Aria jumped forwards, planting a knee in the other guardian's face. The hunter went down, his head snapping backwards. She ducked instinctively, a grenade sailing over her head. She spun, bringing her shotgun up to aim at a titan charging at her. She pulled the trigger, the gun kicking back as the titan flew backwards, blood seeping out the holes in her armour.
A familiar pop of a scout rifle over her shoulder sounded as Carina opened fire, bullets finding their mark, forcing the warlock to duck back into cover. She saw Aria start to move, energy building around her fist. The other Exo slid forwards, lunging around the corner, her fist connecting with a crack that Carina heard from where she was. She saw a blue flash as Aria turned, smashing her shoulder into a running hunter, getting a knife in the side in return. The hunter flew backwards, spinning in the air before jumping towards the titan, energy rippling along his knife. She leapt towards the hunter, energy surging along her arms as she hit the ground, sending the energy racing towards the hunter, who tried desperately to dive out of the way, his own arc light pushing towards the approaching energy. The two sources clashed around the hunters' feet, the harsh colour of the hunters' arc pulsing bright before shattering, Aria's dark blue wave atomising the hunter.
She laughed as Shaxx announced the match over, quickly transmating back to her ship.
-X-
Nova bumped into Matt's shoulder, repeating herself for the fourth time, "You need to eat."
Her guardian barely looked up from the circuit, his hands steady as he lowered the component into place, "I'll eat later." He mumbled, "I'm busy."
Nova sighed, shaking her shell before flying around to block his view of the circuit, "No. You haven't eaten in days." Her tone softened, "I'm worried about you."
"I'm fine." He snapped, pushing the ghost away.
Nova looked at her guardian, his eyes had a faraway look in them, he hadn't slept in days either, constantly working on his little project. She looked at the circuit over his shoulder, it seemed to consist of mostly memory chips. She watched as his hands lowered the next part into place, amazed at how he was still able to not shake from so long without sleep or food. She zipped away, spiralling around the kitchen area, scanning for something easy to make quickly.
All she found was a pot of instant hot chocolate and a few microwave pizzas. She shrugged her front half, transmatting the pizza out of the box and wrapper into the microwave, which she turned on for 3 minutes. She floated back to Matt, who had the circuit held up to a bright light. She watched him inspect the whole board, one hand holding it while the other hand wrote down numbers on a tablet.
The microwave buzzed, she floated over to it, transmatting a plate next to Matt as she did so. The pizza looked done, the few times she had seen Matt heat one up it had looked similar. She quickly prepared a transmat, checking and double checking she was sending the pizza to the right point.
She heard Matt grunt from the small section he had boarded off. Floating over the barricade slowly, she saw that he had set the circuit down, and half the pizza had already been eaten. She saw him smile as he looked over towards her, nodding silent thanks. Within minutes, the pizza had been eaten, Matt standing up slowly. He looked back at the circuit, covering it with a piece of fabric before moving towards the kitchen area, plate in hand. He dropped it in the dishwasher, yawning.
"Matt. Get some sleep." Nova quietly instructed him, hoping he would listen.
He simply nodded, collapsing into his bed, falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.
-X-
Aria looked over at Matt's door, wondering when he would come out of his little apartment. Since they had returned, he had spent the bare minimum time needed outside, choosing to do something that was taking up all of his time. She was halfway through her door when she changed her mind, turning to walk over to his door, knocking gently on it.
"Hey, Matt." She started.
The door opened, Nova floating at head height, "Hello Aria." She said with a sort of smile, "Matt's sleeping at the moment." She paused, chuckling, "For the first time in days."
Aria looked at the ghost, "How has he been?"
The ghost shrugged, "He's been odd. He's been building something since we got back, only went near food when I shoved it under his nose about an hour ago." The ghost moved backwards, seeming to want to go back to her guardian.
Aria stayed at the door, "If you want I can…"
Nova shook left to right, "No." She sighed, "Sorry, it's been a long few days." She drifted backwards, her front half flicking upwards as an invitation to come in.
