"What," Waffles said into her headset, "the fuck was that?"
"I have no idea," BearSpray answered immediately. "But I got all of it. Every frame."
"That was—" TheOneWhoKnocks paused, searching for words. "Incredible. Terrifying. But—"
"But incomprehensible," IEatPaint finished. "Who was that woman? Why are we on Mars? What was that rift? What was that at the end?"
"We have no context," Undecided said. His voice had taken on the tone of someone actively confused. "Last mission we were on Mars, messing with some Cabal outpost. Now we're suddenly in a crater with no explanation for how we got here or why we're here or what the hell we're supposed to be doing."
"The narrative jump is insane," Gandalf said. "There is literally no connective tissue. No setup. We're just dropped into a mystery with no idea what the mystery is."
"The Exo Stranger is part of the lore," TheOneWhoKnocks said, defensive. "She's been in the game since vanilla. She's supposed to matter."
"Then why are we just now meeting her?" IEatPaint shot back. "Why is there no quest chain leading to this? Why is there no explanation for why she's here or what the tear is or why we need to protect a Vex corpse?"
"It's lazy writing," Waffles said flatly. "Whoever penned this story did not think it through. There's a massive gap in the narrative where actual exposition should be."
"The cutscene was incredible, though," BearSpray said. "Like, genuinely incredible. The graphics, the cinematography, the way the light moved. All that was next-level rendering."
"The atmosphere was perfect," Undecided admitted. "It felt heavy. It felt like something actually mattered. Shit gave me goosebumps."
"But it made zero sense," Gandalf pressed. "The pacing was all wrong. We went from fight-the-Cabal to enter-the-heart-of-darkness with no transition, no explanation, no reason to care about any of it."
A moment of silence on the comms.
"You know what?" Waffles said. "I don't care anymore."
"What?" IEatPaint sounded surprised.
"The writing is garbage. The story makes no sense. There's a year-long narrative gap we're supposed to fill in ourselves somehow." She sighed. "But the cutscene was gorgeous. The atmosphere was perfect. The production values were insane. And honestly? I think the company that makes this game clearly didn't spend much on the writing department."
"But they spent everything on the art," BearSpray said, understanding.
"Exactly," Waffles said. "And I can respect that. I'd rather play a beautiful game with a bearable story than a well-written game that looks like it was made in 2010."
"Fair point," Undecided said. "The experience is solid even if the narrative is a mess."
"The story could be anything," Gandalf said. "The mystery could go anywhere. But honestly, who cares?"
"Real talk though," TheOneWhoKnocks said. "None of this matters. The story could be anything. The mystery is whatever. But at the end of the day..."
He paused.
"...all that matters is what loot drops at the end of this raid."
There was silence on the comms. Then understanding rippled through the rest of them.
"Oh," IEatPaint said slowly. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's actually true."
"First, clear the entire server," Waffles said. "If we beat this, maybe we get exclusive drops. That's the story. That's what matters."
"Exotic weapons nobody else has yet," BearSpray said. "Legendary armour pieces. Maybe raid-exclusive weapons."
"The loot is the story," Undecided said.
"Always has been," Gandalf agreed. "The cutscene is just the wrapper the rewards come in."
As the loading screen finished, the players felt their transmat sequence engage.
Light fractured around their forms like threads.
Then Freehold materialised around them.
-
[TRANSMAT SEQUENCE INITIATED]
First, the colours bled in — rust-reds and sandy golds sharp against the violet glow of something massive hanging in the crater's centre. Then sound crashed in like a wave: distant explosions rumbling across the stone, the baseline hum of weapon systems powering up across the battlefield.
Their HUDs flickered to life.
[OBJECTIVE ACQUIRED: DEFEND THE FRONTLINES — 0%]
The counter sat dead centre in their HUD.
"Holy shit," Undecided took in a breath and sprinted forward, "Is that—"
"The Gatelord," Waffles confirmed. She could see it clearly now that the transmat distortion had cleared.
A massive astral cube rotating on impossible axes. At its core was the Gatelord's body wrapped in spectral chains and bound in magic. Around it, a ring of Guardians held formation, weapons ready.
The rings expanded outward, each line holding against an oncoming Cabal squad that tried to breach their walls.
At the centre of the rings was Viper, guarding the strange cube with his sword sheathed.
The music started then, a deep string section building from the crater's depths, drums entering like a countdown.
"Holy shit." Waffles cursed under her breath, the music drummed in her ears.
"It's starting, boys." Gandalf reloaded his rocket launcher.
The players looked up, and a cluster of Cabal drop pods streaked through the horizon, their entry burn leaving a bleeding scar across the sky. Then another. And another.
Within five seconds, the sky was filled with them. Hundreds of pods descending in controlled arcs, their trajectories painting impact points across the entire outer perimeter of Freehold crater.
"F*ck, get ready!" BearSpray's voice snapped across comms.
The first pod struck the crater rim with an impact that shook the ground and sent a cloud of dust hurtling past them.
And from that dust came the Cabal. Centurions in Arc-charged plating. War Beasts howling as they emerged, claws extended. Legionaries were establishing firing lines before their boots fully touched the ground.
