Destiny.

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Venus.


Among the endless void of space, a lone dropship hovers above the atmosphere of Venus. Silence lies behind the cockpit, but unwavering eyes literally burn like the sun looking upon the planet. Her hand shifts forward and the ship accelerates into the mass of the terrestrial marvel. The gaseous orange clouds become replaces with storms and turquoise rain as the ship gets filled with elements of the lost colonized location. The ship descends into the sediment and jagged landscape, the silence almost empowering from behind the vehicle. It lands over the hills of the Headlands, a place that covers the apex of the colonized section of Venus. She tethers her ship towards a cliff, and shuts down the operating engine. The front hull slides up, as a pale woman emerged. Her skin was as cold as ice, yet softer than the finest woven cloth to the touch. Her body delicate but hardened with underlying muscle and rigor. Solar orange eyes looked to and fro the land without a word, a hand cannon at her hip. She turned her head to the west, where a long trail of dust could be seen leading to a valley underneath. She begins her trek slowly towards the valley, her hands balled in a fist. Her posture was upright and disciplined, almost graceful in her steps. She knew they were here, The Crows had done their usual exceptional work of scouting the movements of the Fallen, the wretched and vile race of beings that come to do nothing but pillage and destroy in their benefit. Why were they here? They'd never ventured past Earth and the Cosmodrome before, and according to Crow intel, there was a Baron here, the most cunning and skilled of Fallen leaders, even among Kells. Why out here? This planet was deserted some time ago, nothing but ruins and ruins of ruins. Either way, she was going to find out. The Sword of the Queen, The Fabled, Swara Nov.

[fieldbox="Swara Nov, purple, dashed, 10, Tahoma"]


The aurora skies fall with dark and smoldering clouds of blue and orange. Light precipitation drops on her shoulders. Swara walks along the edge of the cliffs, high up from the valley where those below would not see her. She jumps from jagged edge to another, silently stepping on the stone as if they were the lush green scenery of the Venusian jungles. She reaches the convergence of the valley and the ember caves, an area that seemed to be filled with Fallen infantry. From high upon the rock she looks down, watching the simple dregs and some vandals patrolling about. With this many Fallen, there must be a Baron here, something royal at least.

"Hmph."

Swara moves her hands behind her back and scouts while looking down. Studying their movements. The Dreg were the weakest and most shamed of all the Fallen, used for simply infantry. They had their back arms cut off as a mark of low class and shame to their race, so they only have two arms total. So now they fight for worth and honor, at least that's what Variks told her. Swara peers in trying to catch a glimpse of what house these Fallen were from, but it was too far to tell.

"Petra, they're here..."
Petra: Good, see what you can sniff out. Find out why they are there.

Swara trails along the upper cliffs of the caves and crouches down to spy among the Fallen intruders. She remains silent and resilient as the Dregs and Vandals all watch out around the vicinity. They seemed to be looking for something, but what is it that they could be looking for? Swara contemplates as she watches on. Venus was formally inhabited by the Ishtar, speculated to be a group of individuals tasked with collecting data and information on all known people, races, events, and places. Maybe they were searching for that, but even that was finding a needle in a volcano. No one had seen anything of such evidence thus far. But if the Fallen believed it to be real, then they must act on it before it's too late. There were also the Vex constructs, pillars of light made from a highly and seemingly infinite race of organic-robotic beings capable of transmuting space and time. Perhaps they were looking to study this technology, or even garner it for themselves.

Swara spots a Fallen Captain among the top of the platform leading into the main caves, if he's guarding there then the Baron must be that way. It was time for her to infiltrate further. She draws her Arc Edge sword and drops down dozens of feet speeding into the ground, and just before she hits the platform she blink teleports herself beside the Captain and slices his head off with extreme force and precision. His head rolls the feet of a vandal whom looks up and is met by the surging end of the sword. Fallen chatter begins to immerse as the shots of shock pistols whiz by her head. Swara remains calm and unmoving, the stream of shots whizzing by her head. She blocks the next ones with the sword, but takes shock damage since their energy shots are arc. Swara growls in annoyance and sticks out her hand, as the life force from the Dregs are sapped into a purple energy and they dissipate into nothingness, her Energy Drain being effective. Vandals in the far distance shoot, but a quick Swara dives inside the cave and starts to sprint deeper into the cave. The whirring of Fallen Shanks can be heard behind her, the small and portable robotic drones created by the Fallen used to scout and deter. Swara runs hastily, blinking over jagged rocks and steep drops. Her feet plant in teal colored water and after a splash she's already meters ahead. She tosses a small ball of void energy, as it splits into two and explodes the two shanks into bits.

"Axion Bolt always wins.."

