Destiny, Episode III: A Titan Rises

Previous Episode: Episode II, A Hunter Rises
Next Episode: Episode IV, A Fireteam Rises

The Ishtar Sink, Venus
Day 005

The first thing Basilisk-15 saw was a diagnostic screen. Red text scrawled across the endless black, forming inscrutable code. When the writing stopped, the words vanished, fading away like ghosts. Then, the dream began.

He stood on a grassy knoll, the sky churning in on an impossible hole against the horizon. Staring into it felt wrong, somehow, as if he was glancing not only into the absence of things, but into an abyss in himself. The longer he stared, the more hollow he felt. In his arms he held a gun, some shapeless thing that only an instinctual portion of his mind recognized as a rifle, and it weighed on him like a stone.

He looked down, and a river of glass and bronze flowed at his feet, growing stronger and stronger. Basilisk hefted his rifle, readying himself as the stream rose higher and higher. From the river rose molten shapes, and from the shapes shined burning, angry red eyes. He didn't hesitate, his gun thundering over and over as he fired into the approaching masses. When he ran out of bullets, he used his grenades. When he ran out of grenades, he used his fists.

The river didn't stop. He pushed it back with every blow, but he alone couldn't stop the tide. As the river crashed over him, the last thing he saw was a stone tower looming in the distance, and a flash of blinding light.

= = = = = = =

"Guardian?" A synthetic female voice called, concern in her voice. "Eyes up, Guardian." Basilisk didn't respond as his ocular sensors rotated back into focus. It wasn't quite like opening your eyes, but Basilisk had long ago forgotten what that was like. As the world sharpened and cleared, the Exo came to recognize that an object was hovering mere inches away from his face. Despite it lacking any face, eyes, or anything human at all, the way it was positioned gave off an air of worry.

"What are you?" Basilisk asked, slowly. There was something wrong with his memories-they were oddly scrambled. Images came and went with no order, no logic. He knew that he was on Venus, where he had fallen in the line of duty: the air smelled of sulfur, and a volcano in the distance spewed blue smoke into the dark sky. The rest, however, seemed like an ocean of memories too scrambled to understand. It was strange comfort to Basilisk that enough was intact to tell him that he had never seen the thing floating in front of him before.

"I am a Ghost. You can call me Boudica." It said, simply. "I brought you back, and now I am tied to you."

If an Exo's face could frown, Basilisk would have. "How?" He probed. He attempted to move, but a warning flashed over reality that told him that his servos will still coming online, and he resigned himself to wait. He only then became aware of the armor he was wearing, an unfamiliar helmet donned over his head, but decided not to ask about it-he wasn't one to look a gift horse too deeply in the mouth.  

"Certain individuals can wield the Light as a weapon. This ability allows a Ghost to 'bend the rules' of life and death." Boudica responded. It was a simple explanation, but that was probably for the best. The Light had always been nothing more than an impossible mystery to Basilisk, capable of doing seemingly anything. The terraformed grasses of Venus were evidence enough of that.

Basilisk stared at the Ghost-his Ghost now, if he had understood the thing properly-and thought very carefully about his next question. It wasn't one he was sure he wanted to hear the answer to. "Did we win?"

"Depends." A new voice announced, a male drawl that belied both a youthful arrogance and a cool twinge of experience hard earned. Basilisk managed to turn his head to see a man, presumably, wearing strange armor and a flowing cloak. Of particular fascination was the man's helmet, which was some strange modification of what Basilisk vaguely recognized as a pilot's helm, and his weapon, a powerful-looking revolver. "Do you define survival as winning?"

"Are the survivors enslaved? Subjugated to some extrasolar empire?" Basilisk returned. The man bobbed his head, thinking a moment.

"No, not yet, anyways." He answered, adding with a shrug, "I doubt anyone would want to; everyone's a little extinction-happy out there."

"Then yes." Basilisk said, his servos humming to life. "We won." As he tried to get to his feet, the man extended his hand to help the Exo up, which Basilisk took gladly.

"Name's Vick." The man said as Basilisk got to his feet. "What's yours?"

"Basilisk-15." The Exo replied. Boudica hovered over to his side, staring at the two of them.

"If you're finished, it's time to go." It said, sounding almost concerned again. "Did Vesper get that console working?" The Hunter nodded.

"Yes, she'll be with us in a moment." Vick glanced over at Basilisk. "Vesper's my Ghost. She's trying to get the data I was sent here to collect before I stumbled Miss Boudica here." Basilisk simply nodded, having nothing to really add to this conversation. A second later, another Ghost appeared from a doorway, hovering to Vick's side.

"Vick, I have the-oh, who's this?" The Ghost had an accentuated female voice, its words sounding as sweet as honey.

"This is a new Titan, Basilisk-15." Vick explained offhandedly.

"How do you do?" Vesper asked, doing the Ghost approximation of a nod. 

"Well enough for a dead man." Basilisk replied with a shrug. "What's a Titan?" He asked, looking at Boudica.

