I do not own Destiny or any of its characters.
A.N.: Since Hunter is not the same Guardian as was the player character during the Destiny 1 and Red War stories, but will be working with him, what race should the D1 Guardian be? So far, I've only decided on male, so I'll leave race and class up to a poll through PMs and Reviews.
Solo Work
Hunter looked up as a massive, metal cylinder began to fall, crashing down in front of him. He stood, walking over to it and opening the panel in the front, pulling his newly upgraded Galliard, which now fired explosive rounds, out of it, along with a letter. As he closed the panel, he smiled as he stared at the three symbols on the panel. The Hunter Emblem, courtesy of Shiro, who was treating Hunter as his superior, though without Ikora and Zavala's knowledge. The second was a pair of snakes coiled together into a ball in the middle with their heads and a few inches of their bodies extending out from the top and bottom, then curling clockwise, making it look like it was meant to be an "S", courtesy of the Drifter, who recognized Cayde's selection and who was always willing to pass along information for Hunter, or pull favors he had left over owed to Cayde, Hunter doing similar favors in reverse. The last symbol was a circle around two semi-circles, forming a line down the middle as well. It was Banshee-44's unofficial mark, the one on his forehead.
"You guys are the best," Hunter smiled, putting his Galliard back in its place on his back. He frowned at the letter, then unfolded it, seeing Drifter's handwriting.
"A few things you need to know," Drifter had written. "Firstly, watch out for anything that looks like either a glowing, colored silhouette of something, or a bigger, meaner, usually spikier version of something. They're called Nightmares, and they're mostly on the Moon. They're from some kind of black pyramid that Eris Morn found while you were repaying Cayde's debts. The Hero of the Red War managed to deal with it, but we have no idea what the pyramid is, it radiates Darkness enough that the Guardian said it possessed his Ghost for a short time, and we think it might be like the Traveler, but for Darkness. We think it's sleeping, or it's dead and yet still sentient. Confusing. Anyway, if you come to the Moon, be ready to face Nightmares. I recommend staying away. Other than that, there's something up at the Tower. Don't know what, yet. I know you're mad, but you should probably come home, soon."
Hunter frowned. No. He didn't care. He had things to do. Raids. Distractions. Something to keep him from thinking about what he'd lost. About Cayde. About Petra. He would kill Riven. But not yet. First, he needed to numb himself to the pain that being around Petra would cause.
Flames danced as the the giant Servitor through the air, exploding into the ground behind Hunter, who brushed his shoulder off, walking back out of the Fallen hideout to where he'd left Cayde's Sparrow. He swung his leg over it and sped off, heading for the Hive cluster nesrby where Spark claimed a Hive ritual going on to do God knows what. He had no intention of letting them finish, but he didn't care what it was. All he knew is thst it was a Hive witch, and it was going to die.
Hunter drove the Knight's sword down into Navota, the Hive Wizard's head. She'd been gathering power to try and destroy the Guardians and gather power within the Hive broods. Now, she was a corpse, just finishing burning to ash. He left the sword behind as he left the cluster, getting back outside and warping to his ship.
"What's next, Drifter?" Hunter asked. "Preferably no Hive."
"Well, let's see," Drifter said. "A ship thst went missing back during the Red War just turned up. It's from a Guardian aboard a ship belonging to the dethroned Emperor Calus, and it's near the Reef, only, the transmission's been exposed to Darkness."
Hunter narrowed his eyes. "Send me the coordinates. I'll go and get them, if I can, and see what's going on on the ship."
"Will do, partner," Drifter said. "Be careful. If there's Darkness at work, whatever you fight will be corrupted and powerful."
"I know," Hunter said. "I'll be careful."
He disconnected, and Drifter sent the coordinates. Hunter plugged them in and jumped away from the Cosmodrome, where he'd spent the last few days. A few hours of silence later, they flew to the open cargo bay ramp under the back of the ship, staring at it. It was entirely powered down, barring the emergency lights, but it was causing waves of apprehension and wariness to roll through Hunter, who could sense the Darkness inside of it.
"Let's be extra careful on this one, okay, Spark?" Hunter asked.
"Yeah," Spark agreed. "Good thinking."
