I do not own the Expendables or Halo/RvB.
Dragons' Destiny: Chapter 10
"So, anyone know what Hiccup's working on?" Krayt asked over the comms. The Dragons were currently orbiting Earth, waiting for the Hunter and Warlock to arrive. This was going to be a big day for the duo, as this will be the first time they've stepped on different ground.
"Nope. 20?"
"Not exactly. I do remember him talking about his armor, though. Heck, he could be making a helmet for Toothless."
The Exo's words piqued the team's interest in the Night Fury. They had seen both Toothless and Hiccup's abilities in combat on Earth, and were eager to see how well the brothers fared beyond. While the young Hunter would certainly adapt quickly, the Warlock could find the Moon to be... difficult to efficiently operate in.
A black-as-night jumpship joined the group, its existence made known only by the silhouette against the blue marble nearby and the addition of two members to the team list.
"Sorry about the wait, guys. Had to make sure this stuff works," Hiccup apologized.
"What better way than a field test?" 20 suggested.
"Don't give him any ideas," Toothless warned. "You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to save his hide."
"Oh, stop exaggerating, you overgrown salamander." A draconian scoff followed Hiccup's words.
"Alright, that's enough, everyone. We got a job to do and I sure as hell want to hurry up and do it." Dmitri checked over his BKR's instruments, making sure they were in the green. "Setting course for the Moon. Jumping in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1."
The quintet launched into jumpspace, the familiar blue tunnel racing around them. Hiccup and Toothless were awed by the view. Krayt told them they would be seeing this many times in the near future, which only added to their exhilaration. The ships lurched forward as they were brought back to normal space, the cratered gray form of the Moon sitting in front of them.
"Whoa," Hiccup breathed, everyone else smiling at his reaction.
"We'll be transmatting to Archer's Line and-"
"Nice to see you're finally here," a deep voice interrupted. "Capitol and Sparta are getting impatient. And you know how Adam gets when he's pissed."
"Nice to see you too, Firewing. Lucks and Triton joining this excursion?"
"Of course they are," the cyborg Hunter deadpanned. "Capitol and Sparta have the Temple Run, Blades and Death will move in from the back entrance."
Krayt cut in, "Heh, I do not feel sorry for you guys." Everyone listening knew who he was referring to.
"Leaving us with the Hellmouth," 20 concluded, ignoring his teammate's comment. "I can see your IFF tag now, Fire."
The ships stopped and hovered only for a few seconds to drop off their passengers before speeding off back into orbit. The three Titans and older Hunter looked around, taking in the bland environment they had almost forgotten about.
Hiccup, as it turns out, was not wearing the armor he wore during the Cosmodrome Purge. Now, his armor had more plating on the chest along with a few additions to the legs and arms. His visor was split into two, each port glowing a familiar, radiant green. What got the team's attention was the abundance of black scales embedded into the suit, helmet, and even the cape. "What do you think, guys?"
The Titans glanced at each other while Hurricane chuckled behind his helmet. "I'd suggest staying away from the ladies, Hiccup," the elder joked.
Toothless on the other hand- er, paw- was exactly like he was back in the Cosmodrome. The only thing he wore was the modified saddle and prosthetic. He was taking deep, slow breaths as he adjusted to the low oxygen.
Hiccup knelt down and petted the dragon. "You doing okay, bud?"
"Yeah. I'm guessing no flying for now, right?" he whined, his lips curling into a sarcastic smirk.
"We could get into the air if you chose to wear the suit."
"HA! There is no way I'm covering up this beauty!" Toothless scoffed, putting himself into a regal position. "And I am an Alpha, so there." He then noticed his brother counting on his fingers. "What are you doing?"
Hiccup answered absentmindedly, "Trying to figure out how much fish I've got stowed away."
Toothless dropped all forms of royalty at the four-letter word he always loved to hear. He got into the Hunter's face, his eyes commanding. "How. Much. Fish?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe... a large school's worth."
"When we get back, I get all of them," the Night Fury said, his tone leaving no room for argument. With a deep breath, he mumbled something to Torch. A black bodysuit formed over Toothless' scales, ignoring the wings so he would be comfortable. A helmet grew over his head to end at his ears, but he could still move and use his mouth as before, the visor still revealing his eyes. Lightweight armor appeared on his legs, belly, just about anywhere where it wouldn't hinder Toothless at all.
"Well, how does it feel, bud?"
"What's the word? Um... tingly."
