From The First

Morik practically crashed to the floor, exhausted. He leaned his back against the brown stone wall as best he could, mostly leaning to the right since he had Viksis over his left shoulder. Ramiks, for the moment, was out of his trance, not tired at all.

"You cannot rest for long. They will find us if we don't keep moving," said Ramiks.

"Will your Ghost respond yet…?"

Ramiks manifested the small drone, which hadn't spoken since they'd arrived wherever they were. Still no response.

"Our only chance will be to steal a ship. Perhaps even several."

Morik didn't say anything, mostly focusing on breathing and staying awake.

"We should go."

Morik struggled to his feet, Ramiks aimed his pulse rifle, and the two continued.

Kaara stood over the last of the Vex, Void Bow in her hand, looking over the stone ruins and Vex constructs. The unearthly blue lighting of the constructs reflected softly off her matte silver face, her own blue eyes melting with the glow.

"You clear?" asked Soren, waiting for her in his ship.

Kaara looked around once more, her gut saying something she didn't understand. She finally dismissed it, calling up her Ghost and transmatting to her ship.

Ramiks and Morik ended up on a ledge outside the tower, after being stuck in hallways for a while. Ramiks jumped down into a small court, Morik following but dropping to his knees on landing. He swayed, stood, and caught up to Ramiks who had moved forward. There was a narrow hallway to the left, lit a cool blue by Vex constructs, and a more open path ahead. There were also dead Vex everywhere, and the body of what must have been a Hunter. Morik manifested his auto-rifle, holding it awkwardly with his right arms, feeling uneasy. Ramiks knelt to inspect the dead Guardian, putting a hand on their chest.

"The body is warm, my Kell. Recently dead or recently touched by powerful Light. There may be others nearby. Perhaps they search for us."

Morik looked around. "No. I don't think so. We have no idea where or when we are, and I doubt anyone else does either."

Morik stowed his rifle, putting his lower right hand back over the blood-encrusted hole in his armor. His ether display was less than 5%.

"We must keep looking for a portal or a ship. Waiting for help will find us in the same state as that Hunter," said Morik.

Ramiks looked at the Hunter once more, standing and leveling his pulse rifle, moving forward to explore the new floor they'd dropped on to.

The two Eliksni cleared floor after floor, ever downward, meeting no opposition. The emptiness of the tower weighed on their minds, only the ambient whirring of the Vex machines to keep them from total silence. They reached a point where the tower widened out for one level, clean cut rocks placed around the edge almost as if they were a mock-up of jumpship docks. Stairs carved into the sides, the largest slab high enough off the ground that a jumpship could land next to it, and all of them in a perfect circle around the edge of the floor. The whole circular slab making up the floor was floating, detached from the main body of the tower.

Morik sat on a cubic slab while Ramiks walked around the docks, looking for anything that might get them a ride. While he waited, Morik manifested his Ghost, trying to get some kind of response from it. It would still store and produce his weapons, but it wouldn't speak or send signals or scan areas or objects. Morik had the idea to transmat Viksis' body, but without being able to speak to his Ghost he doubted it would work. He stood, set Viksis on the slab, and held his Ghost out to the body. At first, nothing happened and Morik started to pull his arm back, but he noticed blue light forming a grid on Viksis' body as well as the stone it was on. After a minute, both the body and the stone vanished. Now Morik had nowhere nearby to sit, but at least that huge weight was off his shoulder. Morik noticed Ramiks' blip on his radar approaching, so he turned to face him.

"My Kell, good news. Come with me."

The two walked partly around the outside of the tower, Ramiks watching the tower itself, then suddenly turning outward. They walked between two of the stone docks, all the way to the edge of the platform. Ramiks leaned over the edge and pointed with a lower arm. Morik leaned over and followed his gesture. Far below them, on the surface at the base of the tower, a Ketch sat docked beside a massive Vex construct. Chambers lit in red honeycombed the construct, Vex Minotaurs guarding the entrance to the ship.

"You are thinking of sneaking on board?" asked Morik.

"It is a way out of here. My plan is not for the Ketch, but a Skiff that must be on board."

