Chapter 15
The lost Fireteam watched in horror as several hundred Hive Tomb Ships turned to begin following their Cabal warship.
"You foolish Light mongers. Taking on the King on your own. He commands great power, yes? You do not have the powers to stop him. We must flee, or die."
As one, the Six Guardians turned to face the Fallen Archon, once a Kell of his own House who know worked with them, as he spoke. Without another word, he held out all four of his hands, offering small neuro chips. Both Titans and Warlocks took the chips, easily sticking them into the almost invisible slots on the back of their helmets. The Twin Hunters remove their helmets as they Titans and Warlocks walked off with the Kell. The Female Hunter was the most striking of the two, her skin a deep purplish blue with pure white hair falling down to mid-back. She was without a doubt an Awoken, one of the Few Awoken Guardians the Queen had taken interest in before her disappearance.
Her Counterpart was very clearly completely human. He had rather pale skin, bright flame red hair cut short so as to make a small fluff atop his head. His eyes however, were far from ordinary. His left eye was a dull brownish color, and his right eye glowed bright Emerald Green.
"So then, Artemis, what do we while they pilot this… thing. Do you think we should try and contact the Vanguard again?" The male hunter sighed softly as he spoke, reaching up to lightly scratch his nose. Artemis sat down in the nearest chair, and began calmly re-braiding her hair.
"Honestly, Remas, I think that it's pointless. We've tried to warn them about those traitors and the Cabal War Emperor before. Zavala is an idiot and will not listen. On top of that, the Red Legion should be arriving on Earth in just a few weeks. We'd never make it anyway." Artemis continued braiding her hair as Remas shook his head and walked away, going in the direction the Kell and their friends went.
Shannon groaned as she put her fist through another Acolyte's head, getting progressively more irritated by Jesus's lack of progress. With a surprised yelp, Jesus is thrown back from the strange consol he is fiddling with, and a loud boom echoes through the Ship as a massive portal opens.
From within the Hive portal, Shannon's worst nightmare emerges.
A massive Taken Hive Knight emerges from the portal, a wicked looking sword slung across it's back. Shannon could tell just by looking at it that it was far more powerful than anything she'd seen before. Jesus made a strange mechanical growl before he erupted into arc energy, and launched himself off of the ground and at the Knight like a missile. The Knight, however, reacted so astoundingly quickly that Shannon barely saw his movements. He sidestepped the Titan with ease, and then snatched him from the air, stopping his momentum and disrupting his arc energy and light. With incredible strength and impossible speed, the Knight hurled Jesus across the two hundred foot chamber and into the wall, smashing a massive crater into the wall with the Exo Titan.
"You foolish Guardians. All so much alike. You rush in, with no care for your own lives. Your ghosts can revive you, right? The Light will protect you? I thought the same, but look at me now." The Knight's gravelly boomed throughout the chamber, echoing in the empty hall. Shannon stood still, terrified and confused, as Jesus pulled himself from the hole in the wall and transmatted over to her, having been healed by his ghost. "Here you both stand, ready to die over and over if only it means my death. Well, I think it's time to tilt the battlefield in my favor, don't you?" The Knight laughed viciously, reaching up and pulling the Sword from his back. Shannon and Jesus both pulled up Hammers of Sol and immediately threw two each at the Knight right as he slammed his sword point down into the pedestal before him. The two Guardians could do nothing but watch in horror as a wave of pure black energy swept through the chamber, erasing the Hammers of Sol, and then washing over them. Shannon and Jesus gasped in agony and fell to their knees as their light was ripped from them, the suffocating darkness like a massive weight on their shoulders. Jesus struggles to his feet first, drawing his Hawkmoon with a snarl. Shannon climbs back to her feet a feet moments later, drawing and activating her Raze-lighter.
