15 You're the Best Around... Prt. 1

(Day 20)

Isaac and Polter started the day off right, with their normal routine and then set out to meet with Ikora to receive his reward. Ikora had offered the other five a downgraded version of his free loadout offer from Banshee. She offered them a free set of Quality Armors Pack. Apparently, the item rating system from the game didn't translate to this world. Here there were only basic, quality, custom, and exotic gear categories. 

     Custom gear, which is what Isaac had been offered, was simply any armor that was specifically designed to be both as high end speced as the current technology would allow and also formatted to the wearer's specifications. Basic gear was simply a few materials that had a baseline defensive capability put together into a suit for a particular class. Quality gear used mid to high grade defensive materials and may even have some fancy tech mixed in as well. Exotic gear was always as good or better than Custom gear and usually had tech from whichever enemy faction it was derived from or maybe even Golden Age tech.

     Having already acquired an offer for a full Custom loadout, a Custom Armors Pack and a Custom Weapons Pack, Ikora offered him a sum of Glimmer equivalent to the others reward. Having received his reward, Isaac went to the Kinetic Energy Meditation Chamber for the first time to increase his attunement, without having to be his own source of energy. He spent half of the day there and the other half in the Void Chamber. 

     The two teams had decided to take a two day Introspective Respite, before heading out again. So the next morning, Isaac made his way to the training grounds and spent half the day going through all three class exercises, as well as touching up on his fundamentals. He then spent the rest of the day in the Arc Chamber, before going out with his fireteam for some pizza and heading to bed. 

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     The next morning, Isaac met up with the whole crew and addressed his team, with yet another proposition. 

          "Alright, guys, I had been asking around and I heard about some kind of machine god that the Fallen worship. I decided to ask Ikora about this and, as it turns out, the Vanguard has a bounty on this thing's head. So I was thinking that we could swoop down to the Cosmodrome for a bit and take out the House of Devils along with their god thingy. Then we could head back to the moon for some more serious leveling." Isaac proposed. 

     "Ummm, just to be clear, you did say a god right?" Daniel asked.

     "Yeah, but that's just what they call it because they worship it. It's basically just an oversized Servitor. Maybe four or five times larger than your average Servitor. Nothing too fancy."

     "Ahh, just a giant Servitor then, huh? Well, I guess that doesn't sound so bad."

     "In terms of difficulty relative to our last battle, how difficult would you estimate this mission is?" Ferra asked.

     "Hmmm...I'd say that, with all six of us there, it should be a walk in the park. The Servitor might take a while to kill, like Phogoth, but neither it nor its protectors will be as dangerous as our last mission. So you could think of it as an extended walk in the park."

     "It would seem that the Vanguard sure does have some impressive intel capabilities, if you know all of that." Koren added. 

     "Oh, yeah. For sure, they have scouts who have been at this Guardian business for decades and some, like Cayde, for hundreds of years. Obviously, those guys are gonna be super reliable." Isaac responded. 

     With those words, everyone present agreed to the plan. After transmating into their ships, they all followed Isaac to the drop off location in the Cosmodrome. 

     On the way there, Isaac contacted Ikora to confirm that they were going after Sepiks Prime. "Hey, Ikora, me and my team, all six of us, are headed to the Cosmodrome to deal with the House of Devils and their machine god thing. There's no problem with that, right?"

     "Ummm...no. No problem, just a bit unexpected that's all. Although, I suppose it makes sense that you'd want to go after the main threat in the Cosmodrome, after taking down Phogoth. I'm sure you'll be able to handle it and the City will rest easier knowing that it's been defeated. Just be careful out there and don't get too cocky, just because you've got a few wins to your name."

     "Haha, don't you worry, Ikora. I'll be there to keep Polter under control, in case he tries anything too crazy."

     "What the shit?! Me? When have I ever done anything crazy?" Polter thought. 

     "Haha, well, I guess everything should be fine then. I'll see you when you return to the Tower." Ikora responded. 

     "Bye, Ikora." Isaac said, as Ikora disconnected.

     "Alright, you heard Ikora. I'm going to have to keep an eye on you, when we get down there. For your own safety, of course."

     "As if?! If anything, I'll have to keep my eye on you, ya freaking loon."

     "Hahah..." Isaac laughed and continued teasing Polter for the entire flight. 

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     They landed in the Rocket Yards, hopped on their sparrows, and made it all the way across the yards to a rundown building. The team entered the building, which contained the Refinery, and began making their way through clearing out Hive along the way.

     Upon encountering a hallway that was trapped with a series of explosives, Isaac sent Polter out to hack a nearby machine that could deactivate the explosives. The Fallen, having discovered their intrusion, flooded the room en masse to keep them out. Isaac's team was tried and tested, however, and hordes of low ranking enemies were no more than fodder for them. They killed everything that was set against them and then entered the hallway after the explosive's deactivation. 

