Chapter 1: At The Edge
"What is light?" asked Ikora flatly, casting her gaze evenly upon the courtyard of seated Guardians; her question falling upon deaf ears, and dumbfounded expressions.
"For centuries Light has been thought of to be the power which guides us in our eternal fight, gifted to each of us upon our rebirth in this new world, and chiefly granting us innumerable powers and abilites to fight, and push back against the Traveller's ancient enemy; The Darkness and it's minions. Enlight of recent events, namely the destruction of The Hive's God-king; Oryx and his son Crota; the Speaker has seen fit to lift the ban upon the once forbidden teachings the once haunted many of the classrooms within the Tower grounds. I of course mean the teachings of two exiled Warlocks, once the greatest in their respective fields; Toland and Osiris. They were both masters of knowledge focusing upon the Hive, and the Dark Arcana that surrounds our most formidable foe."
The lulled collection of Guardians perked their ears up, now rapt with attention. The bored expressions, and blank stares were now fixated upon the Warlock Vanguard; murmuring began as the excitment began to overflow amongst the crowd at the chance to learn once forbidden teachings.
Ikora scaned the courtyard, an air of pride slowly encircled her; seeing each of these newly reborn Warlocks ready to learn and fight back against the agression of the Darkness. All eyes were on her, each pair waiting for her to continue the lecture; all eyes expect one pair.
"You there, in the back. Does this not interest you Titan?" she spat some what aggitated.
The lone titan in the back of the Courtyard now picked his head up and stared back at Ikora. His eyes appearing hollowed, and seemingly devoid of Hope, a sullen overtone hung around him. He stretched his neck and looked up at the clear blue sky; taking a moment to formulate a response.
"Actually as a matter of fact, it doesn't. After so many years, and so many lives lost we have yet to focus on the important aspect of our enemy. What's the point of knowing what each enemy brings to the table if we have yet to figure out what the Darkness as a whole is. And I don't mean examining the current theories that have been cast aside by many Warlocks and Scholars. It serves to only deter us from finally destroying the life force that keeps the ancient evils that haunt our solar system alive." he finished out of breath, and feeling a little out of place.
The entire class was looking back and forth between them, as if expecting some form of a world-shattering response. Ikora thoughtfully looked away and smiled, readjusting her gaze at Cayde-6 her counterpart, and nodded. Sighing the Hunter stood up straight and adjusted his cloak, and strode over to the Titan, smirking and shaking his head.
"What's your name Titan?" he asked yawning slightly.
"Marek, sir" responded the Titan, standing up straight and snapping a salute.
"Yeah alrighty, you can uhm.. stop that. You've been awfully colorful today for a Titan, mind coming with me? So uh yeah heh, follow me please."
Marek beathed in deeply, adjusting his stance and followed the hunter out of the courtyard; they began walking down a crescent staircase towards the Hall of Guardians. A flight wing of Javelins came zipping by over their heads, exhaust trails filling the empty blue sky. The Hunter looked back at him, and shook his head laughing.
"Ya know, its not very often that you see Ikora stumble with a response. You really stumped her, it was actually interesting; gotta be sure to give her some hell about it later." spoke Cayde, each sentence jostled as they walked down the steps in the Hall.
"I didn't mean to cause any problems, I was merely responding to the question I was asked. I must have forgotten who I was talking to, for that I apologize." spoke Marek carefully.
"Oh, just wait Zavala will have something to say to you once he find him. Of course that shouldn't be that hard, considering he never leaves that Command table, I swear its the same conversation everyday."
Marek dipped his eyes, following Cayde silently awaiting his fate at the hands of his mentor. Upon entering the Hall, the command table was fixed within the center of the room, with frames manning the defense grid's computers along each wall. At the far end the wall was made of pure glass, outlining the wilderness below the Tower, miles of Forest and snow-capped mountains.
Around the table stood Commander Zavala, the mentor of Titans and stalwart leader of the City's defense systems. Next to him was the dubious Awoken hunter Eris Morn, who managed to lead a team of Guardians to destory both Crota, Son of Oryx within the Hellmouth on Luna; but as well as offering invaluble intel whilst the same team pierced the Dark veil of Oryx's Dreadnaught. She fittled with her ominous green orb, while she poured over strategic map overlays. Two more figures were present, another Hunter, although he had his face and figure masked by shadows. The last was a tall Warlock, dressed in yellow robes, accented by plasta-steel pauldrons, and gauntlets.
"Ah, Cayde welcome back. We thought you might have lost your way again," Zavala spoke up greeting their entrance. All eyes turned to look at the pair upon entering the room.
"Well, Marek here fits your bill Eris. Stumped your friend Ikora during her Light and Darkness lecture. It was pretty damned amusing." he exclaimed, jabbing his finger back towards the Titan towering over him.
Marek shifted his weight from foot to foot, feeling the uncomforting presence of eyes staring into his soul and watching him with intent. Eris snapped her eyes up and fixated upon him, slowly circling away from Zavala towards him, never once taking her eyes off of his.
"Tell me, what is it that you said during such an important teaching session that caused Ikora to hand pick you? Was it your cliche hate for the Darkness, or something...else?" she questioned him flatly, stopping her approach in front of him.
