"Huh?"
"Some of the Gaurdians that lost their ghosts decided to stay, and have beeen tasked with keeping the peace here in the tower.
"Ah. I see." Kalara nodded.
"There haven't been a lot of incidents, mostly skirmishes, loud arguments, and the occasional drunken brawl in the commons areas."
another nod.
They stood there for a minute, then Gavin's comm dinged. He listened for a minute, then replied "Be right there."
He turned back to the group. "I gotta go, some kind of disturbance on the medical level." he shook his head. "Probably one of the sick Gaurdians trying to get away again." he sighed. "There's been a virus of some kind going around. Not bad enough to warrant a respawn, but serious enough to keep a Gaurdian from leaving the tower." they nodded. "See you later!" he jogged towards the lifts.
They stood there a bit longer, trying to think of something to do. Lavender finally said "I wonder how long it'll take them to crear out all the Cabal."
Kalara glanced over. "does it matter? They're fighting the Hive and the Taken. They'd probly distract the hive enough for us to slip past."
They stood there a moment longer, then headed over toward the lift to wait for Gavin. A moment later, the door swished open and he hurried out, face pale. Lavender ran up first, but he didn't stop moving. "Gavin, what's wrong?" "We have to talk to the Vangaurd leaders NOW!" he broke into a run.
"Oh no!" Lavender knew something BAD was going on. Kalara and Zanthyr followed.
Gavin skidded to a stop when he reached the Vangaurd leaders, and tried to catch his breath. "The virus." He looked from one to another. "It's not a virus." The others had caught up to him.
"It's nanotechnology."
"What?"
"The Vex... they've somehow developed some kind of nanotechnology, and they're using it..." He trailed off when his gaze met Kalara's. "It's..."
Two civilians walking through the next room shouted in alarm, and a group of ghosts whizzed past, hovering in the back of the room. Six Vex Goblins were walking straight towards them. Kalara fired at the same time as Lavender. They fell.
Zavala demanded "How did Vex get into the tower!?"
Gavin took a deep breath, then started to explain. "They didn't. The Vex Nanotechnology uses matter conversion. nanites can do that. The Vex have somehow been infecting Gaurdians with the 'virus', as we called it, and they carried it back here."
Zavala asked "is it contagious?"
"No. Once inside it's intended victim, it starts converting their mass, which is what causes the flulike part of it. Depending on how healthy the person it is, it could take anywhere from a day to a matter of hours."
Ikora softly said "So those were Gaurdians." she looked from the Vex to the six ghosts hovering at a distance.
Kalara and Lavender both dropped their weapons. Kalara suddenly felt sick. "What did we just do?"
They looked at Gavin. Lavender looked to the ghosts. "We had no idea." she looked back to the Vex.
One of the ghosts hovered over, the others stayed clustered together where they were. It scanned one of the Vex, and muttered something about "indistinguishable from the real thing." It turned and slowly hovered back to the others.
Zavala continued. "We have to find out where this virus is coming from and stop it before the Vex can infect anyone else. Is there any indication of how Gaurdians are being infected."
Gavin took a breath to reply, but Lavender beat him to it. "Um, would it happen to be small and black and dartlike?"
She yanked the projectile from her midsection, and held it up to look at it. Gavin took it from her, inspecting it. Kalara felt a sharp pain as well. She looked over at Zanthyr. He'd been behind her, and she didn't see anything on him. She looked down.
It had caught her on the right side of her lower chest, right below where her chest armor ended. She pulled it out. "I think this confirms it." She calmly handed it to him. Lavender took a step back. "Wouldn't just respawning get rid of it? I mean, our ghosts have our data."
Kalara shook her head. "It doesn't exactly work that way. Our matter is converted into data when we die, then the ghost uses a series of complex algorithms to combine the present data with the original data to restore us."
lavender blinked.
"I learned a few things about ghosts."
Gavin commented "The last few Gaurdians infected were changed within minutes." he looked at the two of them worriedly. Lavender looked down, then at her hands. She shrugged. "I don't feel anything."
"Me either." Kalara thought for a second, then took of one gauntlet and set it on the table, rolled up her sleeve. The vein of her arm was black. One eyebrow went up. Gavin walked over. "That's very strange."
Kalara turned from the table, pulling her dagger as she went.
gavin took a step "woah, hey, hang on!" He gently grabbed her hand. "You can't just release it like that." Kalara sighed and stopped. She looked very troubled, but put the dagger away. She raised her arm and looked at it again. The dark line was beginning to fade. She turned her arm over and gasped. It was appearing on her skin, escaping through the pores and into a stream that ran down her arm. She held out her left hand to catch it. "Shouldn't it be, you know, moving or something?"
In the background, Lavender yelped and yanked off her own gauntlet. Surely enough, the virus was being pushed out of her, too. "It's not moving or anything." she noted.
Zavala asked "so what does that mean? Why didn't it effect you two?"
Lavender smirked. "We're immune." Kalara smiled back.
Zanthyr asked "But why?"
Kalara chuckled. "Think about it. She motioned a finger between the two of them. "We're not your average Gaurdians."
Feeling they were getting sidetracked, Zavala said "Go to the Black Garden. Find the heart of it and put a stop to the Vex for good." Zanthyr said "Well guys, let's do it."
Zavala said "Not you."
"What?"
Zanthyr turned to Zavala. "They are going because they are immune to the virus." He glanced at Lavender and Kalara. "The rest of you stay here."
Kalara asked "If I may, we have to cross the exclusion zone on Mars. That's Cabal territory, heavily fortified."
Lavender argued "So? We're a two-gaurdian wrecking crew."
