Forum:The Indenture: Difference between revisions

|othernames= Enemy “Consensus” <br> Indentural Empire <br> The Last Obstacle

With their targets identified, the Lightbreakers started to close in. However, little did they know that their activity has woken the Hive, who were serving under the newly formed Wrath of the Oculus, who were keeping watch over open space onboard the Tartarus Carrier. With an expanded Ascendant Realm and having the Darkness directly imbued in them, they effectively had limitless territory and power, and the presence of any kind of Light, pure or corrupted, is viewed as a disturbance, so the Hive pursued the Lightbreakers and attacked their vessel. Both sides raced each other to the City while launching constant aerial assaults at the enemy to keep each other in check. With the Lightbreakers' superior fleet initially pulling ahead, the new God-King of the Hive, Throk Nul, summoned a squadron of his new sect of Taken, the Demented, onboard the Lightbreaker Carrier to halt their efforts. In response, Russell launched Neutralizer Ghosts and Combat Ghosts to maintain their place. This conflict caused a stalemate. Realizing this, Russell and Throk Nul commanded their respective vessels to stop the race so they could face their enemies' leaders one-on-one. Throk Nul sensed Russell's presence and called out to him in desperation for conflict, “My worm hungers ever more, warrior of Light. It puts me in pain. It senses you. It knows you. You think you're different?” Russell then led a strike force to engage him, testing each other's strength, and personally fought several days longer until they wore each other out. This was another stalemate, but this one put the conflict on hold, allowing for recovery.

The fight between the five different enemy races continued for several hours until the sky darkened and a black portal appeared in the middle of the battlezone. They all immediately paused to observe the anomaly. An army of Void demons poured out of the portal, led by Nezarec himself. Nezarec imprisoned the Fallen, Hive, Vex, and Cabal in their own sectors by casting magic barriers around them. He then called to Russell and his forces, “Wielders of the Corrupted Light. You have done well in cornering these monsters. Now, bring them to my dimension so we can all make an arrangement.” Russell and his Guardian forces, along with the Void demons, then forced the other races into the Void Dimension, and the portal closed once everyone was inside, with Nezarec waiting on his throne overlooking the visitors. To make sure there was no resistance, he summoned his Heralds and Gatekeepers to help the Lightbreakers watch over them and make the arrangement proposed earlier.  

Nezarec started, “There is one thing I wish to know from all of you: why do you fight each other? There is a far more pressing foe than anything the universe has ever seen, a foe you have all fallen to more than once: the Guardians who follow the Traveler. They destroy your works without hesitation. They have no second thought after they secure their efforts. They do not regard your struggles. They are more dangerous to all of you than you are to each other.” The Fallen, Hive, Vex, and Cabal raised their arms in anger and directed their fire at Nezarec, but to no effect, so they eventually stop. His rebirth ritual gave him complete immunity, and he continued to address them, “You miss the point. I've seen your fates when they were involved, and even I have never successfully faced them. Because we have all been through this, I suggest we find common ground and aspire to reach new goals. Establish an order. Rally behind a new god. Carve a new Final Shape. Create a new future. Conquer new worlds. As long as you follow these principles, I will help you.” Throk Nul responded, “We are the New Hive, the Wrath of the Oculus. We have the Darkness imbued in us, and we follow a new path. But what is the new Final Shape?” Dominus Zhu'uork followed, “We are the new Cabal, the Steel Goliaths. We have a united army, and we follow a new doctrine. But what new worlds are there to conquer?” Typhon was next, “We are the new Vex, the Myriad Prohibition. We have a new form, and we follow a new evolution. But what new future is there to create?” Zanthraks then stated, “We are the new Fallen, the House of Arthropods. We have a new strength, and follow a new foundation. But what new god is there to rally behind?” Nezarec answers their questions, “The new Final Shape is not only the triumph of the strong, but also the evolution of their power; it must constantly be folded into new forms. The new worlds are those which have yet to be explored, with new inhabitants and resources to control; an empire can only expand when venturing the full extent of the universe. The new future is the one which allows the infinite possibilities that have been simulated to unfold and converge; everything will eventually be as one. The new god is not a god who is transcendent of one form of power, but a god who is transcendent of all forms of power; there is only one true god. I have the means to make all of this happen, and I will ensure the Traveler and its purest Light are no more. This will only be possible through one united effort. What do you say to this?” The Fallen, Hive, Vex, and Cabal, then realized they had a common enemy, and they learnt the full extent of each other's motives and how they will shape the fate of the universe. After a long series of past wars, they finally decided to cooperate with each other. “Good. Now, of utmost importance to this plan is Russell, the Lightbreaker Juggernaut, who seeks to establish an order of chaos, a chaos which you all can carry out in any way you wish against humanity's final stronghold. Now, enjoy yourselves.”

The forerunner of these changes and the mastermind behind the Hive's evolution, an aspiring Oculus Enforcer named Throk Nul, was the most powerful member of this new brood. He was the new God-King of the Hive, and was in a high-enough rank in the pantheon to set the new foundations. He maintained the ultimate goal of creating the “Last True Shape” of the universe, but altered the means to do so. Since dark power now constantly seethed within the Hive themselves, the standard for gaining greater power took a far more sadistic turn: the New Hive would detain and torture their enemies in battle while actively siphoning their abilities via parasitic link. This would come to affect nearly every denizen of the [[Solar System]], especially hapless Guardians who got snatched from below and their Light drained from them. Throk Nul described the process as follows, “Your essence, your very being...they shall be mine.”

To fit the New Sword Logic, the New Hive developed weapons, technology, and tactics to match the reformed ideals. They were designed to “bind” to their victims and grant themselves overwhelming advantages over their foes. Even the Ascendant Plane itself had been altered to meet expectations: throne worlds became interconnected in such a way that those who possessed the largest throne worlds would expand the size the Ascendant Realm, causing it to spread its corruption across the cosmos. This corruption also gave rise to a new branch of [[Taken]] called The Demented, twisting them to new ends and giving them access to untold abilities, and even strong enough to corrupt those without a will of their own. Throk Nul and his legion then engaged in ritualistic experiments which crafted throne worlds for himself as well as his most devout followers: his sons Nalthris and Yolthur, his consort Xovanath, and his brother Balgoth. Vanguard reports of the corruption classified this new sect of Hive as the Wrath of the Oculus.

At the moment of his supposed death, he tapped into his shard of corrupted Light and drifted in an unknown dimension which preserved his conscience until he was ready to come back. After months passed, a voice reached out to him across the dimension, “As you drift, you grow in strength, but lose control. What you seek could be your undoing once more.” Russell woke to this and pondered the meaning of the words. The voice continued, “You seek a complete lack of authority. Your command is weak. The enemy easily challenges you.” A throbbing pain soon hit Russell in his brain, a part of it being drastically altered to change his mindset, knocking him unconscious for a few more days. The voice rang out again, “No longer. Now you have both the means and goals to achieve your new purpose. When you wake, you will rally an authority of your own and achieve vengeance.” Russell was startled; he soon questioned who was speaking, where he was, and how the voice knew of his fate. The voice answered, “This dimension transcends all power in the universe, and I am its overseer. I am all-watchful, all-knowing. That is all you will know.” The voice then finally disappeared.