I do not own Destiny or any of its characters.
Pit
Hunter grit his teeth, watching the Ogre's feet stomping back and forth in front of the tunnel's opening. They'd left the first cavern to the pit into a tunnel, which had sloped down rapidly before reaching a massive cavern with the cliff face on the far side lined with doors, each bearing a Hive symbol over it. However, Hunter had restrained Zavala to stop him from trying to go through any. Instead, He'd thrown a stone through each door. Each time one had gone through, a massive battering-ram-like pillar had shot out of the door more than fast enough to kill anyone unfortunate enough to take a door. All of them were trapped. So, Hunter had instead had his Ghost scan for another path, finding a small passage between two doors a couple levels below them and to their right, the passage small enough that they'd had to pass through it sideways, Cayde leading, since he could use Ace of Spades to clear the way if needed.
Finally, they left the passageway into another tunnel which then turned into a ridiculously steep drop that curved and turned slightly as it descended multiple hundred feet. They eventually reached a low chamber filled with pillars and had all sensed danger. A couple hundred feet later, the passage had opened into huge tunnels winding through the rock, and they'd entered one just in time for an Ogre to round a corner in it and spot them. An Ogre almost twice the size of a normal one, and completely invincible. Bullets bounced off, Zavala's Golden Hammer did nothing, and when Zavala slashed it with the sword, the sword snapped like a twig. The Ogre had then swatted Zavala aside and killed him, forcing Hunter to briefly distract the Ogre so Cayde and Ikora could get him somewhere safe, in this case, inside of a Thrall tunnel too small for the Ogre to follow, so that they could revive him.
Hunter had hidden in a similar tunnel, but had been ambushed by a pair of Knights, along with a small horde of Thralls, and when he'd killed the Knights, both had dropped glowing spheres of purple energy. He'd begun swearing instantly, because those were what Hive liked to use to power or unlock barriers, which meant he needed to collect a few. He'd grabbed one just as Cayde found him, grabbing the other. Then, they'd carefully made their way past the Ogre using the Thrall tunnels when they could. Except, there wasn't one Ogre. There were three. Once they reached the end of the tunnel the Ogres were patrolling, they'd shoved the spheres into a small, round opening in a pedestal beside it, the barrier weakening but not fading, then retreated into separate Thrall tunnels when an Ogre found them. In doing so, Hunter had accidentally found a third Knight and collected another sphere.
"You ready?" Cayde asked over their communicators, voice a whisper.
"Yeah," Hunter hissed back. "This should be the last one, given how much the barrier weakened."
"I thought so, too," Cayde agreed. "Ikora and Zavala are both here, too. "We're ready as soon as it's gone."
Hunter nodded and waited. Then, finally, one of the other Ogres reached his proximity mine dagger further down the tunnel, setting off an explosion. The Ogre blocking their progress roared instantly, stomping away, and Hunter and the others waited a few seconds before silently exiting their Thrall tunnels and heading for the pedestal. As Hunter shoved the sphere into it and drew his Auto Rifle with his free hand, the barrier faded and they all hurried into a massive chamber that looked like some kind of huge shrine, with a vaguely cross-shaped statue off to one side.
Almost as if on cue, they were swarmed by Knights, Acolytes, and Thralls. All four Guardians swore opening fire and beginning to slaughter them. As they fought, Hunter leapt into the air, hurling a fan of flaming proximity mine daggers at the Knights, the Solar-charged explosions blasting a huge section of the crowd into ash, and leaving six of the same energy spheres on the ground.
"God dammit!" Hunter swore, swapping his rifle for his Mos Ultima, grabbing a sphere off the ground, Cayde grabbing two, and Zavala and Ikora both grabbing one, continuing to fire.
"What about the last one?" Cayde asked.
Hunter punted it, the sphere blasting straight through an enhanced Acolyte before rolling to a stop beside a pedestal next to the barrier blocking the door they hadn't entered through. Then, they all ran, all of them firing at the Hive the whole way. As they reached the pedestal, Hunter, being the fastest in the group due to his unique design, shoved his sphere into it before drawing his Hawkmoon and opening fire on the Hive trying to swarm them. Ikora went next, shoving her sphere in before beginning to help Hunter. A moment later, Zavala joined them as the Hive began to close in.
"Today, Cayde!" Hunter shouted, hurling a Swarm Grenade, Ikora hurling a Scatter Grenade and Storm Grenade both, and Zavala hurled a pair of Void Wall Grenades, sending two waves of fire out into the Hive.
Cayde hurled a pair of Incendiary Grenades into the swarm of Hive further out as he slammed his two spheres into the pedestal, then slammed the last into it as Hunter put his Hawkmoon away, pulling out a pair of Void Wall Grenades. As the barrier dropped, he dropped one, tossing the other in front of the swarm and all four Guardians retreated through the doorway, the two walls of purple flames slaughtering any Hive that tried to follow.
