Prophet: Link, I don't think I want to continue deciphering the transmission anymore.

Me: What? Why aren't you going to finish it? Everyone's dying to know what it is!

Prophet: Take a look.

*Prophet opens hologram*

[WE ARE THE CYPHERS.

THE ABSOLUTION DIRECTIVE IS COMING.

THE TOWER, THE CONSENSUS, AND THE VANGUARD WILL PAY FOR WHAT THEY DID TO US.

15-14-5 15-6 21-19 19-20-1-14-4-19 1-13-15-14-7 20-8-1-20 '19-1-6-5 8-1-22-5-14' 25-15-21 3-1-12-12 20-8-5 3-9-20-25.

WAITING.

WATCHING ALL OF THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES 'WARRIORS OF THE LIGHT'.

TO THE TOWER, THE CONSENSUS, THE VANGUARD, AND THE SPEAKER, WE CYPHERS DELIVER YOU A WARNING.

WE WILL RISE AGAIN, STRONGER THAN WHEN YOU REMEMBER US.

AND WHEN 25-15-21-18 CITY 1-14-4 TRAVELER IS 15-14 20-8-5 VERGE OF BEING TAKEN, EXPECT NO HELP FROM US.

THIS IS THE PRICE YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR YOU DID WHAT YOU DID TO US!]

Prophet: Now do you see, Link? Whoever they are, they're hellbent on revenge on the Tower, the Vanguard, the Speaker and the Consensus. Why didn't the Speaker tell us about something like this?! Clearly, these Cyphers have some history with the Vanguard and the Speaker! Hell, even the entirety of the Tower! And this is more than just a warning; it's a threat!

Me: …You're right. As much as I want to hand this over to the Cryptarchs or the Speaker, I'm worried that these 'Cyphers' will hunt us down and kill us.

Prophet: So what are you gonna do?

Me: …What else will I do? Because once I finish the rest of the transmission, I'll have to find them myself. I don't care how long it will take me, because I will not stand by and watch as the Tower and the City become defenseless without some form of help! *Storms out*

Prophet: Link… Well, I guess I have to step in for the meantime. Seeing as Link had some problems with his laptop's battery not charging even though the cable's clearly plugged in and with his normal Iron Banner shenanigans/problems this month, I wouldn't blame him… As mentioned by my partner, this will be the second half of the 'Dreadnaught' mission and where it will end for Nero Bianco's mission. I hope I got it right pre-chapter banter, and we'll see you on the next one.

Chapter IX: Light within the Darkness


"…And that's pretty much how we got here."

Spectre had finished weaving the whole story of how they got here, Rez now revived and avoiding to say anything that would send him off the edge or worse. Lightning had her arms crossed─as usual since she arrived at the Tower─as Silver had Alpha scan the area for anything that the Hive used to fool Nero Bianco into thinking they were at a dead end. So far, the Warlock and his Ghost didn't find anything. As for the Sunbreaker, he felt the gaze of the Hive Wizard across the chasm tear through the back of his head. Something about it wasn't right…

"At least your head wasn't damaged from the near-death trap we all went through," Lightning lowered her folded arms from her chest and took out Empress of the Abyss from her back, then aiming the scope on the Hive Wizard across from them. "And honestly, I'm sick of having this Wizard hover over the edge and taunting us!"

"Wait, no!"

Spectre's plea to stop his sister from doing something so reckless was silenced as an orb of violent purple light began to accumulate from the barrel of the SUROS ARI-styled auto rifle. If there was one thing that Spectre didn't know about her hand-built weapon, it was that it shared the similar properties of Reaper's Night Predator…in terms of being able to switch between kinetic, Void, Solar and Arc damage on the fly, as well as a select fire function, making it an actual MIDA Multi-Tool. Or in her eyes, a multi-weapon.

The orb on the auto rifle's barrel had grown to the size of his fist until she pulled the trigger. The Void-infused projectile flew from their side of the chasm and towards the Wizard. It split into many smaller versions of itself, to which it impaled themselves onto the form of the Hive enemy.

In the Wizard's eyes, these needle-like projectiles didn't even hurt, even though it tore through its shield. It began to laugh like a witch from the Pre-Golden Age era of legends, the cackle not even remotely close to one but still as terrifying.

Spectre facepalmed. Why did he just get the feeling of jumping off the chasm? "Seriously? That's it? Just sticking Void needles in a Wizard?"

"Not just any Void needles…" She walked over to the edge, a hand extended towards the Wizard. She snapped with her ring finger. As soon as she snapped her fingers, the needles made from the Void had glowed, glowing bright until the needles exploded. The Wizard gave a death screech as it exploded from the needles, disintegrating from existence as a black hole appeared behind it and pulled the body in.

