Author's Note: Thanks for reading so far. I hope you'll enjoy the story. If you think something's off or could do with more improvement, please say so in the review section. I also hope that you'll forgive the small grammatical errors here and there. That seems to be the widespread problem people have been complaining about. I'll do my best to fix it!
I'd like to personally thank ArchWarrior213, UnknownArtyom, as well as one Nameless reviewer for their feedback.
Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Wolves
George looked his scout rifle over, checking for anything out of place. But no. The weapon had been perfectly cleaned and reassembled the night before. And then the night before that. Though not the night before that, that was the time he was carving a hole through Thrall charge. Enough space for Clave-6, his fellow exo fireteam-member to run behind enemy lines and straight for that wizard—a shot of his Golden Gun made short work them from behind their lines. But checking his weapon was a habit he developed early in his days as a Guardian, back when he ventured out into the frontier on his own. Just himself with no one to back him up: the lone wolf.
It had been three days since that then. Three days and two nights of reconnaissance on a Hive position. Clave-6 was getting antsy. George could see it in the way he was constantly looking down his sights at the opening of the cave. Fortunately light on the moon was not nearly bright enough for his scope to glint. Otherwise George would have told him to find something else to do. Bell-17 was back in sitting cross-legged, pulse rifle across his lap. Supposedly meditating, although he couldn't figure out how the machine could meditate. What do they do, examine lines of their own code? It felt a little awkward once they ran out of things to do. He felt like he did a decade or so ago, worried about entering a team with no humans. But as it turned it out, they were more human than his damned Ghost.
"Activity!" Clave-6 said excitedly. Bell was alert and on his feet faster than George was. He shouldered his auto rifle and followed Bell to where Clave was perched. Moondust floated around with every step he took. The two Hive had finally climbed out of that cave. Three days into the recon, and this was the first time they had seen Hive come out of the cave. All this time they had only been going in. The Hive coming out of the cave were carrying something with them. It was a body. A Guardian?
No. It was one of the Hive's own, not long a second acolyte was piled over the first. The zombie-like creatures mindlessly waddled back into their hiding place.
"That's it," Clave said, "They're definitely doing something in there."
"Could be a number of things, do you think it's worth checking out?"
"Sure it is," Clave said convinced, "Beside we've been to worse places. Remember that Cabal encampment we ran into last year?"
"Yup," George echoed. "It wasn't pretty. But we sure kicked ass."
"I have a bad feeling about this one," Bell said. "But sure." Bell allowed some Solar energy to appear just above his skin, becoming softly radiant in the dim light. "We do kick ass." Bell cocked his pulse rifle and Clave did the exo equivalent of a laugh. The three ran down the hill then used some rocks for cover.
"It's all clear," Clave said, sounding somewhat disappointed at not being able to blow something up. Frankly, so did George. However he did notice the considerable change in Bell's posture. His eyes shined a different shade of their usual yellow, now somewhat fiercer.
"Bell?" George said, noticing Bell's discomfort.
"These bodies," He said approaching the bodies dumped by the mouth of the cave, "I can still sense the Void in them."
"Are you saying a Guardian did this?"
"A Warlock. They must have been caught at the edge of a nova bomb or hit by an axion bolt somehow. It's recent." Bell said. He crouched by the bodies and ran his hands just above the two acolytes. As if he could feel some sort of ethereal heat that wafted off the thing. George approached the acolyte corpses himself, he had to admit the bodies did look like the one's he would see back when Bell was still a Voidwalker.
"Have you heard of any Guardians in the Area?" The two exos shook their heads. "No call for help? Ghost, any transmissions on any frequency?"
The white polyhedron materialized into the air, "None whatsoever guardian. But it isn't the custom of the Hive to carry out and dump their dead. The bodies usually disintegrate after a while. They were already dead anyways."
"They must be deep down, and overwhelmed if they haven't been able to get out or even call for help." Bell observed.
"All the more reason to go down there then." Clave said with the thrill of battle creeping into this voice. George looked at Bell, who concurred, before nodding himself.
"Let's go."
-x-x-x-
The Hive standing in the first chamber of the cave didn't stand a chance. Bell charged forward, shining with solar energy, into the main group of acolytes dwelling at the center of the Cave. Behind him, George and Clave-6 worked their around the main group and picked off those in towards the back of the chamber. By the time the wizard had noticed most its acolytes were scorched, Clave-6 already had it square in his sights. The sniper rifle barked twice and the Wizard went down.
