FORSAKEN

It’s no secret I’m a huge Destiny fan. This month, in anticipation of Destiny 2: the Forsaken expansion I’ve dipped into some D2 fan fiction. Hope you enjoy it. Keep in mind this is not cannon, just a story I put together for my own amusement.

image courtesy of Bungie

I followed the prince’s hulled ship down to the surface of the asteroid. “This is where it ends.”

“Just make sure it doesn’t end for us,” N2 said floating at my shoulder.

“We’ve killed gods. The prince won’t be the end of us.”

“Sure. I'm just saying be careful. A fight angry--”

"I know," I snapped and finished the quote. "Is a fight already lost."

N2 twitched his shell in what could only be interpreted as a shrug. The proximity alarm chimed and the trasmat kicked on.

A shimmer. A jolt. The cockpit vanished and I dropped to the gray, gritty surface of the asteroid some distance from the crumpled hull of the prince’s shattered vessel. The ship’s torn atmosphere tanks emitted a pair of white plumes that shot far out into the vacuum of space, venting the ship’s air supply. The perfectly dark dome of deep space enclosed us, shot through with the bright diamond pin-points of ten thousand stars racing towards the misshapen curve of the asteroid’s horizon.

Nothing but stars and stones and one traitor for ten thousand kilometers in any direction. Just the way I wanted it.

I limped towards the ship, my wounds from the bullet riddled journey through the prince’s forces reminding me just how close to death I hovered. Twitching my cloak back, I dropped my hand to the butt of my revolver, the Coyote’s Inheritance.

Something amid the wreck flashed and a split second later, shards of rock exploded a foot to my left. I ducked behind a hump of rock as another round, silent in the hard vacuum, gouged a furrow into the ground.

“I guess he’s not dead yet,” N2 said. His shell contracted as he seemed to squint towards the wreck. “Eighty-five meters straight ahead somewhere. I can't pinpoint him.”

“Get me the Jealous Kiss,” I snapped. “The princeling wants to snipe. I’ll snipe his pretty little head right off.”

“I can get it, but we’re out of powered ammunition. That last battle…”

“Fine,”  I snarled and drew the Coyote’s Inheritance.

“Wait! Be careful!”

I darted from cover, my jump jets firing soundlessly, hurling me over the gray landscape in a long low leap that was only possible in the minimal gravity of the asteroid. I felt something pluck at my shoulder as another bullet tore through my cloak. This time I saw him, a shadowed figure in a cleft between a rock and his ship's mangled wing. Still mid air, I aimed my hand-cannon. The retical lit up, highlighting my enemy’s silhouette. I dropped the cross-hairs onto the head. Goosebumps prickled beneath my gauntlets. I squeezed the trigger. The gun thundered, jerking as it spat lead into the man who’d killed my mentor.

The silhouette staggered as his shield shattered with a flash of white light. I landed, staggered as my wounded leg turned on me, then jumped and fired again. This time I saw the pulse of lead slam home. He ducked away and I followed suit beneath the sheared off angle of a piece of debris to reload.

I switched my coms to broadband.

“This ends one way, little prince,” I said. “I’ve killed your lackeys. I’ve killed your allies. Heck, I almost killed that sister of yours until she saw sense. Now, you're going to die a long long way from your ancestors' bones.”

“You talk too much,” came the prince’s voice. He sounded tired, ragged, strangely calm. Not the usual oily arrogance tinted with rage I was used to. I smiled. He was rattled.

“She put a bounty on your head. Did you know that? Your own sister. Now that’s just cold. Whether or not she actually wants you dead, I don’t know, but she’s made sure every guardian in the City is looking for you. If I don’t get you someone else will.” I slapped my gun’s cylinder closed.  “But I am going to get you."

Gun ready, I edged carefully around the side of the jagged chunk of hull, hoping to catch a glimpse of my enemy. I saw only stillness, and the barren expanse of the asteroid's pitted surface.

"You know what the bounty says?" I continued. "It says: ‘Condition Non-Specific’. Back on Earth Before they’d have said, Wanted Dead or Alive. Now it’s Condition Non-Specific. I think I like the old way more.”

I waited, listening.

“Nothing to say? Normally you're so chatty.”

“Come get me, if you’re so confident.”

“Careful what you wish for.” I took a quick step out of cover and then stopped dead. A shot struck to my right where I would have been if I’d continued, but I was already moving back into cover. The second shot struck the torn metal of my shelter. Over the coms the prince swore and I smiled again as I sprang straight up. My leap carried me over the crumpled ship. I saw him twist towards me in the process of reloading and this time I didn’t bother shooting. I flung my knife. It pinwheeled through the vacuum, a flash of flame that knocked him to the ground. He bounced ludicrously high in the low gravity before settling back into the asteroid’s colorless grit, even as I landed. I trained my gun on his head, but I knew it wasn’t necessary.

Clutching the hilt of my knife jutting from his stomach, he crawled to his knees. The forsaken prince knelt gasping, his armor venting atmosphere from a half-dozen points. A crust of frozen blood glittered on his face-plate, partly obscuring his pale features and glittering eyes. His sniper rifle lay where it had fallen. His stolen pistol, still strapped to his thigh, hung an eternity away from his blood stained hands.

“It’s done, you cobber. You’re done.”  

His glowing eyes turned to me, fierce as ever. “Then do it. Shoot me like I shot him. It’s not very satisfying but it does seem fitting.”

My lip twisted. My aim shook, and slowly I lowered my gun. With a twirl, I slid Coyote’s Inheritance back into her holster.

“What? What are you doing?” N2 whispered. “Just shoot him.”

The prince considered me a moment. “And what’s that mean?”

“I’m not like you. I’m not a coward. Now get up, and draw. And when you do I’m going to end you.”

He hung his head for a moment before slowly nodding. With an effort he staggered to first one foot and then the other. He stood swaying for a moment, one hand still on the hilt of the knife buried in his gut. “So, how do we do this? Back to back and ten paces?”

“Just draw,” I said. “And the quicker one lives.”

He nodded again, and slowly moved a shaking hand to hover over the pistol’s grip. “This ridiculous tradition wouldn’t have saved him," the prince mumbled. "I’d have killed him all the same. Just like I’m going to kill you.”

A fight angry is a fight already lost. I took a slow steadying breath.

“I should have put a bullet to you the first time we met.”

“But then you’d have never found the Garden and your whole miserable world would be gone, wouldn’t it?” I watched the fingers of his gun-hand ease around the pistol's grip. I could see strength in them. He wasn’t as helpless as he was acting.

“Well, I guess--” He moved in a blur, but not in the direction I thought he’d go. The hand clutching the knife, my knife, flashed forward and the blade took me in the shoulder even as I tried to draw. The Coyote’s Inheritance toppled to the ground. The prince’s pistol seemed to leap from the holster and a spray of bullets shattered my shields.

I sprang into the air, seizing the light granted to me. Fire exploded from within me. It scorched around me and through me, consuming me, transforming me into a creature of light and fire. This was my true form, not the mean flesh I wore, this was what I really was. Power. Energy. Holy fire. So too, this was my true weapon. In an instant, I formed the fire around me into a blazing pistol. Still mid air, I aimed. The prince's shining eyes widened, even as he tried to swing his gun up towards me.

I fired. A single scorching shot.

~SJA

Liked this? Please, share and comment. Also, I hope you'll check out some of my other Destiny themed fiction below:

THE FIRST WARLOCK 
LAST GUARDIAN STANDING
WHAT AM I
TIME STREAM