Sal-u-tations Guardians and Huntsmen alike!
I'll say this before anything else: yes, I did take the first version of this story down only to upload this now. I have a reason, a reason that adds to why I've been gone for several months now. I've been gone because of a certain virus going around, a vaccine, and being just plain tired.
As for the issue on the story, what I had up before was essentially a trial run, for me and readers alike. I wanted to see how people would react to my story, but more how I would react instead. I was always going to continue this, but I wanted to know how much effort I was willing to put into it and how much I enjoyed the idea.
Answer is: a lot.
So, in the past few months I've been rehashing bits and creating a plan that will run for the entirety of the story, making it more enjoyable to type and, hopefully, read.
This story is told from three perspectives: The Remnants, The Risen, and The Recollection. You'll find out how each of those views differ as the story develops, but I'm excited nonetheless. This chapter, the first of The Remnants, has not changed very much, except for the beginning. The next chapters have however, especially chapter two.
Anyway, I've kept you enough. I hope you guys and gals like this, and I'll try to get the new chapter out soon for those who read my last iteration. Reviews, follows, and headpats are always appreciated.
Here begins the Guardians of the Hunt!
Volume 0 - Chapter 1
A Lost Remnant
Two brothers, shrouded by power, looked down upon their most recent creation with gazes of interest and what could have been mistaken as wonder. The two powers they had created fought so feverishly against each other, as they had in experiments past, though this creation was by far the most potent in power.
The elements clashed with each other, and explosions rocked the air itself as the two sides converged in bloody warfare, and yet, the brothers could only draw amusement from it all.
Alas, amusement was not all they felt, as disappointing as that fact was to them.
By their very natures, they could see everything. The very fabric of reality was under their everlasting, omnipotent watch, and they simply couldn't ignore the continued existence of a failed project from the past. It was something they swore to abandon, and in a way they truly had. They could not enter its realm of influence until a certain wizard of theirs decided it was necessary.
But didn't he see that the goal they gave him was hopeless now? With his cursed bride, peace was all but a dream within a living nightmare.
No, their wizard would never truly succeed. They felt a certain sense of pity and could only wish to show their divine mercy, but their own cruel words had twisted that option from their hands. They could only wait and watch.
However, one brother suggested they could send a vassal, a mortal to do their work and thus be allowed as a certain degree of intervention. Someone from their most recent creation would do, the leader of a massive mote of Light. Yes, he would do nicely.
But someone would need to be sent in his stead, to abide by their rules of everlasting balance. Who it was truly did not matter in the end, so long as they did not manipulate the living of the failed creation in doing so. A random death from a pool of empty faces.
No one could say that the brothers weren't merciful. To go out of their way to influence the fate of their failed creation so that they may find peace? It was simply a mercy they were willing to provide.
The Remnants
Mercury was a harsh, unforgiving landscape.
Sand covered every bare inch of the planet, whipping through the air like snow in a blizzard. The sun beat almost every living life-form to submission with its unforgiving god-rays, light and heat never being lost to the surface of the rock. There was no water to speak of and nothing survived long enough to create food.
And that's not even mentioning the world's inhabitants.
The Vex. A race of robotic planet conquerors from an impossible place in a time that will never exist nor existed in the first place. Creatures who, in a time still not completely known, used impossible machines to cast another group completely out of the timeline they resided in.
The world of Mercury was a plaything to them, a rock that they had taken over and turned into a machine itself, if only below the surface. Their stone and metal structure sprouted from the sand in the places that weren't just cubic rock cliffs flowing with sand, places the Vex had found the need to build more machines.
No one survived on this planet. If not for the lack of air and resources, then it was because of these impossible machines.
That was, until the Guardians set foot on the forgotten rock.
The Guardians, a people who had no need for sleep, food, water, or even air. Some called them warriors of the Light, and they did so rightly. They wielded that power after all. The Vex just called them monsters.
Killers
The Unsimulatable
The Guardians had killed thousands of the Vex and killed some of their greatest champions. They had conquered the Black Garden, raided their Vault, even taken over a portion of their Infinite Forest.
The Vex Collective wished nothing more than to kill these Guardians, end their tyranny of Light so that they could usher in their perfect future, a future where only the Vex remained.
And as two Guardians approached the planet of Mercury, they were both acutely aware of this fact. Neither seemed too concerned however. They both seemed to think the odds were ever in their favor.
Neither were aware that the Vex were prepared this time, prepared to do something similar to what they had done to Logan Midnight so long ago.
They couldn't kill these Guardians, but that wouldn't stop them from making sure they could never fight the Collective again.
(Guardians Of The Hunt)
In the spacious cockpit of a space-worthy ship speeding through the great expanse of space, a woman sat, hunched over a table as she put her handcannon back together. It was easy to tell it was a woman despite the armor she wore, namely due to the curves in the armor; the ones for her small chest and the others for her hourglass figure.
The armor was primarily a deep, crimson red and it covered her head to toe. The main piece was the cuirass, the piece covering everything from her neck to her waist, not including the arms. As stated before, the armor curved to match her form. The deep red metal covered practically everything here save for the abdomen, that of which was segmented to show the black undersuit she wore while providing more flexibility. The metal was also covered in scratches, those of which were purposely not removed, if only to remind its wearer of her failures. Inbetween her left shoulder and her neck, there was a hunting knife strapped to her cuirass, the handle facing down. A scarf-like piece of gunmetal grey cloth also hung from her neck. Additionally, if one looked closely, you might be able to see the series of six to eight knives sheathed on the back of her cuirass, half facing one way and half the other.