Hunter warped to the ramp, drawing the Ace of Spades, and walked up the ramp to the door, using his SIVA to magnetize his feet.
"Hello Hunter," Osiris's voice said. "I'll be coordinating you while you search the ship, as a favor to Drifter, who had to deal with something elsewhere. As for the situation, several months ago, a Cabal vessel bearing the name "Glykon" disappeared near the Reef. This ship matches its description and heading. So far, our hails have gone unanswered, and the distress signal continues to loop. You're cleared for live-fire engagements. Board it and find our missing Guardian."
"Osiris," Hunter said. "A few things I'd like to point out." He leaned against the door, which had failed to open when he pressed the button. "Firstly, I'm in the boarding process already. Secondly, I don't need your permission to use my guns, so I appreciste the help, but don't waste your breath. And lastly, I don't take orders from anyone in the City. I'm doing a favor for Drifter. So I'll send you any scans of data we collect here, and you fuck off and keep it to yourself. I don't want, or need, to hesr it, and I don't want to hear your voice again unless it's relevent to imminent danger. I'll find the Guardian, save him if I can, and kill anything that stands in my way. Now, goodbye."
He disconnected and ran back down the ramp before jumping, landing on a maintenance catwalk along the hull of the ship to his right of the ramp, then followed the trail of catwalks and pipes along the hull of the ship and around a corner. He jumped from one platform to the next until he finally reached an open airshaft leading inside. He headed into it, drawing the Ace of Spades and Joker, as opposed to his Galliard, due to the confined space, and headed into the ship, entering an air duct
"There's a distortion in the feed," Osiris said. "No, frequencies, like ripples meeting in conversation. Executing trace, stand by."
"What did I say, Osiris?" Hunter asked.
"I decided that since directions weren't excluded, you might not mind," Osiris said. "Wherever the frequencies are coming from, that's where you should find our Guardian."
Hunter stopped, Spark shining a light on a plant of some kind, with dark grey skin like a vine, then a glowing purplish-blue pod sticking out on a stem where a leaf might have been supposed to be. "Osiris, you're seeing this, right?"
"I am," Osiris said. "What is it?"
"Do you know what I am?" Hunter asked.
"An Exo?" Osiris asked.
Hunter held his hand out to the plant, and as his hand neared it, SIVA began to drift off of it in a thin cloud around his hand, vibrsting with greater and greater intensity the closer it got. He pulled his hand away, narrowing his eyes. "There's Darkness running through it."
"SIVA," Osiris breathed. "I'd heard the rumors, and I had my suspicions that they were about you, but to see it...too see such a dangerous force under control..."
"How's the trace coming?" Hunter asked, turning left at a fork and smashing through a grate.
"It's almost done," Osiris said.
Hunter looked around, seeing a datapad on the ground but no path forward. Spark scanned the datapad, finding nothing useful, before they continued through the airshaft the other way. After a few seconds, he stopped as a noise, a snapping, popping sound mixed with an inhuman cry, echoed through the shaft. He narrowed his eyes, tightening his grip on his Hand Cannons. Then, he continued forward. He smashed through another grate and found another small, blocked off area where it looked like a machine had a part missing, then continued to the end of the shaft, smashing through the last grate. He dropped out of it and into a small maintenance tunnel, looking around as the same noise, exchoed again, longer this time and accompanied with the sound of something moving around in the airshafts. He swallowed hard. Something was very wrong with this ship.
He smashed through a grate on the left wall, into another mainentance tunnel with a grated floor just over his head and looked around before heading right. He ducked under a large pipe, then stood on the other side and turned, jumping up onto the higher floor above the pipe. He looked around, walking along the maintenance shaft for a ways before finding another air shaft.
"I've sourced the distortion," Osiris said, just as the creature, whatever it was, shrieked again. "There's an open patch into this ship's computer, perhaps courtesy of our lost friend."
Hunter smashed through a grate on the floor, dropping through into a lower shaft, then stepped out of it into a huge room with large, round machines taking up most of the floor space. He stood, raising his Hand Cannons, and started into the room carefully, eyes scanning for any sign of movement. He pulled the lever to open the cargo bay door, once again magnetizing his feet with his SIVA, then walked to the door opposite it. It hissed open, and he stopped, staring at the dark grey and black plants, the same as the roots from the air shaft. It had a massive, glowing, blue pod to the left, and there was a wall of milky mist, like a barrier, to the right, which he knew at a glance was concentrated darkness. He frowned, glancing at his hand. SIVA was made from Vex technology, just like Exos but more so. Maybe it could withstand the darkness.
