TYPE: Transcription.
DESCRIPTION: Debrief Excerpt
PARTIES: Six [6]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Ikora Rey [IR]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Aunor Mahal [AM]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Titan, designate Zavala [Z]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate Rega-7 [R7]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Titan, designate Donovan Morgan [DM]
ASSOCIATIONS: Abyssal [Hive]; Clovis Bray; Kateäk; Mars; Morgan, Donovan; Ohr, Wahei; Rega-7; Slayer; UAC
/AUDIO UNAVAILABLE/
/TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS.../
[IR:01] Describe again for the record this 'Slayer' you encountered.
[R7:01] What can I say that I haven't said already? I've never seen another Lightbearer like him.
[WO:01] He's humanoid, but his armor covered up everything, and he never spoke. So I can't say for certain what he is.
[R7:02] Someone that size shouldn't be able to move as fast as he did.
[WO:02] He's a Lightbearer, but he barely seems to use it, I think he uses it to increase his strength and speed, I mean we all do that, to some extent, but never quite to the extent that he did, because he was often fighting Hive with his bare hands. He was a very angry person, clearly the object of his rage being the Hive, and whenever we ran out of Hive to kill, he sniffed out more. I don't know if he was always that way, or if years fighting Hive burned out anything human inside him. And that's supposing that he was even human to begin with-
[IR:02] Breathe, Wahei.
[Z:01] And you say he helped you track down this 'Kateäk' figure. 'The Queen of Chains?'
[R7:03] That's right. Like Wahei was saying, he seemed to be able to smell the Hive, especially the stronger ones. Wahei seems to think that the swarm we fought down there had been the ones to originally imprison the Slayer down there, using some kind of Hive magic.
[Z:02] We are still attempting to reach this 'U.A.C.' facility. It appears that during your exfiltration, the degraded computer systems began sealing it up. Thus far, we have not been able to restore access.
[AM:01] Tell me about this 'Slayer's' ability to ... absorb energy from Hive crystals?
[R7:04] Yes, he can somehow metabolize Hive energy with his Light and use it to heal himself and repair his armor.
[WO:03] His armor can also withstand a direct hit from a Void Grenade, though it did leave it cracked and seriously damaged. But he found a crystal in the UAC Applied Sciences labs and crushed it in his fist. He used the energy to just... heal himself.
[AM:02] You are mistaken, Warlock Wahei. It is not possible for a Lightbearer to heal themselves without the aid of a Ghost.
[WO:04] I know what I saw. I was as close to him as I am to you right now. Ask the others, they saw it too.
[DM:01] Yup.
[R7:05] Saw it with my own eyes. Our Ghosts can corroborate us.
[AM:03] Then clearly your Ghosts were compromised somehow by whatever magics the Hive had been using down there. You did not see what you think you saw.
[Z:03] Enough, Aunor. If the fireteam say it happened, then we must take them at their word.
[IR:03] This 'Slayer' was able to defeat three Abyssal Champions?
[DM:02] That's right. Single-handed. Saw him tackle one of them- like, physically tackle- and then just shoot out the back of its head with a sawed-off shotgun.
[AM:04] That is not possible, Titan Morgan. All accounts of Abyssal Champions indicate it takes sustained, concentrated gunfire to be able to weaken them.
[DM:03] Look, I get that you don't wanna believe what we're telling you, but if you're going to keep denying it happened, then I don't know why we're bothering to do this debrief. You have our statements. It's all in there.
[AM:05] Yes, and by your account, you allowed this alleged Lightbearer to relieve you of your primary weapon- an exotic weapon of known rarity- and you made no effort to recover it.
[DM:04] Hey-
[AM:06] Furthermore, you then allowed him to steal a Clovis Bray prototype heavy weapon of significant firepower, and further allowed him to disappear into Hive Ascendant Space with it, effectively putting it in the hands of the enemy.
[DM:05] Hey! You want to accuse me of "allowing" anything, then just go ahead and clap me in irons and lock me up. I was under the impression that the Vanguard was conducting this debrief, but apparently the Praxic Order can just barge in wherever they like nowadays. The way you're talking, sounds like you wanna call me a Dredgen or something.
[AM:07] You are known to have in your possession a 'Breakneck' auto-rifle that you won in Gambit competition. I am sure if I were allowed to examine your full arsenal, I would find more evidence to support-
[IR:04] Aunor.
[AM:08] Ma'am.
[IR:05] You are here as a courtesy. Your personal beliefs or not, the fireteam has helped remove at least four major Hive forces from the board.
[AM:09] Three.
[Z:04] I beg your pardon?
[AM:10] Per the fireteam's statements, the only Hive majors we can confirm have been eliminated are the Abyssal Champions. Kateäk escaped into the Ascendant Realm and took the Slayer with her. They did not see her die, so we cannot be sure of anything.
