Chapter 11
Upon touching the ground, I summoned my sparrow. Alex and Arc dropped in behind me. "Hold on!" Alex called out, "Why are you such in a rush? You asked us to come with you without explaining the mission." I jumped on my sparrow and then looked at Alex, "Its Leslie. Something happened to her. I need to find her." Alex and Arc nodded understandingly. They jumped on their sparrows and followed me. We sped through the green rocks of Venus, past sulfuric shallow pools glowing the colors of the rainbow, past hollow caves whose contents are unknown, and past Fallen patrols whose aim can't keep up with our speed. We end up at a remote cave far away from known mapped Ishtar Sink. "It's here." Pyro said in my helmet, "The distress call came from here." I pointed towards the cave to Alex and Arc. We dismounted our sparrows and entered the cave, weapons drawn. I hear noises coming from the cave. We trek further and discover a makeshift dormitory. It has been sealed with a guardian-made airlock. I press the button and Pyro disables the internal security locks on it. We step inside and are decontaminated, removing all the sulfur from being on the planet's surface. The inner door opens and we are met with a gruesome sight.
All over the floor were mechanical parts. White liquid stained the rocky flooring and the mechanical bits and parts were found all over the floor. Arms, legs, and torsos littered the cave. Deeper in I hear movement. I run towards it while Alex and Arc inspects the carnage. "Jeez," I heard Arc say, "Looks like there was a milk fight between vex in here." I round the corner and see a body moving. I slowly approach it, weapons drawn, and immediately notice its Carol. She was holding her bloody shoulder which had a hand cannon in her grip. She was sitting up against the wall, breathing heavily. Her shoulder and hands were stained in crimson. "And this one decided to use red wine in the fight." I whisper to myself. "Not funny." Pyro says in my ear.
I take off my helmet since we are in an air-locked place. "Carol, are you okay?" I ask. She grunts, "Yeah. Bleeding a bit but what girl doesn't bleed every now and then, eh?" I chuckle at her humor. I quickly begin to address the wound. I move her hand away from the injury and put my hand on top, "This is gonna sting, okay?" She nods. I will some of my flame to my hand, as if I was trying to summon a grenade. My hand felt hot, but that meant it was working. Carol writhed in pain. I constantly spoke to her, attempting to keep her calm. The wound cauterized, now I began working on treatment. I had Pyro summon advanced first-aid.
"So what happened? And where's Leslie?" I asked her. Through deep breathing, she replied, "Vex got through the airlock. Small team, probably a scout team. We fought them off but our lack of armor made us susceptible to mortal injuries." She grunted before continuing, "A couple of those robotic bastards got away with our ghosts." Arc and Alex stood behind me, listening to the story. "I tried to stop her, but she armored up and took after them. I told her it was too dangerous. That's when she used some schematics and excess Vex pieces here and crafted armor built to be resistant to Vex fire." She inhaled deeply to relax herself, "She's a crafty one I tell ya." She painfully smiled when she finished the story. I help her get up. "Okay, one of you needs to stay and take care of her. The other goes with me." Alex stepped forward. "I'll stay. She mentioned something about schematics. I am intrigued." I nod and look at Arc. "Ready to put some Vex in the ground?" He nods and arms his auto rifle. "All day, every day."
We walk out of the cave. I pull up Pyro, "Alright, can you do a scan? Search for mass Vex activity within a 2 mile radius." Pyro expands to his orb form, pulsing blue for a few seconds. "I got something. About a mile north, large sums of mobile Vex." I nod and motion for Arc to follow me. We jump on our sparrows and sped away towards the mark.
We are met to a little nook in a mountain. It was an obscure entrance in the mountain pass. No wonder someone would miss this. It resembled the entrance to Site 99 near the Vault of Glass. A small entrance that could go unnoticed. We hop off our sparrows and walk into the gap. Instead of being met with green rock towering above my head, the entrance simply opened up to an area with Vex architecture littered everywhere. We walked forward, aware of how quiet it is. We walk past the opening and we start to hear mechanical sounds. Blasters going off, explosions resonating through the canyon. In the midst of Vex fire, I hear quick shots of a ballistic gun, then silence. We hurry towards the next clearing and we see dozens of dead Vex bodies in clusters around the clearing. Vex gates sit idle, no longer glowing. "What happened here?" I ask. "No idea," replies Arc, "But whoever was here did not waste any time." We continue forward, expecting to see more Vex bodies. We found them alright, but they were alive, and very upset.
Two Vex groups took notice of us quickly when we got to the next clearing. We quickly dove into cover, narrowly missing the barrage of fire that came our way. We look at each other and nod, splitting up. I threw a grenade as a diversion and ran to the left behind some rocks. Arc dodged right to avoid the gunfire. I aimed my hand cannon and shot multiple goblins in the torso, making them explode in white milk. The Minotaur didn't seem pleased. He walked forward, blasting my cover in purple explosions. I waited for an opening, hoping that it stopped for a second. Suddenly I hear a sniper shot, stopping the Minotaur fire. I took this chance and I jumped over the rocks, lifting as high as I can in the air. The Minotaur recovered from the surprise shot and looked at me above him. I pulled out my shotgun and aimed at his red eye. I landed my feet on its body and pressed the barrel to its eye. I pulled the trigger and it cocked back, pushing it back as I jumped off its body. I landed on my feet and it remained sprawled and motionless on the ground. I turned to Arc's direction as he finished off a trio of goblins.
