(Caroll is using the exotic No Land Beyond sniper) (Bullets are bullets and in-game damage numbers don't matter, but perks still apply) (I'm calling Cinder's faction the "Queens" for lack of a real name)
[In the Tower] "We lost them?" Cayde asks angrily, and Zavala sighs. "Their signals vanished a few seconds ago. Cayde, calm down. they might still be out there and we just can't see them." "We just lost contact with our best fireteam, and you want me to be CALM?" Cayde shouts, pounding his fist on the vanguard table before stepping back and taking a deep, unnecessary breath. "To Hell with it. I'm going up there and looking for them myself," "Cayde, you can't do that!" "I don't want to lose any more Guardians. I'm going to look for them and there's nothing you can do to stop me." Cayde says, and he briskly walks out of the room to get his ship.
[Remnant] "Guardian? Eyes up Guardian!" My Ghost says in my ear, and I wake up with blurred vision and tons of error messages filling my HUD. "Ugh, Deja Vu. Where are we?" I ask, removing my helmet and sitting up. "Not the moon.." my Ghost states, and I look around to see that he's right. There are trees all around us and I'm sitting in some grass. "Guardians, check in!" I suddenly order, and there's a groan from somewhere to my left.
"Not so loud, I still have a headache!" Sam complains, and I get two more groans of agreement from my other two companions. "They're alive," my Ghost comments, and I stand up to get a better look at our surroundings.
We're in a wooded clearing that has a neat ten-meter radius, and from what I can see, the clearing isn't natural; it's perfectly round without a shrub out of place, and some of the trees are cut clean in half without any signs of the missing parts. The grass is neatly cut too, standing exactly half a centimeter tall across the whole clearing. "I'm guessing whatever brought us here took the trees and grass with it.." my Ghost observes, and I nod slowly as my teammates stagger to their feet. "Or we swapped places with all this foliage, so there's going to be a pile of twigs and grass waiting for whoever investigates. Either way, we're here now, so we need to find someone who can help us-" "Rogue warlord." Sam says suddenly, and I stop talking to look at him in confusion.
"What?" "My five hundred glimmer is on our being in a warlord's territory. He'll send a group to investigate and they'll not report back so he'll send an army to-" "Sam, that's ridiculous," Tabitha says sternly, and Sam looks at her expectantly. "Care to add your own theory to the pool?" "I'm not going to waste my time," "C'mon, give us your guess!" Sam laughs, and Tabitha stares him down for a few seconds. "Fine. Put me in for five hundred on an army that assumes we're hostile and attacks without questions." "Guys, should we really be doing this now?" Caroll asks, and I shrug while giving her my best Exo smile. "Might as well, I mean, we don't have any other pressing matters," I laugh, and I make eye contact with Sam to place my bet. "One thousand on an inhuman monster." "Aren't we cocky? Caroll? Your bet?" Sam asks, and my fourth teammate smiles after a few seconds of thinking. "Five hundred on robots," Caroll says happily, and Sam's Ghost beeps as it records the data.
"Guardians! Motion!" Tabitha's Ghost says suddenly, and I draw Thorn from its holster while putting my helmet on; Caroll draws her sidearm, Sam readies his assault rifle, and Tabitha flares up a ball of blue light in her hand. "I've marked it on your trackers. Two o'clock!" Tabitha's Ghost informs us, retreating inside it's Guardian as the other Ghosts have.
The target isn't moving very fast, but I can see it through the trees as well as on my motion tracker. It's big and appears to be covered in spikes, and it also seems to be walking on all four legs. My team keeps their sights lined up with whatever the thing is, and the beast suddenly rears up on its hind legs and lurches into the clearing as it grunts. "You guys owe me Glimmer," I mutter, and I line up my sight square with the monster's head.
The monster vaguely resembles a pre-collapse bear, but it's much larger, standing at about ten to eleven feet on its hind legs. It has gigantic paws, with equally large claws attached to the paws, and eyes that seem to glow red. "Take it!" I shout, and I fire three shots from Thorn as my teammates launch their own attacks; Tabitha hits the monster with a powerful Arc grenade, Sam sprays the beast's face with assault rifle fire, and Caroll uses her sniper to blow the monster's head off. The now headless best staggers around for a few seconds, and then collapses on the clearing with a loud thud.
"Let me scan it!" my Ghost says after we're sure that the monster is dead, and I deploy him to go scan the corpse. "It's already decaying, and I'm picking up traces of darkness!" my Ghost reports, but he beeps again just after he speaks. "Wait, it's darkness, but it's not OUR darkness. This is different," he corrects, and my teammates' Ghosts gather around to scan with him. "Physiology matches that of a bear, but its muscle structure is incredibly advanced. I'd bet this thing could lift a small jump ship without any trouble!" Caroll's Ghost exclaims, but the Ghosts suddenly all freeze and look up at the sky.
