Regina: Awoken Hunter - Gunslinger
Regina strided confidently to the bounty board, a list of contracts fulfilled that would net her a decent amount of experience. Her soon-to-be-husband-if-even-if-he-doesn't-know-it-yet Nymerio assured her that this was the easiest and safest way for her to gain strength in this game. For the longest time she had locked herself in her refusing to leave the City. The concept of permanent death made her unable to leave. Even with the ability to be revived by her Ghost, she refused to risk death and left the adventuring to Guardians such as her boyfriend. She wasn't a gamer, the last game she played was Rock Band 4 back in 2015, the concept of a VRFPMMOS (Virtual Reality First Person Massively Multiplayer Online Shooter) was completely foreign to her. But Nymerio managed to convince her to play the game, promising to teach her everything he knew. Upon the realization that they had been trapped, it took a large amount of convincing from both Nymerio and their real-world friend Kahmille to get her out in the world. They told her that there was plenty of work for Guardians that did not want to risk death by patrolling the wastes. Important jobs such as weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, shipbuilding, cryptarchy, and city-governance were just as important for the survival of everyone within the City.
Reluctantly Regina decided to become an armorsmith, her love of clothes and design seemed to fit well with the skills needed for a good armorsmith. So as she turned in bounties for experience she entertained several thoughts of new armor designs in her head. Maybe she could craft her boyfriend a new chest piece instead of that god awful hodgepodge of equipment he currently wore. Good stats boots my ass, he isn't going to look like Toland, she thought to herself.
She ran into the hard plasteel plating of a Titan's armor, as she quickly spun to see who it was the unique white and gold pattern of Saladin's custom armor calmed her before she gave him a piece of her mind.
"Hello Regina," Saladin said with a respectful tone, "I was monitoring my messages and didn't see you, my bad."
"It's okay Sal! I was just lost in thought," she said, trying to defuse the potentially awkward encounter.
"Yeah.. uh.. so have you heard from Nym today?," He asked, keeping the conversation civil.
"Not yet, you know how he gets," she chuckled, "He is probably doing some research out in the waste that may or may not leave him wounded."
"One can only hope…," Saladin replied, attempting to leave his contempt for the warlock hidden.
"You still mad at him for the whole 'test shotgun' ordeal…" Regina asked.
"Oh no, it is not his fault that my favorite weapon exploded while I was in a fight with a Fallen Baron… not his fault… at… all," Saladin said as his calm demeanor began to give out to his frustration at the warlock.
Before the conversation could go any further Regina gave a quick chuckle and said goodbye while walking away. In addition to being a high-level warlock, her boyfriend was also a well known cryptarch and weaponsmith. Using his knowledge gained from decoding engrams and his… obsession with weaponry he had salvaged the turbo-lasers used for the Cities defence from downed colony ships from the wastes. However he was equally as well known for the… volatile nature of some of his more experimental weapon systems. One of his most well known experiments was with a shotgun he assured Saladin would "regenerate ammunition using the ambient glimmer in the atmosphere". Suffice to say it did not work.
Regina continued her march towards the bounty board, passing a few familiar faces and exchanging friendly waves and smiles with those she recognized. She arrived at the bounty board and turned in the plethora of bounties, and she felt the experience points increase her power. The little flame in her chest, the fire associated with a Gunslinger, grew noticeably which meant that she probably earned a few new skills. She was rather lucky in the subclass she was gifted with. The Gunslinger lived for the perfect shot, excelling at killing an enemy long before they became close enough to be a threat. The light of the Gunslinger grew as one's confidence grew. The more sure of oneself a Gunslinger became the more focused and precise the fires that burned within were able to be. This is in contrast to the Bladedancers, a more reckless group of hunters. Not always the best team players but none can doubt the effectiveness of a good Bladedancer. Equal part assassin and masters of bladework, a Bladedancer sought to get up close and personal with their opponent. Their ability to be invisible and stay that way leant well to their fighting style. A Bladedancer's light responded to the wild and unpredictable nature of arc-light. By striking out with boldness from the shadows a Bladedancer is able to hone their blade and strengthen their light. If the Bladedancer is the lone wolf then a Nightstalker is the pack hunter. Typically found in hunting groups, foraging for materials and equipment with large parties, Nighstalkers work well in support of a team. They strike from the shadows, using a bow constructed from the void to strike enemies and hold them down. As much as Nightstalkers work well with teams, the nature of the void leave them mysterious and aloof to most other Guardians that work with them. The light of a Nightsalker strengthens through being far-seeing, looking past the immediate and seeing what is critical. This allows the Nightstalker to turn the void into a tool for precise and accurate power when needed.
