Ch.3 Meeting New faces
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and didn't wind up in the hospital this time. I did once a few years ago because of a huge sugar intake and ended up with Gastroenteritis and let me just say that it wasn't fun, I seriously felt like my chest and stomach were being stabbed over and over. My advice to everyone is to drink a lot of water to offset the sugar count.
The next Destiny expansion comes out in a little over a month so here's hoping we get new planets or something and maybe we learn more about the mysterious Exo Stranger in the process. If Bungie were to elaborate a bit more on her and the organization she is a part of then we could have a nice plot addition to the game as a whole.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, all characters copyright of Bungie and Activision.
Gabe was very much aware that the eyes in the room turned toward him but his attention was still focused on Cayde and his Ghost only looked down. "He's still suffering from a case of amnesia." Ghost said as Cayde regarded Gabe for a second before nodding.
"Understandable, not many Guardians wake up and not have amnesia for a while but it goes away eventually." Cayde replied as everyone went back to what they are doing. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the others. They aren't your mentor but that doesn't mean they can't help you out when you need it."
"Uh sure…" Gabe replied as he followed Cayde to the table. "Does he always look like that?" Gabe asked Cayde as they walked and pointed to Zavala.
"He is one of those who is pretty rough on the outside but friendly on the inside. He wants his Titans to get the job done but he wants them to do it responsibly. Once you get to know him, you'll understand." Cayde replied as Zavala made no outward acknowledgement that he heard them. "Now Ikora is the one you need to watch for, she's been known to Voidlock someone upside down with their pants down just for looking at her." Cayde finished with a laugh as Ikora threw him a glance.
"She did that to you one time and that was for crashing her prized Sparrow and losing her best Hand Cannon." Zavala said dismissively as Gabe backed away from the table a little.
Zavala was an Awoken with pale skin, completely white eyes and was bald with a few wrinkles on his forehead. His armor was primarily grey and black but had a few places that were red in color. His face had a stern expression and his eyes seem to bore into you and make you look insignificant. 'He looks….dead…and they eyes seem to give the impression that they glow.' Gabe thought with a small shiver.
Ikora was a human with dark skin, brown hair that looked almost nonexistent and what looked like green eyes. She gave off an aura that portrayed a confidant yet outspoken individual along with a small amount of humor. 'I would rather not be hung upside down.' Gabe thought with an internal chuckle.
"Whatever you have heard about me Guardian isn't….entirely true." Ikora said as Gabe raised an eyebrow.
"I haven't heard anything yet…I just got here." Gabe said as Ikora frowned in thought.
"No one said anything about frogs?" She asked as Gabe shook his head.
"No ma'am, nothing was ever said to me." Gabe replied as Cayde did his best impression at clearing his throat.
"As fun as chatting all day sounds, we do get very busy. Here, take this to the Gunsmith and he'll get you fitted with a weapon and Halliday should be finished with a retrofit of the horse you rode in on." Cayde said as he handed Gabe a small token with an orange V on both sides. "If you need any help or just need work, come and find us and we'll point you in the right direction."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Ikora asked impatiently as Cayde tilted his head to the side.
"Oh right, welcome to the Guardians and welcome to the Hunters." Cayde said as he turned around to the table. "Wish I could go back out there but I know where my place is."
"There is a bounty board up the stairs." Ghost said Cayde shook his head.
"If I leave then the new Hunter's won't know where to go to wipe their asses." Cayde said as Zavala almost banged his head on the table.
"You might want to leave before he gets started." Ikora said as Cayde threw her a glance.
"Once he starts, he doesn't let you leave until he's done and that can take hours." Zavala said with a small twitch and Cayde threw his hands in the air in exasperation.
"Ok…..thank you all for your time." Gabe said awkwardly as he stepped away from the table before he stopped. "One more thing, I found this when I was…resurrected I guess you could say. Do you know what it is?" Gabe asked as he took the card out of his pocket and handed it to Cayde.
"Very old and faded but it looks like an ID card. You found this when your Ghost brought you back?" Cayde asked as Gabe nodded.
"Yea, I just had a feeling that it was important to me." Gabe replied as Cayde turned the card over in his hand.
"I'll see what we can do but I'm not sure we'll get a lot." Cayde replied as he pocketed the card.
"Anything is better than nothing." Gabe replied as he waved before leaving.
"You didn't seem that nervous around Zavala or Cayde." Ghost said as they walked up the stairs to the platform. "Well maybe at the start you did but you warmed up quickly."
"I didn't, they are my commanders so I have to be professional but I was completely worried on the inside. What exactly were they?" Gabe asked curiously.
