[url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/91614517/0/0]Catch up on Part four here![/url] [b]"Resumption of hostilities."[/b] [i]"Did you catch all of that? I certainly did. Don't tell me you'd forgotten about me already." ~ Dusk[/i] ******************** "...and what's my name? What's---if this... if this place has all those records. It has to know my real name. Right?" Bishop felt his shoulders shaking. He saw, from the corner of his eye, Fault turn toward him but waved him off immediately. [i]Emil. He has a name, it's Emil. I have a real name too. This isn't just some crazy after life, or a dream. I'm here, I'm real. Who the -blam!- is he to think I don't have the right to know? You better have a good reason, Ric---whatever your name is---or I swear...[/i] "It might." Resignation on Ricochet's tone. "But we've got to [b]move[/b] or we'll never get there in time. I wanted to get a look first, make sure there was nothing in there that'd... bother any of you." "Or make you look bad." Wally added immediately. "Don't pretend you know what it's like to have to look out for someone else, Wally. Sometimes it ain't pretty. You'll learn. Either way, we needed to get in [i]before[/i] Zavala declared this area open season. Before Dead Orbit's fleet and New Monarchy's zealots get here. If Fox's hunch is correct---" "More than a hunch." She muttered. "---then," he continued, speaking over her. "We've even got the right to be the first one with eyes on that information. You trust the Tower cryptarchs with decoding it and telling you honestly who the hell you were, by all means. Take your files and engrams back to him. You want some truth, you'll help me get in there and get it." "I know you're playing me," Bishop muttered through a sigh. "But it's... -blam!-in' working. We're having a talk when this is over. No more of this commanding-officer shit. You want us to do something, you tell us why. Up front." Wordlessly, Ricochet turned and shouldered his rifle again and started off. Clanking toward one of the many attaching tunnels on heavy armored boots. Bishop didn't move at first. He just looked around at the others, as Diss darted through the air to rejoin Ricochet. He found his gaze lingering on Wally. None of them had moved, yet---they were all staring at Wally. He shifted on his feet, deciding... then Bishop saw him shake his head, as if trying to shake himself back to reality or ignore the disorientation of a truly stupid idea that he was about to commit to anyway. Heard him take in a quick breath, exhale sharply behind his visor, and then take off after Ricochet. They all fell in after, catching up quickly. The tunnels rumbled with an explosion again after a few hundred yards down the next path. "The hell's going on up there?" Bishop asked the group in general. "Ricochet's beacon contained a rather pointed and... sort-of true signal for the amusement of the City. The sort that would encourage a lot of other Guardians and large contingents of the factions backing them to show up here. Soon. The Fallen and the Hive that pushed them out of here won't be too happy about that. Should make for a lot of fireworks." Doss replied. "...the -blam!-, man? Why?" Wally groaned out his question. "Because then the Hive are busy fighting them. Not us. And it'll look like us just doing our job, to any lightweight inquiry." Ricochet sounded so sure of himself. "And any deeper scrutiny?" Fox asked in deadpan. "I'm rather talented with dealing with those." Diss quipped from Ricochet's shoulder. "I'll handle the inevitable council hearing. I answer to the Traveler and, perhaps, the Speaker. Tower and City politics aren't my concern. I don't mind lying, misleading, and generally stringing them along. I'll tell them some stories. You've got plenty worth telling." She sounded proud of herself. Another rumble, this one sounding and feeling much closer. "We're going to need to drop down a bit. Should be over one of the primary access junctions... according to the map. Hope they aren't flooded out. We'll need to blast through the floor. Then blast through a wall. Then we'll be in." Ricochet summarized as they moved. Reached another open area. Stopped. Turned right, kept going. "These suits keep the space out, right?" Bishop grinned inside of his helmet, and it was audible on his tone. "What's a few feet of water? Wouldn't make sense if we could survive in space, and on Mercury, but can't swim. That wouldn't make any sense at all." "Alright, we're about there. Doss, prep some charges and we'll---" Ricochet didn't get to finish his sentence. Given the situation, it was with guilty satisfaction that Bishop watched the wall to his left explode into dust and rubble, and picked out the lumbering form among the chaos. An Ogre that had charged through the wall, and then backhanded Ricochet with its right arm. Swatting him into the opposing wall, where he bounced and then splashed into a shallow puddle. "Contact!" Doss called out immediately. "Pah---Aaagh, -blam!