Under Fire: Chapter 3

The spread of Gus’ shotgun evaporates two Thrall closest to him. Without missing a beat, he charges forward and runs through a third monster. Its insides coat his armor as he continues running towards the center of the Court, just in time to see Rezic cleanly executing five Thrall with five precise shots from his hand cannon. One last thrall leaps into the air at Gus, who calmly reaches up and grabs the beast by its skull, crushing it without a second thought. The guardians go back to back, expecting the onslaught of Hive to descend upon them, but not a single enemy appears. They wait a few breaths, slowly circling, keeping their eyes peeled. Finally, Tyr blinks into view. 

“I’m not reading any more signatures on radar. The Court still seems active, but maybe there really aren’t that many Hive on the Dreadnought.” Under his helmet, Rezic scowls. He doesn’t share his ghost’s optimism. 

“I don’t buy it, but I’ll take any advantage we can get. Gus, watch my back, I’m looking for the relic.” Gus nods in agreement, still keeping his eyes on the surrounding platforms. Rezic holsters his revolver and walks under the altar of the Court. Tyr begins scanning the area, but Rezic knows he’ll have to find this thing the old-fashioned way. If it could be picked up by a scanner, guardians would have found it years ago. Whatever this thing is, it’s dead. He’ll need to find it with his own two hands. 

He falls to his knees and begins scraping at the ground. The dirt feels strange against his gloves. It doesn’t feel like dirt, or look like dirt. He can’t help his mind wander to the possibilities of what it could be, but he quickly shuts down that thinking. No use obsessing over digging through shit, he thinks. As he scrapes away beneath a collection of rocks, a glint from a different material hits his eye. There. That must be it. He digs that much faster, trying to grasp the stone with his fingers, but it’s still not exposed enough. He digs faster. Fingers scraping the stone, but not finding any purchase. Wait. There. His right finger catches. He holds tight and pulls with all his strength. Come on…

The sensation of it popping loose is enough to throw him off balance. Rezic tumbles backwards, falling, but not landing. Why haven’t I hit the ground? Where am I? His body continues to fall. Something isn’t right. He tries looking around, but all he sees is inky blackness. Like a night with no stars. An abyss. 

BANG!

Suddenly, he hits the bottom. Of what, he has no idea, but he searches the horizon, willing his eyes to see anything. It’s so dark. He turns to find Gus, but there’s no sign of him. He raises his hand waiting for Tyr to pop up, but nothing. He’s alone, and the Traveler only knows where. 

“Shit.”

His voice doesn’t echo or carry. A thick fog descends around him. Chittering greets his ears. He turns to the right, but then the noise comes from his left. Twisting around, he tries to see the source, but still, the blackness surrounding him is too dense. Without warning, a shadow launches towards him. He lashes out reflexively, striking it down with a touch of solar energy. The brief flash of light reveals a large group of these shadows surrounding him. 

The Taken. 

Without knowing where to go, Rezic sprints forward. Better to be on the attack rather than wait for them all to overwhelm him. At the same time, he pulls his hand cannon out and starts fanning the hammer, unleashing shot after shot into the mass of shadows. When that runs out, he holsters it and throws his hands forward. A blast of celestial fire spreads through the shadows and disintegrates them on contact. He sprints through the newly created opening, still unsure where he should be running towards, but in the distance sees a faint light. 

Whatever it is, it has to be better than staying here.

He pumps his legs as fast as he can to gather speed and then launches himself into the air over the remaining Taken Thrall. It’s a temporary reprieve, but long enough for him to get a lay of the land. Something small is creating the light. Whatever it is, it could be his ticket out of this Hell. When his boots hit dirt again, he resumes his sprint, but only to be greeted by the glowing shield of a Taken Phalanx. 

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Rezic jumps again, twisting through the air, hoping to confuse the beast enough to get an angle past its shield. When the opening presents itself, he unloads another five bullets from his hand cannon. The Phalanx goes down without even realizing what happened, and the warlock pushes ever closer to his target, tumbling into a roll and rising into a sprint.

As he approaches the object, he notices it’s wedged into the ground. He’ll have to get close to grab it. Years of experience in battle have given him a heightened sense on the battlefield. Right now, something is itching at the back of his neck. Instinctively, he slides, just as a massive shadow swipes through the air above him. Time slows as he looks up and backwards through his slide to see the underside of something massive. Reacting on impulse, he tosses a solar grenade behind him as he finishes his slide and rises to his feet. What he sees almost stops his heart. 