     They exited the building and made their way into the Blast, which was a large open air area surrounded by the building proper. Isaac had all three Hunters stay back on top of a small shed, positioned close to the door they had exited. He, Koren, and Ferra made their way to the other side of the clearing, as a Fallen dropship appeared above the large doorway that was their destination. The bottom of the dropship held a massive eight legged mechanical tank, a Fallen Walker. The Walked unlatched itself from the dropship and landed on the ground before their destination doorway. 

     Isaac contacted the Hunters and instructed them to target the things legs. He instructed them to focus on one leg, until it was crippled. Once the first leg was crippled, the Walker slumped onto the ground and its head was slightly disjointed from its body, exposing its unguarded internal mechanisms. 

     Isaac had instructed them all to bring Rocket Launchers, as he had theorized that they would be very useful on this mission. Most of them didn't carry any Heavy Weapons, because it weighed them down and that just wasn't their style. Today, however, they made sure to have one in their ghost's inventory along with plenty of ammo. So Isaac's team pulled out their Rocket Launchers and blasted the Walkers exposed internals with two rounds each, before the thing could recover. 

     When it did recover, they could all tell that it had been severely damaged. It was jittery, unstable, and sparks were sporadically flying from its joints. The first leg that blew off, had been subject to Hunter's sniper fire and now Isaac's team diverted the Walker's attention so that it turned its weakened leg into the other team's line of sight. This was the leg that Isaac and his team had been firing at the first time around. 

     With the leg already badly damaged, it only took a handful of shots to blow off another leg. Once the internals were once again exposed, the crews overwhelming firepower completely destroyed the Walker. The Walker exploded into several pieces and Isaac and his team approached the remains. 

     "Hey, Polter, how much of this do you think you could fit in the ship?"

     "Ummm, you mean the Walker? Maybe a leg or two? That's about it."

     "Would you guys mind transmating these remains to your ships? Whenever we leave, we'll go back to the Stadium and drop it off there, alright?" Isaac asked his teammates. 

     Initially they looked skeptical but, upon hearing Isaac mention the Stadium, they all quickly agreed despite some of their misgivings. It took four of their ships to get all of the parts loaded, after which they opened the door to the building leading to the Devil's Lair and easily wiped out the ambush waiting for them on the other side.

     After reaching the Devil's Lair, Isaac took a few moments to prepare his team for what lay ahead. Once he was sure that they were all ready to go, they opened the door and witnessed a massive shielded Servitor floating in the air and drawing strength from the nearby Fallen and machinery. 

     Laurel and Bravo made their way to different sides, killed the enemies there, and suppressed the incoming reinforcements. Isaac, Koren, and Ferra posted up in the middle with Rocket Launchers at the ready. Daniel played both Hunter and Titan, defending the three Rocketeers and assisting the two Renegades from a distance. 

     As soon as the Servitor's shields were down, Isaac signaled to Daniel. Daniel then targeted the Servitor with his Golden Gun and fired two shots directly into its eye, at which point the Servitor immediately teleported away. Isaac, having expected this, was the first to reacquire their target. "Fire." Isaac ordered and his Rocket was launched just a short moment before the others but they all three hit their target.

     The Servitor then teleported again, after they continued to rain sniper fire into its eye. Isaac signaled to Daniel once more and the Golden Gun fire urged the Servitor to retreat once again. This time all three knew what was coming and their rockets left at almost the same time, after which they switched again to sniper fire. 

     Isaac could tell that Sepiks was not going to last as long as Phogoth. He could already see it shell beginning to crack and its response times becoming slower. Certain that Sepiks was realizing that this ranged battle wasn't working in its favor, Isaac suspected that after the next teleport Sepiks would try and close the distance. Sure enough, as soon as Isaac spotted Sepiks and Daniel spent his last two Golden Gun shots, Sepiks teleported to the left of the Rocketeers location and attempted to use its powerful close range ability to finish them off quickly. 

     Isaac, however, had already prepared his Nova Bomb and unleashed it just as soon as Sepiks arrived near them. Using his LAMP technique to force himself out of Sepiks range, Isaac prepared his last Nova Bomb, while his teammates rained fire down on Sepiks. Sepiks, of course, had no other choice but to teleport once again. Appearing on the right side of their position, Sepiks found himself being blown to bits by Isaac's Nova Bomb. 

     Laurel and Bravo, noticing that Sepiks was defeated, went into Arc Blade Mode and finished up the few remaining Fallen in a jiffy. Having done what they came to do, Isaac and his fireteam transmated all of Sepiks Prime's parts to their ships. All six of them then went directly back to the Traveler's shard and dropped off the machine parts they were carrying. Isaac, of course, took this opportunity to return the shard that the Hive had stolen. 

     "Now, now, guys, I know the Traveler's shard has some impressive curves but that's no reason to stare…" Isaac said as the others looked at him blankly.

