Voxen hovered over Shadow in the small cock pit of the ship, proudly donning her new look of Black, gold, and hint of light blue. She never felt more proud of herself, and crew until this moment. Week had blown by, and she had stuck around at the Tower with the whole Crew, getting familiar with them and learning more of their language and more of how they operated and fought. They had gone out of the Tower and even trained on a small private "courtyard", as they called it, of sorts so that she got chance to familiarize herself with her new weapons and how to wield them effectively.
She also learned each Guardian's battle tactic, no two's the same, and Voxen found it very intriguing. Her Kell, Shadow fought almost recklessly, sometimes getting closer to hack at targets, other times falling back and shooting other targets in the head with frightening accuracy. Draco took a very protective and, defensive approach, shooting targets to keep them at bay, but using a "Ward of Dawn", to protect himself, forcing enemies closer to him to land some vicious melee attacks. Raven could dominate large groups of enemies and control the battlefield around her with her own Void energy, while preferring a mid-range tactic with opponents. While the last, and from what Voxen could tell was the newest to combat, Thyra, charged in haphazardly head first, but somehow managed to hold her own with deadly extreme close quarters combat. And if this Titan found herself surrounded she pounded into the earth with a devastating lightening attack. However Voxen always found herself amused when Thyra challenged the Huntress. Always losing to Shadow's wind-breaking fast movements that managed to get in and pin Thyra each time. It made the young Guardian very irritated for a time afterward, while her Kell just seemed very entertained and amused with it.
Today, Shadow had explained it would just be her and Voxen going out today to go gather supplies, including the much needed ether that Voxen needed to breathe in order to survive and keep her strong. The more they got ahold of the bigger, and stronger Voxen could become, so it was on the top of their list today to collect before the little supply she had left was all used up. Her Kell even went out of her way to convince a very disgruntled human called the "Ship Rite" to set up a seal in the ship that could release ether in the ship, should she need it. She also even managed to get someone to set up her own quarters to go to within the Tower, again capable of entering ether into the air for Voxen, so Vandal did not have to have her helm on while she rested.
Her wounds had also had gotten a chance to heal over the time they had spent training and Shadow had spent arranging things to accommodate Voxen. It was the most kindness she had ever been shown, and yet she didn't see it as weakness as she normally would have, it almost made her feel a bit stronger knowing that she wasn't going to be miserable with her time with them.
"We will be dropping out of slip space shortly. After that it won't take long for us to drop in. Voxen's now set up to be pulled and dropped from the ship without exposing it to the enemy down there." The Ghost rattled on through the ships coms while piloting the ship.
"Awesome, Voxen, you heard the little light, time to gear up!" Shadow looked over shoulder at Voxen.
"I ask you not to do that!"
Voxen chirped, amused with the pair. Then stepped back out of the cockpit to grab her weapons and put them on. Shadow grabbed her hand cannon, Thorn, from its place at her hip, and appeared ready to drop.
"Alright, so here's the mission today. Ether for you is priority one. We will collect as much as we can, hopefully we can capture a servitor and take its supply, that would be ideal to last you awhile, but ya know punching a few Devils in the face for their rations isn't out of the question either. Priority two, is disrupting the Devil's stronghold in the area, and take out the Baron there. Varikis, the Crafty, has been a pain in the ass to Guardians sent in by the Vanguard trying to stop the House of Devils from controlling more turf on Earth. Copy?"
"Copy, yes?" Voxen replied with a determined nod.
"Good. Ghost, ETA?"
"We've arrived. Dropping us down in five... four... three...two...one..."
Voxen felt like her whole body was being sucked into a vacuum for a brief moment, and the next thing she knew, they were on the ground, in a wild overgrown landscape. It was very cold, and the ground in the white, soft, yet also cold and wet, powdery like substance she had come to know as "snow". It crunched quietly under her boots, and covered the land around them like a cloak. The weather here always fascinated her. It made her wonder if the home planet her kind had left behind so very long ago, before the whirlwind, had had snow like this. Or any weather close to Earth's for that matter.
Shadow went over to a snow-covered beacon that protruded from the ground and tapped a button on it.
"This is Huntress Shadow checking in with the Tower. I have arrived at the location in Old America, Alaska, WinterPine region, coordinates will follow."
She dabbed at more controls that Voxen couldn't see, nor would she understand. She still had much to learn about the humans if she would keep working with them.
"Alright Voxen, eyes up! We gotta make sure we aren't walking into a trap, though I'm doubtful the Devils know we are here." Shadow stood, drawing her hand cannon and keeping it at the ready to fight at any moment.
"Devils know only war. Too eager to fight... with other Houses or Guardian, they do not care. No Fallen even knows who the Devils call Kell..." Voxen rattled back what she knew of House Devils.
"Sadly we don't know much more about them either. Which is why it's important to take out key targets like this, it gives us a window to learn more about them." Shadow answered back quietly. She led the way with her hand cannon pointing them on.