The passage wound through the rock again before ending abruptly, giving way to a massive tunnel falling past massive spiked cylindrical beams that rolled, spun, or swung across it. Hunter sighed. He truly hated this place. He drew his Hawkmoon again and jumped, carefully avoiding all of the traps before landing lightly on a brightly lit platform off to one side before the tube fell into darkness. As the others landed beside him, he looked around. The platform was connected to a ring walkway around the pit with three symbols on the wall across from the platform. All three symbols matched the towers they'd been to at the top.
He turned left, walking around the pit to a doorway, only to stop, looking around before sighing. As he did, he held his left arm across his diaphragm, resting his right elbow against it as the heel of his right hand rested against his forehead. "We are never getting out of this place."
Before, and around, them was a truly massive chasm with crimson towers, potentially lower parts for the sections above extending from the darkness below to the cavern's roof, bridges spanning between the towers almost randomly. Sections of stone also extended up from the darkness, sometimes connected to a tower, sometimes by itself, but there were passageways carved into the stone here and there, making travel through the chasm possible.
"This is your fault, Zavala," Cayde said.
"To be fair, we couldn't have bombed something like this out of existence without destroying the entire moon with it," Ikora said.
"Besides, we've been doing well," Zavala said.
"Says the guy who died once," Hunter scoffed.
"Considering we have four instead of thirty, that is rather impressive," Zavala said.
Hunter huffed. "That's beside the point." He shook his head. "Let's just go."
He sprinted to the edge and jumped, using a pair of Light energy bursts to clear the gap between that bridge and the next, Cayde just behind him, then Ikora, then Zavala. Then, they began a long process of alternating between bridges, tower platforms, cliffs, and passageways. Some of the passageways had the ground missing, leaving only small chunks of stone to use as platforms, and other places had swinging, green, Hive lamps like wrecking balls. Their progress was slow, but thanks to there being very little room to gather, any Hive they met they were able to kill easily. Granted, there was still a lot of Hive, but the narrow bridges and passageways made their numbers less effective, so whether it was Thralls, Acolytes, Knights of any kind, or the three Wizards they met, everything died without much trouble this time. The only thing that gave them a problem was a Shrieker that they had minimal cover against, Cayde having to resort to using his Golden Gun to kill it, expending his Solar Energy.
Then, finally, the path led them to a tower far bigger than the rest with the same three symbols over it, all three darkened. Hunter sighed. He'd noticed that the Hive were only clustered around the towers they had been looking for, with one Wizard at each, so it seemed the Wizards were the tower guardians. He reloaded his weapons, putting his Hand Cannons away and drawing his Auto Rifle before jumping to the door with the others. Inside, the floor fell away a hundred feet before a stone floor waited. They all dropped down to it, walking forward silently, guns raised. The chamber they had entered was filled with enormous red pillars, each one twice as wide as Hunter was tall, and there was light but not a lot. After a few moments of walking, they found a door with a pair of green lights beside it and headed through it.
The tunnel on the far side led even lower before turning and leading out to what Hunter hoped was the final cavern. It was too big to see the far side, too deep to see the bottom, and the only thing in it was a set of scarlet towers with one in the middle of the other three, with a broken bridge leading from them to the top of the central tower.
"This is it," Hunter's Ghost said. "Those Hive symbols we've been seeing call it the Cradle of Damnation."
"Lovely," Hunter grumbled. "What do I have?"
"All three are charged," the Ghost said.
"I'm also recharged," Ikora said, tossing away a spherical stone that was colorless and dull.
"Got one of those for me?" Cayde asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately no," Ikora said. "I wasn't planning for the Darkness to be so thick here."
"I tried to warn you that we shouldn't come here at all, but you didn't listen," Hunter said. "If this is the last room, whatever's in charge of this Brood, and probably what's responsible for enhancing them, will be on that central tower."
The others nodded, raising their weapons just as Hunter's Ghost appeared beside him.
"I've finished repairing the Machine Gun," the Ghost said.
Hunter swapped weapons instantly before they all charged, leaping to the next segment of makeshift bridge, which Hunter realized was actually a tower, then stopped, staring at their now unobstructed view of their destination. In the center of the middle platform was a massive green pillar, which Ikora said was similar to the one Crota had been sealed inside of, but kneeling in front of it was the biggest Knight Hunter had ever seen, one with a flaming sword.
"It's Zulmak," Hunter's Ghost identified it.
Hunter stared at the overgrown Knight in silence for a long few seconds before his eyes scanned the rest of the towers. Finally, he nodded to himself, sighing.
"What?" Cayde asked.
"There are three orb pedestals around the central tower," Hunter said. "Which means the other three towers each have a guardian, which most likely need a sword to kill them."
"How do you want to handle it?" Ikora asked.
Hunter stared at Zulmak in silence for a long moment.
"No," Cayde said, realizing what Hunter was considering.
