Jadis couldn’t even scream as the shock blade pierced her abdomen, the heat radiating off the sword broiling her insides. Blood from the wound was only able to flow in small rivulets as the sword cauterized the wound. The air in front of her seemed to shimmer, and a Fallen Captain appeared before her, the hilt of the shock blade grasped firmly in its lower right hand. The Captain raised another blade in its upper left arm, ready to swing it in a wide slash. Jadis could only look on in horror, unable to move as the Captain prepared to slice the Hunter in half. Without warning, she was blinded. The only sensation she could acknowledge was the intense burning that accompanied her as she was roughly pulled off of the Captain’s sword. She blinked back the spots in her eyes, regaining enough of her vision to see an orb of bright light hanging in front of the Captain’s face. Jadis weakly reveled in the sweet satisfaction she felt as she briefly watched the Captain drop his swords and claw at his eyes before she was carried off around a corner. *** David rushed across the city at a rapid pace, jumping, gliding, and then using his momentum as he fell to the ground in order to increase his speed. But no matter how fast he moved, he couldn’t hope to outrun the cries of Fallen across the ruined city as they mobilized and chased after the Warlock. He couldn’t hope to fight back. His clunky pulse rifle was strapped firmly to his back, and there was no way to fire it as he carried the wounded Truth over his shoulder like a sack of flour. So he did the only thing he could: run. He leaped over crumbling walls and stacks of piled up, rusted cars. He floated over patrols of Fallen. He ducked and weaved under overhangs and through bridges to avoid volleys of tracer rounds and shrapnel. All the while, David cringed as Truth continued to moan as every jolt disturbed her sword wound. Taking a risk, he looked back, and saw a pack of Vandals closing in on him! Facing forward, he chucked three balls of fire that exploded into solar grenades. Those stopped the Vandals’ advance, and many of their cries echoed across the city as some of them fell into the flames and burned away. David passed street after street after street, but he stopped abruptly as he looked down into a wide alley that led into a dead end. At the end of the street, was a crashed ship, still intact and not stripped by the Fallen. “HALLELUJAH!!!” David cried, a wide grin bursting forth from underneath his helmet. He made a mad dash toward the ship, sliding to his knees right as he reached the side of it. He placed Jadis carefully on the ground, and her Ghost appeared, chirping worriedly as it scanned and treated her wound. David pulled out his own Ghost, it’s green shell floating in the palm of his hand. “Try to get this ship up and running. We gotta go.” His Ghost merely nodded as it disappeared inside the innards of the ship in a haze of white light. David dragged Jadis behind the ship, and then crouched behind a wing for cover as he drew his pulse rifle. He didn’t have to wait long. The Fallen were right behind him, thirsting for his blood. *** Even after Jadis’s Ghost finished healing her, it was complete and utter madness. Oncoming hordes of suicide Dregs tried to wash over the two Guardians like a wave, wielding shock knives and trying to get close enough to catch them in the explosions of the primed shock grenades sewn to their skin. David mowed them down robotically, one after the other, headshot after headshot. Vandals took positions in the buildings behind the oncoming Dregs, trying to take their heads off with Wire rifles. Jadis made sure to save her precious ammo specifically for them. After what seemed like an eternity, a quiet chirp resounded in their heads among the roar of explosions and the constant clatter of gunfire. “I think I finally got this thing working.” With a subsonic whine, the engines of the ancient ship rumbled to life. It began to float off the ground, parts of it leaking thick black smoke, but it held. “I hope this will take us all the way to the City. I’m almost done fixing…” David and Jadis had gone silent as the Fallen retreated. The Dregs dispersed. The Vandals took cover inside the buildings. Everything was still, and then came the thunder of heavy footsteps as an enormous Fallen thundered into view. The monster was a ten and a half foot tall behemoth. It was completely covered in thick battle armor and multiples tubes of ether shone a molten red as it was pumped into its body. He had four enormous shock blades, two on his back, and two ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice in hilts at his waist. To top it all off he hefted a Scorch cannon on its shoulder, and with it it fired a massive slug of molten fire at the ship, the Guardians’ only escape. The round tore through the ship like wet paper, and it crumbled to the ground in pieces. David’s Ghost appeared to the