Destiny 2 - Shadowfall II

Versenne : engineer : Magda-9 : warlock : Vergift : armorer

1 : the City burns : an empty Sky : the Pyramid : your god has forsaken you : a Queen falls : a Queen rises : Darkness ascendant : salvation--

~*~*~*~
The entrance to the Braytech manufactory had been cracked open some time long before, snow and ice crusting over many surfaces inside the vestibule. The power had been cut off in this part of the facility, with only a handful of flickering emergency lights providing illumination. Elsie Bray didn't need the lights to see, with her Exo eyes, but Aunor Mahal did not have the same advantage, so her Ghost had compiled out and was shining his light around. Here and there, disabled security frames stood wreathed in ice, and fallen Exos had collapsed against walls or counters.

"Bahaghari, can you detect Wahei?" Aunor asked, warily regarding the area.

"She's definitely further inside," the Ghost replied. "Something in here is interfering. Something paracausal. I can't get a clear signal on Ohr."

The Exo Stranger paused. "There's something else here, too," she said. "I'm picking up some kind of other electronic signal in the area."

The Praxic Warlock nodded, stepping over a prone Exo body. "What killed all the Exos around Europa? Is this where they fell fighting the Vex invasion from the Glassway? Or was it related to the Collapse?"

"Depends on where they are," Elsie admitted. "Some were killed by the Vex, yes, but others did fall when the Darkness destroyed everything." She shook her head as she regarded the one slumped against the counter. "Shut them down as easily as it did to Rasputin when it arrived last year."

Aunor frowned slightly. "But you escaped without being affected?"

Elsie shrugged. "That effect was localized here on Europa. I wasn't here when it arrived."

The sounds of combat could be heard from outside, the ground trembling beneath their feet, and the two shared a look. "We should get further inside before they bring this place down on our head," Elsie suggested. "My grandfather would have made sure the manufactory itself was secure against structural collapse."

Aunor nodded. "I've seen the one beneath the Exoscience facility. Virtually no damage after everything that happened here."

They continued through the halls, moving deeper and lower through the facility, passing more disabled frames and Exos. "Wahei, where are you?" Elsie asked over the comms.

There was a pause before the reply came. "It looks like she knocked through and into the caverns beneath this part of Eventide," the seeker of insight replied, "There's Vex architecture down here. Be careful."

There was a squeal of the tannoy before another voice cut through the air. "There seems to be a problem with vermin in my home,"  Dredgen Vergift's voice mused coldly. "They must have scurried inside to escape the cold."

Aunor raised her voice as she drew her Quitclaim shotgun. "This doesn't have to end in violence, Dredgen. Turn yourself in and we may be merciful."

"The oldest form of communication in the universe has been violence," the Dark Warlock replied. "It always comes back to it. No, I don't think I shall turn myself in to you yet. Kalki, would you kindly deal with the vermin?"

"S udovol'stviyem." (1)

Aunor and Elsie spun as a partially snow-covered mass of what they'd taken to be machine parts rose to its feet, two eyes glowing with orange-red light in a grim visage glaring down at them from atop the largest Exo body that either of them had ever seen. It towered almost three meters tall, its dimensions not unlike a heavy frame's, broad-shouldered and barrel-chested. Instead of two arms, it sported four. Black armor plating covered the potent chassis, the connectors of which glowed with the same orange-red hue as its eyes.

With a start, Elsie recognized the basso profundo voice that had rolled out of the Exo's throat. "...Rasputin?"

Something that big should not have been able to move that fast. Neither of them saw its fist snap out to grab Elsie around the neck. There was something that might have been a thin smile on the giant Exo's face. "Tot zhe um. Ta zhe tekhnologiya. No takiye raznyye." (2) Aunor's shotgun boomed and the Exo's head rocked back, before its other hand snatched out to grab the barrel of the Quitclaim, effortlessly bending it upward, fixing her with a glare. "Neuvazheniye nezhelatel'no." (3)

The Exo then bellowed in pain as Elsie plunged a knife between the armor plates on his arm, twisting as sparks flew. Its fist opened to let her drop and then skip aside as the giant tore the ruined shotgun from Aunor's hands, bringing it around like a hammer to try to smash Elsie with it, who drew her hand cannon and peppered him with fire.

