Earth Ch15
The Devil's Lair
Note from ColetteJH: I'd explain my part as to why there hasn't been updates on this but we'd be here for some time if I did. I thank you all very much for waiting though, I have a PS4 and bought Destiny along with the DLCs in two or three months I'll be buying Plus again, if you see the name midnalikeswaffle you've found me, I'll be very happy to hang out with you ^-^
Arrext: I have no excuses: I let myself get lazy, and then let myself get distracted, and then life got busy for me. But again, no excuses. Please accept my apologies, and I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.
"Ocena!" She looked up at Seth's call and her face lit up; there was ghost floating after him! "I called him Rei, like a ray of sun." Seth said bouncing slightly obviously overjoyed he had a ghost again.
"Cool, nice to meet you Rei." Ocena said with a bright smile.
"You as well." The ghost replied sounding much like a stiff butler.
"Wow…you sound formal. Well Seth you were cleared to go out, Avi offered to take you with her on a scavenging mission." It was best to start him off slow after all.
"I'll go find her, see you later!" Ocena blinked when he pecked her cheek then went off.
She laughed softly. "I keep forgetting not to think too much on that." She rubbed the spot. Seth only did that because it was his way of ALWAYS thanking her. "Well Luden, let us go find the boys. I was promised lesson on how to play chess."
The group of four looked up hearing a knock on the wall. Avi stood at the doorway, she looked at Thane then gestured for him to come over.
Wordlessly he did so.
"Thane, there's a problem with Seth." Avi said concern etched into her expression.
"What? Is he okay?"
"Shh!" She hissed. "He is fine no darkness damage or body…it's his mind. He was recently cleared to go out as he got his new ghost, I took him with me on a simply scavenging mission. As soon as we came across fallen he just…it was like he was being killed again, he couldn't do anything he panicked Thane! He started begging the darkness not to take him again, he fell on the ground and curled up holding his head." Avi looked close to tears.
From what she was saying, as much as Seth wanted to fight again he wasn't going to be able to.
"I believe there is a term that fits this," Thane said grimly. "'Post traumatic stress.' Usually experienced by those who survive life or death situations, or those who witness the death of someone they care for. There are ways to cope, though the process is difficult. But…" He trailed off with a concerned frown. "Coping with your own death? That's something entirely different." He paused for a moment. "Can you think of anything that might help him?"
"I have a few ideas but…they wouldn't be guardian related…honestly I think all he could do is mapping and other paper work and maybe help train new hunters."
"Joining Cayde as the Hunter Vanguard," Thane mused with a nod. "It's a thought. What of your other idea?"
"Revenge," Avi said simply. "Seth's been talking with the Vanguard and the Speaker, giving them the intel his team managed to gather on the House of Devils. I eavesdropped on one of their recent meetings and found out that they're gonna give the go-ahead and authorize a Strike mission on the Devil's lair. Peter?" Peter materialized next to Avi's shoulder. "Pass the info we got to Thane and Prayer. We managed to catch a glimpse of the coordinates where the lair is in the Cosmodrome. All we have to do is go there and attack the Devils with everything we have."
Thane chuckled. "The Vanguard will be quite cross with us for launching the mission without their say so, even if they are about to authorize it."
Avi shrugged and grinned roguishly. "We're hunters: we bend the rules all the time." Her smile turned into a frown. "Besides, I want to do something to shut up the idiots who are calling Seth a coward."
He didn't shout: Thane just went very, very still, and his eyes seemed to glow a little brighter as a glare that could scorch metal settled onto his expression. "...Who dares say such things about him?" He spoke in his usual low tone, but it was not a question: it was a demand for information.
"Mostly other hunters," Avi said crossing her arms. "And a handful of titans; the Warlocks seem to be understanding though, even if they don't really get what he went through." She shrugged. "They're not asking him to tell them what it was like to be consumed by the Darkness, at any rate."
Thane shook his head slowly. "You're right Avi: stealing a Strike mission out from the noses of every other hunter in the Tower will definitely shut up the naysayers." He smiled and clasped Avi's hand. "I'm in. I'll inform Ocena and the others of the plan. Just to be safe, I think that the two of us should be here when they leave so that we can distract the Vanguard and stall for time."
Avi frowned. "But that means we won't be able to go with them."
