CHAPTER 5

PRISON OF ELDERS

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

A wave of cold quickly washed over Cayde's body and he could see again. He pushed a piece of charred metal off his body and sat up, grabbing his gun off the floor. He felt his face, and his horn that extruded from his forehead, just to make sure everything was still there. His Ghost, Sundance, was hovering next to him. Once she saw he was okay, she disappeared.

"Yup," he groaned, "never felt better."

Cayde stood up.

"You see that Petra?" Cayde asked.

No response.

"Petra?" Cayde asked, "Guardian? Must have knocked out the comm relays with that spectacular landing."

Cayde stood with his hands on his hips, and looked around. Suddenly he saw a figure step out from the shadows on the walkway above him. Kaniks. The tall, three armed, Scorn smiled at Cayde. Then another figure stepped out next to him. Hiraks.

More Scorn barons stepped out and looked at Cayde. Everyone but Fikrul.

"And cue the ominous music," Cayde joked, "okay everyone, back in your cages."

One last baron stepped out of the shadows. He had a familiar helmet, and a staff. Fikrul. Fikrul jammed his staff into the metal floor, emitting a loud bang that could be heard all around the cell block.

Cayde heard gross, high-pitched snarls coming from the shadows behind him.

"I said, back in your cages," he ordered, turning around.

Raiders and Stalkers began to sprint out of the dark as Cayde drew his hand cannon from his holster.

Cayde heard a Stalker approaching behind him, pointed his hand cannon over his shoulder, and fired. He heard the pop and flow of dark Ether coming from the Scorn's neck as its head exploded.

Cayde through a knife to his right, and the knife impacted the Scorn in the chest. He then spun and shot a Raider in the head, and it dropped in front of him.

Suddenly, a Raider came up from behind him and grabbed him with all four of its arms. Cayde stumbled around with it and was able to bring his hand cannon up to its head, and pulled he trigger, letting the Raider fall to the floor.

The second the Raider fell Cayde shot another Raider that was running up to him. Everyone has guns but these guys apparently. As the second Raider fell he hurled a throwing knife at a Stalker, and reloaded his gun.

Another Stalker came up behind him, but he leaned to the side; causing the Stalker to miss its hit and stumble. Cayde then shot it in the head, spraying dark Ether into the air. He fired two more shots, each one taking out a Raider, and then he fired a third at a red container.

The container lit on fire for a second before it exploded, killing a group of Scorn around it. The explosion blew a Raider forward, and Cayde dodged to the side. He bowed as the Raider crashed into a group of Stalkers, knocking them down.

More Scorn came out of the shadows, attempting to surround him. How many of them even are there? He jumped once, and then jumped again in the air and landed on a piece of a destroyed bridge. He stumbled as he landed on the unstable debris.

Scorn began climbing on the debris on all sides. He walked forward and attached a tripmine grenade to another piece of debris. As he walked forward, he killed two more Stalkers, each with a headshot. Their bodies fell into a larger group of Scorn, causing the other Scorn to stumble.

Cayde jumped and did a backflip as another group of Scorn approached his tripmine grenade. He jumped just in time to not get caught in the explosion. The dead bodies of the undead Eliksni flew into the air, and crashed down on other Scorn.

One Scorn escaped the explosion and Cayde shot it in the head as he slid down another piece of debris. Suddenly he stopped sliding, and he felt four arms tightly wrap around him. Cayde struggled in the Scorn's grip, but it threw him at a large piece of metal. The sound of the impact rang out around the cell block.

"Yeah. That hurt," Cayde said, scratching the back of his head as he stood up.

The Scorn, a Raider, tore a piece of metal off the destroyed bridge. Cayde attempted to draw his hand cannon, but he wasn't fast enough, and the Raider smacked him with the piece metal, causing him to fly off that bridge and into another destroyed bridge.

He attached a blade to the bridge, and he stuck to it. He looked down at the Scorn below him, and looked back at the bridge. It was segmented, and if he shot it at the right spot it would detach and fall into the Scorn below, but it would take him with it.

