Reincarnated Into Destiny Universe - Volume 1 Chapter 6 Hive Alive

Isaac, after clearing the Divide of Fallen and receiving his first affinity increase, headed back to the Steppes. He went back to a building close to where he had started and went down the stairs into a sort of bunker type bas.e.m.e.nt. There, Polter was able to extract a map of the entire area.

Back in the open air, Isaac and Polter headed towards the left, of where they dropped in at, and crossed a chasm into a junkyard filled with broken sh.i.p.s and planes.

“If you want to cutdown on some of our travel time, there’s a vehicle grid that the Guardians have set up. We can sync to that and transmat in ground transport from the ship.” Polter informed, Isaac.

“Oh, yeah, so I guess Amanda already loaded up our sparrow?”

“She certainly did. All we need to do is activate a sparrow link and we’ll be ready to go…In that shed over there. Look there it is.”

Isaac clears the last few feet to the shed and lets Polter work his magic on the sparrow link.

“Alright, whenever you see the sparrow’s handlebars grab hold and make a small jump while keeping your knees apart. The rest of the sparrow will materialize underneath you as you land in the seat.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

Isaac walks out of the shed and signals Polter to begin the transmat. Almost immediately, the sparrow’s handlebars appear before him as he grabs hold and follows Polters instructions. Once the sparrow is full materialized, Isaac moves the handlebars a bit and leans side to side getting used to the feel of this forward leaning position. He then applies a slight bit of pressure to the pedals that control the sparrow’s speed. He moves forward slowly at first running circles around the shed and getting faster.

He then brings the sparrow to a halt and points it in the direction of the Lunar Complex. Isaac lays into the control pedals and blasts off at full speed weaving through the debris scattered around the junkyard. Upon encountering any Fallen, he didn’t stop but attempted to run them over and then sliced them with his Shock Blades if they managed to evade him.

One thing Isaac quickly noticed about these familiar spaces of surrounding the Cosmodrome, is that they are much larger than what’s portrayed in game. Most games, in his old world, were not made with a one to one scale so it isn’t that surprising. This junkyard, however, would probably take a full minute or more to cross, even if he ignored everything along the way.

Arriving on the opposite side of the junkyard, Isaac guided his sparrow up a winding incline that opened up to the Lunar Complex’s entrance. Two Vandals and a Captain were guarding the entrance and so Isaac went to work. He began strafing while walking forward and firing his scout rifle at the rightmost Vandal. The Vandal, realizing that it was losing this fight, took cover as the leftmost Vandal took his place running at Isaac with his Shock Blades prepared to strike. Isaac quickly reversed directions jogging backwards while switching to his shotgun. He blasted the oncoming Vandal in the face, sending a shower of Ether into the air. The other Vandal came out from his cover, behind the far end of a shipping container, firing its wire rifle at him. The Captain seeing one of his Vandals go down continued firing his Shrapnel Launcher as he pressed forward.

Isaac pulled out his Shock Rifle as he continued jogging backwards luring the Captain into a straight on assault. The Captain used his short range teleport to close the distance but it wasn’t enough as his Arc Shield was already depleted. Isaac rolled underneath the next volley of Shrapnel Launcher fire and planted a Shock Grenade on the Captain’s chest. Using his newly acquired jump ability, Isaac hopped a good distance away from the Captain. He raised his scout rifle and landed a headshot on the stunned Captain and confirmed the Ether spurt before switching targets.

The Vandal never stopped firing and Isaac never stopped strafing. He maneuvered around the containers and vehicles in the area closing in on his prey. Once he was within ten meters, he began hip firing his scout rifle at him, while rushing forward. The Vandal attempted to once again take cover but Isaac knew this was coming. He sprinted towards the Vandals cover position at top speed, with his Shock Blades at the ready, and hopped up on top of the container. The Vandal realized too late that his enemy, that he was hoping to skewer with his recently drawn Shock Blades, had already delivered to him his own medicine.

After Isaac ensured there were no more Fallen in the immediate area, he searched his victims for Grenades and then stopped to think.

“Hey, Polter. What’s the procedure for collecting ammo? I’ve never really needed any yet and I still don’t but if and when I run out of ammo can I scavenge some from these guys? My scout rifle never seems to run out of ammunition and I haven’t had to reload my shotgun yet either. What’s with that? Surely they don’t have infinite ammo?”

