A/N: It's been a long time coming, and I want to apologize. I've been working overseas for several months, and will be home in a few weeks. So chapters will flow out much faster! I promise, well, mostly promise! Other than that, I felt several parts of this chapter were not as great as they could have been. So I hope you enjoy this chapter!
CH. 9- Ultimate Mayhem
Rhythmic tapping filled the stale air and would have been quite enjoyable, if it wasn't coming from the knife tapping the Engram that Sage had set aside for later. The Warlock looked up from his workstation at the other Exo at his work station and gave him an agitated huff before trying to refocus on his project.
"Will you simply stop that ridiculous tapping?" Nope, no focus in what he was doing, whatsoever. His eyes shot back up and he glared at the Hunter.
"Only if you come with me and help restore order." Entity replied while increasing the pace of his tapping.
"What are you going on about? Did you lose something on a Bounty again?"
"No." The reply came out sharper than he had intended, but he noted that Sage didn't look offended at all. "Sushi… There is a riot going on outside the Vanguard's chambers. We need to go help."
"They have the Titan Guard."
"The Titans are stuck and can't advance into the courtyard. The majority of the Guardians are being indifferent toward the small rebellion. They want to leave the Tower to work, so they are letting this play out."
"Say we do help, I don't even have a wea-"
"You won't need one, I just need a spotter." Entity quickly cut off Sage. Seeing the other Exo was hesitating he pressed his advantage. "C'mon Sushi, help me out with this for old time's sake?" He could clearly see the conflict passing over the other Exo now.
He felt triumphant about the decision the Warlock was about to make. That was until he reached under his desk and pulled out his old helmet. He didn't place it on his head, just stared at it. Like the small black visor would tell him all the secrets he could ever want.
Where were these musings coming from? Entity shrugged as he just let it pass off as simple boredom. Sushi's life could be exciting, even if it only existed in Entity's head.
"Alright, let's go save the day again. Where are we headed to?" The other Exo's optics focused on Entity as he turned his helmet around to place on his head. Standing as he did so.
"That's the spirit! Now hurry up you piece of outdated tech."
"Hey!"
It took the two only moments to reach the now crater ridden plaza. It appeared that the fighting had indeed been pushed to here. Pockets of Guardians could be seen fighting one another, and using the various booths and the storage pillars as cover.
"Well this is unsettling." Sushi commented as he watched what appeared to be a Hunter was blasted by a Titan's grenade. The poor man was launched through the air and crashed to the ground near the pair with as much grace as he did on take-off, none.
Something caught the older Exo's eyes but he didn't dwell on that for long as Entity was currently tugging on his cloak to get him to move. With one last look at the body he followed his friend up what seemed a complicated maneuver to reach the top of the storage pillars. Where, oddly enough, a few birds sat on the edge uncaring for the firefight and literal fire beneath them.
"You can bird watch later! I need you to spot for me!"
"Right, right!" Sushi complied as he dropped to his stomach and peered over the edge, hoping to avoid any incoming fire.
Entity settled his rifle down and peered through the scope and called out his first target. With a quick confirmation from Sushi, he pulled the trigger. The stun rounds he had loaded did their job well. The first shot put down one rebellious looking Titan in a rather hysterical fit of electricity.
A few more had been dropped and Sushi began to notice something else. He looked through a pair of binoculars he had to get a closer look at one of the fallen rioters. There was an odd looking patch that was obviously attempted at being covered up.
"Entity." Sushi began. "These riots I believe are orchestrated."
"What makes you say that?" The other Exo asked as he pulled his head away from the scope.
"I'm looking at what appears to be an Awoken Hunter, at our 1:30. Left arm, take a good look and tell me what you see."
The sniper took his time to find the called out target and to analyze what Sushi was going on about. He felt his servos freeze in their processes as he tried to recognize the symbol that had been what looked like it had been hastily burned.
"Commandos, from the Reef. Looks like the Intel and Counter Terrorism." Entity now recognized it, Sushi had just confirmed it to him. "Wasn't that Joanna's unit before she became a Guardian?" Entity nodded silently. That was one of the things Jo had divulged to him and a select few others. She had been a commando with the Reef and they had been very effective at what they did.