side of him, looking ashamed. “I’m sorry,” it said, before dissipating into white mist. David and Jadis reared back as the massive Fallen as it roared. “Ka e Sha’ir hoor ma!” *** The Fallen’s massive Scorch cannon began to glow again. From, the weapons innards erupted three molten slugs of red hot fire. While Jadis rolled to the side, David jumped up, and floated in the air as the three rounds passed by harmlessly under his feet. The same could not be said for the smoking ruins of the decrepit ship. As the fiery attack crashed into the vessel, the ship crumbled into itself, until it became nothing more than a seemingly discarded pile of blackened, steaming metal. Jadis, down on one knee, fired her rifle, the gun making a satisfying a clank each time she pumped back the bolt to fire another round. She watched in dismay as each shot merely pinged off the behemoth’s thick armor. It was like trying to use a caterpillar to knock down a brick wall. The giant approached the lone Hunter, and stopped as he felt something stick to his mask. With a flash of light and resounding blast, the fusion grenade David had thrown detonated. The giant dropped its Scorch cannon and clutched the sides of its head, waiting for its head to stop ringing. With the Fallen caught off guard, David dropped to the ground, his body erupting in fiery light, and the wings of his Radiance burst alight on his back. He thrust out his arm, and the Warlock’s palm strike burst forth in a howling explosion, ethereal flames licking at the Fallen’s armor. David jumped back into the air as the Fallen made a wild swipe at him, but clutched only empty air. David’s Radiance flared brighter, and droplets of liquid fire began to leak from his body. As they spattered on the ground, they burst into tiny pinpricks of light that floated lazily towards the giant Fallen, like fireflies on a summer night. The Fallen giant watched, seemingly entranced, as tens, then hundreds of the lights swirled around it. Without warning the lights flared, growing bigger and brighter, and then exploded. The sound of hundreds of grenades going off at once reverberated across the city, turning any remaining windows nearby into powdered glass. As a maelstrom of dust and debris swept through the alley, David fell to his back, completely out of breath. All of his remaining energy had been spent towards his “Firefly”, so there was nothing he could do but groan miserably as a heavy foot landed on his chest. The giant Fallen rose from the dust, its armor glowing red with the heat of the explosion. As it stood, David cried out in pain, as the weight of the massive alien caused his ribs to creak. The Fallen giant looked toward the lone hunter, still standing defiant. Jadis had set down her rifle and pulled out two of her knives, her body beginning to crackle with lightning. The Fallen giant reared back its head and roared, and as he made ready to cut down the Hunter, a ball of Void energy fell from the sky and exploded in the giant’s face. The force of the blast was so forceful, the Fallen was knocked over onto its back. Quick as the very wind that blustered around her, Jadis ran over to the downed David and dragged him back to safety near the smoking remains of the old ship. That’s when she saw the Guardian. A real Guardian. She watched in awe as the Warlock floated softly to the ground in front of her, standing tall as he faced the enraged giant standing before him. His robes, dyed the richest blue and the boldest orange, seemed to flutter from a soft breeze that only they could catch, and his helm was a shade of black darker than the night sky. On the back of his waist held only a silver handcannon, its side etched with the outstretched wings of a majestic bird. The giant roared, drawing a sword in each of his hands. The Warlock raised his own hand, palm outstretched, and out came a lance of Void energy, like the tip of a spear. It rushed through the air, trailing contrails of purple smoke, and ripped through the giant’s face. Only a moment later, the giant crashed to the ground, shaking the earth with a dull thud, a hole as big around as a beach ball torn through its head. The other Fallen, Vandals and Dregs alike, were terrified at their champion being downed so quickly, and fled like cockroaches through the nooks and crannies of the buildings beyond. When all was still and the cries of the Fallen were but echoes in the still air, the Guardian looked back at David and Jadis, who both seemed to be staring in awe at the display of the Warlock’s power. With a clank and a hiss of air, the Warlock removed his helmet, revealing to them a face of green metal, and blood-red eyes. “You two need a ride back to the city?” asked Tempest. [b]A Link to my Chapter Index[/b] https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/116093772/0/0 [b]Continue on to Chapter Twelve[/b] https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/182839202