"ARIA!" Matt yelled, sprinting over to her. "Shaxx, stop the match, guardian down. Get me medevac for Aria." He was shouting down his mic, panic creeping into his voice, "Aleeza, Aria needs help, now."
"Yeah, I'm on my way." Aleeza responded, Matt saw her on his HUD, sprinting towards them.
"Jenny, what happened?"
"I don't know." The ghosts' voice shook slightly, "I revived her, that was normal, I'm sure of it. Then she just shut down. It looks like a maintenance cycle, but she can kick herself out of one of them…" She trailed off, her voice sounding constricted.
"I came as quickly as I coul…" Aleeza stopped mid-word, sliding to a halt next to Matt, who was crouched next to Aria, "What?"
"Jenny says that something failed, but she doesn't know what. It looked like a maintenance cycle, but Jenny says that Aria can kick herself out of one of them."
A triple boom shook Matt right to his bones. A trio of redjack ships dropped down, two of them hovering, the third descending to land. Two frames disembarked, running over to where Aria lay. They lifted her up, gently placing her on a stretcher, before running back towards the landed ship, Jenny zipping along next to her guardian.
Matt stood stock still, blinking inside his helmet.
"Matt?" Nova materialised in front of him. He didn't react. Nova sighed, "Matt, she should be fine. Her reactor was doing something weird, there were loads of power fluctuations. Nothing they can't fix back at the tower."
Matt nodded, as the second ship floated down, hovering about half a metre off the ground. A redjack stood next to the cargo hatch, "You five, I'm taking you all back to the city."
Akiva leapt, landing easily on the ramp. Carina and the warlock jumped next, the warlock adding a burst of speed from his light to get him all the way up. Matt looked around, eyes scanning for anything that could have caused Aria to fail.
He shrugged, jumping gracefully into the ship. He felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to see Carina, "She'll be fine. I've seen Exo's go through worse."
Matt took off his helmet, smiling thinly, "That's the thing, Carina, I haven't. Ever. I can't remember much about my past, but I remember seeing a bulletin about the Exo program once. Saying it was failing. That's it." He sat down, hanging his head, "She'll be fine, she'll be fine." He muttered to himself, trying to convince himself of that.
Nova materialised hear his head, humming a simple four note tune. Matt smiled again, prompting Nova to hum it again, Matt singing a simple phrase an octave lower. "Yeah, I guess she wouldn't give up that easy." He looked up, hand touching his wrist to open a comm channel, "Cayde."
"Matt. Heard what happened to Aria. She's just arrived at the infirmary, Zavala's down there now checking on her."
"Yeah, Carina said she's seen Exos' get back up after worse."
"Uh…, give me a sec guardian, there's a titan inbound." Cayde cut the signal.
"Good luck." Matt muttered, leaning back, the ship shuddering as the hatch opened, the tower visible. They jumped out, landing hard on the plaza. A titan shot up the stairs, sprinting towards them, skidding to a halt in front of Akiva, a crazy grin on her face.
"They approved it." She barely stopped before shooting off again towards the hanger.
"Wha… I'll be down to see Aria in a sec, I need to go check something. Wei, wait." Akiva sprinted after the titan.
Aleeza sighed, "Come on. Let's go see Aria, maybe the meds know what happened."
-X-
/DATA_STREAM_RESET
/SYSTEM REBOOT IN PROGRESS
…
…
…
OS_BOOT_COMPLETE
USER/ARIA-1/READY
MIND CORE SAFE
ITERATION_SEP_PREV_QUERY: 1
ISOLATE_STORED_STATE: 1
SAFE?
SAFE = 1
/SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETE
Aria groaned, static slashing her vision, slowly resolving, "Hey Jenny."
"Aria. Oh, thank the Traveller." Jenny's optic lit up, "How are you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Still got some visual glitches, I'll sort them out ASAP."
A hunter opened the door, helmet on. Aria cocked her head to one side, "Matt?"
"Yes." He twisted the helmet, the seal releasing with a hiss of air. He placed the helmet on the table next to the door, "Do you mind if I come in?"
"No." Matt opened the door fully, stepping though. He wore a full set of hunter armour, "What do you think?" He held his arms out.
"Looks good. The leaves seem a bit over the top." Aria blinked several times, static washing across her vision again.
