Ryan, Pyro and Wolf, Shadows of Primus Umbra, crept deeper and deeper into total darkness as they followed the Wizard called 'Mahren-seth' and her Knight escorts deeper into the Temple of Crota. Though they dare not speak, lest they give away their position, the same questions echoed across their minds. 'Who is she? What does she want?' And, 'how do we kill her?' Were among the burning questions searing the walls of their minds, that last of which came with a hint of doubt in Ryan's mind.
The Titan had figured that the Hunters would do what was necessary to survive first and foremost. Sure, they were loyal, but he'd yet to meet a Hunter that understood the absolute necessity of duty as Titans did. Regardless of her power, regardless of her intentions, that Wizard was a Nightfall tier threat and stood as a potential threat to the Traveler and the Last City beneath it. One way or another, she could not be allowed to leave this moon.
The Shadows followed The Hive down into the Temple of Crota, where the confidant stopped; her escort and the guardians in tail, did the same. This place, it seemed to sicken her. "So much power, afforded to an infant amongst the Hive Pantheon…" She started, her voice: soothing and yet rife with a touch of malice. "...only for him to die anyway. Killed in his own Throne World, by his own demiurge, a fate that would befall his father a year later…I wonder, how high would our race rise if we just stopped affording power to those who do not hold our best interest at heart?"
One of the Knights stepped forward. "Confidant, we should continue." the knight advised, her eyes shifting back to the entrance of the temple beneath her visor. She sensed a presence that did not belong to the Hive, and it made her slightly uneasy, though she would dare not show that on her face.
The Confidant looked back at her. Despite the Knight's efforts to hide it, Seth could sense her uneasiness. "Azara…" She began. "You and your siblings, Metri and Zinth, should be wary of power. In absolute terms, it corrupts. But above all, it makes you a target. If you are to ever take strength, be sure to take it from the shadows. Unseen. Silent. Do not make a spectacle of your your might and invite challenge.
Azara had no idea what the Confidant was referring to, nor was she paying as much attention as she should have. Still fixated on the feeling of being followed, she simply nodded her off to keep her moving. "Noted, Confidant. Now, if you please?"
Not wanting to waste any more time, The Confidant looked to the wall and grabbed one of the remaining Ascendant Blades. Almost immediately, the weapon began to decay in her hand. She had only a small window of time before it would disappear, ruined by the touch of a non-ascendant, so she would have to move fast. Mahren Seth took the blade and continued along, her escort following close. Azara gave her younger Brothers a look, silently warning them to be alert. They took note and were on guard. The Guardians in hiding waited until the Hive were well enough ahead before they moved to follow.
The Shadows followed the mysterious Hive into a room not on official Vanguard maps. It led to a lift that activated upon the Confidant's touch. Together, she and her knights descended into the Hellmouth. Down some thousands of feet they went until they were completely out of sight. The lift did not come back up, leaving the Guardians stranded and free to converse.
With the Hive well out of earshot, Wolf was the first to say something. "So, can I just say what we're all thinking? Why here?" He asked.
Ryan stepped up, putting his rifle on his back as he prepared to follow the Hive into the dark below. "Honestly Wolf, I couldn't tell you." He said. "Maybe they're trying to bring Crota back, or find a weapon he left or something. Whatever it is, if it's important enough for someone that powerful to be interested in, then we need to destroy it."
"Or…" Pyro cut in. "...We could take it for ourselves."
"Assuming we can even wield it…" Wolf retorted, stowing his own weapons. "...whatever it is."
Ryan knelt in preparation to drop. "We can talk about what to do with it later. Sitting up here talking about it isn't doing us any good. We'll have to follow."
"Any chance the lift is gonna come back u-" Wolf began, only for Ryan to jump over the edge and drop below.
"See you at the bottom!" The Titan saluted as he plummeted into the Dark.
Wolf gave Pyro a look. The latter Hunter shrugged then followed, jumping into the pit after the Titan, his rifle in-hand, leaving Wolf at the top of the Lift Shaft, alone.
