Chapter 2: Lion Sin

-Tower Courtyard, Last City, Earth-

The bronze colored hull of the Eon Trespass zoomed across the sky before hovering over the courtyard of the Tower, allowing the pilot to transmat himself onto the ground.

Alex looked at the Traveler and at the City beneath it and then the Tower before looking at the various Guardians bustling around the courtyard.

"So this is the last safe city in the system for us." The Exo mused as he started walking. "Well, it's certainly warmer than Europa." He added with a slight shiver as he recalled the cold of the abandoned moon of Jupiter.

"Come on, I'm sure Cayde will want to meet you." Snake Eyes told him as he bobbed in the direction of the Vanguard Hall.

"Alright, let's go." The blue lighted Exo nodded as he headed for the Vanguard Hall. Once there, Cayde—an Exo who was silver and blue in color with a single blue horn and an orange mouth light and eyes—spotted him and waved him over.

"Hey there, Hunter. Nice to see you managed to get here in one piece." The Hunter Vanguard said in a jovial tone.

"After waking up on the moon of one of the Jovians, yeah. Glad to be in a safe place." Alex nodded.

"Which moon?" Cayde's First, Sundance, asked.

"Europa." Alex replied, causing both the Hunter Vanguard and his Ghost to wince.

"Ouch. Definitely not a good place to be found on." The horned Exo hissed softly in discomfort.

"Yeah. Anyway, name's Alex-7." The black plated Exo said, moving things along.

"Well Alex, welcome to the Tower." The Hunter Vanguard told him, before he started digging around his station. "Ah, here we go." He said before he handed Alex what looked to be a Hunter's cloak. "This should work better than that rag you got." He added.

The cloak looked to be black with a purple interior and a set of seven purple diamonds on it.

"Yeah it will." Alex chuckled as he replaced his current cloak with his new one. "There we go. Now, if you'll excuse me…" He trailed off as he held up his hand cannon. "I need to get this beauty fixed." He finished before he left the hall for the gunsmith.

As he went up to Banshee, he set his piece on the table, getting the gunsmith's attention. "Need that looked at, Hunter?" The Exo questioned. Alex nodded and the blue robot took the gun, and the glimmer he was given as payment. "Then let's get you back out there." He nodded.

'Wait, he seems familiar…Like I've seen him before.' Alex thought. 'But where?' He wondered to himself. Shaking his head, he looked at the old Exo. "How long will it take for that to get fixed?" He asked.

"Not long, probably a few hours." Banshee replied as he got to work. Deciding to leave him alone, Alex decided to go to the Hangar next, and as he went down there—he saw a lot of the Mechanics and Shipwrights standing or sitting while they watched a large TV screen, where a Crucible match was being conducted between a trio composed of a Striker Titan, a Gunslinger Hunter and a Voidwalker Warlock, who were facing off against a lone mountain of a Titan who seemed to be GLOWING a solar gold.

"Who. The fuck. Is that?" Alex asked with a shocked look on his face. Seriously, that lone Titan was taller than fucking Goliath! Said Titan was garbed in what looked to be Sunbreaker Order armor, and his the weapon he was using looked to be a hand cannon with a golden barrel that was star-like, a white stock and handle, and had purple star map patterns on it, additionally it also had an egg shaped pitted cylinder. Additionally he also had an upgraded Mk. 08 Priest Shotgun on his back.

"Oh him? That's a new arrival, Vulcan Sol. He's been making a name for himself pretty quickly, lately." A mechanic said. Turning his head, he saw one Amanda Holliday next to him.

"I'm guessing he's got a serious rep due to how strong he is? That certainly looks that way." The Exo commented.

"And how arrogant he comes off as." Another mechanic added. "I mean, he isn't called the Lion Sin for nothing." He added.

'Pride.' Alex thought immediately, finally understanding. As he thought this though, he then saw the Sunbreaker take down his fellow Titan by tanking a Shotgun blast to the chest, swat the shotgun out of his hands and then used his hammer of sol to cave in his opponent's skull. That killed him instantly, before shooting the hunter five times as he whipped around and then hurled his hammer at her and caused it to slam into her, shattering her rib cage.

