Summer looked out the door of the ship's slide door, of which was something that could be held and locked in place in the event of needing to hide from enemy fire. The Grimmlands looked so dark with unnatural red light beaming from the trees. Dark red leaves billowed in the wind as the sound of gun-fire was now getting closer. Using her helmet's Zoom function, she looked in on a 4-man team of guardians that were holding the line.
Orbs were scattered everywhere as the two warlocks fired nova bomb after nova bomb, the lone hunter in the midst of the group constantly firing tethers into the armies of grimm. The titan was also doing all he could, popping bubbles and throwing down hammers that chained their explosions onto the other grimm. She judged from the sheer amount of orbs and ammo casings at the area below, that they must've been holding ground for hours on end, and judging by their sluggish movement, they were tiring of the constant battle.
She also saw some men in what appeared to be a different style of body armor for the Atlas Marines retreating to the Evac points previously established with the Guardians holding them giving the Marines the chance to get off the Island. Just then she turned to the cockpit of the Gunship as the pilot started to talk.
"Evac point Alpha 2 is just ahead Guardian, This is as far as I can take you. Hope you enjoyed 'FoeHammers' inflight services." The Female Pilot spoke as she landed the Gunship in the makeshift loading area.
Summer got out and saw the Marines load up and looked at the Pilot.
"Sure thing Brohammer." She replied cheekily.
"Don't get yourself perma-deathed out here." The Pilot quips back playfully as she takes off with another load of personnel.
Summer turned around to see machine gun nests with titans manning them.
"No need to tell me twice." She thought to herself as she took Thorn from its holster and sprinted down the trail.
It was then that some of the guardians around took note of Summer, taking a small moment of pause. "Holy sh-"
The guardian that was about to curse at that point in time was given a bullet to the knee, causing him to flinch. He turned to see a titan who had fired but a single bullet out of his nest at him, who shook his head. "You know the Vanguard Policy, right? Rule number 117?"
"Ok, but it's Summer my guys! The Traveler's Wolf! You don't see her outside of the Crucible much nowadays!"
"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that while the grimm get closer to the line." Said another titan.
"Yes Squad leader." The Cursing Titan grumbled back, annoyed at everyone's lack of enthusiasm for the slayer of Oryx as he muttered. "Burn those grimm until their butts become steak, Summer."
"Ms. Summer!" The warlock called out, as they continued to throw nova bomb after nova bomb into the grimm. "Thank goodness you're here, could you spare a moment with-."
"Oh my god, it's Summer!?" The hunter of the group said, literally dropping her void bow as she swiveled on her heel to look at Summer.
"Anahera-3!" The leading titan barked out. "Keep the pressure up!"
The exo hunter sputtered in embarassment for a second before letting out a quick apology, and continuing to fire. This caused Summer to get interested though, and she pulled out her own void bow, and ran around with the exo, which caused her to pause again.
"I-I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help but stop for a second! I'd never thought I'd meet you!" The exo hunter gushed out, as she sniped a grimm in the face.
"You wanted to meet me?" Summer couldn't help but ask, wondering the peculiar reaction.
"Y-yes, you see I-I… I-I mean I'm the leader of the clan- oh jeez, umm…" The hunter seemed to stumble over her words in nervousness.
"Clan 'oh jeez'? Sounds like a great name." Summer couldn't help but tease the hunter's nervousness, which caused her to sputter more.
"U-um what I meant to say Ms. Summer, is that I have vital information for you about Everest!"
"Just send the info to my ghost, ghost ID credentials #7866377." Summer quickly said, as she readied Young Wolf's Howl. "I got little time to waste this week, looking for a memento."
"Wait!"
She once more looked to Anahera-3, as the exo fired off another arrow before quickly pulling out a scout rifle she knew as 'The Burning Eye'. "P-please sign my gun!"
Summer stood in silence for a few seconds as she idly fired a shot into the grimm again, not able to process for a while. "Anahera-3, right?"
"Yes ma'am!"
Drei summoned a pen for her to use, and signed Anahera-3's gun. "Remind me to check out that clan of yours as well."
She then left the exo to her duty, who got back into it with a newfound haste as Summer cut through the grimm in a tornado of white fire. She couldn't help but notice that there weren't any red trees in her first death. Then again, it probably was because a blood moon hadn't hit the place yet, and that according to the warlocks, it wasn't hitting it today. She then turned to her left past the last machine gun nest, and jogged down the only man-made trail to the Everest, striking down whatever grimm got in her way. No one, not even the Titans, knew about the red eyes of a spiteful spirit watching Summer like a ship in the night.
