CHAPTER 2
COURTYARD
THE TOWER, THE LAST CITY
A large, red ship flew over the courtyard and two Warlocks transmatted into the courtyard.
"Just gotta talk to a few people and we can go," said one Warlock, Rian.
"I'll be in the bazaar," said the other, John.
The two of them kissed and parted to different areas of the tower. Rian ran off to talk to a few people in the courtyard while John ran off to the steps leading to the bazaar.
Rian and John had met during the Red War, just after they lost their Light, and fought together throughout the conflict. By the time it was over, they had fallen in love with each other, and eventually got married not long after getting their Light back.
As he walked down the steps he saw a sweeper bot sweeping leaves from the tree in the staircase room. He waved to it and it look up at him. The lights on the sides of the sweeper bots head blinked once and it went back to its job.
John chuckled to himself and continued down the hallway. He shielded the light from the sun from his eyes with a hand as he entered the bazaar. It was bustling with activity, mostly around a once empty room.
What is going on over there? John thought to himself. However, he didn't care to investigate because he just wanted some refreshing ramen from the ramen shop right next to the crowd.
"Welcome back John," said the clerk.
John was beginning the become a regular to the ramen shop as it was cheap and always got him back on his feet when he needed a quick refresh.
"Nice to be back," John said, "though I never stay for long."
The clerk began preparing his usual meal while he tried to listen over the group of Guardians chatting. He could just barely make out another voice explaining something, but he didn't recognize the voice.
The clerk turned around while John's ramen was being prepared by another chef.
"You know what's going on over there?" John asked, pointing his thumb at the group of Guardians.
"New guy," the clerk explained, "he's got all a'your friends goin' crazy or somethin'. But hey, what do I know."
John got his ramen and started eating. By the time he was finished the group of Guardians had cleared. He payed for his ramen and began his trek back to the courtyard, but he was stopped.
"Hey kid," a voice shouted to him. John slowly turned to where the voice came from, and it was from the room that all the Guardians were crowded around.
There was a bearded man in the room, leaning against a table. He was flicking a green rectangular coin into the air and catching it repeatedly with his left hand, and motioning for John to come over with his right. He looked at John with a big, toothy smile.
John had a bad feeling, but he pushed his feelings down and slowly approached the man.
"Hey there brotha'" said the man, "no need to be afraid, I don't bite. Unless I feel like it."
The man laughed and shook his head as to play it off as a joke.
The man looked old, he had a full beard, mustache, and sideburns. He had a brown headband and short hair that was combed back. He wore a brown duster and a green shirt with a green necklace that showed two snakes intertwined hanging from his neck. He also had black gloves and big brown shoulder pads with black spikes.
He had two strips of cloth around his waste with a old fashioned looking hand cannon stuck in it. On his back was another old fashioned looking scout rifle. Despite standing there all casually, he looked ready for a fight.
"You uh, need something?" John asked the man.
"Oh, I was just thinkin' you look like you need to have some fun," the man said, "well I have just what you need. It's a little game I like to call Gambit."
The man spread his arms in the air like he was talking about some grand project that would put an end to all that would hurt the Guardians. He put his arms back down and leaned on the table again.
"I know you kid," the man said, "you're one'a them Scorn hunters. You're perfect for Gambit."
John looked around and leaned in close to the man.
"How do you know that?" John whispered.
"Listen kid, I know a thing or two about this system," the man said, "been around for hundreds of years, that's a lot of time to get to know people you hear?"
John leaned back and crossed his arms.
"I'll listen to what you have to say," John said, "but first, what's your name?"
"Oh I don't have one," the man said, "well not really. But you can call me Drifter."
"So your name is Drifter?"
Drifter shrugged and turned his head to the side with a frown.
"Uh huh," John nodded, "so tell me about this… Gambit."
"Well why don't you sit on down brotha'" Drifter said, "I got a lot to tell you."
PRISON OF ELDERS
THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT
"Look out below!" Cayde shouted as he jumped off a shattered platform, landing on a Cabal Legionary. He sunk a knife into the head of the Legionary, spraying himself and the floor with oil.
The Legionary began to fall under his weight while he was still on top of it.
"Woah, woah, woah, this was not part of the plan!" he shouted as the Legionary fell off the ledge down the cell block below.
As he fell a security Shank flew past and he let go of the Legionary. He grabbed on to the Shank's thrusters and it lifted him back up to the platform.
"Scratch that. It's definitely part of the plan," Cayde said when he saw his partner staring up at him, "meet ya at the security hub."
The Shank turned around and floated toward a battle going on outside of the security hub room hanging in the centre of the cell block.
"Go left! Left!" Cayde slapped the Shank, causing the Shank to turn right, "your other left!"
Cayde slapped the Shank and it finally turned left, avoiding the battle. Once the Shank was above the security hub, Cayde let go and dropped to the top of the room. Four Dregs on the roof turned to look at him and they smiled.
