The Queen of Hearts

Chapter 8: Into The Dark

Talia squatted on the ledge of a towering skyscraper, eyeing the enormous Fallen ketch that hung in the sky some distance away. Luckily the enemies aboard did not seem to be looking for them on this side of the city. It had taken hours, but their crew managed to skirt around Fallen territory to the back of their complex and climb to the top of a building there. All except Shiro. He had an important job to do elsewhere.

Daydra walked up next to her, hands folded behind his back. "You should have let me handle the distraction."

Talia shook her head. "You just want to blow stuff up. Besides, Shiro is more than capable. We need you with us in case things get hairy in the sewers."

He sighed. "It would have been nice to see the explosion up close. You're right, of course. I taught you too well."

She smiled and nudged him. "Get ready, old man. We need to be quick when Shiro does his thing."

He rolled his eyes and nodded, looking over the edge of the skyscraper to the street far below. There, a manhole was open and waiting. It was the best entrance to the sewer according to Cayde, but there was a complication. It was surrounded by a large squadron of Fallen. It seemed they were aware of that vulnerability, as they had feared. That's why the distraction was so important.

Talia silently sent a prayer to the traveler. Please, she thought, let them take the bait.

Daydra caught her worried expression and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, if there are any left, we'll hit them fast and hard so they can't call reinforcements." He raised a hand over the ledge, making hand signals that asked, "Are you ready?"

Talia peered over the edge herself, this time following the sidewalk with her eyes until she found a small alleyway tucked between two buildings. There, she could barely make out Cayde's brown hood. He was crouched, with Torres and Vespa just behind. He briefly glanced up and gave them two big thumbs up. She smiled, then looked to the horizon. "Come on Shiro, you can do this."

Suddenly, a bright light erupted there, blurring her vision. Talia blinked as the shockwave hit them and an explosion engulfed the front of the Fallen complex. Shiro was successful. Using all of the explosives at the team's disposal, he had bombed their front gate.

Daydra laughed, basking in the light of the blast. He watched as the Ketch in the sky above began to maneuver towards the blast as well. "Beautifully done." He leaned over the edge one more time to see what the Fallen would do. They seemed frantic, growling at each other. Eventually the Captain at their head barked some orders and most of them began rushing towards the explosion. Only a handful of vandals and dregs remained. Daydra smirked, then waved another signal. "Go!"

Talia and Daydra both leaped from the building's ledge and began to plummet towards the street. At the same time, Cayde and the others bolted from the alley and opened fire on the Fallen. A few died outright as their surprised faces caught bullets. The others scrambled for cover, but it didn't do them any good as Daydra rained fire from above with his hand cannon and Talia let loose a volley of arrows upon them. They all quickly fell to the aerial attack.

Cayde vaulted over a burned out car frame to the manhole and directed for Vespa and Torres to jump in. They quickly sprinted over and leaped down into the hole, then Cayde waved to the pair of Hunters quickly falling towards him. Talia tucked her arms to her sides and fell into line behind Daydra right as they neared the street. With excellent precision, they both dove perfectly into the hole. Cayde immediately dragged over the manhole cover lying nearby and climbed in, then replaced the cover overhead, closing the hole above them.

The exo hunter dropped down and landed feet first in the shallow, muddled water below. "Good thing I don't have a nose," he said, scrunching his metallic face in disgust.

Talia held a hand to her face. "I'll admit I'm a little jealous." She held out a hand and Reeki appeared. "Hey buddy, would you mind giving me some light?"

"R-r-right away!" he said, bobbing up and down as his eye flashed white and a beam of light emerged. The others did the same, holding out their hands so that their ghosts could provide some extra vision. Save for Daydra. He frowned and turned away, starting to walk down the sewer tunnels in the forefront of the group.

"What's wrong Daydra?" Talia called.

"Keep those lights behind me!" he said. "I prefer to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. It lets me see details better."

The group followed closely behind, and Vespa nudged Talia. "It's a shame he is married," she whispered. "I find myself quite taken with this man."

Talia chuckled. "Careful, Ivy would have your head if she heard that."

She laughed. "A headstrong woman. I suppose if anyone were to have him, she is more than deserving."

