A/N: This one came a little late, but meh, only a few people seem to be reading this to care enough to comment. This is why I will finish the story on it's original plot path, I almost cut this story to about half, maybe even a third. But I give props to my friends who support me with this nonsense. As always, Bungie and Activision own Destiny, not me, if I did I wouldn't work as much as I do.
CH 5: Just another cog?
The remains of the Human country of Ukraine always had interested Watcher. He preferred this type of area, the brisk weather, the lush overflow of plants. It was perfect for his secretive nature, and it was also where he ran into the House he did jobs for.
A Fallen Skiff lazily flew over him and drifted to a stop a few hundred feet away as the pilot seemed to have spotted him on a Pike that was loaned to him by their House. The purring engine of the Pike died down as soon as he passed between a series of ruined buildings to approach the now disembarked Fallen Captain and his squad.
"That's far enough, Disowned!" A Dregg called out while raising one of its hands to stop him a mere hundred feet from the Skiff.
"You let an honor less cur address me in that manner?" Watcher snorted at one of the Vandals. Whose only response was a shrug and a non-committal grunt.
"You should feel lucky I am willing to address you, Disowned." The Captain had brushed a Vandal aside and was now standing more than a few heads taller than Watcher. "I should rip out your arms and send you to work in the Shank lines. You piece of filth." The Captain growled as it closed the distance to the smaller Vandal.
The Captain reached up and gently grabbed the end of the auburn fabric that was Watcher's mark. The Vandal didn't deem the Captain worth the effort to react more than to turn his head towards him
"This would look wonderful in my quarters, right under your mounted head. It will serve as a constant reminder to those who face me and don't know their place." The Captain was at a near hiss as he let go of the mark and was slowly reaching for a shock blade.
"Enough!" A far deeper voice called out. "This one is a guest to the Archon Priest, and you will do well to remember this, Captain!" A Baron roughly grabbed the Captain by the horned helmet and jerked him aside, throwing him into the fresh snow.
The Captain gave a defiant growl and watched as his support of Vandals quickly lowered their heads in acquiesce to the Baron. Knowing this battle lost the Captain gave a huff before pulling himself out of the snow and trudging over to the Skiff to await the cast off. He did manage to throw a small shoulder check into the Vandal the Baron was now conversing with.
"Captain, you will not wish to irk me. I will send you to Priest Durnisk to aid in his… Experiments." The Baron let that threat hang in the air as he watched all the troops stiffen in horror at the Archon Priest's name. "Load the Pike up troops! We head to the Ketch, we have our spoils."
"I don't need your aid all the time Baron Grutek." Watcher spoke up behind the massive Fallen. "Though I will say that it is much appreciated."
Grutek swung his cape around as he glared down at the Vandal. The massive piece of navy blue cloth surprised Watcher and forced him to skip backwards to avoid what he assumed was an attack, but dropped his guard when he saw the Baron shaking with mirth.
"I never would have thought you would ever appreciate anything the House of Thunder has done for you, Disowned. No, Watcher, that was the name you prefer now, wasn't it?" The Baron put one of his hands to his helmet in mock thought. "Adopting such a name, curious, don't you think?" He asked as he approached his Skiff and grabbed onto one of the mounting rails.
"No, I don't think about it. That is what you and your House is for, thinking, because the House of Kings is too lazy to do so." This comment sent Grutek into a fit of laughter as the pair entered the main hold and waited for the Dreggs to finish loading the Pike so they could take off.
As the Skiff left the area and turned to the north, Watcher could feel the tension in the air. The whole crew was staring at him and the Baron warily. They wouldn't do anything while their leader was there, but that didn't mean they would be docile. A few of the Dreggs turned their heads as Watcher's gaze passed over them.
The silence was almost as painful as being shot and it lasted for the hour and a half. That it took to get from the pickup point up past a small range of mountains and to the hidden Ketch of the House of Thunder.
Trying to see the thing from the viewport always hurt Watcher's eyes. The Archon Priest, Durnisk, had developed an experimental cloaking device that bent the light around the ship in a very disturbing way. He was not sure how creatures like Humans who had only two eyes dealt with it. But his four eyes struggled to focus on the grounded ship below, and that hurt his head.
"Alright, we are dropping you lot off here!" The Baron called to his men. "You will stay with me." He added to Watcher as the Skiff lowered to the platform allowing all of the Vandals and Dreggs to drop off.
The Skiff took back off and began to fly in an eastern direction, away from the Ketch. Watcher looked between the viewport and the Baron.
"Where are we going? I was supposed to meet with the Archon Priest!"