Lastly was the Warlock, and this time the guardian acted first and conjured a Nova Bomb and sent it at the Titan, but what the huge man did in response utterly shocked everyone watching.

First, he backhanded the Nova Bomb away from him. Second, he held up an index finger and created a sun at the tip of it. The Warlock looked incredibly nervous and ready to flee, but Vulcan acted faster and threw his mini star at him. The Warlock screamed as he was incinerated by the attack, leaving his Ghost to revive him a few seconds later.

"... Okay, that's a lot of-" Alex said before cutting himself off. "Wow, I almost made a fire joke there." He muttered.

"Good, you stopped yourself." Snake Eyes nodded as he looked at the screen. "Hey, I know that Ghost with that Titan!" He said in surprise.

"You do?" Alex asked his Ghost.

"Yeah, that's Sentry. The two of us have been in touch with each other regarding our respective Guardians for a long time." The little drone nodded.

"Huh, wonder where they've been all this time?" The Exo wondered aloud.


(Elsewhere)

Vulcan sighed as he walked up to his ship, and looked at the Handcannon at his hip. "I still can't believe we actually managed to defeat an Archon when we got our warp drive." Sentry noted. "Or that the loot cache that key led us to had all that stuff in it." She added.

Vulcan didn't say anything, he just continued to look at his piece as he thought back to the events in question.


(Flashback)

The Arcadian Class Jumpship—which Vulcan had repainted to a gold and black color scheme—flew across the sky going back to the Cosmodrome, where the Titan and his Ghost planned to find their warp drive.

"According to some recent reports, there's an Archon that's been giving Guardians doing their patrols trouble and scavenging the place with his crew. If we want to find our Warp Drive, we need to take him out." Sentry explained as she reviewed some reports.

"This definitely seems like a hassle." Vulcan stated.

"I know, but… There's so little out there, we were lucky to even find this ship. A Guardian can't do much to protect the City without it. But it needs a warp drive if we hope to fight beyond earth, so we need to find it." The female ghost sighed as the ship dove towards the cosmodrome.

A few moments later, they were on the ground near where they found their jump ship. As they looked around, they shouted a few Fallen that hadn't seen them yet.

"Okay, if we wanna find our Warp Drive, we'll need to have a look around." Sentry said. "I'm picking up a terminal nearby. It has a map of the place we'll need." She added.

"Right." The man nodded as he ran towards the area his ghost marked for him, clearing out the Fallen that stood in his way by bashing them with his hammer. He even threw it at a few, making it return to his hand seconds later, almost like Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.

"Okay, let me at that console." Sentry instructed, prompting the Titan to let her scan the console. "Okay, okay… Got it! Our Warp Drive is where we found our jump ship." She said upon finishing her scan. "… And Bad news, it's already in fallen hands." She added as they headed that direction.

"I figured as much." The man sighed as he took out his auto rifle. As he came to the area he was in before, he saw several Vandals, Dregs and Shanks skulking around. Deciding to end this quickly, he decided to charge into the fight and grab a Shank by the rotor and then slam it into a Dreg and make it crash into a wall in an almost cartoonish position.

The rest of the Fallen present whirled to him and the Captain leading them roared as he and his subordinates opened fire on the large Guardian. Vulcan just shrugged them off and fired back, destroying the remaining Shanks and killing a few Dregs as the rest ran for cover. Stomping up to a crate a Dreg was hiding behind, he lifted it up, which caused the basic Fallen grunt to tremble in fear.

"Get out." The Titan growled, causing the alien to quickly turn tail and run.

"It's in the walls!" Sentry told him as the same Archon from before crawled out into the area and looked around and roared in anger, seeing that it's forces were gone. "Great, looks like you made it mad." She added.

"Hmph. As if that scares me." Vulcan scoffed as he loaded a fresh magazine into his auto rifle. The Archon roared as he fitted his shrapnel launcher at the hulking Guardian, only for the shots to melt mid flight and become harmless due to Vulcan's heat spiking briefly. "Let's soften you up." The Titan said as he lobbed his incendiary grenade at the beast and shot it right as it became eye level with the Arcon and scorched its face—setting it on fire.

The large Fallen bellowed in agony as he dropped his gun and started wiping at his mask, attempting to put out the flames. This, however, left it exposed. Brandishing his hammer, Vulcan's body was covered in flames, a result of activating his super.