     'Okay, a successful comedian I am not.'_"Naw, I'm only joking but seriously I should go report to Ikora about our success and I'll meet you back at the Hellmouth on the moon. Sound good?"

     They all decided to overlook his comedy fail and agreed to meet at the Hellmouth. Isaac made his way back to the Tower, updated Ikora, received his portion of the rewards, and sped off to the moon. 

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     Landing on the moon near his already assembled teammates, Isaac walked over to his crew and then they made their way to the edge of the Hellmouth. Knowing that the Circle of Bones borders the Hellmouth, they had coordinated with their ghosts ahead of time where they should jump off at and how far they should free fall. 

     As one they stepped off the edge of the Hellmouth and descended for a few seconds, before the Circle of Bones balcony came into view. At their ghosts signal, they began controlling their descent. Only slightly at first, still falling rather quickly, but then increased their control as the balcony grew closer. All six landed lightly on the balcony, much to the displeasure of Hive that were occupying the area. 

     Their sudden appearance had taken the Hive by surprise. That didn't stop the Hive, however, from assaulting them immediately upon noticing their presence. This crew had seen worse, of course, and so were able to clear out the Circle of Bones quite easily, before heading once more into the Summoning Pits.

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     "Alright, crew, since everyone here is at least at level fifteen, I think we should focus on reaching level twenty as a priority and then focus on mastering our first classes. For today, however, we have armies of Hive in each of these rooms. Since the Hive plan on sending those armies to Earth to attack us, it only makes sense that we would use those armies to strengthen ourselves before they can do so. 

     "That being said we took out Phogoth as a six man team. For this bit of leveling, I suggest that each team take a separate room. We don't want to become complacent in always having overwhelming numbers. Even though the Hive are technically more numerous, they're objectively not overwhelming. If Phogoth was the strongest these pits have to offer, I think it's safe to say that we can handle whatever is in the rooms. Especially if we focus specifically on the rooms with the weakest Hive. This particular exercise is simply to raise our levels, so no reason to place ourselves in more danger than necessary, especially considering that we'll most likely be cut off from the Light again once we enter. If you're all clear on what to do, then let's get this party started?"

     Polter scanned the available rooms and found one with some of the weaker Hive enemies. Ferra's ghost did likewise and the two teams made their way into their respective leveling rooms. 

     Once inside, Isaac's team was faced with a room very similar to the one where they had fought Phogoth. Isaac had his teammates both run Titan for a bit as he wanted to try something. Koren and Daniel went to the center of the room and took up defensive positions. Isaac rushed forward into the swarm of Thralls and Acolytes. There were a few Knights and Wizards about but they were focused mainly on his teammates. 

     Isaac had been considering how to best use this Kinetic Energy he had discovered and he realized that if Kinetic energy was to grow into its own right, alongside the other three energies, its applications needed to be expanded. There should not only be Kinetic attacks but entire Kinetic Subclasses. 

     With these thoughts in mind, Isaac landed among the Hive swarm with his Shock Blades drawn. He quickly visualized his attack, sent the energy into his blades, and spun completely around in a circle with each blade extended outwards in a bent T pose. The Kinetic Energy he had sent into each blade formed an arch that created two connecting semicircles. Each arch was immediately sent flying away from Isaac and every Hive that came into contact with those arches of energy were sliced into ribbons. Koren and Daniel had actually been slightly distracted after witnessing this, leading to the two taking a couple of hits. They recovered quickly and continued to hold their ground. 

     Witnessing the destruction of his newly created attack, Isaac smiled gleefully at the empty five meters of space that had been cleared. He didn't hesitate long, however, as he still had one more ability to test. Isaac knew that at level twenty he could create his own shields but those were light shields. 

     What if he could replicate the Void, Solar, and Arc shields that his enemies used? He could, theoretically, change the type of shield he's using in combat depending on the type of ammo being used against him. He could even create Kinetic Shields that could deflect or reflect incoming fire. 

     Although, his ultimate plan was for his Light Shields to be over his armor, his Kinetic Shields to be over his Light Shields, and his quick change energy shield to be over his Kinetic Shields. If the enemy still managed to injure him with that three shield combo, he deserved to get injured.

     Once again visualizing the desired outcome, while evading the Hive that had now closed in on him, Isaac created a Void Shield around himself. It appeared almost instantly but he could tell that it was unstable and that he would have to keep his focus on it instead of the battle, if he didn't want it to disappear. 

     This was only a slightly bittersweet development, because he now knew that he couldn't do it with his current abilities but he also realized, however, that the concept was valid and all he needed were a few extra levels. The fact that he and his team were currently on a mission specifically designed to get them to level twenty, completely overwhelmed that bit of bitterness. Isaac grinned madly, as he utilized LAMP to hoist himself into the air, and rained Kinetic Slashes down on the Hive.