Frea sprinted through the tunnels beneath Nessus's crust, each one carved with keen precision by the Vex during their terraforming process. She'd seen their work before on Venus and in the Vault of Glass, though the technology here seemed younger and less advanced.
"Cayde's signal is just dead ahead," her Ghost sounded over the comm.
She leapt over a low wall and landed hard in a ring of warp gates, her heart skipped a beat when she found the Hunter Vanguard stuck floating in a cluster of glowing particles at the center.
"Cayde?!"
He looked up and caught her gaze, his robotic expression taking on a stunned look. "Frea?" The Exo put up his hands. "Listen-I know what this looks like and I just have to say...it wasn't my fault."
"Sure it wasn't," Frea said sarcastically. "You only happened to come to Nessus and just happened to stumble into a Vex portal network, right?" She started to step forward, but the warped reality fragments surrounding Cayde began vibrating rapidly at her approach.
"Ok, it is my fault! I don't know what happened...I don't have time to explain what I don't have time to understand!" And just like that he blinked out of existence, his voice leaving a faint echo behind.
"Incoming Vex," Failsafe alerted.
She whipped around to see the gates surrounding her come to life, crowds of Goblins and Minotaurs entered the cavern, their guns point right at the huntress.
"I don't have time for this either," Frea sighed and shot down three Goblins with half a clip from her hand cannon. "Failsafe, get me a new location on Cayde."
"Already on it," the AI replied. "The Cayde-6 attempted to manipulate the Vex portal system and is now trapped in a nonlinear loop. I did try to warn him. He's, like, not that smart."
Ignoring the majority of the Vex shooting at her, Frea took off running toward the next tunnel, going even farther down.
"For some reason...I'm not at all surprised by this outcome," her Ghost murmured.
Failsafe's new coordinates brought Frea through an active portal and into the core of the centaur. She leaned over a steep edge and peered down the swirling gravity well leading to some unknown location far below her.
"Hm." Reaching out a hand, she tested the pull of the Vex-built elevator. "I never trust these things."
"Cayde should be at the bottom, we don't really have a choice," her Ghost said.
"Right." She took two steps back. "Get ready for revival, Ghost."
The huntress jumped off the secure stone floor and into the well. At first, she was free-falling quick enough for her stomach to twist uncomfortably, but soon the gravity took effect and slowed her descent just enough for her boots to touch the ground safely.
"Hey! Over here!" A voice called. Frea looked over to spot Cayde still stuck and levitating dangerously far over a cliff. It wouldn't take much effort for the Vex to simply drop the Exo into the bottomless pit, if he was even in the same reality as her, the fancy time travel mechanics the ancient race used often made her head spin. "Get me out of here!" He yelled.
"I don't know, Cayde. That's a good look for you." Frea smirked.
Cayde crossed his arms, which made him spin and hang upside down thanks to the lack of gravity in the time loop. "Ha ha," he scoffed. "Very funny."
Once again, the huntress moved forward to assist him but Failsafe cut her off. "Warning!" The air next to the Exo shimmered with light as a Hydra Mind materialized into the space. Immediately, Frea froze on the spot, caught off guard by the sheer size of the Vex.
"What is it?" Cayde asked, noticing her sudden change in attitude. When he finally turned around, he stared right into the Hydra's singular red eye. "Oh hell. Ok yeah, handle that first then me!"
Frea didn't like how intently the Vex Mind was looking at Cayde, snapping out of her shock, she recklessly chucked her arc grenade across the chasm. "Hey, ugly!" Her attack meagerly bounced of the Hydra's shield, but at least she now had its full attention. Spinning around, she ran to find a higher vantage point. The area all around her began to sparkle with electricity as other Vex entered the fray to fight alongside their Mind. She ducked to avoid a Goblin's fire and climbed up one of the tall pillars outlining the cliffside, unfortunately she was welcomed by a Hobgoblin at the top, the Vex's best snipers. The robot slammed down its foot in an attempt to knock the huntress off, but she grabbed it by the ankle and yanked hard, pulling it off its perch. Its metal frame shattered as it hit the stone floor below. Pulling herself up with a huff, she removed the sniper off her back and aimed down the sights.
The Vex Mind was slowly making its way toward her, it lacked speed due to its size but would undoubtedly kill her in one hit if it could land it. Working quickly, she gunned down the rest of the Hobgoblins guarding the pillars and then rested the red dot of her sniper over the Hydra's weak point, its eye. Only one bullet was left in her reserves, she had to make it count. Taking a steady breath and holding, she shot. The bullet missed by a hair, ricocheting off the Hydra's metal brow.
"For the love of-," Frea cursed.
"Wowwww," Cayde hollered from across the cavern. "I saw that."
"Shut up Cayde, or I'm gonna leave you here with the Vex!" She yelled back, her face burning from embarrassment.
