I tossed my knife. It was black and gray with a slight curve to it. The smooth edge was sharp, meeting with the rough, jagged edge at the base. It flipped in the air with a soft whir, glinting in the morning sun coming inside the abandoned building. The glass was cracked, but intact. You could hear the wind outside, howling through the uneven walls. The roof rattled some, but the rusted building stayed strong. I caught the knife and sheathed it, turning to look outside. The grass was dead, with sparse snow covering here and there in drifts. Small shrubs littered the place. I looked up through the gorge to see the sky was blue with no clouds. The sun beat down, but man, was it cold outside. Inside, the room was mostly empty. The only thing there was the carcass of an old couch, with only the metal frame, and what looked like a counter half torn down. Bits of metal and garbage was everywhere. The only new looking thing to see was my helmet and a metallic looking blanket. The blanket lit up briefly and disappeared into the air. My companion, Kai, rose up from where it had been.
Kai was a ghost, a mechanized ball of light created by the Traveler to watch over us. He was white, with what looked like spikes attached to a black ball. He would be perfectly symmetrical if he was folded in half. He had a blue 'eye', and the spikes would move and spin, showing emotion like any human, exo, or awoken could with a face. Kai, like any Ghost, can create objects from materials around him. The most convenient way to do this is to use glimmer, which I always keep on me. He hovered and moved around the room, briefly looking outside the window and glancing at me.
I walked to the broken counter and retrieved my helmet. It belonged to the "Fear Eater" set, colored with browns, some red, and a bit of white. Given out by the Vanguard only to those who earned it. They made you work for your gear, not giving it out to anyone who walks in fresh from their first revive due to our resource stock. Resources were always needed, and they were becoming more scarce out here. Glimmer especially. Glimmer is a programmable matter that can be shaped into anything with the right touch of technology, and was also used a currency. Ghosts can do it naturally, which is very helpful.
I put my helmet on and pulled my hood up. "Kai, are you ready?" He came level to my face and nodded. "Murko and Karo are on their way here. They'll be dropping down in a few minutes outside the next search area." A beacon popped up against my visor. It was a couple miles away, inside Dock-13. "Sounds good." I said, inspecting my hand cannon. It's name for guardians is Lord High Fixer, or High Fix for short. It was a splendid orange with diagonal black stripes down his short barrel, the chamber being a beat up white. I flipped it open and spun it, creating a soft mechanical clicking sound, almost like well oiled gears. Kai disappeared and rejoined my soul. Popping it closed and holstering, I opened the door and felt the wind. It was strong, and my cape billowed behind me like a banner. The old metal door rattled behind me for a second before being pinned to the wall again. In a flash of light, my sparrow, a one passenger fast transport vehicle, materialized in front of me. It had the shape of an arrowhead, and floated off the ground. It was propelled by a single jet located at the rear.
I climbed on board and began speeding towards the marker on my hud. I watched the skies. There were no ships above, and no movement around me. It was silent aside from the wind and the whine of my engine. Minutes went by and still nothing. I disturbed a murder of crows. They took flight, yelling at me as they disappeared from my sight.
When I arrived, Murko and Karo were waiting for me, getting there just before my arrival. Murko was a titan of the awoken race. His armor set was the Commando Type 0, the under armor colored with a pre-Golden Age green camouflage color and the armor plates a light cream color. His visor was an olive. Karo was an exo, with Warlock powers. His armor, well robes, was from the Vanguard, nicknamed 'Viper Spine'. They were darkly colored, being mostly a brown with green pauldrons and the such. I raised my hand in a wave as I got off the sparrow. In a flash, it disappeared.
I moved up the rusted stairs where Murko pulled me into a hug, happy to see me back. "Glad you made it out here. Not that we were worried or anything haha!" I nodded my head. I had missed them. Karo hugged me as well, and we took a moment to talk about the past few days. "How was the battle?" Murko looked down and shuffled the dirt. "It went pretty well I think. We won with minimal casualties. Titan brawn and Warlock brains got the job done." I smiled. "And how about the Hunters?"
"Hunters? Pssh. They did absolutely nothing..not like they were shot to oblivion, or vaporized in arc, or were stabbed a couple of times or anything," Karo teased, "Hunters are absolutely useless, I promise."