Not interested in looking through her skill menu, she made her way to the artisan sector in preparation to test her new armor designs. It did not take long for her to arrive at her artisan table, but from a distance she could see one of her regular customers waiting for her.
"*sigh* Hello Hideo, what do you want today. And if you ask one more time to join your stupid cult I will gut you," Regina said with a hint of venom.
Hideo, a human warlock that followed the path of the Sunsinger chuckled "No, not today, I was just hoping to put in a special order for some new armor."
"There are literally HUNDREDS of armorsmiths Hideo, why do you always come to me," She asked while she removed her hunter's cloak and equipped her artisan's shroud.
"Well… your armor always has this nice style to it they I enjoy," Hideo admitted, "not many armorsmiths can roll decent gear and make it look good to."
Regina pointed her smithing tool towards the brim of Hideo's nose, "Don't get all flirty with me buddy, everyone female in this sector knows you're a womanizer."
Hideo shrugged, as if admitting she was right. Before he could speak any more Hideo eyes seemed to drift towards his UI. Hideo, or as he liked to call himself 'Executor Hideo' was a high ranking member of the Guild New Monarchy. These players believed in strengthening the area around the City, and ensuring peaceful and fair governance. Despite being a complete sleez at times Regina had to admit that Hideo was a good guy at heart. Even though he and her boyfriend Nymerio had philosophical disagreements on certain things, she had a lot of respect for the guy. Along with being a damned good Guardian who spent countless hours keeping his skills sharp in the Crucible, he worked well with the other Factions to maintain peace in the City. He always maintained a fairly light attitude and friendly demeanor, but based on his facial expressions something was wrong.
With well practiced flicks of his wrist Hideo changed from the casual garb of a City leader to the combat armor of a Guardian prepared to fight.
"Get somewhere safe Regina, Nymerio would flay me alive if something were to happen to you. And I would not want to be on that madman's bad side," He said to her before running off towards the western battlements of Twilight Gap. Before she could ask any questions a system alert popped into her face:
EVENT BEGIN: BATTLE OF TWILIGHT GAP
Regina's heart began to race. She had never been in a large scale event before, and the few she has been in was always with Nymerio and Kahmille. But she was in the City… there was no way she could be hurt within the safe zone that was inside the City's walls. Before her mind was allowed to wander any further the distinctive sound of dozens of Fallen Ketch dropping out of warp dangerously close to the city. Before the defenders of the wall could respond hundreds of cannons exploded in thunderous fury as the Fallen released their firepower at the wall. The firepower was focused on the single western battlement of Twilight Gap, and she could only imagine the devastation that occurred in that initial volley. From within the Ketchs hundreds of Skiffs deployed and continued the surprise assault, pressing their advance through the opening created by the initial volley. Several Skiffs were detonated by hyper-dense explosions of void energy, no doubt the few Voidwalkers who happened to be ready unleashing their fury upon their attackers.
A message came into her UI, from Ana Bray the current Hunter Vanguard:
| Ana: If you are in the city and you have a weapon start fighting! This is our home people, time to fight for it
Despite her abject fear of permadeath Regina quickly equipped her armor. She gripped her cloak and draped it over her head and conducted a functions check on her hand cannon and sniper rifle. It was time for her to have an adventure.
She sprinted through the crowd, with speed she didn't know she possessed towards a position where she could snipe enemies. She was no good at fighting up close, but from her time hunting enemies in the waste she had become a truly dangerous sniper. One of the larger towers that belonged to some obscure conspiracy cult seemed easy enough to scale. She leapt through a window and sprinted up the stairwell that she would hope led to the rooftop. In minutes she was at her destination, a vantage point that gave her a great view of all the combat in the area. She lay on her stomach and summoned her Ghost to assist her with finding targets.
"Hey Little, can you please tell me what in the world is going on," Regina asked while looking down her scope, trying to find a decent target to attack.
"chnk It seems that several fallen houses are working together to attack the citychnk," Little replied, "I am tracking several different feeds from friendly forces trying to make sense of it all."
