DREADNAUGHT OF FEAR

Zavala stood at the Vanguard table, eyeing Cayde suspiciously. "Do you have something to say, Cayde?"

Cayde looked at the Commander, attempting to talk himself out of it. "Nope, Nothin' to say, just viewin' my map."

The Titan Vanguard gave Cayde a long stare that meant business. "Really? Because I know you've hatched something big, and I want to see the damn chicken!"

Ikora snickered, "No chickens here, sir! Every Guardian is brave!"

"Very funny, Ikora. Are you in on this too?"

"No, sir." She desperately tried to keep a straight face.

"Then Cayde," Zavala turned to the Hunter Vanguard, "What on Earth are you planning?" Suddenly, three tiny blips appeared on the holographic Dreadnaught. "What are those blips?"

Cayde broke down, "Umm...false frequencies?"

"I knew it!" Zavala advanced on Cayde. "You sent THREE Guardians on a suicide mission to the Dreadnaught, without authorization!"

"Oh, right. Can I have authorization? Because it's not a suicide-"

Zavala stormed, "Pray that your chosen few can succeed! Or else you are stripped of your Vanguard Honor!"

On the Dreadnaught, we woke up on one of the platforms that hung over the edge. The giant ship as a whole was well-constructed, for Hive architecture. It was made out of Marrowed Hadium, a mixture of bone marrow and Hadium which held dark brown hues and had angled walls, doors, pillars, invisible bridges, etc. The floors, on the other hand, were generally flat, with the exceptions of the ramps in a few places. There were a few pits that fell for miles that could only be crossed by invisible bridges, others couldn't be crossed at all. The smell was just as musky as Eris's Ship and the Hellmouth, if not more so. The place in its entirety was threatening in its own way, and we were determined to knock that threat down a couple of pegs.

When I woke, Shin and Cass were already awake. Shin was busy juggling her knife and smoke bomb, waiting for the Titan and me to wake up. "Rise and shine, Max!" she said.

"What happened?" I asked, looking shocked, then frightened, "OUR SHIP!" I turned to face the Awoken Graveyard opposite the Dreadnaught and found the remains of Eris's ship. "No," then I tested the comms but heard only static. "No!" I began throwing a tantrum, "No! No! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" I knelt down, crying, "WHY, CRUEL WORLD? WHYYYYYYYYYYY!?"

Shin and Cass ran over to comfort me, kneeling by my side. The Hunter patted my back reassuringly, "It's alright, Max."

I lashed out, "ALRIGHT!? WE'RE STRANDED ON THIS HELLHOLE WITHOUT AN ESCAPE ROUTE! HOW IS EVERYTHING GOING TO BE ALRIGHT!?"

"Hey," Cass whispered, "We'll make it through this, we always have. Shin has a bow and I have a hammer, but you can call a storm!" She offered to lift me up, "We're Guardians, remember? We stand for the Light, where others have fallen. We stand for the people of the City and their diversity. We stand to send the Darkness back into the void from whence it came. We stand to make a difference in this world."

"Now we have a chance to prove ourselves!" said Shin, "What's a better place to strike back than inside the belly of the beast?"

I sniffled, "Maybe you're right," I took Cass's hand, and she pulled me up. I tried to straighten my voice, but a bit of sorrow was visible. "But to leave this place, we need to disable that weapon and deploy the beacon."

"Alright then!" shouted an enthusiastic Shin, "Let's move out!" As she left, I found a couple of black and glowing blue icosahedrons with spikes hidden in a few alcoves and secret rooms and picked them up. They started whispering in an ancient language, one that wasn't known to even the Cryptarchs (I know because I asked them.) She shouted, "Come on!"

I ran to catch up, only to find them on the other side of a huge chasm. "How did you get over there?" I shouted.

