Chapter 5

The Vex patrols grew more numerous as we pushed in and the foliage was growing thin, making it harder to avoid them. Slowly creeping past the malevolent machines was beginning to wear on everyone's nerves. Well, three of us, anyway. Celeste almost seemed to be enjoying the cat-and-mouse nature of it. Eventually, the plant coverage disappeared altogether, giving way to a wide open expanse. In the middle of this was the apparent source of the Vex patrols.

A large scale excavation dominated our view, an ugly scar across the landscape. From our vantage point, we could not see how far down it went, but we could see the Vex construct rising out of it, angular forms jutting skyward from the pit. Similar to reports from the Guardians who entered the Vault of Glass, and those who took down the self-proclaimed "Kell of Kells", every so often a piece of machinery hovering near the construct would phase in and out of existence. At each of the cardinal points around the massive excavation, a Cyclops was in place, with other Vex units patrolling near each.

"Any suggestions as to how we are going to get around all of that?" Scott-20 asked. It was a good question.

Initially, it was thought that Cyclops' were just large cannons, essentially mortar emplacements to rain down fire on approaching enemies. The mortar comparison was apt, as they often proved to be a detriment to their own forces up close. A damaged Cyclops was as likely to start blasting nearby Vex as it was an enemy. This seemed rather strange, given the precision shown by the Vex in all other respects. After much study, it was now believed that the Cyclops was primarily a sensor unit of some type, with the weapons abilities a secondary function. That fit with other similar notions about the Vex, such as the theory that Goblins were originally built for construction rather than combat. The Cyclops' sensor capabilities would make it harder to slip around the excavation site undetected than it already would have been, given the lack of cover.

"What if we push right through?" Celeste asked. "I use the smoke and make us invisible, and we just go right through the middle. We could probably jump across those floaty things. If we move fast enough, we might be able to make it through before they even notice we're there."

"'Might' being a key word there," Zillah opined. "If that doesn't work, we find ourselves either next to, or right in the middle of, a Vex compound of unknown intention, filled with unknown numbers of enemy combatants."

"Why not just summon our jumpships?" Scott chimed in. "We could back out of range of the facility, call the ships, and drop in somewhere on the other side."

"The same reason we didn't use them in the first place," Zillah snapped at the other Warlock. She hesitated a moment before continuing in a calmer tone. "We are trying to get past undetected. The Vex would see the ships and know we were coming. The same reason we can't waltz right through the middle of them."

"The only other option would be to try to go around," I said. "Given the size of whatever it is the Vex are doing here, the lack of cover, and the number of Vex nearby, finding a safe way around will take some time with no guarantee we get by undetected."

"How then do you suggest we proceed?" Scott asked.

"Go around," Zillah stated. "It's not like we are on a tight schedule, and it is the only path that doesn't guarantee that we alert every Vex on Venus to our presence here."

"Go through," Celeste stated firmly, staring at the Awoken Warlock. "I know we can do it and the smoke will work. They'll never expect it."

"Meaning you just want to try something stupid," the Warlock snipped back.

I glanced back and forth between the two women, deliberating. While I had no desire to spend the time we would have to creeping around the edge, Celeste's plan was very risky. They turned from each other to face me, and I felt the weight of expectation. Moments like that are the reason I prefer to work alone.

"We should see if there is a way around. If we can avoid detection, then that is what we need to do."

Celeste's shoulders slumped and she stared at me for a moment before turning and quickly marching back the way we had come. Zillah seemed to stand a little taller as she strode past, and Scott fell in behind her. I took in a deep breath, let it out in a long sigh, and then followed.

We backtracked into the forest just enough to where we could keep an eye on the Vex while providing some cover for our movements. Celeste had gone deathly silent, never a good sign. We had not gone far when we ran into a Vex patrol. We tried skirting around them like we had done previously, but ran into another group. There was no way to continue further without losing track of the excavation. We doubled back and tried to go around the other way, finding similar obstacles. Going around was starting to seem less viable by the minute.

"Darkness take the Vex and their thrice-cursed networks," Zillah seethed. I couldn't blame her. Any other foe we could maybe take out one patrol and push through the gap, but with the Vex neural net, they would know much sooner what had happened to any we destroyed.

"Motion," Elgan announced through the internal coms, and I waved for everyone to get down. I dropped into a crouch, pressing myself up against the nearest tree Zillah did the same, Scott went prone, and Celeste went the opposite direction, leaping into a tree and disappearing in the leaves. The cause of Elgan's warning came into view moments later as a Harpy floated past, tentacle-like filaments extended outward, searching. It hesitated for a moment before continuing on silently.

"I fail to envision how we can get past the Vex undetected at this point," Scott commented as he rose, dusting leaves off his garments.

"So do I," I replied. "And if we're going to put them on alert anyway, I'd rather it happened as we're passing through rather than having the entire riled up anthill between us and our destination. We might need to go straight through them."

"Well, well," Celeste said as she dropped down from the tree, "why didn't anything think of an idea like that before? Oh, that's right. I did."

"That's enough of that," I said, "this was our best idea, it didn't work. Moving on."

Backtracking yet again, we returned to the place where we originally spotted the structure. We thought we heard another Harpy near at one point, but never passed close enough for concern. Settling in, we observed the site for a time, trying to discern any pattern to the phasing of the machinery so we could plan a course through. Jumping across platforms that were probably phasing through time already didn't sound like the best idea in the world, I definitely didn't want to be on one when it left.

"It would seem the best approach is along the eastern side initially, a brief pause on the structure itself, then switching to the westward side to continue across," Scott said after studying the pattern. "There is not much time between transitions, so we cannot stay on any platform for more than a few seconds."

