Destiny, Episode IX: The Devils' Lair

Previous Episode: Side Episode III, Tempting the Devils
Next Episode: Side Episode IV, Paladins

The Tower, the Last City, Earth
Day 021

The door leading into the firing range slid open behind Basilisk, but the Exo could barely make out a sound over the din of his pulse rifle. The Psi Umbra was a steady weapon, but it was meant for the youngest of Guardians serving much more routine duties. He hadn't noticed it much during the last deployment to the Cosmodrome, but the weapon's lower-quality mechanisms and ammunition had been penetrating less and less into the increasingly heavily armored enemies he and his team were facing. He had little doubt that the others were suffering from a similar problem, and made a mental note to talk to the Commander about it.

As he finished his magazine with a final burst from the weapon, he heard a woman clear his throat behind him. Startled, Basilisk spun to face the intruder, only to find himself looking at Lisset, wearing her armor and her Ghost hovering by her shoulder. "Oh, Lisset, I didn't hear you come in." The Titan admitted, letting his weapon fizzle out of existence to empty his hands. He wasn't wearing any of his Scoutmail, and felt relatively naked because of it.

The Corsair frowned before speaking. "I just got a communiqué from Cayde, and I thought I'd tell you." She started, crossing her arms against her breastplate. "He said that they're going to be calling us down soon." Basilisk glanced at a clock against the wall-it was barely into the evening, and there had been no sign of an emergency.

"Did he say why?" Basilisk asked, his mind turning.

"That's the thing." She replied, turning to leave as the Exo walked over to her. "I think they want us to go on a Strike." Basilisk blinked as he processed the news.

"A Strike?" He repeated. "I thought those are meant for more veteran Guardians." The two of them walked out of the firing range and towards an elevator that would take them to the Tower Plaza. Basilisk could feel his civilian clothes vanish only to be replaced with the familiar weight of a Titan's exoskeleton as Boudica readied him.

"That's what I thought, but-" Lisset stopped short when she saw Koga exit the elevator. The Warlock paced over to them as soon as he saw the two, a concerned look on his face.

"I just received a message from Commander Zavala." He interrupted. "Did you get it, too?" Basilisk was about to say he hadn't when Boudica beeped in his ear, a subtle notification that the Ghost had just received a transmission. The Titan nodded slowly.

"I just did, too." He replied. "Lisset was telling me that they want us for a Strike." Koga's reaction was remarkably similar to Basilisk's, stopping dead in his tracks and having a deer-in-the-headlights look cross his face. To his credit, he did not make any sideways commentary about the practicality of sending three still very new Guardians out on a dangerous mission to kill some high-value-target, but there was little doubt in Basilisk's mind that the man was thinking it. Basilisk brushed past the Warlock, pacing towards the elevator he had just stepped out of. "Come on, we have to go." He said, holding the door open as the others filed in. As the car began to ride up, the Exo's mind kept turning-just what were they about to be thrown against?

- - - - - - -

As soon as the three stepped into the Hall, Commander Zavala's voice boomed out from where the veteran Titan stood at the end of the table. "Guardians, approach." His voice cut over the low bustle of the Tower, and as Koga paced towards the table alongside his comrades, he could hear the murmuring come to a stop. Koga glanced over at Ikora as he walked past her, but the elder Warlock merely gave a soft nod at his passing. As the three of them came to a halt, Zavala unfolded his hands from behind his back and took a step towards them as his Ghost hovered above. The Awoken man's eyes glanced upwards at his companion, and on cue it projected the image of a strange-looking Servitor. Koga's eyes narrowed as he examined the hologram; even without another item acting for scale, the thing had the feel of something massive, and he couldn't ignore that the normally perfectly spherical shell had been disrupted by long spikes jutting out across its face.

"This," Zavala started, opening a palm to point at it, "is Sepiks Prime. It is the Prime Servitor for the House of Devils, and an extremely high value target. From a religious perspective, the Fallen revere Sepiks and other Primes as if they were gods. From a strategic, aside from being very intelligent AI, they process and distribute ether, which the Fallen must consume to survive." The Commander's hand returned to his side as he paused to stare at the image. Koga could see the veteran Titan's jaw clench slightly-there was a grudge here, repressed but still present. "Destroying Sepiks Prime would be a hammer blow to the Devils, and might well be fatal. The Devil's Kell has been dead since the Gap, and with their Archon Priest dead at your hands, the House is running out of leaders. Make your victory total, Guardians." The image faded away as Zavala examined the three of them silently. When he spoke again, his voice was a low, commanding rumble. "Sepiks is hiding in the Devil's Lair, located past the Rocketyard in the Cosmodrome. Fight through his guard, find the Lair, and take him out. The City is counting on you tonight, Guardians."

"It can depend on us, sir." Basilisk replied, as formal as always. Zavala slowly nodded to the Exo, then turned to look at the rest. "I have to cut this briefing short, there are other matters I must attend to. I have full confidence in your abilities. Show me that I'm not mistaken." With that, Koga gave a slight bow, one exceeded in flourish as always by Lisset, while Basilisk snapped his salute. The three walked back, heading up the stairs and onto the plaza. None of them said a word as they left the Hall of Guardians, the sun now ducking behind the horizon and the Traveler hanging low above the City, its porcelain skin glowing in the light of the Moon and spotlights aimed at it from below. That changed when Basilisk changed directions and made his way to the elevator.

"Where are you going?" Lisset asked, confused. Basilisk called the elevator before turning to face the Hunter.

"Back to the room. We need to plan out what we're going to do." The Titan replied, simply. "I don't like heading into a fight without knowing what the plan is, and we've been doing that far too often lately for my liking."

