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// 13- Eye of a Gate Lord 
// Story: Destiny- Shimmering Sun 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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        After our meeting with the Awoken and their queen, I needed to fill in Twilight on what exactly happened while I was in the Reef. As we were talking, the warlock vanguard also informed me on a few things that she did while I was gone. First, she happened to inform the other two members of my fireteam about my encounter with the Vex on Venus and my meeting with the Stranger. Of course, they both really weren’t sure whether or not to believe the claims that the Stranger made, but they were more than up for taking on the Vex.

        Before we could fight a gate lord though, we needed to find it… as well as find out how to summon it. Which, lead to our fireteam doing what may be called the Vex equivalent of brain surgery. Ray, Winona and also Sparky all collectively told us that in order for us to find out how exactly these things operated, we needed to crack open the biggest one we could find, take its brain and plug it into the research station on Venus called Campus 9. Which, on the surface, sounded crazy… but after finding a Vex Cyclops on the Shattered Coast and actually going through with it, we not only found out what to do now… but we also possibly why the Stranger was so worried about them.

        From what we were able to gather, the Vex terraformed the garden world of Mercury. Transforming it into a living machine in only a matter of days after the Collapse and if it weren’t for the Traveler, they would’ve quickly spread to every planet in our solar system. And all of the vex share a single a single mind across millions of their own units, which was the reason why they were able to react so quickly and warp across star systems in an instant.

        Though, there was one thing that we can do in order to lure out the Gate Lord we needed to kill. Since each vex is part of a giant network that courses throughout the whole planet, all we needed to do was find a way to break into their network intentionally. That way, we can draw out the Gate Lord and get what we needed for the key.

        Upon touching down on the surface of the Headlands again, Ray voluntarily placed a marker for us in the direction we were headed. Which prompted Indigo to get on her sparrow and take off first with Mac and I chasing after her. But while en-route, we had to stop for a moment to fight off a camp of fallen that was set up, before ditching our sparrows all together and just beginning to run on foot.

        Once we approached what appeared to be a huge Vex construct that appeared on our directory as ‘The Citadel’, that was when Indigo broke the silence and asked something. “So, Ray… what were you, Sparky and Winona able to uncover on these ‘Gate Lords’? I want to have some kind of idea as to what exactly we are up against before running in recklessly.”

        I agree with her on that. Though, it was rather strange to hear that from Indigo of all people. If anything, based on what I saw her do in the crucible, she’s the one who normally runs in head first recklessly. 

        Bzzt. Beep Beep.

        “Well, Sparky was the one who found out the information out of everything we’ve uncovered, so let me say what we have,” Ray then spoke up shortly after hearing Sparky beep a few times. “They are a special class of Vex minotaurs. Over three stories tall. Their primary function… No, no, that can’t be right… can it?”

        “What can’t be right?” Mac now asked, sounding puzzled.

        “It says here that the Gate Lords protect the realms that… the vex keep locked out of time.” Hold on… time? As in time travel? That… just sounds way too complex to understand. “Let’s not focus on that right now… I’m picking up a heavy vex conflux not far from here. Get one of us to it and we can be able to access their network.”

        “Ah got it,” I looked over to see that Mac was the closest to the conflux, bringing out Winona so she could infiltrate the network that the conflux was connected to. We waited for a few moments, but then, we saw her return back to the defender before speaking up.

        “And ah thought you had the hard job… Okay, ah got some good news and some bad news. Good news is that ah know where we need to go in order to drag out that Gate Lord. We’re looking for a place called the ‘Endless Steppes’,” She told us, before letting out… whatever sound is made when a ghost sighs as she gave us the bad news. “However, bad news is that in order for me to find it, I had to fiddle around with their entire transfer gate network.”

        “Meaning…?” Indigo impatiently asked.

        “The closer we get there, the more that yer going to have your hands full.”

        Well… this will be fun then. And not in a good way. Even Indigo could tell that things were going to get rough for us and Mac was not exactly happy about the news either. But we don’t really have a choice now, do we?

        Though, making our way out of the Citadel and towards Campus 9 was actually simpler than I thought, because along the path we were taking, we always found small puddles and rivers of rust colored water. Of course, normally seeing water like that back when I was alive meant something different entirely, but right now, the rivers were pointing in the direction of the marker that our ghosts had already established. So, using this, we followed the river out of the citadel, into a settlement called the ‘Waking Ruins’, where we found ourselves another river to follow as it guided us right to the outer edge of our first destination.