Cayde aimed his hand cannon at a loose piece of the bridge and fired, causing the segment of the bridge to detach and fall. He let go as the bridge crushed a few Stalkers and a Raider underneath it.

He looked back at the dead Scorn underneath the heavy metal bridge.

"Sorry," he said, looking back at the Scorn coming out of the shadows, "not sorry."

He ran forward and shot a Raider in the head. Another Raider lept at him, but he simply slid under it and shot it in the neck. Another Stalker approached him and he cut its throat with a knife. He then shot a Raider in front of him in the head.

Another Raider grabbed him and he fumbled with it for a few seconds before getting away from it, and whipping it in the chest with his hand cannon. Another Raider then smacked him, making him fly into the air. The Raider kept following him, and Cayde landed on one end of a piece of metal, causing the other end to fling into the air, and impact the Raider's face. The impact caused the Raider to flip into the air, and it died on the impact with the ground.

A Stalker ran up to him only to quickly be shot and killed, and another Stalker ran towards him from his side, causing him to use the metal to catch it and flip him over.

More and more Scorn came out of the shadows, he knew that whatever he did they would just keep coming. But he couldn't just let them kill him.

He shot a Stalker in the head and turned around and ran. He gunned down Scorn as they approached him from all sides.

He shot a Raider in front of him, and as it was falling he stepped onto its chest and jumped into the air. His normal white and black hand cannon suddenly turned orange and was set aflame. The fire covered his body as well.

Cayde turned around while he was in the air, and aimed his Golden Gun at the Scorn. As he started to pull the trigger a Raider jumped and grabbed him, causing the Golden Gun to fade away.

His body flew to the side and rolled over charred pieces of metal, and he fell off the debris only to roll onto the floor. More Scorn approached him.

A Stalker slapped Cayde's hand cannon out of his hand and slammed a club into the ground, missing its target as Cayde rolled out of the way. The Stalker hit Cayde again, knocking him towards his gun.

Cayde attempted to crawl towards it, but he felt something grip his cloak. The Raider that grabbed him pulled him back up to a stand, and gave him to another Raider that slammed his face into a piece of sharp metal.

Bits and pieces of Cayde's face violently cracked fell out from the impact. The Raider then threw him back onto the floor, where the Scorn grouped up and started beating and kicking him.

Cayde couldn't take it anymore and shot up, once more covered in flame, and threw flaming knives out of his hands. Each knife impacted a Scorn, and dissolved their bodies into nothing but solar energy.

"That's it," Cayde said, his voice distorted as he leaned down to grab his gun, "now I'm pissed."

One last Scorn, a Lurker, grabbed him and pinned him to a wall. The Lurker's grip was strong and had one hand on Cayde's hand cannon. He couldn't break free. The Lurker glanced at the hand cannon, looked back at Cayde, and snarled.

Cayde knew there was only one way out. He was able to get his left hand free and slammed his fist down on the Lurker's shoulder. The Lurker reeled back for a short moment and Cayde jammed his head into the Lurker's. His horn cut into the Lurker's head, killing it instantly.

Cayde pushed the Lurker off him and slowly walked forward. There was pain in his stride.

"Was that really," he groaned, "all you got?"

He stopped walking and held out his hand, Sundance appeared above it.

"Help me out here little buddy," he said.

Before Sundance was able to do anything, a bolt of void energy shot out from somewhere above him, and the bolt hit Sundance. Her shell exploded, and a wave of light shot out through the prison, knocking Cayde down. He looked up while he was down and saw a baron attached to a pipe on the ceiling. Pirrha.

Cayde stood back up and the barons began to drop to the floor one by one.

Yaviks, Araskes, Kaniks, Reksis Vahn, Pirrha, Hiraks, Elykris.

Fikrul.

All of the barons stood where they landed except for Reksis. Reksis continued to slowly approach Cayde, draggin his flame cauldron along the floor as he moved. Cayde knew these were his last moments. Without his Ghost, there was nothing he could do.

He looked down at his hand cannon, probably the last time he would ever see it, and had a memory from his human life. A child. A son. A son that was no longer with him. Ace.

