Chapter 22: The Glass Vault
Vacation time was over for the Sin trio, and it was time for what would probably be considered their most dangerous missions yet: Storming the Vault of Glass. Naturally, all of them were actually nervous about it. They had heard the stories about what happened to the last team that went in… It was pretty demoralizing. They did their best to shake it off, though.
They had spent about a week trying to save up as much as they could for the assault, since they weren't taking any chances with this one. If the stories were even remotely true, then they couldn't afford to slack off. Alex had also contacted Byf and told him about the mission, and the lore master told him that he himself along with Joker and Myelin would pitch in on the mission to provide support.
Right now, the Sin trio were heading to the postmaster, having been told over the intercom that they had packages waiting for them.
"Who in the world sent us those packages?" Cortona asked as they walked. She was currently garbed in the Temporis Floe IV robe set with a White Tiger shader.
"I'm not sure. Wonder what's in them?" Vulcan mused while they entered the main plaza.
"Let's find out." Alex chimed as they reached the postmaster.
As they opened the packages, they found that they had all received class armor pieces from the Reef, each of them had the Vestian dynasty symbol on it.
"Huh, well how about that." Cortona mused as she replaced her current bond with the Vestian bond.
Alex and Vulcan wordlessly put on their respective class items. After that was done, they made their way to the hanger bay. On the way, Alex called Byf, Joker and Myelin.
"Guys, it's time. Get to the hanger bay so we can get this started." The male Exo told them.
"On my way/Got it/Showtime!" Byf, Joker and Myelin replied in that order.
As the Sin trio waited, they looked over their weapons of choice for the raid. Vulcan looked over his new Suros Regime, Sunshot, and Disassembly Required rocket launcher.
Cortona had an odd looking scout rifle called the MIDA Multitool, a Calcutta 46.2 sniper rifle, and a Disassembly Required rocket launcher as well.
Alex, shockingly, had a Red Death pulse rifle, a Conspiracy Theory-D shotgun, and his old Diluvian 10/4x machine gun. He knew the Vex had Void shields, and designed his loadout to fight that. As for the Red Death he's using… He just got it by sheer luck in the Crucible.
With all their gear assembled, the fire team flew off into the vastness of space as Byf and his fellow lore masters joined them, off to the one place the Vex wouldn't want to lose to the City: The Vault of Glass.
-Ancient Ruins, Venus-
The team of six transmatted in front of the Vault's entrance and gazed upon it. They were silently apprehensive about this undertaking… But they were determined to succeed where the others before them failed.
"Byf, suggestions on how we approach this?" Alex asked as he readied his Red Death.
"There are three control plates that we need to hold long enough for us to form the spire that opens the door. I suggest two of us go to each of the plates." The human Warlock replied as he readied his Continental auto rifle.
"You heard the man, people! Cortona, with me. We'll take the central plate. Vulcan, take Myelin and head for the right plate. Byf, you and Joker take the left plate. Let's move!" The male Exo barked as he made his way to the central plate with Cortona behind him.
The three groups went to their respective plates and they soon started to activate. But as soon as it did, and the spire began to form, Vex started appearing in droves.
"Crap, here they come!" Cortona exclaimed as she nailed a group of Goblins with a few well placed shots to their cores.
"Defend the plates!" Alex yelled as he shot a Hobgoblin dead.
Everyone began to defend their respective plates. The Goblins, Hobgoblins and Harpies were hardly a concern for them. It was the Minotaurs that they took seriously since they could halt the formation of the spire and even undo their progress.
"We need more firepower!" Alex yelled as he activated his hard light clones to hold the line as the Minotaurs tried to get in close.
At the right plate, Vulcan and Myelin were having little trouble with the Vex opposition. Any Minotaurs that got close were just sliced in half by the large Titan's ax. Myelin, meanwhile, used his pulse rifle to pick off the lesser Vex while leaving the Minotaurs to Vulcan.
At the left plate, Joker and Byf were faring well enough. There were a few close calls with the Minotaurs, but other than that, it was fairly easy on their end.
After a few minutes, the spire was fully formed and the door was finally opened, allowing the six Guardians entry.
"Everyone into the vault! Go go go!" Alex yelled into his comm as he and Cortona rushed into the open door. Everyone else quickly followed right behind them. Once they were clear, they took a moment to catch their breaths.
