I wrote this back in January of 2015 and published it to my blog. I'm republishing it here for your enjoyment.
Looking down into the valley through his digitized goggles Daniel surveyed the area. He and his fire team had been assigned to investigate the increased Hive activity in the remote reaches of the Cosmodrome in what used to be Russia on Earth. "Mister Green to Sepia, are you seeing this? I have a pair of clowns at the entrance to a subterranean tunnel at my two a clock low." Daniel waited for a reply from Annetta, call sign "Sepia". She was one of two "Locks" (Warlocks) that he would trust his life to. Her and Ryan "OTeez" Tignaletti was the other. They were somewhere below and out of sight. As the hunter of the team it was Daniel's job to scout the area ahead of them. The comms crackled in his helmet. "Sepia To Mister Green, I see them, they are out of our range, what does your Ghost think?" Daniel's Ghost seemed to turn and "look" at him although it didn't really have eyes as such. "Well AL?" Dan inquired, (he had named his Ghost AL after Albert Einstein) "What do you think, is this the source of the local infestation?" "I'm not picking up any readings from here Daniel but we are too far from the entrance to detect any further life signs other than the two 'clowns' as you referred to the acolytes standing sentry in the entrance." Daniel chuckled to himself as his Ghost seemed to have a problem assimilating things like nick names and slang. " Green to Sepia, AL says we need to go in for a closer look before we can ascertain the nature of this hole. On my Mark... "
AL piped up just as Daniel keyed the scope of his impossibly long Sniper rifle to his goggles. "Daniel I'm not sure..." A loud boom rang out as the sentries crossed in front of each other in Daniels sights. With one shot they both dropped, brains splattered around the walls of the entrance. Looking through the magnified view of the scope he could see the decapitated bodies twitching on the ground "Boo Ya! Two for one on Isle six!" The entrance is clear, move now, I'll be right behind you."
If ghosts had a head to shake AL would be shaking his. "What?" Dan looked at the little AI. "You just never take anything seriously" Daniel Scrambled to collect his Rifle and secure it to the waiting sparrow and then as he picked up his trusty Gjallarhorn he quipped "Hey, I could have just hit them with this." he chuckled to himself as the word "overkill" crept into his brain.
The transmat was picking up OTeez's and Sepia's sparrows as he arrived on sight, they had already begun preliminary investigation into the entrance and Daniel stopped for just a moment to admire his recent two'fer. He keyed his Sparrow for pick up and hustled inside to meet his team.
As he slipped in behind Sepia he barely whispered "What have we got?". Annetta nearly jumped out of her skin. Hunters were trained in the art of stealth and Daniel was an exceptional Hunter. She hit his arm hard enough to leave a bruise if he weren't armored. "How many times have I told you! Don't. Bloody. Do. That!" Daniel just rubbed his shoulder and chuckled. Sepia pointed past O'Teez who was obviously snickering under his helmet. Teez had served with Sepia for a lot longer than they had known Mister Green and he loved it when somebody other than him had as much fun jabbing at her as he did. All in all he thought that they made a pretty good team. Daniel looked down Sepia's arm to where she was pointing. A pair of Knights and a compliment of Acolytes and thrall... "Shit!" It had to be Thrall didn't it? Of all the nasties in the universe Thrall were his least favorite. There seemed to be a lot of them too. All three ghosts vanished as if on cue. "Well, we died once, why not? "
The two locks lept from cover ascending high into the cavern. As their jump jets made their familiar hiss all eyes turned upward to see what was happening. The pair of Knights began to raise their weapons in response but from the cover of the rocks "Not so fast Stonehead!" The first round was off whirring through the air as the knight looked down into the place where the voice came from, it was too late. The big heavy bullet from the Sniper rifle found it's mark right through the beast's eye socket scrambling whatever it used for brains. In the confusion violet light shot from O'Teez's hand as the Nova bomb landed smack dab in the middle of the group below him scattering peices of their foe in all directions. Daniel could hear the bark of a heavy machine gun as Sepia opened up while desending gracefully to the cavern floor. Daniel looked across the large expanse and saw the last Knight taking a bead on her. She didn't see her attacker and she was an easy mark for him hanging in the air like that. Dan lowered his long rifle and aimed quickly. It was a short shot but he couldn't miss or his team mate might wind up dead. The round barked to life as it raced towards it's mark. The Knight fired but not before his head cantered sideways at an unnatural angle even for him. His shot went wide as he slumped to the ground.