00000
Frederick went about putting a drop of his special serum in IV Bags for the critically wounded who sadly didn't have the strength to swallow a drop of it. The Corpsmen were very impressed by the stuff as it worked better than any of the morphine they had on hand. He often did this with Civilians who had decided to travel to the Last City for refuge. Though not many Guardians appreciate him interacting with Civilians. But he honestly didn't care as it was grounded in a Titan's heart to be the Shield of the weak. Or the Sword if need be.
Thankfully, the Awoken had managed to procure and ship the medicine when they could thanks To Petra. He was grateful for the Awoken's generosity as they took kindly to the Guardian outcasts like him and others within his order. After getting to the last critically injured Marine and putting a drop of the last of his serum from his med kit he had on hand. The Chief Corpsman asked to speak with him.
"You wanted to speak with me Chief?"
"Yes, I was wondering where you got this medicine? Works a lot better than our stuff." The chief couldn't help but note with a tone of slight awe. "The soldiers are getting up and ready to fight in what seems like only moments of time."
"It was made by a Warlock. An agent of the vanguard, now banished and taken in by the Reef. The Awoken are the ones who produce it." Frederick replied.
"I see. How expensive is it? This could be a great medical asset to all militias and the Atlas Military as a whole and is far better than our primitive medicines." The Corpsman asked.
"It costs about 55000 Glimmer as well as 20 Legendary tokens a crate. Which I doubt you know of our currency systems back in Sol." Frederick replied.
"I see..." The Corpsman sighs as he says back to his work desk cluttered in medical paperwork, rubbing his chin in thought as he considered things. "Is there any way we can make a deal with these 'Awoken'? They're those blue skinned people correct?"
"Yes, but the Reef Awoken are not them." He motioned to the few Awoken warlocks running about and healing soldiers with their own light powers. "Those are Guardians resurrected on other planets. You'd have to set up an appointment with the Acting Regent Petra Venj to come up with a deal. I can try seeing if she will see your Medical Corp." Frederick replied.
"Which reminds me, why do you not use your light to heal the soldiers like your Warlocks? And why were they so adamant about not using your serum?"
"They pride themselves as healers sometimes and would rather use their light over practical medicine and forms of healing. It's a complicated story, but to keep it short, let's just say we guardians have our own form of racism towards other guardian classes..."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Guess no matter what world we live in, some people still gotta be idiots." The Corpsman then held out his hand. "I'm John, John Carter and head Corpman of the 501st Medical Corp."
Frederick shook it. "Frederick. Frederick Mendez."
0000
Summer managed to reach the "Everest" and was shocked at how big the Cruiser actually was. She actually wondered if this was a newer model as the ones she was on were a lot smaller.
"Drei, what's the size of this thing?" Summer spoke breathlessly as she stared in awe of the sheer size of the ship.
"I personally don't care for that detail, as I'm more worried about what dragged it down, but at this point I'm used to it since we constantly put ourselves in what should be unsurvivable danger." Drei sarcastically replied as he got out, scanning the ship from afar for an approximation of its size. "Height is nearly 140 meters, with the width being 15 more than that and the length being 3 times the size. Roughly the size of a Ketch, if not more."
Summer whistled as she scanned the side of the ship for an opening of some sort. That calm of searching was broken when a random explosion shook the ground beneath her, and a hole was blasted out the side of the ship. It was on fire as well.
"That seems to have been the munitions Block. But what set off any explosives?"
Walking closer to the hole she saw several dead bodies of what appeared to be Atlas Marines. However when she entered the room, she checked for a pulse only to find none. It definitely could have been caused by an anti material rifle like Ruby's Crescent Rose. But there was no exit wound, and on top of this the body looked to be partially eaten by an animal of sorts.
She scanned the area as she checked the three other bodies that sadly were in the same condition as the first one. The scenery was beginning to look increasingly grim as she went on through the area. Flies buzzed around many of the corpses as she went on, continuing to find nothing but the same signs. It was incredibly strange and unnerving to see such a sight. Like the Grim decided to try eating the bodies like they are known for doing on occasion, but were spooked by the explosion. And most grimm aren't easily spooked. Drei scanned several remains of what appeared to be red barrels.
