Archer's Logs #26-1: Darkblade Revisited

"Today marks a new day for the Vanguard!” Zavala cried to the tower over the intercoms. “Oryx and his court have been defeated once and for all, by six brave guardians, whose legacies shall live on from this day forth!”

You could hear the guardians, hell the entire city roar up in cheer and merriment in that single moment. Though he was a bit of a stiff, I’ll hand it to Zavala, he has his way with words, I suppose that’s why he always seems to front the Vanguard’s missions and sends out new guardians to do what needs to be done. However, I’m just another hunter, blessed with the void light of the Traveler, but cursed with the memories of Oryx and his followers.

As the celebrations commenced amongst other guardians, I simply sat alone in the bar enclave behind the hangar, listening to an old jazz recording I had found on the Cosmodrome not long after becoming a guardian. I simply sat there, drinking down a flask of whiskey, keeps the edge off when you’re in the middle of a firefight with no backup. I heard footsteps nearby, heading down the stairwell towards me, turning my head to see who it was. It was an exo woman, one of my few friends here, her yellow lit eyes glowing even more from the fireplace in the little lodge, with her white painted plating seeming to glow orange.

“Getting drunk again, huh Archer?” she asked, sitting down in a nearby chair, her massive titan armor almost causing her to fall off the edge.

“You know it. Shame you can’t.” I smirked at her, taking another quick swig of the flask before putting it up next to my Hakke hand cannon, a Judith-D model.

“Everyone’s out celebrating, why not join them? Oryx is gone, finally.” she stared into the fire as she spoke, something about it always intrigued her, maybe it was the solar light she was blessed with. I shrugged my shoulders and scratched my head, fidgeting a bit with an old ghost shell I found, stained black with a small amount of blood on it, my blood. She saw me with it, frowning instantly before looking up at me.

“You still holding onto that thing?” she asked, her voice now sounding concerned, with a hint of spite. I merely nodded slowly, remembering the day I found the poor thing. It wasn’t too long ago it felt like, the Vanguard had found Oryx’s Dreadnaught circling in the rings of Saturn, and I was one of the later waves of guardians fighting my way onto it. It seemed almost like a steady stream of guardians flowed in once the vanguard made their way closer to the center of the ship, everyone with one goal in mind, be the first to take down Oryx.

That’s not why I was there though, not even close. I had been given a job as a refined scout by Cayde-6, get down into the chamber of Alak-Hul and recover the darkblade’s sword. I didn’t ask questions, only what the pay was before I went down. Alak-Hul was killed by a small strike team a while ago, forging three new weapons from their own blades in the soul of the Darkblade, yet the sword had disappeared as he did. Now there was trace amounts of it picked up from the patrol beacons and scouting system, so it was my job to head back down and get into it.

I followed the regular path through the Asylum, down towards the chamber of Alak-Hul, but something was different. Large chunks of the ship were missing, leaving behind black void residue and large amount of chitin looking to have been blown apart.

“Taken…” I mumble to myself, loading my old scout rifle, an older model of the Jade Rabbit. I took my time to cross further into the Asylum, knowing very well what the Taken could do to me, especially with their tendency to appear out of nowhere with the slightest misstep. That’s when I saw it, crossing into a small chamber before the larger part of the Asylum, an Echo of Oryx, scouting about with a large group of Taken Cabal. I gently gripped my rifle before me, my hands shaking as my brow began to sweat. I felt my entire body go numb and cold as it turned its glare towards me, roaring before disappearing into the deeper reaches of the Asylum, the Cabal turning to me, taking up flanking positions.

I steadied myself behind a rock, taking cover and waited for an opening in the enemy fire. I poked around it to my left and took out three psions before they could duplicate, watching as their bodies were consumed back into the void. I always wondered if they could even feel pain anymore, their bodies just husks of what they used to be. A slug whizzed past my head from a phalanx shot, snapping me back into the reality of my situation as I moved towards the other side, lobbing a voidwall grenade before making a break for the doorway.

Right as I got around the rock, a large taken portal began to form, with a Colossus, a whole damn Colossus standing before me, one large white eye amongst its blackened exterior peering right at me. As it readied to fire at me, I dove for cover, lobbing my poisoned smoke grenade at it before taking out a few more of the Cabal closing in on me. I turned again to cover my flank, only to see a phalanx rushing me, launching a large bolt from its shield as my shield took most of the hit, launching me high into the air. I kept my eye on the Colossus, charging up a few rockets from its shoulder mounts as I froze for a moment, feeling dread wash over me, as I took a deep breath in.

No, I can’t let this end this way, I thought, pulling one arm behind me and holding the other in front, concentrating with all my might to take the shot. The blinding purple light of a bow appeared in my hands, as the shot fired right to the Colossus, as I could hear myself praying, as if to the Traveler itself, that my bow fired true.

To Be Continued...