"And if there is none or we are discovered? Killing the Minotaurs will not mask our approach. If they even see us, all the Vex on the planet will know where we are."

"I realize. But we have no other idea or lead, my Kell. Worse, if it leaves before we arrive, we will be completely out of options. We should be dead already; what is one more gamble?"

Morik sighed heavily. "You are right, of course. We should hurry down, then. I will keep a better pace without carrying Viksis."

"You honor him by keeping his body safe, my Kell, but why did you not just leave him? And how did you transmat him without your Ghost responding?"

"It seems to yet respond to my will in some things. The important functions still work. As for leaving him, I suppose had I been thinking, I might have. I simply found myself in a position to bring him with us, so I did. There was no thought to honor him or preserve his armor, nor anything else. Only action."

Ramiks hummed at the curiosity of his Kell, moving back toward the tower. Morik drew his auto-rifle and followed, eyeing that 5% with worry.

Aside from the fluttering of cloth, falling was the most silent the two huge Eliksni had moved their entire stay wherever they were. Just before hitting the top of the Ketch, they blinked, cancelling momentum using their now-practiced technique from Kaara. A short search later and they were dropping into cramped service tunnels meant for Dregs and crawling toward the nearest main hall. The moment they found a hatch and entered a hall, now stooped and walking instead of crawling, the pair came across something that stopped them dead.

"How can we be aboard a ship that exploded with us on it?" said Morik.

"Anyone can hang Kings' banners. I refuse to believe what them being here implies."

"We must keep in mind that the Vex are involved… I have seen their tricks first hand…"

Ramiks clapped Morik's shoulder roughly.

"This is no time to dwell on death. We have both lost dear friends now," said Ramiks, catching on to Morik's solemn tone.

The two continued forward, familiar with the section of the ship they found themselves in. The halls were eerily empty, just like everywhere else.

"Are there so few Vex or Disciples that they do not search for us?" worried Morik.

"It does seem strange," agreed Ramiks, "but I would rather take advantage of it than waste time being slow and cautious."

A short walk and down a few flights of stairs and the two reached the hallway before the navigation room, where they met Jeksin the first time. There were no scorch marks or bullet holes and dents, no dead bodies, no alarm sounding or announcement of their intrusion. But despite everything else, there in the navigation room was an idle Pilot Servitor.

"Do you think checking security will do us any good?" asked Ramiks. "If things have been fabricated this much, I'd expect false camera and audio feeds as well."

"I'm more worried about whether this Pilot can dispense ether," said Morik, approaching it and drawing his cypher from his belt.

Ramiks watched, tilting his head. "You have problems with ether?"

Morik was equally confused. "Do you not? My ether was low to begin with, and this wound has only made things worse."

"Only now that you mention it do I realize, but my ether has been steady since our escape. I also notice you have not been using any of your Light."

"You make it sound as if you can. I thought what happened earlier was a fluke, or a fit of passion or instinct. Can you really connect to the Light on your own?"

Ramiks held out a hand and ran Arc Light through it.

"I feel it more strongly than I ever have," he said. "What I did, I don't know, but ever since I have been full of energy, charged with Light constantly, and - though I only noticed now - steady with ether. My Ghost will not respond, so I don't know if it is my Ghost's doing or somehow my own."

"I feel nothing. No Light, starving for ether. If you cannot show me how to reach the Light without help, then I must rely on ether. I will attempt to draw ether from the Pilot. See if you can access it and acquire a map, or possibly even get a transmission out."

To Morik's relief, he was able to draw ether, and could feel his strength returning. He was still wounded, but his blood had clotted over the wound loosely and prevented extra ether from escaping. If Morik were forced to move too quickly, however, the light scab would surely rupture. Ramiks tried several ways to access the Pilot's navigation and mapping, but he was locked out. He switched to using a communication terminal, broadcasting a text-only call for help, hoping it would go unnoticed by the enemy.

"My apologies, Kell, but without my Ghost functioning, I cannot access anything that requires permissions. I have set up a distress call through communications, however. It may not be enough."

"We should leave the ship, then. There's nothing for us here."

