The group of four guardians progressed swiftly through the hive prison hoping that they would come across either Aaron or James as they continued forward. All the while they came across very little hive forces in their travels. The group slowed down a little bit when they approached another corridor. 

Vel was enthralled by Sidriks. In the few encounters they had with squadrons of hive soldiers he showed a level of skill that she didn't remember from the captains at the battle of Twilight Gap. He intrigued her to a great extent. What was it that made his ghost choose him rather than the other skeletons that were around? Vel would keep her eyes trained on this mysterious warrior while they were fighting. Unlike the other fallen she had seen before, Sidriks's fighting style involved him using all of his arms rather than just two. In his current state, he would use both a sword and a shock pistol in two of his arms. 

Sidriks would rarely use this particular stance in combat unless he was dealing with a greater number of enemies. Against the hive, it proved to be indispensable. Thralls, in particular, were already easy to take down but when they were in groups, it became more and more difficult. Especially considering that the group was overwhelmed nearly a day earlier by a massive group of them. 

"Okay, so now where do you think Aaron is?" Charon asked the others.

"He's probably in a cell just like we were; it'll take us an eternity to find him, though," Vel replied to him placing a new clip into her assault rifle. "Glad to see that my aim still holds true after forty years." 

"Yeah, you're just as sharp as I remember," Cameron remarked. 

The group then heard a screeching from the end of the corridor. "Great, thralls," Vel remarked. 

They prepared for the inevitable tidal wave to come. The silence after the first screech was maddening. Several minutes pass, and nothing happens. Then the group begins hearing footsteps echo down the hall. It wasn't like a thunderous step of either a knight or an ogre or the light pitter patter of thralls and acolytes. It was a single step then another. 

"Who's there?!" Cameron shouted into the darkness.

There was no response from the other side, only the footsteps. There were four guardians here, whatever this thing was they could take it down quickly. Or at least that's what they would think. Cameron against her better judgment started walking down the hallway with the hopes of being able to get to whatever it was that was ahead of them. Slowly but surely the other's followed behind. 

The hallway ahead of them was sparsely lit making it difficult to see ahead of them. Cameron then flicked on her helmet's built in flashlight and kept moving ahead. They then heard the footsteps again. 

"Who's there?!" Cameron yelled again. 

Still nothing. But then a figure began to take shape out of the shadows. It was humanoid in nature and was wearing an all red color of armor. His helmet had a sort of parasitic organism on it, and there was only one person who they knew who wore it. 

"Aaron?" Sidriks asked the figure. 

"Took you guys long enough." He said limping towards them. 

Aaron appeared to be in pretty bad shape. His armor was chipped and cracked in multiple areas with an area of his body glove being torn off completely around his left leg. The servo that allowed that leg to move was in a sort of stasis lock. His armor also had a layer of black dust on it. The same dust that was from slain hive warriors. 

"What happened to you?" Cameron asked him.

"Before I tell you that I just want to make a preface. I hate thralls. So much." He said breathing heavily. He collapsed to the floor after finally making it over to his teammates. The group ran over to his side and leaned him up against a wall. Cameron took his helmet off and placed it to the side, his left eye was broken, flickering on and off. "I managed to cut myself out of my cell using the arc blade. I was home free until I tipped off one of the guards. You know what he did? He sent a whole bunch of thralls at me! A whole bunch! They were screeching and clawing at me like they were a bunch of fire ants!" Aaron exclaimed. 

"So that's why you're all broken up," Charon remarked looking at the exo.

"Nooooo. I got broken down because I slipped on a nonexistent banana peel." He replied sarcastically. 

Vel then got down on the ground next to him. "I want you to lay flat on your stomach okay?" 

"Why?" 

"I've fixed several exos in my time Aaron, several of them were going through a stasis lock like you are now." She said getting a close look at the back of his leg. Vel reached for her belt pocket for a small repair kit she kept on her at all times. It's come in handy for her more than once when Saint would have problems. 

Then the crystal lights above them activated and a massive amount of hive soldiers poured in from the doors and the many holes that were in the ceiling. The other three that weren't involved in getting Aaron fixed prepared for the eventual fight with the many hive warriors that surrounded them. The hive sent a wave of thralls and acolytes ahead to take them down with several knights backing them up. Bullets from both sides flew as the hordes began to encapsulate the fireteam of five. Cameron in the act of desperation put up a ward of dawn around the team. The increase in shielding would keep them alive, at least for the time being. 

Thrall continued to invade the shield, not as much as there were that got them in this prison in the first place, but enough. "I can't work under these conditions!" Vel exclaimed. Vel began to power up her fist with arc energy. The current began to flow and sparks of electricity formed around it. With a crack, Vel's fist slammed into the chitin floors. The energy flowed outward and shocked the incoming thralls on their way in. The shockwave from the impact remained inside of the dome preventing access. 

Cameron noticed that the dome shield wouldn't last much longer from the sustained fire that was impacting it. Then the group looked out to the left and saw a large glow of purple light coming in from the end of the corridor. Then a bright flash of light appeared heading right towards them looking away and towards the hive that was to the next to them. The collectives mouths dropped as they watched the hundred hive soldiers turned into nothing from the bright blast of void light. 

Then once all the hive had fallen the beam stopped, and the dome shield fell. They all looked in the direction of the blast to see a warlock running down towards them. He had the all too familiar gray rifle on his back. His armor was a white with black with the chest plate of the thanatonaut orders. There was only one warlock the team knew that had a chest plate like that. 