“You’re right, they don’t have infinite ammo. The reason you haven’t needed to reload, is because I can keep you topped off on ammo, so long as I have enough reserves in my inventory. Additionally, I can transform a certain amount of the enemies dropped ammo into ammo for you depending on what kind of ammunition it is and what kind of weapons you’re carrying.

“For instance, these Shock Rifles have a different type of ammunition requirement than your scout rifle so transforming its ammo into ammo for your scout rifle would be highly inefficient and would yield very little ammo. The only reason why your Shock Blades still work is because I’ve been recovering ammunition, from all of the subsequent Shock Blades dropped after you first equipped yours. I also decided to reserve a larger portion of my inventory for storing scout rifle ammo, since you seem to use it more often and scavenging from these guys is not ideal.”

“I see, that certainly explains a lot. Thanks Polter.”

During this fight, Isaac had obtained level two affinity and he now rehearsed the melee and jump abilities he had acquired. Both obviously were easier with this second upgrade. Now that he could produce the melee effect much more easily, he, once again, imagined his light forming a rapidly expanding sphere of energy but this time he attempted to give it the qualities of the solar energy he had meditated on last night.

Isaac went over this new application a couple of more times, before synchronizing these images with his actions. Whenever his hand was fully extended, he noticed the rapid expansion of the kinetic force he emitted but he also noticed that it had a distinct yellow-orange glow to it, while radiating a decent amount of heat. He was certain that the intensity of the heat wouldn’t be that useful but it was still a start. “Ha, magical Solar melee ability acquired.” Isaac said, to no one in particular.

With his melee ability now able to produce the effects of Solar Energy, he decided to give a Solar Grenade a try. Given his low level of affinity, he decided to keep it simple and just be satisfied with it exploding at this point. Isaac then imagined a solid and stable ball of light energy in his palm transforming into a minute sun. He then attempted to give it the properties of becoming unstable and explosive once it left his hands.

After making sure he had the concepts down, he then attempted to bring the ability to life. A small minute sun appeared in his palm but when he threw the grenade it exploded but it was supremely pitiful and he knew that this just wasn’t going to be effective until he became more attuned to Solar Energy.

“Polter, from now until I reach level three affinity, keep the light distribution at one hundred percent affinity unless I don’t have enough reserves to use my melee ability. Only then switch back to 75/25 and switch it back once I’m half charged. I think I’m going to use this training to focus mostly on my normal combat prowess and, once I’ve become closer to the light, I can begin implementing more of my abilities into my fighting style.”

“Sounds like a good idea. Will do.”

As Isaac turned around to head into the building he noticed a shining plant like structure growing from one of the vehicles. He walked over to examine it more closely and sure enough it was spinmetal.

“That’s spinmetal. It’s used in crafting various gear items but mostly armor. If you want, I can transmat any materials like this that you want to keep.” Polter explained.

“That’s good to know. I don’t know if I’ll need it but take it just in case.” Isaac then made his way into the building, that the recently dispatched Fallen had been guarding.

“This was one of Sky Watch’s old array stations, a link to the lunar colonies.” Polter, informed Isaac.

Isaac continued his way through the building’s hallways ignoring the rooms he passed. After two left turns and then a right, he arrived in a dead end room with a sealed vertical gate.

“Polter, can you get this thing open?”

“Of course, I can…” Polter says, as he hovers over to the console next to the gate and shoots a blinking beam of light into it. “…The Fallen really didn’t want anyone getting in or out of this thing.” Polter continued shooting his light hacking beam at the console, until the gate shuddered and then began to slowly rise, while a cloud of black dust was swept through the opening.

Isaac stood in front of the gate, waiting for the familiar scene to fully reveal itself. As the gate was raised, Isaac could see the glow of an eerie green light emitted by strange crystals. These crystals seemed to be emerging out of some kind of chitinous growths covering the floor and ceiling. Isaac stepped through the threshold and bent down to get a closer look at those crystals.

“Hey, Polter, do you know what these crystals are?”

“No, I don’t but I have an idea as to why they’re here and I really hope I’m wrong.”

“Can you transmat these crystals and some of this chitinous stuff as well?”

“What!? Why on Earth would you want either one of those things? You don’t even know what they are!”