"Oh," came a voice over the ship's speakers, "It's far too late for that."

It was the voice of the Disciple whom they had met upon first awakening. The one that killed Viksis.

"They can revive, even without Ghosts?!" said Ramiks, quietly.

"I must say," continued the Disciple, "If I had the gaul to make bets with Master Osiris, I would have won this one. He didn't think you would take such obvious bait, but I suppose he overestimated your resourcefulness. For a while we thought you'd seen the other- Oop. Can't spoil that, now can I? Anyway, you two have a choice to make now. You can use the self-destruct on that ship and maybe take down our base by sacrificing yourselves, you can try to fight your way out, or you can reconsider and join us. At this stage, though, I'm willing to bet Master Osiris will make you work like slaves and forgo teaching you."

"I am no one's slave!" spat Morik.

"Oh, did I say that? Sorry, I really should remember to explain better. You remember that Exos can have their memories wiped and still remain Guardians? Same concept. You won't know you're a slave, or anything else anymore for that matter, you'll just do as we tell you and walk around mindless. Not that you're not already brainless. Anyway, you'd better make your choice. All squads! Advance!"

"Squads?!" said Ramiks, looking at Morik.

"We know a Ketch better than they do. We will access self-destruct, add a timed delay in case they do not know how to check for it, then make our escape. This ship should not exist anyway."

"Will we return to the surface? Or search for a Skiff?"

"Either way we should head for hangar and storage. We can escape out of the main doors, whether by jumping or flying a Skiff out."

Ramiks bent over the main console ringing the Pilot, and worked through the interface as fast as he could with only two arms. He kept his pulse rifle ready with the other two, looking up to stay alert anytime he didn't need to read something. Morik manifested his Ghost and tried to get it to respond again, but with no results.

"It is done!" said Ramiks, turning and moving back toward the hall. "We must go. We have no way of knowing who or what is after us, if there is anything after us at all, or how close they are."

Morik stowed his Ghost and followed, heading toward the service shaft with Ramiks.

Weapons stowed, emergency lights alone lighting the ship after an unknown power failure, Morik and Ramiks crawled up a vent filled with pipes usually used to transport ether throughout the ship. They had heard rushing boots over the metal floors several times, but either the enemy didn't know where they were or couldn't find how to get into the vents. Ramiks reached the opening they needed, outlined with yellow paint and with the Eliksni writing for "cargo" labelling it. He hit the release, looking around the darkened hall before jumping out with a heavy thud and drawing his pulse rifle. Morik followed him out and closed the vent, drawing his own auto rifle and looking around. He was reminded of the Exile's Ketch, buried on Mars.

"We should pass through Inventory and down the stairs next, yes?" said Ramiks.

"If the layout is still the same, as it has been until now."

Ramiks nodded and moved decisively to the left, around a corner, though an open security door, and passing through an intersection. Morik followed close behind, both of them checking corners and watching their radar. They reached another open security door, one that led to a darkened room normally full of boxes and scrambling Dregs, managing the resources stowed on the Ketch. They crossed the room, to another door, this one on lock-down because of the power outage.

"I will pry the door open. This outage is a petty attempt to stop us," said Ramiks, stowing his gun and drawing his shock blades.

"I believe they must have shut down the Pilot, since they were unable to stop the self-destruct we hid from them. I'm not certain that will stop it, and so neither are they. We must assume our timer is running short. With no Pilot to sound the alarm or issue countdowns, the ship may detonate at any moment."

Ramiks had his shock blades jammed into the gap in the door, Arc Light making the room flicker blue as he wrenched the gap wider and wider until his lower hands would fit in the gap to hold it open. He sheathed his blades and put his other two hands in the gap, pushing the top and bottom panels wider apart until he could fit a boot in the gap, then forced the door completely open. His boot hit the floor, his hands touched the ceiling, and he held it open while Morik stepped through. As soon as Ramiks stepped out of the doorway, the door slammed shut again. Ramiks ripped the panel off the door controls, pulling out wires in case whatever was after them tried to access the controls instead of prying open the door like they had. Morik was already moving down sets of stairs, to the hangar floor.

