For all that he hoped that he could finally rest, the Guardian kept his fingers on the trigger as the other side came to view and he landed on a green stone floor with a loud crash as cracks spread from his feet like spiderwebs.
To his left and right appeared a range of monstrous creatures that dimly reminded him of the Hive, both in their appearance and the darkness shrouding them. Or at least it felt like the darkness, yet wasn't.
No matter, he merely lifted his hand and gestured them to 'bring it'. They accepted. Shrieks and chitters, growls and howls, a green, short and ugly thing dashed at him with sharpened claws.
He broke its neck with the butt of his rifle, and fired at what appeared to be a giant red ant. Its head exploded, along with its torso and abdomen, it then promptly turned into ashes as if set aflame.
His lips twisted into a smirk as his rifle sang, what looked like humanoids with the heads of a wolf barked as he scattered the foul things into pieces with a single shot each. Shortly after, their number diminished, he picked out one of each type, an ant, a green thing, and a wolf thing.
Placing his weapon on his back, he struck with swift measured strikes, breaking their limbs and avoiding their head and torso. They looked at him with hate in their eyes.
Sirius appeared with a light, and his body spun as he scanned the alien creatures.
"Interesting. These are not living creatures as you would think of them."
"I could tell that much from when they burst into ashes."
"I'll designate them phantoms for the time being, it fits. They appear to be some non-carbon lifeform. They contain a crystal within their bodies, where the heart should be, it provides form to the rest of their bodies, holding these ashes together, as if replacing hydrocarbon molecules and water in a normal creature. Its seeped with energy similar to the darkness, yet somehow is not. That is a cause for concern. I can't imagine what created them."
"Did they leave anything useful?"
"Their ashes contain traces of exotic materials. It could come in handy later, I'll update the programs in your helmet to help you identify the crystals location, I'll transmat the remains. We'll have to find ammo elsewhere though."
"...and where we are?"
"Not on Earth, or Venus for that matter, this is another solar system entirely."
"Ah, that's gonna be a headache."
"We are currently inside a labyrinth, leaving shouldn't be a problem, we are 7 floors down from the surface, this place is unreasonably large. Do watch your step Liam."
"Worry about yourself Sirius, no self-respecting Hunter steps on a trap, err twice that is."
The Ghost disappeared into the Guardians hand, and he finished off the remaining 'phantoms' with a few well placed shots, as his HUD outlined their internals.
He then turned towards the closest path to the surface, and ran.
This labyrinth was something new, it felt both artificial and natural. Its stone walls a pale green, and glowing stones littering the ceiling akin to a stars at night. It was eerie, and the Guardian felt as if he was being watched. But Sirius mentioned nothing, so whoever it was, was not a threat just yet.
He travelled all the way to the stairs to the sixth floor. The straightforward corridors and turns simple to navigate, the jog almost felt relaxing, the phantoms dead in a single shot without exception, a breathe of fresh air after so long fighting enemies that shrugged off his bullets with ease.
However, just as reached the sixth floor, he heard a sound.
The 'thud thud thud' of something 'big'.
'Incoming!'
He leapt forward, taking cover behind a corner in seconds, and pointed his Scout rifle at the top of the stairs, he waited.
The sound slowly grew, and he could tell, the thing was possibly as fast as him. His suits sensors calculating its speed to confirm.
He breathed deeply, prepared for the first challenging fight of this alien planet.
It leaped from the stairs.
Its skin was red, horns curled from its skull and bright red eyes glared as it roared in blood frothing rage.
It was as if the old legends of the Minotaur had come to life. Him within a labyrinth, and the Minotaur facing him, easily as tall as its Vex namesake.
It moved as fast as him, but the mighty beast was not agile, its body heavy as it twisted to aim its charge at him.