He pressed his hand into the barrier, ignoring the flare of pain as his hand began to dissolve instantly. After a moment, he pulled it back, the damaged SIVA falling away before new SIVA replaced them. "Any ideas, Osiris?"
"The spores in the pod to your left are harmonizing with the concentrated darkness of the barrier," Osiris said. "They may shield you while you pass through. You'll have to get close."
Hunter formed himself a Red Moon Phantom helmet before stepping up beside the pod and slashing it with a knife. the pod exploded, spores filling the air, coating him like dust, and a thick, glowing goo splattering over him as well. He grimaced, then turned and held his hand out to the barrier. His hand passed through harmlessly, so he sighed in relief and followed.
"There's no Light here," Osiris commented, as Hunter stared at several Cabal, all of them wrapped in the odd vines and suspended, unmoving, in the air.
"What did I say about talking unnecessarily, Osiris?" Hunter asked as he felt the Darkness from the spores fade, the fluid all evaporating and taking the spores with it.
"Sorry," Osiris said.
Hunter walked around the room, finding one locked door and one damaged one that was trying to seal but was jammed partway, making it shudder and open a few inches before trying to close again. He looked around, then up, seeing a grate above it. He shot the grate out with the Joke before leaping into it using a pulse of Light Energy to reach the necessary height. He followed the airshaft to an open grate in the top of it and jumped out, entering another maintenance shaft, this one vertical with several platforms to ascend. He jumped from one to the next before smashing through another grate into an airshaft that wound through the ship to the reactor room. There were doors on either side of the room, one behind him and the other ahead, and three sections of the room, all set up similarly, but with massive walls of arcing electricity blocking him from moving from one section to the next by jumping.
"Okay, Osiris," Hunter said. "I'm in the reactor." Spark scanned the entire area in one pulse. "Now what?"
"Well, I found a route that should speed up your trip to the bridge, but you may not like it," Osiris said.
"Try me," Hunter said.
"There's a trash compactor on the far end of the room, near the bottom," Osiris said. "The platform outsode of the door is automated, but you'll need to get the door open."
"How?" Hunter asked.
"To start with, there should be a lever in the hallway behind you, all the way to the left," Osiris said. "Pull it."
Hunter turned, walking into the hallway, only for the creature, whatever he was hearing to shriek. He turned, then growled in annoyance as Screebs scrambled toward him.
"Scorn!" Hunter growled, detonating a couple of Screebs and destroying them all.
He followed the hallway to the lever and pulled it, and Osiris directed him back to the reactor room. A door to his left had opened, revealing another spore pod.
"Your Ghost's scan ahowed another barrier of Darkness across the room with the spores in that room," Osiris said. "Unfortunately, that's all I can tell you for soecific directions right now. I'll help where I can as you continue."
Hunter sighed, coating himself in spores before leaping across the gap in the reactor room to the opposite side, then slipped through the barrier just before the spores faded. He dropped down off the platform inside the next hallway and more Screeb appeared, only for Hunter to toss an Incendiary grenade, blasting them. He followed the hallway to the far end, then jumped back up, finding a square pillar in front of him, a Screeb rounding it on both sides. He tossed his Hand Cannons into the air and hurled a Proximity Mine grenade at each, blasting them both, then caught his guns again and continued. He once again crossed the gsp and Osiris directed him to shoot out a power coupling in a cable as thick as a tree beside him. Once he had, an access panel on the floor slid open. He dropped in, killing another group of Screeb before Osiris directed him to a platform on the right side, where there was a lever. He pulled it and headed to the far end. A door on the upper level had opened, and he walkrd through, then leapt across the reactor room. He pulled another lever there, but the door to the trash compactor was still closed.
"I'm reading a power coupling that's been exposed," Spark supplied. "It leads to the trash compactor's door."
