"Right, guardians. Today, well, I guess today you find out what we are, what we stand for and, most importantly, why? So, first things first, how would you fight someone stronger than you?" Shaxx seemed to not be shouting, but if he wasn't, Matt defiantly didn't want to hear him when he was. A hunter near the front yelled out "Don't get hit."
Shaxx nodded "Yeah, I guess that works. So, how do you fight an opponent that is faster than you?" A titan in the middle of the pack yelled "Hit them harder than they hit you."
Shaxx grunted, "Yes, in principle. Right, all you lot haven't fought yet this life, not properly anyway. So, let's get started. Form two lines, person opposite you, your job is to make them stop fighting. Anything goes, bar light manipulation. FASTER" Shaxx suddenly switched to shouting, and the hall was buzzing with movement immediately. Matt joined in the end of the line, facing off against a titan about 6 feet tall. He nodded at his soon to be opponent, then Shaxx walked down the line, telling them all to go in their pairs to separate rings, and not to start until he said so, else you'd have to be fighting him. He said the last part with such sadistic glee that it almost sounded like he wanted someone to start before his call. They all had a ring, there were over 50 pairs in the hall, Shaxx yelled "THREE... TWO... GO!"
Clearly counting wasn't high on his list of teaching points.
The titan sprung towards him, swinging a fist downwards as she did. Matt jumped backwards, the punch missing him, just. He responded with a quick jab to the titans' helmet. She jumped backwards as he hit her, and she was hardly fazed by the attack. Matt moved in, blocking one punch then grabbing her arm when she threw the second punch, pulling her towards him, bringing his elbow round in close, smacking it into the side of her helmet. They both spun away, the opening exchange lasting barely 3 seconds. He could hear some groans from around him, some guardians clearly not taking Shaxx's advice seriously when it came to not being hit.
He ducked as a lightning fast jab came rocketing towards his helmet, spinning and hitting her squarely in the chest with his heel. She shrugged it off, grabbing him by his armour and bodily throwing him across their ring. He landed hard, rolling backwards and stopping on his feet. He jumped forwards, spinning in the air, a foot whipping out, the kick hitting the Titans helmet again. He landed, leveraging his momentum to land a heavy punch on her helmet. She staggered backwards, and he lunged forwards, charging straight into a vicious hook, spinning him around. He felt a weight slam into him, a strong arm snaking round his neck.
"You gonna give in, or am I gonna have to make you?"
Matt hunched his shoulders as best he could, falling forwards, tucking his head. He felt the impact on his shoulders, and felt the vice loosen around his neck. He rolled through over the Titan, turning and punching down hard. Her helmet dented slightly with the impact. He moved backwards, hands held up in a close guard. The titan rolled over, pushing herself up. She shook her head, before running straight at him. He dodged left, and was carried backwards by a massive hook that he dodged right into. He felt his helmet dent and yanked it off. He could feel his muscles burning from the fight. Whoever he was fighting also seemed to be tiring, her punches were more sluggish.
She turned and ran at him again. He breathed out. In. Out. Jumped, spinning feeling an impact, spinning him round faster. He landed hard on one leg, kicking out with the other. He felt the kick connect, hitting the Titan in the helmet. He heard something crack, several somethings when he tried standing on his right leg. The tian went down like a ton of bricks, her helmet caved in.
"Ah, jesus fuck." Matt slumped down, landing heavily on the floor. Shaxx gestured to the two ghosts, both of whom zipped forwards to start healing their guardians rather substantial injuries. Nova passed a blue light down him, her voice filled with genuine concern, "Matt, your foot broke when you kicked her in the head, and well, uh, you broke every bone. It'll take me a few minutes to fix up. Aside from that, over 15 torn ligaments, 10 of them serious. Sever bruising to most of yourself, and possibly a mild concussion from a punch."
Hearing this, Matt winced, "So, titans hit hard, even when you're the one doing the hitting."
A small chuckle from Shaxx, more a snicker than anything else.