An anti-terrorist unit was now causing riots on the Tower and acting very much like terrorists. It made some sort of morbid sense; they knew how terrorists operated and how to put them down. They could use their training and experience to be the perfect terrorists.
This was bad. Oh so very bad, and they needed to let the Vanguard and the Speaker know just what was going on.
.
A sudden jerking motion brought Raz back into the land of the conscious. He groaned and felt the pain of his resting joints going back into motion, coupled with the stiffness from his body healing itself while he had blacked out. Again.
"Twinkles."
"Yes?" The Ghost materialized near Raz's head.
"I've really got to kick this damned habit of mine." He made a sweeping gesture to the inside of the hold of his jump ship as if explaining it all. "I'm tired of waking up on the deck of my damned ship, feeling like hammered shit." He let his hands fall back to the floor as he refused to move from his prone position.
"I think I understand what you mean." His Ghost calmly stated as it floated away from his tormented companion.
"No you don't." Raz continued and raised one hand with a finger extended as if making some great point. "I want to feel like that after a night at the bar. Drinking until I can do whatever I want and then wake up promising myself never again." He paused to let his hand fall back down and laid it on his chest. "It's a cycle; you don't drink so you don't know about it."
"Trust me, I know all about it, Guardian. I see you do it with that horrid woman all the time." The Ghost nimbly dodges the half-hearted swing that Raz swung it's way. But it wasn't prepared for a second contender and was sent flying as a boot had connected with the small piece of Light.
"The fuck you mean by that?!" Jo planted her boot on Raz's chest as she watched the multi-colored Ghost recover from it's unpredicted flight. Raz only groaned about something being heavy before the weight increased and all his breath was shoved out. Shushing any other complaints he had about breathing or the fact she was had a boot planted on his fingers. He'd be fine after a few minutes.
"I… Er… I didn't mean you, Joanna." The Ghost was backing itself slowly away from the Awoken Titan and was slightly relieved that it was clearly out of her reach.
"Is that so? Is Raz going to the bar with other people that I'm not aware of?" She asked in a mock-sweet voice as she pushed more of her weight on Raz. His sole response was a long wheeze; she could tell he didn't care for her theatrics at this moment. Only wanting her to get off of him so he could breathe easily again.
"What are you doing here, Jo?" Raz finally managed to ask from his spot on the deck beneath her. "Cause last I checked this is still my ship." He finally decided he had enough of her stepping on him and he pushed her foot off of him so he could sit up. The woman flailed her arms as all the weight she had placed on him was displaced.
"Yeah, well you took your time waking up and we arrived at the edge of the Reef. You know, to start up Archivia's mad scheme to save the universe." Jo quickly finished righting herself from when she was just caught off-balance. "Or some bullshit like that. I honestly just hope we can walk away from this all in one piece."
She held out a hand and Raz took the offered hand and allowed himself to be pulled up by the smaller woman. He shook himself a few times to get the stiffness out of his joints and reached up to pop his neck a few times. He sighed happily as the Awoken only shook her head in slight disgust, she hated the sound of joints poping.
"Just get up to the flight station so we can start. We are getting behind schedule." She shuddered again as she pulled her Ghost out and returned to her own ship. Allowing Raz to climb the ladder behind him into the flight station and seat himself.
Not long after being seated he was bombarded by tactical displays and readouts from the various instruments just below eye level. His ship's hull read green across the board, as well as the layer of the energy shield around that. His armaments read to be nearly full, minus two tactical missiles. The radiation shielding was optimal, and didn't seem to be weakening anytime soon so he was safe from the hard radiation of the Reef. One indicator even told him he was currently level with what was considered the gravitational pull of the cluster of asteroids and clouds.
He tapped at a few displays to acknowledge the fact that they had indeed finished pre-flight checks and to dismiss any errors in alignment. Such trivial things, but it brought back a sense of familiarity to the past technician. He could remember that much of his old life, thankfully.
"Alright everyone!" Jo's voice suddenly came in over the transmitter. Raz quickly reached over and pulled at a nob, Jo's face took over one of the screens. "There is a Fallen skiff already in the Reef that will be leading us to a Ketch. Which according to our friendly Warlocks is a den of Thieves." She paused as not a sound followed her joke. "I'm being serious. It's the House of Thieves and they are planning something huge according to the things Archivia tells me."
