Chapter 3: Randal

Review Replies

edboy4926: Good chapter. Now I wonder if the Witness decided to recruit the Didact as its Forerunner Disciple.

ThermalsniperN7: No, the Didact is already dead… Though the idea of a Forerunner Disciple has merit.

Dragon Emperor0: I'll put a pin in that.

Servermeta: Tbh if they do sleep together i would be more worried about them breaking through a wall if you know what i mean anyway nice chapter the only thing i don't really like is that six talks a lot more but meh i can look past that.

ThermalsniperN7: I'd be worried about whatever room they're in when that happens, too. And as stated before, Noble is a whole new person now. That's what happens when you become a Guardian.

Dragon Emperor0: Plus in Destiny the silent protagonist thing never really worked. So we're doing our best here.

Guest: So when will six fuck Texas

ThermalsniperN7 Probably not till sometime after the first strike mission of the story.

Dragon Emperor0: Or sooner, who knows?

Moar: Hope he meets Randel the Vandal. To get a reality check on how powerful some of his enemies are. And make it comedic. Or at least not to serious of an encounter

ThermalsnperN7: Maybe the next time he's in the Cosmodrome. He could be Noble's next Eliksni buddy.

Dragon Emperor0: Or recurring chaotic antagonist.

Randomguy0110100100110: Question why fallen?

ThermalsniperN7: Better question: Why not?

Dragon Emperor0: Took the words right outta my mouth.

THATs1l3ntGUY: Hmm I'm willing to bet Rasputin knew who 6 was as soon as he spotted him and detected his neural transponder. All unsc personnel have them and they show vitals, ID's and the friend or foe marker. Spartans and high rank personnel have more advanced ones to carry AI and carry codes (rip captain Keyes). I wouldn't be surprised if ras knows 6's whole history from recruit to death from the records he has. Also, the actium war rig and sweet business are a powerful combo for DPS on gambit and I managed to get hackusations for doing 6k boss damage in a gambit match.

But something that's bugging me is how did the traveler get clean into the sol system to then be discovered by the unsc terraforming mars when mars is the biggest ship building and industrial planet in the system?

ThermalsniperN7: Actually, by the time Epsilon found him, his neural transponder will have fallen apart over time. So it's equally likely Rasputin recognized Noble's genetic profile which made him label our Spartan as a friend immediately.

Dragon Emperor0: Yeah, centuries of entropy will do that to ya.

ThermalsniperN7: And as for how the Traveler got to Mars, it was already there. The only reason it went undetected for so long was because UNSC sensors couldn't detect paracausal energy coming from it, and it wasn't discovered until after a cargo transport had to change course due to a storm, which made it go in the Traveler's direction and find it.

-Cosmodrome, sunrise-

Noble grunted as he snapped a Vandal's neck in one motion while Epsilon was trying to heal Aphrodityss after she'd just been hit with a shrapnel cannon shot.

Across from them was a massive Fallen–Eliksni. An Archon, Raviks, the Devil Archon. He was twice the size of Kavix and wore golden armor with red garb. He was standing between them, and an information terminal that they'd been following from the Forgotten Shore.

"Rgh, bastard got me good!" Tex hissed as Epsilon tried to keep her bleeding from getting worse.

"I'll be with you in a second!" Noble said over his shoulder before glaring back at the Archon in front of him.

"I think I have her wound almost patched up! Deal with that Archon!" Epsilon called his Guardian.

"You make that sound like that's easy!" Noble yelled as he shot a Dreg with his shotgun and caused it to drop a blue engram, which he picked up and decoded on the fly, revealing a new rocket launcher. "... Well that's convenient." He remarked more to himself with a blink.

Shrugging, he took his new heavy weapon and aimed at Raviks before letting the rocket fly, causing the large Archon to stagger back from the blast. Not giving the giant Eliksni time to recover, he immediately charged right in and swept one of his legs out from under him, causing him to drop to one knee.

Pressing his advantage, the Spartan turned Titan quickly summoned his shield and quickly used the edge of it to decapitate his target. Aphrodityss saw this and was sure she felt her heart skip a beat.

