Just a Hunk, a Hunk, of Burning Hive

(Day 197)

       There at the edge of the balcony where yet another bridge activation platform lay, two of them attempted to activate the platform, while the other four split into teams of two. The two teams headed away from the platform one to the right and one to the left. They posted up underneath strange levitating pillars that were floating above their respective platforms.

     As Isaac had suspected, nearly ten minutes after having taken their positions, nothing had happened. Not only had the bridge not begun to appear there were also no Hive. Not a single one. No Sword Bearers or Gatekeepers, nothing.

     Not wanting to waste anymore time in here, Isaac asked Ferra to use her Solar Whip to connect one of the pillars on their side with one of the pillars on the opposite balcony. It consumed nearly half of her Light Charge to do so but the nearly fifty meter gap between them was bridged by her Solar Whip.

     Once the bridge was established, Laurel took one step onto the tightrope and then immediately retreated from it.

     "It's just like what you suspected, Isaac. The Weight of Darkness starts right at the edge of our balcony. We'll need to make the most of our LAMP and get across quickly."

     "Yes, as quickly as possible. I have to keep this thing supplied with Light Charge to extend its duration and it's not a small amount so hurry up." Ferra informed them. 

     After hearing these words, Laurel grabbed the tightrope and began swinging her way hand over hand towards the other side. The others quickly followed behind her. Ferra was the last one across and they all managed to reach the other side in less than a minute.

     Ferra's Light Charge was nearly depleted at this time and so Celsia pulled out three Motes of Light for her. Motes of Light were little less than a quarter of a level forty Guardians maximum Light Charge and so Ferra was able to very nearly refill her Light Charge completely with those three Motes.

     Moving up the stairs towards the massive stone door with neon green lights illuminating its inner edges, they could see that the door was already opened and so they made their way inside under the ever present Weight of Darkness. The Weight of Darkness had been consistent while traversing the Solar Whip tightrope but, as they entered through the massive doorway, they noticed it becoming more and more oppressive as it had in The Stills.

     The circular room they entered was much more dimly lit than the ingame version and they noticed the corridor to the right was nearly pitch dark. The only lights they could perceive within were the eyes of a few Acolytes and the Elemental Shields of a few Wizards.

     Isaac gave the signal and they utilized their Potential Energy to its fullest to counteract the effects of the Weight of Darkness. As they entered the corridor, they not only noticed two Shriekers at the end of the corridor's and the floor covered in Thralls but also an Ogre standing in between the two. 

     Fireteam Isaac Focused Fire on the right Shrieker and Fireteam Ferra Focused Fire on the left Shrieker. With the two Shriekers down, all six of them Focused Fire on the Ogre. In this way, they quickly floated over the heads of the Thralls and other Hive, taking out the Ogres and Shriekers of all three corridor sections, and landing within the circular room at the corridor's end.

     Back on the ground again and with all of the Hive behind them, they immediately clogged up the end of the corridor with Solar Grenades and began tossing Fusion Grenades into the masses still in the corridor. Having taken less than a minute to rush through the corridor and less than two minutes to clear out the remaining Hive, the crew verified the presence of the hole in the middle of the circular room and jumped through it. 

     Landing in the circular room below which had a pool of unidentified black liquid in its center, they quickly noticed that the Weight of Darkness was now gone. Taking stock of their ammo reserves and Light Charge, those who needed it popped Motes of Light and Ammo Synths.

     After going over all of their strategies and contingencies once again, they began making their way through the final corridor leading to Crota's Chamber. As they approached their destination, they all could see exactly what had happened to all of the Sword Bearers and Gatekeepers.

     The entire chamber, both the floor and the platform that ringed the room, were swarming with Sword Bearers, Gatekeepers, and Wizards. All of them looked to be Majors but no Thralls were present this time. There were still plenty of Acolytes and Knights but, as per usual, these lesser Hive, no matter their tricks no matter their numbers, simply posed no real threat.

     Ferra and Isaac both unleashed a Void Flame Bomb on their respective sides of the Chamber while the others, now unburdened by the Weight of Darkness, rushed upstairs to the enclosure whose floor was the ceiling of the room they just came from. 

     As the two teams entered the enclosure from opposite ends, they were met with a much larger throng of Acolytes, Knights, and Wizards. After swiftly burning through these kindling with their Mythoclasts and a few grenades, three Shriekers appeared and were quickly put to rest, by Isaac and Ferra who had caught up to their respective fireteams.

     In the center of the enclosure was yet another circular room, with a large green crystal in its center. This room was sealed off with a transparent barrier that vanished immediately upon the demise of the three Shriekers. Inside the circular room, they had witnessed Ir Yut, The Deathsinger preparing her odious ballad. She was not alone, however, as she was surrounded by six other Wizards that were sustaining a powerful shield around her. There were also four Gatekeepers, two stationed on each opening to the room.

     Isaac and Ferra had, of course, witnessed this scene from outside the enclosure and snatched a sword from the Sword Bearers below. Now that the barriers were down, Isaac and Ferra rushed ahead of their fireteams to deal with the Gatekeepers and the others dealt with six Wizards surrounding Ir Yut.

