The new fireteam headed into the warlock section of the tower, reserving a large, private study where they could go over their introductions and possibly begin to prepare for their raid on Oryx.
The study was made of a decently large room, wall screens took up the main, large wall across from the door. There was also a few couches in the corner of the room and a large table in front of the wall screen. The group sat at the table, as the couches would have been a bit tight for their numbers. Settling into the seats around the large oval table, Tessa could see the eyes flicking back and forth to all the new members as they continued on in silence. She only hoped they'd get along. She didn't want to face down Oryx with a dysfunctional group of hot-shot guardians.
"Shall we begin with introductions?" The awoken titan spoke first, his hands folded in front of him on the table as he surveyed the group around him.
"Sure." Tessa said with a nod. "Who wants do go first?"
The group looked around at one another in silence, until the other titan, the human brother of the hunter spoke up.
"I'll go." He said, raising a hand. "My name is Edon. I'm a titan, as I'm sure you all noticed-" He smiled, gesturing to his bulky frame. There were a few chuckles around the table. "I'm one of Zavala's lieutenants, I oversee the defense of the southeast sector of the wall." He explained to them, "I also keep track of Fallen weaponry being developed with a team of scouts and just recently I visited the sunbreakers's forge and was able to earn their respect and learn the ways of the sunbreakers."
Tessa saw Damian's eyebrows shoot up, along with the other titan's. She didn't know much about titans, but becoming a sunbreaker was no small feat, she knew that much for sure.
"Wow." Damian said beside her, speaking half to himself. "That's incredible." He said, "I can't remember the last time I've even seen a sunbreaker on the field."
"They're defiantly selective in their choosing." Edon confessed, smiling politely to Damian, then leaning back in his chair. He glanced to his left, where his sister sat beside him.
"Do you want to go next?" He asked her.
"Fine." She breathed, sliding closer to the table with a small sigh. "My name is Ada, I'm Edon's twin sister." She told them, "I'm one of Cayde's scouts, I monitor Fallen and Hive in Europe and Asia and I mark dangerous or interesting places in each." Her voice was cold, unattached, her face nearly expressionless minus the small hit of distaste covering her features. It didn't explain why Cayde had chosen her. Perhaps she was highly familiar with the Hive?
"And, you might have seen her in the crucible. She's great in there." Edon chimed in proudly. Ada said nothing to confirm or deny her twin. She was a fighter, then. That must have been why Cayde chose her.
"I guess it's my turn, then." Estella said, having found herself seated on Ada's left. She knit her fingers together atop the table as she glanced out across the group. "I'm Estella-3. I've studied the hive for years now, I'm one of Ikora's hidden. I was a consultant while we were fighting Crota, and now I've been working to help out in the Taken war. Besides maybe Eris Morn, no one knows Oryx better than Damian and I." She said, giving him a small nod across the table, to which he returned in respect. Once she was finished with her quick introduction, she looked to the awoken titan on her left.
"My name is Balendin," He began, "I fought in the battle of Twilight Gap, where I led a highly successful charge on a large group of enemy forces. Now, Zavala has had me heading up multiple groups of Vanguard fireteams that travel the system and take down high priority threats, and I train fireteam leaders on how to better recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their teammates." He said, then added as an afterthought, "And if Balendin is too long of a name, I've had people call me Bal."
"I'm Theresa Archon." She said after Balendin had finished and a few moments had passed, "But you all can call me Tessa. I'm not exactly one of Cayde's scouts, or at least at the moment, I'm not. I got into all this Taken stuff with Damian when Oryx took the Cabal base on Phobos. I had to fight my way out of it after he drained me of my light." She saw a flicker of worry on Edon's features. If the others had felt it, they hid it from their faces. She knew from the recognition on their faces that they all knew at least a bit of who she was, so she didn't bother getting into anything they already knew. She would leave it to Damian to tell them of their attempt on Oryx's life, and how it had quite painfully failed.
"And I'm Damian." He said, raising his hand from where he sat on her left. "I killed Crota, and I've seen firsthand how dangerous the Hive can be." He told them, "A week ago, Tessa and I set out to kill Oryx. We nearly killed him, but he used his taken energy to escape and Tessa brought us back to the tower. We were lightless and basically on our final deathbeds, if not for the tower hospital. Oryx will not go down without a fight, and there's a high chance that when we go to kill him, he might just drain our light, the same way he drained me and Tessa of ours. He wants vengeance, and he wants to finish what Crota started. He's not going to stop until he gets them."
"So we take him out." Balendin said firmly, though there was something in his gaze that was asking for the details of the challenge.
"It's not that simple." Estella interjected, happy to oblige. She stood up and strode for the wall screen. "Oryx is gathering his forces on the dreadnought." She told them, turning the wall screen on with a hand and typing into a hologram of a keyboard as it appeared in front of her. On the screen, she drew up a map of the dreadnought, and tossed a hologram of it onto the center of the table, where Edon began to pull at it, inspecting the inner structures while she spoke. "Ikora sent me and some of her other hidden to investigate the dreadnought last week. We gathered what we could, and assuming Oryx doesn't change anything before we fight him, it should all hold."
"We'll likely start in the Hall of Souls, here." She marked a spot on the map and drew up an image of it onto the wall screen. "There, we'll need to use a series of relics to charge up a bunch of Hive statutes." She told them, swiping to a view of a row of statues. "The relics will be dropped in groups of two, and each drop will be accompanied by a hoard of Hive. Once the statues are charged, we're going to head out onto this platform here-" She moved the picture forward to show them a large platform below the hall of statues. In the back, directly across from them was a tall, raised platform, two swept staircases leading up to it on either side. On the platform was an enormous archway.
"A rupture." Tessa interrupted as she recognized it.
