Yay I finally updated! Yes I know I fell off the face of the Earth, but I'm finally back. I wanted to wait till the Taken King DLC came out, and I'll try to find a way to work it into The Risen as soon as possible.
The Wizard shrieked, stabbing out one of its long, talon-like fingers to point at the members of Fireteam Sentium. The signal for the gathering mob of Hive to attack. The Thralls charged straight in, while the Acolytes quickly found cover behind a few outcroppings of the dais. Asdon, Shade, and Jun opened fire, shredding the Thralls within seconds and forcing the Acolytes to fall back.
But with a roar the Ogre jumped from the dais and smashed down to the ground below. Asdon and Jun rolled aside, but Shade wasn't fast enough. The Ogre charged, throwing out an arm to smash into Shade. The veteran Warlock flew back, slamming into the wall next to the entrance. Jun pulled his shotgun from his back and unloaded a shell into the Ogre's face at point-blank range. That just made the Ogre mad. It roared in the Titan's face, raising a hand- which disappeared in a flash of gore, vaporized by Shade's fusion rifle.
The Ogre roared in pain, unleashing a storm of Dark energy at the Fireteam. Jun was thrown back by the blast, while Shade blinked above the energy, throwing out an Axion grenade at the Acolytes that had started shooting at him. Asdon jumped forward, dodging the Ogre's blast and pulling out his knife. The Risen jumped, stabbing his knife into the giant Hive monster's chest. Finding a foothold on the Ogre's leg, Asdon jumped again, this time burying his knife in the Ogre's shoulder. A third jump took him to the top of the Hive creature's head. The Risen unholstered his hand cannon, twirled it around his finger, then planted it barrel-first on the Ogre's head. He fired three shots in rapid succession, quickly bringing the massive creature to its knees. Another shot killed the Ogre.
A few of the Acolytes came out from hiding, spreading out and firing bolts of Axion energy. In union the members of Fireteam Sentium fired their weapons, vaporizing, disintegrating, and shredding the remaining Acolytes, sending their vile souls back to whatever hell they had come from.
All the while, the Wizard had looked on, doing nothing but silently hovering in front of the pillar, its horrid features twisted into some cruel smile. When the last Acolyte fell the Wizard suddenly cackled, raised its arms above its head, and began to chant again. The team of Guardians took cover, waiting for the inevitable volley of dark energy- but none came. Then room became noticeably brighter as the Wizard began to chant, and Asdon noticed that this new light came from the strange fungus covering the Cabal corpses.
With a final cry, the Wizard's evil chant ended, and the fungus gave off a brilliant flash of green light. The Guardian's visors polarized to the sudden light, making it nearly impossible for them to see. When their visors cleared they saw the Cabal corpses standing. Around the trio, the bullet-ridden bodies of the Hive they had just killed suddenly picked themselves off the ground, all lurching towards their killers. The giant Ogre also arose, snarling. It was then that Shade realized what he was seeing. With a curse, he shouted, "That Wizard is some form of Necromancer!"
The Necromancer cackled again, turning now to the Dark pillar and beginning a new summoning ritual. The fight began anew, while Jun and Asdon frantically put round after round into the Hive and Cabal corpses with little effect. Shade's fusion rifle proved to be the most effective against this new undead foe, vaporizing an opponent with every shot. Backing away from the shambling wall of bodies in front of them, Asdon and Jun soon learned to aim for their opponents' limbs, slowing them and turning them into immovable piles of gore.
The Ogre proved the toughest enemy, nearly impossible to kill with Shade's fusion rifle and acting as no more than a bullet-sponge for the other two members of Fireteam Sentium. It moved slower than a living Ogre and could not use its Dark energy, but still it could attack, slashing at the trio with its razor sharp, long claws. Asdon tried to duck, but he was still clipped by the Ogre's claw, sending him reeling. Jun threw a lightning grenade, but that only slowed the Ogre as its massive muscles spasmed.
" 'For the Light is my ally, and with it I shall smite the Darkness before me!' " cried Shade above the din of battle, quoting some long-forgotten scripture of the Traveler. "We must use the Traveler's Light if we are to defeat this foe! Fireteam Sentium, with me!" With this shout Shade blinked away from the Ogre, throwing out his arms and unleashing a Nova Bomb on its face. With half of its head gone and burning, the Ogre still lumbered on.
