On the Front S5: SOS Pt.1

(Read the previous part here)

“Well shit.” I murmured.

A huge cliff of white rock jutted up from the dirt-colored road, small bushels of red plants clumping at its base.

I turned around.

We had landed at the edge of another cliff, this one’s white mass dropping away into an opaque cloud of white mist.

Above the invisible sea of Radiolaria that surely lay below, a huge shape commanded the vista beyond.

Streams of Nessusian Rock had been uprooted and pulled away, into the orangey glow of the Leviathan’s Maw.

“Just be glad you aren’t assigned to that.” Drew said over my shoulder.

Live combat operations had been in place on Leviathan, but was a strictly no-go zone for most active duty Guardians, including myself and Drew.

“Oh, and you may want to duck, Hobgoblins like the pillars over there.” He said, pointing out a couple of structures that emanated from the face of another perfect sheet of white rock, placed at a right-angle to yet another sheet of rock.

Not a single blemish jutted from the wall of pure white, its edges garmented in red bushes.

“Sure beats a Data Center doesn’t it?” Drew asked, patting me on the shoulder.

I nodded as he stepped off the landing zone, and summoned his Sparrow.

“Coming?”

“Yeah, yeah sorry.”

I summoned my own Sparrow and we took off into the foreign land.

“Up here, on the right.” Ghast said.

We stopped and dismounted.

A tiny sliver of open air belied a cave entrance.

“You’re sure?” I asked Ghast.

“Yes. I’m reading rapid multiplication of the Replicate protocol within the cave. Vex are most likely enroute to dispatch the threat.”

“Here we come.” I said, drawing Scathelocke.

Drew pulled a weapon I hadn’t seen him use before and pulled it up to eye level.

“What’s that?”

“I think they call it Seven-Six-Five. Omolon’s been the chief supplier to operations on Nessus.”

“Hm. Any good?”

“Pretty good, yeah.”

We entered the cave.

It was not long before a babbling brook of Radiolaria greeted us.

A small opening lay up stream, with only the smallest of rocks to aid our progress.

Behind us, a wall appeared.

“Onwards and upwards?” My Hunter companion asked.

“Doesn’t look as though we have a choice.”

Drew began the ascent.

I found myself looking back, reflecting on what had lead me here.

Mako’s Fall from a balcony that no longer existed, meeting him again in Kashmir, fighting him at Demon’s Ford, and then seeing him again on Io, and him saving my life in the Pyramidion. Then, trawling through the Beacon Network which lead us here.

A pang of guilt flowed through me as I followed Drew up the rocks.

What if it was me? What if Mako’s Fall was my fault? Had I done something to him.

I looked back on my life since rebirth, but nothing stood out, at least, not with Mako.

For the second time in 3 weeks, Drew ran face first into a Vex barrier.

“GOD! I FUCKING HATE THIS PLANET! FUCK!”

I stopped a few inches short of the barrier.

Suddenly, two barriers leapt up at my left and right, and as I turned, a fourth, and we were boxed in.

Drew looked around.

“Hang on, how did this happen? We’re smarter than this.”

“Apparently not.”

“So now what?”

“We wait.”

They kept us waiting.

After some time, a flash of white, cuboid shapes indicated the presence of Vex, encroaching on our position.

A Minotaur led the march up through the Radiolarian Stream and came to a halt outside our cage.

It raised a single fist, and one wall of the cell disappeared.

Drew and I stood up.

His new scout rifle was already raised.

A flash of orange from a Hobgoblin began the fray.

Drew’s Scout fired a shot of Solar Energy in response, blowing off the head of the Hobgoblin.

“Aim for the Juicebox, the JUICEBOX!” I called over the noise.

Scathelocke was in my hand.

I pointed the barrel at an oncoming Goblin, which raised its bronze fist, and brought it down forcefully.

Its juicebox shattered, stopping the fist in midair.

I ducked under it, and hurled a blast of Void Light into a Minotaur firing at Drew.

The thing was disintegrated, its atoms discarded to the wind.

“Drew, let’s go!”

The Hunter nodded to me and jumped through a ring in the rock face.

I followed, Slap Rifle rounds, Torch Cannon blasts and all bouncing off the edges of the ring as I passed through it.

“It’s still further!” I yelled at Drew, who had stopped for breath.

“Just give me a fucking second would ya.”

To our right, the cave continued.

A pack of harpies appeared, blocking our path.

They switched into stationary combat mode, and purple lasers filled the space.

I dove behind a rock, as a beam sailed over my head.

“That’s new!” I yelled.

“Yup! Still fucking hate it!” He yelled back.

I peaked out, Scathelocke raised.

Purple lasers criss-crossed my vision, one briefly slicing my leg.

I dove back into cover as Drew stepped out.

His first round obliterated the nearest Harpy, and their attention was suddenly on him.

I peaked out, charged up, hurled a Grenade, and watched as the Harpies were obliterated.

“Not far now.” I said.

We proceeded onwards, through a tunnel lit by streams of light from beyond the confines of the tunnel.

We rounded a corner, passed through a tight space, and found ourselves in a cavernous space.

Huge spires of glass shot up from the source of the radiolarian brook we had followed.

On the far side of the space, 3 streams of Radiolaria poured from within the planet’s crust.

In the centre of this Radiolarian Pond, was a small island-like space. A plate, small and metallic, sat in the middle.

And there, dripping in red particles that seemed to form a veil, was the kneeling form of a hunter.

The room was silent, but for the conversion of microscopic lifeforms into programmable matter.

The silence, where screams should’ve been, was deafening.

It seemed as though the figure was comatose.

It was all hunched over as we approached it, guns drawn.

As we stepped onto the island, the stream of red particles seemed to pause in midair.

Slowly, the finger began to uncurl itself.

Red particles fell like water off the figure as he stretched out his arms, and rolled his head on his shoulders.

A flash of grin was briefly visible beneath the hood of the figure.

He looked at us.

Then, slowly, from beneath his robe, a small, smooth object appeared in his hand.

As we looked on, Mako ignited his blade.

(Read the next part here)

//Hell yeah! This ep was always going to be steup for next week’s episode, and if you think the series has been lacking in sword fights since Destiny 2 dropped, next week will not disappoint.//

(Read the whole series here)