Soon enough, the entire area shrouded itself in the presence of the Taken, and the blights appearing from both sides of the chasm. Taken Thrall emerged from the blights next to the Fireteam, and Taken Wizards and Vandals with Wire Rifles on the other.

Soon enough, Nero Bianco was on their feet, the four of them with their backs against each other as they were surrounded. They had their respective Exotic primaries at the ready, rifles at the aim towards the Wizards and Vandals and handcannons swapping from one Thrall to the next. None of them pulled the triggers yet, since they weren't given the order to fire.

"Just had to shoot that Wizard, did you?"

"That, coming from the Hive Conqueror and the Swarm Culler? I thought you knew which Wizards were normal and which ones would call for back-up."

"How would I know that Wizard would call on the Taken and not the Hive?!"

"Save the sibling argument for later, you two!" Silver calmly butted in, Tlaloc's barrel glowing with Arc Energy. "Right now, we gotta get this over with!"

"C'mon Spectre, give the goddamned order already!" Rez was getting impatient as the swarm of Taken Thrall began to advance on them.

"Rez, don't screw it up this time," Spectre reached for his knife on his hip, hand on the handle but not drawing it out yet. "Silver, Light, take out the Wizards and Vandals. Rez and I will handle the Thrall and blights."

"Right." The Exo aimed Tlaloc's scope at the Vandals while the female Titan focused her sights on the Wizards, hitting the select-fire switch and charging up another Void needle launch.

Rez spun the cylinder on the Last Word, then pointing the handcannon towards the ground. "Taking Thrall out should be easy! Bunch of wimps…"

"Now's the time to show me how much of a leader you became since I last saw you."

Spectre took in the situation one last time, feeling pretty sure of being able to take these Taken on, even though the rest of his Fireteam didn't have any hands-on experience with the Taken Vandals and Thrall. Then again, since when did they become surrounded by a bunch of Thrall? Aside from the Temple of Crota.

Inhale, count to four… Exhale, count to four… Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his nerves while his hand spun the cylinder of Skyfall. Clickclickclickclickclickclick… The sound of the cylinder felt nothing more than a melody to him. A melody of hell about to break loose. Upon hearing the final click of the spinning cylinder, Spectre opened his eyes.

"Weapons free!"

And the weapons let loose hell.

Lightning's Empress of the Abyss let loose two Void needler shots directed at the two Wizards, tearing through their Void shields and impaling the explosives within them. She need only to snap her fingers and they would all disintegrate before combusting to oblivion. As for the Vandals next to the Wizards, some of the crystal-like Void needles found their way impaled on them, even though their 'Wards of Dawn' protected them against the exploding Wizards. The Warlock aimed at the purple needles, and fired one round at each Vandal. The scout rifle's bullets, like the Void needlers, tore through the bubbles and struck the needles. Like the Wizards, the Vandals suffered an explosive end to their lives.

As for the handcannon-slinging Titan and Hunter, both of them were scoring hits with their Last Word and Skyfall, wiping out the Thrall in rapid succession. While Rez may be using up the bullets in the magazine and using his knife when it was empty, Spectre was using his night-black handcannon as a club of sorts, dazing the Taken that were within breathing range for him and then stabbing them in the chest or head with his knife. Just as the Thrall were cleared out, and the only thing left were the blights, the rivals within Nero Bianco whipped out their JLB 47 and Ash Factory and fired the rockets at the blights across from them. Their Ghosts immediately put their rocket launchers back in their inventory, and returned their handcannons.

"Silver, Hawkmoon!"

The Warlock reached for the handcannon on the lower of his back and threw the weapon at his Fireteam leader. The Sunbreaker caught it and aimed both handcannons at the two blights before pulling the triggers. Within a matter of a second, both handcannons had fired their bonus damage rounds in the chamber, screaming through the air like Hive Boomers until they struck the blights, which combusted as they were torn back to the Taken realm.

Exhaling deeply, the Titan lowered the weapons to his side before spinning Hawkmoon in his hand and holding it by the barrel, handing it back to the weapon's owner. "How's that for leadership?"

"If there was anyone else with a plan like that, I'd say they were showing off by dual-wielding handcannons. But you? You did it without any flaws," under her helmet, Spectre's twin smiled at how far he's gone since the nine years they spent apart. "I'll say it must be because of your training with the new Guardians and each other."

"Just because you're an hour older than me doesn't mean you'll always be the more level-headed," the leader of Nero Bianco walked over to the edge of the chasm, kneeling down to get a good scope of the distance between both sides. "Okay, I'll go on ahead and see if I can find a way to make a path for us. Silver, I'm sending you data of the main points that the weapon focuses on to power itself. I want you, Lightning and Rez to deal with them."