He fired once, aiming at its heart, his helmet highlighting the much larger crystal, but his first shot barely penetrated its skin. He smiled, as much as he would prefer to blast it full of enough bullets to choke on them, with no other enemies in the vicinity, he could let lose a bit. Though he ignored that dodging it long enough to do so would be no mean feat in this cramped corridor where his skills at parkour were all but useless.
His gun vanished with a thought, and he pulled out his blade.
He charged at the minotaur, and jumped over it, cutting at its eye.
'It blocked?'
The seemingly dumb beast scraped the back of its hand against the edge of his mono-edge dagger, its blood pouring freely as if a faucet have been turned.
He re-evaluated his options. While the beasts here were wreathed in something akin to darkness, and the walls and floors were no different, it was thinner. He didn't feel the suffocating smother of the darkness trying to stamp out his light. Sirius should be able to heal and revive as he normally could. Wasting too much of his light on a foe he could overcome with skill or stubbornness would be foolish, especially now that he was so far from the traveller.
So instead he decided to change things up a bit.
'Sirius, the sword.'
'Now? Well if you want to play knight I won't stop you Liam.'
It was a nameless short sword with a white blade, something Liam had hunted down, after encountering one too many Hive Knights. It's previous owner had found a way to make it durable enough to be worth using in encounters with the Hive, and its mono-edge was the same as his daggers, yet he died anyway.
As the short sword replaced the dagger in his hands, the Bull Mans eyes gleamed, it turned as if not even noticing its wound. It leaped before he reached the ground, aiming its horns at Liam.
Curious at their strength, Liam didn't bother double jumping, and instead caught a horn with his blade.
Sparks flew as the Minotaur reached out to grab him, faster than one could blink, he deflected its arm with a strike of his fist, as he was sent flying by the impact, still mid-air and now upside down.
He landed on the wall, thoroughly enjoying himself, and leapt back into the fray, now keeping to the ground and dodging each of the beasts attacks by a hairs breadth, the phantom being worn down by nicks and scrapes yet not slowing in the slightest.
Suddenly, it kicked at the ground, spraying dust into the Guardians helmet. He almost felt bad for the creature, before satisfaction overcame him as cut into it, a deep wound opening its torso beneath its heart.
Liam had meant to cut the crystal, but he had been distracted. Someone had appeared in the room faster than he could sense. They had moved faster he could even when overcharging his light into an Arc blade to the very limits. But Sirius said nothing and he could guess why.
The figure, watching from the stairs behind overflowed with a Light distinct from his own. Both in quality and in nature. If felt less warm somehow, but not colder. It spoke of deception, yet only told the truth. He had never felt anything like it. It was as similar yet different to the Travellers light as the Phantoms Crystals were too the Darkness. He briefly wondered where the hell he was before a kick from the Minotaur knocked him back to his senses.
'Oi, Focus!'
He snorted, even as he barely blocked the Minotaurs strike. His shields broke, and he felt his arms shake from the impact, his back struck a wall and he coughed from the shock. But he didn't fall.
A single leap and dagger now in left hand, sword in the other, he prepared to finish, to entertain the watcher if nothing else.
He struck low with the short sword, catching the Minotaurs leg as its reactions slowed, he kicked its chest and it stumbled back, he blinked stabbing his dagger in its eye, let go and ducked as it swung in rage, spinning into strike on its neck, the blade however got stuck in its spine, so he blinked again, this time on top of it.
With his knees on its shoulders, he wrenched the dagger out of its eye with his right hand and the sword with his left before breaking its neck between both even as it grabbed his torso with weakening limbs. The beasts head fell off, decapitated fully, he leaped off its shoulders with grace as it fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
He turned around, still showing caution, this wasn't another Guardian after all, even if they felt vaguely similar, their light was not the Travellers, I think.
Before his eyes stood a rather unexpected figure. Instead of perhaps a Hunter draped in light armour with a cloak like mine, or a Titan covered in full armour, or a Warlock draped in vestments and robes, they wore clothes and armour that barely provided protection from the weather, never mind bullets.