'Wow. That was…. Really amazing.' She thought, stunned. The titan then held up the head of the giant Eliksni for Epsilon to take away, allowing him to straighten up.

"You just killed an Archon…" The ghost gasped. "And I just decoded that data we've been chasing… Old Earth, Russia… No way, it can't be…" The drone gasped.

"What?" The female Eliksni grunted as she slowly stood up.

"If this signal is from who I think it's from, this could be big." Epsilon told her. "And it matches the signal from that bunker we got that blueprint from, too. More reason to follow it." He added.

"Who could be sending it?" His Guardian questioned.

"The Warmind, Rasputin." The Ghost explained. "Man, the Speaker's gonna want to hear this…" He added as the two left.

Though as they left, the two of them failed to notice the figure watching them from the shadows. The figure was a fairly tall Fallen that looked like a Vandal that had just promoted himself to captain. A red cape and gold plating weaving throughout his armor, matching his blazing Eliksni cutlasses.

(Later)

The Spartan and the Eliksni were now in what looked like an old cargo bay where the Devils had a relay set up to monitor the signal. Unsurprisingly, the two had to clear out the place before Epsilon could scan the device.

As they managed to get what they came for, Epsilon started piecing together the various bits of data, though when he finished, they heard something coming from a nearby crate that interrupted their progress.

"Help! Help! Get me outta here! Help!" A small voice called from the crate as small banging noises came from inside the crate.

"The fuck…?" Noble muttered with a raised eyebrow as he went over to the crate and ripped the lid off. To his surprise, a Ghost came out of it.

"Ah! Light! Fresh Air! Finally!" The drone sighed in relief, its voice small and timid, sounding like a small child's.

"Theta? Is that you?" Epsilon asked as he flew up to the younger ghost. Theta had a purple shell with red accents and the already noted symbol he was named after.

"Huh? Epsilon? What are you doing here?" The timid sounding Ghost asked.

"I could ask you the same thing, lil' bro." The older ghost replied. "You know it's not safe to be out here without a Guardian, especially for a ghost straight out of the Traveler's coils." He added.

"I know… But that's why I'm here! I'm following a trail to my Guardian!" The younger of the two stated.

"And where is your Guardian located?" Noble asked.

Theta quickly turned to the titan, bobbing up and down nervously as he fidgeted. "I don't know. Haven't gotten that far yet." He shrugged innocently. This sheer amount of child-like innocence made Aphrodityss squeal internally.

"Well you can stick with us in the meantime. We have a relay to scan." Epsilon said as he flew back to the Eliksni device.

"I guess tha–" The purple-red Ghost started to say before finally noticing the only Eliksni in the room. "AH! FALLEN!" He yelped before darting behind Noble in fear.

"Oh relax. If I was an enemy, Noble would've killed me already." The green eyed spider pirate huffed indignantly.

"It's true." Noble shrugged in agreement.

"So…. What? Are you two dating?" Theta asked innocently, causing Noble to grow flustered and sputter out denials, Aphrodityss to look thoughtful and Epsilon burst out laughing.

"No!/No… Yet." The two responded, causing them to look at each other.

"Yeah… Yet." The Titan shrugged, deciding to just dodge the issue entirely. Theta seemed to Bob a bit at this, before the other three heard a ping come from his shell.

"There it is again!" The small ghost exclaimed, bouncing up and down in mid air as the familiar ping of a viable Guardian candidate hit him again.

"Epsilon, think we can help the kid out after we're done here?" The female Eliksni asked, looking at her Guardian partner's drone.

"Yeah. I was gonna ask that myself, anyway." The drone replied before finishing up. "Okay, I'm done. Might wanna blow this thing up." He told his Guardian.

"On it." Noble nodded as he brought out his rocket launcher and fired a rocket at the relay, reducing it to scrap.

"Phew." Tex sighed as she wiped her carapaced brow with an upper arm before turning around. "Okay, Theta let's go get your–Guardian?" She said before noticing that the drone was very much absent. "Theta? Theta! He's gone." She told the two.