Cayde grabbed the nearest Dreg by the neck and hurled it at another one and shot them both. He threw a knife into the head of one and finished off the last one with a headshot from his hand cannon.
He saw a hatch on the roof and ran towards it. He crouched above the hatch and jammed a knife into it to get it to open. He looked to his left and saw his partner battling Hive and Cabal. They were taking on a giant Ogre that was blocking one of the lower entrances to the security hub.
He pulled the knife out from under the hatch and pulled the hatch open. He saw the Ogre disintegrate into nothingness as he jumped down into the security hub.
Cayde landed in a small room with levers and buttons. The room was surrounded by glass, so the hatch was the only way to get in. Outside of the small glass room was a larger circular room.
"This says we need warden-level clearance to open the door," his partner's Ghost said over communications while he figured out what everything in the room did, "Cayde?"
"I gotcha," Cayde said back, "stand by for promotion."
Cayde found the door controls. A lever. Cayde pulled on the lever but it wouldn't move. He looked around the room and found a wrench that he attached to the lever and used it to pull. The lever opened a door in the security hub, but there wasn't anyone out there.
"Whoops," Cayde said, closing the door and opening the other one. The Guardian stepped inside the room and Cayde closed the door behind them.
"Oh, you missed a truly masterful performance," Cayde said, dropping the wrench, "all that's left is the coop-de-gracie."
Cayde turned around to another switch that would get the prison's main security back online. He grabbed the switch and pulled it down, but it caused the pistons in the main room to activate.
"Uh, what's happening to the floor?" Cayde asked, watching the pistons. The pistons were covered in hard Hive biomass and Acolytes crawled out from under the pistons, "ah, these Hive are gunking up the works. Get 'em out of there will you?"
The Guardian nodded and began fighting the Hive in the room while Cayde stood in his room and watched with his hands on his hips, doing absolutely nothing but watching.
The Guardian punched the Hive biomass attached to the pistons, and they lowered back into the floor. The Guardian then returned to Cayde.
"Hive gunk scrubbed! Now it should turn on," Cayde said, turning around.
"Remember to purge the buffers," the Guardian's Ghost said to Cayde.
"Sure. Got it. One question; how do I do that?"
"Press the red button."
Cayde looked at the button that the Ghost was referring to, but it wasn't a button. It was a wall of buttons, and they were all red.
"They're all red!" Cayde panicked.
"Then press all of them," the Ghost responded.
Cayde began waving his hands around, pressing each of the buttons as fast as he possibly could. Once he was sure he pressed every button, they turned green.
"I can't believe that worked! I am amazing at this," Cayde said, looking at the wall of buttons.
Cayde turned away from the buttons and threw the switch again. More pistons covered in Hive biomass rose from the floor.
"Scratch that. It did not work," Cayde turned to the Guardian, "don't worry; we got this. Do your thing."
This time, Thrall and Cursed Thrall rose from underneath the pistons to challenge the Guardian, but they didn't do much before they were put down. The Guardian got rid of the rest of the Hive biomass, causing the pistons to lower back into the floor.
"Booting it up, for real this time," Cayde said when the Guardian returned to him.
He threw the switch, but it went right back to where it was without doing anything.
"Come on, come on!" he said, frustrated as he threw it two more times to no avail.
Cayde finally got the switch in place and whipped out his hand cannon; shooting it three times and destroying the entire console.
"And stay down!" Cayde shouted in triumph while pointing down at the destroyed switch, "tech support with extreme prejudice!"
The lights in the security hub turned on and an alarm began ringing in the cell block. Cayde checked all the consoles again but security wasn't entirely back online yet.
"Well, everything's where its supposed to be but now its asking me for a secondary activation?" Cayde said, "should be a terminal you can use out on the catwalks, I'll cover you from here. Once I figure out how to turn the turrets on."
The Guardian went to the other door out of the security hub while Cayde looked for the turret controls.
"By the way," Cayde looked up from the console and at the Guardian who turned towards him, "you and me? Good team."
The two Guardians gave each other a thumbs up.
"Let me get that door for you," Cayde grabbed the wrench again and pulled the lever down to open the door. Cayde closed the door and dropped the wrench once more.
Cayde inspected the turret control console and saw that he was able to manually control each turret from that room.
"Ooh, the turrets have a manual mode. Interesting," Cayde took control of one of the turrets and saw the guardian through the viewscreen, "hey buddy, whaddya think of my new guns?"
Cayde blasted a Centurion with a turret and took out three Psions. His Ghost, Sundance, opened communications with Petra while he took care of some escaped Cabal prisoners.
"You still with us Petra? We're gonna clear you a path to supermax real soon," he said, not taking away his concentration from the turrets.
"Copy that," Petra quickly responded before getting back to what she was doing.
