Reincarnated Into Destiny Universe - Volume 1 Chapter 7 Gettin Gudder

Isaac spent the time that Cayde was gone practicing his abilities. He tried making a Solar Blade and explored different types of jumps. The Solar Blade didn’t really work but he could tell that, with a few more levels and a bit more attunement and practice, he would be able to pull it off. The jumps became easier after his second affinity level and he tried mixing and matching Warlock, Hunter, and Titan glides and jumps to achieve greater results.

After practicing for a while, he came up with an idea. He grabbed a Shock Blade and imagined Solar Energy wrapping around the blade maintaining a cloak of flames for a short duration. He continued refining this concept within his mind, before making an actual attempt. He then held the Shock Blade in front of him and willed the desired effects to come forth.

‘Ha, it worked!’ As soon as he thought this the barely noticeable Solar cloak disappeared. ‘I mean, it barely worked but still, it worked.’ He then was going to attempt another ability modification but realized that he had already expended all the Light Charge within him. “Well, looks like I’m all tapped out. Polter, keep an eye out. I’m going to do some basic exercises, to start getting this body into tip top condition. I’ll need all the advantages I can get.”

“Good thinking, Isaac. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.”

Luckily for Isaac, he didn’t really need to worry too much about injuries and armor damage. Polter was able to mend most of his injuries and recover a decent amount of his stamina. It required a sacrifice of affinity, much like resurrection, but the consumption rate was pretty low for minor things. So, as much as he hated losing any of his precious affinity, it was a bearable loss for the benefits it gave.

Cayde made his way back to the Sky Watch and scouted the area for dead Ghosts. Ikora had told him about a group of Guardians, who had went dark around that area and were apparently carrying codes for that array control console. He and Sunsong managed to find the Ghost with the codes and headed quickly back to the Terrestrial Complex.

It had been nearly an hour since he left, and, upon his return, he noticed that Isaac was still exercising. Because of the temporary connection between Sunsong and Polter, he knew he had decided to exercise. He simply hadn’t expected him to still be going, after his return.

“Alright, kid, I got those codes. Are you ready to wake up this array?”

Isaac got up off the ground and addressed Cayde. “I’ve been ready. Let’s get this party started.”

Sunsong sent the codes to Polter and her and Cayde resumed their positions as spectators. Polter, made his way to the control panel and began his work. Approximately ten seconds later, they could feel a slight rumble under their feet and heard the massive enclosure, visible in the distance, begin to open, as the array was raised from its long slumber.

Isaac stared at this massive convex hexagonal satellite dish looking device that was even more impressive in real life, as Isaac was quickly realizing that most things seemed to be. He made his way towards the entrance he had come in through and gaped at the enormous contraption. ‘Shit! I got distracted.’

A green and black circular energy fluctuation suddenly appeared, in the sky. A Hive Tomb Ship exited the circular fluctuation. As the Tomb Ship began to transmat a dozen thralls directly underneath its position, Isaac threw two grenades at that location, before they could land. Only four of the thralls survived and Isaac opened fire on them with his scout rifle, while falling back to take cover on the right side of the large doorway.

As the first of the four remaining thralls went down, Isaac reached his third affinity level. He managed to take out the other three, before they could reach him. Before leaving, the Tomb Ship dropped off a squad of six Acolytes. The Acolytes had pushed forward and were firing on his position. He returned fire on the two who were pushing forward and managed to take one out but the other was closing in on him. He drew his shotgun and blew it away.

Isaac then rounded the edge of the wall he was taking cover behind and blasted another Acolyte who was trying to sneak up on his position. Isaac maneuvered under, above, and around the fire of the other Acolytes, hiding behind the pillars just outside the entrance, to close in on them. They all fell victim to his shotgun and Isaac turned to throw another two grenades at the reinforcements a second Tomb Ship was dropping off.

There were only a handful of Thralls this time but there were four Acolytes and two Knights. Luckily all the Thralls fell to the two grenades and the Acolytes were also caught in the periphery and slightly damaged. Isaac managed to land a headshot on one of the Acolytes and bring another down with body shots. The two Knights were rushing him and the two Acolytes were going to the pillars for cover.

Isaac opened fire on the closest Knight and began backing up into the large room. The Knight wasn’t slow, however, and was slowly gaining on him. As the Knight drew closer it decided it should finally dodge instead of rushing headlong into its death and so it spun to the left. Isaac, however, was waiting for this and as soon as the Knight started to step out to spin he rushed forward, while switching to his shotgun. He blasted the Knight in the face and combat rolled forward, feeling a slight pressure from the force of the other Knights downward slash that he narrowly avoided.

