The Festival of the Lost
It was that time of the year again, the time when Eververse got in their holiday stock, the tower would be covered in lanterns that looked like engrams and candles would be set throughout it. Guardians would don masks of those most dear and their greatest enemies. It was a time for the older guardians to dig out their jack-o-lytes to scare other guardians and the children of the city and Amanda Holiday was going to host the years festivities. Eververse had increased their prices before the event started so most guardians were angry and declaring strike on the establishment.
"So why exactly do we celebrate this holiday again?" asked Brogan. Maverick and Tracy looked at him with puzzled looks. "Did you really forget?" asked rook in awe of his leaders foolish question. "Well when for almost a year and a half we didn't celebrate almost any holiday you forget things that pertain to them" he replied, taking his time to articulate every word. Tracy looked at both of them and sighed "It's the time of year we take to honor those we lost in the years before and the years to come". Brogan looked back at her "Thank you for reminding me" he spoke calmly. The three of them walked back towards where the shipwright, Amanda Holiday, who had requested them to come see her when they had a moment. As they headed down the stairs towards her they saw a guardians ship come in for repairs, large almost vein like growths had covered it. "Woah, what happened to that ship" asked Brogan in awe as they got Amanda. "Well that's a guardians ship, said they ran into something called SIVA, took hold of their ship while they were on mars" she said as she looked over a damage report on a ship. They looked back at her with puzzled expressions. "SIVA?" they all said almost in unison. Amanda chuckled and looked at them "Yeah, some golden age bio-tech that's just a tad corrupt". They all looked at her dismissively. "So how may we help you miss holiday?" asked Maverick…
"Why the heck are we here of all places?!" exclaimed Maverick in anger as he shoved his hand through the chest of vex goblin. Amanda had sent them to Io to investigate a strange signal that had been picked up during multiple guardians patrols shortly before they're ships tech had taken immense damage. Holiday therefore sent them out so they could try and find the heart of the issue. They had entered the sanctum of bones and found a partial match on the signal, soon after they had found an exact match, a ginormous vex gate lord that when Osiris, a renegade guardian they had met in one of there adventures, looked at the readings it was giving said it was known as an 'Eternal Nightmare'. They had then headed to the Aphix Conduit nearby where they had found another vex giving off a partial signal but had went to exit and was now confronting the 'Eternal Nightmare' for hopefully the final time. "Because we-" Brogan was abruptly interrupted as a minotaur tried to crush him with its heavy metal arm but he pushed against it shoving it back and pulling out a shotgun and unloaded multiple shots into its chest destroying it. "Stupid machine, now where was I, oh right, we're trying to eliminate the source of the signal, AKA this big piece of crap" said Brogan as he fired a shot from his sleeper simulant into its chest. Aria jumped up into the air and fired a blast of electricity forward from her palm destroying most of the vex that was around and damaging the nightmare. Brogan jumped up and quickly flipped around going invisible and Maverick ran towards it and a large hammer coated in fire materialized in his hands. Brogan ran behind it and showed himself, he was covered in void energy and held two large daggers that were covered in void energy as well. Maverick, on the other hand held a large mallet that was similar in design to his hammer of sol, he as well was covered in flames. The two of them started to use their supers on the hulking vex and in a matter of minutes it fell to its knees, sparking and flames erupting from its core.
"So, from what your saying Amanda, you've matched the signal to that which was radiating from the infinite forest?" asked Brogan, a little hesitant. She looked at the three of them "Yeah, so I need you three to go to the forest thing and stop the signal that's coming from within" Amanda said. The three looked at each other with the same question in mind. Maverick looked at her and asked "Whats in it for us?". She looked at him and grabbed an auto rifle that was leaning on her tool chest "I'll give ya each one of these, I'm calling it horror story, it's just an origin story that I gave a new paint job to and added some tech" she said impatiently. The three looked back at her and nodded before turning around and walking towards their ship.