     As the last of her support Wizards fell, Ir Yut became surrounded by green energy and began screeching wretched and woeful notes that seemed to make one very soul quiver. Immediately understanding the what would happen if they didn't actually quickly enough, Isaac and Ferra rushed at Ir Yut with powerful slashes from opposite directions, while the others placed carefully aimed Golden Gun shots in her face.

     Ir Yut was incinerated in less than four seconds. With the biggest threat after Crota having been dealt with, the team exited the enclosure and cleared out the last few Hive remaining in the chamber.

     The six Guardians all reentered the enclosure and surrounded the green crystal inside the circular room. As they stood there they could feel the Light being drained from their bodies and absorbed by the crystal. This, of course, was part of the reason they had stocked up on Motes of Light before starting this mission. They were all ready to burn through every Mote that they had if necessary.

     As their Light was being drained, they watched the other side of the chamber where two massive hornlike protrusions were slowly being assembled on the platform. Above the platform on the opposite side of the chamber, was a massive green cracked sphere. It looked like a small moon that someone had tried to gouge an eye shaped hole into. This was the Oversoul and hopefully something they wouldn't have to deal with, if they played their cards right.

     As soon as the two protrusions were completed, the room's transparent barriers returned and a green orb of fluctuating energy appeared in between the two protrusions. After several seconds of watching the fluctuating orb, Crota, Son of Oryx finally emerged from that fluctuating energy.

     Having accomplished its mission, the green energy dispersed as Crota made his first move thrusting his sword into the air and summoning another wave of Sword Bearers, Gatekeepers, Wizards, and Ogres. With the appearance of the Hive reinforcements, the Guardians had just finished popping their Motes and sprung into action.

     Isaac and Ferra wielded their Hive swords furiously clearing out the Gatekeepers and slashing through the Hive blocking their way to the elevated circular alcoves on the other side of the chamber. Before reaching the alcoves, they each turned their backs on their destinations and they each threw out a Void Flame Bomb, before finally landing on the edge of the alcove.

     Isaac had needed to dodge Crota's Darkness Blasts as Crota seemed to have it in for him right from the start. Arriving in the alcove, Isaac began killing Hallowed Knights and Wizards that had spawned there. As he was dealing with the two Ogres that appeared after them, Wraitheon told him to dodge to the right and he did so almost immediately.

     Almost immediately, however, wasn't fast enough nor did it take him far enough. After the first handful of his Darkness Blasts that he sent towards Isaac inside the alcove had missed, Crota rushed towards the edge of the platform and jumped up into the alcove. Landing inside the alcove, Crota swung his sword down towards Isaac and, although Isaac dodged, the wave of energy sent out as the sword clashed with the ground completely overwhelmed Isaac's shields.

     The wave of energy washed over Isaac's body sending him crashing into the wall. 'Fuck! It looks like Plan A is a NoGo.' Isaac thought, while trying to pick himself up.

     Crota, being even larger than the game portrayed, hardly even fit inside the alcove and moving around was a challenge. So instead of trying to reposition himself and strike at Isaac directly, Crota simply slammed his sword onto the floor again, before Isaac could recover, sending another wave of energy crashing into Isaac and destroying his body.

     The others, upon witnessing Isaac go down, didn't panic, since they had trained thoroughly for situations like this. They were, however, inwardly surprised. The Guardians knew how serious this situation was and so they stuck to their training and continued assaulting Crota, as he jumped out of the right side alcove and rushed towards the left side alcove.

     Ferra, seeing Crota coming for her after having killed Isaac so easily, decided to retreat from the alcove for now but Crota wasn't having any of it. As she kept from the alcove, Crota closed in on her position and slashed her with his sword, sending her two bisected halves flying into the wall below the alcove and into the same state as Isaac. 'Dammit! Seriously! That guy really is fast for something his size!' Ferra cursed, while waiting for the right moment to resurrect.

     As soon as the others witnessed Crota's blade connect with Ferra, they all began falling back towards the enclosure. Seeing the others fleeing Crota gave chase but, like with the alcove, his large frame simply couldn't follow them into the enclosure.

     Upon seeing Crota dash towards the left side trying to catch the others, Isaac used Radiance and, covered in a cloak of raging flames, flew as fast as he could towards the enclosure, while throwing Fusion Grenades at Crota. Crota, of course, attempted to rekill his former victim but wasn't fast enough. 

     As Crota reached the place where Isaac had entered the enclosure he realized he was being assaulted from the rear and turned around to see fire cloaked Ferra also bombarding him with Fusion Grenades as she slipped into the enclosure. 

     Crota, realizing that the window he had to activate the Oversoul was closing quickly, he rushed back to the middle of the horned protrusion platform and thrust his sword into the air. At this time, the Guardians were extremely happy that they had decided to gather around the crystal, because it was once again absorbing their Light to reconstruct the barrier. They suspected that had they not been near it or been too late getting to it things might have ended very badly for them. 

     "Plan B?" Ferra asked. 

     "Plan B." Isaac responded.

