I do not own Destiny or any of its characters.
Stubborn
Hunter entered the control room first, keeping his Pulse Rifle on Taniks as the others spread out behind him.
"Nuclear descent protocol active," the Crypt AI announced. "Utter destruction of Europa imminent."
"We'll see about that," Hunter growled, forming himself a Reverie Dawn Casque. "Shiro, let's finish what Cayde started."
"Right," Shiro nodded. "Can't have Taniks smearing Cayde's reputation."
Hunter nodded, but Elsie caught his arm.
"Not yet," Elsie said. "We need to stop the nuclear descent protocol. Hunter and I can handle it. You all need to keep Taniks busy."
"So...kill him?" Shiro asked.
"If you can," Elsie nodded.
Shiro and the Hunter both snorted in amusement.
"If we can," Shiro smirked.
"What do we do?" Hunter asked Elsie.
"We need to take out the eight nuclear cores and put them in the emergency vents, which will deactivate and neutralize them before launching them out into space," Elsie said.
Hunter nodded and followed her into the room. As he did, however, Fallen swarmed into the room from the other doors, every single one except the one they'd entered through. They all swore harshly, opening fire on the Fallen as Taniks turned, raising a Scorch Cannon and opened fire, everyone scattering. Elsie and Hunter slaughtered their way through the room rapidly, heading for a set of control panels on a machine overhead. In their eyes, two of them were glowing, and they both shot one. A moment later, a pair of spherical nuclear cores were exposed against the far right and left wall of the room. Both sprinted for the cores instantly, using their guns, Stasis, and in Hunter's case, knives to clear themselves a path. Shiro grabbed the core Hunter was heading for, struggling under its weight, and headed to meet Hunter. He passed it off and Hunter grunted, turning and heading for the machines Elsie was just shoving hers into. The machines were large, round, and yellow with an open slot on four of them. However, Hunter could see one of them glowing, as Elsie's had been a moment before, as energy ran to it, keeping it open for a core to be injected through. He stumbled, gritting his teeth, and ignored the agony growing in his head and chest. He had never really thought about it, but he was surprised an Exo, particularly one made out of SIVA, was affected by radiation. Finally, he shoved the core into the machine, and it whirred as it pulled the core away from him. Hunter turned, turning his attention fully on the Fallen around them, as Elsie had, and they began to rapidly slaughter them. After a few minutes, an alarm shrieked twice, announcing two more cores had moved into charging position. Hunter focused, using the SIVA he'd used his rifle to get into place to hack the satellite's systems again, ejecting the cores from their charging position to where they could be removed. He and Elsie again sprinted for the cores, both grabbing them themselves this time. Taniks, aware of what they were doing this time, turned on Hunter instantly, only for two rockets, several Golden Gun shots, and a Stasis Grenade to explode into him. The machine parts making up most of his body began to spark and smoke, his body folding forward as it lost power, dropping his Scorch Cannon to the ground, and Hunter and Elsie charged through multiple Fallen to reach the machines they were heading for. They both ejected their cores, then spun, Elsie hurling a pair of Stasis shuriken, which bounced from one Fallen to the next, freezing or killing them all, as Hunter hurled a fan of Proximity Mine Knives, the explosions slaughtering the Fallen rushing them, as well as shattering any Elsie had frozen. The others all fired into the swarm of Fallen around them, clearing many of them, only for the alarm to shriek again before Hunter or Elsie could move to get the cores.
"Eject them!" the Hero shouted, sprinting for the spot one would appear, Ana heading for the other.
