Destiny | The Blackened Heart | Discontinued

7: The Devil's Priest

As I run, I can feel the fire of my anger roiling in my chest like flame.  I'm not sure why.  I didn't even know those Guardians.  I know their names, that's all.  Leona.  Liam-2.  Odd names.  

And Mora.  I have a name now.  Only after North had told me his name, had I even thought about mine.  

There is a track worn by the passage of countless vehicles from the bunker to an entry chamber into the Cosmodrome wall.  The roof is collapsed in and rubble and concrete litter the floor.  Frigid sage bushes force their way to the light from beneath the heaps of rubble.

From the entry, a winding hallway leads through several office like rooms, crowded with desks and overturned bookshelves.  The empty covers of record books still lie in some of them, but their pages are disintegrated and their bindings tattered by age.

"Scanning for the warp drive," North says in my ear as I leap across a gap in the floor.  "Bad news!" he hisses, "It's already in Fallen hands.

"We'll get it," I growl back.  North says nothing in reply, his misgivings gnawing at the back of my mind.  The cluster of offices comes to an end and I leap down a short set of stairs, icy water splashing up my boots from a puddle of melt pooled in the slanted floor.

"I hope you're ready for this." 

I hope so too.  But I say nothing, leaning around the corner in silence.  I had just been here yesterday.  The only differences are the missing Captain I have killed, and the ship I have claimed. 

The only thing in my direct line of sight is a single Dreg, but the red on my monitor shows more.  I figure I should take this one free kill and let the rest come.  I pull the trigger.

The Dreg gives a shriek, a burst of white exploding from his ruptured skull.  A Shank floats into view, followed by another, I shoot them down quickly, not wanting to let the agile little things in too close.  

Electricity jars my body, and I yank back from the wall to find two more Shanks have crept up on my while I was distracted with their comrades.  I stagger as they fire electrical pulses again and my wild shots shear the thrusters off one of the Shank's sides.  I stomp down on the twitching chassis, lashing out at the other with my dagger.  

I pull back around the wall and take a deep breath.  The battlefield is no place to panic.  I move out calmly, aiming and firing into the heads of two Vandals who dared venture too close.  While  Dregs carry small daggers, they carry a pair of short swords that spark with wicked electricity.  They are not an enemy I want to engage in close combat.  

I dart forward to the next a barrier wall, peeping out to fire at the remaining few Dregs.  One goes down and that's when I hear the growl rumbling from the air vent on the far wall.

"It's in the walls!" North warns, confirming my guess.  The amber glow of eyes is visible before anything else.  Then two clawed hands grasp the rim of the shaft and the Archon comes into view.  His broad head swings back and forth, eyes sweeping the room, taking in the dead Fallen, the sparking machinery of the Shanks, and me- and he stops there.  

With a snarl, Riksis emerges fully from the pipe and drops to the floor with force enough to make it tremble and send a Dreg standing too close flying against the wall.  He raises his heavy shotgun over his head and roars.  

I promptly answer with a grenade.  The blast makes Riksis stagger, singeing his armor, but if it injured him further, he does not show it.  Instead he spits a stream of what I can only assume to be curses in the Fallen tongue and begins firing, prowling closer with the same slow, steady cross step as the Captain.  Confident, impending, insufferable.  

I jerk back behind the wall, the report of his shot on the concrete makes my ears ring.  I tuck the Trax Callum away and slip my sniper, the Calcutta-LR1, free.  It's loaded already from last night.  All I have to do is lean out and fire.  Three shots in the barrel is all I've got, but buried in the Archon's skull, they drive the point in.  Pun definately intended.  

Riksis lurches back, with a roar of pain, his upper arms scrabbling at his head.  I reload my sniper, watching.  A dirty move maybe, but so is murdering three guardians and sending back their dead ghosts.  Plus he has the advantage of being twice my height and strength.  

The Archon lets out a second call, this one sounding more like a word than a cry of pain.  A pair Vandals come leaping in in answer.  They immediately drop to either side of me, hugging the walls to outflank me.  I step back to get out their line of fire, accidentally stepping straight into Riksis'.  

I take four shots to the ribs before I can get out of the way, collapsing back against the barrier wall, gasping for breath.  The Light is trying to heal me, trying to save me.  I can feel it move, pressing against the wounds, knitting them back together, but the Vandals are coming faster than it's working. 

The two Fallen approach me, still cautious even though I am wounded.  And rightly so.  As soon as they are close enough I lash out, sinking my dagger through one's thigh, earning a howl of pain.  The other retaliates with a blow to the face, sending me sprawling on the floor.  I don't have the strength or time to move before he drives his blade through my armor into my side.  

I might've screamed, might've struggled, I don't know.  My vision is blurring, the edges fading scarlet.  The helmet is ripped from my head letting in a rush of cold air.  Then the two Fallen lift me up between them, gripping my arms with steely strength, dragging me through the dust to kneel at their commander's feet.  

A strong hand wraps around my neck, tightens and lifts me up.  I grasp Riksis' forearm, more out of impulse than anything else.  My breathing is already so ragged, it doesn't make much of a difference.  

He snarls softly and I meet his gaze.  My cold blue eyes lock onto his burning amber ones.  Greyish liquid seeps from three wounds made my my sniper.  I bare my teeth in defiance.  He draws a sword from his belt, electricity sparking along its blade.  My grip on his arm slackens weakly as my blood drains.  Still, I can only smile.  

Riksis, despite not being human, can recognize that as unusual.  He looks down as I lift my grenade between us. 

"Time's up," I hiss through my teeth.  

The Archon roars, releasing me and scrabbling backward, but I've already detonated it.  The fire consumes us, Guardian, Vandals, Archon, and all, racing up my arm and body closing over my eyes in a wave of searing burning agony and Riksis is hidden from sight.  

Then only nothing. 

Then only darkness.