Kalara glanced at her then continued. "It's not a matter of strength, it's a matter of numbers. The Cabal have fortifications and at least a small army." another glance to Lavender. "We have strength, yes, but trying to shoot ten directions at once and melee at the same time won't work. We need the strength of our Titans."
"Gavin no longer has a ghost."
Kalara summoned hers. She instantly knew it was a mistake, but a neccesary one. She saw Zavala glance at it, then nh7ereplied, dissaproval evident. She winced inwardly at the tone he used. "You were told to remove the augmentation chip from your Ghost over a week ago. Not to mention tampering with a Ghost's programming is absolutely forbidden.
He glanced at Gavin, who looked over at her without moving and added "A Ghost is only supposed to have one Gaurdian. And a Gaurdian can only have one Ghost."
Her Ghost mumbled "That's what I said." Kalara wanted to say something to it but didn't.
"When you two return, I want that chip removed and handed over to the Vangaurd. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes sir." Kalara's ghost dissapeared, whispering in her ear "He can be very scary sometimes."
Kalara didn't answer.
"We will discuss the rest later."
Kalara gulped.
They didn't notice until it was close enough to catch Gavin's attention, but one ofthe Ghosts in the group hovering at the far end of the room had floated over. It cirled him, glanced over at the Vex, and then back to him. It made a sad noise, paused, then scanned him. Gavin looked suprised.
Lavender stammered out "What-what just happened?" the Ghost dissapeared and Gavin listened for a second, then said "He says his Gaurdian is dead, there's no way to bring him back. So he chose to delete that data, and scan me instead."
He held out his hand, and it appeared, peering up at him shyly. "Don't worry, little Ghost. I'm not going anywhere. He smiled. His Ghost beeped, spun it's finials, and dissapeared again. He looked back at Zavala, who looked from one Titan to the other.
"Alright. But you two only go as far as the Exclusion zone. No further." Two nods. "Get going, Gaurdians." They summoned their Ghosts and went to orbit.
As they went to warp, Kalara's Ghost said "I don't think we'll get a second chance at this. If we pull this off, we can save the Traveler. If not, the Vex will seize our worlds."
A few minutes later, they were out of warp, and transmatted down, surveying the orange-red landscape. Kalara's Ghost said "The Gate Lord's eye is still charged. Let's head for the gate." Kalara glanced to the right. They summoned their sparrows and sped down the path toward theit destination.
Kalara suddenly stopped, eyeing a small round building. "Hold up." She backed up her sparrow a bit, then eyed the symbol on the building. "Sand Eaters."
she jumped off her sparrow. Two Phalanxes were ambling out of the building. Kalara pulled out her Rocket launcher. Gavin and Zanthyr exchanged a glance, but hopped off anyway. Kalara snarled "Go ahead, come at me!" Two more appeared behind them.
She whirled, firing. Both flew backwards, armor smoldiering from the impact. A trio of Legionaries thudded out of their mountain-base as she reloaded. Gavin ran and jumped, landing between them. He power-punched the first in the back, and Kalara yelled "Move!" He jumped to the side as she fired. They stumbled. She fired again.
Gavin picked himself up. "what is with you? they weren't even in our way!"
Zanthyr answered for her. "Payback?"
"Not payback." Kalara growled "Revenge."
Gavin glanced over his shoulder and backed up to where they were. Kalara glared at the next four. "For Mylo." She threw a grenade. "He was only a level six." The Legionary grunted when the blast hit, but kept coming.
Out of rocket ammo, she brought out her sword. It's purple stone glowed softly. She launched herself forward, slashing the hand holding it's weapon. The legionary made a startled cry of pain as it connected, and she whirled, aiming for it's throat as she swung.
As it fell, she phased and jumped through the other, coming up behind it to thrust her sword forward into it from behind. It fell.
"He was in the tower three days!"
Another Phalanyx rounded the corner and she threw her dagger into it's skull. she paused a moment, taking a shuddering breath. "And it was my words that brought him here."
She turned, walking back towards the opening. She paused right before it, glanced down and to the right. "He was just a kid." She shook her head.
"Hey, hey, C'mere." Zanthyr walked up, and pulled her to him. She let her head fall onto his chest. They stood that way for a full minute before she finally pulled away, nodded.
As they started to walk out, something glinted to their right. She walked over. Whatever had caught her eye was between two crates. She reached down to pick it up.
It was a Hunter's knife. Mylo's knife. She silently tucked it into her belt, reminding herself to reunite the two next time she was alone.
As they summoned htheir Sparrows, she said "One of his classmates blamed *me* for the incident, guess he kinda was right." another shake of her head. "The way I reacted was probably a bit callous, even. But talking softly to him just wasn't working."
zanthyr commed back "Did you tell him to go find a Cabal base to attack?"
"Well, no."
"Okay. Did you... tell him to come here to Mars?"
"No."
"Then how could it be your fault?"
A pause, then "I told the group that they had to train or they wouldn't be able to stand up to bigger, stronger enemies. Or something like that."
"Well, then I don't see how it *could* be your fault."
Kalara went silent. She couldn't argue with that.
"I was supposed to train them. They were my class, my responsibility."
Gavin put in with "They're Gaurdians. You can't babysit them all, all of the time."
They rounded another corner and zoomed past another group. Gavin commed "Just keep going. As long as they don't get directly in front of us, we can outrun them."
They continued on, down the winding trail, and entered the open space beyond the mountains. Off to the right was a long, tall building. She slowed to look at it Several pillar-like sections stood out from the rest of it, making it almost look like a giant wall of some kind. Her HUD read "SCABLANDS Meridian Bay, Mars".
As they approached, they could see they were actoually towers, sitting taller than the rest of the building.
Two Lagionaries fired at them from the top of the lower portion of it. She eyed the building. "Probably a hundred Cabal in there."