"Keep it down back there," said Daydra, watching the tunnels ahead like a hawk. His steps were quick but careful, barely making any noise as they maneuvered through the mirk. "We don't know if there are more Fallen down here."

Torres scoffed. "I'm more worried about the Hive," he said quietly, flipping through the notes in his journal. He had his ghost lighting the book instead of the way ahead like everyone else. "It is strange we have not seen this Lightstalker since leaving basecamp. It's possible the horde has returned to the swamp, but… it seemed so hellbent on killing us. It's possible we will face it again before we can leave the city. Oh, how I would love a sample of its armor to test in our- I mean my lab."

Talia shuddered at the thought. They had unleashed three supers on the beast last time, and it not only survived, but quickly recovered from its wounds. The thing wasn't invincible, but she feared it might take more than the six of them to stop it.

Cayde put a hand on Torres' shoulder. "Maybe we avoid getting samples of the giant monster until after we make it out alive, ay champ?"

"Absolutely not! Learning how these things work could be invaluable! If the chance arises, I will be collecting that sample. That's the whole reason I came!"

Talia frowned. "I thought you came to study Fallen."

"Bah! That pales in comparison to this new quarry. I will be the envy of my order if I bring back the first ever sample of a brand new alien species!"

"I said keep it down!" Daydra hissed. He made the danger symbol with his hand to Talia and she instinctively knocked an arrow to her bow. "One tango ahead," he whispered. "No guns, let Talia take it out quietly with an arrow."

The group parted to let Talia take the forefront and had their ghosts douse their lights. She peered around the bend of the tunnel and saw what Daydra had spotted. A single lazy vandal was meandering down the tunnel, shock rifle in hand. It didn't seem to know they were there yet. Talia breathed deep despite the smell, and pulled back the string on her bow. It only took a moment to line up the shot, and she let the arrow fly with confidence. There was a faint whistle, followed by a sickening crunch as the arrow found its mark, then a gushing sound as a cloud of ether escaped from the dead vandal's helmet. The foe fell into the water.

Daydra and Talia worked their way up to the vandal together and she pulled the arrow out, returning the precious ammunition to her quiver.

"Excellent shot, Kestrel," said Daydra. He motioned to the others. "Keep moving."

Quieter now, the crew picked their way south through the sewer tunnels, gradually making their way closer to the center of the Fallen complex above. They had to stop a few more times as a Vandal scout reared its head on occasion, but each time Daydra spotted it from afar and had Talia take it out quietly. Before long, they found themselves nearing an enormous junction in the tunnels. The room was so tall and wide that their ghosts could barely light it all up.

Daydra stopped at the end of the tunnel just before the junction and frowned. "There are four more tunnels here. On my mark, everyone cover a tunnel so there are no blind spots. Ready… mark."

The team fanned out and took a tunnel while Daydra turned around to watch the tunnel they came from. "Anything?"

The team responded with a unanimous, "clear." Except for Talia. She was opposite Daydra, peering into her tunnel.

"Talia?" Daydra called. "Talia, what is it?"

She knocked an arrow, eyes wide and struggling to speak. "My tunnel… is too dark."

"What did you say?"

Above her, Reeki shined a beam of light into her tunnel, but the light seemed to just… stop. As if there were a wall of pure shadows that ate the beam, smothering it. What's more, the darkness seemed to creep towards them.

Talia pulled back the string on her bow, hands clenching around her weapon. "...run."

"Talia? What-"

Then they felt it. All at once, the feeling of overwhelming despair crashed into them, and the darkness surged towards Talia.

"RUN!" she screamed.

The team scrambled back into the rear of the room and Daydra cursed, glancing at the miniature holomap attached to his left forearm. "This way!" he bellowed, leading them down a side tunnel that Torres had been watching. They obeyed, hot on his tail as the darkness overflowed into the room behind them.

From Talia's tunnel, heavy footsteps began to echo outward. A hulking mass took shape in the blackness, three eyes glowing green with hunger for blood.

"LIGHTSTALKER!" Torres shouted.

The beast roared, causing the walls of the sewer to rumble. In response, the shadows parted to reveal a horde of Thrall, sprinting and growling after the crew.

