A/N: Sorry this took so long to finish! I work for more than half the day everyday and recently it has been out of control. So I apologize profusely and will tell you this story will not die quietly, and it may go out rather sloppy if my pace keeps me from constant typing of this story. So, sorry again. As usual, I do not own Destiny, that belongs to Activision and Bungie. Now my favored readers, enjoy!
CH. 7 Chasing shadows
The vastness of space has always intrigued mankind, and many other sapient species. This was the problem for Humanity. It had too many neighbors, and no one wanted to play nice with each other.
The constant thrum of the Human heavy frigate, Golden Trident, could be heard within its bulkheads by the crew and felt through the deck plating. This sound was rather soothing, but was interrupted by the constant chatter of crewmembers and maintenance personnel in the hangar of the ship.
"I'm telling you man, a guy I know in OPS told me this shit!" One of the several standing together whispered to his fellow workers. Their green painted suits and helmets designated them as maintenance and one man in purple, a fuel junkie.
"Man, don't go spreading this around the scuttlebutt. You know that is how people get thrown under the bus." Another in green whispered back. Looking over his shoulders quickly to make sure their supervisor was elsewhere.
"Why would I lie about this?" The first one shot back. "He told me they had gotten a few pings off of what looked like Seeder and Tomb ships! The Hive pushed past the Belt!"
"That would mean that they are either headed for Phobos or bypassing for Venus. We are off rotation with Earth currently." The man in purple pointed out.
"All these are rumors and speculations, we need fact. But just for the sake of curiosity. Smit! What do you think?" Another man called over to one of the few actually working on what looked like a bomber.
"I think you should all shut up, spreading rumors will just unsettle everyone, and then we lose work efficiency. So come on."
When Smit turned back to work he felt the ship come to a halt, and a severe heat wash over him. The sounds of yelling filled the air and he closed his eyes to focus on blocking out the sound. When he opened them he was holding a rifle in one of the passageways of the Trident. Several crew members were with him and the white flood lights had been switched for the dim red emergency lights. That was when the yelling turned into panicked screams.
Looking down he noticed they were at a barricade and the center could be swiveled in like a door. They were evacuating the Trident, the Hive had boarded them in a surprise attack. The initial defenses had been overrun in moments, and now the Hive were effectively hunting down any survivors. Smit had been gathered with a few others to hold certain points to allow more essential personnel to get to the escape pods and make sure the majority of the crew survived.
That was the plan. But it wasn't working all too well.
The piles of the Hive plus whatever remained of any Humans that the monsters had gotten to them first was strewn out before the barricade, and with the constant screams and howls. They knew that more people and Hive were coming and this was going to be a long night.
"We got another incoming!" A woman called out as she spotted a man come barreling around the corner and tried to maintain his balance as he ran over the bodies of the dead. "Open up the gate!" She called out and one of the men went to unlatch it.
"Oh fuck man! They're behind me!" The man called as another howl was heard and a pack of Thralls rushed around the corner followed by a trio of Acolytes.
"Get down! Get the fuck down man!" Someone yelled before gunfire erupted and forced the man to dive to the deck for safety.
The first wave of Thralls was cut down almost instantly and was quickly replaced by more of the hungry beasts. The cover fire from the Acolytes only gave the Thralls the chance to get within feet of the man before they were cut down by auto fire.
When the man had effectively made it through the barricade the little gate was swung shut and locked. It wouldn't do much to stop the Hive from advancing, but it would still give them some cover or if they needed to run they could and right now that seemed like the best plan.
After the last of the Acolytes hit the floor the little organization that this the crew had crumbled.
"Fuck this! Everyone to the lifeboats! Let's get going!" A woman yelled before turning on her heel and taking off down the passageway. Others quickly followed yelling for her to wait up.
"Shit! Come on Smit! They are going to leave our asses!" One of the men yelled as he took a quick look back down where the Hive had come.
Smit turned to run and seemed to be immediately at the escape pods squeezing his frame through the door and into one of the crash seats. He unfortunately seemed to get one near the door, and that led to the next problem in this crazy set of events.
A Thrall had decided to come inside with them.
"Fuck! Close the damned door!" Smit yelled as he was now grappling with the monster that was all teeth and claws. "Hurry up and-GAAHH!"
Smit's yell was cut off as the sudden rocking of the pod forced him closer to the Thrall and it managed to wrench one of its arms free to swipe at Smit. The claws dug into his shoulder and carried on down through his collar bone and him placing his arm at his chest saved him from letting it rip out his heart.
