The red sands of Mars blew great dust storms across the surface of the planet, only interrupted by the jutting rocks across the surface. The sun glared harshly across the red desert, highlighting the closest moon, Phobos, and casting shadows below the great jutting rocks.
Freohr-2 picked up a red pebble and threw it into the sandstorm below him. Giving a great mechanical sigh, he said, "You know Fred, I've always wondered what those Vex spires are doing. Are they sending signals, are they relay points? What are they?"
Fred, Freohr-2's Ghost, looked across the sands to where Freohr-2 was motioning. The spires, far from his scanning range, jutted out like sore thumbs across the desert. "I dunno, Guardian. I've always wondered that. When I was looking for you on Mars, I never even thought about going near Vex constructs. Too many Ghosts have died that way." It looked down in sadness, shaking its orange shell. Looking up in determination, it spoke again, "But since I have you, how about we go check 'em out."
Freohr-2 grinned under his mask. Well, he grinned as much as his mechanical face would allow, but it was still a grin, "You know me so well."
Getting up from his sitting position on a cliff, Freohr-2 summoned his Sparrow and drove down the side, towards the bottom. Approaching it, Fred started screaming, "Pull up, pull up, pull UP!"
Freohr-2 laughed, "You never have any faith in me!"
"We've only drove down cliff-faces twice! And DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST!?"
"Hey, I was still getting used to the Sparrow! The second time, I didn't die, remember?"
"Yes, of course, a one-in-two success rate, HOW LIGHT-HEARTINING! NOT!"
Freohr-2 didn't reply to that as he focused on steering the Sparrow. Initiating a mental countdown, he started setting up the extra boosters. When the countdown struck one, he activated them and pulled up, his Ghost screaming in his audio receptors. They landed roughly on the ground, spewing up dirt and cracking the ground. The Sparrow's engines stalled for a second, but they quickly restarted and Freohr-2 and Fred were speeding across the ground towards the spires.
Freohr-2 heard Fred say from inside his helmet, "I hate it when you do that." Its mechanized voice was shaking.
Freohr-2 laughed, the smooth ride calming his non-existent nerves, "I know, but you still hang around, don't you?"
All he got was the feeling of an eye-roll. He drove on in silence, save for the running of his engines and the wind in his audio receptors.
The spire was bigger and much farther than they thought, as Freohr-2 had driven near an hour. But honestly, who was counting; Certainly not the Vex that he had just ran over.
Jumping out of the Sparrow, Freohr-2 pulled out his sword, Dreadfang, and sliced open another Vex, a Goblin. Switching to his primary, Paleocontact JPK-43, he loaded a full magazine into a Minotaur, breaking its shield and killing it. Standing up slowly on his feet, he loaded in another magazine.
There was a momentary standoff as the Vex calculated what to do next, then they started firing. Freohr-2 ducked under the bolts and returned fire, bullets hitting their cores causing them to overload and explode in a flash of white goo.
And thus, the fight was on. The Vex paused as they reloaded their weapons, and Freohr-2 took his chance to strike- running up towards a nearby Goblin, he grabbed them by the red eye and flung them towards another Goblin that was training its sights on him, causing them to both fall down, dead. Running and sliding underneath another one, he pulled its legs out from underneath it and stood up, unloading bullets into it until its death cries were heard.
Jumping up, he reloaded his Paleocontact and switched to his secondary weapon, Stolen Will, and shot-gunned a Hobgoblin he landed next to. He paused as he loaded in another shotgun shell and switched back to his Paleocontact, which gave the Vex the time to locate him again.
He started to fire at the Vex again, killing several more and seriously damaging some in the process. Reaching behind his back, he pulled out a shock grenade and primed it, tossing it into the midst of the Vex gathering. They looked at it, then it exploded, killing more of them.
Freohr-2 jumped off his perch and pulled out his sword again and started cutting through the few remaining Vex. When he impaled the last Vex through its core- which exploded, covering his sword in white goo- he flicked it and sheathed it across his back.
"Do you have to be so dramatic?" Fred asked, appearing over his shoulder and floating ahead of Freohr-2, looking back at him.
"Yes, it's all a part of the image of the Guardians," Freohr-2 replied, letting his Paleocontact materialize in his hands, "We've gotta look good, ya know?"
Fred shook his shell helplessly, but didn't comment anymore. Following Freohr-2 as he moved towards the Vex structure, he started to scan it. "It's thousands of years old, like usual for Vex structures, but it's fairly newer than the ones we've been to. It seems like it's some sort of signal booster from what I can tell an- hey, wait, where're you going?!"
Freohr-2 poked his head out of the tunnel he was investigating, "It's a tunnel. I was going to see where it led to."
"Well don't leave me out here like that!"
"You could easily disappear, it's not that much of a worry. Now c'mon, let's find out where this leads to." Freohr-2 disappeared back into the tunnel, Fred following.
They delved into the depths of the tower, Fred scanning their surroundings as they descended. Freohr-2 was grinning madly- as much as he could, at least- as he gained Fred's scans of the area. They soon reached a platform, showcasing a ginormous room. Freohr-2 stared out into the familiar surroundings, "This- this is the Black Garden, isn't it?"
His Ghost was also speechless, but according to its scans, it was true. They were in the Black Garden.
"We've got to tell the Tower about this- they'd want to know if there was a different way into the Garden. C'mon, let's-" Freohr-2 was cut off as an urgent message popped onto his HUD.
Opening it up, Arkís' face appeared, frantic. "Freohr, we got a situation."
"What is it? I doubt it'd be something bigger than what I just found."
"What-? No," He shook his head, turning serious again, "Oryx isn't dead."
Freohr-2 froze. Weakly, he said, "That is bigger."
*laughs in Binary*
Beh, i dunno 'bout you, but i like this. eh, whatever.
Other chapters on books will come out soon, don't worry- i just had a flash of inspiration for this.
-FreohrWK