Wolf shook his head. "I should have stayed home…" He sighed before jumping down into the pit after the others."
The Fireteam of Shadows fell for quite some time. The light from the Temple above seemed to grow smaller and smaller until it didn't exist at all. Soon they were swallowed in complete darkness and their Ghosts had to transmat into being to light the way for them.
Ryan looked down and he could see the ground coming up, and it was coming up fast. "We're coming up on the ground floor." He advised on comms. Instinctively, he and the Hunters let their abilities carry their bodies.
Being of different disciplines, the three classes had different methods for paracausal traversal. Warlocks expelled paracausal energies in a strong, consistent stream throughout their bodies at all angles, allowing them to instantly halt their movement and 'glide' along the air. Hunters expelled paracausal energies directly beneath the soles of their feet in strong bursts, which allowed them to effectively 'double jump, sometimes even triple jump. Titans, like Hunters, expelled their energy from the bottom of their feet and, like Warlocks, did so ina stream. Unlike both however, the stream was strong and inconsistent, acting more like invisible thrusters than anything else. This afforded all three classes a 3rd dimension of movement (and even a fourth if you knew how to Blink.)
Using their abilities, the fireteam came to a screeching halt on the lift platform below. They looked out into a room long since vacated. The dried, calcified husks of Hive Thrall littered the floor; the Guardian's stepped over their starved corpses, and continued on.
Pyro and Wolf, exercising their Hunter training, looked for tracks left by the Knights. Sure enough they found them, displaced footsteps in what would otherwise be undisturbed layers of dust, lead onward and out of the dark room. They followed the trail, and Ryan followed them.
As the fireteam continued on, a yellow light began to pierce the veiled shadow ahead, filling the dark throughways with enough light for the Guardians to see without the need of their Ghosts. Their respective ancillas dematerialized as the Guardians stepped into the yellow light, which was emanating off of various, clearly alien, crystalline structures. The crystals illuminated the halls, allowing the Guardians better ability to follow the mysterious Hive's tracks. The Tracks led into a chamber the size of an old, pre-golden age stadium and, at the area's heart, the 'Confidant' and her Knight Escort resided
Mahren-Seth took the Ascendant Hive blade and stabbed it into a slot in the ground, then turned it counter clockwise and suddenly emerald light shot through every crack and crevice; the entire room, once dead, had roared to life. In its center, a twisted energy seeped out of the ground and into the air. The Confidant moved to command the energy, setting it aside, inputting commands, like she were a maestro conducting an orchestra, playing a grand symphony. This did not bode well with The shadows of Primus Umbra. They had no idea who she was or why she was there. Just the same, it was their fear of the unknown that drove them to act.
Ryan nodded to his teammates, they nodded back. The three backed into the shadows of the other room, stowing their weapons entirely. The fireteam seemed to vanish entirely…then an object came flying right out of the shadows, careening into the chamber and right at Azara, of the Knights, bonking her in the back of her helmet. The Hive all turned an eye to see what the object was, and were slightly annoyed to learn it was a Thrall Femur, chucked hard from the next chamber into this one.
Azara and her brothers looked to the Confidant; who hadn't even bothered to look at what'd drawn their ire. "Hunt." She commanded without turning her head, as if expecting this.
The Three Knights rose to their feet, drew their swords from their hilts and turned around. They climbed the steps of the chamber, and proceeded off to face the perpetrators that would not only defy Agents of The Forgotten, but would have the audacity do do so while disrespecting their dead. To have been struck with the femur of an Adolescent hive, was insulting and were certainly grounds for recompense.
Azara, Metri and Zinth entered the dark room. Their eyes afforded them total vision in the dark, and yet they saw…nothing. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but they were not convinced. Something had clearly thrown that Thrall bone, and they were going to stain their swords with the blood of whatever it was.
Off in the corner of the room, Ryan hid in secret. He looked to see the faint silhouette of his hunter friends, hanging from the ceiling with their cloaks tucked into their belts. They Awaited for Ryan's signal, as they knew they didn't want to waste a single chance at taking these three out. Wolf and Pyro gathered knives in their hands and lit them ablaze, prepared to let off a blade barrage at his command.