Aria stepped across the threshold, expecting a mess. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw a well organised and mostly tidy living space. Matt's new weapon, the energy-based rifle, stood on a stand, next to a shock dagger sticking out of the shelf. She walked over to a partitioned section, seeing what looked like a bombsite. She moved a wall back, stepping inside the small area. Electrical parts were sitting in boxes, seemingly organised randomly. There were computer chips, memory modules, just sitting on the surfaces. She scanned across the surface, looking for what he was working on.
She couldn't see anything obvious, so she lifted a piece of fabric, revealing a small densely populated chip, her eyes scanning the circuitry, quickly figuring out what he was building.
She turned to Nova, "Do you know what he wants with a large storage and recall system?"
The ghost shrugged again, "Probably something to do with the names."
Aria nodded, understanding at least partially what Nova meant. She walked back into the main area of the apartment, sitting down heavily on the couch, "You don't mind if I wait for him to wake up do you?"
The ghost's optic lit up slightly, "I think he needs to see someone other than me around to get him out of his little rut."
The exo nodded, shifting various processes to continue checking for motion and powered down, sleeping within seconds.
-X-
Aleeza stood up slowly, desperately trying to drag herself out of the mental rut she found herself in. She took one last look at her brother before leaving, he was still in a coma, were it not for the constant beep of medical equipment arrayed around him, he would have looked to simply be sleeping.
The door hissed open, Carina walking in. She took one look at Aleeza before walking over to her, gently embracing the warlock.
"He'll live." The Exo said simply as she gently guided the warlock away towards the door. She could tell that Aleeza was furiously trying to hold herself together from the way that her hands shook and that she did not make any eye contact. The exo kept an arm around the warlock, slowly walking her back towards the accommodation section of the tower.
Aleeza wiped a hand across her nose, sniffing before speaking, "If he does, he won't be able to go out of the tower. His light is almost completely drained."
Aleeza sniffed again, unshed tears glistening in her eyes as Carina attempted to comfort her as they walked down the corridor. As they walked down the corridor, Matt's door opened, the hunter stepping out. He took one look at Aleeza, the looked questioningly at Carina.
She shook her head, Matt hopefully getting the message. He simply moved out of the way, backing into his apartment to let them pass easily.
He watched the warlock and titan walk past, Aleeza looking like she was in pain, Carina supporting the warlock as she walked. Matt stepped out after they had passed, just as Aria opened her door.
"Want to do something?" she asked. She was geared up, helmet tucked under one arm.
He shrugged, feeling much better than he had the previous few days, "Yeah, why not. I'll need to buy a new ship off Holiday first."
Aria laughed, "I'm sure she'll be chuffed that you need another ship. The last one was new off production."
-X-
Amanda had refused any amount of glimmer Matt had offered her, and they had ended up crammed into Aria's small one-man ship. Matt stood hunched over behind the pilots' seat, their weapons had been crammed into the locker, Matt deciding to leave his rocket launcher behind. They had been flying for about an hour, unable to jump halfway around the planet as it would have thrown Matt into the back of the ship. They flew once over the landing area in Old England, turning gently to transmat out as Jenny landed the ship.
Matt watched most of the landing, smiling at the ghost when she transmatted to Aria's shoulder, "You've been practising." He said, "Definitely an improvement of the last landing I saw you do."
He put his helmet on, HUD bootup icons flickering in front of him, "So, where are we exactly?"
"Old England." Aria replied, moving towards a squat structure, "Amanda said there were some weird things reported by a flyover, some strange signals. She's been asking for a team to investigate, and you need to get used to working as a team again."
Matt followed behind her, turning every so often to check behind them. It's was quiet, almost silent if it wasn't for a gentle whistling caused by the wind. Aria stopped by a large door, waiting for Matt to catch up.
"You know that rifle looks weird, right?" she joked, Jenny materialising to start opening the large hangar door.
Matt shrugged, crouching next to Aria's ghost, putting himself in between the ghost and the large open space, "It works, runs of some energy source that hasn't run out in who knows how long, and hits like a truck." He raised it slightly, moving back towards the ghost, "Could you hurry up a bit? I think I saw something over the other side."
