The Frontier: Light Among Darkness Ch. 6 - Underneath the Surface

Hey there! Welcome to Chapter Six of The Frontier: Light Among Darkness! I'm Overlord, and today another exciting episode is in order. Where we last left off, Orion was pinned down by the Ogreknight, and ready to die, without a ghost and suffering from many wounds. Will he, though? Let's find out. Enjoy! Orion was at the mercy of the beast, beneath its enormous cloven foot, accepting his Farley. But wait. I have too much to live for, he thought. The city. The traveler. My friends. I have suffered, but I'll have to suffer a little longer to fight for them. He shook, and then he thrashed, and then he yelled; “I will not die here!” The enormous cleaver swung, but because Orion was shaking and the Ogreknight’s vision was not the greatest, it only severed his left arm from his body, and clipped his shoulder. “Agh! Light Damn It!” Orion screamed, and the pain nearly made him want to give up again. But he knew that he had to keep struggling. And so he did. The Ogreknight, realizing it could just stomp on him instead of swinging its sword, raised a foot, only to turn its head and be engulfed in the Void Flame of a Nova Bomb. It roared and stumbled back, crushing a lesser hive beneath sparrow-sized feet and leaning against a large pillar. Injured, the beast retreated into the deeper parts of the Hive Nest, followed by packs of Thrall and cults of Acolytes. The figure of Lyla was illuminated from behind by two ghosts, one of which Orion recognized as his friend, Spark. Holding a sidearm in one hand and a grenade in the other, the Voidwalker drifted down at a lazy speed and glanced at Orion. “Now that.” He said woozily. “Was an entrance.” The warlock rolled her eyes underneath her helmet, but a look of concern was there too. “Yeah yeah. Are you alright, you bastard?” Lyla said, a little heated. “You went down there with no ghost, alone, into a hive nest. Without me, or Echo. Speaking of which, where is he?” Orion sat up, and Spark drifted over to reattach his arm to his body. “Your new friend decided to ditch us. Apparently he cares more about research and studying than actual people, or defeating the Hive, for that matter. Said he works for a group called the Syndicate.” The lieutenant narrowed her eyes, furious. “That ass. That group is bad news. I knew that he was with them, but I always thought he was one of their least radical members.That must be why he sabotaged us, I told him it was recon and so did you, but since you said the endgame was to destroy them instead of observe them, he had a change of heart.” Orion’s arm was almost completely attached to his shoulder. “What now, boss?” Orion asked teasingly. “Shut up. Let's pursue that thing - what was it, actually?” Lyla asked in return. The hunter shuddered a bit at the memory of the creature’s ugliness, despite how many ugly things he had slain before. “It looked like a knight, but it had the face and bulk of an ogre. You spooked it, though.” “Well. I say as soon as you are finished up with that arm there, we go down and kill that thing.” Lyla decided. “Sound like a plan. Just have to get this pesky little joint in place. Go ahead, Spark and I’ll catch up.” Orion said casually. Since Lyla was not stupid, she knew something was up, so she did just that, and scanned the chamber for anything that could be important. Orion turned to his Ghost “Listen, Spark, about what I said before… I didn't mean it. I was just angry and delusional about what I thought was right.” The ghost delicately placed the joint in its cavity in the shoulder, and bumped against him. “I know, Orion, and I appreciate it that you admitted your mistake. Just know: Henry was NOT your fault. Neither was Anibus, or Lyla. The damned kids are prodigies.” (By kids, Spark meant in terms of how long they had been guardians, which was not that long) Orion sighed, and a sad, stubborn look appeared in his eyes. “I know that's probably true here-” Orion pointed to his head with his attached limb. “It's just that I have trouble believing it here.” He pointed to a different part of his head. “Don't you mean in here?” Spark asked, and to show what he meant he shone a little light against Orion’s chest. After an awkward moment, Orion finally caved. “Spark. I don't have a heart.” He said simply. “Right. Exo. Stupid.” The ghost apologized. “Hey back there! Are you just going to talk, or am I going to have to do this myself? I found something interesting!” Lyla shouted. Orion spun his arm around to test it, and nodded his thanks to his ghost. “This looks like one of those carvings of Crota on the moon, but different.” Lyla’s ghost noted, scanning a large black carving built into the wall. “Its new. These Hive must have carved this a few years ago.” “Calypso! Check out this altar over here!” Lyla called to her Ghost. The ghost sighed in a definitely feminine voice. “I never get a break.” The altar had bones and gristle strewn over its table-like-top, which had once belonged to some unlucky victims. Orion inspected the bones, and noted their freshness. “These remains must be from the mercenaries that were killed here. The Thrall have not fed on them that much.” “If you ask me.” Calypso interjected. “I think that this altar must have been to that Ogre-knight you were talking about, Orion. Perhaps it was overseeing the construction of this Hive Nest as a superior, and the lesser Hive gave their kills to it as a sacrifice.” Lyla curled a hand into a fist. “From what we've seen, this gives us all the more reason to kill this thing. Maybe if we kill it, the lesser hive will be more disorganized. Actually, hang on Calypso; did that carving have any inscriptions on it?” the ghost blinked, and thought for a quarter of a second until speaking again. “Yeah, it did. Korax? No, no… Kirax! That's it! The Forsaken One! I'm not sure what it means. Some kind of Hive God, maybe.” “Last thing we need is another Hive demigod. Come on, enough investigating, let's go down.” Lyla insisted. “Fine.” Both ghosts said, and they disappeared into their guardian’s armor matrixes. The tunnels going down deeper into the earth were almost the same as the tunnels from the surface, except these were far larger, more suitable for ogres or larger Hive. Green crystals cast eerie light and reflections on the icy walls, and the density of the bones grew. More and more remains - human, hive, and other remains were stashed in small holes or scattered across the ground, chewed by the sharp teeth of Thrall. “How far down does this go?” Asked Lyla. “Well, apparently Ganymede is the largest non-planetary body in the solar system, so it can go down really far. Deeper than the tunnels on the moon, in fact. So we could be going for a while.” Orion stated. “Although, if you want to go faster…” He strapped his hand cannon to his hip. “Let's go!” He started sprinting, and propelled himself with Light, catapulting him further. “Hey!” Lyla shouted playfully, and she did the same, blinking and sprinting until she was moving fast. Within a few minutes, the guardians had reached the bottom of the tunnel. It rounded out into a large chamber, at least as large as the last one, but with a pit in the center and a chasm opening up into darkness below. “Is that… is that a summoning pit?” Calypso said over the comms, horror in her voice.