Stalking through the snow with muffled, soft, crunching sounds, behind Shadow Voxen had her Sniper up, keeping an eye out to see if anything caught her eye down her scope. The unusual pair crept on through the white and evergreen trees. The cold air nipped at any opening it could on Voxen in ways that she wasn't used to, but she carried on, finally understanding why the Wolves were so keen on fur cloaks and thicker under armor. Plus with the blue and black armor, they could easily blend into the landscape at a distance; making them harder to spot and impossible to track in a storm.
Shadow suddenly stopped and crouched down; raising her first up in a crew that Voxen knew meant to halt where she was. She stopped and crouched down, mimicking the Huntress with both pairs of eyes locked on her.
"Look up ahead... Smoke. Probably a fire, which means we are close." The huntress pointed and whispered just barely loud enough for the Vandal to hear.
Voxen clicked twice and nodded, signaling she understood to be deathly silent as they continued.
Shadow began to move again through the trees, but still kept her body as low as she could without crouching to be invisible as possible, while Voxen activated her cloaking as she follow behind.
As they made their way up a small hill, it suddenly flattened out at the top and the trees thinned out ahead of them into a clearing. There they could see the source of the smoke; a large fire in the center of what could very easily be described as a Fallen camp next to the ruins of a small building that still somehow had most of the walls still standing and most of its roof still providing shelter.
They could hear chatter as they got closer from the camp's occupants, a combination of hisses, clicks and whines mixed in with the Fallen language. Shadow crouched down as low as she could and hid behind a young evergreen pine that sheltered her from the eyes of the Dregs that were supposed to be keeping watch. However to Voxen, it appeared they were more preoccupied with a small duel that appeared to be going on nearby the fire between a couple more dregs with only shock daggers, swinging and swiping at each other. One would hiss at one and take a swipe the other would dodge and click angrily back and take a swipe back. The rest of the dregs and a couple of Vandals sat near the fire and watched the two duel it out. Two vandals stood outside the broken building doorway, or what could have been just a large hole in the way, there was no telling as it was too worn out to tell, guarding something inside, where the angry growls of a Fallen could be hear inside. Voxen assumed it would be one of higher rank such as a Captain, or even the Baron they needed to stalk. All the troops she could see carried the red threads and armor of House Devils.
Voxen looked around from the troops to the supplies they had. Several crates marked with fallen symbols were scattered about the camp. Some were used a places to sit upon by a couple of the Devil Vandals. Over next to the building was a large stack of them covered in netting to make it harder to get into the contents of the crates. Several mines and seniors were wrapped away in netting bags and laid out off to the side. She tried to peg that their ether supplies were probably in the crates next to the building, near where the Captain probably was to prevent the rest of the crew from taking more than they were allowed. However she wondered where their servitor was... It was odd... however there were too many unknowns that the Vandal could not see, and she was weary to leap into a fight knowing less than a Dreg...
"Vox!"
The vandal damn near jumped out of her armor. She looked around but her Kell was still quite the ways away from her for Voxen to have heard her so clearly.
"I had them implant coms into your helmet so we can chat without the need to stand side by side so don't flip shit."
"Apologies, Kell..." Voxen answered.
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Not so loud. They might hear you... And I told you not to call me that!"
"Apologies," She whispered back. "But you are Kell."
Voxen heard a sigh back from the Huntress and a few moment of silence followed.
"Never mind. LL is detected some very powerful ether readings coming from that old abandoned house. We agree it's too large to be one Captain in there. So we are assuming it's the Baron, the Captain and maybe an Ether runner."
"Yes. You should proceed with extreme caution. Taking on a large Fallen crew like this is reckless without a plan." Voxen heard the ghost add in.
Voxen crouched down in the snow, thinking over the best plan of attack while keeping her eyes on the camp. However she was still used to fighting in a pack herself, and most of her good attack tactics were for not without one. She clicked her mandibles with deep thought, trying to take into account for the Guardian's strong fighting abilities while still figuring in the new weapons she had herself. Would it be wise to strike with her blades? Stand back with her new human wire rifle? Then something came to mind and she accessed the coms in her helmet.
"Kell! You has Wire rifle, yes? Cover me, I stay cloaked and try to take out as many as I can without sound, good plan?" Voxen chattered excitedly over to the Huntress.
"Sounds like a plan. Go for it, I got your back." Shadow responded, "And we call Wire Rifles, Sniper Rifles, or just Snipers."
"Tanks." Voxen was practically glowing from the praise. Now she had a chance to prove her combat prowess in actual battle. She would show she was worthy of respect.
Voxen crept forward as silently as she could towards the camp, pulling out her daggers with her lower arms, while her upper arms would assist her in controlling her targets. Thankfully, the entire camp was crawling with her kind, so her scent would be masked by the other Fallen in camp, and her targets easy kills since most still had their attention on the dreg fight.