"Don't worry," Thane said, setting a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "They'll do fine. If Seth really wants this, he'll make sure that no-one is left behind, and Atom would never pass up an opportunity to make the Fallen pay. Victor will want a chance to study the High Servitor the Devils are rumored to have, and you know Ocena." He finished with a smile.
Avi laughed. "Right: Ocena. She'll be her usual cheery self and make sure Seth's alright." She turned to leave. "I'll be down in the lower levels if you need me. Tell Seth I said hi." With that both hunters took off in opposite directions, one sprinting as fast as she could, the other calmly gliding from shadow to shadow.
...A few hours later In orbit...
"Umm, guys?" Spoke up Idea as the ruins of Old Russia came into view. "We've been found out."
Everyone's comms crackled for a moment before the voice of Commander Zavala, the Titan Vanguard, came through. "Do the four of you have any idea how much time and effort has gone into planning this Strike?" His voice was firm, stern and just a few tones shy of furious. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have the four of you suspended from duty for jumping the gun and trying to be heroes?"
Ocena gulped nervously, but it was Seth who spoke up. "Because none of us are doing this to be heroes." He gripped the Mark of the Immortal in the cockpit of his ship. "We're doing this for our fallen, for the ones who aren't immortal."
There was radio silence for a few moments. Then they heard Zavala give a weary laugh. "A good answer, hunter. Very well then, if you can't be talked out of this foolishness, we'll send you off with our blessing." Back in the Tower Zavala smiled lightly as he heard the guardians cheering in the cockpits of their ships. "The fallen will continue to claw at the walls of our City unless we strike them down. Beneath the ruins of the Cosmodrome, in the shadow of an old colony ship, Seth's fireteam located the House of Devils lair, and the High Servitor feeding them their strength. We must destroy this machine god, and send their souls screaming back to hell."
Ocena smiled. "We will do just that."
"You kids will want to touch down in the Rocket Yards a click away from the Devils' position," came the voice of Cayde-6. "Recent patrols say that the Devils have been getting some unwanted advances from a local group of hive. If our intel's solid, the hive should be making another push right about now. Bad news is that you guys will be moving through a firefight between the Devils and the hive…"
"...But the good news is that we can use this as a distraction," Seth finished as he saw what Cayde was getting at. "If we move quickly we can slip by while they're busy fighting each other."
"Fingers crossed, right?" Cayde chuckled. "Send the Devils back to hell, guardians."
"With extreme pleasure," Atom remarked as their ships began their descent.
Once she had landed on the ground Ocena checked with Seth. "You sure you'll be okay? You looked a bit shaky earlier."
Seth nodded. "I'm fine…hadn't been in a ship for a while...what's the old word? Jet lag? I think that was it." Seth didn't want her to what had happened the first time he came back out here. It happened once and that would be the last time. The Darkness wouldn't hold him down...after this though…he felt it would be his last mission.
"Okay, if you're sure." Ocena was still concerned but unless Seth was in a bad state she wouldn't try to talk him into leaving. "Luden be a dear and show us where to go." Ocena said holding Luden over her hand to lead them.
"You got it."
Seth surveyed the Rocket yards with a frown: Cayde hadn't been kidding, there were hive and fallen trading shots all over the place! It was almost as bad as Skywatch. "We're gonna have to make a run for it," Seth informed the team with a frustrated huff as he summoned his Sparrow. "Everyone mount-up and get ready to move on my signal. Try to stay as close to me as you can, and call out if you fall behind so we can turn around and cover you."
To Ocena's immense relief they managed to zip by the hive and fallen without taking more than a few stray glancing shots. They dismounted at the entrance of an old refinery that Seth said would let them cut right through the Devil's territory and put them at the heart of their lair. Unfortunately, the hive had made it deeper than the patrols had realized, and the fire team had to fight through both them and the fallen to get anywhere.
Ocena was worried about Seth, he was lagging behind the more they went through the fallen…not that relying only on sniping was bad but…it told her he was scared. Who wouldn't be? Ocena knew only a little of what he had gone through; after all the darkness had only touched her a for a minute when she first faced a Wizard. She held great respect for Seth for holding on as long as he did.
When they reached a large hangar-like room they all stopped hearing a sharp inhale. Ocena turned quickly knowing it was Seth.