Next, her leggings and boots seemed to be one connected set. The deep red, scratched metal only really covered the outer side of her thighs while it completely wrapped around her shins and lower legs. The metal also formed kneepads, albeit small ones to keep her full range of motion. The rest of her legs were covered with the same black undersuit as before; though, it was slightly textured instead of fully smooth. Her boots were connected to the lower leg metal, save for a small divide at the ankle so that her feet could turn and raise. The boots had black soles that looked unused, yet they radiated the feel of thousands of miles of travel. On each thigh, there was also a matching black leather holster, though only one had a hand cannon at the moment, the other one being worked on. Additionally, her right boot had a knife sheathed and strapped to the side of it.
Her cuirass and leggings were connected at the waist with a pair of belts over the undersuit connection. One belt was tight to her frame while the over was a size too big, hanging slightly on one side. There were two small pouches and a hunting knife attached to the fitting belt, all black.
Her arm guards and gloves were next, her gloves mainly being just the undersuit with the addition of some red metal on the lengths of the fingers, making them appear as small claws. Her forearms were wrapped in the crimson metal, her right forearm's metal being additionally wrapped with a small bandalor filled with rifle-like handcannon rounds and her left forearm having three small, sheathed knives strapped to it, the handles facing up. Her upper arms were mostly just the slightly texture undersuit, though a stack of three arrow shaped pieces of metal came down from her left pauldron. Her pauldrons were eye-grabbers, and that's what they were meant to be. Her right pauldron was the upper half of a wolf's skull, white but dirty and scuffed, the metal that came down from it almost making it look like it was bleeding. The left pauldron however was an entire wolf's skull, botton and top, which made it right slightly higher on her shoulder.
Her helmet, which was resting on the table she sat at, was forged fully from the red, scratched metal, save for the visor and a few other pieces. While most of the helmet was smooth and chipped, the front had a black, slightly slanted bar-like visor where the Guardian's eyes would be and a face mask just under that. The mask was red save for the center portion of it, which was in the shape of a triangle, the point of that triangle ending at the top of the visor.
Finally, her cloak was remarkably similar to another cloak called the Strength of the Pack. It was red though, with silver instead of gold. The cloak itself was in remarkable condition, considering the rest of her armor's state.
With her hood pulled down, you could easily see her striking features, the most striking of which was a long scar over her right eye, eyes that were bright, crackling orange and always seemed to be glaring at something. Her blood red hair was long enough to just spill over her shoulders, and it contrasted her eyes quite nicely.
On to weapons, as every good Guardian had at least one, there were four on her person.
The first was a four foot short, thin sword that rested horizontally in a sheath that ran across the back of her waist. If drawn, the blade would be a stark silver, a color that brought out the red leather grip and black guard.
The next was a sniper rifle that was held across her back with a mag-lock. The rifle was long and crimson in color, scratches adorning its paint and a grey net lying over the thin scope. The barrel was pitch black and took up about 80% of the weapon's length and two small, foldout legs were at the very end of said barrel.
Finally, the Guardian had two matching handcannons, one of which she was in the process of putting back together. They were both about the size of the average handcannon, but neither of them were as blocky or big. They were both slim in fact, though the barrels were still reinforced due to the nature of the rounds it fired. Unlike regular handcannons, the pitch black pair of guns the Guardian owned were built to load like an old fashioned six-shooter, something that worked well for the rifle rounds they fired.
As Scarlet Pang finished putting the last pieces together, she looked over the gun with a critical eye. Finding nothing wrong with it, she holstered it on her right leg and turned to look over the control console of the ship.
"You know, I could always do the weapon check repairs myself." A male voice spoke up from beside her. Scarlet merely glanced over at her Ghost with an indifferent expression.
Her Ghost was the standard Ghost shape, the four triangular prisms that reflected, and he was painted a regal red. On the prism just above his light blue optic, there was an etching of a silver wolf that went along with the silver that lined all of the edges of the construct.
"I prefer to do them myself Jack, you know that." Scarlet reminded him with a light huff. "Besides, you keep busy with all the tech-savvy stuff I don't understand a fucking lick of."
The Ghost thought for a moment before bobbing in the air, as if it was nodding.
"You've got me there." He admitted, getting a light smirk from the Hunter.
"Are we there yet Scar?" The smirk disappeared when she heard a woman speak up from the entrance to the cockpit. Scarlet turned to face her nonetheless, a light scowl on her face.
The other Guardian of the ship was also easily identified as a woman, with her lighter curves and larger than average chest size. Her robes easily marked her as a Warlock as well. The robes were chocolate brown and wrapped around her, going down to her ankle on her right side while slanting up to end just below her knee on her left. The robes also had several slanted black stripes near her waist that led to the brown turning into a darker yellow, that yellow being the color that reached her legs. Around her waist, her belt had a multitude of brown, kevlar pouches, some longer and some only long enough for vials to fit into. There was also a chocolate brown cloth around her neck like a turtleneck's collar that extended to her right elbow, covering her shoulder. That cloth had a dark yellow edge that slanted across her chest.
Her leggings were mostly hidden under her robes, but her boots were visible. They were lightly armored, several layers of metal in the shape of feathers going up to the knee, all with the plume facing up. The feathers started with yellow at the knee before fading to brown and eventually black at her ankle where the armor segmented to allow her feet pivot room. The feet themselves were armored with a black metal, brown mating up the soles.
Her gloves were simply the black undersuit underneath the armor with her forearms wrapped in a light, dark brown metal. The forearm guards had a piece of metal that expanded at a slant to allow a little elbow protection and the center of her forearm housed a little yellow light, one in the shape of a short line. On either side of that light, there were three feathers that pointed plume up with the same color fade as her shin guards, except in to out instead of up to down. The rest of her right arm was covered with the same cloth that wrapped around her neck, save for the pauldron. The pauldrons were the same on either side, though the right one was held in place with a black strap that wrapped around her torso diagonally. They were both made of light, brown metal and were in the shape of eagle heads, their eyes glowing with a yellow light and their beaks black.