"Yes." Estella said. "The rupture will open up once we charge the statues. It's going to drop out a ton of Hive, so we'll want to get in there fast. There will probably be some loot just inside- the hidden have left that stuff for us- but after that, we'll be headed off to the next challenge Oryx has put together for us."
"Which is?" Ada asked, her eyes narrow.
"It's called the Crux, it's a bunch of swinging columns that we have to jump from, one to another." Estella told them.
"That doesn't sound too difficult." Balendin said, frowning.
"It's not." Estella said, "But they take a while to come into alignment after they've crossed, so you can get stuck there sometimes." Balendin nodded in understanding. "And, if you're sick of jumping at that point, you won't be too excited about what's next. We have to jump from one ship to another in Oryx's hanger. Luckily the ships only fly in specific patterns, but the hidden got stuck on this for ages. We're just lucky we can learn from their mistakes. And, I found some hidden chests at the end, so it will be at least decent compensation for our efforts.
"Then, we'll make our way to a chamber with three parts, where we'll have to hold two separate areas, switching out periodically to the middle once we get what's called 'the Deathsinger's Power.' Once you have it, you'll have to go back to the middle to a glowing circle in the center, where the power will go down, and you ghost will be able to let you know when it's gone."
"What happens if you don't get rid of it?" Edon asked.
"You die." Estella said, "It's some kind of Hive spell, if you're exposed to it for too long, it kills you." She explained. "The circle in the center is some sort of purifying spell. As much as Oryx wants to kill you it seems that he'd prefer to do it in person. After we've knocked out his troops."
"Even now, he still doesn't think we're worthy." Damian murmured, leaning back in his chair.
"After everything we've done for him." Tessa said sarcastically. Damian chuckled beside her.
"So, I'm guessing while we're holding these areas, there's going to be a hoard of Hive attacking us?" Balendin asked.
"An onslaught is how I might phrase it, but yes." Estella said with a nod.
"And how long does it last?" Edon asked.
"Well, it's not Oryx deeming us worthy this time, it's a Warpriest." Estella told them. "Once they deem us worthy, we'll summon the Warpriest in the next room. And once we kill him another rupture will open. We weren't able to kill the Warpriest when we scouted the place, but I had your crystal so we were able to get the rupture open anyways. I don't think Oryx is going to let that happen again."
"And I take it that's not the end, is it?" Damian asked.
"Not even close." She answered.
"How many challenges does this thing have?" Tessa huffed in frustration.
"I'm not sure what the number is, but the next challenge doesn't have any Hive to fight." Estella told them. "It's a bunch of dark, foggy hallways with random pitfalls in the floor. But after that, we're back to the fighting. More specifically, the Golgoroth." Damian cursed softly.
"What's the Golgoroth?" Edon asked, glancing at Damian and Estella.
"This." Estella drew another picture onto the wall screen, an ogre, mostly, with six large spidery arms prodding from its back, a large gemstone in the center.
"It's basically like an Ogre, but he can fire extremely powerful tracking explosive orbs." Damian explained.
"Lucky for us, it's only good at attacking one person at a time." Estella added. "On the ceiling, there will be a bunch of big goopy orbs. We'll shoot one of them and it will make a little circle on the ground of reclaimed light, light that the Hive have taken over the years. One of us will catch the Golgoroth's gaze and will run like mad while the rest of us use the light and do as much damage as we can."
"And someone else will catch the Golgoroth's attention before it kills the first person, and the cycle continues until we kill it." Damian finished.
"Does something especially bad happen if we don't catch its gaze from the first person?" Balendin asked.
"If you don't catch the Golgoroth's gaze before the time is up, the person it has its eye on will be bombarded with a bunch of the tracking orbs." Estella said. "They'll take everyone around them out with them, and anyone left won't be able to fight Golgoroth on their own. Luckily, this will only happen for the first five people in the rotation. It's not a problem if you don't catch the gaze after the sixth person, then the gaze is just focused on everyone rather than one person. We did find that it was easier to use the orbs on the ceiling and only do damage to the Golgoroth on the first and sixth rotation of the gaze, and in the time in between we cleared out the other hive and made sure the person holding the gaze didn't die. We'll cycle that, and there can be a break after each cycle if we need it."
"And after we kill Golgoroth?" Tessa asked.
"We weren't able to kill the Golgoroth when we fought him, but I expect there will be some loot on the way to the next challeng. " Estella said.
"Which is what?" Tessa asked.
Estella grinned. "The daughters of Oryx. After them, the King himself."
"I didn't even realize Oryx had daughters." Tessa said, frowning to herself.
"They are his last line of defense." Estella explained, "But I'm sure that if we had gone after Oryx before Crota, Oryx would likely keep him close by as well."
Balendin leaned forward in his chair as Estella finished, changing the subject as he spoke up.
"The Vanguard leaders want us to go after Oryx as soon as possible. But we shouldn't go after him without learning at least the basics of how everyone fights. We can't afford to slip up when we're fighting." He told them.
"We could clear out some of the Hive on the dreadnought before we go to the Hall of Souls." Damian suggested, "And we'll have all of the challenges to work together before we face Oryx."
There were nods of agreement around the table.
"Alright, how soon would everyone be ready to go?" Balendin asked.
The group met up in orbit an hour later, their ships forming up around Balendin's position. Tessa and Damian had spent the hour infusing their armor and weapons, using the light to bring up their power and defense, until they felt fully prepared for the mission ahead. Tessa was definitely nervous for the mission- they all were- but she hoped that by the time she was back in the tower again, the Taken King would be dead and the group would have completed their mission. And hopefully, they would come back in better shape than they had last time.
"Alright, team." Balendin's voice came over the speakers as she and Damian sat in the cockpit of Damian's ship. "I hope you're all ready to kill a king, because I know I am."