He guided Hunter back across the reactor room and down under the platform he entered the hallway on. After shooting out the power coupling, Spark confirned the door to the trash compactor opened. Hunter headed to it and slid down the trash chute before using a pulse of Light Energy to break his momentum before landing on the steel floor.
"That lever on the far side will activate the trash comoactor," Spark said.
"And why would we want that?" Osiris asked.
"Because if my scans are right, there's a shaft out under the floor's steel plating," Spark said. "But it's sealed. You'll have to shoot out three power couplings to get in, and according to our usual luck, you'll have to shoot a few Scorn while doing it."
"Terrific," Hunter sighed. "Fine. Let's do it."
He reached up and pulled the lever. Sure enough, almost as soon as the steel floor had retracted and the walls had begun to move, Screeb began to appesr in flashes of blue light. Hunter began to shoot them rapidly as he ran, Spark directing him to the power couplings, which were below grates in the floor. Finally, he shot out the last one and ran for the grste covering the shaft out, then blasted through it and dropped with seconds to spare. He continued through the dark shaft until ha found one that dropped him in what looked like a hangar. Instantly, a massive Scorn Archon, one that looked identical to the Reksis Vahn, appeared on the far end. He swore, raising his Hand Cannons, but it vanished again before he could fire, dozens of lesser Scorn appearing in his place.
"It wasn't the Hangman," Spark said. "It was something else. More heavily corruoted by Darkness."
"What are we up against?" Hunter asked as Void projectiles slammed into the low wall he was crouched behind.
"Two Captains, two snipers, twenty Ravagers," Spark listed.
Hunter rolled his eyes. "Too easy."
He stepped out and hurled a Proximity Mine Dagger into one of the Flame Cansers, and when all of the Ravagers exploded at once, they took a Captain's shield out with them. Ace of Spades blasted the Captain instantly before Hunter sprinted at the last Captain, both pistols firing rapidly and dropping his shiekd before his head burst into a jet of Ether a moment later, courtesy of the Joker. Hunter skidded to a stop, holstering his Hand Cannone as drew his Galliard, stepping forward in time for a pillar to block a shot from one of the snipers as he shot the other, the explosive rounds blasting its torso wide open. Hunter stepped out from behind the pillar and blasted the other sniper as well, then reloaded and sprinted for the door.
He followed the pathway quickly, winding through the ship before passing through a pitch-black hallway. Finally, he reached a bright hangar and walked into it, only to stop. Three Captains appeared, one on a rwised bridge with a pair od snipers, and two below the brisge with a total of six Scorn grunts holding shields. Hunter sprayed into the larger group on his level as he ran for cover. Then, he grabbed his rocket launcher and stepped out, firing. As the rocket exploded against a Captain and released a cluster of smaller explosives, a pair of massive flares of Dark Ether appeared just past the bridge. As Hunter blasted the two Snipers, a pair of Abominations appeared, instantly sending lightning bolts at Hunter. Hunter leapt onto a raised walkway to his right, where the Abominations couldn't target him, and a swarm of Ravagers and Screeb charged down the walkway's ramp at him. He detonated a Screeb, slaughtering the group, then fired at the last Captain, killing him after a moment. He swapped his Galliard for his Rocket Lancher again and lesned out, sending a rocket at one of the Abominations, only for the blast to do very little to it.
He frowned, putting it away, and drew his Galliard again instead, leaning back out and beginning to spray. The rounds also did very little, and he burned through ammo fast, but finally, the Abomination collapsed. He sighed, swapping his Galliard for the Ace pf Spades, then turned to run to the bridge, only for more Ravagers and Screeb to swarm at him from the top of the ramp. He blasted a Screeb, once again killing everyone, then ran up onto the bridge. Once he was there, he junped down behind the Abomination, which turned instantly, only for six shots from Hunter's Golden Gun to slam into it, killing it. Hunter smirked and turned, continuing out of the room using a trail of platforms outside to reach the next hangar, then took an air shaft high on the opposite wall. The shaft eventually dropped him outside of a room with windows high above, a large machine in the middle of the room, another machine like a generator near the left wall, and a door to the right. He walked through the door, and stopped as he found a Darkness barrier. He reached out to it and SIVA drones began to swirl around his hand in a cloud before settling back into his arm just before glowing, white-blue Darkness Energy began to run across his body. He blinked in surprise before reaching out to the barrier. His hand passed through it, with resistance, and when he pulled it back, it wasn't damaged. He took a breath and stepoed forward, pushing through the barrier like it was semi-solid, then stepped out on the far side, undamaged, the Darkness fading from his body.