Their ship flew over mercury's hot surface towards the lighthouse so they could speak with Brother Vance about entering the forest. "So we're going into the forest just so we can try and eliminate the heart of the source?" asked Tracy in contemplation. Brogan nodded before turning back towards the main screen so he could see where they were going. Soon their ship hovered over what had been designated as the landing area and they all transmated onto the hot ground and walked through the portal that served as the doorway into the lighthouse. Brother Vance looked back at them "Ah the guardians chosen by the mighty Osiris! How wonderful that you have returned!" he spoke in ecstasy. The three walked toward him a little hesitant but didn't want to waste to much time. "Yes, yes we have" spoke Maverick, the only one to never really like Vance. He walked forward and had three guns in his hand, an auto rifle, a pulse rifle, and a hand cannon. "I have gifts for you all, a thank you for helping keep the area safe" he said as he handed Brogan two hand cannons, Tracy an auto rifle and scout rifle, and Maverick a SMG and pulse rifle. "Well uh, thank you" Brogan said a little hesitant as he looked at the hand cannons, an engraving in the barrel of one which said "West of Sunfall, the seventh" and one in the other saying "Jack, Queen, King, the third". "I took parts of the vex other guardians have brought in and attached them to some weapons that were lying around and named them after some of Osiris' prophecies" spoke Vance in excitement. The three studied their new guns before having their ghosts put their other guns into the ship since they were going to use these new ones. "We really appreciate it Vance, but we need you to take down the barrier covering the infinite forest and set the branch to the coordinates" said Brogan as he handed the Brother a piece of paper from Holiday. Vance studied it before looking back at them "Right away" he said as he put the information into a machine before pulling a switch opening the forest "Be careful in there." the nodded in thanks and headed to the forest…
They had entered not to long ago and were starting to feel the pressure, at certain points after they killed certain amounts of enemies would be teleported into a large arena like area where they would have to fight a large enemy, of almost any race, once it would be killed they would be taken to another branch to only repeat the process. "From what I can figure we're almost done eliminating these 'nightmares'" said Echo as he illuminated the path. The guardians paid no attention to what the little light had said, they were more worried about not dying. They had found that these "prophecy" weapons were of wonderful value. "I'm going in!" yelled Maverick as he ran forward, summoning his large mallet and smashing it into a large group of enemies. Brogan slid behind a wall and reloaded his main hand cannon before running back out and firing into the heads of multiple dregs. Soon a loud roar was issued out throughout the area and a large hive knight-like creature holding a large ax ran towards them and slammed its ax into their midst. "GO GO GO" yelled Brogan as he ran forward trying to escape it.
In a few hours they had come to what was thought to be the final boss. As they entered the final room they looked around but saw nothing, only a large pathway in front of them. "Did we do it?" asked Maverick, a little excited. Soon after he said this the giant hive creature let out a roar. It had finally caught up to them and was ready to kill them all. "GRRRRAAAAA" it screamed out in triumph as it smashed its ax nearby. As soon as the guardians had saw it they ran as fast as they could hoping to escape. But as soon as it appeared it dissolved into dust, then quickly re-appearing in front of them. "GRRRAAAAAR!" it screamed, clearly agitated that they tried to run. The three looked up at it and started to fire their weapons. "Get back you ugly piece of crap!" yelled Brogan trying to stop it. It stumbled for a second as a shot hit it in the eye and it dropped its ax. Maverick and Brogan looked at each other, the same plan in mind. They both ran and grabbed its ax and charged at it before Maverick jumped and shoved his fist into its face knocking it onto its back, then they lifted the ax and slung it down into its skull, dicing it head into two halves. The three cheered and Echo alerted them that the signal had stopped. They could now return back to the tower…
Amanda looked at the three of them in awe "It was a, it was a hive making the signal?" she asked in frustration. The three nodded and each held a piece of its skull. "Well I guess I owe you an auto rifle then" she said and handed each of them one of the horror story auto rifles "now go use this to tell your horror story". The three nodded and walked away, they had had a long day. They entered a insane branch of the infinite forest, killed a gate lord, and killed one of the biggest hive they had ever seen, this was a real horror story. Their Horror Story…