They launched into warp speed together, the comms silent as they moved through space. Estella had gone over ideal subclasses before they had broken off, as it was important to the mission that they have certain abilities. The most important, it seemed, were the titans. Because sunbreakers were incredibly powerful, Edon would use solar light until they reached the Golgoroth, then he would switch to a defender, as Balendin was. Tessa was to use void light, as her tethering arrow would be incredibly useful against hordes of hive. Ada would use her main, a gunslinger. Damian was to use arc, a stormcaller, and Estella would use void as a voidwalker.
Even after they had gone over the whole route they were to take, they were not yet a team. Not when Tessa felt unsure about the people around her. She trusted them to accomplish the mission, and to work towards the same goal, but would they be able to work together, in every aspect? She had no idea. She had grown even more tense at the looks Ada, the other hunter, had shot the group while they had gone over the plan. From what Tessa could tell, she was judgmental and isolated, and if it mattered at all, she rubbed Tessa the wrong way.
She knew she'd have to learn to trust the hunter fast, but she was glad they were going to do a bit of fighting in the Dreadnought before they went after Oryx. She knew if Oryx saw a weak link about them, he'd likely expose it as best he could.
Sensing her insecurities, she felt Damian's light brush hers gently.
"We're going to kill him." He told her firmly. "And we'll make it back okay."
Tessa nodded, smiling gratefully. "I know." She said, "But, I can't help but be worried, even still." She checked to make sure they weren't speaking over the comms. She didn't exactly want to tell her entire team that she was nervous about their ability. Fear tore apart teams, she didn't want to plant the seed during what may be the most important mission anyone would ever go on.
"I get that." Damian agreed with a nod, "After everything he did, I'm worried too. But, with all of us on this team, I'm sure we'll have no problem at all."
She allowed herself to be swayed by his words, because she really did believe him. She wanted to believe him.
They landed in the hull breach of the dreadnought, the same place they'd started out their last mission. Seeing it again, Tessa felt her gut churning with anxiety, but she bit it back, refusing to let her light convey any of it to the team. Her light was still weaker than it had been before, but she knew it would not hinder her. She would be doing most of the work with her guns anyways, she could get by with a bit less than normal.
She and Damian were loading their guns as the others landed around them. The hive and cabal, busy with each other, had not taken notice of them just yet, giving them a moment to look around and take in the enemies positions across the field.
"Now," Estella said, moving to stand beside them with a mischievous grin as she lifted her gun. "Let's take out some hive."
"And cabal." Balendin added. "Our first step is to clear this breach. Let's hop to it."
The group did not have to be persuaded. They took off to the various enemies scattered around the field, moving towards the cabal ship and the ditch that divided the hive and cabal. She had never before been upset about clearing a room quickly, but with the group of six skilled guardians, it was almost comical how quickly the enemies fell around them. Tessa took the left side, with the Cabal, and found Estella beside her after a moment. Damian and Ada took the center, jumping from one side of the ravine to the other whenever there was a higher concentration of enemies on a certain side. Balendin and Edon took the right, taking out the Hive and then shooting across the chasm to get the rest of the cabal.
The whole hull breach was clear in a matter of moments, and after Tessa pointed out a hidden chest she'd sensed with her tracker ability, the group headed off to the hall of souls from one of the side corridors, their ghosts leading them through the cavernous spaces and the winding corridors. Eventually, they immerged in the hall and Tessa realized it was the same place they'd disabled the second channel that powered the weapon of the dreadnought. They headed up, onto the bridge and looked around the room, empty of Hive, though she had no doubt they were close by, given that this was their starting point.
"Alright, Estella and I will take the middle, we'll help direct everyone and who's getting what orb. Ada and Edon, you two take the left, Damian and Tessa, you hold the right." Balendin told them, easily directing them to the corridors on either side. They all moved to obey their orders, following Balendin without question as he and Estella moved towards the hallway lined with statues. Along the bridge in the center of the room were short columns, on top of two, close to the hallway and a set of stairs on either side, two tomb husks sat.
"Picking up the tomb husks will alert the hive and will begin the first challenge." Estella informed them as they moved into their positions. "It will start the relics dropping and the hive will come with them to make sure we don't get them. When you're all ready, let us know and we'll start."
"Take a minute, make sure all of your weapons are fully loaded. We don't know what's coming out at us." Balendin advised.
Damian and Tessa had moved into the right hallway, winding down and around a gentle ramp to let them out at a bridge, the platform off the Hall of Souls up to their left. They could see the empty archway sitting above them, the rupture waiting to open. Tessa checked all her weapons quickly, switching from one to the next to insure they were all loaded, as usual. She could hear Damian doing the same beside her, and saw him watching her as she switched back to her main auto rifle.
"We're ready whenever you are." Damian said into the comms though his helmet.
"Alright," came Esella's reply. "Are we ready on the left?" She asked.
"We're ready." Ada spoke up through the comms.
Tessa could only guess that they had taken the tomb husks off their pedestals because Echo began displaying a marker of each tomb husks location and she could hear the familiar shriek of taken energy behind her. Estella was instructing Balendin on throwing the husk into one of the statues and as they did, Echo informed her on the screen in her helmet that a statue hummed with dark energy, and two relics had appeared.
"There." Damian pointed in front of them to a relic resting atop a short pillar just across the bridge, a mass of hive coming from the room behind it.
"Before you pick up the relics, a barrier is going to form in the doorway you need to go through to get back to the Hall of Souls." Estella was telling them as the gunshots sounded across the space, the entire group focusing their fire on the hive ahead of them. "You'll want to take down the barrier first, then clear out the hive and taken and bring back the relic once you've cleared out your area."
"Roger that." Edon said, just as the barrier formed in between Tessa and Damian.
As the Hive were descending on them, Damian didn't have the time to glance back at Tessa as he was caught up in a swarm of Hive, the barrier effectively stopping her from helping him as she focused her fire on it. Luckily, the barrier came down quickly, and the swarm Damian had been caught in had been nearly entirely taken care of by the time she stepped up to help.
