[spoiler]Probablycould have made this a two parter, but whoops! Enjoy anyways![/spoiler]
Icarus and Indigo drop into a clearing on the far side of a broken bridge. Kairos hesitates before closing his eyes, taking a deep breath, and jumping down to join them. The rain is heavy, and the winds are shaking the entire catwalk. As Icarus takes a step forward, the entire moon shakes violently for a few seconds before going still again.
"Proxy, you got that map for me?" Icarus begins running full speed across the bridge, leaping over the missing section, then continuing into the dark interior of the rig. Indigo stays close behind.
Proxy chirps, "File sent, sir." as he sends the map download over to Icarus' Ghost.
"Hey, wait up!" Kairos begins running after them, as the ground shakes again. Kairos loses his balance, stumbling left and right, almost falling off the bridge. The shaking stops just before he's about to plummet. "Penny? Standby for resurrection, okay?" His voice quivers. He clears the jump and catches up to the others quickly.
After walking a short ways, Kairos turns a corner to find Icarus stabbing an Acolyte in the head, and Indigo firing an arrow through another. Icarus looks back at him, "Keep up." They all walk up to a stained glass wall that Icarus places his ear up to and begins tapping lightly. He slowly moves to the right one step at a time, knocking.. knocking.. knocking, until-
[i]Tink, tink, tink![/i]
Icarus steps back and fires two rounds of his rifle into the glass, shattering it to pieces. They all step inside, where a swarm of Hive are gathering. Icarus makes hand gestures to Indigo, gesturing quite complexly around the room. Kairos stares in confusion, while Indigo nods once and disappears. Icarus turns to Kairos and whispers, "Just stay alive." He rushes forward and hides behind a tall pillar.
Kairos rolls his eyes, "Really?" He takes cover behind the opposite pillar across from Icarus and waits for a signal, which doesn't take long. A wizard roaming the center of the room lowers her head in wait when suddenly, [i]ssshhhZUUUUH!!![/i] Four orange bolts of light appear beneath her, burning her to ashes. Indigo flashes into existence for half a second with a smoking fusion rifle before dodging away again, vanishing into thin air. The scream of the wizard alerts every Hive in the room, sending them into a confused panic. Kairos stands, but Icarus waves his hand for him to stay down. "Not yet?" Kairos whispers back.
Icarus waits and watches as most of the Hive move toward the ashes of the Wizard to investigate. Once they all get close enough, he jumps out and yells, "Over here you ugly pieces of sh-" he raises his hand and flames engulf his entire body, rising up to his hand into a flaming hand cannon. He fan fires while yelling, incinerating every Hive in eye sight. The entire room grows warmer as he fires the final round, killing off the last of the creatures. He takes a deep breath and twirls the flames, as it fades away into smoke. He looks over to Kairos and nods. "C'mon!" Indigo uncloaks and joins them both as they approach the next door.
It creaks open as dozens of Thrall pour out from the darkness. Icarus sprays his MINI-Tool, while Indigo tosses a smoke bomb. Kairos opens fire with his duel wield Sturm and Drang combo. The Thrall go down with ease, as the next door opens. The roar shakes the walls as an Ogre begins stomping forward. Icarus lays into its lack of a face with the MIDA while arrows fly by from Indigo. Kairos rushes ahead of them right towards it, hurling a storm grenade directly at its feet. The lightning comes from nowhere as the entire Ogre is covered in arc energy. It screams in pain as the last arrow pierces its skull. It falls with a thud, sending dust and Hive corruption everywhere.
After a few more halls and small rooms of minor Hive, the fireteam finds a large open room with a glowing purple sharp. Another Wizard guards it, whispering to it. Commander Sloann comes in over the intercom, "This is where we lost connection to the first fireteam. Eyes up, Guardians."