Daniel jumped from his hiding place desending the steep cliff two to three meters at a time. He drew the Last Word from it's holster and leveled it at the remaining fodder. The cavern rang out with a minuet of Auto Rifle fire and now there was the steady punctuation of his hand cannon. A group of thrall ran kamikaze straight toward him. He counted four, he had three shots left. He emptied his gun into them dropping all but the last and then it was on him. He drew his blade and charged it with Arc energy as he felt claws gash at him, he slashed and the thing seemed to evaporate into thin air. He looked around, O'Teez's had his boot at the neck of a clown as he pulled the trigger of his auto rifle and Sepia was tossing a grenade at the last remaining group of thrall. "Well..." The first to speak was Sepia's Ghost, Boris "If they didn't know we were here before they do now. Have any of you ever heard the term 'reconisance' before? It implies a level of stealth. You know, stealth? That's when you move around quietly to ascertain the enemies location and strength?"
They all looked at each other and Daniel shook his head. "Boris buddy, you worry too much". As if on cue there was a loud roar from somewhere below them in he depths of the hollowed out caverns and all three of the guardian's began to think that maybe this time, the ghost might be right
Flipping to night vision Dan made his way deeper into the inky blackness. Intel had said that Hive activities had increased in this area and this seemed to be the source. As Green turned the corner he heard them first, shuffling around in the darkness, then he made out two figures. They looked like Acolytes "clowns" as Sepia called them. Dan concentrated as he had been taught and cloaked himself to the various light spectrums that these nasties could see. Then taking a long metal blade in each hand he quietly worked his way up behind the two of them as they drew close to each other. Suddenly, without any sound or warning Daniel drove each knife deep into the base of the creature's necks cutting off all possibility of a scream escaping their throats giving warning to any of their near by cronies. As the aliens slumped to the ground Dan keyed his mic "Green to fire team" "Encountered two sentries lower down the corridor, proceed with caution." O'Teez Keyed his mic "copy that, you be careful down there" "I alway am buddy boy, Green out"
Daniel was always sure of himself, almost to the point of being a bit cocky, but he really did have exceptional skills as a tracker and scout, even if he did get in over his head from time to time. AL, his Ghost piped up in his ear. "You know one day your brain is going to write a check your body won't be able to cash Daniel..." It wasn't a question per se and Dan knew it. The little "Ghost" had looked after him since it had brought him back from the dead, literally. It always had evaded the question of why he had been chosen but in truth it saw potential in this one, of course that meant nothing really, Daniel was dead once and he would be again some day, hopefully not today though. The Ghost seemed to sigh.
Daniel continued his way down the labyrinth of tunnels marking his way as he went, although, the locating system in their armor gave each member of the team the location of the others as well as a graphic display in their huds. Ryan and Annetta examined the corpses in the path that Dan had left them. They gathered all the Intel they could off of the bodies and stuffed the them into a hole where they wouldn't be found too quickly. Dan was only about five minutes ahead, that was their rule. Suddenly the radios crackled in their ears. It was Dan, out of breath and almost whispering "OK guys, we have trouble!" " I have three wizards and at least a half dozen Knights down here! ". " The Wizards...They're chanting... Or something... It can't be good... " O'Teez and Sepia looked at each other and sprinted down the path as quickly as they could. " We're on our way to you buddy, stay out of sight. Teez out" Dan sat in the dark and looked on at whatever it was that was happening. "Well Duh" he thought to himself then keyed his mic "Roger that."
Hive use a strange mix of technology and what we could only term as "Magic". Some of the cryptarchs would argue that it's only a technology that we don't yet understand but whatever it was it could be extremely effective against humanity. Wizards were, are, the undisputed masters of this dark "tech" and here there were three. Knights or "Stone Heads" as Daniel liked to call them were the muscle and could be extremely deadly even on their own. Whatever was going on down here was big and the Wizards didn't want to be interrupted. It seemed that they had brought enough muscle to ensure that they could accomplish whatever it was they were up to.