"Strange," Bell commented yet again, "I've never seen anything like this. These Hive are more organized than I've ever seen them before and…"
"And what?" questioned Clave.
"Something feels off, maybe this wasn't such good idea." Bell abruptly stopped his investigation and stood up.
"But it there are Guardians down here, we need to help them. You said so yourself, the Light in those bodies were recent." George said.
There was a longer pause than there should have been. "That's actually what I can't figure out. At first, I thought it was Light, now… I'm not so sure."
"What do you mean?"
"I sense the Void energy still resident in the bodies, but the Light didn't feel right."
"Is anything other than a Guardian capable of casting that kind of attack?"
Bell was thoughtful for a second, "No."
"Then we continue. There are too little of us as it is, we need to help them. I'm not going to abandon Guardians on a hunch." The Three continued down into the depths of the moon. Slowly the path became larger and larger, the Caves opened up to large antechambers, and of course more Hive. George, sprinted forward, summoned a skip grenade, and tossed it before sliding into cover. He watched at the Light exploded and split off into smaller spheres of energy that sought out its victims. By the time the last remnants of his skip grenade had found its last victim, George already had his auto rifle out and had begun peppering enemies on the far side of the cave. The oncoming wave of Thralls forced George to whip out his shotgun. Despite the gaping holes he left in the line of the Thrall their unrelenting advance forced him back. The exception of Clave-6, who took up a position on higher ground, the rest of the fire team was being pushed slowly towards the edge of a cliff.
The twin wizards behind them rallied them on. "Clave, give me suppressing fire."
"I can't," Clave yelled over the staccato bursts of his auto rifle, "Give me a second." The auto rifle continued to sing.
"George clear me a path." Bell yelled out, pulling out his fusion rifle. George allowed Light to pool into his hands, forming a ball of energy. He jumped out of cover and ran to where Bell was standing. He jumped over Bell's figure and setting his grenade lose into the space in front of Bell. Arc energy exploded upon contact, each bolt, like lighting, traveled from one Thrall to the other. Bell rose over his cover and began to systematically take down the ranks of thrall around the Wizards with large sweeping shots. Without their minions the Wizards, turned around and fled to their comrades in the next antechamber. But not before Clave landed the space in front of them. In his hand was a hand cannon, alight with powerful Solar energy. The two Solar fueled shots tore through the Wizards, vaporizing them with the Light. "Something is definitely happening here." Clave retorted as he waved the air in front of him, trying to clear away what was left of the wizards.
"I can sense something very wrong in the air." Bell's ghost said as it materialized. "There's something powerful here. It's coming up from below, large numbers!" Clave had his Sniper rifle up out, and was crouching within the space of a second. He door the passageway form below carefully. What he saw next confounded him, being the slightly less experienced of the three. They were humanoid creatures, but they looked more like robots. Robots with a singular red eye in its head, and a cone-shaped head.
"What the hell is that?" Clave exclaimed.
George sighted the passageway with his scope, it took him a moment before he recognized what they were. "Vex!" Bell noticeably stiffened before having his pulse rifle back out again.
"They're robots, Clave," George explained, "Mean bastards, they like to swarm you, and they can teleport. Aim for their center mass, that's where their power cores are."
"Gotcha'," The sniper rifle, bucked against Clave's shoulder. George, lined up behind, Bell and began to pick out, the Vex goblins one by one. Carefully, he watched the entrance, knowing whenever there are this many goblins, a Minotaur was not far behind.
It wasn't. Not two minutes into the battle the eight foot, shielded Vex unit walked into the party. It large cannon-like weapons began to firing on George and Bell's position, which was exactly what they wanted. As the two kept the goblins at a safe distance, Clave turned to the Minotaur and began his work of rendering the Vex unit asunder. Once its shields were down, Bells finished it off with his pulse rifle and firebolt grenade.
"What the hell are the Vex doing on the Moon?" George pondered.
"Where do they come from?" Clave asked in follow up.
"I don't know, the Vex rarely travel beyond Venus. Reports say they have presence on Mars. But I've never heard of Vex on the Moon."
"Do you think they've gotten to earth?" asked George.
