A New Leaf
Delve materializes in the Tower hangar, after parking his ship on his assigned landing pad. The sounds of machinery whirring, clanking, and buzzing was loud enough that he was glad he didn't have biological ear canals. Tinnitus was a bitch, or so he'd been told by multiple non-Lightbearer soldiers out in the field. As he makes his way through the massive open space, a voice calls out to him from a catwalk across the room. The person was clearly trying to get him to move quicker, so Delve responded by picking up his pace to a jog. A few minutes later he stepped off and elevator and was greeted by the annoyed scowl of a woman. She had short blonde hair and green eyes. She was wearing light mechanic's clothes and a red scarf around her neck accompanied by a pair of goggles and was covered in enough grime to make you want to shower just by looking at her.
"What's the big idea?" She asks in a very unique accent. Pre-Golden Age Southern American. "I know that you guardians can revive yourselves, but that doesn't mean I don't have to sort out all the paperwork if you get hit by some of the equipment buzzin' around here." Delve was not slow on the uptake, and quickly connected the dots.
"You must be Amanda Holliday, the Tower Shipwright." he says, extending his hand for a handshake. He takes his hat off with the other. "Sorry for being in the way. First time in the Tower. I'm sure you get quite a few like me."
"It never makes it any easier." She shakes his hand with a firm grip and continues, "But in the future when you park your ship, you should transmat to the courtyard. It's a lot less of a walk, and it keeps you out of my way."
"Thanks for the tip." He says, ignoring a chirp from his ghost that only he could hear.
"What's your name anyways?" She asks him, shifting her weight to her other leg.
"Just call me D." He says curtly. He was silently thankful for the delay, though he must have appeared like he couldn't wait to get going again.
"Well D, I have two more questions for ya, then I'll let you go. One: Where'd you get that hat?" She motions to the hat in his hand.
"This old thing?" He looks down at the hat, his eyes falling over the brim and inside of it. "I don't even remember anymore. It was so long ago it feels like I've always had it."
"Second question." She starts again, folding her arms. "How much for it?" Delve can't help but chuckle at that one.
"It's not for sale." He smoothly spins the hat and puts it back into place on his head before touching the brim and turning away in a parting gesture. "I'll see you later, Holliday." He says over his shoulder with a wave as he walks off into the corridor that leads to the courtyard. He doesn't get more that a dozen steps before his ghost makes a comment into his ear.
"You know, I think that's a record. A whole twelve seconds before you started flirting with her." Rust teases.
"I was not flirting with her." Delve replies, defensively. "I was enjoying a normal conversation for once."
"Mhm." Was the only response he got from his ghost. Delve decided to just leave it. He knew the more he tried to deny it, the more his ghost would tease him regardless of if it was true. He makes his way to the courtyard and follows the direction of the cleaner frames to the Vanguard headquarters, aptly called the Hall of the Guardians.
As he walks through the open air of the courtyard, Delve takes in the sights and sounds of everyone around him. They were all Lightbearers like him. No, they were Guardians. They'd agreed to fight the enemies of humanity and defend the Last City. He hadn't. The memories of the few times he'd interacted with proper Guardians replay in his head and he chooses to ignore them. The guardians before had seemed stuck up or self-righteous, Delve couldn't decide which. They were one of the main reasons he never came to the Tower to sign up with the Vanguard. Why would he go fight for them if it made him act like that?
When he gets to the Hall of the Guardians, he turns the corner after descending the stairs only to be met by the sight of a woman who seemed to radiate Hive energy. His hand reflexively goes to his hip, grasping the revolver there. She turns towards Delve and he's yet again taken by surprise. She has bandages wrapped around her head covering her eyes, yet three distinctly non-human eyes were still glowing a vibrant green through them. Her skin was paler than any that Delve had seen before, and some sort of black liquid was seeping out from under the bandage. Her very essence seemed steeped in Hive energy.
"You're new here." She says to Delve, knowingly. "My name is Eris Morn." Her voice didn't seem to match her appearance. It had a calm, almost soothing sound to it. "What is your name?"
"My name is Delve.. But you can call me D." He responds slowly, after a pause longer than he meant to have.
"Interesting name.." She seems to think aloud. Delve can't help but think it looks like she's simultaneously looking him up and down and peering straight into his soul. Which as an Exo is a very odd feeling. He clears his throat, purely because he wants to leave.
"Well it was nice meeting you." He takes a step around and away from her. "Maybe we'll talk again later." With that he turns on his heel and walks down the corridor to what he can see is a large open room.
"I'll await your visit." She says after him, not bothering to raise her voice. She turns back to the ball of green Hive energy in her hand and peers into it, softly chanting something.