"Nah, they look cool. Oh, Zavala said you might want this." Matt held out his hand, a strip of fabric folding outwards, facing towards Aria, "Jenny said she though you would like the design."
Aria smiled, her lights growing almost painfully bright as she reached out and took the mark, "Thanks. What?" Matt's head was cocked to one side, looking at her hand.
"You have a lot more running lights that any Exo I've seen." He shrugged, "Guess that's what comes with the crazy reactor, I guess."
Aria realised that he was squinting slightly, ducking her lights' intensity, "Sorry. So you're a hunter now."
Matt shrugged again, "Eh, always was, just allowed to actually do stuff now. Come on, Jenny's got something to show you."
She swung her legs off the hospital bed, servos whining in protest, "What is it?" She shouted though the door, pushing herself off the bed. Jenny shot through the door, "You OK?"
Aria waved a hand at the ghost, "Yeah." She walked over to the door, servos slowly loosening up. She windmilled her arms, fists clenching and unclenching, testing all of her systems again.
She opened the door, lights dipping on her hands. She breathed in, the armour shining in the light. The chestplate and shoulderpads were much bulkier than her training gear. She picked up the chestplate, surprised by the fact that it was lighter than she was expecting.
Jenny zipped over to the armour, "Give me a second." A blue light scanned across it, "Got it. Stand still."
Aria stood stock still, watching Jenny scrunch up, compressing her shell. She felt heavier, as if someone had dropped a weight around her neck, "OK, done. You're a titan properly now."
Matt smiled, one of his tight smiles, "Come on. Race ya." He placed his helmet over his head, "Oh, you might want to reorganise your HUD, the defaults are usually terrible."
Aria shook her head, picking up the helmet. She flipped it over in her hands, the visor was covered by protective plating, three points of light showing from what she presumed were cameras. She flipped the helmet back over, placing it over her head. It sealed to her suit with a hiss of air.
Icons flickered across her vision, a motion tracker came online, the shunted over to the top right of her field of view. Ammo counters flickered on, reading nothing. Teambio booted below the tracker, showing her basic life signs for herself and Matt. She grinned, opening a comm channel to him, "That race you were talking about…" she tailed off, waiting for a response. She set off jogging towards the door.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Where too?" She picked up her pace slightly, getting used to the greater freedom of movement that she had with the new armour."
"Vanguard. They wanted to talk to us as soon as you were feeling fine."
"OK." She kicked up her speed by another notch, running properly now, "GO!" She yelled, shooting past Matt, who was standing at the door.
-X-
Matt yelled as she shot past him, setting off after her. He sprinted around a corner, seeing Aria disappear around the next one. He shot around the corner, picking up speed. He was gaining on her. They flew out of the hanger, Aria slowing down to take the sharp turn to the Plaza.
Matt threw himself into the corner, jumping off the wall, revelling in the greater movement he had in proper armour. He saw Aria slow down slightly, taking the stairs three at a time.
He leapt forwards, throwing himself over the railing behind the Cryptarchs tent. He landed sprinting, tearing past Aria. He skidded to a halt next to the Crucible quartermaster.
"Ah, Matt." Cayde shouted though the archway, "Is Aria with you?"
Matt grinned in his helmet, "Nearly, we had a race. She cheated, I won"
Aria slid to a halt next to him, "God, this armour is so much better than that crap we had in training. Hey Cayde. Is Matt telling you about how I cheated?"
"No." The two hunters replied simultaneously, Cayde's smile grew, "Enjoy. Ikora, you said you needed a patrol team for a bit." He leaned towards them, "There's some stuff being ironed out right now, but it's looking like there's a plan for retaking Luna. And we're gonna need more guardians, so do good here, yeah?"
"Guardians," Ikora said from the main table, "We need a small team on the ground for a couple of days. Just need you to do some scouting and recon for us. You'll rendezvous with your third in the cosmodrome here," She pointed to her map, both Nova and Jenny moving forwards to see where she was pointing, "We're expecting it to be low risk, but go prepared." They nodded. Matt leaned towards the map, looking over the area, "Where is it you want us to recon? Also, why a full fire team for this? If it's low risk, we should be fine."
Ikora nodded, gaze returning to the map, "Your recon point is here, find out what the Fallen are up to, if anything, and if they have something up, find it and report back. We'll tell you what to do from there." She paused, turning away from them, "Have you heard of Kabr and Pahanin?"
"Yeah. Why?" Matt asked, sounding curious.