Cayde brought up the rear and chanced a glance back. "Oh boy, that's not good." As they rounded a bend in the tunnel, he quickly reached under his cloak and threw out a trip mine grenade. It stuck to the wall and automatically extended, shooting a red motion sensor beam out across the tunnel. He smirked, then sprinted to catch up to the others. A few seconds later, an explosion rocked the tunnel as the thrall crossed the grenade's threshold.

Suddenly Daydra was beside him. "That was smart, just be careful not to bring the tunnel down on us."

"Don't worry, these walls seem sturdy. I don't even think that slowed them down much."

They both stole another glance behind them, and sure enough the dark mass of the horde was hot on their trail, trampling over each other to catch up.

Daydra cursed. "I really hate these things." He brought up the holomap again. "Left at the next junction!"

The crew reached another large room with more tunnels and veered left, but Vespa stopped them at the entrance. She summoned a flaming hammer and hurled it far down the length of the tunnel. It ignited as it collided with a Thrall's head, causing it to explode. The second horde behind it quickly trampled the flame and rushed towards them.

"They're everywhere!" Vespa shouted.

Daydra grunted in frustration and glared at the holomap, his retinas burning with solar energy now. "This way!" He sprinted forward to the front of the crew again, heading down the next tunnel over. This time Vespa brought up the rear, occasionally tossing a hammer behind her or firing bullets from an auto rifle that rotated in and out of her hands via transmat.

The new tunnel was clear for now, and they ran for several minutes in the darkness, feet splashing and occasional gunfire echoing throughout. Daydra was hyper focused on his map. His face was so intense that it seemed to Talia he was trying to will the path into existence. He had them make a right at the next junction, then another left, until at last a glimmer of hope crossed the veteran's face.

"The exit is ahead!" Daydra shouted. Sure enough, as the light of their ghosts stretched further ahead, a u-shaped opening appeared. Beyond that was a large, circular room with a rusted ladder leading upward. "We'll go up one at a time, starting with Torres. The rest of you create a defensive line and open fire on those monsters. They must not reach this room until we are out!"

Vespa laughed as they stumbled into the room. "This I can do!"

Torres looked back, frowning. "Must I go first? I'd really like to snag a sample from-" The Warlock yelped as Daydra practically hurled him onto the ladder. "Fine," he muttered, then began to climb.

Everyone else turned and formed a line, summoning their weapons. Cayde with his Ace, Talia with her bow, and Vespa, surprisingly, held aloft a hulking machine gun. She opened fire, and incendiary rounds tore into the horde, causing a multitude of explosions and making bodies pile up fast. She laughed as she wrought a new kind of destruction upon her enemies. Some stragglers managed to get through the hail of bullets, but Cayde was ready. With shot after shot from his Ace of Spades he downed them all with extreme precision.

Suddenly the machine gun fire stopped, replaced with hollow clicks. "Talia, cover me!" Vespa shouted. "I need to reload!"

Without hesitation, Talia knocked an explosive arrow and sent it careening down the tunnel. The explosion rocked the sewers and engulfed the horde in flames, buying them a few extra seconds.

"Good, Talia!" said Daydra. "Now it's your turn. Follow Torres!"

Talia trusted Daydra's judgment and leaped onto the ladder, climbing up after the Warlock.

Just as the Thrall surged through the flames, Vespa locked the new belt into place and ripped the handle back on her weapon. Then she resumed the rain of fire and death upon them.

Daydra tugged on Cayde's shoulder. "She's got this! Your turn!"

He nodded and jumped onto the ladder after Talia.

Daydra raised his hand cannon and joined Vespa on defense, shooting scattered Thrall dead as they appeared. His aim rivaled that of Cayde's, popping their heads open one by one. "Okay Vespa, your tu-" he stopped, slightly lowering his hand cannon. Without warning, the horde had stopped. Not a single Thrall came down the tunnel at them.

Vespa cocked her head. "Did we kill them all?"

Suddenly the wall to their right exploded. Talia cried out near the top of the ladder as she watched rubble rain down on the two below. Vespa grunted as debris crashed against her thick armor. Daydra just managed to deftly tumble backwards, dodging an even larger stone and falling on the ladder. Through the hole in the wall, the monstrous Lightstalker stepped through, trailing a cloud of darkness. It laughed, and the sound shook the room.

