Venus never ceased to amaze the fireteam. The green and yellow hues of the jungle shined in the reflection of light bouncing off of the buildings of the Academy. Red clouds slowly rolled into the area, threatening to cut off the radiated beauty. Trees swayed in the warm breeze. The cobblestone courtyard had been cleared half an hour earlier, setting up a clear open shooting range for Alaura to patrol. She kept her assault rifle comfortably close to her, ready to shoot at anything that stepped out of the jungle. "How does it look from up there, Malachi?"

An inch to the left. Malachi calculated as he judged the breeze. All of his shots would have to be placed an inch to the left in order to get it on target. He looked up from his sniper scope and watched his surroundings. The greatest vantage point came from the top of the mountain behind the campus, where he laid in wait. His brown eyes wandered in search of any signs of enemy life, and ended up on the other side of the jungle. He waited a second, then peered down his scope to get a better look. "You want the good news, or the bad news?"

Never a dull moment, that's for sure. "Bad."

"Vex are coming in hot from the right. I'd say five minutes if they keep marching. Less if they teleport," he reported as he stopped staring down the scope.

Jarvis scanned the area in front of them, revealing no life forms. This part of the front deemed clear. He questioned skeptically, "What could possibly be the good news?"

"Most of the city will be out of here by then."

Alaura scrunched her forehead and raised a curious eyebrow. Tanis didn't reply to any of that, so her thoughts drifted onto him. The words left her mouth with a hint of laughter, "Is it bad that I expected to hear something inappropriate be the good news?"

"No. Not at all." The question sparked a half grin to form on Malachi's lips. He maintained watch on the enemies, who seemed to multiply three-fold in the passed minute. "Would you like to hear one?"

A snort escaped from Alaura's nose as she smiled. No surprise there. This man seemed like such a hard-ass at first. Alaura never thought she would ever think otherwise. But now, he's a predictable softie hiding behind his strong exterior. It was a welcome change. She replied in a half amused manner, "Save it for later. Right now we have to focus. I'm heading in that direction." She turned on her heels and headed for the oncoming enemies. "Tanis, how's your end looking?"

No answer.

They knew Tanis had a hard time coping with everything, but this? Blatantly ignoring them seemed to be a whole new level of anger. Alaura called out once more onto communications, "Tanis?"

"I heard you." His blue optics watched as civilians in the city rushed to the hangars for safe transport off of the planet. Children clung to their parents and sobbed for their lost toys. Items littered the streets from dropped luggage, yet no one stopped to retrieve them. Their safety was on the line. That's all that mattered. Tanis reported back sharply, "The citizens are freaking out, but they're following directions."

In this situation, Tanis' attitude interpreted as unfocused and unprofessional. Alaura completely understood why he got upset. To let him die when the entire universe needed him would have been far worse than the situation they are in now. He needed to accept that. Alaura bit her tongue for a short second before asking, "How much of the city has gone already?"

"More than half. As expected."

Staring down the scope at a certain Vex, Malachi hesitated to actually shoot. Alerting the enemies would only send them into a murderous frenzy. He relaxed his finger off of the trigger. The Vex continued to march onto the city and the Academy as the sky darkened. Malachi looked up, curious to see how dark the red clouds were. "Uh..." His hand curled up into a fist slowly, refraining himself from getting too nervous. "Before you say anything positive, we got something big incoming."

The fireteam stared up at the sky as the Darkness swallowed the sky. Inch by inch, the red clouds disappeared into the shadowy dark. The wind began to pick up, swirling around everything in its path. The ground below them softly rumbled. A species of birds flew by frantically, desperately seeking escape from the unknown.

"The Darkness..." Jarvis trailed off in fear.

Tanis peered at the empty space by his left shoulder, instinctively searching to read Dinklebot's shelled expression. The energy and spirit of his friend hung there, but no ghost floated in sight. Tanis' eyes fell to the ground and closed them for a second, storing away the pain emanating from his core. He bitterly spoke, "We don't have The Traveler to save us this time."

"Tanis is right. We need to go." Malachi peered down on Alaura as a worried feeling bubbled in his chest. Her back was turned to him, yet studying her composure alone made it seem as if she froze in place. No emotion. No thought out movements or words. Speechless. He turned to see if he could catch a glimpse of Tanis, who was already making his way towards them. Calm, composed, but with a pep in his step that could suggest panic.

