So this is my first story ever. My first attempt at writing something like this. So know that this will be multi-chapter. I have some really great ideas going for this. This is based of a video game called Destiny 2. Yes I play the game.
Also a HUGE shoutout to Anneda Sky for being my body model for Silver Thorne; the main female character. Y'all need to follow her as a thank you. She is a dynamo.
Thanks for reading this everyone and Enjoy!
*all characters are over 18 years of age. *
Zayne sat perched up in a tree in the European Dead Zone. Fully armored in his Nightkin armor, he was very hard to spot with his cloak wrapped around him. Tall for a Hunter at almost 6 feet, he was getting a bit cramped in the tree so he shifted positions to get a better grip on his rifle. He had his IKELOS Sniper rifle out and was looking down the scope. He could clearly see a good half click down range, able to see the entire front of the Cabal base.
His sniper rifle was one of his favorites. It was a gift from the Warmind Rasputin. Zayne had helped the old AI way back when the Hive was trying to uncover his home base on Mars. Because Zayne answered his call and was successful in stopping the Hive, along with other Guardians, Zayne had his choice of rewards. The IKELOS SR V1.0.2 was what he picked up.
Zayne had been dispatched by Commander Zavala himself for this new deployment. He had been hunting down a lead on a Fallen commander out in the Forgotten Shore that was trying to fill the power void after the Lone Wolf took out the last Fallen big bad. That so far hadn't been playing out. Even Spider didn't have anything on him.
And Spider could find anything on anyone.
But all of that was moot right now. Zavala gave him the abort code and said he needed Zayne for this one. Zayne being the Senior Hunter Recon Scout, and having been trained personally by Cayde-6 himself, usually was given the missions that could or had the potential to go sideways. Zavala had a sixth sense about these sometimes. So Zayne was here in the EDZ, up in a tree, looking down his scope at the fireteam that was slowly making its way up to the base.
Zayne moved his scope from right to left scouting the top of the ramparts to see if they had any sentries.
There weren't any.
Odd. Zayne thought to himself. Cabal ALWAYS have sentries. What are they playing at?
Moon chirped next to him. Her light sing-song voice barely above a whisper. "I have a change in the wind. One knot from the west." "Copy that." Zayne responded.
Moon was Zayne's Ghost. She was the only real friend that Zayne knew since...... he became one of the Risen. A Guardian. He didn't remember anything before he woke up in the Cosmodrome with Moon hovering above him.
He remembers that day. And everything that happened after that day.
But nothing before it.
Zayne remembered fighting. He remembers fighting Savathun and her endless horde of Hive. He remembers fighting the House of Wolves and the House of Devils. He remembers the Taken King and the hell he brought with him. He remembers Lord Saladin coming out of exile when SIVA reared its ugly head once again after centuries. He remembers helping Rasputin and how the old Warmind self-proclaimed himself to be humanity's ultimate protector and that nothing will stop him from doing so.
He remembers the Red War.
And the deaths of so many Guardians who found themselves without the Light after centuries of being able to die countless times, only to find out you have one life left to give.
That was almost as bad as the days of the Warlords.
Such was the life of a Guardian.
"They're moving up, Zayne. Are you ready?" Moon asked, floating a bit closer to his right shoulder.
"I'm on it." he states.
Adjusting his position, he trained his scope onto the fireteam. This fireteam wasn't a Guardian fireteam. Which didn't strike Zayne as strange. A good number of missions were run without any Guardians being on the fireteam.
It just meant that the Guardians were spread thin.
Real thin.
"They've reached the gate." Moon whirled. "Yeah I see them." Zayne keyed his comm. "Fireteam Highland? Do you copy? This is Hunter Zayne. I've got overwatch on you. Over?"
His radio cut static and Moon adjusted his frequency to receive the fireteams response.
"Copy Hunter Zayne. Darris Farn. Team Leader responding. We are making our approach. Any hostiles? Over?"
"Negative. All is quiet, Leader Farn. Proceed with caution." Zayne responded.
Zayne looked back down his scope and started to have that Hunters intuition of his start to creep up the back of his neck. Cayde always said that he had really good instincts and to always follow them. He didn't like how this was starting to play out. But he kept his focus and zeroed in on what he had to do.
Zayne started to look over the 5 members of Fireteam Highland. He spotted that they were all in older Warlord armor from back during the early days of the Risen. Zayne wondered why they had old armor from a time that the Guardians kept trying to forget.
He started to look over the members briefly.
One in particular jumped out at him that he could tell was a woman. Just by the way she moved. She moved with the grace of a cat. She didn't look very tall, but she was definitely very athletic if she was able to wear all that armor. It looked like she had on some sort of form fitting undergear. It was fitting in the right places and hugging the curve of her buttocks and down her legs, as well as around her neck and compressing her breasts so they didn't move. Because the armor was older and hadn't been fitted for her, it left gaps open in-between the ferro-steel plates. Zayne's blood was starting to boil and he was feeling a little warm all over looking at this fireteam member.
The armor didn't give anything away as to what she looked like so Zayne's imagination ran wild.
Zayne had to put that out of his mind and went back to overwatching the fireteam.
Something still prickled at the back of his neck. Then it hit him. He knew what it was. And it wasn't good.
"Moon high area scan, now!" Zayne barked. Moon shot straight up in the air and stopped high up above the treetops. She expanded her shell and pulsed her Light three times in scan mode. With her scan completed she collapsed her shell and shot straight back down and Zayne could tell by the look in her single digital eye that it wasn't good.
"Zayne... get them out of there! IT'S A TRAP!" Moon exclaimed.
"Dammit! I knew it!" Zayne keyed his mic. "Fireteam Highland retreat. I repeat, retreat immediately! Cabal forces in hiding. Get out of there!" Zayne listened for the response. He didn't get one.
By the Light! They'll all be killed! Zayne thought.
Just as he was about to jump down and summon his Sparrow, the Cabal jumped up out of their hiding spots. They had been hiding under the ground in Cabal sized fox holes.
Zayne focused on the first one that came into his scope and pulled the trigger. The electrical whine from his rifle signaled that he had discharged his first shot. It flew true and went through the head of the first Cabal. He went from Cabal to Cabal putting a round through each one until he had emptied his magazine. He swapped out the empty and replaced it with a fresh one. Then continued to go through each Cabal until they were down. He caught a glimpse at the fireteam and saw that one of them was down and had a lot of blood around the body. Nothing he could do about that one. He focused on the rest of them and put round after round in the bodies of the rapidly closing Cabal Warbeasts, putting them down and looking over at the fireteam.
They were down three. Only two were standing. One was the woman.
And it was at this moment that all hell broke loose.
Zayne's breath caught in his throat as the main gate opened up and more Cabal poured out of the opening. But it wasn't just the sheer volume of force coming out of the gate, but the very ornate, very large, very heavily armed commander that was behind them that really gave Zayne pause.
"Oh sweet Light... they're done for." Zayne jumped down from the tree with Moon disappearing back into her spot in Zayne's backpack. Zayne then summoned his Sparrow and opened the throttle and closed the half-click distance at breakneck speed.
Zayne dodged boulders and trees, flying with one thought on his mind.