Lavender said "Too much trouble."
"Kalara had slowed, eyeing the Cabal forces. She paused, then said "Yeah." She hit her boost to catch up to them.
About a mile or so further, two Legionaries jumped out from the boulders to their right. Gavin and Zanthyr jumped from their sparrows and punched one each at the same time. Zanthyr stumbled back. Two psions had been in the shadows behind their Legionary comrades. Gavin punched one, ducking under the other's swing. He caught it with an uppercut to the jaw that sent the creature flying into the air before it fell limply.
"Looks like we're having only light resistance from the Cabal."
Kalara commed "I'm suprised. We must be on the outer edge of the Cabal territory."
They rounded the rocks and a Phalanyx was hunkered down in front of the boulder. Gavin didn't see it until it fired, catching the Titan in the throat. He choked, hand going to his throat. Zanthyr launched himself over him, fist glowing as he punched downward. The Phalanyx slammed into the boulder behind it and bounced. Zanthyr punched it again, just for good measure.
Lavender commed "I see movement bahind those walls ahead." and nodded to Kalara. The two ran toward it, Lavender going left, Kalara going right, firing wildly.
The legionaries stomped into the opening between walls with their back to the titans as Gavin reappeared. Both pulled out rockets launchers. Gavin smirked inside his helmet. "On three. One, two, three." Both fired and the Legionaries flew forward. Lavender and Kalara shrieked over the comm.
The titans walked forward and had to try not to laugh.
"Oh sure, laugh it up." Lavender was pinned halfway under one legionary, Kalara had all but dissapeared under the masss of the other. She managed to gasp out "Can't... breathe.."
The Titans grabbed the creatures and yanked. The dead cabal rolled off their teammates and Kalara coughed. "You try getting stuck under eight hundred pounds of alien and see if you feel like laughing!"
Gavin chuckled.
They summoned their sparrows and sped through another set of canyons, and down another slope. Kalara's ghost said "The Vex are going to do everything they can to keep us out of the Black Garden."
"Yeah, and we're going to do everything we can to give them a Very Bad Day."
They slowed as they exited the canyons, and Gavin spotted the ring up ahead. "I see something."
Lavender commed back "Yeah, that's the gate to the Black Garden."
They glided down the slope and slid to a stop in the area before the swirling blue-and-black vortex.
"Well, I guess this is as far as you two go."
"Are ya sure?" Zanthyr hopped off his sparrow sounding hopeful. Kalara just nodded. "Yeah. I wouldn't want you guys to get infected by that virus." They embraced, then she looked over at Gavin, who was gently hugging Lavender. Gavin commed "You know, we could sneak along anyway", but she shook her head. "I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you."
Kalara hugged Zanthyr again. "We won't be long. I promise." He nodded. "Take as long as you need."
Kalara said to them "The Tower neeeds you guys to protect it anyway, in case any more infected Gaurdians come back." she looked to Gavin. "We'll be back soon." They noddded and transmatted away.
Lavender walked over to where Kalara was gazing at the gate. After a moment, she yelled "Last one in's a rotten egg!" And ran forward.
"what the!-" Kalara started, then realised Lavender was just trying to bring back the happy free-spirited style she'd had before everything went downhill with Jarin and the other recent events.
"Hey, Wait up!"
"Well come on slowpoke!"
Kalara sighed and sprinted forward, leaping through the gate. She still didn't understand her teammate's archaic phraises, but she guessed whatever a 'rotten egg' was, she was it.
She approached the gate, it was like reality itself was shifting. The edges of her vision vibrated back and forth, almost making hr dizzy. Then, it cleared, and she was someplace else.
Her Ghost sounded "Where are we?" If this is the Black Garden, it's not on any map of known space and time." there was a slight pause before it added "I guess we... Just keep going?"
"Definitely not Mars." Kalara muttered. She stumbled forward, slightly disoriented from the forward-backward motion of reality as she passed throughthe construct, but Lavender appeared, reaching out to steady her. Hey, you okay?"
"i'm fine." Kalara put a hand to her head, then when the world stopped spinning, looked around. "This looks like Venus."
"Yeah, I know, Right?"
Kalara felt her head start to ache slightly. One ofthe side-effects of being transmatted a long distance. Someone had dubbed it "slight neural disruptance", but she wished it would just go away. Lavender ran forwrard, through the ancient structure. Kalara followed, eyeing the Vex goblins coated in moss. They weren't moving, but she suspected an mmbush at any time.
Lavender near-whispered over the comm "I'm halfway, I think. Creepy Vex are down the hall from you." she tiptoed back, then started as she bumped into one of the unmoving Vex Goblins.
Her ghost commented "They're in some kind of stasis."
Kalara commed "Wait for me, I'm not too far behind." She caught sight of Lavender, who had frozen n the center of one room, staring at one Vex. "Is it just me, or can you hear them, too?"
Kalara tilted her head. She had heard with her ears the noises hey had been making. Suddenly, the noises converged inside her head.
"They know we're here!" They hurried forward, catching four Vex Goblins by surprise to the left.
Lavender was right behind her. "There's more up ahead." Kalara glanced behind her at Lavender. They ran and jumped, throwing orbs of void energy at them from above. Lavender called "I see some further on. Going to get them."
Kalara caught up just in time to catch a trio of Harpies floating behind Lavender, who had gotten ahead of the Goblins and was dispatching them with an open-palmed strike each. Kalara grinned and pulled out her auto-rifle. She aimed for the glowing 'eye' and fired at each once, each of the three harpies fell.
"Easy peasy."
She wondered when she had started to repeat her friend's archaic phrases. Then she remembered, they both had previous lives before the golden age. She shrugged it off.