"I agree." Koga added, walking to Basilisk's side. "This will not be some simple recon mission, or even an assassination of a low ranking officer. We will be likely going up against the best the Devils have." Lisset frowned, but didn't say a word in disagreement. Koga had an idea what she was thinking: this was a time-sensitive mission more like than not. The Fallen knew that their Prime had been found, and they weren't that stupid as to just stay put and wait for some Guardian to get through and commit deicide. Still, she knew better than to run into a situation like this blind, and stepped into the elevator with the rest of her team when it arrived.

Once they got to the room, Basilisk let out Boudica from his armor, letting her hover over the table in the living room. Koga let Kita do the same, and Lisset followed suit with Dal, until all six of them were standing around the table. "Okay, let's start with a lay of the land." Basilisk started, and glanced up at his Ghost. Boudica's eye glowed softly as it projected on top of the table a holographic map of the Cosmodrome, the world rendered in 3D so one could see every rise and dip in the terrain. "Zoom in on the Rocketyard area, and what is beyond that." There was a beep as Boudica processed the request, and then the map shifted to show the region. "Thank you." He said, before pointing his hand at the entrance to the refinery. "From what Zavala told us, it's a safe assumption that the Devil's Lair is somewhere inside or beyond this structure. That is where we'll make our Strike."

Lisset frowned as her eyes traced along the suggested path, narrowing them as she examined each and every possible chokepoint. She pointed at a small open area in the center of the refinery, with a branching path leading outside to some far larger space behind the structure. "If I had to guess, this would be an ideal place for the Fallen to set up a checkpoint." On cue, Lisset's Ghost projected a red-colored holographic Captain where she pointed. The Titan nodded, running through it in his mind.

"It's a good spot for it, you're right." He muttered. "We'll need to deal with that when we get there. The Fallen will have anti-aircraft defenses set up, I'm sure, so we can't fly past the refinery and circumvent it." Lisset made a displeased hmph, but didn't say anything else. Basilisk was right-there was too much risk involved with heading too far into the Cosmodrome by ship. This was the kind of thing that could only be done on foot.

While the others debated the defenses the Fallen would establish, Koga kept his eye out for where the Devil's Lair could actually be. A strong contender was the strange crater area just beyond the refinery, a large open space that could easily fit a machine as huge as Sepiks was supposed to be. Beyond that, however, was an odd little area. It was at the base of a massive colony ship, one that had never left the pad in the chaos of the Collapse, and it was effectively a narrow open-air funnel leading up to the ship. It wasn't nearly as big as the area before it, but a Prime Servitor could theoretically fit in it as well. "Kita, mark these areas for me, please." He said, his finger tracing a small circle around both spots. The Ghost beeped, and the terrain became blood red as he overlaid the existing hologram with one of his own. Lisset glanced up at the Warlock, confused.

"What's that for?" She asked, folding her arms.

"I was trying to find places for Sepiks to hide." He replied, simply. "These two areas have the open air room to fit an oversized Servitor. Seems logical that the Prime will be at one of them." Basilisk nodded, patting the Warlock on the shoulder.

"Good thinking, Koga." He said, smiling as much as an Exo could. "So, our plan is to push through the Rocketyard and the refinery behind it, and clear out those two areas."

"Sounds like a good one." A voice interrupted from behind. The three Guardians spun to face the source of the noise, only to see a Hunter standing at the doorway. As he took a step forward, the room's lights illuminated the unmistakable form of Cayde-6. Lisset, quietly, groaned. "I know you're about to head on out, but I figured I'd give you a 'going-away present.'" The moment he said it, three glowing green shapes dropped onto the table, dodecahedron engrams filled with data. They vanished as the three Guardian's Ghosts retrieved them without a word. "You'll be going up against the best the Devils have. I figured you needed some heavy ordinance to see it through."

Before anyone could say anything else, the Hunter gave a quick two-fingered salute, bouncing them off of his metal skull. "Good luck, Guardians. Go make me proud, y'hear?" As quickly as he had entered, the Hunter Vanguard was gone, leaving three slightly dumbfounded Guardians behind. They stumbled out the door a few minutes later, the hologram of the Cosmodrome vanishing as they left, as they made their way up to the Hangar and their ships.

<><><><><><><> 

It had taken a few minutes for the Guardians to make their way from the Steppes landing zone to the mouth of the refinery inside the Rocketyard. When they arrived, all that greeted them was the echoes of battle. The Fallen and the Hive had skirmished again, another push by the alien horde against the scavengers hoping to hold the line. The two forces had separated not long before the team had arrived, and it wasn't hard to notice the signs. Piles of dust where Hive forces had met there end were not too far away from slumped over Fallen corpses. Smoking craters where grenades and Boomer shots had done their deadly work dotted the area, and the walls were scorched with carbon where they had taken direct impacts from weapons fire. Apart from the distant howling of the Fallen in their hiding holes, all was quiet in the Rocketyard. "Alright, let's keep moving." Basilisk muttered into his helmet as he took point, gripping his Psi tightly in his hands. "Keep an eye out for contact."

"I'm getting a whole lot of nothing." Lisset replied, moving swiftly to his side. The Hunter gripped her scout rifle tight to her as she bounded over everything in her way, gracefully as always. Her analysis wasn't wrong-even as the three of them approached the massive entranceway to the refinery, past some overgrown turnstile for a railway not used in centuries, all was quiet. It stayed that way as they walked through a double-door access into the structure.

