"Miniboss?" Waffles ducked after taking a peek. "He's built af."
TheOneWhoKnocks switched to his hand cannon, he looked to IEatPaint and nodded.
The titan returned the nod, switching to his heavy rocket launcher.
As Naksis crept closer towards the console, the fireteam was ready to face him. Waffles threw down an empowering rift.
IEatPaint darted, jumping over the crates as he rushed towards Naksis, slamming him with rockets.
Naksis moved like a machine, as the rockets struck his chassis, he roared and immediately went invisible, sending electrified shockwaves through the corridors.
"The f*ck!" IEatPaint was slammed into the ground with barely any hp left.
Naksis roared, a shield appeared around him, and waves of Shanks arrived to back him up.
"Son of a bit-" Waffles screamed as she gunned down the shanks.
But each time they wiped a wave of shanks, Naksis appeared again, firing electric shots and slicing across the arena.
After a brutal set of rotations, Naksis's invisibility seemed to run out.
Waffles and IEatPaint doggedly got out of cover as they saw the shield around the boss flicker away. Instantly, the two ran forwards—two Supers came crushing towards Naksis.
The devil baron's eyes widened in horror as a Nova Bomb struck him square in the chest, crushing his lungs, before he could even react, a thundering meteor struck him down, pinning him to the ground.
Lightning coursed through him, paralyzing every muscle in his body. Naksis roared, he couldn't believe the machine spawn were this strong. A golden gun shimmered in the distance.
Naksis saw a ball of fire erupting towards him from the corner of his eye.
It was a shot to the head—Naksis finally collapsed, blue ether leaking from his torso as he screamed and fell.
"Baron down," said Waffles, panting. "Please no more surprises."
Their ghosts returned as the colony ship shields finally broke, allowing them to access the internal areas.
But as they rushed inside. Skiffs approached overhead.
"For f*ck sake, what now!" IEatPaint muttered.
The ground trembled as something big dropped nearby.
The three immediately recognized what was about to happen.
"Spread out!" shouted TheOneWhoKnocks, rolling to the right as a solar shot struck the very spot he was standing in, blowing everything apart.
"It's a walker!" Waffles took out her rockets again.
The fight went full chaos. Rockets soared. The Walker's legs were their only target. The trio dipped between cover, feeding the beast a mix of grenades, and curse words.
Finally, TheOneWhoKnocks managed to procc his pulse rifle's trait, knocking off the Walker—IEatPaint followed up with a fusion grenade crushing the leg entirely.
As the Walker's core opened up. IEatPaint boosted up and switched to his shotgun, pumping all six shots into the core.
BOOM.
The Walker erupted into flames and fell apart!
TheOneWhoKnocks roared "Let's GOO!"
But the objective updated one last time, leading them further into the ridges.
As they slipped through the last breach shield, deeper into the ridges of Devil's Lair. The path began to narrow. The lights darkened as they walked through a tunnel leading towards a large open field.
Finally, they saw it—Sepiks Prime. Massive. Floating. Surrounded by a pulsing red field of energy.
"Is this, the Devil's machine god?" Waffles looked around, entirely amazed.
Their ghosts blinked. The HUD changed as they began the last encounter. A skull floated towards the bottom of the screen, there were no respawns here. It was do, or die.
BOSS: SEPIKS PRIME.
"Alright boys," IEatPaint took in a breath.
"Time to make history," Waffles grinned.
-
Void crouched at the edge of a shattered pipe, its rusted lip overlooking the outer trench of the Devil's Lair compound. The thrum of distant battle echoed across the mountains—explosions, gunfire, static cries from the Fallen—and he knew exactly what it meant.
The players had reached Sepiks Prime.
'Perfect.'
Void's cloak fluttered once as he leapt from the ledge, boots silently hitting the snow-covered gravel. The Fallen inside Devil's Lair were too distracted—dozens of squads had been deployed to repel the strike team. And that meant no one was watching the back gate.
His figure flickered, vanishing into the shadows as he made his way towards the tunnel entrance.
As he reached the freight bay, the scanners were up and running. Void's eyes narrowed, he held up his palm and Obsidian materialized within.
The next second, he gently pushed Obsidian near the control panel. Minutes later, the scanner flashed green.
Void nodded as Obsidian flittered back to him, disappearing. Void darted inside, skirting behind stacks of ether containers and stripped Goliath tanks. The interior corridors of the lair were dim, lit only by flickering overhead lights and the occasional pulse from failing tech panels. No patrols. No alarms. Just echoes of the chaos outside.
'Nothing too shocking yet.' His eyes darted from side to side, observing everything.
