DFP Contest Submission: Deimos' Darkness Post 1 (Finished)

I will post my story here in parts, and leave the tag when it's done. If you are going to comment on multiple parts, reply to your own comment about what you would like to say about each part. [b]VANGUARD MEETING HALL, TOWER. POST-RED WAR, MERCURY CONFLICT, AND XOL CONFLICT. JULY 26th. 1:45/1345 STANDARD TOWER TIME.[/b] [i]Zavala and Ikora stand in the meeting hall, awaiting Cayde-6’s arrival.[/i] “He should be here by now,” states Zavala. “I swear, if he keeps arriving late-” Zavala is interrupted when Cayde runs through the door, straight to his spot. “Hey , sorry about being late, there was this one thing I had to handle, which was supposed to be the only thing, but then it became a mixture of thing...s...” Cayde stops when he sees Zavala and Ikora, both with a stern expression. Zavala sighs and says, “Continuing… Ikora says her Hidden have picked up something on Deimos.” Ikora picks up from there, explaining, “We’ve detected Hive magic coming from it. Whether this means there is also a Hive presence on Phobos or not is unknown. But either way, we need a fireteam to clear it out, and make sure they aren’t trying to summon another one of their gods. Without Eris, we can’t be sure what they are doing, so we need an experienced fireteam who’s ghosts will know what the Hive magic is attempting.” Zavala thinks for a moment, then suggests, “Fireteam Infernius would be a good choice. They did, after all, take out Xol and push Oryx back into the Ascendant Realm.” [i](Just a note, I didn’t complete King’s Fall, so that’s why I didn’t say my fireteam killed Oryx. Also, Infernius is a play on Inferno as there are probably about 1000 Infernos out there)[/i] Cayde begins to ask, “Can I monitor the-” He is interrupted when Ikora and Zavala both say “No” at the same time. “Ooo-kay… I’ll call them up then,” he says, going to an intercom. PART 2: Briefing [Told by Ventharok’s PoV] Me, Axon, and Varthon were in the tower, discussing our adventures so far. “I’ve heard rumors of an event starting soon. Wonder what it could be?” I said. Axon said, “If I were to guess, probably something to do with Solar light? If you think about it… It is summer, so it might make sense?” Varthon gave his input. “I think that would be strange, considering-” He was interrupted when over the intercom came a message: “Fireteam Infernius is to report to the Vanguard Hall immediately.” It was Cayde-6. “What could they want with us?” Axon said. I shrugged, and we went to the Vanguard Hall. When we got there, Ikora, Zavala, and Cayde were standing at their places, waiting for us. “Yes?” I said. “Fireteam Infernius. We have a serious matter at hand. Ikora?” She explained, “We’ve heard disturbing reports of Hive magic coming from Deimos. We’ve never heard of any activity there, so we could be facing another god if the ritual isn’t stopped.” “If you need to, contact us and we'll see if we can send reinforcements,” said Zavala. “Don't die on me, 'kay? I need someone to tell me what it's like out there,” Cayde said. “We’ll monitor the mission from here. Good luck.” Zavala and the rest of the Vanguard went back to whatever they were doing, and we went out. “This is going to be interesting… Let's get to it!” I said. We went to our ships and plotted course for Mars. PART 3: Deimos When we arrived Deimos was to our left, Phobos likely on the other side of the planet. “Alder, scan for any signals or things out of the ordinary.” A pause. “Nothing I can- Wait… I’m picking up some chatter from the Cabal… They’re talking about the Ritual! Maybe they have bases on Deimos we have never been to…” “Alright, let’s get to it,” I say, over my comlink. Before we landed, we flew around the asteroid-moon, scouting for Cabal bases. “There! Probably an outpost, but still noteworthy!” We saw some lights on the asteroid-moon, and we went to an area away from the base but not too far. After landing, Axon told his ghost, “Scan for signs of Hive activity.” His ghost emitted the usual blue scanning sphere for a few moments, then said, “I’m finding some near the Cabal outpost - maybe they’ve found the cave system.” We got to a cliffside overlooking the base, which we could probably jump to, and I pulled out my sniper. Looking through, I spotted many Legionnaires and Phalanxes. There were some centurions, one of them gilded. “On my mark, you guys get in there and activate your supers. Axon, take out the Centurions, specifically the gilded one.. Varthon, take out the other ones. I’ll join in after