. "You dare challenge House Devils?! You are nothing, weak Dreg."
"Maybe, but she's not alone!"
Shadow stepped out into the clearing with her hand cannon, Thorn, raised and aimed at him.
"Guardian?!" The Baron roared at Voxen. "You are a traitor to you own, Vermin! You have no House!"
"Hey! Ass-hat!"
A round from Thorn was fired at his head, his shield deflected the dagger round and it hit the ground, but the Huntress now claimed the Baron's attention.
"That Vandal is MINE!"
"Then it is weak!" He charged her, and Shadow raised her strange weapon to the challenge. It appeared to be made of what Voxen had come to know as wood, a material from this planet, and some sort of metal at one end, making it a top heavy weapon. The weapon was similar to the weapon on their cloaks. She shot a few more rounds from Thorn in one hand at his shield, as Voxen decided to begin taking down the remains of the crew. She cloaked, and started killing each Vandal and Dreg that remained, one by one. A couple retreated into the forest, firing as they left, and abandoning their comrades to their fate. Voxen came sword for sword with another Vandal, but she was stronger despite her wound, heaving her top swords up into the air to parry the blow, and then used her third uninjured arm to stab into the chest that the Devil Vandal had exposed. Then, it too crimpled to the ground lifelessly.
Voxen checked around for any more opponents that could try to pick off Shadow while she remained locked in combat with the Baron. Once clear she looked to Shadow, almost dancing around him in combat, hacking away at its shield, while moving too quickly for the large Baron to get a hit in on the smaller human. The Baron roared his frustration into the sky, raising her three arms up, and then crashing them down into the ground with all his might, causing Shadow to fly backward. She landed off on her feet and stumbled while Voxen launched herself toward the fight. The Baron took his sudden advantage over his much quicker prey, and swung two powerful arms into the Huntress, sending her reeling back into the ground with a pained cry. Her Ghost pulled itself out into the air, hovering closely to her... Voxen leapt into the air with all four swords drawn with a cry of her own; stabbing straight into the Baron's unprotected backside, through his shields and straight into flesh. The Devil Baron roared again, this time with pain, hopelessly reaching its arms back to remove Voxen from its back. One arm grabbed her by the cloak and flung her like nothing more than a piece of scrap into the ground. Voxen watched from the dirt as the Baron stepped forward over her... and then suddenly the light in his eyes died out and collapsed on top of Voxen; dead with her swords still protruding from its back...
They had won! The Baron was no more! Voxen sighed in relief for a moment just lying there, stuck under the large body of the Baron...
She heard pained laughter coming from behind her head, but she couldn't move to see her Kell limping her way.
"Nice going Vox." The Huntress said as she slowly made her way to the squished Vandal. "He almost had me... LL was worried he was going to have to revive my ass..." She chuckled as if it were nothing to her. She grabbed Voxen by the underside of her top pair of arms and yanked her out from under the corpse, then fell back onto her backside to the ground with a sigh. "Thanks."
Voxen gathered herself to her feet and crouched next to the Guardian, beaming with pride from her Kell's praise. "My Kell protect me, I protect my Kell." She replied.
"I said-... oh never mind. I got your back Vox."
"That was close." The ghost's robotic voice chirped dryly.
"Yes, it was, but it's fine." Shadow said, getting to her feet.
"But..."
"I'm fine!" She cut the ghost off.
Voxen rose up to her full height, examining the Huntress carefully. What had only taken the two of them to take down a large raiding force, with a Baron no less, would normally had taken another House of Fallen another raiding force of their own to defeat, if they were lucky. Yet here they stood, and it appeared that Shadow only suffered minor injury and Voxen herself mostly bruising from the inside of her armor. She was truly impressed.
"Alright, let's find some ether for you Vox. Ghost gather up as much Ether as you can for storage, k?" She said, heading over to the netting-covered crates while trying to hide the limp in her walk from before.
"You are stubborn..."
"You know it." Shadow replied back.
