Wrath of A King: Shattered Past Book 5

31

After entering the portal the fireteam awaited for any possible trap that could open after coming out the other side. Each of them had their weapons locked with a clip in them as they walked forward. They were neck deep in enemy territory and with nobody to fall back on. It truly was just them and whatever foe lay ahead. One after the other they exited the portal and ended up on the other side. The location that they were in seemed bright as day by comparison. Nothing about this place felt right, the very circular platform that they stood on gave them a sense of dread that was unshakable. The halls were lit up by the same crystalline structures as other hive structures. But what utterly mystified the group, was the small box that was just beneath the platform that they were standing on. 

The box itself was small, barely even two feet across. The base of the crate was sloped up to the side on the corners, leading up to spikes that jutted out slightly from the side. The top had a checkerboard pattern on the top of it that extended slightly above the top of the lid. The crate had slots on the front of it that were jagged and uneven that revealed the contents of the box, with a bright green light emitting from the inside of it. Just above the light were four hive hieroglyphics, they meant something, James knew that, but he hadn't spent his time learning Hive languages. 

The whole team surrounded the box, each of them looking at it with concern and wonder. 

"Did he...leave this for us?" Charon asked. 

"I don't quite know, why would he?" James replied. "He wants revenge on all of us for what we did to his son...it doesn't add up." 

"Perhaps it's for the best that we don't open it," Cameron replied. 

"Right, let's keep moving," James told her before continuing to move forward. Cameron stayed back for a little while as he walked forward, everyone, except for Charon followed him. The dark-haired man looked over at Cameron as James walked ahead, she slowly started to walk behind. Charon followed her closely, something seemed different about her now. Her mood seemed more sullen. 

"Hey, Cameron," He said to her as they slowly followed behind. 

"Yeah?" She asked, her tone just as sad as the mood she emanated. 

"What's wrong? You seem down," Charon replied. Cameron just sighed and didn't respond besides that and kept moving forward. Charon ran up behind her as she tried to walk away. "Cameron, what is it?" 

"It's not important, we need to focus on the mission at hand," Cameron replied sternly heading up toward the other members of the group. Charon paused for a moment, that was unusual. Cameron usually spoke what was on her mind, but now, she was being distant and cold. What happened when they were fighting Oryx that caused her to change to this set of emotions? He shrugged and ran up toward the other members of the group to see that there was a large chasm that had about six large swinging pendulums in it that appeared to move in tandem with one another. 

"So, we need to get across," David said as the group had all stopped to analyze the situation that they were in. 

"We can either do what this is obviously wanting us to do, or we can just fly across," James replied. 

"How about we fly across," Cameron said activating her invictus form and quickly flying over to the other side then deactivating it just as quickly as she put it on. The other members of the group did the same before Charon picked up Kronah and carried her over to the other side. Cameron sprinted forward ahead of the other fireteam members. She couldn't remember a time that she'd felt more eager to get a mission over within her entire life. Of all the things that she could have heard today, the fact that her husband was going to die, was the last thing she'd expected or wanted to hear. It was the fact that he said that she'd find someone better than he was.