The Devil's Lair

A/N: Enjoy the chapter! This one for our boy chickennugget.... You better leave a review or I'll come to your house.

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Aksis sat upon a throne of wire and servos, his hulking frame hunched forward as cables coiled around his spine like parasites.

His red-glass eyes scanned the display before him—a sprawling 3D lattice of systems, vaults, and corrupted nodes. The sound of his breath was mechanical now, filtered through voice modulators and a grafted power core that hissed with every intake.

The metallic cathedral of Aksis pulsed like a broken heart—neon veins running through rockey walls, machines humming with distorted life.

The light here was sickly, filtered through coolant vapor and faulty tungsten strips.

A lone Captain knelt at his feet, voice clicking in guttural Eliksni.

"The Spider… has agreed. The Reef's syndicate will provide the weapons."

Aksis's fingers flexed against the armrest. Sparks leapt from his claws.

"They always do," he rasped. His voice was like rust grinding on bone. "They would sell anything for a mote of Glimmer."

He rose slowly, towering, his body now completely a hybrid of flesh, plating, and circuitry. "Prepare the payment. Send the skiffs. But stay alert. The Reef's loyalties are dictated by the weight of their purses."

The Captain bowed lower.

Aksis turned. 

"Rasputin…" he growled. "He is here. I can feel it."

He walked with an unnatural gait , It was akin to gliding on servo-bound pistons.

The room dimmed as he approached the central interface. Data projected in warped blue light. Floating there was the Cosmodrome.

The holomap highlighted the golden age Vaults. Circles burned red where their scavenger teams had already breached.

Now, only a few remained. 

"Where is it…?" Aksis muttered, almost to himself. "The Warmind doesn't sleep. It hides."

The Captain hesitated. "Some say… the Warmind is fragmented. Beyond use."

Aksis glared down at him. "Even in pieces, he is power."

His voice rose, echoing across the chamber. "The Warmind. A God-machine. We find him first—and no other House, no Light and no Tower rat will stop us."

A flare of static danced across his back-mounted relay as he sent a pulse through the network.

"Double the scavenger units," he ordered. 

"Understood," the Captain replied, his jaws clicking.

"Good." Aksis returned to his throne, coils slithering back into his spine.

The Captain left, boots crunching over the snow-covered metal.

And Aksis—Aksis stared into the depths of the map, where red data flickered.

Aksis remained, clawed hands laced behind his back as he studied the relay map. Then he turned to another console—rusted and scarred, patched with City salvage. A tangled lattice of fiber-optic feed ran through the ceiling like a neural web, connecting his lair to the greater network.

"Relay interference," he growled. "The dogs bite at our signal again."

Static distorted the edges of his voice. Sparks crawled along the cables like fire ants.

"Send in the relink squads. Remove the hijacked nodes."

A vandal stood beside him, it bowed.

Aksis returned to his throne—a crude hybrid of tech and war, cables stitched into the walls behind it like tendrils from some ancient parasite.

-

[Tower, Last City]

Particles shimmered as the six Guardians—Undecided, Waffles, Gandalf, BearSpray, TheOneWhoKnocks, and IEatPaint—reassembled near the landing pad.

They blinked against the radiance of the early dusk light washing over the Last City. Above them, the Traveler hung like a silent deity, its fractured shell gently glowing, casting its pale shadow over the Earth below.

TheOneWhoKnocks stumbled forward as he looked around, "Holy shi*" 

The tower was flooded with new guardians.

Not just the scattered groups that once patrolled the Tower's courtyard—but dozens, maybe hundreds. New faces, new names. Many looked around with the same wide-eyed awe they had once carried.

Some danced, others quietly crept closer to the edges preparing to fall. 

"Damn, its like they doubled" Undecided scanned the hoard of players, reading the new names.

"LeeroyJenkins, Erectus_Maximus...Damn, there's even a guy called ILoveLoot." Undecided chuckled.

"IkorrasHairline, now that's a good one." BearSpray nodded.

"Nope, just look at that dude about to jump off right now." TheOneWhoKnocks pointed.

"PercyJackson....Not bad I guess." Gandalf murmured.

Waffles exhaled. "Okay. But let's get back on business. That VENOM thing? I think I'm in."

BearSpray stretched, his voice thoughtful. "Yeah, same. No restrictions, new jobs, weapons. So its like joining a faction early right?"

IEatPaint tilted their head. "I mean I guess? He did say there'd be other factions and we can do whatever."

"Don't think joining is a problem, I think we're not gonne be locked out of the other stuff" Gandalf replied, leaning over the edge and watching the clouds drift. "I mean, the conditions are quite good. Plus, we're ahead of everyone else if we join first."

Undecided was quiet, arms crossed, eyes distant. "True, can't let this shit heads catch up too fast."

TheOneWhoKnocks chuckled. "F*ck all that, did you see the sidearm he had? Cleanest thing I've seen. "

Just then, their Ghosts flashed with synchronized alerts.

A sharp tone echoed from their HUDs. A Vanguard seal appeared—then Ikorra's voice, urgent and unwavering.

"Guardians, this is Ikorra Rey. Fallen scavegners have initiated a surge across the Cosmodrome. They're attempting to breach Golden Age tech and restore lost network nodes in the Rocketyard. We've prepared our defenses, but we need field support now."

