Drifter hefted his coat up over his shoulders as he fired up his ship from The Derelict where he transmatted Guardians in for his Gambit. It was tattered and scratched from the last time he wore it. On that cold, desolate hellhole planet with the shadows that snuffed out his crew's light. As for the rest of them well... only one came back to tell the tale. He activated the communications. "How you doin down there Moondust?"
"I've told you numerous times to refrain from using that nickname of yours Germaine." She said back through the crackled radio. The icy moon had a blisteringly cold atmosphere and an almost perpetual cycle of snowstorms.
"Any idea where this friend of ours might be hidin?" He asked and the ship jettisoned from its hangar toward Europa.
"We don't even know who sent the signal let alone what it is. They simply said that they mean to show us something." Eris says stumbling over a pile of snow laden with orange streaks encased in the ice.
"Okay well meet me in this clearing. Storm's too heavy where you are for me to land." He clicked on autopilot and sat back in his chair maneuvering his jade coin around in his hand then setting it ablaze. The ship sat down eventually and Eris walked up to it having crossed the field of ice and snow. She removed her shawl from around her mouth and watched as Drifter got out and stepped onto the moon. He was not two steps on that they heard a low hum coming from the north. They looked and saw a sparrow rounding a glaicer in the distance and speeding towards them. The sparrow disintegrated and the stranger jumped off. Drifter put a hand on his revolver. He turned to her.
"So. You must be this stranger we've been hearin about, the one who sent that signal." The stranger nodded and they saw what she was. Metallic.
"You're an Exo." Eris notes out loud. The stranger nods but does not speak. She walks past them and looks off at the distance.
"Good spot to land." Her voice sounds English with the reverb that always comes with Exos. Drifter and Eris look out at the horizon. A pyramid ship wedged into the surface like a chisel. This is what I brought you here to see."
Kenneth and Drake flew to Europa immediately after hearing of what they found. Ken got the signal from the Drifter and Drake from Eris, they knew full well the danger of the situation, Europa was not Vanguard approved, still they piled into Ken's ship
"This ship is a dump. What happened to your old one?" Drake asked looking around at the interior. It wasn't as cozy as Ken's usual one. No Golden Age relics.
"You think I'm gonna fly my good one in this far out? And risk never getting it back? Hell no I took the junker." Drake sighed and sat down in the cockpit next to him after swiping off the dust.
"Are you certain that this flying scrap is going to survive Europa?" He asked and looked out the window as they ascended off Earth and jolted into lightspeed. Ken was hesitant.
"Do you want the nice lie or the cold hard truth that you probably shouldn't even pick it's really not worth-"
"....maybe." Drake got up from the chair and grumbled to himself.
"I'm going to walk around." He said halfheartedly and exited the cockpit to find another hopefully not-too-disgusting place to sit and think. He found a broom and began to brush off a place for himself to sit and meditate on the last time he had gone out this far. Eve buzzed around him, she could tell something was troubling her Guardian but ever since his encounter with his father she had been quiet. He thought about calling Torra but he didn't want her to worry anymore.
Drake still felt ashamed for the events of that day. It was idiotic to think he could take on his father alone. He didn't want to involve anyone else because he didn't want anyone else to fix what he thought was his mess. It wasn't his mess. It was his father's, but none of that mattered now and not just others, but his own lover got hurt. When he woke up he saw Torra over him, he remembered the tears down her face. She had taken her hood off to try to get through to him, a fruitless attempt. As he contemplated what had happened he heard the door open and Eve quickly returned to her bag.
"We're here." Ken announced. His gear had changed drastically from his Last City garb. His hood was white as snow with a glow from his Solar Light running through it, he had a thermal mask over his face along with a wolf insignia on his chest piece. His arms had armoring around them and his boots were gray with pipes running through them. Probably some sort of heating system, it looked appropriate for the surroundings but jerry rigged together in classic Ken fashion.
"I was wondering when you would change." Drake said standing up from his spot on the floor. "You were gonna freeze to death in...whatever you had on before."