"Now what are we supposed to do?" Cortona asked irritably as she fell down on her ass in exhaustion.
"We continue further in. There's a limit to this place, and we'll reach it." Vulcan said confidently, not looking winded by what they had just been through.
"Ugh, this is gonna be a pain." Joker groaned as she leaned on a wall.
"I know… But at least we'll have good loot." Myelin chirped as he laid down on the ground.
With that, they continued forward until they reached some sort of massive cave. Ahead of them was a platform with a trio of confluences on it.
"Snake, where are we?" Alex asked as the raid team looked around.
"Past data indicates that we're in the Templar's Well." The Ghost replied.
"The Templar?" Corona asked, then that's when she saw something odd. It was a bronze diamond looking object that was attached to the arm of what looked like a Titan, but he looked almost completely like a Vex. "Uh, guys? What is this?" She asked over her shoulder.
Vulcan took a few steps towards the corpse of his fellow titan. "It's… The corpse of Kabir the Legionless." He said in shock.
"What the hell happened to him?" Myelin asked with wide eyes.
"He was turned into a Vex." Byf said.
Vulcan took what was attached to Kabir's arm, as well as the dead Titan's mark, tying it to his pauldron. "This is for you, my Titan brother." He said as the diamond sparked to life, creating a large shield of pure light.
"Whoa! What is that?" Cortona gasped as she stared at the shield. Her question was unfortunately left unanswered as the confluences started to come to life and a massive Hydra appeared followed by scores upon scores of odd looking Vex.
"It's the Templar!" Alex yelled.
It was all hands on deck for this encounter. The Templar was easy enough to damage like every other Hydra they had faced, but unlike the others, it had a trump card of its own: it could generate a shield that none of them could damage every thirty seconds or so.
"That shield is really starting to PISS ME OFF!" Alex yelled in frustration as he blasted a Minotaur to pieces with his shotgun.
The Templar then turned its attention to Vulcan as the shield he had activated again, and when it shot at him, the Titan rose the shield on reflex and something amazing happened. The Vex's attacks were sent right back at it with double the damage and bypassed its shields!
"Did that shield just-?" Myelin asked as he activated his Warlock class ability.
"I… I think so." Vulcan replied in amazement.
The Templar soon regained its function however, but not before the others dealt it massive damage when its shields were down. Right now, it's hit points were down by about half, and as luck would have it, Alex now had enough energy to go into Assault Mode.
"Get its shields down again! I got something special for this bastard!" Alex called out to Vulcan.
The Titan nodded as he drew the Templar's fire towards him again and blocked with the shield. This caused yet again more massive damage and the giant robot to malfunction as its own shields went down.
Acting fast, Alex went into Assault Mode and charged at the stunned Templar.
"A Thousand Divine Slashes!" He called as he leaped at the Hydra. His attack connected, as evidenced by the Templar screeching in pain. Alex wasn't done yet, though. Turning around, he readied another attack.
Hundreds of small orbs of Void light formed in his hand and swirled around it as he rose his arm, causing them to create a large typhoon of orbs over his head before he brought his hand down and the projectiles descended down upon the Hydra like rain.
"Dark Bullet: Black Rain!" He yelled as Void energy exploded everywhere.
The Templar, being at ground zero for the attack, shrieked in unholy agony as the explosions tore its chassis asunder. It tried to resist, but it was a fruitless endeavor. With one last shriek, the Templar exploded.
Byf, Myelin and Joker watched the spectacle with wide eyes of shock.
"W… What the fuck did I just witness?!" Byf asked loudly.
"That, my friends, was Alex's Assault Mode." Vulcan explained as they continued forward.
After traversing even further, they soon came across a large foggy canyon, and as they entered this canyon, they saw that patrolling the stone halls were odd looking Harpies, ones that were black and an ethereal white/blue.
"Gorgons." Myelin whispered as he looked through the scope of his sniper rifle. "Be careful. One look from them can and will wipe you from existence, past, present and future."
"Fuck…! Okay." Cortona whispered with a small hiss. "How do we sneak around them?" She asked as quietly as she could.
