Swift-2 - A Destiny 2 Story

Part 6 - A New Friend

September 5th, AL 1 - 10:36 A.M.

(17) The forest outside the city was dense.

Wren had been sneaking his way through the woodland right outside the wall of the Last City. Naturally he decided to land the jetpack near the town where there was still a fresh hole in the thick concrete.

The woods felt ominous. It had only been a couple of days since the House of Kings were swarming from out of this same tree line. Wren and Blu had just seen them all the way over in the Cosmodrome, but was that all of them? Were there still some Fallen around here? Wren didn't want to find out, but the Future War Cult had already started their search for him outside the City, and they were quite relentless.

Wren continued to carefully navigate his way through the woodland, keeping track of how far he'd gone away from the City walls. Suddenly he heard faint voices behind him. The Future War Cult. They had made quick progress of sweeping the wood line and were making their way towards him. He began to search for places with thicker brush to hide, until he heard the sound of nearby leaves crunching.

Wren swung around and saw the same silhouette he had seen a few days prior, almost invisible but just visible enough to see four glowing eyes. Wren sprinted the other direction. The War Cult members were alerted and began the chase.

Wren sprinted his way towards a nearby opening. He ran out into the open area to see a small abandoned town, littered with run-down houses and shacks. Wren heard the War Cult members making their way towards the opening. He sprinted to a nearby house and closed himself inside, crawling over to the far corner of an old living room.

"You just HAD to steal the interesting looking jar, didn't you Wren?"

Wren was wondering to himself how the House of Kings and the Future War Cult could be so determined to take this material he had snagged out of their hands. He once again inspected the material, studying it, trying to figure out what in the world it was, or what it could do. Wren could hear the Cult Members getting closer and decided to try and move farther to another house. He made his way onto the back porch, readying himself to run to the next house when he heard an FWC member open the front door.

Wren had only seconds now.

The cult member began to open the door to the back porch when Wren was grabbed from behind. He felt a force brace him and quietly yank him down to the ground under the base of the house. He rolled under the building just as the FWC member walked onto the wooden patio and down the steps. Wren was looking at the man's feet when he turned his head to see who had dragged him under the house. He saw a figure with four glowing eyes and a black burning scar across its face shell.

It was the Stealth Vandal from the town attack.

The Vandal looked at Wren with a single finger over its mask where its mouth would be. The two watched as the FWC members made their way house to house, inspecting every room searching for Wren. The two waited with baited breath for about 10 minutes until the crew gathered in the center of the town, discussing where the runaway thief could've gone. Suddenly the group quickly looked around the tree line, talking amongst themselves. They quietly made their way back into the tree line and towards the Last City.

Wren began to sit back up to leave when the Vandal pressed its hand on Wren's chest, pushing him back down to the ground. Moments later another crew showed up to the town, a Fallen crew, a House of Kings crew. They committed to the same process as the FWC had done, inspecting every single abandoned house and shack. Wren looked over again towards the Vandal and quietly pointed at him to ask if they were here searching for him. The Vandal nodded.

(18) The two fugitives waited until the crew had long moved on from the town before emerging from the foundation of the house. They didn't want to take any chances. The two crawled out from the base of the shack and Wren quickly distanced himself. The two stared at each other for a brief moment until the Vandal began to speak.