Chapter 1: What to do about nothing
Venus, a largely inhospitable planet before the golden age of the traveler, was now teeming with beautiful flora and fauna. Its intense beauty interrupted by a large collection of buildings that once housed the greatest minds humanity had to offer, unfortunately it now lay a desiccated ruin. This building was filled with teeming hordes of fallen and vex, constantly warring with each other in an endless battle for planetary control. It was an effort in futility as the areas of control had barely changed since Atheon had been defeated.
Those minions of the darkness couldn't distract from the immense satisfaction of seeing a fallen captains head blasted into smithereens by a high velocity shell. The loud retort that followed echoed around the fireteam lying about on a cliff.
"Never gets old!" Vince, a roguish gunslinger from the early days of the fight against the darkness. His golden gun was infamous in the crucible for its unerring accuracy and unrivaled power. "Ain't nothing better than a sunny day, and a high powered rifle".
"Couldn't agree more my friend" Xandar the inquisitive warlock, a passionate voidwalker with a mind of steel. He constantly sought to grow his own power, and was known to do anything to get it. He was currently reading up on the 'books of sorrow' while reclining on his sparrow.
Atlas, an imposing titan responded."Well, it would have been better to crush his head with my hands" He was used to obliterating his enemies his innate power and insane delivery, nothing survived his fist of havoc. And nothing pleased him more than 'feeling their puny skulls crack in his fists, and the warm sensation of their blood on his hands'.
Xandar spun around to face Atlas "Well of course, Why wouldn't a Titan love to get up close and personal with a deadly alien from space?" His voice dripping with sarcasm
"That's not all I'm good at" Atlas mumbled under his breath, kicking a small rock off the cliff. It bounced off the various outcroppings on the way down and then finally settled on the bottom. Echoes of its passage seemed to last forever until silence fell once again.
"Does Atlas have a soft side?" Xandar mocked
"Well he sure as hell doesn't have a handsome side" Vince laughed to himself, the subtle movements throwing off his aim. The shot he had fired careened off course, striking a Vex statue and barely denting the odd metal that covered it.
He briefly turned to Atlas "well… guess you can't hit 'em all"
Atlas's rumbling laughter entered the ears of Xandar who started laughing along with him. Unable to stop himself Vince joined in and their combined mirth filled the clifftop. As the laughter died down Vince moved his trained eye back to his scope.
"That's odd, statues don't usually move" Vince noted, then stood up and peered more intently down his scope.
"Well that ain't good", without looking away from his scope he warned the rest of the fireteam, "Get ready guys, we're about to have company"
Xandar took cover behind his sparrow and pulled his 'MIDA' off his back. He quickly checked his HUD for his ammo count then pulled the slide back to confirm it visually. Meanwhile Atlas swung his 'found verdict' out of it's holster, and held it low by his hip, reminiscent of the action heroes in the old vidocs. Vince, already aware of the threat, had already pulled out his 'last word' and held it at the ready with other hand on the hammer, ready to unload on to the machine when it appeared in front of them.
It surprised none of them when it phased in. A large Minotaur, at least 8ft tall stood before them. it dwarfed even Atlas, much to his annoyance. Its ornate and decorative armor, with a large halo protruding out of its head, as well as the high grade metals that made up it's chassis denoted it as a precursor. An ancient Vex usually only seen near places of strategic importance. Within seconds it had raised its large right arm, inner mechanisms and gears grinding from interior corrosion, and begun charging the huge cannon built into it. The smell of ozone filled the air and a purple glow emitted from the various ports along the weapon, barely able to contain the colossal energies swirling around within it.
Without hesitation Atlas threw his shotgun to Vince, who easily caught it with one outstretched hand. Xandar, who had already holstered his 'MIDA', was watching as Atlas went to work.
He started by throwing a stun grenade at the Minotaur blinding it's sensors and making it reel around in confusion as its sensor units struggled to clear away the disturbance. Then he broke into a sprint and charged the towering machine. The cannon on its arm discharged into the air, its aim ruined. dropping his shoulder at the last minute, a corona of light surrounded him. When he was in range he gained a burst of speed as he crashed into its frame crumpling the metal surrounding it's fluid core which burst from the pressure.
"Atlas, that was...gratuitous" Xandar noted, clapping his hands slowly
"Well maybe if you took your head out of that book once in awhile, you'd be just as awesome and badass as me" Atlas shouted, his arms pumping in the air to celebrate his victory
"Guys, enough celebration" Vince interjected, " we still have a lot of nothing to do, and alotta time to do it"
Following this Atlas went back to polishing his pride and joy, the helm of the greatest Titan to ever live, Saint-14. Vince was settling back in for some more long-range fun. Meanwhile Xandar walked over to his sparrow, to finish reading the 'books of sorrow'. Depressing stuff for what was supposed to be a vacation but he had long since run out of things to read. Just as he was sitting down a loud static crackled out of the radio. It was an indecipherable mess until the steady voice of Zavala, the titan vanguard, broke through the static.