"Why sneak past them." Vulcan said as he held up his finger, causing a sun to appear. "When you can burn them?" When two gorgons were in range, Vulcan stepped forward and then lobbed the sun at them. "Cruel Sun!" He yelled as the sun went straight for the Vex.
The two Gorgons turned in the direction of the noise they had just heard… Just in time to be reduced to scrap metal from the power behind the attack.
The other five Guardians, meanwhile, nearly had heart attacks when Vulcan did what he just did. Granted, they were relieved that his gamble was a success, it didn't change the fact that their hearts were racing.
"Vulcan, if you want to give us heart attacks, at least have the courtesy to warn us!" Cortona hissed as she held a hand to her chest to calm her beating heart.
"Do you and Alex even have hearts?" The large Titan asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm pretty sure we do if the pounding in our chests is anything to go by." Alex replied with a shrug, one of his hands idly and subconsciously slipping up to Cortona's left breast to cop a feel as he gave it a squeeze.
The female Exo let out a quiet squeak when she felt Alex grope her. She slapped his hand away and glared at him lightly. Sadly for her, Vulcan saw the male Exo's action and facepalmed in exasperation.
"Can you not do that here?!" She hissed.
"What can I say? It's compulsion." The man shrugged as he scratched the back of his neck… Only for the same hand to grab ahold of her ass.
"Dammit, Alex!" She nearly exclaimed. She was trying really hard to not get loud enough to lure every Gorgon in the labyrinth to them, and her male Exo friend wasn't helping!
That was when both noticed the others had already left without them. Fearing the possibility of getting lost, the two ran after the four other guardians, occasionally coming across the mangled, scorched, sliced or melted corpse of a Gorgon the whole way.
"I think Vulcan went on a rampage, don't you?" The Hunter asked as they walked.
"No buts about it." The Exo Warlock nodded in agreement. Alex smiled at that last part, and he was even going to make a joke about it, but... "Don't." Cortona was having none of it.
As soon as they caught up with the others, Vulcan yet again managed to find that same shield that Kabir had made. But they were now standing in the final room: the Lair of Atheon.
"Uh, what are those?" Cortona asked as she pointed at several odd floating gold diamonds in the chamber.
"Oracles." Joker said. "They wiped the Hunter Praidyth from history after the Vex imprisoned him in their gate network."
Once again they stood on the confluences and then they activated, which in turn summoned a massive Vex Minotaur, ten times larger than the Vex they encountered in the Black Garden, or even larger. It looked like it was made of glass and had no visible circuitry underneath, either. It was Atheon itself.
As soon as this titanic Vex appeared, the Oracles activated and glowed, each targeting one of the Guardians.
"Quick, blast them!" Alex barked as he fired on an Oracle.
Vulcan checked his time before shooting at an Oracle with Sunshot several times before it blew up. "Exactly five minutes until noon." Sentry said.
"Got it!" The Awoken man replied as he shot another Oracle.
As they all alternated between shooting Atheon and the Oracles, the Vex then suddenly opened some sort of gate and they were all transferred somewhere else.
The group stumbles as they suddenly find themselves on what appears to be Mars. Suddenly, their vision began to blur at the edges.
"Quick, kill the Hydra!" Alex barked. They wasted no time and killed the hovering Vex. When it died, Vulcan quickly picked up the shield of Kabir and projected the dome, clearing their eyes.
"Okay, that's gonna be a big help." Byf noted. They quickly made their way through the still open gate back to where they were and saw Atheon seemingly frozen in the position they last saw them.
That was when their weapons began to glow blue as they felt something foreign empower their being.
"What the…?" Alex got out in confusion before shaking his head and choosing not to think about it.
"Screw what it is, just keep shooting!" Joker yelled as she lobbed a grenade at Atheon, which damaged it for several seconds and killed an Oracle.
The male Exo did as recommended and kept shooting before whatever was empowering them wore off. After that, Atheon broke free of its position and shot at them with its torch hammer.
"Two minutes!" Sentry informed them, the clock nearing noon.
Dozens of lesser Vex began pouring into Atheon's lair, hoping to assist their master. The six Guardians fought as hard as they possibly could in order to survive the onslaught of machines trying to kill them, and the number just seemingly kept growing.
