//------------------------------//
// 18- Kell of Kells 
// Story: Destiny- Shimmering Sun 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//

Once our ships broke through Venus’ atmosphere and we touched down on the ground, we found ourselves in a place called the Ash Coves. The whole area looked as if it was burned to cinders, but there were signs of fallen equipment scattered throughout the area. As we began to look around, Ray began to receive transmissions from Skystar as we heard the head of the Queen’s wrath begin to speak. “Fireteam Harmony, come in. Were you able to arrive there safely?”

“We just touched down,” I answered back, “We’re in a camp that looked to have some fallen equipment here, but-”

“Say no more,” she interjected before I could finish what I was saying, “Your ghost is right now feeding me telemetry on where your fireteam is. Meaning that I can see what he sees. This does look deserted, but it does seem that they left in quite a hurry. They even left some of their heavy pikes behind. Why don’t you take them for a spin?”

“Well, they might not be as fast as a Sparrow, but they do have weapons,” Mac replied as he got on board one of pikes and saddled himself in, “Could be quite useful.”

“Yeah, but there’s only two here and I don’t think they’re equipped to take passengers.”

“Don’t worry, I got an idea,” Indigo told us, “I’ll go scout ahead and see what enemies are waiting for us and then you two follow me. I can keep myself cloaked and out of sight from them, so I can get an idea as to what lies ahead.”

“That definitely would give you a tactical advantage for sure. Catch them by surprise before they have the chance to act,” Skystar added while I got seated in the second heavy pike that was there and Indigo went off to go see what was in store for us, “Now, if I remember correctly, those particular pikes come equipped with shock mines. However, I’m not quite sure how exactly you would activate them.”

Well, that would be helpful, but that’s not important. Right now, we have to find where the wolves are first as Mac and I were getting used to the controls of the pikes. They weren’t exactly like a sparrow, but there was definitely a bit of a learning curve to it.

“Guys,” we now heard Indigo speak up as Mac and I made our way over, “We got some dregs up ahead… and I think I can hear a fallen walker arriving in the clearing up ahead.”

“A Walker? That’s… definitely not good,” the queen’s wrath now spoke up, “If they have a walker, that means that the Wolves have taken control of the House of Winter’s artillery! If you don’t take it out now, we’ll lose our opportunity to find their kell!!”

That was all we needed to hear. Once we had reached the clearing, I saw Indigo decloak on top of a ledge and pin down the dregs around the walker with sniper fire. As she did that, Mac and I tried to focus on the Walker. It took a bit to try and familiarize with the control scheme since everything that was on the dashboard seemed to be written in whatever language the fallen would speak in, but with some help from Ray, I was able to figure out how the weapons on the heavy dreg worked and began to open fire on the walker as the slow firing shots from the Heavy Pike made contact with the panels on the legs. If this was anything like the walkers we were already familiar with, then destroying this particular Walker would be simple.

Of course, there was also the fact that many of the fallen in the area were already rushing towards where we were to try and stop us, with many of them focusing their fire on me. “Grenade, incoming!”

I looked up to see what a couple of dregs were throwing towards me as I immediately jerked the controls to the right to move out of the way. Yet, the sudden change in direction released some kind of electric orb that bounced towards the fallen and detonated upon contact. My best guess was that those were the shock mines that Skystar was mentioning earlier, but right now my fireteam had more important things to focus on as I got back to targeting the walker.

Then, we heard an explosion and pieces of metal crashing onto the ground as the walker was crippled, “We got it down! Focus your fire!!”

“I’m already on it!” Indigo told Mac as she redirected her focus to the walker and switched to her hand cannon to quickly make work of some of the dregs and throw her skip grenade at the exposed compartments of the Walker. As for me, my Heavy Pike has sustained too much damage from enemy fire, so I had to abandon it before it could explode and began to fire at it with my weapons. Mac himself stuck to the Pike and fired at any other incoming fallen that could disrupt our focus.

Eventually, our efforts paid off as the walker exploded and pieces of the vessel were flown everywhere. Yet, none seemed more excited than Skystar herself when this happened. “Excellent work! Just to think that only last week I was delivering out court messages. Today, we’re delivering explosions! This is why I love fieldwork,” she proudly told us, “Get after them, Guardian! We can’t let them get away!”

