The Guardians found the cave entrance nearby and flicked on their headlamps as they plunged into the darkness. The cave had many side passages branching off the main ones. Between their ghosts' radar and Failsafe's coordinates, they soon found themselves descending a fresh, roughly-cut tunnel toward a red glow that reflected off the walls.
They crept to a bend in the tunnel and peered around it. It opened into a cave paved with broken stone. A squad of Vex goblins stood at intervals around the cave, and a huge tunnel in the ceiling led straight upward. Rock clattered into a pile beneath it. A strange throbbing hum emanated from the hole, as if some drilling machine was hard at work.
"I'll take the left," Kari whispered. Without waiting for a response, she leaped into the air in a warlock glide, firing at the robots in midair.
Jayesh ran to a particularly large boulder, ducked behind it, and picked off robots from cover. Each Vex robot - the goblins were the foot soldiers - had a white compartment in its belly where Vex milk was stored. It acted as the machine's lifeblood, and shooting it there killed the robot instantly.
The goblins fired back at them, but Kari and Jayesh were too efficient. In a few seconds they had cleared the room.
The Guardians met beside the pile of rock falling from the hole in the ceiling. Kari bit her lip. "How can we even look up there without a ton of rock landing on our heads?"
Jayesh pulled out his sidearm, a hand cannon with a barrel like a pipe. "I could try to ricochet a couple of bullets up there. Might distract the drilling robot."
Kari backed away to a safe distance. "You try and I'll watch."
Jayesh raised the pistol and sighted along it.
In his head, Ghost said, "Angle it higher."
Over the radio, Kari's ghost snapped, "And aim along the wall, not straight at it."
"Back off," Ghost snarled. "I'll instruct my Guardian and you instruct yours."
"Guys!" Jayesh exclaimed. "Shut up so I can concentrate!"
The ghosts fell silent. Kari murmured something he couldn't hear, speaking away from her mic. She was scolding Neko again.
Jayesh squeezed the trigger. The pistol bucked in his hand. The bullet pinged around inside the tunnel in the roof. He aimed higher and fired again.
The falling rock stopped, as did the throbbing hum of the drilling robot. The red light shifted, growing brighter. Suddenly, to everyone's horror, a hydra descended out of the tunnel, filling it from edge to edge.
A Vex hydra was a massive metal centipede equipped with plasma launchers and energy rockets. To make matters worse, it had an impenetrable energy shield around it with tiny gaps for shooting through. The only way to destroy it was to shoot back at it through the gap ... usually while soaking up plasma bolts to the face.
This was a job for a couple of Titans in heavy armor. Two warlocks, even in tough fiber weave cloaks, would have a much harder fight.
Jayesh ran for cover as the hydra planted a rocket where he had been standing. Across the room, Kari soared into the air and landed a hit with her black hole gun. A slash appeared in the hydra's metal. Infuriated, it turned its weapons on her.
"That's the Protean Mind!" Ghost exclaimed. "I didn't know they had terraforming capabilities. It's actually been terraforming its way up to Failsafe."
Failsafe, who had been eavesdropping on their transmissions, said cheerfully, "That seems like cheating, doesn't it?"
Kari yelled in pain. Jayesh whipped out of hiding and aimed at the hydra ... only to find its full energy shield in his way, no gaps in sight. It peppered his position with blue-white plasma bolts, forcing him back behind the rock.
"Are you all right?" he panted into his radio.
"Fine, now," Kari replied breathlessly. "Got caught in a rocket concussion that burned. Distract it! It's got me cornered!"
Jayesh peeked out of hiding. The hydra was pelting Kari's corner of the room with rocket after rocket. The floor shook. Dust and smoke filled the air.
Jayesh pulled on his connection with the Light to build a fiery energy grenade. Holding his breath, he tossed it under the floating hydra, where it rolled under the robot's belly.
The explosion rocked the Protean Mind backward, up-ending the shield. Kari leaped out of cover and blasted it with her graviton lance. Jayesh meant to help finish it off, too. He stepped out and aimed at the robot's glowing red eye.
The eye fixed on him in pure malice. As he squeezed the trigger, the hydra launched its remaining eight rockets at him in a blazing rain of death.
Jayesh dove for cover, but it didn't matter much. His entire side of the room erupted in fire. Then, with an awful crash, the ceiling caved in.
Jayesh's last action was to summon Ghost and throw him through the doorway, into the entrance tunnel. Then the falling stone crushed the life out of him.
Resurrection light sizzled through Jayesh's body. He awoke, most of his body still buried in rubble, in the worst pain of his life. Ghost hovered a foot away, looking anxious. Jayesh managed a single, rasping breath before his heart stopped beating in his crushed chest.
Another resurrection, more Light. Jayesh opened his eyes. The pain was much less this time. Yet the horror of his previous death remained locked in his brain, so he let out the scream he had been unable to utter.
"Calm down, I've almost got you out," Kari's voice said nearby. Her expensive gear was dirty, and she was pulling rocks off him like they were made of foam. His legs were still pinned. The crushing weight of the rock on his fractured bones made his head spin.
"I told you not to resurrect him, yet," Neko said nearby.
"I can't wait long or his spark will extinguish," Ghost exclaimed. "Jayesh! Can you hear me?"
"Ghost," Jayesh moaned, "my legs, they're completely crushed. Heal me! Please!"
