as Darkness is destroyed. "Basically killing the Fallen allows for More Light?" Yes. Think of it as balancing scale. Less Darkness allows for more Light. "And I've started talking to myself." Technically yes, and no.

Dorian began to pool more energy and venting it below him, which took significantly less power than it creating a Vortex grenade did. He arrived at the balcony directly below the Fallen. He looked at Elsynn who was reloading from behind the railing as it crumbled. I toggled my comms, "Elsynn, I'm directly below them can you force them into cover?" I pulled out a new magazine and situated myself below the Fallen above.

"Give me a sec'." The Elsynn popped over her cover with a weapon he had never seen before. It glowed for a short time before releasing burst a continuous spray of charged rounds. She systematically repeated the process several times. "They're behind cover." Dorian raised his rifle and prayed his plan would work. It did. He pulled hit trigger in several quick successions, the rounds pierced through the ceiling and into the Fallen above them. He didn't know if he had hit anything until he heard the pained scream of a Vandal. At which he ejected his spent magazine, and replaced it with a fresh one, and then continued spraying bullets with gusto.

He saw Elsynn's hand grow bright blue with Light, and saw her toss over a ball of bright glowing blue. As it struck the target it exploded and energy forked left and right like lightning—hitting the Fallen in every direction. Their bodies fell, crispy hunks of their former bodies. What the hell was that? Next to Warlocks, Hunters are pretty flashy in their offensive. Dorian wondered if he ever could. You will be able to do something equally devastating—and much, much more mad.

"Nice work, Warlock. Tax, they know we're here now."

"That means hurry right?" Dorian asked.

"I've found and emergency staircase here. Move on to the second floor then we continue upwards."

"Well done helping Elsynn, by the way," Tax said as they regrouped on the second floor. Dorian smiled inwardly, as they continued up the stairs through the building. "The way is blocked." Tax remarked on the collapsed section of the stairs they encountered twelve flights up. "We're going to have to find our own path up."

"With the building being disintegrated as it is, we can find a weak section we can punch through." Elsynn suggested.

Dorian added, "Or an entire section that's been blown away."

"This might be a good opportunity to get your shotgun out Dorian."

The cracked the door down and stepped into what was once a maze of office cubicles. Tax was on point, body swiveling as he made his way across the floor. Luckily there had been a corner of the building that had been blown away. It looked more like an long-gone aircraft had crash-landed there, leaving a significant dent in the building. A dent that covered two floors which allowed the three of them access up to the level above. Dorian was rearmost, and though it took him a moment to realize his role, he began to assume it immediately. He carefully scanned the rear as they made their way to the gap. Tax gave Elsynn a boost up, then she began to recon the area above, immediately vanishing from view. Dorian climbed unto Tax's hand and was halfway up to the next level, when a high powered rifle's bark shattered the silence.

The silence was not the only thing that was shattered, Dorian's armor was too. He felt pain spatter across his entire left side, the shards of broken steel and cloth digging into the flesh trying to stop the force of the impact, but breaking up in the end. Across the street rooftops lit up with gun fire. Though none of those shots connected, the next sniper fire did, Tax grunted as the high power round hit him. The bullet broke upon impact with the high-grade Titan armor, but the force of it jarred him none the less. The high-rise structure rose a good two floors above nearly every building around them. While it was a good vantage point and gave them high ground, it made them a very convenient target.

"Shit!" Dorian heard Elsynn shout, her pulse rifle followed almost immediately. She dropped back down, "It's a trap, I knew this path was too convenient. They must have set it up as an ambush." The ruins around them began to disintegrate and light up with sparks and ricochets, slowly but surely encroaching them. Though Dorian was listening, he was barely in any condition to say or do anything about it. His armor was regrowing, but he knew he was bleeding badly. Reaching to touch his wounded side, his hand came back wet with red. Elsynn swore once more when she saw Dorian, she turned him to the side and examined the wound quickly, for she had to return to standing and beating back the Fallen coming from above. No doubt it wouldn't be long till the stairs were filling up with Fallen eager to get up to them and push them off the side of the building. Dorian began to feel lightheaded. Any attempt to fully get a grip of himself slipped away. So this way what blood loss actually felt like. After all the initial pain passed, it was just like drowsing off.

"Tax's he's too far gone." Elsynn said. "And they're not stopping ever." Dorian' skin crawled, what the hell was "too far gone" supposed to mean? "We need the shield, now."