"Dust Plasma for the Standard issue Plasma Rifle. But something shot these barrels. Strange what or who shot them. There's enough of these to start a chain reaction that should've blown through to the Engine room. It looked like there was an attempt to start that, but it was stopped somehow... what stopped the chain reaction?" Drei began to ponder as he finished his scan, looking about the area once more.
The eerily creepy atmosphere was starting to unsettle Summer. She looked about more that is till a door opened and in fright she looked at the door. Looking at the door where it opened, she saw a blood covered human, of whom looked like an officer of sorts. Just walking about Like she wasn't even there. Like some sort of auto pilot was on. He was also leaking blood from his side, clutching it all the while.
Her first thought was to ask him what happened here, but she immediately brushed aside the idea. She instead just brought out her gun. "Hey! Stay where you are!"
Without even looking at her, the man instantly became filled with mortal terror. He immediately shot himself in front of her before she could do anything to stop it.
Summer stood still for a second, not used to seeing a target obliterate itself. Well, at least ones that didn't explode that is. "What's going on here?
STALKER.
Summer immediately pointed her gun at the door and something sprinted in a blur. Summer said nothing as she figured whatever Oryx was talking about must've been bad, as she followed it down the bulkhead. However the next door just closed up on her. She felt her body impact the hull hard and immediately bounce off the cold armor grade steel. She looked to her right and saw that only two paths opened up. But one literally had a pile of Rubble and blood on it so she opted to go down the other cleaner Block. Taking great care of where she stepped.
After turning the corner she heard gun fire in the ship. Running down the grey bulck heads she came across a few Atlas Marines trying to fire at something beyond a bulkhead. Only to be shot at by someone on the other side. The last two also got shot before she could make it. Turning to her right into the open bulkhead. It was empty, except for the casings of the weapons they were using.
Kneeling down she picked up a few brass casings inspecting them closely. Looking away from them she noticed a lot of blood along the walls and the floors. Several doors of this bulkhead were barricaded by what appeared to be crates.
"Drei, scan this for me." Summer
He then appeared and scanned the crates. If anything it was a hastily built barrier meant to keep something from coming In or out.
"There's a lot of DNA I'm sensing on the other side but just blood, no heat signature." Drei stated.
"This place is reminding me of The Stills… or some cheesy-"
That's when she heard something from behind her. Drawing thorn. She saw a black cloaked figure with a white mask, with black sunken eye holes. Summer was confused at this familiar pressure. Like it was strangling her soul. The being then took a couple steps in front of her, until it was suddenly right next to her without even the slightest of warning.
"You have no power over me, Witch."
Summer instinctively rolled back and fired a few rounds into the figure's mask, of which did nothing. It was like the bullets just couldn't affect them in the slightest, and the being only seemed to become aggravated, the holes in the mask glowing red in response to each shot.
"What are you?" Summer couldn't help but ask, as some sort of distorted ring went on in her ears. She felt her balance begin to waver in response to the ringing, even though she tried her best to ignore it.
It then removed its mask.
"Who do you think it is?"
She didn't like that response and tried firing a round from her cursed Hand Cannon but its Thorn missed its mark as her dark Shadow grabbed her wrist and placed a foot behind her shim and forced her to the ground before jumping back to gain some distance as Summer tried firing a few more rounds. Which her doppelganger dodged. Summer got up but was caught off guard. Her doppelgangers black sunken eyes bled black and red.
"You can not escape the dark fate that awaits you and your pathetic race."
Summer tried to load her Gjallarhorn as she watched them closely for an attack, of which they never gave.
"You can already see it, Child of Oryx, Yor, and Dark. I'm you. And your light is fading."
"Summer, what are you doing?!"
As if brought back to reality, she suddenly came to realize that she was actually just about to blow herself up. A flurry of painful sensations made conscious as the ringing went away, and she felt the pain of Thorn's, well, thorns in her body, as she had been shooting herself in multiple areas. She fell down in exhaustion that she only now just came to realize, finding extra bullets up in the roof of the ship.
"Oh nothing, just saw something weird from the moon. Mind giving me a rez?"
