Doom of the Dragons, Part 15: Healing

Greetings, Guardians, and here's part fifteen of Doom of the Dragons! Here's [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/239768057?sort=0&page=0]part fourteen [/url]if you missed. Also, the Fallen Dialogue in this chapter was made possible by Sarsion (link to his post on the Fallen language[url=http://errata.ishtar-collective.net/the-fallen-language/] here[/url]). As usual, if you like it, give it a bump, and I'll get more out soon. Stay classy, Guardians! Cupun ran down a street with a column of Guardians, all of them following Saint-14, who had lead the charge from the Tower to the City outskirts. Of the City’s 3000 Guardians, around a third were scattered throughout the system, running various missions for the Vanguard. The remainder were now taking positions along the wall, with some watching the horizons for a potential flank by the Fallen, and the rest running towards the scene of the battle as fast as they could. “Almost there!” Saint-14 shouted. The Guardians began moving faster, and soon came to the City’s outermost wall. The wall wasn’t much to look at - it was around eight meters high, and had been cobbled together from rubble and brickwork. Atop it sat several turrets that had been salvaged from old spacecraft and military forts from the Golden Age - along with a few jalopies courtesy of Tower engineers. At the section they were running towards, a ten-meter wide section of the wall had been blasted away. Fallen were trading shots through the gap with the City Militia, along with a few Guardians who’d managed to arrive earlier. One of the Militia - an older man with a thin gray beard and a pointy chin - looked back at them. “‘bout time you showed up!” he shouted. Saint-14 and the Guardians moved up to him. “What’s the situation look like, Commander?” “Fallen showed up outta nowhere, and started blasting at the wall with Walkers!” the Commander said. The name “Jao” was printed on his uniform, and he spoke with a thick European accent. “Best we can tell, they’ve got a force of about 2000!” “Got it!” Saint-14 said. He turned back to the column of Guardians behind him. “Take up positions on the Wall!” he shouted. “Pick off any Fallen that you see. Got it?” “Yes sir!” came the resounding chorus. Saint-14 nodded. “Move out!” he shouted. Cupun immediately scrambled up to the top of the wall. He looked out on the horizon, and got his first good look at the enemy force. A sea of fallen stood before the wall. They fired at the gap, desperately trying to penetrate into the City. All of them wore Devil colors. In the distance, Cupun could see the Walkers firing away at the wall. He shook his head. This would be a tough fight, but the Guardians had a clear advantage. They would win the day - he was sure of it. Then, he noticed one of the turrets next to him had stopped firing. He ran up to it, and climbed up to the seat. “Hey, you -“ he began. Then, he stopped. The turret operator was dead, a golf-ball sized hole driven through his forehead. The flesh around it was singed, indicating a wire-rifle shot. Blood spattered the green City uniform. Cupun sighed. “Damnit,” he said. He quickly pulled the body out of the turret, and laid it down on the wall. Then, he climbed into the turret himself. It was a relatively simple one - probably cobbled together by the City engineers. It’s exterior was armored with gray sheet metal, with a small - now shattered - window on the front to help protect the operator. One trigger fired the weapon, which had four barrels - each of them operating on belt-fed ammunition. A small dial on the right indicated that there were about eight-hundred rounds left in the weapon. A small hand-crank next to the seat allowed the user to rotate the turret manually. Cupun shrugged. “Well,” he said. “It’s better than nothing.” With that, he turned the hand crank a little to the right, and fired the weapons. Bullets tore through the Fallen in their path, kicking up clouds of dirt wherever they impacted. The Fallen screeched, and scrambled for cover. Cupun adjusted the angle of the turret, and fired again. Suddenly, he heard a whistling sound from above him. He looked up, just in time to see one a shell from one of the Walkers heading right towards him. BOOM! The shell hit the turret dead center, and Cupun was ejected from it by the force of the explosion. He stopped when he collided with a building with a crunch. Then, white hot pain reverberated through his shoulder. Cupun blinked, and looked around. By some miracle, the explosion hadn’t killed him, but it had kicked up a massive cloud of dust. He could hear Saint-14 in the background, ordering Guardians to fall back. Cupun tried to pick himself up off the ground, but a flash of pain in his right shoulder stopped him. He cried out, and sunk back to the ground. Then, he looked at his injury. The explosion hadn’t killed him, but it had driven a jagged metal spike through his shoulder. Judging by the feel of it, it had penetrated the front of his armor, punched through his shoulder blade, exited the back, and traveled at least several inches into the wall behind him. Cupun closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He knew what he had to do. Using his free hand, tore off a section of his Mark, rolled it up, and put it into his mouth. He bit down on it tight. This is going to hurt. Cupun grabbed the metal spike with his free hand, and gave it a yank. Pain shot through his body but he felt the spike move a few inches forward. Cupun howled, clenching his teeth even tighter. Then, he grabbed the spike, and pulled it again. The jagged piece of metal exited his bod with a sickening sound. Cupun leaned back against the building, and took a deep breath. Then, he heard a screech in front of him. Cupun looked up. There, he saw a dreg, red plumes sticking out of the back of its helmet. It’s blue eyes glowed, and it held shock pistols in both hands. “Zer!” it shouted. “Dis!” With that, the dreg raised a pistol, and pointed it at Cupun’s head. Reacting instinctively, Cupun grabbed his pulse rifle with his spare hand, and shot the dreg in the chest. The alien stumbled backwards, and collapsed to the ground, dead. Suddenly, four other Fallen in Devil colors appeared next out of the dust. Two of them were vandals, and the other two were Dregs. One of the vandals cocked its head at him. “Ne she zer!” it barked. “Do ra de sloat!” said the other. Cupun stood up, and stared at his foes. “Now would be a good time to heal that arm, Ghost,” he said. “On it,” his ghost said. “I’ll have you-“ suddenly, his ghost paused. “Wait - that’s - that’s not possible!” “What?” Cupun asked. “Your arm,” his ghost said. “It’s already healing!” Cupun looked down at his shoulder. Sure enough, the wound was healing. Even as he watched, he could see the flesh regenerating as the wound closed together. Cupun flexed his fingers, and found that he could move his arm without pain. He looked at his pulse rifle, and new instinctively what the cause of his healing was. He smiled. “How about that?” Then, he raised his pulse rifle, and fired. The first vandal fell, its head disappearing in a flash of ether. Then, Cupun switched to hand to hand, grabbing one of the dregs as it rushed at him and flipping it head over heels. He punched the second dreg so hard that its chest cavity caved in. The Vandal took a swing at him, hitting him in the abdomen with the butt of its wire rifle. Cupun grunted, and grabbed the rifle’s stock. Before the vandal realized what was happening, Cupun positioned the barrel under its chin, and squeezed down on the trigger. A bolt of arc lightning sprouted out through the vandal’s head a moment later. “Bo ra dis!” Cupun turned around, and saw the dreg that he’d thrown earlier running at him, shock daggers in hand. Not skipping a beat, Cupun kneeled down, and grabbed it by the abdomen as it ran at him. Then, using the dreg’s own momentum, he launched it, headfirst, into the wall behind him. It impacted a second later with a sickening crack. “To me! To me!” Cupun looked around and saw Saint-14 waving. “To me! To me!” the titan shouted. Cupun joined him. “Let’s show these Fallen what Guardians are made of!” Saint-14 shouted. “Charge!” Cupun heard the rest of the Guardians bellow in agreement, and they charged through the gap in the Wall - right at the remaining Fallen. [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Groups/Post?groupId=1371758&postId=240276175&sort=0&page=0]Part Sixteen: Sniper[/url]