"I merely challenged that we shouldn't be focusing on the minions of the Darkness, as we have already learned enough to combat them; We should instead focus on learning what the Darkness is fully, and what it provides to each individual race that would make them act the way they do."
"Ah, inquisitive one aren't you? So much more interesting then a Titan who only thinks with his fists and blind hate."
Zavala shifted at the snide comment that was directed at him. Cayde smirked and walked back towards his commonly used position at the command table, proping himself upon it.
"Guardian, with the destruction of Oryx and his vile army of Taken we have begun a real push into the solar system and the outer planets. With communication now open with the Reef, we've finally be able to contact the Jovians beyond the Reef. They have lived far beyond the reach of the Traveller for centuries, and under the leadership of the Nine, they have secured their place among the stars. But as such, they are in charge of all traffic passing near the Jovian planets and their moons." spoke the Titan Commander, slowly to make sure each point was not missed.
Marek nodded his head slowly, but cocked his eyebrow slightly; an air of confusion wafting around his form. He stalked over towards the command table and stood at attention with his hands clasped behind his back.
"So, in what fashion does this help up sir?
"Well, the Nine felt it prudent to relay an intercepted transmission from the brink of the universe. A small three beat beacon has been transmitting upon all open channels, and the very odd part of this story is that the beacons origin point falls upon a small planetoid, that Golden Age scholars called "Pluto."
Marek coughed, feeling a sense of dread coming over him. Serving long enough as a Guardian to know what this conversation was leading up to. He breathed deeply and letting it out just a deeply.
"How many Guardians are you recuriting for this mission? And when does it depart?"
"Oh very, very interesting. You are one special Titan aren't you?" it was Eris that spoke to him this time.
"Well Marek, actually the Vanguard were out of ideas as to whom should lead this expedition. It would be a small team of Guardians, three or four total. I know Dead Orbit has already sent out it's own recovery team of Guardians to retrieve whatever lies beyond the light."
Cayde now tired of listening to the constant drivel that was escaping the Commander's mouth thought it best to close this out.
"Guardian, you are to collect a fireteam of Guardians whom have no regard for their life, or the Light within their souls. You will lead this fireteam to the beacon, find whoever set it up, and bring them back, and whatever Tech you can find. There's bound to be plenty, after centuries of negelct and being veiled behind the Darkness." he shot out, finally ending the conversation and storming out of the Hall towards the Tower North district. Leaving Zavala stunned by the outburst and Eris groveling.
"As it happens Guardian, we already have two of your new teammates with us here at the command table."
The cloaked hunter stepped forward, the hood of the cloak falling down revealing the face of a young Awoken woman; facial expression showing one of untempered light. She bowed her head and held out her hand.
"I am Seyleen. I look forward to following you out into the unknown to fight whatever may lay beyond the Travellers reach." she finished bowing her head slightly and taking a small step backwards.
The Warlock now stepped forward, pulling his hood down revealing a face of battle-hardened hatred for the Darkness, an air of impunity flowed out of him further alluding the resolve he held towards the fight.
"I am Drakken-5, Warden for the Desiciples of Osiris. I will assist you in this endeavour, and collect any available data for the Warlock orders, as well as my own. I have no doubt that the Light will guide us upon the path of success."
"So it's settled, Marek, if you feel the need to find yourself more asistance then by all means do so. If not you are to depart as soon as possible, and make your way to these coordinates. The NLS jump parameters have been preloaded to your Ghost. Good luck, and may the Traveller guide you." finished Zavala, walking away towards his city maps.
Marek and his two new companions made their way out of the Hall and into the Tower's main terrace. The usually silent and collected courtyard was now filled with an unworldy amount of bustle as fireteams of Guardians now made themselves ready for various offensives against the Darkness on Earth and the Moon. Marek instructed his companions to meet him in the Hangar within the next twenty or some mintues at which point they would depart. He himself went over towards Banshee-44's gunsmithing table to requistion plenty of ammo synthesis' He heard foot steps stop behind him. Wheeling around he saw Eris Morn standing in front of him.
"Guardian, they thought it best to leave this out of your...mission breifing. But I thought it important to enlighten you. When a being of Light stays within a field of immense Darkness it has a few undesirable side effects, chiefly it will cause you to misjudge many trivial situations; and in some cases cause insanity. You MUST take heed of you and your team's well-being on a constant basis. You as a Titan must be the beacon of Light and Hope, so that others may flock to you in their hour of need... There is...another thing that needs to be discussed. Upon my own personal inspection of this transmission, I noticed that some of the sub-system frequencies were akin to that of the Hive, now it could just be a coincidence; however as important as this mission is, I wouldn't take this lightly. Now I must go find Ikora, we have much to discuss." she nodded her head and stormed off.
Marek shook his head heavily. This was more then a comfortable amount of information to take in all within an hour, but as someone once said; Ain't no rest for the wicked. He collected his purchase from the Exo and made his way to the Hanger, a small sense of doubt started to pool within the back of his head; his own personal darkness swallowing his mind. What had he gotten himself into?