"Yeah, something like that." A female voice from across the small arena, slightly synthetic caused him to turn. His opponent had removed her helmet, revealing a metal face, "You didn't hit to light either, for a hunter that is. Good fight…"
"Matt." He finished, smiling. "And you are?"
"Name's Aria-1. Most people just call me Aria though."
"Well then, nice to meet you Aria. Please don't fight me again, at least not for a week."
She chuckled, "Yeah, I'll take you up on not fighting each other for a while. Not had a human push me that far in a while." She stood up shakily, clearly still slightly disoriented from the repeated hits to the head. She walked over to him, holding out a hand to help him up. He grabbed it, feeling her hand clamp down around his wrist. She yanked him to his feet, recently repaired by Nova. Shaxx looked at them both, his stance suggesting that he might actually be impressed.
"You two just had the longest fight I've seen from a pair of guardians that inexperienced." He sounded impressed too, "So, you've set your own standards. I'll be informing the other instructors of this. Good luck, Guardians." He sounded impressed, but the tone of his voice made it clear that he would now accept nothing less than that from the both of them. "You have the rest of the day to yourselves. I would advise rest, I believe that Amanda wants to take you lot out in ships tomorrow."
Matt hit the pillow snoring that night. Nova shrugged, left his armour on, and settled down. Matt slept like a log, she had noticed over the course of their short time together.
-X-
"Guardians Aria-1, Matt and ghosts 16451 and 16452 report to the Vanguard as soon as possible."
Matt groaned, he was just getting into this odd light manipulation lark. Aria, on the other hand, was flying through the air, mostly in straight lines for the moment. She skidded to a halt in front of him. She was wearing her helmet, so her expression was unreadable, but she sounded like she was having fun.
"Come on. Can't keep the Vanguard waiting."
"Give me a minute. Also, don't you mean can't keep Ikora and Zavala waiting. Cayde doesn't care." Matt chuckled, jumping upwards again. He pushed down with his light, feeling the air solidify beneath his feet. He pushed down against it, and felt half of it crumble away underfoot. He flipped, landing on his back.
Aria laughed, "You still haven't got it?"
Matt punched the padded floor, pushing himself up, "No. I don't get it, I do everything that they say. Picture the air as a solid, push down with your light, then jump again. And every time, something different goes wrong." Aria looks over at Nova, who seems to be finding the whole thing rather funny, "And she isn't helping. Right, let's go."
"Matt, it's not like you're doing any worse than anyone else. It's just that you see everyone else managing to pull of the occasional light assisted jump. You're the only one who hasn't made a full jump yet, but you're also the one who is constantly"
"Landing on my back after flipping out." Matt finished. "I know. I'm the most consistent, but I'm only one who hasn't made a jump yet."
Aria shrugged, taking the steps two at a time to get to the Hall of Guardians. She walked through the opening, the three vanguard standing around the big table, Cayde looking even more board than normal.
"Ah, Matt and Aria-1. Good of you to show up. We have a job for you two." Cayde perked up a bit.
"Yes. Guardians, as I'm sure you are aware, FOTC like to have a few guardians among the ranks. We give there out to newer guardians, as it's a good chance for them to see some of what we protect, and maybe, but hopefully not, a real combat experience." Ikora spoke directly to them. "So, we've decided to put you two on the force for a while."
"Right, so, what do we do?" Aria jumped straight in with the question. She seemed eager to do something that wasn't sit though countless tutorial session on light manipulation and control.
"I believe that FOTC wanted Guardians to peace keep around some of the rougher areas. They didn't seem too confident with sending it too many of their guys without guardian back up, so I would assume that there is probably some tensions. For that reason, Matt, you will go into that post, Aria, you will be a part of a rapid response unit. Talk to Zavala about what you will be doing."
Aria nodded, and walked around the table towards Zavala, who started explaining what her job would be. "Matt, I believe Cayde wants to talk to you about the area that FOTC want you to patrol."
