"Dunno. His comm went dark somewhere on Mars late last night. I was kinds hopin you guys could go find him."
Kalara looked at her group. "Okay guys, field trip!"
Gyster asked "Field trip?"
"It's term my friend Avaria uses... nevermind."
She summoned her ghost and they took off for Mars. As they were in transit, Kalara commed the group. "Remember, stay together, watch your backs, and if you run into trouble yell for help. We're going into Cabal territory, so stay off your comms unless it's important."
Cayde's voice came across the comm. "Okay, here's what I've got so far. Our Hunter was doing patrols around the area of the lost city. There's Taken there too now, but just watch your backs, and all of you should be fine."
Flitter commed "Cool! there's a lost city on Mars?"
Nox commed back "Well, yeah. It's, like, buried or something."
They exited orbit, and the group teleported down. Kalara's ghost made that beeping noise. "I'm picking up a signal on a gaurdian frequency. but it isn't in the lost city."
"Then where is it?"
"At one of the Cabal bases, just up ahead."
Kalara summoned her sparrow. "Okay guys, sparrows out."
They hopped on, and headed down the winding path. Kalaara commed "Cayde, we found his signal, but it isn't in the lost city. It's in one of the Cabal fortifications."
"That doesn't sound good. Just find him and get him out of there, okay?"
"Will do."
They sped up slightly, heading off to the right. Up ahead, there was an opening in the mountain, the door to the Cabal fortification. Off a little ways past it sat a smaller round building. Several barriers had been set up between the base, it's building, and where they hopped off their sparrows. The base looked abandoned, though. "Stay here." Kalara pointed downward. She jogged ahead, into the base.
"Mylo? Mylo, you in here?" She rounded a corner and suddenly heard a roar from outside, followed by heavy gunfire. "Oh no." she ran back towards the opening just in time to see her entire class go flying in all directions.
Out came her auto rifle.
The three Cabal legionaries at the the mouth of the base turned toward her. She opened fire, catching the first two in the head. The third ducked behind a shield.
Kalara could feel the energy bolts sizzling across her armor as she aimed and fired at the hand holding the weapon. She snapped off a trio of shots and the Legionary stumbled back, dropping it's shield. Seveal more rounds dropped the giant creature, and she ran out, sliding past three more. "Get behind the barriers."
Nox asked "Any sign of Mylo?"
"No, he's not in there."
She moved right as one legionary fired a shot past the barrier and felt her foot hit something. She looked down.
It was Mylo's ghost. "Why hello." she knelt to brush the sand away from it and pried it from the dry Martian sand. She gasped. The lower half of it's finials were gone, and the rest of it was cracked, as though it had been crushed. It's eye was flickering, like a light bulb going out. She picked it up.
The light went out.
Kalara's eyes narrowed. "This isn't good." she said to herself. She put the ghost in her bag.
To her right, two Scions had run past the barriers, and Glyster and Fon were putting the hurt on them with their flaming knives. The Scions fell.
Nox pulled out a rocket launcher. "Watch this!" he fired into the group, sending one legionary flying. Danaxia threw a pair of grenades. Two more fell.
Kalara looked left. More Cabal were emerging from the building. One of them was carrying Mylo by a leg. The Hunter looked unconcious. The Legionary said something in their language and tossed the limp Gaurdian behind it into the mouth of their base.
Kalara said across her comms "we have to clear them out." she looked past them, hoping the hunter was still alive.
Another rocket slammed into a shielded legionary. Danaxia reloaded. Another stomped up to Danaxia and the center of it's shield started to spin Kalara yelled "Look out!" but it was to late. The Hunter went airborne.
Kalara's HUD sounded. "Gaurdian Down." she shook her head, then commed "Remember what you learned. Lure them out, get some space." She jumped sideways to narrowly avoid a bold of energy. The group fell back a little bit, cabal following.
Suddenly, Nox yelled "I see him!" and ran forward, doing a blink-slide. A second later, his grenade detonated, taking down the two Cabal he had passed.
He knelt next to her classmate, rolled him over, a made a noise into the comm before saying "This is bad. We have to find his ghost." Kalara stepped out with her own rocket launcher, taking down three more legionaries before picking off their Scions.
To her right, the group took down the last one. They walked over to where the human hunter was. Danaxia jogged up. "Did you find him?" Nox nodded, backing away so they could see.
Kalara looked at the group. "Go back to orbit, wait for me there. I'll handle the ghost-hunting."
"What? why?" nox asked.
"You guys helped clear out the Cabal, but if more show up I don't want you in danger. I know that wasn't easy for you guys. I can handle it. Okay?"
