"This is insane." Kendrix muttered.
"I did warn you she was crazy, didn't I?" Proxima answered.
Kendrix peeked his vizor above the dusty, gray ridge, staring at the lunar landscape stretching out before him. The valley, or more accurately, the crater, beyond was dotted with a set of metallic buildings. They were clearly of human construction, but that was about the only positive thing about them. They were all in ruins.
Lights were dark and dead, windows were cracked or shattered, walls were tarnished at best and little more than piles of scrap at worst. To make matters worse, even at this distance Kendrix could spot the telltale blue glow of Fallen eyes skulking through the debris.
But none of this is what concerned him. No, what worried him were the thin black spires in the distance, barely visible as they jutted out behind the far lip of the crater.
"I know, but a one man assault on the Hellmouth?! Seriously?!"
An indignant whine echoed across the radio channel, originating from Kendrix's right. He glanced over to where the hulking form of Nova lay in the lunar dust. Even while prone, he was still taller than Kendrix was crouched, but he was fortunately staying back from the crest of the ridge to avoid being seen by the sharp-eyed Fallen beyond it. Unfortunately, that meant he could focus all of his attention on giving Kendrix a bright blue stink-eye.
"You don't count. She didn't know I'd have a giant robot for backup when she sent me out here on a suicide mission!"
"Oh quit it." Proxima chided. "If my scans are correct, and they always are, we're not even going to be entering the Hellmouth proper. The Temple of Crota is surprisingly isolated from the rest of the fortress, all things considered, so there shouldn't even be that many Hive to fight through. It won't be that bad."
"I could barely get through the Hive on Earth without having a mental breakdown, and now I'm supposed to just go waltzing into their home base? What part of that makes you think any of this won't be 'that bad'?"
"Well, we could always go back to the Tower and ask Eris for an easier assignment. I'm sure she'll be very understanding when you tell her you chickened out before you even saw a single Thrall."
Kendrix's thoughts dragged him back to that morning, when Proxima had led him to an isolated platform in the Tower, to the black-robed woman who waited there. He remembered the veil that had hung over the upper part of the woman's face, the way it did nothing to hide the three sickly, emerald coals that burned where her eyes should have been. The way those coals had stared at him, right through his helmet's visor, their gaze boring into his sockets as if trying to push through his skull and vivisect his brain.
Kendrix shivered.
"That's what I thought," Proxima muttered with a hint of amusement. Then, her presence in his mind stiffened for a moment, before muttering again. "Shit."
"What?" Kendrix inquired, exhaustion and dread already creeping into his voice.
"The Speaker just sent out an emergency broadcast on all Guardian channels. He says they've learned of a Hive ritual that's draining the Traveler's light. And you won't believe where the coordinates he gave are."
Kendrix let out a groan.
"Great. So now it's a suicide mission against something powerful enough to harm the Traveler itself," he grumbled. Then, a realization struck him. "Wait…why the hell did Eris not tell the Speaker about the threat before sending us out here?!"
"Eris has always acted in… unusual ways when developing strategies with the Vanguard. She probably had a hunch something was going on before there was enough evidence for an actual announcement to be sent out, so she sent us out here on false pretenses so there'd be a Guardian nearby and ready to respond when the news dropped."
Kendrix let out yet another groan.
"Worst part is," Proxima continued, ignoring her Guardian's complaints, "now that the word's out, there'll be tons of Guardians on their way here to save the Traveler, gain glory, or both. Meaning we need to do this now before Nova is seen. Right, Kendrix?" she finished rather pointedly.
"Yes, right," Kendrix replied with a sigh. "You ready for this, bud?" he asked, turning to Nova. The metallic warrior replied by crushing his own hand into a fist that quickly shifted into the form of his new, Fallen-style Arc weapon. Kendrix couldn't help the small smile that pulled at his lips.
"Alright then. Break!"
Nova shot to his feet in a single, lunging motion, leveling his two blasters and launching a barrage of large, pulsating Arc charges out into the field of battle. The six whistling projectiles dove down into the crater, slamming into the ground to create plumes of white dust, obscuring the scene as they dissipated into electric sparks, taking a handful of the unsuspecting Fallen with them into oblivion.