Voxen went to retrieve three of her four swords from the back of the dead Baron, pulling out each one, and then wiping the blood away on the Devil's cloak before sheathing each weapon. Her last sword, the one that had been ripped from her grasp when she took the blow to her arm, was in pieces on the ground, having been unable to withstand the abuse. She shook her head in a human way; a bit she had picked up from being around the Guardians, and went over to another vandal corpse and raided of one of its swords. The dead did not need weapons of the living. She stopped and hovered over the body for a few moments...
"Vox, what are you doing?" Shadow called over.
"Probably raiding the corpses..." The Ghost replied.
"Seriously?"
Voxen looked up over at the two. "I wish to remember this. It is good luck. Take prize from fight, yes?"
"Go for it." Shadow answered.
Voxen retrieved the helm off of the Vandal and raised it up for them to see. "Has plan for this prize!" she then attached it to her belt and went over to Shadow, chirping cheerfully.
"Nice. Well then, let's get the ether you need Vox so we can head home."
"Yessss! Well-earned victory!" Voxen exclaimed, doing what her kind did best, rummaging and scavenging what she could through the crates of ether supplies. She pulled the netting away from the crates and leapt up on top of the stack without hesitation and ripped away the lid of the closest one revealing the contents inside; dozen of small cylinder containers, each holding previous life-air inside in concentration to be plugged into the any Fallen's armor as needed. Her mandibles clicked excitedly together as she began to grab as many as she could.
"Whoa, hold on there! LL can assist you with that." Shadow chuckled as she watched the Vandal pillage the crates. The Ghost blinked its eye and nodded, going up to the crates alongside Voxen and begun collecting them into its storage system. Voxen helped it along by lifting the containers up for the ghost to grab and disappear in front of her. It fascinated her that the small little machine could do such a thing, but she certainly found it to be useful.
"I cannot guarantee that we can grab all of the ether they've got stored here, and they've got quite a considerable amount, no doubt because of the Baron that had been in command here and the large amounts of Fallen contributing to holding this area." the Ghost chattered idly to no one as it collected the ether as fast as it could.
Shadow assisted too, opening crates and tossing aside lids as they went. She even removed the tarp off of a Pike that huddled against the wall. "This could be useful..."
Voxen looked up from her scavenging and caught sight of the pike that the Huntress had revealed. "OOOOOoooooooo, yessssssss, very very!" She chirped excitedly, leaping down from the stack and rushed over to the pike. Examining the machine closely, Voxen noticed it was in decent condition, probably simply used only for scouting and lucky it had never seen heavy combat. That was until the Vandal found the reason... A symbol in red cloth that told her that this Pike had once belonged to the Baron they had just slain... another prize of the hunt. This pleased Voxen and she would gladly take the ownerless vehicle as her own. It was not the whispered heavy pikes that were rumored to be owned only by House Wolves, but it would still serve Voxen well. Her mandibles clicked in a pleased tone.
"I like. Thank you, my Kell..." Voxen turned around and addressed Shadow in a respectful tone.
"Good, maybe I can catch a ride with you and save us time back to the ship..." Shadow answered, amused with Voxen's excitement.
The Ghost came up to Shadow and blinked at her. "I've gotten it all. By my calculations, for a single Fallen, this should last for six months or better. There was enough for an army in the short term. However we are being asked to return to the City as soon as possible."
"That doesn't sound good. Get the ship to pick us up and head straight back to the Tower." Shadow ordered the Ghost. It complied with a simple blink of its eye and a nod. "Was already directing the ship our way."
Voxen could hear the rumbling sound of a ship headed for them. The sound getting louder and louder until Shadow's ship lay above them. Voxen watched the Ghost materialize the Pike, assuming it was being pulled up onto the ship, or where ever the Ghost stored things it collected. Then it looked at them and she suddenly felt the lurch of being pulling onto the ship. Then next thing her eyes saw was the interior of the Huntress's ship, looking at the back of the cockpit. Shadow was already behind the controls, even if there wasn't much point. She had learned well by now that the Ghost did most of the piloting.