Ryan and Annetta slipped quietly in next to Dan. Both had flipped their visors to magnify and we're scanning the small area just below. Dan had keyed his scope through his visor and was scanning the far walls for snipers and more muscle in ultraviolet. He counted at least two more Knights by the far exit and a contingent of clowns. Of course, as alway, there were more thrall than Dan cared to count.
"We need to get back up" Annetta's voice was worried and it cracked as she spoke. "We can't let them finish whatever it is they are doing down there. There are research teams out here and a new settlement less than 20 kilometers away . All those people could be slaughtered if whatever this is gets loose. I have a really bad feeling it will be much harder to stop if we don't put an end to it now." This time it was Dan. He knew they had limited supplies but they had to try and at least disrupt these "proceedings".
Ryan looked at both his teammates and then at the ground. "Okay" he muttered only to give himself time to think. They couldn't get a signal out this deep in the caverns which meant that somebody had to get to the surface and call for the cavalry while the other two made an attempt to slow down whatever this was. He reached into a pocket in his robe for a bundle of small sticks he kept there, all different lengths and held them in his fist. "Shortest runs up to the surface and gets a dispatch out. The other two stay here and do whatever they can to slow these bastards down." They all knew they were actually drawing to see who would get to stay. None of them wanted to leave but it had to be done. If they died during this encounter the Tower needed to know that the threat was imminent and they needed to bury this hole so that nothing ever got out.
Daniel cussed under his breath as he turned out to be the one that was going to run. He put his Gjallarhorn down next to Annetta and handed his Sniper rifle to Ryan. They would need all the help they could get. He just hoped it would be enough.
Dan had lightened his load as much as he could. All he had was his trusty Hand Cannon, The Last Word. It had been just that for so many and he hoped he didn't need anything more now. He was running as fast as he could, not worrying about stealth at this point. It was a risk he had to take but a risk that might prove fatal. He felt the ground shake first then he heard it scream. A blast flew over his head and to his right hitting the cavern wall as the rock hissed and turned molten. It was an Ogre, and a big one by the sound of it. Ogres were big and Nasty and not something you wanted to take on by yourself much less with just a Hand Cannon. The energy beam they fired from their head could cook a person in one shot. Dan glanced back and his heart almost stopped. First he saw the thrall, almost on his heels and behind them, it was huge. "Oh shit Danny boy, this is it!" Somehow he found extra speed in his already burning legs. He just had to get close enough to the surface get the emergency signal out. Just a little bit more. He pulled the orb from its pocket, every Guardian carried one, an emergency beacon. He depressed the button then synced it with the locater on his suit. He wasn't about to give up but this didn't look good. He hoped he was close enough to the surface to get a signal out.
The auto message went out "This is Hunter Daniel Bishop requesting immediate assistance from any Guardian in the area, please follow this signal, iminate threat." It repeated on an endless loop.
Daniel jumped and rolled coming up facing his attackers. He drew his hand Cannon and it barked in defiance. Thrall dropped in front of him, he lept in the air firing his boosters but the Ogre responded with a blast as Dan reloaded. The Ogre's shot missed, it hadn't counted on the Hunter going airborne. He fired and emptied the gun into the never ending throng of thrall below him. It wasn't going to be enough. He concentrated, remembering his studies, the power coursed through his body as the arc energy surged through him. A loud clap reverberated off the walls of the cavern that scattered the closet thrall around him. Arc Energy formed a blade in his hand and he glowed with it's power. He spun and moved, darted and twisted, his body a graceful yet deadly ballet of movement. This was how the "Bladedancer" got it's name. It only lasted a short time and Dan knew he needed to dispatch as many of these beasts he could before the power output left him drained. Thrall vaporized in his path and he seemed to have them under control but where was the... It was like a lightening bolt out of nowhere. He was airborne and not of his own volition.