She runs deeper into the caves, the sound of Fallen infantry behind her. She runs along the tunnels of the caves and stops to a halt at the sight of Vandals on the upper ridges in front of her, with a few shanks patrolling in front of her. She runs and slides behind a rock, drawing her hand cannon now. She takes a deep breath as time slows for her and her mind clears. Her orange eyes dilate mildly and she arises with two precise shots, one of each taking off the head of a Vandal. The shanks turn and shoot, but are rapidly downed by the impact of the hand cannon. More Fallen chatter from among the upper ridge, Vandals and Dregs look down and start to fire, with Swara moving towards cover on the west side of the cavern. From where she came in, the rest of the Fallen have caught up with her and now have her pinned in. A Fallen Captain arises from the top cliff and fires tracer shots at her, the bullets curving towards her but hitting the rock in front of her. The vandals above look on through their sniper scopes, as the dregs close in on her from the top and the entrance sides. The Captain lies in wait as his legion converges on her location.

"Just a bit closer.."

The Fallen privates all close in with their shock pistols and start to surround the rock. Swara braces herself, and then suddenly smirks. She blinks in the air, and delivers an essence of void energy into three giant balls of force and death. She shoots them among the crowd of Fallen dreg, instantly dissipating the dozen or so aliens into purple dust. The vandals on the top and near the entry way immediately start to shoot. Swara takes on the closest ones first near the entrance. She blinks as their shots miss, and appears feet away from them. She delivers an almost unseen chop to the throat of one with her speed, taking the others' weapon and shooting the incapacitated foe in the chest with it, before smacking the other with the end of its own weapon, and delivering a hand cannon round to the head while it fell. Like lightning her head darted towards the upper ridges, moments later she was up there among three sniper Fallen and the Captain. The Captain speaks in his tongue aggressively at Swara.

"Fallen scum. It's time you eat that tongue."

The Captain shoots right for her Voidfang Vestments, But she slides out of the way, taking cover behind a rock and piercing one vandals' head with the hand cannon. She lifts over the rock and blasts away at the Captain, each shot taking a hit on its shields. It fires back with the tracer shots, Swara blinks right before they hit her and lands on a small platform. Sniper fire streams around her as she constantly moves. She jumps mid air and tosses a grenade that splits into three projectiles this time, with two hitting and blasting away each of the vandals, and one hitting the Captain, staggering him and leaving him
reeling, before hitting him with a few rounds from the cannon as he falls lifeless to the ground. Swara sighs and looks onward towards the higher caverns. She was halfway there.

Petra: Status?
"Fallen are patrolling, like they're looking for something. I'm getting close."

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These were trying times. Guardians dying everywhere. New threats arising at every turn. They'd only barely held out the first time; how could they ever hope to do it again? The Hunter Vanguard had found Kale in uncharacteristicly solemn silence. Frowning with the bizarre ways an Exo can make an expression, Cade had sat him down. Talked it out. Left him feeling better about the world.

The sound of ships flying nearby. The cacaphonous din of conversation in a busy market. The sound of metal being worked. The distant sound of gunshots. Kale-4 listened to all of this, his eyes closed in now blissful silence as he just absorbed his surroundings, sitting alone in the tower. He'd spoken to Cade just recently. His idol. The epitome of what it meant to be a Hunter. The conversation had been brief, but it had been enough.

Then, he heard the sound of arguing nearby. Black eyes opened once again. He recognized the people arguing. A couple of young, hot-headed Guardians. One for the New Monarchy. One for the Speaker. They were both rather foolish in their arguments, the Hunter observed. "Rather foolish indeed," He muttered to himself with a light chuckle, his voice robotic, but bright and happy. "Not good to be fighting right now. Better go do something, eh? I suppose so." This one-sided conversation came to an end as he approached the two.

"Alright, girls, that's enough." The two teenage humans looked up and hesitated at the older Guardian's interference. Even if you weren't in charge, doing work wherever it was needed got you around the Tower. People got to know you. What most people knew Kale as was a bumbling fool that somehow got work done in spite of his clear flaws. "Now, do I have to separate you children, or can you behave through the rest of class?"

He snickered at his own joke. "Good one."

Again, the two hesitated. This time, they were considering their options. As little as their respect for him ultimately was, they didn't want to risk getting in trouble. After a moment, they each muttered an apology and went their separate ways. Not before casting hateful glares at each other, but Kale was still satisfied that he'd stopped the fight from escalating. Sitting back down, he stared out over the City.

"Should probably find work soon. But, nah, it's good to rest. I can get it some other time. It's boring here, though..." The Hunter began to argue with himself. "... but also safe. A worthy tradeoff. Hmph. I'll just wait. See what plops into my lap. Somebody will need me eventually."


 
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[fieldbox="Swara Nov, purple, dashed, 10, Tahoma"]


Swara steps out from the inner caverns and walks to the edge of the platform railing, looking to see a Fallen Ketch taking up a large amount of area among the ember cave outlands. She looks at the marvel with an inner respect for the Fallen's constructs, if those menaces knew how to do anything, it was make some decent technology. Swara folds her arms, and releases a faint rumble underneath her voice.

"Petra...there's a Fallen Ketch here. We may have more than just a Baron. Perhaps an Archon, maybe even....a Kell."
Perta: Proceed with caution Swara, we need you alive. Don't get to far in.
"Please, I'll be fine. I've faced tougher."