00000
Frederick took a look at the few more… hysterical patients. He couldn't bear to hear the voices and screams of agony the boys produced. It was like feeling a knife getting stabbed into his soul. Whatever happened to them it gave them clear signs of Shellshock, possibly on the road to PTSD.
"We've been trying to get them to calm down. Using sedatives, your Serum, trying to see if there's chemicals screwing them up. Hell, we even just gave them someone to listen to them. But nothing worked. Something messed them up real bad." Chief said while sadly looking at the state of these few men.
"I'm gonna try something. But don't report this to the Vanguards. And make sure no one enters this tent." Frederick replied while not looking at Chief.
"But why?"
"Remember when I said that we Guardians, even though we don't care about race, we throw a fit over the other's classes?" It was more of a statement than a question, as the air around them seemed to become warmer.
Chief nods.
"It's more of a half truth. True, few ever try to put themselves in the other side's shoes back home. But even fewer consider the alternatives as to how to make their light shine."
He got on a knee and held his hands together bowing his head. As if in prayer. This confused the Chief for a moment before Golden wings grew across Fredericks' back and a blinding light radiated from his body. That's when the Chief knew from the presence alone that he understood why. And so did what Frederick asked of him. As the light coming from his body touched the soldiers who frantically were trying to get away from the light all the while forgetting that they were strapped down to their stretchers. Then the glow touched them; and Frederick's mind went away to a different place.
00000
Summer continued to walk about the destroyed ship. Taking notes of the bodies that looked like they were just stabbed and tossed away while others looked like they died by friendly fire. It creeped her out to no end. Trying to find the exit of the ship to the port side. However after coming across a map of the area. She was only lucky that the previous explosion had made that hole in the bullheads. Port side was where she needed to go.
Now only Atlas wasn't so uniform that she couldn't use anything but her hunter instinct to navigate, because everything looked the same!
"Summer there's a door up a head that looks like it's blocked by crates. Can we get a look?" Drei asked.
Summer didn't say a word as she walked up to the door. Blood was everywhere on the crates. Looking over she saw no bodies in the room. Just more pools of blood and stained walls. Even more shell casings lay spent on the floor.
"Drei I'm moving-."
Before Summer could continue that sentence, a body fell from the ceiling. Like a rag doll it just flopped onto the crates before the kinetic force made it fall off the crates and onto the bloody floor. She stood in silence for a bit, before continuing. "I'm going to move the crates. Do a scan if you can."
"Gotcha."
"And be aware of the ghosties, you don't wanna get spooked."
Drei groaned in annoyance as Summer laughed, before deciding to talk to someone else altogether as she moved the crates out of the way. Oryx, what I saw earlier... was that your doing?
You actually think I would do something so weak? HA! That 'projection' was base level at most; a pitiful attempt at disorienting you. If it was truly me, you would've had more of a threat, as everything I do can, and will be physical in power.
So then what was that… cheap copy of me?
Nothing more than the natural energies of Darkness itself. Much like the previous owner of Thorn's power, the first fallen light, they simply plague your mind.
Great. And I'm guessing you're not going to shut that off.
Hmmm, let me think about that… YES.
The two were brought out of their musings when they heard the sound of a screaming soldier getting pulled away by something. Summer immediately ran after the soldier she barely caught a glimpse of. However after catching up she noticed something slimy was wrapped around his leg and he was getting pulled fast. His screams for help went out to the bulkheads. She tried reaching out for him only to miss as he was pulled up to the ceiling through a hatch she pulled out thorn and fried through the cracks of the grades where she saw whatever was pulling the soldier. But unfortunately thorns rounds were too big and the soldiers were then pulled away in the dark of the deck above her.
She then walked up to the hatch that closed and tried opening it but it wouldn't. Something held it down or something sealed it on the other side. Luckily there was another ladder she could go up to a different but open hatch.
Before entering, she threw a tripmine grenade up there, sticking on the walls of the room inside. Whatever that was up there seemed to take the bait, unaware of what the grenade actually was, and an unholy shriek sounded out as what sounded like a limb was blown off. Summer took the opportunity to unleash Young Wolf's Howl, and blink right up the hatch.
The sight nearly made her flinch. She saw a giant spider grimm just hanging up on the ceiling, its beady, crimson-red eyes staring straight back into her silver night within the confines of her helmet. The beast's legs were made of crystal, with them dug into the walls, and its spider-like abdomen had eyes of its own, hanging a massive stream of tendrils out of as it was opened up like a flower petal, holding the bodies of what seemed to be hundreds of skeletons, stripped clean of whatever they had left on their bodies.
