[i]Chapter Twenty Two: The Well Part Seven[/i] “Well that was dramatic,” Warlock commented. “So it’s a shield?” Drew checked. “A super shield, apparently,” Hunter added. “What do we do with it?” John thought ahead. At that moment I noticed that Guardian had walked all the way down the steps and was standing next to the Aegis, apparently inspecting it. Without a word he slipped his arm into the handle, and at his touch a soft blue glow expanded out from the edges of the shield to match the length of the rods and form a rippling barrier. The Templar’s roar echoed through the cavern once more, and Guardian looked up to us with the Aegis blanketing all of his side up to his shoulder and down to his knee. “We fight with it,” I answered. Before we had time to do anything else, a sudden brightness made me squint and I looked up to see a few points of light forming and growing above us. Within moments the Templar materialized directly above our heads, roaring defiantly as its matrix barrier formed around it. Drew was the first to be able to form words. “HOLY SH-!” “GO!” Hunter shoved the purple giant to get him moving. That spurred the rest of us into action as well, and our group scurried out from under the Templar with energy blasts burning at our heels. All of us, aside from Sierra and Guardian, took cover around the corner of a wall next to where the left conflux had been. The Huntress had made it all the way up the ramp on the right side while Guardian was hunkered down behind one of the columns at the overhanging back edge of the platform. Chittering Vex calls picked up all around the platform, and I spotted Harpies beginning to disperse in search of us. A familiar chime filled my ears above the Vex ruckus. “Ora-!” I began to look around for it frantically. “Got it!” Sierra declared. Gunfire blared as Drew and Warlock began shooting Harpies that had gotten close to us. I peeked around at the Templar just in time to see Guardian dive out of cover and point the Aegis at the giant Vex. A blast of white energy erupted from the shield and sailed through the air before crashing into the Templar’s barrier. The matrix shattered around the Vex Mind and it wobbled in the air. Before I could react, a rotating cylindrical barrier formed around me. I tried stepping up to the filmy wall to give it a test punch, but was surprised by how slowly I moved. My head was working as quickly as normal, but my body couldn’t keep up. “What is this thing?” Hunter exclaimed over the comms, “And how come she doesn’t have one?” “Stop whining,” Sierra snapped, letting me know she was who Hunter had been referring to. “Shoot them to destroy them,” Warlock informed us. I did as she said and destroyed my barrier with a few shots, then looked to the Templar. “Shoot it!” Guardian’s Ghost shouted. A few rockets sailed through the air over my head from Drew and Warlock, and sniper rounds from Hunter and Sierra rang through the air. Wasting no time, I summoned Little Blue to my hands and unloaded the machine gun on the Templar. Only several seconds passed before the Templar’s shielding went back up, stopping several bullets from various sources in their tracks before everyone stopped firing. With a shimmering flash, the Templar teleported over to the right side of the platform, closer to where Sierra was. Another Oracle was announced with a ring, and we began handling it and the Harpies as Sierra and Guardian scurried over to the rest of us. “How long until you can destroy the shield again?” I questioned Guardian. “Just a few moments,” his Ghost answered for him. We held off Harpies until Guardian jumped out and blasted the Templar again. But this time, after we broke the restricting enclosures around Drew, Sierra, and Warlock and started shooting the Templar, I noticed a thin ring of white light about a dozen feet across form around a small metal bar. It was right in front of the Templar. “That’s connected the Templar,” John declared, apparently already investigating it from within Sierra’s armor, “To its teleportation, I think.” “And?!” Sierra was clearly annoyed by the seemingly useless information. “We stand in it,” I guessed, seeing how it was similar to a Sync Plate. Not even Drew seemed eager to stand right under the Templar, as even when taking rockets and sniper rounds it was able to keep a steady aim and blast us. Sighing defeatedly, I ran out of cover and used a Harpy as a stepping stone to land inside the ring. The Templar’s gaze followed me, but before it could vaporize me at its leisure I threw a concussive grenade that went off in its eye and made it flinch for just a moment. I used that moment to wrap a Force Barrier around myself, but it broke, saving my life, as the Mind pounded the ground around me with energy blasts. Diving to keep from dying, I barely managed to stay in the circle until the Templar’s shield was restored. The glowing ring around me disappeared and I watched the Templar, expecting its teleportation to go screwy, but it just sat there for a moment before looking at me once more. “Light,” I whimpered before I was thrown backwards and hit the ground tumbling. I hardly made it up in time to avoid getting killed and then ran over to the others behind cover. “What happened?” Drew questioned as I slouched against a wall next to him, singed and battered. “That STOPS it from teleporting,” I huffed as my burning skin healed. “That doesn’t have much tactical effect,” Sally commented quietly. “It’s NOT worth it,” I agreed. A Harpy drifted into my field of view and I shot a couple rounds at its eye, but they passed straight through it. I blinked in surprise, and it was gone. “Will, buddy,” Drew nudged my shoulder, “Let it out on some Vex.” “Right,” I mumbled, going along with his impression that those had been rage shots. I wasn’t going crazy, was I? A crash broke the air, and I saw Guardian lower the Aegis as the Templar’s shield was destroyed again. A brilliant flash behind me announced Sierra’s activation of Golden Gun, and as I emptied my rifle on the Mind three fiery bullets whizzed over my head. Eventually the Templar’s barrier was restored and it moved again, but it didn’t take long for the Aegis to recharge once more. Low on ammo, all of us were resorting to our lighter primary weapons to bring down the Templar. But the defender of the Well was battered and broken, and at long last it let out a grating screech that sounded of pain more than fury. The Templar fell, its chassis exploding with a boom that seemed to shake the whole platform. “Did we win?” Drew questioned from behind me, his voice sounding dazed. I turned around to see him laying on his back, a large chunk of shrapnel from the Templar’s shell jutting out of his helmet. “Yes,” I answered, unsure wether I should help him or not. “Yeeeeaaaaah,” Drew was too out of it to cheer properly. His hand fumbled across his helmet for a moment before he found the piece of metal lodged in the top of his head and yanked on it. As soon as it was out he popped up to his feet and pumped his fists, “WOOOOO! Suck that, Milk Bots!” Our success seemed to catch up with all of us at the same time, leading to an exchange of shoulder pats and compliments about the fight, as well as relieved sighs. Even I felt a little lighter after such an accomplishment. But I was still the only one with any idea of the horrors that awaited us deeper in the Vault. “We’re not done yet,” I reminded, and my words were punctuated by the groan of moving metal. All of our heads swiveled to see that the door the Templar had been guarding had slid open. “I swear you plan this kind of stuff,” Sierra sighed. Pt6: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/249614385/0/0 Ch23, The Maze: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/251014120/0/0 ToC: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0