The message cut to a live tactical overlay. Blue lines marked Vanguard zones. Red pulses bled across the Cosmodrome—dozens of them. Skiffs landing. Ground teams forming. 

"Your orders are simple. Hold the line. Prevent them from reclaiming those nodes. Secure the network."

A beat passed and a new campaign mission triggered for everyone.

In a wave, a dozen Guardians transmatted out, fireteams dissolving into light as they hurtled toward the Cosmodrome. 

Undecided looked at the others. "Let's move."

—

[Rocketyard]

Smoke painted the air in black ribbons. Skiffs soared above, dropping servitors and captains onto the ground. Fallen squads surged, scurrying with ether glowing in their weapons.

And a squad of modified walkers stomped over to the Rocketyard.

Then, Jumpships blinked above, soaring across the horizon as Guardians transmatted in.

They landed in Rocketyard like precision strikes—transmatting and pulsing forward in waves.

The chaos was instant.

Supers flared. Rifts bloomed. Hunters mowed down vandal squads with their Golden Gun.

Rocketyard was engulfed in war. But a stream of Fallen skiffs kept coming, dropping squads to reinforce their army.

Waffles lobbed a grenade into a nest of Vandals, watching it detonate.

BearSpray and IEatPaint cleared the entrances setting down rifts and using auto rifles that rained precision fire into approaching squads.

TheOneWhoKnocks ducked behind cover, reloading a rocket launcher, "They're not stopping."

Undecided grinned, also reloading a rocket launcher, "Neither are we, get the damn walkers down!"

The two hunters darted forwards, rockets aiming at the fleet of walkers terrorizing the guardians. They aimed at its legs, but as they shot the rockets, energy erupted from the walkers gun as it blasted them with a solar shot.

A blinding pillar of light consumed the two, reducing them to ash.

"We've got more coming! Hit the walker legs, its a crit spot!" Gandalf barked, floating towards the centre of the conflict. 

He chucked down a healing rift, tanking walker fire to focus on reviving Undecided. 

Behind them a titan, ThunderClappin, dropped in with an arc charge, wiping out an advancing Fallen wave, then he immediately shifted ahead with a shoulder charge, planting a shield, "I got you!"

As Undecided revived TheOneWhoKnocks, the hunters sprinted to the back chucking a healing grenade at the titan's feet. 

Though only three players could form a fireteam, the campaign missions were open for fireteams to do together as long as their objectives were the same. Now, with more than a dozen fireteams tackling the same missions, the Guardians had already began working together.

Gandalf pulled out his shotgun, pumping a full magazine, he landed critical hits on one of the Walker's legs. As the hulking tank dropped to its left, it briefly exposed its energy core.

"F*ck it, now!" He barked.

From the back, three warlocks rose in the air, in sync. Their hands collected all the energy they could muster as three Nova bombs formed overhead. The Nova bombs descended rapidly with a flick of their wrist.

The bombs shot towards the walker, erupting in violet light as a storm picked up. 

"Holy shi*" TheOneWhoKnocks looked back as he saw the eruption.

When the dust settled, only a piece of the walker remained. 

"Bit of an overkill, don't you think?" Undecided took cover again and reequipped his primary.

"F*ck no, there's like five more walkers." Gandalf came running back, only a smidge of HP remained in his bar, and all his abilities were on cooldown.

"Good shi* dude!" ThunderClappin came rushing back as he put down another towering barricade, holding down their cover spot. But the next second another solar shot blasted directly into it as the barricade barely held.

"Motherfu-" Undecided jumped back, aiming at the remaining walkers. He deftly jumped and shot six more rockets.

"Waffles! Get down here, we need another bomb!" Gandalf peeked through the barricade as he shot at the walkers.

"It's still on cooldown!" Waffles barked back, rushing through a hoard of Fallen vandals.

"Why the f*ck is it always on cooldown!" Gandalf screamed.

"I am out of rockets! There's no damn heavy ammo!" TheOneWhoKnocks pulled out his sniper rifle as he scoped the Walker's legs.

"I got it! Just get down there!" BearSpray chucked a grenade as he blew up the vandal hoard, covering for Waffles.

More players were joining the battle, leaping over catwalks and descending from rooftops. The air buzzed with comms and fireteam chatter. The cosmodrome proximity chat was on fire.

Just then, another Jumpship tore through the horizon, shooting towards SkyWatch. 

"Damn, I guess we're a bit late." Void chuckled as his eyes fell on the proximity chat.

"A bit? I told you we've got no time to work on new weapons in the workshop." Obsidian huffed, flittering around.

"Relax. I think the new ones can handle this much." Void waved him off, redirecting the ship to land near Rocketyard.

"I'm relaxed!" Obsidian bumped into Void's head, then flew to the ship's console as it displayed the current battle.

"Alright alright, see. It's not that bad, they'll hold Rocketyard. Till then, hack back into the Fallen nodes as place new access points. They'll probably erase the existing ones." Void shook his head.

"On it, what's the idea here?" Obsidian nodded.

"We're not down here to defend Rocketyard. They're not here to take it either. Look for discrete Fallen chatter behind the lines. They're planning something else for sure." Void smiled.

"Something they think I won't catch."

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