The battle raged outside of The Rose, even the muffled sounds of the countless ships engines and weapon fire could be felt by the command crew. The vehicles flew past the huge viewing screen at the front of the bridge. They behaved as a horde of flies would surrounding a carcass, circling the two massive ships that were firing upon each other.

"How are the shields holding up?!" Boltwing addressed Rawkus who was seated in front of a series of computers to her right.

"Still at one hundred percent!" He yelled back, gripping the edge of his console as the ship shuddered. "Stitch did a hell of job with this thing!" Boltwing forced her attention away from the viewing screen and back to the tactical map floating in front of her. While the rest of the crew on the bridge of The Rose were busy tapping on their computers adjusting flight paths and correcting for the shell impacts on their shields in order to maintain their adjacency to the Taken Monolith that was firing at them, Boltwing studied the floating holographic map and her clan mates status'.

"No one's dead yet, we may just come out of this on top!"

"Don't say that, you jinx it!" Rawkus growled back, his fingers working furiously over his holographic keyboard.

"Ah, we'll be fine!" Boltwing waved her hand, shrugging off his negativity.

"You're still doing it!"

"Admin status check guys?!" Boltwing barked over the comms, ignoring Rawkus's objections. "Nightingale, how's the weather?!"

"But foggy right now but I'll soon clear that up!" Nightingales voice crackled through, fighting to be heard over the rattle of his ship firing.

"Galvanic here, two manning whatever the hell this Festival of the Lost knockoff asshat is, going as well as could be expected!"

"Imperial reporting, what he said!" Sounds of heavy conflict could be heard in the background of both transmissions, more notably what sounded like a huge sword being swung.

"He's here." Stitches voice echoed through quietly. Boltwings eyes narrowed behind her helmet.

"You sure?" She replied quickly.

"It's him alright, He's on the Tower with Cayde-6. I don't think he'll last. I'm moving in to engage."

"Good hunting old friend." Boltwing resigned, knowing the Hunter wouldn't wait for backup. "And be careful." She whispered under her breath as the comm line went silent. She monitored the battle for several minutes until she realised Imperial signature on the ships tracker had left Galvanic and moved up towards the tower.

"Imperial what are you doing?" Her voice shot down the line.

"I've got a bad feeling about Stitch, going in to assist!" Boltwings thoughts flashed back to the visions she started having months ago. Wait. This isn't real. It was at that moment Boltwing realised she wasn't in control of her body. She felt her head turn towards to viewing screen as a new signal pinged on the radar.

"We got incoming!" Rawkus alerted the bridge.

"More ships?" Boltwing questioned him.

"Too small to be ships, looks like two missiles! They're giving off a strange reading too." He mused.

"Ignore them, I doubt it'll do anything to us."

This isn't real.

"I'm analysing them."

"Alright, but don't lose focus, Rawkus." Boltwing scolded him.

Is this a dream?

"Components contain... Uranium?" Rawkus paused, sounding confused as his eyes flickered down the composite analysis of the missiles. "Oh god. Boltwing." His voice filled with panic.

"What's wrong?

"The missiles are Thermonuclear."

"That's not a problem for us right?" Boltwing stuttered, her mind racing.

"Our ship could take several times the yield that thing has, but the city can't." Rawkus spoke with sadness in his voice.

Or is it a nightmare?

Boltwing sat back, very aware she had seconds to act. They could move the ship into orbit, take the nukes with them where the explosion could do no harm. Or they could fire on them, detonate the payload early.

"Can we shoot them? Blow them early and minimise the damage?"

"They're too close to the City, it would kill everyone on the ground anyway." Putting her hands on her head, Boltwing had to reconsider her options.

"Can the Traveller take it? Because if we move they'll take the Traveller." She said slowly.

"All evidence we have on it indicates it can." Rawkus turned in his seat to stare at his friend, the Warlock clad in blue.

Don't do this.

"We have a duty to the Traveller. We have to stay." Boltwing spoke quietly, her heart dropping further with every word that passed her lips.

Please.

"Contact everyone, transmat back to The Rose." She continued, speaking as fast as she dared. "Divert all non essential power to the shields and the transmat, I want everyone back onboard and then as many civilians as we can get. Send them to the cargo hold, have Oxalic meet them as soon as he's back." The bridge exploded with an uproar of noise as the crew worked as fast as they could.

"Impact in 20 seconds, Boltwing!" Rawkus informed her, keeping his cool best he could.

"Where are the other leaders?" She asked, looking away from her monitor as its resources we reallocated to assist with the runtime calculations of the transmat.

"Nightingale, and Galvanic are onboard. Nothing from Stitch or Imperial. Impact in 10. "

"How many civilians have we pulled?" The Warlock asked.

"About seventeen." Rawkus said with a grim expression.

"Divert all power from weapons to transmat, get everyone we can!" She half shrieked, clearly dismayed.

"5 seconds, still no word on Stitch or Imperial!"

This isn't a dream.

Boltwing slowly turned her gaze to the screen at the front of the bridge. Two tracking indicators were following the missiles on their damned path.

This isn't a nightmare.

The missiles collided with The Rose, rocking the ship viciously as the shields dispersed the force and saved everyone inside. White fire and death engulfed the sky, flooding into the bridge through the monitor until that's all Boltwing could see.

This is something else.