Icarus gestures to Indigo again before running for the underside of the bridge that the Wizard is on. He stops in his tracks as a Hive Shrieker awakens and begins wildly sending bolts in every direction. Icarus yells, "Plan B!" and Indigo uncloaks, firing round after round of arrows into it.
Indigo grunts, "It's not working! Plan C?"
Icarus fights off Acolytes and Knights frantically. "Not gonna work, go to Plan E!"
Indigo goes alert, "Plan E? Are you sure? What about the Wizard?" She fires an arrow into the head of a Knight that's about to come down on Icarus' position.
Icarus looks around the room. "Damn! You're right! Uhh.." he dodges back to her position and darts his eyes around the room.
Kairos grits his teeth and runs straight up the steps toward the Wizard. "Penny! Get ready!" He runs up to the crystal and places a healing rift around himself and the Wizard. Penny appears and is immediately covered in arc light, shielding her as she begins firing bursts of arc energy at the Wizard. It puts up its arms as the flashes blind it. The Wizards shield breaks, and so does the crystal. Void energy begins empowering Kairos, warping around his body. "Woah.." Kairos looks at his arms, now glowing a bright purple, same as the Shrieker. "Guys! I've got an idea!" He rushes the Shrieker with Penny close by. He leaps into the air and screams as he pummels through the Shriekers eye. It explodes in void light as Kairos glides safely to the ground.
Icarus and Indigo look to each other with amazement. The Wizard shakes off the stun and looks around, seeing it's the only one left. It panics and begins to form energy in its hands, as both a rifle shot and an arrow fly through its head. Icarus and Indigo join Kairos up ahead. Icarus reloads his weapons and remarks, "We need to move quickly. As far as I know, the Hive shouldn't be able to harness void light like this. Only Guardians. I'm starting to think..." he trails off a bit, then heads down the next hallway into a small corrupted room. "...oh." Icarus slows and lowers his weapon as he steps in and sees walls covered in void crystals.
Kairos rushes in with guns at the ready, as his jaw drops. "What the..." his eyes reflect the purple light that fills the room.
Indigo walks in, looking pissed. She begins notching and releasing arrows into each and every crystal, destroying them one by one. "Do you hear them?" She grits through her teeth. The glow in her Awoken eyes is strong with fury. "They are screaming in agony." She breaks a few more. "These crystals..." They scream louder and louder with each arrow fired. "It's not Hive magic..." She stomps hard enough to lift dirt as she moves. "They're the Guardians from the other teams." She shatters the last one in front of the next door with her knife, sending a curdling cry through the room.
A roar comes from the next room as the ground shakes again. Three more of the ritual Wizards pour in, followed by a massive Ogre. Indigo stomps toward them without hesitation. Kairos yells for her, "Wait! What are you doing!?" He begins to take after her, as Icarus grabs him by the shoulder.
He whispers to him, "Wait. Let her. She's not an idiot. She always has a plan. " He let's go and folds his arms in wait.
She grits her teeth and twitches her eye as she notches another arrow to the string. The bow begins to glow violet as it travels up the arms of the bow, and down her own. The arrow engulfs in a violent flame of pure void energy, empowered by the countless crystals she destroyed. The screams of the Guardians surround her, as she raises her arms and begins to float off the ground. She screams as she let's the arrow fly, sending the souls of the Guardians forward with it. The bolt flies past the Wizards directly into the Ogres face, completely devouring it in one hit. The Wizards look back at the damage, as the arrow explodes into aggressive tethers, binding them and slowly pulling them toward the corpse.
Icarus looks at Kairos and nods his head. "Now!" They both start firing round after round into everything in the room, easily tearing through the Hive creatures, until theres practically nothing left. Indigo softly lands back on the ground, takes a deep breath, and as she exhales, the screams of the Guardians fade to nothing.
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This is good!, I have an idea for the next part, considering Karov went to Titan when this was happening, and he went down into the depths of the Arcology as well, you could add him in near the end of the story, I will send you the details. But anyways keep up the good work!