His grenade sits at the feet of one of the largest Taken Ogres he’s ever seen in his life. The ogre barely reacts to the effects of the grenade. It slowly turns to face the warlock, opening its mouth to let loose a massive roar that shakes Rezic to his core. 

Shit.

Rezic reaches for the sword on his back, wishing he brought something heavier from his ship. And with Tyr non-responsive, there’s no way to transmat anything to him. He’s stuck with what he has. The massive two-handed sword does have one helpful ability, and just on cue the warlock is forced to use it. The ogre’s eye begins raining void hellfire down on Rezic, as he raises the sword in defense to generate a void shield to help deflect the attack. Almost immediately, he’s pushed back against the colossal weight of the attack. As he’s pushed across the dusty landscape, he racks his brain thinking of his next move. His sword only has so much charge to divert all this energy and it’s quickly running out. 

Ignoring the strain in his muscles, and the sweat dripping on his brow, he dares a look back at the object that he hopes will lead him to safety. Lucky for him, the ogre’s attack is pushing him in the right direction, however he’ll need to make some lateral movement to be able to reach out. Right now, any exposure to the void blast will surely launch him to his death, and without Tyr he’s not sure if he’ll be able to come back. He’ll have to time this just right. 

The ogre senses victory, and begins walking towards the trapped warlock. Rezic notices a change in the direction of the beam as the ogre takes each massive step forward, and times the cadence. If I can time it just right, I might have a chance. Now!

As the beam rises towards the top of his guard, Rezic pushes back with his shield, with enough force and at the right angle, to deflect the beam away from his body, while simultaneously launching himself sideways using the Icarus Dash maneuver. The combination of the force of the blast and his ability creates enough separation between the warlock and the ogre to buy him a few seconds. Just in time for him to slide towards the enlightened relic he’s been inching ever closer to. 

This time, as Rezic slides past the relic, he grips the edges of it and squeezes with every ounce of strength in his arm. It doesn’t immediately come loose, and his momentum slams into the ground, just in time for him to raise his head and see the ogre turning its focus back to him. Luckily, the impact of his body, and his grip on the relic, generated enough force to knock it loose. Looking up, he sees the ogre bearing down on him. Looking down at the relic glowing in his hands, he wonders why he ever thought this would help him escape. He closes his eyes as the scream of the ogre greets his ears.

“REZIC!”

That voice!

His eyes snap open! He sits up and looks around. Color returns to his vision. He sees dark stone, green lights, a white light, and is that? Tyr’s shell! 

“Tyr!” he exclaims. 

“Oh, by the Traveler, we were so worried! But there’s no time! You have to help him!”

Him? Who? Oh no! Gus! 

Rezic turns to see his brother tearing apart Thrall and Acolytes limb from limb within his Ward of Dawn. Hive blood, and who knows what else, covers Gus’ armor to the point where he can barely see the true color of it. As each beast enters the domain of the titan, it’s greeted with the fury of a thousand warriors. It’s a truly frightening sight to see, but only getting more scary by the second as he notices the cracks in the bubble. Rezic locates the Knights and Wizards at the far end of the Court, launching arc and solar attacks toward the void bubble, wearing it down slowly but surely. 

“Rezic!” It’s Tyr again, urging his guardian to act. He doesn’t need to be told a third time. Rezic jumps to his feet and tosses the relic towards Tyr. 

“Hold this for me.” And with that, he launches himself towards the Ward of Dawn. As he enters the bubble, he can feel the blessings of protection wash over him. His light consumes the orbs generated by his stalwart companion. Just what I needed. Launching himself into a catapult lift, Rezic summons the power of a thousand suns by calling upon the powers of the Dawnblade. Emerging from the other side of the bubble, he attacks the remaining Hive with ruthless ferocity, raining down streaks of solar destruction on the enemies below. With Gus’ life in the balance, Rezic doesn’t take any chances, and destroys every life form in the Court of Oryx. The spectacle was over in a matter of seconds, but the warlock destroyed every beast in view. Floating above the battlefield, he confirms none are left alive, and descends back towards his friend, lying in the wake of his bubble. 

“Gus!” he yells as he kneels next to his friend. Holding Gus’ head with one hand, he rests his other on his chest, waiting to call forth Harker to resurrect him, but Gus pushes his hand away. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” he says while pushing himself up. Rezic rises and gives his friend some space to breathe. Checking him up and down, he sees his friend is truly okay, and breathes a sigh of relief. 

“You had me worried.”

“Me?” Gus replies. “You’re the one freaking everybody out! Isn’t that right, Tyr?” The ghost floats up towards the guardians, bobbing up and down in agreement. Harker blinks into existence next to him and looks over at Rezic as well. 