        Of course, our troubles first began upon reaching the research station in Campus 9. When we were originally here to grab all the information we could off of a Vex Mind, we had to deal with the Fallen that were trying to scavenge what was left of the place for parts. Now, the only enemies that we were picking up on our radar were from what looked like an active vex… portal of sorts that was to the left of the station. Several goblins, a hobgoblin and a few harpies had already spawned and just as we got closer, all of them picked up on where we were.

        “Ray, what’s the plan here?” I asked, before the three of us split off in order to find cover. The goblins and harpies were already beginning to fire at us, while the hobgoblin fired a shot that barely grazed the edge of Mac’s helmet. Gripping onto my Pulse Rifle and beginning to fire back at the Vex, a pair of goblins crumbled down to the floor, but were replaced when three more emerged from that gate.

        “The gates are waking! More of the Vex are going to keep on spawning here if we don’t shut down the gates,” I heard him say, before marking the gate that we were not far away from. “We’ll mark each one of the active gates that we find. Just focus on making sure they’re shut down for good!”

        “Hey, Mac! Sunset! I got an idea,” I heard Indigo speak up. Turning around, I saw her bringing out her rocket launcher and loading a round in the barrel chamber as she asked the titan and I a question. “Try to get those scrap heaps to focus on you guys. If they focus on you two and Mac activates his super, then I can fire off one of my rockets to destroy that gate without them even paying attention to me-.”

        “That ain’t gonna work,” Mac responded, shaking his head as he looked back at both of us. “Ah can’t activate mah Ward of Dawn yet since it isn’t fully charged-”

        “Then use your grenades, your machine gun, use anything that you got on hand in order to keep them off my back. It doesn’t have to be specific,” The hunter interjected, before looking back towards the Vex that were spawning briefly. She then turned back towards us, but more specifically, to me “Those rust buckets are gonna catch on if we stand around here and drag it out too long. What’s the plan, Shimmy?”

        Now it was my turn to say something as I reloaded my rifle. “Mac, you’re with me. Indigo, we’ll try to buy you as much time as possible. Just make sure you tear down that gate.”

        “Got it!” Once we heard those two words from Indigo, Mac and I immediately got to work on drawing the attention of the Vex. I was mainly using my rifle while also using my solar grenade for when a group of goblins began to close in on my locations, while Mac was using his fusion rifle to vaporize each one that came too close to him and punched anything else.

        As we took them down, we heard the sound of a rocket being launched as an explosion went off. Destroying the gate as Indigo raced back over to join us. “One down, where’s the next one?”

        “To your left and up on the ledge,” Ray then answered my question. “Careful though, you got two minotaurs inbound.”

        Luckily, Mac still had his Magnetic Grenade on hand for this one both Minotaurs began to make their way towards us. Throwing it at them, the titan’s grenade stuck onto the first Minotaur, but exploded twice. Taking down both of their shields and making them vulnerable to our weapons. But they didn’t really quite take it well because they ended up charging at us once the shields were down. Forcing me to switch to my shotgun and fire a few rounds into their metallic chests to try and get them to back off.

        It worked on the first one… though, it didn’t really work so much on the second one as I felt the Minotaur strike me across my left shoulder. Throwing me back a few feet as I felt a surge of pain through my body. “Sunset, find cover. I can heal your injuries, but I can’t do it while you’re out in the open!”

        “Hang in there, we’ll cover for ya!” I heard Mac shout now as he switched weapons. I half expected for the weapon he was using to be a pulse rifle, since that was what I saw him use last time. However, the weapon that he was holding was much different than before. It was a faded dark green scout rifle that he was using to aim at the weak points of the Vex. Taking each one down with a couple of explosive precision shots, which I found surprising given that he was able to do it so quickly… with a scout rifle no less.

        Well, since I wasn’t really doing much considering my current position, I decided to take a look at the weapon that Mac had and see what kind of modifiers it had.



Weapon: Gladius 77
Type: Scout Rifle
Manufacturer: Unknown
Slot: Primary

Modifiers:
-SureShot IS: Snapshot sight. Excellent handling. Superb target acquisition.
-Red Dot ORS1: Precision sight. Highest zoom in class. Enhanced range.
-Ranged Lens RLS3: Mid-range scope. Good effective range and recoil control. Heavy and slow.
-Rangefinder: Aiming this weapon increases its effective range.
-Fitted Stock: Increases weapon stability.
-Explosive Rounds: Volatile payload explodes on impact, dealing a portion of the weapon's damage in an area



        I blinked for a moment. Just… how did he have that much perks on a single weapon? Sure, some of them can only be active at a time, but the thought of a weapon having that much customization just baffles me.