"I'm not sure the Traveler would allow it, but it is possible. Wait a sec…" Bell's ghost materialized into the air. "Can you sense that?" He said to the Ghost. The Thing nodded.
"I can feel the presence of another Ghost in here. It's still alive, but it's not responding to anything I send."
"But its still alive?"
"Yes."
"Then there's a good chance that the Guardian with it is. Let's go."
The three rushed down the passage way and deeper into Moon. The two man Vex patrol at the entrance, dropped to Clave's throwing knives. "Multiple Minotaurs and Wizards," Georges ghost remarked, "The Hive and the Vex working together?"
"Not time to wonder. Ghost, where is it?"
"In that chamber over there, that door behind the line of Minotaurs is where we want to go. Ah, we always head for such wonderful places." George cracked a smile for a short second, before pulling his shotgun and jumping over an advancing line of Goblins, in the time it took for them to turn around, George had already fired four shots and knifed the last in it's abdomen. He kicked the goblin away before it exploded.
"They're in the room at the far end of the chamber," George exclaimed. "Push!"
It wasn't long before the numbers of Vex and Hive in the room dwindled. The three fought to the center of the room, before the enemy thought it best to surround them. In short, a bad idea. Bell, summoned a Circle of Radiance around them, the same time Clave summoned his Golden gun. George thought about summoning his own, but thought it better to wait. He had faith in the efficiency of his fire team. He cleared a path to the room with an arcbolt grenade, as his teammates cleared out the rest of the room. George summoned his Ghost and commanded it to open the door.
When it was opened he instantly felt the air chill, even through his suit. Bell paused as well, he felt it too. At the center of the room, floating above a pedestal was a familiarly white object. A large shard, its jagged edges giving the impression that it had once been part of a whole. Bell felt the shard radiate with the Light. But a black, liquidly-like substance swirled around it, leaching of the Light the shard produced and replacing it with…
Darkness.
That entire room was filled with the Darkness' power. Under it was a Guardian, A Warlock in a long maroon coat. He lay ground weakly on the ground. "Can you stand?" George asked.
"Barely," the Warlock answered weakly.
"Clave, help me out." The exo obeyed and supported the Warlock in his other side.
"What the hell is that?" Clave exclaimed as he looked at the shard floating at the center of the room.
"No time, the Warlock said. "I must get to the tower quick."
"Bell! Cover our exit," As soon as Bell left the room two Minotaurs materialized by the exit, cutting them off.
"Hold him!" George exclaimed. Clave complied, putting his arm around the Warlock as George rushed out to meet the minotaur, his shotgun out and fully loaded. Then he heard it. A Hand Cannon discharged behind him, followed by the loudest, most painful sound he had ever heard in his life: Clave's pained grunt as the Warlock kicked him away. A hole in his chest, electronics sparking and mechanic fluid pouring out of it like blood from a wound. The Warlock forsook his weakened posture, it was a ruse. As George saw the light fade from his friend's eyes, he dropped his shotgun. And whipped out his Hunter's blade. The Darkness all around him suffocated the flow of Light into that abyss. But he still had enough Light reserved within him. So he drew out. All of it.
Then the Bladedancer took over.
He leaped backwards with inhuman speed, he landed atop one Minotaur and buried his dagger into it's head. Arc energy coursed throughout the Vex unit, vaporizing it. George moved on to the next Minotaur, Slashing across its eye as he pirouetted and landed on the ground then he stabbed upwards. Then he turned to the Warlock, who looked on unfazed by George's display of agility and lethality. While the Light still coursed in him, George charged at the Warlock—arms crossed and raised for a strike when he felt a sudden jolt. His entire momentum was lost.
Standing still where he stopped, he felt a hot pain bloom in his chest. Only then did him notice the distortion in the air ahead of him. A Hunter phased out of invisibility, and pulled her dagger out of George's chest. He tried to warn Bell, but he no words came out of his mouth as the Hunter turned invisible again. She slashed off Bell's leg and buried her dagger up the exo's jaw faster than George could blink. The Hunter returned, "It's done."
"Well done, Reylani," The Warlock spoke. So sure of himself, but George couldn't help laughing. The Warlock knelt by George, "What's so amusing, my little dead friend?"
"You're forgetting something," George said, stalling.
"And what is that?"