She wasn't wrong. Seth had stopped and was holding his head looking around the room. They had just entered a darkness zone, Luden said they needed to take back the refinery if they wanted to get anywhere and that was when Seth stopped.
"Seth are you going to be okay?" Ocena asked worried.
"Just…give me a minute…" Seth wasn't sure he could explain what he was feeling. On the one hand, it was around this spot he and the others had gone down. On the other hand…the darkness zone he had once scoffed and sneered at now terrified him. He could feel it…the Darkness just waiting for them to make a wrong move and kill them…or make them wish they died.
"Seth!" Ocena cried when his breathing picked up. She hadn't wanted to see what would happen if he ever came to a darkness zone but now she was seeing it! She didn't know what to do though!
For a moment he was back with the others, listening to Cole joke about Nina having one of her infamous feelings and laughing nervously while looking out for danger along with Zeb. 'Her ghost…the Captain crushed her ghost!'Seth thought and wrapped a hand around the hilt of his knife, taking comfort in the familiar shape of the handle and the way his fingers automatically shifted to grip it in a way suitable for both drawing it for a quick cut or throwing it. The reflex was born of long weeks spent out in the field with his friends, with nothing but their wits, gear, and each other to keep themselves alive. It was a small thing, a mundane gesture. But the familiarity brought comfort, and Seth gradually felt himself calming down.
"Seth?" Ocena asked carefully standing beside him.
"I'm…" He breathed out slowly. "I'm okay. Let's…take back the foundry and move forward." That reaction alone told him this was his last mission, no ifs ands or buts about it.
"Alright…everyone else set to move?" Ocena asked the others.
"Ready as always," Victor replied while Atom just gave a curt nod of affirmation. The group of guardians carefully crept through the foundry, alert for any signs of Fallen.
"Fallen and hive." Luden said as they came out into a big open area. Just as Luden had said, there was a fight going on between a group of hive and a few stray Devils. "Let's hope we can avoid the crossfire."
"Alright we can do this guy. Seth don't take this the wrong way but stay close to Atom." Ocena said giving his shoulder a light push. She had her reasons for wanting him to stay near the Exo. When the darkness had touched her Atom's skill had helped her feel better. It would be good for Seth to stay near him.
"Yeah no problem." Seth said making his way over to Atom.
"Just try not to steal too many of my kills, alright?" Atom teased. Seth made a big show of pretending to mull his words over.
"No promises." Seth said cheekily, causing the titan to chuckle.
"So," Victor said in an amused tone, "who wants to take bets that we won't be able to avoid the crossfire between the hive and fallen?"
"200 Glimmer says we mow down the hive and then the fallen will be all over us," Atom immediately stated.
"Okay, then I bet that we give the fallen a thorough thrashing," Seth quipped. "And then the hive come charging in to take advantage of our attack."
"You're on," Atom laughed.
"Let's do this guys." Ocena took the lead for the moment managing to bust two fallen heads and one hive head before her allies got around the corner. From there it was a storm of bullets punctuated by the occasional explosion whenever a grenade detonated.
"Hey, I completed a bounty!" Seth called from beside Atom suddenly as two enemies went down. "Funny how you never notice how many fallen you kill until after the City pays you for taking down a hundred."
"Great!" Ocena cheered. Small victories could mean so much sometimes. "Uh…hey guys? This is a refinery right? What's done in these places?" She asked as she used her energy drain on a Vandal killing it instantly.
"Depends on what they were refining," Atom said as he emptied a clip into a captain. "Given that the Cosmodrome was the center of the Russian space program, it could be anything from metal used in rockets and shuttles to the fuel they used."
"We can investigate later," Victor said as he put down a group of Dregs with a fusion bolt grenade. "Let's clear this place out and move on."
Once everything was down, the group went up a slight slope to some controls in the center of the room. There was a passageway leading out of the area branching off from it, but it was laced with laser lines.
"Great. The way out of here is sealed." Luden grumbled.
"You got this Luden." Ocena said kindly as she sent him over.
"...We may want to move back." Seth whispered. He felt cold…was that smoke? What was that? He stared into a patch of shadows near the central divide of the room. He was certain that he could see a few eerily glowing green crystals, likely brought by the hive. But there was something else.
