Note: This chapter is out of order from what happens after Spectre meets Reaper, since we just jumped into the Grudge Match instead of seeing Spectre converse with the Vanguard and Eris about the Taken. Also, kudos to Destinyhead123 for reminding me to cover what was missing and why this fanfic is set after "The Coming War". Well, here's a more just reason: I'm trying my best to make an adaption of The Taken King, with some added parts to make it enjoyable from a fanfiction perspective.
The Crimson Commando, if you're reading this, then please note that I included one of your OCs in this chapter, seeing as I have no one else to consider a guest here. Please don't think I stole from you.
Enjoy.
Chapter III: Enter the Taken
The Tower, Hall of Guardians
"My contacts near Saturn say the weapon only fired once."
"It's not like the Queen to attack a superior force."
The Vanguards looked over at the projection of the Dreadnaught that Fireteam Nero Bianco recovered from Phobos, discussing how to deal with this new threat to the Solar System. The room darkened to enhance the details of the Cabal hologram, and the appearance of the Hive ship brought a menacing ambience to the hall, even if it wasn't the real deal. When they saw the Hive Tombships during their times before they were roped into their positions today, they were just the same as the new Guardians. Now, this new Hive ship sent chills down their spine.
"Now could she have known? How could anyone?" Ikora added, standing on her side of the table while Cayde and Zavala stood on the opposite side. Soon enough, the Vanguards heard the sounds of armored boots and turned towards the entrance. Spectre, with Primus hovering over his shoulder, came walking towards the three, stopping at the far end of the table and saluting his Vanguard.
"Sir."
"Spectre, it's good to see you alive." Zavala dismissed Spectre from his salute, a faint smile on his stern face to know his 'second-in-command' made it out of Phobos with his team.
"Hey, look who's back!" Cayde crossed his arms.
"Here, I trust you may remove your helmet. You are an honorary member of our vanguard since you represent and lead your own vanguard." Ikora requested, seeing as a ground rule for the vanguards here in the Hall are required to remove their helmets.
Nodding, the Vanguard representing both the Ancient Vanguard and their leader reached for the side of his helmet and tapped the lock. Streams of air hissed out the sides of the Duskrender helmet, followed by some clicking that loosened the helmet's grip on Spectre's head. Spectre put his hands on the front and back of his Type 0 helmet, fingers in the spaces between his neck and helmet and pried both sides open gently, allowing him to let him take it off.
The Vanguards watched as strands of dirty blonde hair tumbled out of the helmet, followed by a youthful face of someone in their early twenties. However, it was ruined by a faint scar running from his right cheek to the corner of his lip, resembling one half of a Cheshire grin. The result of a Fallen blade piercing through his helmet's visor early in his career as a Guardian. His right eye was covered by the strands of hair that tumbled out and found their way back to place, as the free eye revealed steel blue-gray eyes. The Vanguard for the Ancient Vanguard set his Duskrender helmet down on the table.
"Spectre, during your encounter on Phobos, were you able to acquire information on these 'Taken'?" Zavala inquired.
"We did, Zavala. So far, based on what we saw and found, the Cabal's numbers were dwindling while the Taken's were rising at a rapid rate." Primus clicked and whirred, his shell opening as he spoke. "Skyburners, Dust Burners, and the Blind Legion were losing about half of their troops to the Taken."
"But it's not just Cabal. I saw Hive in the mix: Acolytes, Knights, even Wizards and Thrall. Oddest thing about the Centurions and Wizards were their shields, they're Arc and Void damage now."
Taking in the information from both Spectre and Primus, the Warlock Vanguard turned to Zavala. "We need a Warlock inside the Dreadnaught."
Cayde rolled his artificial eyes, knowing exactly what's coming. "Here we go…" He glanced over at Spectre and smiled, seeing as the leader of the Ancient Vanguard simply face palmed with the same notion that Cayde had. Even though Cayde was a Hunter and Spectre was a Titan, they both hated the fact that when the Human female and Awoken male start to argue, they wish they weren't in the Hall.