"Oh man, I'm sure we were useless. Most definitely."
Becoming serious, we made our way through the abandoned building. Called Dock-13, it was known for the Fallen that dwell within. The Fallen are one of the species who have joined the Darkness for power. They are divided into different houses: House of Devils, Kings, Wolves, WInter, and Exile. Each house is ruled by a Kell, followed by the Archon Priest and Prime Servitors. They come in all range of sizes, which is dictated by their rations of ether, their life substance. Beneath the three, are the Fallen barons, captains, vandals, and dregs. They have four arms, and a spider like face. One of their customs is that dregs, the lowest ranking Fallen, must earn their lower pair of arms. They are cut off, and must work their way up in the ranks to be allowed to grow them back.
Dock-13 is known to be home to the House of Devils, neighbored by the Kings in the Skywatch area. Cloaked in red and white, the Devils are dangerous. Exhibiting wire rifles, shock blades, and a cloaking ability, they are deadly. I took point, watching radar and avoiding obstacles that could alert anything of our position. We moved silently, checking rooms and hallways one after another. The air was cold, and smelled of what could almost be sulfur. The further we moved inside, the more bones appeared. Pile after pile of human bones were seen, thrown into corners. Clearing the last room, we came back to our objective point: an old computer system. Kai and Shein, Murko's ghost, jumped out of us and began scanning the area, taking in any data they could. A faint white aura glowed around them as beams of analyzing light ran across the surfaces of the machine. They moved over to the Fallen devices hanging from the ceiling in the Fallen version of cargo nets. Full of machine parts and broken shanks, the two ghosts materialized what could be brought back to the Tower. Loon, Karo's ghost, jumped out last and zoomed out of the room, ushering us to get down and hide. We hit the floor and took cover behind Fallen crates. Murko was to my left, Karo to the right across the room. The clank of heavy boots rung in the air, slowly and evenly.
Loon came back and instantly materialized back with Karo. We held our breath as they hit our radar. More and more appeared, the footsteps growing in size. Clang. Clang. It was all you could hear. The silence was cut when a Queenbreaker captain came into view through the broken observatory window. Followed by one vandal and three dregs, they rounded the corner into the room. The clanging stopped. The Queenbreaker ushered words in its tongue, and the dregs moved forward coming for the crates. The vandal stood as overwatch at the doorway while the captain went to the old computer system. It began pulling at the rusted cover, getting to the guts of the machine. The dregs moved closer, blinking furiously on our radars. Karo raised three fingers and counted down to the moment of strike.
Three.
Two.
One.
In a great rush, we raised our weapons and fired. The sound of rage echoed the room as the dregs went down. All three thudded to the ground as the hiss of ether marked their death. Murko leapt over the crates and went charging at the vandal. It let out a bloodcurdling scream as he crashed into it, sending it flying into the wall behind them. It slumped to the ground as ether escaped. The Queenbreaker was gone in a flash of blue and white. "Murk. Karo. We need to get out right now." Fallen cries reached their ears, as the reinforcements rallied. Loon appeared on my hud. "There's still much here that we need to gather. The Warlocks-" I cut her off. "The Warlocks can get it another time. We need to get out alive." The clang reappeared, much louder and hurried than before, coming from the way we came. We darted out of the room, running down the short hall and through the raised door. The room was empty with a massive hole in the wall. A matching hole in the roof teased freedom, too high to get up to. We charged through the center of the room, splashing water in our wake.
There was a shimmer in my vision and before I could react, a vandal lunged, uncloaking itself, baring dual shock blades. I blinked, or teleported, behind it, the tattered cape it wore brushing against me. It growled and turned to me, angry that I had tricked it. I kept running as Murko rammed it down. The crackle and hiss of flames was heard shortly after, coming from Karo's incendiary grenade. I turned and saw the flames licking at the doorway we had just come out of. Fallen howls were halted and replaced with a scream as a dreg was pushed through the flames in the stampede. Finally, we escaped the building.
But we were teased again. The loud boom of a skiff entering atmosphere resounded through the wasteland. The loud engine let off a wunn..wunn..wunn sound. It lowered to the open ground by the old buildings and unloaded the Devil walker tank clinging to its belly.