I do not own Destiny or any of the characters.

Memories

Hunter walked down the street in silence, glancing around. It was almost time for him to leave again. But first, he needed to say goodbye. He stopped as he spotted a familiar face through the crowd. Amanda Holliday. His memories fought to return to the last time he spoke to her, but he forced them back. She'd been polite about it, but the meaning of the words had been the same. He was just a machine. Just before he could turn away, Amanda smiled, taking the hand of a human Guardian as he reached her, kissing him. Hunter turned away. Good for her. She'd found what she wanted. That was good. He clenched his fists as he finally reached the Vanguard's chambers, Cayde looking up and grinning.

"There you are!" Cayde said, walking over. "And here I thought you'd leave without saying goodbye."

"I probably should have," Hunter said. "It's not like I'll die. It's just Hive."

"I don't know about it not being a threat," Cayde said. "Just because Crota and Oryx are dead doesn't mean they're not still a threat."

"I suppose so," Hunter said. "Anyway, I'll be back in about two days. If I'm not, I'll need a rescue."

Cayde nodded. "See you in a couple days."

Hunter nodded, turning and walking out of the room, raising his hand to catch a specially-modified dagger, smirking. It was a bit longer than the average dagger, made for melee rather than throwing. However, despite being longer and heavier than a throwing knife, it was balanced perfectly for slashing and stabbing. It was exactly the kind of weapon Hunter would likely end up needing against Hive Thralls. He headed to his ship and took off, heading for the moon. The Guardians had established a temporary base there, but the Hive, even without Crota, were beginning to close in. His job was to lighten their load by taking down three separate clusters. Then he could go home. After about three hours, he warped down to the base, walking to the armory and stocking up on extra ammo.

"So you're the one they sent?" The commander of the base, a female Warlock, asked. "Cayde's shadow. I'm not sure if I'm pissed that they only sent one guy, or annoyed that it's you, of all people."

"You should be grateful I'm the one they sent," Hunter said. "I'll take one cluster per resupply. It should take about a day and a half, including travel."

The Warlock laughed. "A day and a half? For one guy to take down three clusters?"

"I'm taking your best Titan and your best Warlock," Hunter said. "I'll need them, for obvious reasons."

The Warlock sighed heavily, shaking her head. "You fail to understand our situation. We sent everything we had at just one of those clusters, and we failed miserably. We lost a quarter of our Guardians, and we got sent back with our tails between our legs."

"And now you have me," Hunter said. "So your options are to either trust me to get rid of them along with help from two of your men, or to wait here for the Hive to decide they're ready to attack in full force all at once and overwhelm your defenses in minutes, resulting in the deaths of everyone here. At worst, if we fail, you lose two men, you know you were right, and we'll at least delay the inevitable."

The Warlock narrowed her eyes, considering for a moment, then nodded. "Fine. I'll have them ready in twenty minutes."

Hunter nodded, heading out to the front of the base, summoning his Sparrow and sitting on it as his mind began to wander.

"Is he waking up?"

"Just a moment, he's coming back online now. it will take some time for his wounds to self-repair."

"Self-repair? Damn! I do know how to pick 'em! Wait, how much time are we talking?"

"About five hours for complete restoration. I can shorten it to five minutes for basic combat functions."

"Yes, that. Do that."

"Very well. Forcing regeneration."

"How long until he comes online?"

"He's already online. Bringing his optics online in three...two...one...now."

Light. Flickering at first, then slowly being translated into images. And the first image he saw was-

"Ready to go?" one of his two temporary recruits asked, both seated on their Sparrows.

He turned to look them over. Both of them were female, and they wore matching armor. Both had a black helmet, a green chestplate, black sleeves, black pants, and red boots. The Titan had a massive cleaver on the back of her waist with a bright red minigun behind her left shoulder and a black Pulse Rifle behind her right, a Psi Tempus III, Hunter thought. The Warlock, on the other hand, had a pair of hand cannons. One of them was relatively slim with the barrel engraved with feathers and a small spike sticking down from the bottom of the grip. The other was an even thinner one, painted black along the middle and the rest white, a black grip, and looked like it might be a bit on the weak side. However, aside from the pistols, her only other weapon was a red submachine gun, so he hoped not.

"Once we get there, there will be no breaks, and there will be no retreating," Hunter warned. "Move fast and watch each other's backs. No matter what else, watch each other's backs."