"Yes. They seem to have been planning this for almost two decades." Archivia chimed in and Raz reacted quickly by pulling another nob and her face appeared on the screen next to Jo's. "Well that was when I stumbled onto a cache of information a few years back and was able to learn of these plans, partially."
Another voice started up and forced Raz to pull a third nob in the set so he could see the helmeted head of another Warlock. The mysterious Snow that Archivia had mentioned to them a few times.
"That was a few years ago. Our similar research forced us to meet when we realized someone else was hunting for these pieces of information." He explained quickly. Even though to Raz, it seemed the man had a slow and calm voice. It disoriented him slightly. "But there was one thing we are able to confirm, that one House was planning on annexing itself from their Kell, the Queen of the reef."
Raz looked at the different screens and wanted the most forefront question answered.
"Why the fuck should we care if the Fallen want to rebel against those asshats?" Jo suddenly blurted out and caught Raz completely by surprise.
"Well, they intend to involve the Tower, and as many Houses that they could get their hands on." Snow informed them. "Based off of what I had found the Thieves are orchestrating a series of schisms within the Reef and the Tower. As of today riots broke out at the Tower."
The hum from the different jumpships' engines was the only sound for several seconds. No one dared break the stillness of the moment, trying not to cause any adverse reaction.
"The fuck?!"
Never mind, adverse reaction was achieved regardless of either of the Warlocks staying silent.
"That doesn't matter now, Raz, what matters are that we will be entering the Reef to destroy the House of Thieves and their plans." Archivia told him over the channel before alerts and alarms filled the flight station.
Grumbling in annoyance Raz pulled the last nob and looked at the stern expression an Awoken pilot was giving him. She seemed to recoil slightly at the nearly growling Human before remembering her authority.
"By all that is holy and good in this world! What the fuck do you people want?" Raz shouted at the Awoken.
This turned out to be a poor idea as Twinkles announced to Raz that the interceptor and her wingmen had missile locks and were preparing to fire on them.
.
"Fucking disgusting creatures." Calrus, an Awoken Warlock spat as he watched two Dreggs drag away the body of their dead comrade.
Calrus shook his gloved hands attempting to get the Fallen's blood off of him. Luckily there wasn't much and he was soon becoming bored again. These little "spars" he had with the local Fallen never really lasted very long, and the House of Thieves fought hard to keep him away from their warriors. Or what had apparently passed for warriors in this pitiful House that schemed in the shadows.
He looked up idly towards his "Fireteam". Their Titan, Corde sat calmly on top of one of the tables and was staring off at one of the walls with a hand propped under his chin and not paying attention to anything around him. The massive Awoken would occasionally snap back into the real world and check a data pad that he used for messaging and the like. Corde preferred to stay with the more common system than with the Ghost network that all the Guardians preferred. Calrus knew who Corde was messaging, and it irked him, but he left it alone for now.
The other member of his team was a Hunter, or so she claimed. Alias was what she called herself when he had first met her, and she was the one who had recruited Corde, obviously after much effort to turn the other soldier of Light into their own loyal soldier. The woman had a knack for connecting with other people, and things, he noted dully as he noticed what she was doing. Alias made him sick with the amount of tolerance she gave to the other species, and she was currently busy chatting with the Kell of the House of Thieves.
He tried to move closer to the woman who was busy talking towards their small communication unit. The Kell seemed to be in good spirits as he didn't hear any threats or dismissive grunts coming from his end. In the end it seemed more like a conference call, he couldn't really find it in himself to care anymore about what they were talking about.
His eyes lingered on Alias a little longer before he walked over to the table where Corde sat. The man never acknowledged his presence, it didn't matter. Calrus didn't quite trust the Fallen and felt more comfortable beating them to a pulp or with the Titan when he was not in the mood to tear any of them apart. It was amazing however that he had agreed to do this little deal in the first place. Especially with how low he had esteemed the Fallen, but Alias had gotten them to follow her orders and had given them the keys to band together the majority of the other Houses on Earth and Venus. This had honestly surprised him.