"Zavala is an Awoken, a deep space race that generally walks the fine line between factions. They do their best not to cross the line and keep to themselves but every now and then one of them will cross it. Some people say that they are waiting for something and others believe that they are just there to watch." Ghost explained.
"And Cayde?" Gabe questioned again.
"He's a member of a machine race called Exo. The came around a few decades before the Traveler but no one knows why they were built. Some believe they were part of an ancient war and others seem to think they were built to serve but no one knows exactly. Just because they might be machine doesn't mean they don't feel though so don't tick them off." Ghost replied as Gabe nodded.
"Do they have skin or is just a bunch of metal under that clothing?" Gabe asked and this time his Ghost tilted on his side.
"I guess you could call it that. It's like a type of synthetic metal that mimic's the properties of regular skin but it's more durable and before you ask they don't have normal blood like Humans or Awoken; it's more a special liquid that keeps their bodies operating." Ghost replied sagely.
"So they are like us other than the fact that they have parts instead of organs?" Gabe asked again and someone else answered.
"You would be correct on that." A rough voice said and Gabe jumped about 10 feet backward.
"For a new Guardian, you're awfully jumpy and unaware." The stranger said as Gabe shook his head.
"And you are?" Gabe asked curiously with a hint of a guarded tone.
The Exo regarded him for a second before it shook its head. "Banshee-44 and I am the tower gunsmith and you look like a new person who doesn't know how to fire a weapon."
"I wouldn't have picked him if I didn't think he could handle it." Ghost said in Gabe's defense.
"Fair enough, but now I got a question. What's your preference?" Banshee asked Gabe who raised an eyebrow. "Weapon preference; Hand Cannon, Auto Rifle, Pulse Rifle or Scout Rifle?"
"Whichever is great for long range I guess?" Gabe said as Banshee stared at him.
"Kid, let me tell you this; not every fight is going to allow you to be far away but since you're a Hunter, a Scout Rifle might be a good start." Banshee replied as he handed Gabe a white rifle with a decent scope and a very light weight.
"It feels…very light and easily breakable." Gabe replied as he held the rifle in a firing position and pointed to the wall. Decent range..." Gabe said as he gave a nod to Banshee before he fired a test shot at the wall. "And recoil balance is pretty good."
"For you right now it is but you'll quickly find other weapons in the field but some of them you won't be able to know about right away. For that, the Cryptarchs can help but it's best not to bother them until you got something." Banshee said as he walked behind the counter. If you find anything out there that I can use, I'll be sure to pay you for them."
"I'll do that." Gabe said as he walked away from the stand. "Where to next?"
"The last stop is the Shipwright. It's just over here." Ghost said as he led Gabe through a hall that lead to a docking bay and for the second time that day Gabe was awestruck at the size of the hanger.
"You could fit a football field in here." Gabe said and his Ghost looked at him.
"What's a football?" Ghost asked as Gabe raised an eyebrow.
"I…..don't know. I just…felt like saying it." Gabe replied as his face fell. "I just say or do things but I don't know why."
Ghost only bobbed up and down a little. "Don't get yourself down, you'll remember sometime."
Gabe nodded and followed his Ghost. "That is where the Vanguard Armory is but you don't have access to it yet. When you complete your first mission then you will be added into the system but for now you're a Guardian in name only." Ghost said as they walked past a desk with a robot typing away on a computer with various weapons and armor behind it. "And that is Halliday, the Shipwright."
Halliday was a human female with wild blonde hair and green eyes and she had a small bit of either dirt or grease on her right cheek but Gabe couldn't tell. She was speaking to other dock workers from her spot sitting on a stack of crates. She looked up when Gabe and his Ghost walked up. "You must be a new Guardian, we get plenty of those but you seem a little different."
"That's what everyone keeps telling me." Gabe replied a little more upbeat. He actually felt comfortable around Holliday but maybe that was because she always had some kind of happy expression.
She looked him over with her eyes before she gave a small grin. "Aren't you a little young? Don't tell me that kids who haven't passed school can be Guardians now."
Just like that Gabe put his head down. "Do you have my ship or not?" He asked tiredly. He was tired of people calling him young and he was tired of being pulled all over the place and worst of all he had no idea that there were other races besides Humans. He just wanted to get his gear all set and find somewhere to sleep.
"I'm just playing with you kid and the answer to that is not yet. It's an old ship; to be frank it's older than the ones I usually get so it's going to take a day to make it stable. Bear in mind that unless you have a warp drive it won't break orbit" Holliday said as Gabe raised an eyebrow and Holliday sighed. "It's how you move from planet to planet."