Inside, the decay that marred the rest of the Cosmodrome's former glory was as present here as it had been at the Array. Lamps flickered quietly as they still channeled power from some unknown source, dust floating in the air illuminated by their rays. Basilisk stayed on point, his pulse rifle gone in favor of the heavy Preacher. Beyond the first corner was a stairway and ramp combination leading a half a floor up, and as soon as Basilisk started up the first stair, the sound of weapons fire echoed from up ahead. The sounds were unmistakable: the cutting hiss of Hive handguns being met by the static-like crackle of Fallen arc fire. The two factions were fighting another skirmish, but from the ever-increasing din it sounded like they had committed a fair amount to the fray.

"Watch out for the crossfire up ahead." Kita warned in his keep's ear. Koga slowly nodded, and gripped his hand cannon tighter. Getting in the middle of a firefight wasn't something the Warlock was overly keen on, but if it had to be done, then it had to be done.

"On me." Basilisk said, moving slowly to the top of the stairs. He flattened himself up against the wall, the other two following close behind him, and peered around the corner. In the room ahead were about two dozen hostiles, more Hive than Fallen, as a pack of Thrall rushed some Vandals firing desperately as their Captain barked orders in his tongue. Behind the Thrall were some Acolytes and a Knight, chattering their boney teeth in some arcane war cry. Basilisk lifted up his free hand, and raised three fingers, then two fingers, then one. When he closed his hand into a fist, the Titan rounded the corner and lobbed a flashbang into the pack of Hive. The Knight closest to where the grenade landed looked down at the ordinance, confused, and didn't even attempt to move out of the way as the explosive detonated. The Knight's chitin armor survived the blast, but the two Acolytes near him went down with an angry roar. Blinded, the Hive leader raised its hand to its three glowing eyes as it tried to recover, but Basilisk's Preacher put the monster down before it could react further. Lisset rounded the corner next, her shotgun roaring as she caught another Acolyte in the chest. Behind her came Koga, his hand cannon cutting above it all as he sent slugs towards the remaining Hive in the back of the room.

Near the other side, the Fallen had managed to defeat the Thrall rushing towards them, and they looked on at the oncoming Guardians in shock. If they felt any relief for having the Hive destroyed so utterly, it was quickly replaced by fear and rage as they raised their weapons and started to fire on anyone they could see. As shrapnel from the Captain's weapon burned past the Titan, Basilisk ducked behind some crate for cover, the others doing the same behind what they could find. The Captain’s fire was quickly joined by the lancing arc of the Dregs and Vandals under his command, all of them shouting and hollering as they unloaded in the Guardians' direction. "They seem upset!" Koga joked as he reloaded his revolver.

"It's almost like we're trespassing or something!" Lisset replied, letting her hand come to rest on her knife. The Hunter closed her eyes, and let the blade-trance flow. Arc pulsed across her armor, and without a word she rushed around the lip of her cover and towards the Fallen. Fallen shot bounced uselessly against her Light as she moved, her blade buzzing as she sprinted forward. Like lightning, her arm shot out at the Fallen, arc Light coursing through her knife and into their bodies. They burned away like an afterimage against the world as she cut through the Fallen defenders, stopping only when the Captain disintegrated at the edge of her blade. Basilisk gave a low whistle as he walked up to Lisset's side as she caught her breath.

"One of these days, you're gonna have to teach me how to do that." The Exo said as he approached. Lisset straightened her back as her stamina returned, and flashed a smile underneath her helmet.

"Sorry, but you Titans are just too big." She joked, before gesturing ahead. "Come on, we've got work to do." Koga grinned as he followed the two ahead. The three marched forward, past some open-air spot where a Hive Seeder had smashed through the ceiling. Koga could only assume that the Fallen had pushed the Hive back from where it had landed, and the chitin-armored aliens had come back in force in an attempt to retake it, but that was only a theory. Beyond that room, however, was a much larger chamber. More weapons fire echoed from ahead-the Fallen and the Hive were still fighting.

"Alright, this is where that checkpoint might be." Lisset muttered, pushing forward to the door. She glanced around the corner to see several Vandals holding long arc rifles standing along a catwalk as they fired down over the heads of their comrades a floor below at teeming hordes of the Hive, a Wizard cackling as it floated about. "Yup, they're definitely in force."

"We'll need to go through them." Basilisk said, letting his shotgun fizzle away in favor of his pulse rifle. The room was large enough to where the weapon could pull its weight, and he was going to make the most of it. Over the sound of their own private little war, the Fallen and Hive in the room were blissfully unaware of what had happened to their flank, and fought oblivious to the doom that was slowly slinking up to them. It was Koga who acted first, slamming a wall of energy from the palm of his hand into the back of a Vandal holding a wire rifle. The alien shouted in alarm as it fell to the ground, smacking against the concrete a story below. Needless to say, this didn't go over well with his comrades, and the other snipers on the walkway turned and started shooting at the Warlock.

This was Basilisk's cue. The Titan rushed forward, his pulse rifle repeating a deadly three-note song as he fired at the other snipers. The weapon worked with deadly efficiency, the bullets punching through the light armor the Vandals wore, and when he stopped firing the catwalk was clear. Below, however, was a different story, as the Hive rushed the struggling line held by a Captain and his Dregs. Behind the horde of Thrall floated a Wizard, cackling in her arcane Hive tongue. "Get the Wizard!" Basilisk shouted to Lisset as he quickly reloaded his weapon.

"On it!" The Hunter shouted, and lobbed a grenade the Wizard's way. The thing turned, surprised, as the grenade exploded in its face, but before the arc energy could destroy it, the Wizard floated back, glowing softly red. It was shielded with some Hive magic, and as it shouted some raspy alarm it waved its hands in order to create a plume of black clouds where Lisset stood. She shouted, surprised, as the cloud began to sting and hiss like acid, burning slowly away at her Light. Jumping out of the way, she scrambled to get to her feet. "Watch out for that stuff!"