In the same moment, Kendrix leapt forward as his Sparrow materialized beneath him, rocketing into the crater. One hand was clasped firmly on the steering while the other aimed his Duke at any dazed Fallen unfortunate enough to stumble out of the dust and into the light. Kendrix ended two Dregs and a Vandal before he even reached the edge of the ruins.
Not to be outdone, Nova leapt into the air, thrusters firing like a giant jetpack and carrying him out to the center of the crater in a single bound, crushing a Vandal with a single giant foot as he landed. A Captain swept out of the dust, swords and fangs bared in equal measure, before freezing as it realized the magnitude of its opponent. The hesitation was more than enough time for one of Nova's forearms to shift into a pile driver and squash the terrified bug.
Kendrix made his Sparrow disappear just before he hit the whirlwind of dust and smoke, letting its momentum throw him into the waiting arms of another Captain, whom he crushed in a Void-filled embrace before a single one of its eyes could blink. Kendrix Blinked away, the broken body crumpling in his wake.
The pair of warriors moved quickly and efficiently. The surprised Fallen could hardly identify their assailants, much less mount a defense. Those who did manage a full glimpse of the Guardian or his Cybertronian partner, however, had so little time left in their short lives that they barely had a moment to scream.
So complete was the attack that all of the pirates had fallen before the dust had a chance to settle. Confident that Nova's existence would not be relayed to the rest of the Fallen's House, the two warriors moved towards the black spires in the distance, Kendrix cutting a path through the dust on his Sparrow and Nova following close behind in a long-strided sprint augmented by boosts from his thrusters.
As they passed the crater's edge, a wall of cliff-like boulders became visible. Proxima directed them both towards a particularly spacious crag, assuring them it led to the temple.
"How close are the other Guardians?" Kendrix asked as they moved into the canyon, slowing his Sparrow to handle the tighter space more cautiously.
"No proximity beacons yet," Proxima informed him. "But there is… something trying to make contact. Could be the Speaker. We should have a clearer signal once we reach the temple." As they went, Kendrix tried to glance at the cliffs surrounding them as often as he could without crashing, but no sickly green eyes shone down on him from the cracks.
After less than a minute, they emerged from the far side of the boulders into another crater, this one with far steeper walls. At the far end, a grisly structure of black stone jutted out from the natural rock around it, metallic gates hanging wide open.
Kendrix squinted at the entrance with suspicion, then screeched to a halt as he spotted what lay in front of it.
A body.
A Guardian body, if the small size and bright color were any indication. Nova slowed as he too spotted it, his vocalizer beeping nervously. Kendrix slowly dismounted from his Sparrow, snatching his Duke back out of transmatt as he did. He closed the rest of the distance slowly, eyes and barrel trained on the corpse, expecting a trap.
His focus was broken, however, when a static-laden voice crackled into his helmet.
"You're interesting." The voice sounded female, but Kendrix couldn't be sure. "Not entirely interesting, but… you have promise," the voice continued. "Both of you," she added. Nova's head swiveled around in confusion and curiosity. It seemed he could hear the transmission too.
I thought you said there weren't any Guardians nearby? Kendrix thought nervously.
There aren't, at least not that I can tell. Proxima replied. I can't… I don't know who this is, I can't pin down the signal's origin.
Well whoever it is, it seems like they know about Nova. We need to be careful.
"Guardian," the voice continued, heedless of their internal conversation. "I know what you and your friend are about to do. It's brave. But there are enemies out here you wouldn't believe."
"Out where…?" Kendrix slowly asked, not even sure if the voice could hear his reply.
"Go down and face the Hive," the voice said. Kendrix couldn't tell if it was replying to his question or not. "...and if you live, come find me."
Kendrix heard the transmission cut off, and his comms returned to a suddenly eerie silence.
"I got some coordinates," Proxima announced, her voice filled with intrigue. "Venus, in the Ishtar region of the northern hemisphere. The Vanguard database marks it as… Vex territory." she added with concern. Kendrix could already feel her drifting off, her thoughts spiraling away into questions and strategies. He resisted the urge to do the same. The transmission was mysterious, frustratingly so, and he wanted nothing more than to rip into that mystery until he caught hold of the truth and dragged it screaming into the daylight. But they didn't have time for that right now.