"Ship, incoming!" my Ghost informs me, and he returns to my body as the other Ghosts return to their respective partners. "I don't hear a-" Caroll starts to say, but she's cut off by the hum of an engine in the distance. A strange ship soon passes overhead and parks itself near our clearing, and I take note of the large machine attached to the bottom of the vehicle. "What is it?" I ask, and my Ghost beeps worriedly. "Definitely not Fallen or Hive, but that thing on the bottom could be a Cabal mech of some kind," "And we have no cover, limited ammo, and no idea what its capabilities are. Anyone else feel like we're screwed?" Sam asks, causing Tabitha to smack him across the back of the head. "Shut up. I swear if you weren't the Captain's best friend I'd-" "Tabby, calm down. Sam, shut up." I bark, causing my teammates to jump. "Ok, we need to-" I start to say, but a blip appears on my motion tracker before I can finish my sentence.
"Caroll, Tabby, move!" I order, signaling the girls with my hands. Without a word, the two nod and retreat into the trees behind Sam and I as we position ourselves facing the motion blips.
"What are we looking at, Ghost?" "Humanoid, definitely smaller than your typical Cabal, and I'm not getting any life signs. They could be a-" my Ghost starts to say, but he's cut off by a bullet whizzing past my face. "Return fire!" I order, and Sam throws a magnet grenade while I fire three blind shots as more bullets whizz by me. Sam's grenade explodes twice, and I can make out the sound of metal being crushed through all the gunshots.
"Did you hear that?" I shout to Sam, and he nods as a bullet bounces off his shield. "Might be Vex!" he responds, and a sniper shot flies into the trees from behind me. "They're too big! They look like human soldiers, but metal!" Caroll shouts from her position,and one of our enemies emerges from the wooded area in front of us just as she finishes her sentence.
The soldier is indeed a robot, standing at about six feet and made out of white metal with a black faceplate. The robot is also holding a rifle, so I blast the machine in the head before it can fire at me. The firefight continues for about thirty more seconds, and I hold my hand up for my team to stop shooting when the last foe drops.
"Good job guys, but where's the big one?" I ask, and my question is quickly answered as a gigantic white robot crashes through the trees and almost crushes Sam and me. We roll out of the way at the last second, and the robot is halted by a blast of thunder from Tabitha. The mech twitches and staggers from the electrical hit, but it quickly recovers as guns extend from its wrists. "It's vulnerable to lightning! Tabby, Stormcaller!" I order, and there's a flash from behind me as Tabitha unleashes her super.
The mech breaks out in a seizure as electricity rips through its body, and the robot falls on its back as circuits explode in its joints. The machine spasms a few more times before finally shutting down, and I lower my gun as I walk over to the dead mech. "I'm getting what looks like life readings from inside the chassis," my Ghost informs me, so I draw Raze Lighter from my back and jam it into a line that looks like it opens as a hatch. I use my sword as a lever, and I'm eventually able to fit my hand under the metal so I can pull the cockpit canopy back.
When I open the hatch, a gun fires from inside the mech and a bullet bounces off my shields at point-blank range. The shooter is a human, and his weapon is just a puny peashooter of a sidearm. I grab the weapon by the barrel, yank it out of the man's hand, and pistolwhip the mech pilot across the face with the butt of his own gun. I then toss the gun aside and grab the man by hooking my hand under the front of his armor and hoisting him into the air. "Where are we, and why did you attack us?" I ask, and the man clears his throat. "Major Michael Samuelson, fifth corps, Atlesian mecha division, serial number one-five-two-five-seven!" he says almost robotically, and I sigh heavily as I drop him back in the seat of the mech. "Great. So not only are we not in Kansas anymore, but we can't ask this guy for help because he's doing the whole 'captured soldier' routine!" "We never were in Kansas. We were on the M-" "Ghost I will punt you like a football!" I snap, causing my partner to sigh.
"Major, report! Major!" something shouts from behind me, and I turn around to see our prisoner reaching for a button in the mech. "Good, a radio," I say, stopping his hand and pushing the button myself. "To whom am I speaking?" I ask, and I get silence for a few seconds before the person on the other end responds. "Who is this?" "I asked first." "This is Commander Zrádce of the Atlesian-" "A commander. Good. I'm Archer Paladino of Vanguard Squad Alpha." I say, cutting off the man on the other end. There's a muffled conversation in the background of the radio, and a different voice speaks from the radio. "This is a hostage negotiator. You can cut out whatever act you're doing because we know you work for the Queens. We also want confirmation that our soldier is alive," "The who? And yeah, he's alive," I say, and I kick the soldier who has been surprisingly quiet during my conversation. "Talk," I order, and he pushes the button on the radio to speak to the negotiator.
"This is Major Michael Samuelson. I'm alive and unharmed, and they don't seem," the soldier starts to say, and he pauses as he looks up at me curiously. "Major?" "They don't seem that hostile, sir," "What do you mean? They're holding you hostage!" "Only to make sure whoever is in charge doesn't just carpet bomb us all to Hell!" I snap, taking back control of the situation. The radio goes silent for a minute, and the negotiator gets back on sounding a little overwhelmed. "A higher-up wants to take over the negotiation, so, um," the man says, and a different voice enters the conversation as the negotiator is replaced. "This is General James Ironwood. Jet's talk business."