"We are meeting with Priest Durnisk, don't worry about that." Grutek assured him. "But we are meeting him in a different location. His experiments are, energetic to say the least."
Watcher gave Grutek a disbelieving look before settling back against the wall waiting to see where they were off to. He was getting tired of being yanked around by the House of Thunder, even if they did provide him his means to an end.
.
It had taken several hours for the Skiff to reach what appeared to be another rundown Human city. Watcher glanced over it quickly before doing a double take and squinting his eyes. He was somewhat glad that he was in the Thunder Skiff, and that a Baron was on his side. He would have been killed within two breaths of entering this desolate looking landscape.
Elite Stealth Vandals were everywhere and were hard to spot. These Fallen knew what they were doing, and if it wasn't for Watcher's own training with the different Houses he had dealt with he would have looked right over them without a second thought. He could see they were eyeing the Skiff suspiciously, even if it was marked properly. It appeared this place was guarded even more than the Thunder Ketch was. That didn't include the contingent of King's troops that were detached to secure the site as well.
Grutek grabbed onto a rail and shoved Watcher softly. Giving a chuckle before dropping through the hole beneath them with a massive thud and kicking up a cloud of snow. The nearest guards raising their rifles slightly in apprehension, but not aiming them above the waist. They wouldn't shoot without a good reason too, they were well trained and this impressed Watcher.
Following the Baron silently Watcher entered one of the buildings behind the massive Baron, feeling the stares of the other Fallen on the pair. They weren't the stares of distaste or hate, they were calculating and cold. Watcher shivered as he felt them assessing him and estimating his abilities and most likely calculating what was the fastest way to kill the Vandal. Grutek did not appear disturbed at all, but he had fallen silent and did not speak at all during their trek past security points where more and more King's warriors were present.
"I do not care if you were the Kell himself! These need results before I can hand them over!" A loud voice argued with someone, it was Durnisk. "Unless," there was a pause, "you and your ilk wish to test the weapons for me?" The hopefulness in the Priest's voice was bone chilling at best.
"Like I will let them be the test cases for your imagination!" Another deep voice countered with a huff. "Your House agreed to these terms, Priest Durnisk, do not push my Kell's patience, nor mine!" The other was speaking in a rage bordered whisper.
"Peace to you, Priest Aksor! The weapons will be ready and delivered soon! I have a contract dealing with the experiments, now settle yourselves with these armor modifications I finished."
Watcher could hear the shuffling of equipment as Durnisk was apparently dealing with the King's Archon Priest himself. Great, another giant overly important Fallen to deal with. He stopped himself from running into Grutek's back as the Baron was surrendering his weapons to the guards at the door they needed to enter. Watcher followed suit, but kept the ruined rifle to turn over to Durnisk. What he saw next however defied his own logic, and understanding of who Durnisk was.
The room was littered with armor and weapons of all makes and from all sides of this system. Schematics lined one wall where what appeared to be a junk pile had been growing for however long Durnisk had been at work. He even spotted a Guardian's jump ship tipped against one wall. This all paled in comparison to what was on the Archon Priest himself, a string of Ghost's were attached to his chest piece instead of a bandolier of grenades. The thing that surprised him the most about it, was that they still glowed with their inner light, they lived on the brink of death, but were kept alive by the mad Priest.
"You sure my men won't catch fire this time?" One of the Priests, Aksor, asked as he gazed at the components in his massive hands.
Durnisk snorted in disapproval. "I told you, Priest Aksor, that those modifications were highly volatile, and those Guardians were using Flare based munitions. So you can't shove the whole blame on me. The new one's fix that issue, and with an additional insulation to Arc for your less than happy Devil neighbors."
"Very well, Priest Durnisk, we will have these implemented for now." Aksor nodded in approval before passing the components back to the other Archon Priest. "Now I must go report this to my Kell, and Durnisk?"
"Yes?" Durnisk whose attention was already diverted to one of his trinkets on one of the many tables. He paused to look at Aksor.
"What of the other matter? If you can find us a manner to take the Wolves, well, another Ghost for your collection?" He pointed at Durnisk's chest.
"No, I am still prying these ones for data on how we can get into the Reef silently. A Ghost is tempting, but an Exo. I want to know what makes those machines tick. Bring me one of those and I'll learn something new for you and your House." Durnisk's attention was already back at whatever he was working on, not caring that Aksor was still standing there or when the other Priest left.
"Priest Durnisk, I present to you the contractor with your experiment." Baron Grutek spoke up after a clearing of his throat. "I will leave him to you, Priest." Grutek bowed and swiftly left the room.
Watcher looked up at the massive Fallen as his attention shifted to the Vandal, and Watcher felt incredibly small at the moment. The assessing gaze was back, but more in a manner of what made him work than how to kill him. That was even more unnerving than before, and he was hoping this would go quickly.