~*~*~*~

2 : the City at war: chaos and disorder : voices raised in song : fists raised in anger : the Vanguard falls : a look into the abyss--

~*~*~*~

The air was filled with dust, snow powder, and the crackle of energies as the street collapsed. Debris crashed around the Lightbearers as they fell, those close to the sides reaching out to grab for them to slow their descent. The stone of the walls gave way to brass as the Vex structures crawled upward, and even this adamantine architecture was crumpling from the weight of the buildings above falling upon it. Office furniture and storefront fixtures plunged past, soon followed by Eliksni rubble as part of Riis-Reborn above came next.

Dredgen Ruin slammed her fists into a Vex platform as she landed, the shockwave shattering debris and atomizing smaller chunks. Her broken armor was already patching itself under her Light's influence, and her injuries knitted themselves back together. She glared around the cavern as she drew and cocked her auto rifle. "Okay, then," the Dark Titan growled. "Let's fight."

A sniper shot shattered one of her pauldrons, and the Ruiner whirled in that direction, unleashing a blast of suppressing fire toward the retreating form of Rega-7, before throwing up a barricade and pivoting back around as Revenant-19 landed in front of her. The Iron Lord parried her punch as he brought the heel of his palm up and into her helmet, fire blossoming around her head. He ducked out of the way as she nonetheless snapped her head forward with a headbutt, pivoting around her and snap-drawing his shotgun, blowing a chunk off her armor from the side.

Still the Dark Titan did not show any indication that the pain was bothering her. Ruin cracked Revenant across the temple with the butt of her auto rifle, Void energy beginning to swirl around her body as she did. Before she could use it, however, Donovan Morgan crashed into her with a flying shoulder tackle, knocking her prone as they slid across the brass-coated platform. Both Titans turned onto their bellies as they started to rise, before having to roll out of the way as a piece of an Eliksni forge crashed into it, buckling the ground again.

"Round two, Ruiner," Morgan called out as he got to his feet. "Let's go." He brought his Burning Maul up again as the crashed forge split in two, as Ruin tore through it, coated in cobalt ice, a frozen gauntleted fist cocked back as she lunged toward him. He brought the maul's staff up and parried the blow, then spiked the head of the maul down into the ground, another flaming blast erupting and driving her back. Spinning the head around, he brought it down toward her, but she once again brought up a Sentinel Shield to block it.

The shockwave of the hammer striking the shield shook the cavern, more stone falling away from the encroaching Vex structure beneath. The barricade was blown away as well, which gave Rega-7 another clear shot with her Dreaded Venture before another toppling building crashed into the top of the growing crevasse, sending more rubble careening through the vicinity. The Hunter had to dodge out of the way to avoid getting crushed.

Shin Malphur came tumbling out of the newly collapsed building, landing in a roll and then dashing out of the way as Dredgen Bog came plunging down, slamming the butt of a frozen kama into the ground. The Dark Hunter stood up and raised his Huntsman Longbore, but then Ana Bray kicked him in the back of the head as she dropped down as well.

Morgan jumped back out of the way as Ruin attempted to backhand him with the Sentinel Shield, and all parties in the crumbling, creaking cavern stood and eyeballed one another, then everyone scattered again as the domed roof of an Eliksni habitat smashed into the platform.

~*~*~*~

3 : the City shatters : Light turns against itself : the Guardians fail : terrible weapons unleashed : the abyss stares back--

~*~*~*~

"They need our help," Vizier grumbled in her head as she hurried through Braytech labs and corridors.

Wahei Ohr felt bad for leaving her friends and allies behind to deal with Bog and the Ruiner, but time was pressing. "If I stay and help, I'm leaving Vergift alone to finish building her weapon. And if what Elsie told us is true, then that weapon is powerful enough to destroy a star." She swung around a corner, raising her scout rifle, then pressed onward. "Forgive me if I'm trying to keep an eye on the big picture here."

"This is about what you've seen in your visions, isn't it?" her Ghost asked. "I don't know why you won't tell me what you saw."

"If you knew what I saw, you'd never let me step outside again." The Warlock sighed. "I'm sorry for being so vague about everything, Viz. This isn't exactly easy for me, being unhelpful with what I know."

"I've never said a word about you not telling other people things," Vizier sounded weary. "I get it. What they don't know, can't hurt them. But... I'm your Ghost, Wahei. I don't like being kept in the dark."

