The front screen of the ship pulled up a digital map of the mission grounds. There was my name on the side, shortened to a common moniker among the guardians:

'AR / OPERATING GUARDIAN 01 / INSERTION POINT '

My full first name was kinda weird to say, so everyone shortens it to Ar, or something like that. Everyone except postmasters, for some reason. Even the queen of the awoken once said it, but after that, she just gave me another nickname, reason apparently being "more suitable for a retainer such as yourself".

She wasn't wrong, though. I did follow M'lady's orders when she gave them, obviously only after the reef was opened to the guardians.

I was actually one of the few guardians allowed to freely seek an audience with the queen without disturbance from her soldiers.

I'd rather that she like me, rather than not like me. Who know's what she can do, right?

Mara had a pretty face, though. Hehe...

Don't judge me, I know you took a second to snap out of it when you first saw her.

Under my identification, the line extended into a secluded square on the map, where I would first enter. The screen of the ship went dark, leaving only the lights on the control console alive, and was filled only by a big circle. Together with that, a holographic display appeared from a light projectors on the sides of the pilot's space, it settled right it the middle of the room, it read:

'ACTIVATION_STATUS: STAND_BY'

I knew what it meant, I'd done this before, you know. Through the helm, came the answer.

"Op: Infiltration number: zero-four." The middle of the light panel began to fill with green.

"Start." Finally, the panel in front remodeled it's display to show a cartoon-ish, blue-sleeved (only a little of the sleeve) hand in the grandfather of friendly gestures.

Four fingers curled inwards, and a thumb stuck out towards the top.

Yes, the 'thumbs up' was a staple for many meanings. Ready, great, affirmative. It was incredibly famous for it's simple use.

Anywho, behind the hand, the screen became a dark green. It was the last thing I saw in the ship, before I was finally taken into the beginning stages of the mission.


In a bathroom of a building, there was a strange occurrence. The rest room was filled with a dark smoke, and a shining, blue light. Only a moment or so later, and the light was gone, the smoke seemingly phased from existence, leaving a person behind.

...

Here I am! The ship had warped me into the complex successfully, my cool boots were on the floor, and my tools ready for operations!

I was transported a little above the tiles though, not by much, but enough to give me a fright when the room started to shift upwards.

Like I said, my time outside the tower was filled with waiting, all the action went to the kid guardians.

We've sure come a long way, since I had first met Cup, known back then as a generic ghost, or as 'basic boi'.

Well, back to the op:

I felt around my legs, gotta check if your weapons came with, you know?

Right side...

There it is: A weapon type mostly underused by most guardians, but perfect for this kind of engagement.

I knew that 'primary weapons' were automatically synced to appear on your back when you transmat in to somewhere, so I reached beside my head.

The handle of the silenced scout rifle brushed against my hand, confirmed success of transport. Cool.

The machine gun was there, somewhere...

Whatever, I know how to take it out. But it's really not like I'll be using it, since this is kind of a stealth mission, and...well, a machine gun with a suppressor attachment is still in development.

Sooo...

At least they haven't tried putting one a rocket launcher! I was twitching with mirth for a week after I thought of that, a long time ago.

Imagine one on any of the launchers you've seen! I'm sure having a large protrusion where it shouldn't be would make someone giggle.

It's just not meant to be on missile launcher!

With the completion of weapons check, I brought my left hand out, and he appeared from a white shimmer of pixels, looking around the insertion point.

"We're here, good. I was a little worried, it's been a while since we've done a transmat like that."

Yeah, I know what you're thinking:

'But we've started some missions underground! Fool!'

Well, places like those have been thoroughly marked and tagged by the vanguard as 'mission entry points' .

The more you know, right? I answered the ghost, working towards a question.

"Yeah, not since...that once mission...You have it, right? The " I knew that at some point, I was sent on a mission and had started under the surface, I honestly can't remember where. So, asked him about something we might need for this current mission.

"We were investigating the Nexus mind 'Sekrion', the one where he came right from the ceiling and we had to leave in a panic? And yeah, I got what you need, installing now..."

That was it! Us two started the scouting mission, then extracted in a panic when all those minotaurs came at us! That was the one.