"Our first priority must be to protect the City. Spectre and his team got a good look at Phobos. Whatever it was, it turned Cabal against Cabal, wiped their base out in minutes. How long would we last?" Zavala argued, jabbing a finger on the table as Ikora turned her back on him, thinking about the situation.
"Until we understand what we're dealing with—"
"As much as we're both trying to find out what the hell we're dealing with and defending the City are high priority, maybe we should all consider—" Spectre counter-objected.
The four heard a sound from the entrance to the Hall and watched a green orb race across the table and into the Cabal projector, removing both the Dreadnaught's hologram and the red glow and replacing the room with a sinister green glow. They turned their heads and found Eris Morn standing hunched over next to the steps, hands still in their 'orb-holding' position. Never before had they allowed Eris in the Hall of Guardians, despite her involvement in the slaying of Crota. Now, something during the mission on Phobos brought her in here.
"They are Taken."
"Not another 'vague oracle' monologue again." Spectre muttered, earning a Hive-like death glare from the corrupted Awoken. "…I take that back."
"Eris… Get your rock off my map."
"It hasn't spoken since Crota fell," the sole survivor of an attack on Crota started, hand extended towards the Hive shard as though it was sacred. "It speaks now because Oryx is here. Come to fulfill the final covenant of his son."
"Oh great. Just what I needed. Another Crota to fight."
"But, why fight the Cabal?"
Eris turned towards the Warlock Vanguard. "Not fighting. Taking. Controlling their will." The green glow from the shard was removed, and Eris turned to see Cayde remove the orb from the projector, allowing the Dreadnaught and red glow to return. To both the humans and Awoken in the room, the only Exo was remotely unfazed by Eris's three-eyed gaze.
"So we focus on his army, kill these Taken until he's all that's left." Zavala suggested as the Hunter Vanguard began to inspect the shard Eris threw into the hologram.
"Whatever you kill, Oryx will replace."
"And I assume this isn't just talking about the Taken Psions duplicating themselves." Spectre deadpanned.
"The Dreadnaught, then. How do we get past that weapon?"
"Without ending up like the Awoken." Zavala included, and the five fell to silence. Spectre crossed his arms and tapped his armored boot against the floor, thinking of possible ways to get through.
As soon as the entire room fell to silence, Cayde looked up. "I gotta go…see about a ship." He tossed the orb-encased shard at Eris like a tennis ball before walking away from the table, and she caught it before it actually hit her hand.
"Cayde, our discussion has not yet concluded."
"Oh, I know. That's why I'm leaving." And just like that, he left the Hall, leaving his fellow Vanguards and Eris behind to ponder on the situation.
Spectre, on the other hand, was analyzing the intel Primus acquired during his fireteam's mission. Even if the Cabal was his enemy, they didn't deserve what fate befell most of them. Dammit, I need Silver to help out on these things. Analysis on biological matter like that goo in the base isn't my strong type. Wish I brought a sample for him to analyze, but who knows what it can do to Guardians… Compared to the enemies he's faced before, the Taken has to be hell now, especially with the Taken Phalanxs.
"Primus, what do you think that goo is; membrane or symbiote?"
"Spectre, I'll be quite honest with you, it appeared to be both. While it isn't as sentient as you or I, but it's like a mindless drone sent to take whatever it can to Oryx. I mean, look at the Taken: all they did was go after you mindlessly shooting. No form of intelligence left on the host. I don't know about you, but I feel that the goo is part membrane, part symbiote, and part parasite."
"Think we should bring Silver to study what we discovered? Without having him actually look at the stuff?"
"Let's hope he didn't sneak in a sample of that goo while we weren't looking." Spectre stopped looking at the data and looked at his Ghost. "…Did I say something?"