"What stuff?" Koga shouted, before noticing the black plume. His eyes narrowed as he examined it-he could barely see Lisset standing on the other side of it through the cloud. Slowly, it dissipated away, and the Warlock grit his teeth. "I will help you!" He shouted, raising his hand cannon. The revolver roared as heavy rounds smacked into the Wizard's shield, and with a crack the spell vanished in a flash of light. It was the opportunity Lisset had been waiting for, and her scout rifle cut above the din thrice as the marksman's weapon burned away the Hive spellmaster, the creature screaming as it turned to dust.

The Thrall that remained were more than aware that their leader was dead, and the distraction was enough for the two remaining Dregs and their Captain to regain control. Arc blades and sabers humming, they cut through what was left of the horde as they turned their attention on the Guardians. With nothing to distract them either, the fireteam did the same. With the advantage of elevation and superior firepower on their side, it didn't take long for the smoke of battle to fade. Basilisk hopped down from the ledge, letting his Light cushion the fall, as he walked towards the large device the Fallen had been desperately defending, the others following close behind.

It was some kind of computer, with large tube-like wires stretching from the machine to a door off to its side. Red laser-beams burned bright and hummed a low, menacing tone-sensors for some kind of trap. Basilisk clenched his jaw, frustrated. "Well, we found the checkpoint."

"I have seen these before." Koga noted, stepping forward to get a better look. "They are connected to mines. Who knows how many. It could bring the entire passageway down if triggered."

"So how do we get through?" Lisset asked, frowning. At that, Kita flashed into existence over the Warlock's shoulder.

"I think I can be of some help." The Ghost said, floating over to the Fallen computer. It began to fire a pulse of blue light at a small control panel near the bottom of the machine. "Cover me while I try to disable this." Basilisk nodded as he readied his pulse rifle.

"You heard him." The Exo said, taking a knee. "Get into a defensive position. We're going to hold here until he's done hacking." Koga nodded, and dropped into a crouch on the other side of the device, keeping one eye on his Ghost. Lisset, meanwhile, bounded up onto a storage crate stacked behind the Fallen computer, bringing her scout rifle to her shoulder and peering through it. All three gripped their weapons tighter and tighter still as they heard the sound of footsteps, and plenty of them. The House of Devils was coming.

<><><><><><><> 

It was as if someone had opened up a spigot. Dregs and Shanks rushed forward from every hole imaginable, dropping from the back of the room that the Guardians had only cleared moments before. If Basilisk was being honest with himself, it was frustrating to watch something so recently secured become hostile territory once again, but he took a small pride in just how dangerous the Devils thought the three of them were. It's a small honor to have the kitchen sink thrown at you, after all.

For the rest of the Guardians, however, they found that honor to be one they could live without. As the Fallen surged forward, they opened up in a desperate attempt to stem the tide. Koga's hand cannon roared in symphony with Basilisk's and Lisset's rifles, a cacophony of death as they fired into the horde. Dreg and Shank fell alike, but there was always another one hiding in its place. As they got closer, grenades were used to try to form gaps, which worked well enough. Bodies were flung skyward as explosions echoed in the ancient refinery, but it still didn't stop the onslaught.

As the Fallen reached the base of the small rise the computer was located on, the three finally pulled out their heavy weapons. Any trepidation that came with using a new weapon was drowned out by sheer adrenaline as they readied their ordinance. For Koga and Lisset, it was Sargon-series machine guns being pushed against their shoulders. For Basilisk, a massive Deacon-series rocket launcher lay on his right shoulder, the Titan looking down its sights. "Light them up!" He shouted, as he pulled the launcher's single fob. The weapon roared as a rocket slammed out of the breach like a bat out of hell, and the explosive slammed into a pack of the Fallen with a roar that shook the room. Lisset and Koga's machine guns barked, firing desperately into the pack until the box magazines under the housing ran dry.

The room was quiet, and the Guardians panted as the adrenaline stopped flooding through their systems. It had been a "mad minute," sixty seconds of non-stop weapons fire being thrown desperately at the enemy. The three swapped back to their main equipment and reloaded, a process made more difficult by their shaking hands. Only the Exo, who lacked such flaws, did the job steadily, but even he felt his approximated heart race. "Holy hell." The Titan said, ending the silence. "That was intense."

"I did not think the Fallen would throw that much at us." Koga noted. "Excellently done, everyone."

"I think we're being a touch premature here." Kita interrupted, still probing the machine. "I still don't have this door open." The Ghost made a frustrated-sounding noise at it continued its work. "The Fallen must be getting smarter. It's like the whole system is wired-"

A klaxon loudly blared, echoing across the entire facility. Basilisk whipped his head around, glaring at Koga's Ghost.

"I'll work faster."

"Yeah, do that." The Exo growled as he readied his pulse rifle, the angry calls of Fallen reinforcements echoing as they approached.

The team didn't need to wait long for the next wave to arrive. The Fallen rushed forward, Vandals leading the charge while Captains barked orders from the rear of their ranks. At first, all eyes were on the agile scouts pushing forward, but after a line of blue energy shot past Koga’s helmet with millimeters to spare that mistake was rectified. “Snipers, look out!” The Warlock shouted before diving to cover. The Vandals taking perch from the other side of the room knew they had been spotted, but they didn’t seem to care particularly much, as they continued firing over and over at the Guardians.

