Chapter One: The Undying Mind

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Venus...
Austin's POV

I was sent on a new mission to Mars, more specifically, back to the Black Garden. Ikora briefed me on the mission: The Vex has brought back the Undying Mind (surprise) and plan to use the giant Hydra against us( shocker). She assigned me to lead a fireteam consisting of a male Hunter and a female Warlock, both seem to have been recently found by their Ghosts so they seem to be new to the whole Strikes assignment. No wonder she had me assigned to them. After landing my ship near the two guardians, I proceeded to introduce myself.

Hunter: Yo. You the Titan Ikora spoke of?

Austin: Yeah. Warkiller. Nice to meet you both.

Hunter: The pleasures ours. Names Trey. Over there is Phoenix.

The warlock waved towards us, waiting at the portal into the Black Garden.

She's ready to go.

We approached her, all the while staring at the portal as it glowed a faint black.

Austin: Everyone ready to go?

Trey: Yep.

Phoenix: Uh huh.

Austin: Alright. Let's head in.

All three of us entered through the portal, into the Black Garden.We ran up the stairs and met with some Vex along the way. I stayed back to examine my new teammates.

For fairly new guardians, they seem to know what they are doing.

Trey was not too bad running Bladedancer while Phoenix was throwing solar grenades everywhere with her Sunsinger ability. I ran Defender to prevent the worst case senario from occuring. We got to what appeared to be an arena type space with two pillars on each side of a fairly smaller portal followed by some Vex goblins guarding the area. I put my left hand indicating to the team to hold position while we came up with a plan.

Trey: What now?

Austin: By my guess, the Undying Mind will come out of that portal as soon as we set foot down there. Phoenix, I need you to run Voidwalker.

Phoenix: Switching now, sir.

Austin: Please don't call me that, I'm still a young man. Trey. I'll need you to run Gunslinger.

Trey: Alright. What about you?

Austin: I'm going to go down and punch as many of the goblins as I can, try to produce orbs for you guys. As soon as the Undying Mind comes out, I'll spawn my Ward of Dawn and we go all out, give it hell, end of the story.

Phoenix: Sounds like a plan to me.

Trey just nodded in agreement.

Simple, and effective.

Austin: Alright. Let's get started.

I jumped down and proceeded to punch a goblin, bashing it in and activating my force barrier. I proceeded to punch several more goblins, destroying them before they destroyed my barrier. After several light-producing jabs, I signaled the team to come down to my position and established a little spot to wait for the Undying Mind to come out. We watched as the giant Hydra spawned in the arena from the portal.

I proceeded to deploy my Ward of Dawn with Weapons of Light as my teammates fired at the Mind with rocket launchers. As they damaged the mind, several goblins came out. Making short work of them, I stopped them as the other two focused fire. They must have ran out of ammo cause I noticed Phoenix and Trey using their supers to finish the Undying Mind off. As the giant Hydra exploded like fireworks, the goblins vanished as Trey spoke.

Trey: Was that it?

Austin: Yep. Mission accomplished. I'll meet you two back at the tower. Tell Ikora the Undying Mind is no more... For now.

Phoenix: For now?

Austin: Ikora will explain what I mean. For now just get going.

Phoenix: Okay?

They both left the arena to their ships while I stayed behind to check on the portal.

Ghost. Can you analyze the portal?

Ghost: I'll see what I can do.

I held out my left hand, letting my Ghost out to scan the portal when I noticed a white Vex handcannon laying on the ground. Picking up said weapon, I examined it and noticed it's similarities to another.

Reminds me of Fatebringer. Nah, this is Fatebringer, but white.

The area around me began to shake as Ghost flew back into my head, concerned for both of us.

Ghost: We have a problem! The portals glowing red.

And?

Ghost: We need to move! NOW!

As I was starting to run I felt something pull me towards the portal.

!?

Every step I took became heavier and heavier as I tried to resist.

What the fu-!?

It pulled on my armor more and more until I was completely submerged into the portal and all went black. It was this way for about 5-10 minutes till I saw a speck of light

Running towards it, the speck of light got bigger until I was blinded by it. I keep running through until I ran off a cliff-like platform and fell through a similar red portal, landing face first onto the ground.

Emerald Forest...

Although I felt the pain from the fall, I managed to stand up and took a look at the environment around me: A forest-like location, similar to the Cosmodrome, but much cleaner... and quiet. Nothing I've ever seen before now.

Where in the name of the Traveller did that portal take me? Ghost, you there?

An awkward bit of silence followed.

Ghost?

More silence.

You copy...

The sound of little bugs were heard in the distance.

Little light?

He responded... finally.

Little bastard.

Ghost: You know I hate that name Austin.

Can you get into contact with Commander Zavala?

Ghost: No, I can't get in contact with Zavala.

What about Ikora?

Ghost: Can't get a hold of her either.

Hell, not even Cayde-6?

Ghost: Not even your favorite Vanguard.

You're an ass sometimes you know that?

Ghost: My personality is based off of yours, Austin.

I can tell.

Ghost: Anyways, I'm picking up a couple of life forms. None of which I recognize from our databanks.

I proceeded to pull out Red Death and noticed two wolf like creatures slowly approaching me from the foliage.

The hell are these things?

But as soon as I took aim they proceeded to jump me. Punching one of them with a fully charged fist, it was burnt to a crisp instantly, turning into nothing but bone. The other one proceeded to lash out at my chestplate, scratching it with its serrated claws. As it lunged again, I placed my boot on its skull, kicking it away and onto the ground. As it tried to regain its composture, I fired two bursts from the rifle, tearing through the beast and killing it while simultaneously healing myself.

Ghost: We're definitely not on Earth.

No shit, we aren't.

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