        But now was not the time to be thinking of that. Because I was beginning to feel the last of the pain go away as I looked back at my fireteam. Jumping back into the firefight as I began to aim at the Vex. The second gate was already out of commission, but we needed to clear out everything here before going to the next gate.

        “Geez, just how many of these things did you screw around with Winona?” I heard Indigo ask as the three of us went around the backside of the second gate, only to come across a third gate shortly afterwards as more Harpies were closing in on us. “Everywhere we go, the Vex just seem to show up out of nowhere!”

        “I can’t really say how many but-” For a moment, the ghost was interrupted as we heard the sounds of beeps coming from Sparky. Which immediately had Winona correct herself shortly afterwards. “Wait… how many? And you’re sure about this? … Well, alright. Sparky says that he’s detecting four other gates. Some within close proximity of one another, but with a lot of Vex around them.”

        Of course there would be a lot of them. You did kick up a robotic hornets nest after all, Winona. So thanks… thanks a lot.

        Back to the task at hand, we applied the same plan that we had done with the first two gates to each of the other ones that we had to take down. The only difference being that Indigo and I would trade off when it came to taking down the gates with our rocket launchers while Mac himself continued to have the Vex focus on him. Whether it would be through throwing grenades, punching their metallic heads off or using his weapons to turn them into nothing but spare parts. 

        The plan was working, but around the time that we reached the sixth gate, that was when we came across a Vex that was different than the others. This one was much bigger, floating in place and had weapons on the sides of its metal chassis. But the thing that made it stand apart from every other Vex was that it had some kind of rotating shield around the body. And when we tried to fire our weapons at it, the shots were blocked. It was a shield that we couldn’t break on our own, alongside a metal body that was much durable than others.

        This one also had a different name. It was called a Hydra. It took us a while in order to defeat it, but even after its body was destroyed, that was when we realized how lethal it was. At first, Indigo was walking past it as the outer body was beginning to glow bright red. Prompting Mac to run and push her out of the way before his body was tossed like a ragdoll as the Hydra exploded.

        Which left Indigo and I staring at one another as we saw Winona floating there. “Did… he just…?”

        “Yeah yeah yeah, he died saving your butt just now. Can ya hurry up and revive Mac already? We don’t got all day.” Winona impatiently snapped.

        Oh, so that’s what happens when you do die as a guardian. Something tells me that Ray forgot to mention this… or anything regarding the subject.

        Extending my hand forward, I felt my light began to channel around my outstretched palm and around Winona, before Mac began to re-materialize and take form right in front of us. His armor looked a bit charred, but the smoke and dust began to fade away as he looked back at Indigo. “Next time, please be careful around anything like that okay?”

        “Yeah, yeah… I think I learned my lesson now,” The hunter just grumbled, emptying the rounds in her hand cannon before going through an opening between two of the walls in the ruins as she began to scout ahead. For a moment, we thought she decided to walk off without us out of frustration… that was, until she said something that caught our attention. “Uh guys… You might want to come take a look at this.”

        Upon hearing that, Mac and I looked back at each other as I shrugged for a moment, walking towards where Indigo was standing at. However, neither of us honestly expected to see what was waiting for us at the end. It was a vex gate, but unlike all the other gates, this one was three times as big. And the fact that we could see the gate being active was not a good sign either. “Ray, I thought Winona said that there were six active gates.”

        “There were… And this is the Endless steps. That’s the gate we need to bring out the gate lord,” He told us, sending a shiver down my spine. “And we have a small army of Vex between us and that gate. Just brilliant.”

        “So yeah, no pressure or anything.” Really Winona, was now the right time in order to try to say that? After Mac just threw himself in front of Indigo only a few minutes ago? By the Traveler, you’re bad at timing.

        Once more, we had to fight more of the vex troops that we found earlier. Luckily, there were no Minotaurs or Hydras in this group. Just a mixture of Goblins and Harpies with a few Hobgoblins stationed around the platforms as if they were on lookout for intruders. Which was simple enough, but we still had to keep our guard up just in case something did happen to surprise us once we got closer to this gate.

        Though, even after taking out the surrounding Vex, it didn’t really seem like anything was happening. The only thing that stood out was this red ring of light that was on the ground in front of the gate. “So… what exactly is supposed to happen now?”