Ryan gave a nod, that was all the Hunters needed. The two Hunters let the Knights have everything. Leaping off of the room's ceiling and flinging out two sets of engulfed flaming knives downrange. The Knights however, were far quicker than they expected.
Moving in unison, they raised their shields and connected them together by emanating a fully powered Temporal barrier, not unlike those found on Vex Hydras, to the complete surprise of the Guardians. The barrier absorbed the Blade barrages and their following explosions as if they'd never been thrown.
Azara gave a mighty Roar, and the three Knights darted off to annihilate the two Hunters. Ryan ran off to their aid and cast a Burning Maul, summoning a massive, two-handed version of the Hammer of Sol and going in for the strike. Metri saw this and broke first from the attack. He moved to block the Titan head on while Azara leapt over him and contested Ryan, striking him in the chest with a blade born of pure Hive Arcana. The strike blasted the Titan backwards with a bolt of pure Arc Energy.
"GAH!" Ryan slammed against the wall as Azara and Metri moved off to face him, leaving Zinth to face both Hunters alone. The Hunters switched to ranged weapons and went loud, Zinth blocked at first, then switched to his sword, also born of Arcane energy, but his glowed a bright purple as he slashed a wave of raw Void at them. They evaded and kept up the attack as Ryan dealt with Azara and Metri.
Metri, specializing in Solar, continued to block as he absorbed the solar energy from Ryan's hits. Azara moved to keep the Titan on his toes, slashing and attacking each second she could while Ryan dodged or blocked, this went on until the Burning Maul dissipated from his grasp. Immediately, Ryan switched to Crownsplitter, catching Azara's own blade with his own and bringing her in close so he could punch her right in the face, which only served to enrage the Knight further.
Azara roared in Ryan's face. She grabbed his shoulder pad, pulled him in and smashed her head against his, shattering his helmet with her visor, and fracturing Ryan's chassis. Ryan collapsed onto the floor at Metri's mercy. The Knight took his blade and skewered the Titan right through the chest.
"ARGH!" He cried out in agony, but the Knight didn't let up. Metri took his hooked blade, spun Ryan around and flung him off of it, sending him flying back towards the Hunters.
Pyro managed to dodge the incoming Titan, but Wolf did not and was swept off of his feet and thrown back by the older, heavier, Guardian, which left Pyro to face Zinth alone.
Zinth swung his blade, Pyro dodged it and backed over to Buck's side, who'd materialized over his Guardian's corpse. The Hunter lent the Ghost some of his light and brought Ryan back from the dead.
"That didn't work…" Pyro said as he shifted to help Wolf to his feet. "So now what?" He asked."
The Knights stood opposite them, shield's drawn and swords pointed at the Guardians, they planned to box them in and finish the job, Ryan refused to let that happen. The Titan quickly glanced behind the Kngiht, they were standing just a few meters from the Lift they'd taken to get down here.
"I have an idea…" He said, mostly to himself. "Either of you good with Void?"
"I can be." Wolf revealed. "Just say what you need."
"Pyro…" The Titan said to the other Hunter. "We need a distraction."
Pyro pulled a Bad Omens Rocket launcher from transmat. "One big distraction coming right up." He said before taking aim with the launcher.
The Knights braced themselves as Pyro fired, sending a rocket down range at them. Metri moved forward. With his shield in hand he bashed the rocket off course and sent it careening into another wall where it loudly, but safely, detonated.
In the light of the explosion, Ryand and Wolf dashed to opposite sides. Ryan gathered the little bit of the light he'd managed to build up between his last super, this time infusing it with Void and summoning the Sentinel Shield. It wasn't much, in fact it was good for maybe one shield throw and a hit, but in this instance, that would do. He took the shield in Hand, and threw it, it curved around the Knights and further into the back of the room, purposefully missing the strike. "Now Wolf!"
