"I feel like a black-market smuggler or something," Linvana says.
Certainly, no sane or reputable types would normally agree to meet out here: A windswept little fragment of an asteroid drifting through space beside a twisting mammoth of a Vex tower. Far beyond even the most remote edges of civilization.
"Who's to say we're not?" Telysa says, "My contact didn't say what she needed, just that she had a job and she'd be willing to pay."
Linvana almost laughs, but the Hunter's deadpan expression stops her. Not even one hint of amusement.
"Telysa…" Linvana warns.
Tel purses her lips in response. "The war's been hard on the Reef. Wouldn't surprise me if some Corsairs have resorted to some unsavory means. I've heard the business for male sex-slaves is booming these days."
"Male…sex-slaves?"
The Hunter stairs off into the distance, her face a perfect mask. Except the little twitch at the corner of her mouth.
"You asshole!" Linvana smacks her shoulder.
Telysa snickers. "Gottcha."
"Oh shut up," Linvana growls.
"Why don't you make me?" She lifts an eyebrow in an oh-so-seductive arch. Dammit.
"Is everything flirting to you?" Linvana demands to cover her embarrassment.
"I know you like it…"
"Do not."
"Oh, then why is your face the color of your hair?"
Linvana opens her mouth, closes it, sputters something incoherent, then storms off to go sulk somewhere.
She's not mad at Telysa exactly. More mad at herself because she can't stay mad at Tel, and Tel knows it. Her magical ability to talk Linvana down from even the highest pinnacle of rage is nice sometimes. Well, most of the time. But it makes it pretty damn hard to throw a good temper tantrum in her vicinity. And everything during the war, they can't afford to fall into their old pattern of flirting past all their differences.
She's rudely dragged out of her brooding by the fact there's simply nowhere on the asteroid to storm off to. The chunk of rock is tiny. The upper surface is maybe twenty meters at its widest. And her stomping has taken her right to the edge. Which makes it impossible to ignore the fact that she's one slip away from falling forever out into nothing. Or at least falling until she hits the edge of the gravity field holding the scraps of stone together. Then she'll just drift on the currents of the atmosphere bubble until she is smashed against something or flung into the interplanetary abyss.
That thought makes her stomach try its very hardest to tie itself into a knot. So she crosses back to the center of the asteroid, sits on a jutting rock, and very deliberately ignores everything beyond the dusty stone between her feet.
She's just finally got her breathing under control when a distant double-crack washes over the asteroid.
"They're here," Telysa calls. She's still standing - no, posing - on the far edge of the rock, her cloak rippling lightly in the breeze. Stupid sexy Hunter.
Linvana follows Telysa's gaze out to the edge of the atmosphere bubble. A pair of white lines have peeled away from the shimmering surface and are streaking towards the asteroid. Linvana steps up next to Telysa to watch them approach.
"Only two of them?" she asks.
Telysa grimaces, all of her earlier bemusement gone. "The war's been hard on the Reef."
Oh yeah.
The City had, miraculously, escaped all the direct violence of the Taken War. But that was only because the Awoken had thrown everything they had at Oryx to stop him at Saturn.
The white streaks resolve into exhaust trails of wicked, four-pronged Reef ships. They pull up along side Linvana's Arcadia and Telysa's Phaeton. Two Corsairs step out of transmat beams.
Her first impression is that they don't exactly look like smugglers, but they don't not either (dammit Tel). One is a man so gangly and awkward he'd be blown over by a stiff gust of wind. He apparently doesn't know what to do with his hands, as he constantly fidgets with the holster carrying his sidearm. The other is a short, compact woman who could probably stand straight in a hurricane. She has her thumb tucked under the strap of her grenade launcher as if it's a harmless backpack, not a tube of explosive ordinance.
"Telysa, thanks for coming," the woman says. She takes off her helmet, revealing round features, turquoise skin, and wavy golden hair bound in a bun. Huh. Casually dangerous and cute. She notices Linvana watching and flashes her a raised eyebrow.
Dammit, do all the Awoken do that?
"You know I'm more than happy to help," the Telysa replies with a tight smile.
It'd taken Linvana a few months to figure out that smile means Tel is beating herself up inside over something that's definitely not her fault.
The Corsair shrugs. "I'm afraid we're strapped for glimmer right now. So I hope you're willing to take payment in hard goods."