Nova materialised next to Jenny, her optic flickering on and off rapidly as she joined the other ghosts' attempts at unlocking the door.
A mechanism in the wall disengaged with a loud thud, Aria throwing the door up, tapping Matt on the shoulder as the two ghosts dematerialised into the safety of their guardian's armour. He backed up, jumping to grab the door and pull it back down after them.
Lights snapped up, the two ghosts boosting their optics luminosity as Matt and Aria looked around for something with a network access. They walked around the outer edges of the area, moving in opposite directions to one another, carefully inspecting the walls for any sign of Fallen infiltrators.
They met at the other end of the space, Nova estimating it to be about 100 metres in length.
"Anything?" Matt asked, looking back along the path he'd just walked, hoping to see something looking back that he had missed.
Aria shook her head, "Nothing electrical. There was a door about halfway down, I left it for now."
Matt nodded, "Let's check that then."
They set off towards the door, Matt aiming in the rough direction as they walked.
-X-
"Pahanin," Cayde shouted after the hunter, jumping down onto the hanger floor.
The hunter turned, walking backwards as he spoke, "Cayde." He replied levelly.
"Where are you going?" Cayde sped up, catching up to the other hunter as he walked towards his new ship.
Pahanin sighed, "I'm leaving. Maybe not forever, but I don't know. I'll wonder, I guess." He hefted an odd machine gun, "Anyone gets in my way, I've got what remains of them."
Cayde nodded, "You know Zavala sent me here to stop you, right."
"Stubborn old bastard." Pahanin smiled, but Cayde saw through it, "I suppose you'll want me to leave so he doesn't lay into you for not stopping me."
Cayde shook his head, "Nope. I'll face this one." He paused, stepping towards the other hunter, "Take this." He held a knife, handle first, towards Pahanin, "At close quarters, a knife is better than any gun."
Pahanin smiled again, accepting the knife with a nod, "Thank you." The hunter turned, climbing over the wing of his ship, opening the cockpit canopy, pausing before lowering himself into the pilot's seat, "Tell Eriana I said goodbye." He said, with finality about his words that made Cayde think about stopping him.
The hunter vanguard simply nodded, watching the ship as it rose smoothly and shot into the rising sun, spiralling up and away. As much as he loathed to watch one of his best hunters go, he wasn't going to stop the man. He'd seen something truly horrifying and had had enough of the whole thing.
Cayde looked up towards the sound of heavy boots on metal as Zavala landed hard on the hanger floor. He looked the titan in the eyes, "I missed him."
Zavala scowled, not believing Cayde for one second. He thought about arguing with the hunter, then changed his mind when he realised that it would just sour relations between titans and hunters in general.
-X-
Matt opened the door, recoiling as a smell cut through the air. He backed up quickly, turning on the filters in his helmet. Aria laughed, walking through the door shotgun held ready to fire.
Her laughter cut off suddenly, "Matt. I..." a hiss of static, "This is bad."
Matt opened the door fully, his hand twitching as he saw the bodies. There were maybe 20 dead, recently too from the looks of it. Their skin had sunk into their cheeks, and in some cases, there were signs of rot.
He crouched down next to one of them, eyes pale and sunken, fighting the urge to throw up in his helmet. The person held a tablet in one hand, lying against the wall. He gently opened the hand, taking the tablet before backing away, "Nova, can you check that for anything interesting?"
The ghost didn't say anything, the slightly jolly mood they had all been in before evaporating. Matt took a deep breath as Jenny spoke, "I've found a generator, we might have lights, if you want them."
Aria looked at Matt, who was finally walking between the bodies, looking for anything indicating their cause of death, "Matt. Would lights make this easier?"
The hunter sighed, "I'd be able to see more. But I don't know if I want too." He paused, crouching again next to another one of the bodies, "This one was young." He stood up again, "Get some lights on in the main part if you can. I'll put this in the report."