"They're a type of Guardian, like how  Vick is a Hunter." Boudica explained. "Titans are focused on direct engagements with their opponents, more so than any other kind of Guardian." Basilisk had to admit, the idea appealed to him.

"Look, Vick, we need to get out of here." Vesper started, worry creeping into its-her? Basilisk wasn't sure if they actually had genders, or just the vocal approximation of them-voice. "House Winter is moving into the Collective, and it's only a matter of time before they shut down transmat-" Vick put up a hand, and his Ghost stopped.

"She's right, this whole area will be Fallen territory in hours. We need to be off this planet before then." The Hunter spoke, readying his hand cannon. "I don't know how I'm going to get you two out of here, though. My ship only seats one."

"It doesn't have to be comfortable." Boudica replied. "Dump some supplies, and it should be enough for us to sit in the hold." Vick did the math in his head, then nodded.

"Alright, sounds good. Follow me." The Hunter answered, before turning to go. He stopped suddenly, and then a long rifle materialized into his free hand in a flash of blue light. He tossed it to Basilisk, who caught it with a smack of armor against weapon. "You'll need a weapon, Titan."

Basilisk hefted the heavy gun, examining it. It had a blocky profile, with a carryhandle in the center over a red LED ammo counter. The weapon was bullpup, the magazine behind the trigger, all with a faint white color scheme. He wrapped his hands around it and brought it to his shoulder, and suddenly it felt like it was old times all over again.

"Pulse rifle, three round burst." Vick said, turning back forward. "Think you can handle it?"

If Basilisk could grin, he would have. "Kid, I can handle anything you throw at  me." The Hunter laughed, then started to run.

"Alright, 'old man', try to keep up." Vick said as he sprinted into the Venusian ruins sprawling before them. The Exo charged forward after him, keeping an even pace as he marched back to war. 

= = = = = = =

"Dilapidated" was too kind a word to describe the state of what had once been the heart of human research on Venus. Most buildings were wrecks, crumbling from decades, likely even centuries, of decay and neglect. Others looked completely shattered, as if some ancient earthquake had split them like a bomb, barely standing.

It was hard to mesh it with the promotional pictures Basilisk remembered looking at once upon a time, but it wasn't all that different from the Venus Basilisk had seen when he had gone there that final time. War rarely passed any beauty contests.

Vick had kept the lead, forging the path ahead. He held his hand cannon less like some Old West desperado and more like a military professional, keeping it level with his chest and holding it with a second hand at all times to compensate for any possible recoil. It was a stance that showed that he had learned it through experience, and Basilisk respected him for it, even though lugging a revolver around wasn't his style. 

Suddenly, the Hunter stopped, shooting a fist up. Basilisk dropped to a knee, and lifted his pulse rifle. "I've got something on my tracker." Vick hissed. "Let's try to sneak around-we don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"Understood." Basilisk replied, getting back up to his feet. He kept the rifle nestled against his shoulder, his finger wrapping around the trigger. If they were spotted, he didn't intend to shoot last. Vick turned right and stepped into an abandoned hallway leading down into the earth, its original destination long destroyed. The Titan dutifully followed behind, and his eyes did not fail to notice his own motion tracker once he crossed where Vick had been standing.

The Hunter stopped again, but this time outstretched his palm. In a flash, his Ghost appeared, before flying forward to investigate the wall adjacent to them both. Basilisk jogged down the hallway to investigate. "What's going on?" He asked.

The Hunter didn't even turn his head to look at him. "Door's locked." He muttered. "Vesper can get us through." Sure enough, the Ghost was firing a beam of light and energy at a worn panel against a small steel door. He wasn't entirely sure if the thing would open at all. His hunch wasn't wrong, as Vesper eventually stopped and turned towards her Guardian.

"The hydrolic locks are set, but the door is jammed." She explained, exasperated. Basilisk sized up the obstical. The door looked heavy, but maybe centuries of rust had made it brittle. A sharp impact could be more than enough to solve the issue. Basilisk lowered his rifle, and waved Vick and Vesper to the side.

"I've got this." He said, before lunging forward. He brought his leg up in a powerful kick, which made the door resound like a gong as it sailed off its hinges and into a room.

The dregs in the room weren't nearly as pleased about it as Basilisk was. They shouted at the intruder in their alien tongue, and went for the pistols at their side, but they never reached them. In the blink of an eye, the Titan hefted his pulse rifle to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The recoil was surprisingly soft into his shoulder, but that was compensated for by up-pushing bucking with every round out the barrel of the triple-bullet burst.

Basilisk's first burst caught the dreg on the left in the chest, barely, but it went down all the same. The second burst went into the alien's friend much more precisely, old instincts kicking back to life in the Exo's mind with every pull of the trigger. As the second Fallen toppled over, howls echoed through the complex, guttural, angry, and many.

"Now you've done it!" Vick shouted, moving into the room with pistol ready. He gestured towards a door at the other end of the room. "My ship is right through there, come on!" As the Hunter took off, Basilisk stayed right with him, his rifle at the ready.

