As always thanks to those who read and comment and big thanks to my beta - couldn't do it without you! (well okay, I could but... ya know.)
Don't forget tp check on my Tumbler Featherfang . tumber for sneak peeks, inside looks at things and my own crazy thought processes.
Enjoy the chapter!
Entry Log 124 - 00:34:21
The camera flickers on to the sounds of the ship bay once more with Cayde in view as he leans against a table. He's fiddling with a screwdriver as he watches Amanda work on a jump ship that's banged up as hell from a recent trip to the Dreadnaught, but it's still fixable.
"So what happened exactly?" he asks, eyeing the dents and scraped off paint. "They play ping pong with the ring debris?"
"From what their Ghost said? Yeah, basically." The mechanic's voice is muffled from her place under the ship, the sounds of tinkering distorting the words even more. "Apparently sneezing fits aren't good for tight flight patterns."
"Wouldn't know," he replied snickering. An upside of not having a nose or sensors that dealt with sinus aggravation. He tosses the screwdriver in the air, watching it do a few flips before catching it with ease. After a few more minutes pass on the timer the blond wheels her way back out from under the ship, a few new dark smugs decorating her face. She doesn't stand, instead opts for sitting on the bench, feet planted on either side.
"So how you holding up?" she asks, sounding mostly genuine with just a hint of teasing. The Exo blinks at her, confusion shifting faceplates.
"How am I..." he repeats before suddenly stopping and apparently understanding because he scowls at her, annoyed. "I am perfectly capable of keeping myself busy and 'together' when she's not here."
Amanda just grins and slides the bench back and forth a few inches with her feet. "I know. I'm just teasing, not like it's a new thing for the two of you."
"I do miss her," Cayde admits with a huff, spinning the tool between both hands now. "But we both have jobs to do, we knew that from the start."
"True enough."
The screen flickers for a moment as Sundance blinks and then her voice is heard in crisp quality with it so close to the mic. "Cayde, we should get going or else you'll be late for your shift." Her reminder has the Exo sighing, but he doesn't complain and sets the screwdriver down on the table.
"Right. I'll catch you later then Amanda."
The blond raised her brows, clearly surprised by his lack of protest and quickly made plans to help him stay away longer. Still, she doesn't comment, instead nodding her head and raising a hand in a way before driving back under the ship as he departs.
The trek back to the Vanguard room is quiet, but something appears to be in motion as he clambers down the steps. The room had been darkened as it often is during missions that directly involve them. The eerie green glow in the room announces Eris' involvement before the feed even shifts it's view to her. All of them are gathered around the table and Cayde slows his pace as he gets closer. Ikora and Zavala share a glance, surprised to see him there perhaps, but something in the set of the human's mouth tells something more.
"What, you guys having a party without me?" he teases, trying to break some of the tension in the room. He lays his hands down on the top of the stacked sheets of map layouts. "So what's going on?" his question is left hanging for a moment before Ikora answers him.
"One of my Hidden is infiltrating The Temple of Crota right now. There's something there that Eris believes will help us get to Oryx," her explanation is clear, vague, but clear. It's a normal response for things having to do with her personal group of spies. Though normally Zavala isn't involved.
"Ah, okay. Good. About time we took that eyesore out."
Still the tension doesn't really leave the air and it doesn't take a mind reader to know what the Exo is still thinking. Why wasn't he informed? No one says anything and all the while Eris caresses her energy ball like it's a cat and hums low in her throat.
There's crackling on the open ended com suddenly and all the eyes in the room turn to it. Boots crunching on loose rocks or maybe Hive gunk and the sound of a gun being reloaded. Then a voice.
"Nest, I've reached the center room. Eris was right, there's something going on here." It's the voice, her voice that had Cayde choking on non existent spit and breath, words train wrecking before they can form. Skylar. "There's an ascended ogre… few knights." She takes a deep breath that sounds raspy over the coms. "This could take me a minute." Sarcasm. It's almost like Crota never happened and she's back to that witty, nearly carefree self. But Crota did happen and her tone falters at the end, losing strength and gaining the slightest quiver.
The tremor along the Exo's body is visible on the screen and it's clear Cayde doesn't really realise he's shaking until the feed zooms in and Sundance chirps at him, making him flinch. Both of his team members give him grave expressions and suddenly it's all too clear what had happened. The Warlock is the one to move, to reach out a hand and open the line on their side to speak to her agent.
"We hear you Falcon, contact us once the enemies are gone for further instructions." Her voice is even despite the frown on her face, and Ikora quickly takes her finger off the button before Cayde can find words again.
"Roger," Skylar agrees and then there's static and gun fire abruptly as she dives into the fray like the bird of prey her sign is. The sounds and the stadic seem to peel into background noise. The entire room is waiting for Cayde to say something except for maybe Eris who just surveys the scene in front of her much like Sundance with her camera. Cayde's hands curl on the table and he lets out a very tightly control breath.
"You sent Skylar to the moon. To one of the deepest parts of Hive controlled territory, and didn't think to tell me?" The accusation should be directed towards Ikora who is Skylar's leader for The Hidden, but somehow his tone sets the words up to be thrown at both of his teammates. Zavala, after all, seemed to know about it as well. Still, the Exo's eyes do fall on the dark skinned woman. "Is this what Sky couldn't tell me about?" The near flinch the warlock gives in reply seems to be enough for Cayde and he scowls, jaw hinges strained by the severity of the angle. "I thought we agreed to keep her out of this war?"