"Calm down Seth, it's alright."Rei said softly so the others wouldn't hear. He didn't know much about his guardian yet but he did know he wasn't the man's first ghost. He didn't want to think about what that meant for Seth.
"Pretty complex. I'll need some time." Luden spoke up as he looked over the laser grid control system.
"You got it, let's back off," Ocena nodded. Seth looked up suddenly as if he had heard something before leaping up onto a catwalk at the back of the room and pulling out his sniper rifle. Victor noted the hunter's movement and positioned himself on the side of the divide nearest where the guardians had entered the room. Atom moved a bit closer to Ocena, who was remaining close to the device Luden was hacking as they watched for any enemy movement.
Barely a minute later Victor began to open fire with his pulse rifle as fallen began to pour in near his position. Seth noticed a few shimmers of light trying to flank the warlock via a series of catwalks and quickly snapped off a few well placed shots with his sniper rifle, eliminating a trio of stealth Vandals.
Atom and Ocena soon found themselves busy with a proverbial flood of Dregs who attempted to rush them and get within melee distance, but the guardians kept them back with some well thrown grenades and a hail of bullets. There was a brief moment where the Dregs almost pushed into the ground held by Atom and Ocena with the assistance of a Captain, but Atom's shotgun quickly put an end to their charge.
Eventually the fallen ceased to come and the Guardians took the time to catch their breath and reload. "Luden, how's that grid coming along?" Victor asked as he glided to a better position.
"I'm making progress, almost halfway through," Luden answered. "The fallen are getting smarter. It's like the entire system is wired to a…" Suddenly an alarm began to wail, causing the guardians to shoot the ghost an exasperated look. "...I-I'll work faster." Luden sheepishly finished.
"We need to find some way for you guys to practice the whole hacking thing when we're not being shot at." Ocena huffed.
"Let him focus!" Seth called over to her.
"R…right."
The new wave of fallen that assaulted the team was accompanied by a large contingency of Shanks. While the small automated drones were relatively easy to put down, their large numbers and rapid-fire weapons proved taxing for the guardian's armor, forcing Atom to briefly relocate to the center of the space the team was holding in order to deploy his Ward of Dawn. The sub-space pocket served as an excellent cover point for the guardians whenever they took too many hits, and thanks to Atom's firm grasp of Void mechanics the barrier empowered the team's weapons whenever they passed through it.
As the fallen ceased to pour into the room Luden spoke up. "I'm close. But just so you know, there's more fallen and hive on the way."
"Great…" Seth growled softly. He didn't like the Hive: of all of the alien races that had come to the Sol system during the Collapse, they felt the darkest to him. It was like the Darkness was a part of their very being. At times it seemed like the hive were aware of this and were actually proud of it.
Having been stuck with the Darkness so long he was finding himself able to sense it better and at greater distances. While it would be a useful skill he doubted he'd be using it.
"We can do this guys!" Ocena cheered.
Ocena hadn't even tried to count the waves of enemies they had to fight. She had died once or twice during the fight, but every time she fell Victor would almost immediately appear and have her back on her feet with a friendly word of advice in seconds. Dying still hurt, but she was learning how to shrug it off faster so she could get back in the fight.
"I've got it!" Luden finally called out as the last of the enemy fell. Ocena let out a huff of relief as the laser grid shut down, opening the way forward.
"Pay up," Seth said to Atom as he leapt off of the catwalk and landed next to the Titan.
Atom turned to give Seth a confused look from behind his helmet's faceplate as the group moved through the rest of the refinery. "What for..? Oh." He facepalmed himself as he remembered the bet he'd made with the hunter just before the shootout. "Right, first we had fallen, then the hive, so…200, right?"
Seth nodded as Neutron appeared briefly and transferred the promised Glimmer to Rei, leaving Atom shy of a little Glimmer but lightening the mood up nonetheless. After a brief skirmish with a small group of fallen the team emerged outside in the daylight. Ocena noticed Seth relax a little once in sun light.
"The lair is up ahead, under that Colony Ship..." Luden trailed off as the guardians rounded a corner and caught sight of the entrance to the ship dock. Alerted by the ruckus the guardians had caused in the refinery, the Devils had set up a fortified position and were ready for them."...Just on the other side of all those devils…" Luden finished uncertainly. That was a lot of angry fallen between his guardians and their objective.