"Fireteam Octavia, you are ordered to the Vault of Glass for a patrol respond"
"What the hell, why are we goin' on a patrol respond?" Atlas questioned, "aren't there any greenies around here?"
"There is a faint signal coming from the vault of glass and we want you to investigate" the voice of Zavala continued, "Get in, have your ghost take a reading and get out".
"Why do we always get the boring assignments" Vince complained as he begrudgingly slid his rifle across his back.
"One more thing Octavia" A serious tone entered Zavala's voice, " no funny business". Then the signal cut.
Despite their lazing about, they were still guardians so they had their campsite packed in minutes. After finishing up they summoned their sparrows and were on the way to a place they hoped never to return too.
A lone Dreg stumbled around a ravine between two towering cliffs, its footfalls heavy, slow and lumbering. Clearly it was deprived of ether, and with no servitors in sight it was very likely this road in the middle of nowhere was to be its grave. It looked up with a start when it heard a strange whine approaching. Upon seeing three silvery chassis's racing towards it, its slow lumbering gait became a panicked scramble as one of the shapes peeled off to catch it. It began yelling in fear until the silvery shape caught it, and decapitated the thing in its tracks. Astride these sleek speed machines were a full fireteam of guardians, all laughing with reckless abandon.
"Did you see the look on its face!" Atlas spoke past a massive grin.
"Indeed I did" Xandar then tapped the bottom of his helmet thoughtfully, "I did not realize just how deadly sparrows could be" then started taking notes on the viability of sparrows as projectile weapons, somehow correcting his course at the same time.
As they flew along, the paid no attention to their surroundings, its awe inspiring majesty a numbed blur to the veteran fireteam. The first time they were here was long before the troubles of SIVA and its brainwashed hordes, Oryx and his taken army, and Skolas, Kell of house winter. They had passed this same scenery many years ago when they were called to defeat the Vex menace, Atheon in a daring mission where they joined up with fireteam Griffon to face the terrible machine-god. The price of victory was high however, as the entirety of fireteam Griffon was lost in the depths of time. The fear of sharing their date was the reason why Octavia had never gone back… until now.
Another consequence of Atheon's defeat was the opening of a rift through space-time that remained open to this day. It was unknown if the portal had a purpose or not, but an echo had been heard in the depths of the vault, where silence had reigned since Atheon's defeat. This was enough to call Ocativia to delve once more into the depths of the vault.
"Hey guys" Vince managed to say without losing face "we're here"
The whole building had begun to decay once Atheon perished, its majesty slowly disappearing as moss covered its once shining surface. Ironically, time had not been kind to the once mighty Vault, the door that they had once worked so hard to open lay in pieces at their feet, the oddly strong Vex metal cracked and rusted. The goblin sentinels still stood guard at the entrance, but they had long fallen silent, rusted into place by the passage of time, eternal guardians of the ruined vault.
The whole fireteam stood staring until finally Atlas began moving forward, a determined line crossing his face.
"We came here to do a job, lets get it done and go home".
Xandar and Vince strode after him, determined to finish this scan, then go back to tower and have a nice long rest with plenty of alcohol.
As they crossed the threshold a strong sense of foreboding fell over Xandar as he studied his surroundings. The roughly hewn rock walls seemed to press in on him and his palms began to sweat. Even without Atheon this was still a place of evil, and it was heavy with it.
"I don't like it guy's" Xandar motioned to the walls, "This whole place is giving me some bad vibes"
"No shit, it's the fucking vault of glass" Vince's easy confidence barely covering his own distaste, memories of the place giving him shivers
"Who wouldn't get those from this place"
"But look at the ceiling, those runes were definitely not there last time" Xandar gestured to the slightly glowing runes running along the top of the cave. They were written in a oddly delicate script, unusual for the vex.
"It looks like... cursive, old Earth writing if my assumptions are correct" Xandar observed
"Lets focus up Octavia" Atlas, the de-facto leader of the fireteam, ordered, "This ain't sunning ourselves and sniping captains, this is serious"
"Aye sir" They responded in tandem, Xandar snapping a few pictures of the strange markings before bringing up the rear. The cave passages they followed steadily grew tighter and narrower as they progressed until opening into a immense cavern. A large stone slab protruded about halfway over a massive ravine. Fireteam Octavia wasn't gazing in wonder though, because they had been here before.
The Templars abode
This update has finally gotten this chapter to where I want it, so now I can finally start working on the next chapter. The new chapter will be up soon and I hope to update a little more regularly.
-The Beagle