She paused, and held up her palm so he could compile into tangibility above it. She gently touched her forehead to his shell. "You know I don't like talking about the things I saw. And no," she interrupted his attempt at protesting, "this isn't about my visions. This all started, really, after Paris."

Vizier was quiet for several moments. "You never did explain exactly how you survived down there. I know you had to call upon things you learned from Eris Morn, but--"

"Without the Light, I did whatever I could to survive." Wahei looked back into her past with an empty expression. "I'm not proud of it. Using the Hive's own tactics against them. Tapping into their power." She took a deep breath. "Including briefly claiming my right as Hivebane and Kingslayer. If I hadn't, I might not have been able to beat Ir Tasarakh. And be allowed to leave their catacombs afterward."

The Ghost stayed silent for a moment and then said, "You really should see someone about all this, Wahei. Morgan's been saying it for months, and Rega's been saying it since the Red War."

"No time," Wahei muttered, as she pressed onward. "We're kind of in the middle of something, can we do this another time?"

The tannoy squealed. "Quite," Vergift cut in, dryly. "I'm sure you understand I must delay you, as I still have a lot of work to do before you arrive."

Vizier decompiled back out of sight as Wahei raised her scout rifle. "Slow me down with what? Your friends are occupied by mine, and doors can't keep a Voidwalker out."

"You are a Voidwalker, dit is waar,"  the Weaponer of Sorrow agreed. "But I am not merely a Warlock. I am an engineer, I helped build the very foundries around you. This is my place of power, kleine heks. I have more tricks up my sleeve than mere 'space magic.'"

There was a deep bass tone that came next, and then a rising electronic whine that caused the tannoy to blow out. Vizier spoke in a hushed tone. "Some kind of signal. I don't know what--"

Around her, there was the sound of metal creaking and shrieking as parts shifted into movement for the first time in centuries, ice cracking free from frozen joints and actuators. Wahei turned as she saw derelict Exo bodies and security frames lurching upright, components sparking, their heads all swiveling to look toward her, their optics all glowing with a cold electric orange-red light. One Exo then turned to see a discarded High Albedo sidearm on a partially-broken counter. Its movements were jerky, but it snatched up the weapon and then swung about as it began firing toward her, the other Exos and frames all beginning to shamble and rush toward her.

"Exo zombies. Now I've seen everything," Vizier muttered as Wahei quickly backed up, her scout firing rapidly as she worked to disable the encroaching machine bodies. A frame's head exploded, but its body did not stop its charge until she smacked her palm into its chestplate, a burst of Stasis freezing it in a column of ice crystal. She Blinked out of the horde as she whirled around, firing her Deafening Whisper at the frozen frame. The combination of the blast and flying shards of Stasis crystal scythed down the attacking Exos, but there were still too many.

"There's nothing like a mind driving these dolls," Vergift's voice noted over the crackling, failing tannoy. "But there doesn't need to be. Do you know, I actually advocated doing this when the Vex first invaded from the Glassway? Setting the manufactories to producing entire battalions of combat frames, sending them out to face the Vex instead. Why put a person through death after death trying to beat back something like the Vex?" The Dark Warlock made a tsking sound. "You could suppose the Light choosing me to step into that role as something of an irony."

Wahei ducked as an Exo charged and swung a fist toward her, slapping a Vortex Grenade into its stomach before kicking it back into the coming horde. She turned and used her sword to cut down another frame. "Vizier, could use an exit!"

A marker appeared on her HUD. "Back this way--"

"An exit that takes me further in!" she snapped. "I'm not running away, dammit!"

"Give me a minute, trying to map a route--"

Wahei felt fingers closing on her robes and pivoted around, knocking back a pack of frames with her Penumbral Staff. "I don't have a minute!"

But then the building shook and the floor buckled, dropping her into a lower floor of the facility, catching herself on a catwalk above a cavern, a yawning chasm beneath her. Parts of the facility were collapsing into this, but she could see the superstructure built into the Europan surface was still holding, despite the weight of a sector of the city above crashing onto it. More of the "zombified" Exos and frames were tumbling after her, but most were falling into the abyss. She blasted another pack away with her grenade launcher, then threw down a Glacier Grenade to block off the catwalk from the rest as she looked around. "Vizier?!" she called out.

At last a marker appeared on her HUD again. "This way! I tracked the origin of that signal." She followed it as quickly as she could, while the lurching, mindless machines behind her started scrabbling at the icewall blocking them in. Ahead was the part of the facility where Dredgen Vergift had set up her workshop.