At that point, we chose to continue forward on foot since we were running out of room for us to drive our sparrows. It was as we kept going that I decided to ask a question, “Hey Skystar? What can you tell us about Skolas? We know that he’s in charge of the Wolves, but is there anything else we should know aside from that?”

“Well… Variks says that the other fallen houses; the house of winter, devils and kings, hate Skolas with a dying passion. They thoroughly believe that Skolas betrayed the fallen during the battle at Duskfall Gap.”

Around that point, Ray brought up a codex entry to fill in the gaps before I could ask about what Duskfall Gap was. Based on the entry, it was a battle where thousands of guardians fell in order to hold the front line against the combined might of the three Fallen Houses that Skystar had just mentioned. The battle would’ve been lost if it weren’t for Lord Thunderlane leading a counterattack with other guardians, the city would’ve been lost. In the days after, Lord Thunderlane created the Crucible to prepare guardians for if another battle like Duskfall Gap were to happen again.

Though, before I could ask anything else, Skystar spoke up as we approached a door at the end of the pathway, “Hold up… it looks like your ghost is detecting traces left behind from a stasis field. Skolas was kept in a Stasis Pod for years, it must be him!”

Each one of us took the chance to reload our weapons before we cautiously went through the door. As we went through the door, we found a legion of fallen spread out, with what looked to be a kell standing over them triumphantly. It then turned to us with it’s weapon in hand, prompting me to fire at it. Yet, my shots only grazed their armor before they disappeared. But not without a proclamation.

“Gie Lovos drada kee! Drass, gue, Drageh!!”

Immediately, Skystar picked up on the other end as the other fallen began to attack us and forced our fireteam to spread out, “Variks, get on the comms! What did he say!?”

“Yes, yes,” we now heard the warden of the prison of elders speak, “In your tongue he said, ‘The Wolves stand strong. Cover before the Kell of Kells!”

“Kell of Kells?” Skystar asked, puzzled with what Variks told her, “What, did he give himself a promotion?”

“A fallen legend,” Variks corrected her as we took down the last of the group that was here, “He sees himself as a prophet. A great unifier, perhaps. Or… he has gone quite mad.”

“Personally, with what we’ve been seeing, I would think it’s the latter,” Indigo now added as she began to walk farther up a nearby ledge.

“I would agree with you, but do watch your step,” the queen’s wrath told us, “The Wolves are known to be quite resourceful and crafty with what’s at their disposal. They most likely have set up traps to stall you so Skolas can get away.”

“Any particular idea besides the usual fallen traps we’ve seen before?” I asked.

“Well, Variks has told me that some of the wolves have been known to force high caliber weaponry and explosives on shanks. Also, based on the traces that I’m picking up from Sunset’s ghost-”

“Ray,” I corrected, which had Mac look back at me for a moment. Probably with a look of ‘What are you doing?’ underneath his helmet, “What? If you’re going to use my Ghost to help, then you should address him by his name.”

For a moment, there was some silence… before a deep sigh as Skystar continued, “Well, based on what I’m picking up from Ray, some of the traces from Skolas’ pod are in the ground in front of you. Best guess? Some of the Wolves repurposed Skolas’ Stasis Pod and turned them into mines. So watch your step.”

So… landmines then… just when I thought this couldn’t get anymore troublesome.

As we began to cross the upper ravine and chase after the wolves, the three of us soon came across the modified shanks Skystar was talking about. Some were strapped with glowing explosives that were on the front of its metal body while the others had special weapons that fired the same kind of weapons that the Fallen Vandals would use as they tried to pick us off from further up the ravine. To us though, it just meant that we needed to quickly dispose of the exploding shanks first before targeting the tracers to make short work of them. Furthermore, if we came across any mines, a couple of gunshots from our weapons was enough to destroy it before it could set off.

When we were getting closer though, I was beginning to think my radar was going haywire. It was picking up movement and signs of enemies all around me, but I couldn’t actually see anything at first. Though, it was as I began firing at some of them that I began to realize the problem. One of the Fallen Captains that was out here leading the charge could cloak themselves, much like that of Indigo or other Bladedancers. Also, there wasn’t a way to just ‘ignore’ them either. The way forward was blocked off by laser trip mines, so the only way that we were going to get after Skolas was to go straight through the fallen that were standing in their way.