Her helmet, which she had equipped, looked remarkably similar to the Helm of Exile that some other Guardians wore, yet it was a dark chocolate brown instead.
Finally, her bond, which sat on her left, upper arm, was a chocolate brown band. It projected a yellow light that formed the shape of an eagle, its wings in mid-flap.
Her weapons, as every Guardian should have them, were as follows.
Her auto rifle, held across her chest in her arms, was sleek and primarily a dark yellow. The magazine was a drum mag and pitch black in color. Along the side of the weapon near the barrel were several black feathers, all with the plumes pointed back. The scope of the weapon was round like a sniper's and half the size, also being yellow.
Next, her sidearm was holstered on her right leg. It was a simple standard issue, dark yellow gun with a black eagle stamped on to the side of it.
Finally there was a machine gun locked on to the Warlock's back with a mag-lock. The machine gun was long yet thin, dark yellow in color with black highlights and a black eagle stamped on the side. The only scope on the gun was an ironsight. The gun also had no visible magazine to speak of as well as a meter on the side, currently blank.
"No, we are not there yet Emily." Scarlet said with a roll of her eyes as the Warlock sauntered up to her. "This is the third time you've asked, stop acting like a child." She then added, facing the control console again.
A set of beeps sounded off behind the Hunter, getting her to roll her eyes again.
"Your Ghost still doesn't talk?"
Emily just smirked under her helmet as her Ghost spun in the air playfully. The Warlock's Ghost was the same general shape as Scarlet's, but the style was different. The Ghost was a dark yellow all the way through and had four thin spines coming out the back of it, all shaped like feathers and colored black.
"John doesn't need to talk." Emily said with a playful pout and cross of her arms. John beeped in agreement.
Scarlet and Emily both shook their heads, or shell in the Ghost's case.
Just then, the ship finally broke out of warp space and slowed down significantly. The Guardians looked out the front window as Mercury came into view. The desert planet seemed to glow in the light of the nearby sun.
Scarlet slid her helmet into place on her head, the seal clicking shut before she flipped her hood up over her head. The Guardian's Ghosts disappeared into their heads with a flash of blue light as she did.
"Hey Scar," Emily said as she walked up next to the Hunter, a grin forming under her helmet, "Are we there yet?"
Scarlet growled dangerously low as Emily laughed.
(Surface of Mercury, A Few Minutes Later)
Scarlet was the first to land, her boots hitting the Vex stone softly as she appeared in a blue haze of particles. Emily appeared a moment later in the same way, her rifle ready as Scarlet's pitch black ship flew back into the atmosphere.
Unholstering only one handcannon, Scarlet started towards a large stone tower in the not too far distance, Emily following after her.
"So what exactly are we looking for here Ikora?" Scarlet spoke through her helmet's internal comms as she looked around the desolate ruins of white stone.
'You are to head to the tower.' A woman's voice spoke back to her, Scarlet nodding as she did. 'We've been getting a strong signal from there recently, but we're not sure what it is. Mercury hasn't been all that active since Saint-14 disappeared, far before you were active Guardians.'
"Expect a lot of Vex than."
"The average monday." Emily commented with a cheeky smile, getting an eye roll in response. Ikora could be heard chuckling over the comms.
'Just be sure to get back home soon you two.' Ikora told them, her smile almost audible before it dipped. 'We'll be holding the service for Salazar once night falls here. You two are the guests of honor.'
Scarlet's grip on her weapon tightened, but she didn't say anything. Emily just smiled sadly.
"We'll be there ma'am." Emily replied with a nod.
Before any more words could be exchanged, their welcoming party finally arrived to greet them.
White particles filled the air around them, getting them to stop their advance towards the tower and raise their weapons. Scarlet held a knife in her left hand, reverse grip, while her handcannon stayed in her right, and Emily pointed her auto rifle into the largest mass of particles.
After a few quiet moments, the Vex appeared in mass. Emily immediately tore through a minotaur's shield, moving to tear down seven goblins and a hobgoblin before her magazine ran dry while the minotaur fell to one round from Scarlet's cannon.
Turning her attention to a large pack of goblins and hobgoblins, the Hunter sprinted into the fray.
The Guardian rolled as a red laser flew past her ear, stopping at the foot of the sniper who shot it, popping up and shooting it in it's white core before it could process her. The round tore through the hobgoblin, penetrating it and cleaving through four goblins behind it, all of them falling to pieces.
The Direwolf's Fangs, the exotic handcannons Scarlet had the honor of using. Extremely stable cannons that could be dual-wielded easily on top of firing light sniper rounds. And in a situation like this, where she was surrounded on all sides, the wolves' fangs only grew sharper.
The Hunter's knife burrowed deep into the core of a Vex troop who had though to approach her, rending it in half as the Guardian spun to avoid a torch hammer round. The minotaur who shot it lined up another shot, hoping to take her out. Unfortunately, the Scarlet Guardian shot a round that stunned it and sent it stumbling, breaking it's shield all the same. Another shot ended the machine's life.
Acting quickly as a grenade landed next to her, the Hunter then blinked away, disappearing in a flash of red lightning. She then reappeared in another flash right next to a series of hobgoblin snipers, her cannon holstered and her sword drawn in a reverse grip. Sheathing the blade, the Vex around her fell to pieces.
On Emily's side, the Vex were no luckier.
The Warlock took on four minotaurs that had come to welcome them, but none of them lasted long enough to reach her as they fell to her 900rpm auto rifle. The rifle cracked through their shields easier than a walnut cracked under a hammer as her rounds slammed into the barriers. After that, it was only a matter of seconds before each one fell.