"Oh never mind then, you're totally doing great!" He clapped. "Could you speed it up though? I'm getting a little nauseous-ugh."
The huntress holstered her sniper with a groan and took out her auto rifle, guess she was going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Once the Hydra was close enough, she vaulted onto its head and planted her knife into the hard frame to anchor herself in place. As it thrashed under her, she pressed the barrel of her gun against its eye socket and pulled the trigger. The Vex Mind exploded from the inside out, blasting hot radiolarion fluid in every direction. Frea landed clear of the explosion, hand on her hip with satisfaction as she watched the Vex melt into nothingness.
"Frea!" Cayde hurriedly beckoned. "I know watching the Vex burn up is fun and all but I don't think this portal is going to stick around for much longer."
She walked back to the cliff edge. "Alright, so how-"
"Stop-stop-stop!" He interrupted. "Look-long story and it may look like I don't know what I'm doing, but I do-ok, maybe not..." His arms flailed wildly as he spoke, trying to kept himself from spinning in place. "Doesn't matter, killing the power source at the origin point should break the loop and get me out. You got that right? Please tell me you got that?"
"Wait, what?" She titled her head.
The displaced reality particles around the Exo glowed brighter as he ran his hands over his face. "Oh my cotton socks! Did you not hear what I just said?" In the next instant, he was gone again.
Frea checked her ammo reserves and slung the rifle across her back. Her Ghost materialized next to her, the light in its eye glittered in the dim cavern. "This must be why they don't like him leaving the Tower," it commented.
She laughed.
"This is the teleporter?" Frea asked as she inspected the odd device, it was much smaller than she expected, about the size of a hand held shield. It emitted the same energy signature as what was surrounding Cayde.
"Yes! The Cayde-6 will want it. You should pick it up," Failsafe gleefully answered.
Carefully, she closed the circular frame and locked it in place, the gentle humming coming from the device went quiet. The huntress hoped that meant it was deactivated now. When she picked the teleporter up from its pedestal, her comms suddenly went haywire.
"Take that, you scrap heap a-ha! I'm out, baby. Out! Woo!" Cayde's voice poked through the static, the strange echo he had while trapped in the loop was gone.
"Cayde." Frea strapped the teleporter under her cape, out of harm's way. "Where are you?"
"Hey, you did it!" He gasped. "You got me out, ha-ha...w-where am I?"
"Cayde Unit. You are near the remains for my reactor core. Welcome aboard the Exodus Black," Failsafe replied. "Where all your dreams come true."
"Huh," he snorted. "Looks like you met my new friends, Failsafe, and her evil twin, Failsafe."
"Which is the evil one?" Frea's Ghost asked.
"If I had feelings, they would be hurt!" The AI said with a jarring amount of joy in her tone.
"Ok, settle down you two. Cayde, stay put. I'm coming to pick you up," Frea cut in.
"Uh...yeah about that," he started.
"Intruder alert!" Failsafe loudly chimed. "Cayde Unit, you are attracting large numbers of Fallen to my position."
"The Fallen are in a tizzy! And by tizzy, I mean murderous rampage. Dammit. Failsafe, they're shootin' at me!"
"Then I advise to not get shot."
Frea picked up her pace, boosting her movements with arc energy. "Hunker down in the Exodus Black, I'll be there soon."
"No problem, Failsafe has shields! The Fallen can't get to us now." Cayde paused. "They can't get to us, r-right Failsafe?"
"Please stand back, Cayde Unit."
Finally, the light of day received the huntress as charged out of the Vex tunnels and began to clamber up the grassy hill. The first thing her gaze landed on once she reached the other side was the massive Exodus Black and the Ketch ship that lingered over it. The Golden Age colony ship was in pieces, destroyed by a bad landing long ago, half of it was sitting in water while the rest was most likely scattered across Nessus. The Fallen had swarmed the ground and surrounded Failsafe's reactor core, their constant gunfire was making her shielding bubble, it wasn't going to hold for much longer.
"There's a Captain to the right," her Ghost pointed out.
Frea glanced to the side and spotted the oversized Fallen wielding a scorch cannon. He was the one leading the pack, taking him out would make the others easy pickings. She crept along the blackened wreckage of the colony ship, staying low to avoid the Vandals' sights, and came up behind the Captain. He barked orders to the Dregs in their Eliksni tongue and turned around, just in time to meet the end of the huntress's arc charged staff. Hissing, the Captain tripped backward, his shield falling to pieces from the hit. She managed to land two more swipes before catching the attention of the nearby Fallen, who all quickly fell to her electric shockwave. The Captain, badly hurt but still willing to fight, tried to lift his arms for a counterattack. With a final slash of her staff, Frea severed his torso from the rest of his body and grabbed the scorch cannon as it fell from his grasp. She hefted it over her shoulder and shot a barrage of fire at the remaining Dregs and Vandals, the torrent of flames left nothing in its wake except for charred scraps of purple cloth.
