Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the game series Destiny, It is property of Bungie!
Chapter 1
Before you start, I would just like to state that this is my first Fanfic, and is a slight AU, where the Vault of Glass has never been entered, and this group is the first. Inspired by the group I generally play with, they also assisted with the plot, and definitely will again in the future. I hope you like this, please rate and review! Enjoy!
I woke up in the my living quarters, still sore from my excursion the day before. Me and one of the other guardians, a warlock we all call Muffin (heh, 'nother story, 'nother time), decided that training in the crucible would be fun, and damn were we wrong. Our team called me 'Scalper', and I'd tell you the story, but none of us can seem to remember where that started.
Lord Shaxx had decided it was Titan training day, so naturally a warlock and a hunter didn't quite fit the balance. We spent six hours being humiliated by the overpowered, yet slow and seemingly unintelligent class that filled most training grounds.
But that was yesterday, and today our friend Benny, also known as B-Dog, yet another titian, asked us to meet him in the Tower Watch. So, I dressed, donned my cloak, and headed off to our meeting area. It was a short walk, the living quarters were a part of the Tower North so I saw the speaker on my walk. The Speaker seemed very busy busy today, what with new guardians joining the fight against darkness everyday, the crowd was at least six rows deep.
After exiting the hallway that connected the Tower North to the Tower Watch, I caught sight of B-Dog, leaning on the railing that overlooked the city, and standing next to him was both Muffin and Chungus (Chungus was a fellow hunter). As I made my way over to him, I caught sight of a titian making his way towards the group, and it took me a moment to recognize him, but when I did I couldn't help but to stifle a laugh.
It was another of our comrades, Elskin, it seemed his chest armor was damaged yesterday during training and he had to pick up novice gear whilst his was repaired. He and I both arrived at the railing at the same time.
"So, Benny, what the hell did you need to see us so bad for?" I asked, curious as to why he had called so many of us together, since we normally worked in three man teams.
"Just wait til' Mike gets here, then I'll explain," He replied, looking impatient, most likely since the two that arrived before me had asked the same question.
We sat in silence for a few minutes, Benny leaning on the railing with their backs to the city, me sitting facing the same direction, and Elskin pacing back and forth in front of us. It wasn't long until Elskin voiced his irritability.
"Holy shit! What on earth could he be doing?!" He yelled to no one in particular, and just as he spoke, almost as if planned, a warlock came walking out of the hanger, headed toward the group.
"Ha, you know where he was!" Benny said as he chuckled, as Mike had been spending a lot of time with a female guardian he had met named Anna.
"Sorry guys, I was… Uh… Talking with the Dead Orbit vendor…" Mike trailed off, trying to hide his obvious embarrassment.
"Alright, before you give loverboy shit, I'm gonna tell you why we're all here," Benny began, "The day before last The Speaker came to my quarters, and asked me to get a team tog-"
"He came to your quarters! Damn, this must be big!" Chungus interrupted, sounding excited.
"Yeah, that or we're being sent on another patrol to Mars," Elskin retorted sarcastically.
"Oh, shut the hell up, Elly! He wouldn't have gone to Benny's quarters for just that! Unless Benny's been doing other assignments for him!" I said, shooting Ben a wink.
"Would y'all shut up so he can finish!" Muffin yelled, seeming irritated.
"Thank you, Muffin. Anyway, as I was saying-" Benny started, before being cut off yet again.
"We all know he's excited to get back to the Speaker, or is he the Moaner when he's with you?" Muffin said, causing everyone to roar with laughter.
The joking continued for nearly ten minutes, while Benny waited and stared at the sky, leaning back on the railing. Eventually everyone realized that he still hadn't explained why they were all summoned, and started pestering him to finish his explanation.
"Alright, as I was saying, the Speaker has a special mission for me and wanted me to get a group together for it." Benny started, "Instead of the usual three man team, he wants a six man for this, so we need to be ready for anything. Our mission is to investigate something called the 'Vault of Glass", it's on Venus, and we're to leave immediately. So, gather your gear, and meet me in orbit. We'll head out as a team. Meet up in twenty?"
"Roger," We all muttered, nearly in unison. I sure as hell wasn't excited for this, I had actually planned a nice relaxing day, but nevertheless, I joined the others on the walk back to the quarters. It was quite as we all contemplated what this mission could have in store. Muffin broke the silence, saying what most of us were thinking.