Not content with this, the lone Vex hydra that appeared to face them aimed for her, blasting void energy into the ground around her. Emily simply spun out of the way, almost dancing as she avoided the enemy fire from both the hydra and the snipers supporting it.
Nevermind the fact that she was dancing around them. At least, if her humming a tune was any indication.
Deciding to stop tricks, the Eagle traded her auto rifle for her machine gun, hoisting it up with one hand and smiling like a maniac as the meter on the side of the weapon was half full.
Emily's infamous exotic machine gun, Turbulence. Unlike any other gun any one knew, she had designed this weapon to function without a magazine. Instead, any kills she got before switching to it would give this weapon energy, energy that then turned into bullets and enhanced the weapon. She had a half change, which meant 300 bullets and tracker rounds.
And shield penetration.
The hydra didn't stand a chance as, even with its indestructible shields in the way, the rounds of the weapon hit it hard and fast, tearing the machine to bits and pieces with ease. The great Vex machine didn't even get to call in reinforcements before it fell to the ground, glowing as it lost control of its core and exploding into a thousand pieces. The snipers that supported it went with it, caught in the explosion.
Still grinning like a loon, Emily switched back to her rifle and followed after Scarlet, who had started back towards the tower with her handcannon drawn again.
"I bet I can kill more Vex than you." Emily stated with a teasing tone. Scarlet just rolled her eyes.
"We both know you can't." The scarlet Guardian retorted.
"Bet, I get a night with you if I win." The Eagle immediately fired back, getting a glare from Scarlet as more Vex started to spawn in their path.
"You won't win, and I told you;" The Hunter stopped briefly to fire three rounds into a minotaur that approached her, reloading in a flash after she did.
"There is no way in hell I am sleeping with you."
"Oh, you're just a party-pooper." Emily said with a pout as Scarlet advanced. She then grinned again and charged to back up her partner.
Not even bothering to aim down the sights, Scarlet fired into the Vex that blocked their path to the tower. Her shots hit true for every enemy she aimed at, taking down up to 18 lower tier Vex with just the six shots she had in the magazine. In the flash she reloaded, Emily tore down a Minotaur trying to get to her. The Warlock then rolled to the side to avoid a grenade before throwing her own, the Solar energy landing in a dense group and staying like a mini orange sun, simply melting down everything that came near it.
Scarlet, still wielding only one of her cannons, shot down machines with reckless abandon. Her shots weren't fast enough to take them all down before they reached her, but it wasn't like they were hitting her either.
For every Vex she shot down, another fell to her knife as she danced around everything they threw. Arms that reached for her were danced past, every laser shot in her direction was avoided, and every grenade tossed was easily kicked back before they detonated.
After half over their numbers fell to their own explosives, they decided it was a bad idea to use them.
Her deadly dance continued however, as she ducked and rolled under a torch hammer shot, reloading as it impacted and rocked the ground. She then popped up and kicked off of a wall, shooting down six more hobgoblins with a scary amount of precision. She then floated in the air for a moment before throwing her arms out in a practiced movement, spinning mid air as hundreds of small, flaming blades erupted from her hands.
The knives seemed to explode on impact, blasting apart anything that wasn't initially just torn to shreds.
The fight continued with the same viciousness as they moved ever closer to the base of the tower they were sent to investigate. The Vex kept coming from wherever they came from only to get shot down, torn apart, or melted to a scrap heap.
It was an onslaught only experienced Guardians could survive. Luckily for them, and unluckily for the Vex, that's exactly what they were.
Fireteam Wild may not have been what it once was, but they were still some of the strongest Guardians in the Tower. Granted, only one of the original members remained and the Fireteam only had two members at the moment, but that only made their infamy more pronounced.
Scarlet Pang, the only original Wild member left, was known more for her sharp blades and her crackshot aim than her leadership skills. That much was obvious as she jumped into the air again, releasing another flaming barrage of knives onto the Vex Collective, tearing down more than her fair share as she and Emily climbed the steps leading into the Vex tower.
Emily Stone, while not an original member of the famed Fireteam, was a deadly tale in her own right, known as the only Guardian to date to have received a Ghost before their first death yet still having a kill count higher than most with a thousand deaths under their belts. That number only increased as the Warlock let her Solar grenades rain down on the Vex trying to ascend the steps just as they had.
Strangely enough, there didn't seem to be any Vex in the tower, though the two Guardians didn't know that straight away, more focused on their one-sided slaughter for the time being.
It only took a few more moments of lead filled air to tear down the rest of the Vex, leaving piles of scrap at the bottom of the tower. The two Guardians kept their weapons up for a tense second before lowering them, reloading in the time they were allowed before they faced the inside of the tower.
It was mostly empty save for a few bits of rubble and a small stream of radiolaria flowing from a few cracks in the far wall. There was also a staircase to the side of the room that led up. The Guardians had to lean back just to catch a full view of the tower above them, which was completely void of floors or structures besides the staircase.
It was really starting to get weird that no Vex were confronting them.
"This place looks empty Ikora, I don't know what you want us to find here." Scarlet spoke into the comms as Emily idly started to roam the empty ground floor, keeping her rifle relaxed in her grip.
'The signal is most likely emanating from the top of the spire.' The Warlock Vanguard's reply was quick, if a bit hesitant. 'What you're seeing is strange though. I'd be careful, Guardians.'
The scarlet spector hummed in agreement before holding out her hand, letting Jack appear in a flash of red particles. "Can you pick up anything?"
The Ghost seemed to think for a moment before bobbing its shell in a nod.