As soon as the best tried to move the tendrils at her, Summer instinctively used the rest of her blinks to move all the way up to it, and cut the abdomen off, rendering the beast's tendrils useless as they all fell to the ground, causing dark smoke to fill the room as the beast cried out from the sudden shock and fiery agony. It didn't get a chance to recover either, as the house-sized beast was quickly hit by Summer following up by running on it, and slamming the sword into its head, destroying the weak armor plating it had there instantly and causing it to fall to the ground.
Drei quickly reviewed the battle footage to grasp an understanding of what they just faced. "Mutated grimm. It was affected by the darkness, and some other material nothing on Remnant has information about, aside from Prometheus's encounter with the corrupted grimm in Mt. Glenn. Not anything familiar beyond the Kraken and the Jorogumo grimm. Krakumo perhaps? Whatever it is, it's dead."
Summer couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "You're awfully calm about the both of us nearly dying there."
"At this rate, near constant death is a regular around you. And yes, it actually is very terrifying still, I just can't vocalize it now, because I'm now in levels of primal fear in my rotors cease to move now. Makes me wonder why I didn't try to push you into being like every hunter ever."
"I guess you could say, you're scared white as a ghost?" Summer couldn't help but giggle at the jab she made, as Drei groaned.
"Let's just keep moving. There's bound to be more of them, and we can't fight them all at once."
True to his word, it sounded like more spiders were making their way to their fallen ally through the vents. Summer quickly exited, and in her hasty escape got caught by one of the still alive soldiers she hadn't even noticed were in the mass of tendrils that carried the three from earlier away. Before she could even react, her mouth was cupped, and the soldier immediately whispered.
"Quiet!"
Their desperation wasn't hidden in the slightest then carried her away into a large crate, before jumping there with her. Within a few seconds, she could hear the sound of what must've been hundreds of footsteps passing them by, with some even jumping on top of the crate, as a chorus of mangled, human screams making themselves known. Summer saw the soldier was holding his breath, seemingly terrified by what was up there, while she remained impassive, her own breath not even being audible to even the soldier. She calmly pulled out Thorn once the horde of grimm she was hearing were gone.
"Who are you? If you're thinking about doing anything to me..." She calmly aimed Thorn at his crotch. "You should've waited out there."
"That's honestly the best way to keep it from getting eaten the wrong kind of way." The soldier casually replied back as he pushed Thorn back, only causing Summer to readjust her aim. "Look, I'm dead serious here, that actually would be the preferable alternative. What you just heard? Those were the shadow people."
00000
Omake:To Spawn Kill A God
"I'm sorry, what's the Necrochasm?"
Summer stared at her two teammates as they sat around the Iron Temple lookout point with Frederick. Barloc himself looked baffled by how someone like her didn't know about it, while Pyrrha looked to Barloc, already expecting a thorough explanation. "What do you mean 'what's the Necrochasm'? It's the legendary exotic weapon that struck fear in over thousands of guardians! It tore through shields and flesh from many ranges, like a sword both from afar and in person!"
Summer shook her head. "No, I never heard about that. Then again, I didn't really delve into books much."
Barloc facepalmed. "Of course you wouldn't know, why didn't I think that…" He then clears his throat. "Well, it's why I wanted to relay to you that Shin found that weapon in the hands of the Shadows. You might've faced off against it at some point in Remnant if I recall. Attacked by one of their members, who were they called again… Dredgen Pena?"
Summer couldn't help but giggle-snort at that, while Pyrrha just outright laughed. Barloc remained clueless as to what he did. "What? Is that not the name? I know it probably isn't right, but if it is, they should've called themselves 'Peanut'. What even is Pena?"
Frederick took the datapad from Barloc and double-checked it. "Dude… it's Vena, not 'Pena'."
"But that's what it looks like." When the two kept laughing in response, Barloc merely sighed in annoyance. The two waited in silence for the two in front of them to regain their composure, as Summer eventually got up from the ground as she finished laughing, while Pyrrha finished clutching her sides.
"...Anyhoo," Summer started off. "I guess I'll need to keep my streak going by hunting her down. I can't have another guardian getting an exotic before me after all. Plus it'd probably be easier to handle than Oryx here."