Dan lay there in a slump barely breathing when he felt the earthquake. No, not an earthquake it was the Ogre. It was standing over him now, it's head pointed right at him and he had nowhere to go. He had had a good run, but all good things came to an end.
Daniel heard the distinctive sound of a hunter's Golden Gun being charged and the four extremely loud claps as the bolts of Solar Energy hit their mark, The beast staggered back a half step and changed it's focus somewhere behind him. A pair of delicate hands were under his armpits dragging him back out of harms way stronger than there size would elude to. The woman helped him to his feet and half carried him to a place behind a rock outcropping. "Hi, I'm Sypher, did you order a pizza?" Daniel looked into her visor still in shock thinking that somehow he must be dead and that this is what angels looked like. She leaned him against the rock and gave him a simple order. "Stay". With that she vanished to help her team.
Choppa was on a ledge pelting the thing's head with his Midi Multi Tool While Gnat readied a rocket launcher that was nearly as big as she was. She was small for a Titan but double ornery. She lowered the tube, the beast distracted by the team's hunter she took careful aim. "Any time Gnat, I'm not sure how long this thing is going to take this abuse without lighting me up." As if on cue the gland in the Ogre's head began to glow. Nat pulled the trigger and the rocket was airborne.
The projectile hissed and the Ogre turned to see where the noise was coming from as the round hit home. The concussion was massive and Daniel thought for sure the ceiling would collapse. He peeked around the rock from where he had been hidden and he saw the beast stagger back. At that moment a large ball of molten Solar energy erupted at the beasts feet as the Solar Flare surrounded it and it bellowed in pain. It was going down and it really had no choice. Nat fired another round into it's chest for good measure and as the beast struck the dirt the cavern shook, then suddenly... It was quiet.
Sypher came around the corner as Daniel was slumping to the ground kneeling where he had stood. She spoke in an almost musical voice common to the race known as Awoken "It looks like we got here just in time, you were right to call an emanate threat." Dan shook his head as the rest of Sypher's team found them, She was helping Dan to his feet. "No..." He was out of breath and more than a little sore all over. "That wasn't the emanate threat" They all looked at him and if he could see behind their visors he would notice their mouths all agape in disbelief. "Below... My team... Wizards..." They all looked at each other. Choppa spoke first "Here? There aren't supposed to be any Wizards here, they've all been cleared out mate." Daniel just shook his head taking liquid through the straw in his helmet, his voice finally coming back. "No, they are here, summoning something. Three of them at least and a horde of Knights to protect them." "We need to get down there before my team is killed." Gnat finally spoke "Well, if we're going to hunt Wizards then we will need more ammo." She spoke matter of factly as she keyed the transmat with her wrist comp. The other two turned to look at her but they knew that once the diminutive Titan had her mind made up there was little point in arguing.
Quick introductions were made and a spare rocket launcher was thrust into Dan's hands. They all loaded up on ammo synth and they headed down the tunnel that Daniel had just run up. He told himself that the only thing that mattered was his team, his friends and whatever fatigue had shown itself vanished instantly. Daniel thought to himself "You can rest when your dead... Again..."
The four of them ran down into the darkness loaded down with extra ammo and weapons. Only Daniel had an inkling what awaited them.
The first round hit the Wizard which only served to make her mad. Sepia opened up with her heavy Machine gun but the knights were already moving to protect their charges. They aimed their energy Weapons and fired hitting Sepia in the chest knocking her back, her armor held but that hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. O'Teez re-aimed the Gjallarhorn but couldn't get a lock on the Wizards so he let fly into the crowd of thrall and clowns that were gaining ground on them. The burst scattered them and downed a few. It made them think twice before just blindly rushing the intruders. The pair dug in as volley after volley of deadly energy bolts rained down on them. They were taking a beating and then they heard the heavy footsteps as three sword bearers were rushing up on them. O'Teez popped up and released Void energy from his out stretched hand and the Nova bomb landed with practiced precision right at their feet. One vanished in the attack dying before it could make a sound but the other two managed to avoid the brunt of the Force. O'Teez could tell they were injured but they were still coming.
