The Explorer Hunter and Team leader Titan sat in a well furnished ship. Stryder was sitting calmly as Star paced the main hallway.
"What was that, Stryder? I knew that the Hive was still active, but that was an invasion force if i've ever seen one." Star said. Stryder nodded.
Star continued pacing. "The Vanguard has to know, of course, but what do we do? Is the hive stuck in a semi-plane? Like a throne world?"
"Perhaps. That would make some sense, wouldn't it?"
"It would, but then why the Breach? How is that a portal to whoever's throne room? Why now? I thought the hive ended with the death of Crota and Oryx."
Stryder nooded in agreement. "I did too, perhaps a new king?" He posed.
Star groaned. "Gods I hope not. Crota was enough of a pain in the ass. This is the last thing we need." He sighed, sitting down in his chair once more.
Stryder hummed in confirmation, sitting in silence
"Fucking weird man."
Star stared into space. "I owe them sushi. Time to pull out my life savings." he sighed.
"Fuck."
Hirikota Tastumi had gotten used to a lot of things at his roadside noodle and sushi bar in southern tower China town. Fireteam Huevos had been going to his dive for years now.
"Tastumi, thank you for having us." Stryder said with a nod, taking a fresh bowl of steaming broth and noodles.
"Pleasure is mine. But question." Tastumi said in a broken and accented english. While most people spoke english, or enough to get by, many cultures had seconalized in the tower to create their own mini Faction like "Associations" that were often, if a single united association grew large enough, given a seat in the conclave, much like the more industrial factions. Associations often represented the people, Factions represented the state and economy, and the Vanguard represented the military in the broken and frankly stupidly fractured politics.
There were several associations, one per ethnic majority. Asia, Africa, India and the Middle Eastern Associations had conjoined into one coalition, as well as the Separate indonesian factions. There was the Latin Conglomerate, representing the majority of central and southern America. The American Tribes Association presented the native american tribes as a single unified culture, but they were really a bunch of mini associations within the association. The European Association held within it, interestingly enough, what was left of the United States and Canadian populations. Not that anyone truly knew all of that, except for perhaps the oldest light bearers and shamans.
Problems with having a society hanging on the edge of extinction.
"Go ahead, shoot." Stryder said, digging into his soup.
Tatsumi looked over to the blond knight, who was splitting a plate of sushi with his partner, Astra. Yui, his Daughter, was laughing as the two of them told their various adventures of being guardians. The was enraptured by the stories, or by the guardian duo telling them. One of the two.
"Who is new guy?" Tatsumi asked, nodding to Jaune.
Stryder turned his head. "Jaune? Jaune's a good kid. Bit of an inferiority complex, but a good kid."
Tatsumi nodded his head, his elderly wisdom seeping in. "he has demons of own to face. But, he like shield. He will live." the old soup chef decided, returning his attention to his own pot of broth. Star just blinked.
"I'm sorry, what? What do you mean by that?" Star started to ask, but was ignorantly swallowing a roll at the same time. Choking, he gasped. "Gack-Stryder! Cough please"
Stryder only looked at the veteren chef curiously. "He has demons? Like what?"
"Stryder, help. Not breathing." Star said again, trying to hack up the stuck roll of food.
Stryder hit the titan on the back, forcing the lodged food to go back from whence it came. The exo fully chewed his food before swallowing this time.
"Wait, if you exo, why eat food?" Tatsumi asked, already preparing the ravenous titan another roll. He swore, it was fireteam huevos alone that was going to put his grandchildren through college, considering that they had already put his eldest daughter through culinary school and his son halfway through his engineering program. And they just kept coming. And the fireteam kept getting bigger.
"That is a good question. Why do I eat food?" The exo asked, thoughtfully chewing on a king crab roll.
Stryder just sighed, shaking his head.
Jaune was looking forward to today. He had gotten enough parts to get that custom Wardens Oath. The titan walked swiftly through the brisk november breeze past the gardens. The children were in school today, so they were not at the park playing. It almost saddened Jaune, but he knew that they would be there in a day or two.
But he had other business.
Namely, he was getting a spanking new pulse rifle built. He had marked Cortez's shop on his map. Entering the rustic looking building, the familiar ding went off.
The wiry goateed man looked up from his work station at the bar.
"Ah, Jaune! How good of you to drop by! What brings you to my tiny shack in the tower?" Sebastian asked, wiping some sweat off his brow, exchanging it with a black smear of grease.