"Sorry." She said as they lowered their guns, having taken out the last of them.
"Don't worry about it." Damian said, flashing her a grin. "It was a piece of cake."
She felt herself huff a laugh, her unease gone by Damian's smile. "I'm sure it was." She said, moving past him to run over the bridge and leap onto the short pillar. Once atop it, she slid her gun onto her back and took the orb in her hands, leaping back down onto the platform once again.
"I'm bringing in the right orb." She called over the comms, making her way back onto the bridge and across it, towards Damian, waiting on the other side.
"I've got left, I'll meet you there." Edon called back over the comms.
She ran back up the ramp to the center room, and climbed up the staircase towards the hall of statues. She paused briefly at the top to wait for Edon, coming in from the other side of the room. Estella and Balendin directed them to the right statue and with limited elbow room, they slammed both relics into the statue, and explosion of taken energy humming over the statue.
"Woah," Damian's voice sounded in her ear as she stepped back from the statue, "I felt that from here."
"Me too." Ada said, and Tessa saw Edon glance towards where Ada was marked on their displays.
"Alright, eyes up, guardians, we've got the second wave coming in." Estella interrupted. "Damian, Ada, you two take the second relics. Tessa, Edon, hurry back to your sides to assist them."
"Yes ma'am." Edon said, flashing a grin before sprinting back the way he'd come.
Tessa simply nodded and took off back down the stairs and down the hallway. When she'd made it back, Damian was already holding the relic, hurrying towards the bridge. Ahead of him were a group of Taken Phalanxes, one of which he pummeled while still holding the relic, lunging and slamming the relic into it, sending it stumbling backwards. Tessa quickly shot down the taken in his way, guarding her own back with her knives and the occasional shot from her rifle.
She followed him to the center room, as taken had made their way into the hallway, heading back once he had made it their safely. Glancing towards the room, she saw a ripple of taken energy and she heard the explosion as he slammed the relic into the statue.
They repeated the process three more times, until on the final time, Estella called them all to the center room. Once they had deposited the relics, they looked out of the hallway and towards the rupture that sat on the raised platform across from them.
"Remember we want to make it in before the Hive come through to stop us." Balendin reminded, already leaping from the hallway and down to the platform below them, racing towards the rupture even before it had opened.
"You heard the man." Estella said, gesturing for them all to follow.
The group raced after the titan, hurrying towards the staircase in front of them. Just as he reached the base of it, the rupture opened, Hive already moving out and taking aim at them. Estella, bringing up the rear, was the only one to be hit, but it was nothing her ghost couldn't fix.
The rupture brought them onto another platform, two staircases leading down from either side to make an incomplete circle. In the center of the circle, on the floor below, was a large chest burning with a taken flame Tessa had never seen before. Edon was the first to run down and open the chest, immediately grinning at the loot inside.
The entire scene seemed to bright and colorless to Tessa, and she nearly had to shield her eyes, blinking to adjust them to the change in light. Once they had adjusted at least somewhat, she hopped down off the platform and to the chest, landing easily beside Edon. The loot was quickly distributed amongst the group- she got a legendary engram and an armor piece- and they continued forward, down a long hallway to the next challenge.
"This is the Crux." Estella told them as they paused on the large balcony at the end of the hall. "Just remember to be patient, and to take your time. We'll all get through it eventually, there's no need to rush."
Ahead of them, huge cylinders swung back and forth on massive chains, all over a pit that seemed to be bottomless. They waited for the first cylinder to align with their platform before they rushed to leap onto it.
Thankfully, the cylinders were large enough that they weren't in much danger of pushing one another off the tops, though Tessa was sure to hold onto one of the chains as they waited for the second cylinder.
The second and third cylinders aligned almost perfectly, and the group had to sprint to get from one to the next. Luckily, they were all able to make it on, though Tessa did have to grab Damian by the hand and yank him onto the cylinder as his glide fell short.
"You warlocks and your jumps." She rolled her eyes, "How can anyone be so bad at jumping?" She asked Damian.
"Jumping isn't important to a Warlock." Estella cut in, "We're too busy with everything else, we can afford to cut back on something as insignificant as jumping."
"When I was figuring out the light I spent an entire week practicing jumping." Tessa pointed out.
"Why?" Damian and Estella asked at the same time.
Tessa led the way to the next cylinder, feeling a bit smug as she managed the jump with much greater ease than the warlocks.
"Because once you get good at it, you have a whole new plane of moment to work with." She explained.
"She's right." Ada spoke up from the back of the group, "You never have to worry about a warlock jumping out of your range in the crucible."
Tessa nodded, gesturing to Ada with a nod and a grin. Someone gets it, she thought.
Balendin coughed to get the group's attention, pointing in front of them as the balcony in front of them came into range. The group hurried off the cylinder and onto the balcony waiting beyond. The balcony led them into a tight hallway, where they were forced to move in a single-file line. Balendin took the lead, and Estella moved in just behind him, the others following quickly behind. The hallway led them into Oryx's hangar, and Estella pointed out docking stations on their left and right, separated by a wall. They passed the stations and moved out onto a large balcony, where a ship was waiting for them.
"Alright, we all need to stick together for this one, more than we already have been, because these patterns are confusing at first." Estella told them, "If everyone sticks close to me, we should be through this in no time."
They followed her up onto the first ship, which began to move as soon as their feet had brushed the surface.
"The first ship we need to get to will be down to our right." Estella told them, "I'll let you know when to move and don't try to jump early."
She led them to the right side of the ship and pointed out where the next ship would form. It formed just as she said it would, and they waited for her mark before they ran, their current ship dissolving beneath their feet.
"This one is on our right again." Estella told them, leading the way. Damian had to pull Balendin onto the edge of the ship, his jump just a bit short. They shared a nod before following Estella down and to the left.