"Oh what else is new?" Ocena said in a sing song voice.
Seth blinked and turned to Atom. "Is she always so…joyful?"
"Not quite how I'd put it," Atom muttered as he and Victor tried to spot a soft spot in the Devil's defensive line. "I'd say it's more like laughing in the face of long odds or something." He then turned to the others. "Okay, we spread out and hit em' from four different points at once. After you take a few hits, fall back and we'll group up to punch through their center while they're still reelin'. I'll take the…"
"Um, Atom?" Victor interrupted, his gaze focused on something in the near distance. "I think that plan just got scrapped."
The team followed Victor's gaze and observed a Skiff flying in low with something large attached to the underside. The guardians took cover behind a ruined shed near their position as the Skiff took a few potshots at them with its heavy Arc turrets, forcing them to keep their heads down. Then as quickly as it had come the Skiff gained altitude and shot off into the distance, only it had left behind a little something for the guardians to remember it by. Atom took one look at the six-legged tank now sitting pretty in the center of the Devil's formation and took the opportunity to utilize a few choice curses.
"Uh…what's that-" Ocena was cut off by one shot from the tank that nearly did her in! She hastily took cover with her friends as the fallen tank continued to bombard them with heavy Arc blasts. "Again…what is that?!" She cried a little breathless.
"Walker Tank!" Atom cursed as he carefully poked his head around the wall he was hiding behind. "Heavily armored automated tank. I didn't know the Devils had any that still worked." Oh right, she had seen one before while out on patrols with Avi.
"I've seen a few ghost scans of those things," Victor supplied. "The main core is housed behind a thick and prominent forward blast shield mounted on the front of the tank." He risked a brief glance around their cover to look at the tank again. "That big bulky protrusion on the front. It'll stop everything but our strongest ordinance, but the design has abysmal heat-exchange systems: if we can force an overheat, the tank will have to open the blast shield and expose its core in order to vent the excess heat, and it won't be able to fire its weapon systems while that's happening."
"Great, if only I had a rocket launcher or machine gun." Ocena grunted as she hurled a void grenade at a group of fallen who had boldly attempted to move closer while the guardians were pinned by the tank. "So how do we do that?"
"Shoot the legs," Seth answered confidently. "They've got decent armor plating, but if we can blow the plates off it might throw off the tank's weight distribution."
Victor nodded slowly. "Without the weight of the armor plating on one leg, the tank will have to re-task its engines to distribute its horsepower in new increments to compensate for the sudden shift. That will definitely overheat the system."
Atom poked his shotgun around the wall he was using for cover and fired off two shots, forcing a fallen captain to back off. "Okay, here's how we do this: we move out in teams of two and take potshots at the fallen around the tank first, but lob a few grenades at the tank's legs if you see an opening. Once we're clear of uglies, focus fire on one leg at a time. Ocena with me, Vic you go with Seth. Once the core is exposed hit it with everything you've got: supers, heavy weapons, the works. Anyone got any objections?"
"What if it gets back up?" Ocena asked nervously.
"Then we back off and start over again," Atom replied as though it was the simplest thing in the world, and for Atom it probably was.
Ocena took a deep breath to steady her nerves before nodding. "Okay, I'm ready!"
Atom peaked behind their cover again. "Okay, on my signal you and me go left while Vic and Seth go right. Get ready…" Each of them posed to move waiting for Atom's command. "GO!" Seth and Victor went off the left side of the tank spotting what would work as cover from both the fallen and tank. Ocena and Atom ran off to the right side of the tank, blasting fallen as they ran while also looking for cover.
They quickly found a partially exposed corridor that, as luck would have it, gave them a clean line of sight on the tank that was only just out of its direct line of fire. Unfortunately, the Devils seemed to have known this and had stationed plenty of Vandals at the other end to stand guard.
As soon as the Guardians had an opening they put Atom and Seth's plan into action, focusing fire on the tanks legs and unleashing their heavy ordinance on the core once it was exposed. They were able to avoid the tank's shock turret and heavy main cannon with only a few close calls and the plan proved effective, right up until it began to release Pit Shanks and many more Devils dropped in via Skiffs to reinforce the position.