"And how exactly are you gonna get across?" The Hunter questioned. His question was soon answered when his leader broke into a starting run and Lifted off the edge. Spectre only made it halfway until his Lift faded out on him, but not before a grappling hook launched from his right gauntlet attached itself on the other edge, reeling him in and he frontflipped as soon as he was inches away from the edge. "…Showoff."

"What was that?! I didn't catch that!" Spectre called out from the other side of the chasm.

"YOU'RE A SHOWOFF!" Rez screamed from his side. It wasn't until he saw a red glint from where Spectre stood and a red laser marked on his forehead. "Oh, you son of a─"

Boom!

The Hunter crumpled over and fell face-first over the edge once more, Church hovered where his partner stood and sighed. "Guardian down…again."

The Sunstriker sighed defeatingly. "Why am I not surprised?"

"That's Rez in a nutshell for you, Lightning." The Warlock answered.

-Destiny-

Just how long has he spent on this godforsaken Hive ship? It was like wherever he went, it all looked remotely the same. Spectre had that question pondering since he split up from his Fireteam and left them to deal with the weapon.

"Do you really think what we did back there was the right choice?" Primus appeared from his pack for the first time since the Fireteam split up at the chasm, night-black shell continuing its normal clicking and whirring. "Or is it something else? Something that you need to get off your mind after the nightmare you went through back at the Tower?"

"Primus…" the Sunbreaker glanced down at his hand, the Solar energy faint as he closed it into a fist. "You know the answer to it all. As long as I live, this nightmare will never cease to haunt me. One where it will continue until my time comes."

"You have to stop sulking over it, Spectre," his Ghost argued, the blue eye in the middle of its shell glowing bright. "It's not healthy to keep sulking on the past. You know it, I know it, and everyone in your position knows it! So snap out of it and focus on right now!"

The duo found themselves in another section of the Dreadnaught, the ambiance more menacing that what he was used to back on the Moon. The area seemed to be about the same area as the Divide in the Cosmodrome, but with Hive architecture and a sort of shrine in the dead middle of it all. All around the shrine was a sickly green mist, and to him, it reminded him of the poison clouds the Wizards used against him and his fireteam.

Based on the sonar data his sister's transmitting and feeding to his HUD, and the ship's schematics he acquired from the World's Grave, he was able to determine that he was within an area on the ship known as the 'Hall of Souls'. So, now what?

"Well, what now?" joked the Sunbreaker, looking at the shrine from where he stood as his Ghost analyzed the area. "Because honestly, I don't think there's any way for me to find a way to make a way for me to regroup with them."

"You think?" Primus's shell whirred as he analyzed the situation presented in front of them. "And you did it on purpose, didn't you? Separating from the rest of the Fireteam, that is."

"Guilty as charged," Spectre uttered, putting his hands up as if he was under arrest. "I just didn't want them to catch on that I may be starting to lose my mind to hallucinations of my dead lover."

"Great. Should've known you'd get back into the habit of isolating yourself from the rest of the Fireteam. Haven't seen you do it since the strike with Taniks."

"Which was what, six months since then?"

"Five months and twenty-five days."

"Whatever."

Before the Sunbreaker could get the chance to react further, the entire area began to rumble and shake, almost like an earthquake on the Dreadnaught. Even if Spectre could hold his balance, the violent rumbling of the ship caused him to lose his balance, and with the help of the rumbling increasing, he fell off the edge he stood on. Quickly, he launched his grappling hook at the ledge he fell off of, the claw-like hook grabbing hold of the structure and secured on.

His shoulder slammed against the wall next to him as a result from the sudden stop of his fall, shattering a bit of the armor. A sharp wave of pain coursed through his shoulder, and he cursed under his breath while his HUD in his Duskrender helmet warned him about the sudden vulnerability in his armor. Not only was the impact to his shoulder a painful one, but the fact that his entire arm is extended to support the fact that it's more or less an anchor made it even worse as his arm started to feel like it was being slowly torn off its socket. One of his fingers reached for a tiny button within the palm of his armored glove, and the next instance, the magnetic-powered winch inside his gauntlet pulled him up.

He reached out for the ledge and pulled himself up and over, despite the Dreadnaught still violently shaking. His grappling hook unlatched from the edge and folded itself as the rest of the cable was winded up back into his wrist-mounted gear. He stood far from the edge to prevent himself from falling over the edge again, leaning against one of the walls that looks like a barricade, with a hand covering his shoulder as the rumbling continued. It went on for another twenty seconds until it subsided, the chaos fading away just as it swiftly came.

"Damn…" he lifted a hand from his shoulder, and saw a dark substance on the palm of his hand. "Primus, how bad is it?"