"Incredible!" Osiris breathed. "Your SIVA has learned to harmonize with the Darkness of the barriers. It's mimicking Darkness Energy!"
"I don't know if incredible is the right word," Hunter said, following the hallway.
It turned left to a ramp, and several Screeb appeared at the top, only for him to hurl an Incendiary Grenade, blasting them. He jumped onto a raised walkway to the left and found another barrier. Darkness again began to race along his skin, and he stepped through, once again feeling like the barrier was semi-solid, as though he were trying to walk underwater as he was passing through it. Then, he was through and the walkway turned right into a hallway, which led to a cargo storage area, it looked like. A Scorn Captain appeared with multiple basic Scorn, but they all died quickly. Hunter looked around, then walked over to where there was a barrier in a hole in the floor. So far, following the barriers had worked, so, once Darkness had coated him again, he dropped through. He landed in an airshaft junction and rolled his eyes, activating his eyes' night vision before smashing all of the grates, finding one shaft blocked by spore pods. He headed the other way, and at the next intersection, a grate exploded into a ball of blue plasm. He fired into the explosion and detonated a Screeb. A moment later, the grate ahead of him was blasted, and he blasted thst group of Screebs, as well. He folled the air shafts, killing multiple more groups of Screebs and having to double back several times before finding the barrier. His SIVA got him through it again, and he walked to the end of the shaft and pulled the lever there. It opened a door ahead of him, and after a minute of following the path, he reached the first open room after the hangars. A new door was ooen, under the windows, and he passed through it, then through another barrier. A door to his left opened into a hallway, and he followed it along. Screebs swarmed him, only to die almost instantly, and a pair of Abominations stepped out, only for Hunter to fire a pair of Shadowshots into them, thethering the each other before firing a Rocket into the ground between them. The cluster of explosions killed both of them. He swapped the Rocket Launcher for the Ace of Spades again and continued along the hallway. He could sense something. He was close. He had to be.
There was a barrier, and he passed through it, only to stop at the edge of a platform. There was a massive gap below it, and it looked like a series of maintenance shafts and platforms, but he chose to skip the shafts this time, instead jumping from one platform to the next. As he landed on the third, there was a Scorn sniper on the next platform, to his left, and he shot it in the head. From that platform, there was a pipe exposed under one end leading to a platform with another sniper. He shit that one as well, then the one on the last platform after that. He headed through a door along that platform, finsing a barrier, and walked through it calmly. He was a little unsettled by how used to the feeling of Darkness running through him he was. He turned left and immediately passed through one more barrier before dropping through an air shaft into the upper reactor room, one where the floor was warm and the maintenance space below it was glowing red.
"According to the records I found, the large Scorn is the only successful experiment," Osiris said. "It sounds like it controls the others."
"Then it'll die," Hunter said.
As if on cue, the thing appeared in front of him. Both of Hunter's Hand Cannons snapped up, opening fire, the bullets slamming into his head and chest. It roared, swinging the Flame Censer over its head into the ground, sending a trail of flames at him. He dodged left, turning intangible, and evaded the flames, opening fire again. He began to fire again, but after a few more shots, it roared, vanishing again, a dozen Scorn grunts and a few Captains appearing around the room instead. Hunter spun, hurling a barrage of Solar knives around the room, killing them all. He looked around, narrowing his eyes.
"It's below us," Spark said. "We'll have to vent coolant to be able to go down there. There's a terminal behind you, one across from it, and one in the room to your left. You'll want to do that one last. It'll be as hot as downstairs until the coolant vents."