It was too dark to see if anything was docked, only security lights lining the walls and stairs leading to doors. Ramiks again drew a shock blade, running Arc Light through it to use the blue light as a torch. Like the flashes of thunder in a child's nightmare, the first light from his blade revealed their enemies. Guardians, all of them Titans, with hammers in their belts and wearing the same uniform armor. There were twelve, in four rows of three, one row to the left and right, and two in front. One spoke, though neither Morik nor Ramiks could tell which one.

"Master Osiris wishes you to know he finds you disappointingly predictable. He also wants you captured alive. Surrender."

Ramiks and Morik looked at each other. A moment of silence stretched between logic and impulse, between acquiescence and defiance. Morik inhaled to speak and was interrupted before he could get a word out. The lights snapped back on, and Eliksni came over the speakers.

"Scuttle of Ketch aborted. Main reactor cycling down. Please return to your stations."

The Guardians broke their intimidating stances, looking around, asking each other if anyone had understood. Morik and Ramiks matched gazes again. Morik started chuckling.

"You can't capture us. You can't even escape alive now. We all die, here and now. Make your peace."

Morik sat down, his change in stance measured and controlled. He appeared to relax and close his eyes, followed closely by Ramiks, who kept watching Morik..

The Guardians were frantic now, immediately calling for a report from the other squads. Morik opened his eyes and nodded, only slightly in case any Guardians were still cautious. Ramiks was on his feet and bursting with Arc Light in an instant. A wave of Showstopper, a blink while the group was off balance, and then chaos. Ramiks wasted no movement, slicing his first target cleanly in half at the hip while stabbing the Titan next to the first in the back. Ramiks spun, his back briefly to the other Guardians, slashing backhanded and beheading a third. In the mere second it took, all the other Guardians drew their hammers, Solar Light bursting from them in unison. Ramiks was stuck in a limbo, too slow to kill them all, too soon to blink again, too weak to survive all of them attacking at once. Over the crackle of his Light and the roaring flames of theirs, a single tiny sound was almost lost. Metal on metal, as brief as the dropping of a pin. Morik's flashbang bounced between Ramiks and his enemies, erasing the tumult of combat from all their senses. Ramiks stepped in, unflinching, keeping the Sunbreakers in his mind's eye and cutting them down as quickly as he could. Seven fell to his blades in total, counting the three he had originally surprised, but when the glare cleared for Morik, Ramiks was facedown next to a docked Skiff. A dent in the hull, scorch marks around the dent, and Ramiks' smoking body told the story.

Morik, at last, felt the Light. No wonder Ramiks couldn't teach him how to reach it; it had to reach back, like a living thing. Was this the will of the Traveler? Was this how it guided mankind, and the Eliksni before them? An unspoken impression, a desire, a motion of the spirit itself? The feeling was completely different than the regulated Light fed from a Ghost. There was no worry of remaining Light, no watching displays for recharging "abilities," and no end to the depth of the power Morik now felt.

The Guardians turned on him, five left, and in a cascade they threw their hammers. Morik blinked forward, dodging three. One fell short and the other streaked for his chest. Morik threw up his arms to block on impulse, the hammer struck and exploded, Solar Light washing over him. His whole body crackled with Arc Light, he could feel ether flowing in, transmatted from the very air. The huge hit didn't weaken him at all, thanks to his strength still surging up, and Morik charged forward, turning his forward momentum into a Fist of Havoc for the ages. The wave of Light from his ground zero flooded the hangar, rocking the two Skiffs, flowing over Ramiks, and throwing the Guardians off their feet. All of them maintained balance, landing upright and summoning another Hammer of Sol to throw. Like bowls of oil from a line of catapults, their hammers flew high, set to rain on Morik as he rose from his strike. Morik blinked back and sprinted forward, a Juggernaut shield snapping in place just as the hammers exploded before him. His overflowing Light held the shield, and he tore through the flames, taking the Guardians off guard with his aggression. He kicked at one, who jumped over the attack, punched at two others who blocked, while the other two struck with their hammers.