She suddenly saw a flash, and felt the energy pass thourgh her armor. She gasped, feeling the burning of the blast. A Minotaur had appeared behind the Harpies, using them as cover. Kalara started to switch to her rocket launcher, but Lavender jumped over her, activating her super. She came down using a 'fist of havoc' after the Minotaur fired the second time, and it disspeared into fragments of burning light.
"thanks."
"no problem."
They turned right. Kalara whispered across their comms "Please stay with me. The worst thing we can do is get seperated. We can each hold our own, but we're better together."
Down another set of steps, past another Goblin and a Hharpy, and they turned left, listening. Kalrara turned her head to the left, then the riht. "It almost sounds like they're singing." Lavender ducked behind a square pillar. "Yeah, but about what, and to who?"
In front of them, there was a flash of bright blue light, which turned into a ball of energy, space itself being opened, rearranged. Lavender called out "More Vex." Kalara put her back to the wall, to Lavender's right. She waited for them to appear, then ran forward, tossing off a grenade as she phased and slid past them. Three of them exploed. She brought up her auto-rifle at the same time Lavender fired her rocket launcher.
Kalara gasped.
Lavender smirked as the missile slammed into the ground in front of the vex, sending them flying back, missing Kalara. Lavender walked up to Kalara. "I have better aim than that. Heh." and walked past her.
"You scared the crap out of me!" Kalara admonished, following.
They walked down more steps, followng the winding path, until there finally was an opening. Lavender stopped suddenly. "it's louder." She looked to Kalrara, suprise on hrer face. Confusion. Kalara nodded. "I hear it, too."
what to stepped through the opening into the venusian sunlight, not sure what to expect next.
It was the edge of a drop-off. But the trail headed to their right. Kalara's ghost commed them as they walked to he edge. "There's something extremely dark below..
Neither of them answered. They were expecting something dark. But both knew that they had to defeat it, whatever it was. Off in the distance below them, what looked like dark-colored steam was rising up. Lavender starred at it, almost mystified. The sound they had heard, almost like a mechanical trilling sound, had gotten louder. Lavender stared into the rising fog. "They're singing to it." She said, almost entranced. After a moment she shook it out of her head and walked away.
They edged around the wall of the construct to the right, and Kalara eyed the Vex Goblins on the high rocks across from them. They ducked between slabs of rock and Lavender fired, taking out two Harpied. Kalara stayed a little behind her, checking that nothing had come up behind them.
Suddenly something hit her in the back. She ducked back to find that the Vex across from them eren't Goblins, but Hobgoblins. She took aim and fired, missed.
Then something slammed into her back, sending searing pain racing through her. Something big and nasty was gloating just out of sight right where they had been headed. She heard lavender cry out, and the two took off for cover back around the cornerbefore it could finish the job.
"What *was* that?" Kalara panted, trying to catch her breath. Lavender leaned out to see and ducked as a huge orb of burning energy sizzled overhead. "I dunno, but it's big and mean."
"And ugly?" Kalara supplied. Laevnder threw her a glance. "Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood."
Lavender ducked into a squat and edged out to see. Kalara switched to her sniper rifle, sighted one hobgoblin, and fired. The shot connected and it fell. She aimed at the other one, waiting for it to appear from behind it's cover. She spotted one horn and fired, but the shot slammed into the rock instead. Finally, it reappeared and she fired again, ending the distant threat.
Lavender eyed the Vex creature in front of them as it fired again, completely missing her. Kalara spotted a group of Goblins partially concealed by the tall grass and flowers. She sighted two through her scope, but the third dissapeared. she guessed it teleported, or time-travelled or however they moved.
There was a shadow of movement behind the grass. Kalara aimed and fired, then hit the last one in the head. "Crap!" The enraged Goblin ran toward them, but she punched it in the midsection. It collapsed. Lavender finally looked out long enough to get a good look at it. "It's a Cyclops."
It looked like a giant floating eye with three long bars, two on either side slanting upward on an angle, the third pointing straight down. The armor partially covered the central "eye", which was producing the energy. Every time the weapon was fully charged, the armor would slide outward so the 'eye' could fire.
Kalara tried to shoot it twice with her sniper rifle, but it had no effect. "We can't get close enough to use a melee attack." she thought quickly. As though picking up on her thoughts, Lavender pulled backthe loading bar on her Rocket launcher. Kalara blinked "When did you get that?"
"This old thing? I've had it for a while." Lavender stepped out from the rock and fired, hitting it squarely in the eye. Their HUDs had a little bar reading the status of their opponent. It went down to ten percent." Lavender smirked and reached for another ammo pack. Her smile fled. "I'm out of ammo."
They ducked behind their cover as another shimmering blue orb sailed past. "I don't have anything but my auto-rifle also." Kalara frowned. Lavender leaned over and fired off four shots, then ducked back to reload. "Well, maybe we'll get lucky." Another blue orb shimmered past. Kalara watched it sail through the air, nowhere close to them. "Yeah." She nodded to Lavender and both popped out from behind the rock firing at the center of the Vex machine.
It exploded, and both whooped and did something Lavender had called a 'high five'. They jogged across the open space and into another building, turning left. Three Goblins appeared out of nowher and Kalara opened fire. One got close enough to take a swipe at her, and she hit it with an open-palmed strike.
Another huge bolt of energy slammed into them, and they skittered back behind cover. Kalara ran towards it and took out three Goblins. Her Ghost said "The Vex here are powering that barrier. Take them out. Lavender ran and slid up behind Kalara's rock. "I've seen one of those before. But my HUD is saying it's a Divisive Mind."
