All chapters can be found in the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/253302742/0/0]OoT table of contents[/url] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/255567325/0/0]Chapter 3 Part 1[/url] [b]Chapter 3: Dark Corners[/b] [i]Part 2[/i] Stepping down onto the dirt and stone path carefully, I snuck around in the direction the closer Gorgon had been going. The safest place was always where they had just checked, as long as you didn’t make a sound to draw them back. I took a moment to recount my supplies. Sierra’s hand cannon had some ammo left, but I was almost out because my rifles and my machine gun had been emptied against the one Gorgon I had faced before. They didn’t look like much, but they were built tougher than most Vex and reality seemed to twist in their favor to prevent damage. All I had to pull me out of a tight spot was some shotgun and fusion rifle ammo. My Shock Blades may prove to be of some use, but that wasn’t a safe bet. My motion sensor showed some movement, and I stepped a bit further out into the path to find that the Gorgon I had been following was a short way ahead. I followed it calmly until I saw another flicker of movement. Sidestepping as quickly as I dared, I managed to make it to a block of Vex architecture and crouch behind a small rock without making any significant noise. A few seconds later, a Gorgon drifted past me like a wraith, watching and listening as it followed its route and accompanied by faint, rhythmic noises. That was probably the scariest part about them; other Vex made noise when they moved and spoke in their own language, but Gorgons were dead silent aside from the few lifeless sounds. One could die only hearing the faint buzz a moment before the end. I remained completely motionless until all was quiet and I was certain that I was alone, then walked out. Jumping up onto the Vex structure wasn’t worth it for risk of being caught. Several more minutes passed of carefully picking my way around Gorgons before I found myself at a low tunnel. It was dotted with rocks and small cubes and columns of Vex design I could hide behind, but that meant the Gorgons that were surely in there would be hidden from me as well. But I had only seen a few other tunnels in here lit with blue and white lights the way this one was, and they had all been along the path I had taken with my comrades to reach Atheon. So, I took the risk. Very nearly walking straight into the gazes of a few Gorgons, I spent what felt like an eternity crawling around small bits of cover with the Vex seekers mere meters away. Before long I found myself almost splashing into a stream. At first I was about to steer clear and go a different way, but then I recalled a stream going through where we had first entered the Gorgon’s Maze. Careful not to step in the water but keep it within sight, I snuck from rock to rock in the dark. Just as I saw where the mouth of the tunnel opened up into a large cavern, a Gorgon floated around the corner and into the passageway. Scrambling behind a thin column, I was alarmed to spot another Gorgon returning from its own loop. With no time to wait, I dove out to a neighboring rock, and luckily was not spotted. But, as I sat with my back to the stone, I glanced out and saw that the Gorgon that had just entered was going to steer around my side. With nowhere to run without being seen, I grabbed a rock and chucked it as far as I could towards the way the second Gorgon had come from. At the sound of stone bouncing against stone and metal, the Gorgons froze and then altered their courses, both drifting swiftly after the noise. Releasing held breath, I turned to leave, only to freeze as I noticed there was still humming and beeping. Blood running cold, I slowly tilted my head around. A third Gorgon sat within arms length of me, watching the path that its brethren had gone down. It had been hidden amongst the low cover in another fork of the tunnel, which had also been the only reason why it hadn’t spotted me while approaching. One instinct screamed at me to run while the another called for complete stillness. However, I knew bolting would get me caught and that the Gorgon would eventually look my way, so I crept up behind it as slowly and quietly as I could manage. Just before I was able to get directly behind the Vex, it began to turn towards me. Carefully, I snuck in an arc behind it, keeping out of its field of vision as the single eye searched for me. After spinning in almost half a circle, the seeker stopped and seemed to listen for me. Hardly daring to breathe, I squatted low and went down on my hands and knees in a dip in the ground below where the alien hovered. There was just enough space to slip underneath it, so there I waited. Finally, the Gorgon seemed satisfied and floated away, one of its fins almost bumping into me as it spun and its tails swishing over my head. Straightening as the Gorgon disappeared behind a boulder, I waited only a moment before dashing out of the death trap of a tunnel. A cluster of low lying boulders rested just inside the cavern I entered, but upon diving in I found that the divot in the middle provided plentiful cover. Falling onto my back with only just enough care to prevent noise, I put my shaky hands over my visor to block out the terrors around me and breathed heavily into my helmet. Eventually my heartbeat slowed and I let my arms fall to my sides. “Traveler above, don’t ever let that happen again,” Rush’s voice quaked. I murmured my thanks to the Traveler for our escape, and then addressed Rush. “If they ever catch me, you either hide under my body or escape to cover when they’re not looking,” I ordered quietly. “But I’ll need to revive you,” Rush argued. “We both know there won’t be anything to revive if a Gorgon gets me,” I responded, “Just promise me you’ll try to get out if I don’t make it.” Rush didn’t speak again, but I knew he would do it, no matter how strongly he wanted to stay with me. Sitting up, I looked at our new surroundings. The stream I had followed widened as it flowed deeper in and joined others, and a few red lights were placed around its edge. There was a rather large block of Vex architecture and many low boulders dotting a rather open cavern with wide pathways. “We’ve been here before…” my brow furrowed in concentration as I tried to recall my surroundings. “How can you tell?” Rush questioned. I looked at the nook I was in and spun in a full circle to take in the paths around us. “We hid right here from the Gorgons on our way in,” I confirmed. “How did we end up back here?” Rush gaped. “This place doesn’t work like the outside world,” I told him, “We came from…” Letting the sentence hang in the air, I checked for Gorgons and then walked out to where I thought our raid team had entered from. Before long I found a place where the water formed a pool that stretched across a wide space in front of a tall, slanted slab of rock. On the other side I traced the way up the cliff wall with my eyes until I found what I was looking for. Far above me, the cliff was topped with a block of Vex structuring and a tunnel that lead out of the Gorgons’ Maze. “We found it, Rush,” I felt my eyes water a little as some hope returned. I took three steps forward through the shallow water, then stopped as I felt a sickening sensation, like something was trying to tear my body out of reality itself. Spinning on my heel, I spotted a Gorgon several meters away, its fan-like segments spread wide and its tendrils waving gently in the air around it. Its eye grew slowly brighter, and everything around me began to fade with a red tint. I was so close. There was only one Gorgon; now that it had seen me I needed to kill it, but noise would draw in more. I didn’t have the ammo or the time. Electricity came to life around my fists, riding up my arms and springing up my legs with every step I took towards the Vex. I would use as much Light as I could spare, and hope that I would defeat the Gorgon and have enough left to escape. I would not be their prisoner. With a defiant shout, I swung both fists into the Gorgon’s eye, unleashing a wave of Arc energy that filled the dark Maze with dancing Light. [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/257593559/0/0]Link to Chapter 4: Lost[/url]