"…Shit." He grabbed Duskrender from the table and slapped it on, closing both front and back to secure it to his neck armor. He ran out the Hall and for the quarters, confusing the Vanguards and Eris.
Spectre's POV
Dammit Silver, what were you thinking?! I know you're a Warlock and all, but are you this stupid?! Especially with a threat we don't even know about?! As I sprinted back to my fireteam's quarters, running past some Guardians and knocking some out of my way (unintentionally, of course), my mind was running on what would happen if that stuff corrupted Silver. My heart raced with fear, and I don't want him to suffer the same as the Cabal did. He's a vital part of the team!
I reached our quarters and started pounding my fist on the door. "Silver?! Silver!" I called out, hoping I wasn't too late.
Nothing. I reached for the knob and started twisting it. Locked. Hey, don't ask me why the doors are much like the Pre-Golden Age ones and not sliding doors. "Silver, open up!" I pounded my fist against the metal door again, this time more violent. "Silver!" when banging on the door didn't work, I started to ram into it, but it had no effect seeing as the metal was really resilient to most impacts.
No response once, you're playing a prank on me.
No response twice, you're starting to piss me off.
No response three times, that's it, time's up. Nope. No more chances. Strike three, you're through. I'm coming in there. I CAN'T TAKE IGNORANCE ANYMORE!
Replacing Sunbreaker with my Striker subclass, I had Primus instantly charge my Storm Fist and instantly I felt the Arc energy envelop my fist. Send me the bill for this next part. At least I'll have an excuse for property damage: 'saving my Fireteam member/best friend from an unknown membrane/symbiote/parasitic goo that he snuck in to study of a threat we know little of'. Yeah, that'll work.
SCRUUUNNNCH!
I buried my Storm Fist into the door, puncturing through the metal like it was a very thin sheet of Plasteel and reaching for the knob on the other side. I tore it off and ripped the door off the hinges, followed by my other hand ripping it in half. I know that Guardians in the hallway would notice what I'm doing, but one of the Guardians living in the quarters on this floor saw what I was doing─and possibly what's going on. It was 20/20 from Fireteam Dragon, an Exo Titan that knows a lot of medical attention.
"Silver!" I saw him lying on the floor, body twitching like the robot he technically is and sparks flying from his chest. Among the Exo on the floor, the quarters was a complete mess. It looked as though he was struggling with some enemy. Or something. I knelt down and began to inspect him, noting a pale-blue substance on his chest armor. Wait, this is…
"What the hell is that stuff?!" I heard the Exo medic point out behind me.
"WHOA!" The substance came to life and jumped onto my visor, blinding me and preventing me from seeing. I clawed at my helmet, but the goo just kept slipping through my gloves. It became even worse when the stuff began to leak into my helmet's visor, forcing me to hit the emergency release on Duskrender. The helmet's locks released and swung the back of the helm up, allowing me to throw my head back and escape from it. Quickly, I closed the helmet and had the helmet's neck region close, erecting a containment sphere around the contaminated helmet and trapping the damned thing in it. Scrambling to my feet, I watched as the sentient goo try to free itself from its containment sphere, but to no avail. My heart races and cold sweat beaded my forehead from the blur of events.
"20, help Silver out!" I barked, and immediately the Exo knelt down to help his fellow machine. Primus appeared from my pack, "Primus, get Zavala on the line and tell him we have a problem!"
"Already on it!" he frantically whirs, sending off an alert to my Vanguard to let him know what's going on. C'mon Silver, don't become Taken on me!
"Spectre, get over here and help me hold him down!" 20/20 calls my attention, and I knelt down across from him. I started to restrain his twitching, using my control cuffs on him to stop him from further movement, "Whatever that stuff was, it tampered with his core functions and combat coding! I'm gonna have to force reboot his core, but I need you to supply enough Arc energy to jumpstart him after the reboot!"
