[b]Episode Five[/b] An Exo, who Shaxx knew by the name of Apollo-1, crawled towards him halfway into the City, torn completely at the hip. Frayed wires and black, contaminated oil trailed behind him. His forehead receptors had already died, while his inner backlights flickered green, ever more slowly like a fading heartbeat. He was a machine that knew nothing of aging, but Shaxx had always thought of the unseasoned soldier as a mere teenager with the voice of a soft child. Shaxx knelt slowly and Apollo let his fingers rest. "Where is your Ghost?" "Lost, sir," he replied. "The Fallen are c-coming." "I know and you've done your duty excellently to the very end." Another bent facial plate fell into the dirt. Shaxx lowered his voice. “Now, will you go rejoin the Traveler and fight on in your next life, Guardian?" Apollo nodded weakly. Shaxx rose and gestured for his battalion of battle frames to resume their charge out of the walls to the Twilight Gap. It took a moment, then the last line of frames left them alone in the evacuated section of the City. He pointed his assault rifle. Four shots rang out. Shaxx lowered his firearm and began following his small army. Apollo's life would not be in vain. Shaxx held in the palm of his hands self-sustaining military frames that were unparalleled in battle—Golden Age relics that were just as shrouded in mystery as the Exos were. In most cases, frames were not nearly as advanced due to emotional and cognitive functions, but these five-hundred robots could hold their own against an army of Guardians, more so against aliens of the Darkness. Arcite 99-40, Shaxx's personal combat frame lingered. "Can we push back the Fallen with our numbers?" asked Shaxx, watching the four-armed figures charge towards them in a swarm. "We are the last wall that will stop the Fallen from entering the City." Arcite tittered. "You wound me, Lord Shaxx," he said. "The grenadiers are in position and the close-quarter units are fully optimized for such an encounter. I've installed turrets on the wall to deal with stragglers and Shanks. They will not take us down." Shaxx smiled and adrenaline began turning his blood hot. "Let's go, Arcite." The first waves of Fallen stormed out of the rusted fortress of Twilight Gap and made their way into the City confines, just around the Wall. It was an open space, a perfect funnel for Shaxx to take advantage of. The Fallen fell like lambs to the slaughter as rows of frames let loose a deluge of bullets. Their assault rifles, aided with their analytically-enhanced visuals, took down their targets with pinpoint accuracy. Every single bullet claimed a soul and there was nothing the mere pirates could do to stop them. Vandals attempted to rally and flank Shaxx's forces, but one-hundred grenadier-frames gyrated their arms in a circle, and with each revolution, cast out a grenade that shattered their formations with blooms of explosions. The Captains lost their heads to snipers. The battle was going very well, but it would soon end. There was just too many enemies. The Twilight Gap forces had taken down thousands of the Winter army, but there were still a thousand more. A Servitor launched Voidfire at the assembled frames, taking down an entire unit as it ate through their metal and circuitry. Enemy snipers shot down a great many, while Dregs stood on the sidelines throwing Arc grenades. Shaxx's frames ignored the opposing attack and continued to raise the ever-growing pile of dead bodies. A wave of clear shapes erupted through the Fallen lines, distorting the air around them. Stealth Vandals. Now it was Shaxx's turn. He was trained by Saladin Forge in the art of Light manipulation and Shaxx was one of the only Striker Titans to have mastered such a difficult technique. Rather than simply throwing a single fist into the ground, he became one with the Arc. His entire entity hummed with the Traveler's arcane energy as savage ripples of electricity sparked like branched lightning, skewering a simple Dreg that actually believed he could hurt the former apprentice of an Iron Lord. Three Vandals came for him. Shaxx held his ground and threw out his chest to meet their swinging blades. They shattered against his breastplate in a surge of electrical power. He swiped his hand across their necks and let their heads roll into the grass. Not even ether could escape as his burning hand cauterized their flesh on contact. Shaxx waded into the midst of enemies, moving his arms, his hands, like weapons, cutting down those that came too close to his smoldering body. Limbs went flying, chests were butterflied open, and heads spun to the ground like thrown bags of marbles. He became a rush of doves beating wings against a storm, his fists and elbows and feet his only weapons, notched blades of metal and light that danced violent and dangerous at the head of the sudden incursion. A Vandal fell back, clutching at his guts as they slipped out of a gash. They ran from his might. [i]Block![/i] Shaxx lifted his arms in a cross-guard and a detonation of white light engulfed him. His ears rang. One weathered horn sprouting from his helmet cracked and tumbled down his fur-padded shoulder. The smoke cleared and he found a single spider tank resting atop a mound of Fallen bodies. He was fortunate his Ghost was so attentive about these things. Usually, if one were the target of an explosive shell, they'd be ripped apart by the shrapnel. Usually, if one were the target of a spider tank, they'd be obliterated. But he was a Striker Titan, and his electrical overshield absorbed most of the blast. It wasn't so for the frames. His entire battalion of robotic forces lay scattered across the ground, destroyed. Only Arcite remained. "What do we do now?" he asked. "We fight." Shaxx moved to charge into the next wave of Fallen soldiers, but a large shadow passed over him and a sphere of roiling Void energy crashed into the spider tank, erasing it out of existence. The aliens dispersed from hysteria. He looked back and caught sight of a line of Warlocks, working in unison to create another nova bomb. Gunslinger Hunters drew forward and unleashed a barrage of burning Light at the attackers, rotating in turns. Shaxx had held the Fallen back for so long that the Guardians marshaled reinforcements from the Tower to help reclaim the Twilight Gap. He smiled and let his Light ebb. He had done his duty and held the Wall. He had saved the City. [b][url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/96619605/0/0/1]EPILOGUE[/url][/b] [b][url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/92779240/0/0/1]EPISODE ONE[/url][/b] [b][url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/93092612/0/0/1]EPISODE TWO[/url][/b] [b][url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/94013318/0/0/1]EPISODE THREE[/url][/b] [b][url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/95269586/0/0/1]EPISODE FOUR[/url][/b] [i][b]DISCLAIMER: THIS SERIES IS A WORK OF FAN FICTION, SO CREATIVE LIBERTIES HAVE BEEN TAKEN. DO NOT TAKE THIS STORY AS CANON. DUE TO A LIMITED AMOUNT OF LORE, I HAD TO SPECULATE ON WHICH CHARACTERS BELONGED TO WHICH CLASS AND SO FORTH.[/b][/i] [b][url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/100362914] DESTINY FAN FICTION ARCHIVE[/url][/b] [b][url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Forum/823422]JOIN CLAN FOR FAN FICTION UPDATES[/url][/b]