"Okay." Nox summoned his ghost, followed by Danaxia, and teleported away. The rest of the group followed.
Kalara hit her comm. "Cayde, we found Mylo. But it's not good news."
"what happened?"
"It looks like he picked a fight with a group of Cabal legionaries. They crushed his ghost."
There was a pause, then,
"He didn't make it, did he?"
"No." Kalara sighed. "I can't just leave him here for the Cabal to play with. What do I do?"
"Well," Cayde sounded like he was thinking. "There's plenty of sand around there. I'm sure you can think of something."
Kalara nodded. "Kay."
A little while later, Kalara was back in her ship, and they were headed home.
Nox commed "Did you find his ghost?"
"yes"
"And?"
she paused before replying carefully. "His ghost was nonfunctional."
"What?"
Then everyone started to talk at once. Kalara turned off her comm, and squeezed her eyes shut. The kid had just been a rookie. She could have, should have, taught him better. She took a deep breath and tried to shove the emotion away.
When they exited hyperspace into orbit, Kalara commed "Meet me in the command room." then tranmatted down.
The group walked in as Kalara set the dead ghost on the table. She shook her head. They were still all talking at once. Nox pushed to the front of the group.
"You sent him on that stupid mission, you know. All your stupid speeches about finding something bigger and badder than us to fight with."
Kalara stopped for a second. Had she really said that? "Woah, hang on. What I said was that if you don't train you wouldn't be able to. I never told him to go find a whole base full of Cabal to try to kill." she paused then added "That would just be stupid."
she knew she had said the most wrong thing she could when that rage appeared on his face. He ran at her before his classmates could catch her and she blinked, phasing as he moved forward. She went in the opposite direction, toward him. He stumbled trying to stop he was moving so fast.
She could see Zavala move slightly, shifting his attention to the hunter. the word 'deja vu' went through her head.
Nox's blade flashed as he started to move.
But the commander was faster, catching him before he had taken three steps.
"that's enough!" He looked over Nox's shoulder at Kalara. Nox looked down. Kalara had her hand cannon out, aimed at his chest. Nox's eyes narrowed.
"Don't do it." Kalara warned. He looked looked away, shifting like he might try anyway. She decided a new tactic was needed. "I promise you won't like it."
Nox glared, but after a second relaxed, straightening.
Kalara let her aim drop, then turned and set her hand cannon next to her on the edge of the table, then turned her back to it and leaned on the table.
"It's your fault Mylo is dead." he hissed as he walked past. She wordlessly watched him. the rest of the group stood a second, then turned and walked out.
Kalara turned and leaned on the table with both hands, looking down and taking a deep breath.
After a minute, she looked up at Cayde. "So that's what that looks like." she remarked.
"Yeah, welcome to the other end of the conversation."
After a second, she just shook her head. She straightened. "I don't think I can do this."
"Whattya mean? You're doing just fine. and accidents happen. Besides, I have an intermediate class you'd be just perfect for." He set another tablet on the table. She reached out and took it. "They're higher level, just need a little polishing before their next missions."
She read over it.
15-20 (intermediate) hunters
Nox (see above) (17)
Danaxia (see above) (16)
Avaria Lavis (lav or Lavender) (human, female) (18)
Tanner Opis (human, male (remedial) (18)
Alexi Dazmakov (human, male) (16)
Cayde added "And no trainer's pets. Ya get me?" she nodded, reading on. Her eyebrows went up. "Remedial?" she lowered the tablet, intrigued. "what did he do?"
"Abandoned mission. went offf-trail, left his team in the middle of a firefight. Nearly got them killed. Well, you know what I mean." waved a hand vaguely.
"Started a fistfight with their team leader and, well, there he is."
"Hmm. Looks like we have a lone wolf in our pack." she nodded. "Okay. Guess I'll go find out how it goes."
"I'm sure you'll do fine." He shrugged
Cayde added "Oh, and couldya do me a favor?"
"hm?"
"Quit stealing my lines, wouldya?"
Kalara paused, then chuckled, grinning. "Can't help it," she started backwards, motioning. "They just sound so good." she turned and walked out.
As she walked out, she heard Ikora say "You're rubbing off on her, you know."
"Okay. but, that's a good thing, right?"
Kalara snickered.
"I think one of you is enough. I don't think we could handle two."
Kalara laughed loud enough for them to hear.
She walked across the courtyard, down to the fence to look over the city. Her intermediate class didn't start for half an hour, so she just stood there, thinking of activities for the new group.
That made her think back to the lower level classes. She had to find some kind of valuable knowledge this group could use in battle. She sighed, mind going back to Mylo. He had been promising, even hitting the boulder when the others had not.