"It's a rather strong reading, but it's not coming from the tower." He then told the Guardian, spinning around to face the back wall. "It's coming from-"
A loud crack interrupted the Ghost as Emily slammed the butt of her rifle into the wall where the radiolaria was leaking, making the crack bigger and revealing an entrance to another room. The radiolaria quickly stopped flowing as the eagle looked over and gave them a thumbs up.
"...There" Jack finished, slightly annoyed, with a shake of his shell before he disappeared, leaving Scarlet to approach the Warlock with a shake of her own head.
"A little warning next time before you go breaking into a room that might be full of hostiles?"
"Pfft," If Emily was concerned, she didn't show it. "I could have taken anything that was there. You worry too much." She then added with a dismissing wave of her hand before she raised her rifle and kicked down what remained of the wall.
'For good reason.' The scarlet spector could help but think, shaking her head again.
Once the hole in the wall was big enough for them to pass through, the duo advanced with their weapons raised. Getting inside, it was easy to see that the space was less of a room and more of an earthy tunnel, leading down into the planet with a thin stream of radiolaria.
The Guardians shared a glance before treading down the tunnel.
Other than the shifting of rock and the flow of Vex fluid beneath their feet, it was eerily quiet during their descent. The air felt dead around Scarlet as took the lead of the two. Not another sound could be heard nor was there anything else to make it.
"I don't like this, Ikora."
'Keep your wits about you, you two.' The Warlock Vanguard advised them, as unneeded as it was. 'The Vex could be up to anything below the surface of the planet.'
"Gee, I never would have guessed." Scarlet rolled her eyes before shaking her head. Emily just giggled lightly from her spot behind her.
It didn't take long for the duo to find something, or rather some place, as the tunnel opened up into a larger corridor. A wind swept past them, originating from further down the corridor as it kicked up loose sand from the sandstone beneath them. Wasting no time the duo fanned out and kept their weapons trained in front of them, looking for anything that might oppose them.
The thing is, nothing did.
Not a single Vex appeared. There wasn't even a sound in the corridor as they turned a corner, except for the sounds of their own footsteps that is.
Eyes darting from side to side, Scarlet took note of how the path they were taking was fairly linear, save for a few turns. There were no other paths to go other than the one they were presented with.
"This is obviously a trap." The scarlet spector stated the obvious, getting a huff from Emily.
"You think?" The Warlock was more than sarcastic with her tone, getting the Hunter to roll her eyes.
"Just thought Ikora would want to know in case we disappeared from known space."
"You're not funny even when you try." The eagle couldn't help but chuckle. "Maybe we should work on your material. What's say you and me work on it over a bottle of wine, maybe have a little fun afterwards."
"This is not the time for that, you dumbass." Scarlet growled before turning around and sticking a finger into the younger Guardian's face. "And I told you, I am not, in a million years, going to sleep with you!"
"Bah, you need to loosen up a little." Emily waved her off in dismissal as the scarlet spector faced the front again and continued forward. "Sex does wonders for your stress levels, and even if we Guardians aren't naturally fertile, that doesn't mean I can't make you feel better and loosen up those muscles of yours~"
"Shut. The fuck. Up."
The edge to the Hunter's voice shut the Warlock up real quick this time, even if she wasn't happy about it. She was ultimately kidding in the end, she knew Scarlet would never actually buy into it, but it was still fun to tease her.
Still, even the young Stone knew that you just don't push Scarlet Pang to the edge.
More Guardians had revived for less.
The two were silent for a few more minutes, tension mounting at the still unbelievable lack of Vex, before they found something.
Turning one last corner, they duo were faced with a very large chamber, one that was more long than wide. The left wall of the room was also, for a lack of a better way to say it, not there. Instead, an enormous hole took its place, a Radiolarian waterfall rushing past a strip of it while the rest was open to allow a view of the opposite cliff face and for the sun to shine harshly through. Pillars of Vex stone marked the edges of a linear pathway leading to the furthest wall in the back of the room.
And that's where they saw it.
At the end of the room was a raised platform, adorned with stone steps, that led to a triangular Vex gateway. An active one, yet strangely there were still no Vex, not anywhere the duo could see.
Eyeing the gateway, Scarlet was more than on edge.
"Ikora," The Hunter spoke into her comms as she refused to move from her spot at the entrance of the room, "Mind telling us what that thing is, if you would be so inclined."
'It's an entrance into the Infinite Forest…' The Vanguard's voice was filled with awe as she looked through her vision. 'I thought there was only one, the gate on the surface.'
"What exactly is the 'Infinite Forest'?"
"It's an endlessly complex and evolving simulation engine the Vex created to find solutions to their problems." This time Emily was the one to answer her.
Noticing that her voice had appeared over comms, Scarlet looked around before cursing to herself, dashing from her place by the entrance to catch up with Emily as the Warlock stood next to the portal, her nose practically touching the surface of the thing. The Hunter could practically feel the stupid smile radiating off of her face as she stared into the Vex tech.
'It's also the last place Osiris was rumored to be.' Ikora added with a sigh as Scarlet yanked the eagle away from the portal, lest she accidentally tumble into it. 'You two shouldn't mess with that portal. I've never heard of anyone returning from the Forest in one piece.'
"Oh, but one peek can't hurt, can it?" Emily seemed to complain in argument, placing her rifle on to her back as she ran her fingers over the metal that made up the portal frame. "Something like this would have hundreds, maybe thousands of secrets. I have no doubt that this thing was the source of the spike in Vex energy, probably it turning back on."
"Which is exactly why we should leave it be until we're better prepared." Scarlet yanked the Warlock away from the portal again, dragging her away this time as she looked towards the open side of the room and out towards the cliffs of Mercury. "Do you think you can get the ship here, Jack? It would save us the walk back."