Jared scanned the area. "Invisible bridges. I'll lead the way." Sure enough, I followed him across, though I don't know why I kept zig-zagging between bridges. Nevertheless, I made it. After following the whispers of 3 more icosahedrons and collecting them, I followed Shin and Cass to the Hall of Souls.

The Hall of Souls acted like a huge ring surrounding the Court of Oryx, which was a pair of poisonous circular platforms, one of which had two huge diagonal beams that shoot towards the sky, but ended before they could touch each other. Those beams were placed on a smaller platform that was at least 2 meters away from the center of the main platform of the Court in terms of the width and height, in other words: the portal was further from the six statues of Thrall. Attached to the hallway with the six statues is a larger room, with symmetry on two axises: A bridge running from the hallway to the opposite end, which contained a giant battery for the Life-Curser outside. This room had two other hallways that were symmetrical in position but not in size or structure. These hallways led to the Hall of Souls, which led to two other rooms with a giant battery in each of them. Opposite to the Court were the exits to the Hull Breach and Mausoleum.

When we arrived via a different entrance, our Ghosts had to scan for invisible platforms to cross the chasm and get to the visible ones. Cass went to the right side, Shin and I went to the left. Shin stopped at the first battery, which was an orb suspended between two poles, and I continued to the second. Our Ghosts examined them and took down their force fields. Cass destroyed hers first, which summoned Taken near Cass and me. She rushed to The Hunter's position, killing the Acolytes and Psions while Shin destroyed the battery. I was having trouble multitasking, but with their help, I killed off the Taken and we destroyed the last battery. We heard a decrescendo throughout the Dreadnaught, and we knew that the weapon was stiff and bereft of life. In other words, we rushed to the Hull Breach.

The first thing that we noticed was the giant Cabal ship that was lodged all the way into the right side of the breach. Second, there was a giant hole on the left side, and the whole Hull Breach was cleaner than the other giant rooms on the Dreadnaught. Third, there were various levels in this breach, none of which held any sort of pattern. Surprisingly, we weren't sucked out into space! Alex floated out of Shin's backpack and flew towards a random point in the Hull Breach. Shin ran to her Ghost and began setting up the spawn zone. As soon as our radios began to work, the alarms from the Cabal ship blared, and a Goliath Tank emerged from it. "Uh oh," said Alex.

"A tank!? Why would you bring a tank to space!?" shouted Jared.

"Because the Cabal are crazy, over-militarized nuts!" I answered.

"I bring some ammo crates from the ship! You'll need them!"

Cass ran to the tank without blinking, Shin ran after her with her bow at the ready, and I glided over the battle, Mythoclast in hand. The Tank fired its missile towards us, but we scattered just in time. Shin fired her Void Arrow at the Tank, tethering it to the ground. The Tank fired its grenades in retaliation. Cass pulls out her hammer and attacks the Goliath with all of her might. The Tank launches her back, and she throws her hammer into the missile launcher, cracking it. I finish off the Tank with my Stormtrance, frying its circuitry, and closing off its weapon ports. Its next attack caused the entire tank to explode, sending shrapnel in random directions. "Incoming call from the Tower," said Jared.

"Alright, Cayde!" shouted Shin, "The Dreadnaught's weapon is dead, and there is a patrol beacon in the Hull Breach!"

"Then I suppose I should congratulate you," responded Zavala. The three of us stared at each other in shock as he continued, "But we aren't done yet! I need you to storm that ship and search for anything that they have on Oryx."

"Roger," I said. I looked at Shin and asked, "When will we ever be done?" She shrugged, then Cass led us into the Cabal ship. She cleared a path for us through the Legionaries and Taken, while Shin and I weaved around walls and blast shields. When we caught up to Cass, the battle room was quiet except for the engines and full of dead bodies and black goo. Cass pulled out her Ghost to scan the battle plans. "Looks like the Cabal intentionally crashed their ship into the Dreadnaught to challenge Oryx," said the Ghost, "and he can only be reached through a 'Rupture'."

"Must be a portal!" I exclaimed, "Have they found one?"

