62 The Warmind
A/N: Hope you enjoy the chapter, leave some stones, give a review!
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[Tower, Earth]
Hoards of Jumpships soared the horizon, circling over the tower, squads and fireteams transmatted down to the courtyard.
Perhaps the largest gathering of guardians since the dark ages. Their representatives rushed to report to the speaker.
The guardians lined up ahead of the consensus hall, the speaker waited within. Receiving updates from each team.
Listening to the accounts first-hand, the speaker breathed a sigh of relief. The bulk of status updates he received pointed towards a landslide victory. However, not all was good.
Several squads from Dead Orbit and New Monarchy, two leading factions of the city, had failed. Returning beaten and bruised, they could only hold their heads down as their sectors were reassigned.
The speaker couldn't condone such a failure. For the first time, there was a slight crack in his demeanor. Ahamkara were volatile, eccentric and bizarre. But they weren't fools.
'The cost of failure was far too high.' Thoughts raced in his mind.
As he received the batch of failed hunts, the speaker's face stiffened. His eyes searched around for the consensus members. Yet none had returned.
A single flick of his wrist pulled up the transponder's interface. He swiftly sent a discrete SOS message to the Vanguard to rendezvous at the tower, as soon as possible.
'Time is of the essence. We cannot wait any longer.' He mumbled, taking his leave to his chambers the speaker excused himself from the guardians.
Secluded in his room , staring at the pile of papers on his desk, he pondered over the reports he had just received.
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[Trojans, Jupiter]
Two Jumpships raced in distant space, thrusters blaring.
Ikorra felt her transponder buzz, she glanced at the message, furrowing her brows.
"...Eris, we're speeding up."
"Copy."
A second later, a turbulent eruption throttled the ships through Jupiter's asteroid field, triggering a warp, space crumbled, convulsing to form a wormhole. Eris and Ikorra rushed through hyperspace.
Immediately, the tunnel collapsed, spitting them out to the other end, minutes away from earth's outer orbit.
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[Titan, Saturn]
Zavala sat on the edge of a steep cliff, his eyes surveying the ravine below, littered with bones and skulls.
He felt a ring in his ear, his wrist buzzed. Zavala stole a glance at the encoded message.
"It appears that we've no longer got idle time. Are you finished Cayde?" He spoke out.
Cayde hooked his arm around the rocks, flailing above the ravine. He aimed his ace, squinting to see through the iron sights. "Yup, big blue just give me...one uh, second right here."
A bright ember lit ablaze at the tip of his barrel, solar energy condensing in the bullet chamber.
"Aaaand....Boom." The trigger clicked, a single bullet shooting towards the pit below. Lighting ablaze everything in its path.
The shot struck, a brief lull spread. Hot air bellowing from the abyss below.
Zavala got to his feet, peering over the edge, "Seems like you've lost your touch. Need another shot?" He raised a brow.
Cayde flashed a sly smirk, jolting upwards to stand beside the titan.
"You see big blue, it's all about....timing." He snapped his fingers. The valley now engulfed in an evergreen flame.
Fire seemed to eat away at the bones, a large infernal storm brewed, blasting upwards. Not a second later, inferno erupted from the abyss, igniting the rock itself. An inescapable hell.
Zavala's eyes widened, "Quite the performance. If only you were half as creative in your other duties." He sighed.
"I know big blue, I know. We're ready to go though." Cayde sauntered away from the cliff
"Wait." Zavala abruptly called back.
"Huh?"
"Did you turn off your transponder? I don't think you got the alert."
"Sorry what?" Cayde cupped his ear.
"Turn on your transponder Cayde."
Cayde spammed the button on his wrists, "Sorry..Uh, can't hear you from the Jumpship. Comms cutting.....out."
After intently mashing the controls, the transmat finally triggered as his figure turned into a mesh of particles, scattering away.
Zavala held his forehead, taking in a deep breath, he softly exhaled and shook his head. A fraction of a second later, he channeled back to the Jumpship.
