Chapter 3: Chapter III - The Storm Unfurls
"Attention all Guardians. Hostile presence detected at the borders of the Last City. Threat Imminent. Report to your posts immediately. Standard civilian and Tower Crew evacuations will proceed as planned. This is not a drill. I repeat; this is not a drill."
Echo awoke from Exo Stasis with a jolt. The red alert message was blaring down the hall, warning of an imminent threat to the Last City. Echo hurriedly adorned his gear, holstering his hand cannon, and rushed outside of his quarters, where other Guardians were already gathering. Among those that were gathered were Oris and Carrion.
"The Hell's going on here, Oris?" Echo mumbled groggily. The Awoken Warlock looked even more tired than usual, which meant that something serious must be happening.
Oris only growled, "They better have a good reason for this" as the large group of Guardians made their way to the Tower's courtyard.
***
Zavala, Cayde, and Ikora looked out over the Last City. Lightning streaked across the sky, and as an especially large lightning bolt streaked across the sky, something caught Zavala's eye.
A ship.
No... a fleet of ships.
"Cayde, broadcast Emergency Alert 76. All Guardians are to report to the Tower to combat the threat immediately!" Zavala yelled.
"Who is it this time?" Cayde inquired. Zavala stopped momentarily as his eyes strained to make out what ships they were. Eventually, he could make out the outlines of dozens... no, hundreds of Cabal Harvester ships.
The Red Legion had arrived.
Overhead, they suddenly heard the roar of dozens of engines, and over the three Guardians soared a group of Last City-issued gunships, ready to combat the threat of the Red Legion. They sped into action, zooming off towards the fray. As they did so, Zavala glimpsed a sight that he would haunt his dreams for days to come - the massive bulk of a Red Legion command ship. This was no isolated simple raid on the city; this was war.
***
Echo, Orris, and Carrion, accompanied by a small squadron of Guardians, made their way through the Last City's streets. Their job was to make sure it was empty and that all civilians had made it to the escape shuttles, and so far, they had seen no one.
Thank The Traveler, Echo thought to himself as his squadron moved throughout the Last City.
After some time, the troop of Guardians met their foe head-on, as several Red Legion drop pods fell to the earth like meteors. As they did so, about twelve Red Legion soldiers - large, brutish, rhinoceros-like creatures - emerged, roaring in their strange language. The Guardians immediately jumped into action, and aided by their Light, were able to dispatch the Cabal without much difficulty. After they did so, Echo activated his comm. "Commander Zavala, this is strike team Alpha. We're all cleaned up in this sector, but more will come. Should we stand by?"
Echo stopped and listened for further instruction. Nothing.
Suddenly, a burst of static came through on his end, mixed with the garbled voice of Zavala. "Strike t....Alpha.....Our sector....overwhelmed..... Command ship! Get to the command ship...shut it down! We cannot let... take the City!"
"Copy that, Commander, but we need a ride!" Echo yelled into his comm. As he did so, he looked up. The sky was ablaze with gunfire as Red Legion Harvesters fought city-issue gunships. From the ground, Echo could not tell how the aerial battle was going, but from Zavala's garbled message, he knew things on the ground weren't going too well.
As he finished his thought, he swiveled behind him as he heard the roar of an engine. Behind the strike team was a gunship, and the bay doors slid open. Through Echo's comm came the voice of the Tower's shipwright, Amanda Holiday. "Come on, Guardians! Get on, I can get you to the command ship!"
Echo, Oris, and Carrion hopped onto the gunship. Before the doors closed, he yelled to the rest of the strike team to engage the forces in Zavala's sector, and that he'd meet up with them once this was all over.
Inside the gunship, Echo watched through a window as they lifted off into the sky and flew towards the massive Red Legion command ship. Beside them, two gunships were shot down by missiles from a nearby Harvester. On their other flank, a trio of Guardian-owned ships darted between missiles and obliterated another small Red Legion craft.
Soon, the gunship came to a sudden halt. The bay doors opened, and Amanda Holiday yelled through the comms, "Alright, Guardian! Time to kick 'em where it hurts!"
***
Echo, Orris, and Carrion wandered through the halls of the Red Legion command ship, their guns raised. Already, they had run into a pack of Legionaries, and they didn't doubt they'd encounter more... But strangely, they didn't see any. The ship was mostly empty, save for the occasional Incindior. "Strange... I'm not detecting any heat signatures within the ship's schematics.", Echo's Ghost, Smokey, reported.