I heard that!
Shuddup.
"Actually, you might not have to." Barloc interjected in a voice screaming 'warlock ego inbound'. "If you read up correctly, you find that Necrochasm was made off a mere sliver of Crota's power, with only the frame of the weapon needing to be fed."
It was then that Drei appeared to object in response. "I don't think that's right. Nothing of the sort is in the Vanguard data libraries."
It was then Barloc tsked in unison with Frederick, with the end result being both of them stopping to look at each other. However Frederick did seem a bit concerned that Summer would want the dark weapon given the state she's in with Thorn, yet outright rejected Touch of Malice.
"...If you were around during the dark ages,"
"Or you read into the locked files of the Vanguard database before they were locked away..."
"You would find that a lot of these frames are most commonly found amongst Hive swordbearers, as these weapons tend to be vessels for the gatekeepers of Crota himself."
"On the contrary, the last report found in the database stated that these weapons could be found in all manner of Hive locations, wielders, and even the stomachs of some ogres."
"Not scientifically possible. Either the ogre wouldn't last the gun, or the gun wouldn't last the ogre's digestive systems. The bladed edges of these infantile weapons can still cut through the organs, even if it doesn't do so very well."
"Oh really then? Well, I wouldn't suppose you'd know that the weapon needs to be upgraded by light."
"Preposterous. The weapon must experience a trial by fire via killing tons of Hive entities. Only then will it grow to the form necessary to begin the final step of conversion." Barloc crossed his arms. "I get you're ignorant of the Hive's inner workings, but do know their culture revolves around pain."
"Oh, I know that." Frederick smiled underneath the helmet. "Enough to know that in order to complete the step, you have to kill a Hive demi-god or god."
"Preposterous!" Barloc refuted the idea. "Only a sliver of his power is needed to cause the weapon to finish growing. If such were the case, Crota would be long since dead before Summer came around, as Necrochasm simply requires the essence of several powerful Hive warriors and liches."
"So you really think that, huh?"
"A warlock's intelligence always outweighs you titans."
"ARGH! This weapon sucks!"
The heated conversation was interrupted by a guardian throwing a weird looking Hive weapon into their little hangout area, with it bouncing straight into Frederick's groin. Frederick simply took a sharp intake of air, looked at Barloc. "Excuse me for one second." And then proceeded to sprint like a bullet to the offender while wreathed in arc energy.
"I can't even hit anything with this thing! It's got too much knockba-" Before the guardian could finish his sentence, he was yeet'd into orbit by Frederick. Frederick only took one look at his co-conspirator, before that person just straight up threw himself off the mountain.
Barloc himself chuckled at the titan's misfortune, before he himself got bonked by another Hive-like weapon. He looked up to see a bunch of partying guardians at the peak of the mountain, and growled to himself, before proceeding to climb the mountain, practically running up the mountain on all fours using nothing but the charged up sword he had in hand. A series of shrieks was then heard, before six mangled guardians fell into the pit of flames in the center of the Iron Temple, complete with ghosts having been thrown down into the snow. Barloc then jumped from above gracefully without a sound, somehow never hurting his bones
As a bemused Saladin checked to see where the guardians fell down from, and an annoyed Shiro-4 went to talk to Frederick, Pyrrha and Summer inspected the weapons. Barloc himself only took a glance, before saying aloud to them both. "Well, it seems like we've got a couple test subjects for our theories already."
"These are the frames?" Drei said as he scanned them, before he seemed to shiver. "Ugh… they sure seem like Hive."
Summer picked up one of the weapons, test firing it by firing it into the sky. She felt a shiver run down her spine.
"That's because they are; though they are but mere husks of what they're to be." Barloc then cleared his throat. "How about you get to feeding them both? See what makes them tick. Should be plenty of Hive hiding around the cosmodrome after all."
"In my honest opinion we should just destroy these frames." Frederick stated as he came back in, rolling his throwing arm's shoulder as he used it a bit too hard that time.
"I think both of your theories are just big ol' conspiracies." Drei said simply. "How about you Sum-"
Summer had just hijacked someone's ship, and was hovering next to them. Before anyone could even make a move, Summer blinked out, grabbed Drei and Pyrrha, blinked back in, and left, leaving a swarm of white petals in her wake.
Barloc blinked owlishly in surprise at seeing three blinks. Frederick took a look at the swarm, before looking to Barloc. "Did I miss something there?"