Taking a second to catch her breath, the huntress dropped the cannon and jogged back toward the reactor core. The shielding went down as she entered, followed by Failsafe's voice. "Updating crew log, welcome aboard Captain!"
"Where's Cayde?" Frea asked, still breathing hard.
Something blinked in the low light of the ship interior and she glanced over to catch the sight of a Ghost hovering over broken railing, it's shell a modest grey and red color. A gloved hand reached up and gently pulled the bot back down to safety. "Shhh, down, down, down," Cayde whispered and then popped his head out of hiding, his eyes glowing brightly with suspicion.
A sigh of relief escaped Frea and she smiled behind her visor. "Got you a little something," she said, casually waving the Vex teleporter in the air.
"So it's true." The Hunter Vanguard slowly straightened and stepped forward. "The light found its way back to you. Not that I'm jealous or nothin'." He stopped in place with a smirk. "So does this make me the damsel in distress then?"
"Let's be honest, you're not pretty enough to be a damsel," she jested and tossed him the device.
"Oh? Am I not Titan enough for you?" He winked, plucking the teleporter out of the air.
Frea folded her arms, turning serious. "Tell me, what were you planning to do with that?"
Cayde pressed a dial on the teleporter, making it open up like a blossom as he placed it on the ground. He kneeled over it to fiddle with the inner workings, pulling out a few screws and bolts as he did so. "Get up close to Ghaul, put a bullet in his head." He shrugged. "Maybe eat a sandwich." The huntress ran a hand over her visor, she was afraid he would come up with something like that. "Gotta work out a few kinks first though," he continued. "Fun fact about Vex tech; not as intuitive as you think."
"Cayde...I know you prefer the whole 'lone wolf' Hunter image, but you can't do this by yourself."
"The hell I can't," he grumbled. "Hunters are meant to be lone wolves, Frea. You're the weird one with that oversized clan of yours."
"Perhaps I learned long ago that it's better to fight alongside friends rather than die alone," she huffed.
The Exo paused for a moment as he locked eyes with her. Suddenly, a spark emitted from the Vex device and he jumped back in surprise. "Ow!"
Frea's Ghost appeared over her shoulder. "You know, even if you manage to kill Ghaul, when the Red Legion leaves a system they leave nothing behind," it said.
"Yeah, yeah. The Cabal are bad guys who do bad things. I get it," he said dismissively.
"I don't think you do," Frea added, her tone stern. "They literally leave nothing behind." Cayde shot another glance at them and apparently pressed something he shouldn't have on the teleporter, because it closed shut over his fingers, trapping them.
"They have a weapon that can destroy a star!" Her Ghost's voice started to strain from desperation. "And it's pointed right at our sun."
With a hard pull, Cayde freed himself and raised his palms. "Hey-hey-hey. Easy, you're going to blow a bulb."
Frea sighed. "The Commander has a plan. He needs you, Cayde."
Grabbing up the device, he moved forward. "Yes, Zavala always says he has a plan, but sometimes-wait...Zavala said he needs me? Me?" He pointed to himself. "As in you heard those exact words from his mouth?" Cayde stepped even closer, the excitement brimming off him was almost palpable.
"Yes."
"Please tell me you recorded it!"
Sharing a look with her Ghost, Frea shook her head.
All the energy in the Exo drained away as his shoulders slumped. "Well, did Ikora as least hear it?" He asked.
"Ikora is missing, we lost her after the City fell." She adverted her eyes, her mind automatically drifting to thoughts of Dex. "We don't know where she is."
Cayde looked away, rubbing his metal chin. "Io...it's where she'd go to look for answers."
"Io?" Frea's Ghost bounced in the air. "Maybe Dex is at Io as well? He could still be with Ikora."
"Maybe..." Frea whispered. She moved her gaze back up to the Exo. "Do you need a lift to Earth?"
"Yeah actually, I do. Crash landed on the way here."
"I figured as much," she chuckled.
"Hey! I'm not a complete train-wreck, you know," he complained as he followed the huntress back outside. When they reached fresh air, he grabbed her arm to stop her. "Hey, um...thanks, I owe you one."
"How about you teach me some knife tricks and we'll call it even?" Frea offered.
A wide grin spread across Cayde's features. "I think you're better with blades than me. How about sniper lessons?"
She lightly socked him in the arm. "That was low."
"Payback for that damsel comment earlier," he laughed.
A glint in the distance caught Frea's eye and she glanced past the Exo. The red dotted sight of a wire rifle was peeking out from the wreckage of the Exodus Black. It took half a second for her mind to register what it was and that it was trained directly on the back of Cayde's hooded head, her heart dropped.
"Look out!" She yelled and tackled him to the ground.
The roar of a gunshot bounced off the water. Searing hot pain erupted in Frea's chest as the all too familiar crushing darkness consumed her.