Wolf now knew what the target was, as he summoned a Bow of pure, unfettered Void energy - the Shadow Shot - took aim, and fired a single quiver into Ryan's thrown shield. The void energy's connected, and out of the merged supers shot three Tethers, which latched onto the Knight's backs and drained them of their abilities.
The Knight's shields, their armor, their swords, all of them were weakened in the wake of Ryan and Wolf's void. Their bodies were raked in towards the thrown Sentinel Shield. Ryan, with the last of his Void energy, shield slammed the three of them into the next room. Azara, Metri and Zinth roared in pain, and hissed in agony, but they still were not down. That's when Pyro followed through with his own light. Summoning an Arc staff, the Hunter bashed the three Knights backwards, sending them stumbling backwards onto the lift.
"Go! Get them out of here!" Ryan commanded as Pyro pushed forward and twirled his staff. The tether dissipated and the Knights moved to push outward just as Pyro got to them.
Pyro swung his staff for a quick strike, Metri blocked it and Zinth and Azara swung their blades. Pyro dodged and dodged, refusing to get hit. He swung the staff, clocked Azara across her face and kicked the sword out of her hand in the same move. With the last of his arc energy, he leapt into the air, and spin kicked it back down into the hive sword slot, activating it at once. The Lift started to go up, as Pyro gave one last dodge and leapt off of it, clearing himself of the lift.
"NO!" Azara roared out in absolute fury as the Knights rapidly began to climbed up several thousand feet once more.
Pyro's arc staff dissipated as he landed. Ryan commended the Hunters. "Nicely done boys. Maybe you Hunters aren't totally devoid of teamwork."
Pyro smirked under his hood. "Maybe you Titans ain't half bad yourselves." He retorted.
Ryan gave the Hunter a smile back. "Come." He said, tilting his helmet back. We still gotta deal with the Wizard.
The three made it back to the chamber Mahren-Seth worked in, now what stood in front of her was a gigantic emerald schematic of the Moon. Wolf, and Pyro unsheathed their heavy weapons at her as she worked, while Ryan gathered Void light once more.
"We'll end this in one go" Ryan whispered. "Fire at will."
Wolf and Pyro unleashed a volley of rockets and grenades at her, while Ryan launched into his Sentinel shield and tossed it. Mahren-seth, without turning around, raised one hand and in an instant, everything froze, Ryan, Pyro, Wolf, the rockets, the grenades, the damn shield, even the Light itself, all frozen in air, suspended in animation as The Confidant finished manipulating the energy in the air.
"Do you know what I find more annoying than learning redundant information?" She bemoaned to Guardians who, frozen in reality, could not answer. "Lightbearers." She turned around, a fury in her eyes. "You are the Universe's biggest nuisance. No matter what planet you're on, what timeline, what race, you are always there to invert the balance, to keep the dark from stabilizing the Universe. We Forgotten will not have it."
He flicked her pinky and ring fingers forward, the grenades and rockets fired from Pyro and Wolf's weapons shot right back at them, blowing their bodies to smithereens, ending their lives in an instant. Then, she turned her attention to Ryan.
"You", she hissed as she drew Ryan in closer for a more personal kill. "You would dare strike me with the Light?" As he came closer, his void light burned off of his body and armor; his shield dissipated, she took him by the throat, releasing her metaphysical hold on him and switching it to a more physical approach as she squeezed his throat tighter. With her reality warping touch swapped for an actual one, Ryan was brought out of the state of suspended animation she'd put him in and he was now conscious and aware of her presence.
The first thing Ryan felt was the pincer grip he had on her throat; her strength was surprising for a Wizard. His consciousness began to fade as, with her free hand, she outstretched it and began to raze reality again, just like she'd done to the entrance up top.
"Before I inflict Paracasuality upon you, and erase you from this universe, I would see where exactly you came from, so that I may deal with your kin as well."