His Ghost began scanning the significant damage he took on his shoulder, the blue glow fading as soon as he finished. "You're not gonna like this, but some of your armor's plate tore through the protective suit and some of the pieces are lodged in your flesh. Aside from that, you got a broken collarbone. And no doubt from the impact from both the wall and the shards of armor in your shoulder," he reported, and the Titan plucked out one of the visible shards sticking out of his shoulder, grunting as he pulled it out. "Keep that nasty habit up, and you'll have to get a plate or screw to fix your collarbone. And the two of us know how much you hate having plates or screws inside you. Here, I'll administer some anesthetic until we get you back."

Primus's shell summoned a needle from his shell and carefully injected the anesthetic into his shoulder, nullifying the pain until they get back to 20/20 or the medkit back on his ship. The Titan got back on his feet, moving his hand from his shoulder and shaking the blood off it. From the distance, he saw a swarm of Acolytes, Thrall, and Knights racing towards the exit on the other side.

"Primus, what got them riled up?"

"A hull breach in a section of the Dreadnaught. Breach isn't too far from here."

"Wonderful, as if this mission didn't just become more interesting." And as if there wasn't enough going on, his helmet started ringing an incoming transmission. He tapped the button on his Duskrender.

"And just what do you think you're doing on the Dreadnaught, Titan?"

"Nice to hear from you too, Ta'aan," Spectre sourly greeted the Bracus over comms, making his way across the Hall of Souls and alternating between Lift and wallrunning. "What the hell's going on? There's a hull breach right now!"

"That is none of your concern for the moment. All I ask of you right now is temporary cooperation."

"What temporary cooperation?"

"I ask of you to not attack me or the Cabal. Because shoot even one of my own, and I will make sure I will put an end to your streak in the Crucible."

"Ta'aan…" Spectre stopped dead in his tracks and stood before the exit that the Hive used for the breach. Sitting close to the door was a piece of armor far too big to belong to the Hive. Based on the materials, it had to be…Cabal? "As much as I don't trust the Cabal that shoot at me or my team, I won't even bother trying to shoot at your squad. I sympathize your brothers in arms being Taken by Oryx, as well as everyone else that had watched their own kind become Taken."

"Even if the reason I asked for your cooperation involves the Skyburners?" the Cabal on the other end of the channel questioned. "See to it that you do not shoot them. I will give you more details as soon as you are visible on my HUD."

"And I'll see to it that I'll shoot the ones that might turn hostile on us, both my Fireteam and yours."

The comms channel clicked as Ta'aan signed off, leaving the black-bathed Titan back on the mission.

"SPECTRE!"

He turned around and saw the rest of his Fireteam headed towards him, and after what felt like days, Nero Bianco had finally regrouped. Again, he didn't keep track of the time. Based on the ashes and dirt on each of their armor, he concluded that the part of the mission he assigned the three of them went a little complicated than he planned.

"Is the weapon down?"

"One hundred…percent…offline." Rez was catching his breath, pointing it out towards the leader of the Ancient Vanguard.

"We ran into some Taken while we were taking care of them, but they weren't a problem." The Warlock added, dusting off his Heart of the Praxic Fire from the dust and ashes like he was a neat freak.

"Well, we got Ta'aan onboard."

Upon the mention of the name, Rez tensed up and froze in place horrifically. "Oh no, not that brute of a Bracus! He's here?!"

"C'mon, we gotta head to the breach and give him a hand!"

-Destiny-

Soon enough, Nero Bianco arrived at the breach site. Already, they could see the hole that something made in the hull of the Dreadnaught, revealing the gas giant that the Fireteam was currently in close proximity to. Luckily, their helmets detected that there was no more oxygen in the area due to the hull breach and began feeding the oxygen to them through their armor. And smackdab into what caused the hole in the Hive ship's hull was directly in front of them to their right.

"A Cabal ship! Skyburners colors!" Alpha declared, immediately spotting the Cabal ship that crash landed─and undoubtedly caused the hull breach. From what the Fireteam could see from their vantage point, the Skyburners and Hive were waging war against each other, Slug Rifles and Shredders flying all over the place. There were also Ogres and Colossi in the fray, as well as Knights with Hive Boomers and Centurions with Projection Rifles.

Avoiding being caught, the Fireteam took cover behind some debris.

"Why the hell are the Cabal here?!" Spectre's Fireteam practically asked in unison, obviously knowing that Spectre knew something.

"Do I look like I know?! Anyway, our priority is to get the Skyburners out of here and deal with the Hive," once more, Spectre started formulating one of his master plans, glancing over his cover to have a quick scout. His HUD relayed information sent by the Bracus via coded dispatch (typical of him), and it was clear on what he wants with the cooperation. "If there's any Cabal that shoot at us with a hostile intent, you know the drill. Shoot back. We're gonna head for that outcrop on the west of our position, near the hull breach. I'll plant the drop beacon, and we're sending in the calvary."