Kalara nodded. "You keep it busy, I'll get behind it." before Lavender could ask what she was doing, Kalara had backed up, ran, and double-jumped up over it, doing a flip as she came down to glide behind another rock. The Divisive Mind turned to fire at her and Lavender pulled out the Special Weapon Ammo synthesis she was carrying. She popped up and fired her sniper twice. Kalara commed "I thought you were out of ammo."
"I forgot, I had special ammo synthesis. Sorry."
Kalara tossed a grenade at the floating creature's back. It exploded. The Divisive mind's 'health bar', as they had dubbed it, fell a bit more. Lavendr called "Keep it busy, I have an idea."
Kalara popped off a couple shots and Lavender grinned. She summoned the storm energy she used so frequently, and tendrils of electricity danced across her armor. "when I say cover, duck behind it." She jumped up and Lightning raced down her forearms and out of her hands. "Cover!" Kalara dissapeared behind the boulder as Lavender let loose. The The Divisive Mind shrieked as it was struck, and exploded in a shower of sparks and lightning.
Lavender floated to the ground. Kalara peeked out. "Is it dead?"
"Do the Fallen smell bad?"
Kalara laughed.
Her Ghost said "Barrier's down." They headed for the next opening, what looked like an old circular conduit of some kind. Fragments of it still hanging overhead and floating in the air.
They descended a set of steps into anotherset of hallways. Kalara almost sighed, but looked around instead. "i wnder how far these tunnels go down."
Lavender commed back "we're about to find out." and jumped ahead.
A trioo of Vex Goblins were waiting at the bottom of the steps, but Lavender landed with a bolt of lightning, and all three dissapeared in the wake. They found themselves on another drop-off. Tey walked to the edge. Kalara leaned left to let an energy bolt past. "There's more Vex below." She sighted the Hobgoblin and fired, the Vex machine dropping where it stood. "Time to go take care of business."
They descended the steps, dodging Goblins and Harpies, up another set of steps, past more Vex then down another, until they finally reached the gate that would lead the to the center of the Black Garden. Kalara's Ghost said "Dead End. The heart of the garden is just beyond here." It pausewd, then added "This place is just one big machine... Get me close to the clusters." Kalara eyed the round portals.
Kalara glanced left, then right. "My HUD is picking up on a LOT of Vex activity."
Lavender started to generate tiny electical arcs. "That's okay."
Kalara stopped her with "we need to remain unseen for now. Till we know how many Vex we're up against."
But Lavender had allready launched herself forward towards the first access point, calling behind her "If we don't get them now, they can call for more."
she didn't see the Hydra to their right, until it fired. Lavender yelped as the enery bolt caught her in the right side, burning thorugh her armor. Kalara ducked behind cover and waited. Lavender reappeared next to her, then bolted towards it, summoning a thunderstorm. She jumped up, phasing as the Vex Hydra fired at her. Kalara brought out her own glowing orb of energy, hurled it at the same time. The Vex machine whined in it'S mechanical language as it dissapeared.
The two hunters whirled as more Vex appeared. Kalara sighted a pair of Harpies through the scope of her sniper rifle, and Lavender did a douoble-jump-glide to take out a pair of Hobgoblins. "I'll hack this construct, you get the other?"
"Okay. On it." Kalara ran up and slid past a group of Vex Goblins, Auto-rifle snapping up to dispatch each reached one of the access points and summoned her Ghost. It floated up and scanned the round gatelike construct.
I can manipulate them, I just need to break their manifold encryption." After a moment, the center of the structure lit up green. Kalara's Ghost beeped, exclaiming "I did it! let's hit the other one." she commed Lavender. "Let's kick 'em, where it hurts!"
Kalara went left toward the other access point. Explosions could be heard over the comm, and Lavender declared "Allready am!" She headed left and her Ghost said "It's working. A spire is forming." Kalara glanced left and out in the center of the area, a tall square structure had started to form, appearing from lines of white light. The Vex data streams.
Meanwhile, Lavender laughed as she tossed a grenade at a pair of Harpies, sighting a hobgoblin with her sniper rifle.
BANG!
She missed. She frowned and switched to a rocket launcher. She fired, noticing the second down the slope was blown to smithereens along qwith the first. She spotted Kalara and waved as her fellow hunter jogged up. "Took you long enough." she teased. Kalara huffed and the twostalked down the slope cautiously.
Another trio of Harpies were floating off to the left, hidden by the wall Kalara ducked behind a block of stone and Lavender opened fire, hitting each squarely in the centyer. "Perice of cake." she tossed off. A minotaur appeared out of nowhere and the energy bolt slammed into the side of her helmet.
Kalara cringed as she fell, then leaned over to channel her light into her friend's ghost. Lavender reappeared, ducking behind the wall across from her as anbother bolt flashed past. Kalara smirked and pulled out her own rocket launcher. She popped up and fired off a shot. The minotaur dodged to the side. "Slick bastard." she ducked back down.
Lavender had gone back to her sniper, and stopped, as though concentrating. Listening. It reappeared and she fired three shots in rapid succession. It fell. She sighted a Goblin and fired, taking off it's head. "Oops."
"What?" Kalara leaned past her cover to look. The headless Vex was running towards them, firing wildly. Lavender added "I forgot they do that if you take their head off."
Kalara waited till it had reached the rock and punched it in the midsection, where it's computational matrix was. It sparked and fell. They edged down the ancient steps and scanned the area. No more Vex. Lavender walked up to the second circular control access. She summoned her Ghost.
It floated over to the access point, scanning it. "It's all starting to make sense."
The duo scanned the area to make sure no more Vex were coming.
Lavender's ghost continued "Let's see if it worked!"
Kalara turned and ran toward the spire that had formed, Lavender right behind her. Atop the square stone pillar at the center of the area they were in was a spire, four sides of white lines of energy, with a circular orb towards the top. It looked like a regular Vex confux, but they both knew this was no ordinary conflux. They exchanged a glance. Lavender took a breath.
