Destiny: Legend Untold, Chptr 7 Pt 2

[u]Chapter Seven: Down to Earth[/u] Part Two In a flash the engram became a gun in my hands, the glow disappearing and becoming darker again. But I could still see the gun in the weak bulbs' light. It was a shotgun; a sturdy looking weapon with a long and wide barrel, its grip and handle simply made and not decorated, but I felt the cold metal in my hands was made for effectiveness rather than design and that it would serve its purpose. "I like it," I commented, then holstered it on my back and pulled my scout rifle back out. "Fine, great, let's go," Sierra said impatiently, then walked to the next doorway in the room. She stopped and I came up next to her to see what was in the hallway. There were no lights illuminating the staircase except for an eerie green light at its base. An odd, crusty substance clung to the walls and floor, and shadows seeped out of it, darkening the place further. "The other Guardian's Ghost opened this door, they were here," John told us. Our feet started forward and our Ghosts shone lights from their eyes to guide us. We came up into a pitch black room with a bunch of large tanks sitting around. As we walked through, we only saw piles of dust and oddly shaped pieces of bone. At the other side of the room we found a doorway with another flight of stairs and began going up. Then we heard gunfire and began rushing up faster. The stairs came up into a well lit room that held some computers and crates, but the gunfire had already stopped. Further in the room we looked through the archway into a connecting room and saw more piles of ash and bone, but standing among them was a Guardian. A male figure, he stood with his back to us, holding his weapon in hand. His body flashed with light, and as his body began to transmat out he turned his head and I felt his eyes meet mine through our visors. Then he was gone. "Hah, he left before the job here was done," Sierra said with satisfaction, "I get to complete the bounty." "Sierra, what did he fight in these last couple of rooms?" I asked, "It's clearly not Fallen like when we first entered the building." "Transmission on open channels!" My Ghost said urgently. "It's the Vanguard!" John exclaimed. Then Zavala's voice broke in on the coms. "Attention Guardians, the Hive have been discovered on Earth. I repeat, the Hive are on Earth, confirmed in the Cosmodrome's Skywatch. We must make sure this infestation does not grow stronger and attack the City. Be wary," he finished, then got off the channel. "There's your answer," Sierra said, "Now let's get goi-" a horrible, grating shriek cut her off. "William, remember how I told you that you'd get to find out about the Hive in the field?" My Ghost asked. "Yeah," I responded, pointing my gun towards the door we had entered the room from. "Looks like you're gonna find out sooner than expected," he said regretfully. Then aliens were rushing into the room from the doorway. Two different types came through; leading were small, wiry creatures that looked like skeletons with wicked claws and a domed heads, their pointed teeth gnashing at the air as they let out inhuman shrieks. Behind them came a few that had the same skeletal frames, but wore armor that appeared to be made of bone, did not have long claws, and wielded guns. They all had three glowing green eyes. The clawed ones rushed us in a swarm, keeping low to the ground with arms ready to swing. Sierra and I fired into them, me with my scout rifle and Sierra with a hand cannon. They fell easily, but their numbers helped them reach us and I had to punch out a few before they were all down. My Ghost had put up images of the two kinds of Hive in the corner of my visor while I had been fighting, and the captions identified the clawed ones as Thrall and the armored ones as Acolytes. That made me remember that there were Acolytes there, too. They had taken positions around the entrance to the room, some ducked behind crates, and began firing at us. We fired back, our bullets having more trouble piercing their armor, but they didn't last very long. After they were all down, I looked at the ground and noticed that there was a pile of ash where each body should have been. Now it was clear that the Guardian here before us had discovered the Hive and gotten word to the Vanguard. Had the Fallen activity been them working to keep the Hive contained in here? That seemed like the most obvious answer. "I can't believe the Hive are here, I thought thy were keeping to the Moon," my Ghost said. "They want to kill all of us and destroy the Light," Sierra told him, "There was no chance that they would just sit idly on the Moon." "What exactly are they?" I asked, picking up a piece of bone armor from an Acolyte's ash pile, a pang of sorrow tugging at my chest. "They are agents of Darkness," John answered, "They kill everything they encounter mercilessly, always chasing the Light and leaving a trail of death. Thousands of Guardians died by their hands in the battle for the Moon. They worship the Darkness and treat death as a way of life." I inspected the bone in my hand, wondering what poor being the Acolyte killed to get it. John said death was their way of life, and I had the sickening thought that these bones were most likely from other Hive that had been bested. I crushed the bone in my hand, a little shocked by the strength I showed by doing that, and let its shattered pieces fall back to the floor. "I'm not going to let these things kill us, not these murderers," I said determinedly. "Why don't we go show them how you feel then?" Sierra said with a devilish grin. She began walking to the other end of the connected room and I followed. At the end there was a walled off section with a large opening that had probably once held glass and an empty doorway. We walked in and saw a hallway leading out, but something shifting in the corner of my vision caught my attention and I snapped my gun up. A Dreg jumped out from behind a crate in one of the corners that turned off to a separate section of the room; I saw the bodies of other Fallen laying behind the Dreg, probably killed while fighting the Hive and the Guardian. The Dreg began raising its gun after jumping out, but I shot it in the leg and it fell to the ground, dropping its weapon. As it fell and lay there in agony, I looked into the slit in its helmet; the slit that showed the only part of it uncovered by cloth and armor plating. It's eyes. In those four blue eyes I saw its pain and anger, they were like daggers pointed at me. But I also saw fear. Fear of being alone, fear of the enemies that had killed its allies, fear of the Guardians it faced now, fear of death. I thought I could see sorrow mixed with the pain. Then a loud crack sounded and all life faded from those eyes. No more anger, no more pain, no more fear. I looked to Sierra, a wisp of smoke floating up from the barrel of her gun, then back to the Dreg. The sorrow swelled in my chest again and I turned away, walking to the hallway. "Let's go," I said as I passed Sierra. She followed, uncertain as to why I was so eager to move on. But she was thrilled to continue the hunt. ___________________________________ Link to ToC:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0 Link to Chapter 7 Part 1:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/211904172/0/0 Link to Chapter 8 Part 1:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212773859/0/0