Chapter 4

I tensed, preparing to move. With any luck, I could spin around fast enough to get an arm up, knock the weapon aside, and get out of the line of fire. Of course, the way things have been going, luck wasn't really on my side. Before I could try to make my move though, I heard a familiar voice.

"You're getting sloppy, old man."

I relaxed and turned to find a piece of metal piping pointed at my face, held by a female Hunter. I couldn't see her face because of her helmet, but I knew if I could she would be wearing a large grin right now.

"If I were a Vandal, you do realize just how dead you'd be, right?" she asked, the previously suspected grin evident in her voice as she mimed firing the pipe as if it were a gun before tossing it aside.

"Hello, Celeste," I responded. "Two questions: what are you doing here, and how did you find me?"

"First," she said, dramatically holding up a finger at each point, "I'm on a scouting mission. Doing Hunter stuff. You know how it is. Or, would, if you weren't a stuffy, no fun Titan. Second, I hid a transponder on your ship. As soon as you entered atmosphere, it pinged my Ghost and he let me know you were here."

"You did what?" I asked, incredulously. "When? How did you manage something like that? Do you realize that if anyone else hacked that signal, it could be broadcasting my location to anyone?"

"I did it the last time we were at the Tower. It was easy to get to it in the hanger. Show Holliday a ship part she hasn't seen before and you can slip past her without even having to go invisible. But, I hadn't thought about that last part," she replied sheepishly. "I'll have Whisper shut it down." There was a brief pause, and then, "Done."

"Good. Now as for your comment about me getting sloppy, well… you are the second Hunter in as many days to sneak up behind me, so you might have a point."

"The second? What could you possibly be up to that anyone else would ever find interesting?"

"Good question. Right now," I said, turning my attention back to the ruined facility, "I'm keeping an eye on those two Warlocks. They're looking for information. The one in red seems pretty new at this, so I would be inclined to chalk it up to too little experience and too much enthusiasm, but Executor Hideo offered me a nice prize for coming along and the other Warlock doesn't seem the type to be on a wild Ahamkara hunt, so there must be an interesting lead somewhere. The other time was on the moon." I quickly relayed the story of my run-in with the other Hunter, which drew a low whistle out of her.

"Attacking another Guardian outside of the Crucible? That's… that's… big."

"As far as I know, it's only happened one other time since I've been revived."

"Are we talking the first two Guardians ever or something," she retorted, "because I can't imagine more than that actually being older than you."

For the record, I'm not THAT old. It's all a matter of perspective. Celeste had been one of a handful of cases I was aware of where a Ghost had revived someone too young to be a Guardian. I'd been there when it happened. I was on patrol and saw a lone Ghost flitting about and decided to keep an eye on it. It was a good thing that I did. A Fallen scouting party arrived as the Ghost was finishing the resurrection process. Long story short, I kept her alive and now she looked at me as some sort of father figure. Maybe an uncle. I would like to think fathers would get a little more respect. She'd spent the first few years of her new life studying and training at the Tower before being let out into the field only recently.

"Rotten young whippersnapper," I replied, giving my best geriatric vocal impression, "when I was your age when fought the Fallen off with rocks and tree branches." Back to my normal voice, "I should probably get back to those two. Want to stick around, or do you have 'Hunter stuff' to go do?"

"I'll stick around for a bit," she said. We both hopped off the small ledge and made our way back to the compound.

I couldn't shake the comment she made about me getting sloppy. Over the last few days I'd been flung around by enemy fire and my own grenade, snuck up on twice, and killed by a stray cannon blast. Had I grown careless? It certainly seemed that way. There did seem to be a growing confidence among Guardians in general, especially since the fall of Oryx, and I wasn't immune. Had it grown to overconfidence? That could be dangerous, especially if, or when, another large scale threat arrived.

We returned to the Warlocks just in time for Zillah to slam a fist into a console in frustration. The loud bang startled Scott-20, who nearly fell out of his chair. The Ghosts continued their scans, unfazed.

"There's nothing here!"

"Well, I am not so sure…" Scott started to inject before Zillah cut him off.

"I am. I've run every check I can think of. That Guardian who found this place said that Vex attacked as soon as their Ghost tapped into the network. The thrice-cursed must have come back and cleared everything out. There isn't even a mention of the Vex in the system anywhere." She stood and moved away from the computers, seething.

