EPISODE 43 “You either Die a Hero, or Live long enough to see yourself become the Villain” Quiet. Too quiet. No sounds at all, save for his Squad. No Fallen Chatter, no Welders cutting up the landscape, just Aion, the whirring of the Spinners, and Daltec singing some old-ass song. “‘He's an outlaw, loose and running’ came a whisper from each lip, ‘And he's here to do some business with the Big iron on his hip’, Big iron on his h-”. Daltec was cut off by the shudders and creaks of age-old mechanisms, then screeching as they failed, and the door came falling towards him. The Hunter simply cut the wall of steel in half, with but a slice of his hand, and started collecting SIVA clusters, whilst his team carried on. Erax felt uneasy, like he always did on a mission, except that his unease did not come from some immense force of Darkness, but a lack thereof. They were closing in upon the Monitor Room, home of Vosik, but no trace of Darkness could be detected, not even a faint Splicer Dreg. Covering himself in his Light Ward and glowing like a nightlight, he hoped to bring his flame to the outer reaches, and extinguish the Dark. Bjorn was wondering about his kid, Dave. He was young, but full of power, fire, and pure light. I guess that comes naturally, with being the spawn of Daltec and Time itself. He and Bjorn both raised Dave well, vital skills, such as literature and Swordplay, Maths and Grenade-making, History and The Wonders of Pissing-Off Zavala and Saladin. He hoped that Dave would do him proud, and destroy the Void. Quinn thought about his former dreams, hopes, deaths, lives. He thought about home, and what he was doing to protect it. He thought about what it took for him to reach his position. General Quinn, only took the death of a Vanguard Scout at his hands to earn that title. Now, he was just a Guardian, following his Light, his Ghost, and his Gut. He hoped that the future would be kind on him, and the citizens of the Last City, he hoped that his efforts would keep the dark at bay for a while longer. Daltec calculated odds. Many of them. Odds of winning this battle, odds of beating this raid, odds of winning against the darkness, odds of getting a Pay Rise for all that goddamn paperwork. He calculated the odds, and the odds of his odds coming true. He hoped that his calculations never failed, and that his smarts would never falter for him, or for his team. Aion prepared for the future. If he won this small war, who would be next? The Kings? The Hive? The Vex? Mayhaps the Cabal. Who knows, maybe this'll be the key to finishing the Darkness, to finally deter its forces and bring light to the Solar System once more. He hoped that it would be the last battle he'd have to fight to end this, but deep down, he knew otherwise. Aurus hoped that he could have Bacon for dinner. The world within the walls was vast, and quite broken, what with the firing of the cannon a few weeks ago, but the team made do, mostly with Daltec and Bjorn throwing people over gaps. He may not look it, but Bjorn had physical strength comparable to Daltec’s, though one was twice the size of the other. When they had finally made it across, they came to a dead-end. “There's a vent somewhere below us, try breaking through the floor.” Hemera informed the others. Daltec smiled, “With pleasure, M’lady”, and slammed a fist into the hidden doorway below. The room they walked into was large, full of monitors, and had four doors, two on the left, two on the right. There had been signs of a struggle, and one of the doors were sealed, another was broken. “No sign of Vosik, and the door’s open, so let's go.” The team walked through the door, and Daltec grabbed a battered Shotgun left on the floor, admiring the model and make of this ‘Quantiplasm’. “Hold up guys, Darkness ahead. Faint, Major Captain perhaps. Daltec, go get ‘em.” Erax called out. “Got it, assessing the situation… Meksis, the Engineer. Wait, this was where we fought Aion and his team, right? The Siege Engine is being rebuilt. That's… a Sh*tload of explosives. I'll go and rush him, everyone else, disarm the bomb. Go!” Daltec began sprinting at the Captain, who looked like it was… smiling? As Daltec tackled it behind the bomb, it exploded, wiping everyone but him. GUARDIANS DOWN The skull of death flashed on to Dal’s HUD, the sudden beep waking him from slumber. He then heard the voice of an angel, his guardian angel. “Dalte….” Hemera was losing her power. “Ge- out.. o- there!” Static filled the air. Daltec was inside the Server room, legs pinned by a sheet of metal that wouldn't budge. SIVA, with each moment, began pumping into his lungs and… arm stump. “Hemer-AGH! *pant* I ain't losing you, kid. Send a signal… to the Vanguard. Tell ‘em… tell ‘em to light this place up. Make this place burn like hell. Make the flames… heh… make the flames hotter than I am.” Daltec took Hemera’s Drive out of his helmet, and slammed it into a slot on a Server. Daltec then worked on his legs. “Agh! Fffffffff… ugh!” He was crawling, pulling himself with his only good arm, which for once was his right. It seemed that all this SIVA prevented his Regeneration (~self replication: time cancer cell regeneration~ SIVA), degrading him as fast as he could heal. He knew he wasn't gonna make it, just hoping that his shotgun had at least one shell, for when he was turned. But he kept crawling, until he made it to the pit. And down the Rabbit Hole, Alice fell into madness. His conscious mind knew there was one way to get out alive. Aksis awoke, gnashing teeth and grinding claws, the creature bent down to see the weak mess that Daltec now was. And the mess raised his hand, knowing that Fallen made offerings of SIVA to become perfected. The Archon Prime laughed, and ripped the heart from Daltec’s chest, to help reshape this imperfect mistake. ~Life force deleted~ ~Consume Enhance Replicate~ ~Command Overwritten~ ~Consume Control Puppeteer~ ~SIVA~ ~Creating (SIVA!) Designation: CROTA~ ~Purpose: Continue (HIVE) Kovik’s Sin~ ~Puppetmaster In Stasis~