Swara blinks atop a large boulder overlooking the lands below, and the Ketch in her immediate view. She didn't have a sniper or anything with a scope, so she only relied on her wit and eyes to portray the recon. A bunch of lowlies. Dreg, Vandal, Shanks, and three Servitor drones scouring about the lands. She sighs in disdain, drawing her cannon and jumping nearly 100 feet down below to the vast botanical territory. Right before impact she blinks in the middle of the horde and releases her Axion Bolt grenades before sliding behind cover. The sound of three distinct explosions can be heard as a Servitor emerges in front of her, and with three shots in the center eye it explodes.

"Is this all?"

Two more shots pop heads off of two dregs. She blinks to one and lifts it up by it's neck, Energy Draining it of it's life as it dissolves into purple dust. She wraps her arm around a running unsuspecting vandal and shoots her hand cannon into the Fallen adversaries. Their shots his the vandal killing him in a few blows, its lifeless corpse a strain on her biceps. She grunts as she moves dragging the body along, each Fallen shot hitting the dead weight. The servitors fire up their void cannons and she blinks away as the corpse explodes. From the Ketch, a proud Fallen presence emerges and begins to speak in tongue of aggression. A single arm stretches and points towards Swara, as three Fallen captains with blades in all four of their hands rush past the presence and dart down the ramp to Swara.

She switches to her fusion rifle and runs to catapult off of a Fallen crate and blasts into the second servitor with the energy of the gun. The servitor staggers back and she delivers another burst, as another shot explodes at her feet from the third servitor. The splash damage burns the air around her, and she delivers a quick melee trigger to the second before moving away from heavy fire. She remains calm and poised as sniper fire and shock pistols fly overhead. Her brows raise a little when she hears the roar of a bigger Fallen...in fact three more of those roars follow. The ringing of blades can be head and the patter of footsteps can be head closing in on her position. Swara closes her eyes and breathes, a brief moment taking her mind to clear. She opens them and immediately draws her sword, stepping from behind cover to face the four captains, their light blue armor displaying their allegiance. The House of Winter, their greed knew no bounds. Last Swara heard of them they had migrated away from the solar system for good, but their presence here was surprising yet alarming.

"Scum, come to die."

Swara walks in circles around the captains, her arc blade leaving trails of electricity as the tip drags along the dirt. Vandals lock in on her through their scopes, the two servitors all focused on her, and the remaining couple of dregs hide behind cover ready to fire. She was outnumbered, but not outmatched. Inside she was smiling, joyful, almost pleasured at the circumstances. She tilts her head towards the captains, her sun orange eyes burning into their dead iris'. She slings the sword over her shoulder, bringing a hand up to the captains, taunting them. Without time for a reaction she warps over to the weakened servitor and slices it into bits and pieces. The vandals shoot and she blocks it with her sword, still taking some shock damage though. Swara tenses up for a moment as two captains lunge towards her, she quickly raises her sword and blocks the first blade, crouching and spinning the sword into the guts of the first captain. She blocks the next and blinks away to a higher rock, quick drawing her hand cannon and popping the vandals with a full clip. The dregs pop out and Swara releases her axion grenades again, easily dispersing of the dregs. She jumps from the rock and drives the sword directly down on the final servitor, as the gutted captain is taken out of its misery by a fellow captain comrade. Their brutality was uncanny, but her will was stronger. The captains rush her in one rush to subdue her.

--

The Fallen leader looks surrounded by six vandals at the field of dead underlings. His fists balled in malice and hatred towards the awoken female that disperses of her threats with such lethal precision. He roars and chatters among the Fallen adversaries and rushes the vandals to take Swara out. The Fallen captains fall one by one to her blade, as she finishes off the final one and then heeds the roar of the Fallen royalty. She shifts her head to the ketch, with the half dozen vandals running out along the ramp to end her. They had it wrong. The rumbling of an unknown machine could be heard in the distance, the grounds beneath Swara shakes as she clutched the dirt with affirmation of an impending danger. She looked up to see another Ketch, yes TWO ketches in the sky now. Both swallowed the sky like The Darkness itself, the arriving Fallen giant ship hovers over the one belonging to House Winter, with two jumpships dispersing from It and down towards the surface, right where Swara was. She darted back for the cliffs, as arc cannons from the jumpships impacted yards away from her scramble. She blinked upwards and found a nice hollow cave space to hide in. Two ketches in the same planet, let alone area!? This was never seen before. A legion of Fallen fell from the two jumpships, as House Winter seems just as surprised as Swara. Easily a dozen dreg, ten or so vandals, four servitors, and four captains drop down and look back at the fleeting House Winter, their gazes meeting in silence of souls. Another falls with the reinforcement, this Captain was different. He held banners and hardened armor higher then the regular captains. Swara crawled up to the edge of the cliff to see, her eyes locking on the banner woven captain. A sight that caused her to break her calm mind. She focuses on the banner, and heeds to the sight that it's royal blue. The banner, and the color of The Wolves.

"Impossible..."

The new House royalty walks up to the leader of the House Winter, now seen as Draksis, the Kell commander of House Winter. He looks up at Draksis and begins speaking in Fallen tongue while the rest of the squad searches for Swara. This was unlike anything she'd seen before. It was alarming to say the least.

"Petra...we may have a situation."
Petra: What is it?
"The House of Wolves....they're back."









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