"Time to die!" He roared as he threw his hammer over and over at his target, the weapon always coming back to him each time. And once the beast became sufficiently weakened, he charged and bashed him with his shoulder into the wall behind them and then took his hammer again and slammed it down on the giant fallen, caving in its skull and melting everything it touched—metal, exoskeleton, bone, flesh and brains alike.

After a few moments, Sentry came out and took the miraculously intact Warp Drive from the dead Archon's body. "Well blow me down! The Warp Drive isn't damaged!" She exclaimed in amazement.

"And apparently, I just killed an Archon." Her guardian added as he put away his hammer again, right as his hammer suddenly started getting pulled towards something on the Archon's person.

Searching the dead alien's body, he found what looked like a cache key. "Hm… I think I'll keep this." He said to himself as he pocketed it. With that, the two left the corpse of the Archon behind, and left to get their Warp Drive installed.


(Flashback End)

Vulcan continued to look up at the sky as Mars passed earth overhead past the moon. Turning his attention back to his watch, he looked at the inscription one more time before comparing it to the carving of his name. The inscription of "Remember Mars" was in a much cruder carving style than the neater but also more relaxed engraving of his name. The former resembled his own handwriting when he was jotting something down and the other resembling someone else's handwriting.

'Someone else must have given me this watch and I must have carved it on the inside either just before I died or sometime before I ended up in the cosmodrome.' He thought to himself. 'But still, what does it mean…? I'll need to look further into it, maybe go to Mars on my own now that I have a ship with a warp drive.' He added mentally as Sentry floated up to his face, causing him to come out of his thoughts as he closed his watch.

"Come on, let's go, the Speaker wants to see you." She told him.

"Alright." He nodded as he got up and made his way to the observatory where the Speaker worked.

As they arrived at the Speaker's quarters, Vulcan looked up at the Traveler which was just outside the window, thinking about what could have caused it to go dormant.

"There was a time when we were much more powerful." A man in white robes and a white mask said as he walked down some stairs. "But that was long ago. You must have no end of questions, Guardian." He continued as he walked next to the Titan. "With its dying breath, the Traveler created the Ghosts, to seek out those who could use its power—the light—as a weapon. Guardians, to protect us." He added. "And until the Traveler awakens and finds its voice, I am the one who will speak for it." He stated.

"What happened?" Vulcan asked. The Speaker was silent as he continued walking forward, his hands behind his back, and demeanor heavy.

"I could tell you the stories of the battle between the Traveler and its ancient enemy—the Black Fleet, the Darkness, and its Witness." He said. "I could tell you of how the Traveler fought its enemy and sacrificed itself to save humanity, leaving itself crippled." He continued. "I could tell you of the tales told throughout the City of it, tales that are told to frighten children. Lately, those takes have stopped… but the children are frightened anyway." He added further. "They are coming back, Guardian, and we will not survive it a second time—not as we are now." He finished.

"It's armies surround us. The Fallen are just the beginning." Sentry nodded. Vulcan looked at her, then at his watch—which continued ticking throughout the entire conversation—and then finally looked at the Traveler.

"… We won't survive the Darkness a second time, you said?" The Awoken man asked with an audible smirk as he then turned towards the Speaker, still being considerably taller than him, even though it was night and his special power was inactive. "Who decided that?" He added, a prideful fire in his words.

"Your Pride will inspire many." The Speaker acknowledged with a nod. "If you believe that we can push the Darkness back, then prove it by helping the Guardians who are already doing so throughout the system. Do that, find its forces and beat them back, help our Traveler heal. Do that, and we may just have a chance." He finished.

"As you wish." The Lion Sin nodded before he left.


(Elsewhere)

Meanwhile, in the dead of night, Alex had been hunting Fallen all over the Cosmodrome, taking them down with his prized hand cannon—now completely repaired—and his special ammo weapon, a Calcutta 5.8 Sniper Rifle.

Now he was in the Lunar complex, looking at the door that the Fallen sealed shut. "Looks like they sealed this thing closed, Snake." He noted. The Ghost came out of hiding as his Silver Serpent shell slithered around his body, scanning the door.