The two of them made the nest as Sepia open fired. One slumped to the ground but the other managed to swing it's sword in an upward arch catching sepia between the legs and sending her limp body flying backwards landing with a dull thud. O'Teez Screamed obscenities at the beast as he watched the dead body of his friend sprawling backward into the air. He opened up with his auto rifle the rounds doing little more than annoy the thing. It was all that the Warlock needed. She summoned forces of arcane power that she had spent months learning and just as the last of her life energies were leaving her body it bathed her in a healing light that instantly revived her. "Hey Stonehead!" Sepia yelled at the back of the creature looming over O'Teez. In confusion it turned only to be greated by Sepia's heavy Machine gun. Catching the beast by surprise allowed her to mow the thing down but they still weren't out of this. O'Teez turned to see a new wave of fodder making it's way up the small incline toward them as he opened up with his Auto Rifle they heard a roar from the cavern floor. Whatever the Wizards were doing it needed to be stopped or this wouldn't end here today.
The battle seemed to rage on for an infinite amount of time when it dawned of the two of them that the Knights weren't trying to rush them anymore, all they were worried about was holding them off long enough for the wizards to finish whatever it was that they were up to. They took stock of their supplies which were starting to dwindle and they knew they didn't have the means to stop this. With that they both left the the safety of their nest and rushed down the little hill giving their enemy the proverbial middle finger in a last stand attempt to put a stop to this thing. That's when they saw it. At first they thought it was just another Knight but realized it was more than that. The Wizards were resurrecting a Prince. How could they be doing that? And what made this one so special? They tried to direct their fire toward it only to find that the Wizards had raised some sort of force field around them. One turned and looked at them, she seemed to laugh a wicked shrieking laugh. This looked bad, very bad.
O'Teez fired the Gjallarhorn right into the Force field that the Wizards had erected around their Prince and themselves. It barely seemed to effect it. Thankfully the Wolfpack round split up and helped to weaken a number of the Knights standing ready to repel the oncoming Guardians. As the two Locks (Warlocks) rushed the dais set in the center of the room they were met with an angry mob of thralls bent on slashing the pair down. On their own thralls weren't much threat but thralls never attacked on their own.
Sepia took to the air dropping a Solar Flare in the place she had just stood as she ascended vertically. O'Teez rolled left and raised his hands in the air as he came to a crouch. Once again a Nova bomb lands on the edge of the force field trying to find it's weakness. It fluctuated but held. The princes eyes opened and he began to rise from off the alter that he was laying on. Time was running out along with the team's options.
Then, from the passage way back to the surface the sound of jump jets fill the room. A diminutive Titan made a grand entrance hitting an unsuspecting Knight in the head with her Heavy Machine gun causing it to explode from the pressure. It fell twitching on the ground. "Oh stop being a Woosie you big baby, you didn't use that part anyway." The woman's voice filled the hall, amplified from her helmet. For a moment all eyes turned to her and forgot the two warlocks that had gone on the offensive only moments before giving them time to regroup and get to safety.
As the other three Guardians rushed into the room Gnat raised a force bubble to shield the party from attack temporarily. Sepia looked at Green "Just in the nick of time buddy." Dan just smiled and winked although she couldn't see it. O'Teez suddenly spoke up in a commanding yet quiet manner. "The Wizards are raising a Prince, like the ones we saw on the moon, only this one... Is bigger..." In unison the four newcomers looked at each other "Bigger?" "Holy Shit!" "And what's worse is that the Wizards have created some sort of force-field around themselves that our weapons can't seem to penetrate. We need to figure out how to drop that thing before it comes to full strength." They all broke, having only the vaguest of plans but it was more than they had a minute before. They spread out around the cavern as Gnat's shield dropped. The six were charged with it's energy for a short time and five of them started working on the remaining mob. Dan took to high ground and started examining the Wizards shield through the scope of his rifle. It was solar in nature but it had four posts at it's four corners and the top of each one it had some sort of power crystal. The domed top encased these crystals for the most part but Dan was able to make out a small portion of one of the crystals that that was not protected. It was a tight shot and with all the chaos it would be quite challenging. Daniel calmed his heartbeat. His hands shook from all the running but his mind took control causing them to steady. He closed his eyes and breathed. No one saw the sniper up in the ceiling of the cavern as he took aim. He visualized the round piercing the unprotected portion of the crystal. He squeezed closing his eyes. He felt the big gun lurch in his arms as he coaxed it to do his will.