"Oh, that's the suit injecting atmospheric oxygen directly into your bloodstream. You should be able to fly with less difficulty now," Torch explained. He stayed silent, then disappeared as the Night Fury grabbed Hiccup and carried him above the ground.
"You two find a safe position and wait for us at the Hellmouth," Dmitri spoke into the team channel. "We'll be there shortly." A stray trio of pistol shots landed near their position, followed by a sniper round finding its way into the shooter's head.
They were at the Hellmouth less than a minute later, Hiccup and Toothless having found themselves a good perching spot. They regrouped at the ridge, the deep pit in front of them and the main entrance to their right.
"What is this place?"
"Welcome to the Hellmouth, you two," Krayt said, his voice devoid of his usual light tone. "A disgusting monument to the Hive and their now-dead god-prince, Crota."
Hiccup gestured to the large crack of the surface far off into the distance, the raised chunks like a mountain split down the middle. "They did this?"
"Yes. A thousand Guardians fell here during the first attack, many of them–our strongest, our best–by Crota himself. It wasn't until several months ago that the Helljumpers dropped in and got him with his own sword." 20 said the last part with sick enjoyment.
"Helljumpers?" Toothless asked, noticing the black T-shaped ships coming and going with a loud screech and rumbling from within the glowing pit.
"One of the nicknames we gave to Nero Bianco. From the helmet camera videos we saw, they certainly deserved the title."
Dmitri came back. "Gear up. We're attacking in five minutes. RV is the Circle of Bones."
"No doubt Death will want to breach the Summoning Pits," Hurricane said, making sure his weapons were fully loaded. "Oh, I almost forgot. Toothless, how good are you around... strong odors?"
"I... guess it would have to depend on what it is."
"Well, none of us will blame you if the stench overpowers you or Hiccup, even through the filters. My advice to deal with it as best you can."
Krayt overheard 'Cane and added, "20's the lucky one out of the six of us." He had his grenade launcher loaded and magnetized to his back.
"But on the bright side, you're human. I ain't," the Exo retorted.
"All teams, this is Firewing. Mission is a go, repeat, mission is a go. Commence attack and good luck." The channel ended only to immediately return with a song playing in the background. "Lucks!"
The Dragons stormed through the Gatehouse, 20 providing sniper cover from the ridge opposite the descending path. The outer defenses were blown away by Toothless, and the trio of Knights inside were expertly cut down with an auto rifle burst or a shotgun blast to the face. As they went down the flights of stairs, the stench of death and decay grew worse, and it certainly wasn't helping Toothless.
The Hive in the next room/corridor were already taking cover from 20, leaving a few exposed for the rest of the team to shoot at. The telltale screech of a Wizard sent the group against the wall, mostly for Hiccup and Toothless' sake. Dmitri unhooked a flashbang from his belt and moved forward stealthily (or at least what he thought was stealthy) to get a good position. Behind a pillar, he rolled into the open and threw the grenade at the spread-out Hive forces, then rolled behind the pillar on his left. The grenade went off and the Dragons charged out of the doorway, turning the enemies into ash. Krayt blasted the Thrall in the next room into oblivion with his grenade launcher.
His position no longer necessary, 20 rejoined the waiting team and pressed on. After wiping out an Ogre with accompanying Acolytes and a Wizard, they cleared the room below with ease. When they exited the pitch-black passageway, the newer Dragons' eyes widened at the thin chasm, light bouncing off the collected vapors in the distance, showing the other bridges. The path they followed quickly led them to the Circle of Bones.
Krayt and Hurricane filed past the entryway, taking note of the Hive flowing from the depths of the Moon. Even from the T-junction, the mass of enemies was significantly higher than usual, the likeliest reason being the 18 Guardians attacking the place. Portals could be heard opening and closing on the other side.
"Looks like all hands on deck here," Krayt whispered, partially afraid the Hive would hear him.
"Tri, we're at the Circle. What's your status?" Dmitri asked, comm lines open.
"We just cleaned out the Hall of Wisdom. Well, the survivors anyhow."
Vura's voice followed with a scoff. "You Deaths just need to keep up."
"Oh? And we don't?" an accented male voice shouted. "We take one step and you're already at the Shrine with a gutted Ogre at your feet."
"Hahaha, don't exaggerate, Lee. You forgot about the removed skeleton," the Fallen female teased. Lee grunted in annoyance and cut his line. "Oh, well. Dragon, I can see you and the mob of Hive. They have everything down there."