Refocusing my attention, I tossed out my solar grenade on the ground as the flames burned any dregs that came across it. The fires from my grenade flickered against the shield of the captain that we were fighting as the rest of my fireteam now had an open target to focus their fire on as we did what we could to fight against an enemy that we couldn’t see. The different kinds of shanks that we saw earlier on the way up here were beginning to show up as well. More than likely as an attempt to slow down our progress even more.

This was even more apparent when we saw a servitor emerge as well. One that was different from the others. Skystar told us that it was one of the Servitors from the House of Wolves itself, which the wolves use to not only command troops, but to disrupt communications. If we didn’t take it and the captain out quickly, not only would we lose contact with the Reef, but we would be overwhelmed by sheer force.

With that in mind, our first focus was to take down the servitor, all while staying aware of our surroundings and keeping an eye out for the cloaked captain that was fighting us. Once the servitor was nothing more than a pile of scrap metal, we reshifted our focus back to the captain and the dregs that kept on coming in. Though, once Indigo activated her super and started cutting apart everything with her Arc Blade, we began to make some progress and the captain was beginning to weaken significantly.

Eventually, a few more shots from my Pulse Rifle and our combined firepower were enough to stop the captain and disable the laser gate that blocked the way forward. As we proceeded, we entered a tight cavern that had broken tech everywhere. While we were making our way through, that was when we finally got word from Skystar again, “F-Fireteam Harmony, do you copy? Fireteam Harmony?”

“We read you, Skystar,” I answered.

“Thank goodness. When the radio comms went silent, I feared the worst of you and your team,” she replied back, “On a more positive note, the cryo-trace in there is getting stronger. You’re getting closer to Skolas. Hopefully, you can catch him by surprise before he tries to get away.”

Honestly, I was hoping for the same thing. Any other day, fighting off fallen would be a piece of cake. Yet, we were beginning to realize that the Wolves were not like other fallen they had. They were resourceful and always seemed to have tricks up their sleeves when you think to have caught them off guard. It was more than likely that they still had traps like this already set and Skolas was waiting for them to spring it.

Once we reached a massive reinforced door, Indigo had Sparky see if they could find a way to disarm it while the rest of us prepared to breach. Everyone took the chance to make sure all their weapons were properly loaded, second before the door opened and we stormed in. Immediately, I spotted the Kell that we were hunting by the controls of a terminal and began to fire off three consecutive bursts of ammunition at him. The first burst hit one of his arms, the second deflected off of the fallen’s shoulder pad and the last one didn’t even connect. Before it could even hit him, he vanished and disappeared.

“Dammit!!” I cursed, “Skystar-”

“He’s gone,” she bluntly told us, a frustrated groan echoing across the comm feed, “His skiff had just broken orbit... Not to worry, there’s still a lot of wolves in that den though. Clear them out first and then we’ll see if we can find any clues as to where they might be going.”

Well, our entrance already kicked up a hornet's nest of Fallen. Only thing we can do right now is clear them out before things get worse. All three of us spread out in order to start clearing out any fallen that we happened to encounter in the cave. Some of them even dropped their own weapons, which Variks called a ‘Scorch Cannon’. It functioned like a rocket launcher, but it also had the properties of sticking shots to targets and charging it to have the damage of the blast increased. Which was helpful given the amount of wolves that we were up against.

Every moment that we were fighting the Wolves felt like we were facing off against an endless horde. Anytime we killed one, two more would crawl out of the walls to take their place as we continued to fight. Not much ammo dropped either and we had to have our ghosts use ammo synthesizers to replenish what we have in the magazine before we could keep on fighting them off. Indigo activated her super to quickly trim down their numbers, but that just had the remaining Fallen focus on her as I threw a grenade to stop two dregs from attacking her flank.

After what felt like forever though, the remaining Wolves that were in the cave vanished. Not like they activated some cloak to hide themselves, but more if they were transported somewhere. “Skystar, the rest of the Wolves just vanished from here,” I reported to her, “Are you picking up anything from your end?”