Hunter complied, and as the cores were ejected, he and Elsie both jumped onto the machines that prepared themselves for the cores. They split their fire between Taniks and the Fallen in the Hero and Ana's path, the Drifter and Shiro both focusing on Taniks exclusively, and after a moment, the two cores had been ejected into space and Ana and the Hero began to slaughter the Fallen again. This time, however, Taniks leapt across the room, tackling Hunter to the ground and grabbing a knife as long as Hunter's forearm and hand combined, driving it down at his head. He yanked his head to the side, avoiding it, and punched Taniks, only for Taniks to laugh. Hunter growled in annoyance, drawing the Ace of Spades and firing several shots into Taniks' abdomen, making him roar in pain and rear back. Then, Hunter holstered the Hand Cannon again as he forced the last two cores to vent. Taniks grabbed him by the throat and spun, hurling him into the Drifter and Ana, then leapt to the machines they intended to vent the cores out of. He raised his foot, but before he could crush one, the Hero formed a staff of Stasis Crystals and jabbed it at Taniks, firing four head-sized orbs of Stasis Energy. They flashed across the distance to Taniks and slammed into him hard, encasing him in a thick layer of ice instantly. After about a second, it began to crack, and a moment later, Taniks turned his head, shattering the ice around his neck, but the rest held. Then, just as Taniks managed to free one arm, Elsie and the Drifter slammed their nuclear cores into the proper machines, Drifter using the oddly-shaped scanning visor, the one he'd gotten when they were dealing with the Crypt's security, to see which machine was open. Then, both dove away just as Taniks freed himself and roared in rage.
"Nuclear descent protocol deactivated," the Crypt AI announced, just as the floor in the center of the room opened. "Orbital collision remains imminent. Clever little rats. I will not forget what you have done here today."
"Drop down!" Elsie shouted, everyone complying.
She landed first in the hallway below and sprinted along it, everyone following.
"Upon collision, the Crypt will be torn open, and all defenses will be destroyed," the AI continued as Fallen swarmed into the hallway ahead of them, only to be slaughtered without them slowing at all. "It is now open to all. Allies and enemies alike. If you do not defend it, the results could be world ending. Humanity's fate is now on you."
They passed through a blast door and turned, seeing Taniks sprinting after them, roaring in rage. Hunter huffed, drawing the Ace of Spades. Taniks roared in rage instantly upon seeing it, and Hunter smirked.
"Glad you recognize it," Hunter smirked, aiming. "Now die."
He fired, the shot punching into Taniks' head, but he didn't die. But that was fine. He still staggered to the side and his foot missed the raised walkway he was on, sending him crashing to the ground. A second later, the blast door sealed and Hunter holstered the gun again. Then, Elsie slammed a Stasis Grenade into the ground, freezing them all into ice formations. A few seconds later, the satellite slammed into Europa. The ice shattered instantly, and they were all hurled into the ceiling, then the floor hard enough to break bones, but they all survived. Their ghosts instantly set to work healing them all, except Elsie, whose owl-looking thing did the same, though Spark informed Hunter that the energy it was healing her with wasn't Light or Dark energy.
As they stood, they all groaned, stretching and twisting to loosen their battered bodies, looking around the destroyed room, which was now shrouded in darkness. Their Ghosts all shone light for them, except for Spark and Elsie's owl thing, which both vanished as Hunter and Elsie used their SIVA to give themselves night vision.
"That sucked," Drifter said. "Now what?"
"We need to find a way out," Elsie said. "We should have crashed onto the Crypt, and since we fell from orbit, there's no way the rest of the station is intact. There should be any number of hull breaches we can get out through."
"Why wasn't this room destroyed?" the Hero asked.
"It's the heart of the station," Hunter said as they followed the destroyed hallway they'd just run down a few minutes earlier. "It's the safest room in the station if you can't reach the escape pods."
"What, no crash vault?" Drifter asked.
"Considering the station was designed to destroy the moon, does that really surprise you?" Elsie asked.
"Valid point," Ana said.
They finally reached the new end of the hallway, where the rest of the station had disintegrated, and jumped out onto the ice. Hunter grabbed his Pulse Rifle from his back and looked around, frowning. He hadn't seen Taniks die, and he wanted to be sure, but he wasn't sure where Taniks would have landed.
"Worry about him later," Elsie said. "We were coming to the Crypt for a reason, right?"
Hunter nodded. "Yeah. I also want to see if Claroty Control died."
"I doubt it would be that easy," Elsie said.