"By the Traveler," said Cayde. "It's even more ugly in person!" He hung off the ladder with one hand and fired his Ace of Spades with the other. Unfortunately, the bullets were just an annoyance to the creature. It frowned and lifted an arm over its head so that its hand absorbed the shots.

Daydra picked himself up off the ladder and prepared to dash forward at the beast to buy them some time, but a firm hand grabbed him and shoved him back on the ladder. His head whipped around to see Vespa standing there, pushing him up. "What do you think you're doing?!" he shouted.

"Go on," she said simply. "I can hold it off a lot longer than you can."

"It will kill you!"

"Would you have ended up any different? Go, and watch how a real Titan holds the line." With that, she stepped between him and the monster. Then she exploded with solar energy. Her giant warhammer materialized in her hands, and she lifted it above her head in a show of strength. "Here, beast! Let's have a real fight!"

The Lightstalker smiled widely at her display, and ignored Cayde's continued shots as it stepped forward and raised its enormous cleaver, accepting her challenge.

Daydra grimaced, reluctantly beginning to climb the ladder.

Vespa smiled widely. "Your move, big guy."

The monster roared and attacked with a wide swing of its cleaver. In response, the Titan did the same with her empowered hammer. The two weapons collided in the air with an ear splitting crack that sent a shockwave in all directions. Torres cried out from the top of the ladder as he almost lost his grip.

Vespa followed up the parry with a swift downward swing of her hammer. As the head hit the earth, a tornado of fire sprang from the weapon, rapidly growing in size and engulfing the monster. It roared louder and backed away from the searing heat, but it was no use. The relentless flames followed it wherever it moved.

"Hey Cayde!" Vespa shouted. "I think I'll take this one's head as my payment for this mission!"

He chuckled. "If you can take it, it's yours!"

"Keep moving!" Daydra hissed at him as he caught up on the ladder. He saw Talia hanging there as well, watching Vespa fight the monster. "Both of you!"

Once again, Talia found herself torn. It didn't feel right to leave Vespa to fight that horrendous thing by herself, but Daydra was also right. If they went back to help, they might all never make it out alive. Reluctantly, she continued to climb with Cayde right on her heels.

Below, Vespa slammed her hammer to the ground twice more, creating additional fire tornadoes that cornered the Lightstalker and burned away at its chitin. Its howls of anger and pain reverberated up the shaft and made the ladder rattle.

Above, Torres managed to open a hatch to the world above and quickly climbed out. Talia was about to follow, when something hit her. The overwhelming sense of dread that emanated from the beast suddenly intensified tenfold, and it took everything she had just to keep holding onto the ladder. Carefully, she stole a glance at the ground below, just in time to see the Lightstalker stomp the earth and explode with darkness. The wave of shadows ate the flames and even snuffed out the solar light from Vespa. She gasped, falling to one knee as her light was heavily suppressed. Without giving her even a second to react, the monster lunged with surprising speed and ferocity. Talia could only watch in horror as its giant cleaver skewered Vespa, running her through with such force that her armor shattered. The Titan died immediately, and her head slumped forward in defeat.

Talia screamed and prepared to leap down at the creature in vengeance, but suddenly Cayde was there, holding her to the ladder. "Wait!" he said. "Do you have a death wish?"

A chorus of wailing reached their ears, and the tunnels below began to thunder from the feet of the horde.

"More Thrall!" said Daydra, now just beneath them. "There is nothing we can do now. Keep going! Move!"

Cayde tried lifting her up further on the ladder, but she resisted, clenching her teeth in denial.

"Please," said Cayde. His voice was calm and focused in her ear. "Your end is not here, Lightness. You must keep going."

Lightness. She hadn't heard him use that name in years. Her eyes snapped to his and she saw in them something to hold onto; a light in the dark.

"We will go back for her, I promise."

He meant it. She could tell. Reluctantly, she allowed him to lift her to the next rung where she grabbed hold and began climbing for her life. It only took a few seconds to reach the opening at the top and she scrambled out onto wet concrete. She paid it no mind, instead whipping around to help Cayde and Daydra out who were right behind her.