“Yes I am, though-” she paused for a brief moment, before finishing where she left off, “According to this, it appears that readings from Vex Tech went off all around the site.”

That… definitely did not sound good. Handling a house of fallen hell bent on conquest was one thing, but they were finding a way to use Vex Tech? That was definitely troubling.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Indigo then asked, “There’s nothing else around here.”

“Actually… that’s where you’re wrong,” Skystar corrected her, “I’m picking up readings of a Fallen Datapad nearby. Perhaps Skolas was in the middle of preparing a new set of orders by the time you kicked the door down.”

“Or it’s a clue,” Mac then spoke, “Something that can tell us where the Wolves might be targeting next.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” the queen’s wrath replied, “Have one of your ghosts transmat that datapad and I can get Variks to translate what’s on there. If we’re lucky, we can be able to find out what Skolas is planning and stop him before he has the chance to follow through on it.”

The titan nodded, before going up to the ledge where Skystar was picking up the datapad. Shortly after we received it, the three of us were clear to return to orbit as we transmatted back to our ships.



One I had returned back to my ship, it didn’t take long for our encounter with the Wolves to surface on our communication channels. The Queen’s Wrath were in contact with some members of the Vanguard and they were doing everything that they could to help with the hunt. It was something that we soon realized when, out of nowhere, we got an unexpected transmission from someone I didn't think would want to check in on us.

“Hey, Fireteam Harmony. Heard you guys got into a bit of a scuffle on Venus. Are you all doing okay? Still in one piece?”

Yes, out of everyone we expected to reach out to us, we ended up having Rainbow reaching out to us. It was… unexpected, though this was Rainbow we were talking about. “We hear you, Rainbow,” I answered her, “Though, could you explain why you’re trying to contact us?”

“Well, word around the City is that you kicked up a massive shank’s nest on Venus. I was checking to see if you’re doing alright.”

After hearing that, I just let out a small breath. Something told me that Rainbow had no idea what we were actually doing, so we were going to have to bring her up to speed. “We’re doing fine. Right now, we’re trying to help the Queen’s Wrath hunt down a fallen house that betrayed the Awoken. They were on Venus, but their kell got away before we had the chance to harm them.”

“You’re helping the Queen’s Wrath?” the hunter vanguard asked, “I heard that the Awoken in charge of that is a rather tough one. She comes off as warm and welcoming, but she’s-.”

“Fireteam Harmony, I have an update for you-” we heard Skystar speak up now, which was something that caught me by surprise, “Huh, that’s strange… it appears that your fireteam aren’t the only ones on this frequency.”

“Oh, uh, hello there,” Rainbow now awkwardly spoke up, her voice sounding… well, whatever an exo would call embarrassed before she continued, “I don’t believe we've met before. I’m Rainbow-6, Hunter Vanguard of the City.”

“Hunter Vanguard you say?” Skystar asked now, “I’ve only heard of that position once before. Tell me… do you know of anyone named Anvil Cast?”

I don’t know what it was, but when Rainbow heard that name, it sounded like she hesitated. She wasn’t so quick to respond like when she was talking to us, but after a couple of moments, the hunter finally had an answer. One that was hard for her to say, “He… was the Hunter Vanguard before me and my mentor. I ended up gaining his title after he lost the Vanguard Dare.”

Vanguard… Dare? That’s a new one. Though, now isn’t the right time to ask about that.

“I see. Well, since you are on our com line, I think you can help us out for a moment,” Skystar replied back, “After Fireteam Harmony’s mission on Venus, one of their ghosts found a datapad containing orders from their Kell to his assassins, but it’s hard to make out the location of where the Silent Fang are headed. All it says that it’s in the Cosmodrome.”

“The Cosmodrome, you say?” Rainbow asked, “Funny you should say that. Some of my scouts are reporting an increase in Fallen activity along the Breach. Something’s got the House of Devils up in a twist and it looks like they’re fighting against other Fallen.”

“That… works out splendidly,” I heard Skystar speak, before a set of coordinates appeared on my ship's navigation unit. “Fireteam Harmony, get to the Cosmodrome. If what we have here is correct, then Skolas is sending his assassins to take out the leadership of the House of Devils. If you get there in time, you can cut them off before Skolas can take control of another Fallen House.”