Matt wondered down to the hanger, helmet on. He wondered over to the railing, looking up at the ship, shining in the light streaming into the hanger, "Thanks." He looked back at Holiday.
"Yeah, I thought you might want a new ride, since there's no-one you can borrow off, and you'll want to get back out into the world." She said, "I'll send you the bill, now go do something to get that amount of glimmer." She smiled, "And for the love of the traveller, don't crash it."
"I wasn't planning on it." He smiled, jumping up and into the cockpit, pulling the cover over his head, "Right." He flicked a switch, "Nova, can you plot a course, up and around the traveller, then I'll power out, see how she flys?"
"Already done, I've had one planned for a while now." Nova said happily, floating around the ship, "Can you remember how to fly?"
"Yeah," He flicked a switch, waiting a few seconds, feeling the ship slowly rumble into life, "Route is cleared, right?"
"Yes, cleared and ready to go." Nova's excitement bobbled over to Matt, "Come on, get going already."
Matt grinned, resting his head against the headrest, engaging the engines, sending the shooting out of the hanger.
-X-
Aleeza,
Sorry I haven't had a chance to talk to you, I've only just had enough time to write this. Solar light is different, I think. It doesn't push you forwards like arc does, it doesn't want you to be at the front of the line, but at the same time, it yearns for destruction, to make everything like it.
It's taken me a few days to actually forge it into a weapon, but grenades came easily enough. The hammer, it's something else, it just emanates power. Some of the other Sunbreakers carry constantly formed ones where you'd have a pistol, they carry power with them, Oorus, the current Empeyreal Magistrate, carries a gun, but she never uses it, according to the reports. I've had to clear out a few Vex with some of the more experienced Sunbreakers, we're heading into one of the Vex constructs soon, Oorus wants us to clear it out, she says they've seen some massive signals from inside. We leave tomorrow, I'll try to send you messages once we are inside.
I hope everything is going okay back home, I'll see you soon.
Carina
-X-
Matt laughed, landing on the muddy ground, "Where was the bounty?" He asked, looking around to check the landing area was clear.
"There's a fallen patrol six hundred metres away, they saw the ship fly by, we need to talk to Cayde about his stealth tech." Nova tagged the location of the patrol on his map, "Go get 'em, I guess."
Matt nodded, running towards the location, jumping effortlessly over dead trees, slamming into the rear guard, his knife against its neck, Which one is your leader? He growled.
The fallen shrieked a warning, A scavenger, behind you, you fools.
Matt shook his head, knocking the fallen out with a sharp blow to the side of its head, "Great, just assume I'm going to kill you all." He said, bitterly, I need to know where something is, which one of you is the leader here.
A dreg, having fallen behind hauling a large bag, drew its dagger, sneaking up on the guardian, stabbing at its side, where the armour looked thinnest.
Matt hissed in pain as he felt the blade bite into him, one hand flashing down to grab the handle, pulling it out, twisting and driving it into the neck of the dreg, So, are we doing it this way then?
The fallen charged, some of the taller ones scampering forwards on four limbs, others raising rifles. Matt stepped forwards, striking the first one that attacked with the handle of his knife, knocking it out, before flicking away a thrust, stepping inside to punch the other's helmet. the Fallen dropped, a crack in their mask leaking ether. Matt ducked, a shot boiling the air above his head. He responded, drawing his pistol, firing three rapid shots, killing the three fallen with long rifles. He flinched as one of them hit him in the side, burning a hole in his armour. A grenade landed at his feet, he rolled away, electricity sparking then lancing from the top of the grenade, splitting a nearby tree with a massive crack. The fallen that had thrown the grenade let out a shriek as the tree fell, diving out of the way, scrambling back up to its feet, snarling. This one, taller than the others, carried two swords, chain lightning flickering along their length in its lower arms. The upper pair swung a cannon up onto its shoulder, launching a projectile at Matt. Matt dived out of the way, feeling the heat of the projectile as it whistled past his head, even though his armour.