Anywho, don't worry about the 'mission item', we'll get to that in a bit.

I took the silenced sidearm from my right leg, and held the weapon with two hands, ready to get on with the hard part. I took a look at the radar, currently, there was nothing going on outside, no action, no person.

Suddenly, the radar duplicated itself, together with the circular module, a flat, top-down image of the immediate area took a space right beside it, appearing as blue lines. It mapped the area, but only up to five meters, which, in a mission like this, is more than what you'd think. Some experience from a hunter.

You better well take it, us hunters like to keep the tricks to ourselves. Because, only we can turn the most boring of patrol missions into a theatre of action.

Kids see warlock bond, they get discomforted.

They see a titan's mark, likely they'll get amazed at their ability to punch a hole in a three-inch wall of concrete. But even that gets old.

It's really only when they see a hunter with a cloak that's been a little roughed up, they know. They know that hunter's been in the wilds recently, and so they bring their friends, and start prodding at us for 'Stories on the Frontier'.

Well, until the vanguard calls us back at the very climax of the retelling of a fight between a troublesome hive party, and an ammo-less hunter who'd been ambushed.

"But please, Mister Hunter, tell us more! What happened next? Did you beat them? What happened to your ghost? Is he alright?"

Hunter's are best with little kids. Just ask Cayde-6 about it.

Some shapes appeared on the helmet, and I waited for it to buffer. Only a second or two, then fully readable.

Good. Beneath the radars, a rectangle formed, with a line that sat right in the middle, shaking slightly, like the ones you would see on a heartbeat sensor, except everything was refined; took up less space, the panel itself only showed the essentials, so that if anyone came from the left side, I'd still be able to see them.

This display showed relevant external sounds like speech, or something, ignored things like a cat having a meow, and checked with the other installments to confirm the data.

And, since we were on a stealth mission, communication between Cup and I had been limited to 'helmet', meaning that whatever I say could only be heard by myself, him and anyone the line is being fed to.

'But why don't you just leave it on all the time? Its not like-'

Let's just get on with this, ok, friends?

"-And it's complete." The ghost began to list off some things; "perceptual abilities enhanced, you can turn invisible, and..." Cup took a spin around me to check something. "You've got you're guns, great."

"Alright, lets move out." I stepped to the door with the square sign for ' men's ' on it, taking a looming glance at the radars, I trusted that there's no one outside. So taking a hand from the grip, I quickly pushed the door open.

Actually, if there was anyone hostile near the point of mission entry, I'd have been notified by either the Aspect or Cup.

Oh well, mission integrity was mostly unaffected, and I was still undetected, for the time being. Slowly, I walked down the silent hallway, and eventually, a perceptual panel blinked orange, meaning that we're getting close to a person. If they were in here, likely that they're part of the heist.

Quickly, I brought the silenced weapon up, so that the holo-sights had aligned with my sniper's eye. I looked at the circular radar again.

Red.

I stopped, and checked the noise box for anything. No bursts of activity. No sounds real-time.

It's orange now.

Oh, good. It's moving away. I kept the sidearm in place, because paranoid guardian is paranoid. Couple of seconds for confirmation and I proceed towards the very edge of cover, the point where the hallway turned to the left. Now, I crouched.

I became a transparent, shimmering body that distorted light.

Don't give me that look, you would do it as well. Besides, a stealth ability for a stealth mission? Now that's great. If the kids ask, I'll just say there was no opontne here.

My head went past the turn, and I saw a figure in black disappear into another corridor. Another look at my monitors, I was clear to proceed. But not yet.

The blue symbol of a ghost's transmission appeared at the top right of my visor.

"Ar, I've found a room with a whole heap of people with the sonar, hostages and wardens. I'll keep you informed on where to go to reach them. There are cameras here as well, I'll warn you when you're getting near one." I hummed in response to him, feeling better now that I'm more likely to go unnoticed thanks to good old Cup, paying close attention to the perceptual feed.

"One up ahead, easy, wait for it to turn." I was a patient one, but where I could save time, I would put in some effort, especially when there are human hostages who need the saving.

I guess old habits stay with you.


Here is an update for you people who read this.

How does it go for you?