Despite the amount of incoming firepower, Basilisk still felt confident. The Fallen were making the same mistake they had committed before, pushing their forces in large concentrations in an attempt to overwhelm the team through sheer weight of firepower. It was something that could be exploited, and the Titan was not about to let an opportunity like this pass him by.

“Koga, can you throw another Bomb?” He shouted over comms. The man glanced over at the Exo from where he was hiding behind an ancient container.

“Yes, I believe so.” He replied, cordial as ever.

“Hit them!” Basilisk barked. Koga nodded, then let his eyes closed. In the palms of his hands churned a dark purple energy, growing until it began to thrum like a generator. The Warlock rounded the corner, kicking off the ground powerfully and letting his Light carry him up before pushing the nascent Nova Bomb out from him. The ball of energy whistled as it flew towards the pack of Vandals taking the front of their line, and with a terrible bang it exploded.

The Nova Bomb’s blast was as good at throwing the Fallen off guard as it was in destroying them. The survivors stood in place, shocked at the display of power. Basilisk rounded the corner of his cover and reminded them why that was a mistake. As his pulse rifle’s rounds bounced against the Captain’s shields, the loud crack of Lisset’s scout rifle cut over the din, and the Fallen commander collapsed to the ground, ether spitting from where its skull had been. The remaining Vandals quickly realized that discretion was the better part of valor, and began to back up to where they had entered the room, the snipers covering their retreat.

“Where are they running off to?” Koga said, panting as he regained his stamina. While channeling and releasing such a large amount of Light was nowhere near as exerting as it was the first time he had done it, it still took something out of him.

“They’re defending their God here.” Lisset muttered. “They’re regrouping for another push.”

“I wish I could say she’s wrong.” Kita interjected, glancing up from his work. The klaxon had yet to stop, and the fact that he hadn’t fixed that particular problem was starting to strain the Ghost’s voice, frustration souring it. “But we’ve got more Fallen-and Hive-on the way.” The screaming of Thrall echoed from some unseen chamber as if on cue, and Koga could feel something cold streak down his spine. “Just give me a bit more time to wrap this up, I’m nearly through their firewall!” Basilisk turned to say something particularly biting at the Ghost, but before he could vent his motion tracker filled with red.

           

            The Hive rushed forward like a wave, pushing out from some place off ahead and to the left of where the Guardians were defending. Dozens strong, and backed by Acolytes and Knights, the Thrall rushed ahead like a screaming mass. If there was any silver lining in the situation, they arrived on the scene the exact moment the Vandals and their Captains returned, backed by more Shanks and Dregs. The Hive seemed to have an existential crisis for a second as they tried to decide which to kill first, and Lisset audibly sighed in relief as they chose the new arrivals.

            Koga kept firing into the mosh-pit that was being rapidly formed in the center of the room. Some of the fighting was obscured by a large railcar that had sunken into the floor, overgrown after centuries of decay and neglect, but that was fine by the Warlock. It was one less thing to worry about at the moment, and even if bullets couldn’t affect what was happening on the other side, a grenade certainly would. The momentary lapse in incoming fire came to an abrupt end when the Vandal snipers started firing again in the direction of the Guardians, pinning them down again behind cover.

            “Can anyone deal with these bastards?” Basilisk shouted, slapping a new magazine into his pulse rifle. Lisset smiled under her helmet as she brought her scout rifle to her shoulder, peeking around the lip of the debris she was hiding behind.

            “I’ve got it.” She said, before squeezing the trigger. Her rifle barked, and a sniper’s head vanished in the blink of an eye. The Vandals seemed surprised to be taking return fire from the team, and tried to move out of the way. They became wrapped in electricity as they activated their cloaks, but the Hunter wasn’t about to let them get away. Before they could escape, her scout rifle cracked three more times, and with that the deluge of line rifle fire ended.

            “Thanks.” Koga said, turning and giving an appreciative wave in her direction before reading his weapon, replacing his hand cannon for his fusion rifle. “Now, to deal with the survivors.”

            “I think I can manage that.” Basilisk growled, letting his weapon phase away as he channeled arc Light. He sprinted forward, lowering his head as he readied to bring down the Fist of Havoc. When he jumped up into the middle of the fight, the shooting paused for a moment as all eyes looked skyward at the Titan rocketing down. By the time the aliens realized what Basilisk was doing, it was far too late to stop it. He slammed into the ground with a sound like thunder, and when the flash cleared, the Exo got up to his feet, brushing off dirt from his knees. The room wasn’t clear quite yet, but with the main fight dealt with, it had become considerably less hectic.

            “Alright, we’re clear.” Basilisk said, slowly ambling back to the others. In a single instant, the Titan had cleared the field, dealing with the core of the threat. As he moved back, the stragglers were rapidly dealt with both by Koga’s fusion rifle discharging arc energy towards fleeing Captains and Lisset’s scout rifle finishing off the wounded Wizard. By the time Basilisk arrived at the others’ position, the room was empty. “Kita, have you gotten that door open yet?”

            “Just one more second.” The Ghost replied, firing one last beam of energy at the computer. There was a whining sound as the klaxon finally spun down, and the humming red tripwires vanished with a click. “And disabled. Sorry about the wait, everyone.” Kita floated back to Koga’s shoulder before vanishing in a flash of blue light. “I didn’t expect the kind of security they had set up for the system. If I was capable of finding things suspicious, this whole thing would feel pretty fishy.”

           

            “Wait, you never find things suspicious?” Koga asked, surprised.

            “Well, no.” Kita replied simply. “I just thought it would be funnier to say I didn’t.” The Warlock rolled his eyes, and smiled slightly. At least someone still had a sense of humor. Basilisk let his pulse rifle flash back into existence in his hands, and waved the others over to him at the doorway that led deeper into the Refinery. Lisset hopped down from her perch, dropping to the ground as quietly as the wind. It was a move that never failed to impress, and if the Titan could have raised an eyebrow, he would have.

