Linvana waits behind the inactive warp gate, heart pounding.
"I'm a minute out," Telysa's voice crackles in her ear.
She sneaks a glance around the side of the warp gate. The long, narrow span is one of the many that makes up the strange helical structure. The top of this one is largely devoid of cover. The gate she's hiding behind is the only obstruction for nearly a kilometer in each direction.
"No movement yet," Linvana whispers, sliding back behind the gate.
Three hundred meters away, the giant minotaur lords over its domain. The narrow span is the perfect vantage. It would be no trouble at all to rain radioactive mortar fire down on any Fallen foolhardy enough to raid the surrounding area.
"Glad to hear it. Thirty seconds out."
Her heart manages to rev up another notch. She's been in countless firefights by now but the anticipation, the tingling dread, is just as strong as the day she was Risen. She starts a mental countdown.
"Fifteen seconds. Final adjustments…and release!"
A deep rumble echoes through the ground. Linvana risks another look.
Something has caught the minotaur's attention. Instead of watching the nearby platforms, its monocular eye is staring out into space. It raises its colossal torch hammer.
Her countdown hits zero.
It happens to fast to register. One moment the minotaur is preparing to fire. The next it's reeling back, a tangle of metal and dark stone crumpled around its upper body. The momentum of the impact throws it back towards the edge of the span.
"It worked!" Linvana shouts. She charges, auto-rifle at the ready.
They'd searched the floating arrays around the helix for nearly an hour before they found one Linvana wanted: A long, narrow platform of layered metal with large blocks of stone on both ends. And it'd worked perfectly. The metal section bent around the minotaur when it hit, pinning its arms in the process. Now they could get close without being vaporized.
"I'm circling around," Telysa says, "Don't have too much fun without me."
She's covered less than a hundred meters when a static haze sparks through the air around her.
"Yeah," Linvana says as she skids to a stop. "'Fun.'"
Her bullets tear through the nearest goblin before it's even fully materialized. Particle bolts sizzle off her armor as she cuts down two more.
Up ahead, the giant minotaur is struggling to free itself from the metal snare. Dammit, she doesn't have the time for a slogging back-and-forth right now. Her rifle clicks dry so she charges the nearest goblin, punches its head off, and leaps over the rest with a pulse of Light.
She sprints forward as she lands but another dark cloud has already formed in front of her. This time the wicked shape of a hydra forms out of the mist.
Linvana curses as she ejects her magazine and fumbles for a fresh one from her belt. She hasn't even racked the bolt when a white streak lances down from the sky and strikes the hydra's head. The explosion shatters it.
She follows the path of the warhead back to the span high above, where Telysa is crouched with a rocket launcher on her shoulder.
"I told you not to have all the fun without me," the Hunter says.
"Yeah well."
A handful of particle bolts sail over Linvana's shoulders. The goblins have almost caught up. And more Vex are already appearing between her and the axis mind.
"I'll distract them," she says, "You go for the big guy."
"Copy that."
Linvana tugs on the warm ember smoldering in her chest. The Hammer of Sol forms in her hand.
She lobs it at the goblins behind her, scattering them. The hammer re-forms as she braces herself for the normal-sized minotaur barreling towards her.
In the corner of her eye, she catches a flicker of movement as Telysa leaps from her perch. The Hunter's graceful trajectory lands her right behind the axis minotaur, which has started to loosen the metal tangled around its arms. Lightning crackles around Telysa as she ignites her Arcblade.
The minotaur charging Linvana vanishes in a swirl of data. Linvana swings her hammer through empty space and connects with the Vex as it reappears in front of her. Something cracks in its midsection and it crumples.
"This is taking too long!" Telysa shouts. "I'm going to go for a joint."
Linvana glances at the Hunter, where she's carved a few glowing scratches in the minotaur's foot. The giant mind seems unfazed. Its left arm is almost free too.