"He couldn't have gotten far. Epsilon, track him." Noble ordered, wanting to keep the timid Ghost safe until his Guardian was found.

"Tracking… Got him and… Oh no…." The drone said before he suddenly turned worried.

"What?" The titan asked.

"It's Randal. He's tracking Theta too." The Memory ghost replied. Tex let out a curse in Eliksni that couldn't be translated in response.

"Let's move!" She barked. Noble immediately broke into a sprint, the female space pirate following right behind him.

(Elsewhere)

Meanwhile, in the corridors of an old colony ship headed by Clovis Bray, Theta floated along the hall of pods, until he came across one that had the same signal as the one he'd been pinging.

Scanning it, he picked up the occupant's name as Kaikaina Grif. Occupation: retired Spartan, business manager and moral consultant. Age: 26. Gender: Female.

"There you are!" The red and purple drone exclaimed as he caused the doors of the pod to open, causing the perfectly preserved body of Kai to fall out. She had tanned skin and brown hair. She looked like she was in a plain white shirt and some yellow and black pants.

Theta then released a pulse of light, giving her life and garbing her in Hunter gear. Said gear was yellow and black with an orange visor, and a Hunter knife.

Seconds later, the woman shot up with a gasp-scream as she flailed around uncontrollably until she regained her senses.

"What the fuck? What happened?" She groaned, holding her head.

"Oh, I just brought you back from the dead?" Theta said innocently, getting her attention.

"Wait, say what now?" The woman questioned.

"I resurrected you." The Ghost replied. "I'm a Ghost, yours, actually." He continued. "And you've been dead a really long time, Kaikaina." He added.

"So that's my name…" The new light muttered as she stretched a bit, groaning a bit at how good it felt. "How long have I been dead?" She asked.

"Centuries, at least." Theta stated. "Don't worry, though! I'll help you catch up." He chirped.

"Uh, thanks, I guess." Kai said as she picked up and sheathed her knife in her boot, and quickly jumped to her feet.

However, as the two were beginning to leave the room and the ship, someone jabbed the huntress from behind with an Arc prod, causing her and her ghost to scream in pain as they fell to the hard metal floor, unconscious.

Behind her stood Randal with the prod that had knocked the two out. Before he could even try to grab the two…

BAM!

Noble slammed his shield into his side, knocking him away from the new light.

"You're not getting anywhere near these two, Randal." Noble growled as Epsilon tried to wake the two up.

The Vanda turned captain growled as he pulled out something from his bandler and held it out. It was a heavily modified Cabal Buster Pistol.

"Kisavaks sekir ZAAAH!" The Eliksni yelled as he grabbed onto Kai's boot and Theta with his lower arms before blasting Noble point blank in the chest, sending him flying through the wall of the ship and plummeting down to the ground, the impact and hole in his chest killing him instantly.

"Crap!" Epsilon cursed as he went to revive his Guardian. Randal aimed at him next, but before he could pull the trigger, he was shoulder bashed by Tex and dropped Theta while he staggered away from Kai.

"I don't think so!" She barked at him as she grabbed the new light and her Ghost before Randal was able to recover.

However, as soon as he did, the Eliksni loner chuckled as he wagged one of his upper hand fingers a bit at the female.

"What's so funny?" Aphrodityss questioned before Randal snapped his fingers, causing a small transmat disc on the back of Kai's helmet to activate–teleporting her and Theta away to a different location. "What the–!" She gasped before Randal himself teleported away too. "Shit!" She cursed.

(Later)

"Urgh, what happened…?" Noble asked as Epsilon revived him.

"You got your ass kicked, that's what." Epsilon stated.

"Randal also got away with the rookie and Theta." Tex sighed, her arms folded. She really wished she spotted those transmat discs sooner.

"Damn…" The titan groaned. "What would he want with them anyway?" He questioned, sitting up.

"If he's still the same as I remember, he'll want to make them into allies so he can use them to gain access to bunkers like that one in the Forgotten Shore." Tex mused as she recalled a few plans Randal had shared with her in their short time together. "He wants to use the tech in places like that so he can become a better Splicer. Given how advanced it all looks, it's not hard to understand why." She added.