~*~*~*~

4 : the City falls : enemy bombardment : Darkness ascendant : Light in freefall : the Vanguard falls : where is the Traveler : I see you--

~*~*~*~

The devastation had reached the lobby where Aunor and Elsie were battling the giant Exo. "I thought Rasputin was on our side," the Praxic Warlock panted as she slid down a suddenly tilting floor, kicking off a bolted-down work table and gliding down into the cavern. She swiveled in mid-air, hurling a fireball toward the Exo warrior, who shrugged it off without slowing its descent.

"I don't understand it either," Elsie lied. Inwardly, she was having to do a lot of mental calculations. The Kalki Golem had been a constant in many of the timelines she'd looped through, but it had inevitably been on the side of the Light, one of various assets that Rasputin had brought online to combat the Witch Queen's forces. Second only to the Bhishma Golem in destructive power, but even that was debatable. She'd seen it smash through the enemy forces like a juggernaut, even grapple an ogre to the ground and crack its skull like an egg with one fist.

Here and now, the Exo Stranger blipped down to a platform and then leapt off toward another as the Kalki Golem slammed down just behind her. For a brief, terrifying second, she felt its huge fingers pinch the end of her cloak, but the fabric tore rather than stretched and she was able to get away. "I don't think we can beat him!" she warned Aunor, who had drawn out her Battle Scar and tried to distract the rampant Exo with pulse rifle fire.

As they emerged into the caverns, with its Vex structures lining the walls and floors, Elsie saw her sister dodging out of the way of Dredgen Bog's furious Thorn shots and briefly saw red. She blipped again, appearing behind him and driving a knife into his back. The Dark Hunter howled with pain and rage as he whipped around and fired, but she had lunged to the side, so the hateful, poisonous round sank into the armored chest of the Kalki Golem. The Exo juggernaut paused, looking down at it as it corroded part of that plate, then plucking it loose and flicking it aside. "Smotrite, kuda vy strelyayete," (4) the Golem warned him.

"You watch it," Bog snapped, then snarled in renewed pain as the Last Word barked, blowing a hole through his side. He smashed a frozen kama on the floor, filling the area with whirling ice and powder, hiding him from view as Shin Malphur fired five more times from the hip. The renegade gunslinger was bowled over by a piece of debris hurled toward him by Dredgen Ruin, who caught another falling piece of masonry the size of a small car and then flung it at Morgan.

"This!" The Ruiner raised her voice in laughter. "This is what war between Lightbearers truly is!" Her helmet had broken again, a big crack splitting it open over one eye, the V-shaped visor having splintered and fallen out. One baleful eye and a hint of flashing teeth could be seen as the Dark Titan conjured up a flaming hand-axe in one hand and an icy javelin in the other. She swung about and blocked Rega-7's sword swing with the lance, then hacked the axe into her shoulder before kicking her away. She hurled the lance toward Revenant-19, who parried it aside with a Stasis-coated forearm.

"This is what war should be!" The Ruiner continued. "Not the weak, sanitized version that Warlord Shaxx feeds new Lights into. To truly go all out, the kind of battles that leave craters behind!" She didn't flinch as another chunk of debris crashed nearby, tumbling past and rolling away and off the edge into a pool of radiolarian lava. She laughed again as she clashed with Morgan again, leaning away from his Burning Maul and catching him across the jaw with an electric fist, then burying her axe in his gut.

"Gotcha," Morgan chuckled, through the pain, as he grabbed her arm, encasing it in a flash of Stasis ice. She blinked, and looked up just as Rega-7's knife flew past Morgan's shoulder and through the split in her helmet, burying itself in her eye socket. The Ruiner staggered back, reaching up for it with an enraged bellow, only for Revenant-19 to warp next to her and send her flying backward with an eruption of Void energy.

Dredgen Ruin toppled off the platform, crashing into the pool of steaming radiolaria. The supercharged fluid crackled and they saw her thrash as it poured through the missing chunks in her armor. A strangled, agonized scream rent through the air before gurgling to a halt. Her Ghost appeared by the edge of the platform, gawping down at her, which is when Morgan grabbed it, trapping it in a ball of Stasis.

After a moment, the frenzied movement below came to a halt, and the Ruiner did not rise again.