All hell broke loose just a few moments later as rifts began opening and Taken Thrall began pouring out of the portals. The Knight sat down in the throne behind him, shrinking down to about seven feet tall as he does so, as he watched with malicious glee as the two Lightless Guardians dove into the Hordes of Thrall, taking them down one by one. Unfortunately for them, for every Thrall they killed, ten more rushed forward to replace it, quickly separating and swarming them. He made it a point to keep an eye on the Exo Titan… whatever his name was. In the moments before he'd thrown the exo, he'd seen the shard in his chestplate, and knew that he would eventually have no other option.
Once more, Jesus emptied the casings from his hand cannon, and reached down to grab another mag from his belt. Finding himself to be out of ammo, he chucked the two dark ages frag grenades he kept on him, clearing a wide berth around him. With no other choice left to him, Jesus rips the Shard of the Traveller from his chest and roars in triumphant rage as he felt it's light flow through him, restoring his powers. Once more, arc energy exploded around him, and he launched himself into the air, targeting the source of all this, the Knight. Just as the Knight stood, Jesus launched himself at the Knight in a last ditch effort to kill him. With a ear splitting crack and boom, Jesus slammed into the Knight's chest, driving him back a full fifty feet. As Jesus fell back, all his light gone once more, the Knight laughed, smoking, but not a scratch on him. The Knight nearly tripled in size once more, reaching down to pick up the battered and defeat Guardian who lay at his feet.
Shannon could only watch in horror as the Knight grasped Jesus in both hands, and with a thunderous roar, tore him in half, bits of machinery and blue liquid spewing everywhere. Shannon did not notice at first that the Thrall had stopped attacking her, far too focused on the Knight, who tossed Jesus's body into the Thrall, who set about tearing the rest of it apart, and ripping his inactive ghost apart as well.
All at once, the Thrall vanish, leaving only the Knight and Shannon. Shannon stared at the remains of what used to be Jesus, pure rage welling up within her. She turned back to the Knight, readied her Raze-Lighter, and charged him, roaring an incomprehensible battle cry.
The massive Taken Knight cackled as it slammed into Shannon, sending her flying backwards and into a wall. Shannon bounced off the wall, rolling a bit and coming to a stop face up on the ground. The Knight walked over and stomped one foot down on Shannon's chest, cracking her chestplate. Something about this one, seemed so familiar to Shannon, but she couldn't quite figure it out. Nothing made sense anymore. Shannon struggled with all her might to push the massive Knight off of her, but without her light, she couldn't fight back. The Knight was too much for her. To her surprise, the Knight huffed, and removed his foot, taking several steps back and placing his sword upon his back, and then once again, he spoke.
"How pathetic. A Guardian without her light, isn't even a Guardian anymore. You are weak, and powerless. I could do whatever I wanted to you, and you could never fight back against me. You see, this is why I abandoned the light. I have embraced the darkness, and you should too." The Knight's deep gravelly voice changed as he approached Shannon, who had struggled back to her feet. Shannon watched in horror as the Knight shrank and changed, allowing the Taken energy to burn away to reveal what he truly was.
Standing directly in front of her, was the man she'd thought she'd lost. The man who had made, and ruined, her days. He was also the man she was about to punch in the jaw. He was not expecting the swing, and took the full force of Shannon's brute strength to his jaw, causing him to stumble back a bit, a look of surprise crossing his face.
"You. You're supposed to be dead. And now, I discover, that you're just a filthy traitor. You've given yourself to Oryx, and he's taken everything from us. I will never betray my friends and family. Not even for you, Ryan."
Ryan just sighed in response, and slowly drew his sword, looking Shannon dead in the eye.
"So be it." And with those final words, Ryan drove his sword through the chest of the woman he loved more than anything else.
Shannon slowly looked down at the sword sticking out of her chest, and felt something well up from deep within her. Light began to flow from within her, Solar energy building up around her wound, and on her hands. Ryan's eyes widened in shock as Shannon grasped the blade of his sword, a snarl leaving her throat.