“What do you mean ‘why would I want them?’ You just said I don’t know what they are. How else kind I find out what they are other than to take a sample and study them?”

“Wha…why don’t you just ask someone more experienced than you and they can just tell you?”

“If someone else already knows what they are, they would’ve had to of studied them. This means that not only did they study them but they also lived to tell the tale. So, if they can collect them and study them, why can’t I? Also, I might be able to find out something new about them.

“Why are you so timid? How are you going to be an effective companion, if every time I want to do the tiniest thing you start freaking out and asking endless pointless questions? I can’t understand why the Traveler would partner me with such paranoid and troublesome ghost?”

“Probably, to keep your absurdly reckless behavior in check! Going around touching everything you come across!”

“Wha…I haven’t touched anything! I asked you to transmat it to the ship not implant it into my brain!”

“…”

“…”

“Fine, I’ll transmat it but don’t blame me if it turns into some kind of disaster.”

Just outside the Lunar Complex building near the recently deceased Fallen corpses, Cayde is rocking back and forth, while laughing hysterically. Sunsong is relaying Polter’s activity to Cayde.

“Hahahahahaha! Ohhh, man, these two are priceless. This absolutely makes up for the fact that I’m riding shotgun on this op. But seriously though, would it hurt the kid to slack off just a little. If he keeps this up, I won’t be able to get any action, before having to go back to snoozeville. Oh, yeah, I should probably report this to Ikora…”

“Cayde, I hope there’s nothing wrong?” Ikora ask, in response to Cayde’s call.

“Ummm, it depends on how you define wrong. The kid just opened some locked gate, here in the Sky Watch. He hasn’t gone too far in yet but all the signs so far would indicate that it’s the Hive. I just thought you should know.”

“The Hive? Here on Earth? Cayde, are you certain?”

“Like I said, he hasn’t encountered…” Sunsong, still transmitting Polter’s activity, projects Polter’s voice across.

“It’s the Hive!… *Thralls screeching* *rifle firing* *grenades exploding* *blades slicing* *shotgun firing* *blades slicing*…there’s a Wizard…*sounds of battle* *Thralls screeching* *Wizard screaming* *sounds of battle* *Wizard screaming* *Shrapnel Launcher firing repeatedly* *Wizard’s dying screams*…”

“Haha, Hive down Fallen to go. Let’s get to the Terrestrial Complex.”

“What’s in the Terrestrial Complex?”

“I don’t know I’ve never been there? Come on let’s go.”

“Alright, you’re the boss.”

“Well, whatever was in there seems to have been cleared out by our fresh meat. Not that it’ll stay that way for long. Anyways, I better catch up with the kid. I just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on.”

“Thank you, Cayde. I’ll speak with Zavala about this and get someone out there to keep an eye on that area. Take care.”

Isaac and Polter make there way through the Lunar Complex and the Sky Watch and into the Terrestrial Complex. They made their way through a series of hallways, until exiting into an open air area. They went directly to the right after exiting the building and came to a ramp leading up to a large room on the right. The room had elevated platforms on both sides and a large circular pillar, with various consoles around the bottom, in the center.

The Fallen had been falling to his blades and bullets along the way and this area was no different. Isaac continued to dispatch the Fallen that attempted to impede his path. After clearing the area, he went inside the large room and located a primary console in the back of the room.

“Hey, Polter, I just thought of something, is it possible to get information off of any of these consoles or just the ones that are still activated, like the map?” Isaac half bullshited.

“It’s possible to retrieve some information from most any device with data storage capabilities. Whether or not that data is readable, is another question that depends on the integrity of the storage device and the data within.”

“I see, then can you find out what this console does and what information is on it?”

“I can try. Give me a second…this console has a lot of information regarding other facilities similar to this one around the globe, as well as having direct control over a communications array. This is actually a huge find! If we can find the codes to access this console, we could activate this communications array and reconnect Earth to colonies throughout the rest of the system.”

“Hey, Cayde, did you hear that?”

“I sure did, kid, and I think I might be able to help. You stay put and don’t move from that room. I’m gonna go see what I do about those codes and I don’t want you getting into trouble without me. Ikora and Zavala might dismantle me for parts, if something happened to you.”

“Sure thing, Cayde. I’ll wait for your return.”