"No. No you didn't. Just didn't expect such aptitude from a hunter on a warlock skill." Barloc then cleared his throat. "We must prepare for when they inevitably get both guns raised into their next form. I assume Eris would be of some actual use here?"
"I suppose we should get into the ship then, o master of the arcane?"
"Indeed we should, my crayon-eating, bubble-popping, titan friend."
Both proceeded to laugh. Then compete to laugh harder than the other, eventually getting to the point where both sides sounded psychotic.
It was on that day, Saladin had to exercise his power over the Mountain.
00000
Much grinding later...
00000
A team of four trained warlocks, a man dressed as a warlock, an odd titan, the mistral champion, and huntress turned guardian stood before the giant crystal in Crota's ascendant realm, which was charged with Crota's soul. Over thousands of light motes were being poured into the crystal by Barloc, who kept the flow of motes being dumped aimed straight at the crystal. All the while, Pyrrha looked confused. "Why are we resurrecting Crota if he's killed over thousands of guardians? ...Like, who in their right mind does this?"
I do not understand these fools' goals, nor why you are even attempting to do this. What has been done is done. The sword logic is irreversible once a Hive is killed in their ascendant realm. Omnigul would have to draw more than just the sliver of his essence.
I want my Necro. No one else shall get Necro before me.
"Because you mortal fool, the Hive, when properly digesting or diluting it in the right manner, can also grow stronger or power their own rituals and machinations using it. As to why we are doing this?"
"Cause of gun." Summer said as she drooled on her Eidolon Ally, to which it shivered at her. "I want gun."
"I was going to say science, and showing this so-called 'Hive Prince' how badly his stronghold is designed, but yes! For a gun!"
"Eris would be screaming at us for this." Frederick muttered in distaste. "As well as my wife…"
"Shh!" Barloc shushed everyone in the room, noticing something about the crystal. "...It's happening, warlocks, positions!"
"You heard him guys," Frederick said to the warlocks. "Get to the knight towers! This place is going to swarm with Hive eager to see their master again!"
The warlocks quickly made their way to the towers, as the crystal glowed brightly. In a few moments, the Oversoul pulsed with newfound life, and once more the shattered stonework of the Hive went up into the air, eventually forming the familiar horns below the oversoul, before eventually Crota's was summoned once more. He gazed out, bewildered at the sight before him.
What.
"...What."
"Titan." Barloc clapped his hands, and Frederick grunted in annoyance. He let Barloc get on his back, and Frederick jumped onto one of the two pillars in front of Crota, who stared in bewilderment. Frederick then popped a ward of dawn, and Barloc got off to look Crota in the eye. "Alright hope eater, I have a few words to say to you."
Crota blinked.
And then smiled. "Well of course. It would be perfectly fine to hear what a foolish worm such as you would have to say. I could spare the time since you resurrected me in my full power."
"This was at his full power?!"
"Shush." Barloc quickly hushed Frederick, before once more looking at Crota. "First off, your defenses are the equivalent of a kinderguardian!" Barloc practically shouted at the top of his lungs, causing Frederick to flinch.
Crota blinked once more, surprised at the volume of such a tiny thing. "I beg your pardon?"
"I could understand the bridge section. It was clever, it forced a full team to be here. But why in the Traveler did you ever think leaving these lamps of light around The Stills is beyond me. Hell, taking into account complete physical fitness, and nothing to slow one down besides your pathetic usage of neutrino shrouding, you wouldn't even need them!" Barloc began to thoroughly rebuke the Hive Prince that had slain thousands of guardians. "And the hallway filled with nothing but thralls with a bunch of tombstones to jump on in order to avoid them!? Were you purposely giving guardians an easy chance at coming to your Deathsinger, of whom had equally worse defenses?"
"The deathsinger had perfectly fine defenses. I had two shriekers that powered-"
"A closed shrieker can be destroyed by a simple nova bomb you imbecile!" Barloc drawled out the last word, causing Crota to growl. "A titan's fully charged arc fist even! Ir Yut could've been exposed in less than 10 seconds, and then where'd she be? Dead! And this is not even mentioning how incredibly easy you made it for your own army to backstab you, of which I shall now demonstrate."