'Guiding it here as we speak.' The response from the Ghost got Emily to whine and shake out of Scarlet's grip.
"None of you are any fun." The eagle sighed as she then shook her head, turning to the portal again. "Just imagine all of the secrets we could find beyond that gate!"
"I'd rather imagine the army of Vex that are no doubt waiting on the other side for anyone stupid enough to fall for such a lazy trap." The Hunter bit back, Ikora chipping in a moment later.
'That would most likely be the case.' The Vanguard agreed through their comms. 'Even if the Vex weren't waiting directly on the other side, the Infinite Forest is their domain. They could just as easily send an army to meet you while closing the gate behind you.'
"Fiiiiine." Emily finally relented before she sighed, crossing her arms in an attempt to show just how unhappy she was about the decision. "We should at least lay a recon beacon here though. It'll be a lot easier for us to bring in a team if we do."
"For once, we agree on something." Scarlet let out her own sigh. "We'll set one up when the ship gets here. I think I've got a spare somewhere."
'The Vex will no doubt try to destroy it. Make sure you-'
Ikora's comm was suddenly cut off before she could finish her thought.
Not even a moment after the crackle of the comms died, Scarlet's handcannon flashed up and her shoulders tensed as she aimed down the sights, ready to act. Emily's rifle was up a moment later, but she didn't have the same sense of deja-vu the spector had.
The Hunter had been in a similar position before after all, with two old friends and a rock called the Moon.
And oh so similar it was, Scarlet realized as a whine of metal echoed through the chamber, signalling the arrival of several clouds of white, sparkling data. The Vex were finally here.
"Aw crap!"
"Talk later, run now!" Scarlet grabbed the Warlock's arm and started dragging her back the way they came. "The last thing we want is to get trapped in here behind a hoard of-"
And just like that, they slid to a halt as the chamber was suddenly sealed shut in a flash of Vex particles. As the Vex metal sealed them in, the Vex themselves finally spawned in, immediately giving out a battle cry as they started their assault.
The ground shook and both Guardians cursed profanities as they dove behind one of the pillars to the side, trying to get away from the full battalion of minotaurs firing on them. Even behind cover, Scarlet could feel her shield waning from the splash of the enemy torch hammers.
"Well, it's about time someone greeted us." Emily commented as she threw a Solar grenade out from their cover. The attack didn't slow down, but there was a cry of annoyance from the Vex. "Can't say they're very friendly though."
"I feel so welcome." The Hunter retorted as her shield entered the red, her partner grunting as hers did the same. The spector then holstered her gun and drew a handful of knives from her back.
Simply nodding to the Warlock, the duo jumped up and leaped into the air, turning to face the Vex as their Light flared to life. Emily's Dawnblade was raining down death before the Hunter could even finish her flaming flourish, launching her volley of flaming knives like a rain of hellfire.
The spector's smirk could almost be described as smug as she watched their Light impact the Minotaurs, staggering the large machines and halting their attack… for only a moment.
Scarlet couldn't help but adopt a terrified expression as she fell back down to the ground below her. Only one of the machines fell, but it was understandable when she finally realized what the machines were. The large, hulking minotaurs with ornate wings like metal on their backs and banners hanging off their forms, they could only be one thing.
They were facing Champions.
And there were at least six of them left.
"Fuck it all!" Scarlet roared out a curse as she drew both of her handcannons this time. She was then forced to roll behind another pillar further towards the portal as the one behind her collapsed against the might of a torch cannon. "They're all-"
"Champions, I know!" Emily jumped behind the pillar across from her as the Warlock's own cover was obliterated. The eagle then let out a silent curse as she inspected her machine gun, finding it empty as she switched back to her rifle. "Overload Minotaurs, all of them for Traveler's sake!"
"Tell me the ship is getting close, Jack!" Scarlet fired a few shots back and threw a grenade before she was forced to move again, even closer to the portal as her cover came tumbling down.
'30 seconds, Guardian!'
Emily's Ghost gave out a robotic whine in frustration through their comms at that, perfectly summing up Scarlet's mood. 30 seconds wasn't long, but even 10 could decide a battle like this, and they were on the losing side. That much was made clear as Emily moved up again.
It was almost as if the Vex were targeting their cover separately, forcing them to move. They were too fast while moving to be made easy targets, so it wasn't like they could do anything before they reached new cover.
Then again, were they even trying to actually kill the duo? Their shields were constantly dropping into the red, despite the cover, but the Champions weren't pushing as aggressively as overloads tended to do.
Emily was the first to notice the lack of Vex near the gateway as she was forced to move again, Scarlet not too far behind. One more move and they'd be at the steps leading to the gate. Another and they'd be forced to move with nowhere to go.
Except, of course, into the gate.
"They're trying to funnel us into the gateway!" The Warlock's eyes went wide as she shouted out her realization. Scarlet's eyes soon matched the action as she violently cursed and threw a handful of knives back. The Vex whined more out of annoyance than anything in response.
"And why the fuck would that be!? If they wanted to kill us, they could just stomp us flat here!"
"I think they want to do more than kill us!" Emily's hyperactive brain started connecting more dots as she peeked out from cover and shot her rifle, the rounds harmlessly bouncing off of her enemy as she was forced back. "They would have complete and utter control over everything in the Forest, meaning they could do just about anything to us! It's like the Vault of Glass but I doubt we would have to be marked for them to remove us entirely!"
Scarlet could only growl at that as she was forced to move to the last bit of cover. After this pillar fell, they would have one of three options; the gateway, the cliff, or the Vex. Two of those spelled a guaranteed death, and the cliff side only led to a fall that was just about as certain to kill them.