"Right," the Hunter and Warlock of the Fireteam understood the order, followed by the Sunstriker. Soon enough, Silver faced his leader. "So how are we gonna do this, Spectre?"

"Rez, Silver, you guys still got the 'Party Crashers'?"

Under their helmets, the Exo and human grinned. "Who said we didn't bring them?"

"Hate to do this to our enemies, but at least their fun will be ruined by us!"

Spectre turned his head to face his Ghost hovering over his shoulder. "Primus…" Immediately, the Ghost understood the intent and called out a heavy weapon from his inventory. Church and Alpha followed Primus's example and transmatted the same weapon from their respective Guardians' inventories.

Lightning watched as what transmatted in their hands were rocket launchers. But not just any rocket launchers. The Hunter, Titan, and Warlock had the exact same rocket launcher, with a white exterior and many gold adornments that made it quite majestic, especially with the wolf's head on the front of the rocket launcher's loading chamber. She knew what weapon would fit the description. One rocket launcher so feared by many that it made a lot of Guardians begin their search for the devastatingly powerful weapon.

Gjallarhorn.

After they loaded their weapons, they stood from cover and rested them on their shoulders, scopes laid before their eyes. Where Silver and Rez placed them over their right shoulders, Spectre put his on his left shoulder, interfacing his rocket launcher's scope to his HUD to compensate for his broken collarbone.

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?" As if the Hunter and Warlock's response to the classic joke was a cue, the trio pulled the triggers on their weapons. The rockets were let out of their cells, the payloads screaming like Hive Boomers as they all tracked their own targets. As soon as they all struck Knights and Ogres─and unfortunately, swarms of Acolytes and Wizards─, the rockets exploded within proximity, and the Wolfpack Rounds finished off the Hive that didn't die from the blast.

However, some survivors redirected their attention from the Cabal towards the Guardians that took out their heavy hitting soldiers. Hissing and howling, they practically called for the rest of the Hive in the area to go after the Guardians.

"Well, now it's a party." Silver joked, using the sling he made for Gjallarhorn and letting it rest against his shoulder. From their vantage point, they could see a multitude of Thrall rushing their way towards them.

Primus still hovered over his partner's shoulder while he slung the weapon much like the Warlock. "Music?"

"Hmm… Something worth being under 'kicking the enemy's ass, with four Guardians standing up against an entire army'." His Ghost took in the request and skimmed through his music until he found it; 'Gotta Get the Cash'. Just as soon as the song started dropping the beat, the Fireteam slid down the slope and started scoring kills with their respective Exotics, the three main members of Nero Bianco scoring precision kills with their handcannons and scout rifle while the Sunstriker fired off tight, pulse rifle-like bursts from her auto rifle before breaking off from the rest of the Fireteam and unleashing her Infernal Punishment on an unsuspecting group of Hive attempting to flank them.

Just as the rest of Nero Bianco was reaching the outcrop, he spotted a red glint among one of the places that would be used as a sniping nest before his modified IFF identified the sniper. Jessica, a Cabal Psion Flayer from Triton's Twilight House. They had a few run-ins before, and her presence on the Dreadnaught meant that she was here with Ta'aan.

"Nice to run into you here of all places, Jessica." The leader of the Fireteam and the Ancient Vanguard greeted the Psion Huntress of Twilight House, the four of them shooting back at the Hive and the occasional Cabal that tried to shoot at them.

"Ta'aan brought me along to back him up. Personally, I had better chances of helping out a certain Hunter when their guard was down than watching Ta'aan's flank." The Psion Flayer responded, quickly looking through the scope and firing off a round out of her anti-materiel rifle.

"That was you who tried to rip a hole out of me?!" following the Cabal Huntress's lead, he quickly peeked through his Stillpiercer's scope and fired off a skip round, the round tearing through a Knight's skull and ricocheting off to strike nearby Acolytes in the head. "I had that Acolyte until you had to kill it!"

Under her helmet, she grinned evilly. "Really? Because from where I was standing, you looked like a complete idiot who just suffered from a flashbang grenade and a seizure attack at the same time while crossing the street until a high speed Interceptor rams into you." As if that was the last straw─and it was for the Nightstalker─, he screamed at the top of his lungs frustratingly and threw down his Stillpiercer, clutching at his hood and taking fistfuls in his fists while stomping his foot repeatedly like a madman.

"Try being kicked in the gut and thrown over the edge into the abyss, only to be revived and shot in the goddamned head by Spectre's modified Antinomy XVI with a high caliber round! And not within thirty seconds, I'll add!"