-, ya think!?" Ricochet spat in reply. The dark of the tunnel caused the muzzle flashes to seem harsh and overly bright. The Ogre was outlined by five weapons discharging, and then six whenever Ricochet pulled himself up off of the floor. It was swinging almost at random, and a soul shattering roar accompanied a sudden torrent of void energy flowing from its eyes toward Fault. Bishop only saw him burst into a sprint and then blink clear before he had to focus on fighting. "Leg it!" Doss shouted. "Yep!" Wally acknowledged immediately. Bishop had taken cover among the rubble, and was snapping out to take shots at whatever he could hit on the beast with his scout rifle. They'd all scattered and done pretty much the same, finding some place they couldn't get hit so that they would whittle it down. All at once, the tactics of the group shifted. Fault blinked back in, directly before the Ogre, both Hand Cannons drawn. He fired, backpedaling. Litteration the monster with oversized slugs. The Ogre, though, horrors that they were---it lost chunks of flesh, part of a shoulder, part of its head, and only responded with a roar and intensified rage. It lumbered forward, heaving both car-width arms downward to crush Fault--- But he was gone in another blink. Wally was there, almost as quickly. He'd gotten a running start, bursting from cover with a current of Arc Light already streaming from his armor. Gaining momentum, charging for it with no weapon drawn. It spotted the electric comet dashing for it, and the Ogre attempted to swat him way as it'd done to the first Titan. It didn't work on Wally. He dove beneath the arm, tumbled forward head over heels, preserving momentum in the most unconventionally graceful stunt Bishop had ever witnessed (short of one of his own of course) and then cued a burst of thrust from his back to slam bodily into the Ogre's leg. The result was gruesome. He hit it near its knobby, already deformed and muscular knee. He tore straight through it with a squish and crunch that echoed through the hall even over gunfire. Bishop was never sure about Hive, whether they were alive or dead or... what to make of them. After this, though? He knew they could feel pain. Its roar was not just one of growing rage, when it took that hit. It was a shout, a howl of agony as it lost a leg from the knee down. Thrashing, clambering on the ground, struggling for its life as anything knowing its doom was coming would, Bishop did his part in keeping it down. A grenade, and a single round fired from his sniper rifle which took off two of its fingers as it was reaching for a large chunk of rubble to throw. Within moments it was still. Smoking, more a splatter across part of the tunnel than the solid remnant of a creature. They'd taken it down with mostly small arms fire. That was a lot of beast to bring down with mosquito bites. "Status." Ricochet, after a beat of silence. "I'm good." Fault. "Kay." Fox. "Yeah I'm cool." Bishop added. "Smelly. Real smelly." Wally. "Green." Doss. "That means we're going the right way, right?" Wally asked glibly. "I mean the enemies always get tougher when you're headed the right way. That's how it works, right?" "Shouldn't be, in this case." Ricochet sounded wary, for once. "Unless they already found it..." Bishop was reloading. Crouched on a piece of rubble, going through a mental checklist. Trying to keep his cape from dragging in any of the Ogre leftovers. When he heard Fox's short gasp, it was as though he'd known it was coming. He didn't even look up immediately. Just turned his Scout Rifle over, racked the bolt, and double checked the ammo counter. When he did look up, she was standing at the opening the Ogre had created. A familiar green mist was flowing out of the opening---a familiar green glow was lighting it up. On the other side of the wall, where there should have perhaps been another tunnel, was a walkway. Smooth, even, looked slick to the touch. Obviously hive. Beyond that was a huge opening. A cavern. And from somewhere in there, another roar. A collection of roars which shook the floor, shook the ceiling, shook the walls, shook the air. "Green. [b]Too[/b] green." Doss added. [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/92710593]Part Six![/url]