Hunter nodded, heading to the first two terminals before sprinting for the third. To call it hot was an understatement. His SIVA began to glow, some of them falling off as they overheated. After a few seconds of typing, a wave of frost and coolant blew into the room and he sighed in relief, his SIVA regenerating what it had lost. He walked quickly out of the room and over to a gap in the floor behind one of the other teeminals. He grabbed his rocket launcher and focused, chanelling Solar Energy into the rocket before dropping. The Scorn roared, charging, and Hunter fired the Solar-charged rocket. It slammed into the Sorn's chest and exploded, the cluster of explosions enveloping it as it roared. However, as an unintended side effect, the coolant in the room was burned away in seconds, the reactors beginning to heat up again. Hunter leapt back up to the top floor just as more Scorn began to appear. He sprinted into the room, firing rapidly. He spun, ducked, jumped, and dodged around the returning fire. Any headshots from the Ace of Spades exploded, any from the Joker unleashed a jet of Ether. And finally, after a few extra shots to the Captains, the room was clear. The few grazes and one solid shot he'd received regenerated, and he quickly vented more coolant. Then, he grabbed his Galliard, dropping under the floor and opening fire at the massive Scorn. After a few minutes, he jumpped back up just ahead of a wave of flames. He ran for the opposite opening and put his Galliard away, focusing as he drew his melee daggers. As he dropped, Arc Energy begsn to scream along the blades and he raced forward.
The Scorn roared, sending a wave of flames at Hunter, only for him to use his Void Intangibility dodge to evade it, then jumped, leaping over a horizontal swipe of the Censer, slashing one dagger across its throat, then down the front with the other. He spun around it, avoiding a downward swipe, then jumped, slashing it up the back. He drove both daggers down into its shoulders, dragging it to the ground, then ripped them out. However, just as he moved to stab a dagger into the Scorn's face, the machines began to heat. He swore, retreating back upstairs and putting his blades away. He narrowed his eyes as more Scorn appeared, a ghost of thesame rage as he'd felt for the Scorn Barons boiling over in his chest. He narrowed his eyes, focusing his Void Energy. He was getting tired of having emotions. He feared Hive because of the Pit of Heresy, he hated Scorn because of Cayde, and fighting Scorn was reminding him of losing Petra.
His Void Energy condensed into a pair of curved, foot-and-a-half blades and he rocketted forward, slashing multiple Scorn before vanishing from sight, continuing to slaughter them. Once the last had vanished, he dropped under the floor, streaking across the ground at the massive Scorn. It roared, leaping forward and swinging its Censer overhead, only for Hunter to leap into the air, stepping off the Scorn's attacking arm before slashing, its head spinning into the air. As it crashed to the ground, Hunter flipped, letting the blades fade, then jumped back up to the main floor. He heard a door open to his right and walked over, seeing a pannel open, allowing access to yet another maintenance shaft. He rolled his eyes, heading into it, and followed it for a long ways before smashing down through a grate. He continued to follow the shaft for a ways before finally dropping into the bridge. He sighed. Finally, he'd reached the bridge. If he ever saw another maintenance shaft, he'd probably explode.
He walked over to the main computer before stopping, staring around at the growths of the odd plants. They'd covered the computers, surrounded them on three sides, and there was a massive tangle of vines above it, suspending a corpse in armor in the air. Plants were growing out od the corpse, making its species and most of the armor unrecognizable, though not all.
"Traces of Light," Osiris said. "That thing...was a Guardian. We're too late. Far too late."
Hunter dropped his gaze to a rifle tangled in the base of the vines, styled as a bolt-action rifle from ancient Earth history, including old iron sights. He pulled it free of the vines, then looked up at the Guardian again.
"I'm comind back to the City to turn the rifle in," Hunter said. "The body can't be returned, not like this, but the rifle can be."
"Alright," Osiris said. "Do you see his Ghost?"
Hunter looked around before having Spark scan for it.
"I found it," Spark said. "Remember the part where we jumped from platform to platform?"
"Yeah," Hunter said. "I'll grab it then warp out."
He backtracked, with difficulty, to the spot Spark told him about before following his directions to a small alcove on the middle platform. Behind the structure the platform was attached to, he found the Ghost lying on the platform. He knelt, picking it up, and Spark shone Light Energy on it for a few seconds before it floated into the air.
"Where is my Guardian?" the Ghost asked in a deep, male voice.
"He's gone," Hunter said. "We're heading back to the City. We can bring you with us."
The Ghost agreed, and they all warped to Hunter's ship, before he set a course for the City.
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