            “Well, enough dawdling, then.” He said, before turning to face the doorway. “We’ve got a God to kill.”

<><><><><><><> 

            There were a few chambers between where the checkpoint had been and the exit, but there had been little to no contact. It was a relief to finally leave the stuffy ancient facility all the same. It was night now; the cracked Moon hung low in the sky. Koga blinked as his eyes adapted to the low lighting, but still couldn’t make out much other than vague shapes in the distance. The first thing he did notice was that a massive colony ship cut against the horizon like a monolith. The second thing that he noticed was that there was a massive, water-filled crater between where the three of them were standing and the other side of the area. There had been one massive, horrible blast here centuries ago, and the scar had yet to heal.

            “No signs of Sepiks.” Lisset stated somewhat redundantly. No one was noticing a massive floating über-Servitor in the middle of the area, after all. “I guess that means we’ll have to keep going.”

            “Seems like it.” Dal replied. “All we have to get through is all those, uh.” The Ghost trailed off as a Skiff suddenly roared over the lip of a structure, a massive shape hanging underneath its hull. “All those Devils. Watch out for that Walker, Lisset.” With an echoing snap, the shape disconnected partially from the Skiff, hanging underneath at a sharp angle before the other connection went as well. The Devil Walker smashed into the ground with a resounding crash, and alien machinery whined as it powered on, slowly lifting itself up onto its six legs and glowing with a red light.

            “Alright, let’s deal with this thing!” Basilisk shouted, sprinting towards a rusted old building at the edge of the crater, its face mangled by the ancient blast. Lisset and Koga followed behind the others, a move that was well timed as the Walker charged a weapon attached to its turret. Blue bolts of arc energy flashed out from the machine, exploding upon contact with the ground and whatever was dumb enough to stand in the way. For Koga, this was a nasty, but familiar surprise-he had seen these kinds of weapons on Skiffs, but the Walker had fired dozens of shots in a matter of seconds. It was the rate of fire that had caught him off-guard.

            “Any ideas, Boudica?” Basilisk muttered as he took cover behind whatever he could find in the ruined structure. “I’m not seeing anything jump out at me.”

            “The Walker can be forced to overheat if you do enough damage to its legs.” The Ghost replied, her voice as cool as it always was. “I think you can figure this out from here.”

            “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Basilisk drawled. “Everyone hear what she said?” One by one, the affirmatives came in. “Okay, then. Let’s put this thing down.”

            That was, as per usual, easier said than done. The Devil Walker was hardly alone. Lisset could spy through her scout rifle at least fifteen Fallen standing near it, mainly Vandals and Shanks. If she was honest with herself, Lisset had expected more, but at this point perhaps the Fallen had simply been bled dry. Regardless, the Walker would be difficult to deal with as long as its friends were still around. She would simply need to even that out, and with that the Hunter started firing. Her rifle cracked against her shoulder as she started putting rounds downrange. A Vandal sniper went down first, gripping its rifle tight as it spiraled to the floor. Next came a Shank hovering over the Walker’s torso, firing rapidly in the direction of Koga.

            The Warlock had needed the help, as he had started pushing up into the crater proper. Unsurprisingly, the Fallen had moved to blunt his advance, but Koga was ready for them. As soon as a Captain made a swipe at him with its arc sabers, the Warlock let his finger depress from the trigger of his fusion rifle. The weapon spat plasma at the alien, disintegrating it in an instant in a flash of light that made Koga wince. In the bottom of the crater, the Walker couldn’t depress its gun enough in order to fire at him, but that didn’t stop the Fallen at its crest. Vandals began to fire their arc rifles at him, their buzzing bolts tracking the man as he tried to evade them. He swapped to his hand cannon, and let the revolver roar in his hands, but his shots were wild and most glanced uselessly off the Devils’ armor. For the first time, Koga realized that these aliens were wearing far heavier cuirasses than their comrades, and they weren’t afraid to rely on the better armor as they kept firing, undaunted.

            “Reavers!” Koga shouted into comms as he turned and scrambled back up the hill. He had heard of them before, the rumored elite of a Fallen House sporting better armor and equipment than their rank-and-file compatriots. They were the scalpel to the cudgel, and were equipped to go toe to toe with younger Guardians.

            “What?” Basilisk yelled, surprised. The Titan clenched his jaw as he fired his pulse rifle at the first Vandal he saw. He could feel his stomach fall to his toes-never mind how he felt that-as the rounds sparked uselessly against the alien’s chest, the Reaver fighting on as if nothing had touched it. The fact that the Reavers were here made things only more complicated, and the Titan’s mind raced as he tried to piece together a plan. “Can anyone put a dent in their armor?”

            “Armor, no.” Lisset said in frustration, her rounds only making divots in the cuirasses of the elite Vandals. She aimed her weapon higher, and waited for the right moment to take a shot at the thing’s skull. With a crack, the Reaver collapsed to the ground as the scout rifle punched through the unexposed skull of the alien all the same. “Headshots still work.”

            “Thank the Traveler for that.” Basilisk whispered, before lining up his pulse rifle at another Reaver. Before he could take a shot, the thing darted away, and with a whine the Walker took a step forward. A red beam of light streaked out from its turret towards the building where the Guardians had hastily set up a fortification in. It only took him a moment to realize what the tank was about to do, and he jumped out of the room shouting, “cover!” The others jumped out just as the cannon on the Walker made a terrific bang, and a glowing white-hot shell hurtled into the structure. There was an explosion that shook the earth, and the building collapsed in on itself. “We need to kill that Walker!”