"I can get it open." The drone stated confidently as he started hacking the thing. "Wow, the Fallen didn't want anything getting in here… Or out." He added ominously.

"That's unsettling." The Exo stated. After a few seconds, the door opened… revealing strange and disgusting looking bio growths all over the place.

"Ugh! What the fuck is this shit?!" Alex questioned, gagging as the stink hit his olfactory sensors.

"Lots of movement ahead." Snake said as he went back into hiding and Alex pulled out his weapon. "I got a bad feeling about this." He added as they ascended a staircase, turning on a flashlight. As they entered a large room, they heard a shriek, prompting Snake to shine his light on a corpse-like creature that charged at him with several more coming up behind it.

"Fuck!" Alex cursed as he aimed at the repulsive looking creatures.

"It's the Hive!" The Ghost yelled as Alex shot one of the Thralls in the head, causing it to explode and then that explosion called all of the others to explode on contact.

The Exo then reloaded after this shot and it caused a super charged seventh round to be added to the cylinder, which he trained on one of the Acolytes that poked its head out from a crate.

"Boom." He muttered before pulling the trigger, letting the shot fly. The shot found a home in the Acolyte's skull… And blew it the fuck up in a giant explosion. This in turn killed several more Thrall and another Acolyte, and as Alex reloaded, another charged shot was added in at the seventh round.

"There's probably a Wizard here, you have to kill it!" Snake eyes said as they kept moving. Alex then decided to try out his new grenade and hurled it at a group of Thralls headed his way, which were killed by several waves of Void energy.

"Alright, crowd control." Alex nodded as he started racketeering shots off at Acolytes and causing multiple kills, reloading each time, until he had a full cylinder of seven charged bullets—with the Wizard's name on it. He whirled on the Wizard as she charged at him, and time seemed to slow as he took aim.

"And jackpot." The Exo smirked under his helmet before…

BANG!

One bullet later, and the Wizard died in an explosion. As the calcified fragments of the creature crumbled to ash and rained on the Exo, Snake appeared next to him.

"The Hive haven't been here in centuries, this is really bad." The drone stated. "It probably means that the Darkness is closer than we previously thought." He added.

"Let's head back to the Tower, then. Everyone needs to hear about this." Alex said, prompting Snake to transmat both of them back to the Eon Trespass so they could head back to the City.


(Elsewhere)

Around the same time, on Mars, a lone female Hunter was scavenging around the Clovis Bray compounds deep in the Cabal exclusion zone. And she was quite dismayed to find that the armor, hand cannon, and the weapon schematics she'd placed for a friend of hers in the event he became a Guardian, had been completely looted.

"Son of a Shank—who got to this… Wait, they had the key?" She questioned as she looked further. "Oh… So, he is a guardian now." She continued as she took off her helmet, revealing herself to be a rather beautiful looking human woman with brown hair, eyes, white markings and fair skin as well.

This was Ana Bray, and the friend she was so worried about was a childhood friend from her past life that she read about in her own old journals, a young man who was on the Exodus Green during the Collapse.

'Well, I hope it's helping him out.' She thought to herself. Shaking her head, she opted to move on and see what else she could find.


And back at the Tower, Vulcan was sleeping in his room peacefully as his gun and the same schematics sat on his nightstand. The schematics were for a powerful weapon, a heavy machine gun called "Sunshine".


Dragon Emperor0: In case you guys haven't pieced things together yet, Ana's friend is Vulcan, who was on the Exodus Green before it was pulled into the singularity that created the Awoken people. Additionally, the two were actually childhood crushes. And while I know that Ana is a lesbian in the game, I also know that Bisexuality and polyamory is also a thing in the lore, so frankly—her also having a male childhood friend/lover along with her cannon girlfriend is perfectly reasonable.

ThermalsniperN7: And we decided to divide missions up between Vulcan and Alex so they can have their times to shine. Vulcan will handle Fallen and Alex will handle Hive. The two of them will work together when it comes to anything related to Rasputin.

Dragon Emperor0: Well, technically they'll come together during the Array mission, but yeah. And additionally, Alex will actually go to the moon by himself for the first couple lunar missions. Because ya know, Hive. Then they'll both investigate Venus, the Reef, Mars and everything it entails together.

ThermalsniperN7: Nothing else withstanding, see you next time.