"ready?"
"Ready."
Lavender summoned her Ghost and it floated forward to scan the conflux and activate it. It scanned the spire, ans told them "All we need is permission to enter. As a gate Lord." a moment later, the conflux activated, a rectangular object appeared floating before it. It was thinner than it was wide. Before either Gaurdian could blink, it shot up into the air in front of the gate, twirled and fragmented, the center of it floating in front of the circular center of the gate.
It lit up, seding a brilliant beam into the cofux at the center of their area. The conflus reflected it into the remaining shards of the rectangle, focusing into the center of the gate.
The plates of the circular gate slid past one another, starting at the bottom, sliding behind one another to open the gate.
The two hunters exchanged a look, then ran for the gate at the same time. They creossed the threshold and reality itself seemed to pulse and waver. Kalara's ghost appeared over her shoulder. "So, think you can kill a god?"
"Don't think I have a choice."
Below them,about twenty Vex Goblins were frozen in what seemed to be a standby mode, arms raised prising the pulsing black mass floating in the center of the Black Garden. One by one they activated, arms lowering, and turned to look toward the pair of Hunters. Lavender looked at the group, listening. "I can hear them." her head tilted slightly. "They're..." she trailed off, the Vex below her them seemed disinterested for a moment. Lavender paused. "The garden's heart.." suddenly she gasped, and her focus snapped up to the writhing black mass floating in the ring at the center of the area. "Oh no, nononono." She backed up to the door, which had snapped shut behind them.
"What?" Kalara urged her to tell her what was going on.
Lavender whispered "The heart of the black garden... The center of the Vex mind..." She shook her head, knowing she couldn't go to orbit. Their ships were back on Mars. She paced, suddenly terrified.
"It's the darkness."
Kalara looked over at the pulsing mass, a chill crept up her spine. "You mean...?"
Lavender nodded. She stared at it for a moment before taking a deep breath and paused. She waited a moment, then stepped forward, helmet tilting as though listening. She glanced at the Vex then continued, an eerie calm to her voice. "I get it now. I understand."
Kalara wasn't sure who Lavender was talking to until she continued.
"The darkness that ended our world. It's here. Part of it, that is. I can hear it, through them." Lavender took a step forward, and continued."When the darkness nearly ended our world, the Traveler's light stopped it. In it's final moments, the Traveler sent out a light so bright, it destroyed the darkness. It created the Awoken, from those who had fled to try to escape the darkness , but were too late. It created the Ghosts that would find and create the Gaurdians. The darkness was destroyed, but a small part of it survived somehow, and hid itself from the traveler, here."
"The Vex found it and protected it, worshipped it. This is a realm between worlds." She looked at Lavender. "We're in a pocket dimension of Vex making." Her gaze turned back to the floating black mass. Kalara felt another chill creep up her spine. "That's part of what nearly ended humanity?" She glanced sideways, but Lavender didn't answer.
A Vex fired, it's energy blast pinging off Kalara's shoulder armor. "Lavender, there's about twenty Vex down there. We should get going." But the hunter didn't move. Another shot sizzled across Kalara's arm. "That's just annoying. Lav; You with me?"
"Lavender?"
The Hunter was staring into the mass, listening to the sounds she was hearing. Kalara glanced downward as a Goblin's shot whizzed past. "Lav, I hear them too. You have to snap out of it." but it was like the Hunter was listening to something much louder.
Lavender turned to her wordlessly, and started down into the area below. Kalara gave her a curious look from inside her helmet, but tried to focus on the Vex. She was so distracted, she didn't notice her teammate walking through the Vex, who were completely ignoring her until she was at the edge of the open space below.
Kalara jumped down, getting in front of her. "woah, hey, what's going on here?"
Lavender didn't repond. Instead, she looked up at the dark mass, trying to walk forward. Kalara huffed as another Goblin fired, hitting her shoulder. "Lav, talk to me." She put up a hand to stop her friend.
Nothing.
A pair of vex got too close and Kalara landed an open-palmed strike on the first, punched the second. She realised the Vangaurd leaders were probably listening on the other end, monitoring them. And she didn't want to give them any more reasons to mistrust either of them. "Oberon, cut the feed." Lavender had nearly reached the center of the open area. They were surrounded, but the Vex were ignoring Lavender. Kalara jumped straight up, activated her supercharge, and slammed down to punch the ground, sending every Vex coming up on them flying back for a twenty foot radius. Lavender was still moving. She summoned her ghost. "Oberon! Cut the Feed! Now!"
On the other end of the line, They were indeed being monitored. Zavala glanced at Cayde, who shrugged. Then he commed Kalara "Baxtin, report. what is going on?" The sound of heavy weaponfire rang out , then "Umm, pleas hold." the line went silent for a full minute, and then what sounded like a scream, followed by more gunfire. Kalara could be heard yelling something unintelligible, then "Cut the feed! NOW!" THe audio from her ghost cut out, but the video remained long enough to see Lavender under the dark mass. Kalara appeared, and her hand covered the eye of her Ghost. The feed went static.
Zavala's voice came ocross her comm "Baxtin, what's your status? where's Lavis? Report!" Kalara knew the Vangaurd commander meant business when he used their last names, but she had more important matters to attend to. She 'facepalmed' another goblin, and ran, slid, and looked back as her grenades exploded. she double-jumped to where Lavender was standing before the darkness, gazing up at it.
"Lavender. Avaria, listen to me." the Hunter's gaze met hers, but Kalara gelt another chill. "Lavender, I know you've seen the darkness of the Hive, of thorn. it marked you. But that mark, I know darknes stried to take you, but I know that you are stronger. Those marks... You saw the darkness, it tried to take you, but it proves that you are stronger. Those scars are a testament to your strength. You faced the darkness once, and you won."
the hunter turned to her. "Did I?" Her voice was eerie.