Both nodded and Hunter took over, the Warlock and Hunter falling in as Hunter's Ghost gave him directions.

Light. Flickering at first, then slowly being translated into images. And the first image he saw was a robot. Then two, but of different types. One looked largely humanoid, with a white and blue body, and a blue horn sticking up from the center of his forehead. The other looked like a little star, or a cube with the corners pulled outward to deform it. And both were below him, but he didn't feel like he was standing, or sitting. His eyes fell and he frowned. His body was missing. All he could see was a strange jumble of metal. Slowly, the image began to make sense and his thoughts froze, the gears in his head free spinning as he struggled to accept what he was seeing. His body was metal. It was as if his skin had turned into metal plates and something that looked like it might be flexible. And it was broken. There were gaping holes through it like bullet holes, what looked like blade damage, and there were chains impaled through his body, holding him up in a cricifixion position.

"Where...What happened to my body?" he asked. "What happened to my voice? What...I'm...human. Right?"

The robot stared at him for a long few moments before sighing and shaking his head. "I'm sorry, my friend. But you're not."

Hunter slowed to a stop beside the cave leading into the first cluster, sending the Sparrow back to his ship. Then, he pulled his Auto Rifle off of his back and walked into the cave, the other two just behind him.

"Can we really do this?" the Warlock asked.

"As long as you keep your head, yeah," Hunter said. "Don't lose your nerve, focus on the fight, and keep each other alive."

Both nodded and they continued into the cave until the light from the mouth of the cave was gone. Their ghosts all activated their flashlights and Hive Thralls shrieked instantly, swarming out of the darkness. All three opened fire, slaughtering the Thralls as they charged.

"You're a type of machine called an Exo," the robot said, having finally freed him from the chains. "Like me. But your body's made a bit weirder than the Exos I've seen. Your mind, or soul, or whatever, is still human, but your body's a machine now."

"Why?" he asked.

"No idea," the machine said, shaking his head. "Do you remember your name?"

He considered for a moment before shaking his head.

"Then we'll need to give you one," the machine said. "I'm Cayde Six, by the way. You can just call me Cayde. Hm..." he held a hand to his chin. "You look like you could be a Hunter."

"He is," the strange, floating cube thing that was shining a light on his body and sealing its wounds said.

Cayde laughed, nodding. "Then that settles it! Hunter, the Hunter!" He laughed again.

"Hunter?" Hunter asked. "What's a Hunter?"

"A class of Guardian," Cayde said. "Long story. I'll explain later. For now, as soon as you're able to move around freely, put this armor on, grab this gun, and meet me outside. I'll show you the ropes."

Hunter waited a few more minutes before quickly getting dressed, picking up the rifle Cayde had left, and headed outside just as a swarm of zombie-like creatures swarmed toward the pair of them, Cayde opening fire with his pistol, which was decorated with a playing card spade on each side of the barrel. Taking the hint, Hunter began to spray with his apparently fully automatic rifle.

"Short burst," Cayde said. "Aim and focus short bursts at individuals."

Hunter nodded, sighting in carefully through a holograph of a sight that appeared on top of the Auto Rifle as he shouldered it.

Hunter hurled a proximity mine knife into the ogre's face, the explosion obliterating the head and killing the massive creature. As it collapsed, the Warlock and Titan finished off the last handful of Thralls and all three looked around for more, only to find themselves alone.

"One down," Hunter said. "Let's get back to the surface, two more to go."

"I can't...I can't believe we won," the Titan said.

"Let's go, Titan," Hunter said, he and the Warlock walking away. "We need to go resupply before we hit the next cluster."

The Titan jogged over to join him and they headed back up to the surface, summoning their Sparrows and taking off for the base again.

Hunter put his newly reloaded magazine in his Auto Rifle, looking around. The second cluster had fallen just as easily as the first, but the third was a problem. Instead of waiting patiently to be raided, they'd left their hole and were heading for the base. Now, the entire base was preparing for the assault.

"We're doomed," the Titan that had been raiding the Hive's holes with Hunter said. "It's twice the size of the last two."

"And now, instead of three people in an enclosed space with minimal cover, we have a small army of Guardians, mounted, automatic turrets, and a facility to use as cover," Hunter said. "We'll be fine."

The Titan hesitated before nodding. "Okay. After seeing you in action, I believe you."

