Chapter 3: The Day the Light Died, Part 3
Stephane
We barely made it to Paul in time. He was surrounded by cabal soldiers with a gun pressed against his head and I was having none of it. I took out the soldier with a single shot of the sniper rifle I picked up off an enemy a few minutes ago and that caught the rest of their attention. TJ immediately started firing off spells left and right to create distance between them and Paul. I charged in, switching to my rifle and eliminating enemies as I moved. It only took us a few minutes to dispatch what I believed was 20 or so soldiers. I was filthy, covered in blood and sweat. I walked over to Paul and helped him up. "You know there are more fun ways to spend time on your knees." I said jokingly. He smiled weakly "Maybe, but there's always later" I reached down and picked up the gun of a fallen soldier. "Can you keep fighting?" I said as I handed him the gun. "Yeah, but I can't use any spells for a while. Ghost can't heal exhaustion" he said. I nodded and turned to TJ "We need to get to the airfield. Francis has my ship tucked away there. "I said. TJ nodded "Let's find a place we can sit first, give Paul a minute to recover. I agreed and we helped Paul into one of the nearby buildings. We sat him on the floor and he took a deep breath. "Thanks Guys, that was a close one" he said. "No problem hun, just try to recover." I said. 'I started to walk around the floor we were on to make sure we were clear. This was insane. I only prayed my baby was alright.
TJ
I summoned ghost and had him scan the area for civilians and guardians while Stephane checked out and secured the floor. I took a seat next to Paul while he scanned. "How are you feeling man?" I asked him. He took a deep breath "I'm getting there, my ghost is damaged but he's holding up" he said. I looked at him, he was still breathing heavy. He really overtaxed himself fighting the cabal and losing the light wasn't helping. The alarms were still blaring in the distance and you could hear gunfire in every direction. Ghost was hovering weakly doing his scan. He also took some damage and needed repairing. Once we got to the others I'm sure Kacey or Jose could help repair him, they were good at stuff like that. "TJ, it seems as though there are no civilians nearby and the soldiers are moving towards the airfield. We should move soon." I nodded and stood up. The airfield wasn't too far from here. Normally we wouldn't even need to go to get to our ships but we had to help with evacuations. Stephane came back and tossed a bottle of water to Paul. "Drink this, and then we got to move." He said.
Meanwhile
He sat upon his throne and smiled with delight. It had been child's play to invade the tower. Those pathetic guards squandered their blessings and monopolized what should have been his. It mattered not; soon they would know misery and despair. They would feel the same powerlessness he experienced when he was young, while he would bask in the traveler's light. "Soon" he said softly, his whole body shivering in anticipation. For after this day, he would be master of the universe and no one could challenge his might. No one would dare challenge the Red Legion!
Back on Earth
Paul
We reached the airfield with no trouble, all the streets were clear. It seemed that all the fighting had become contained to this area. I couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing at this point, there was carnage everywhere and my heart sank. I hoped my friends were alright. Stephane had gone off to find Francis and secure the ships; TJ and I stayed behind and used our powers to cover the escape of the civilians with Commander Zavala. "Guardians be cautious, your powers will fade away before too long." He said charging into a group of enemies, tearing through them. He was right. My powers were already weakened and now they were fading, pretty soon I'd have to rely on just my weaponry. Luckily for us we were almost done evacuating civilians. Yet there was still no sign of Brennan and Bryan, man if anything happened to those guys. I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and focused on the task. Suddenly gunfire from above rained on the enemy and I heard a familiar voice over comms.
TJ
"Hey Boys got the ship all ready for you!" Stephane said over comms. I tossed a grenade into a crowd of soldiers. "Great, let's get out of here. Looks like evacuations are complete." I said over comms moving quickly towards Paul. "Commander, Let's go!" I shouted. He decimated a large group of enemies with an arc strike. "You all go; I must find Ikora and Cayde. I pray you will all be safe" he said before rushing off towards the communication towers. Paul and I had our ghosts transport us aboard the ship. "Hang on, this will be a very rough ride" Francis said accelerating the ship full throttle. I stumbled backwards and caught Paul who also was caught off guard. We managed to get to seats and strap in.