Ocena frowned seeing all the new red dots on her tracker. "Atom do we need a plan change here or do we just keep mowing down the fallen then focusing on the tank again?" She asked taking cover when the tank shot an explosive round her way.
"Wait till the Skiffs back off," Atom responded over the fireteam comms as he hurled a grenade at a particularly daring group of Fallen and ducked in time to avoid the retaliatory arc rounds snapped off by their comrades. "Then pick off the small fry; we'll never bring this thing down if we've gotta keep worrying about one of these chuckleheads getting in a lucky shot."
"Lather, rinse, and repeat," Seth joked over the comms as he took off a Captain's head with an expertly placed shot from his hand cannon.
"Alright, no plan change then!" Ocena tossed a void grenade at the tank's legs in annoyance and then focused her fire on the fallen. When they mowed down all the fallen they would have to move fast in attacking the tank, those Skiffs came with enemy reinforcements in a matter of one to two minutes!
Ocena had to cheer when Seth quickly snipped a couple of vandals; the bullet went through two heads! If that wasn't worthy of a cheer and some bragging rights she didn't know what was!
Finally after the fallen were once more brought down under the guardians' merciless fire and grenades, a solid blast from Atom's rocket launcher had the tank staggering and falling, then it opened up.
Ocena, having been saving her nova bomb just for this jumped up and let it go, sending it right into the glowing crimson. Seth tossed a grenade into it that split off and converged upon the core all at once, and he was able to toss a few more thanks to the boost he received from Victor using his super.
Far too soon for Ocena's liking the blast shield moved back into place protecting the weak spot, the tank stood once more and the fallen were dropped off. The young warlock sighed in annoyance throwing her head back. "Lather, rinse, and repeat. Just as Seth said." She muttered then turned her pulse rifle onto the fallen taking out the servitor that had been brought along immediately, that thing would just make unneeded trouble.
The guardians cut down the fallen and broke open the tank one final time before finally a small explosion went off inside it and it fell. The remaining fallen appeared surprised but had little time to think on it as the guardians moved to finish them off. And without the heavy fire support of the walker tank, the remaining Devils soon found themselves routed.
The guardians could finally move forward to their goal. Inside the building that the devils had claimed as their lair, everything was just as ruined as everything else was… with the addition of skulls on poles.
"So this is the devil's lair…why is it there is always skulls?" Luden wondered seeing the skeleton...decorations.
"I don't know Luden…way back before the golden age humans did stuff like this too. Maybe it's a way to scare people off? Don't know." Ocena said with a shrug and shake of her head. Luden either didn't want to draw attention to it or didn't want to think about all the other bones and skeletons on the ground that they had passed or were still walking around and over.
"It's a show of power," Atom growled darkly. "In the event that representatives from other fallen houses come here to negotiate with the Devils, this," he gestured at the skulls with one hand, "Is sendin' a couple of messages, like 'we're big and bad and we'll make your life hell if you try anything on our turf.'" He went silent for a moment as he gazed at the piles of bones. "Wonder how many non-combatants they killed just to decorate the place." He wondered grimly.
Ocena made a face under her hood. "Well that's pleasant." She said sarcastically. They opened a large metal door to find a few fallen and an absolutely massive servitor surrounded in lightning. "Is this what we came for?" Ocena asked softly, it looked like a bigger more impressive servitor.
"Sepiks Prime," Seth replied trying to get a look around without getting them spotted. "I'm sure no one is going to disagree when I say as soon as we get out there not only will that thing attack us but there will be fallen to deal with...basically I'm saying we're going to have a repeat of the tank here."
"A reasonable assumption," Victor nodded. "I mean, we are about to destroy a machine that keeps them supplied with the ether they need to survive, a machine that they literally worship as a god."
"What's the plan then? Same as before?" Ocena questioned, she wanted to know what they should be doing before going out.
The guardians considered their options a moment before Seth spoke up. "We have two options. One: We do the same thing we did with the tank, or we have one person focus fire on the fallen small fry, one person focuses on the big cheese and the other person does a combo of both." He looked over his team mates feeling a touch of sadness at being reminded his old team was gone, however he wouldn't fail this time.