"I don't like the feeling she gives off." Rust chirps in his personal comms.
"Me neither." Delve responds before visibly shuddering, if only very slightly.
When he gets to the open room he looks around for a moment, taking in everything. There were two men and a woman standing at a spot near a long table. One of the men, an exo, appears to say something to the annoyance of the other two. He then says something else, then waves and transmats out. The woman says something and transmats out as well, leaving just the other man.
"He's a tall guy.. Awoken, and appears to be a titan. That means that-"
"That's Zavala." Rust interrupts his thought process, appearing next to Delve's head.
"Yeah, I figured that one out." He responds, only slightly annoyed. A hunter rushes by him, leaving the room very quickly. Delve moves as fast as he can, but the Hunter is gone by the time it really matters. "Hunters and their speed." he mutters as he starts to walk down the few steps leading to the table. Delve walks right over to Zavala and clears his throat to break the man's concentration on the table, or rather the holo map on it.
"Yes, what is it?" Zavala asks as he turns to face him.
"Well, first off my name is Delve. You can call me D, though." He extends his hand to shake Zavala's, but the vanguard's hands don't leave his hips so Delve just drops his hand. "Secondly, I have some questions about the light."
"Ah, a new light." Zavala starts talking, now extending his hand to shake Delve's, which he accepts. "Welcome to the Tower. I'm sure your ghost explained everything to you. I know this all can be a bit confusing at the start, but-"
"Oh. No, you misunderstand." Delve interrupts him. "I've been up for.. A long time, now."
"One Hundred-Eighty Two years, Four months, Three weeks, and Two days." Rust interjects. Delve looks at his ghost incredulously. "I like to keep track." She responds, suddenly feeling very shy.
".. And this is the first time you're visiting the Tower?" Zavala asks after a small pause. The man was clearly very confused, or at the very least curious.
"It's a long story." Delve says, wanting to move on from the topic. "I only came here to see if the Vanguard could help me out. I have some questions about the light that probably only you guys can answer."
"Well I'd be willing to answer any questions I can, but right now we have our hands a little full. Some of our sensors picked up unusual seismic readings in a sector on Mars. We're worried that it might be the Cabal trying to set up another operation. Cayde and Ikora have already left to lead the investigations with a group of guardians-"
"That was me." Delve interrupts again.
"What?" Zavala asks, taken aback.
"That was me. The seismic readings? That was me punching a door."
"He's telling the truth." Rust says, before projecting a recording she took of Delve punching the door straight out of the wall.
"What the.." Zavala leans into the video to see the details more closely. "Were you supercharged?"
"Nope. That was just a punch. That was what I had some questions about." Delve says, putting his hands on his hips, his thumbs hooked into his belt.
"Come with me to my office. I want you to tell me about this." Zavala says. He then walks with Delve out of the Hall of Guardians.
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Zavala leans back in his chair, trying to process everything that he's just been told.
"So.. You entered a sort of flow state?" asks Zavala, looking across the desk at the lightbearer in front of him.
"Exactly." Delve responds. "It was like the Light sort of.. I don't know. Focused inside me for just a second or two."
Zavala, thinking over his words carefully, is silent for a minute or two. When he does speak, he stands up and folds his arms as he looks out the window of his office.
"I'm not sure exactly what happened. It's clear that something did happen, but I don't know what caused it, or the reason for it." He turns back to Delve and continues "I want you to go meet with the Speaker. He might know what caused it."
"Alright. This.. Speaker. What does he do?" Delve asks, standing up as well.
"The Speaker is a man that once was able to hear the Traveler speak. Unfortunately, the Traveler has since fallen silent. Since he knows what the Traveler used to say, that gives him much more insight into what might be closer to the Traveler's actual thoughts. Currently he manages the affairs of Vanguard, the City, and the Consensus. He also occasionally provides another point of view or additional knowledge on topics such as this. " Zavala says, then continues a moment later. "I'll notify him, filling him in on everything you've told me so far."
"Thank you." Delve says, moving towards the door. "I'm sure he'll fill you in on what we talk about." He calls out over his shoulder. When he's in the hallway, Rust chirps into his personal comms.
"He seemed way nicer than those other Guardians we ran across." She says, cheerily.
"Yeah." Delve quietly responds. Thoughts run through his head. "Maybe the Vanguard isn't all bad." He thinks to himself, not quite sold on the idea yet.
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"I see.." The speaker says, falling into silent thought after being updated by Zavala. "You say you entered a flow state?" he asks, directing the question towards Delve.
"Yeah. It basically just felt like the Light was magnified." Delve responds, a little tired of having the same conversation twice now.