"Y'all, this could be really bad, I mean, six man teams are totally fucking unheard of…" Muffin said, sounding nearly worried. No one said anything for a while as we thought over his words, that is until Chungus tried to lighten the mood.
"Don't worry, Chungus gots this, you can even hop in my backpack if you wanna hide!" He said as he laughed, trying hard to be carefree.
"Hey, Chung, shut the fuck up. This is serious, and for the love of God, stop with the third person shit!" Elskin yelled, sparking an argument that lasted the whole rest of the walk to the our quarters.
I tuned them out, mostly due to the high anxiety I was feeling about the mission. I tried thinking about anything to clear my mind, but I couldn't get the thoughts out of my head. The only good thing that came from this was that my worries made time feel as though it was passing faster. Before I knew it I was at my door.
I entered my room and thought about what I may need for the journey ahead. After a few seconds of contemplation, I decided to take my usual loadout; A hand cannon called 'The Last Word' I found in an old research lab that the Hive had infested, a shotgun I earned through crucible training called 'Two to the Morgue', and a rocket launcher that I had personally upgraded in my free time that had no name. Along with all of that, I also took a few ammo synthesis from my stock, and a pack of cigarettes.
As soon as my smokes were secure in my hip pouch, I summoned my Ghost and had him teleport me to my ship, the Thirty-eight. I shuddered once I rematerialized, and pulled out my smokes and lit one up. I blew smoke out as I turned on my ship to ship radio and entered our private team channel.
"This is Scalper, locked and loaded, ready to hit damn road."
"Copy that, Scalper. All accounted for, sending the coordinates now." Benny replied, "Here's the plan, once we've arrived at the destination, I'm going to take my ship down to one fifty meters above the surface and have my Ghost do a scan of whats down there, so we don't go in totally blind. Any problems with that?"
Before any of us could reply, he had already departed at near light speed, leaving us no choice but to go along with his plan, but not without complaint.
"Who died and put him in charge?" Muffin asked over the radio.
"Fuck if I know man, but I guess we don't get a choice in this shit." I replied as I exhaled a cloud of smoke into the cockpit. "But what're ya gonna do. All we can do is smoke 'em while we got 'em." I said, using the centuries old saying.
"You're goddamn right," He replied, and launched, immediately disappearing from sight. I followed behind him, albeit slower, as I wanted time to enjoy what could very well be my last cigarette.
When my ship jolted to it's stop, I was just putting out my smoke, and looking out the windows to see who had arrived before me. I counted five ships and wondered what could be keeping the straggler so long, since I took my time getting there, before I noticed that the only ship missing was Benny's, with it's giant refrigerator looking engines. Then I remembered his plan.
We all waited quietly, I assumed that Muffin and Chungus were praying, while Elskin, Mike and I were sitting, wondering what the hell could be waiting for us down there. After a few minutes, B-Dog returned and broadcasted his report to us.
"Alright, so it looks like there are three sync plates down there, and that means that they probably need to be consistently activated at the same time. Or something totally different, and we're all gonna die, so lets just fucking go."
"That's all you have? Just a maybe? That's bullshit!" Elskin yelled.
"Well, if you wanna fly down into enemy territory, within sniper range and do better be my guest!" Benny retorted.
"Whatever, lets just go…" Elskin said, still sounding angry.
"Transporting to surface," Chungus said, sounding giddy, and we all followed suite.
Before I left my ship, I took a deep breath to steady myself. It only took a second before the bone chilling feeling of de- and re-materialization came over my body, and the squishy surface of the planet Venus beneath my feet.
I made sure my armour was secure before drawing my hand cannon. Weapon out, I walked over to B-Dog and the others. He had drawn a diagram in in the mud of the plates, and it seemed that there was no direct line of sight between plates.
B-Dog was crouched as he looked up at us, telling us what positions we would take, Muffin and I on the right, he and Chungus in the middle and Elskin and Mike on the left.
"Guys, seriously, be careful. I have no idea what we're going to be up against. Don't get cocky." B-Dog stated, "Now, lets go kick some ass!"