"I'm coming home," he whispered, looking at his hand cannon, "Ace."

As Reksis got closer his cauldron was set on fire. He made a sound that sounded almost like a laugh.

Cayde pulled his hood back up and stood, one foot forward, one foot back, and raised his hand cannon at Reksis's head.

He didn't get to pull the trigger before Reksis swung the cauldron, throwing Cayde through a wall behind him.

DEEP SIX

NEW PACIFIC ARCOLOGY, TITAN

Above the bank was a large round hulk of flesh covered in bits of metal with hundreds of white translucent tentacles coming out of its back. On its front was a purple glowing hole lined with teeth, the creature's mouth. Moira, John's Ghost, tagged the creature as an 'Ascendant Primeval Servitor'.

"That thing is a Servitor?" John asked, bewildered.

"Didn't know Servitors could even get Taken," Rian replied.

"They shouldn't be able to. They're completely synthetic."

"Uh, less worrying about why it exists," Joseph added, "more worrying about killing it."

"Right. I'll go with Rian like always, you go with the other person."

Joseph nodded and headed off towards their other teammate while John and Rian headed in the other direction.

Drifter had told him about the Primeval Envoys, and that they should be killed first. The sound of Guardian weapon fire told them that Joseph and Corrs had already engaged their Envoy, while John and Rian were just now seeing theirs.

The Envoy was a large Taken Wizard. It raised its hands and fired two balls of solar energy out of each one. John took two hits to his shields, and Rian dodged the other two. Rian charged her fusion rifle and took the Envoy's shields down.

The Envoy raised its hands, and rifts opened in front of it. Dark, shadowy Thrall rose out of the rifts and snarled before running at the two Warlocks.

John gunned down the Thrall with ease, they were weaker than normal Thrall, and the Envoy snarled at them. John turned his rifle away from where the Thrall once were and fired at the Envoy's head.

As John fired, Rian charged her fusion rifle, and continued to hold the trigger until it built up more and more energy. Then she let go, and a large ball of fire shot out and hit the Envoy, killing it instantly.

Rian raised her hand and John high-fived it before they went back to face the Primeval itself.

Over the time between their Scorn hunt and the Gambit match, Rian had been developing her own personal fusion rifle. It was made so the longer the trigger was held, the more damage it would do. And it could switch damage modes at any time.

"Our Envoy is down," John called to Joseph.

Joseph's response came a few seconds later.

"Got ours," he said.

Then Drifter came on the line.

"Envoy's ate it," he said, "now to deal with that Primeval!"

John glanced at the bars on top of his HUD and noticed that the other team was only five motes away from filling their bank. And his team's portal was active as well.

"Take down that Primeval will you?" John asked, "I've got to stop them from getting theirs."

"Don't take too long," Rian joked.

"I'll try not to."

John jumped down from the top of a room that they were standing on and jumped into the portal.

"You're invading," Drifter said as John appeared in the enemy's arena, "make a mess!"

John made sure he had ammo in his sniper rifle and unslung it before he headed towards the bank. He saw Gaston again, a single step away from the bank. John quickly scoped in and fired just as Gaston's hand was only a centimetre away from the bank.

"One down," said Drifter.

"No Primeval for you today," John said to himself.

He saw other enemy Guardians collecting enough motes to get their Primeval up, but John wasn't going to have any of it. Gio got up to six motes and John immediately went after him as he was the closest to the bank.

John let go of his sniper with his left hand, and turned it into a fist. Void energy began to build up in his fist, and the longer he held it, the more powerful it became.

Gio rounded the corner, and John showed up in front of him. He let go of his fist and threw his hand forward as if he was throwing a grenade. Six small balls of void energy shot out of his hand, and hit Gio. His body exploded and dissolved.

"Two," said Drifter.

He scoped back into his sniper and hit Colin in the head. Now no one on their team had enough motes to get a Primeval.

"That's three," Drifter said after John got Colin, then John's timer ran out, "pulling you back."