Ramiks struggled to lift his head, finding himself in the same dire straits as Morik had at the top of the tower. This time it was he who saw Arc Light and a holdout for life, the Titans swinging hammers and dodging strikes, Morik, a Titan himself, blocking hits and lashing out in all directions. The exchange was almost too bright to look at, blue and orange light mixing and radiating out, the strikes of both parties creating even brighter flashes. The back of Morik's armored fist to a Titan, a Titan's dashing swing into Morik's chest, punch after punch, kick after kick. With a simple stomp, Morik pulsed with a mimic of Fist of Havoc's shockwave, pushing the Guardians away. He drew his auto rifle and fired in a sweeping arc to discourage them from rushing back in. Both sides were far more durable than normal because of the amount of Light they were wielding, and neither side seemed to be tiring. It was a deadly stalemate that Morik wanted to avoid.

One of the Titans dodged aside when Morik fired at her, noticing Ramiks still on the ground, weakened. She brought down her hammer on his head, killing him and forcing out his Ghost. She pulled back to smash his Ghost and felt more than saw a shadow loom over her. She looked up to see Morik, his Arc Light still flashing across his visage now and then, like sparks, his glowing blue eyes smoking with ether. In three of his hands he held a Titan by the helmet, the fourth balled in a fist and launched at her. She went tumbling over the floor, flipping and gaining control again, sliding to a stop on her knees and one hand, her hammer held ready.

As she looked up at that moment, one of her allies' body flew at her. She rolled aside, this time gaining her feet properly. A second and third Titan followed, sailing through the air at her and forcing her to dodge. Out of the shadow of the third, Morik blinked before her, already firing a punch for her stomach and launching her into the air. She threw three hammers down at him, each throw releasing Light powerful enough to lift her even higher. Her back hit the ceiling and she pushed off of it, forming another hammer and leaving a flaming trail in the air as she descended on Morik, who had blocked the previous throws at the cost of scorching his already burnt armor but defending Ramiks. As the Titan fell, she repolarized, from Sunbreaker to Striker. Her hammer lost form, started throwing off sparks in her hand, and she aimed her fist for Morik, Death From Above. Morik held his ground, unable to move without exposing Ramiks to the attack. He crossed his arms in front of him, angled up at the approaching Titan, bracing. Without him thinking about it, a Juggernaut shield snapped up as well, just before the Titan struck. She shattered the Juggernaut shield, connected with Morik's block, blew through it, and bowled him over Ramiks, punching him in the chest and landing on him. Morik slid over the floor on his back, scraping the metal floor and sliding under a Skiff with the Titan kneeling on him.

"Communication override, House Judgement. All on-board personnel are instructed to stand down and surrender. A boarding party is inbound to confirm cargo. Message repeats…"

The synthetic Eliksni voice from the Pilot Servitor continued the message under the breaching alarm. Morik was vaguely aware that his vision was filled with the bottom of a Skiff and golden armor. Heat washed over him and his fuzzy brain put together that the Titan standing over him had repolarized again. A light rose over her head, her hammer, Morik assumed. Then the heat was gone, a black and silver streak wiping it away. Morik's ears were ringing, his body was full of pins and needles from all the lightning. He turned his head to see what had happened to the Titan, vision blurry. Something big was fending off the Titan, taking hits from her hammer that sent flares of Solar Light spraying away from their clash, but all of it was out of focus. Morik felt something grab his shoulders.

A drowned voice reached his ringing ears, like someone screaming from above the water at someone still in it, distorted and incomprehensible. He couldn't make out who or what it was. There was too much black for it to be flesh, so it had to be armor or metal, and the hands were human shaped and gripping tightly. Morik couldn't find it in himself to move. He reached for the Light, for some modicum of strength, and it answered faithfully. Morik had to shut his eyes against the flood of corrected visual data to his brain, but he recovered quickly. Before his eyes were even open, the figure yanked him into a seated position roughly. He felt something knocking deliberately on his helmet.

"Anything alive in that tin can?"

"What sorta idiot takes a hit like that head on?"

Azariah?! Blytz?!