"Good work out there, too bad that my rifle didn't hold up like I intended, may I have it?" Durnisk had approached and had gingerly taken the offered rifle from Watcher so he could look at it closely. "Hrrmm... Barrel fused together, heat sink vent overloaded and sealed itself." Durnisk had wandered off and was scribbling notes with his lower arms while analyzing the gun with his other two. "Heat dispertion is the only problem now. I anticipated as such, and had prepared another rifle for you. It is over there." Durnisk lazily pointed towards one of the stands by the door before drifting off into mumbling again. "Oh, and the guards will take you to a Servitor for some Ether before you go out again. They will inform you on some activity you may be interested in."
Watcher bowed his head before grabbing the rifle and leaving as fast as his legs could carry him and was glad he could get more Ether before returning to work.
.
"This will never work, you know."
"Oh don't be so negative about this; I've done this plenty of times."
"No. I'm positive you have never done this before. Your records state you fought on Mars, Fallen activity on that planet was minimal at best. Too much Cabal activity for anything like this to work."
"I never said that I did this to any Fallen, only that I've done this before. Now shut up, you're going to give me away."
"On the Cabal? Didn't you do this with a rocket launcher, and didn't you die?" His Ghost reminded him, now clearly agitated.
Raz was attempting to be stealthy and had dragged several explosive charges with him as he had crawled his way towards a small Fallen encampment. The camp consisted mostly of Dreggs and Vandals, but one bigger bastard seemed to order them around. His Ghost, Twinkles, called the thing a Baron. If he killed that he would have helped the Tower a lot in dealing with some airspace issues.
The snow on the ground helped to muffle his movements and he was sure that there was a layer of snow on his armor that helped conceal him a little more. It had been snowing for the last three days, and Raz hated the stuff. But no it was his tool for getting in close towards his target, the huge walking tank that seemed to be outfitted for anti-air.
Using his newfound stealth abilities was harder than he had anticipated and he was struggling with getting any closer to where he was now. He had passed the initial lines of sentries and what appeared to be prefab shelters of some kind. He never expected this many Fallen to be here in this area, and was just tempted to stand up and just tear them apart from where he had gotten. But he knew the walker was a problem for him alone, and it was the first time he would fight one, so he didn't know the weak spots.
Lost in thought he pulled himself out of his thoughts as he almost ran into the leg of the walker.
"Hey, you weren't planning on using all of that were you?" His Ghost quietly asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, to kill this you should only need like, two to four. I'll do the math for you." He could hear the Ghost thinking out loud and doing something along the lines of "carry the two."
"Yeah, no dice, remember this always. No kind of kill like overkill." He took in a sharp breath as he adjusted so he could reach into his pack. "Well, here we go." He mumbled as he crawled under it and placed the charges on the inside of the "knees" as well as a few extra on the underbelly. "That should be enough."
"Enough?! You used all of it!" Twinkles practically yelled into his ear. "I don't think you thought this out too well did you?"
"I thought it out perfectly. I blow this thing back to space, and then I get to work." He calmly explained to his Ghost as he made it to the first of the structures.
"I think I may have done something to your personality when I put you back together." Twinkles sighed aloud.
"Stupid machine, don't sweat the small stuff. You wanted me, you got me. Now we do your end of the deal."
"No way. Not happening."
"Come on! I won't blow this bitch apart until you do it."
"Why must I do this? It wouldn't change a thing if I didn't do it."
"Just humor me, please? Plus, you got to do it now. I think the jig is up."
Raz watched as a group of Dreggs moved closer to the walker to inspect the placement of the charges. One of them pointed at it and squawked something to the Fallen next to it. Raz just primed the detonator and in the other hand gripped his rocket launcher.
"Do it!" Raz hissed.
"Ugghh… Fine!" The Ghost materialized and floated up high enough to where it could be seen. It waited until Raz had clambered his way up onto the building and picked the rocket launcher again. The Ghost played at clearing its throat before broadcasting on a loudspeaker in the Fallen language.
"Murder time!"
.
On the same snow covered tundra on a nearby ridge Raz's fire team stood over watch for him. The glint of the brief peeks of sunlight reflected off of the sniper scope as Jo watched the camp below. She would follow him and watch as he barely avoided a Dregg or a Vandal and slowly crawl on.
"Why are you so interested in that Human?" Archivia's voice came from behind Jo.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for one we already have a Titan on our fire team. Reason two I thought you weren't interested in finding a relationship." Archivia counted off the reasons behind her friend. "For reason two and a half, I wasn't sure you swung that way."