Ghost anxiously hovered over him, but his healing beam couldn't reach under the stone. Kari kept working, hauling rock with frantic strength.
Jayesh laid his head on his arms and fainted.
He came to lying on his back. Pain was fading from his legs. Kari knelt over him, and both ghosts floated nearby. Ghost was sweeping him with a healing beam.
"Jayesh," Kari was saying, "wake up. We have to move - the Vex are coming. Jayesh!"
He groaned and slowly sat up. His body felt perfect - yet the echo of his violent multiple deaths still lingered in his limbs. "I've never been resurrected before," he mumbled. "Is it always that bad?"
"Not usually," Kari said, grabbing his arm and dragging him to his feet. "Come on, hurry!"
Jayesh struggled to his feet. As Kari released Jayesh, Ghost flew right up to his face, studying him anxiously through the faceplate of his helmet.
"I'm sorry," Ghost whispered.
Jayesh closed both hands around Ghost and leaned his helmet against the little robot with a clink. "It's all right. I'm better now." It was a lie, but he didn't want poor Ghost beating himself up over a stupid accident.
"They're in the outer tunnel," Neko said from nearby, interrupting the moment. "We'll have to fight our way out."
"I was going to say that," Ghost replied with a little too much ferocity, betraying how upset he was.
Both ghosts phased from sight. Kari darted to the tunnel mouth and threw a grenade into the darkness. It detonated with a boom. Multiple robot voices shrieked as they died.
Jayesh gazed at the collapsed cave. The hole drilled up to Failsafe was completely blocked off. The hydra was buried under rocks that were piled to the ceiling. There was a hole - a grave-shaped hole - in the rubble where his body had been. Kari must have spent a long time digging. The room had narrowed to a single long corridor, the rest of it completely filled in.
The Vex had them trapped.
There had to be a way out of this, but he couldn't think of one. His brain was sluggish, his thoughts wading through stress and trauma. He really wanted to sit in a corner and rest for a while, recover from the awfulness of being buried alive and dying from it twice.
Fortunately, Kari's brain worked faster than his. She ran back to him, slinging her rifle across her back. "Cover me. I'm going to use my super charge."
"Storm caller," Ghost whispered in his mind. "Keep your distance."
Jayesh fumbled for his weapons. His sidearm was gone, buried somewhere. His rifle was badly crushed, the barrel caved in. He hadn't brought a heavy weapon because he didn't own one. With a rueful laugh, he held up the rifle. "I guess I can beat the Vex to death with this."
Kari stared at the damaged rifle, nonplussed. Then she pulled out her graviton lance and handed it to him. "Use this."
The weapon slid into his arms, heavy, sleek, and deadly. Jayesh ran his fingers along the barrel, following the beads of purple light that flowed along it. "Wow. Thanks."
"I'll want it back later," Kari said. "Don't get attached." She retreated a few steps, tilted her head back, and began to draw deep breaths, summoning the fantastic power that the Light granted all Guardians.
Jayesh had a super power, too, but his was fire-based, and he didn't have the focus for it right now. Instead, he knelt behind a boulder and aimed at the tunnel mouth.
Eight Vex goblins and a big, nasty one called a Minotaur appeared. Jayesh only had to use one shot each - the graviton lance had sick amounts of power. He felled the goblins, then concentrated on breaking through the shield that surrounded the Minotaur. It fired vast bolts of plasma at him, splashing on the rocks around him until they glowed red-hot. From the noise echoing down the tunnel, more Vex were on the way, too.
Kari yelled and charged the Minotaur. As she ran, lightning flickered over her body, lifted off the ground by her own power. She extended both hands and fried the Minotaur to a black crisp in a split second. Then she flew up the tunnel, lighting it in flickering blue as she went.
Jayesh followed at a safe distance, carrying that lovely, lovely rifle.
Kari punched through their enemies in an unstoppable wave of lightning. The Vex, being metal, had no defense and fell like mowed grass. She cleared the tunnel all the way back to the entrance. There her power gave out. She leaned against the wall, panting, smoke curling from her armor and hands.
Jayesh peered cautiously outside, blinking in the sunlight. The ship-turned-valley looked empty, but there was something outside the cave entrance. Tiny flickers of white light swirled in geometric patterns, barely visible in the strong light.
"Kari," he said, "was this here before?"
She stepped up beside him and squinted. "I don't see anything."
"It's a Vex construct." Jayesh summoned Ghost. "Can you tell what this is?"
Ghost scanned the spot. "There's definitely a Vex matrix configuration here, but it's not fully materialized. I can't identify it."
Neko appeared and flew alongside Ghost. "Let me see." He scanned the object, too. "I know what it is," he said, giving Ghost a superior look.
"Sure you do," Ghost replied. "You're guessing."
"No, I know exactly what it is! It's a leftover terraforming construct."
Ghost narrowed his facets in a frown. "Right outside the cave mouth?"
"Sure. They didn't want us escaping."
"Neko," Kari said wearily, "don't fight."
"I'm not fighting, I'm arguing!" Neko replied. "Look, if I just-"
More white light crawled through the air in a grid pattern. It engulfed both distracted ghosts. They vanished.
Kari and Jayesh screamed at the same time, leaping forward to snatch at the spots where their ghosts had been. The construct engulfed them, too.