The woman in question held some scary information, and it made him wary of her. That was all before she had revealed this plan she had built up after her resurrection on Venus. He had thought her mad, but the promise of control over the Fallen and the Reef with a weakened Tower that they could go and take with an army of all the Fallen Houses combined? The offer was too good to let go and it seemed all too realistic, even easy now.
"Hey can I talk to you, Calrus?" The voice of Corde cut in suddenly, his voice pulling the Warlock from his power rant musings. "Remember what we were talking about the other day? You know, about the recruitment of more Guardians in our 'army' thing?" Corde had gotten off of the table was now standing before Calrus and was twiddling his fingers as he tried to organize his thoughts.
The Warlock groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. This Titan had one weak point, friends. Friends were those annoying little people who felt like they were entitled to calling favors and diverting your attention to the actually important callings of the day. This wasn't the first time Corde had brought it up, and by the Sun he knew it wouldn't be the last.
"What do you want, Corde?" He decided to humor him. If it could only make the time pass by quicker, and possibly shut down the younger Awoken much faster.
"Well I was thinking about what you said about the fireteam I proposed, Orion, and-"
"No." Corde was cut off but continued as if he didn't hear the other Awoken.
"well two of the three are Awoken, so that has to count for something, right?" Corde looked at Calrus expectantly, not even realizing he had completely ignored his leader.
The man gave the Titan a level look before shaking his head and turning away. He ignored the constant pleas of his teammate and tried to tune out any noise that was being made. That didn't last long.
"Hey, glorious leader, something has happened!" Alias called out from her spot at the terminal. She continued without prompting. "It seems that the sentries have spotted several jumpships entering the Reef."
"Why do I care?" Calrus gave a gruff response, considering not even listening to her response.
"They are in our sector, and drawing in a patrol of interceptors. More would be on the way, but the Fallen have already jammed their long range radios." Alias informed him in a lazy manner, not even deigning him worthy enough to look at. "They will also be sending out a picket of Skiff's and support fighters in case they get too close."
Calrus stopped in mid-step, a thoughtful look crossing his features. This was an interesting development. Even with the Fallen and Awoken trying to impede these Guardians a gut feeling told him that they wouldn't be enough. The warriors of the Light would make it through to the Ketch, he knew what they were here for. No one was dumb enough to think otherwise.
"Well I guess we need to speed up our plans then, get things moving early you know?" He grinned as he continued out. He would need to prepare a special surprise for Corde's friends if they made it far enough.
.
A heavy sigh escaped from Baron Grutek's helmet as he looked over the shoulder of the pilot in his Skiff. They had reached the Awoken held Reef and easily slipped in. No resistance was boring and uneventful; it also made for horrible stories to the young warriors who would vie to be a part of his band.
"Baron Grutek, we are being hailed by the Thief Ketch, shall we open up to them?" The pilot questioned as she looked up from her controls. The Baron simply nodded and left the rest to her and her copilot. He wasn't needed up here.
The Baron's heavy steps announced his presence in the troop bay and most chatter died down as the few Captains and Vandals that accompanied him turned to watch him enter. Before he could speak the intercom crackled to life.
"Skiff, you are in violation of airspace. State your purpose and provide authorization codes or be destroyed." It was short and brief, it was also Awoken. Looks like the pilot had thumbed the control the wrong way if they could hear it.
"Understood and transmitting now, Guard." The pilot replied quickly and a brief silence followed.
"Alright, they are a bit old, but your codes check out." There was a brief moment of hesitation. "Now, state your business in this sector."
The Baron could tell that the pilot had not effectively thought of something if the silence was anything to go by. Wracking his brain he strode to a small box on the wall.
"This is Baron… Vor'Ker aboard the Skiff." He cringed at the terrible name he came out with, and could hear several Fallen snickering behind him. "I have been ordered by the House to scout a grouping of asteroids for future mining prospects."
He released the switch and allowed the line to sit quietly as he placed a hand over his eyes; they were probably as surprised as him to have someone interrupt the pilot. He could hear some discussion passing through the line, it was muffled, but it was not Fallen. He hoped his lie held up, if not, well they could just shoot the Interceptors down. He liked that idea better.