Matt nodded, and wondered over to Cayde, who looked thoroughly board by the entire conversation. "Matt, the area that FOTC want you to patrol is known for high levels of anti-human prejudice. That's why we're not sending Aria in there, she'd probably cause a riot just by being in that area."
"Right, so, I'm supposed to go into an area known for violence by myself."
"Unfortunately yes, FOTC doesn't want to commit there men and women to such a risky area."
Matt shrugged, "I'll see what I can do."
"Good, you start tonight. They have provided a set of standard FOTC body armour and suitable clothes to cover it. In addition, you have this" Cayde produced an auto rifle, engraved with the FOTC emblem and a serial number, "And this." Cayde produced a knife from his cloak flipping it over in the air, catching it by the blade and holding it out to Matt, "Oh, this knife is yours to keep. FOTC want the rifle back, so try not to lose it. That's it I think. OH, one more thing, round that area, not carrying a gun is odd, for you can have that visible. Try and hide the knife though, that's a hunter knife. See you later, good luck."
Matt nodded, "Thanks. I'll see you in a week or two then." He turned to Aria, waving. She turned briefly from her conversation with Zavala and waved back. "Nova, you ready to go."
Nova materialised, "Yeah, but you know you can't speak to me while you're working, it would be hella suspicious."
"Yeah, I know." Matt sighed, stepping inside the lift, swinging the FOTC cloak around his shoulders. The lift started to descend, and Nova vanished into his now covered armour. "You know, I think the cloak gives us away a bit, ya know, for being "Plain clothes". Could you send it to storage, if I need it, I'll tell you." He felt the weight of the cloak disappear from his shoulders as he swung the gun strap over his shoulder, pushing the weapon under his arm, feeling it snap to his shoulder as the magnetic strips moved near to each other.
A display flicked on his ballistic glasses. FOTC unit 3175 report to this location, that's your stake out for tonight. Travelers light.
"Well, let's go sit in a bar for the next 5 hours. Recon they think something might go down." Matt sounded slightly apprehensive.
"Maybe, that place is right on the edge of the area considered dangerous, and Exos and Awoken sometimes stumble into it by accident. I believe, yes, there was an altercation involving a group of "Humanists" and a group of Awoken in that bar last month. No one was seriously injured, but there was a fight." Nova practically spat the word humanist, clearly they were not the flavour of the month.
Matt jogged though the streets, noting that they got progressively worse for wear as he approached the street the bar was. "Well, here we are. Speak in five hours Nova."
"Good luck Matt. Not that you need it." Smiling Matt walked into the bar, looking for a discrete corner to sit in. He found one, right at the end of the bar. The bartender slid up to him, a greasy cloth over one shoulder. His clothes were covered in an apron, which looked like it might have hidden a stab vest.
"Uh, just a water please. Oh, and could you do me a favour and not serve me again." Matt handed over a small glimmer cube.
"Of course. You aren't here as far as I'm concerned." Matt smiled at him, leaned back against the wall, and looked over the rest of the bar. It was quite at the moment, but he know that it would get busier later on. The bartender handed him a pint of water, as well as a pint of lemonade.
"Thanks. I'll stay out of your hair now." Matt smiled, and the bartender walked off, pocketing a month's wages in the small cube of glimmer.
Hours passed, without issue, no one noticing him. An odd group, a Human, an Awoken and an Exo had walked in earlier, choosing to sit far away from the door. They had ordered food and drinks, and were now enjoying their meal. Matt realised that, despite everything, he was hungry. Damn. Well, nothing that he could do about that. He'd have to deal with that.
The bar quietened. Matt looked up from his seat, where he had been absentmindedly reading report from recent patrol mission in the cosmodrome. Mostly just report of more fallen having to be exterminated. He hadn't had a chance to go out on a patrol yet, though he and Aria hoped that they would soon as they seemed to be working on more advanced subjects in their training. A group of young men had just walked in. They all wore worn out jeans and tee shirts that carried the same logo, a picture of a human face in a green circle. Matt didn't need them a pointer to figure out that these were most likely Humanists. He dropped a hand to his knife, tensing slightly. He glanced over at the group, the odd trio. They didn't seem to have noticed the changing atmosphere in the bar. Matt breathed out slowly, hoping that the group of Humanists wouldn't notice them.