We all responded with 'hell yeah's and 'damn right's, and set out to the begin our assault on the Vault of Glass. We all activated our jump modifiers, mine allowing me to jump three times, called Triple Jump, Muffin's allowing him to glide, and lift him up into the air, called Glide. We were about one hundred feet from our starting position when B-Dog's voice came over the helmet radio, telling us to turn to the team voice channel.
"So, are there going to be any enemies?" Chungus said, still giddy.
"Since they're using sync plates, I'm assuming they're Vex, which means we probably won't see them until the sync plates are activated. So lets hurry and get this over with," I responded, trying to sound confident.
We were all to on edge to talk the rest of the way, and as we reached our plates, B-Dog counted us down and we stepped in, and immediately the black, lightning filled clouds that signaled the Vex teleporting appeared all around us.
"Contact!" Someone yelled, I couldn't decipher the voice past my own nerves. I couldn't understand what I was so worried about, but there was a feeling I couldn't shake. I couldn't let that affect my fighting ability, or someone could die because of me.
The first of the Vex dropped in front of us, Goblins and Hobgoblins, four of each. I fired, hitting in their glowing midsection, they dropped to the ground immediately, and my fourth shot took the head off of one, which proceeded to bull-rush directly for me. Muffin took four out right away with his pulse rifle, just as a large, heavily shielded Minotaur dropped behind them. I gunned down the final Goblin just as the first of the Minotaur's blasts exploded six feet in front of me.
Muffin and I reacted in nearly the same way, holstering our primaries, we drew our shotguns, and charged, two shots took down the giant Minotaur's shields, and he stomped the ground with enough force to send Muffin and I flying through the air, six feet backwards and onto our backs.
"Watch the big ones, they're tougher than regular Minotaurs, don't get close, take them at midrange!" I yelled, as I got up dropping my shotgun and pulling out my 'Last Word'. I reloaded the eight round chamber and fired, after seven shots the goliath dropped to the ground, and I put one more round in him for safety. I took little notice to the lack of response from my allies.
I looked over to see Muffin to see him on his feet, ready for the next round. The waves continued as the first, with the occasional Harpies, and all but the Minotaur were dispatched with ease. It took nearly full clips from both of our guns to take him down, and on the final, I missed a few shots, so I had to resort to using one of my tripmines. I threw it at him and it stuck to his gun arm. upon detonation, his body was launched to the middle of the area, near the area that we materialized in, where I noticed the Spire that been forming in the middle of the clearing, with a beam of light connecting it to the giant Vex door.
One final wave marked the end of our first battle, and nothing went amiss. The Vex stopped dropping in, and the door opened with a series of loud clinking sounds, and which Muffin and I both rushed towards.
"Is everyone alright?" I yelled into my radio, I got no response. I was getting worried.
It was a short run, and in seconds we arrived at the door, where I saw all four of the others standing, and it looked as though they were conversing, but I couldn't hear a thing through my helmet radio, but I was relieved that everyone was fine.
"What the fuck is up with your radios!" I yelled upon reaching the group. "I was worried as shit!"
"Yours is off dumbass," Elskin laughed, his voice sounded muffled.
"Yeah, you had me worried too," B-Dog yelled, "Why's your helmet being butts?"
"Probably when that Minotaur launched us on our asses, fuckin piles of junk…" I said, summoning my Ghost to do as scan and fix my helmet, and when that was finished, I turned on the radio, and could finally hear the others clearly. B-Dog and Mike were talking, Muffin singing, and Chungus and Elskin arguing. I sighed, and a shook my head.
"Okay guys, is everyone ready to go, 'cause I'm going on, with or without you…" I said as I walked through the giant door and down the dirt path. On, the walk I decided to have my Ghost scan the air for oxygen levels and toxins, and when it reported that it had found none, I decided to take off my helmet so I could smoke.
The first thing I noticed when I took off my helmet was how cold it was, it felt like winter in the Cosmodrome. The second thing I noticed was how still the air was, even though the door was open, there was no breeze, no movement in it at all. It felt as though I was trespassing upon some sacred ground, which I probably was. The only thing I could think of were the ghost stories where the spirits of the dead stay to guard the sacred grounds that their corporeal forms rested in, but this wasn't a ghost story, and the Vex are just machines, so whatever they had as a guardian, was definitely real.
The others were quick to follow me as that feeling of dread set in again, But there was nowhere to go but down. Down into the Vault of Glass.
End of Chapter 1