"You… You have been… misguided… Oryx must die… and I must purge you… here and now... The Nine demand it." Shannon spoke, but within her voice, Ryan could hear others, many, many other voices, and he knew he could not flee. Once again, he was defeated by forces beyond his control. He simply shut his eyes as Light exploded from Shannon, wiping the Taken corruption from everything within the room, and banishing the darkness within Ryan. Ryan sighed as he felt everything fade away, Oryx's control on him vanishing.
A long long ways away within a Vex Trap…
Everything had gone so horribly wrong. So so horribly wrong. Zeph, Zara, and the 3 other remaining members of their escape pod sat huddled together in a dark damp cave, hoping the radioactive material at the front of the Cave would hide them from the Hobgoblins, who were hunting and slaughtering everything that moved. They only moved from spot to spot during the Twilight hour, while the radiation from the double suns was at its highest, so that the Vex would be unable to find them. The only thing protecting them from the radiation was Zara's Hive magic, but if they didn't find a way to treat the now infected plasma shot wound in her side, they'd lose her and their protection. They all huddled back a bit as a large group of Minotaurs made their way in front of the cave, sweeping back and forth with devices designed to detect life forms. One of the minotaurs in the back paused at the cave entrance and turned towards it, when suddenly it's eye light up and it brought up it's blaster cannon. Zeph swore angrily, knowing the Minotaur had seen them, and launches a Nova bomb out from the entrance, blowing the Minotaur to pieces. Zara winced as she put up her radiation shields again, and the five survivors bolted from the Cave, Hundreds of Vex already in pursuit. Zeph sprang into the air and whipped around to throw another Nova Bomb, but felt a soft breeze, and then heard a soft whisper in his ear. All time slowed down around him as he felt arc energy leaping from within him, falling quickly into Stormtrance… but, different. Zeph focused all of his energy into the palm of his right hand, and then with a roar of anger, let loose a massive beam of destructive arc energy, vaporizing everything it touched. The Vex collectively came to a stop and retreated hastily, surprised for possibly the first time ever, by a Guardian unleashing new powers.
What Zeph was not aware of, however, is that his sudden outburst had attracted something much different from the Vex. Zeph landed on the ground, falling to one knee, and watched as the Vex began to rush in towards the weaker target. In the near distance, a loud boom can be heard, along with a massive bolt of lightning launching up from the ground and… heading straight for him. Zeph watched in awe as the strange Titan he'd seen with Sandra came flying down to smash into the ground amid the Vex, causing a huge arc explosion, like a Guardian shaped Missile. He laughs as he straightens up, arc energy arcing off of him like he was a living Tesla Coil.
"What's up? Came to crash your little party here." The strange titan starts speaking, and a moment later is shot in the back by a Hobgoblin. "Excuse me a moment, I have to deal with some unruly house guests." With a swoosh of arc energy swirling about him, he spins around, and launches himself forward into the Vex, slamming into a Minotaur and completely vaporizing it and every Vex around it, lightning chaining from Vex to Vex, damaging but not killing them.
Zeph gets back to his feet and calls up Stormcaller again, dropping into his normal Stormtrance, and teleports into the Vex and unleashes his devastating arc energy. The Vex quickly decided that they'd had enough and began to flee, warping away rather quickly, leaving Zeph and the Titan on their own.
Zeph collapsed to his knees as Stormtrance faded away, blackness slowly overtaking his vision. He knew he'd pushed himself too hard the last few days, and welcomed the sweet embrace of unconsciousness. Very faintly he heard his daughter voice calling his name, but that too meant nothing to him as he passed out, allowing the blackness to take him.
Once again, took way longer than I wanted. Life's a bit against me. I had a really REALLY bad cold all this week and most of last weekend, and slept the majority of it. Otherwise this would have been done sooner.
To be entirely honest, my next upload won't be until Halloween, but that's because it's going to be a very important chapter(and cause ya know, Spooky Scary Skeletons and stuff)
But I should have my writing laptop up and running soon, I just need a Charger now. So then I won't have to do all this writing on my phone.