"I like option two better, I could focus on, as you put it the big cheese." She liked that term; she'd have to use it from now on. "Atom, Victor how about you two?" The young warlock asked wanting to know their thoughts.
Victor considered their options for a moment then made his choice. "Option two may be a good idea, I can take care of the fallen."
That left Atom with the job of attacking both the Sepiks Prime and the fallen. "I'm game with the plan." The Exo nodded. "Only one alteration: lemme at the big poobah. No offense," he added respectfully to Ocena, "But your fusion rifle doesn't have the punch that my heavy weapons do."
Ocena thought about that for a minute before nodding. "Makes sense. I can help Victor with the fallen and use that time to charge a nova bomb for the servitor."
Seth nodded gripping the hand cannon that Cayde had secretly slipped him tightly to stop the tremble in his hands, they were almost done once this thing was gone he'd let himself finally relax, but now he was needed. He rubbed a thumb along the spade engraved into the gun's barrel, feeling an extra spurt of courage as he did so.
"Alright, Victor go off to the left, I see some railing over there and a very narrow spot. From what I can tell, if the fallen try to surround you, it'll be easy to make quick work of them." There was indeed very little room there and looked from their position one way to reach it, the stairs. Victor would have no problem picking off the fallen from right there.
The hunter continued now turning to Atom. "Atom I think your best position would be the right, the fallen might try to flank from that side, not only that you'll have a perfect clear shot at Sepiks." He looked to Ocena, she nodded quickly to show she was listening. "As for you Ocena you might have the harder job here, you will be in the middle shooting the big cheese and only it unless the fallen get around Atom and Victor, it isn't likely but be ready for that."
The young warlock nodded. "Understood."
"If fire from the fallen or from our target gets too heavy you duck behind that cover there, Atom you'll need to draw fire from it then." He pointed between them. "You gotta share the fire, I don't care how much both of you can take alright? No unnecessary harm. I'll be sticking with Ocena, so the three of us will trade getting shot at by it." Seth had more to say but didn't and he didn't have to say it anyway, his team knew why he stressed this and silently vowed to be more careful than normal.
"It's a good plan," Atom said quietly with a nod. He was normally the one to come up with a plan of attack when the need for a coordinated assault arose, but in light of the personal stake that Seth had in the battle, as well as the plan itself being about as foolproof as first encounter plans went, he wasn't going to raise a fuss. "Just be prepared to change things up if it comes to it: no plan ever survives the first encounter with the enemy. Adapt, and we'll be done here in no time."
They all had the plan down, the guardians checked their guns making sure their weapons were already fully loaded and having no problems, no one needed extra ammo thankfully. What they had lost with the tank they had regained from the fallen they picked off after it fell.
Seth took a deep breath, ignoring the part of himself that was screaming due to the Darkness Zone as he had since entering it and called out, "For the Traveler; attack!"
The guardians rushed forward, Victor and Atom quickly shot down the few fallen around the high servitor as each guardian took their position. Ocena switched her pulse rifle for the fusion rifle in her sling, and with a quick charge she released the burst right into the center of the servitor's eye, a place she knew was a weak spot on smaller servitors and was happy to see that the same weakness applied to the more advanced models.
Ocena and Atom took turns drawing the Sepiks Prime's attention while Victor and Seth tore into the Devil's ranks like a pair of wolves; it was quite the task keeping up with the oncoming fallen but Victor and Atom kept up with ease. Seth and Ocena took turns firing at the Sepiks Prime, Seth would come out the right side and fire and Ocena would be on the left and fire. If one of them took too much they ducked back behind their cover to recover that left either Seth or Ocena alongside Atom firing at the thing, all the while they kept calling out to each other over the comms as needed.
"Oh son of a-it would be able to teleport like the servitors!" Ocena hissed when her grenade missed its mark as the high servitor vanished and reappeared a few feet away higher in the air. The fallen now proved to be a hassle since Sepiks Prime was teleporting around and firing around the cover they were using, it was a bit harder to keep the plan working but not enough so that they needed a new plan. They continued as they had before only now it was harder.
What felt like an hour later full of gunfire and explosions, Seth sighted up along his hand cannon at the high serivtor's eye. He only had one shot left in his clip, but… As he was aiming a dreg rounded the corner and charged him while howling curses in its strange language. With reflexes born from long years of practice Seth changed targets in an instant and pulled off a snapshot, taking the dreg's head off but denying him the shot that he needed to end Sepiks. But just as he was about to reload he blinked as his ammo counter read that there was still one shot left in the chamber.