"We can worry about this later. Right now, we need to get down there, get the job done, and get out before any other Guardians arrive."
"Yeah, you're right," Proxima conceded, though she couldn't keep all of the disappointment out of her voice.
Suddenly, a long, echoing roar split the air, its source undoubtedly residing somewhere deep within the gaping passages of the structure before them.
"Well then." Kendrix said as firmly as he could manage. "Let's get to work."
He moved forward, grimacing as he gingerly stepped around the lifeless body of the fallen Guardian. They'd have to return it to the Tower when they made it back.
If they made it back, he grimly corrected himself.
At first, things went relatively smoothly. The tighter spaces of the building's interior were still large enough for Nova to move around without too much trouble. First, there were the Thralls, the gray, eyeless things that tried to run Kendrix down and overwhelm him, just like they had on Earth. It seemed Hive tactics didn't change much from planet to planet. His breath seized slightly as he saw the emaciated monsters burst from the surrounding corridors like blood from a wound, remembering the way he'd fallen on Earth. The claws, the suffocating weight of bodies far too strong and far too thin, the-
A burst of fire from Nova's weaponry removed the Thrall from the equation, and Kendrix released the breath he'd been holding.
Next were the Acolytes, Proxima called them. Lean, three-eyed marksmen roughly the size of a human, covered in reddish chitin. They seemed more intelligent than the Thrall, keeping at a distance from him and Nova as best they could and firing blade-like Void projectiles from small, pistol-sized weapons. Nova let out another spray of fire, and the coiling shots curved to follow the Acolytes as they moved behind cover, catching up to those that weren't quite quick enough. For his part, Kendrix took the Void in one hand and his Duke in the other, and Blinked to a small cluster of the alien soldiers, cutting them down with relative ease.
Nova maintained covering fire while Kendrix moved through the room, hunting down any Acolytes or lingering Thrall that managed to stay out of the Cybertronian's line of sight. The room was emptied in less than a minute, and Proxima directed them deeper into the bowels of the temple.
The next room was much larger than the first, consisting of a two-tiered platform surrounding a deep, shadowed pit. Bridges crisscrossed the yawning void to a small platform hanging above it, holding some sort of glowing pillar. Kendrix spotted another doorway on the far side of the pit, but his attention was quickly diverted when an eight-foot tall Hive lunged for him with a cleaver. A Knight, Proxima had told him, like the one he had put to rest at the Hellmouth's edge just before the samurai had revealed himself.
Kendrix Blinked a few feet to the side and watched as the Knight's blade struck stone floor. The creature turned its three-eyed face at him and snarled. Kendrix just gave it a small wave in farewell, before he watched as a massive metal kick sent it flying into the gluttonous pit in the room's center.
Nova stepped into the room, thrusters roaring a challenge. All the Hive present in the room immediately focused their fire onto the giant metal warrior, and the Cybertronian took a step back as he put his forearms up to protect his face, beeping in pain and irritation.
Unfortunately for the Hive, their unified attack made it easy for Kendrix to spot the shooters' locations. A pair of magazines from his Duke and the aliens learned their lesson, moving back into cover and starting to choose their shots more carefully.
Then, a truly unearthly shriek split the air, and a cloaked something burst into the air above the pit.
Garbed in long, tattered robes, and wearing a visage of chitin and bone that either hid its face or was its face, the tall, thin Hive soared through the stifling air, missiles of pale light loosing from its fingertips. Kendrix dove behind cover to weather the barrage, but not before a pair of the projectiles struck him, burning into his shields and skin. He clenched his teeth and hissed air through them as the electric pain split through his body.
"Hive Wizard," Proxima helpfully informed as she flushed him with Light to heal the damage.
A salvo of shots from Nova collided with the Wizard dead on. But when the smoke cleared, it still hung aloft like a phantom marionette, wreathed in a barrier of burning solar. The attack did not go unnoticed, however, and the Wizard quickly turned its ire upon the offending Cybertronian, who let loose a digitized bellow of pain as the Hive's attacks burned into him.
Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Kendrix leapt over his cover and used a Glide to carry him up, further, right to the Wizard. He forced a palm forward, pushing it through the orange shield despite the burns it gave him, and closed his hand around the Hive's neck.