"We came here to see if anyone had any answers for why it happened. Or what made it happen." Rust chimes in, materializing next to Delve. The Speaker folds his hands and turns away from the bookcase next to him.
"Unfortunately, I don't think anyone will have the answers you seek." The Speaker says, much to Delve's dismay. "I might be able to find something in one of these books, or in an old log somewhere. But I wouldn't count on it."
"Alright." Delve says, already annoyed at the whole situation. "And I guess there's nothing I can do but wait until you look, right?" The speaker simply slowly shakes his head in return. "Damn." Delve looks at the ground, then after a moment he looks back up at the Speaker, his mood having almost visibly improved. He starts slowly walking backwards out of the Speaker's office area. "Well in that case, I'm gonna get back to my job. Thanks for looking. Rust will send you my comm codes so you can get ahold of me. Let me know if you find anything." With that, he turns and leaves. Rust does send the comm codes to the Speaker's ghost then she dematerializes and asks a question in Delve's personal comms.
"Why'd you want to get out of there so fast? What are you planning?" She asks. She knows Delve and when he's got a plan, she typically doesn't like it.
"Well, did you notice the building attached to the door I punched? It was a Golden Age scanning sub-array." he says, walking briskly to the main tower courtyard. "It was built to look for sources of energy, and Light would show up on its sensors. It could tell us exactly how much Light was in that punch."
"It's been how many years since it was functional? Or even powered up?" Rust asks, "It kind of has to be on for the scanners to pick up Light energy."
"Yeah, but there was another person there that I think was taking data readings. She'll have the scans we need." He stops in the main courtyard and holds out his palm, having Rust appear just over it.
"And what makes you think she was there to collect data?" She asks, clearly annoyed. "You guys were too busy having a gun fight to talk about it." A small smile appears on Delve's mechanical mouth.
"The power was on." With that, the two transmat back to his ship.
A few days later…
The red sands of the Martian landscape blow in the wind as Nyx walks towards the entrance to a bunker half buried in the dunes. She presses a few buttons on the door panel and the machinery groans as the heavy metal construct moves, opening for her. She enters, walking down the few steps into the darkness of the underground bunker.
"Turn the power on, please." She asks her ghost, Glyde.
"Sure thing." He responds, materializing and flying over to a panel on the opposite wall of the medium sized room they're in. He begins interacting with it and after a few seconds the power turns on, illuminating the room. Nyx walks further into the room, putting her guns on a weapon rack next to a few empty seats all gathered around a holographic map table. She sinks into one and sighs.
"Can you also start to analyze that data we collected?" She calls out to her ghost.
"Already on it." He replies, moving to the terminal connected to the table. He transmits the data and starts the analyzation. "You've been pretty quiet since our run-in with Delve. Are you al-"
"I'm fine." She cuts him off. Clearly the topic was still tender, but her ghost was persistent.
"I can see that you clearly aren't." he says, moving closer to her. "You know I'm here to talk to you when you need it." He tries, his voice a bit softer. Nyx looks at him and bites her lower lip in thought.
"Sorry. It's just.. Not something I want to talk about right now."
"That's okay." Glyde responds, turning to the table. He checks the progress on the data and continues talking "I just can't believe that he'd take a bounty. That's so unlike him. You and I both remember how he was after.." Nyx is silent, but she knows what her ghost is talking about. Their old fireteam member, Estmond. "I just didn't figure that he'd want that to happen to anyone else. Let alone us." Her ghost keeps talking, ignoring the slight glare on Nyx's face.
"Can you stop talking for like five seconds?" She asks, annoyed. "What's up with the data? Did we get what we need?"
"Well, the scanners were focused on the moon. We definitely got a scan of any higher-than-normal Light readings on and under the surface of it. But something gave us so much interference that it refocused the scanner to the scanner sub-array building we were in."
"What was it?" she asks, sitting up in her seat.
"I would say that it had something to do with Delve's super. Except that he used it after we took our readings. The only other thing that happened near us was the door being blown in."
"Did you happen to grab the vids from the cameras?" Nyx asks. Her ghost nods and she continues "Pull up the vid of Delve outside, and show the local Light readings as time progresses. Match them up." Her ghost does so, and they both watch as there are small spikes as Delve bashes the door with his shoulder. Nyx scoffs inwardly. "Typical Delve." She thinks to herself.
"That's Delve for you." Glyde says, watching along with her. Clearly they were both on the same page regarding their old teammate. They continue to watch the small spikes in energy, the graph looking almost like a heartbeat, just without the dip after each spike. After a minute or two they see Delve put a bit more distance between him and the door. They watch as he sprints at the door.