Four knights holding arc blasters then came out of the towers, and looked to the ward. Before they could do much, they were then turned around by the four warlocks, who twisted their minds to make them shoot Crota instead. Crota hissed in pain as he was shot at by his own allies.
"FOOLS! What are you doing?!"
"What they should've done the moment you left them out of reach!" Barloc once more admonished the god, before patting Frederick on the shoulder. Frederick then put Barloc back at the crystal, and went back outside to the still struggling Crota. Crota couldn't really shoot the knights back with arc shots or stab them, as the design of his own minions' defenses worked against him rather easily, eventually causing him to stumble onto his knees. It was then he saw Summer jumped down and practically annihilated a swordbearer, before jumping up to Crota with murderous glee, slicing him to bits in 4 seconds without him being aware of her presence.
Once the knights were brought back to reality, they suddenly realized what they had done. And all Hive, including Oryx himself within the confines of Summer's mind, stood silent at what just happened.
Summer looked at her newfound Necrochasm, having taken the regenerated essence into the weapon and made it brim with pure Hive power. "Mine."
...I'm the worst father ever.
Barloc inspected Summer's Necrochasm, before reading Summer's energy levels for traces of Crota's soul again. "...Hm. Seems we were both half right and half wrong."
"Well, that was… something. And here I thought we'd be in trouble." Frederick said, still stunned at what happened.
"Such a shame though." He looked at the spot at where Crota once was. "We never even got the chance to see his Oversoul. I wonder if the best shotgun could-" Barloc then proceeded to prattle on about the many possible ways a guardian could destroy the oversoul without being a specific class.
It was then that the sound of hundreds of footsteps were being heard in the distance. Frederick seemed to pause for a moment, before nudging Barloc, who snapped out of his tirade to glare at Frederick in annoyance. Frederick motioned to the hundreds of guardians that were practically pooling out of the doorway at the bottom of Crota's throne room.
"Free shards boys!"
"Screw the rules, I want my first exotic!"
"Oi Crota! Ever had a sword shoved up where the sun doesn't shine?"
Summer had to deal with Oryx's depression for the rest of her time in the Plaguelands, as Crota continued to be brutally murdered by over hundreds of thousands more of guardians for the eons to come, all of whom were eager for their own Necrochasm replica. It was said that with each death cry, especially when the guardians figured out how to turn Necrochasm into one of his swords, Oryx sank deeper into his depression. And it was then, a Vanguard rule, though unlikely, was made.
117. Crota is no longer allowed to be resurrected. Any guardians attempting to resurrect Crota again will be perma-banned from this plane of existence.
00000
Hadn't done these in a while, so lets get into it.
Miniatimat:Nice chapter, but things are getting hard to follow with so many characters...
Diluation:Some of them are setups for the later parts, such as when we finally move to Red War in the sequel. Characters that appear once during a chapter you don't need to worry about, if you're wondering if they ever appear again.
Hopefully that helps you track things better. And I know some of you might be wondering about Nero, given how little of them are in this… we can promise you they're gonna be raiding with Summer for this. White Fang just don't cut it for immortal guardians that slay armies for breakfast.
Gabe2000:You and Ptabs0101 made some excellent work. Have a pineapple. Also, any plans involving a Russian titan?
Diluation:We've thought about how to catch up to the later seasons given the circumstances. The best thing I could say of now, is that Season of Dawn and Curse Of Osiris shall be combined. Why? No reason…
Also, thanks for the Pineapple, we shall treasure in a place of honor! If you're interested in seeing our other work, search up our names on the site, those of which being ANIMEAK116, Dustinz117, Aquilos, and of course me, Diluation. With the exception of me and Aquilos, those two put their own tie-ins in, and being part of the team we are also working on making sure everything is up to date. We've also got fanfics of our own that, while not related to this, are definitely worth a read as we try to put a fair amount of effort into them.
Keyword being try, as I hadn't updated my first story ever since picking this up, though I ended up going off to others.
Welp, that's about all we got… actually, one more thing:One of you came forth with a story idea not related to this fanfic or what we might plan on doing after. While I shall respectfully keep their name private, I must remind you that this account is solely a shared domain in which we work to update this fanfic and whatever sequels we can find time to construct. Which means we wouldn't accept them, and it would be better to at least ask for feedback on your ideas instead of having us do them.
That's all I gotta say for now. Until the next time, guardians!
~ In memory of Ptabs0101 ~