The thing let out another shriek as it tried to claw him off, but with a snap of collapsing gravity he relieved it of its voice. Pushing the limp form away, Kendrix used the last of his Glide to shift back over the platform before the anti-gravity effect gave out entirely, and he fell a rough ten feet onto the stone floor. As Proxima quickly healed his injuries, Kendrix watched with a morbid fascination as the Wizard's lifeless form drifted down into the abyss, mouth and throat both opened wide.
With their commander gone, the remaining Hive were relatively easy to put down, with Nova cleaning up the remaining soldiers while Kendrix returned to his feet. With little more than a nod between them, the two moved on deeper into the temple.
The next room was the largest yet, a massive cavern with yet another giant pit at its center. But this pit was not empty. Rising from the pit like a fortress all its own was a massive black spire, umbrella-like in shape and glinting here and there with characteristic Hive green.
"A Seeder Ship," Proxima explained. "Designed to ferry Hive forces across space and implant them on new worlds for infestation. A ship like this is how the Hive we met in the Cosmodrome made it to Earth."
Kendrix was nearly caught up in the magnitude of it all. The ship was massive, nearly half the height of the Tower if his estimation was correct. If something like this landed near the City, brimming with Hive-
He pushed the thoughts aside and kept moving. Despite its size, the room they were now in was relatively sparse with Hive. And with so much space to move around in, Nova was in his element. He rocketed into the air and rained projectiles down onto the snarling forces, decimating their ranks in a matter of seconds.
As risky as having Nova along was, Kendrix couldn't argue with the results.
Once the enemies were cleared away, he rushed to catch up with Nova by the archway at the far end of the room. Just as Kendrix arrived alongside his mechanized companion, two Knights came barreling up the stairs beyond the archway, maws roaring and swords swinging.
With a flick of his wrist, Kendrix threw a newborn grenade right at the pair of charging Hive. One of the Knights raised its arm and created some kind of chitinous shield to protect it from the blast. Its companion was not so wise, and caught the grenade against its chest right as the bundle of Void power detonated. Violet auroras tore across the Knight's exoskeleton, bringing the almost demonic alien to its knees. Kendrix finished it off with a quick trio of shots; one for each eye.
Although it had weathered the grenade's blast, the other Knight was far from safe. Nova's fist quickly reformatted, and a massive piledriver smashed through the Hive's wall of darkness, sending the thing crashing down the stairway with a crack. The Knight howled when it came to a stop, until Nova crushed its head with another strike.
They continued down the stairwell, which rounded out onto a massive platform hanging above yet another pit. This one, however, was truly gargantuan, stretching for hundreds of meters into the distance. Kendrix realized where they were when he felt the psychic pressure of the Dark upon him, filling his lungs and constricting his heart.
"You said we weren't going into the Hellmouth!" Kendrix growled through clenched teeth.
"We aren't!" Proxima insisted densively. "...the real Hellmouth fortress is much deeper than this."
"Fucking semantics," Kendrix muttered darkly.
"Oh hush. Now come on, we're almost there."
They pushed onward, Kendrix trying to ignore the oppressive feeling of vertigo trying to drag him into the pit and focus on keeping an eye out for Hive. Thankfully, Proxima was right that they didn't have far to go. They reached the end of the platform easily and made a left, rounding back into the suddenly welcome claustrophobia of the Hive catacombs.
Another couple of turns, and they emerged into a final room, two-tiered room, with an ominous sealed gate standing at the far end.
"'The Chamber of Night'," Proxima intoned, indicating the massive door. "That's where the ritual is taking place. Get me over there and I should be able to-"
The Ghost was interrupted as an all-too familiar shriek literally split the air, a great green tear ripping into being in the center of the room. And out of it hovered the unmistakable onyx silhouette of a Hive tombship.
Kendrix felt the Void roar inside him as his heart began to hammer, pumping liquid terror throughout his body in microseconds.
"Proxima, is that-?!"
"No! No, it's not him! It's just a-"
Thrusters thundered and wind scorched as Nova threw himself into the air, body shaking with a mechanical warcry. He collided with the tombship before it could so much as fire a shot, using his considerable bulk to knock the thing off-kilter. The Cybertronian forced his way on top of it and began to lay blow after blow down on the ship, not even bothering to activate his piledrivers.