     The crew once again popped their Motes and readied themselves for the next round. After the Oversoul had calmed down, Daniel was the first one to dash out and directly towards Crota. Being the fastest on his team, Daniel easily evaded Crota's attacks and slashed began using his Slash and Dash tactics, after hitting Crota with a Shadow Shot and a couple of Void Flame Grenades.

     As the others poured out of the enclosure, Ferra and Isaac launched Void Flame Bombs over Crota's head and then joined the others in assaulting him with Rocket Launchers. Crota was now entirely engulfed in Void Flames leaving him no chance to regenerate his shields and obscuring his vision. Daniel held Crota's attention as the others navigated themselves through the air dodging fire from the Hive reinforcements, as they continued assaulting Crota with rocket fire.

     When the crew ran out of Rocket Launcher ammo, they switched to their Vex Mythoclasts and laid down continuous fire, until Daniel began running low on Sword Ammo. On Daniel's signal, they immediately began falling back as Daniel rushed past Crota and rejoined his teammates.

     They once again separated into teams of three and entered the enclosure from opposite ends. Popping Motes and Ammo Synths as they ran through the enclosure, the two teams passed each other in the center room and then exited the enclosure through the end opposite of where they had entered.

     Crota had decided that he wasn't about to let these pesky mortals off easy. Seeing them passing each other in the green crystal room, Crota took up position at the left side entrance to the enclosure and waited for them to emerge.

     The Guardians weren't sure what made Crota think that such a plan would work on them but they, of course, had little time to worry about such things. Of course, their ghosts were constantly tracking Crota and knew his position at all times. As such, Fireteam Ferra exited through the right side first and immediately resumed their assault. 

     Ferra threw out another Void Flame Bomb and then joined her teammates in laying down more rocket fire. As soon as Crota turned around Daniel dashed out and resumed his Slash and Dash strategy. Koren wrapped himself in his Ward of Destruction, jumped onto Crota's shoulders, barely managed to wrap his arms around his neck, and began pulling with all his might.

     None of them expected that he would actually be able to pull Crota's head off but this would at least hinder his attempts to target anyone other than Daniel.

     Crota either decided it wasn't worth his time or didn't get the chance but this time around there were no other Hive around. It was just the seven of them in an all out fight to the death.

     As Crota attempted to swing his sword downwards at Daniel, Daniel took full advantage of the move he had been waiting for and dodged the attack by a hair's breadth. Continuing forward he landed a Massive FOMA punch directly under Crota's chin. Just before Daniel landed his punch, Koren released his grip on Crota's neck, sidestepped his head, and reached his hand out above his head as he jumped face forward toward the sword in Crota's hand. 

     As soon as Koren had a grip on Crota's sword, he used it as leverage and placed his feet against Daniel's feet. It only took Koren a second to move from Crota's shoulders and into this position. Once their feet were appropriately positioned they both began pushing against each other, with both of Daniel's hands now holding onto Crota's lower jaw.

     Crota quickly realized that these Guardians were stronger than he imagined and he was about to have his sword stolen from him. Despite fearing that such an action might actually end with the same outcome he feared, Crota chose to take a chance and he raised his right hand up to grab Daniel but soon found his wrist shackled with a flaming whip.

     At the same time that his right hand released his sword, Koren sent a massive FOMA directly in between Crota's hand and his sword and finally separating the two. As soon as Ferra had her Solar Whip around Crota's wrist, Isaac and Bravo landed behind Crota and FOMA'd the back of his knees causing him to lose balance.

     As Crota's body fell to the ground, Koren wrapped his Ward of Destruction around Crota's sword, stepped up next to his shoulders as he hit the ground, and then put all of his power behind a mighty downward slash directly onto Crota's neck.

     First slash. A sound, like someone cracking open a crab leg but amplified a hundred fold, sounded, before Koren quickly lifted the sword out of the groove he had created in Crota's neck.

     Second slash. The sword landed once more with another loud crack and dug the groove even deeper.

     Third slash. Koren slammed the sword down directly into the platform beneath causing the thing to tremble ever so slightly. With that final slash, Eris could be heard screaming through the comms device. 

     "HE'S DEAD! DEAD! FINALLY, THE VILE CREATURE IS BANISHED!"

     'Dammit, and she was doing so well. I suppose we'll have to start from scratch, now. But this is a pretty huge moment for her so let's make it a count.' Isaac thought to himself, as he looked at Koren and gave him a knowing smile.

     Seeing Isaac's expression, Koren once again wielded Crota's sword, covered it in Solar Energy, and began hacking away at Crota's body. The others followed their lead and buried his corpse with Solar Grenades. The crew continued assaulting Crota's corpse, until every last scrap of his chitinous form had been burned to ash.

     Isaac took a moment, with Wraitheon, to send all of the details of this fight to Ikora so that Eris could witness it, with her own three eyes.

     Isaac and his teammates all took a little break, before setting off to explore every nook and cranny of this Throne World, while gathering as much information about it as possible. Several hours later, they finally worked their way back past the bridge, through The Stills, and up and out of the Helmouth. Returning quite happily to their ships they all flew back to the Tower with satisfied smiles on their faces.