I watched as the Exo started to stabilize the flying sparks from Silver's chest using what I can assume to be Exo repair/'medical' tools, keeping them down as 20/20 opened a plate on his head. Most Exos I've known, 20/20 included, has their reboot button in their chests, but can be rebooted by a device they keep with them. However, Silver was one of the older Exos, and therefore didn't carry the device to remotely reboot. His model dates back about a hundred years after the Golden Age, where Exos' reboot buttons were behind a plate in their heads.
He hit the reboot button, and the blue light that made up Silver's artificial eyes faded out, followed by the voice box's signature glow.
"Spectre, we only got a minute before he shuts down for good, so jumpstart him already!" again, Primus recharged my Storm Fist, my hands practically pulsating with Arc energy. I tightened my hands into a fist, and I was close to using my hands as a makeshift defibrillator until the Exo Titan stopped me. "Are you insane?! That much Arc energy will fry his circuits for good!"
"Then how much should I use?!"
"Three gigavolts of Arc energy! That's how much an Exo model like Silver needs to reboot!" my Ghost began to adjust the amount of Arc energy in my hands into the amount 20/20 said. As soon as that was over, I placed my palms on his chest.
"Clear!" I dispersed the energy, and I heard the faint sound of electricity powering up a machine in my ears. I looked down. No blue glow from eyes or voice box. Silver laid there much like a statue. "C'mon, c'mon!"
I had Primus recharge Storm Fist again, but this time I winced painfully. Never before had I used Primus to help me instantly recharge my melee attacks, and I knew the risk was coming to me. The faster I recharge my melee ability one after the other, the weaker I become.
"Clear!" Instead of repeating the last attempt, I pounded on his chest with the Arc energy just like when I'd use Fist of Havoc. The sound became louder this time, but still no glow or movement. "That's it! I'm raising the energy to three and a half gigavolts!"
"Spectre, you can't! You'll strain yourself!"
"Your Ghost has a point, Spectre. If you're gonna insta-charge for the fourth time, you'll surely wipe out!"
I ignore both 20/20 and Primus's pleas to not let me insta-charge again and I did, charging up for what has to be my last attempt to revive him. My eyesight began to blur, and I felt sluggish. But I have to pull through for Silver's sake. Raising my fists over my head, I pounded on his chest once more. Please work…!
The sound of robotic coughs filled the quarters and I looked down. Silver's blue artificial eyes and voice box glow returned, and he sat up right after the nine and a half gigavolts of Arc shocks. He realized that his reboot's cover was open and closed it himself, followed by clutching his head as though he had an Exo's equivalent of a headache.
"Ugh…what happened?"
"That goo happened, that's what." I pointed towards my contaminated Duskrender helmet for Silver to see. "Because you had to get a sample of that stuff, you owe me a new Duskrender to replace my contaminated one. Helmet or 120 Marks. Your pick."
"Spectre, we need to know what we're up against. We need to have some form of─"
"I don't want to hear it, Silver. Ever heard of 'curiosity killed the cat'?" I asked, and he exhaled through his synthetic nostrils defeatingly. "By the Traveler, you're just like Ikora. Because if I didn't realize that you collected a sample to analyze on your own, you'd already go on a rampage on the Tower and start spreading the Taken membrane to all of us."
"'Taken'?"
"Long story." I looked over to 20/20, who began analyzing his fellow Exo with another Exo gadget. "20, see if you can patch up Silver's combat coding."
"Already got it covered. He can't fight until I patch it up, but he can continue with his normal functions with some synchronization. What are you going to do now, Spectre?"
I had Primus summon one of my spare helmets, a Pandion Type 1 to replace Duskrender and put it on. It doesn't feel as comfortable as Duskrender, but this has to do until Silver gets me another Duskrender or the Legendary Marks to cover it. Because knowing that stuff on Duskrender, it already won't leave and will get me if I put it on. Believe me, I'm watching it settle into my favorite helmet and I swore it 'hissed' at me, claiming it to be its and its alone. That's…creepy.
"I have a Grudge Match to settle."