But Jun also rushed forward, crashing into the massive Hive Ogre and unleashing his Fist of Havoc. A large portion of the Ogre's lower body disappeared in a flash of lightning- but still it lumbered on, dragging itself with one claw and swiping with the other. Now Asdon came forward, sliding underneath the Ogre's outstretched claw. A crackling of energy brought a gleaming bowinto the Risen's hands, and he fired a Shadow Shot at the remains of the Ogre's face, point-blank. The arrow cut right through the Ogre's body, embedding itself deep inside before exploding in an arc of energy. Now the Ogre was truly dead, no more than a pile of burning soup.
However, the Guardians' victory was short lived. The Necromancer completed its summoning, and another wave of Hive assaulted the trio. Now though, the Guardians had learned, focusing their combined firepower on the Necromancer instead. It took little notice, gathering Dark energy from the pillar and surrounding itself with a near-indestructible shield. With a flick of its hand it sent a wave of energy towards the trio, knocking them back towards the other Hive attackers. Whenever they cut a Thrall or Acolyte down, the Necromancer would just bring it back up. Soon Shade ran out of fusion energy, forcing him to rely on his pulse rifle. Jun's auto rifle also ran dry, so he switched to his LMG.
The Guardians' shields were being quickly drained, and the Hive gave them no break. The Necromancer started to chant a third time; another summoning. The situation was desperate, and Asdon did not think that they could survive another wave. He decided to attack the Necromancer directly, jumping onto the dais and charging the Hive creature. Deep in the throes of it summoning, the Necromancer didn't notice Asdon, allowing the Hunter to get right behind it and plant two shots into its back.
But still the shield od Darkness surrounded it, causing the rounds to ricochet away. The Necromancer turned slightly, casually throwing out another wave of energy behind it to knock Asdon back. The Risen did not give up so easily. Realizing that he could not defeat the Necromancer directly, Asdon charged again, sliding under the hovering Necromancer and firing into the Dark pillar instead. Cracks spread along the pillar as Asdon put more rounds into it, causing the Hive Necromancer to shriek as its shield weakened. When Asdon's slide brought him to the base of the pillar he fired one more round into it, shattering it completely. Pushing off the remains of the pillar with one foot and simultaneously drawing his other hand cannon, the Risen flew towards the screaming Necromancer, putting two supersonic cones of jacketed lead into its face.
The Necromancer fell, and with it fell the undead it had risen. With half of their enemies suddenly gone, Jun and Shade had little trouble dealing with the remains of the Hive. With the battle over, Asdon looked to the pillar he had destroyed. "What was that?"
Shade, rubbing a bruise through his armor, responded, "Some Hive artifact, forged by a Dark ritual I know not. It was powerful, and I am sure that the others will be glad of its destruction."
Jun nodded, adding, "I'm just glad we survived that. Undead... I've never seen something like that before." He kicked one Cabal corpse, a Psion with nothing but a torso remaining and the fungus now dim on its chest. "Does that fungus have something to do with this? I've never seen it before."
Asdon also nodded, saying, "I have also never encountered it before. We should take a sample for the Speaker."
Shade took a small vial of hardened glass from his satchel, gathering a sample of the bioluminescent fungus. He took one last, long look at the demolished pillar of Darkness, calmly firing a Nova Bomb at it to make sure it was truly destroyed. With that, the members of Fireteam Sentium left the chamber and started to pick their way out of the Library.
The huntress focused her wire rifle's scope on the small group of Cabal a few hundred yards in front of her. She didn't normally take bounties from the House of Wolves, but they were offering a very hefty reward for the head of the group's leader. The Centurion wouldn't know what hit him; he would just know a searing pain shortly before he died. This bounty would only take a few seconds to complete, a mere pastime before her true prey arrived.
The huntress was just about to pull the trigger when she heard a small click on her comm. Her prey had arrived, and she would not be collecting the Wolves' bounty today. She looked down. Perched on top of the squat building, she had a perfect view of its entrance directly below her. She saw three figures exit; the lead one heavily armored, the second wearing a black cloak, and the third was rather tall and also covered by a cloak. With a smile she thought, There you are.
She gave the signal, an order for the rest of her force to attack...
Asdon warily stepped outside the Library. Something didn't feel right to him. Something in the air just seemed... off. As if they were walking into an-
"Ambush!" cried Jun as a large group of Fallen decloaked and jumped out from their hiding spots.
Shade brought up his pulse rifle, caught off guard by the surprise attack. "So the Fallen want to join the party too?" He and Jun fired, quickly taking down two Dregs and moving on to their next targets.