Dredgen Bog stared in shock as he saw one of his partners fall. "No," he growled. "No, no, NO!" He flung an explosive knife toward Morgan, who staggered from the blast and threw up a barricade as the Dark Hunter fired his Thorn at him. "This isn't how this goes! You weren't supposed to find us here! You weren't supposed to kill her!"

He disappeared in a flash of Arc Light, and Morgan had to duck as the Dredgen reappeared, an Arc Blade slashing at him. Morgan conjured forth his Sentinel Shield to intercept the next slash, but then the Arc Blade shifted into a staff as Bog used it to push off and into the air, coming down with an overhead slam that knocked the Titan down. Bog whirled his staff before him as Rega-7 and Ana Bray both fired their snipers toward him, deflecting their shots away from him. "Kalki!"

The Golem's fist smashed into the ground in front of Ana, who dodged back from it. "Sosredotoch'sya, Bog. Ne bud' neryashlivym." (5) 

Ana started when she heard the voice from the giant Exo, lowering her rifle in shock. "Red? That can't be you."

He turned to look at her. "Ty brosila menya tonut' v Glubine, Anastasia Bray." (6) Hearing the accusation stunned her enough that she almost forgot to dodge when one of his fists snapped toward her. Vex brass crumpled beneath the force of his blow. "Teper' YA sam tvoryu svoyu sud'bu." (7)

"Ana!" Elsie called out, as she peppered the Golem with fire from her hand cannon. "Stay focused!"

Kalki did not seem to notice, or at least did not appear bothered by, the gunfire he was taking. He turned to look at the other Bray sister, a sneer in his expression. "YA noshu staroye imya, yego nel'zya ubit'." (8) When Revenant-19 came in and blasted him with his shotgun, the Golem briefly seemed to flinch as the shot left his armored chassis pockmarked with damage.

Meanwhile, Morgan was still desperately dodging and parrying Bog's relentless, furious attacks. While the Titan's injuries were healing up after his fight with the Ruiner, he was feeling winded. The Dark Hunter was giving him no respite, no openings to get some distance, no chance to build his Light for something. The Dredgen's armor was slick with his own blood as well, but the pain from his own injuries just seemed to be spurring him to greater speed and fury.

Finally, he saw his chance as the Arc Staff came around with a one-armed swing. Morgan brought his forearms up to block, deflecting the blow away. But in the same moment, Bog snap-drew his Thorn and fired a shot straight into his belly. Almost instantly, Morgan felt the poisonous bullet sapping his Light, the axe-wound reopening and starting to spill blood. The Titan staggered back, falling to a knee, trying to stand back up, and then collapsing in a heap. Bog sneered beneath his mask. "One Light--"

"Morgan!" Rega-7 flew in with her katana drawn, but Bog parried it with his Arc Staff, which he let vanish as he kicked out at her, knocking her off balance, then caught her in the midsection with another shot from his Thorn. The bullet started corroding her Exo components as she toppled backward.

"Two Lights," the Dredgen hissed. He aimed next toward Ana Bray as she and her sister battled the Golem, whispering, "Glimmer and gleam."

"Where are you aiming, boy?" The bullet that came out of the shadows caught him in the wrist, but Bog kept his grip on his gun as he whirled to face Shin Malphur as the renegade faced him. "Thought I was the one you had a mad-on for."

"Your time will come, old man," the Dark Hunter scowled. "I will cast the darkest shadow, deep enough to drown eternity--" He dodged away as the Last Word barked again, the bullet nevertheless tearing a hole through his hood.

"Goddamn edgelord," Malphur's tone was derisive as he kept firing, until Bog had taken cover behind a piece of debris. "No one gives a rat's ass about the shit that falls out of your mouth." The gunslinger watched the cover, knowing that Bog would not try to blind-fire his Thorn, and he couldn't get a shot off with his Huntsman Longbore quickly enough before Malphur would shoot him. "Got ourselves a Fallen Standoff here, boy. Throw down your weapon, no reason this has to get ugly-- oh, wait," he smirked, "poor choice of words, right?"

But then Bog surprised him by popping up and letting a spray of gunfire loose from a sub-machine gun, and the gunslinger caught three bullets right across the chest. He fell back on the ground, clutching at the wounds, grimacing as the Dredgen kicked the Last Word away from his hand, then stomped down to pin him in place as he raised his Thorn. "I hope you like the ice and snow here, Malphur, cuz they're gonna make up your grave."