"Clarity Control?" Drifter frowned. "That room?"
"The thing that looked like a floating statue," Hunter said. "It's the being from another dimension the AI mentioned. Clarity, the power Clovis combined with Radiolaria to make Vex, is just what Clovis called pure Darkness Energy."
"Lovely," Ana said.
"No kidding," Hunter said, then stopped as they reached the large, open area outside the front of the Crypt. The area was strewn with debris, and Hunter could see several of the machines to disable nuclear cores scattered around the area. Then, as he turned his attention to a pile of debris in the center of the area, he saw Taniks' hand sticking out from under it.
"Taniks," Hunter warned, turning toward the pile fully, the others instantly readying their weapons.
"He's got to be dead," Shiro said.
"How many times has he died now?" the Hero asked. "One from Cayde, two for me, now this? We shoumd double check."
Hunter nodded in agreement, starting forward. However, just as he was nearing the pile, it exploded and Taniks rose into the air. Except, he'd undergone a disturbing change this time. His body was missing below the waist, and in its place, he'd apparently attached a Heavy Shank. And attached to each of the thrusters was a nuclesr core, powering him and likely keeping him alive now. Hunter shook his head.
"You stubborn bastard," Hunter growled. "Just give up already."
Taniks roared, raising his Scorch Cannon and they all scattered as he fired. After a few seconds of their shots slamming into Taniks, Fallen began to appear, apparently arriving to see what had fallen from the sky. Everyone opened fire, slaughtering the Fallen. As they fought, Hunter had Spark monitoring Taniks. Sure enough, the small metal panel over one of the cores slid back and they all opened fire. After a moment, there was an explosion and the core crashed to the ground. Taniks roared in pain, and Hunter raced forward, swapping his Pulse Rifle for the Joker and used that and knives to slaughter his way to the core. As he grabbed it, he turned, heading for the powered up machine he needed to put it in, and Taniks roared, releasing a pulse of Arc Energy. It hurled Hunter, sending him sailing through the air, and he crashed to the ground just shy of the machine he was heading for. Instantly, Elsie swiped the core, hauling it the rest of the way to the machine and shoved it in. It shone red for a few seconds before the light faded. Then it dropped about three inches to the ground inside of the machine as the machine tried to jettison it, only for the lack of a pipe or outer space to stop it. But it worked. The core was deactivated and harmless.
Hunter hauled himself to his feet just as another core uncovered itself, Hunter watching the power of the core being channeled into Taniks' body this time as they all fired at the core. Finally, it broke free and the power he'd absorbed overloaded, electricity racing over Taniks' body as the Hero swiped the core and sprinted for the nearest machine. All of the ones without a core in them were active, now, so they just had to get it to the closest. As he ran, hunter and Ana cleared his path with a combination of their rifles, Ana's Golden Gun, and Hunter's SIVA Grenades.
The Hero charged directly through a SIVA swarm to reach the machine, the SIVA ignoring him and the core conpletely, and just as he shoved it into the machine, the SIVA suddenly assembled themselves into a wall around him, blocking a blast from Taniks' Scorch Cannon. The Hero took off at a sprint as Hunter fired several shots into Taniks' head, making him roar in pain and turn toward Hunter, opening fire instantly. Just as he did, he began to draw power from both his remaining cores. However, that proved to be a mistake, and a moment later, both cores crashed to the ground. Hunter hurled a SIVA Grenade into Taniks' face, distracting him as Elsie and Drifter grabbed the cores. However, without his cores, Tanis didn't die. Instead, he used the power he'd managed to siphon from them to form a massive sphere of Arc Energy around himself, the electricity grabbing chunks of debris and starting them spinning around himself as his power built up in the center. Hunter and Shiro charged instantly, Hunter with Void Energy focused into the Lament, and Shiro with Arc Energy screaming along a dagger. Both leapt over a chunk of debris, then landed below Taniks.
"Just die already!" both roared, leaping into an upward slash.