"Are you done?" Spectre asked, kicking the sniper rifle back towards Rez's feet and planted the transmat beacon, the familiar green glow from the device blinking now that it was operational. In the nick of time, Lightning regrouped with the rest of the retaliation strike team, helping them hold off the army of Hive while Ta'aan and his Shadow Stormers evacuated the Skyburners that willingly came with them.

"Transmat link is active! Our ships are inbound, and so is back-up!"

Soon enough, the transmat zone that Spectre had set up was filled with the most unlikely of back up. Fireteams Dragon, Death, and Sparta. Of course they'd come running to the Dreadnaught for the action, as if the Moon was enough to satisfy them all. Spectre groaned in his head. With Dragon and Death, he can personally deal with, but Sparta? Nero Bianco and Sparta are enemies, rivals even to say. He has problems with Adam, and Adam just plain despises him for no apparent reason. The four Fireteams and Cabal forces focused fire at the Hive, wiping them out, but more of them just keep coming out of the dark corners of the Dreadnaught.

"on?! Spectre, are you there?!" A voice called out in the Sunbreaker's ears, causing him to wince a bit and press two fingers against his audio receptor.

"You didn't have to yell in my ear like that, Tri! I can hear you loud and clear now!"

"Sorry, there were some complications in trying to break through the radio interference up here. Cayde's been trying to contact you, but he kept telling me that either your comms were off or that some interference was in play."

"Patch him in." Spectre muttered, teeth grinding against each other as Triton was patching the Hunter Vanguard to his comms.

"Hey Zavala! Wanna know what a transmat zone on the Dreadnaught looks like?"

"You landed Nero Bianco on the Dreadnaught without authorization?!" The outraged tone of Spectre's superior came piercing through his ears, knowing that he just went through a miniature version of the earful he had after he got Cayde's stealth drive.

"Oh right! Can I have authorization?"

Just as another Harvester appeared to take the Skyburners that are evacuating away, the Skyburners sent out a Goliath tank from the crashed ship, the hull damaged and the rear port anti-grav thruster sparking like crazy. However, what was odd about this Goliath and the others that Nero Bianco faced before it was that it seemed heavily plated and a multitude of weaponry to match, almost as if…

Boom!

The Harvester that was evacuating the wounded Skyburners exploded into a million pieces, and the Cabal within the ship all decimated to ashes within a single plasma launcher shot and bombardment of missiles. The retaliation strike made a run for cover as the husk of the Harvester was about to crush them all, blocking the transmat zone and preventing anymore reinforcements from reaching the area.

"We'll discuss it later. Spectre, Dmitri, and Adam: take care of that tank, or the transmat zone won't matter!" The comms between Zavala and Spectre were cut as another plasma launcher strike was fired, taking out a small portion of the Shadow Stormers assigned with helping the Skyburners.

"Some plan you have right now, huh, Spectre?" Dragon looked at the Ancient Vanguard leader, who was returning fire blindly with Skyfall.

"Tell me something I don't know, like how those two new recruits of yours isn't doing jack right now!" Spectre fired the last round in his handcannon, forcing him to eject the spent magazine cylinder and load in a new one. "Then again, I don't suppose you know how to deal with this much armor on a Goliath!"

"It's the first I've heard of it!"

"Dammit…!" another plasma launcher strike, this time close to the leaders of Nero Bianco and Dragon. "Ta'aan! That Goliath's going hostile on us!"

"You are not to engage that Goliath! They need repairs!"

"Then explain why it's shooting at us!" on the other end of the comms, the Bracus began to say something in the Cabal language like he was muttering under his breath. "Ta'aan, as much as I don't want to cause more damage to the Skyburners, we need to get rid of that Goliath before it gets rid of us!"

"Fine. You and the other Fireteams are cleared to eliminate the Goliath. Just know that loss will have my brothers' blood on your hands."

"I understand." Again, the comms between the Bracus and the Sunbreaker were cut off, and the Titan faced his Ghost. "Primus, tell Alpha, Artemis and Church to have our ships wait outside the Dreadnaught!"

"Already told them since that tank started shooting at the Harvester and us!"

Boom!

Another plasma strike, but instead of hiding behind the rubble, the two leaders moved to another and started shooting at the Goliath with their machine guns. However, the rounds fired from Objection IV and Dragon's customized machine gun did little effect on the Goliath, the rounds bouncing off the armored plating like it was nothing. Rez and Silver brought out their Gjallarhorns and fired at the Goliath, only for the rockets to be diverted from course just as soon as the rockets were within close proximity.

"Dammit, heavy weapons are useless!" the Sunbreaker unloaded the last bullet in the magazine, ducking behind cover to reload. "What's it gonna take to take this guy out?!"