The whole exercise took seconds but for Daniel time stopped. As he opened his eyes the bullet hung in the air. He could see it flying towards it's mark and it was on track. He whispered to himself "This has to work, please let it work." As the bullet hit it's mark, not much bigger than it's own diameter the power flickered and went out for a moment then powered back up but the crystal was damaged and the shield was visibly weakened, flickering. Green keyed up his mic "The crystals on top of the posts, those are the power sources. Knock them out and we're in." Suddenly Dan was being pelted by energy bolts as one of the Knights from the far entrance open fired on him. They knocked him from his perch and he began plummet to the cavern floor. Daniel righted himself, at least he hoped he was and fired his jump jets.
He touched down in the middle of the cavern but it might as well been into the fire. He was surrounded by thrall and being shot at by clowns. A veritable shit storm opened up around him as they all realized that this human had discovered a weak point in their defenses. One of the wizards shrieked some sort of orders and all of the remaining Hive began to move into the center, right where Dan was. Dan Re-fired his jets and shot up claws gashing at his legs and energy bolts threatening to knock him out of the air. As soon as he cleared he heard the hiss of a rocket in the air. He hit the boosters a second time hoping he would be far enough from the blast when it hit. He looked up and saw O'Teez as he shrugged in apology. Some of the attackers heard it as well and were able to leap away but most of the Thrall went flying into the air and into so many pieces and that made Dan happy.
Gnat turned her launcher toward the dais and waited for the tone to come up. She knew it was like using a sledge hammer to do brain surgery but she didn't care if this patient lived anyway. She let fly at the small crystal hoping that the concussion would do the trick. The wizards were knocked back and the Prince lay sprawled on the ground and the force field sputtered and went out, only one wall remaining. Gnat pumped her fist as the entire crew opened fired on the group. There was a light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully it wasn't an oncoming train.
The Prince lept to his feet, dazed and still not at full strength while the Wizards ducked behind the remaining force wall and began to fire energy blasts into our heroes. The Prince picked up a sword from the ground and and raised his palm at Gnat firing blasts of come sort of energy from it like the Wizards could do. As his roar filled the cavern the two remaining knights fired on the group with the acolytes gaining ground on the guardians but this was a hail Marry play and everyone in the room on both sides knew it. The bolt from the Prince hit Gnat square in the chest and sent her reeling back into the cavern wall but as he did Sepia, O'Teez and Sypher opened fired in unison with heavy machine guns taking him off balance. That was all Mr. Green needed. As the big ugly giant of a creature was off his balance He called up the arc energy one more time willing it to surround him. The electricity cracked and the blade formed in Dan's hand. He lept into the air coming down already spinning as the prince raised his sword Dan quipped "You want a sword fight? Okay then!" He used the energy to change direction in mid air defying physics. He came down behind the thing and as gun fire went off around them Dan crouched and cut into what might be its hamstrings. It had not even recovered from the machine gun fire and Dan had weakened it's stance even further. The Hunter lept again this time walking up the Princes back with his blade then he came down the things face and chest opening it up from top to bottom.
From the outside the others saw the blurred form of Green moving around the Prince with the energy of his blade "touching" the beast over and over again. Dan landed in front of it and it staggered, just standing there. Dan was spent in that moment but then came the final blow. From across the cavern a different kind of energy was being summoned. Four shots rang out and the solar energy from Choppa's Golden Gun hit the prince in the middle of its forehead the last one causing the thing to evaporate. One of the Wizards shrieked a retreat, their goals thwarted for now. The Guardians fired on them they fled out of the room as fast as they could but while they were able to drop a couple more clowns the wizards escaped. It was a hollow victory but there were cheers. God knows how powerful that thing would have been at full strength and none of them wanted to find out but the Wizards had gotten away. The tower had to be notified of this turn of events and they had to get a raiding party down here before they had time to regroup but for now this team was done.