Luckly, an alternative option finally presented itself.
'Five seconds!' Jack shouted through their comms, the last over the duo's cover cracking behind them. 'Get to the waterfall, because they are not going to like this!'
"Noted. Emily!"
"Way ahead of you!"
The Warlock was the first of the two to sprint towards the open wall, the Vex following her movement as the Hunter then followed, unloading rounds into the Champions. She only managed to draw their attention away from her partner because of the rifle rounds her handcannon fired.
Yet another reason she would never let these things go.
Reaching the edge of the room, and therefore the cliff, Emily leaped into the open Mercury air as she heard the hum of Scarlet's ship closing in fast. The sleek, black ship rounded into view just as she jumped, absorbing her in a flash of blue particles.
Scarlet being next, she jumped and spun her body around, slinging her long rifle off of her back and aiming down the sights of the Vex fired at her. The torch hammer shots seemed to move in slow motion, six of them enclosing on her and the ship as her Fatal Vision pointed its nose to the sky.
If even one of those hit the ship, a Champion's torch hammer, they'd be out a ride.
Six in her overloaded magazine. Six rounds to bring out of the sky.
The Guardian gritted her teeth as she fired at an inhuman speed, hitting her targets one by one as she shifted her aim to the closest ones. The torch hammers exploded as they were shot down in a fraction of a second. The Hunter counted them in her head.
'One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Si-'
Scarlet felt her heart stop as, through the smoke of the dissipating Void of downed torch hammer rounds, her final shot scraped against the final target, missing by barely a fraction of an inch.
That would be all the buffer it needed.
"Brace!" Disappearing on to her ship in a flash of blue particles, the scarlet spector barely had time to set her feet down and shout out her warning before the ship was violently thrown to the side. With neither of them prepared for it, both Guardians cried out in alarm as they were carried off their feet, their backs slamming against the steel wall of the ship as an alarm started to blare.
Another second later, the ship lurched again as a full barrage hit their flank, making the lights flicker uncontrollably as Scarlet tried to stumble her ways to the controls. Jack, not as affected by the torment of the rocking ship, appeared in a flash of light and rushed to the console, inputting commands in the blink of an eye.
It was already too late though, the damage far too extensive, as evidenced by the sudden whirling of the warp drive coming to life despite no commands asking for it.
"Hold on to something!" The Ghost managed to cry out as the ship lurched forward and out of their control. The two Guardians barely managed to grab anything as the space outside of the cockpit started to flash by, getting more and more warped until they were simply staring at a mirage of color.
For a few moments, the ship was in absolute chaos. Alarms blared until Jack managed to get them off, sparks flew wildly until they were cut off from a power source, and they were forced to keep a tight grip on anything they could find until, eventually, the Ghost finally manged to get the ship's central gravity back under control, keeping them grounded.
As soon as she could stand, Scarlet forced herself up. She had to bite down a scream of agony as she felt her body fight against her. There were definitely a few broken bones, and she could feel her insides bleeding somewhere, but she could also feel the Light already mending her back together.
Emily looked to be fairing no better, clutching her sides as she stayed on the floor with a moan. Her hand was on her opposite arm, which seemed to be slightly crooked, but it was slowly being forced back into place. John, her Ghost, was hovering above her, repairing the damage directly the best he could. It was faster that way, so Emily would be up in minutes.
At the moment, the Hunter had more pressing matters to get to.
Getting to the control console, she dragged herself into her seat before pooling over what remained of the console. Jack was doing his best to repair anything he could, but the piece of shit was absolutely demolished. No easy way of fising the thing until they got to the Tower.
If they got there.
"Jack, forget repairs. Get the warp drive to stop." The Guardian ordered as she growled at the state of the controls. The one remaining monitor showed that they were on a direct course to an unknown set of space. The torch hammers must have knocked the system around so badly that the navigation system glitched.
Hell, she didn't even recognize the numbers she was seeing. Wherever they were headed, it was far away from anything they knew.
"I can't."
"What do you mean you can't!?"
"I mean that the warp drive is locked into the coordinates we've been smashed into!" Jack told her, not moving as the ship rattled and the lights flickered. "I think the engine's been physically disconnected from the system. The only way to fix it would be to get on to the body of the ship to do it manually."
"And we can't exactly do that when we're moving near the speed of light." Scarlet finished the thought for the Ghost before she growled, balling her hands into fists. "Fucking hell, this has all gone to shit. If I just didn't miss that last shot…"
"Scarlet, it was amazing that you even hit the first five." Jack sighed and turned her way, his voice a bit softer. "No one will blame you for this, for any of this. We got out, and that's all that matters."
The Hunter's fists balled up tighter as she wanted to disagree. Eventually though, her body sagged and she slouched in her seat, letting out a long sigh as the tension left her body. She rested her head in her hands as she glance over to Emily. She was still on the floor, but her body was far more relaxed now. John was still working on her.
"At least I got her out." The scarlet Guardian muttered. "If she died, I…"
"Let's just focus on the task at hand, Guardian." Jack shook his shell, banishing the thought before turning back to the console.
It wasn't that easy for her to do, but she did her best to banish the thought nonetheless.
"Do you have any ideas on how to stop the ship?" Scarlet managed to ask after a few minutes of pooling over what she could use on the control console. "One that we'd preferably survive."
"Until we run out of fuel, there's nothing we can do." Scarlet bit back a curse. She knew he was going to say that.
"Could we cut the fuel line, make it drain faster so we're at least a bit closer to Earth?" The Hunter then asked, standing up. She felt far better than she did a few minutes ago, a miracle of the Light. "I imagine we're out of comm range by now, but we might still be close to the Reef. We could get help from there if we needed to, Petra owes me a favor."