"Throwing it up now." Despite his pain and wish to leave the battlefield behind, he felt rather than saw Light pool around them. The energy then went specifically to Tax, who glowed with the Light. A purple sphere formed in his hand then it expanded to encompass all three of them. And for a moment there was peace. The hectic battle faded away as sound was muffled. Dorian felt his pain wash away. His side—seizing in agony—had slowly relaxed. Elsynn and Tax all reloaded their weapons and took a deep breath. Their weapons weren't firing, and no bullets were hitting them. At first he thought that his senses had finally given away to the blood loss. But then noticed the side of his body that had been obliterated by the sniper round had closed and scabbed over. His armor grew to cover his wounds quickly after. Soon his pain was gone and his armor hardly showed damage it had sustained.

And power was flowing into him. Light and Void Energy filled him quicker then he could have done by himself. So much power he felt like laughing. Whatever this sphere was, it didn't only protect them, it heightened their abilities. Fallen had emerged from the staircase to kick them off the building, but Dorian was on his feet and ready.

Allow the power Void to fill you. Wield it!

Dorian began to pool the massive amount of energy coursing through his body, in his hand just like he had in that first day of Returning. Elsynn had started to firing once more, pushing the fallen back to as far back as the mouth of the staircase and relaying to Dorian that Tax's shield wasn't going to stay up forever. And he got the message. "Elsynn push them back as far as the door, I'll handle them."

"Are you sure?"

He let his hand light up with Void Energy as an answer. The Shield dropped. And Dorian charged. Leaping into the air, he threw the massive ball of energy down into the staircase and watched as the Darkness was burned away by the light. At the center of the blast all the Fallen had disintegrated away, at the edges the Fallen were blasted back by the sheer force of the explosion. Then the staircase, already weakened by the partial collapse above, fell to pieces. The remaining Fallen echoed desperation for the short time they had, then the rubble buried them. He watched as a Vortex of Void energy swirled momentarily before dissipating.

He was completely drained of his Light. And that urged him to get even more. "Tax give me a boost!" The Titan complied immediately.

"Carve us a path!" Then he pushed Dorian up as he pulled out his Shotgun and blasted away the dreg unfortunate enough to be in his way. He felt the force behind Tax's voice, like the exo had more confidence in Dorian now. All the Fallen on that floor had the misfortune of being there with Dorian as he was on fire. The next dreg also fell with half a face left. The cubicles allowed for plenty of cover and the low walls were the perfect labyrinthine cover.

Upon returning to the crumbling corner, he saw Tax had his machine gun out and was giving suppressive fire for Elsynn. She turned to turned to him and asked. "Help me up!" Dorian lowered his hand and lifted Elsynn up unto the next level. Elsynn had her rifle off her back and began peppering the enemy as Tax jumped all by himself, and pulled himself up, nearly all by himself.

"That Captain knows we're here." Tax said. "Which gives a 50-50 chance that either he has chosen to stand his ground or flee for his life. We have to hurry either way and salvage whatever element of surprise we have left."

Dorian was all too ready for him to say that and was off the second he finished talking. "I guess he's taking point." Tax said. Without a word Elsynn followed after Dorian. Once he got to the stairs he could see how the Fallen had deliberately detonated some parts of the staircase. Their little route made a good choke point. When he was at the top of the stairs, a giant black ball with a glowing purple eye that loomed over the level turned towards him. It emanated with energy, which meant the moment it saw Dorian, he knew to jump out of the way. He hid back at the stairwell, the stairs above them had all completely collapsed. End of the line, yet another choke point.

"Servitors," Elsynn cried out and fired as much bullets as she possible could at the Servitor before ducking out of cover. A ball of energy shot out of its singular eye and exploded on impact.

"What the hell is that?"

"They're robots, AIs created by the Fallen from the Darkness," His ghost answered his mostly rhetorical question.

"They're also nasty bastards." Elsynn popped out of cover and fired several more round down the line. Each shot from the Servitor jarred all of his muscles and showered them with rubble. The wall between them didn't look like it could take that sort of punishment forever. "Dorian give me covering shots, to the eye, stagger it! Go!"

Dorian took little time to fully register the message, at which point he began to fire blindly around his cover. It must have alarmed the servitor somehow since it stopped firing. Seizing the moment, he popped around his cover and focused his fire on the large servitor floating two feet above the ground. Tax joined him in the effort.

He felt rather than saw Elsynn rush past him in a rapid dash and then slide into cover—she seemed very nimble that way. In her hand was an Arcbolt grenade, pulsing with energy. She lobbed it over and he watched at the Arc lightning forked one way and another. After the unforgiving blast of Arc energy, Dorian and Tax increased their fire power—the servitor exploded into fragments of itself.

"Where there is a Servitor, a Archon Priest will not be far off." Elsynn observed as he jogged her way around the entire structure. "It seems like they've hollowed out most of the building from this point on, improvised on the ruins to make stairs."

