The shuttle rumbled and rattled as the inhabitants became reacquainted, past adventures remembered and friendships reignited. Boltwing clasped the hands of the fellow Warlock in front of her.
"Moody! How've you been, pal?" She addressed him. The Warlock wore very similar robes to her, shared recognition of their time in the Dreadnaught, though his were bordered with gold instead of purely black. His helmet was regal in nature, a long black screen stretching the length of his face, allowing him full vision with angelic wings on either side of his head extending up.
"I've been busy. Training new Warlock initiates." He reached up and pulled off his helmet. "Boring as hell." He added with a smile on his bearded face.
"I can imagine!" Boltwing replied. She looked around the ship at her fellow clan mates and engaged conversation with each of them, catching up on their solo adventures. By the time the shuttle docked the interior was filled with the sound of rejoicing and laughter. Boltwing disembarked first as the ramp descended to the ground. She took in the surroundings and was surprised by its familiarity. "Is this... Bannerfall?" She asked aloud.
"Hells yeah it is!" Another voice from her past.
"Nightingale!" Boltwing embraced the hunter who had come up on her blindside. Nightingale was clad in red and black chitin armour, designed for ease of movement. His hood was that of wolfskin in honour of his prowess in the iron banner. It matched his chest plate, the hunters Crest of Alpha Lupi which sported a wolfs head engraved into the centre of the chest.
"Don't forget about us." The Warlock next to him interrupted.
"Rawkus Red!" Boltwing laughed.
"Just Rawkus, man." The nickname wasn't undeserved as the Warlocks entire ensemble was a deep shade of red.
"And Galvanic!" Moody high fived the defender Titan. "Not been that long, saw you last month at the team up session."
"Yup. My Titans are shaping up just nicely. Good to see you guys, it has been a while since I've heard from you, Boltwing."
"Been hitting the books back in old Accra. Not much else left for me to be getting on with." She replied looking over her old friend. Galvanic was in full grey crucible armour, spare for his head of which he wore the Helm of Saint 14. The dents in the sacred helmet represented the hits he had taken for his clan at one point or another. Boltwing cast her eyes back around her. Bannerfall used to be a deserted tower, cleared for use in the Crucible games. Now it was a bustling hub of activity. Various workstations were scattered about and sparks flew as people worked. "Now what's going on here?" Someone else tapped her on the back. "Can people please stop coming at me from behi- oh." Boltwing stopped mid sentence as she turned to face Cayde-6.
"Ah good. The rest of you are here. If you'd come this way." The Exo said curtly as he proceeded to lead the group down several floors below the main one and into a newly opened section of the Bannerfall tower.
"Cayde, what's all this for? Bringing the House of Dredgen Yor back is one thing, but what's everyone doing here?" Boltwing asked the vanguard.
"You'll find out soon enough." He replied ominously, continuing to lead the small crowd. The followed down another few flights of newly opened stairwells until they stopped in a large room where the rest of The House of Dredgen Yor were waiting. Boltwing and her smaller group integrated with the room and reacquainted themselves with their clanmates. After a few minutes the noise died down and Cayde-6 stood on a small box in front of everyone. "Alright, I guess you're all wondering why you're all here, and what all this is for, huh?" He said, waving an arm around the room. A few heads nodded, the majority remained still. "Firstly, Bannerfall has been made into a staging area of sorts. We're building a ship."
"What kind of ship?" A voice yelled from the crowd.
"A big one. For you guys. The House of Dredgen Yor I mean." Boltwings ears pricked up in excitement. "The most advanced tech we have is going in this thing, weapons, basic terraforming and building. We need you guys to sit tight here for another few days and get ready, we have gear and instructions you need to go over while we wait for final preparations. I'm going to go over the details with your leaders then we're good to go."
"Speaking of leaders." Boltwing said quietly to Nightingale. "Have you seen Stitch?"
"Nope. Last I heard she was going to Venus, but that was a few years ago." He replied. Attention went back to Cayde-6 as he dropped off his makeshift podium.
"Assuming you guys are interested, that is." He finished nonchalantly. He was met with a roar of confirmation from the crowd. "Well that's good news. You guys wanna head through there" he pointed to another doorway behind them. "The attendants will sort you out. Except for Boltwing and Nightingale, I need to talk to you two." The crowd dispersed and the two followed the Vanguard into a side room. It was more like an old conference room, table in the middle with two chairs on either side. Cayde-6 took a seat, and Boltwing took her seat opposite him along with Nightingale. "First things first." He started. "Two of your guys we couldn't reach; Imperial." His tone dropped. "Odd name." Nightingale snickered as Cayde-6 continued. "And Stitch. Where are they?"
"Imperial is on Mercury." Boltwing replied. "He's our emissary to the Sunbreakers.
"Zavala isn't going to like that." The Exo chuckled.
"He's also gathering Intel on their operations for us." Boltwing continued.
"That's more like it. Find anything useful?" Cayde asked. Boltwing replied by tapping on the nose of the skull on the front of her helmet, a feat she had become extraordinarily good at considering she couldn't see it. "Fair enough. And what do you know about Stitch's location. She went off the grid a while back didn't she?"
"We don't actually know." Nightingale said. "I know she went to Venus but we lost contact a few months ago." Boltwing nodded in agreement, she honestly didn't even know that much.
"You're not worried she might be dead?" Cayde asked inquisitively.
"You've obviously never fought alongside her. She's harder to keep down than an army of Taken Psions."
"Well that's good. As it happened my sources saw her recently."
"Where?" Boltwing asked, perturbed by Cayde-6s overall interest in her friend.
"Oh, a few miles north of Ishtar. In a new Civilian settlement near an old Vex network. Its under Vanguard jurisdiction for their protection; Its still a pretty dangerous place. Apparently she's been hiding very well, we've no idea how long she's been there or even if she still is. Word on the vine though is that she's been expanding into Vex territory in a big way. We suspect she's responsible for every major breakthrough we've had in Vex Tech for the past two years. Quite the engineer isn't she."
"Well our Stitch never could sit still." Boltwing breathed.
"So it would seem. We need her. Imperial isn't a top priority right now despite his leadership status, but Stitch's insight in Vex technology could give us, or rather you, an edge in the coming battle."
"What is this about?" Nightingale interjected. "The ship, the technology. All of this?" He motioned to Bannerfalls renewal.
"Oh that? You remember Mars?"
"Of course."
"We're taking it back. We want it under Guardian control, that means no more Vex and no more Cabal." The sentence hung in the air for a moment. Boltwing broke the silence, standing up and cracking her knuckles.
"Well we'd better go pick up Stitch then. She was always best at naming things. And our ship is gonna be sick."