A/N: Okay, new plan. chapter two seemed like it was getting a bit long, and with what I have left to add to it currently, I decided to split in two.
Jarin sauntered into the tower plaza, gaze following a female Gaurdian as she passed. Kalara was waiting patiently at the top of the stairs. Soon, Gavin jogged up. "Hey guys."
"Morning Gavin." Kalara replied. "Okay, time to get our next assignment, right?"
They headed down the steps to see the vangaurd leaders.
"Gaurdian." Ikora Rey greeted as they entered.
Kalara bowed her head slightly in greeting. "I believe commander Zavala has a mission for all of you."
"Actually." The titan leader looked at Cayde 6. "Cayde?"
"Hi guys." The trio stood together across from the Hunter Vangaurd leader. "Need you to go get something for me." he slid a data-tablet across the table. Gavin picked it up "See, I hid some stealth tech a while back at one of my stashes, and you lucky three are just the Gaurdians for the job." He leaned back in his chair, propping up his feet. Zavala made a noise. Cayde rolled his eyes and took his feet off the table. Zavala spoke next.
"It is imparative that you three act as quickly as possible. We have another team working on taking down high-value Hive targets so we can send them to take down the central hive threat using the technology you will be retrieving."
the group exchanged a look.
Gavin read quickly over the information. Cayde waved a hand at them "What are you waiting for. Go, shoo. Go get 'em." They turned to leave as Cayde tossed off "Good luck, guys!"
They walked out, passing the tablet between them. Zavala called out after them "Best of luck, gaurdians."
Kalara got the tablet last. "Wow. A really high-level mission, huh?"
Jarin double-checked his ammo. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, we're not taking on that "big main Hive Threat." he looked over at Gavin."What do you suppose commander Zavala meant by that?"
"I don't know. But it kind of sounded like he was trying not to tell us too much."
"Yeah, probly woulda scared the rookie if if he told us everything." Jarin jerked a thumb at Kalara. She frowned at him. "If it's this important, it's probably not going to be easy."
Jarin slung his rifle over one shoulder and canted a grin at the femme. "That's okay rookie, We'll walk you through it."
The three ships swung low, and the trio of gaurdians transmatted to the surface. Jarin sighed "And just when I was about to say it would be nice not to be staring at the cosmodrome."
Gavin chuckled "Come on, maybe we'll get lucky on the next one.
"I do enjoy the moon missions." Kalara added.
"Yeah, when you're not running your sparrow off a cliff." Jarin jabbed.
"Hah!" me? You're the one that missed that corner last time. And off you went." sher did a hand motion reflecting the sparrow's path and sudden descent off the cliff Gaving laughed. Jarin snorted "Yeah, well. " he paused, trying to find a comeback. "Nevermind."
As the three closened, the sky rumbled and three dark swirling Hive portals opened Suddenly the Taken were scattered throughout the open area. Gavin's Ghost said across the open comm "Cayde, we've got a real problem down here."
"Let me guess, four arms. Wear cloaks, smell real bad."
"Not fallen. Taken."
Cayde made a dissapointed sound. "Thought we had more time."
Okay guys," Gavin looked around "Let's do it."
The trio tossed off a handful of grenades as they booked it across the open area. Jarin picked off a few more taken thrall with his hand cannon then switched back to his rifle. Gavin jogged up ahead and to the right, taking out a handful of Taken there.
Jarin went left, firing of round after round. Kalara ran up and jumped the low fence, landing an open-palmed strike on two before Jarin caught up and took out the last two Taken with his rifle.
Gavin rounded the pillar on the right and passed Kalara to punch a Taken Knight, the creature roaring as it swung back. Kalara looked around quickly as she ran for cover. Two Thralls snuck up behind her. She knocked one down as the other slashed at her. She hit it once, twice. The Thrall went down.
Jarin put his back to a wall and counted how many were left.
Out came his blade.
The Hunter twirled as he dodged one Taken, sliced at another. Pretty soon, the last one fell, and they were headed for the door of the building.