The group sat down in the middle of the bar, looking over it, seeming to absorb the fear from the other patrons. They looked across the bar, scanning everyone. They stopped, one of them pointing not too discreetly at the group. Matt stood up slowly, standing in the shadows, looking at the two groups. He stepped forwards, the group of humanists not noticing him. The trio at the table stood up to leave. He just noticed that they were all well-dressed. Shit. High quality clothing meant that they had money, something the Humanists would happily take off them. The turned to walk out, facing the band of young men.
"Why are you here?" The leader of the group stepped forward.
"A meal with friends and family. I could ask the same to you." The human replied, his voice gravelly.
"Drinks. Also, this is our turf. Can't you tell."
"Nope." The Awoken looked right though him, her eyes glowing a pale blue. She cocked her head to one side, curious, "Was there supposed to be a signpost, "This is my turf, go away", 'casue if there was, I didn't see one."
The human and the Exo laughed, and the group seemed to get more agitated. The leader turned to the group, "Why is this thing laughing at me? Oi, bot. Maybe you should go in for repairs. Though Vex didn't have feelings." The human stepped forwards.
So did Matt. "Enough. You lot," he shouted, "clear off, now. FOTC orders." He turned to the group, "Sorry about that."
"Who the fuck do you think you are, copper?" One of the group shouted. "There's like 10 of us, and one of you." the group chorused their agreement.
Matt drew his FOTC knife, throwing it in the air, not watching it spin, catching it by the blade, "So, me verses all of you. Of course, you're assuming that I'm FOTC." He threw the knife again. "Of course, I could be, but then again, maybe I'm not. You three," talking over his shoulder now, "leave."
They nodded, walking away from the group to the other door. The leader drew a small pistol. Matt moved.
He pushed the gun arm away, bringing his knife around hitting the man in the side of the head with the handle. Matt spun away, before jumping forwards, dancing between clumsy attacks. He hit one of them, spun away, watched as one of them hit another trying to hit him. Matt lashed out with his foot, connecting with ribs with a satisfying crunch. The person he kicked when down, and lay not moving. He pinged control, "Fight, at my position, send team for arrests and backup." He ducked, a hook sailing over his head. He grabbed the arm, slamming it down over his shoulder. "Copy unit 3175. Support on its way, ETA 3 minutes." He spun around, knife flashing up to block an incoming swing to his head. His arm coiled around his opponents, his free hand punching them hard in the face.
He spun, the leader getting up, knife in hand, already lunging at him. He kept spinning, narrowing the guys target. He felt a sharp pain in his side, hand moving down to grab the weapon. The man had already let go of the knife, as was running towards the door. Matt sprung after him, wincing in pain as the knife scrapped off a rib. He touched the area around the wound tentatively, hissing in pain. He burst through the door, seeing a bike zip away. He turned tracking it as he brought his gun up to his shoulder. He sighted the man though the 2x zoom, breathed in. Breathed out. Fired.
The recoil knocked the gun into his shoulder, he hissed as he felt the knife grate against his ribs again. He saw the bike wobble, before tipping over, a cloud of dust flying into the air. He heard the door slam open a second time, the group of three running out. One of them, the awoken female, ran up to him. He waved her away, staggering towards the wall.
"Nova. You ready?"
Nova sighed, "Yeah, just about." She materialised, scanning the knife, "Right, got it."
Matt nodded, yelling with pain as he pulled the knife out of his side. A blue beam shot out of Nova's eye, passing over the wound, the flow of blood slowing, then stopping as the wound sealed. He poked the place where the wound had been, fingers finding no trace of it. He smiled at the group, who looked mildly surprised at the appearance of a ghost. The Exo glanced at the human, who sighed, before handing over a lump of glimmer.
"I told you he moved too fast to be normal. I'm guessing hunter, by the way he used his knife."
