"My lord, we have arrived at the City."   Akûn sat inside the bridge of the Eviscerator, he had just fought a couple guardians he had thought were dead. That he had killed himself, clearly he had made a mistake. Torment was where they belonged, in his throne world.   Many trembled when they heard the name of his throne world spoken, that was why he named it Torment. No one could invade his throne world, and even if they did, they could not destroy it. For now he needed to supervise his fleet, those guardians were being hunted down both in the ascendant plane and the Eviscerator.   He suspected one of the reasons they could easily pop in and out of portals was because of the ship's construction. It was intertwined with the ascendant plane, he could be wrong though. Even if they destroyed him and his ship, all would not be lost. He had an echo of the Eviscerator locked in his throne world, that would prove useful if he failed here.   Now it was time for some mind games, he had neglected psychological warfare for too long now. Maelstrom would be a good start, he was already slightly unstable. Akûn was satisfied, so he began to pick apart Maelstroms mental weaknesses and use them against him. ---------------------------------------------------------------   The ship appeared over the City suddenly, it was massive. It looked like the Dreadnought, Teren decided to do something about it. He gestured for one of the assistants at the mental institute he was in to come towards him. When the assistant reached him he slammed his head into the table he was sitting at.   Taking the key from the assistants belt he unlocked his door. As he expected there were guards in the hall, he was after all, a potential threat. His heart heavy with what he was about to do he formed a blade from the shadows in the hall.   The guards tried to detain him, he killed them with the blade. Every door he encountered he unlocked with the key, every guard he encountered formed a path of death from his cell. It felt good to be doing something again, it felt good to try to be the good guy.   He fought his way to the supply hangar and took a jumpship. That ship had to go, no matter what it cost him. Even if he fell to the Darkness, luckily he knew who he could bend to his will to help him. A crackling came from the com system on the jumpship, then a female voice began to speak. It was definitely on the deeper side, beyond that he couldn't tell any precise mannerisms.   "I see you're out, took you long enough."   "Who is this?"   "This is Dredgen Mala, you are Dredgen Truth yes?"   "That's correct."   "I'm about to punch a hole through that big Hive ship. I know you think I'm a psychopath, but do you want to come along?"   "You're my best bet for getting aboard, anyone else would just shoot me. Though I still think there's a chance you'll just shoot me too."   "Isn't there always? Hehe, this will be such fun."   Truth shut off the com unit, he didn't want to talk to Mala unless necessary. If he ticked her off his chances of getting aboard alive would go astronomically low. Instead he focused on a ship going at an incredibly fast speed toward the Hive ship. He watched as it collided with the ship and punched a hole through its hull.   He turned the com unit on, "Mala, I think we've found our way in." ---------------------------------------------------------------   Kirk waited until he could see again, a bright flash had blinded him when he crashed the ship through the hull. Outside the viewport was a small room that the nose of the ship was sticking into.   There was a group of knights standing around Maelstrom. Suddenly Maelstrom shouted, "is that my ship you mo-"   Kirk shattered the viewport before Maelstrom could finish and drowned him out. The knights tried to shoot him and his friends but missed. That cost them their lives, the knights all lay dead on the floor a couple seconds later.   Kirk waved at Maelstrom, "that sure is your ship."   "I see you're no longer a broken sadistic emotionless killing machine."   "We'll go with that."   "I'm gonna make you pay for that ship, in glimmer and blood."   "How much?"   "Two hundred thousand, and a hundred crucible rounds where you don't fight back."   "We'll see if you make it through this."   "That a threat?"   "An observation, you can't think we'll all make it out of this alive?"   "I can hope. I can also hope that the big s-"   "Please Maelstrom, we don't need to use those words here. They provoke emotions in some, anger mostly. That's not good right now."   "Fine, I hope the big," he sighed, "it just sounds stupid to say poop instead of s-." Maelstrom cleared his throat, "what I was going to say."   "That's the spirit."   Kryn stepped into the conversation, "is it too much to ask that we get moving? Akûn has to know that we're here."   Kirk nodded, "she's right, let's find that big son of a b-"   Maelstrom slapped Kirk upside the head, "that kind of language promotes unnecessary emotions."   "Right. Let's go get that dried up corpse."   "That's the spirit."   "Maelstrom, remind me to give you a lesson in respect."   Maelstrom just snorted as they exited the room. ---------------------------------------------------------------   "Kana, we need to move faster!"   Darek yelled this as they ran through the Tower. Akûn had opened fire on the City, they had to get aboard a jumpship and get inside the flagship.   Kana yelled back at him, "the Vanguard should have a response team ready!"   "They don't, they're putting the civilians in safe locations, we are the response team!"   "Just like usual."   "We should really try to do something less stressful after this. Like a crucible match, something where we don't get shot at by the enemies of humanity everyday."   "I second that."   "You know, after this I don't get how I hated you so much."   "Maybe you just hated having your stupidity served back to you on a platter everyday."   "Either way that ship is an issue."   "I figured that out, I'm also pretty sure that's Akûn up there. He's the only one I know of who could have created and brought to bear a task force like this."   "Savathûn could have."   "If it was Savathûn we'd have already lost."   "How do you know we haven't already?"   "Wishful thinking."   "That's reassuring."   "Better than hopelessness."   They reached the hangar and powered up a jumpship.   "Darek, why'd we have to pick an ugly bright green one?"   "It looked fast."   Kana sighed, "this better work, because if we die I'm going to make sure you regret it."   "Fair point, I'll fly better than normal."   "You better. Do you even have a plan to get aboard?"   "Nope."   With that Darek launched them out of the hangar and began toward the ship at full speed. He saw a gash in the hull and knew that's where he had to try and enter. Then two other jumpships flew into it.   "Never mind Kana, looks like there is a response team after all." ----------------------------------------------------------------- [b]Continued as a comment[/b]