"You could've nicely asked, Spectre."

"Lightning, what the hell do you think you're saying?!"

His question was soon answered when he caught the shrill sound of rapid-firing machine guns and the whistle of rockets being fired. Thanks to the sound of those weapons being fired, his direction was redirected and watched as the crashed Harvester that blocked the transmat zone was blown to pieces by a barrage of rockets and machine guns. From right outside the hole in the Dreadnaught's hull was Lightning's Draught of Nectar, a high-powered searchlight lighting up the area while the ship's weapons and arsenal popped out of multiple places and become encased in heavy armor plating.

"Who the hell's flying your ship, sis?!"

"Autopilot's doing the work. Don't worry, I programmed it to attack on my command when I tell Artemis to. Right now, I ordered it to attack the Goliath."

The Draught of Nectar entered the hull breach and started firing its machine guns and turrets at the heavily-armored Cabal tank, some of the rear-mounted turrets near the thrusters diverting their fire from the Goliath and focused on the Hive that tried to take out its thrusters. Some of the Hive were successful to landing hits on the ship, but they were swatted off like it was nothing. Thanks to having some heavy artillery deal with the Cabal's own heavy artillery, the Guardians got out of their hiding spots and focused on the Hive that keep on coming in floods of many hundreds coming in. After the Goliath had enough of being shot at, it locked on the black and silver ship and fired its rockets in a furious storm.

The armed ship, in a retaliation strike to the Goliath launching rockets at it, fired its own micro-rockets and did a barrel roll to the right. After the Draught of Nectar fired the rockets, they tracked after the larger rockets and within a swarm, the rockets collided with each other, making a spectacular display of aerial explosions and creating a smoke screen between the ship and the Goliath.

"Some arsenal your sister has, huh, Spectre?" Dmitri kidded, firing off his flamethrower at the incoming Hive headed his and Spectre's way. While the leader of Dragon was burning the Hive to an overdone crisp, Spectre brought out his Ironwreath-D and held down the sidearm's trigger, the weapon firing a spray of skip rounds that ricocheted off the walls and the skulls of the unfortunate Hive he aimed at and utilizing his knife for the Hive that were too close for him to shoot at.

"Trust me, I haven't seen her for nine years, and she shows up just yesterday with a weaponized ship and gear from the Trials of Osiris. Some sibling reunion."

Lightning's ship began to spin up the chaingun mounted on the nose until a large Shadowshot arrow tore through the cloud of smoke, striking the Goliath tank and preventing it from moving. Following the attack was four more Shadowshots, each of them pinning the antigrav thrusters and preventing them from moving. Emerging from the smoke was a single Huntress with a white cloak and a wolf pattern emblazed on it, who joined up with the leaders of Nero Bianco and Dragon.

"What the hell are you doing here, Reaper?!"

"What, do you think I had no idea of your plans? Like I said when we got the stealth drive; I'm bored of sticking around waiting for the next crisis to happen," the Bladedancer nocked in another arrow and fired at the Hive attempting to flank the two leaders, all of them exploding in a single shot. "If you asked, I followed your ships here."

"Do you even know how risky this is?!"

"I live for the thrill of the hunt, and I already missed out on the retaliation strike on the moon! I'm not letting this opportunity slip by me!"

"Save the lovers' quarrel for later, you two!"

Thanks to Reaper's knack of using Shadowshot arrows from Night Predator, Lightning's ship had finished charging up the chaingun and unleashed a torrent of high caliber rounds infused with Solar, Arc, and Void energy. Within a reasonable volley of the rounds, the armor on the Goliath cracked apart, and just as the Cabal tank was about to fire its plasma launcher, the Draught of Nectar fired its micro-rockets at the charging weapon. Because of their small size, they immediately blocked the ports to the weapon, and with the fact that the weapon was charging, it exploded, destroying its main form of attack. Part of the tank was eliminated, but not down for the count yet.

"You remember what we used to say back then, Spectre?" Lightning questioned her twin, to which he smirked under the helmet and responded with a yes.

"Checkmate."

"Checkmate."

Even if the chaingun was overheated for the meantime, there was only one form of weaponry on Lightning's ship that was still active. The rocket launch pods near the cockpit and thrusters opened up, and fired off the last of the rockets the ship had in a furious storm. Both micro-rockets and cluster bomb missiles fired from the Draught of Nectar struck the Goliath tank, the barrage of rockets acting as a two-way cracker. And we quote a certain tiny robot, 'first we crack the shell, then we break the nuts inside!'.

All of the cluster bomb rockets struck the chassis of the tank at the same time, exploding on contact and letting out its explosive payload. The payload delivered the final blow, causing the tank to explode internally until it finally erupted into a ball of flames.

