"MAXWELL, NO!" I shouted, hearing Cassie shout the same thing almost immediately after. But he wouldn't listen. A glow filled his palm and he launched a Magnetic Grenade straight at the Ogre, which had been walking forward and trying to get a clear view of the rest of us. It attached to the center of the Ogre's bulbous face right after it noticed Maxwell running out. Before it could focus energy into a beam, the grenade exploded once, making its head snap back, and then again as the Ogre's face came back down to position. The beast stumbled back at the explosions, and while it recovered Maxwell pulled out his rocket launcher and aimed. The Hive hadn't expected Maxwell to rush out and had backed away from him like before, but in the moments before he fired the rocket launcher the swarm around him began to converge. The barrel of the launcher erupted in a loud roar, flames spewing out from the metal tube along with the explosive projectile. As the rocket soared out, the Hive closest in front of Maxwell dove to the ground, covering their heads, and it flew straight on into the Ogre's maw. With a loud groan, the monstrosity tipped backwards and hit the ground dead with a giant thump, crushing a few lesser Hive underneath it. Yet the loss of one more ally did not stop the Hive, and they were immediately all over Maxwell, forcing him to try bashing his way out again. I heard a loud clashing noise and turned to see that the bridge had been completed, the plate on the other end now glowing like ours. "We have to go! NOW!" I called to the others, starting to walk backwards to the bridge while shooting at the Hive. Jason and Claire moved to join me, but Cassie stood looking back and forth between me and Maxwell, who was slowly pounding his way towards us through the Hive. "He's coming!" I yelled at her, "Just come on!" She began moving towards us and looking back constantly at Maxwell. But Maxwell's Force Barrier broke. The glowing shield vanished from his body under the pressure of attacks and his armor started to be scraped and bashed as he moved towards us more slowly. He fell, much as Cassie had a minute ago, but fought to crawl forward under the weight of the Thrall jumping onto him. His body disappeared under them and the Ward of Dawn vanished, then I saw a flash of light as his Ghost appeared above where his body had fallen and flew quickly towards us, a panicked look in its eye. But then a Thrall leaped into the air and clawed it down, slashing through the metal core and dragging it to the ground. The glowing blue eye faded to black as it fell. "NOOOO!" Cassie screamed, and her body erupted in flames, wings of fire sprouting from her back as she activated Radiance. She rushed forward, fiery Solar Grenades forming in each hand. "NO CASSIE!" I shouted as she charged. The grenades left her hands and exploded on the pile of Thrall, leaving hanging spheres of fire wherever they detonated and burning them away. Grenade after grenade left her hand, scattering the Hive away from Cassie and from where Maxwell lay. They left his body and Cassie stopped, staring at the unmoving body of the one she loved. Every detail was easily visible under the light of the fire spaced above and to the sides of him. Gashes were torn in his armor and blood flowed out of them, creating a growing pool of blood. His left arm was severed just below the shoulder and was barely connected to his body, while the visor of his helmet, that covered about a third of his helmet's surface, was broken again. Punctures from teeth made many small holes across the visor and a few bigger holes were broken into it. I was glad the helmet shadowed its contents, because I didn't want to see why it was also leaking blood. "Cassie!" I called, choking back a sob at that sight, "We can't leave you behind!" She turned and started running towards us, but Thrall jumped on her once again. This time she yelled out angrily and the flames around her body flared, burning off the shrieking creatures and leaving them writhing on the ground in agony. She caught up, our guns blazing as we shot down the Hive that tried getting to us before her. We all bolted for the other side and Cassie's flames died off, now sobbing as she ran. I could hear Claire trying to keep from crying over the com channel. We reached the end with the hoard just barely behind us, and shot our way through some Hive that had come to this side to try and block us. This area was nearly identical to its opposite, and as we reached the entrance to the hallway leading further into this labyrinth Derick's Ghost flashed out of my armor matrix and floated right in front of its entrance. It immediately let off a blinding light out of its core that shown in all directions. The Hive fell down before it, putting three-fingered hands over their eyes and screaming out in pain at the sudden light. The Hive further away raised arms over their eyes but did not advance further, looking at their comrades in front and knowing that they would also be reduced to writhing on the ground under the Light that oh so burned them. "What are your doing?!" I asked frantically, barely able to make out its form even with my UV ray-blocking visor and hand shadowing my eyes. "Holding them off until I burn out," Derick's Ghost answered, "This group must be slowed if you want a chance to escape. Now go!" "But Derick wouldn't-" I started, trying to convince it to come. "I'm doing this for Derick!" It snapped, "He would want at least some of us to escape, not only me! I want to give someone a chance to escape, even at the cost of myself!" I stopped trying to convince it, knowing that it was right about giving at least some of us a chance to escape. "Good bye," I called sadly, and began running again. Jason helped me drag the others along. "Good bye," I heard a quiet response echo through the hall. But only several moments after we began running, the light went out. I looked back as I ran to see a Wizard floating above the broken shell of Derick's Ghost, arm just now being lowered from the energy bolt it had fired at it. For a brief moment a red target waypoint flashed onto my visor, showing that this the Wizard we had come to kill. Then we were around a corner and unable to see it anymore. "Ghost, was that what I think it was?" I asked as I ran, turning my helmet communicator off first. "Yes," it replied, fear in its voice at the horror of just watching a Guardian and two Ghosts fall, "That was her, the Hive Wizard who's been directing ambushes on Guardians who come to the Moon." I turned that over in my mind as we ran. We must be more careful than before now. After running through only a couple more tunnels Cassie slowed to a stop. "What are your doing?" I asked quietly, trying to keep our location unknown from the Hive chasing us. "I'm going to stay here and burn through those monsters," she replied, a combination of grief, rage, and fear shaking her voice. Her emotions had built up and were breaking loose now. "Cassie, you can't-" Claire began, but choked to a stop when Cassie turned her back on us and planted her feet firmly. She couldn't be swayed. In an emotional state like this I don't think anyone in her place could've been persuaded otherwise. "Would Maxwell have-?" I began to ask. "Maxwell would've known that I had to do this for him!" Cassie snapped, cutting me off. Claire sobbed and I took her arm, pulling gently to start leading her. Jason stood for a moment, watching Cassie, before coming after us. "Farewell," he called to her as we left. "Good bye Cassie," I croaked, biting back tears again as I called that phrase once more. I saw Cassie nod her head just as the shriek of a Thrall rang out from a short ways down the tunnel. The Warlock erupted in flames once again as she walked forward to silence its calls to the other Hive. ________________________________ Link to part 5: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217378977/0/0 Link to part 7: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217379140/0/0 Master post: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217384398/0/0