"Matt, I won't be able to revive you with him around." Nova said, sounding surprisingly calm, "It would be incredibly risky, I'd rather not have to."
Matt nodded, pulling at his light, melding it into a shape, curling his hand around the burning pistol grip, shooting once. The round lanced through the air, connecting him to the fallen for an instant.
The instant passed, the golden line dissipating, energy boiling away the Fallen's body, Matt lowering his hand, "Right, what were we looking for again?" He asked, cleaning off his knife, "Some sorta circle thing, right?" He walked over to the first of the bags the group of fallen had been carrying, digging through it.
Nova sighed, not surprised that Matt hadn't been paying much attention, "It's a blue and white disk, about ten centimetres in diameter, and about three centimetres in depth. This group of fallen were spotted looting the location it was seen, the guardian who reported it couldn't get close enough, but the report said that the team thought it was important.
"Any idea what it is?" Matt asked, throwing the bag aside, "Because if it's a bomb, I'm gonna shoot someone as soon as I'm back up."
"Matt, that's not a good...," Nova sighed heavily, materialising and moving over to the scorch on the floor where the Fallen captain had stood, "It's right there." Nova sighed again, "Look, the sooner we can get this back to the Praxic warlocks the better. We shouldn't really be working alone, but then again, this shouldn't be too hard of a contract." looking up at the sky, and the mountain dominating the view, "There's a vanguard black site up near the top, if you want to go and poke around. Or we could go and deliver the package, since we've found it now."
Matt turned around, pulling a gun out of the bag he was rummaging through, "Right, okay." He nodded, "I think I'm on some pretty shaky ground when it comes to the vanguard, so I guess I'll stay out of their black sites." He ambled over to the disk, flipping it over in his hands, "Well, it's not an Eliksni design." He shrugged, letting Nova transmat him back to the ship as it flew over.
-X-
She shoved the rifle away from her face, hearing the harsh whine snap of plasma discharge from the line rifle. Carina kept firing, keeping one eye on the other titan as her hammer crashed into the side of the vex, tearing through the metal, destroying the Vex entirely. A flick of the titan's hand sent the hammer spinning towards Carina's target, the hammer thudding against the Vex armour, melting a small hole in the plate. Carina shifted her aim, firing into the weakened area. The vex let out a metallic shriek as the bullets shredded its internals.
The other titan sighed, the sound rushing through the comms, "I thought they'd be less active around this gate. It hasn't been linked properly to anything in years."
"Well clearly we got something wrong then." Aodh snapped, her hammer ringing as it caved in the armour of a hydra, "The whole of the known gate network is lighting up, we need to get through there before we get overwhelmed." The hammer left her hand, cutting a golden line through the battlefield, the impact incinerating a small group of goblins some two hundred metres from her, "We'll clear a path, rally at the portal." She ordered, charging forwards, a new hammer forming in her fist.
Carina grinned, hauling her rocket launcher onto her shoulder, emptying both the tubes in front of her, charging forwards. She swung her fist into the side of the next Vex she came across, a hammer thudding into its side with a loud ring.
-X-
Aleeza reread the e-mail, dread creeping through her as she reread what Carina had said.
Any Vex activity was generally considered by the vanguard a bad thing, and Aleeza would have to agree with them. She remembered the fights against the Vex she'd had over the years, with and without help. The unrelenting pinpoint accurate shots from even the most diminutive of the Vex frames made them a pain to destroy, and the larger chassis had more armour and even more deadly weapons. If Pahanin's reports were accurate, as most acknowledged they were, they had faced much worse in the vault, creatures Pahanin said would haunt him till his death. She looked through the vanguard database for any mention of what Vex he had described.
Nothing.
Only Pahanin's reports of some giant Vex in the vault that they hadn't been able to kill. The Vex Kabr had fought alone.
If Carina was entering the Vex gate network, she could end up anywhere.
Aleeza stood, "Lena, we're going to Mercury."