He took control of another turret while the Guardian ran through and killed anyone Cayde missed.
"I got this buddy, take it easy!" Cayde shouted with excitement.
He was having too much fun blasting anyone he saw with a powerful arc turret from the safety of the security hub. A group of Legionaries were escorting a Colossus to the secondary activation console and Cayde took out the entire escort with a single turret.
"Just try and keep up with these babies!" Cayde shouted, gunning down more escaped Cabal.
The Guardian took the Colossus down with ease and went to the secondary activation console.
"I've hit a locked door. Any updates for me?" Petra's voice sounded over the comms.
"Bringing the security system online," said the Guardians Ghost as he accessed the console.
"You in the green now, P.V.?" Cayde asked.
"Yes! Accessing the lower levels now," Petra responded, "just gotta check on a couple of things, and then we can call it a day."
"So long as you're the one buying."
Cayde let go of the turret controls and opened the hatch above him. He jumped up and climbed out of the security hub and saw it was on fire. The security hub was being held to the prison by a single rope that looked completely unstable.
"Glad I'm out of here," Cayde said, walking down the roof of the security hub, "looks like we are all done and dusted here, kiddos. Ramen's on me."
Cayde dusted his hands and leaned on a wall as the lights in the cell block turned on. He looked down and was able to see Petra running along a walkway on a lower level of the cell block.
"Looking pretty good down here. Just gotta check one last thing…" Petra said.
She opened the door to the supermax security wing, and she disappeared inside. Cayde looked around, anxious for what she would find. He saw the Guardian sitting down in a holographic chair, sipping tea from a holographic coffee cup and he chuckled.
Suddenly communications reopened and Cayde heard Petra's voice. She was distressed.
"Cayde — he's gone. This isn't a prison riot. It's a prison break!" Petra shouted, "the airlock on Deck Zero! It's the only way out this far down. They're going to escape!"
Cayde looked up at the rope that was barely holding the security hub in place.
"Not if I get there first," Cayde said.
He jumped and climbed back up to the top of the security hub. Once he was standing on the top he aimed his hand cannon at the middle of the rope. He fired five times and the rope broke.
Cayde almost fell over as the security hub broke away and crashed down. He held on to a wire to keep himself from falling. The burning security hub crashed down the cell block and Cayde saw Petra for a moment. She was shocked, and Cayde waved at her before continuing to fall.
The security hub hit the ground in a massive explosion that killed everyone who was at the bottom of the cell block, including Cayde.
BAZAAR
THE TOWER, EARTH
"And that's all there is to it brotha'" Drifter said when he finished explaining all there was about Gambit.
"Sounds easy enough," John said, "a bit more complicated than Crucible."
"Ha! Compared to this, Crucible is for wimps."
"I wouldn't tell Shaxx that."
"Neither would I."
John stood up and stretched. He looked back out at the bazaar and saw Rian waiting for him. She waved.
"When's the next match?" John asked.
"If you fly me up to my ship I'll start it as soon as possible," Drifter said.
"Fine."
Drifter flipped his coin again and put it in his pocket before following John. He hugged Rian when he came up to her, but gave Drifter an awkward stare. Drifter looked like he hadn't seen anything.
"Who's that?" Rian whispered to John.
"I'll uh, let him explain on the ship."
Their ship came around and hovered above the bazaar. The three then transmatted inside.
Rian and John walked out of the transmat room, and Drifter walked out last. When he stepped into the cockpit, a large Eliksni came out of the shadows and pinned him to the wall with a blade to his neck.
"Woah Gariks," John said, running up to the two.
"Take it easy there fella'" Drifter said to Gariks.
"Let him go."
Gariks nodded and backed away.
"He's uh, protective," John explained to Drifter.
"I can see," Drifter said, "if anyone finds out you have him on your ship you won't be able to come to the tower anymore."
"Then it's a good thing no one has found out."
Drifter smiled and John sat down next to Rian, who was in the pilot's chair. Drifter stood at the back of the cockpit, across from Gariks. Gariks didn't take his eyes away from Drifter for a second while they flew out of atmosphere.
"So who the hell are you?" Rian asked, not looking away from the ship's viewscreen.
"Call me Drifter," Drifter explained, "and I run this little operation known as Gambit, which you two lucky participants get to be a part of. 'Cept your Fallen buddy here, unless he wants to get killed."
"We take good care of Gariks," John said, "barely anyone knows about him. Anyone who does is either dead now or close enough to us to not say anything. I'm trusting you for now."
"Don't worry 'bout me, I'm good with secrets."
"Now where are we going?" Rian asked.
"To my ship, I can direct you there."
Drifter came up to Rian and sat down next to her. Gariks backed into the hallway that lead to the cockpit. He had his hands on the hilts of his swords.
Drifter helped Rian steer the ship towards Drifter's ship and they made a jump. What they saw upon exiting was truly a sight to see.