"I think it would be in our best interests to keep that from happening." Noble stated with a small gulp. "I don't think we need him to get his hands on anything Spartan related." He added.

"He's also been planning to speedrun Eliksni evolution." The female Eliksni explained. "By not only undergoing Spartan alterations, but passing down our already resilient biology to future generations of Spartans by having female Spartans turned Guardians spawn off a line or two…" She added, trailing off. "He's done that once already."

Noble was about to say something before an idea hit him. Maybe, just maybe, if this kind of thing was allowed to run its course, Tex could make use of it herself. She could make herself into an even tougher Eliksni.

"Hm… What if we did that ourselves?" He mused, causing the other two to look at him.

"Say what now?" Epsilon asked dumbly.

"What he said." Tex added in agreement.

"If we did this "Spartan Eliksni" program ourselves, we could possibly get more Eliksni allies by using this as a means to build a bridge between them and the Last City." Noble explained.

"Well, if you're sure it'll work, then alright." Epsilon nodded. "But we should at least check in with Theta regularly to make sure Randal doesn't hurt them." He added.

"Or, if we feel like it's a risk worth taking, join him." Tex mused as she thought it over.

"Let's decide when we find them." The Spartan said as they left the colony ship.

(Meanwhile)

Kai groaned as she came to, and noticed she was in a cave and not the colony ship where she was brought back to life in. Looking around, she spotted Theta next to her, still knocked out. Reaching out to him, she gently picked him up and just as gently shook him awake.

"Hey, Theta. Wake up, little buddy." She muttered softly, hoping for a response. After a moment, the drone finally woke up and shakily rose into the air.

"Oh man, what hit us?" He groaned, experiencing the robot equivalent of a headache.

The grating sound of metal against stone caused the two to turn and see Randal sitting on a rock while sharpening his cutlasses–his red hot blades causing the whetstones that he was using to gash in a magma-like state.

The Eliksni Rogue tossed the stones aside and sheathed his blades before turning towards the woman in front of him, shifting his weight onto one lower arm to the next, resting his right mandibled cheek on his upper arm as his four eyes blinked, independently.

"Uh… Were you the one that knocked me out?" She asked awkwardly, and a little bluntly.

Randal chuckled as he shook his head. "No." He responded, his English voice deep and reverberating. "But I was the one who saved you from those who did." He continued.

"Uh, no." Theta shot down flatly. "If you're talking about the Guardian my brother is partnered up with, then there's no way he'd have his Guardian do that. Or the Fallen that was with him." He added.

"Or maybe you don't know his Guardian." Randal countered.

"And you do?" Theta childishly argued. "I'm not listening to that, so just tell us what you want." He demanded.

"That's your choice, but that wasn't who I was talking about anyway." The Fallen retorted with a four shouldered shrug. "The ones who attacked you were the scouts of house Kings–they wanted to take you and use you to gain access to the Warmind bunkers here." He added, telling a half lie.

"How would I do that? I'm literally fresh out of the grave." Kai frowned, not seeing how she was supposed to be of any use in that kind of situation.

"Your ghost didn't tell?" The Eliksni questioned, tilting his head slightly in genuine confusion.

"Tell me what?" The woman asked.

"In your past life, you were an–albeit retired–Spartan super soldier from the old covenant days." He explained, having learned the history of the Covenant since the Whirlwind. "And the Warmind bunkers respond to Guardians like you." He added, idly picking at a rock on the ground with the tip of his blade.

"I only brought you back to life a minute before we were knocked out, so I didn't really have much time to say anything." Theta admitted.

"Fair enough." Kai shrugged before looking back at Randal. "So if I'm right, you want me to help you get into one of these bunkers, is that it?" She guessed.

"That's part of the reason, yes." The Eliksni nodded. "The other reason is because I wish to seek a different path than that of my former house." He continued, gesturing to the discarded Devils banner in the corner of the cave. "I want to see just what can happen when Eliksni and Humans can do together, rather than separately." He added, clasping his four hands together–as if to emphasize the point.