Alaura's eyes fixated on the Darkness. It got tangled with the branches and vines of the jungle, consuming the leaves and wildlife. She took a reluctant step back as a sickening feeling overcame her stomach. So many people were going to die. It wasn't fair. This whole situation wasn't. Regardless of the situation, there was only one thing left to do. "Okay. Ghosts, pull the ships in. We're going to follow the big transport out of here." She pointed at the civilian ship taking off at the bay.

Tanis ran to his jumpship, which wasn't placed too far from his station. The ghosts could help run communications through his helmet because it was the same armor tech, but anything further than that was beyond their reach. With a heavy core, Tanis held his head up high as he started pushing buttons on the console.

The guardians took off after the civilian transport. The Darkness crept closer with each bleak second. Tanis glanced out the glass to see it swallow up most of the city. His metal chest heaved, mimicking the action of taking labored breaths like he had when he was human. This isn't going to end well. The thought crossed his mind, and only strengthened the feeling of hopelessness when a red light lit up the cockpit. His blue optics searched for any indication on what the problem was. "My ship is almost out of fuel. I'm not going to make it out of the atmosphere."

Panic increased as the Vex shot sniper bolts at them. A direct hit jolted Malachi's jumpship to the side, nearly colliding with Alaura's. He called out in brief shock, "I'm taking hits!" He swerved his ship to the other side. Bolts flew upwards, painting the black sky in red streaks. Macey attempted to guide him through the swarm, until his ship jolted once more from a critical hit. A red alarm blared in the cockpit, informing him of a fire and several mechanical failures. Malachi hit a few buttons as his heart raced. "Shit!"

Alaura hurriedly glimpsed at both ships. Possibilities and backup plans buzzed through her mind as her heartbeat sped up. She exhaled in an attempt to calm herself and ordered, "Jarvis, I'm a target in this. Send it to the ground. We'll use it again when we regroup." She glanced around and immediately grabbed a parachute. "Take me out of the ship, please."

"Working on it," Jarvis replied, his voice a little uncertain.

"Use the parachutes. I'm jumping now." Alaura fastened the parachute around herself and took a few deep breaths.

Both teammates responded simultaneously, "Got it."

Fireteam Riptide fell into the world. The Darkness above them swallowed the last working ship. For a moment, there was silence, other than the wind around them whipping in their ears. Then, a flash of red struck inside of the dark; a chorus of screams echoed and grew louder each given second. Everyone aboard the destroyed ship fell along with the fireteam, except their bodies were on fire. The ship above them came apart like a flower, alloy and fusion flash, pierced through and through by the force of The Darkness. Giant pieces of hot metal surged passed them, hitting some of the citizens on the way down, instantaneously killing them on impact. The fireteam could see the whole earth below them, and the sky they fell out of was black without stars.

Tanis wanted to contort his face so badly. The guilt he felt inside yearned to be expressed, but all he could muster out was a defeated statement, "We can't save them...we can't save any of them..."

Words couldn't express what was happening around them. Civilians burned to death as they fell out of the damn sky. Malachi couldn't imagine the suffering those people were enduring. His lips wavered until he clenched his jaw. "Where are we landing?"

Alaura closed her eyes for a second, trying to scrub away the memory from her mind. The screams. God, the screams echoed all around them. She almost yelped from the heartache, but bit her tongue. Strength held the trio together. Weakness would create doubt from unclear minds. She took a silent, shaky breath before answering, "Near the courtyard of the school. It'll be away from the debris." Once low enough, they activated the parachutes and steered towards the courtyard.

The Darkness covered the sky, swallowing the last bit of sunlight. It was as if someone flipped a light switch, changing the day to a night without the moon and encasing the land in eternal darkness. Gunshots blindly rang out in the distance. Screams of panic and agony erupted from the direction of one of the academy's buildings. Footsteps. Running. Sobbing out of fear. Worst of all, the fireteam heard the sounds of metal clanking as Vex marched around them.

The ghosts turned on their flashlights, but the light barely made it three feet in front of them before it abruptly ended. The Darkness' effects slowly dwindled their hope in what was going to happen next. Alaura inhaled and exhaled slowly, drawing in a level-headed thought process on what to do next. Jarvis turned to her as she promptly ordered, "Stay together. We don't know what's out there." Side-by-side, the guardians cautiously ditched the parachutes and walked through the courtyard in the direction of the screaming.