Having killed the first Knight and avoided the blow of the other, Isaac rushed forward at a full sprint towards those cowardly Acolytes. He maneuvered around their gunfire and went into a slide as he drew near the Acolyte on the left. After little shotty action, he jumped in the air and the other Acolyte’s fire passed underneath him, as he turned towards it and executed a double jump. He came down, combat rolled, rushed forward, spun to the left, and fired at the Acolyte. The hastily aimed shot didn’t land completely on the Acolyte but a quick normal melee and a healthy dose of Shock Dagger did the trick.

By this time, the Knight was dangerously close and Isaac ran around the pillar, once again narrowly avoiding the Knights blade. Instead of heading back to the room, he made a full loop around the pillar and blasted the Knight once in the back and once in the face as it turned around. He offered it a generous helping of melee attack and then finished it off with another shotty blast.

Just as Isaac suspected, another Tomb Ship dropped in and he prepared his scout rifle. He didn’t have to wait long for the Hive to arrive. He focused solely on the Knight that was a bit larger than the last two. The eight Thralls began rushing towards him, as Isaac moved backwards and unloaded as many shots as possible into the large Knight.

The Knight began firing his Boomer forcing Isaac to slow his retreat to accommodate some strafing. He only managed to land nine shots, four of which were headshots, before the Thrall were upon him. Isaac continued to change his position as quickly as possible, jumping on nearby machinery when necessary, while trying to keep the Thrall away and firing on the Knight when possible.

The Knight stopped at the entrance and refused to move in closer, while suppressing Isaac with his Boomer. Isaac rushed forward and ended up taking a bit of splash damage from the Knight’s attack, while planting his last Shock Grenade on the Knight. Moving behind the Knight he used the force of a melee attack to boost his retreat. Once the grenade went off, he closed in again, landed a shotty blast, and used his last bit of Light Charge to plant a Solar Grenade on the Knight.

Only three Thrall were remaining after being caught up in the Shock and Solar Grenades. Isaac shifted fire to the Thralls and managed to take them out as the recovered Knight closed in on him. Isaac dodged to the right to avoid the incoming Boomer fire and combat rolled past the Knight and unloaded his shotgun in its exposed back and then the side of its face. He jumped backwards to avoid the Knights attempted melee attack and then jumped forward again with a shotty blast straight to the face. The Knight finally fell and Isaac breathed a sigh of relief and satisfaction, after coming out victorious from a difficult battle.

Isaac walked back over to the console and noticed the consoles were now active and displaying various data across each one.

“This array is being controlled, by something that’s connecting it to defense constructs across the system. I don’t know if this is good or bad but we should probably try and find out what’s controlling it, if we can.” Polter explained.

“I see. Well, Polter, I think we’ve done our good deed for the day. How about we head to the Forgotten Shore? Maybe, we’ll discover something, if we push forward.”

“Well, it is just past this Terrestrial Complex so I guess it’s an obvious next stop. Here I’ll show you the way.”

“Lead the way, Buddy.”

Isaac and Polter made their way through the door on the room’s right and down a staircase. The room they came out in had an elevated platform that ringed two thirds of the room. Several pillars and machinery enclosures were scattered around the floor in the center. The pillars were marked with the number three and painted red, while the platform held various rounded machines that had connecting cables running to the walls.

“Hey, Polter, see if you can get anything out of the roundish type machines.”

“Alright, I’ll give it a go.”

Polter began inspecting the machines one after the other, until he analysed a machine with a blueish console that seemed to be activated.

“Hmmm…this isn’t good. It seems the Fallen are trying to access these machines but something is fighting back. I’ll try and recover the little bit of information they seem to have taken but it’ll take me a minute.”

“Don’t worry about it. Take your time. I’ve got you covered, if any Ceiling Monkeys show up.”

Polter set to work hacking the machine, while Isaac made his way around the room keeping an eye and ear out for Fallen. Not ten seconds after Polter started, the Fallen arrived in force. Shanks, Dregs, Vandals and even a Captain all poured into the room, from the only other door in the room.

Isaac began targeting the Shanks and kept under appropriate cover to avoid fire from the Vandals Wire Rifles. The best part of this room was the multitude of cover positions. Isaac didn’t hesitate to make the most of any cover available by constantly moving around the room.

Once the Shanks were down, along with a Vandal and a couple of Dregs he closed in on, Isaac targeted the rest of the Vandals. He kept moving swiftly around the room, from cover to cover, taking shots when he could and closing in with his Shock Blades, when the opportunity arrived.