"I was nearby, and I've collected enough parts and glimmer to pay you." Jaune said, putting the pile of glimmer on the desk and the assortment of gears and wires and scraps of metal in a box. Sebastian pawed though the parts, looking for things that caught his eye.
He picked up a piston looking thing, but off one end was a gear joint that hung limply. Jaune was not skilled or informed enough in technical workings to know what it was.
"Cabal?" The gunsmith asked, raising an eyebrow.
Jaune shrugged. "I guess? There's a lot of stuff in there." Sebastian nodded, picking at the pile once more.
"Looks like enough. So, let's get down to business." Cortez smiled, opening the side bar open. "Why don't you join me in the back?"
Jaune nodded, following the brown vested man to the back of the shop. A median foyer like area split the store proper and the surprisingly expansive workshop area. A coat rack held a long, brown trench coat and a brown newspaper boy hat on it, and a broad leather outbackers hat. Next to it was a small yellow rain jacket and matching rain boots.
A stairwell led to the second floor, where Jaune assumed Sebastian's living quarters were.
"You have a daughter?" Rose asked, looking at a picture frame on the stairwell. Sebastian smiled fondly, looking at the encased memory.
"I do, in a sense. But business first, please." the gunsmith said, leading the Titan further into the workshop. Jaune turned his head to look at the photograph. It was one of three. The first one, lowest on the stairwell, was of Sebastian and a small blonde girl with sparking amber, almost yellow eyes, in front of the shop. The two story old asian style building looked newer in the photo, and the sign out front was freshly painted. The bottom dark wooden siding on the first floor that covered the bottom half of the wall was unchipped and not yet tarnished, and the paper windowed wood sliding doors looked clean and fresh.
The second, the one that Rose was looking at, was a party of some form, the cake in the form of a legal looking paper.
The third was just outside of Jaunes view.
The workshop itself had a rustic and steampunk feel to it, much like the rest of the house. It somehow worked, despite the clear Asian architecture in the half pipe tile roof, paper sliding doors and windows. Pipes ran along the walls of the large room, where various tables of parts and metal frames and work tools lay. The walls were lined with sheets and pipes and wires and cabinets. Pulling a pulse rifle frame, clearly a Warden's Oath. "Soo, now we get to the fun part. Design. Anything you're looking for in particular?"
Jaune blanked. What was he looking for?
"Uhhh…" Jaune said, looking at the holoscreen that the smith had pulled up. Lines and lines of symbols of various perks rolled slowly down the screen. Rose floated up to the knights rescue
"Please forgive Jaune. He is not a gun aficionado. We need something that would make it spit out more bullets faster, or make what bullets we hit hurt."
The smith only nodded. "Soo, that is doable. Do you prefer more bullets or bigger bullets?"
Jaune thought about it for a moment. "More bullets, I think." He looked to Rose, who nodded. "Yeah, more bullets is fine."
Cortez nodded, looking through the holoscreen. "We have some good options for this… let's see, feeding Frenzy,Drop Mag, Extended Mag, outlaw, Overflow…please, take a look. See what interests you."
Jaune did, scrolling through the what felt like hundreds of possible perks.
The blonde did often call on his ghost for a second opinion.
"Blood lust? What in the world?" Rose said, seeing the unknown perk. Clicking on it, a description was pulled up.
"As you get kills with this weapon, this weapon increases its rate of fire." it read. The two nodded.
All in all, it took about an hour of talking logistics and stats with Cortez and Rose led to the final decision. Cortez laughed evilly as he saw the chosen perks.
"You are a evil man, Mr. Arc. and this? This is just dirty." The smith laughed before gathering some materials.
"I'll be able to be done with the forging by the end of the day, given some amount of luck. I'll send you a message for when it's ready for pick up." Jaune nodded, getting up to leave. As he left, he noticed the section of clocks in the store proper.
"Huh. guess he's a clock maker as well."
Jaune left to walk about again for a little while. Rose hovered next to him. "Incoming call from Astra."
"Patch it though."
Rose spoke again, but this time Astra's voice came out. "Hey Jaune, where are you?"
"Hello to you too, Astra. In the park, why?"
"Star want's a meeting."
Jaune sighed. "For what? I've already met my month requirements."
His partner sighed. "This is not about your requirements, Jaune. It's about the Olympics."
Jaune made a confused face. "Olympics? I thought that was a sports event?"
"It is. Anyway, Star wants to talk about whether or not we're competing. Meet us at the usual meeting spot! Be there in ten!" with that, the call cut off.
Jaune made a face. "What part of "I'm in the park" did she not understand?!"