"Alright I think I understand, when do you think it'll be ready?" Gabe asked and Holliday gained a thoughtful expression.
"By tomorrow by the looks of it so if you can hold tight till then it'll be ready." Holliday said as Gabe looked down again.
"I see…well please take your time Miss Holliday. I'm in no rush to get going." Gabe said as Holliday chuckled a bit.
"Just call me Amanda kid." Amanda replied as Gabe nodded.
"Gabriel or Gabe is fine." Gabe said but Holliday laughed.
"You look like a kid so kid it is." she said as Gabe sighed and his Ghost gave a small laugh. "Stop taking stuff so personally, it's not a bad thing it just means you need to be a little more careful. Other Guardians have more experience due to their ages but you look completely fresh out of a training camp. I don't even consider you green and that's saying something." she finished as Gabe's confidence was just completely shot.
"I….." he started but couldn't finish.
"Listen kid; take everything with a grain of salt. We're all just looking for anything we can use to lighten our moods these days. Enemies are all around the city and you Guardians are our only real defense and any time we can cut back and relax like this is extremely valuable." Amanda said as Gabe raised his head. "I'm not saying that to be mean, even though it's true, I'm saying it to get you to smile a little because that's all we have nowadays. We like to joke around here and laughter is the best medicine to anything."
'The Darkness grows each day and we lose hope with it. You have to take advantage of these moments or else you won't last out there." Ghost said as Gabe thought it over.
"I guess, I am a little green but that doesn't mean I can't fight." Gabe said as Holliday nodded.
"See, that's the spirit kid. Keep your chin up and your sense on full alert and you'll do just fine here." Amanda replied as Gabe did smile a little. "Now enough with this doom and gloom, there's a bar just down the stairs. Wanna grab a drink?" she asked as Gabe thought about it.
"I…..don't think I can." he finally said as Holliday looked confused.
"And that is?"
"I think I'm a little too young for alcohol." he replied as she looked at him again.
"You haven't finished growing yet so I guess you're right. Damn, well you could always get water or a soda while I throw one back. I'll pay if you can't." she offered and this time Gabe shrugged.
"Don't see why not, got nothing better to do." he said as she jumped down. What made him put his head down was the fact that he barely came to her shoulders.
"Kid's a shrimp…..you just might be the shortest Guardian ever." Amanda commented as Gabe felt down again. "We really need to work on your people skills."
Gabe shook his head and held in a laugh. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all….until he found out that Holliday was very flirty when she drank.
-Scene Change-
Gabe stumbled tiredly into his assigned room in the tower barracks. It was a plain room with only a small bed on one wall and a desk on the other with a window looking over the forest to the north but it felt roomy despite its small size. Off to the side of the desk was a small room with a sink, a small toilet and a shower. A small nightstand was on the left side of the bed.
"Small but cozy, I think we'll be right at home here." Ghost replied as Gabe fell onto the mattress and looked at the grey ceiling. Outside the window, the sun was quickly setting and it painted the room with a nice orange color.
"Yea…..can I ask you something?" Gabe asked as his Ghost looked at him from its place on the nightstand.
"What's up?"
"Why me?" Gabe asked bluntly.
"To be honest, I don't know. We don't have an explanation, only a feeling about the Guardian we are looking for. Whether it ends up good or bad is anyone's call but we always know who we are looking for." Ghost said as Gabe focused on the ceiling.
"In other words, I might not even be here if you didn't have a feeling about me?" Gabe asked again.
"Correct, but like I said we are never wrong about who we pick. Even if it means we die, we stick by our chosen Guardians." Ghost replied as Gabe nodded before he crossed his arms behind his head. "We should get some sleep, we got a busy day tomorrow."
"I agree and by the way, thanks." Gabe said as Ghost only beeped.
"It's what I do." Was all Ghost said before Gabe fell asleep and Ghost powered down for the night.
And an extra long chapter for all my readers!
We got to meet some of the people on the tower and we even got a good starting point for next chapter. The conversation between Holliday and Gabe were nothing more than playful banter but I might do some more flirting between them later on. What do you all think about that?
Think of the Exo's having a metal type skin that feels like plastic but mimics the properties of our skin. I know it's tough to imagine but think of the T1000 from the Terminator 2 but more grey in color than what it is in the movie and make it seem like actually skin but plastic feeling. Hence the term Synthetic metal skin and their body liquid is more of a special liquid that keeps them moving like oil but not the same black color, it's more of a blueish color.
Read and review and I'll see you all next time!