Chunks of black, stone-like plating flew, and the tombship's sickly green lighting flickered with each strike of the giant metal fists. Nova seemed unsatisfied, however, and pushed off, thrusters carrying him to the ceiling, then immediately plummeting him towards the floor. He struck the tombship feet-first, bringing it down with such force that it split in two on impact with the ground.
A second later, the batteries of the ship's Void cannon detonated, engulfing Nova in an explosion that shook the entire structure around them.
Kendrix could feel the dust in the air despite his helmet's filters, and quickly rushed over to where he'd last seen his partner.
"Nova, you big metal idiot," he mumbled worriedly as he pushed through the clouds of smoke and debris, searching for the Cybertronian. Fortunately, it wasn't a hard task given Nova's size. Kendrix found a massive boot half-buried in rubble, and followed the leg attached to it up to the torso and then head. Nova's eyes were still glowing, thankfully, though somewhat dimmer than usual. They wandered around sluggishly until they found and fixated on the little human climbing towards them.
"That was very stupid." Kendrix chided. "That wasn't even the samurai!"
Nova's only reply was a pained, non-committal whine.
"Ugh, whatever," Kendrix said with a sigh. He glanced over the half-dozen scratches and countless Void burns criss-crossing Nova's robotic bodies and groaned. "We don't have time for this!" Then, a thought occurred to him, and he put his palms out, placing them on the largest wound. After a moment, a warm, golden light suffused his gloves and the metallic skin they touched, and Kendrix felt the glimmer-based flesh begin to knit itself back together. He repeated the tactic with the worst of the remaining injuries, before moving off of Nova's body.
"Alright, let's move it," he ordered, gesturing for the robotic warrior to stand. Nova's eyes, suddenly bright once more, stared down at his body with wonder. "I said let's go!" Kendrix half-shouted. Shaken from his awe, Nova pushed himself to his feet. "Good. Now, we're going to take this next room more carefully, right?" Nova quickly gave a sharp nod, and transformed his hands into Arc weapon mode. "Good."
The sealed door behind them split apart and swung open, granting them passage into the chamber beyond.
The chamber was Dark, suffocatingly so. Kendrix could feel it flowing through the very space around him, trying to weaken him, to cage his Light, to oppress his soul. Kendrix felt the Void howl a challenge, and he let it out just slightly, feeling it gnash its metaphysical teeth at the encroaching night.
The room was dominated by a massive, dark shard hovering in its center. The thing's surface was engulfed in green shadow, obscuring its form, though Kendrix doubted he would have been able to identify it otherwise anyway. Hovering around it were three gaunt shapes, hands aglow with pale hate and masked faces chanting in some dark tongue. As the Guardian and the Cybertronian, the three turned to gaze upon the intruders, and screamed in horrid harmony.
"Siphon Witches!" Proxima called out across their comms as the three Hive swept towards them. "They must be the ones performing the ritual. Put them down, and we put an end to this."
"And we get to go home," Kendrix concluded. "Let's do this."
The Guardian whipped his Duke out of existence and exchanged it for his rifle. The Khvostov's staccato symphony filled the air as its rounds peppered the three Witches, pinging against their fiery energy shields, noticeably weakening the conjured defenses. One shield gave way entirely, and the Witch it had been protecting screamed as three tracing Arc particles hunted it down and ripped it apart.
The other two saw their sister fall to Nova's firepower and retreated, casting dark projectiles from their talons as they retreated behind cover. Kendrix Blinked after one of them, catching it by surprise and shattering its shield with a Void-filled fist. The thing screamed at him, and he stuffed a grenade down its throat to ease the pain in his ears. Kendrix let himself fall to the floor, moving just out of range as the grenade devoured the Hive from the inside out.
The remaining Witch seemed somewhat more clever than its fellows. It was focusing on Nova, keeping its distance and only firing the occasional shot. Most notably, whenever Nova made to fire upon the Witch, it would launch a projectile of its own, destroying the seeking shots before they flew close enough to harm it. Realizing his tactic wasn't working, Nova pushed forward, trying to get in close enough to squash the Witch with his piledrivers. The alien dove to meet him, dodging his swings with sudden bursts of speed.