Deadly mixtures of the force that is The Darkness and the planet caused parts of the surface to rumble from deep within the ground. The fireteam stood steady for a moment as the rumble turned into violent shaking. Nearby, the volcanoes erupted, allowing bright blue lava to flow out onto the sides. The lava lightly illuminated the area as it burned the green nature below.

The land behind them tore apart. Lava from beneath the surface lit up the surrounding area. Jagged edges of rock jutted out. Buildings along the edge collapsed, crumbling into the abyss that The Darkness had created. Water from the rivers fell into the crevice like waterfalls. Screams bounced off of the buildings as people inside were taken down to their demise.

The fireteam watched in awe and fear. This...force, or whatever it was, changed a planet's ecosystem in mere minutes. The ghosts stared in silence, taken aback by how quickly it worked compared to The Traveler's efforts. Shouting broke the fireteam out of their trance as a few soldiers ran towards them.

Red bolts departed from the pitch black area ahead of them and killed the soldiers on impact. Their bodies collapsed onto the ground with a loud thud. The guardians nearly jumped out of their bones from the sight.

Without knowing where the shots originated from, Alaura panicked, throwing her arms out in order to form the Ward of Dawn. The purple luminescence gave them an idea of their surroundings, but anything outside the bubble was unknown. Tanis remained quiet, moving his hand upwards to touch the light that formed the bubble in wonder. Malachi held onto his hand cannon tighter with both hands, watching the opposite side for enemies. Alaura moved closer to the edge, narrowing her eyes to focus in on what was near. The area around them silenced, and only the humming of the bubble was audible.

Something moved in the shadows, yet it was too difficult to tell. It seemed the Darkness swirled around in the air, as if that were the way it always moved, regardless of if it already took over the area. Alaura furrowed her brow and held her gun close, finger near the trigger. Vex marched forward closer to the bubble. She called out, "Vex twelve-o-clock!"

Malachi watched as Vex joined the formation on the opposite side. He held his hand steady, pointing it directly towards the first Vex in front of him. "They're surrounding us." He shot a round; the bullet didn't breach the bubble.

Tanis noticed and cocked his head to the side. Thoughts swarmed his mind on what the bubble could be doing. He took an educated guess, "The shield must be impenetrable on both sides. We have to wait for them to come in before we attack."

"How do you know they can get in?" Alaura questioned. She raised her automatic rifle and moved from side-to-side to monitor the Vex's positions.

"It's made of Light. I would be curious if they couldn't get in," Tanis admitted. Despite still being upset at them, gaining new observations on the Light's capabilities intrigued him. He grabbed his scout rifle and got it ready. The bubble wouldn't last forever.

Vex circled all around them, tightening formation as they marched closer. The sounds of clinking metal feet got louder with each agonizing second. Their single red eyes became more clear the closer they got. Goblins and hobgoblins were the only types there, ready to get their metal hands dirty with guardian blood.

The fireteam stuck their weapons outside of the bubble, allowing them to shoot the first shots. Some Vex fell with a huge clunk. The others teleported passed them, unfazed by the loss of their own. The enemy surged closer as more rounds went off, taking down robots one after the other.

The fireteam inched backwards towards the center of the bubble. Some Vex stepped through the Ward of Dawn and shot their blasters. Alaura kicked some enemies back and shot their white cores until they exploded. Tanis pushed his hand forward, releasing fire upon the enemies. The flames scorched the Vex over time, causing some to collapse lifeless. Malachi threw out a blue grenade. It split on impact, creating multiple projectiles that sought out multiple Vex. Two exploded, taking out the last enemies within the bubble.

The team backed up more until they were back-to-back. The Vex waited outside of the Ward of Dawn, preparing to have their weapons trained on the guardians. All that could be heard was the calm breathing and small movements the fireteam made. All three of them baked in their armor, but held their composures.

Tanis watched as the bubble flickered. "What do we do now?"

The red-eyed emotionless stares sent a chill down Malachi's spine. He waited a moment before reporting deeply, "Light them up." The Ward of Dawn extinguished, allowing The Darkness to eat whatever light was left. Then, it was an all out war.