“We didn’t know what happened to you,” Harker says. “Tyr was worried sick.” 

Rezic looks between the three companions, trying to piece it all together in his own head. He’s not even sure what happened to him, or what he experienced. He looks over to Tyr, waiting for him to explain. 

“When you pulled the stone free, you fell into some type of comatose state. Gus pleaded with me to try and resurrect you, but you weren’t dead. Rather, you were catatonic. We had no idea what happened, and it wasn’t long before the full fighting force of the Hive showed up. Luckily, Gus was able to hold them off long enough for you to get back.” 

“How long was I out?” Rezic asks no one in particular. The scratches in Gus’ armor are deep, and the blood coating his armor is thick. One of the gouges looks deep enough that he might need to get it repaired before he enters battle again. And he looks exhausted, even for an Exo. Harker is the one to speak up this time. 

“It was close to ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes?!” Rezic exclaims. For a fireteam of guardians to stay alive in the Court of old for that long would have been a feat in itself. The fact that Gus held his own that long by himself…

“I kept looking over to you, and thinking of Tess, and…” Gus stops for a moment, looking over to Harker and Tyr, then down to the ground. “Rez, I know things have been tough, and weird, but this fireteam…us…we’re family. And I can’t imagine losing my family. Not again.” Gus remains looking at the ground. Rezic isn’t sure what to say. All this time, he’s been leaving his friend, his brother, in the dark. 

Secrets. Everyone with their secrets. And for what? To protect their loved ones? Not anymore. I can’t hide things from him any more.

“Gus…I’m sorry. I’m sorry I haven’t been more honest with you. Honest about Tissea, and honest about this mission. I guess I thought I was protecting you, but that’s not fair. We protect each other. That’s what fireteams do. That’s what families do.” 

The two guardians stand arms length away from each other. Neither knowing what else to say, until Gus grabs Rezic by the shoulders and squeezes him tightly. The first hug the two have had in years, maybe even ever. 

“I’ve always trusted you, Rez, you know that. I’ll follow you to whatever length we need to go to get her back. I promise.”

Rezic looks at the destruction surrounding them. The bodies of the Hive, the scorch marks, the bullet holes. All of it. It all stands as testament to what Gus is willing to go through to protect his friend. To protect me, he thinks. The two separate from the embrace and Rezic places a hand on Gus’ shoulder. 

“Thank you.”

Gus nods silently, and then looks over at Tyr. 

“So, what is it that we did all this killing for?” he asks the ghost. Tyr floats over to Rezic, who’s hand is out, waiting for the relic. Tyr drops the familiar looking rock into his guardian’s hand. 

“Maybe Rezic should be the one to explain,” Tyr replies. 

“You didn’t scan it while I asked you to hold it?” Rezic asks. 

“Of course I did, but this is kind of your show, isn’t it?” 

Rezic smiles as he holds the relic in his hands. He brushes more dirt and debris off it as he turns it over in his hands, trying to find the right words to describe the object. It doesn’t take long for Gus to catch on to the familiar shape.

“Hold on – is that what I think it is?” 

The warlock holds the relic up, as Tyr projects his scanner across the surface of it. With the outline properly defined by the light, the shape of the ghost becomes more obvious. 

“Is that a ghost?” Gus exclaims. “What kind of Ghost would be here? Is this where Savathun tested the light?!”

Rezic holds his hand up to calm his friend.

“Not exactly. This is much older than what the lucent hive have been using. And if my hypothesis is correct, it’s from a different source. The lucent hive have been granted powers of the Light through the traveler. This, on the other hand, has a different master.” 

The gears continue to spin in Gus’ mind. It doesn’t take long for him to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The look on his face says everything. If what Rezic is implying is true, this would be an incredible discovery. 

“We need to waken it,” Rezic says, not waiting for Gus to verbalize his thoughts. “And there’s only one place I can think of that a ghost like this will respond to the power originally granted to it.”

“So that’s why we’re going to see her,” Gus replies with disgust in his voice. 

“Well, yes, she will be there, but we’re going to commune with the pyramid. At least I hope we can still commune with it.” Rezic looks down at the ghost in his hands, recounting the traumatic experience to claim it, and how real it truly felt. The power hidden away inside this tiny object could shake their beliefs to the core. “There’s only one way to find out where Tissea is going, and that’s by finding ourselves a guide.” He holds the ghost up again. 

Gus groans in response. 

“I’ve heard too many stories about these crazy Hive ghosts in Savathun’s Throne World. I can only imagine what kind of snarky asshole was created by the Darkness.”