"Say what? Just because I don't pick up every dude I see doesn't mean any of that would be true!" Jo swung her head back to glare at her companion. "Also, who are you to talk? I bet your sex life is about as dead as Raz's, and he has been dead for what, over a hundred years or so?"
Jo returned her attention back to the field below to ignore the very flustered Archivia. The Warlock decided a dignified silence would be better than arguing with the Titan.
"Oh shit! He's going to do it!" An excited Jo reported to Archivia as she stared through the scope of her sniper rifle. She watched him load his rocket and toss it onto the building before awkwardly climbing on top himself.
"I told you he would." Archivia replied in an obviously forced bored tone as she started to read her book. She sat on a small camping stool and had a small heater next to her that now had a pot of tea placed on top. "Looks like you lose the bet."
"Hey, the bet will not be completed until I see some fucking results!" She snapped back.
That was when they heard it echo across the landscape in all of its glory, in Jo's opinion. Archivia only placed the palm of her hand on her face and breathed in slowly.
"Murder time!"
The following explosion was far over the top, to say the least. Through her scope Jo watched the nearest Dreggs just vaporize instantly. Several other Fallen were launched several hundred feet around the blast radius and some went airborne. She watched Raz smack away a flying Vandal with his rocket launcher before firing the first shot towards the panicking Baron.
The Baron didn't have time to dodge the rocket and the shield was depleted so the Baron took the brunt of the explosive and fell on its back in pain. It tried to get back to its feet but was knocked back down by Raz who had left his position on the building to deal with the stragglers.
.
Raz kicked the Baron in the side, breaking one of its four arms in the process and forcing it to fall onto its side. The Baron groaned in pain as it tried to fend off Raz's next kick and the mounting attempt the Human made. But it was powerless to the massive human.
"Nighty-night!" Raz shouted before charging his fist with Arc energy and striking the Baron in the head, killing it and tearing it apart in a burst of energy and leaving nothing left.
He barely had enough time to react as the wounded Captain leapt at him and latched onto his back. Giving off some guttural war cry the Captain wrapped it's hands around Raz's throat and the man fought back with a series of punches and kicks. He could feel the grip weaken, but the Fallen wouldn't give in and attempted to pull Raz off the ground.
"Don't worry Raz! I got this fucker!" He heard Jo's voice over their com link. Raz's eyes looked up and he could see the ridge, how in the Hell did she plan on taking down this Captain? They were both nearly the same size, unless- the sound of a sniper rifle and a brief lance of pain told him what her plan was. "Fuck! It didn't die! Hold on Raz!"
Before Raz could even groan out a reply he heard a series of more shots, and he could feel his armor right around his shoulders getting torn up. He was going to hurt her for this, but he needed to get out of this Captain's grip first. It didn't take long for the Captain to fall on it's back dead and Raz onto his face, coughing up blood. He was lucky his Ghost could pull his bits back together and fix him in moments. He could feel his body regenerating and the blood flow slowing after a few minutes of him swearing into the radio. He pushed himself up slowly to test if he wasn't about to die again and was satisfied that all of Fallen squad had been dealt with.
"Alright you little shit, let's go back and collect that bounty. I think someone owes me dinner and a bottle of whiskey." Raz spoke into the link created by his Ghost.
"Yeah, yeah, I know what I owe you, now get your ass back to the Tower first. Let's go guys." Jo's obviously disappointed tone carried over the frequency before the blip that represented her on his HUD vanished.
Raz didn't wait long to follow her up and he felt the sense of vertigo before he was being taken to his ship that was safely in orbit.
.
"Did you scan the wreckage in the area?"
"I am, that Titan did a number on the Fallen camp though. It's hard to distinguish what are ships and what is the newly departed walker." There was a pause as the sound of a Ghost scanning. "Here is something. I want you to look into it for me, Snow."
"Well you know I will. I have more data for you too; I'm transferring it to your Ghost now." Snow responded quietly. "You haven't told them yet, have you?"
"No, I don't know if I can trust the Human yet. Jo does, but only time will tell with him."
"Be careful Archivia. Some of my data indicates some Guardians are involved somehow, I can't point out how. But until we clear his name, be wary." Snow advised before he killed the connection.
Archivia looked at the landscape before calling herself back to her ship and taking off towards the Tower.
"Humans and Fallen working together? What is happening to this universe?" She commented to herself.
Post A/N: Well I hope everyone liked this. IF you did, leave a comment or a review. You know, that would be nice. Also, Archivia belongs to RC927 and Watcher with the new Snow belong to Reilly.216. I truly appreciate the help these two have given me. So just remember, Keep on Keepin' on!