[WO:05] Mahal?
[AM:11] Yes?
[WO:06] By her own admission, Kateäk was Ascendant. If we'd killed her in that Oubliette, she'd have recovered and could have come back later. The Slayer had her literally in his hands when he got pulled through. There is no way that she could have survived a point-blank attack by him.
[AM:12] I would like to take you at your word, Warlock Wahei, but you are a known student of Eris Morn, a notorious dabbler in Darkness magic-
[IR:06] Enough, Aunor! If not for Eris Morn, then we would have lost the Moon, and the Taken War. Leave us.
[AM:13] Ma'am. Commander.
[R7:06] Permission to continue, sir?
[Z:05] Go ahead.
[R7:07] What are we going to do about the Slayer?
[Z:06] Do? Nothing.
[R7:08] Sir?
[Z:07] Between the renewed activity around the Lunar Hellmouth, the remnants of the Red Legion's last desperate attempts to strike back at us, and other intelligence coming to us about coming threats, I cannot spare any fireteams to go on a rescue mission, no matter who they may be attempting to rescue.
[DM:06] That's a bit rich, considering that 'Young Wolf' Guardian went and-
[IR:07] That Guardian has always been something of a rogue element, and because of that, we in the Vanguard cannot take responsibility for what they do. But Commander Zavala is right. You three are going to be reassigned to the Lunar patrols soon.
[R7:09] ...Ma'am.
[IR:08] I know you don't like leaving anyone behind, Rega. But the needs of the many come before one man. And if what you're saying is true, then he'll keep fighting on without you.
[Z:08] Indeed. So let him walk through the ascendant realms, standing against the Darkness where others falter. Until we need him again.
[IR:09] May that day never come.
The blasted landscape of the Ascendant Realm spun in darkness as Kateäk emerged, born down to the ground by the weight of the Slayer upon her. She wove a length of chain into a metal ball and drove it at him to drive him off of her, but as she drifted away, he caught the links in one hand. She reeled, but he wound the chain around his fist and slowly dragged her toward him. "No! Release me! You cannot defeat me!"
The Slayer said nothing, merely held his glare on her as he planted his feet and hurled her bodily over his shoulder to the ground. The air driven from her, she gasped and clawed at him, forming a molten ball of metal in one hand, but he snatched at the chain still wrapped around his fist and then planted his foot into her shoulder. The wrenching of bone from socket and flesh from joint was pure agony. She flung another chain toward him with her remaining arm, but he caught it beneath the sharpened hook, like it were a snake. With his other hand, he drew his sawed-off and fired, separating the remaining arm from her shoulder.
Wailing and writhing on the ground, the Queen of Chains began to chant, but this was choked off as his empty hand slammed down around her throat, hauling her up before him. "My Sovereign will-"
The Slayer thrust the steel barrels of the shotgun through her maw and with another bellow of thunder, Kateäk was silenced at last.
He dropped her carcass and turned his back, beginning to stalk away, but paused as he took a deep breath, turning to regard the shadowy realm before him. There came a terrible attention focusing on him. His head throbbed as he saw with one eye, the devastated ruins around him, covered in grave-grass and stone. He saw also with the other eye the bleak majesty of a vast chamber, with the hint of a throne in the distance. And in his mind, he perceived the unnatural roiling shapelessness of the Deep Darkness.
As he stood there, lungs filled with the stench of more Enemies than he could possibly count in a thousand ages, he beheld a Sovereign. There was- the howling of a gale / the peal of regal laughter / the screech of dying atoms- the declaration that here, at last, the Slayer would be destroyed.
He said nothing, merely glared into the ruins / throne / emptiness as he reloaded his shotgun. He knew what he had to do.
Rip and tear. Until it is done.
-END-
Afterword: Hoo boy, did this one take off.
What began as a random thought between me and a friend online- a Guardian from Destiny that was like the Slayer- turned into my unquestionably most popular piece of writing I've posted anywhere. It's gotten the most hits and likes and follows of any of my stories on FF Dot Not, AO3, and all the chapters have gotten a few upvotes over on r/DestinyJournals, too.
I know at least one reader (you know who you are) was disappointed because it didn't have any demons in it and that it felt more like I was dressing up the Doom stuff in a Destiny context. And yes, this is entirely correct. It felt the easiest way to reconcile the ideas in my head, and I'd argue that it worked out.
Presently, this is the end of the story. I have no current plans on continuing it past this point. Maybe if the inspiration comes, be it from Doom Eternal or future seasons/expansions in Destiny 2, then I may continue the story. But this feels like the sort of stopping point that fits the myth of the Slayer. Locked in a blasted hellscape, facing off against the unhallowed legions, literally too angry to die, and prepared to fight alone with one mandate. To rip and tear. Until it is done.
Thanks again, everyone, for all your support!
Jay 2K Winger
28-Mar-2020