"Only several levels left, let's finish this." Taxon-4 exclaimed, making no attempt to hide his enthusiasm. Those levels however, were packed with Fallen. Dorian gave suppressing fire, while Tax and Elsynn took point most of the time. They directed where he should throw his grenades—using the damaging circumference of the Vortex grenades to control the flow and ebb of battle. He wasn't making any large progress, however, the three steadily gained ground. He must have downed at least a dozen Fallen.

The top of the spire was a uniquely well kept section of the area. It looked as if it was regularly cleaned of debris. A throne sat in the middle of them room, decorated with human skulls and pieces of Guardian armor. The travesty filled Dorian with disgust. Sure enough, by the Captain's side, was a Priest. Energy surrounded him, Dorian could feel the disturbance of energy in the place. This Fallen was strong in the Darkness. "Right then, let's take him!" Out of the priest's hands shot out bolts of Energy. Vandals and Dregs dropped down from the ceiling and formed a line of defense around the Priest while he fired and led the long range offense. It forced the three out of the Captain's "throne room". They lacked cover and enemy fire was heavy. "Dorian, can you summon another Nova Bomb?" Asked Elsynn as she drew he blade.

"If I can down another few Fallen, I have vortex grenade ready now if you'd like."

"Tax, how is your Ward of Dawn?"

"Still not enough Light to pull that off." He spoke in between bursts of his auto rifle "But I have Suppressor Grenade ready anytime you need it. Thinking of clearing a path to the Captain?"

"The Captain I can handle, it that Priest that worries me. If he summons Servitors in this tight of space we're screwed."

Dorian strained his ears to listen to what Elsynn was saying above the barrage of gunfire both sides threw at each other. Another blast from the Priest forced Dorian back behind cover, his armor unable to recover as fast as the Fallen were hurting it. Dorian swore. "If I can throw the Vortex grenade, maybe it'll grant me enough Light for a Nova Bomb."

"Are you sure?" Elsynn asked.

"Not really." Dorian admitted. She looked as if she was weighing the decision, her mask and thoughtful silence made the whole deal seem more and more enigmatic.

"Elsynn?" Tax asked. She thought for a second.

"I'm bladedancing. I'll need that suppressor grenade."

"You got it."

"Dorian, throw your Vortex now, and down as many of them as you can." She Shouted to him, then charged head on into the fray. Dorian thought she was mad until Tax threw his Suppressor grenade. Which rendered all the Fallen's equipment obsolete. Before She would hit the enemy line, Dorian tossed a grenade into the Fallen lines. The line faltered slightly when the grenade detonated but it was nothing compared to what happened next.

Her figure lit up in blue, her blade was a blur. It emitted blue light that was nearly blinding. She didn't even flinch as jumped up and landed right in the middle of the Vandals and Dregs. Dorian couldn't see what happened, but the bright flashes of blue was all the indication he needed. The Priest was unable to do anything, having been suppressed by Tax's grenade, as his lines of defense shattered before him. Dorian could see now, what she meant to do. The lines would part and they would scatter; leaving the Priest and only a handful of Fallen around him. Light filled him.

He ran towards the Priest, as Elsynn cut Fallen around her to pieces. A blast of Void energy caught a dreg as it got his Dorian's way. The Light within him grew ever stronger as the Darkness faded. He focused the Light into his right hand. Void energy lit up around him, like a predator growled as it was unleashed. Dorian jumped upwards and then looked down at the Priest. It had gained its powers back again, but it could not hide the panic in its face as it looked at Dorian's figure alight.

He focused all his power then jettisoned it downwards at the Priest. The Fallen around him began to scramble but it was too late. The Nova Bomb tore them to pieces. The teleported to the side just in time. And survived. Had it been a second later, it would have joined it comrades in their ashen state. Dorian landed in time to see the priest, though weakened by the blast, enter a battle posture. It was hurt, which made it all the more angry, and while Dorian's rifle was till slung across his back, all the priest already had his hand on his weapon and had pulled it out. Shite.

Then it's shields visibly rippled under Tax's volley. It wasn't going to be enough, though. It turned and fired it's weapon at the more immediate threat. Behind the Priest, Elsynn had her knife in her hand and was running to him.

"Elsynn!" Dorian yelled. "Catch!" He filled his arm with whatever Light was left in him, then sent a wave of void energy into the Priest. His body jolted backwards, into the air, and unto Elsynn's Blade. She twisted her knife and the priest flinched a final time before dying.

Good riddance.

Dorian looked across the entire room, the Captain was gone. "He's gone. Bloody coward."