Reaching the door, Vesper once again popped into reality, examining yet another terminal. "An automatic lockdown?" She asked, surprised. "I didn't think something like that would still be capable of-"

"Can you get us through?" Vick interrupted, taking a knee.

"Give me five minutes." The Ghost replied, before firing a beam of light at the panel.

"What are we dealing with here, uh..." Basilisk trailed off, trying to remember the name of his new synthetic ward.

"Boudica." She answered, tersely. "We've got an entire scouting party by the House of Winter rolling down on us any second."

"Anything I need to know?" Basilisk pressed. Spying a decayed steel table overturned on the ground, he kicked it onto its side and dragged it near the door before getting down behind it. It wasn't great cover, but it would take a few hits from an energy weapon before melting away.

"The name is the secret to their tactics." Boudica noted. "Expect large amounts of low ranking Fallen trying to overwhelm with volume of fire." Basilisk did the robotic approximation of a smirk.

"Oh, they want volume of fire, do they?" He muttered, raising the sights to his eyes. The shadows of aliens danced across the far wall.

= = = = = = =

They came like a blizzard, a wall of pale blue-armored dregs surging through the doorway, screaming some Fallen battlecry. The Guardians met it with a cacophony of gunfire, Basilisk's punchy pulse rifle mixed with the sharp blasts of Vick's hand cannon. The dregs took it hard, falling one after the other. However, they never once stopped coming, the flood of Fallen unceasing. Why they were so fanatical was a question for a later time for Basilisk as his magazine emptied with a click.

"Damn, reloading!" The Titan shouted, pressing the release on the side of the weapon. As it fell, it vanished in blue light, and one just like it, heavy and full, apparated into Basilisk's hand. Again, he could ask how later, and he promptly slapped it in, pulling back the charging bolt on the side before shouldering the weapon again. To his right, Vick stopped firing only long enough to empty the chamber of his revolver and replace what fell out with a cylinder. Yanking the weapon sharply, the chamber fell back into position, and the Hunter continued firing.

Unlike the initial wave of dregs, this group had made it inside, and were unleashing streams of blue light at the Guardians. Some impacted the wall behind them, others smacked against Basilisk's simple cover. Regardless, the situation was getting worse as more still flooded in. "Frag!" Vick suddenly shouted, and lobbed a grenade into the horde. A flash of yellow light and a resounding boom drowned out the din, and the dregs closest to the bomb were sent flying.

"How much longer?" Basilisk yelled, reloading again.

"Any second now!" Vick shouted back, firing his hand cannon more and more desperately. "If you have any grenades, now would be a hell of a good time to use them!"

"Boudica, do I-" Basilisk started, but was cut off when a blue-tinted grenade materialized in his hand.

"Flashbangs are now available." Boudica interrupted. "Plenty of flash, but this will have a lot more bang than its namesake."

"Let's hope!" The Exo muttered as he pushed in the grenades firing button and lobbed it. A blinding light filled the room, followed by a roar that blew away the Hunter's frag. When the world returned, even fewer Fallen remained standing, the survivors disorientated and staggering. The Guardians resolved their issue with little trouble.

"Got it!" Vesper blurted, before the door opened with a mechanical groan. Behind it rested a ship that resembled an arrowhead with tail fins.

"That's your ship?" Basilisk asked, incredulous. "I don't see how I could fit!" The thing seemed small for a spaceship.

"I dunno, tuck in your knees!" Vick retorted before vanishing in blue light. The ship's engines roared to life, and it began to hover off the ground. A second later, the world bled away from Basilisk's eyes, and when his vision cleared, he was lying prone on top of a series of cargo crates, his back touching the ceiling of the room. If he actually breathed air, not just approximated it, he would have appreciated having his helmet off, though he would have appreciated less the lack of oxygen.

"Not exactly comfortable." The Exo grumbled. The ship vibrated as it moved, inertia tugging on Basilisk's body as it shot for the heavens.

"Better than being left on Venus." Boudica replied, still in the suit. "As soon as we get to the Tower, we can get you some proper equipment and a lay of the land." The Titan dimly nodded, closing his ocular sensors.

"You alright back there?" Vick asked over comms. "We're spooling up the NLS drive now."

"Yeah, we're okay." Basilisk replied with a sigh. He felt the ship shudder as it flew free of Venus' gravitational pull before it launched into warp. In his mind's eye, he saw Venus slowly shrink against the stars, leaving his past with it. "I think I was wrong." He muttered to himself.

"Wrong?" Boudica repeated, confused. "Wrong about what?"

"I said that we had won the war." Basilisk replied, resting his head against the crates. "I was wrong; it isn't done with me yet." He paused, thinking, before adding, "but I am going to be there when we do win."

Even though Vick's ship dropped out of warp within 10 minutes of entering, Basilisk was asleep, recharging quietly. In his dreams, he saw the Traveler, and he saw himself standing beneath it, an old soldier returning to war.