            “We know!” Lisset shouted, firing her scout rifle blindly in its direction. A few shots sparked off the Fallen tank’s heavy armor. One shot, however, did not, and she let out a yelp of happy surprise when it burrowed into one of the heavy plates around its front left leg. Now that the machine had pushed up, the Guardians had their first real shot at the thing’s weak-point, and they exploited it as much as they could. The Reavers fired desperately to interrupt the three, but nothing could shake them as they poured round after round in a cacophony of gunfire into the tank. The Walker tried to back up, but it was far too late for it to escape this time. The machine made some distressed sounding whines, and then slammed into the ground with a crunch.

            “Now! Push, push, push!” Basilisk shouted, before sprinting forward. His pulse rifle vanished in favor of a shotgun, and he let out as fierce of a battlecry as he could as he sprinted towards the Reavers’ position. The elites had backed up around their disabled vehicle, trying to desperately defend the tank, but it had left them with nowhere else to go. Even as Basilisk approached, he could see them scramble up against the slick metal of the Walker, the machine’s bulbous front sliding forward to reveal a glowing hot metal core, steam rising from it. “Hit the core!”

            The others didn’t need any further encouragement, and the three surged forward like a trident. The Reavers tried to fight back as well as they could, but at this distance it didn’t quite matter how good their armor was. Koga’s fusion rifle melted their cuirasses in a single blast, and the Vandals that managed to avoid disintegration in the first charge met the same fate in with the second.  Lisset and Basilisk’s shotguns, however, put the aliens down in as straightforward and brutal a manner as one would imagine. What remains of the Reavers were helpless to stop the Guardians from emptying their weapons into the Walker’s core. With a final groan, the Fallen tank began to spark brighter and brighter, energy escaping from shattered systems until it exploded violently.

            And all too suddenly, the Blast had become silent. The Reavers were gone, and the burning hulk of a tank lay at the Guardians feet. Quietly, the three reloaded their weapons and turned to face the entranceway that the tank had been protecting, a security gate blown apart in the tank’s death-throws. “Basilisk, I’m picking up a massive Fallen signature up ahead.” Boudica said, punctuating the eerie silence. “I think we’ve found Sepiks Prime.” The Titan slowly nodded, and pumped his Preacher one last time.

            “Thanks, Boudica.” Basilisk replied, letting out a slow sigh. He could feel fatigue creeping up on him like a snake. Ever since they had arrived in the Cosmodrome, they had been under fire almost constantly, fighting against the very best that the House of Devils had. There was a voice in the back of his head starting to ask whether or not it was worth pushing on, if he was just going to lead his team to their deaths. He pushed that thought away, forcing it down as he started walking. As he passed by the door, he stopped for a moment to look at a skull gored through a spike, an effigy left by the Fallen to tell the universe that they were to be feared.

            It was time to show the Devils what it meant to be afraid.

<><><><><><><> 

            Basilisk led the way, as he always did, the others following close behind as they moved through the claustrophobic chamber. Koga couldn’t help but wonder what the original purpose of the building had been, and what it had to do with the colossal colony ship just beyond it, but whatever the truth was buried underneath mounds of skeletons. Koga managed to suppress a gag as his mind replayed what must have happened in this room-poor, beaten, and chained up civilians that had made some meager existence outside of the City were carved by arc blades as a sacrifice to Sepiks. He channeled his repulsion into rage, and gripped his hand cannon tighter.

           

            The team climbed up a rusted staircase, each step creaking in distress as they went up. At the top of the landing was a massive pair of doors blocking their progress. With a groan, the doors slowly slid open to reveal the platform beyond-they were being welcomed in.

            It was impossible to miss Sepiks. The massive purple Servitor hung in the sky, protected by a faint shield as streaks of ether went from its shell to the Fallen kneeling in reverence around it. They were all Reavers, like the ones outside, and the moment the doors opened they all got to their feet and began to chant. For a time, no one made a move: the Guardians walked into the platform, the moon and stars watching quietly above, the Reavers prowled about and continued their warcalls, and Sepiks Prime merely observed with its great and terrible mechanical eye. The chant ended, the air grew still, and then the battle was met.

            The fight devolved into a flurry of shotgun blasts, waves of energy from one desperate Warlock, and humming arc blades as the tentative battleline collapsed into a brawl.  A Reaver lunged at Basilisk, only to be blown away by the Titan’s shotgun at point blank. Another jumped at him from the side, but Koga thrust his hand out and a wave of energy rippled into the Vandal’s chest, blowing it back and against an ancient computer block, caving in the rusted metal with a crunch. Two more raced to overpower the Warlock, but Lisset’s shotgun put one down, her knife the other. When the last Reaver collapsed to the ground, Sepiks growled in that guttural Servitor-speak. The shield vanished, and suddenly the Guardians realized that the machine had been separating itself out. With a rush of energy, the parts of its shell slammed together to reform the imperfect sphere. And then, the machine-god laughed.

            The Guardians ducked behind cover as the machine began to fire bolts of void energy at them. Sepiks began to float up and back, distancing itself some from the fireteam as it tried to pin them down. “Spread out!” Koga shouted, running to one side of the platform. The area was a double-prong, two raised platforms with a valley between them connected only at the entrance with a thin strip of concrete. Beyond Sepiks was a river, flooded water separating them from another structure right below the colony ship looking down over the whole battle. “It can’t target us all at once!”