"She's good luck, this gun," Cayde had said to him back at the Tower when Seth asked to see it before they left. "She's always got a little extra to kick your way too, if you know how to treat her right." And with that the hunter Vanguard had left, never once asking for Seth to give him back his gun. Now Seth allowed himself a tiny smile as he once again took aim at Sepiks Prime, and pulled the trigger.
There was a sudden burst of sparks and lightning. The high servitor's chassis cracked and spat arc energy, the eye-like machine spinning and emitting frenzied electronic noise before one final flash signaled its death. The ruined machine fell to the ground, and all of the remaining Devils began to flee with all the speed they could muster, howling in despair as they were chased by parting shots from the triumphant guardians. "That…was intense." Oceana breathed trying to catch her breath. "How long did that take? Nearly an hour?"
"Something like that I think." Seth gasped.
"Easy you two, breath."Rei said gently.
"Well done!" Luden said brightly.
"Hell yeah!" Atom roared after the retreating fallen. "Where's your machine god now? Oh yeah: he's over there in a million pieces! Shoulda' got a warranty!"
Victor rolled his eyes at Atom's heated antics but smiled as he bent down next to the ruined machine, already scanning it with Idea to learn what he could of its systems.
Zavala's voice came over the comms. "Sepiks Prime cast a shadow over our city. With its destruction, the Fallen Devils will be weaker. But we must stay vigilant. The Fallen are crafty. They'll find ways to survive. They always do."
A job well done then, they had succeeded.
"Seth will be seeing the Speaker and paying a visit to the infirmary." Rei said firmly fully expecting an argument with his guardian.
"Alright." Seth said with a shrug, he knew he wasn't in the best shape.
"No argument?" The ghost questioned hovering closer to his guardian.
"I can tell when I'm not doing well. Sorry to say so but…this was my last mission Rei." Seth looked at his new ghost sadly.
"...Are you expecting me to leave because of that? Or feel sad?" The ghost waved back and forth trying to get across a head shaking motion. "No. I feel better not having to worry about you in battle. Some may not know but we ghosts worry a great deal about our guardians. Now, let us go home."
Seth nodded and smiled. "Right… and I'd better give Cayde his gun back. Wouldn't want him to accuse me of filching it from him."
Ocena smiled a little, she nodded at Atom and Victor then they all called their ships and headed home.
"Are you sure you don't want to celebrate with the others Ocena?" Luden asked watching his guardian get into the bed for the night. "We dealt a huge blow, it's worthy of celebrating."
"I know." Ocena said curling into a ball under her blankets. "I'm just very tired." She sighed heavily.
She had done a lot more than she usually did, Luden could understand if she wanted to get some rest. He was about to fly off to the living room to "investigate" the tv when Ocena called him. "Luden?" The ghost stopped in his path to the door and turned back to his guardian, she had he arms out of the blankets holding her hands out.
Lude flew over and landed in her open hands, Ocena drew him close to her and sighed again. "I'm feeling a little lonely, stay?"
Luden blinked. "Of course." He wouldn't ever leave if she needed him, never. As Ocena drifted off holding her ghost close to her, Luden fell into his own version of sleep thinking nothing of Ocena suddenly wanting him close. He would come to regret it in a month.
Note from Colette/DarkMousySan: I have now edited all the chapters and the shorts have been too, there are also some new ones. All shorts can now only be found on DA...partly because its' too much a hassle to post in two different places and... isn't fully working for me, I'm able to get into my favorites and that's it. I'll figure out what happened at some point and maybe the shorts will go back but until then they are on my DA. My user is DarkMousySan there is a whole folder in my gallery for Destiny and the shorts or in order by link and as you scroll through.
I started the next chapter a little but it will take time for it to be seen, there's a lot that will be going into it.
The next chapter will not be having the guardians doing missions, there's a lot of stuff on the notepad that I'd like to get off it. We'll just have to see what the other guardian who writes this with me thinks. See you all in the first Moon chapter! ^-^
Arrext: Finally done! Ugh, I hate myself for letting this take so long T_T