"Sorry, I'm kinda new to this whole thing." Matt said, "But yeah, I'm a hunter. I think I've seen you three around the tower."
"Yeah, you probably have. I'm guessing you've been assigned to FOTC for a while, still in training?"
"Yeah." Matt nodded, "It's a pain, but I guess that my face is going to be going around the gangs now, since I just took out a bunch of their guys."
They all jumped to the side as a large police van honked its horn, before skidding to a halt, SWAT officers pouring out. Their team leader, a sergeant, jogged over to Matt, "You called in backup. We got calls of some shots as well, what is it?"
"Group of Humanists tried to attack these three." Matt gestured at the group, "I moved in, but it got heated. There's one of them about 100 metres thataway, he tried to run."
"Right oh son, we'll take it from here." The sergeant glanced at Nova, who was floating around near Matt, scanning the door, before repairing the damage done to the lock. "You're a guardian."
"Yeah, I guess that I'm not gonna be able to do this anymore." Matt shrugged, before switching to a private channel to Nova, "Thank god. That was so boring."
Nova chuckled, relaying the message to the three guardians standing nearby. They chuckled, before gesturing at Matt for him to follow them. He jogged to catch up with them.
"Sorry about you getting stabbed." The Exo said, "Still, good job back there."
"Thanks." Matt smiled at the compliment, "I'm Matt, and I'm sorry but I can't remember your names, although I swear that I've seen you competing in the Crucible."
"Yeah, you probably have." The Awoken nodded, "I'm Aleeza, warlock, this here is my brother, Akiva, titan, and our friend, Carina-23, also a titan."
Matt shook each of their hands, "Nice too meet you all. Wish it could have been in better circumstances, but still."
"MATT!" An Exo voice yelled at him, causing them all to spin around, to see an Exo sprinting at them wearing FOTC body armour. She took off, gliding in a dead straight line towards them, building up even more speed as she skated towards them. She landed hard, running the last few metres, "You alright? Nova told me someone stabbed you." She looked very concerned.
"Yes Aria, I'm fine."
"And who are these people?"
"Oh right, these are the people who I got stabbed for. Turns out, I didn't need to as they were guardians, but hey, I was just doing my job. This is Aleeza, a warlock, Akiva, a Titan, and Carina, also a titan. Akiva and Aleeza are brother and sister, and Carina is a mutual friend. Akiva, Aleeza, Carina, this is Aria, friend of mine."
"Nice to meet you." Carina, nodded at the other Exo, "Interesting, I've never seen another Exo like you. The reactor seems more streamlined. Hot damn, you could run a ship off of that." Carina sounded impressed, "You sure you're not some crazy experimental model?"
Aria shrugged, "Maybe, but mostly I clock slightly higher performance than other Exo's, about 30% if you average it all out."
Aleeza nudged Carina, "You've got competition." They both giggled like children.
Akiva spoke up, "Weren't you the two who fought each other on your first day training. Damn near killed each other from exhaustion too."
Matt nodded, "Yeah, that was us. Shaxx said he was impressed."
"Well, you too must be hella good fighters to impress Shaxx." Akiva nodded at Aria, "If you want, I can help with training. Not so much for you Matt, but if you want you can come along too."
Aria smiled, "Yeah that sounds great. Matt, you gonna tag along?"
Matt shrugged, "I guess, it'll be a good way to know how to beat you next time." He punched Aria lightly on the shoulder.
-X-
They all bundled into the lift, smiling. The trip up was spent talking, mostly between the three titans, in ways to best stop a hunter. Matt smiled, watching them bicker about prediction and power. Aleeza nudged him, "You listening in on that?"
Matt nodded, "Yeah, its funny."
"Why?"
"Well, the third thing they tell us in training is being predictable gets you killed. So they train us to not keep doing the same thing. Which is what they seem to be relying on a hunter doing, which is adorable."
Aleeza laughed, "Yeah, I suppose it is."