Solar fire blossomed in his hand as a Golden Gun-- the Golden Gun-- appeared, blasting a hole clean through the center of Dredgen Bog's chest. The Dark Hunter looked down at this, his free hand coming up to feel at the smoldering gap, choking breaths rasping in his throat as he staggered back, then went over backward, going still.

"Yours," Shin Malphur spat. "Not mine."

~*~*~*~

5 : the City silent : empty streets : abandoned buildings : there is no Light here : drowning in the Deep : I see you-- 

~*~*~*~

Aunor Mahal landed beside the downed Morgan and Rega, casting down a healing rift as she crouched by the former. "This is going to hurt," she warned him, before digging her fingers into his belly to pull out the Thorn bullet. He almost bit his tongue off trying not to scream out the pain. With the poisonous round removed, he felt his Light return and sucked in a deep breath as the wound started to heal. Nearby, Rega-7 was sitting up and reaching into the hole in her own armor to dig out the one buried in her chassis.

"Glad you could join us, Mahal," Malphur grunted as he dragged himself into the healing rift, grimacing as the gunshots inflected by Dredgen Bog closed back up.

"We decided to bring the party to you guys," Aunor snarked back, gesturing over at the Kalki Golem as it swatted Revenant-19 away from it, unleashing a deep electronic battle cry.

Rega-7 blinked. "I don't see how that's a party."

"Little help?!" Ana called as she leapt straight up to avoid another lunging swing from the Golem. His fist still snatched at her, but she kicked off his knuckles and dropped a grenade in his face as she then dove sideways. The giant Exo just gave an annoyed sound as he pivoted around and raised one big hand in front of his face to block the incoming fire from Rev's shotgun.

Morgan nodded as he got to his feet, pulling out a flashbang grenade. "Eyes down!"

The Lightbearers all shielded their eyes and looked away, as Kalki swung toward his voice, then bellowed in fury as the flashbang went off in his face, shorting out his optics. Elsie flung down a Stasis grenade that encased the Golem's legs in place, before Ana and Rega both took off its two lower arms with two well-placed sniper shots.

"YA noshu staroye imya, yego nel'zya ubit'!" the Golem roared, the ice around his legs shattering as he charged forward again, only for Morgan to close with it. Despite the size differential, Morgan caught the Exo's fists in his hands, clenching them tight and then planting his feet, halting the rampant machine's momentum.

The Exo juggernaut blinked, orange-red energy crackling along his arms as he tried to force Morgan back, but lightning crackled around the Titan as he held firm, grimacing beneath his helmet from the effort. "You might be strong," he declared, "but you're not a Lightbearer."

Kalki rocked back as flurry of hateful bullets slammed into his chest, corroding into the vital components. He looked up to see Malphur lowering Bog's Thorn, and a basso profundo growl rumbled from within the Golem's chest. It stopped when Morgan abruptly released his grip and leapt backward, just before a bolt of Solar fire punched through the center of the Exo's chest. Kalki turned to look at Rega-7, who lowered her smoldering hand cannon, but then he heard another clap of fire as Ana Bray cast her Light into her Frigid Jackal.

"You speak with his voice, you steal his tech," Ana's voice was cold, "but you're not Rasputin."

The Golden Gun bolt took the Exo's head off. The body, however, remained upright. The orange-red glow of its internals grew brighter. The Golem's voice came out distorted from somewhere inside its chest. "YA no-osshhhu-- sssstaroye imya, ye-eg-go nel'zzzzya ubit'..."

Ana fired another golden bolt, but the enormous Exo chassis continued to advance slowly even as another chunk of its body was blown off. Morgan stepped in and slammed his Fists of Havoc into the ruined chest-plate, knocking the Golem backward, but it stayed on its feet. "Me-Menyaaa nel-nel-nel'zya ubit'..." (9) the Golem stammered, its fist coming around to smack Morgan to the ground, but the Titan swung an arm up from where he lay, snaring its wrist and then tearing the arm off completely.

The headless Kalki Golem let loose an enraged bellow that shook the cavern, its other arm snapping out and crushing Morgan against the wall with its fist, before Revenant-19 summoned up his Penumbral Staff and flash-froze the Exo juggernaut. "Maybe you're Rasputin, maybe you're not," the grizzled Warlock growled. "But if you are him, then you killed my friends in the Iron Lords." He Blinked aside as Kalki burst out of the Stasis freeze, tearing a panel of Vex brass from the wall and hurling it. Revenant leaned away from the debris and flash-froze the Golem again with his staff. "In which case, this is long overdue justice coming your way, old man."