"Then you'll know where they went. The Vault of Glass. We haven't heard from either of them for years. We have been forced to conclude that they are likely dead. The consensus decided that, after their status as MIA was changed to KIA, that guardians must travel outside the City in groups of three or more." She turned around, lightning arcing around her eyes, "That's why." Matt wasn't sure, but did her voice just crack slightly.
"Ikora." Cayde threw a scrunched up piece of paper at her, pointing to his eyes, then looking pointedly at Matt and Aria, "Go, prepare. Get another round in on the range. Check your guns, Matt, take more knives that you think you will need. Aria," Cayde shrugged, "I dunno, I'm not a titan. Mostly the same though. Check your shot and weapons. Good luck, you'll smash it, I'm sure." He grinned broadly at them both. They turned to leave, just catching "You alright? You don't normally do that." from Cayde, and a snappy "Yes" from Ikora.
-X-
Aleeza swung her ship down, flying low over the trees. She glanced at the navigation, seeing she was fast approaching her drop point.
"Lena, drop me as soon as we're in range."
"OK. Same as normal then, fly high, I'll give you a yell if I see something bad." Lena said, "Here you are. Transmat in 3, 2, 1…"
Aleeza felt weightless for a second, before falling a metre or so to the ground. She landed, aiming around with her pulse rifle. She stopped, squinting slightly at a patch of grass that looked slightly out of shape. She sighed, why must new guardians do this, hide, try to be clever. She stalked towards it, pulse rifle aims squarely at it, just in case. She saw a titan stand up, wearing armour that looked like it had been designed with fighting Orges or Cabal legionaries. She shuddered at the thought of fighting the monstrosities, ducking and weaving to avoid the constant stream of hot lead that their miniguns threw out. The titan cocked her head to the left, Aleeza stopped. She recognised that mannerism, the way the titan stood, confident, but not in a standing out kind of way, "Aria?"
"Yeah. Hi Aleeza. So you're our third."
"Yeah. Speaking of which, where are they?"
Aleeza tensed, seeing movement in the trees behind Aria. She raised her pulse rifle, advancing slowly towards the movement. A human shape walked out of the forest, a hunter slinging his sniper over his shoulder, "Looks clear. Oh, hi Aleeza. "
Aleeza nodded, "Hi Matt. Trust you two are good to go?"
They both nodded, "Right. Matt, you said you scouted ahead, you can take point. We'll be just behind you."
Matt nodded, turning and walking back towards the treeline, drawing his knife, Aria falling in next to Aleeza.
-X-
Matt hacked though another dense lump of thorns, ducking though the gap he created. He stood up, shouldering his sniper to survey the surrounding area. He scanned along the ridgeline from just inside the treeline, hidden almost perfectly. Hidden so well that Aria walked straight past him.
"Nice spotting" He jested, hearing her mutter something under her breath. He stalked forwards, crouched low. He saw Aleeza slid up behind him, stowing her pulse rifle in favour of her sniper, "Ready?" Matt asked, taking a few more steps forwards.
"Go." Aleeza shouted into the mic.
Matt sprinted forwards, a green blur on the muddy hill. Shots arced towards him, lumps of mud getting kicked into the air by the fallen snipers. He heard a loud crack from behind him, and a scream of pain from one of the snipers. He leapt forwards, flying over a fallen tree, knife flicking out, embedding itself in a fallen skull.
"Clear. Aleeza, Aria, when you're ready." Matt slid to a stop, turning and sighting with his own sniper, shots still zipping though the broken windows in the wall he was crouched behind.
"Going."
He heard the first shot, sweeping his sights in the direction of the sound. A fallen head apered in the crosshair, matt pulled the trigger, eather exploding out of the shattered facemask. He reaimed back at his teammates, who were about halfway across the field. Matt saw a blue dot build up behind them, as a swarm of dregs flooded out of the trees behind them. He breathed out.
-X-
Aria felt the first shot as it passed her head. She kept running hearing a screech of pain another round whistled past her helmet, "Matt are you showing off? 'Cause if you are, I'm going to punch you into next week."
Matt didn't respond, but the shots stopped whipping with in centimetres of her head. She heard Aleeza swear vigorously as she saw the shockwave from another round move the high coller on her robes.
They both ducked behind the same wall as Matt, Aria staring daggers at him, "What the hell? Are you trying to kill me?"