The only sources of light they had to go off of were the red eyes staring them down. The bullets shot from their guns created a spark of light, illuminating the area for a split second each time. The team remained in formation as they lit up the enemies.

When the hand cannon ran out of bullets, Malachi switched to his heavy machine gun. He mowed down enemies like a tidal wave. Tanis let his murderous side take over. One-by-one, enemies dropped from the sidearm shots directed at their milky white cores. He worked in overtime to reload quickly and manage to catch another enemy before they shot a bolt at his head. Alaura took out her rocket launcher and blew the enemies in front of her to bits. She let out a light laugh and loaded another rocket in. This wasn't supposed to be fun, but the adrenaline coursing through her gave her a surge of energy. She was alive now more than ever.

More Vex teleported in, pinning the fireteam down where they were. Shrieks arose from the buildings nearby, causing Alaura to perk up. "We have to help them."

Tanis asked skeptically, "How? We have enough to worry about!" He launched a solar grenade that locked onto one of the goblins. It exploded, sending pieces of the robot everywhere.

"Those cries were from students!" Alaura surged ahead, breaking formation. She ran out of ammo for her rocket launcher and switched to her fusion rifle. One shot rang out, burning two Vex into oblivion.

Malachi clenched his hands, knowing just what he had to do. He conjured the energy inside of himself, and hoped for the best. His hands glowed blue, and steadily, his whole body emanated the same hue. Lightning tangled around his body; blades formed in his hands and he let out a small, giddy laugh. The Vex didn't stand a chance. He launched himself forward, knifing enemies left and right. Bodies dropped like flies as he flew through the crowd, creating a safe path for his team to take. The way he moved appeared like lightning, quick and surging through the air.

Tanis covered Alaura as she found the group of students that screamed. They huddled together in front of a locked building. One of them frantically attempted to remember the code to gain access. Lydia stood amongst them, tears causing her mascara to streak down her cheeks. Alaura kept it short and simple, "Get inside. Is there a ship you can access somewhere?"

Recognizing the voice, Lydia threw herself into Alaura's arms and sobbed into her shoulder. Taken aback, Alaura took a second before wrapping her arms around her best friend. "We will protect you," Alaura stated softly.

One of the students spoke up, "There's a hangar on the other side of this building. My dad let me borrow one of his ships."

Lydia released the Titan and brushed her tears away. She sniffled, fear still clear in her soft voice, "We c-can get there through this building. I...I just remembered the code."

Alaura glanced back at her fireteam. Malachi nearly doubled over on the steps as Tanis took over, raining a hailstorm of bullets onto the Vex using his own machine gun. She turned back, putting another clip into her rifle. "Lock the doors behind you."

"What about you?!" Lydia typed the code into the keypad. The doors opened and she flipped around, staring at Alaura with a shadow of doubt and fear across her features.

"We'll hold them off for as long as we can, and get the hell out of here. Go to the last city on Earth! You'll be safe there under The Traveler." Alaura responded. Her heart raced as the Vex drew closer. Lydia still stood there, waiting as if she were frozen from the fear of losing another friend. "I promise. Go keep those kids safe." After a second of hesitation, Lydia nodded and locked the door behind her.

Alaura bit her lip in worry. If Vex could teleport, who's to say they couldn't get into the building right there and then? Those kids would be annihilated...not even given a chance. She shoved the thought out of her mind and fired on the Vex. "Jarvis, can you get the jumpship to light the area?"

"Right away."

The jumpship arrived in two minutes, illuminating everything in the vicinity. The fireteam kept their weapons trained on the enemies, not letting up for a second. Alaura got hit in the shoulder; she quickly bit back the stinging pain and launched a suppressor grenade. Malachi glanced back at her in worry. In the next second, he threw a knife and hit a hobgoblin right in the core. Tanis reloaded his machine gun with one hand, and used the other to shoot enemies down with his sidearm.

After ten minutes, the fireteam began to feel overwhelmed. Minotaurs, Harpies, and Hydras teleported in, sending dread throughout the team. The students had enough time to get the hell out of dodge. Now was their turn before it was too late. Alaura had Jarvis pull the ship down to allow them all to get inside, and let the ghost be their escape pilot.

The Vex had completely taken over Ishtar Academy.

AN: Ishtar Sink, Venus aesthetic. Taken from one of the grimiore cards! It was so cool sounding, and lore correct, that I had to put it into the story.