As they did, the Lament's thruster shrieked to life, multiplying Hunter's power and speed as Shiro tripled the amount of Arc Energy in his blade. Then, their blades tors upward through Taniks' body and out his shoulders. Arc Energy exploded over Taniks' entire body as Void Energy formed into a singularity inside the Heavy Shank, crushing it. Taniks crashed to the ground, and Hunter and Shiro both stepped up over him, aiming one of Hunter's Hand Cannons, Hunter holding the Ace of Spades and Shiro holding the Joker.
"I...will...get-" Taniks began.
"Shut the fuck up," Hunter growled, he and Shiro emptying their guns into his head, almost entirely erasing it.
"This think is besutiful," Shiro said, tossing the Joker back to Hunter. "Solidly his second best work."
Hunter snorted. "Come on, Shiro, you knew him better than that. He had Banshee do it and promised to pay him back eventually."
Shiro laughed, nodding. "Sounds about right."
They both turned to the Crypt as the others joined them. Hunter and Elsie both nodded, heading for whst remained of the Crypt, and Ana followed. The rest of them, however, all warped away, having no real personal stake in the place. After a few hours of searching, Hunter had varified tqo things. Firstly, Clarity Control had, in fact, survived. Secondly, there was a chamber at the very base of the Crypt that served as a sort of storage room. Inside, the thing, or rather things, Hunter and Elsie had meant to come look for, was resting in the center. Firstly, a ship. Ot had once belonged to Hunter, but when he and Elsie had gotten together, it had become as much hers as his. Secondly, on a table beside the ship, were the Lament, the real one, and a photograph of the two of them together before becoming Exos. Hunter smiled, picking the photo up, and Elsie stepped up beside him, also smiling.
"I'd almost forgotten what you looked like back then," Elsie smiled.
"So did I," Hunter said, staring at the pale-faced boy grinning in the picture like he'd won the lottery, which he most definitely had. "As beautoful then as I remember."
"Thank you," Elsie smiled.
"Oh, I meant me, but you, too, I suppose," Hunter smirked.
Elsie rolled her eyes, shoving him lightly, and he smiled, forming himself lips where his mouth opened but not his full false skin, and Elsie did the same, kissing him. After a few seconds, both pulled back, looking back at their assembled things. Hunter passed her the sword and picture, and they headed to the ship together. After a couple of minutes, Ana followed with something that Hunter really wished he'd noticed earlier. An robotic dog with an all black body, extra armor plating, four eyes, and the general shape of, Hunter was pretty sure, a doberman pincher.
"A pet dog?" Hunter asked, cocking his head yo the side.
"Dogs," Ana said, two more identical dogs stepping around her. "Their rpogramming is insane. They're almost AIs. Non-Clovis AIs."
Hunter and Elsie glanced at each other. They remembered Ana staying up for days at a time to program the dogs, then spending months testing each round of programming. To their knowledge, she'd never finished. Hunter resolved to use his SIVA to check on them during the flight.
"Let's get out of here," Hunter finally said. "I need to sleep somewhere warm."
"And then we have an Ahamkara to kill," Elsie said.
Hunter groaned. "I forgot about that."
Elsie smiled and nodded, and they all boarded the ship together, Hunter taking the controls. Directly ahead of the ship was a tunnel, and he shot down it at fulk speed. The tunnel curved upward smoothly before finally spitting them out at the bottom of a crevasse, and they rocketted into the sky before levelling out and flying to Hunter's ship.
"I'll warp over to mine and bring it back to the tower with us," Hunter said. "I'm going to trade it."
"For what?" Ana asked. "A new one? Glimmer?"
"Depends on what it's worth," Hunter said. "Now, before I go..."
He set a hand onto each dog's head one at a time, leaving SIVA to connect him to them. They're programming was amazing, as Ana had said, and it was close to perfect. She'd been so close. But within a couple seconds, he'd finished, and the new canine AIs all whined and nuzzled his hand appreciatively before going to beg for Ana's attention as Hunter took his SIVA back. from them. Then, he kissed Elsie again before warping to his ship, both of them heading for the Tower.
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