sniping. You guys ready?” I whispered. Holding out one of my hands, I said (and acted?), “One… Two… Three… Mark!” They jumped down, jumping midair to break the fall and not get hurt, and activating their supers. The cabal looked up at them and began firing, and I began sniping. After sniping about 5 enemies, I jumped down, activating my Dawnblade, and raining fiery death from above. When I landed, it was silent, the battle was won. But then we heard the alarm. “Well then, they know we’re here. Let’s get straight to the cave,” I said, running into the base. Axon and Varthon followed behind and we looked for signs of the cave, using our ghosts to guide us. After fighting through many cabal, we finally reached an excavation site. I looked at Axon and Varthon, and we ran in, fighting through any Cabal and Hive as if we were some type of “Three Musketeers of Death” to them. Eventually we came across a large Knight blocking the door to what I assumed was the ritual. As soon as he saw us, he raised his cleaver, and we loaded our weapons. Axon immediately threw a grenade-knife combo, staggering the knight. I ran forward, but the knight recovered in time to slash me and throw me across the room. Varthon ran in, tossing his solar grenade and punching the knight. As I recovered, I called upon my light to give me the Solar blade, not as a Dawnblade but just as a sword, and it came to me. The knight and I clashed, trying to get a killing blow as we hit our blades together. Eventually I got the upper hand by melee-uppercutting him, killing him. “Ghost, contact the Vanguard, tell them we may need some help.” A few moments later the voice of Zavala crackled in our comms. “I’ve gotten your request. We’re sending Fireteam Abyssal your way.” Fireteam Abyssal was a fully void class team of a male Awoken Warlock named Arjac, a female Exo Hunter named Serenity-16, and a male Human Titan named Roran. We waited, and a few minutes later, they were transmitted in. I explained,“Alright, we can’t see inside, so we have to do a full assault with no understanding of what’s happening. This could be one of our greatest moments, or it could be our downfall. If we do this, we may either stop another ritual, or stop the destruction of the city. This could literally be life and death! The city is counting on us! Are you ready?” Everyone said, “YEAH!”, pumping a fist into the air. “Then to victory!” I yelled, leading the charge into the chamber. [b]PART 4: Battle for Deimos[/b] We ran in, activating our supers if they were roaming, and using them straight away on the enemy if they were one-time-use. As soon as I entered, immediately I saw at least 200-300 Hive - too many to count. Roughly 45% of that was Thrall, 25% acolytes, 15% knights, and the rest either shriekers, ogres, or wizards. I noticed the wizards were in the middle of a ritual, with the portal behind us. - they were summoning something. Immediately, most of the Thrall and Acolytes were decimated as all of our supers destroyed them. That left what was left of them, plus the knights (with a few missing from lucky shots, I’d assume), wizards, and shriekers, ogres left. Immediately, the 100 or so Hive left began firing. Roran erected a Ward of Dawn, and Varthon placed a rally barricade outside of it for us to fire from. I placed a healing rift and Arjac placed an empowering rift for us to use. We used our grenades and any heavy weapons we had to continue decimating the Hive. They began forming a protective circle around the ritual. We began taking out the Ogres, as they were the biggest threat to us. Roran yelled, “My bubble’s about to go down!” and we all scattered to cover, most of us going behind large stalagmites. We fought and fought, almost losing some but holding out before we could be taken out. Eventually all that was left was the casting wizards. We took out our heavy weapons. But then they did something unexpected. The green circle disappeared, and they fled into the portal. “Did… Did we just win?” said Serenity. “I don’t know… Have your weapons ready!” As we waited for something to happen, an eerie silence came over us. Like an eerie silence before the sto- [i]Storm.[/i] “EVERYONE, BRACE YOURSELVES!” I yelled. Suddenly, a shriek came from the portal as a large wizard emerged. But the wizard looked as if it was a taken, as if it was an Echo of Oryx… No… This was an Echo of Savathun. (Part 5 and beyond is in another post, that's how long this story is...) Post 2 is here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/247875261?sort=0&page=0