"The next one is going to be to our immediate right, so don't under jump it because we're not going down very far.
They followed her onto it, though Tessa had to grab the edge and haul herself up as she had jumped too early. They followed this with two more jumps to ships in front of them- though Estella did have to haul Edon back by his Titan mark when he jumped to a ship too early. They then jumped to a ship to their right, and another until they were able to leap off and onto the main structure in the center of the open hangar.
Estella sent Ada up to another chest, and was able to open a door for her to access it before they brought all the loot down to a lower platform where the next challenge would begin. Once they distributed the loot, they headed inside and down a short hallway, where a lift carried them up to a long hallway. At the end, Estella paused before a set of doors. She turned to face the group, even as the doors opened behind her.
The doors opened up to a large room with two chambers on the right and left, somewhat blocked from view. At the end of the room across from them, a group of acolytes knelt before a large open doorway, covered in a flowing blue shield.
"This is the Basilica." She told them, "It's the challenge where we have to hold the areas and switch out to avoid the Deathsinger's Power. We'll take the same positions as the first challenge, Damian, Tessa, you two are on the right, Ada and Edon take the left and Edon and I will switch out as needed in the middle."
"Reload your weapons and head to your positions, let us know when you're ready." Balendin told them, already checking his rifle.
Damian and Tessa headed right, off the main chamber and to the right. The chamber on the right was much larger than the original, and it was taller too. They had to go down a short flight of stairs to get to it, and once they made it into the cavernous space, they found that most of it was covered in water, the only exceptions being pillars and short walls, and a large circle of space towards the back of the chamber. As they moved into the circle and turned back to face the way they'd come, they saw a balcony ran along the wall above the opening to the middle chamber, and extended all along that wall.
"Before we start," Estella's voice sounded over the comms, "One of you is going to get an effect called Brand of the Weaver. A large glowing circle is going to form around you and anyone in the circle with you is going to get an effect called Aura of the Weaver. You'll only have Brand of the Weaver for about thirty seconds, your ghost can count that time down for you. Once the effect disappears, you'll get the Deathsinger's Power and then you'll need to get to the middle to switch. The brand will move on to your teammate and the process will repeat itself." She told them.
"Okay, so aura, then brand then Deathsinger's and switch?" Edon asked.
"Essentially yes, but it starting off you might skip the aura." Estella clarified. "Is everyone ready?"
"Yep." Edon said.
"We're all good." Tessa agreed.
Gunshots sounded from the middle and for a moment, nothing happened, then the shrieks of the hive began to sound around them as they appeared out of thin air. As Estella had said, a large circle formed around her and Damian, and as Tessa moved left and right, shooting the Hive, she realized it moved with her. Echo had labeled the effect on her screen and had set a countdown timer beside it.
It didn't take long for her thirty seconds to run out, and the Brand of the Weaver was transferred to Damian as she took on the Deathsinger's power.
"I've got Deathsinger's power and I'm coming in to switch." She said over the comms, running towards the center chamber.
"I'm heading in too." Ada said.
"I've got Tessa's spot." Balendin announced, passing her on his way right as she reached the staircase.
"Alright, I'll go left." Estella said, darting out of the center circle just as Tessa neared it, Ada crossing paths with her only a few seconds later.
As she stepped into the glowing circle in the center, she felt a sort of purity passing over her, and the weight she hadn't realized she'd been holding began to lift from her shoulders. On her display, the Deathsinger's power began to steadily make its way from ten to zero. She wasn't sure how Echo measured it, but it didn't matter much to her.
In the center, enemies flowed through the center doorway, towards them. Ada joined her in the circle a moment or so later, though she stuck to the very edge, itching to leave. Tessa herself felt the same way, as she was growing quite frustrated with an Acolyte using a short wall to hide from her as she was rooted to her spot. Neither hunter seemed very happy to stay within the confines of the circle, and as soon as the spell ran out, they both split from the center to become more personal with their enemies.
"Tessa, I'm headed in." Damian said to her over the comms.
"Alright, I'm switching." She headed out of the center and passed Damian on her way out to the circle on the right. Their light brushed as they passed, it wasn't much, but it was pleasant all the same.
On the outer circle, Balendin was aiming a sniper rifle at the enemies on the balcony ahead of them, the circle dancing around him as he moved left and right.
"I didn't know you were a sniper." Tessa remarked, drawing her sidearm to take out a few nearby thrall coming up behind him.
"I'm trying to broaden my skillset." Balendin explained, letting out a small huff of frustration as a knight ducked away from his shot.
"They're the worst." Tessa said, following his scowl to the knight.
"Agreed." The titan said before darting out of the circle. "Damian, I'm coming in."
"Switching." Damian responded, and the pair quickly swapped circles, Damian taking out the troubling knight on his way towards Tessa.
Once her timer was up and she headed into the middle again, they went through the rotation twice more until the war priest deemed them worthy.
"We're all good, guys." Estella announced as the message appeared on their displays.
"And you'll be happy to know, there's loot." Tessa said with a grin, stepping back as the chest appeared in the center chamber, just in front of her.
"It's like Oryx wants us to come and kill him." Edon joked as the group reassembled in the center.
"This next room is the Warpriest." Estella told them once they'd all gotten loot. "This is the one where we were able to get by with your crystal. Obviously, Oryx's isn't going to let that happen again, so we'll have to kill him this time."
"If everyone has enough light for their super abilities we could probably take him out before it turns into a real challenge." Damian suggested.
"Good call." Balendin said with a nod. "Does everyone have enough?"
There were various nods and acknowledgements from around the circle they stood in.
"If I remember correctly, we have to clear all the enemies but the Warpriest, then we activate three different plates and meet in the middle while someone holds Brand of the Initiate." Estella told them. "That will make a big circle around the person that we all have to stand in in order to do damage to the Warpriest. If we can all use our supers at once and use heavy weapons, we should be able to take him out in one go."