The Lightstalker roared up at them as Thrall began to flood into the room, tearing Vespa's body from the cleaver and ripping her to shreds. Talia blinked away tears and whispered an apology to her fallen comrade, then shut the hatch, sealing the Hive down there in the sewers.

For one painful moment, she collapsed into her hands over the hatch, unable to process what had happened. Did they really just lose a crew member? And so quickly? What kind of monstrosity were they up against? How were any of them going to survive this?

Her harrowed thoughts were interrupted by a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Daydra motioning for her to sit up, but his eyes were not on her. She followed his gaze and caught her breath as she realized what was happening. They had emerged from the sewers directly into some kind of enormous meeting hall, and it was filled with hundreds of Fallen. The alien warriors surrounded them with guns, swords and spears crackling with arc energy.

At their head, an enormous quad-armed warrior stood twice as tall as the rest, staring down at them. He was the size of an Archon, and was covered in various cybernetic parts. Two of his four eyes emitted a red glow that seemed to pierce the room with their gaze. His helmet curved upward in a pointed U shape, like an evil crown. Talia knew who he was. They had reviewed the intel ten times over. Before them was the cold genius himself, Talsiks.

But it was not his appearance that sent a jolt of fear down Talia's spine, but rather what he was holding. In one of his right hands, he held up Torres by his head, lifting the Warlock high above the ground for all to see. Torres struggled against the villain's grip, but it was like a mouse fighting a lion. Pointless.

"Guardians," Talsiks growled. His voice was gritty and deep, like the synthetic grinding of gears. With two free hands, he placed his palms together in a sinister gesture. "Your little foray into my operation ends here. Submit to me, or I will make you submit."

"Don't listen to him!" Torres shouted. He clawed at Talsiks' arm in vain.

The towering Fallen seemed to get annoyed at that, then eyed the rest of the guardians with a smug squint. With one of his opposite arms, he pulled out a device that attached to the forearm of his bottom right appendage. Then he activated it, and four prongs flipped out of the device like metallic claws.

Talia held her breath as she caught a crackle of familiar white energy emit from it. Was that the same energy that produced the high velocity shields?

Talsiks grinned. "Maybe this will teach you who's in charge here." Suddenly, he rammed the claws into Torres' chest and it immediately began to hum with power.

Talia expected it to harm the Warlock in some way, but what happened before her eyes was far worse. Instead, the device seemed to be extracting energy from Torres. He writhed against it, but it was no use. The guardians could only watch in horror as the energy being sucked out of Torres began to form a shape. His ghost.

At last, the claws clamped down on the little light and tore it away from Torres. He seemed to go pale as his ghost whined in pain, trapped within the device. Then Talsiks threw the Warlock to the ground. He hit the ground hard, and groaned with anger. A void grenade began to form in his hand, but Talsiks drew a sword and held it to the eye of his ghost.

"Careful now," he said. "I wouldn't do anything rash if you'd like to keep your ghost alive. Same goes for the rest of you." He nodded to a nearby Vandal, who barked at the crowd. More Fallen came forward with the same devices and before any of the guardians could protest, the claws were in them.

Talia doubled over in shock and terror as a claw suddenly found its way onto her back. A screeching sound invaded her mind and she flailed as she realized the noise was Reeki, screaming as he was torn away from her. In a blind fury she grabbed the shaft of an arrow and twisted to stab her assailant with its sharp head, but stopped as it nearly collided with Reeki's glitching eye. He was already in the device's clutches, and the Fallen held a gun to him. "NO!" she screamed in disbelief.

Frantically she whipped her head around to find help, only to see that the others had lost their ghosts as well.

"Remain calm!" Daydra shouted to them, but his expression showed something Talia had rarely seen from him: fear.

Talsiks rattled Torres' ghost around in the claws. "You are no threat to us anymore, guardians. Welcome to the new age of the Eliksni!" He motioned to his underlings and the crowd of Fallen began to drag them away into the dark halls of their complex.

Reeki disappeared along with the others, and a tear fell from Talia's face.