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 1%]
The counter ticked upward.
"Okay, that's a lot of them," IEatPaint said. Her fusion rifle was already charging. "Everyone sees the layout?"
"Two sides, left and right for the adds," TheOneWhoKnocks said, already double jumping toward the highest point of terrain. "Split on both sides, I'll jump up and snipe some elites."
"Say less," Gandalf replied. "Paint, with me, we go to the right and soften them up."
IEatPaint grumbled with a roll of his eyes, but moved with Gandalf regardless.
Waffles drew her hand cannon and glanced at BearSpray who was already setting up his stream.
She raised a brow.
"What? Don't look at me, I'm not going with him." BearSpray raised his hands.
"Don't worry about it. A three-two split should work, just start firing." Undecided
The first wave of Legionaries reached effective firing distance.
TheOneWhoKnocks' sniper rifle cracked.
An Elite Centurion's shields flared white, then collapsed. The heavy unit staggered backwards, and the second shot was already in flight, catching it square in the chest plating, completely cracking its guard.
"Got one!" TheOneWhoKnocks called.
"Got 'em," Gandalf said. His rocket launcher screamed and shot out three charges that struck the Centurion with precision. IEatPaint's fusion rifle charged with a high-pitched whine, and when he released it, a bolt of superheated plasma erupted across the battlefield, catching three Legionaries in overlapping circles of destruction.
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 5%]
"More incoming!" Undecided's hand cannon barked rapidly.
Waffles moved left. A pack of war beasts charged on her, but she pivoted immediately and blinked away, leaving behind a grenade in her wake.
Another wave of Cabal soldiers emerged from their pods and descended upon the crater, battling the guardians.
TheOneWhoKnocks cracked his sniper shots till his special ammo ran out, headshotting any centurion he could.
"The rest of them have red bars. This shit is impossible!" He groaned.
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 8%]
BearSpray took out his submachine gun and darted around the field, ticking away at the Cabal's HP bars. "We've got no damn choice. There's no better gear in the game, man."
IEatPaint planted a barrier on the right that helped buy a second. But both he and Gandalf were already low on hp, and with regeneration being slow, they had nothing to rely on.
Gandalf's rockets cycled. Left. Right. Centre.
IEatPaint's fusion rifle charged and discharged in rhythm.
"Right side! Help Right Side!" Gandalf screamed.
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 12%]
Waffles was already moving. She leapt into the air and triggered a Nova Bomb. A cataclysmic barrage of void energy wiped the ride side.
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 15%]
But more pods descended. More Cabal poured in. The assault was relentless—endless cycling of fresh units, no coordination, just overwhelming numbers.
"Back here! Left side, focus left!" Undecided shouted while spamming his own rockets at the endless waves of Centurions that shrugged off any normal bullets with their towering shields.
TheOneWhoKnocks jumped down and chucked a grenade into the distance, "I am out of special ammo, just throw some grenades!"
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 18%]
A group of Cabal Psions flicker-stepped behind IEatPaint's barrier. IEatPaint's eyes scanned his HP bar that still lingered at red, looked ahead at the approaching tide of enemies and closed.
He immediately knew his time had come.
[Thundercrash]
He leapt out of his own barrier, a streak of lightning engulfed his frame, and IEatPaint shot towards the Cabal legions like a thunderbolt and crashed into their army.
"NOO!" Gandalf cried out.
Guardian Down (5 revives left)
"Limited revives? What the f*ck?" Waffles grit her teeth.
"I'll get him!" Undecided triggered his golden gun and stood against the Cabal legions, wiping out as many as he could within the short duration of his super.
Another cluster of pods descended. The assault intensified.
Thankfully for the players, the game had decided they weren't alone.
Shiro-4 took down a legion of Cabal on the eastern flank with a perfectly timed Blade Super.
The timely help of the NPC's made the six of them heave a sigh of relief.
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 22%]
"Keep the pressure! " Up," Gandalf called.
Undecided slid into the conflict and spammed revive on IEatPaint's avatar.
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 25%]
(4/5 Revives left)
Wave after wave poured in. But they held. More than held, the players pushed back, playing the only way they knew how to. By peeking from cover only when they could, and by rationing every bullet possible.
The assault never stopped. The pods kept descending. The Cabal kept dying. Somehow, the players had managed to advance the first objective of the raid far enough that something new triggered.
[OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 50%]
"Halfway there!" Undecided shouted.
[Objective Updated: Fight Primus Sha'aul]
"Huh?" Waffles tilted her head.
The players heard a rumbling. They looked up, only to spot a large Cabal pod descending towards them like a falling star, armoured to the teeth.
The pod struck the crater's edge, and as the smoke settled, a winged Cabal hunkered up, its gargantuan frame hovering inches off the ground, and its wings flared with fire.
"What the f*ck?" IEatPaint felt the rumbling of Sha'aul's wings as the Cabal soared higher into the sky.
With a roar, Sha'aul tipped his shoulder forward and slammed into the ground, sending a quake through the crater that shook everyone present.
-
A/N: Throw stones! Screw it, throw reviews too!
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