Before the Exo could free itself again, Ana plunged down from her perch, slamming a frozen kama into the ground, energy bursting around her. The ice crystals trapping Kalki cracked, taking more of his armor with it. Another frenzied, almost agonized, roar emitted from the Golem, its fist lashing toward the Bray sister, but Rega-7 rose from her position, drawing forth a spectral bow and firing a Shadowshot through the Exo's remaining arm, tethering it and the Golem to the wall.

Nevertheless, it tried, its massive frame lunging forward, metal creaking and brass squealing as it pulled at the bindings, joints and actuators shearing from the force of the Kalki Golem's fury. Rega fired two more Shadowshots through its other shoulder and through its abdomen, drawing out another distorted bellow, and still it refused to stop, still lunging against its tethers. The Lightbearers picked themselves up. Malphur looked to Ana Bray. "Your call, Bray. How do you want to do this?"

"I'm not sure how they did it," Ana said as she stowed her sniper rifle, gathering Solar Light in her hand. "But I know one thing. This is not Rasputin. Whatever it is, it needs to be put down."

She drew her Golden Gun and fired a blast potent enough to sear their eyes, a burning golden pool of Light blossoming around the giant Exo, which shrieked as the heat began to melt its chassis into slag. It made one last desperate lunge before its arm detached, only managing one step out of the pool before its legs buckled. The headless torso writhed for several moments before going still, the Kalki Golem finally dispatched.

Shin Malphur turned to check on Dredgen Bog's body, but the Dark Hunter had not risen from where he fell. "Where'd Bog's Ghost go?"

Morgan produced two Stasis-held Ghosts. "His and the Ruiner's here." He took a deep breath. "You guys go on and catch up to Wahei. I can hang back and keep an eye on Bog, make sure he doesn't have some trick up his sleeve."

"I'll stay as well," Revenant added. "This was Rasputin, or something very much like him. As he said, he bears an old name, it cannot be killed." He meaningfully reloaded his shotgun. "I'm ready to put that to the test."

Aunor Mahal looked at them. "All right, then. Hold onto those Ghosts for me, Morgan. The Praxic Order will take care of them after we're done here."

Rega-7 nodded. "I've got Wahei's signal. This way."

~*~*~*~

6 : the City stands : no gods or Queens : an arsenal of paracausality : an army of metal and bone and brass : Haruspex--

~*~*~*~

"How's it looking back there, Viz?" Wahei dashed as quickly as she could through the manufactory complex. Frost did cover some of the surfaces here, but automata were working, beginning to construct firearms and combat frames, sparks flying as spot-welding took place. She kept a bead on these as she passed, but the frames were still inert and being carted off along the assembly line.

"No sign of the zombexos," Vizier reported. "I think most of them fell into the chasm."

Zombexos?' Really?"

What? It's shorter than 'dead exo frames reactivated with mindless attack programming.'"

Wahei conceded that point as she scanned the area. "You'd think that Vergift would be hanging around here. There's workbenches and such all over the place, but even the control rooms are empty."

Vizier made a quizzical sound. "Her signal that's activating the zombexos is coming from somewhere ... below the manufactory?"

"In the Vex caverns?" Wahei shook her head. "Okay, probably still not a good sign. Can you find where she knocked through so we can get down there?" A marker appeared on her HUD. "Good. Can you leave some signals or something behind for the others so they can catch up?"

"Your friends will not be joining you, kleine heks." The tannoy crackled around her as the Dark Warlock's voice rang out. "The Kalki Golem will be keeping them occupied, as shall my dolls."

Wahei spun and flung an orb of Stasis behind her, flash-freezing a zombexo that had silently approached her, filling the passage behind her with a wall of ice, but then one of the automated assembly armatures swung around and shattered the wall, then lashed toward her with its welding torch sparking at her. Wahei ducked and snap-drew her sword, hacking the end of the armature off. She sheathed it and gathered Void Light between her palms, casting it outward and sapping power out of the automata in the workshop.

"How much Light will you still have if you make it to me?" Dredgen Vergift mused "Because I assure you, you will need all you have."