The lift ground to a halt, the doors opening, "Well, this is our stop. See you two around." Aleeza waved at them as they walked away.
"Yeah, I'll see you two for training tomorrow, I'll give you times later." Akiva waved. Carina looked over her shoulder, smiling at them, as she and Aleeza held hands, walking down the corridor.
The lift closed. Matt turned to Aria, "So how was your first and last day in FOTC?"
"Oh it was fun," Arias' eyes lit up slightly, "There was a shooting in the low west district, which we responded to, followed by a robbery in the north. Then it was quiet, before we got your call. Heard yours was boring.
Matt sighed, "Yeah, only thing that happened was a bunch of racists showed up, and I kicked their teeth in. And got stabbed. I wouldn't recommend it, it hurts." He laughed.
"So I've heard." The lift slowed and stopped again, they walked to their rooms, across the corridor from each other. "See you tomorrow them. Good night." Aria opened her door.
"Good night." Matt yawned. He closed his door behind him, unclipping his cloak and hanging it by its hood on the back of his door. He yawned again, unclipping his chestplate and leg armour, placing them on a table. He lay down, sleep coming easily.
-X-
Nova checked and rechecked the scan. She had been curious when Carina mentioned that Aria had a more powerful reactor. She'd reached out to Jenny, Arias' ghost, and asked for a scan. She got one. The reactor on board was insane. How could it operate as such high temperatures. She double checked the reading. Exceeding 15 million kelvin. She checked her database. Most Exo's ran on fusion cells that outputted about 500,000 kelvin. She should be a puddle of molten metal on the floor. She checked her cooling system. Optical lasers were scanning over the surface of the reactor, transporting heat away. That was way advanced. She hadn't seen anything like it. Nova opened a commlink to Jenny.
xG_ 16451
oG_16452
HOW IS YOUR GUARDIAN ALIVE? THAT TEMPERATURE SHOUD DESTROY HER!
xG_16452
oG_16451
I DON'T KNOW. SHE DOESN'T EITHER. I TOLD IKORA, SHE HAD THE CRYPTARCY LOOK FOR ANY GOLDEN AGE TECH THAT COULD SUPPORT THIS TEMPERATURE. THEY FOUND NOTHING.
xG_16451
oG_16452
SO SHE'S A CRAZY EXPERIEMNTAL MODEL.
xG_16452
oG_16451
MAYBE. SHE HAS A LOT MORE PROSSESING POWER THAN MOST EXOS SEEM TO POSSES. HOWEVER, SHE DOESN'T HAVE ACCESS TO ALMOST 90% OF IT. I CAN'T PUSH HER INTO IT EITHER, AND BELIEVE ME I TRIED. WELL, WE TRIED. CAN YOU REDEFINE ME IN YOUR COMM SYSTEM PLEASE, MY NAME IS JENNY.
xG_16451
oG_JENNY
SORRY JENNY. PLEASE DO THE SAME FOR ME. MY NAME IS NOVA. GOOD NIGHT.
xG_JENNY
oG_NOVA
DONE. GOOD NIGHT.
Nova cut the connection. She set her processes to sort the new information and powered down.
Hi again. Thanks for reading this far.
Surprised myself today, didn't expect to get this chapter out within a week of starting. It's a bit shorter than the last one (it's half as long) but I was suffering from writers block for a while. Anyway, got this out. Please tell me what you think so far.
Massive thanks to AceArcalas ( u/1784192/AceArcalas) for letting me use three characters from their fic's Tormented and Redacted. Seriously, you should go and read these two books they are really good. I *borrowed* Aleeza, Akiva and Carina.
One note on the temperatures part. Yes, Arias' reactor is running as hot as the core of the sun, no I don't care how mad crazy batshit insane this is and yes I googled the temperature of the inside of the sun.
Also, I really like writing AI. Next time, I'll send our two main characters out into the wild, stuff will happen, they'll meet an old friend, Matt finds out that he can fly REALLY well and Akiva kicks some butt. Probably.
Thanks for reading.
See you in the next chapter.
