Warmind Vault
Old Russia, Earth
*BOOM*
The Ace of Spades fired, another dreg down, its corpse disintegrating in the fires generated by the weapon. Vulcan spun, hands flying for another magazine, as his radar detailed more contacts on his rear.
Another captain, some vandals, and scattered dregs. A grenade formed in Vulcan's left hand, comprised of plasma compressed into a sphere the size of a baseball. The grenade flew through the air, and landed on the captain. It stuck fast, and the internal process began. Molecules were forced to fuse, and the resulting energy was let out all at once. The captain, and all the fallen within three meters, vaporized near instantly. The remaining dregs were dispatched by a few thunderclaps from Ace.
Vulcan's ghost materialized over his shoulder. "The fallen here don't seem to be much more than the riff raff we find in the EDZ these days", spoke Vulcan, his deep timber echoing in the empty room. "Yes," Ghost replied, "But we've only been here ten minutes. And you know how these things go. We run around killing said 'riff raff' for hours, only for some bigger baddie to show his face afterwards." Vulcan chuckled. "I suppose. We must go deeper then, yes?" He asked, before marching forwards, Ace clutched in his hand. Ghost vanished into his helmet as he went.
His armor gleamed with silver and gold as he marched, the set named Vigil of Heroes, a gift from Zavala after defeating a particularly nasty Psion under the surface of Nessus. His mark, a gift from Ikora, after he avenged Cayde, would always be a tribute to his fallen friend, along with the weapon he wielded.
The hallways were long, and like everything in the warmind vault, diamond shaped. Vulcan wondered why the warmind seemed to like everything to be in such a design, before simply chalking it up to how the warmind liked it, and how the golden age designers built the complex.
Vulcan continued forward, yet the hallways never seemed to end. Any doors he encountered were locked tightly, and the effort he would have expended to get through them would have only angered the warmind. 'And I, for one, would like to avoid that orbital death from above he promised the next time I screwed with his systems' Vulcan mused. Another turn, another hallway. He continued to march down it, before Ghost chimed in. "Large energy signature up ahead," Ghost warned Vulcan, "Keep your guard up." Vulcan nodded grimly, his mind now focused on the fight ahead. He holstered Ace, and Ghost transmatted the Ikelos shotgun into his hands. A gift from Rasputin after helping him on Mars, it was a solid and dependable weapon.
Vulcan shouldered it and pushed ahead. He finally arrived at a dead end, before noticing that the door wasn't locked like usual, and was instead welded shut. Vulcan grinned inside his helmet. 'Easy fix' he thought before concentrating solar light into his hand. Another fusion grenade formed, except this one was shaped to detonate and force all the energy to one side, like a breaching charge. Vulcan placed the charge on the door and stepped back, anticipation in his gait. 'Three… two… ONE!' The charge detonated, forcing all of the tremendous energy into the door. Exploding inward, with molten steel flying through the air at tremendous speeds. Vulcan charged in, shotgun up and ready to fire, only to find that the room was already clear.
Holding up his hand, he called forth Ghost. "You said there were enemies in here?" Vulcan asked Ghost accusingly. "No, I told you there was an energy signature up here, you took that to mean an enemy, not my fault that your assumptions lead to disappointment" Ghost told him with a haughty tone. "However, whilst I'm out, let me go look at the signature", and with that, Ghost flew off to the other side of the room.
Vulcan laughed quietly at himself as he meandered through the room, taking in the sight of a large reactor, the various scientific equipment. He tried to make sense of the equipment, but could only gather that they needed a tremendous amount of power to work. 'Probably why there is a giant reactor in the corner, Captain Obvious.' he thought to himself. Some time later,
Ghost yelled out. "Hey, Vulcan, come here!" He marched over to where Ghost was, studying what look like an engine. "This is what is generating that signature, and I found out why. It is a golden age warp drive!" Ghost replied to his unasked question. "With this, we should be able to theoretically go beyond the system in a reasonable amount of time!" Ghost excitedly spouted. Vulcan perked up at that. "You mean we could leave the darkness behind?" He asked. "Yes! But we need to get this back to the City, and it is extremely delicate. They never got it beyond prototype phase before the Collapse hit." Ghost advised as he kept scanning it.
Suddenly, Vulcan heard the telltale shimmer of a fallen camo. He immediately spun around, calling forth a barricade to weather the storm of projectiles that were surely coming towards him and Ghost. Instead of the storm of arc Vulcan expected, a single wire rifle shot hit the warp drive. He heard the sound of the warp drive whining, the fallen laughing as they sped away, and Ghost yelling before everything went white.
Time Skip
Unknown Location
Remnant
By the Traveler, his head hurt! How long were he and Shaxx drinking last night? Vulcan hadn't had a headache this bad since the first time he had impressed Shaxx in the crucible. And then his Ghost's voice cut through the headache. "Guardian, eyes up! We've got incoming!" And Vulcan opened his eyes to be greeted, not with the roof of the Tower, but with blood red leaves, and the howls of the dark held within the forest.