"There are four of us and four tasks," Hunter said. "And besides the fact that even if I'm right, and we can't hurt Zulmak without gathering the orbs, we don't know how long that will last. Chances are, you three will have to gather multiple orbs, so...leave Zulmak to me."
"And what about the swords?" Cayde asked. "Where do we get those?"
"There are three of those glowing Knights down there," Ikora reported, using her scope.
Cayde hesitated before sighing and nodding. "Okay. But you had better not die. You absolutely have to survive."
"Same to you," Hunter said.
They all nodded, then leapt to the tower. Instantly, all of the Hive turned on them, charging, including Zulmak. Hunter opened fire at him instantly, making sure that he was right, and his bullets did nothing but bounce off. However, it did get Zulmak's attention, so Hunter turned, fleeing as Zulmak charged, slashing every once in a while to send balls of fire flying at Hunter. He fled as quickly as he could while staying on the central tower, waiting for the others to finish with the guardians, which were all the same type of Hive creature as on the top level. Cayde finished first, having dealt with the shielded Knight, then Zavala, who had dealt with the Shrieker, then, finally, Ikora, who had dealt with the Wizard. As soon as all three orbs had been shoved into a pedestal, the green crystal began to glow, a green aura flooding outward over the entirety of the central tower.
Hunter opened fire instantly, his new Machine Gun roaring as its bullets began to slam into Zulmak. He staggered backward, roaring in agony, then slashed, sending waves of flame surging toward Hunter, only for his body to turn into a translucent, purple silhouette as he dodged to the side, the flames passing through him harmlessly before he escaped the trail of flames they'd left behind before his body reverted to normal. And then, his Machine Gun roared again. Thick black blood began to burst out of the bullet holes this time, and Zulmak roared in pain again, louder this time.
Hunter narrowed his eyes, then leapt into the air, forming a Void Bow and sending the Shadowshot into Zulmak's face. Zulmak all but shrieked in agony, staggering backward, only to bring the singularity with him, strands of Void energy shooting out to connect to all of the other Hive creatures around Zulmak just before all three of the Vanguard fired a rocket, Cayde's Void elemental, Ikora's Arc elemental, and Zavala's Solar elemental. All three exploded into a massive blast initially, then dropped clusters of smaller explosives, which slaughtered the Hive around Zulmak. However, just as they did, the crystal began to pulsate, speeding up rapidly, and Hunter spun, sprinting to the edge of the central tower and jumping just before a massive, fiery explosion went off, covering the entire central tower.
As Hunter landed beside Ikora, a Wizard flew down into the tower and Ikora spun, grabbing her sword and forming a barrier to block the Wizard's energy blasts, allowing Hunter to leap back to the central tower, beginning to flee from Zulmak again, holding his attention. After a few more minutes, finally, the last of the orbs were shoved into a pedestal. Again, Zulmak used the fire wave attack, Hunter avoiding it again as he had before, this time reloading his Machine Gun as he did, his arms moving in a blur. Then, he opened fire as soon as his body had returned to its natural form. Almost instantly, the other three sent another rocket into Zulmak, Hunter focusing his shots to Zulmak's head as much as he could. Another volley of rockets slammed into Zulmak, then another. Then, Hunter's Machine Gun ran dry and Zulmak roared victoriously, charging, sword pulling back.
Hunter dropped the gun instantly, forming a Golden Gun from his Solar Energy, then raised it, shouting in effort as he fired shot after shot. Six slammed into Zulmak's head before Hunter's Solar energy was fully expended, but just as his Golden Gun faded, Zulmak's head exploded, his entire body bursting into flames. He fell to his knees, and his entire body burst apart. And then, a moment later, the green crystal all but exploded apart as well, all of the Hive creatures around them dropping dead instantly. Hunter sighed, falling to his knees as the Vanguard moved over to him. Cade attached the Machine Gun to the back of Hunter's belt for him before helping him up. As Hunter stood, the center of that tower, around where the crystal had been, began to glow green. Hunter hesitated before nodding, all four stepping onto the elevator. Hunter was dreading the moment the elevator would descend further, but instead, it began to rise.
After a few moments, the elevator rose into the cavern's roof, then stopped in a small chamber with a tunnel off to one side, sloping upward. They all headed for it, Hunter beginning to walk on his own at the mouth of the tunnel. He drew his Mos Ultima, readying himself for a fight as the tunnel spiraled upward. Finally, after nearly an hour, they stepped out of the tunnel a short distance from the Scarlet Keep, all of them sighing and looking around.
"We made it," Hunter breathed. "I actually can't believe it."
"I'm getting so drunk tonight," Cayde groaned.
"We should get back," Zavala said. "We've been gone too long."
Ikora nodded in agreement and all four warped to their ships, heading home. As they flew, Hunter tipped back in his chair, groaning heavily and trying not to pass out. He was exhausted. His nerves had been shot since he'd opened the path to the Pit of Heresy on the surface. He needed to sleep. A lot. Finally, he sighed, sitting up and turning off auto-pilot and retaking the controls.
Leave a review.