"I have more than enough," Wahei muttered to herself as she vaulted over a table and headed for the breach in the factory wall, plunging onward and through rough stone passages that gave way to Vex brass. It was generally a downward slope and some vertical drops, but she emerged into a wide cavern filled with Vex architecture, geometric shapes hewn from their quantum metals, some trickles of radiolaria dripping down into shallow pools around the exterior. These appeared to feed into a central bowl, which steamed faintly in the cold Europan air. Protruding from the center of the pool was a Vex conflux, glittering white and subtly shifting as she watched.

Dredgen Vergift stood near the lip of this pool, her Braytech Researcher's robes pristine white. Her back was to the entrance, as she tapped away at her wrist-comp. Some manner of gantry had been formed out of the Vex brass above the conflux, and as Wahei watched, it appeared to be extruding a narrow framework around the pillar as well. Vergift took one hand and reached into a pocket of her robes, taking out a piece of Reef amethyst and holding it up to the framework, which seamlessly took it in and incorporated it into the structure. Wahei could see something similar had happened with a Splinter of Darkness and a white crystal shard of some kind.

The Dark Warlock cocked her head at something, and tsked. "It seems the vermin have survived. How unfortunate. For them." She fiddled with something on her wrist-comp again. "I shall just have to send more of my dolls after them."

Wahei's boots rang on the metallic floor of the cavern as she strode forward. Vergift paused, then sighed. "Verdammt."

"It's over, Vergift." Wahei held her scout rifle's sights square over the other Warlock's head. "No more running. No more scheming. The Shadows of Salvation are finished."

The Dredgen turned to face her, folding her arms behind her back, shrugging mildly. "The Shadows of Salvation served their purpose, anyway. I have no further need for them." Off Wahei's look, Vergift shrugged again. "They were only ever a means to an end."

The Awoken Warlock paused. She knew she shouldn't, this was all information that could be drawn out later, once she was in custody. But the Seeker of Insight had to ask the question. "What end?"

"What, indeed," Vergift inclined her head and nodded back to the framework behind her. "That has been the age-old wonder that has benighted mankind for time immemorial. 'What end?' 'What end awaits us?' 'What end awaits me?' 'What does the future hold?'"

"Yes," Wahei rolled her eyes, "because the last would-be prophet with a forecasting device was a very stable genius."

"I will not deny that bigoted rabble-rousing boltneck was a fool," the Dark Warlock snapped. She glanced back at her work again. "But how can one expect to achieve salvation without knowing what shape it will take?"

Wahei shook her head, still slowly advancing toward her. "Are you familiar at all with the Eddas, Vergift?"

The former Braytech engineer tilted her head. "Ja, I have read them, both the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda. Much of what pre-Golden Age mankind understood of the Norse Mythos comes from them."

"Then you're aware of Odin and his obsession with knowing the fate of himself and his people," Wahei went on. "The more he sought knowledge of the future, of the shape of Ragnarok, the more he sealed their fate, sealed their doom."

"And you suppose that I am sealing my fate?" Vergift sneered. "You forget, kleine heks, that I am a Lightbearer, like you."

Wahei's thumb drew back the hammer on her rifle. "You are not like me." 

Vergift shook her head. "I misspoke. You are certainly not a Lightbearer like me."

She raised her left arm, and Wahei saw the Splicer Gauntlet upon it open up, the spindles snapping out as the mechanisms spin and shifted, weaving Light around it. Around them, the cavern activated, and there was a hum and crackle of quantum energies. Two Vex Cyclopses manifested atop two pillars, swiveling to sight upon Wahei, charging up their cannons.

"Because," the Weaponer of Sorrow declared, "I take my own fate."

~*~*~*~

7 : there is a place for you : it is shaped like [knowledge] : shed your Dredgen name : take your new fate--

Weissager : artificer : Exo : visionary : weaponeer

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Translations for Russian via Google Translate.

(1) With pleasure.

(2) Same mind. Same technology. But so very different.

(3) Disrespect is unwelcome.

(4) Watch where you're shooting.

(5) Stay focused, Bog. Don't get sloppy.

(6) You left me to drown in the Deep.

(7) Now, I make my own fate.

(8) I bear an old name, it cannot be killed.

(9) I cannot be killed.

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NOTES: Once again, big thanks to u/RewsterSause for free use of Revenant-19.