        “I… think we’ll need to stand on that plate to summon it.”

        Well… we did come this far, so there’s no point in trying to back out now. Following Ray’s advice, I stepped forward into the circle. The red ring from before began to lower and change as a new ring of white light began to take form and slowly rise. Seeing this, Mac and Indigo joined me as the ring of light began to rise.

        Once the ring was around our waists, that was when it began to lower back down and when the energy within the gate began to churn and activate. Watching as mounds of energy from the gate began to materialize and take form. First; it was the chassis, then the arms and legs began to materialize and the head was last. It’s darkened metal body towering over the three of us as it landed on the ground and stared us down with the only eye that was on its head. This gate lord was much taller than the minotaurs that we had been fighting so far as now we could see its name appear on my visor. Zydron, Gate Lord.

        “Well, here we go.”

        The moment when I heard Ray say that, the Gate Lord immediately began to attack us. Without warning, it began to fire off a series of blasts from the weapon that it was holding. What was referred to as a ‘Torch Hammer’ because of how deadly its shots were and how easily it can tear away at our shields. This pre-emptive attack by the gate lord forced us to immediately scramble and find cover, while trying to avoid getting hit by its attacks.

        “What’s the plan here, Sunset?!” I heard Indigo yell from behind a stone column. Just a few meters from where I was at.

        “We need to return fire and fast,” I responded, before deciding to ask a question to my ghost. “Ray, can you tell if it has any weak points?”

        “Based on its appearance, the white core that’s in its chassis is the likely best scenario. However, we need to keep in mind that it has most of the standard functions of a Vex Minotaur, but it does not have a shield protecting it. Likely because of how highly durable it is.”

        Wait, it doesn’t? Turning my head, I peaked out of cover and looked at the Gate Lord. Before aiming my pulse rifle and firing three bursts. Those shots hit their target, while also getting the Gate Lord’s attention as I went back to cover.

        “Alright, no shield, highly durable… We can work with that,” Looking back at Indigo, I now finally could say something. “Both of you do whatever you can to weaken it, but make sure you keep your distance and don’t let it get close to you!”

        “You got it!”

        Now hearing this, Indigo jumped out from behind cover. Readying her hand cannon as she fired off several rounds at the Gate Lord, all while she was movie out of the way to try and avoid the blasts that were being fired at her. Mac and I were also doing the same thing, while trying to back up away from the gate lord to avoid getting crushed by it if we got too close.

        At one point though when we were fighting, that was when the Gate Lord emitted a loud shriek… and with it, I heard the cracking of static and electricity. “Guys, stay alert! I think it’s calling for help!!”

        Moments later, I hear the sound of Vex goblins and Vex harpies spawning in and the bolts from their weapons flying past my head. Forcing me to take my eyes off the Gate Lord to deal with them first as I conjured my solar grenade and tossed it towards them. The flames burning away at their metal husks as I quickly shot a burst of ammo into their chests to take them down quickly.

        Once they were out of the way, I turned my attention back to the Gate Lord. Reloading my weapon first before engaging it once more. Several more vex began to spawn, including a few hobgoblins on the blocks that were not far from us as they tried taking aim and pinning us down with suppressing fire. This time, Big Mac switched weapons to his fusion rifle to make short work of the hobgoblins and threw his Magnetic Grenade at the other Vex that were trying to close in on our position. Indigo herself also lent a hand by throwing out her skip grenade towards some of the Vex that were trying to shoot from my blindspot as I activated Radiance, using the power of my super to conjure several grenades as I began throwing them outward and having them land at the feet of the gate lord as the solar orbs that lingered there burned away at its body.

        We continued to trade off who would focus on the extra Vex troops that would spawn in the area with who would focus on the gate lord, with Mac even going as far as to activate his Ward of Dawn in case we needed to find extra cover for just a brief moment. But after a few more intense firefights with the rest of the Vex and firing off almost all of the heavy ammunition that we had, something happened. The gate lord’s body began to explode and crumble apart as the energy from the gate began to go haywire. Sucking everything in, including the battered body of the giant Vex minotaur we just killed as we watched its head be severed off and fall on the ground.

        Which… had Ray let out a sigh of relief now that this battle was finally over. “Great job everyone. We’re all still alive, the activity from the Vex Gates have ceased for now and we have the head of the gate lord. Nice work.”