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Raz woke up suddenly and jerked up in pain as he snapped his eyes open to not see the Thrall, but Jo's quarters. He slowed down his breathing as he closed his eyes and fell back onto what he assumed was the living room couch. He could feel his legs dangling off of one side and bitterly thought that she needed larger furniture.
Raz looked down and saw his scarred arm; his own resurrection did not get rid of the scars of his previous life. He lifted it and placed it on the top of his chest near his collar bone. This is where the rest of his scar would keep going up, and it reminded him that he wasn't invincible.
Hearing a small noise he turned to see Jo blearily walking into the room and rubbing one eye while the other was only cracked open. She covered up a yawn and stretched as she stopped several feet from her guest. He watched her carefully as her shirt went up to expose her stomach, and Raz turned his head away trying to hide his blush.
"Don't be so bashful now, babe. After last night I don't think you could be reserved anymore." She commented as she plopped down on the coffee table in front of the couch with a sly grin.
"Last night?"
"Oh yeah, it was great."
"Are you being serious? I don't remember doing anything at all."
"Yeah, it was when you got wasted and climbed the damn tree, sorry, I mean the 'Robot'."
Raz held his head in his hands and groaned. What the Hell happened last night? All he could remember was that after Corde had left that club and Jo came over. She had bought a large bottle of a florescent orange liquid. He was hesitant because of the glow, but it tasted awesome. Apparently it caused him to black out.
"It's true; we had to get a bunch of other Titans to get you out of that tree. A Hunter tried to but you picked him up like Donkey Kong and threw his ass out." She watched Raz for a reaction and continued. "You proceeded to go all out and claimed that he had not been worthy of your 'robot' friend. That's when the Titans stepped in and more or less smoked you out."
"How did it get that far? You didn't cut me off?" He pulled his head out of his hands to give her an accusatory glare.
"Hey! I had to leave, got a call from Archivia, said some guy has a special assignment for us. Has to do with all those Fallen patrols we have been wiping out. By the time I got back you had left the bar and had migrated to the tree out by the gunsmith pavilion." Jo got up and started to walk away. "So get your shit together, we leave in two hours for the wilds of Old Russia."
Raz watched her go and shook his head as she turned past the doorframe. He couldn't believe he let himself lose control last night. He grimaced as he stood from the couch and hissed at the contact the cold floor made with his feet.
"Damnit, where are my shoes?"
.
The Thunder Skiff was lazily floating along the wilderness that was Old Ukraine. The flight was rather uneventful after the crew had dealt with the Captain from the House of Venom. Sorric, that was a name to remember for the future. Watcher made sure to burn that name into his brain in case he ever ran into that ferocious creature in his future.
Grutek pushed his way towards Watcher and looked down at the Vandal skeptically before asking the obvious question.
"Was it worth that price? Was whatever you gained worth the dishonor of another?"
"For a Thief, yes." No hesitation, no remorse and no emotion. He would not let anything detract from this victory he had achieved.
"Well, that is your own path. But we must split ways here. We will drop you off with the Pike, but I have been summoned by the Kell to represent him." Grutek's chest puffed with pride as he spoke. "The Wolves have been harassing the borders off all the Houses and many of the Kells have called for a ceasefire to meet and discuss what must be done about that House. They call under the premise that we should discuss assisting one another and split the Reef between all the Houses who go and fight. I personally think that it is a trap, and that any who go will die." The dark chuckle that followed was full of mirth.
"Well, Baron Grutek, I wish you honor and glory in your fights ahead." Watcher cited and bowed his head in respect while placing a fist on his chest.
"May your aim stay sharp and your blade never still in the hunt." Grutek responded as he bowed his head back towards Watcher. "Now we must not keep the other Barons waiting, we must show up to aid the Kings since they can't even dress themselves without our aid."
His voice had picked up in the end and the cabin erupted into laughter as the Baron took a shot at their 'employers'. He proceeded to pull at a hatch and motioned for Watcher to jump down so that the Pike could be dropped after him and the Skiff could be on its way.
Watcher peeked through the open hatch and saw that the snowy ground had come to a stop, or better said, the Skiff had and he took that chance to leap through the circular hole and to the ground below. He could hear that the crew didn't wait long and that the Pike was detached shortly after he dropped.