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[Lunar Command, SkyWatch]
A sleek black Jumpship shot through the Skyline.
"Obsidian, park the ship on exit bay." Void transmatted out.
"Roger, directing ship systems." Obsidian processed the protocols, "Void, I am picking up some notifications from the NightStalkers. I think everyone's on their way back."
"Didn't think they'd be done so soon. Ping to see who's close. We can meet up here." He scuttled off to the control room, naturally, Void couldn't help but pick out some bounties.
After all, the glimmer target still wasn't complete.
"Ok, seems like Levi is in range for an hour. He's enroute to the complex." Obsidian sent a request to Levi as Void waited near the control room.
"Gotcha." Void swiftly wrapped up the bounties. His gaze finally fell onto the system tab. The quest reward glimmered right in front of his eyes.
He hit claim, a surge of xp funneled into him, raising his stats. Ten Ahamkara spines were deposited into his inventory, and his glimmer reserves shot up.
[Glimmer: 800,000]
But most importantly, Void found an additional item in his inventory.
[1x Store Roulette Ticket]
[Would You Like to Use it Now?....]
"No." He decided against it. Void wasn't sure what he could gain, or more importantly, what he was gambling with. He furrowed his brows.
"System, what are the possible prizes from the roulette?"
[The Roulette system is directly connected to the store. The User may roll for 1 chance to obtain any item or unique ability from the store. However, certain items or abilities may only be usable with restrictions.]
Although the description was quite vague, Void found it to be quite a useful item. One that he planned to use. But for now, he had other plans.
Opening his inventory, Void took out one of the many Ahamkara skulls he had collected from Mars. He stared at the cracked skull in his palm.
Gazing into its hollow eyes, Void scoffed.
"How long are you going to stay quiet?" He whispered.
Yet there was no response. Void intently waited, but once he saw no change, he continued.
"I had many questions to ask. But it doesn't seem like you'll answer."
"Isn't that right....Brother." Void called out.
However, unlike before, the eye sockets shivered. A remnant wisp jolted in the disfigured bones. As if taking a deep breath, the skull opened wide.
A harrowing voice echoing through its hollow remnants.
~What say you? O Brother mine~
Void was startled to hear the Ahamkara conversing willingly. But he reigned in his curiosity, opting to ask one at a time.
"Tell me. Why do you call me brother?" He asked, his eyes sharply focused on the skull.
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[Tower, Earth]
The Vanguard Trio rushed back to the tower on the summons of the speaker. A private meeting was held in his chambers.
"It's urgent news. New Monarchy and Dead Orbit failed their sectors, we need to relocate guardians and find the Ahamkara. If we wait any longer, it will be too late."
Ikorra frowned, her fingers curled, the numerous reports circling around her as she scanned the details swiftly.
"This...is catastrophic. How was there no call for backup?"
Cayde and Zavala's faces darkened.
The speaker shook his head.
"Pride. The leadership of the factions is too restrictive. Instead of asking for help they tried establishing themselves just like the Sunbreakers."
Zavala spoke out, "I thought we agreed that the Vanguard takes the lead on guardian matters."
Ikorra swiped her fingers as the reports neatly stacked themselves on the desk, "Indeed, but it seems that the faction have forgotten who is really in charge here."
Cayde felt the tensions rise as he interrupted, "Hey, hey. Point fingers later, we still got dragons to hunt."
The Speaker contemplated "Yes. Cayde, I reckon we do. The only way to counter this is to send reinforcements. Closest squad to this sector are the Arc Hunters under Sai Mota and Lord Saladin's fire team."
"Ok, we send a cleanup crew to pick up the pieces. But after that, the consensus needs to have a meeting. With all members present. There are no exceptions."
Ikorra's words struck like hot iron, as the speaker's eyes gleamed with certainty, the next consensus gathering would be unavoidable, no single representative would be left free.
It was time for the Vanguard to remind the city of their absolute control over the guardians. The factions would cooperate, willingly or unwillingly.
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed chapter. Leave comment! Leave review!!! Thanks for reading.
