We stood within the large illuminated ring, among the smoldering remains of the Vex creature; a Hydra of enormous size that the researchers had named "Sekrion". How long they had been secretly studying it as it slumbered was unknown to me, but it was foolish of them to have kept it unreported at all. I understood their hesitation, however, as the Vanguard would have ordered it destroyed immediately. Knowledge is power, and it was a power that we did not have against the Vex. Would we ever? Not if we blew them up in the face of an opportunity to learn from them.

There was only one crucial thing that we had learned from the Vex, and it was that wherever they appeared (the means of which was also a mystery), death would follow. The awakening of this Sekrion was another reminder of that lesson, as Vex began to appear everywhere, much like they had in Mercury before they conquered it in days. The surviving Ishtar scientists had asked the Vanguard to keep the creature as intact as possible, to continue to learn what they could about it. But when we finally brought it down, it began to glow in the same way that the countless smaller Hydras that we'd fought did, before detonating into thousands of pieces. A final act of defiance, denying us knowledge... Denying us power.

The Titan and Hunter that had agreed to come with me did not seem to trouble themselves with these thoughts. They were content with sifting through the remains for anything that they could lay claim to. The Hunter picked up what had been one of the creature's cannons.

"Wonder if they could get this working again. Can you imagine?"

The Titan picked up a piece of the outer shell.

"A gun's nice, but I'm gonna see if they can make me some armor out of this. Damn thing was tougher than any other Vex I've seen. Took way, way too much firepower to bring down."

"Hence the cannon."

The Titan snorted and nodded as he picked through more pieces of the armor.

"And you?" the Hunter turned to me.

"I'm good, thanks. Not really a big fan of armor. Weighs us down, makes gliding slower."

"Slower?" she scoffed, "You could go slower?"

The Titan snorted again.

I opened my mouth to retort, but the sound of distant thunder and a familiar crackle interrupted me.

"Vex!" The Hunter whispered as she placed the cannon on the ground. The Titan was already on his feet with his rifle drawn. We looked up towards the cave where we had entered, as a light began to shine through and a strange low whistle became louder. Whatever it was, it was coming into the room. We moved behind a pillar on the far edge of the room, and the Hunter drew her rifle to get a better look.

"Yeah, Vex," she whispered, leaning back into cover, "Big Harpy... Big."

A large, blue creature floated into the room. It resembled the jellyfish-like Harpies, alright, just much bigger, its large, central eye glowing blue. It let out a quick, sharp whistle as it reached the illluminated ring. A dozen or so tendrils extended from the sides and began to scan the remains. What was this thing? What had it come here to do?

The Hunter raised her hand and did a shooting gesture. The Titan looked over at me, but I shook my head. We didn't know anything about this creature. Harpies were an easy enough enemy, but could move faster than they let on, and if Sekrion's armor had been any indication, the bigger ones seemed to be made of stronger stuff. Sekrion (and the room that he was in) was clearly not designed for combat. Its movements had been slow, and it had had very little room to navigate. This creature was half its size, and we had yet to encounter a Vex that didn't come armed. Not to mention the fact that we had already used most of our ammo at that point... we needed to play it safe.

An hour passed, and the Hunter was growing restless.

"He hasn't moved. These things can sit for ages doing nothing, we need to act."

"She's right," the Titan whispered, "the Vex have been growing in numbers up there. This place could end up like Mercury by the time another team comes down here. Who knows how long it'll take the Traveler to stop these guys, if it can."

They were both right. I had been playing out multiple scenarios in my head, but there was too much that we didn't know, and inaction was as much of a risk as anything else.

"Have a plan in mind?" I asked.

"My Gun's charged," she said. "Couple of rounds oughta do it."

"I meant a good plan."

The Titan snorted once more.

"Just a big Harpy," she said as she prepared to leap from cover, "I need to move further out, get a clean shot."

I gripped my rifle tighter and looked at the Titan.

"Bubble?"

He nodded. The Hunter took a deep breath and jumped out as she became immersed in golden light, with the Titan close behind. The creature turned to face the sound as it raised its shell, covering the bright eye in the middle.

The Hunter aimed her light-bathed hand cannon as her feet hit the ground, and fired. A quick series of golden shots slammed into the creature, causing it to shudder and moan, but it did not fall. She froze for a moment, stunned. It aimed its tendrils at her as it let out a shriek, and fired.
She'd fought plenty of Harpies, knew how to dodge their fire... But this wasn't what she had expected. She snapped to, and dodged to avoid the volley, but the creature pivoted with her movement and continued to fire. Rounds tore through her as she tried desperately to avoid them while firing back and trying to make her way to the Titan's Bubble. I was already out of cover, firing bursts at the creature as I ran to a nearby column, but it did not break its focus on her. My rounds bounced uselessly from the armor, as I had feared.
She fired once more before she landed inside the bubble, but collapsed lifelessly a moment later. The Harpy's rounds bounced off of the energy shield as the Titan placed the Hunter on the floor and reloaded his rifle. It stopped firing, and lowered its armor plating as its large eye cast a light on the Titan. I drew my rifle and fired my last rounds at the eye. It let out a shriek, but remained focused on the Titan. He held up a lewd gesture at the Harpy, before a large pulse of light shot from the Harpy's eye and cut through the bubble. The Titan's hand dropped as his Ward of Dawn dissipated, and he dropped face-first into the ground.

The Harpy turned to face me now, once again raising its armor to protect the now-wounded eye. As the tendrils aimed at me, I remembered what the Titan had said. I picked up a chunk of Sekrion's armor from the ground, shielding myself from the incoming fire. He had been right after all; the Harpy's fire pounded the shield, but did not break it. I pushed up to the creature. I had to get to that eye. I charged up a ball of electrical energy and tossed it over the shield. The ball detonated, and the lightning caused the creature to shriek as it moved away from the energy grenade. I seized the moment and sprinted at the creature. The moment I reached it, I called upon all of my energy, and brought a lightning strike down on the creature. It reeled in pain, and I continued to focus all of my energy on it. I was so focused, that I hadn't heard the roll of thunder outside of my own. I didn't pay attention to the lightning in the air. It had called for help. My focus only returned when the sniper round hit my back. I stumbled forward, and the Harpy once again raised its tendrils. We had no idea what we were up against. What was this thing? What had it come here to do? We didn't know. But if its plans involved Sekrion, at least we had stopped that.

I looked once more at the debris around us.

"Doesn't matter," I said, gesturing at the Hydra's remains, "it's still dead."

And I laughed. A final act of defiance.