The snow did little to cushion his fall and seemed to be more crunchy than anything, a thin layer of ice over the top made this so. He heard the solid thump of the Pike collide with the snow behind him, the repulsor pads did little to slow down the secondhand machine.
Watcher grunted in annoyance as the Skiff lazily floated away and left him in the cold. He would survive, the Fallen were very adaptable, but he wouldn't be happy with this. Especially after he began to inspect the Pike, it was definitely a used machine. Several pieces of the armor plating were missing and exposing the interior wires as well as the power nodes. This thing would catch fire in a heartbeat if looked at wrong, let alone get shot at.
His speculations were cut short as he heard the higher pitched sound of a jet engine, a Guardian ship. He was alone in foreign territory, a banged up Pike, and a Guardian was now about to pass by. Hopefully the creature of 'Light' would pass him by. But his luck sometimes would just give him a backhand to the face some days.
The jumpship that he had heard was flying low and slow, and it apparently had spotted the Skiff when it stopped and dropped him off. It was coming to investigate and Watcher needed to get hidden fast, and so he took off at a sprint for a small gathering of rocks. It was an obvious place, but it would give him a chance to set up a shot from most angles.
.
Snow had seen the Skiff stop and drop a single Vandal and a Pike. It normally wouldn't have caught his interest, but through the zoomed in screen of his ship he saw it was the Thief that had interrogated the Devil. He needed to talk with that Thief and it seemed that he had been granted that chance.
He felt himself become pulled apart and put back together on the ground as his Ghost Trans-matted him to the frozen earth below. The icy snow crunched under his boots and he was glad he wore his thicker robe today. His HUD was telling him that it was dipping into the negatives, and it was only the morning still.
He shook himself off as he kept his hands away from his body and scanned the surrounding area, letting his eyes hesitate on the lone Pike for a moment. He knew that any creature with any intelligence wouldn't use that for cover, and would get some distance between itself and the vehicle. That only left the patch of rocks about forty feet to his right, and he could feel the crosshairs on him now.
He swallowed a lump in his throat as he slowly made his way to the rocks, and was certain that he was definitely being watched. He didn't want to make any sudden moves and raised a hand to signify he was being peaceful.
"I am unarmed!" He called out as non threateningly as possible. "I only wish to discuss something, maybe make a deal with you!"
The silence that followed was heavy, and he swallowed hard again. Maybe this wasn't going to work?
"No kill!" A voice in rough English called out. "I no kill! You no kill! We have deal?"
"You have my word! As a Warlock of the Tower!"
The Fallen, a Vandal, slowly left the cover with it's rifle half raised. It was ready to fight if Snow posed any threat to it. But he didn't plan on aggravating the being much here, he needed to get something. The Vandal stopped about ten feet or so from him and looked around warily.
"You make deal?" The Vandal offered, the English was evidently self taught and was rough around the edges. But he seemed to understand the language well enough.
"Yes, I saw you, with the Venom and the Devil." He watched as the Vandal tilted his head to the side, good, that meant that he was thinking. "I want to know things that the Devil knew. I know you took something from him before he died. I want that."
The Vandal appeared to be thinking it over hard and had not come to a violent conclusion, his gun was now lowered and almost seemed to be forgotten.
"You look for Thief?"
"I don't know, but that Captain was connected to the Wolves somehow, and I need to figure that out soon."
"We make deal, this has location. You help me kill. Deal?"
Location? Well that might help him figure something about the Wolves sudden outburst towards Fallen held territories on Earth.
"Deal."
.
"You in position?"
"Yes, mom, I'm waiting on you two."
"Smartass, how about you Raz? You ready?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. As ready as I'll ever be. But answer me one thing, okay?"
"What's that?" Archivia and Jo answered at the same time.
"Why the Hell are you two using the radios to talk in the same room? Also, why the Hell am I the bait/counterweight?"
"Well why wouldn't we use a radio? We're trying to be fucking sneaky!"
"Plus." Archivia added on to Jo's argument. "You are the heaviest and the only one that can get this thing up."
Raz gave them both a deadpan stare behind his helmet before looking down into the ruined street from their vantage point. They had just gotten there after what looked like a turf war between Fallen Houses and had gotten lucky with what the two groups had left behind. One of which was apparently a high powered Fallen processing unit for their data. The area below must have been a camp for it to be there, and it was marked with a Wolves logo.