A loud roar/growl erupted with the screaming of Thrall from the direction of the World's Grave. Fireteam Dragon looked to see a glimpse of a white Titan with rusty brown highlights storm out of the open entrance with a trio of Thrall stuck on his Juggernaut shield. Out of the fireteam's sight, Adam kept charging forward at an almost unnatural speed, maneuvering his way through the enemies now surrounding him, and trampling anything unfortunate enough to get caught underfoot.
Capitol and the other two members of Sparta came running out a few seconds later, engaging whatever had been fortified there. At the same time, Death and Blades emerged from the Hall of Wisdom and laid down cover fire for the certainly-suicidal Titan running through the open. Adam stopped only when he crushed the clinging Hive into the rock wall, then slammed his fist into the alien's skull. Turning around, he unleashed an inescapable barrage of explosive machine gun shots into the crowd.
During this time, Dragon split into three: 20, Krayt, and Hurricane assaulted the forces defending against Capitol and Sparta; Dmitri, Hiccup, and Toothless helped Death and Blades. Toothless fired a plasma blast into the cluster of Hive, blowing them into ashes. Hiccup focused on taking down the Knights and Wizards, while Dmitri slowed moved in to use his flamethrower.
The trio of Bladedancers somehow got into the core of the Hive crowd and unleashed their knives. Vura carved a clean cut through the horde, sweeping her way to back to Death's location. Lee and Wesley on the other hand stayed in one spot and found themselves surrounded after their Supers ran out. A few seconds later, Adam had cleared a hole with a powerful Fist of Havoc and was now playing around with a Knight.
A second Major Knight charged the two Hunters, both diving out of the way. It focused on Wesley and swiped its sword in his direction. The Hunter jumped back and sent several knives into the thing's armor. Another swipe followed by an uppercut and downward slash pushed him onto the defensive. One step back found the Hunter on the edge of the balcony overlooking the bottomless pit below. Seeing a very possible victory, the Knight raised its sword for a final attack when its head jerked forward several times.
There was a pause for two seconds before Wesley jabbed the Hive soldier in the chest with lightning speed, just to make sure the attacker was indeed dead. The Knight tumbled and fell off the floor and over the side, a cluster of five or six throwing knives driven through the back of its head. Wesley turned around to see Hurricane landing into the fray.
"I had him! It was all under control."
The Awoken smiled underneath his helmet, firing his Golden Gun into the diminishing Hive around them. "Yeah, that's what it looked like."
It took a while, but the Hive legion in the Circle of Bones was destroyed. Part of that time was spent looking for Adam, who apparently was buried under a large pile of ash and Hive armor. He grumbled a thanks to his teammates who pulled him out, wiping off the black stuff as best he could (It was obvious he would be cleaning the suit for a long while).
All 18 people drank in the sight of the Hellmouth as they took a short break. Wesley and Lee argued over how many kills they got as Vura looked on. Adam searched through the refuse for anything worth taking; his team's Warlock talked about something with the other Spartan Titan. Capitol secured the perimeter, leaving Death alone as they entered the Summoning Pits.
"You did really good, Hiccup," Hurricane complemented, his sudden appearance startling the younger Hunter and Warlock.
"Thanks," the man answered, his voice uneasy.
'Cane saw the emotion and easily deduced its reason. "Killing a living thing, something that's like you, isn't easy. Self-defense is entirely different, because your life is in danger."
"I know. Toothless and I went through some tough times throughout our lives," Hiccup said, patting the Night Fury next to him. "The Second Berserker War, the Dragon Hunters. We both had to take lives."
Hurricane nodded. "The Hive see this war as a religious crusade, the Darkness against the Light. All that is Light is to be consumed by the Darkness so Darkness can reign. These kinds of wars have always happened. The Crusades of the 11th to 15th centuries, the Rise of Terror in the 21st century, and I'm certain there was another one in the 26th century, it just wasn't recorded."
Whatever else he had to say was stopped by Death's presence.
"I hope you're all rested enough," the Warlock said.
"Because where we stand, getting out will a lot harder than getting in."
(AN) - There we are. Hope you enjoyed the various references I have made, and the one regarding Sparta was made specifically for your imagination. I mean, what two characters are extremely close? Warlocks are practically heavy artillery with their Void Bombs and Stormtrance. Their smarts were also something to remind myself of. I'll leave you to ponder who the Spartan Titan and Warlock may be. ;)
Link234521- The Right Hand now cares only for avenging the Echo. But he does know that he must hone his skills and new weapons. Also, that quote was certainly worth the review.
adipose1913- Oh my God, your idea got my brain running on that situation.
Well, I'll see you all next chapter. A small spoiler alert/tease: Toothless...