"Good shots." Aleeza nodded at him as he reloaded, "That last one was a touch close though."
Matt shrugged, helmeted head looking at Aria, "I was shooting the fallen behind you. and thanks Aleeza. I've been working on pinpoint placement on moving targets."
Aleeza laughed, "I can tell. Come on, I want to reach the ridge by nightfall."
-X-
Nova laughed, "Did you know that would anger our titan friend?"
"No." Matt replied innocently, "I don't think she quite trusts me to, well miss her. Remember that time in training."
Nova chuckled, "Yeah. Didn't you shoot her in the neck. Idiot."
Matt checked behind them again, then shrugged, "I wanted to see how accurate I was."
Aria cut into their conversation, "Yes, and I wanted to not get shot in the neck, but did you think about that?"
Matt smiled inside his helmet, "Yes, actually, I did, but I missed. I though you had gotten over this."
"She had, but I don't like it when you shoot AP rounds within an inch of my guardians face." Jenny snapped, "and neither does she."
-X-
Aleeza grunted, pulling herself up the last few metres of rock face. They had stopped using Light about 3 clicks back, and they were all starting to feel the strain of the last climb. Matt seemed to have fared best, his light armour meaning he had very little extra weight to haul up the vertical climbs they had encountered. The sun was dipping below the horizon, the sky blood red. She sat on the edge of the cliff, breathing deap.
"You good?" Arias' head appeared over the edge, not sounding exhausted.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She looked over at Matt, who was staring into the sunset, Nova perched on his shoulder, "Great view isn't it?"
"Yeah." Matt sounded down, "I had a friend who would've killed for this." He gestured to the sunset, "Beautiful." He crouched down, Nova projecting a map of the area onto the ground in front of him. He nodded, turning to look at the two of them, "We could go on, but it looks like much further would put us very firmly within reach of the Devils. Plus, I'm knackered, those last few k's were bastards."
Aria seemed impartial, choosing not to speak, so Aleeza took it as a cue to have her say, "I mean, I hoped to get a bit further, but I planned for this scout as if I had an experienced fire team, no offence meant,"
"Non taken. Not by me, anyway." Matt said, taking off his helmet.
"so I reckon we've done quite well. Yeah, we'll stop here." A glow surrounded her briefly, then a small tent appered next to her, "Thanks Lena. Aria, Matt, do either of you need something?"
Aria shook her head, "I'll just shut off some sensors, seal up the armour. Better than a tent."
"Matt?" Aleeza looked at the hunter, who was staring into the sunset again.
"Wha, oh, no thanks." He gestured to the growing dark sky, the first stars becoming just about visable, "Looks like it's not going to rain, not point in a tent." He lay back, having polled his cloak into a makeshift pillow, which he rested his now helmeted head on, "This'll be fine. Night."
-X-
REPORT_CW-16479
EYES_ONLY
/ITEM_1 (ONE)
UNIT IS ONE TITAN, ONE WARLOCK AND ONE HUNTER.
/ITEM_10 (TWO)
TITAN AND WARLOCK ARE FEMALE, HUNTER IS MALE.
/ITEM_11 (THREE)
HUNTER AND TITAN APPEAR TO BE NEWER GUARDIANS, UNCLEAR AS TO WHY THEY WERE SENT ON SUCH A MISSION.
/ITEM_100 (FOUR)
TITAN IS AN EXO, MODEL
…
…
/URGENT\\
ITEM_1 (ONE)
EXO MODEL UNKNOWN. TITAN IS AN ODDITY, VARIABLES DO NOT COMPUTE.
\\URGENT_ENDS/
ITEM_101 (FIVE)
UNIT APPEARS TO BE SCOUTING FALLEN TERRITORY, CITY STRIKE MAY BE IMMINENT.
\\ERROR_MECH-FAILSAFE_ONE
NARROWBEAM FILES SENT.
UNIT_DESTORYED_CW-16479
/MESSAGE_ENDS
Hi. Sorry for the spotty uploads, I've had some exams recently, and but they finish today (20/6)
Hopefully I'll be able to upload more consistently now.
If you're got the time please leave a review, tell me what you think of my writing.
I NEED FEEDBACK PLEASE!
*ahem* Sorry about that. If you've got the time, could you also check out my other fic, based on Matteoarts Architectes series, which I recommend you go read if you haven't already.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Until next time.