"So… what can I do to help?" Regina asked, without breaking her focus on the Fallen infantry approaching the second wall in the western battlements.
"Fallen Captains will disorganize the troop movements chnk, making things easier for the Titans to create a decent defensechnk," Little said.
"Since when did you know anything about combat Little," Regina asked.
"chnk Since forever. YOU never asked," Little replied with a hint of snarkiness.
Regina returned her full focus to the battle, choosing a Devil Baron that was shouting orders to Vandals and Dregs atop a Walker. A single shot from her sniper rifle tore straight through his shields and pierced the Baron's gullet, silencing him as quickly as Regina had taken aim. The Baron fell of the walker and crushed an unlucky dreg. With the roar of combat the Vandals and Dregs could not identify the killer of their leader. Regina quickly shifted her sights to another Captain, this one was rushing a fallen warlock. A quick shot landed straight in the Captain's chest, staggering him long enough for the warlock to unload a shotgun blast to his head. Regina decided to fire rounds at a House of Kings Baron that was fighting two Titans at once. She fired a round into his flank, but did not break his strong shields. The Baron ducked under a punch from a Titan and clubbed the second one into a wall. His eyes then looked towards the spot that Regina was currently at. He shouted commands to the Vandals to his rear and before she knew it a Walker began to shift it's turret towards her.
From an adjacent building the unique white and gold armor of Saladin was seen sprinting through a group of Vandals. He looked at the Walker and then towards Regina's position, without a second thought Saladin leapt into the air and charged his fist with arc energy. From high in the air Saladin struck down like divine lighting, piercing the King's Walker with a single attack. From within the fires Saladin rose in a challenging stance and identified the King Baron for death. The Baron rose its fist in rage and charged Saladin with all of its blades ready to tear Saladin limb from limb. Saladin ran at the charging Baron and slid between the Fallen's legs, grabbing one of its feet and throwing it against a building. The Baron crashed into a wall, leaving its bodyprint in it, and Saladin used this opportunity to unleash havoc with his auto-rifle. The experience Baron blinked away once it realized the predicament it was in, appearing to the flank of Saladin. The Baron swiped at the veteran Titan, but with a Hunter's grace he ducked under the attack and switched to his shotgun. Saladin stood with his back towards the Baron and released a backwards shot that executed the King's Baron. The Guardians stood behind the Titan, and the entire Fallen horde stood to his front. Thunderous artillery roared around Saladin as he assessed the situation. From behind his helmet no one could see his face, but no one truly needed to.
No speech was given, no battlecry was uttered. Saladin simply charged into the Fallen, and continued his onslaught of mayhem and destruction. He was a conduit of destructive arc energy that decimated any Fallen foolish enough to get in his way. Saladin's charge was the rallying call for all Guardians. Defenders conjured bubbles of void energy offered safety for the injured while Voidwalkers ripped artillery of through the skies to break the Fallen advance. Bladedancers ducked and weaved through the Fallen while Sunsingers burned with radiance, striking fear in the Fallen. But all of this did not seem to break the charge of the Fallen army. More and more reinforcements poured through Twilight Gap by the minute, and despite the valiant effort by the City's defenders the Guardians were slowly being pushed back. This was seen by Regina in her perch atop the building where she continued to snipe the Fallen. She was so focused on eliminating targets she barely noticed the Fallen Skiff drop a raiding party consisting of a Captain, 2 Vandals, 4 Dregs and 2 Shanks onto her position.
"chnk I think they are here for you chnk," Little said to Regina.
"Oh well isn't that just wonderful," Regina said as she switched to her hand-cannon.
She turned and fired off multiple rounds into the group of Fallen as she sprinted to her right. The Fallen scattered, only a dreg and two shanks were downed in this volley. The Captain began to fire the slow-seeking rounds of its Shock rifle as the Vandals pulled out their shock blades and charged her. Regina reloaded her weapon with enough time to down an additional dreg and shank. The words of Nymierio rang in her head, focus on the weak adds first, so you can give yourself time to work on the harder mobs. Before she could keep firing the first Vandal lept at her almost cleaving her head in two but barely missing the huntresses head. She gripped her knife and slit the throat of the Vandal before throwing her knife at the last dreg. The second Vandal swiped at her, being a little more conservative than his brethren. Regina took a small leap backwards giving her the space to fire off the last few rounds in her hand-cannon, killing the Vandal. The Captain stared at Regina, seemingly deep in thought. The words of Nymerio once again rang in her head, 'Don't let the enemies fool you. They are slaves to a simple set of behavior protocols, they cannot truly think.' Despite those words she felt as if the Captain was studying her, learning from her movements. She reloaded her weapon and prepared to fire when the Captain blinked right in her face and grabber her hand with one of its four limbs. With its upper left arm it grabbed Regina by the throat and lifted her high in the air. She struggled and kicked to free herself to no avail. The small eyes of the Fallen Captain examined her as she fought to free herself.