Morik looked to his right, eyes open, to the direction of the sound. Kaara stared back at him, Sanction Six model helmet substituting her glowing blue eyes. He looked forward, seeing Enki in full armor as well. He looked back and forth between them, displaced and confused.

"What's wrong? Can you hear me now?" asked Enki.

"Who knocked?"

"Knocked? I hardly call blasting through the cargo door knocking," said Enki.

"Nevermind," said Morik, "I thought you couldn't leave the city."

Morik searched for the Titan and found Ramiks standing over her unmoving body, slumped and scorched, just like he was.

"Oh, yeah, Kaara told me about that. I guess I should get this out of the way first, then. I'm not who you probably remember. I'm Enki-1. I've got enough back-up data from Kaara to know who you are and that we used to work together, but she tells me I took the memory reset because I couldn't stand Tower work anymore. I'm not inclined to call her a liar on that point. Good to meet you again."

"Four gone, then."

"Forewent what?"

"Nevermind, Enki," said Kaara. "We need to go. There are many more of these Sunbreakers onboard the ship, and they're all heading this way. If we can't rescue you and Ramiks, we won't have any information on this place…"

"You two have them?" came a muffled voice inside their helmets. Soren.

"We do. The Kell seems out of it, though. I'm not sure he can walk," answered Enki.

"Well, get Ramiks and Viksis to carry him, then, we gotta go! Now!"

Enki looked around the hangar. "Where's Viksis? He's your second Archon, right?"

"He is dead. It is no use looking for him. Ramiks and I cannot call our ships; our Ghosts are unresponsive."

"You catch that, Soren?"

"... Yeah. Well, then, you and Ramiks carry him. Move it."

Ramiks clenched his arms, stretched a bit, trying to shake off the same numbness that Morik was feeling, and bent to pick up Morik under his arms. Enki grabbed his legs and they carried him out from under the Skiff. Kaara had run over by the huge hole in the hangar door, and was laying down with a new sniper rifle drawn.

"First squad entering the hold. I'll slow them down."

Kaara fired, her shot pegging the lead Titan in the head. When the bullet struck a blinding flash dazzled the others, causing them to stumble. Kaara waited for one of them to straighten and took a second shot, dropping the second like a sack of bricks and accompanied by another flash.

Enki's ship hovered just outside the hangar door, and in a second Morik vanished into it, followed by Enki himself via transmat. Kaara stood up and called her ship when Enki's pulled away, transferring Ramiks to it and then herself. Enki's "Ether Eater" led the way, followed by Kaara's "Hildian Seeker," following a waypoint set by Soren on his own ship, a "Quite Content Damsel."

"We have pursuing ships appearing," reported Soren. "They expected this! There are blockade runners forming up above us. Either you guys hit NLS now or we aren't leaving at all. We can always make a second jump later."

"I'll handle navigation, Enki," said Kaara.

"Right," agreed Enki. He started linking his ship to her navigation system, more or less ignoring Morik barely awake and crammed in behind him, legs practically resting on the controls because of his height. Just as the familiar distorted Light warped around their ship, Morik could hear Osiris in his head.

"None of you are going anywhere…"

We Are coming soon...

A/N: First, an important credit: Hot Mess from Crypt Of The Necrodancer by Danny Baranowsky. For Morik's "awakening" to the Light.

Realized I never provided credits for the second arc… Probably because that one was largely original. Of course, character references listed remained the same from the first arc, but additional characters like Ramiks and Viksis were made from scratch. This arc is relying heavily on some inspiration, and will have proper credits. Sorry I couldn't finish by Christmas, though I'm sort of glad now that I didn't finish before Taken King released like I originally planned. If I could ignore the rest of life and just eat, sleep, and write, I could have without issue, but it would have been a very different story (for "different" read "worse"). It could be so much better, to be sure, especially if I went with more literary techniques and wrote the world in such a way as to push down my characters, but I've never cared for the classic approach very much (evident by my favorite author being Brent Weeks). I, long ago, took the advice to write what I want to read, and it's never done me wrong before… Ok, so maybe it has once… *cough* TWIN HUMANITIES *cough*