She started typing
1 Teamwork is key. Going in alone is dangerous and dumb.
2. don't let them get behind you.
She jotted down a few more points, then there was a ding, her ghost paging her to let her know it was time. "That went by fast." she muttered.
she transmatted to her ship.
Cayde commed her as she went to transwarp. "I made some changes to your training roster, just wanted to let you know. I took Nox off the training roster. Danaxia, too. They need some time, and I have a couple others that need some extra training anyway."
Her tablet read "Updating..."
15-20 (intermediate) hunters [updated]
Aries Ormez (17) (awoken, male)
Klyne Dendron (16) (human, male)
Hairo-2 (male, exo) (17)
Avaria Lavis (lav or Lavender) (human, female) (18)
Tanner Opis (human, male (remedial) (18)
Alexi Dazmakov (human, male) (16)
She reached Venus and transmatted down. She walked in and strode towards them. They were lined up, all but one who was looking around, shuffling his feet in boredom. Kalara thought 'that must be Tanner'
Lavender and the Gaurdian next to her were talking. Lavender glanced up, then waved. "Hey, Kalara!"
Kalara smiled. "Hi Lav."
"what're you doing here?"
"I'm the one leading this class."
"Oh. cool. Wait, where's Cayde?"
"busy with missions, you know, leadery stuff." Lavender nodded.
"Okay, let's get started." Kalara backed up a bit and said
"Okay guys, let's go down the line and state your name and your level." Tanner, on the end to Kalara's left muttered "we're not kindergaurdians." Kalara smiled. Apparently the term was becoming rather popular.
The first stepped forward.
Hairo-2. Level 16, Fireteam swiftspark"
Kalara nodded, suprised a bit at the mention of his team.
"Aries Ormez, level 17. Fireteam Light Strike."
"Klyne Dendron. level 16, fireteam Die, Die, Die."
Kalara laughed. "That's a good one. So you guys can chant your team's name while running at the enemy, right?"
"yup."
She chuckled and pointed at the next person
"Avaria Lavis, Lavender to my team. Fireteam Boob Squad." she saluted. She quickly added "Oh, and I'm level 18 now."
Kalara smiled inside her helmet."Congratulations."
"Thanks."
"Alexi Dazmakov, level 16, fireteam killswitch three-five-nine." Kalara nodded.
The next hunter, Tanner, paused. Kalara motioned. "Come on."
"This is stupid." he kicked at the dirt.
"It's just getting to know each other."
"I don't want to be here."
"But you have to if you want to get back out there. Besides, it'll be fun, I promise." he looked up from where he was looking at the dirt. after a minute, he huffed "fine. Tanner Opis, level 18, fireteam Moon Howlers."
Kalara nodded. "Okay. The first thing we're gonna do is have a little skirmish, I want to see what you guys can do." Tanner looked up, then at the group and back at Lavender.
'Now he's interested' she thought. "I'm going to count off, according to where you are on my Roster."
They seperated into their groups. The first was Hairo, Klyne and Tanner. The second was Aries Lavender, and Alexi.
"okay, let's go! red team gets ten seconds headstart... go!"
Hairo, and Klyne took off. Tanner waited a second, then ran and double-jumped.
"I really hope he didn't just run out of the crucible." Kalara muttered.
She followed as Blue team jogged after the first team.
Red team fired first, hitting Aries in the chest. Alexi double jumped across the field. Lavender smirked and ran, blinking invisible as she went. She stayed that way as she slid and came up behind Klyne. She jumped up and Kalara couldn't quite see what she did, but she hit her mark and down he went.
Tanner was over to the right, and had his rocket launcher out. He aimed over their heads and fired. A section of the ancient structure came loose, the thick peice of wall turned as it fell, landing flat on Lavender.
Kalara cringed.
Aries came back to the area, double-jumping the entire way. A few seconds later, Klyne followed. Kalara didn't see Lavender until she appeared in the shadows of the same building Kalara had used for cover yesterday.
she was ducked into a crouch, her sniper rifle in her hands. Kalara jumped up onto the pillar she'd used the day before and walked closer to the edge to observe the skirmish.
Lavender spotted her target. She waited until her temporary teammates had engaged him, then ran towards him while his attentiion was averted. She ran, blinking to turn invisible, jumped up, and Kalara could have sworn she hovered half a second befoe hitting him with...
She tilted her head slightly. That looked a lot like a voidwalker attack. Kalara hit her comm. "Hey guys, I've been given a priority mission, so you guys have the day off. I'll see you next training session,okay?
"Okay." Lavender replied.
-
End notes: I'm breaking this up some, so I don't have that "long chapter/short chapter" thing going on.