Asdon watched the two Guardians blast away, quickly decimating the Fallen force, but he did not join them. They did not understand what he saw. The red paint on their armor was the mark of the House of Devils. The Risen knew what the Devils had done to him, taking his arms and leaving him to die as an Outcast. But still he could still not bring himself to join the fight, could not bring himself to kill another of his race...
A thud to the side alerted him to the presence of another Fallen. He ducked aside, dodging its humming sword and backing away as it uncloaked: a Captain, nearly a foot taller than him and holding two shock blades. It hissed, saying in its language, "Hello again, Asdon."
Asdon's heart stopped for a moment. It was her. "Kharn." He stated in disbelief. She was taller now, more powerful, but he knew that it was her.
"Surprised, Asdon?" she hissed. "Did you truly think we would not meet again?"
Asdon still had not moved. The sound of gun fire was pushed away from his mind, and his world shrank to just him ans Kharn. "But how- why-"
"The Devils have put a high price on your head, Asdon. One which I intend to collect." Kharn's dark smile was evident in her voice as she raised her blades.
Still Asdon did not move. "Why?" was all he could think to ask.
"Why do you think?" she hissed. "You should not be alive. You were left for dead. And now you have joined them."
Asdon could hear Jun and Shade running towards him, calling at him to kill the Captain in front of him. "I-I am still loyal to the Fallen. I was chosen to lea-"
Kharn didn't wait for him to finish explaining, screaming, "You should have thought about that before you joined the Humans!" She charged forward with her blades, pulling out a knife with her third arm. Asdon pulled his other arms out from his cloak. Even if Shade would see them, it was the only way to avoid getting skewered on the end of a shock blade. He grabbed Kharn's arms as she stabbed down, barely holding them back.
Even when she was trying to kill him, Asdon could still not bring himself to fight back. Could not bring himself to kill a Fallen.
Their helmeted faces barely inches apart, Kharn hissed in a low voice, "You should have stayed dead, Asdon. The Exiles knew what they were doing when they rescued you; knew the Code they were breaking." Now her voice was of truly malicious glee. She whispered, "And so I slaughtered them all."
Asdon's rage broke. He pushed Kharn back with a strength he didn't know he had. He punched out at her, but she nimbly dodged the blows, knicking his armor with her blades. She brought one sword up to cut into Asdon's neck, a cut that would have killed him, when three shots rang out. Kharn clutched her hand as the sword was shot from it. More bursts came, splashing against Kharn's shield. She turned to Asdon once more and snarled, "We will meet again, Outcast. And then I shall kill you." With those final words she ran, jumping onto a Pike hidden in the bushes a few yards away.
Kharn quickly sped away. Asdon started to give chase when three more shots rang, these ones hitting him. Asdon flew back, colliding with the wall as two more bursts hit him in rapid succession. His shield dropped all the way into the red; one more burst would kill him.
"Shade, no!" Shouted Jun. The next three shots hit the wall next to Asdon's head, a staccato clack as they flew passed and dented the thick metal. Jun had pushed Shade's rifle to the side. Asdon remained slumped against the wall, haunted by the ghosts of his past, while Shade and Jun argued a few short yards away.
"He's a Fallen! We have to kill it!"
"No! He's a Guardian; I can't let you kill him."
"Bullshit! A Fallen is a Fallen!"
"He is a Guardian! The Speaker can vouch for him."
"I don't have to listen to this crap!" With a crunch of gravel, Shade drew closer. His pulse rifle's barrel hovering only a few inches from Asdon's face. Shade's finger tightened on the trigger-
Asdon's hand shot out, pushing the rifle away as Shade fired. He jumped to his feet, grabbing the rifle in two hands and disarming Shade with the others. Shade pulled a knife from his boot, but Asdon now had the pulse rifle and pointed it towards the raging Warlock. "I am not your enemy, Shade. The Traveler has chosen me to be a Guardian." Asdon then gripped the rifle, presenting it to Shade stock-first. The Warlock took the pulse rifle back, still wary.
Jun came up behind Shade a put a hand on his shoulder. "Keep your eyes on our true enemies, Shade. Asdon is not one of them. He is no Fallen; he has Risen."
Shade's eyes shone angrily behind his rebreather. "The Speaker will hear about this. I'm not going to have that thing on my Fireteam."
Asdon hung his head as they marched back to the shuttle, Shade's rifle at his back.
Another chapter done, another twist in the life of Asdon Bar'Olmee.