The guardians had moved into the chamber ahead of them and were exploring it as they spoke.
"If everyone is ready, we can summon the warpriest by stepping on the plates at the same time." Estella told them.
Tessa glanced back over to Estella, who hadn't moved to gather her bearings of their new arena, likely because she already knew it well enough. She loaded her rocket launcher and focused her light on her super, feeling the power bubbling up inside her, waiting to be released in a fury. She had moved up onto the high platform on the left, able to look down on the battlefield around her. There was a circle alike to the one Estella waited on below, glowing with hive runes and markings below the exo's feet. The one Tessa stood by was dim, as no one was currently standing on it, activating the icy-blue glow. There was another circle at the opposite end of the room, on a level below hers but above Estella's. Balendin stood on this circle, the blue glow lighting under the titan's feet.
"Is everyone ready?" Damian asked, landing gracefully beside her. There was a unanimous confirmation from the group. "Alright then." Damian said with a nod, stepping onto the plate. "Eyes up, Guardians."
The third plate blazed to life, and with a roar, the Warpriest appeared in the front of the room, and hive came rushing from the doors around the room, and from the corridors too dark for them to enter. It took a moment for the real fighting to start, but once it had, she found herself rushing all about the room in pursuit of more enemies to take down to fuel her burning adrenaline, but also to keep them off her teammates backs so they could focus on avoiding the Warpriest's shots.
Once all the hive were dealt with, and only the Warpriest remained, Estella called them to the plates, then down to the middle plate, where she had taken on a red glow and was surrounded by a glowing red sphere, not unlike a defender's only it was much larger, and more transparent. She moved back, towards the doorway as the group meet in the circle, Balendin dropping his on sphere in the back to reinforce their light.
"Give it everything you've got!" He commanded, and the group did as they were told.
Tessa leapt high into the air, though still staying at least partially in the red sphere as she shot three arrows straight into the Warpriest's head, tethering him in place for the other guardians to shoot. Light raged through the room, the whole group pouring everything they had into their attacks. After they used their supers, heavy ammo came out, and then special ammo. They watched the Warpriest's estimated health level plummet as Estella began counting down the seconds.
Just before she got to one, a final rocket launcher soared into the Warpriest, and with a roar, he collapsed in front of them. Cheers sounded around the room, and Tessa even found herself with a few new exotic guns in her possession. The group congregated in the center of the room at the chest, and after reaping its rewards, they then headed through the open rupture and into a long hallway.
Estella led them down the long hallway until they reached what was called Golgoroth's Cellar, a series of dark, foggy hallways with random pitfalls hidden beneath the fog. The hallways were also covered in jagged pillars, prodding from the floors at uneven angles, providing them with a rather rough path through the maze. Estella sent their ghosts the hallways they were supposed to follow through the maze, but she informed them that the holes and pillars seemed to have changed since she had been last, so she was unable to guide them over those. She took the lead, but due to their different classes, there was a bit of difficulty and separation, the titans and warlocks opting to glide over the mess as far as they could before stopping on a pillar and continuing forward again. This left Tessa and Ada struggling to keep up, leaping from pillar to pillar and even using the walls to race forward above the fog. Even with this disadvantage, the hunters were slick, finding themselves even waiting at the end of the hall for some of their teammates.
Estella stepped out onto the walkway that ran in an oval around the enormous room. Even as she just stepped through the door and into the Golgoroth's chamber, her memory of the whole area came rushing back to her, as well as the whole fight she and the other Hidden had endured. They hadn't been able to defeat the Golgoroth when the hidden had fought it, but their skill set hadn't been prepared for it either. Fighting in a balanced team of Guardians that knew what they were doing had proved to be much easier than fighting with the hidden, not that she blamed anyone for it. She had theorized how much it would take to really bring the Golgoroth down, and though she wasn't a hundred percent confident in the exact details, she knew that with the team she was on, they would be able to defeat the Golgoroth.
What made him different was the strategy he employed. Oryx would be difficult, but his fighting style wasn't built to pick them off one by one the way the Golgoroth could. Oryx's style was more of an all or nothing fight, along with his backhanded tricks to take away light.
"This is the hard one." She told the team as they moved onto the walkway around her. "Remember the plan. We start the fight by dropping the first orb-" She pointed to a gooey orb handing from the ceiling. "-to summon Golgoroth. Then, two rows of six orbs will form on the ceiling, shooting one will drop a bunch of reclaimed light to the ground below, but if no one catches the Golgoroth's gaze, the light is useless to us." She told them. The team had dispersed around the room somewhat, but only enough that they could still hear what she was saying and see what she was pointing to.
"I'll take the gaze first. When I take it, you all will drop into the reclaimed light and start shooting at the Golgoroth while he's focused on me. Tessa, I want you to get into the light first so you can use your tether on him. Damian, you're going to take the gaze of the Golgoroth just before my twenty-seconds is up. By the time Damian gets through his twenty seconds, the reclaimed light will be long gone, but we won't drop another orb until after the last person takes the gaze. Edon, you're going to be after Damian, then Ada, then Tessa and then Balendin. Once Balendin takes the gaze, we'll shoot the next orb and do some more damage, but be careful of the cursed thralls."
"Another thing to remember," She added, "In the reclaimed light, someone is going to get an effect called unstable Light. Your vision will become blurry and in a matter of seconds, a pulse wave is going to ripple out that will kill anyone close to you." She explained. "All you have to do is run away from anyone around you, the pulse wave will go off, your vision will clear and you'll be back to normal. And, we'll be able to take as much time as we want before we start the cycle again. Does anyone have any questions?"
There were none, so they reloaded their guns and jumped right in, shooting the bubble to summon the Golgoroth.