John reappeared in his team's arena, and their Primeval was down to about only a third of its health according to the bar on the top of his HUD. John jumped up and put his hands together, forming a large ball of void energy, and shooting it out.

The huge Nova Bomb slowly travelled towards the Primeval, and killed it on impact.

The Primeval Servitor emitted a loud deep growling noise as its body tore itself apart, and a rift appeared behind it, sucking its torn body into it.

"Nice!" Drifter said over communications, "you just sent that Primeval screaming back to where it came from!"

John hugged Rian and high-fived Joseph and Corrs. Then they were transmatted back to the Derelict.

Across from him, John could see Gaston. He couldn't see through his helmet, but he knew Gaston was giving him a death stare.

Drifter was on his platform. He motioned over at team Alpha.

"You guys are doing great," he said before walking to the other side of the platform and motioning to team Bravo, "Bravo pull your socks up!"

Drifter stepped forward and pointed.

"Transmat firing!" he shouted.

Drifter walked back to his chair as the Guardians transmatted to their arenas. His Ghost appeared next to him, and he used it for communications.

"Back to action hotshot," he said, referring to all of the Guardians, "hostiles called their heavy hitters!"

He leaned back in his chair and watched the screens. The Gambit HUD patch given to all of the Guardians allowed him to see everything they saw, as well as screens that showed aerial views of each arena.

"Hostiles incoming at the rig," he said into communications.

He pressed a button on a console in front of him and all of the doors in the rig opened. Hive began to pour onto the Rig from there. He smiled as the Guardians rushed to kill their enemies.

He observed each team's carnage. Team Alpha was efficient, got their motes and got to the bank very fast. Team Bravo prefered to take their time, but that ultimately led to their downfall. All of them hungering for fifteen motes, not banking anything less unless they absolutely had to.

Drifter had a good feeling about team Alpha. He leaned forward and pressed a button on his console had turned on communications only to team Alpha.

"High value target spotted," he said to team Alpha, "burn it down!"

High value targets were random enemies that Drifter had stored that were loaded with motes. Simply shooting them caused motes to drop, and finishing them off dropped about ten.

He saw that all of the Hive in the Rig were already killed on both sides. He pressed another button.

"Incoming at Command!" he shouted into communications, pressing the release button for Command.

Alpha found the high value target and cut it down, taking all the motes. Then they banked. Bravo hadn't banked a single mote, and Alpha had enough to invade. And Drifter knew exactly who was going to invade.

"Portal's up," Drifter said to Alpha, "grab your guns."

He closed communications to Alpha and opened them to Bravo.

"Hostiles at the Burrow!" he exclaimed.

Bravo had already cleared two locations. One more and they would all have what they wanted. He looked at John's view and saw him heading towards the portal. Drifter smiled. He opened communications to John as he went through.

"This is how the Taken feel," he said to John with a smile, "revel in this."

There was something exhilarating about watching a Guardian kill other Guardians in something that wasn't Crucible. He enjoyed watching Guardians play his Gambit as much as Guardians enjoyed playing it.

John sniped Gaston just as he was heading to the bank. Drifter could sense Gaston's hatred for John all the way up from the Derelict. The rest of Bravo decided to hide instead of continue playing normally. They were getting smarter.

He took a look at Bravo's bank, it was surrounded with Small and Medium blockers. Team Alpha's Titan, Joseph, had fifteen motes, and he banked; sending a Taken Knight to the other side.

"You just sicced a Large blocker on fellow Guardians," Drifter called to Joseph, "Shaxx would never let you do that!"

He smiled once more as he saw the giant Knight enter Bravo's arena. John was able to take out one last Guardian, Colin, before he was pulled back. Gio and Sherrik still each had fifteen motes. They had to deal with their blockers first though.

Rian banked another fifteen motes, and team Alpha's bank closed. Oooh, you were too late Bravo! Drifter thought as a Primeval entered team Alpha's arena.

"Your Primeval's up," Drifter called to team Alpha, "cook the Envoys first!"

Bravo was struggling with their blockers as Alpha swiftly dealt with their Envoys. He took note of the gun Rian was using. I gotta get me one of those.