"We did," Ikora agrees smoothly, face placid, unreadable in its firmness. "I fully agreed with you, as did Zavala, but-"
"The Phantom is a chosen survivor of Crota," Eris cuts in suddenly, a rant starting up without any prompting needed and the screen feed focuses on her as Cayde shifts his eyes to the fallen hunter. "It is her fireteam alone that can become an ascendant and pass through the gates to Oryx. Only they can do it."
Cayde scowls at the fallen guardian, looking ready to start throwing around colorful words but Zavala clears his throat gaining his attention and the camera's. "We were talking about it a few days ago when Skylar came into report and Eris said that. We of course told her she needn't do so but for some reason she took the assignment. She insisted that she wanted to help."
"She asked us not to tell you, that she would handle it on her return," Ikora went on. "We agreed that it might be for the best, that you might stop her."
"Of course I would stop her!" the Exo snaps, slamming his hands on the table. "It's too soon, she shouldn't be on the front lines, especially when it's the Hive. What if this makes things worse? Wh-" He interrupted but a rather loud shutter of static through the coms and that draws all of their attention from the lowly rising argument.
"Come in Nest? Something's going on, I think the ascended ogre was just taken… I don't understand." More static muffles her worried voice and Eris shivers off to the side of the picture.
"Not even Oryx can completely control such a creature with just words. He often will cast his power over his own if he needs too." She takes a step closer to the table, green eyes glowing bright for a moment as screeching comes over the coms.
"Oh Traveler's shit, where are they all coming from? This feels a lot like the first time I met these guys." The sounds of cutting, gun fire and the unmistakable crackle of Arc energy. She's using Arc Blade. "There's too many!"
"You must run!" Eris commands, shocking the three Vanguard leaders. "Grab the conduit and run Phantom, fly!"
"Don't have to ask me twice," Skylar murmurs and then she must be running because the screeching of the Hive gets louder and then softer as she passes them. From the sounds they are making and the cursing she is doing, it seems she's being chased. "There's a bloody army of them -" the choking of her words suddenly cut off. Zavala frowns and starts tapping on his tablet. "Nes-st. C-me i-van-" the signal is tapering off and whatever anger is on Cayde's face contorts to worry and panic.
"What the hell is going on?" he snaps, looking at the titan who shakes his head, still tapping at his pad.
"Something is interfering with Ghost communication. Falcon, come in! Can you read us?" He gets an unintelligible sequence of sounds and static in reply. Eris clutches tighter at her orb, a frown planted on her face.
"We are going to lose her just like Eriana!" she mourns and the Exo tenses at that, jerking his head to look at her. Fear flashes over his features and stays there, the golden light at his throat flickering.
"Take that back right now you witch!"
"Cayde calm down!" Zavala snaps and is followed up by another wave of static and unrecognizable sounds that suddenly cuts off again and then goes silent. Nothing. The tension in the room is suffocating and no one seems to want to move. They're all waiting for something, anything to dispel it all. Cayde's hands clench on the table tighter, the leather of his gloves squeaking. Five minutes tick by on the timer. Nothing but a deafening quiet. The Exo shakes his head and lets it hang lower than before, eyes on the table for a few moments before they close. He's thinking the worst, letting fears win out.
It's Tevis all over again.
Both of his teammates share a worried and pained look. It's their fault and they know it. Slowly, Ikora moves to be at the Exo's side and reaches a hand out. "Cayde..."
Statics shutters over the com violently and then softens, clearing.
"Vanguard? Can you read me?" It's Sterling, Skylar's Ghost. Everyone freezes a moment before Zavala quickly opened the channel, hitting the button a bit too hard.
"We read you, what happened? Where is your guardian?"
"Right here… Just a bit winded… woohoo, haven't run like that in a while. I have the conduit." She's panting, something a bit uncommon for any guardian due to how physically fit they are. It's a sign of stress and probably over extending herself, but that may have very well been the only way to get out. "I'm heading back now." Some of the tension leaves Cayde's shoulders and his hands uncurl slightly on the table. She's alive and that's what is important, but he's still upset.
"Good work, Agent Falcon," Ikora states, getting back to business, her eyes flickering to the Exo. He just frowns at her, irritated and twitchy. He looks like he wants to butt in but for some reason doesn't and Ikora waves at Zavala to cut the coms, which he does. She steps back as the Hunter pushes away from the table, the lights in the room slowly flickering back to normal. Eris is still there, watching silently with her three eyes.
"I know you're upset," Zavala states evenly, and Cayde gives him a look that only translate as 'no really?'. "But I believe we've spoken about keeping things professional. Whether you like it or not, Skylar is still one of our best and we don't simply give her special treatment because of who she is to you. You know that."
"Tch," The hinges of Cayde's jaw snap shut and he shakes his head. He knows that, of course he does. Doesn't mean he likes it or wants to put up with it. Slowly he turns to the Vanguard commander and crosses his arms over his chest. "If that's true, I'd expect you not to single me out of important missions, no matter who are on them. Deal?" Even in tone but the edges are so sharp they could cut. The awoken let's out a deep sigh, understanding flickering across his face.
"You are right Cayde. It won't happen again."
"Good," the Exo grumbles and then turns on his heels. "Now if you'll both excuse me, I need to go shoot something. You tell Skylar to come find me once she gets back." He doesn't even wait for a reply just, stocks out of the room and up the stairs. No one even tries to stop him, he won't do much good on duty with his current mood. Even Sundance seems to know better than to chastise him, the hurt in his features becoming all too clear. Instead she just hovers closer to him and lets the video feed fade out.
Ah drama... can't get enough of it...
Let me know what you think!