The creature she had seen in the photo defiantly looked worse in person. A hell of a lot worse, much, much worse. Tessa's skin crawled even just seeing it crawling its way from the ground. When she heard its roars, she was sure every hair on her body was standing on end. She kept these observations to herself, however. She diligently shot every cursed thrall and acolyte she could see, ducking their advances as she stayed out of sight of the monster. When it came time for her to leap into the circle of reclaimed light, she understood why they needed it. Their light alone likely wouldn't be enough to get them through this fight. However strong it was, it wasn't enough to purge the corruption that was this monster, this thing.
Her bow pulled her from her thoughts. Time seemed to slow down as she drew its arrows, the arrowhead, shaft and fletchings all pure void, strong enough to put a chill on her skin and center her in the here and now. She aimed down the arrow, firing the first shot quickly at the Golgoroth's exposed stomach, and following it with two more, precisely aimed shots. The battle raged around her as she retreated back to Balendin's shield behind her long enough for her to draw her rocket launcher, slamming a round into the chamber and firing again with the rest of the little group. Damian sprinted from the circle to take the Gorgon's gaze from Estella as her time was running out, a number of large purple orbs following her every move as she raced around the perimeter. He took the gaze with a few shots to the back of its unprotected head. Soon after he left, the reclaimed light ran out and they leapt back up to the perimeter of the room.
"Everyone look out, I'm unstable." Edon warned, sprinting away from the group towards the back of the room while the other guardians moved the opposite direction.
"You're what?" Ada asked through the coms looking after him as he ran off. The blast echoed through the room, and Tessa saw Ada raise an arm instinctively to cover her face. "Oh." She remarked, "that."
Tessa couldn't help but laugh as she shot down a few hive that had followed Edon back from the far end of the room. There were a few chuckles to accompany hers, but most of the group was focused on the task at hand.
"Edon, I'm at ten seconds." Damian called to the titan as he paused in a corner to shoot at a fury of orbs that pursued him. He counted down until Edon was able to grab the gaze at five seconds.
The sunbreaker caught the beast's gaze with a few quick shots to the back of its head. Realizing with a start that he was able to do damage to it, he fired a few more shots- that is, until one of the huge purple orbs slammed into him and left his vision coated in red and a deep purple. After that, he ran like hell.
If someone had made a sarcastic comment, he didn't hear it as he leapt across the gap and came running down the left walkway, towards where Damian and Tessa were waiting. They shot at the orbs behind him as he turned to do the same thing, glancing briefly at the timer on his display.
"Ten seconds, Ada." He warned, glancing over as he saw his sister already leaping over to the walkways that jutted out behind the Golgoroth. There were a few seconds of silence until two gunshots sounded.
"Got it." He heard his sister say as he watched her run, the only dangers in the room now were the Golgoroth himself and the orbs trailing after her.
He admired the skill of his sister, she was cold and calculating, yes, but at the same time, she was alive with lithe and grace. Even her very running was graceful as she led the orbs all the way up to Balendin and Estella before she turned on a heel and lunged. She slipped through the orbs behind her, landing in a roll and coming back up to run easily.
"Tessa, ten seconds." She said, her voice not even labored by hard breaths.
As he shot down a few of the orbs, he heard Tessa acknowledge and rush to the platforms that hung over the open spaces. She must've noticed what he had about the creature's unprotected head, as she fired as quite a few shots into the exposed spot before she started running.
Tessa was smooth, just as Ada was, but there was something different between the huntresses. While Ada was an asp, Tessa was a stallion. She was bolder than his sister, louder and firmer. He knew that if he had the chance to watch, he would see exactly where her loyalties would lie, and she would put anyone into the ground if they hurt the ones she loved. That much was clear to Edon, and he assumed, to the whole team.
She paused in a corner to shoot down a few of the orbs trailing her before she continued running, making her way towards the back of the room.
"Ten seconds, Bal." She said, the titan already waiting for her at the platforms.
Balendin took the Golgoroth's Gaze from Tessa when she called five seconds. During the hour they had spent at the tower, Balendin had asked Estella to tell him everything she knew about the creature. Granted it wasn't a full analysis- it wouldn't be until someone could get their hands on it and dissect it- she had told him everything she could. He couldn't help but feel that the Golgoroth would be one of the greater challenges they faced today, possibly even second only to the king himself.
Of course, he couldn't be sure. The issue, he realized, was communication. Thankfully the whole team was doing well at it, but if one person hadn't understood what was going on and had failed to come forward with it, the failures would have been catastrophic. He was quite gratefully for the hidden, they had given them a huge edge in the battle. Perhaps after they returned to the Tower he would gather them all up and thank them personally, they definitely deserved it.
As he ran, the rest of the team had dropped into the pit and was shooting at the Golgoroth from below. Explosions echoed through the room, rocket launchers propelled their projectiles straight into the Golgoroth's stomach, but it did not take its gaze from him. Earlier, Estella had promised him that the failure to catch the Golgoroth's gaze was not fatal and would not harm his teammates in their quest, but as he watched his timer running out, he worried anyways. He voiced the countdown to his teammates, to let them know of the oncoming danger the creature would pose as soon as it gave up on him.
It was critical that this battle was to be hashed out extremely clearly, even if only to him and Estella. Balendin was among the few guardians that only liked to be revived by his ghost as a last possible resort. He didn't agree with the way the crucible made guardians comfortable with dying and being revived over and over again. It was good to build that strength, but he had seen light fail more than once, and it was not something easily forgotten. He didn't want them to mess this up, he didn't want them to be overrun and to have to try the battle all over again, especially not so close to Oryx. Any death was a potential risk, because what if he did it again? The way he took Damian and Tessa's light from them with the snap of a finger, that power scared him. Quite frankly, it terrified him, he didn't want to live in a world where any being had that kind of absolute power, light or dark. So they would be careful. They all would.