The Witch used its small size to great effect, managing to move to the back of the comparatively lumbering Cybertronian with ease. Once there, it raked his back with malice-filled talons, cackling as armor and internal components alike gave way beneath its claws. Nova let out whirring bellows of pain, trying desperately to turn and face the creature, but no matter how he twisted, it managed to stay behind him. Then, in a moment of clarity, Nova activated his thrusters.
Flames concentrated enough to reach escape velocity erupted over the Witch's body. Its shield shattered nearly instantly, and in mere moments there was nothing left of the Hive but ash.
Kendrix lifted himself into a Glide and landed next to Nova, looking around with caution.
"Did we do it?" he asked, daring to hope.
"No." Proxima replied grimly. "The Witches did their work; the ritual is self-sustaining now." The Ghost paused for a moment, then swore. "Shit! Just detected a jumpship proximity beacon. Three, actually. ETA ten minutes." There was a flash at Kendrix's shoulder, and he looked in surprise as Proxima floated out into the open. She rarely revealed herself so freely in enemy territory. "I'm going to access that terminal," she said aloud, nodding towards a cylindrical interface covered in runes near the giant shard, "-and try to stop whatever the Witches started. You two need to keep the Hive off of me long enough for me to get it done."
As if to punctuate her statement, a collection of screams and roars echoed through the room, sounding like they were coming from somewhere nearby.
"Are you sure about this?" Kendrix asked, looking at Proxima worriedly as she flew over towards the terminal.
"Hell no," the Ghost replied with a depressed chuckle. "But we don't have time to sit around and play it safe. If those Guardians find us down here with Nova, then everything we've worked for was for nothing."
Kendrix gave a grim nod, and glanced around the room. There were two other sealed doors serving as ways into the room, identical to the one they had first entered from. Kendrix walked to the one that it sounded like the roars had come from, reloaded his Khvostov, and waited. Nova posted up behind him, weapons charged and leveled at the gateway.
Kendrix listened, and in a matter of seconds he heard the fast-approaching sound of scraping claws and slavering breath. The door split apart a moment later, and before it could even fully open, the Thrall began to pour through.
Kendrix and Nova fired in tandem, their combined salvo annihilating most of the creatures before they even reached the ground. Then came the Acolytes and Knights, the former sending darting daggers of Void and the latter lobbing white charges that exploded on impact. The assault forced Kendrix and Nova back behind some nearby cover, though it did little for Nova's massive frame. In that moment, Kendrix would have given anything to conjure a ward like the one Oroa had shown him. One of the downsides of trading a fireteam for a shapeshifting robot, he supposed.
No, his Void had other strengths. Unfortunately, it was feeling more and more like there was precious little left. He'd used a fair amount of Light fighting his way into the Chamber, and the suffocating Dark made it extra difficult to replenish his reserves. But things were getting rough, and they couldn't afford to let even one Hive make it through to Proxima. So Kendrix decided that if she could take dangerous risks to finish the mission, so could he.
He ducked behind the cover and slung his Khvostov over his shoulders, steepling his hands together into a sort of cage like Trinity had shown him. Then, he focused, drawing on all the Light he could muster, his desire to survive, to fight, to win. The maw of the Void rose to his call, grinning wide with hunger. He let it build up inside of him, calmly gnashing away, leapt into the air, and then-
-released.
The Nova Bomb obliterated a solid third of the offending Hive just by sailing through them on its way to the other side of the doorway. When it landed on some hapless Acolyte, the detonation shook the space within the room and took most of the rest with it. When the blinding light cleared, all that remained were a trio of Knights who'd successfully cowered behind their dark shields at the last moment. As soon as their shields fell, however, Nova's Arc reunited them with their brethren.
Kendrix could barely stand, gripped by exhaustion and Dark both, lungs and hands burning in equal measure. But it was done.
And then the second door had to go and open.
Swearing vengeance on whatever gods may be, Kendrix turned to face the widening gateway. But what emerged was not a slavering Thrall, an ambitious Acolyte, a wrathful Knight, or a cunning Wizard.