Nothing seems different this time until he winds his fist back and punches the door. As soon as he swings, the graph spikes so high that the program has to re-scale the data. The small spikes of energy were now about half as tall as before, and the big spike was still reaching about two thirds up the graph.
"What the hell?" Nyx asks, leaning in. "Rewind that." Glyde does so and loops the last few seconds. They watch as Delve repeatedly punches the door out of the wall, and the resulting spike in energy. The two are silent as they try to believe what they're seeing.
A few solid knocks at the door echo through the room, snapping them out of it. Glyde turns off the table and dematerializes while Nyx grabs her SMG off the weapon rack, getting behind a chair and aiming her gun at the door.
"Glyde, do you have remote control of the door still?" She asks quietly.
"Yes. Want me to lock it down?"
"No. Open it up." She says. "I think I know who's out there." Her eyes narrow and she grips her gun a bit tighter. Her ghost doesn't respond, but a few seconds later the machinery of the door groans to life again and it opens. Another few tense moments after that a figure walks into the room with his hands up, and she sees a hat that she recognizes instantly. "What the hell do you want?" she asks, not taking her sights off her target for even a second.
"You can put your gun down. I'm not here to try and kill you." Delve responds.
"Bullshit. You took the bounty for me. You're probably gonna shoot me as soon as I lower my gun. Then you'll kill Glyde." The words come out laced with anger, each one as sharp as a dagger. Delve doesn't respond, he just looks down at the floor. "What happened to you?" Nyx continues. "After everything we went through, you're the last person I expected to turn to bounty hunting."
"I have debts." Delve replies, not raising his eyes from the ground. "I've been trying to pay them off for a long, long time. Your bounty would've paid them all off easily." His voice is soft, but still has the unmistakable twinge of guilt. "That's no excuse, I know. I wanted to say no, but when my employer told me how much it paid.. I just couldn't turn it down." Nyx doesn't lower her gun but her expression softens a bit.
"And what did Rust think of your decision?" She asks, wanting to know more.
"She got mad at me. She told me that killing you would be like killing her." Delve replies, looking up at her. "She's right, too. And so were you. I couldn't have gone through with it." Nyx's resolve falters when she hears those words. She doesn't want to believe him, but seeing her old friend in front of her telling her these things fills her with a sense that maybe, just maybe he's telling the truth. With a huff, she lowers her gun and the glare returns to her face as she stands up.
"Then what are you here for?" Even though she lowered her gun, she stays ready to raise it again if she needs to.
"You got some energy readings while you were in the sub-array, right?" Delve asks, slowly lowering his hands. Nyx says nothing and he continues "I need a copy of those readings. Then I'll leave you alone."
"Why do you need them?" She asks. It would be very simple to give him a copy of the data they gathered, but she was curious. Delve was silent for a few seconds and Nyx figured he was probably having a conversation with his ghost over his personal comms. A few moments later, Rust materializes next to his head and starts speaking.
"We're looking into why Delve had so much Light flowing through him when he punched the door." She explains. Nyx laughs a single time.
"There's no way that you two have the facilities to fully analyze that data. Even we can only get the bare minimum amount of data out of it." Rust and Delve look at each other then back at her.
"We're working with the Vanguard on it." Rust says. That sentence takes Nyx by surprise. Apparently the surprise was evident on her face by the way that Delve spoke.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. But they actually have the resources we need." He folds his arms. "I'm not entirely sold on the idea either, but they seem to be actually interested in helping so far."
"Well I'm not gonna just give you the data." Nyx says. "I would be lying if I said that Glyde and I weren't interested in knowing the reason too."
"Then you should come with us." Delve says.
"Why would I do that?" Nyx asks "You could just turn me in or kill me and complete your bounty. I don't fully trust you, you know."
"And I wouldn't expect you to. But I want you to know that I really couldn't do it. I thought I could, but I was wrong." Delve looks straight into her eyes. "I'm sorry." Even though they were robotic eyes, Nyx could swear that she saw honesty in their blue glow. She considers her options, and after a moment or two she puts her gun on her back.
"Alright. We'll come with. But any sign of funny business, and I'll put a hole in you. Just like last time." She points at him "And we're using your ship. Mine is.. Well, let's just say there's a reason I haven't left Mars." Delve nods and steps forward, extending his hand for a handshake. Nyx looks at it and after a moment of pause, she shakes it.
"It's good to be on the same side again." Delve says, looking her in the eyes. At this distance, their difference in height is obvious, even if it's not much.
"Likewise, cowboy." Nyx responds, the faintest of smile appearing on her lips. "Now let's get going. I wanna get off this planet."
Delve nods and Rust transmats the three of them onto the waiting ship.