More harpies and goblins appear, and a few of them turn towards Telysa. "Hey!" Linvana shouts. She throws her hammer and charges the closest ones.
The explosion from the hammer gives Telysa enough space to scale its leg and start hacking at its knee.
Linvana swats down a harpy. The flame in her chest flickers. Her Light's running low.
Telysa curses. "Damnit, even the joint is armored."
"Go for the juicebox!" Linvana shouts as she melts a hobgoblin into slag.
The axis minotaur lurches as it rips its left arm free. It starts ripping strips of metal away as Telysa jumps and grabs hold of its midsection. With her free hand, the Hunter starts carving at the exposed glass.
Most of the Vex are now focused on Telysa, but the shots go wide as the axis minotaur lurches back and forth. With a tortured shriek, it dislodges the bulk of the metal tangle.
"I don't have enough Light left!" Telysa cries, struggling to hold on.
"Press the tip of your knife to the surface," Linvana says. "Handle out."
"What?"
"Hammer and chisel!"
The axis minotaur raises its giant torch hammer. Linvana doesn't wait to see if Telysa understands her plan. She pours all of her remaining light into her hammer and throws it with a desperate "Yaaaahh!"
Her hammer burns through the air as the minotaur fires. In the moment before the bolt of exotic matter disintegrates Linvana, she sees Telysa jam her arcblade into the minotaur's midsection, right in the path of Linvana's hammer.
-—-
Linvana gasps and automatically rolls into a kneeling position, fists ready to pound the surrounding Vex.
"Lin, calm down, you're okay."
She knows that voice. Telysa. Her sorta-not-really-maybe-someday girlfriend. She's kneeling on a slab of cold red metal. Vex metal. She rolls on to her back and is greeted by a dirty violet sky. The Reef. Right. Damnit, disintegrations are a pain in the ass.
"Did it work?" she asks.
"I'd say so. Shattered the juicebox and gave me a radiolarian shower. Oh, and the explosion melted my arm off."
"Sorry," Linvana mumbles. All the nearby Vex are in pieces, so she takes her helmet off and massages her scalp. Telysa is also helmetless, and looks no worse for the wear. Stupid sexy hunter.
"Well it worked, right? Didn't even need a Gjallarhorn."
"Yeah." Linvana climbs to her feet. "Heard from Simin and Ollin yet?"
"Nothing. I'm starting to worry."
They start walking towards the end of the span. Something didn't set correctly in Linvana's neck. She cranes her head and is rewarded with a delicious pop. "I'm sure she knows what she's doing," she offers.
"She does, but, well, I've known her to try and be a big damn hero from time to time."
"How well do you know her anyways?"
The Hunter shrugs. "I've worked with her a few times. More in the past than recently. After my old team fell apart, I wanted to get away from the inner system. So I came out to the Reef as a gun-for-hire, and Simin bought me."
"So that's it then, just a working relationship? I mean, I don't mind if it was something more. I guess I just want to know more about you."
"No, that's it. Wasn't in the mood for anything remotely romantic."
"You sure?"
Telysa stops and rests her hands on Linvana's shoulders. "Lin, I know I'm not telling you everything. I will eventually, I promise. But I would never lie to you, alright?"
She's been with Telysa long enough to know when she's worried. The tightness at the corners of her mouth. The intensity of her eyes.
"Yeah, of course," Linvana says. "I believe you. I'm sorry I said you were lying. I didn't mean it."
Telysa smiles, warm as the Mercurial sun. "I know you didn't. Now, about what ha-"
"Telysa, Linvana," Azul says, appearing over Tel's shoulder. "Ollin is hailing us, it's urgent."
"Patch him in," Telysa says.
"Guardian Telysa? Guardian Linvana? Are you there?" Ollin's voice is shaky and thin.
"We read you," Telysa replies. "What's going on? Is Simin hurt? Where are you?"
"Hurt? No it's worse. Khariss kidnapped her."