"Alright, let's get back to the Tower." Shadow said with a grim voice.
They made their way down into the entrance of the Vanguard. Already Voxen could hear raised and agitated voices; and as they got closer she could slowly make out the words they were saying.
"...-this isn't up for debate!"
"And why not?!"
"Because, for all we know this could be a ploy. A Trap!
"Her teams already been to the realm of the Awoken before, and the Queen helped her, without that assistance that team may not have made it into the Black Garden."
"If we send them I'll be short two Titans on the wall. We are spread thin as it is."
"We're all spread thin..." The female Warlock, stopped and noticed both Shadow and Voxen's approach to the table. "Ah. Here they are now. Welcome Hunteress."
Shadow simply strolled over to the table without hestitation. "Sup' guys. What's this about?"
Voxen hovered close to her Kell while she spoke, still uncertian around the three leaders of the Vanguard.
The Exo Hunter turned to Shadow. "Got a situation... Well you do. Remember that favor you owe the Queen? Well, she's calling you up on it. She just sent a member of the Awoken Guard to bring you and your team back to the Reef. Word has the Kell of the House of Wolves has escaped and in his wake caused a massive insurrection from the Fallen the under the Queen. They killed a bunch of Awoken and took off."
"What's that got to do with me?" Shadow replied.
"Well, we aren't sure. These two don't want you or your team to go. I don't like it either, but truth is. She asked for you personally and you're team has the most knowledge on the Fallen, especially with your Vandal friend around. You have an advantage no one else does."
"Well you've got two points there... So why the fuss?"
The Titan placed his hands on the table in front of him as he addressed Shadow. "The problem is, is you're taking two Titans and a Warlock from other Missions and Duties, going to the edge of the Light to the Reef, and we had no idea what you'll be doing out there, and for how long. We cannot risk putting you out on a wild goose chase."
Shadow leaned forward on the table as well, appearing to be unfazed by the large awoken titian. "But you all admit I'm the best for the job. Plus with this new Kell out there, this could be a problem. This could also be an opportunity to finally get some eyes on the Reef as well."
"While having eyes on us as well." Replied the Warlock dryly.
"I'm pretty sure they already do." Shadow pointed out. "At least we can have thousands of spies of our own, in plain view, and they don't even have to do anything more than report back whatever they're doing."
"Can't argue with that." The Exo hunter chuckled.
"I kinda gotta go anyway. I owe the bitch... 'Cuz apparently telling Guardians how to get into and where said entrance is is beyond the Speaker..."
Voxen jumped as the large Titan threw his hands onto the table, causing the table to slam to the ground and break from the force. "DISRESPECTFUL HUNTER!" Shadow remained unphased, the other side of the table flying up just a breath away. Voxen shook herself and reached for her swords and screeched a warning at the Awoken as she hovered protectively beside Shadow.
"Chill out big guy." The Exo once again interjects.
"I will not stand by while you allow one of your hunters disrespects the Speaker, Clayde-6, it is unacceptable!"
Shadow put her hand on Voxen, lowering her raised sword. The vandal turned to look at her with puzzlement and the Huntress simply shook her head with an amused smile.
The Exo put his hands up, defensively. "Hey now, my hunter? I think you forget, Hunters do whatever they want! Unlike Titans it's not possible to completely organize all of us under one leader. You know very well I don't even lead them! I represent them here at the Vanguard nothing more. So getting mad because she points out an obvious flaw, isn't really worth the energy."
Voxen watched as the Titan let out a big breath and his entire posture became rigid and composed again... as if he hadn't just lost his temper at her Kell...
"I guess you are right... Fine. Guardian. Leave; gather your team and get answer the call. Maybe you might learn to be a bit grateful out there in the dark of the Reef..."
"Doubtful, but I'll take it and go before you break something else." Shadow taunted and turned to leave, leaving Voxen in her wake to stare at the three Vanguards before deciding it wasn't best to linger here with them and running after her.