Rose just twirled around. "Well, time to get hustling to Tatsumi's , Jaune. It's only in the Chinese district."
"That's across at least four districts!"
"Best we get moving then, ehh?"
Star paced around the front of Tatsumi's, waiting for the last member of their fireteam.
"Where is he?" the Titan asked for the upteemth time.
Alpha just sighed. "He'll get here when he gets here. Knowing him, he had no idea and is off on the opposite side of the city. He'll be here." Alpha said, comforting the Titan. There was the sound of heavy footsteps coming from the road. The team turned to see their missing member.
"Ah, Jaune! I was worried that you would not make it. Glad you're here, son." Star said, pulling a chair out for the titan. Jaune sat down, giving a glare at Astra. "What part of'' I'm in the gardens" did you not hear, Astra?" he grumbled before turning back to his leader. "What's this about the olympics?" The titan asked. B0lt answered with a confused blinking for a moment. "Oh, right. I forgot that you're new. With how you act, it's like you've always been a guardian. The olympics are a sporting event held every four years. Now, due to their being no more actual countries left in the world, the various districts and factions take that place." B0lt said, already preparing to munch on a roll.
Jaune made a face of intense thinking. "And where do we, exactly, come into this?"
"The crucible has a thing with the Districts and Factions. We run a bunch of events with their support. Huge money maker for the Vanguard and the Coven. But in the Guardian events, Guardians are the only participants. Where was i?" the hunter mused, taking another munch of food.
"Why the meeting is happening, Bolt. why the meeting's happening." Alpha sighed, drinking some water.
B0lt's face light up with recognition. "Oh, right! Of course. Anyway, we are gathered here today to talk about if we want to be sponsored or anything." and the hunter returned to munching her rolls of fish and rice.
Jaune turned to Star, who was also eating. "Ok, who normally sponsors us?"
He was met with momentary silence before his leader spoke. "No one. We usually, the years we participate, go solo." Star said, his southern drawl coming off a little stronger than normal. At this B0lt has finished a bowl of food.
"And are we?"
"I was thinking that we should. You know, Jaunes first Olympics and what not"
Jaune made a face similar to one of 'excuse me, WhAt?' "are we not going to consult the dude who's first olympics it is?"
Most of the fireteam gave Jaune a look for that. "Jaune. It's literally the Crucible, but with more shit and glamor. And you, or B0lt, are the biggest Crucible nuts we have. You grind for the Crucible Armor, Jaune." Astra admonished lightly, punching the Arc in the shoulder.
Stryder coughed. "I've been asked by the Hunters Council to go on a deep space scouting mission." He said, looking contemplatively into his bowl of Ramen. Star gave a half sigh of pain, half grunt of annoyance. "Really, now? Wth the Triumph Olympiad coming up? Really man?"
"Not my fault. Council wants what it wants, Star. besides, it's my rotation anyway."
Star gave a sigh. "Fine. We've five manned the Olympics and still did well. You go on the mission. I'll send you the recordings of the kids." Star said, before leaning back and downing some soup.
Jaune leaned over to Astra. "Do they really view us as their children?" he half asked, half joked. Astra only shrugged.
"Who knows Jaune. Those two have been practically married for over three centuries, so who's to know?"
Fireteam Huevos stayed there for a little bit longer before branching off to do whatever. Jaune decided that it might be best for him to walk around town a little as he looked through his interface. His most pressing matter right now was the Crucible armor grind. Similar to the Iron Banner Armor quest. 100 games of crucible was the first step. Step two was to reset your valor and glory rank three times each in a season. Step three, 50 kills with various weapons, including 50 SMG kills, 50 Sword kills, 50 rocket launcher kills, 50 auto rifle kills, 50 bow kills.
That is what Jaune had completed so far, and he had gotten both the Legs and the Chest plate. And dear god, they were good. By far the best gear he had, aside from Caroca Mors. Kinetic ammo finder, Traction, Autorifle dexterity, Autorifle scavenger were the traits he had active. But there was a palooza of stuff he could choose for the various mods. And also the half and half plating style that was similar to Shaxx's own armor looked cool in Jaune's opinion.
He was done with the sword kills and the auto rifle kills, and was halfway through the submachine gun and the shotgun kills.
Jaune mused this as he wandered the Asian district of the Tower. This was not tower proper, which was the large twin towers with various bridges and floors connecting the two together, which would pan out into the top floor, where it seemed everyone gravitated to.
"Jaune, your weapon is ready." Rose alerted him.
Jaune nodded, already turning in that direction. "Right. Thank you, Rose."
It was only a long, heavy run away.