"Yes, you did. You remember that battle. I do. You're still the Hunter I know. You'll allways be the Gaurdian I know I can depend on.." she smiled slightly. "Thunder and Lightning."
Lavender's voice sounded darker, somehow. "And what if the light was always just a lie?"
"What!? Avaria Lavis, have I taught you nothing!?" Kalara pasted her hands on her hips. "what if Gavin heard you taking like this!?"
Lavender suddenly thought of her boyfriend, and why she and Kalara were here. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. She remembered their conversation on the way here. That if it was going to be her and Kalara, what they would call their little duo. She took a step back from the mass and stumbled, dizzied by the effects of the darkness that nearly took her over. Kalara caught her, adding softly "We're here to vanquish the flast remnants of the darkness. We have light. We can do this."
Lavender looked at her, then nodded, and focused on a group of five Goblins. She focused, lightning starting to appear around her. It flickered for a moment. She shook her head and tried to ignore the whispers tickling at her conciusness. Kalara summoned an orb of white energy and launched it at the Goblins. They looked around. Lavender had her auto-rifle out and had jogged left to take out three more. Kalara noticed another trio off to the right and tilted her head. "Hmm, sniper rifle or rocket launcher?" she jumped, double-jumped, flipping headfirst as she came down behind them. She punched the first, the second, dodged the third before punching it as well. "Yep, Zanthyr was right, punching things *is* fun."
She ran over to where Lavender was busy with six more Goblins. One fired into her back armor, making the hunter swear.
"Got this." Kalara punched it, sending it flying. "I think that's the last of them."
Lavender nodded, and they eyed the swirling writhing dark mass. A stream of white energy leapt out of it ans into one of the three statues on their side of the open space. Kalara called "Cover!" and they skittered under the roof of whatever the structure was, behind the stone walls between them and the darkness. Kalara looked over. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I think so?"
Kalara nodded.
Lavender added "If I do that again, shoot me again. I don't ever want to have that happen again."
Kalara gave her a firm stare, and even though she was wearing a helmet, she was sure Lavender got the look. "It won't. You're stronger than the darknness. I know that. We got this, Gaurdian. you with me?"
"Allways."
"good."
Kalara stepped out from cover just in time to see what was happening. Her ghost said "It's bringing that statue to life!"
Lavender waited for it to finish transforming, then leaned out to fire a rocket, paused, then asked "why didn't you use my name?"
Kalara answered "I wanted to remind you of what we are."
"...oh."
Kalara glanced over. "It wasn't an insult. I was just trying to remind you of what we're fighting for. Sort of... an encouragement?" she hoped her friend hadn't taken it the wrong way. But Lavender nodded.
Kalara paused again to check her ammo before swinging around the rock to fire off a rocket at the vex creation. It fired back, but she swung back behind the wall before it could hit her. The shot whizzed through the open space she'd been standing in. She called "Hey, Lav, pincher maneuver?" Th other hunter tilted her head. kalara added "Yeah, maybe not. there's not that much cover on the other side of it." Lavender pulled out a machine gn and pullled back the loading pin. "Nah, but we can have some fun with this anyway."
Kalara held up a hand. "Hold on." She thought for a second. Lavender said "What? We're way better than the other Hunters. We got this."
Kalara nodded. "But we only have so much heavy ammo. We need a little strategy her."
"Pfft. Strategy. Right." and Lavender had dodged an energy bolt, firing wildly as she went. She double-jumped over the next platform and ducked behind a rock. An energy bolt hit her in the shoulder and she glanced over to see a pair of Harpies. She opened fire and they exploed. She ran back towards where Kalara was behind cover and spotted the Vex creation (Darkness creation) still firing at her. She leapt up into the air, using her double-jump to get even higher.
but the machine saw her and fired as she came down. She tried to duck but it was too late.
"Gaurdian down."
Kalara facepalmed. She reloaded her own rocket launcher and stepped out from cover, firing twice while it was distracted. She started when Zavala's voice came across the comm. She forgot the leaders were waiting to hear from them.
"Any time now, Baxtin."
"Sorry. We had some Vex to take care of. The Darkness, it transformed one of the statues here into a robot. It shot Lavender, but I'm trying to lure it away so I can circle back around to her." she hoped that was convincing enough. "It got a little crazy for a second."
"and the video feed?"
"Oh, right. sorry." Kalara switched the uplink back on. She leaned out to the right, looking for any cover. She found a square of rock and ran for it. Two harpies were coming from her left. She lobbed a grenade, glancingg over as they exloded. She facepalmed a Goblin approaching and ducked behind the rock, hoping the Vex creation had seen. An energy bolt whizzed overhead. She popped up and pulled the trigger on her launcher.
CLICK
"Crap." She reloaded quickly, noting how the energy blasts were getting gradually closer. After the next one she stood and fired off another rocket, then as the creature stumbled back, a second at it's head. The shot went wild and Kalara ducked back down. "Almost. Come get me, big bad an' ugly." Another bolt sizzled over as she switched to her auto-rifle.
She emptied the magazine before ducking. Then she ran sideways, jumping up on top of the structure and around to where Lavender was. "No cover" she said to herself. She took down four more vex Goblins headed for her. She turned back around, her HUD registered it as "Eschaton Mind".
She thought quickly. "If I try to get Lavender, it could hit me and I'd go down, too." She checked her ammo. Two more clips of heavy, five special, and a bunch of auto-rifle ammo. Even though that was prettymuch useless. A red energy bolt pinged off her armor. A pair of Goblins were standing a short ways off. Kalara fired, both fell. She jogged over. "Ammo. okay."