George bided his time, for he was dead no matter what, Bell on the other hand. After a while he said faintly, "Sunsinger." George couldn't see the Warlock's expression behind his visor, so he imagined it the best he could. The Warlock quickly looked back at the place where Bell had laid slain. It was empty, the earth around it scorched by Solar energy. The Warlock chuckled.
"I didn't know." The Hunter said, the Warlock only shook his head slowly.
He turned to someone George couldn't see, "Send your best after it". George caught sight of the Vex as it disappeared.
"Reylani, pack up, it seems we are leaving the Moon."
"But why?"
"Fireborns are always tricky, you never know when they're actually dead." The Warlock said to himself before turning to the Hunter. "Our operation is compromised. If that Sunsinger is smart enough to dig its way down here than it can get out even faster."
"Why send the Vex after it?"
"Because I'd rather not have them here when we dismantle the operation!" The Warlock lashed out all of a sudden. "No matter, we'll regroup with Jackson on Mars. Let's go". The Hunter faded in a flash of blue. The Warlock was about to follow before he pooled energy in his hands. It was unlike anything Bell has ever done, it was darker, more restless. It glowed a harlequin shade of green. It was also the last thing George saw as the Warlock lashed out at him.
-x-x-x-
"And you're sure that's what you saw?"
"Yes, Speaker, I'm sure." Bell-17 answered. "I am absolutely sure. It was a Warlock and a Hunter I'm sure of that, but I don't know who they are. I need to go back out. Find their bodies and their Ghosts."
"No, Bell-17. For now stay and rest, let the Light heal you before go out into the field."
"But I can't just leave their bodies to the Darkness."
"That is how most Guardians' corpses have been treated." The Speaker said sternly. Bell-17 did not reply, "But I'll have my Ghost extract the location from yours. A fireteam will be sent to examine the site and retrieve the bodies and their ghosts."
"Thank you, Speaker." A Ghost came and began to examine Bell-17's heavily damaged body. The Vex's ability to teleport made the fight tough, but as soon as he was within range, Bell transported to his jumpship and made for the Tower. Not without sustaining a lot of damage however, and using his Fireborn ability had depleted nearly all of his Light. Thankfully his jumpship had a fully functioning autopilot, he barely had the strength to stay wake. As soon as he was on his feet in the tower he collapsed. Thankfully a kind fellow exo caught him and brought him inside.
"One more thing, Bell-17. Not a word of this to anyone. We cannot afford to have our ranks worried." Bell was about to complain before the Speaker continued. "I will make sure those responsible will be brought to justice. I'll make sure this mess is taken care of. But if Guardians have betrayed us, then they might already be among us now." Bell-17 slowly nodded agreement. The Speaker exited the room and went to the room next door.
"See I told you so," the Speaker said as he came in. Zavela hmph-ed in agreement, and Cayde-6 only stared on the footage on the large screen. Ikora Rey was the only one who actually spoke.
"I see your point now, but there are hundreds perhaps several thousand Guardians out there. Tracking down one Hunter and one Warlock, won't be easy."
"Different I-told-you-so, I was talking about the other thing." Each Vanguard shared a mix of looks at each other. Ikora was the first to speak again.
"I don't see how he could help us." Rey had begun, "You saw what he was like. He's young and inexperienced, he—"
"—Was chosen by the Traveler." The Speaker finished.
"He's right Ikora," Cayde-6 said. "Whatever reason is, the Traveler warned the Speaker and Returned the boy for a reason. I trust the Traveler."
"So do I, but I have my qualms, and you've been wrong before Speaker."
The Speaker only nodded from behind that enigmatic mask. From all the years spend working together, Ikora had learned to read the Speaker from his entire posture. Although not always so successfully, what she saw right now told her that the Speaker was still confident.
"All the resources we pulled for this better work out." Zavela said, speaking for the first time in while. "Your plan to allow him to bond with Taxon-4's Fireteam, is working well. Faster than any of us anticipated actually, he just left with them an hour ago."
"He's left already?" Ikora asked, a hint of amazement in her voice. Zavela nodded. "I'm not sure if that boy really is special or just plain stupid."
"He would have made a brilliant Hunter." Cayde-6 remarked with a tone that was something akin to regretful. Ikora shook her head in reproach. Zavela said nothing. No more words were said, but everyone was thinking about their new found Guardian.