"How? This is a command ship, in the middle of aerial combat. Check again. I don't trust the sudden absence of Cabal on board this ship." Echo responded. Eventually, the trio of Guardians came to a large set of doors, but they were locked. Smokey emerged from nowhere, and began to hack into the door, when suddenly, the bolt of a Legionary's pulse rifle hit the wall next to them. The trio swiveled around, only to be met with a howling pack of Hunting Beasts, which leapt at them in a frenzied fury. As they did so, more Legionaries, Psions, and Incindiors showed up, pouring out gunfire upon the Guardians. Echo and Oris leapt for cover, while Carrion only laughed.
"Pitiful offense, Red Legion. Try this on for size.", he hollered, before activating his Super ability; his body crawled with bright electricity, and he suddenly vaulted forward, his fists raised, yelling a battle cry, before smashing down upon the opposing Cabal. In seconds, they were nothing but a pile of smoldering armor on the floor of the hallway. Conveniently, just as he had fried the Red Legion envoy, Smokey had finished hacking into the door.
"In here, quick! It's the shield generator, I think." Smokey quipped before dissolving into thin air. As the Guardians entered the room, they saw what apparently was the command ship's shield generator; a massive, spinning rotor, sizzling with some sort of energy.
"How do you propose we deal with this?" Oris wondered aloud. In response, Carrion laughed loudly.
"Anything can be solved with rockets, Oris. Just watch." he said, as he pulled out his rocket launcher. He took aim and fired, the rocket leaving a trail of smoke as it hurled towards the massive rotor. As it made a direct hit, the shield generator started to slow down, its mechanisms damaged.
"That's it! More rockets!" Oris shouted, before taking out his own rocket launcher, with Echo not far behind. Within seconds, the shield generator was barely functional, and eventually dragged to a stop.
The Guardians uttered a celebratory cheer, and moved towards a door on the far end. Oris's Ghost, Chakra, spoke up as they left the generator room, "Up ahead is the rendezvous point. Once we get there, I'll notify Amanda to begin the assault on the command ship."
The Guardians began a fast-paced run towards the rendezvous point, and as they did, Chakra spoke through a comm. "Amanda, we've halted the generator, and we're headed topside. Pick us up, and then start your bombing run!"
Silence from the other end of the comm. Worried, Chakra repeated her message. Nothing.
The three Guardians barreled through the door, met with a fresh breeze of air. They were on a landing platform, and all around them, the battle raged. Ships flew in and out of view, but the focal point of the carnage was up ahead. A distance away sat The Traveler, but something was different. As Echo looked harder, he noticed a device coiling itself around the giant sphere.
"What the hell is that thing?" Oris breathed. Echo looked on, and muttered to himself, "how do we come back from this?"
"You don't"
Echo, Oris, and Carrion turned, and what they saw made their guts wrench. Standing behind them was a tall, bulky figure clad in shining, white armor. His face was partly obscured by some sort of breathing apparatus, and his fists were curled.
A Cabal warlord.
The figure took a step closer to the three, and gestured towards the strange machine that had ensnared The Traveler. "Welcome to a world without Light." he growled.
The three turned, and as they watched, a strange, orange energy field began to surround The Traveler. As it did so, Echo suddenly felt a cold, wrenching feeling throughout his body. An icy, inky blackness, like a stake, wrenching itself out of his body. A few sparks of Light emerged from his body, and then were gone. "Echo... something's... wrong..." Smokey began, but then suddenly fell silent. His small form fell to the floor with a clunk, and Echo grew weak in his knees. He fell to the floor as well, seeing Carrion and Oris do the same.
The white-clad Cabal strode forward. Carrion weakly lunged at him, but the Cabal grabbed him by the arm, and hurled him off the edge of the platform. Oris cried out in anger, and lifted his sidearm in an attempt to attack, but the Cabal just backhanded him, tanking the shots and throwing Oris off of the platform as well. Echo could barely stand, and as the Cabal approached, he looked up at him. The Cabal looked down at him, and snarled, "do not look at me, creature!"
With a mighty blow, he sent Echo skidding across the platform. Smokey went with him, and he was helpless as Smokey's form plummeted to the abyss below. Echo turned his head again as the Cabal spoke. "Your kind never deserved the power you were given. You're weak. Undisciplined. Cowering behind walls." The Cabal stepped closer, and growled once more. "You're not brave... you've merely forgotten the fear of death. Allow me to reacquaint you."
Echo coughed robotically, managing to exert a sentence. "What... the hell...are you?"
The Cabal laughed, standing to his full height. "I am Ghaul. And your Light," he began, once more pointing an armored finger at The Traveler, now ensnared in the strange cage.
"...is mine"
With that, he lifted a foot, and pushed against Echo's body, sending Echo tumbling backwards, down into the inky abyss below him. The last thing Echo saw was the ground, covered in wreckage, rushing to meet him, and then he knew no more.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone