Void cautiously took a step forward, but the luscious grass below his feet turned friable and broke down.
He paused, his brows furled. Void took another step, and another patch of grass withered where he stepped.
It was as if the entire place had rejected his existence.
Void understood that the Garden did not welcome them. In the first place, they were the ones who had barged in. Hence, everything in existence here seemed to turn away.
As the group of players followed Void, the jungle closed behind them like a maze. The rift they had used to enter was still visible, but now it was gated with spiky vines that wrapped around it like a fence.
The endless horizon above was obscured by a canopy of green. Only faint rays of light bleed through interlocking leaves, leaving streaks of light and dark lining their path.
The air in the garden was warm and breathless, carrying the permanent scent of petrichor and blooming flowers. Bioluminescent moss clung to every surface, pulsing in cold blue-green flares that rose and faded with each footfall, as though the ground itself was reading them.
Void signalled the players to wait and summoned his Sparrow.
"This place is dangerous. We'll need to move fast." He looked over his shoulder and jutted his chin forward, "Follow me, I'll take us to the core."
Void raced his sparrow and shot forward.
IEatPaint, Waffles, TheOneWhoKnocks, Gandalf and BearSpray took in the surroundings in awe. The ancient jungle had completely mesmerised them. For the players, the garden was but an enchanting experience. Coupled with its own haunting music that seemed to subtly drum against the ears.
"Holy shit. What is this place?" Waffles looked around.
Gandalf huffed and puffed, darting from side to side, observing the surroundings. "What? Why does it matter? Let's lock in! We gotta be the first on the server to complete this."
"Wouldn't hurt to appreciate the view, five-head." BearSpray recorded the scene.
"Enough yapping. Let's go!" IEatPaint grunted.
Their quest markers updated.
-
Reach the Core of the Garden *
-
The players immediately jumped on their sparrows, chasing after Void.
But the path through the jungle conceded nothing. Roots the width of vehicles buckled the earth at every turn, the fibrous vines that tethered the islands together running along the ground and reappearing overhead in long sweeping arcs.
"Is this a puzzle? I don't see a path to go forward anywhere?" TheOneWhoKnocks diligently followed behind Void, but there was simply no trail to ride on.
Void looked back and kept moving. He was already moving towards the highest mountain in the centre, and he pushed his Sparrow harder, riding towards the beginning of the ascent.
"Just keep moving, man." Undecided chided.
The rocky trail rose as the mountain's base began, the trees grew older and taller the deeper they went, their roots gnarling across the stone in tangled barricades.
But at one point, the roots entangled every path forward. As if they were willingly obscuring the way ahead. Void stepped off his Sparrow, his instincts screamed.
His eyes flicked towards the stones in the mountain's side and the trees that surrounded it.
He saw them. Dozens of Vex chassis half-consumed by moss and root, their geometric frames fused into the terrain over what must have been aeons. Overgrown and petrified, built into the mountain as thoroughly as the stone itself. Their eyes were dark.
The players approached, sensing Void's cautious demeanour, and they were intrigued.
Waffles carefully examined the petrified Vex statues ingrained with moss. Marvelling at the accuracy of their existence.
"Damn, who was out here sculpting and shi." Gandalf clicked his tongue.
"Sculpting? Those don't look dead to me." IEatPaint shook his head, taking a step back.
"It is kinda cool though, isn't it?" Gandalf approached a half-step closer, leaning onto the statue as he posed.
BearSpray immediately took a screenshot to save for later.
But just then, the statue blinked.
There was a single flash of red in the centre of a moss-covered torso. Then another. Then, a third further up the trail, the clicks and grinding shudder of awakening spread through the jungle chassis by chassis, a tide of petrified beings shook themselves awake.
The Minotaur behind Gandalf rose from his knees.
"He's...He's right behind me, isn't he?" Gandalf sighed, hearing the familiar noise of an enemy charging its weapon.
Undecided and BearSpray only gave a nod in response.
It was too late.
The Minotaur slammed its fist into the ground.
-
Guardian Down!
Revives (2/6) left
-
"Motherf*cker." Waffles cursed.
"Be ready, we'll need to fight through!" Void took out his rifle and led the players deeper into the jungle, "But most importantly, don't stop climbing."
As the Sol Divisive rose, Void drove into them. But they were prepared. Goblins and hobgoblins formed firing lines. Minotaurs materialised right across them and began fighting.
=
Outside in Freehold, the battle had long since outgrown any single faction's ability to control or read it. The Vex pressed from the north and east in unrelenting mechanical columns. The Cabal, bloodied but intact at their core, had fallen back to their armoured line and had finally managed to reactivate their imperial tanks that stood as sentries at the crater.
The first Imperial Cabal tank rolled over a collapsed section of ruins and opened its barrel on the Vex firing line. A concussive blast ripped through the battlefield, and an explosion rang out, wiping out the Vex legion and creating a new crater right where they stood.
"F*ck, they got the tanks running again." Cory's hissed.
"I see them." Bandit weaved through the chaotic fight, retreating to the shadows.
Shaxx instantly made a decision. "Everyone! Pull back. All squads. Defensive formation around the rift. Let the Vex face the Cabal tanks, half of you will remain near the Gatelord!"
The Guardians complied, splitting their line inward in tight, coordinated groups, ceding ground they didn't need to hold. The Vex filled the vacated space immediately, their advance units absorbing the full weight of Cabal tank fire without breaking stride.
The Guardians held the rift and the Gatelord's corpse, watching both forces grind each other into the crater floor.
Elsie stood guard at the rift, her rifle raised, dropping anything that broke through the deadlock and drifted close. Each shot was fired just a split second before an enemy appeared, as if she knew where the enemies would appear.
As the Vex and Cabal ruthlessly tore into each other, the conflict in Freehold continued to worsen.
Tevis jumped from ridges of the crater, sprinting across its walls as he observed the chaos below him. His comms band triggered with an urgent beep.
He pressed against his ear, and the responding voice broke into a shout.
Tevis's eyes widened.
"Everyone! Rasputin's WARSATS are nearing orbit!" He bellowed.
The guardians scattered across the battlefield felt a shiver run down their spines.
Levi exhaled. "Rasputin."
"Aye, it's about time that bastard showed up." Wei Ning slammed a Cabal Legionnary with her fist.
"Nothing ever goes smoothly." Sai Mota twirled her staff, shearing through the Vex with a thunderbolt. "EVER!"
"I just got confirmation." Taeko-3 chimed in, "A hundred, no — Two hundred WARSATS just rerouted to Martian orbit" She grit her teeth.
Shaxx's voice cut across both of them. "Everyone! Take your positions. Now. If Rasputin fires to neutralise. He will not distinguish friend from target."
The Guardians moved once more, like a pack of wolves gathering to either side of the crater as they all looked to the Martian horizon.
The sky above the distant ridge fractured with descending light, WARSAT after WARSAT appeared in low orbit, their profiles catching the sun as they aligned into a constellation of an archer that was assembled in seconds, with every barrel aiming at the same coordinates.
Then Rasputin fired.
The orbital artillery came down in pillars of focused destruction that struck the Vex lines and Cabal simultaneously. A trecherous shriek burst their eardrums before a single person registered it.
"BARRIER. NOW." Shaxx forced himself to bear the pain and raised his hands.
Every Titan on the perimeter moved together. Walls of light erupted across the rift's perimeter, overlapping, reinforcing, stacking into a dome structure no single Titan could have held alone. The combined dome shuddered as the shockwave rolled over it, the surface fracturing with white light along every joint and seam, the impacts registering through their feet as the ground beneath buckled.
The barrier barely held.
But on the other side of it, Freehold had become fire.
-
A/N: Throw stone and leave a review... because A chapter without stones and a story without reviews are meaningless. You cannot read something like this without sacrificing something else in return.
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