Well, yes, but I…" Scott started again, then stopped when he saw Celeste and I looking in. "Oh, hello."

"Howdy," Celeste replied in a mock-serious tone, giving him a brief wave.

"Scott-20, Zillah, this is Celeste; Celeste, Scott and Zillah. I take it the search isn't going well?" I asked.

"Not exactly," he stated. "Though, as I was trying to explain to Zillah, I might have discovered a different lead. The data may be gone from this location, but I have been scouring the network and believe I may have uncovered the coordinates of another Ishtar Collective facility, one that has not, as of yet, been reported by any other Guardian. It is possible that this location could still be protected from the Vex as well."

"Celeste, do you have a map?" I asked.

"Of course."

She stepped forward, removing a small projector from her belt and setting it on the desk. A holographic representation of the Ishtar Sink flickered to life. Known patrol areas where Guardians had made a foothold were bright blue, smaller sections of a darker shade flanked it in each direction, showing areas scouted by Celeste and other Hunters that had yet to see a stronger Guardian presence. Scott consulted his terminal one more time then circled the map, pointing to a spot north of our position, just outside of any of the darker blue areas.

"Here," he stated with confidence. "We will find the facility at these coordinates."

"There's a heavy Vex presence in that area," Celeste said. "It will be a challenge to get there, and there is no way to know if they have already found the facility or not."

"Well, I say we head north and check it out. At least see what sort of opposition we'll be facing and make a plan from there," I said.

"I agree," Zillah chimed in.

Nods from Scott and Celeste signaled their agreement. Each of our Ghosts downloaded the map, and we made preparations to head into the unknown. I had Elgan transmat some ammo synths, ration bars, and water from the Invictus. I also had him bring down my Inward Lamp, keeping the Kumakatok for backup. I had been pleasantly surprised by the hand cannon so far, but wanted something a little more familiar in this situation. I saw the other three making similar adjustments.

I removed my helmet to eat and drink, the unfiltered sensations of Venus hitting my senses. Luna had been populated, but Venus, as well as Mars, had been terraformed by the Traveler, adapted to make human life possible beneath the clouds. The air was breathable, but there was a unique smell to it that was so foreign most people did not like to breathe it any longer than necessary. It was also very humid, leaving exposed skin feeling sticky.

Scott didn't bother stopping to eat or drink; being an Exo it was only a luxury for him. Instead, he removed his helmet and just sat, observing the rest of us. After a few moments, he stepped outside, the sun glinting off his blue and white metallic shell as he passed through the doorway.

Celeste's long, red hair was pulled in two pigtails that spilled out onto either shoulder as she removed her helmet. It was a little unexpected to see she'd put that much effort in, usually it just hung in an unruly mass. She narrowed her eyes and puckered her lips as she looked over a ration bar, seemingly displeased with the flavor selection.

Zillah removed her Keeper's Mind helm, giving me my first look at her. Blue, semi-luminescent skin revealed her to be an Awoken. She had green hair that was pulled up into some sort of messy bun, glowing yellow eyes, and faint orange markings tattooed on her face. Many people consider the Awoken to be unusually attractive, and she would not have been an exception to the rule. I made great effort not to stare. The fact that she was Awoken did make me curious about all of the Reef made gear she had. Despite improved relations in recent years, Reef-born Awoken had little love for Guardians, and even less for Awoken Guardians.

The respite did not last long. Gearing back up, we set out to head north. Celeste took point and I brought up the rear with the Warlocks between us. We initially set off on our sparrows, but the terrain did not remain open enough for us to remain on them for a kilometer. On foot, we settled into a steady pace, prepared for a long trek through rough ground and vegetation.

It wasn't long before we ran into our first Vex patrol. I counted five Goblins, with two Hobgoblins providing overwatch. Nothing that the four of us couldn't handle. However, taking out this first group could alert Vex across the network to a hostile presence in the area, so we opted to try to slip past. Backing away slowly so as not to attract attention, we gathered around Celeste who activated a smoke bomb designed to scramble Vex sensors. We went wide around them and managed to avoid detection. We bypassed several other patrols in the same manner before our luck ran out.