Void moved deeper through the base, sweeping his sightlines.
The Devil's Lair was larger than he expected. The entire thing was basically a base dug into the mountain. Every side was either reinforced with rock. or scavenged metal.
Everything about the layout screamed Fallen—A long network of tunnels spanned the base, each with their own ether vents that hissed, twisted cabling was sprawled all over the base, even embedded into the rocky walls of the mountain.
Void turned, scanning his surrounding.
'A storage bay?' He looked around.
It seemed that he was in a storage area. Piles of metal and other scavenged loot were scattered across the room. With a single glance he could tell that it had been gathered from all over the Cosmodrome.
Void could even see pieces of Hive bones mixed into the scraps.
'Looks like the House of Devils already fought a few skirmishes with the Hive.' His eyes narrowed.
Void silently prowled across the long winding tunnels. He finally reached a hallway. Though the hall itself wasn't grand, behind it were eight large entrances, carved into the rock, and at its centre, seemed to be a makeshift throne of scrap.
Void walked closer to the throne as he noticed that it was raised above the rock with iron filling its base. His hands brushed the throne's arms. A layer of dust gathered on his fingers. It was evident that it hadn't been used in a while.
"Where are we?" Void asked.
Obsidian blinked beside him, scanning around, "Looks like its a meeting place for the Devils. Something like, a court perhaps?"
"I guess even they follow laws." Void chuckled dryly, "What about the doors at the back?"
"No clue, no guardian in the City has ever managed to infiltrate this deep."
Void nodded, "Where do we go?" He spoke, but not to himself.
His blade shimmered, a pale light flashed for an instant and eerie voice echoed in his ear.
~Ah a maze. Fate, is a wretched thing, O brother mine.~ Zamyr chuckled.
"Right, so do you know the way?" Void sighed and raised a brow.
Zamyr's voice seemed to drift as the blade shivered.
~Even I cannot guess how the strings of Fate intertwine, O brother mine.~
"Tsk. Could've just said you don't know." Void held his head and walked towards the doors.
~Where's the fun in that?~ A fleeting chuckle whistled in Voids ears.
Void stood in thought, eyes flicking from one door to the next. His eyes flickered blue. The world seemed to change as he looked at the lines of energy.
He looked around, and finally a single door caught his attention.
'That erratic energy...what is it?' Void was puzzled, he'd never seen anything like it.
He walked closer and flung open the door, revealing a dark room.
Void took a step inside as he took it all in. A rotten stench flared in his nostrils. He looked up, hundreds of ether processing tubes lined the walls. Void walked deeper inside, a sickly blue glow now illuminated the room.
Finally, he saw it. At the center of the room, mounted high upon a pillar of tangled wires and fused servos, was a throne. Beside it, countless consoles were embedded into the walls.
Void's eyes widened, he carefully circle the throne, examining its origins.
Obsidian flittered to his side, scanning everything he saw.
Void stepped closer, his hand brushing the side of the structure.
"Obsidian," he muttered.
Obsidian pulsed with light, a faint blue wave spread across the room.
"No signs of life. But this is clearly a command throne. Recent, too. Adaptive wiring, intended for something big."
Void frowned. What, or rather who was using this throne?
He looked around again, but there simply nothing here. It all felt… abandoned.
"Check for recent activity." Void spoke up.
Obsidian scanned again, this time his laser pulsed brighter, "Still nothing. But, this place. Looks like it was abandoned in a hurry. All the machinery in the throne is still intact. But the cables, they're frayed. Almost as if they were ripped out whilst moving."
Void nodded. As he walked past the throne, two sealed doors caught his eye. They were Large. Reinforced and pulsed a faint red.
Void raised his hand. "Crack them."
Obsidian chirped, sliding into one of the side ports. Sparks burst, and after a second of whirring, the left door hissed open.
A cold mist spilled out from the chamber beyond.
Void stepped in cautiously. The room was dim, quiet. At its center, a containment pod sat nestled among workbenches, flickering monitors, and what appeared to be medical equipment—if one could call it that.
The pod hummed, wires linked into its side like veins. Vapor condensed at the outer mirror of the pod.
Void walked forward, and wiped it off. His eyes widened.
Inside was a Fallen Captain, his arms were visibly restrained. Chains wrapped around his entire body inside the pod almost as if he was a prisoner. Void's eyes narrowed as he noticed that its chest heaved with every breath.
The Captain, was alive.
=
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the Chap! Loving the recent surge in reviews ngl. I hope more of you decide to leave a review cuz it really motivated me to write, and helps the story out in the long run. Thanks! (Throw some stones too.)