The goblin tried to void blast him, but he spun around his arm and riddled the goblin behind him with auto rifle fire. Another goblin tried to punch him from his right, but he ducked down and swept its feet. He pulled out his knife and stabbed the standing goblin in the eye, then in the torso. As the goblin collapsed, he brought his arm around and stabbed the grounded goblin in the torso, putting more force in the stab. He then quickly withdrew his blade and slashed it, finishing it off. All three goblins lay motionless around him. All in all, that took less than a minute to pull off. He put his knife back and jogged to join me.
"Where did you learn all that?" I asked him. He scoffed, "When you been a Hunter as long as I have, you start to learn a few things." We both laugh. "Oh yeah," I continued, "thanks for the sniper cover." He tilted his head in confusion. "Sniper? I use a fusion rifle." He held his fusion rifle in front of me. "Oh um, never mind." I respond. Then who shot that bullet? Maybe it was friendly fire? No, Vex don't use Kinetic ammunition. I decide to not let it phase me. We continue through the canyon. I notice that we stop running into patrols, either destroyed already or we don't see them at all. Eventually, after a good amount of walking, we reach the pit.
It was a circular, stadium-like area. At the other end we see a sitting Minotaur with a small capsule lying beside it. Inside were two small white objects. "That must be their ghosts." commented Arc. I began to wonder where Leslie was. We found no signs of her throughout this entire strike. In my mind, I assumed they must've captured her, analyzing her, or worse. I suppressed the rage and focused on the battle in front of me. It was slightly bigger than most Minotaurs, and it was plated in silver rather than usual metal. It must've sensed our presence, because it stood up and roared its mechanical battle cry. That's when I realized its other unusual difference. Instead of a left hand, it had a red baton-like melee weapon. It was the same color as its eye, pulsating a very threatening red. I readied my hand cannon, and Arc reloaded his auto rifle. Together we charged at the large vex, shooting its body. It took a few minutes of gunfire to discover that it had no weak points. Sadly that was the only consistency between it and other typical Minotaurs. I got close to it with my shotgun and blasted its chest. It swung its baton at me, but I manage to dodge it. "Careful! That thing looks strong enough to knock you to Earth and back!" I heard Arc yell. He put some distance between him and the beast. He took a knee and began firing at the giant. It turned to him and returned fire. Arc got up and ran to avoid the blast. I decided to take the opportunity to deliver a surprise attack. I pulled out my Raze Lighter and lifted up to deliver a solar slash. As I was in the air, the Minotaur suddenly turned and smacked me in the stomach with its gun. I was sent into the ground and my sword flew further, out of my reach. As I coughed and wheezed as an attempt to recover from getting the wind knocked out of me, it towered above me. Instead of blasting me to oblivion, it raised its baton above me. "Jason!" Arc called out. But he was too far to provide any aid. I prepared myself as the Minotaur brought down its hand.
Suddenly, instead of hearing the sound of death and all of my bones being turned into dust, I heard a loud metal bang. I opened my eyes to see a Hunter standing above me, holding off its attack. The creature must be as confused as I was, because it recoiled but didn't shoot. At first, I thought it was Arc, but I saw that this Hunter's cloak wasn't the same as his, also because he was to my far right, staring at me. This hunter wore a blue cloak made out of a Fallen banner. Across their body slung a Fallen-looking sniper rifle. It had its round parts and was painted white. On their left leg was the Last Word, holstered in its bronze glory. The hunter swung their sword to their side and the blade disappeared. He then clipped it back on his belt. He turned around and held his hand out. His armor was a combination of Fallen and Vex metal plates. Spikes stuck out here and there but most of the armor was reinforced with hard metal. I took his hand and got up. Arc tapped my shoulder and held out my sword's hilt, "We have reinforcements now." He turned to the mystery Hunter, "Ready to help us take this down?" Without a word, he nodded.
He pulled out his sniper and took a shot at the giant. The bullet pushed back the Minotaur, which allowed Arc and I to close in. I shot at his eye, trying to make him focus on me. Arc circled around the Minotaur, riddling its metallic body with bullets. Every time the Minotaur tried getting close to me it was met with a hard bullet from a sniper. My HUD displayed its health was slowly depleting. I jumped back as it tried to blast me, but Arc quickly took me off its focus with a sticky grenade. It exploded in a blue mist and the Minotaur glared at Arc. I was about to run back in to help Arc, but I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see the hunter. He pointed to the Minotaur and I noticed what he was referencing. The Vex had a small amount of health left, meaning one massive damage run will finish him. I nodded and called to Arc, "Hey! Let's finish this!" As he dodged its attacks, he noticed as well. Quickly, he ran over to regroup with us. He nodded in agreement and we delivered our final attack.
