He hovered there for a few seconds. Bathed in flames, his fiery wings outstretched to their maximum width. We all just stared, not knowing what to say to this new development. It should have been impossible, yet I stared at the impossible with my very own eyes. He floated down gently, landing just a few feet in front of us. We gawked at him, yet he wasted no time in getting us back on track. His flaming wings of fire disappeared in a puff of smoke and he got down to business. “We haven't stopped the fallen, we only slowed them down,” he said as if him being able to fly isn't something out of the ordinary, “Look, they're already starting to climb up the wall.” He motioned for us to look down. I pulled out my sniper rifle again, and looked to the bottom of the wall. Sure enough, the fallen were starting to climb the wall like spiders. The bottom of the wall was no longer visible, all I could see was a mass of fallen covering it. And it was slowly spreading up the wall. I looked a little higher. The skiffs were now hovering above the scorched earth, dropping their crew to the ground. My stomach jumped into my throat when I saw three fallen walkers drop from a their respective ships. The sickening thud from them hitting the ground could be heard from here. Traveler almighty, I thought, we're gonna die. We can’t hold off this army. We’re doomed. I don’t wanna do this, I can’t do this. I...I can’t. “Guardian?” My ghosts voice spoke inside my helmet, “Guardian, your brainwaves are going off the charts, your heart's going at 209 bpm!” I started panting, hyperventilating. Oh god, I don't want to die I don’t want to die I don’t want to die I don’t want to die. I had only been a guardian for a few months, I could do so much more! So much more! Not in a place like this, don’t let me die in a place like this. The fallen were gonna rip out my insides. They’re gonna slaughter us and the entire city. I can’t do anything to stop them. I shuddered, hugging myself with my arms, as tears began to swell in my eyes. My anxiety disorder getting the better of me. Just as it has always done. I can't do anything in this state, I'm useless. I've only been running on adrenaline up till now. A sob escapes my throats before I could stop it. I didn't want the others to think that I was weak, but I can't help it. I felt a hand on my shoulder.I looked up, my helmet hiding my terrified expression, to see that it was Silas. I saw his hand shaking, which gave me little comfort until I realized that I was the one shaking. He looked to me. “It's a guardian’s duty to protect this city,” he said in a calm voice, “You are the symbol of courage, don't stain that reputation and fight without fear in your heart. Then, I know for sure, we can survive. We have a city to protect. We are guardians, and that title means more than just one person, it means more than your fear. It means protection from the horrors that want us dead. Stand up and fight to the bitter end, because that's what makes us guardians.” I considered his advice, with a heavy heart. God, how pathetic am I? I'm a guardian. I need to face death with courage, and not let this city fall. I can’t stain our courage and bravery with my own fear, I have something to fight for. We have to win. And I can’t bring us down because I’m afraid. I started to breath normal, calm deep breath. I managed to get my heart rate down and calm myself enough to stop shuddering. I opened my eyes and stood up, no longer shaking. “Th… thank you. I… needed that,” I said to the warlock. He nodded, then focused his attention to the bigger issue than my mental breakdown. He nodded, then turned and kneeled down looking over the edge to the fallen below. I did the same and saw a ghastly sight. The fallen were almost halfway up the wall already, completely covering the wall in a mass of limbs and armor. There were hundreds climbing the wall, with even more coming out of the forests still. There could be thousands of them all together. I shuddered at the thought of roughly 21 guardians fighting thousands of fallen. Then there were the walkers. All three of them were making there way towards the bottom of the wall and the mass of fallen already there. But why? They couldn’t climb the wall, couldn’t they? Seeing this entire sight terrified me even more. No, I thought, I can’t let everyone here down. Remember what Silas told me. He was looking at me now, his posture showing he was still concerned about me. I nodded at him, still terrified, but ready to fight. I took a few more deep breaths to calm myself again, then steeled myself for what was to come. “Welp,” said a hunter, quite casually, “Better get the shootin’ started,” He loaded a hand cannon and aimed down at the hordes below. “That's not going to work,” Silas’ voice came from my side. He got up from his kneeling position, “We're too high up, your shots wouldn't do much to them down below.” Silas said, patronizing the hunter. The hunter seethed, not liking that this new guy has suddenly taken control and is telling him what to do. He looked like he was going to protest, maybe even fight Silas, before a titan spoke up. “Flame on here is right,” he said, making a jab at Silas that I didn’t get, and that he didn’t get either telling from his confused response, “We're fifty stories up, and they're all the way down at the bottom. Well, except for the fact that they're climbing up as fast as they can.” “Which means that we have a few minutes to prepare, and we'll be able to to start picking them off once they get in range. They're going to be spread a little thin, climbing while making room for the ones beside you. When the first wave hits it’s gonna be easy for us to hit something, while they still have to avoid gunfire.” Silas began, picking up on the titan’s train of thought. “But when they're in range for us to shoot, we'll be in range for them,” the titan spoke up again. “And they have a helluva lot guns down there.” “And there’s the double edged blade…” Silas muttered under his breath, but loud enough to be heard. “They can’t shoot us, but we can’t shoot them. And when they are in range, as will we. But we'll have the advantage in that we don’t have to keep a few hands on the wall to stop us from falling while being shot at and shooting back. Yet, they do have the advantage in numbers.” He looked at the ever growing crowd of fallen, “And there are a helluva lot of fallen down there too.” “Then there's the skiffs,” the titan pointed away from the mass of fallen slowly thinning out as they climbed up the walls. I looked through my scope again to where he was pointing. The skiffs remained over the battlefield, even after dropping off their crews and their spider tanks “They're remaining stationary,hovering there doing nothing, like they're waiting for something. I can only assume that when the fight gets started that they'll fly right on up and we'll be fighting from two angles again. But this time, we don't have as much cover.” The top of the wall behind us was barren, with only a few pieces of outcropping metal for cover. But, there isn't nearly enough for all of us. He was right, we'd be screwed fighting those skiff turrets and the fallen climbing up the wall at the same time. “Right, so we're pretty much screwed,” Silas said not sounding all that concerned, like he was just playing a game, “But… Does anyone have any turret beacons?” He turned back to the rest of the guardians. A warlock raised his hand after a few seconds of silence. “I've got five here, but I think that I'm the only one with any.” “Doesn't matter, set those up in intervals around our section of the wall here. Those things have high enough caliber rounds to tear through the fallen skiffs. Plus, I think that I can assume that a few people here have rockets,” there were several muttered responses, “Good. When the first wave is in range the turrets will sweep across the wall, hopefully taking those fallen down a peg. And when the skiffs start moving the people using the turrets and those with rockets and ranged supers will tear them apart. We can't allow them to get high enough to use their weapons if we do then we might as well give up now. The rest of the guardians who aren't in turrets will be keeping the fallen at bay down below.This is our only option at the moment, and we can’t afford to die. Any problems with this plan, cause it's all I've got.” No one said anything, but the hunter from earlier didn't look too happy. “Good. Now,” He looked over the ledge then back to us, “Get ready for the fight of your lives. Cause it might be your last.” We nodded and, I swear, I heard the start of more music coming from Silas’ helmet. Guess he likes music, I thought as brought out my scout rifle and got ready to the impossible. I got ready to survive. It took a few minutes for the first shot to go off, but when it did the sky lit up as our battle for survival began. And in that battle, both sides lost. [b]Continued In Comments[/b] [b]Table of Contents:[/b] https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/230034700/0/0