A/N: Managed to recreate some parts from the originals prior to my laptop being corrupted. While also redoing a majority to make it better.
In orbit over Mars
Sol System
High above the red planet of the Sol System, the two ships containing the Ace Ops, Penny Polendina and Prometheus-23 prepped for their assignment. In the Jumpship was Prometheus-23, Harriet brie, Penny Polendina and Elm Edern were in the jumpship. The remaining Ace Ops being Clover Ebi, Vine Zeke and Marrow Amin were in the other. The latter listening to the assignment via radio thanks to Pan; Prometheus-23's Ghost.
"Alright, our destination is the City of Freehold." Prometheus explained. "We make landfall in this small area in Meridian Bay. Then we establish a perimeter then head to the designated camp sight Hidden Agents established for us. Any questions?"
"Yeah, I have a question. Why are there so many Warsats in the area?!" Harriet asked gesturing outside.
It was true, there were numerous Warsat satellites flying around them. Some were simply floating by, while others were flying downwards towards the surface of the planet.
"They are not flying by in a random matter." Penny stated. " I've calculated trajectories of the current Warsats near us and found that they are all heading towards the Hellas Basin region in Northern Mars. While the others are falling in random areas in the other surrounding regions."
"Well, we'll keep an eye on any Warsats that fall near us and recover any data…" He was interrupted by Pan.
"E-Emergancy broadcast on all Vanguard channels!"
"Put it on."
Static filled both comms arrays before a female voice came on.
"To all active Guardians in the vicinity, this is Guardian Hunter Anastasia bray reporting on all frequencies!"
Prometheus bade his ghost to open the communication.
"This is Prometheus-23 of Fireteam nero alongside the Ace-Ops of Atlas and Specialist Penny Polendina."
"Thank the Traveler someone answered. The Hive are on mars, repeat, Hive on Mars."
The ace-Ops shivered a bit hearing that. They've all done the simulations fighting the Hive along with studying them. Skeletal beings that worship the paracausal force that's the anti-thesis of the Light; The Darkness by participating in a twisted survival of the fittest mentality.
Prometheus sighed. "Any idea why the Hive are on Mars?"
"They're going after Rasputin. And without him, the entire system will be in danger."
Silence filled both cabins. Prometheus-23 had some brief encounters with the Warmind with his Fireteam group; Nero and the Ace-Ops and Penny both had read about the Warmind via the Grimoire System. A large Artificial Intelligence which was used extensively during Earths Golden Age and was used in matters both military and scientific research. Then the collapse happened forcing it to go deep underground. From recent reports, it was in Old Russia on Earth isolating the region most hit by the SIVA Crisis a few years back.
After getting the coordinates from Anastasia Bray, Prometheus turned to his companions both in the ship and on the comms. "We're going to have to put our mission on the backburner. Change course to the Hellas Basin region!"
And with that, the two ships changed course.
00000
On a strip of land in the Hellas Basin Region, one that used to be a launching facility for the ClovisBray Corporation, now defunct, Doctor Arthur watts watched all around him with a pair of binoculars. He was sent here alongside his Eliksni partner; Techis Splicer Priest to distribute Grimm all throughout the Sol System during the Red war to cause more problems for all parties. Afterwards, his master; Salem bid him and Techis to begin recruiting Cabal for her plans. To ensure they were successful, she sent one of her newest recruits, a Psion Flayer by the name of Amtec to help facilitate it.
So far, the recruiting had some form of success. With Dominus Ghaul dead, all legions of the Cabal stationed in Sol and on Remnant started to fracture into smaller groups with their leaders trying to reform them in their own image, while some continued to follow the deceased Ghaul's last orders. So far, at least a thousand Cabal along with their Warbeasts and Psion hanger-on's bent the knee to Amtec. All was going to plan.
That was until the Hive started to appear.
Arthur Watts shivered thing of those hideous…things! It was during one of those recruiting moments that the Hive just dug themselves out of the ground and attacked everyone around them. Casulties were low, but with the Hive appearing in vast numbers, their plans were put on hold.
And now Warsats were falling from the sky and Guardians were on their way.
He brought up his scroll and flicked it open where a holoprojector appeared before him. Scanning the ship as it flew by, he smiled. Turns out that those ships contained a member of Fireteam Nero, Ironwoods' puppet and his five favorites. He smiled at this turn of events and pressed a button.
He smiled when a red beam pierced through the sky and impacted the two ships, making them smoke and crash far away.