"Simin, it's fine. We'll call it a favor," Telysa insists. "Just find a place for us to refuel for the flight back."
"I'll see what I can do. Thank you. Again." Simin and Telysa stare at each other for a long moment. "Anyways," the Corsair says, "Aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Sure. Simin, this is Linvana, my running partner. Lin, this is Simin, my…handler? I guess."
Simin chuckles. "Alright, let's go with that." She looks Linvana up and down. "Linvana, pleased to meet you. This is Ollin." She points at the beanpole man behind her.
"Hi," Ollin says, waving with one hand while keeping the other on the butt of his sidearm.
"Ollin?" Telysa asks. "I thought you had another cycle left of flight school?"
"Graduation got moved up," Ollin answers. "The navy needed the pilots."
"Ah," Telysa says. The following silence is so heavy and awkward even Linvana notices it.
"Soooo…" Linvana says, "what's the job?"
"Hunt and kill an extremely dangerous target," Simin says with a frown. "The usual Guardian-friendly job."
"What's the target then?" Telysa asks.
"Bit of a story to that," Simin says. She motions to Ollin, who pulls a palm-sized projector out of his belt. He activates it, producing a hologram of the helical Vex structure at the center of the debris field. Simin motions with her hand, enlarging a section of the ruins marked with red and yellow dots.
"Not too long ago," the Corsair explains, "Khariss the Unsworn was your everyday freelance scrapper. Ran a tight crew, smuggled the occasional box of contraband, sometimes raided his competitors' operations. All the usual pastimes of a middling bannerless captain."
Great, so this is about smuggling.
"But, since the war," Simin continues, oblivious to Linvana's inner monologue, "he found the stones to start raiding Vex tech. It's made him a small fortune, but it's also got the locals in a tizzy. Activity through the surrounding gate networks has quadrupled since he started." She points at the largest red marker. "Three days ago, we picked up a massive power surge through this gate. Something that big can only be a gate-lord or an axis mind."
"Hmm. So which do you want us to kill first?" Telysa asks. "Khariss, or the tin can?"
"The tin can, definitely. We're still fighting Hive remnants across the belt. Ships are going missing left and right. The last thing we need is a full-on Vex invasion. Nip this offensive in the bud. And you won't be going after Khariss. Ollin and I will handle him."
Linvana frowns. "The two of you are going to take on a whole crew of Fallen?"
"She's right," Telysa says. "I hate to say it Simin, but you're not Guardians. You can't fight that many."
"Well it's a good thing we won't be fighting them," Simin replies. "I've dealt with Khariss before. He'll listen if I say I just want to talk."
"And what are you going to tell him?" Telysa asks.
"The truth. We can't have him riling up the Vex. He needs to leave Fortuna and not come back, otherwise the Regent-Commander will post an open bounty on his head."
"And that will work?" Linvana folds her arms. "All the Fallen I've met have been 'shoot first, don't bother asking questions.'"
Simin smirks. "You clearly don't come to the Belt often. We're not savages out here. Besides, as soon as Khariss hears there's a couple Guardians in his neighborhood, he's liable to bolt. And we don't have the manpower to keep him from coming back later. So I need to meet with him before that happens."
Linvana bristles, but decides the Corsair has a point. She doesn't know jack about Awoken-Fallen politics. She decides to keep her mouth shut before she says something else stupid.
Tel however doesn't seem so inclined. "I don't like it. There's a dozen ways this can go wrong."
"Telysa, don't patronize me. Khariss isn't a half-mad welder captain, he's just a simple smuggler. I've been dealing with his like for decades."
The heavy, implication-ridden stare-down between the Awoken women is impossible to miss. Great. Why can't people just say what they're thinking?
"Fine," Telysa says, glancing away. She works her jaw, which means she hasn't conceded, but knows she won't win. "Undermanned as we are, I'm not going in blind. I want to scout out the site."
Ollin, who's spent most of the conversation trying to impersonate a rather fidgety statue, raises his hand. "I can help. I've been watching the area for a week, so I can show you around."
Telysa eyes the young pilot. "You think you can keep up with me kid?"
"I don't know. Maybe? I hope so."
"Good answer." She claps him on the shoulder. "Follow where you can, and don't even try when you know you can't."