No, this was something else. The thing walked alone, no shocking talons charging out as vanguard, no swords or guns following its thunderous footfalls. The creature, though Kendrix hesitated to grant it such a dignified descriptor, was eyeless and pale like a Thrall, but that was where the similarities ended. Where Thrall were thin, bony things, this monster's massive form bulged with chitin and sinew. Its claws were as long as Kendrix's arms, and its maw almost looked large enough to swallow him in a single bite. To complete the grotesque excuse for a body, the entire upper half of the head was a fattened, wriggling mass of flesh. Tumorous cysts ballooned from the remains of its skull like a toxic fungus, pulsating with a violet heartbeat.
As the thing stepped into the room, Kendrix realized that it was nearly as tall as Nova was, meaning it towered over every other foe he'd faced thus far. And despite its eyelessness, Kendrix could feel its gaze upon him. And it was hungry.
The abomination let out a tortured sigh loud enough to be a roar, and its bulbous head began to glow with eldritch power.
"Ogre!" Proxima yelled from across the Chamber. "Get down!"
Kendrix did as he was told, and just soon enough. The Ogre's face erupted with Void, sending a torrent of massive, pulsating projectiles right towards where Kendrix stood just as he fell behind the nearest structural outcropping.
However, the Ogre was evidently single-minded in its goals and methods. It continued to plod forward, gait never faltering, fire never stopping. Kendrix felt the Void burning hotter and hotter as the monster got closer and closer. Felt it begin to eat away at his cover, mere moments from doing the same to him. He tried to Blink, to get away from the onslaught. But his Light was too weak, the Dark too close, to muster even that now. He tried to stand, but as soon as he moved a drop of molten stone splattered across his back, and he cried out as he went down. His Ghost was too far, his body too weak, his mind too cluttered with pain and exhaustion.
There was nothing to be done, his addled brain told him. Or was it the shadows that whispered that to him? Under the circumstances, he supposed it didn't truly matter which. The Ogre would have him. He only hoped it would be quick.
And then a giant metal fist made a crater in the side of the Ogre's head.
The Hive monstrosity lurched back, bellowing in pain as its shots flew wild and then ceased entirely. Its cries were cut short by a second fist, which crushed its throat and shattered its jaws. The third fist struck the head once more, this time from above, causing it to sink deep into the abhorrent Void-organ. Then, the fist shifted in form, grinding and tearing through flesh as it did so. And the form it took began to hammer away, reducing sinew to mush, bone to dust, and thought to oblivion.
When at last the Ogre ceased its voiceless screams and futile spasms, Nova ripped his forearm from its corpse, wiping off his piledriver with faint disdain.
Kendrix blinked in surprise as his pain began to cease, looking down to see Proxima hovering over him, bathing him in warm, pale light.
"What…" he began, but his thought was ended when the shard in the room's center erupted into blinding light. The sickly shadow that had previously encased it vanished, leaving only a pristine white fragment that quickly dissolved away into motes of data.
"It was a shard of the Traveler," Proxima explained. "The Hive were using it to sap Light from the Traveler, weakening it and feeding themselves."
"Where'd it… go?" Kendrix managed to mumble as he slowly got to his feet.
"The Traveler isn't just some big white rock, you know." Proxima said with a shade of amusement. "There's a reason the Dark wants it gone so badly. I'm sure that shard is well on its way back to Earth now to rejoin with the Traveler proper."
"Good," Kendrix said with a pained grunt. "So we can leave now?"
"Yes. In fact, we only have five minutes until the other Guardians arrive at the temple gate, so we very much need to leave now."
"Ok, ok." Kendrix said. Now that the ritual was undone, the Dark didn't seem so thick, and he could feel his Light returning. After a moment's focus, he lifted himself in the air and soared towards the door they'd entered through. "I think I can move well enough to get out on my own. Let's go." Nova nodded, Proxima disappeared in a flash, and they were off.
Having already experienced the path out on the way in, and having conveniently cleared it of Hive, Kendrix and Nova made their escape surprisingly efficiently. What few reinforcements had arrived were either Glided past or trampled underfoot.
When they finally burst onto the surface, Kendrix could even see the thrusters of the approaching jumpship flashing high above the Lunar surface. Kendrix gestured wildly and Nova quickly transformed into his jumpship mode. The two then stood there waiting by the body of the fallen Guardian, hoping they hadn't been spotted.
