Chapter 5: Grievance, Part 3

“Wait.” The Warlock grasped the Titan’s arm. She took advantage of the Fallen now focusing on the Taken army to opened up the channel half expecting to scold a prideful girl who wanted nothing but to fill her desire of competition, but once the coms were open to the Huntress all Malinna heard was vengeful screaming. Shaken by her friend’s ferocity, the Warlock was almost too afraid to speak, but she managed to gather her courage quickly. “Zvika, you have to make it back to us.” Silence was the only reply Malinna received over the common static and muffled wind in the background. “We need to regroup so we ca-“ “No.” The girl interrupted “I’m not going back today.” Lintro scolded his sister. “Zvikara! If we don’t regroup now we are all going to die!” “The only one dying today is me!” Zvika replied with a harsh and urged defiance. “I have to die. I am dead. No more hope.” The two Guardians were speechless, they’ve never heard her speech so fragmented and incoherent. Before they could even reply to convince the Huntress otherwise, she continued her painful plea. “Why can’t you see what has happened to me? Open your eyes!” Tears fell from the girl’s eyes like cascading waterfalls as she tore her way through as many Fallen as she could “I died! I was dead and now I can’t think of anything else. I have to die, I must. I have to go back. I BELONG there.” Zvika’s voice trailed. A hushed moment brought forth a few tears from Malinna as a couple of soft sobs transmitted from Zvika’s end. “I have to go home.” Malinna retorted with a desperately. “You know that’s not how it works. We have to go home together. We can’t do it without you! “There’s no more hope. No more dreams. I never really came back. You understand right? You have to understand. I…” The Huntress’s coms cut short before she could finish her thought. Lintro faced Malinna. Even though their helmets concealed their faces, both of them knew the look of sheer terror plastered upon their visage of the thought of losing their closest friend. A glint from a sniper’s scope caught the Titan’s eye and he instinctively responded with a powerful ward of Void light to shield the two. Determined, Lintro began to walk outside of his own protective field to find his lost sister. Malinna immediately grabbed his arm once again and pulled him into the safety of their armored sanctuary. “No!” She cried. “I can’t lose you too.” Her eyes were wide with shock as she fought to hold back her streaming tears. She was almost in a state of panic because of Zvika’s words, but the Warlock knew that they needed to focus on the matter at hand. Fighting desperately against his emotions, he decided Malinna was right. He looked at his lover and smiled. “You’re distress signal went through, I’m sure of it.” The Titan decided he needed to be strong for both his teammates, but his words of comfort held little weight given the situation. The Taken were closing in rapidly. Just as the two readied themselves for the fight of their lives, another blast of dark energy enveloped the Fallen troops directly ahead of the two as Taken poured out and enveloped the remaining Fallen destroying them completely. Out from the subsequent veil, a visage of Oryx stepped forth. In his hand he held a helmetless Zvikara by the neck. Lintro halted his movements, afraid that any provocation would kill his sister. The Echo of Oryx basically had the girl at gun point, and the Titan was not convinced it was open to negotiations. Lintro carefully reached for his side arm as he formulated a plan. But as he was about to pounce, his sister spoke. “It’s okay.” She said softly. “I’ll be fine. I’m going home.” She repeated herself as her voice fell into a hushed whisper. The Echo grinned evilly as it tightened its hold, chocking the Huntress and making her voice strained. “I’ll find a path for you to follow too.” She continued. “So we can all leave together. We can, w-we.” The girl began to lose consciousness as she struggled for air. “Wait!” The Huntress felt an overpowering burden upon her as the Echo started to weave his vial magic. The huntress franticly clawed at her throat begging for release as she screamed and flailed in horror in realization of what was happening. A portal to the taken realm attached to her mind, body, and soon after her soul. It tugged on her, called her into its prison, and with a final blood curdling scream she was gone. With tears streaming down her eyes and a look of pure horror, Malinna fought to hold back Lintro as he tried with all his might to break free and charge into the fray of enemies. Lintro nearly threw the Warlock as he fought to keep some sort of sane thought within his mind. All he could think was, “She’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone.” Finally, as the shimmer of their Void encased sanctuary began to fade, the distraught Titan fell to his knees. Malinna fell onto his back as she began to sob, her best friend was gone. Then, the bubble burst. The Black Fox monitored the offensive and defensive suites inside the cramped strike ship that he and the Cult of Ball used to make their way towards the Seeker’s distress signal. Satisfied that there were no threats or jamming indications, he made his way towards the helm to assess the situation. At the cockpit, Quiblar and the Capitan, two high ranking Cult members, silently graced the controls as their ship approached the signal’s source. “Ah, the Black one has returned.” The Capitan spoke. She was a tone woman with dark skin and a heavy accent. In any other situation her speech would have appeared exotic to most, however every time she spoke it was in reference to the Cult’s colorful religion. “Praise be to the spherical majesty of our holy roundness!” Quiblar, a beast of a man often nicknamed The Bear, echoed the phrase. “Praise be!” The Guardian merely glared at the two zealots, annoyed by their very presence, but they were also the only ones who would help him. The Vanguard gives him nothing in the way of supplies and all three of the major factions refuse to fund a Guardian who lost his Ghost. Despite the disadvantages he loved a challenge, which is why he chose to help the Seeker’s Revelation. It provided him a long term goal to keep him entertained. After the slight annoyance, Fox focused on the main cabin’s sensors and the area outside the glass. There, the three saw just how dire the situation was. Lintro and Malinna were surrounded as they fought for their lives against the endless army of Taken. “Quickly,” the Ghostless Guardian began, “forward the ship over the main group and then land once I clear the area. “Praise be the spherical munitions of divine orbitals!” Shouted the Cult members in unison. Quiblar continued the prayer, “Oh gracious Ball, rolling as you should, deliver our loving friend to his near death and smite the shapeless ones.” The Fox’s patience boiled over, “Damn it! Just do your job!” He almost had to enter the coordinates for the munitions himself before rushing for the airlock. The plan was simple; blow everything to hell. Inside his launch tube, Fox braced himself as he felt the hatch doors to the munitions open below and his air lock release. The floor opened and he commenced his death-from-above strategy. The erratic Guardian activated his Ark ability and tore through the wind causing a high pitched whistle as he shot down towards the massed force like a cruise missile followed by several tons of excessively charged Ark bombs. The air crackled like thunder as the bombastic cluster tumbled downwards. Lightning darted erratically through the snowy sky as the hell storm raced closer to its mark. The Black Fox made the first impact, followed by the several dozen weapons. His impact caused a crater twice his height deep as the bombs detonated all around him. The fallout from his strike covered the Guardian, sheltering him and shielding him from the electricity spinning an enormous web of death as each enemy caught in the cross fire turned into a conducting rod.