        “Let’s hope that this head will be worth almost getting killed over,” Indigo grumbled. “Because it would be a real dick move if we bring this and then this queen says that she didn’t need it in the first place.”

        “Indigo, trust me,” I let out a sigh as I looked back at her and placed my rifle on my back. “If the stakes weren’t as high as they are right now, I wouldn’t even have considered going this far in the first place. Plus… the only way that we’re going to get into the Black Garden is that if the queen makes the key we need. Let’s just hope that she keeps her promise.”

        “Speaking of which,” Big Mac now spoke up as he looked back at me. “Is there anything we should know about this queen before we meet her?”

        That had me look back at both of them for a moment, before nodding my head. “A few things… I’ll tell you on the way.”



The Reef

        “She’s alive,” Were the first words that we heard as we walked through the hall of Queen Novo’s throne room. Unarmed like before, we approached the queen, who still had the two fallen vandals standing guard next to her as well as her advisor, Stratus. “And still has her ball. Not to mention some others alongside her.”

        As Stratus turned around, I saw that his eyes were looking towards my hands. Almost as if he was expecting for me to be holding onto the head myself as he smirked and looked back at us. “There is no shame in running, Guardian. It is an excellent strategy if you ignore your cowardice and the failure of it-”

        Now it was time for me to do the talking. “What leads you to think that we ran away?”

        Both Novo and Stratus paused for a moment, exchanging puzzling looks before the queen asked a question. “You don’t think they slayed a gate lord, Stratus?”

        “Oh, we definitely did,” Indigo now spoke up. “In fact, we have proof.”

        The sound of that had a small smile of amusement emerge on Novo’s face, looking at the bladedancer before turning her attention to me. Leading me to speak next. “Ray. If you please…”

        My ghost nodded, before glowing for a brief moment as he teleported the head that we acquired right at the base of Novo’s throne. As it crashed, all of us could see the stunned expressions of Novo, Stratus and her fallen guards. “We need to find the black garden.”

        After I re-emphasized my point, Stratus just looked back at us now, before grinning a small bit. “Hunh… They don’t even know where it is-”

        “Then let us tell them,” Novo interjected as Stratus looked back towards the Awoken Queen. “Search the Gate Lord for where they may gain entrance.”

        Now Stratus turned to face the queen, his voice sounding irritated and annoyed as he glared at Novo. “Why?! If you want to wish them certain death, then just kill them here where they stand-”

        “Often, when we guess and assume the motives of others, we unintentionally reveal our own.”

        The single statement was followed by an intense glare from Novo as he began to kneel. Which made me think it was a sign of sincerity, since his next reply was much calmer than before. “Loyalty is my only motivation. To a people, to a queen, to you…”

        “Then please,” Novo spoke as she looked back at the advisor kneeling before. “Take what is required.”

        For a moment, it seemed like Stratus was questioning whether or not to follow through with what Novo was saying. But afterwards, he got up and approached the Gate lord head that was on the floor. Knife in hand as it was plunged deep into the head, cutting through the insides of what was in there as he pulled out its eye. Which glowed red while it was on the floor, but upon holding it up, soon went dark.

        “Dead… unfortunately,” He said with a smirk on his face. “Your efforts were in vain, I’m afraid.”

        Before either Mac or Indigo could act, that was when Novo spoke again as she looked back at her advisor. “Perhaps, but with them going this far to get it, it proves that they are resourceful,” She replied as Stratus turned his head towards her again. “In sympathy for their traveler, we shall gift it to them.”

        Once again, Stratus looked distraught. But it was only briefly, for then we finally got an answer that could get us somewhere.

        “Mars. Eighty-four north, thirty-two east. Meridian Bay.”

        He tossed the eye directly at us, which Big Mac caught with one hand as the queen stood up from her throne. Looking at the three of us with a pair of serious eyes. “Through this act of generosity, I have shown you benevolence. And in return, should the Awoken ever need an ally, I will call on you three and expect an answer.”

        Big Mac nodded his head and Indigo did the same. Even though Stratus had something else to say in that moment, I kind of already knew what it meant. Through this, we are in debt to Novo and her people. And the only way that it can be repaid is that if we answer her summons. “I understand. Thank you, your grace.”

        I bow in response for a moment, before the three of us begin to turn around and leave, with Ray following right behind me. I could hear Stratus trying to wish us good luck as we left, but something told me that after the exchange that we saw between him and Novo, he still was not found of us. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he kept something to himself about where we needed to go next.