A few moments later the jumpships pulled down low over the far end of the crater, and three flashes of transmat dropped their respective Guardians onto the pale world. Kendrix, trying to hide the exhaustion he still largely felt, strode out to meet them. Once he felt he was reasonably close enough, he called out to them, then immediately realized the pointlessness of the gesture since they were communicating by radio.
"Uh, hey guys," he shouted, trying to sound casual and unassuming. "Sorry, you just missed the party."
"That you, Brand?" the lead Guardian, a Titan garbed in blacks and blues, called out.
After taking a moment to internally bristle at the use of the nickname, Kendrix realized he recognized her voice. After a moment, he placed her as one of Oroa's friends, the woman she'd introduced him to at the club.
"Yeah, it's me," he replied in as friendly a tone of voice as he could manage. "Kendrix," he quickly added with a bit more force.
"Right, Kendrix," the woman said with a laugh. "So what brings you all the way out here?"
"Same as you, I imagine. I got the Speaker's message. Sounded important, and I was already in the area so I thought I'd come take a look."
"'Take a look'?" one of the other Guardians chuckled. A Warlock, judging by the fine emerald and gold robes. "What, so you decided to just waltz into the Temple of Crota and single-handedly save the Traveler?"
"I guess so," Kendrix said with an exaggerated shrug. "Wasn't easy, that's for sure. Those Siphon Witches were no joke. And the Ogre at the end was a real bastard, barely brought him down. But hey, my Ghost was able to free the shard so I'd count it as a win."
"Wait… shard?" the Warlock asked, the cold arrogance in her voice giving way to curiosity.
"Uh, yeah. A shard of the Traveler. It's what the Hive were using to drain the Traveler's Light."
"And you… freed it?" the Warlock asked incredulously.
"Dexter, what's our readings?" the Titan asked sharply. The third Guardian, a Hunter garbed in a cyclopean helm and a cloak of mottled gray Kendrix suspected he'd picked specifically for the Lunar mission, grabbed a datapad from his utility belt and tapped away. After a moment, he spoke in a voice that sounded surprisingly robotic.
"Scans confirm Hive ritual to have ceased. Indicate large Light signature departed this region within past twenty minutes."
"I don't believe this," the Warlock said in an almost upset voice.
"Maestra's opinions irrelevant to factual data," the Hunter -Dexter, was it?- wisely observed.
"Fuck you too, Buckethead," the Warlock swore, though there was no genuine malice in it.
The Titan chuckled, shaking her head. Seeingly ignoring her fireteam, she addressed Kendrix again.
"You know kid, for a guy who says he has no interest in upholding a great reputation, you're doing a pretty shit job of it. Between this, Riksis, and that trouncing you gave Apollo in the ring, you're making quite a name for yourself already."
"Don't remind me," Kendrix said with a sigh. There were enough crazy and dangerous things going on in his life without having to navigate the unknown territory of being famous.
The Titan's posture sombred, and she nodded towards the corpse laying over in front of the temple, by where Nova still motionlessly hovered.
"So, what happened to them?"
Kendrix grimaced, and glanced back towards the remains of the red-garbed Guardian.
"I… don't know," he admitted solemnly. "The body was just laying there when I arrived. I thought it was some kind of trap, but when I examined it… nothing. Didn't find a dead Ghost anywhere inside the temple either, so who knows."
"Hmmm," the Titan muttered; Kendrix could practically hear her brow furrowing. She was so quiet for a moment that he began to worry she thought he was lying, that he had somehow been responsible for the other Guardian's death. But then she spoke again. "Tell you what. From the look of it, you've already more than filled your quota of heroism for the day, and my team came out here all prepped to solve a mystery. So how about you go home, and we'll take a look around to see if we can figure out what happened to that Guardian. Sound fair?"
"Best idea I've heard all day," Kendrix said with a groan of exhaustion. The Titan laughed again.
"Alright then. See you around, Kendrix." With that, she and her Fireteam walked past him to go examine the body. The Warlock gave him a side-eye through her vizor while the Hunter stared blankly ahead.
Kendrix let out one final sigh as Nova swooped over to pick him up. As soon as he rematerialized in the pilot's seat, he tore off his helmet and let out a massive sigh of relief, sucking in mouthfuls of sweet, stale, recycled air.
"I am glad that's over," he muttered emphatically. "Now let's get home and make sure Eris holds up her end of the deal."