Jenny flickered her optic, the hunter turning towards the door as the lights came on in the main section of the building.
He stepped out of the side room, Nova still floating around the tablet, "Got anything?"
The ghost looked up from the tablet, "Not much. Some half complete schematics for a ship, but that's about it. I'll keep looking."
The room, now lit up showed a network of low-lying tables, displaying various items in various states of disrepair. Matt walked along the displays, looking for something to distract him from the corpses.
He looked at a stone plaque, words carved into it. He wiped dust off it, his eyes scanning across the inscription.
Here was the final landing of fighter squadron SENTINAL, after their worst mission in terms of losses within the squad.
He moved along, looking at various hardware displays, his eyes scanning for anything that could tell him about any tech in the area.
Nova shot over to him, "I got everything out of the tablet." She said, "There was a schematic for a ship, I managed to reconstruct it from a few corrupt sources."
Matt nodded, "At least there's something from this then." He looked back at the stone tablet, "Do you know anything about SENTINAL?" he pointed at the tablet as he spoke.
Nova looked at the plaque, thinking for a second, "No, nothing. I'll check with the cryptarchy when we get back to the tower."
Matt sighed, looking at Aria, who was closing the door quietly. He opened comms, "I thought you said this would be relaxed." His voice was flat, he didn't feel like making a joke at this point.
Aria looked up at him, "I wish it had been." She gestured towards the large hanger door, "I think it's time we left."
She threw the large hanger door open, Matt jumping onto it again out of necessity to close it after them. White light buzzed around them, the two guardians materialising on Aria's ship again, Matt lying on the floor near the back to make sure he wasn't going to get spliced into anything. He stood up, walking over to the middle of the ship, taking his weapons and dropping them in the locker.
He sat, back resting against the side of the ship, Aria walking over to join him, "You alright?" she asked simply.
Matt pulled his helmet off, "Maybe." He sighed, "That was rough."
The ship took off smoothly, the two guardians sitting side by side opposite the weapons locker.
-X-
"I told you to stop him leaving," Zavala growled, staring daggers at the hunter vanguard.
Cayde shrugged, "I missed him. Could just see his ship in the distance as I got to the hanger. T'was quite poetic actually."
Zavala stomped up to the hunter, "Cut the crap. You let him go. Why?"
Cayde shrugged, "He wanted to go. He's lost enough friends without counting the ones from Luna." The hunter paused briefly, "Zavala, you do understand that, unlike titans, hunters prefer to be outside the wall right? Yeah, we helped build the damn thing, does not mean we like being trapped inside it. Anyway, he's gone now, you'll have to send a titan or warlock out if you want to find him."
As he spoke, a warlock walked into the hall, "Vanguard." She said.
Cayde turned around, "Eriana." He sounded surprised, "Not like you to come asking for something."
The warlock shrugged, "I'm asking on behalf of a fireteam, actually."
Zavala looked at her levelly, his piercing blue eyes meeting her dark purple optics, "You know you can't leave the planet, right?"
The warlock backed up, holding her hands up in mock surrender, "Wouldn't think about it. Just requesting permission for us to go out together."
Zavala looked at the warlock suspiciously, "Why?"
"We want to just do something. We're getting fed up of being locked in the tower, there's only so much you can do before you've done everything 50 times. We want to shoot some stuff."
Zavala sighed, "Fine. You get two days."
The warlock nodded, "Thank you." She turned to Ikora, nodding at the warlock vanguard, who nodded back lifting her middle and little finger on her left hand.
Cayde look at Eriana, "What's that all about?"
The two warlocks laughed, "Nothing for you to worry about Cayde." She replied smoothly, "See you in two days, Vanguard."
Cayde looked at Zavala, "Do you know anything about that?"
The titan shook his head, "No a clue, Cayde, and if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
Hi.
I surprised myself with how fast I got this one done, but I guess that's what happens when you have whole days to write instead of half an hour here and there.
Doubt future chapters will have this quick a turnaround, but I can dream, I guess.
Feedback appreciated, as always.
Until next time.