As expected, as he counted down his time until the Golgoroth gave up on him, a guardian broke from the circle, Tessa, he realized as she sprinted away from the group, quickly informing them of her unstable light. An explosion shook the room just as his gaze ran out, and the rest of the guardians quickly leapt from the pit before the Golgoroth had a chance to smash them to bits. It took them hardly a minute to clear out the thrall and acolytes before they began the whole sequence again, and even that seemed faster than normal. Everyone loaded their heavy weapons early, and there was less of a need to call out the times as they quickly switched from one person to the next. At the end of their second sequence, the Golgoroth had lost more than half of his estimated health.
"Nice job, guys, we should just need one, maybe two more cycles and we'll take him down." Estella told the group as they leapt out of the pit once more.
As hard as they pushed to end it with only one more cycle, the Golgoroth wasn't about to take it, forcing them out of the pit again with only a sliver of health left. They took care of the thrall quickly and got right to it, ending the Golgoroth before its gaze even left Estella. Cheers sounded throughout the room as well as an explosion before Damian dropped back down to meet the group, having glided back up to the upper platform to keep from exploding his teammates due to unstable light. They divided up the loot before they looked towards the door ahead.
"All we have left is the Daughters of Oryx, and then the Taken King himself." Balendin said, looking towards the door.
"Who's ready to kill a King?" Damian asked with a grin, matching ones echoing around the group.
"Well," Estella cut in, "We do have to get there first."
Estella had been wrong, Damian realized as they made their way carefully down the path that let them to Oryx and his daughters, the Golgoroth had not been the hard one, this was the hard one. His teammates- starting with Tessa and then spreading to the whole group- had quickly decided that if he couldn't get through this challenge, they were going to drag him through this challenge.
The challenge was to get to Oryx on a haphazard path that involved a bunch of very thin pathways scattered against the edge of the walls of a large chasm, and a bunch of ridges that didn't look right about to throw them off the sides of the little platform. The ridges moved without warning, slamming forward so harshly they sent anyone standing in front flying into the chasm. Damian had been thrown off once or twice before Tessa had dropped back to move just ahead of him, dragging him forward by his robes when he was about to be thrown over the edge.
Damian had never been very agile, at least not on the ground. In the skies with the Skotadi warriors, that was a different story, but when he'd become a guardian, he'd spent more of his time studying and working with Ikora than he had training. Clearly, the hours he'd missed training would have been useful on the path.
"Damian, if you're done falling, we've got a battle to fight." Estella called from somewhere up the path. There were a few chuckles from the team, but no one commented further.
"Estella, how are you so good at this?" He demanded.
"Pay attention!" Tessa snapped, pulling him away from a ridge as it burst forward, nearly shoving him off the path.
"Sorry, sorry." Damian said, racing after Tessa as she pulled him down the path.
She brought him up to a higher platform, where she led him past even more ridges, then to a platform on along the other side. There were a few failed attempts, and a few times Edon threatened to throw Damian over his shoulder and carry him the whole way up. Thankfully, the prospect of the overwhelming humiliation was enough motivation to get him up to the top on his own. When he finally made it up to the top, the fireteam was lounging around the room, their legs hanging over the edge of the platform that led into the room above.
"Alright." Estella said, pushing herself to her feet, "now that we're done with that, we should get going." She said, leading the way down a long hallway until they reached a set of large doors, opening up into a huge open chamber, the space around them exposed to the cold space beyond. This would be Oryx's final resting place, Damian knew that for sure, but he also knew the battle to make it so would be hard fought, and not easily won.
The group paused in the entryway of the space, gazing up to where the Daughters of Oryx lingered, poised on their separate high platforms, waiting for the battle to begin.
"No one but us has ever made it into this room." Tessa breathed, stepping away from the group to walk towards a rich stone pillar, a black stone laced with rich veins of glowing blue. She set her hand on it as if she were trying to feel the power that hummed within it.
"No one but us will ever leave this room." Ada added, moving to stand beside her fellow huntress as they stared up at the daughters, and out into the space beyond, as though they could see where Oryx lingered.
"We all came here knowing this would be difficult." Balendin began, stepping forward as well. "In fact, we're all here because we knew this would be difficult, but if what I've seen today is any indication, perhaps it won't be as difficult as we thought. Granted, I have never fought a stronger enemy but I have never fought with a stronger team by my side. I have never fought with a team that was so quick to respond, so quick to recover, to work together, without problems or mishaps.
"If anyone can beat Oryx, it is us." The titan told them firmly. "After today, no one else is going to even get the chance. We will send Oryx back to whatever hell bent world he came from, and finally, justice will be brought to the worlds he's conquered, as well as safety for our own. Humanity and Hive alike will remember this day. For this is the day the Taken King falls, once and for all."
Author's Note
Hello, all! Oh man, it's been a while. But I'm starting the new year off on a good note! This chapter was particularly awful for me because a lot of it was just research and then translating that to the characters and trying to figure out the raid while only seeing it from one person's point of view, so I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit boring at times, but I promise the next one is going to be intense! The next stop is defeating Oryx and his daughters, so get ready for that.
Also, I name pronunciation guide, because a lot of them are kind of funny. So Balendin starts like you're saying gal, but with a B, (this is also the case when they call him Bal, it's not Bale, just Bal) then the word in, and then din like tin but with a D. So all together that's like Bal-in-din. Then there's Edon, which is pretty simple, his is just like Eden but instead of an E, it's an O. Ada's is really simple, just the way it's spelled, no hard A's. I am curious though, what did you guys think the names should be pronounced like? And are there any pronunciations you would have liked better than these?
The videos I used as research can be found on Youtube, titled as Destiny's King's Fall 390 Challenge [Full Raid] - The Dream Team by Mr. Fruit and World First King's Fall Raid parts one and two by King Gothalion.
Finally, happy new year! (It's still New Year's Day here, so I'm still good) Does anyone have any new years resolutions? Mine are unofficially to finish this book and to drink more water.