That was when Atheon sent them through time again, this time to future Venus, and the shield appeared yet again. Descendant Vex also started attacking them as well.
"Quick! Grab the shield!" Cortona yelled as she took out a Descendant Harpy.
Vulcan dashed for the shield and then back to the group and cleared their vision. When that was done, they went back through the gate and back to Atheon for another damage phase. As they were attacking this time, however…
"It's noon! Take that bastard out, Vulcan!" Sentry exclaimed. Vulcan then entered his The One form and then activated his super, boosting his power even more, the light imitating from his body was blinding, it was as if they were all staring at the sun itself. And to add to that, unbearable heat also flowed off of him like a flood, as if they were literally inches away from the sun.
Atheon looked at Vulcan and surprisingly began to back away, as if it was intimidated at what was in front of it. Vulcan raised his ax in response and swung, the heat wave that followed cutting and melting through its glass chassis like a hot knife through cold butter and slicing of one of its legs.
Time's Conflux screeched in pain as it dropped its torch hammer and fell to one reverse jointed knee. It tried to send them through time again, but the damage it just sustained did much more damage than it thought, and all that came out was a flicker of energy.
The Vex then tried to raise its hand to call upon an Oracle, but the heat imitating from Vulcan caused its outstretched arm and its attached side to melt like ice in the desert sun.
"Mind if I get the privilege of finishing this? I have something I've been waiting to try out for a long time." Cortona asked as she walked by the scorching hot Titan, who looked at her.
"By all means." He told her, standing aside as his minute was about to be up.
The female Exo began channeling Arc energy into her right arm as she marched right up to Atheon and got up in its face before the energy she was channeling took the form of a sword of lightning. She grabbed Atheon's head and readied her blade before swinging.
"Thunder Blade!" She yelled as she decapitated Atheon in one stroke, causing the body to fall to the ground, lifeless.
Cortona dragged the head to her teammates. "I say we give Queen Mara the head of the Templar, the Vanguard can have the Eyes of the Gorgons, and we keep the head of Atheon." She told them.
The other five looked at each other before shrugging, deciding that that was probably a good arrangement.
Suddenly, everyone got something in their inventories.
"Huh? Hey, I got a solar scout rifle!" Alex exclaimed in delight as he held up his Vision of Confluence scout rifle.
"I got a new ship!" Joker called out as she looked over her new Glass Minuet jumpship.
"Same." Byf said as he examined his Aspect of Glass jumpship.
"I got something called Atheon's Gift." Cortona chirped as she looked over her new exotic hand cannon.
"I got a weird looking fusion rifle called the Vex Mythoclast." Myelin called as he looked over said fusion rifle.
"Lucky bastard!" Came the jealous exclamation from the Serpent Sin.
"...I got the armor of Kabir." Vulcan said as he looked over the armor and it's ornaments.
"Okay, lets collect all the Vex parts we want to give to the Queen and Vanguard respectively and get back home." Alex said as he put his new scout rifle on his back.
With that, everyone left to collect the designated Vex parts to give to their recipients. After all this was done, everyone then went their separate ways. Alex and Cortona went to their part of the Tower, the lore masters went to theirs, and Vulcan left to go back to the Reef.
The glass of the Vault had been shattered, but the fight wasn't over yet. As soon as they all had departed, an old ship had just barely managed to make a soft landing in the hangar. It was run down and was covered in odd painted symbols and Hive chitin.
Amanda slowly walked up to the ship as its pilot transmatted out, hunched over and clearly barely able to stand. The blonde gasped in horror and shock when she realized who it was.
"...E-Eris?" Amanda asked.
Eris looked like she was about to say something, but ended up collapsing to the ground, unable to stand anymore. Amanda looked at her in alarm before she turned to the side.
"MEDIC!" She yelled loudly as she tried to make Eris a bit more comfortable where she was.
Things were about to get more hectic.
ThermalsniperN7: BAM! That was the destruction of the Vault of Glass, and the Dark Below is about to begin!
Dragon Emperor0: For all of you curious about Cortona's new gun, Atheon's Gift. It's an original VoG exotic made by a dedicated fan of the game, here's a link to the original page. Be sure to give them some love! rageblade66/art/Atheons-Gift-Exotic-Concept-by-ControllaSkylz-665968290