Sometime ago, getting a bit bored, he decided to raid the research station. What he discovered was a genetic lock on the computers which activated when he placed a hand on one by mistake. After it activated, he went through the files. Turns out, one of his ancestors was a scientist at the Clovis Bray Corporation and had mid-level access to some of Rasputin's systems. One of which was Security Towers which fires a laser at anything deemed a threat. He smiled thinking of the fun he could have with his new toy.
Unfortunately, whenever he got too close to the Braytech Futurescape; the region where the core of Rasputin resided, his access to said towers was overwritten by the Warmind, forcing him to make use of the random towers located farther from the Warminds reach.
He smiled seeing the ships go down.
"Oh what fun you all are going to have." He turned away to tell his allies of the newest pawns on the field.
00000
After the two ships crashed, the occupants went to exit the vehicles and set up a perimeter. TheJumpship landed on a shelf where the land overlooked a sea of melted ice and crashed Warsats. While the VTOL that contained Clover, Marrow and Vine landed on the sandy top high above. Once again proving that Clovers Semblance, Good fortune, was helping out.
Clover took charge of setting up a perimeter. "Harriet, set up a ground-based perimeter. Vine! You're overwatch!"
Vine used his Aura Vines Semblance to grab onto a overhanging rock and stretched himself upwards to keep an eye on aerial threats, while Harriet used her Speed Semblance to race around and check.
Meanwhile, Elm helped Penny and Prometheus-23 to unload supplies. So far the duffel bags containing a change of clothes, data pads and whatnot survived the crash. Pan went and scanned the supplies and transported them into her storage. Marrow looked around towards the horizon. Thanks to his Faunus eyesight, spotting a derelict train rail with five flying shadows circling it.
"I got suspected Grimm at our two o'clock. Too small to be Nevermore. Possible Griffins."
"Excellent Marrow." Clover turned to Harriet. "Report."
"No sign of any threats around here. Plenty of crashed Warsats and the remains of what I assume to be Hive Thrall." She said, gently nudging the chitin with disgust.
Pan drifted away from the crash and flew by Harriet. The ace-Op kept an eye on the Ghost as she scanned the remains.
"Definite Hive Thrall. No match to current Hive se-se-sects." She said drifting back to her Guardian.
Prometheus-23 sighed. Unknown Hive attacking the Warmind. Not a good start. He turned to Penny. "Any idea what shot us out of the sky?"
Penny's eyes glowed green briefly showing that she was searching her memory banks, likely replaying where the shots came from. "Inconclusive. Most likely high levels of ionization that don't show up in any record of previous Guardian interaction with Rasputin."
Seeing the last of the bags out of the ship, he took a look at the damage. While the VTOL had a bit of scarring and no other worse damage, no doubt thanks to Clovers Semblance. The same couldn't be said for the Jumpship. The ship was completely burnt out on one side, wires and other bits out in the open, a few patches of sand underneath turned to glass. This ship wouldn't be flying anytime soon. He checked to see if Sparrows can be used and got a simple, 'No Signal Available' for his trouble.
Pan soon drifted to the bags and scanned them, adding them to its digital inventory in a flash.
"Alright, we are in hostel territory, ships busted, unable to activate our Sparrows due to interference and the Warmind is danger of Hive." Prometheus gestured to a large tunnel. "We'll go by foot, but keep your eye out for anything Hive."
After abandoning the ships and going on foot, the group of seven made their way through the tunnel. It was perhaps five minutes that they encountered traces of hive. The walls were covered in hive writing, claw marks, barnacles that are usually found in their strongholds.
"This tunnel is not a natural formation. It looks as if it was tunneled by something large." Penny said as they wandered through.
"No doubt." Harriet said hesitantly as she looked upwards when they went through a larger cavern and saw other tunnels, some as big as the one they went through and some much bigger high over their heads. They left the cavern just as something extremely large came out of one of those tunnels.
They soon encountered a section that was completely frozen over with a Warsat covered in frost right near the edge of a deep chasm. Prometheus stopped the group so Pan could scan it for any details. Elm and Marrow keeping an eye out around them.
"I-I managed to find out-wh-why the Warsats are falling." She stuttered as she brought up a hologram for all to see.
"Gardener Awakened. 92% chance of 'IT' returning. Current Warsats in Sol System deemed obsolete. All Warsats in Sol System that are adrift to be recalled for Reprograming with newest specks. If Reprogramming not viable, new batch of Warsats are to be launched." Elm read out loud. Prometheus did a quick cliff notes to those around him.
"The Gardener he mentions is no doubt the Traveler, while IT is no doubt the Darkness." He said, the others looking uncomfortably about that revelation.
"Makes sense is a sort of way. The Warsats are working on outdated programs, recalling them seems the logical source of action." Vine said.