"Again, we'd need to leave the ship in order to do that." Jack sighed as he continued his futile attempt to repair the console. "We have the materials to repair the damage, and we have spare fuel in the cargo bay. We just have to hope we end up somewhere friendly enough to repair the damage without being shot out of the sky first."
"If we don't crash that is."
The Ghost didn't bother responding to that, leaving the two of them in silence.
To say that Scarlet was expecting the day to go a bit better would have been an understatement. Sure, she had her usual Guardian duties to take care and the… service for Salazar to take part in, but she knew she would have been fine after all of that. She would have been fine, even with all of the stupid insistance on the Vanguard's part to fill in the last place on their Fireteam.
Cayde was the only one who didn't trouble her on the matter. It helped that he and Salazar were friends she guessed.
Still, the 'aspiring Guardians' were nothing to her, nothing compared to them. They would have simply dragged down the name Logan and Sal sought to create.
Looking back to Emily again, Scarlet couldn't help but let a sad smile slip on to her face. The exception, if only because she made a promise, one that she intended to keep.
Out of the corner of her eye, the Hunter suddenly watched as Jack seemed to stumble in his shell, stopping his scan and repairs for a moment as collected himself. The Ghost then shook his shell and went back to work as the lights flickered again.
That wasn't a good sign.
(3 Hours Later)
Three excruciating hours later, something finally happened.
Emily had still yet to wake back up, but John had assured them she was fine now. At least, the clicks and robotic beeps he gave off weren't too alarming, and he wasn't panicking. The Warlock's Ghost had then joined Jack in his attempt to regain some control back over the ship.
Meanwhile, Scarlet managed to get the eagle into a seat, strapping her in tight. If they did end up going for a crash landing once they ran out of fuel, she would need to be secure. It was better than getting thrown around at least.
That being said though, the Ghosts weren't looking too hot. By now, their shells started to droop as if they were exhausted, and the lights started to flicker more, the ship shaking from the extended warp more often.
The Hunter would have asked them what was wrong, but that would make it the tenth time she'd ask. Jack wouldn't tell her.
Sighing, the scarlet spector stood by the controls and looked out into the endless mirage of colors that made up their seemingly endless warp. The one monitor she could read was saying that they were getting close, maybe ten more minutes at best. Still, this was farther than just about any Guardian had traveled on their own.
Or at all.
"We're just about out of fuel." Jack told her, facing her with his tired looking shell, his voice reflecting the same weariness. "We might just make it before we exit the range."
"The range of what?" Scarlet narrowed her eyes at her Ghost immediately, catching what he said. Jack seemed to realize what he had said too, his tired form perking slightly in surprise before he sighed lightly.
Before he could answer though, Scarlet felt the answer hit her like a sparrow.
It was like they suddenly hit a wall, the Hunter gasping for breath as she was suddenly forced to one knee. She could see Emily's body jerk in her sleep before going limp again, but that wasn't the most concerning part.
No, the most concerning part was the two 'clanks' she heard as Jack and John fell to the metal floor of the ship like sacks of rocks. With horror, the scarlet spector watched their optics fade until they were glowing dim at best, just barely there.
As the same power left her own body and she was forced to lean against her hands and knees, she realized just what range her Ghost meant.
"The Light." Scarlet reached out with her suddenly aching muscles, grabbing both Ghosts and dragging them towards her. "To the Traveler, we've gone so far out that the Light can't even reach us."
She didn't want to believe her own realization, but she knew nothing else could be true. The fact that their Ghosts went down at the same time she did was evidence enough.
She was forced to avert her attention to more pressing matters: the ship's lights suddenly started to flicker and die, the bulbs bursting without Jack there to regulate the power to keep them stable. She could see in the dark, but she still scrambled to her feet with the Ghosts in hand, fitting them into an empty set of pouches on her belt as she ignored the agony in her muscles.
Stumbling too and leaning against the control panel, she could do nothing as the last monitor went out, the controls dying in front of her eyes. Then, as the lights finally died for real, the ship started to shake around her. She gritted her teeth as she held on, her eyes clenched shut as she felt the gravity in the ship fail, her feet slowly rising off of the ground as she was jostled.
Then, as suddenly as it began, everything seemed to stop.
Scarlet kept her eyes clamped shut for a few moments before she even dared to open them.
What she saw made her grip tighten and her hands shake.
They were finally out of hyperspace, the ship seemingly finally out of fuel. Outside of the cockpit window, two planets came into view, looming over her and her ship. Well, it was one planet and its moon more accurately, and even calling it a moon was stretching it.
Her eyes followed the moon as the ship slowly drifted past it, just barely out of its orbit. The celestial body was shattered, half of it simply floating in a puzzle-like collection of pieces. That kind of damage could have been caused by the Cabal, or even the Hive if they were aggressive enough. The Vex would have repaired it already and the Fallen just didn't have the power.
Yet, that was if they had the same resources as the ones in the sol system. She was far away from there by now though.
Swallowing hard, Scarlet focused her attention back on to the planet she was drifting towards. She would soon be caught in its orbit, and they'd be pulled in. The Hunter had to resist the urge to check her ammo reserves.
Instead, she forced herself into a seat and did her best to strap herself in. If she didn't survive the crash, she wouldn't be coming back this time, meaning that she wouldn't even need to worry about whatever was down there to meet them.
But just who was willing to destroy their own moon? Her hands shook as she thought of the military might needed for such a task, or the kind of ritual the Hive might enact to show off such power.
She just didn't know. Salazar would have had answers, but she was farther from him than she had ever been.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to settle her nerves as she peered back to the planet below. She could feel gravity start to pull at the ship.
This was not going to be fun.