She kept the shadows of the trees once she broke through the tree line, eyeing her first unaware target standing next to a supply crate. It raised its fists in the air, encouraging the fight on with an excited cry.
"Fight to the death! Lowly Dregs, prove yourself! Show you are worth fighting beside!" It cried in its own language. His back to Voxen as she stalked her prey ever closer.
As soon as she was less than a dagger's length away she slowly rose up, and then with one quick motion grabbed a tube feeding ether into his mask. Cutting off the precious life without wasting it, while also grabbing him by the head, jerking it back and then slashing his throat open in a flawless deathblow. The light in the Devil Vandals eyes went dark and its body began to crumple down, Voxen carefully moving with the dead weight; easing it down against the crate so it appeared he was merely sleeping on the job, if any other of the crew noticed.
"Nice kill, keep it up, I won't let em get ya." Voxen heard from Shadow through the coms. She looked back the way she came, seeing a bright light looking her way, and she nodded, and silently went back to her task.
She snuck up on several of the guards without a sound. Each one meeting the same fate as the first Vandal she took down, all of them silently crumpling to the ground without the rest of the crew noticing. It surprised Voxen none of them smelled the blood that she was spilling from each guard she took out. She had noticed the smell of blood as soon as she had gotten into the clearing, but they must be really bloodthirsty House if they did not even flinch when more of their blood was in the air.
Voxen had finally picked off most of the unwary guards, even some of the dregs and vandals that had been closer to the fire, without notice, and then everything seem to go to hell. One of the Vandal guards that had been standing guard outside the ruined structure was hovering over one of the bodies, and it let out a howl, and all of the camp suddenly fell very silent.
"We have an intruder you pathetic fool! We are under attack! Find them! Bring whatever did this to the void!" It screeched, and the entire camp seemed to suddenly busy in a new energy of rage and blood lust, all weapons out and searching for Voxen... She quickly, backed herself up against the structure, trying to make sure she wasn't spotted. There was nowhere to go, her cloaking device helped her stay out of sight, but it didn't make her completely invisible; especially if they were looking for her.
She was trapped, and her hearts pounded... maybe if she made a break for it she could make it to the trees before they spotted her and opened fire... maybe they'd shoot her down...
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZHHHHHIP!
A Sniper round zipped through the camp, going clean through the Vandal who had alerted the camp's skull. It crumpled to the ground with a heavy thud, and the remains of the crew, turned to look at the corpse that was left. Then they all opened fire in the trees where the shot had come from in a huge unorganized frenzy.
Apparently, all the noise had rose to the attention of the higher Fallen inside as she head a roar come from the door of a large Devil Captain. Voxen looked around the corner and watched as he pulled out a shrapnel launcher, and begun firing into the trees as well, slowly advancing towards her kell's position. Even with the numbers Voxen had killed, there were still many more than hadn't fallen yet. She worried that the numbers would overwhelm the Huntress, and acted upon it to protect her Kell from the largest threat on the field. The Captain. She roared a battle cry herself and charged with two long swords in her stronger arms and pulled out two hand canons with her lower ones, firing at the captain as she closed the distance hoping to diminish his arc shield before she got in too close. She abandoned her cloak, revealing herself to the camp of Devils as she charged. The Captain, teleported a short distances away, and turned her way with a roar.
"YOU SHALL DIE VANDAL!" It cried, raising a fist at her and then charging toward her. She raised her swords above her head to defend herself from his strong from one of his upper arms, flying back and she was lucky enough to land on her feet sliding back enough to ground herself. But it was too late the Captain came at her with another fist and his weapon, prepared to blast her away. She pulled the trigger on her hand cannons, and rewarding with the clicks of an empty mags. The vandal realized with horror; she hadn't reloaded her weapons... Her eyes got wide as she dropped the guns and reached for her second pair of swords.
"DIE TRATIOR!" The Devil captain roared as he easily closed the distance with a short teleport, his shield just barely still standing and his launcher raised to her head for the kill. This was it for her!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIP!
A sniper round ripped through the last of the Captain's shield, and hi the back of his helm, causing the large fallen leader to stagger for a split moment, and causing his shot with the launcher to miss his intended target. The shrapnel from the weapons, grazing through Voxen's bottom right arm, and she flinched herself from the pain. She couldn't stop now! Voxen charged with three swords raised, and leapt, slashing through the Captain's armor, and taking his head clean off his shoulders. She hit the ground hard, tumbling in the dirt and snow. Then she heard the satisfying thump of his head hitting the ground, and then the rest of him following.
Voxen rose up from the earth, and faced the rest of the crew that remained. They had at some point stopped firing to see the fight between their Captain and Voxen. She roared victoriously, clenching her wounded arm as lifeblood dripped into the snow.
"My House, STRONG!" She cried.