"They have a team heading for it right now."

"Then I suggest you get there first," said Zavala. We left for the Mausoleum, which was longer than the other rooms, had a giant ramp leading to the Cabal ship, and on the opposite end was a bottomless pit. We descended down the ramp to find a giant Colossus leading the Cabal from the sidelines, Taken and Hive were drawing them away from the rupture, and we were given the order to kill every last one of them. The Colossus began moving toward a Thrall statue, his Cabal were slaughtered left and right, as were the Taken and Hive. Suddenly, three Taken Wizards appeared near the Colossus, cornering him into the statue. The Colossus fought back with all of his might, but jet black ropes began to strangle him, and he disappeared with the Wizards.

We left for the Mausoleum, which was longer than the other rooms, had a giant ramp leading to the Cabal ship, and on the opposite end was a bottomless pit. We descended down the ramp to find a giant Colossus leading the Cabal from the sidelines, Taken and Hive were drawing them away from the rupture, and we were given the order to kill every last one of them. The Colossus began moving toward a Thrall statue, his Cabal were slaughtered left and right, as were the Taken and Hive. Suddenly, three Taken Wizards appeared near the Colossus, cornering him into the statue. The Colossus fought back with all of his might, but jet black ropes began to strangle him, and he disappeared with the Wizards. Cass was shocked, "Oryx just recruited a Colossus!"

The Commander's voice was firm, "Let him take all he wants! He won't alive long enough for it to matter."

"Find the statues!" interrupted Eris, "Toland said that they are keys to the Ascendant Realm!"

Cass ran to the first statue, examining it with her Ghost. "It's linked to the Rupture, but we need more data to understand the connection." Shin found a skewed statue similar to the first and examined it. I checked up on a crumbling statue, "Dead. Eris is right, but I think we might have bad luck here."

That's when we heard a loud POOM coming from two archways, similar to the ones we found in the Court of Oryx. Cass shouted, "The Rupture's opening!" Thrall began spilling out of the portal. Eris exclaimed in fear, "The Thrall will smother your Light! Do not suffer from Vell Tarlowe's fate!"

"Not going to happen!" shouted Shin. Together we ran for the Rupture, but upon touching it, we were launched into a wall. "Wha-? But how?"

"Then it is true, only the Ascendant can will a Rupture to open," said Eris. That's when we saw another Echo emerge from the portal. It started firing bolts of darkness at us, scattering us in every single direction. Shin retaliated with another arrow, aimed at the Echo's heart. Taken poured out of the portal Cass charged at the Echo with her Hammer, and I fell into Stormtrance again, cleaning up the other enemies before directing my focus to the Echo. It lashed out in anger, then Shin fired two more arrows into the Echo, killing it. The screams were louder than the first Echo. The Rupture closed when the Echo died. I asked, "Alright Eris, how do we get past this Rupture?"

"You must become Ascendant, there is no other way."

"THE WARLOCK," began the Dark Lord, "LANDED ON YOUR DREADNAUGHT!?"

"I don't know how! I destroyed his ship before he could land!"

"DID IT EVER OCCUR TO YOU THAT WARLOCKS BLINK!?"

"No," Xylar appeared before the Dark Throne, "Oryx was too busy on multiplying his Taken that he forgot about the Guardians and their powers."

"But unlike Xylar-"

"Oh, stop it Oryx! That Warlock disabled your only weapon on the Dreadnaught. He hasn't approached Mercury yet!"

"Right, like your doomsday weapon can recharge instantly. It takes 3 whole years to recharge!"

"BOYS!" shouted the Dark Lord, "We have a simple solution to our problem: Baxx." Oryx knew what this meant, and he was eager to try it. As soon as he disappeared, the Dark Lord turned to Xylar, "Is Mercury charging?"

"It is, Master."

"Good, then send Theosyion to speed up the process."

"It shall be done," and Xylar disappeared as well.