The Captain's left set of eyes turned to address a sound behind it before it dropped Regina and blinked to the right. The void bow of a Nightstalker flew right by Regina's head. In the titular garb of Dead Orbit stood one of the higher ranking members of Nymerio's Guild, Jalaal stood with a void-bow in hand.
"You okay Regina," Jalaal asked, maintaining his eye contact with the Captain. As the Captain and Jalaal circled two other Guardian ran into the fray. Hideo was panting with exhaustion, having just arrived at the rooftop with Jalaal and right behind him Laksmi arrived in the armor of a Titan, and emblazoned with her 'Future-War Cults' emblem. Despite being in separate factions all three of them stood together staring at the Captain.
"Why are you three here?", Regina asked out of curiosity.
"Your boyfriend… persuaded me to come. He promised to make a weapon for our foundries if we found you and kept you safe my dear", Lakshmi said with contempt as she readied a pulse rifle.
"You are affiliated with one of our most notorious members. Of course I would come," Jalaal said as he steadied a scout rifle.
"He threatened me," Hideo said rather matter of factly, charging solar energy in his palm.
The lone Captain examined the Guardians that stood before him. He roared at the Guardians, as if he were challenging them. It was then that a name appeared above his health bar, Randall, Devil's Contendent.
The trio of Guardians charge at Randall, Hideo leading off with a fusion grenade that sticks to the Captain. Lakshmi engages next, firing several pulse rifle burst at the Captain as it charges forward. The grenade detonates but doesn't seem to slow Randall down in the slightest as he closes ground with Laskmi as she tries to reload. Before Randall can club Lakshmi, Jalaal throws a smoke bomb between the Titan and the charging Captain, obscuring Lakshmi from view allowing Jalaal to tackle her out of the way. Hideo switches to a fusion rifle, and charges a shot to down Randall's shields. The Captain blinks away before Hideo's shots land, giving the Captain space to attack again. Lakshmi begins to fire once again, trying to prevent the Fallen ultra from blinking away. The three Guardians fought the Ultra for what seemed like an eternity before Regina realized that she could fight as well. She picked herself up and leapt into the foray, feeling the flames in her chest burned with eagerness, ready to be summoned at a moment's notice.
"SLOW HIM DOWN! DON'T LET HIM MOVE," She shouted to her three allies. The three Guardians nodded wordlessly and moved in separate directions. Hideo let himself burn with Solar energy, his power uplifting the Guardians in the vicinity. Lakshmi let her arc energy flow through her fist and shoulder charged Randall before unleashing the power of storm in a thunderous blow. Jalaal tossed a voidwall grenade behind Randall as it tried to retreat giving Regina the opening she needed. She summoned the power of the sun, focusing it into her hand-cannon. She focused on her target and unleashed a round fired from her golden gun. The first shot took down the Captain's shields, the second took down his health. The third would kill with a headshot, but before she fired again Randall leaned to the side and her solar round flew past the Ultras head. Before the Ultra could charge again a Fallen Skiff flew to the building and fired rounds at the four Guardians, dispersing them enough for the Fallen Captain to retreat.
As the Captain retreated and the Guardian's stood Regina could swear she could see something in that Captain's eyes. She felt respect coming from the creature, but that was impossible considering it was just a named enemy.
"The heck was that," Jalaal said as the Skiff flew off towards the Fallen rear.
"A problem that must be addressed after we pushed these Fallen out of our City," Hideo replied, "You coming Regina? There are plenty of enemies to destroy."
Regina shook herself from her thoughts and turned towards Hideo, "Let us get these Fallen out of our City". The four guardians lept off the building and into the raging combat of the City streets. It was time for Regina to fight for the only place she could call home.