Hunter nodded and walked outside, summoning his Sparrow, then drew his Mos Ultima and sped off. Within seconds, a half-dozen other Hunters were speeding along behind him, all of them armed with either a Hand Cannon, a Sidearm, or a Submachine gun. Hunter smiled. He hadn't even needed to say anything and they all understood. He nodded to the group and most nodded back. Then, they all focused, speeding out to meet the Hive. After another couple of minutes, Hunter shot up over a slanted piece of debris, sailing out over the Hive. A sea of Thralls and Acolytes shrieked and roared up at him until the other Hunters went around the debris Hunter had jumped over, all opening fire instantly. Hunter fired down into the swarm where he'd be landing, then landed hard and plowed through the swarm in a sideways skid, firing back into the Hive he'd jumped over. As he stopped, he hurled his Mos Ultima into the air, focusing his Solar energy into a fan of throwing knives, hurling them into the Hive to his right, causing a half-dozen explosions before he grabbed a fan of proximity mine knives and hurled them, those all exploding as well. Then, he caught his pistol in time to swing it around and shove it into a Thrall's mouth, firing and splattering its head. Then, the other Hunters all passed him, their Sparrows ramming through Hive as they fired around themselves, slaughtering the Hive. Hunter took off after them, reloading as he went before pulling up in the middle of the group of Hunters, opening fire. Finally, they broke free of the swarm of Thralls and Acolytes and stopped, seeing a dozen Ogres, a couple dozen Wizards, and an Army of knights coming, armed with both cannons and swords. Hunter formed his Void Bow, sending a shot into a Knight's face, killing the Knight before the singularity used a string of Void energy to link to three of the Ogres, two of the Wizards, and a dozen Knights. All of the Hunters drew a Scout or Auto Rifle, Hunter using his Hung Jury, and opened fire on the oncoming Hive, targeting those with a Void tether first.

As the last of the tethered targets dropped, the Hunters all hurled a grenade at the army, Hunter and most of the others using Incendiary Grenades, but a couple of them using Swarm Grenades. Then, they all swung their Sparrows around and sped back toward the base, chasing what remained of the Thralls and Acolytes.

After a minute, they found the swarm they'd passed through heavily engaged by the remaining Guardians at the base, being slaughtered without getting nearer than a hundred meters from the base. They all opened fire on the back end of the swarm with their rifles, quickly slaughtering the rest of them before speeding closer to the base and sending their Sparrows back to their ships before joining the base's forces. Hunter reloaded before sighting in toward there the rest of the Hive would appear. About three minutes later, the first of the Knights arrived and the entire base opened fire. At first, they held them back effectively, until the bulk of the Knights arrived and they were able to get through from sheer numbers alone. Then, the Ogres and Wizards arrived, already opening fire at the base, one of the ogres managing to destroy an auto turret. Hunter focused on the Wizards, which were closing in rapidly, managing to kill about one a minute. However, after killing the second, a large noise comparable to an explosion went off overhead as a Hive ship appeared from a rift. Hunter spun as a group of Acolytes and a Knight were warped to the inside of the base, only to be met with several Guardians' gunfire, slaughtering them. Then, Hunter spun, returning to firing at the oncoming Hive. Most of the Wizards were dead now, there were only two Ogres left, and half of the Knights were done. Hunter finished off the last of the Wizards, then hurled a grenade into a group of knights. Then, he turned turned his rifle on one of the Ogres just as a Titan fired a rocket launcher into the other. After a moment, both were dead, leaving only knights. Within minutes, they'd been cleaned up as well, and upon seeing that the fight was finally over and the base was safe for the time being, the Guardians began to cheer. Hunter smirked, reloading and put his rifle away, then turned to the Warlock in charge just as Cade warped down from orbit, landing next to Hunter and looking around, pistol in-hand, only to sigh.

"You could have left me some," Cayde said.

Hunter shrugged. "Should have gotten here earlier."

"Your protégé is incredible, Cayde," the Warlock said. "He's like another you. Taking a single fireteam in order to take down entire clusters, using a pistol and a Sparrow to fight a swarm in the open. You trained him well."

"Dammit Hunter!" Cayde said. "You know I love Sparrow runs!"

Hunter smirked. "Like I said, should have gotten here earlier."

Cayde sighed, shaking his head. "Whatever. I'm buying, I guess."

"Of course you are," Hunter smiled. "You were late. Gotta make up for it somehow."

Cayde sighed and nodded, both warping back to their ships and heading for the Tower.

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