"JAMES!" Cameron yelled as he finally approached them.

"Is everyone okay? I didn't hurt any of you by accident did I?!" He exclaimed rapidly.

"No, we're all okay. James, this is my friend Vel." She said pointing to the titan who stood up from Aaron.

"Nice to meet you, and by the way that was awesome!" Vel exclaimed shaking his hand.

"Really?"

"Yeah! Cameron told me all about you, the whole void beam thing? I didn't believe her. But now I know that she was telling the truth." 

"Thank you. All we need to do now is find a way to get out of here and to Crota." James replied.

"Why don't we pick a direction and head that way? The odds are that we'll find the exit soon." Sidriks replied.

"Good thinking, but I think it's still a little too random, maybe we should look for a control room first. That will give us a better idea as to where we are in comparison to the rest of the Hellmouth." Charon remarked.

"Agreed, you think they have a warden or something like that?" Aaron replied standing up off the ground.

"I would assume so, being a prison there would have to be some head guard."  

"Perhaps you'd be right." 

The fireteam decided to head onward through the corridors of the prison. Hopefully, they would find some sort of map to direct them to where they needed to go. It grew silent for a while as they progressed, The only sounds being made were their own footsteps on the cold chitin floors. James's mind began to wander about the nature of this place. The hive already had the chronovore pits so why did they require a prison of this scale? 

After walking for what felt like hours the team came up to a large staircase. "What do you think is up there?" James asked the group.

"A warden's office I hope," Charon remarked reloading his hawkmoon. The stairwell then approached a massive chitin door. It was significantly larger than all of them and most of the hive soldiers that they had come across. It had all sorts of engravings and symbols on it. The group paused for a brief moment, wondering what could lay on the other side. 

"What do we do now?" Sidriks asked reloading his shrapnel launcher.

James walked over to the door and started feeling the cold metal. He continued to move about the space around the door to try to find an opening to the titanic structure. "Okay, I think I found something," James remarked looking at some sort of large lock. It was rotary in nature with hive symbols being on the front facing him. 

"Ghost, remind me to start learning hive symbols." 

"Noted, you want me to take a crack at it?" 

"Yes please."

Ghost was pleasantly surprised. Most guardians ordered their ghost's around, but James thought differently of him. Ghost for James was someone in his life who demanded respect. 

"You got it." He stated flying outward and shining a blue light on the lock ahead of them. Ghost knew a thing or two about picking locks. From a golden age military facility to ancient vex ruins, if there was a lock he could pick it. 

"Wow, this is incredibly simple." Ghost stated still shining a light it. 

"What about it?" 

"They basically made this thing use the theoretical master code."

"Theoretical master code?"

"Yes, one, two, three, four." Ghost replied sarcastically.

"You're kidding right?"

"Nope." 

The massive doorway then opened to reveal the room that lay beyond. It was a huge room filled with crystal balls all along the chamber. With both the ceilings and the walls around them being coated in the reflective green spheres. The team slowly walked into the room searching around for some sort of indicator as to what this place was. Vel walked over to one of the many spheres and got a closer look. What it revealed to her was a fallen dreg inside of a cell shaking the cell bars ahead of him. There was a second dreg in there with him, a female by the looks of it. 

"I think we found the security office guys." She stated taking the sphere off the wall. The picture was still clear even after she disconnected it from the spot on the wall. She slowly walked over to the others clutching it in her hands. The other five observed the sphere carefully. Those two were placed in the prison, and unlike the guardians, they needed food and water to live. The woman appeared to be crying, and the man walked over to comfort her. 

"We need to release the gates," James stated to the group. The team of five looked at him oddly. 

"Why should we do that?"

"First, it'll create a diversion for us to keep moving. With all the hive distracted down here, there will be less going after us. Second, it will give a chance for them to escape." He said glancing at the small crystal sphere. 

"Since when did you care about fallen dregs?" Charon asked him.

"I don't, but these are an exception. Look at them. They're suffering down there."

The group went silent for a moment. Vel walked over to put the orb back on the wall where she found it. She decided to walk a little quicker while the others continued looking around. Vel then slipped on a puddle of something on the floor and fell. The sphere that she was holding then shattered. 

The entire room began to shake. "Vel what did you do?!" Cameron exclaimed looking over to her.

"I-I don't know! I just dropped the sphere, and it broke!"

There was a hole in the center of the room in the ceiling that the team heard a massive roar emit from. Then a creature descended from above it had the bottom half of a chronovore and the top half of an incredibly large wizard. 

"I guess that's our warden?" Aaron asked pulling out his sniper rifle.

"I'd assume so," James said pulling his gun off his back. 

The being stood before them with it wringing its hands together in the most sinister way. 

"So it is you six who broke out of my prison." It thundered. "You will suffer a thousand times for what you have done!" It exclaimed with green auras being created about the center of the room. From those several of the corrupted guardians from the chronovore pits emerged. The entire group was taken aback by this. Except for James. He had fought these creatures before, while their abilities are intriguing in it of themselves, they were nothing special.

It was a group of two warlocks, two hunters, and two titans. "Don't let their menacing appearance fool you they go down easy," James remarked to his teammates. 

"You've fought these things before?" Vel asked him glancing over to the zombie guardians.

"Yeah, before I slew that giant spider thing three months ago," James replied. 

"OH, SO IT WAS YOU WHO CROTA SPOKE OF! I WILL HAVE THE HONOR OF SLAYING YOU AND YOUR MISCREANT FRIENDS!" The creature at the center thundered. 

"You'll die trying," James remarked.