I shot a round at the Minotaur, forcing its focus on me. The Hunter summoned Golden Gun, firing all three shots into its torso. As it staggered, all three of us rushed it. I slid under it and used Raze Lighter to slash its left leg. It took a knee as its reaction to the hit. Arc pulled out his knife but exploded in electricity, significantly lengthening his blade. The other Hunter ran alongside him, unsheathing his blade. I realized the blade was a Sol Edge, glistening silver off its fire. Arc jumped up to its head and quickly slashed three times before falling to the ground to attack its other leg. The damage crippled it and forced it to be on both knees. I emerged from behind it and summoned my hammers. I threw one on its baton arm, destroying it. I then hammer struck his gun arm as it was about to fire at the rushing Hunter. The force and speed of my strike blew off its arm. The Hunter jumped up to strike. Instead of slashing away, he used the sword's sharp point to strike, stabbing it multiple times. Neither Arc nor I have ever seen a sword being used that way. As for his final strike, he thrusted with his full power, driving the blade into the Vex's eye. The force of the strike pushed the Minotaur back. As soon as the body touched the ground, it began to explode. Arc and I watched as the Hunter jumped off the Minotaur and sheath his sword as the once menacing Vex exploded. Once the noise settled, Arc decided to be the first to say something, "Wow, I wish I was that cool."
The Hunter looked at us and turned to the throne where the Minotaur sat. We both snapped out of our amazement and ran to join him. He grabbed the cylinder and turned to throw it to me. I caught it and examined it. "I have no idea how to open this." I said blatantly. "But our ghost might." Arc added. The Hunter simply sat and watched us. I summoned Pyro and had him work on the lock, "This one seems difficult, but I can do it. Also I promise I won't set off any alarms." After a few seconds, the capsule opened with a hiss. Two ghosts floated out. "Oh thank goodness! We were trapped in there for so long!" One ghost began, "How are our guardians? Are they okay?" I began, "Carol is injured, but stable. As for Leslie," I looked down at the ground, "I don't know if she's alive." Arc nodded, "He's right, we couldn't find her. She may be dead." One ghost shifted with offense, "How rude, saying someone is dead right in front of them." Arc and I looked up in confusion, "What?" The ghost simply floated to the Hunter sitting in front of us and vanished. A few seconds of silence followed. The Hunter suddenly threw up a peace sign and said, in a voice that I haven't heard in over two weeks, "Hey Jason, hey Arc, long time no see."
I waited back till we were at the camp to scold her. Arc, Alex, and Carol were in the living room while Leslie and I were in the bedroom. Leslie leaned against the wall with her head down. Her long brown hair fell in front of her shoulders. Her eyes were filled with relief but apology. "Two weeks, two long weeks, and not a single message." I began. She simply nodded, "I was training so hard, I didn't have time to." I paced back and forth around the bedroom. "And are you crazy? Going off on your own without a ghost? You could've been killed!" Instead of being apologetic, she suddenly lit up, "Really? And wait for rescue to come save me like a damsel in distress?" I sighed, "No not like that. At least you could've waited for back up." She replied, "Well I wasn't gonna get stronger just by waiting around for back up, would I?" I sighed again, "I guess that's right. And by the way, how did you find us?" She looked at me with confusion, "Find you? You guys followed me. I thought you were hostiles, so when I heard you guys, I hid. However, after seeing you two charging through Vex, I decided to stay out of sight and simply provide back up. Taking on all those Vex would've been suicide for me. I barely took out that first group." I had a realization, "So that means those quick shots from our arrival…" she nodded and drew her weapon, spinning it on her finger, "Yup, that was me. Found this bad boy while exploring Fallen bases. It was stored inside a treasure room." I continued, "And the sniper shot…?" She smiled again, "Also me, I saw you were pinned so I provided a helping hand. I found this sniper as a reward for killing a Fallen general. It's called the Devil's Dawn apparently." "And you managed to use Golden Gun without any problems." I added. She nodded, "Yup, Carol worked with me to be able to control it and perfect it." I added one more realization, "And what was that sword fighting style?" She answered, "Oh that, see fighting Vex with a blade like this was proving difficult. So instead of slashing at their metal armor, I tried stabbing the weak parts of their body and their stomach. I did some research and I discovered I'm using it as a Rapier, not a typical sword." She smiled brightly. I stopped pacing and walked up to her and hugged her. "You've gotten so strong." I said, "I'm so proud. I'm also so happy that you're alive." She rested her head on my chest. I let go of her and realized she was tearing up, "Are-are you okay? Was it something I said?" She simply shook her head and wiped a tear from her eye. "No, I'm just happy to know you worried about me." She finished wiping the tears and breathed in, "Alright, now can we please go home? I'm tired of this blasted rock."