By the time Alpha was finished with their Envoys, Bravo had only just cleared their blockers. Then Bravo banked, sending four Large blockers over to Alpha. He knew it wouldn't be too much trouble though.

John threw himself against a wall. All he could hear was his own breathing over the chaos outside.

"Four blockers!?" Joseph yelled across from John, "four god damn blockers!?"

"This is fine," John panted, "it's just gonna take a bit."

"They're gonna kill us! They're Taken, not other Guardians, they're gonna target our Ghosts!"

"You know how we were gonna save our supers for the Primeval?"

"Yeah."

"Forget that. Use your super on the blockers."

Joseph nodded and seemed to relax. Team Bravo didn't seem to be the brightest, but when they accomplished their task they were deadly.

Joseph ran out and jumped onto the floor of the station. He slung his shotgun and pulled a giant flaming hammer into his hands. Rian jumped to the building across from John and reached into the sky. A flaming sword formed in her hand.

Joseph slammed his hammer into the floor, and a wave of flame shot out of it. The flame hit one of the Knights and set it on fire. A second Knight fired its boomer at Joseph, but while he was using his super he was harder to kill.

Rian swung her sword, and it shot out a bolt of fire. The bolts tracked the Knights relentlessly, following them every step they moved. The black and white knights melted, the fire dissolving their bodies into nothing but solar energy.

Corrs saw what they were doing and spun around, a staff of arc energy appeared in her hands. Instead of finishing off the Knights she went after the Envoys. A single swipe of her staff overloaded an Envoy's shield, causing it to explode. She continued to slash at the shieldless Envoy, cutting it apart.

After the first Envoy was killed she ran to the other side of the arena to face the other Envoy. She sliced the Envoy, taking its shields down and jammed the staff into its chest. After another swing, her super ran out of energy.

Corrs quickly pulled a machine gun into her hands and proceeded to gun the Envoy down. John was the only Guardian who still had their super.

John turned towards the Primeval, a large Taken Eliksni Captain. Once more John put his hands together and shot out a huge ball of pure void energy. Once the Nova Bomb impacted the Captain it turned into smaller bombs, all exploding onto the Captain.

Each explosion shook the Primeval, but it was still up.

"If all of us focus fire on its head we can take it down quickly," John said once all four of them were back together.

"You three can do that," Rian said, "I have my own plan."

She aimed her fusion rifle at the Primeval Captain's head and began charging. John nodded and smiled under his helmet.

Each Guardian took a position around the Primeval and aimed at its head. As they began firing, four more Large blockers entered the arena.

"God damnit," said Joseph over communications.

"Try not to worry about them," John replied over the weapons fire, "so long as the Primeval dies we won't have to worry about them."

John's vision then went red and he heard an alarm.

"The enemy is invading," John heard Drifter say, "find them before they find you."

The Primeval only had a sliver of health left. They didn't have time to worry about the invader.

"Rian! Now!" John shouted as he reloaded.

A huge ball of flame shout out of her fusion rifle, and exploded on the Primeval. The once black and white Captain was now orange as solar energy surrounded it. John had to block the light from his eyes, and he heard that the Primeval was screaming. Didn't know that Taken screamed.

Once the orange light that John was blocking went away he saw there was nothing left of the Primeval.

"Primeval's down!" Drifter exclaimed, "I had a good feeling about you four! Come on up to the Derelict and you'll be payed!"

Though the match was finished, and all of his teammates were together, he heard footsteps approaching. He turned around only to get smacked down onto the ground.

He looked up and saw Joseph tackle his attacker. It was Gaston.

"What the hell Gaston?" John said as he stood up.

Rian rushed over and helped him onto his feet, and Joseph had him pinned to the ground.

"Fuck you John," Gaston said through gritted teeth, "you absolutely humiliated my team. You're gonna pay!"

"Dude it's just a game. Gambit is for fun its not life or death! Take a look at yourself and think before you get into another match alright? Let him go."

Joseph let go of Gaston and all of team Alpha were transmatted out before Gaston could do anything more.