Before more could be said, a roar sounded in front of them. Burrowing out of the ground were small Grimm that looked like biped dinosaurs, but without the arms, along with another group of Grimm that looked like an animal skull scuttling on six insect legs and a stinger tail.
"Creeps and Sulfur Fish!" Clover shouted identifying the two species of Grimm, the former being the theropod, while the latter was the insect-like one.
The five Ace-Ops primed their weapons, while Penny summoned a ring of swords around her head while Prometheus-23 brought out a Suros Assault Rifle.
But the Grimm ignored them in favor of either running towards the tunnel that they came from or jumping to their death in the chasm behind them.
The seven stared in silence watching the apparent fear and suicide of the Grimm.
"What would compel Grimm to run away or commit suicide?" Marrow asked.
He got his answer when a clawed hand emerged from the ground and grabbed his leg!
He looked down in horror when a skeletal face with no eyes screamed up at him and began to claw its way upwards.
"Hive Thrall!" Marrow screamed and with his other leg stomped on the face of the now identified Thrall repeatedly until its head caved in. before he could sigh in releaf, the ground below all their feet soon erupted in more hive thralls, bodies covered in frost and in some cases, icicles from their limbs.
The seven ran and shot beneath their feet to give them time to escape. As they ran, Prometheus-23 saw more and more emerge from beneath. He stopped counting after seventy-five and then tossed a Solar Grenade at the horde.
It exploded in the face of the first few, killing them, but not diminishing their numbers. "Run, while I give covering fire!" Prometheus-23 shouted as he shot more of the horde of Thralls. He noticed a few of them were the Cursed Thrall variety and shot at them. The volatile Thrall exploding in a shower of explosive residue and ice which killed some of their peers and impaled some. But they still came towards them!
It was Clover that came up with the idea.
"Elm, prime a few of your rockets and give them to Harriet! Harriet, use your Semblance to place all around the walls of the tunnel!"
"Got it!" the two said in unison as they began to work, focused on their task instead of the gunfire.
"Marrow, when Harriet finishes, use your Semblance on the horde."
"I've never held back that many before! But I'll try."
Prometheus-23 kept shooting as the Thralls kept coming, no end in sight! He ignored the blur of yellow and brown which signified Harriet using her Speed Semblance to place the rockets all around the tunnel. From the side he saw Marrow approach and snap his fingers and point at the Thralls.
"STAY!"
His voice echoed as the swarm stopped in their tracks, yet some still came forward in extreme slow motion. Marrow's arm became tired and shaking. The Titan, seeing Harriet finish, picked up marrow and joined the rest of the group. Already, Marrow's Semblance was no longer active, the horde continued their run. As the horde made their way, Prometheus shot at one of the rockets, making it explode, which triggered the others, making the tunnel collapse right on top of the Thralls, killing them!
They sighed in relief as Pan drifted to a hand of a Thrall that was blown off as the tunnel collapsed. After scanning it, she went back to her Guardian.
"It's a match to the one Operative Brie found at the crash site. But still no match to other Hive Samples retrieved from other Guardians in Sol." Prometheus sighed as the group continued its trek through the network of tunnels. Everyone with weapons raised and their eyes on the lookout.
They soon found themselves in a much larger cavern with a winding landscape that upwards and branched off in two directions.
"Stay where you are!" Penny warned the group, looking upwards. The group followed her eyes and saw hanging upside down were five entities with bat wings wrapped around them.
"Grimm?" Clover asked.
"My scans indicate that they are the Ravager subtype…but mixed with Hive chitin and others I can't identify." Penny responded.
"Damn things must have eaten a Thrall." Harriet replied. She pointed at the tunnel exits above. "Left, or right?"
"I would suggest right." The Titan replied.
"Why right?"
"Because of that." The Titan pointed at the left seeing a Hive Wizard surrounded by Hive Acolytes emerge. Chanting, the wizard roared and a green smoke seeped from its hands, trailed upwards and into the hanging Grimm above.
The smoke bathed the five above and they dropped right in front of the seven.
Except they weren't Grimm!
They were actually Hive Knights with chitinous shields and rusty swords which roared and unfurled their bat-like wings and charged at them!
A/N: When I first saw the original D2 trailer and saw a Hive Knight, I thought for a moment that the newer variants had wings. But it turned out that it was loose bits of fabric with Hive runes on them dangling from their chitin shoulders. But that original thought stayed with me and I made them here. The Hive Knights here are a peek at what Nokris has been doing since his release on Mars. He's not known as a Necromancer for nothing...
See ya soon!