"Why don't we just have one of our Ghosts mine it for data? You know, and not have to take it to wherever you are going to tell me to carry it to." Raz groaned as he secured a composite rope to his waist. He looked out the window as Archivia dropped down and glided gently to the rubble below. "Too damn high." He muttered as he watched her wrap the other end of his rope to the giant piece of tech.
"Have you noticed something odd?" Jo asked suddenly. "It's really quiet here. The Fallen just seem, gone." She shrugged her shoulders lamely as Raz gave her a look.
"Jo's right, the two groups pulled out, and haven't come back to reclaim any salvage. This is strange." Archivia's voice came in over the radio.
"Don't jinx us you two, it would be nice for an easy mission for once." Raz inserted his opinion as he tested the rope and sighed before jumping out the window.
He watched as the rope went taut and felt it slow his fall as the piece of tech they were scavenging started to lift rapidly and it passed him quickly. His boots crunched the frozen pavement and he looked around cautiously for any sign of the Fallen. Nothing, it really seemed to be abandoned.
"Where the fuck is everyone?" He muttered. "Hey Archivia, where are we taking this?"
"We are going to just hold it in the building until we get coordinates from my contact. Until then, we will try to take as much data as we can, it's safer up there than trying to mine it from down here." She looked between where Raz and Jo were and turned on the frequency jammer that Snow had provided her. According to her friend's last message they were close and couldn't get the Tower involved. If they operated without the Tower's obvious aid, if they messed up the Tower would get off easy, that was the plan at least.
.
Guardians of all kinds had gathered at the entrance to the room where the Vanguard held council. There were several guards posted outside the sealed doors as the warriors of the Light yelled and threatened to get in. It was a terrible day in the Tower's history.
"I don't think I need to explain how bad the situation is, Speaker." Commander Zavala's voice was powerful enough to cut through the muffled shouts of the Guardians outside.
"An outright rebellion of Guardians, the closing of the Awoken Embassy and Venus' Ishtar Sparrow system shut down causing the deaths of Guardians all over the Ishtar Sink." Cayde-6 counted off. "That's not bad, Commander, that is horrific. We don't need a pissed of Awoken fleet to invade us while our Guardians are pushing us to go in and kill them first!"
"A lot of Awoken died at that hub, we are still trying to find out who fired first. The Guardians there, or that Awoken team that had responded to some call." Ikora commented dryly. "Too many died for something no one understands."
The Speaker of the Traveler held his chin in his hand as he thought quietly. When the leaders of the Vanguard had finished their pieces he sighed sadly.
"Too many are thinking of why it started, and not how we can finish it." He began softly. "Cayde you are right, we cannot afford a war with the Reef, even if our Guardians try to force our hand. They were all told to walk their own paths in the Light, but this will lead them to enter the Darkness if we are not careful in how we handle this. I will contact the Queen again and ask for a negotiation to happen at a sooner date." The Speaker folded his hands behind his back as he looked at the Vanguard leaders who were leaning on the table. "Now I feel that there is dissent among some of our own, find the few and we can stop it from destroying us before the Darkness can."
The leaders all nodded and watched as the Speaker left out a side passage.
"You catch all that Travis?" Cayde looked over his shoulder at a Hunter he had pulled aside before they sealed the doors. "We need you to find and track down these people who could be our own."
The Hunter nodded as he drew his pistol and checked the sight on it.
"I want access to communication logs, I want to know who was there, and if anyone is blocking themselves to the Tower. Because if they are, they wouldn't have gotten your recall message for all Guardians."
Cayde nodded as he went through some data and when he found the appropriate files, transferred them to Travis' Ghost.
"Good hunting, and may you walk in the Light."
"Thank you, and I will be swift." The man commented before trans-matting to his ship to study the list and narrow it down.
Today was his lucky day, only about forty Guardians or so had been jamming the Tower, three on Venus. With a little more digging, three others were associated with the first three. He had his first targets. Fireteam Orion which consisted of Jo, Raz, and Archivia. They had last been logged into the Old Russia Sparrow hub, that's where he would start.
Post A/N: So I feel like I kind of rushed the end. But yeah, it happens when I don't have a whole lot of time anymore. So only expect sporadic updates, sorry. I hope it gives you all a hint at what I am planning.
Archivia belongs to RC927
Snow and Watcher are Reilly.216
and the new Travis belongs to LazyPersons, which I have to thank you. You gave me the right Guardian at the right time!
Keep on keepin' on Guardians!
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