Chapter 1
Ana had no time to prepare, no time to move, before the first missile struck. The blast shook the tower as the other missiles struck, and it took Ana a few stunned seconds to realize she'd been thrown from the hangar by the blast. Thinking quickly, forgetting momentarily that there had been another with her, Ana pivoted mid-air, and fired her rarely used grapple into the wreckage. It took a precious few seconds to find a hold, and when it did, she used it to swing down and into a dorm window, rolling and coming to her feet with her knife drawn.
"Probably should have kept my guns on me." Ana muttered to herself as she busted through the door to the mostly untouched dorm, out into the halls where Guardians and workers alike were scrambling about in chaos as the alarms blared over the loudspeaker system. Ana's heart sank a little, remembering that Edward had been up there with her, but she shook off her worry, telling herself that he could handle himself. Ana pushed her way through the crowd of people scrambling about as best she could, casually snagging a Shotgun from some other Guardian's back as she went. Finally breaking out of the crowd, she found herself on the balcony overlooking the main tower courtyard, and finally saw the beginning of the attack. There was fire everywhere, holes in the walls and floors where missiles had struck, and strange metal balls, she hadn't seen before. Ana looked up towards the Cabal ships just in time to watch another of the metal orbs rocket down and slam into the courtyard below, releasing a ton of Cabal from within. Ana reached up to touch her comms, but her Ghost was a step ahead of her, transmating her helmet onto her head in an instant. Ana chuckled, knowing her Ghost would always have her back, and jumped from the balcony down towards the courtyard a few dozen feet below, firing a Tether into the midst of the Cabal as she fell.
"Well well well, look who's finally decided to join the party!" A loud slightly robotic voice boomed from nearby as Ana landed, rolling and coming up to shotgun the nearest Cabal. She turns her head just in time to watch a Titan she vaguely recognized come flying from somewhere and take out a Cabal Centurion with a devastating arc dropkick. After just a moment she recognized him, this was Breaker-3, the Titan that had led her first Fireteam to victory numerous times over the course of the three months she was part of his team. Ana gave him a short wave before she sprinted out into the Cabal, dodging shots and delivering her own.
Edward snapped back to as his Ghost resurrected him, the fall having killed him easily. A quick glance upwards shows him all he needed to know. The tower above him burned, Cabal warships still firing upon it, and launching troops down to it. He looked out over the city streets in front of him, and viewed only chaos. The city was burning, there were people scrambling around screaming, buildings had collapsed, and the Cabal were marching through, cutting down any they encountered. With a deep hate-filled snarl, Edward drew his Void edge and sprinted out into the chaos, preparing to take down as many Cabal as he could.
15 minutes later...
"Almost there… gotta keep going." The mechanical hum of Jace's Ghost was somewhat comforting to him as he made his way through the Cabal ship, heading straight for it's core, hoping to disable the shields. With a large arc burst, he blasted open the door to the generator room, and was met with a massive spinning abomination of system. He lightly shook his head, waited for the pylon to pass again, and dropped into the area, running towards the first dip in the system, powering up his arc once again. He planned on destroying all three fans with a single arc blast, hoping that he'd have enough power for that. Jace slid into the large maintenance area just as the Pylon whizzed by overhead, catching Jace with a bolt of electricity on it's way past, granting him with just enough Arc power to fry the entire system with only a single bolt. With the shields now done, it was time to call in and begin the counter-assault.
"To anyone listening, Shields are down, I repeat, Shields are down." Jace calls into his comms as he sprints out of the Generator room, heading up towards the main deck of the Cabal ship. He busts out into the open air, and slides to a stop, watching below as the Cabal assault the Tower and the City, the strange machine closing around the Traveler.
"How do we come back from this?" Jace's Ghost asked, despair evident in it's small robotic voice.
"You don't." A deep gravelly voice came from behind Jace, causing him and his Ghost to wipe around and watch as a massive Cabal in white and gold armor with a mask covering his pale face, slowly walks out from the ship's interior, flanked by two centurions. "Welcome to a world without light." The Cabal speaks again, lifting his arm to point towards the Traveler, causing Jace to spin around and watch with horror as a strange glow emanates from the machine, covering the Traveler. Jace gasps as he feels his light stripped away from him, and he watches as his Ghost deactivates and falls to the deck of the ship. The sudden weakness flowing through his body causes Jace to fall to his hands and knees, clutching at his Ghost as the massive Cabal war leader walks towards him, each step clinking against the deck of the ship with the weight of pure authority and power. Jace slowly looks up at the Cabal, and is met with a hateful glare.
"Do not look at me, Creature!" The Cabal war leader snarls in his gravelly voice once more, and delivers a shattering kick, sending Jace flying across the deck, landing near the middle, atop the Cabal's engraved insignia. "You are weak. Undisciplined. Cowering behind your walls." The Beast of a Cabal marches towards the fallen Jace, as he begins struggling to get to his feet to try and fight. "You're not brave. Your kind has merely forgotten the fear of death." The Cabal bends down slightly to look Jace in the eye as he stands up, still partially hunched over. "Allow me to acquaint you." With that, the Cabal delivers a backhand to Jace, knocking him back across the ship, his Inactive Ghost flying out of his hand, and tumbling over the side of the ship. Jace scrambles up the best he can, reaching out for his Ghost, but it was already far too late. He turns to watch the Cabal step up to him once more. "Your kind never deserved the power you were given." The Cabal stops before Jace, who merely gazes up at him from on his knees, defeated. "I am Ghaul. And your light…" Ghaul points towards the Traveler once again, "..Is mine." Jace doesn't even try to resist as Ghaul lifts his foot and pushes Jace off the side of the ship, plummeting until he finally hit the ground with a skull shattering crack, blackness consuming his conscious.
It has been so long since I've been here, since I've posted anything. I was unfortunately consumed by my utter depression, and between that and work, I completely forgot about this. I'd had a chapter half-written for forever, but scraped it in favor of this one, as I feel it's just better. I'm so sorry it took me over a year to release something new again, but as I now have a computer again and have actual free time, I plan on writing a lot more. I'm still fighting my depression, and I've been having a hard time just in general(plus I live away from family now), so apologies in advance if it takes me awhile to write Chapters. So, now that I'm finally returning(for real this time), Have a Happy New Years, and I hope you enjoy the future Chapters.