Isaac made the Captain his last target, after clearing out the Vandals and Dregs. He wore down his shields with his Shock Rifle and Pistol, chased the coward down with his shotty, and finished him off with his Shock Blades.

Two more Captains soon arrived with a dozen Dregs in tow. Isaac kept up his cover to cover strategy clearing out the Dregs so he’d have more room to deal with the Captains. With the Dregs taken care of, Isaac took this opportunity to use the Captain’s weapons against them, by pulling out his own Shrapnel Launcher.

The Captains attempted to take advantage of their numbers and spam their teleport to confuse and confound him. Isaac, however, was plenty familiar with this ability and feinted most of his attacks and only targeted them after their teleport ended. Once he had eliminated one, the other fell easily, after a quick game of Shock Blade tag.

Now he was being surrounded by another dozen Dregs, that had entered along with two Servitors. He quickly made use of his jump ability while throwing out two Solar Grenades. Most of the Dregs went down, with the exception of three that were only injured. Isaac targeted the remaining three with his scout rifle. Due to the injuries they had already received, the three went down quickly opening up Isaac’s full attention for the two Servitors.

Isaac made his way towards the first Servitor, while unloading his Shrapnel Launcher into its eye. Isaac blasted it with a Solar Melee and jumped over its head. Drawing his Shock Blades before landing, Isaac spun around and landed the final blow on the big purple floating ball machine. The other Servitor, however, was already targeting him and managed to land a hit on the side of his chest as he attempted to dodge.

‘F.u.c.k.i.n.g Shit! That is…’ Isaac, while hiding behind cover, cursed and coughed up blood. ‘Goddamnit that hurts!’ Isaac looked down at his chest and could see that his armor was completely gone along with his top layer of skin. It felt like he had broken a rib or two considering the blood he was coughing up. ‘Shit! I need to power through this. There’s only one left. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let this f.u.c.ker kill me, after coming this far. Immortality or not, this asshole Servitor just signed his death warrant and I’m gonna make him pay.’

Isaac felt inside himself and sure enough he had just enough energy for one more Solar Grenade. His Grenades weren’t very powerful, at the moment, but it would provide the extra damage needed to finish it off as soon as possible.

Isaac saw the Servitor coming around the corner of his cover and immediately jumped away onto the platform that ringed the room. He began moving from cover to cover, firing his scout rifle until returning to where Polter was dealing with the machine. His chest was bleeding quite badly and getting worse with his continued exertion.

Isaac rushed towards the Servitor, that was still firing at him from the center of the room, while dodging its incoming fire and returning fire with his Shrapnel Launcher.  He jumped up and began propelling himself forward over the top of the Servitor, while throwing his last Solar Grenade and continuing to fire his Shrapnel Launcher. Isaac pulled out his shotty as he landed and, with two consecutive blasts, ended the damnable machine for good.

“F.u.c.k! Hey, Polter, you think I can get me some of that sweet sweet regeneration you seem to be so good at. I think I might pass out soon. I seem to have lost quite a bit of blood.” Isaac said, as he staggered back to Polter’s position.

“Well, that’s what you get for acting like a reckless buffoon. Don’t worry, though, I’m almost done.”

“What the shit? In what way was I acting reckless? Did you see how many there were? That was a tight spot I was in and I’d say I pulled out of it pretty smoothly, considering. I’d like to see you do better.”

“Isaac, you haven’t even unlocked the ability to form shields yet and you’re still below level twenty affinity, which means every time you are resurrected, or even healed, you lose progress towards your affinity progress. This is not a mission but training. The purpose of which is to increase your affinity and give you some battle experience. Cayde is here on standby and you should have called on him the moment you realized how many there were.” Polter responded, as he finished with the machine and moved next to Isaac and healed his wounds.

“Well, there is that I suppose, however, if I had called on Cayde then I would have missed out on the critical battle experience of having to face off against overwhelming numbers. Since, this wound has set me back a bit, in regards to my affinity, let’s keep the distribution at one hundred percent affinity, until I reach my goal of five. By the way, did you get that information?”

“Yes, I did. It seems they were running into an Old Earth Russian firewall. This would seem to suggest that the legends of a surviving Warmind are true. Namely, Rasputin the last surviving Warmind. It would seem that he’s also the one responsible for taking over the array we just activated. As for the light distribution, consider it done?”

“Nice! Well, with this little incident cleared up, let’s get to the Forgotten Shore and finish up this training. As much as I enjoy wiping the floor with Hive and Ceiling Monkeys, I really want to get back and start working on my attunement and maybe scrounge together a fireteam.”

“Sounds like a plan. Just follow me.”