She stopped and thought. She focused, then ran and jumped, gliding high up into the air. She focused, and a huge ball of void energy appeared in her hand. She hurled it at the Eschaton Mind and it roared when the void energy slammed into it's chest. It fragmented and dissapeared. Kalara ran over to Lavender, grabbing up a couple of the small white pyrimidal shapes the Vex creature had dropped.
Her Ghost said "The Heart is dying. just keep fighting!"
She channeled her light into Lavender's ghost, and she reappeared, loo0king around. "Yeah, the first one's toast." Kalara shrugged. The two looked over in time to see a pair of white enery orbs shimmer from the black mass like twin coments, and the second statue started to sink to ground level. They jogged for cover.
Kalara leaned out long enough for her HUD to give her a name over the figure. "Imminent Mind". A pair of Goblins fired from their right. Kalara hit the first in the head, trhen the second. They ran forward toward them, firing wildly.
"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?" Lavender teased.
"No."
Kalara whirled and took off another head. The first had reached her and she facepalmed it. Lavender punched the second. The one running up from behind them reached them and Kalara punched it, too. Two more appeared and Kalara switched to her sniper rifle, taking off their heads while Lavender took out a hobgoblin. The both stood back-to-back for a second.
"You *are* doing that on purpose." She eyed the two headless Vex runing at them.
"Well, maybe. Heh."
Lavender sighed.
Kalara punched both.
They moved back to the left and Lavender reloaded her rocket launcher, firing at the giant monstrosity. It moved left and the shot went wide. Lavender cursed. "I'm out of heavy ammo."
"Me, too."
Kalara popped out and lobbed a grenade at it.
L:avender went right with her sniper, fired off a pair of shots at it's head then came back "That's not working, either."
"Welll, we still have our supers. Ready for a little Thunder and Lightning?"
Lavender grinned, nodded. "Let's do it."
They ran up the steps to the top of the structure, ducking behind a block of stone. Lavender counted. "One... two..." both said "THREE!" and Launched themselves into the air. Lavender's armor hummed with energy, and Kalara glowed white. She turned mid-glide and hurled her light at the same time as Lavender channeled lightning down her arms focused with her hands, straight into it. It glowed and dissapeared. both landed. Lavender cheered "Woo! Last one!"
Both watched light stream over to the last statue. Kalara backed up a few paces, then ran over to the opposite side of it. She peeked out as it turned toward her. Then Lavender popped out, waving her hands next to her head, doing 'the Rude Taunt'
"U.G.L.Y. You aint got no ailibi, you ugly!." she eeped and popped back behind cover as an energy bolt passed her. Kalara fired, Lavender wasn't done. "Yeah yeah, you ugly! Woo!" she punctuated this by launching a rocket at it.
Enraged, the creature turned and and started firing at where she had just been. Kalara busted out laughing. "Where do you *find* all these old phrases!?"
They could hear Cayde's laughter over the comm "That's a pretty old one, alright."
Lavender commed "I remember things sometimes, remember?"
"Well I'm from before the golden age, too."
The duo met in the middle, behind the stone wall. Kalara looked at her friend. "Care to fasttrack this?"
"I am having fun, but I guess we should get to work, huh?"
"Yeah. The darkness needs to die. Once and for all."
Both jogged around up the steps to the top, ducking behind the same stone block as before. Kalara counted "One, Two, Three." They jumped up and Lavender lit up with electricity. Kalara was nearly distracted when her fellow hunter jumped, double jumped, and yelled out
"Leeroy Jenkins!"
She came down half a second before Kalara lost focus, then had to focus HARDER (and not on the 'what the heck was that just now!?') phrase. She came down and slammed a ball of swirling energy onto the creature's head. Suddenly, both realised it wasn't dead.
"Crap!" Kalara brought up her auto-rifle and fired, her HUD indicating a tiny bit of health of the Vex monster. The creature took a step towards her, then fell.
Kalara shoved a fist into the air and shouted "Wooooo!"
The darkness seemed to collapse in on istself, shuddering and suddenly imploding into a white light that expanded outward from where it had been half a second ago. It was like reality exploded into brilliant white, then they were someplace else, the night sky once again visible, but with a light that seemed almost like morning, the sky was getting lighter and lighter.
Kalara's Ghost said "The light returns to the Traveler!" It shounded overwhelmed with joy. "The Speaker is calling us home." Lavender grinned and started dancing. Kalara laughed and joined her.
After a bit, Kalara said "Come on, lets get out of here."
Lavender summoned her ghost, and Kalara folowed suit. The two teleported away.
END NOTES:
The theory on the Awoken is something I heard someplace, and makes sense to me. It would take an immense amount of light for the Traveler to destroy the darkness, and I think one of the side-effects (or possibly it was intentional) would be to restore those who died trying to leave Earth to run from the Darkness, but were too late. Plus I think the mixture of darkness then light right after would make a pretty mixed up (not dark not light) people.
The Darkness being at the heart of the black Garden was another theory I really like, which is (in my opinion) the reason behind the Speaker's speech in the cutscene. The hive are evil, yes. But the Darkness itself is the original world-ending horror. The Hive *serve* the darkness, they aren't the darkness.
Also, I just heard that Phrase "Leeroy Jenkins" in a youtube video somewhere. Apparently it means something along the lines of (an enthusiastic) "Let's do this!" I hope I'm using it in proper context. I found it hillarious the first time I heard it, and had to google it. I was just *dying* to use it in something somewhere.
And I know why Cayde got the joke on the "UGLY" taunt. The reason is in some of the Cayde-6 fan-lore. And the phrase dates back to the pre-collapse era.