In a matter of a chain reaction that followed the destruction of the Goliath tank, the Hive that surrounded the hull breach all disintegrated back into the dark pits of the Dreadnaught, leaving the area and the fight quickly. As for the Cabal that were against being evacuated, they warped back into safety within their crashed ship as the Shadow Stormers and the Fireteams all erupted in victory cries, massing around the area where the Goliath fell.

But for the leader of Nero Bianco, his victory was cut short when his comms channel started ringing. He holstered his custom handcannon and pressed his fingers against the audio receptor.

"Spectre… Cayde just debriefed us on your…unorthodox mission. Your victory, no matter the method─is a Vanguard victory. You have our thanks."

"So does this mean I won't have to hear an earful when I get back?"

"No, it does not, Spectre."

"Everybody loves a bad idea when it works," the Hunter Vanguard came in on the comms channel, the Sunbreaker tightening his fist at the mere sound of his Exo voice.

"You're lucky, Cayde. At least you won't have to pay me 500000 Glimmer when I get back. In fact, you'll be paying me 20000 for Eris's ship."

"Yeah. Now, excuse me, Spectre, I have to go have a…uncomfortable conversation with Eris about…her ship. Just get home safe."

The comms shut off in his Duskrender, and Spectre turned around to see the Harvesters and the ships of the other Guardians standing by outside the hull breach. Lightning was nowhere in sight, but her Draught of Nectar had hid the artillery and proceeded to fly outside of the battle zone and back outside. One by one, the rest of the Fireteams were transmatting back to their ships outside the hull breach until it was Spectre and Primus left. If there was one thing that Spectre was known for missions like this, he would be the last one to leave to make sure no one's left behind.

No one's left. Good. "Primus, get us out of─" Whump!

A force as though another Titan shoulder-charged him from behind, forcing Spectre to collapse on the ground back-first. With barely any time to react after rolling, a hand reached out for his throat and he started choking. Immediately, his hands were clawing at the hands around his neck as he was lifted from off the ground. What the hell─?! Why the hell is─!?

As much as he wanted to find out who's ambushing him, his Duskrender's helmet started blaring alerts all over the damned HUD, making it impossible to see what was going on without having a shadow of what he sees. Just as the grip tightened around his neck, his oxygen levels was being cut off, and the feeling of space was starting to suffocate him. Spectre let one of his hands let go from his attacker's wrists and started throwing wild Solar-fused punches. However, all of it was in vain after the third punch when the assailant stopped the punch and started crushing his fist and wrist with a compactor-like force. Spectre cried out in pain, but the slowly approaching lack of oxygen effectively lowered the sound to a mere pain-driven groan.

"Primus… go!" The Sunbreaker pleaded, coughing up blood in his helmet as the vacuum of space was slowly suffocating him.

[No! I'm not leaving you behind, Spectre!]

Just go! NOW!

Even though the Ghost was hiding in his pack, he simply would refuse to leave Spectre's side. But this was one of those situations where it would mean death for the both of them if Primus stuck around. So, reluctantly, Spectre's Ghost transmatted himself into the custom Fatal Vision hovering above the wreckage of the Goliath tank. From his fading sense of hearing, he could tell that his ship turned around and fled the hull breach on the Dreadnaught, leaving him behind.

"Think…so tough? Pathetic… This…from a renowned…? What a load of…" Spectre heard from his fading hearing until he was thrown into the ground once more, sliding until he stopped at a piece of Hive architecture that was destroyed when the Cabal ship crashed. For some reason, he felt a sinister aura around the area, and he knew what was going on around him. It was the presence of the Taken.

His strength was being sapped away, and he knew it all along. He ran the risk when he told Primus to leave him behind, and the Light within him was being smothered by the Taken's presence. Weakly, he struggled to get back on his feet, but collapsed against the debris. To make matters worse, the vacuum of space already sapped half of his breathing capacity, leaving his breathing shallow and short of breath.

And before he knew it, he felt his head being grabbed by his assailant and jerked forward. What happened next was all in a blur. Just as quickly as his head was pulled forward, his head was thrown backwards. A loud symphony of plasteel and electronics within his helmet was released as an ear-screeching song of destruction that tore through his ringing ears, and his skull scrunched against his own helmet. He felt zero gravity through a crack in his helmet, and he knew that his helmet being smashed against the Hive architecture debris wasn't the only problem going on.

Dam…mit… Oxygen chip…disconn…ected… Can't… Reconnect…

Spectre's oxygen, despite his best efforts to conserve whatever was in his helmet without the chip connecting his helmet to his internal oxygen tank, was all depleted.

And he succumbed to the darkness.