Destiny: a New Light

Another Day, Another Mission

The Hunter sighed tiredly as she opened the door to the warehouse shared by her Fireteam. They had all collectively gathered the glimmer to buy it so they could have a place to store their weapons, plan raids and strikes or just have a place to hang out. In this particular moment she just wanted a place to rest for a bit.

The room was suited for all their Guardian needs. There was a table over on one end with several maps and blueprints spread out over it, a couple of racks over in the back for their weapons and a bunch of couches and beanbags placed near a TV for them to hang out and relax.

In this particular moment, she just wanted to rest for a few seconds. Silently, she walked over to one of the couches and let herself fall into it. After the time she had spent sat in her jumpship she really missed this. A smile stretched across her face as her eyes fell on the framed picture of her fireteam hanging on the wall.

Fireteam Delta. There were the two exos: Talon-5, the Sunsinger, and Harriet-7, the Nightstalker, their optics glinting with amusement. There were the three awoken: Temni Vis, the Defender, Erez Ravell, the Gunslinger, and Araaz Kahn, the Stormcaller, all of them smiling. And of course the three humans: Heraklion Tiber, the Striker, Keira Watts, the Voidwalker, and last but not least herself, Faith Reid, the Bladedancer, blue eyes twinkling with happiness.

It had been a while since they had gathered everyone for a proper raid. All Guardians were busy now and (unfortunately, some Hunters would say) loot wasn't exactly a top priority at the moment. Right now it seemed everyone was on edge, as if waiting for a storm to arrive. But Faith hoped they could get everyone together again, even if just for a short time.

As she reminisced of the good old days, her eyes began to close and she fell asleep.

*

Faith groaned as she felt someone shaking her. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see a pair of glowing golden looking back at her. She blinked to clear her vision, recognizing the pale face and grey hair of the awoken standing above her.

"It's a miracle! Sleeping Beauty awakes!" the awoken commented with a grin.

Faith frowned.

"Erez? What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice still groggy from sleep.

"We've got a mission."

"I just came back from a mission! A three month stakeout mission in the EDZ!" she complained.

"Faith, come on!" Erez insisted.

"No! Tell Zavala to get someone else."

"It's not for Zavala, it's for Cayde."

That caught Faith's attention. The mission she had just returned from had been assigned to her by the Titan Vanguard and the Commander of the Vanguard, thereby also sort of leader of the Guardians, Zavala. He was a large bald awoken man who had been around for hundreds of years and whose reputation far exceeded him. He was strict, stubborn and very by the book, part of the reason why some Hunters felt very annoyed by him.

In contrast, Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard was as laidback as they come. He was a pretty slim exo, easily recognizable by the blue horn on his forehead. He was known by practically all Guardians for being the most dramatic, boastful and flamboyant of the three members of the Vanguard. But he was also a lot more relaxed and his humor and friendly attitude meant practically all Guardians liked him, even if a couple of the more stoic ones tried not to show it. He was also famous for hating being cooped up in the Tower due to his job as the Hunter Vanguard and had a habit of going behind the backs of the other two if he felt they would get nowhere. Which made for some pretty interesting missions.

"Wait, seriously?" Faith inquired.

"Yup. I managed to pick up Harriet, Talos and Heraklion too. They're waiting outside." Erez replied.

Despite how tired she felt before, that was enough to get Faith back on her feet. She missed going on missions with her fireteam, even if it wasn't with the full group.  And any mission from Cayde was worth taking.

She quickly grabbed her sniper rifle from the rack in the back and followed the awoken outside. Sure enough everyone he had mentioned was there. Talos clad in his red, black and gold robes, the sun glinting off his red metal skull; Harriet dressed in her grey and purple cloak, standing a bit shorter than the others; Heraklion wearing his Titan armor, a lion head embossed into his shoulder guards, blond hair practically shining in the sunlight; and Cayde himself, dressed in his usual dark cloak and hood. Faith herself was still dressed in her usual black, white and blue attire, a snake design on her cloak.

"Finally!" Cayde exclaimed once he saw her.

"Sorry. I was just trying to catch up on sleep." she apologized.

"Ah, don't worry. I can't stay mad at you." the exo said dismissively.
"Anyway, is this everyone?"

"Everyone currently in the city. Give us the details, Cayde." Erez requested.

"Right. You guys remember the Cabal, right?"

The Cabal were an empire of very large beings from a different system that had sent an occupation force that  had taken up residence in Mars. So far they hadn't sent an attack on the Last City, but given that they were known for their violence and military power, it was safe to assume that it was only a matter of time until they did. The Guardians' main objectives regarding the Cabal were usually either small skirmishes to thin their numbers or intelligence gathering operations.

"Yes." Talos confirmed.
"What about them?"

"I was looking through the intelligence we've got, and I noticed that it's actually not that much. So I thought, why don't we try to listen in on them?"

"What do you mean listen in?" Harriet asked.

"I mean map out at least part of their communications grid so we can spy on their conversations. That way we'll actually know what's going on in that part of the system, instead of stumbling around in the dark like we have been lately." Cayde explained.

"That sounds pretty risky. The Cabal won't just sit around while we bug their comms. Did you run this by Zavala?" Heraklion asked.

His question was not unexpected. As a Titan and a student of Zavala, Heraklion had always held his Vanguard's opinion in high regard. Of course, he understood Zavala's approach wasn't always the best solution, but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

"Nope. Because I know there's a 96% chance Big Blue will say no."

"Makes sense." Erez agreed, causing Heraklion to raise an eyebrow.

"Anyway, this should help your Ghosts tune in to the Cabal's frequency." Cayde said as he gave Talos a small device.
"All you need to do is get the chatter going. The more they talk, the more we see."

"Neat." Harriet commented.

"It sure is. Anyway, I managed to convince Amanda to let your ships go without notifying the Vanguard. But try to make it quick. Zavala's starting to wonder why there are so many Guardians suddenly going on unscheduled test flights." Cayde warned.

"Please tell me you're not adding this to the 'collective Hunter debt to Amanda Holliday'." Faith said.

Cayde would have smiled if his metal face allowed him.

"Nah. This one's going in my own personal tab."he assured.
"Good luck, Guardians."