My Buddy and Me
Old Austin, North American Empire. Many years before the Destiny campaign.
Sarai, Caelan-5, and Kado, three Guardians from Fireteam Beirchart, cautiously made their way through the remains of the once-great city. The other members of the Fireteam monitored them from afar, watching for any signs of incoming enemy craft. So far, they had not seen any signs of Fallen in the area, but they knew that could always change in a moment. The three of them were on edge as they crept down the ancient street, moving between buildings and the rusted hulks of cars and trucks.
Suddenly, a blip on the motion tracker.
Sarai, as the senior Guardian of the three and second-in-command for the Fireteam, directed the strike force. The Awoken Hunter directed the other two to follow her as they cut east, moving toward the motion. They were searching for a scout that had gone missing nearby. There had been no word in too long and the Guardian was assumed dead, but his Ghost had valuable information that needed to be retrieved.
"Update," the voice of Donvan, the leader of the Fireteam, crackled through the comms.
"We picked up something to the east. Moving to investigate," Sarai replied.
"Acknowledged," came the reply. "Comms are a little scratchy. Not sure if it is environmental interference, or if someone is attempting to jam us."
"Yes, I noticed that as well," the Hunter said, then, "Caelan, keep on eye on that. I don't want any surprises."
"I'm on it," the Exo Titan responded.
The team stopped moving and Caelan-5 crouched down behind a car. The Titan removed the pack from his back and pulled out two small objects. He pressed a button, and the two orbs unfolded, revealing themselves to be two small drones. He held out his hand, and they lifted off, maneuvering close to two large buildings for cover and then flying straight up the sides of them.
The Titan was a bit of a techie. After one too many encounters with Fallen, he had decided if they had flying weapons to help them out, he should too. He spent most of his downtime tinkering with machines and developing small drones with different functions. His Ghost was only jealous of them some of the times.
"Comm drones are up," he said. "We'll see if that helps with the signal issues."
The blips on the motion tracker began moving away from the band of Guardians at a slow pace. Whoever they were, it seemed unlikely they had stumbled across the lost scout, or there might have been more of a flurry of activity. Still, best not to waste time.
Sarai got the team moving quicker, sacrificing a bit of their stealth. Once they closed on their quarry, they moved with more caution. They soon discovered they had been following Fallen. Three Dregs, to be exact. They seemed to be searching with no urgency, likely scavenging in general rather than searching for the missing Guardian. A few quick hand signals from Sarai and the team jumped into action, taking down the Dregs before they even knew they were there.
Certain there were no other Fallen in the immediate area, the Guardians checked the bodies to make sure they did not have the Ghost. As expected, they had nothing. Kado pulled up the last sensor map of the area, trying to pinpoint their position in relation to the last known position of the missing scout.
"Heeeeeellooooooo!"
The cry rang out unexpectedly from behind. The Guardians looked at each other in confusion before turning one by one to see the source of the sound. This far into Fallen controlled territory, they had not expected to find anyone alive. They definitely were not expecting a jaunty greeting.
A lone figure stood on the collapsed remains of an old building. From the cloak hanging from the person's shoulders, they surmised that it must be a Hunter. Whoever it was, they were waving their hand wildly over their head. The arm dropped, and the figure hopped from the rubble, began skipping toward the Fireteam.
"I'm not the only one seeing this, right?" Kado asked, watching the figure approach.
"No, I see it too," Caelan replied, clearly confused.
Sarai stepped between the two of them and raised her weapon, shouting at the stranger, "Stop right there!"
"Hey, hey, no need for that," the stranger replied jovially. The voice gave him away as male, and lacked the synthetic tone of an Exo.
He raised his hands in the air and stopped skipping, but he continued coming forward with a little bounce in his step. Closer now, it was clear that he was, in fact, dressed like a Hunter.
"Who are you?" Sarai asked, straight to the point.
"Me?" he resplied. "Just a guy out here enjoying life with his buddy."
"You hear that?" Sarai directed to the other members of her squad. "Keep your eyes peeled."
"But you can call me Farren," he continued. "And I have to say, that was excellent work you did with the Fallen there. Just superb."
"Farren?" Kado spoke, puzzled. "Isn't that the guy we were here to find?"
"Farren?" Sarai asked the man. "Scout for Andal Brask?"
"Hey, yeah, that's me!" Farren replied enthusiastically. "Did he send you guys out here to look for me? Man, Andal's the best. Just the best."
"You were on a mission for him and went missing," Sarai continued, instincts screaming at her that something here was not right. "What happened? Where did you go?"
"Mission?" the man's bright demeanor suddenly dropped for a moment, and he began speaking furtively to himself. "Mission? No. No, that was... that didn't... We don't like to think about that."
The strange Hunter put his hand against his helmet as if he was suffering from a headache. He stood that way for a few seconds, then visibly relaxed. When he spoke next, his voice had regained its chipper tone.
"Mission. Right. Yeah, I did that. My Ghost can tell you about that."
Farren held out his hand and his Ghost materialized. It cast its eye around like it was worried about what might be nearby, then flitted over to the team. Kado's Ghost appeared, and the two remnants of the Traveler communed to share information. Farren's Ghost glanced around nervously again, then dematerialized. Farren turned his head to watch the exchange, and Sarai gasped.