"We're going to have to go pretty fast to make this work. You sure you're up to the task, gramps?" Celeste asked me, a sure sign that her anger from earlier had subsided.

"You just worry about your smoke bombs," I replied, "we'll probably need to use another when we're on the building."

"I will," she said to me. Then, addressing everyone, "I could have Whisper tag everyone so we could see each other, but those Cyclops' would probably be able to track whatever I did. Meaning we're going in blind. Everyone is going to have to fend for themselves for the most part. Also, the smoke won't last for us to go one at a time, so… try not to trip over each other."

"Well this just sounds like a foolproof plan," Zillah muttered under her breath.

Ignoring the comment, Celeste activated the smoke bomb, camouflaging us and confusing sensors. Knowing we had a lot of ground to cover and not much time, we emerged from cover in a full sprint, racing to the edge of the excavation. Neither the Cyclops or the Vex near it reacted to our presence. We had nearly timed it perfectly, and only had wait a moment before leaping to the first platform.

I used Lift to carry me across, landing on the first piece of Vex machinery and instantly continuing toward the next. There was a loud clang of metal each time I landed on one, but it never drew a response from the Vex. If I looked very hard, I could make out a shimmer of movement near me from one of the others, but didn't have time to concentrate enough to pick out everyone or even tell who it was. Continuing to press on, I leapt to the third and then the fourth platform. Next was the Vex structure itself. I landed on a ledge that would provide a little cover once the smoke wore off. As I turned to look back the way I came, something slammed into me hard.

My back hit the wall, and I heard a loud exhalation of air as the wind was knocked out of whoever crashed into me. I reached out quickly to help steady whoever it was, and grabbed a handful of Warlock robe. Pulling the person in, I crouched and dragged them down with me. The cloaking effect of the smoke bomb wore off, and I could see Scott sitting next to me. Glancing around, I saw the other two had made it across and were ducked or sitting near us.

"Thank you for the save," Scott whispered.

"It's what I do," I replied with a shrug. I spared another glance down into the pit, very happy I'd caught him and we weren't having to stage a rescue mission into that. Just more incentive not to mistime a jump.

We stayed there on the construct for a few moments, regrouping and gaining our bearings. Looking down, I could see that the Vex excavation rivaled anything the Hive had done to the moon. It went down a very long way, odd Vex architecture jutting out at various points. I could see the glow of confluxes radiating somewhere below. The fact that the Vex could do something of this scale without it being noticed before was a worry for another day.

"Oh, you have no idea how badly I want to scan this," Elgan chimed in my ear.

"I'm sure I could guess," I replied on the internal com, smiling at his tone despite the situation.

"It's so big. And weird. And new," the Ghost whined. "Well, new for us. Who can say for the Vex. What would new even mean for them, anyway?"

"Maybe next time," I told him, to which he replied with an electronic whimper.

We crept cautiously around the structure, our presence seemingly still undetected. Once we were to the other side, Celeste activated another smoke bomb, and we jumped from structure to structure to cross the other half of the chasm. Once again, we cleared the jumps without incident until the very end. Someone landed wrong when we hit the ground. I heard the fall, saw the dust disturbed as they rolled, then hard footfalls as they got up and ran. Unfortunately, the Vex heard it too, though they still couldn't see us. Goblins pivoted, firing Solar bursts from their slap rifles in our general vicinity. The Cyclops stirred to life, sweeping back and forth searching for us, but unable to see through the cloak.

There was nowhere to go, however, and the cloak wouldn't last forever. It would wear off while we were still in range and the Void cannon would hammer us as we tried to escape. Then I realized the open nature of the terrain could be a blessing as well as a curse.

"Elgan," I called, and my Ghost materialized, keeping pace with me, "get my sparrow."

He nodded and vanished. The Days of Wind appeared ahead of me and I jumped on. The others followed suit, their sparrows materializing several strides ahead of each of them as well. I hit the throttle and the green and white machine leapt beneath me, increasing the distance between me and the Vex exponentially. The Cyclops opened fire, but it was too late. The blasts splashed harmlessly on the ground behind us.

"I told you it would work!" Celeste yelled over the coms, letting out a loud whoop.

"It was still a bad plan, we just got lucky," came the retort from Zillah.

"Oh, don't be so sour," the Hunter said. "It worked, we're alive, on our way, and the Vex are probably still trying to figure out what happened."

We rode in silence after that. I went back and forth between watching for any signs of danger to enjoying being in a part of Venus that no human has passed through since the Collapse. We continue on for nearly an hour until we reached what felt like a safe distance from the Vex structure. We stopped and Celeste pulled out the map so that we could check our progress.

We had drifted to the west, so a slight adjustment needed to be made, but we had covered most of the distance to our destination. Climbing a small rise, we looked in the direction we needed to go. From what we could see, the terrain was mostly clear, with small clumps of trees occasionally dotting the landscape. There were a few places where the rock was broken, maybe able to provide some cover if need be, but for the most part it would be a straight shot through open ground. Mounting our sparrows again, we set off the complete the last leg of our journey.

…

AN:

Order and Chaos – Qui Iudicant: I went back and tweaked the descriptions of events a bit, thanks for the feedback. Fixed elemental capitalizations as well (from your review on my other story. Ctrl F functionality is nice). Realized I'd been capitalizing some and not others, rather inconsistent.

Ulktamate Gaming: I went back and added a bit to some of the shorter chapters, but I'll probably just let it be organic from here, rather than being concerned about length too much.

And yes, Zillah did paraphrase a Maxim of Maximally Effective Mercenaries. .com