"Copy that, Baron Vor'Ker. Make sure to update your transponder and IFF codes before any more ventures." The Skiff pilot gave an affirmative and the line went dead.
The sounds of strangled laughter was coming from behind and he swung his head to the side slowly to see his Band. Oh they were struggling alright, and so was Watcher. The smug prick had his arms crossed as his body shook slightly with the silent laughter.
"Not one word, from any of you." He stormed off to the flight station to avoid listening to the outburst as no one could control themselves anymore.
.
The quiet had returned after the fireteam had quickly vanished. The stillness seemed heavier with the snowfall that was lazily drifting in to cover any trace of his prey. Travis sighed heavily as he was brought out of his musings to answer one of many questions asked of him.
"Look, I know what I saw, and I know that it will lead me to them." Travis spoke into the link his Ghost had created with the Vanguard. "I just need more Guardians. Or time, either will suffice."
"We'll see what we can do, this might help us actually." The voice of Commander Zavala came through the line. "The riots are starting to fall apart and order is being restored here."
Travis was currently seated by the Fallen tech that fireteam Orion had abandoned with the word 'Reef' scrawled on the lower side. His Ghost floated in what looked like an aimless manner, but was actually scanning the data that the other Ghost had mined for.
"The other Ghost had been in a hurry." His Ghost commented as it continued to work. "Left all the doors open for us to see what is going on. Well, most of it."
"What do you mean by that?" Cayde's voice entered the line.
"Well, the data they had pulled was incomplete." The Ghost informed. "The last file they dug out contains partial coordinates. Only what one would consider a horizontal line on a map of the Sol system."
The Hunter looked back at the single word, translated it said the location of the Reef. But he looked at it again. It was a Fallen Glyph, and they could change meanings due to slight alterations, or angles of placement.
Pulling himself closer to the glyph he turned his head slightly, and an idea came to him.
"Ghost, place a topographical map of Sol over this glyph. With the data we have received from the unit." His voice was quiet as the Ghost complied.
A small map formed over the glyph and a single line went lengthwise over a large part of the map. Something didn't look right, so he asked for the Ghost to rotate it for a moment. When the Reef met the line the Ghost stopped and that was when Travis smiled slightly.
"Found where they went, sirs and ma'am. I'll pull specific coordinates when I scout out the area to verify." He heard the Vanguard approve before the line was cut.
"I don't see it Guardian. Do you want to fill me in?"
Travis nodded as he looked at the map on the glyph. That Warlock was clever; she knew who had been sent after them. Knew that Travis had extensive knowledge of Fallen writing and language. The glyph was pretty much an arrow. One end was circled and was laid over Earth, while the other end capped off with half an arrowhead pointing to the Reef. The arrow stopped right where the line converged with the tip. She was definitely clever, and he would have praised her, if she wasn't a fugitive.
"We are going where that meets the coordinate line. We need to leave now." Travis ordered as he was suddenly taken into his jumpship and his Ghost plugged in the data for one of the craziest hunches he had ever received.
He never doubted those hunches; it was what kept him alive. It was what kept many Guardians alive and that was why it was taught at their boot camp. Initial instincts are in most cases always right and he hoped that it carried true even now as he felt his ship make the jump towards the Reef.
Thankfully the trip was relatively short and he had quickly emerged from the FTL to the edge of the Reef. As he let his senses come back around he scanned his equipment and even through the view-screen. Hoping to spot any sign of the Guardians he was after. His eyes stopped on something and he had to do a double take to find it again. He couldn't see what had caught his attention and was about to give up when he saw it again.
An explosion, followed by another one, and followed by even more. He sighed as he reached for his controls, he should report in and tell the Vanguard. But this was his chance to close in on them.
"Damnit, Ghost!" The small shard of Light appeared near his head. "Send our coordinates to the Vanguard with a confirmation of the Guardians being here and tell them to send lots of back up. This is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better." He cursed again as he pushed the throttle and with a small jerk his ship leapt forward and into the Reef.
A/N: So...? I hope some people enjoyed it, and I feel like this chapter could have done a bit better. For that I again apologize, dear readers, and hopefully most time constraints will be taken away so I can work more freely on this. I appreciate any and all comments and critiques! Remember Guardians, Keep on Keepin' on!