"Look at his face," she said to the other Guardians over the private line. "What in the Traveler's name is that?"
Something clung to the other Hunter's helmet. It was a red and black pulsing mass of some sort that extended just past the edge of his hood. A small portion could be seen on the other side as well now that they were looking, giving the impression that whatever it was wrapped completely around the Hunter's head. Farren seemed to noticed the change in their demeanor.
"Is something wrong?"
"Do you realize you have something on your helmet?" Kado asked, earning a sharp glance from Sarai. So much for subtlety.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, that's my buddy."
"Your buddy?" Caelan inquired skeptically.
"Yeah. They gave him to me. They told me that he would eat my thoughts and leave me full of Light."
"They?" Sarai this time.
"Yeah. Well, there was only one guy, but he said they sent him. He was super weird, but he gave me my buddy, so I like that guy."
"We need to get you back to the Tower," Sarai stated, holding out a hand. "Andal is worried, and we should get someone to take a look at that... whatever it is."
"No! They'll hurt him. I can't let that happen!" Farren recoiled from them, placing his hand against his head again. "We are perfectly happy out here."
"Trouble," Caelen called out suddenly. "Check your HUDs. We've been so busy talking to this guy we missed company approaching."
The others saw then what the Titan meant. A large number of red dots had appeared on an approach vector. They turned and saw the first Fallen appear. The alien let out a cry, and more came into view.
"Get to cover!" Sarai shouted.
The team sprang into action, Kado sprinting to the corner of a building while Caelan ducked behind a car. Sarai slipped behind some rubble, poking out to open fire at the Fallen. Farren stood in the middle of the street, watching the flurry of activity. There were eight Fallen in all, Dregs and Vandals. Weapons fired back and forth, with the team managing to take out four of them. Caelan cursed as a shot from a wire rifle clipped his arm. Suddenly, Farren stepped forward.
A gun made of Solar Light suddenly appeared in his hand. He took aim with his Golden Gun once. Twice. Three times. Each shot dropped an alien, but the remaining Vandal had the Hunter in his sights. Farren made no move to make himself less of a target, so Sarai moved to force him to the ground when he fired a fourth time. The other Hunter stopped, stunned. How had he done that?
Farren reached up, not as if in pain this time, but instead to stroke the thing attached to his face. Sarai tore her eyes away and looked to her team to see that Kado and Caelan were both staring at him as well. No one had ever managed more than three shots from a Golden Gun.
"How did you do that?" Sarai asked, finally.
"My buddy," Farren replied happily. "Like they said, he makes me full of Light. Well, this was fun, but I think we're going to go. Tell Andal I said, 'Hi.'"
The Hunter began casually strolling away from the group, whistling a jaunty tune. The three of them watched him go, dumbfounded.
"Do we stop him?" Caelan asked finally.
"No," Sarai replied. "We should just head back. We got the data, and I don't know if we could force him to go back even if we wanted to."
"What do we tell Andal?" Kado asked.
"We tell him the truth," Sarai said with a shrug. "Whether he believes it or not is up to him."
…
AN
Breaking the no Exotics rule again. Guess it's really more of a suggestion. This game from a discussion I following along with on Discord where they were discussing Hunter Exotics and the Achlyophage Symbiote came up. Achlyophage is "dark eater". The flavor text on the helm reads, "They told me it would eat my thoughts and leave me full of Light." Well. Dark eater. Eats thoughts. Some people took that down the "Guardians/Traveler are evil", as it's feeding on us so we're full of darkness. Me, I took it as "eats all your dark thoughts". Thus, this.
And, once again, we feature a Hunter.
Uryurvkos – I know I addressed this to you in a PM, but in case others have a similar thought... from what I can tell, the chronology is: Rezzyl Azzir goes to the moon, the Hive launch an attack on the Earth that is known as The Battle of Burning Lake, which then prompts the assault that becomes the Great Disaster. As Destiny lore is somewhat vague, I would not spend much time arguing with someone who sees it differently, however, as it is open to interpretation and I am no loremaster.
Order and Chaos – Qui Iudicant – They probably should have. I'll admit to not having done my due diligence on reading each of Rezzyl's cards before writing that.
Jayfeattheris Awesome – Here it is again. Sparkle, sparkle.
Daydreamer B.A – It isn't out of the question for kids to develop some sort of "crush" on adult authority figures, even if they don't really understand the romantic implications of that kind of term. I have no interest in taking anything in that direction, however, so fear not. I might have answered about the Hunters in a PM, but for the benefit of anyone else wondering, basically it comes down to not being wowed by their supers and a double jump is too common in games where Glide and Lift are a little more unique. Even if Princess Peach did beat the Warlocks to gliding by a couple decades. Nighstalker changed that a bit, as the Dusk Bow is interesting.
Thanks to PrimesGirl93 for the story follow.
I have a few different ideas for another entry, but am having a little trouble focusing, so I'll toss it up here. What would my readers prefer to see: more Celeste/Astrid or more Eris/Eriana?