            “Good call!” Lisset shouted, before she bounded off to the left. She swapped to her scout rifle, and began to let rounds fly from it with a series of sharp cracks, but the rounds mainly bounced off against the polished shell of the Prime Servitor. Basilisk stayed in the middle, letting his shotgun vanish in favor of his pulse rifle. Sepiks seemed fascinated by the Titan, but not enough to spare him from a withering display of firepower. Basilisk  could hear his cover disintegrate behind his back as he pressed up against the ancient debris. Before the computer was completely destroyed in the fusillade, Basilisk rounded the corner and emptied his magazine into the Servitor’s eye. Sepiks howled in pain as the bullets punched right through the thin armor and into something delicate, and in a flash the thing teleported away. For a moment, Basilisk worried that the thing had just simply booked it, but the Prime reappeared in another corner of the arena, right over Lisset. The Hunter jumped back instinctively, but before she could get clear Sepiks did something new. Its shell opened again, and suddenly it began to project some form of field. What it was, Basilisk couldn’t tell, but Lisset started screaming in pain as she rolled away.

            “What the hell was that?” She yelled, limping behind cover. The others began to fire at Sepiks, and with his prey now behind something solid, it turned to face its attackers, giving the Hunter time to recover. “It felt like it was trying to suck out my soul!”

            “Your dramatic phrasing aside, that’s not quite inaccurate.” Dal interrupted. “Sepiks has some kind of energy drain capability, and it was trying to leech away our Light. Give us time to recover, and for the Traveler’s sake, keep away from Sepiks!”

            “That’s easier said than done when the thing can teleport!” Basilisk shouted into comms, backing away as Sepiks floated forward. The machine-god kept up its barrage of void shot, trying to keep the Guardians off-balance enough to float close enough to use its drain power, but Basilisk wasn’t about to let that happen. “Keep hitting it! Make it run!” He shouted, firing his pulse rifle until the weapon went click. Another magazine was slammed in as fast as his mechanical arms would allow him, and he kept up the pace. Sepiks roared in anger, but as round after round pierced through its thin eye-armor, it had to blink away to the back of the arena, floating over the river. The Guardians pushed forward, hoping to finish the job, but the sound of twin sonic booms echoed from the sky as two Skiffs flew in from behind the Prime Servitor.

            The Reavers weren’t about to leave their machine-god to die, and they had come in force. From the rear of the troop transports jumped the Devils’ elites, and they surged forward like the angry zealots they were. “Focus on the Reavers!” Koga shouted, turning his hand cannon on the approaching Vandals and Dregs. The others, somewhat reluctantly, turned their attention onto the reinforcements, and the withering fire began to have an effect. Before they could deal with the entire group, Sepiks opened up again, the blasts of void energy lancing out as the Prime tried vainly to keep them back.

It was at this moment that Lisset had well and truly had it with the situation. She had been shot, stabbed, and drained of Light all within the course of an hour or two, and at this point something had finally snapped. The Reavers had advanced shouting a battlecry in their tongue, drowning out the sound of battle. The enraged warcry the former Corsair let out somehow, impossibly, beat them all. Her body running with arc Light, the Hunter rushed forward in her Bladedance, her rippling knife in her hand. She moved like a pissed-off hurricane, her knife disintegrating everything it touched as she ran forward. The Reavers on her side of the platform seemed stunned, and tried to scramble back in an attempt to escape from Lisset’s charge, but there was nowhere left for them to go. When the Bladedeance ended, half of the Reavers were burning away like afterimages on reality. She panted heavily, sheathing her knife, as the machine-god of the House of Devils looked down at her in all the rage a computer could muster. She stared back, matching it in kind.

Lisset ducked down into the trench below as Sepiks began to fire at her, its blasts exploding uselessly where she had been standing. Still, it would only be a matter of time until one hit, and in her tired state there was little doubt that the Hunter would go down. A follow-up hit would destroy Dal in a heartbeat. The fight had to end now. Koga closed his eyes, and let the void form in his hands. Sepiks was powerful, but it was mortal, and the Warlock had one very good way to deal with such foes. The Warlock jumped up, and in that moment the machine must have realized what its fate was. Wounded, its shell began to spark as it tried to blink away to safety, but the damage that had been dealt to it was crippling. It was stuck, forced to watch as its doom rushed towards it in the form of a whistling ball of null energy.

Sepiks exploded in a flash of blue light, spinning about its core madly as some destructive centripetal force flew sent debris flying. With a high-pitch sound like static, the machine-god exploded, its carcass falling to the ground with a terrific crunch. Koga floated back down to the ground, a smile on his face, as Basilisk hurried to his side. From the trench climbed a tired Lisset, who sprawled onto the floor on her back, looking up at the stars.

“I’ll be damned.” The Hunter said, her laughter faint but true. “We actually did it.”

“I’ll let the Vanguard know.” Dal said, and with a beep the message was sent. There was a crackle over comms as the Tower responded.

“Excellent work tonight, Guardians.” Zavala’s voice boomed in everyone’s ears, the veteran Titan sounding more than a little proud. “Sepiks Prime cast a great shadow over the City. With its defeat, the Fallen Devils will grow weaker.” The Commander’s voice darkened as he continued. “But we must stay vigilant. The Fallen are crafty. They’ll find ways to survive. They always do.” There was a pause. “Return to the Tower, Guardians. It seems a celebration is in order.” With that the call cut, and the Guardians were alone again.

Koga paced over to Lisset and outstretched a hand. The Hunter snatched it, and with a grunt the Warlock pulled her up. The two grinned under their helmet, the rush of victory through their veins. Basilisk traipsed over and clapped them both on the shoulder, sounding almost giddy as his shoulders slumped in exhaustion. “Call our ships, Boudica. We’re going home.”