Chapter seven of my story Origin. I want to apologize for being late with the release this week. Had some issues i had to work through and it ate up a lot of my time. As always hit that survey, leave a comment, and enjoy the read. Part two will be listed below. An icy wind ripped into the gondola as Azrix opened the door. Velox sprinted to him while Nymph held the vex cloud in a time freeze. Looking out the door, she could see the other gondola twenty meters away. Below was a dark abyss with swirling snow. “I don’t think I can make it.” Velox shouted “Don’t worry about it.” Azrix grabbed her by the waist and tucked her under his right arm. Before she could complain, he had backed up and began sprinting towards the door. He leapt and activated his boosters sending them skyward. After three seconds, the boosters cut and they began to drop. He then rotated her in front of him placing her feet on his right knee. The Gondola was close but they were going to miss it. Just as it was coming to eye level, Azrix accelerated forward at an alarming speed. The momentary burst was just enough for them to land on the outer walkway of the gondola. They landed, fell, and skidded into the outer wall of the cabin. They lay in a heap, trying to untwine their limbs. After a few seconds, Azrix got to his feat and looked over at the gondola they had come from. Nymph was floating towards them at a fast speed. “You may want to shoot the cables now!” The little sphere said in a concerned voice. On the far side he could see the purple pulse of void energy light of the darkness. A multitude of red eyes appeared in the now dark cabin. Suddenly line rifle rounds were impacting mere inches away from Azrix and Velox as they dove inside their own cabin for cover. “You still got some rockets?” Azrix asked. “Yeah I have three left.” She answered while simultaneously drawing out her rocket launcher. It was smaller than most rocket launchers but one of the plusses was it had a very stable flight path. She broke the glass of the gondola with her fist and raised up with the launcher perched on her shoulder. The sight screen flipped out and she activated the night vision feature on it. Everything light up in with a greenish tint and she could see the other gondola perfectly clear. Instead of aiming dead center, she aimed at the wheel and motor assembly that attached it to the massive cable. She fired and the missile made contact with the motor unit. The car sagged for a moment accompanied by a loud metallic groaning. Suddenly there was a snap and a twang as the motor unit tore away from the cable letting the gondola fall into the pitch black blow them. Several seconds afterwards, a loud crash could be heard coming from somewhere below through the dark snowy wind. “Good shot. Nymph, lets get this thing moving now.” “Already on it A.” The ghost was scanning the control panel feverishly trying to get the thing going again. A couple more seconds and the engine engaged and power returned to the cabin. Music could be heard coming from the old and rusted speakers lining the ceiling of the cabin. It was a soft with a lot of brass instruments and drums. There was a man with an exceptional voice singing about a girl from what Velox could tell. Azrix looked around and started to do something that resembled dancing. “Do you know who this is?” He asked now becoming more animated with his movements. “No. I have never even heard this before.” Velox answered. “This is Frank Sinatra, one of the best singers to ever have lived. It has been years since I have heard any of his music though. The last time was when my team and I were in New York city. We were just bedding down for the night when Sasha found an old music playing machine. After fiddling with it for a moment the small screen lit up and came to life. While searching, she found a file called music. Frank Sinatra was the first thing that played. We kept that little thing with us for the next week and turned it in to the Cryptarc when we got back to the tower.” The gondola had reached the other side by the time Azrix was done reminiscing. Velox slid the door open and walked out with her scout rifle at eye level. The wind was not as bad on this side, but the snow still came down in droves. “Alright we make a sprint for the MAC gun and then how do we get back across?” Velox asked sprinting towards the location marker on her HUD. “We take this one back.” Nymph answered. “We are lucky enough that we made it here in that thing. Keep an eye peeled for an alternate rout in case this thing takes a turn for the worst.” Azrix put in. The two guardians could just see the outline of a monolithic structure in front of them. As they got closer, Velox saw a weapon that made every other one she had seen seem small. The barrel alone was nearly a hundred feet long. The weapon sat on a platform supported by six gigantic hydraulic shocks for the massive amount of recoil produced. The barrel looked as though it could rotate one hundred eighty degrees and the platform it was sitting on looked as if it could also rotate three hundred sixty degrees giving it the ability to cover every inch of sky. How had humanity lost to any enemy with these kinds of weapons? “I am marking the entrance to the turret now.” Nymph said. “Velox, get in there and get that gun firing. I will hold off the Vex.” “What Vex are you…..” She turned around to see several points of void energy from the path they had just come from. “Nymph, go with her and get that gun firing!” Azrix said turning around and leveling his weapon at the void spheres that were growing larger. Nymph flew to the door and after a couple seconds of scanning, the door popped open. She made her way into the weapon and traversed a narrow corridor filled with wires and old computer screen readouts. Once she made it to the center there were two old swiveling chairs covered in dust. The room was larger than she expected. It was a dome shape and the celing was black She took a seat at the one with a joystick. “Nymph?” “Working on re routing power. Remote targeting has been disabled. You will have to fire the weapon manually.” He said flying to computer terminals around the room. Suddenly lights flickered on and an alarm sounded. “Warning weapon has excess blockage in barrel and on cameras. Please initiate defrost. “Initiating weapons loading procedure. Defrosting initiated. It will be sixty seconds before the snow on the cameras and in the barrel melts. Beginning magnetic charge sequence.” The ghost said. A loud whining sound came from somewhere deep in the machine and the control panels lights began flickering to life displaying various systems and their status. Outside Azrix aimed at the closest cloud of void energy. A flash and ten goblins dropped to the ground. Azrix opened fire with his antique of a rifle and watched as the rounds tore through their soft white abdomens. The next cloud dropped goblins as well as hobgoblins. Just as he was half way done cutting down the second group, the third void cloud dropped another set of Vex. This one contained a few goblins, harpies, and a minotaur. He sprinted behind a large rock and drew out his shotgun. It was, like his rifle, a relic. It was old and scratched up with newer parts and modifiers attached to it in a variety of ways. The pump action grip and butt stock were wooden and a number of hash marks could be seen on the barrel. The name of the weapon had been burned in the side of the butt stock. ‘Old Blue’ He jumped over the rock sprinting at the minotaur before it could even get a torch hammer round off, he had shoulder charged it causing it to stagger backwards. He leveled the shotgun at his waist and pulled the trigger while simultaneously working the pump action. Fist sized holes were torn through armor plating as the void infused tungsten flechette rounds exploded from the barrel. The minotaur staggered backwards and fell to the ground in a smoking heap. He turned his attention to the harpies that were now starting to fire on him and quickly dispatched them with his rifle. In the distance a crackle could be heard and another cloud of Void energy could be seen forming. The only problem was, it was nearly three times as large and twice as high in the air as a normal one. “Things are never easy are they?” he muttered to himself as he started reloading his shotgun. Part 2 can be found here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/105588240 Chapter index can be found here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/102926644/0/0