Kai and Theta looked at each other, silently debating what to do. Randal seemed decent enough, if he really did rescue them from some scouts from the House of Kings. Maybe getting him what he wanted wouldn't be that bad.

"Alright. I'm game." The woman shrugged with a nod.

"Excellent." The Fallen nodded as he tossed them something. "That leads to an abandoned jumpship complete with a workable Warp Drive." He told her. "You can use it to travel, I'll contact you when I wish to speak with you again."

"And then what? We'll meet here?" Kai asked as she picked up the tracer as Randal got up as well, his upper hand raising her chin to meet his eyes–as he was several heads taller than her.

"That's exactly right." He nodded. "And when we do. I will show you exactly what we will be doing from now on." He added, letting go of her as he turned around and walked away, leaving her alone in the cave. It was around this time that Theta got an incoming call.

"Who is it?" He asked upon answering the call.

"I think you know who." Came the voice of Epsilon. "Where are you and your Guardian, Theta?" He asked.

"We're in a cave, but we're okay. Randal didn't really hurt us. He saved us from some scouts from the House of Kings, and just wants us to help him see what we can get out of a Warmind bunker." The young Ghost explained. "He wants to see what happens when Eliksni and Humans come together." He added.

(Meanwhile)

Unseen to Theta, Epsilon, Noble and Tex exchanged looks.

"That shifty bastard." Tex cursed.

"It's like he molded them like puddy." Noble nodded.

"Play along for now. Talk later." Epsilon told them. "Theta, that's interesting and all, but do you and your Guardian need help getting out of the Cosmodrome?" He asked.

"No thanks. Randal gave us a tracer to a working jumpship with a Warp Drive, so we'll be fine." The younger Ghost replied. "See you in the City!" He added before ending the call.

"So, do we still keep tabs on them to make sure nothing bad is happening?" The female Eliksni asked.

"Yep. And intervene if things escalate too far." Noble nodded. "If things seem stable and promising, we may join what's happening. Depends, really." He added.

"I guess so." The female Eliksni sighed before a brief silence fell over them. "... Back to the City?" She asked after the silence passed.

"Yeah. I think we have enough scrap for Amanda anyway." Noble shrugged since the two of them had done an extensive amount of salvaging for the Prowler.

"I'm so not looking forward to getting back into that Hawk…" Tex grumbled as they made their way to the transmat area.

"I know, Tex. I know." Noble told her as they got into his ship, and flew back to the City with a job luckily complete.

And hopefully, the Spartan would have his hammer ready for use before long.

ThermalsniperN7: Sorry for the long wait. There are other stories that need work too.

Dragon Emperor0: And this one took a bit because of holiday shenanigans and because I was multitasking while working with another author friend of mine who's trying to repost his stories.

ThermalsniperN7: Yep. Anyway, it looks like Randal decided to make his debut here, and yes, we brought back Grif's sister. That means the rest of the RvB crew aren't gonna be far behind… We also may or may not have plans for a Kaikaina x Randal ship.

Dragon Emperor0: Because in the show, Kai is very promiscuous and typically finds anyone attractive, be they male, female, Human or Alien. So in the context of her character, that kind of pairing would make sense. Crazy, I know, but RvB was crazy back in the day.

ThermalsniperN7: Ain't that the truth. And Randal apparently has plans for an Eliksni Spartan program, which doesn't seem all that bad… If he didn't have plans to make himself a better Splicer. Doesn't mean the rest of his plan isn't false, though. It even has Noble and Tex considering the notion of joining him in his efforts. Whether that happens or not is undecided.

Dragon Emperor0: Though honestly, with a Sacred Splicer like him around, something tells me that going into the Vex network and dealing with SIVA will go very differently for Noble here.

ThermalsniperN7: Very true. And if he and Noble do join Randal, the Tex will be a very different Eliksni afterwards. If they decide on having hatchlings, they may end up having to go elsewhere to avoid collateral damage in the Tower.

Dragon Emperor0: And with that foreboding and erotic prelude out of the way… Good night everybody!

ThermalsniperN7: And see you after New Years, cuz we're taking a break 'till after that!