With his body limp, she stripped his helmet from his body, tearing it off atom by atom, until his head was exposed. Her hand went from the base of his neck to the crown of his head as she peered into his mind and she saw the city, the tower, Guardians, Vanguard, civilians, the Red War and more. Everything he'd gone through the past year, she had seen. But, something caught her eye…
Primus Umbra, their ghosts, their members, their founders, their light…but above all…their stench. It was not on all of the members, but it was there. Some of their members were awash in the scent of the Death of ascendant Hive. Somehow, someway, among these lot were ones who'd given an Ascendant its final death. The realization gave Mahren a wicked Idea.
However, The confidant was not the only one allowed to look into one's past. In peering into one's mind the way Mahren was, she'd created a sort of bridge back to her own, allowing Ryan to peer in. Naturally for any Human, he didn't have much of an idea what he was seeing; it all came in waves.
Pods, Worms, Thrall, Acolyte, Wizard, A throneworld, the Vex, totems of annihilation, the great purge, a portal escape an entire world of Radiolarian fluid. None of it made sense, but he had no choice but to continue. The slaughter of mass amounts of Vex by her hand, and only a few others. The Knights he'd fought were among them, Azara, Metri, Zinth. But there were others he didn't know.
The vision continued. He saw Hive shed their worms and take on Radiolaria. Watched them take Vex and fashion their chassis into armor and weapons. Now, here they were:
Mahren Seth: The Confidant.
Azara, Metri, Zinth: the paladins.
The Ogre Meltrok: the Abomination.
The Ravenous: monsters that sat somewhere between Thrall and Ogre.
Rendsora: the General.
Ventri: the Architect.
And lastly, at the top of the food chain, he stood…
…Shattered shards of the Exotic Rocket Launcher Gjallarhorn draped his waist. Vex heads and armor clad his body, a Vex Hydra chassis served as his Torso. It was him, Bahren-Seth, Lord of the Forgotten, and he was headed for the Rings of Saturn…for the Dreadnaught.
Ryan had seen enough, "No!" He shouted as he broke the link by force of will and grabbed Mahren by her throat, much to her surprise.
"I am Ryan-7, Knight of the First Shadow, you will not take that ship!"
Mahren just smirked as she flicked her wrist, sending Ryan into the wall.
"My, my" She scoffed. "I've never had anyone break the cortical link like that. You and your 'Primus Umbra' are quite intriguing. Perhaps, you will be of use to me after all.
"Over my Dead body!" Ryan shouted, exploding with Solar and Void energy, summoning a medium sized Hammer of soul in one hand and a small Sentinel shield in the other, Solar and Void lights rippling across the halves of his body.
Unimpressed, Mahren reduced the reality spear to the size of a needle. "That's kind of the idea." She flicked it at him and was shot through his body, which blew a grapefruit sized hole in his torso.
Buck materialized as he and the other Ghosts flew to the other side of the chamber and hid. Mahren could see them, but paid them no mind as she floated up the staircase. It would do her no good to kill them. Not for the sake of the scheme she'd hatched.
Mahren Seth moved on through the halls and found the lift she and her escort had taken down here. The Three knights tasked to protect her, stepping off of it to meet her.
"Confidant!" Azara shouted with concern uncharacteristic of a Hive Warrior.
"I'm alright, young blade." Mahren assured her.
"Where are they?! Allow me to strip the light from their pathetic bodies."
Mahren raised a hand. "They've been dealt with. Come. Return to the surface and summon the tombship."
Azara, still hesitant, could see the three Ghosts off in the distance of the back of the chamber where the hologram sat. "But confident, their lights will bring them back."
Mahren-Seth continued onward. "Do not make me repeat myself." Her tone turned cold and murderous. Enough to shoot chills down the Knight's spines. Reluctantly, they followed her command, and got on the lift. Azara placed her sword in the activation slot and they all went up again, this time together.
With the coast clear, the Guardian's ghosts moved to revive their Guardians, bringing them back in bursts of light.
Ryan got to his feet, "Is…is everyone ok?" He asked.
Wolf and Pyro would not respond. Physically they were fine. But mentally and morally, they were embarrassed above all else.
"What are we going to do now?" Wolf asked.
No one could give him an answer.
End of Primus Story 5 - Knight of the First Shadow