As they entered, Jarin let out a low whistle "This place looks like a nightmare wrapped in a bad dream."
Strange dark patches that rippled with dark energy littered the floor and walls. Oddly shaped, and glistening like some sort of portal to some dark dimension. Jarin hopped over the first. Gavin did, doo. Kalara edged around it, eyeing the one on the wall to the left like something might come out of it.
They turned right, jogged down the hall and up a flight of stairs.
Kalara nearly started when Cayde's voice sounded on the comm. "how bad is it?"
Gavin's ghost responded "Taken everywhere. Fighting the Fallen."
they turned right, headed for an open area. To the right there was another set of steps.
Cayde commented over the comm "Earth's gonna look a lot like Phobos if you don't find that stealth drive."
Gavin and Jarin jumped up to the top. Kalara followed behind them. If there was something big bad and ugly up there, she probably didn't have enough light or experience to face it head-on.
That was something she wished she could have gained faster.
Gaurdians always started at a low experience level. 1, to be exact. But by the time they reached the tower for the first time, they would be at a level 3 or 4. The light they generate increased over time, allowing their experience to increase. Kalara didn't exactly understand all the details of it, but it was something the speaker had told her upon her first arrival at the tower.
Now, at level 33, she could take on quite a few enemies, but Gavin and Jarin were much further on in experience.
40, to be exact.
She could only imagine what sort of battles the two had seen.
As she followed them into the next room, she felt a little jealous of her teammates. She was thankful she had been teamed with them.
The next room was rather expansive, with a smaller room to the left, and another set of stairs going up. They bypassed the stairs toward what looked like a metal walkway. More Taken waited for them further on. Jarin jogged up the stairs and pulled out his sniper. Two of the taken Psions fell before Gavin even reached them. He punched the third then whirled and caught a Taken Vandal in the midsection. Then an uppercut to the jaw. He moved on before it's body even hit the metal grating under them.
Kalara pulled out her auto-rifle. Allways good when facing a crowd of enemies, and better than trying to wade into the crowd like Gavin. Suddenly, a group of Taken Thrall appeared on the other side of the room, across a gap in the open space to the right. Kalara fired into the group. Gavin jogged ahead to take down the last Taken Vandal and any stragglers that might still be a threat to them. Jarin picked off the injured Thrall Kalara didn't take down.
Finally, the room was silent. Jarin jumped down to meet them. "Nice job, guys." Gavin remarked. "Thanks. You too." Jarin answered he glanced at kalara, nodded. "Kalara." she nodded. They moved on.
They reached the end of the walkway, a broken mess of metal, with some sort of liquid beneath it. Kalara "Hmm"ed.
"Okay, we can jump across this. Kalara, I know you have a double-jump too. it's not that hard. Let's just run up and jump for it, ok?"
Jarin went flying past. He yelled "WOO!" as he jumped, and landed. He called back across "Come on you guys! it's not that hard!"
Gavin and Kalara backed up and Gavin ran and jumped. As kalara ran up and jumped she could see that, as usual, the two Gaurdians had ran up ahead of her.
Cayde's voice sounded across the comm. "Okay, you're gonna find a vault door. There's a trick to getting through it, so let me know when you're there."
Jarin answered "on it, boss."
Kalara glanced to her right, another one of those wierd portal thingies was on the wall to her right.
Up ahead was the vault door but.. Wait a second. It was allready open.
As they crossed the threshold, jumping two "dark puddles", Gavin's ghost reported "The door's allready open, Cayde. we're inside."
They turned right, onto the wide railed catwalk around the edge of the room.
Cayde responded, sounding somewhat suprised. "And the flux grenades didn't detonate? I GOTTA get out of this tower."
They turned left, heading to the back of the room. A door was open to their right. They turned and hopped over another "dark puddle" as Kalara had started to call them.
Down the hall and into another room. More taken. The trio made short work of them and kept moving. This was starting to take longer than they had thought it would.
They reached the elevator, and Gavin summoned his ghost. As it scanned the controls, it commented "What are the chances the elevators still work?"
There was a screech of metal, and the gates shut. It started to move..