Stephane
We picked the guys up and took off, there were enemy ships everywhere and our pilot was anyone else, we'd be toast. But Francis was one of the best in the Vanguard. I took over navigation and began plotting our course. "You need to break through these defenses and get us to these coordinates on earth." I said to him "It's our emergency rendezvous point, everyone should be gathering there" He nodded and concentrated on getting us out of here. We were just one of many ships fleeing the tower and the enemy was trying to pick us off one by one. The ship jerked in all directions as we dodged al the incoming fire at the ship. I watched in horror as a few of the ships around us got hit and burst into smoldering fireballs that plummeted to the ground below. "This is impossible; there are too many ships to dodge!" I said exasperated. I turned to Francis and he has a weird smile on his face, "I think it's time we do sometime totally crazy" he said, as he began flipping switches on his console and pressing buttons. "EVERYONE HOLD ON!" he said as he flipped the final switch.
I felt the ship give an involuntary jerk and a small field of energy began surrounding it. "Oh you are not about to do what I think you are doing!" I said. He just kept smiling and put the ship in high gear. I felt the ship gain an incredible amount of speed and the world around us flew by. He had activated his FTL drive from within the planet atmosphere. Such a dangerous and stupid stunt! I gripped the arms of my chair until my knuckles became white. I could hear the guys in the back grunting at the sudden change of speed. After a few seconds our speed returned to normal and we were in space. I felt nauseous, sudden changes in speed like that were dangerous and harmful on the body. I released the arms on my chair, sat back and sucked in some air. 'WHOOOO HOOOO!" Francis cheered. I weakly raised a fist in the Air "Whoo hoo" I said "Never do that again" He turned in his seat and looked back at the guys "Doing ok back there?" he asked. "More or less; just waiting for the ringing in my head to stop." TJ said. Paul just gave thumbs up. I looked at the navigation system and scanner and saw we were out of range from the tower and the cabal, but we were still too close for comfort. "Francis head to the coordinates I inputted in the system while I check on our other passengers." I said getting up on shaky legs. "And let us now when you're about to do something crazy. Paul, TJ you guys want to come with me to the cargo hold?"
Paul
We all walked down to the cargo hold and when the door opened I thought my heart would burst with relief. Brennan and Bryan were there along with Clay and Jose, two of my fellow clan mates. "I'm glad you're all alright. I was so worried about you guys." I said walking over and hugging them. "We ran into them on the way to the Airfield. The guardian they were with got taken out" Clay said. "But they were fine" We all stood there catching up and comparing notes when Francis came over the ships comms. "Guys listen to this message that we are receiving" he said. There were a few moments of silence and then we heard Zavala's voice.
"All guardians who can heed my voice please listen carefully. The Red legion has attacked the traveler. I repeat the red legion has attacked the traveler. The assault on the traveler has caused the light to fade away and render all guardians powerless. Cayde and Ikora are nowhere to be found and we are still under siege. All guardians, you are to evacuate to emergency locations as per Omega Protocol. Citizens you are to reach the emergency shuttles for evacuation immediately. Take caution, the red legion are hunting and killing powerless guardians as well as civilians. I pray you all remain safe"
"I thought we evacuated everyone!" Jose said. I shook my head. "The tower is located on a huge planet, so we may have only evacuated one major area. But that's all we can do for now. We got to get to the emergency clan location now." I said. I pressed the button on the wall left of me to access the ships comms, "Francis, how long until we get to earth?" I asked. "About two hours at this pace." He responded. Two hours, and we'd be reunited with the others. Hopefully we could figure out what to do without the light but for now, "Everyone should just relax for now. It's been a long day"