"For your information I got that from The Nine. But yeah no that ain't gonna stand up to the temperature of this place." He said fiddling with his Hunter knife.
"Right. Well then we should get going now." Drake looked around the ship then turned to Ken. "Where exactly is the exit?"
"Right there." Ken pointed with his knife to a small round hatch that looked about the size of a trash can.
"...on second thought, transmat me out Eve."
Eve did so and Drake was dropped into the white powder below as the ship flew off to find a suitable landing zone. He looked around through his hood and got hir bearings before summoning his sparrow and sidearm. The wind howled around him and he had to use thermals and the location point to guide him through the terrain, but eventually he came to where an glaicer collided with another creating a flat field of ice where he saw both the ship and where the signal came from.
Drake took his sparrow up over the cliff and onto the ice meeting up with Ken and speeding off toward the camp that was set up against the glaicer. The storm was not as bad here as the cliff blocked the bad weather so he could make out three figures. Eris was sitting by the fire, Drifter was standing and fiddling with a radio and another hooded Exo that Drake had never seen before was leaned up against the tent. She had a pulse rifle slung across her back.
"'Sup Drift? How's it goin." Ken asked and got off his sparrow. Drifter waved to him not moving from his place by the fire. Drake understood why, whoever this hooded stranger was was an Exo, with no feeling for the blistering cold, Eris was Awoken and Drifter was human.
"Aside from the storms that come up over the ridge every now and then, not too bad." Drifter answered and took a swig of something in his canteen, Eris said otherwise.
"We have much to talk about." She said gravely and the stranger walked forward to greet the Hunter and Warlock.
"Greetings." She said in a metallic voice. Ken recognized it was modeled after a posh British accent and along with her frame she would be eye candy for any interested Guardian. "My name is Elsie Bray and like Eris said, we have a lot to explain."
The pyramid ship, Elsie's origin and why they were here already were heavy subjects, but then she told them why they needed them here so urgently. Drake was astonished at all of it. He had studied the records left on Mars' Braytech facility before The Eclipse, Elsie was Ana's sister but not from their timeline. Instead she somehow was able to move through the Vex Network using her weapon as an anchor point. Fascinating. He would have numerous questions for Elsie, but those would have to wait.
"You have an Exo friend yes? He's a Titan." The two thirds of a strike team nodded. "He is here. But... he is lost to something. He's gone on a rampage destroying everything in his path in blind rage." This concerned Ken greatly. Drake couldn't believe it.
"No. No those days are over, Chao reset himself he is a different person now there's no way-" Ken put his hand on his shoulder and pointed to the ebony pyramid looming behind them. Drake lowered his head and stood up. "Where is he now?"
"He is almost here, but I know how we can help him. He's an Exo, we can use my bastard father's laboratory to reset him again and hopefully that will calm him down. Ken shook his head.
"No. Nu uh no way absolutely not, we are not resetting our friend he will lose everything he knows about us. We'll break his corruption just like we did Drake." Elsie nodded but did not look as sure of herself.
"Come with me, he's just up the glaicer. The storm will have moved on by now."
The three of them took their sparrows up to where an old communications satellite dish laid in ruin from both the weather and their corrupt Titan friend. Ken pulled up his hood that had blown off from the ride up and took out his handcannon from its holster. Drake readied his sidearm and Elsie followed suit with her weapon while they braced themselves. They could hear the crushing of metal coming from the radio tower and soon it would no longer hold, fallong over onto the outpost with a crash. On top of the building was a Titan in armor that was black as soot and looked like a knight. His armor had changed. He was breathing heavily.
The Titan turned his head and saw the three of them, then he did something that Drake nor Ken had ever seen. His chest exploded and his fist became encased in ice, he ran off the building jumping up and slamming it into the ground. Drake was so baffled at this that he had to be woken up by a shout from Ken.
"Drake get your head in the game man! We gotta take him down!" Ken shot rounds of his Sacramento at Chao but he slammed the ground and more ice shot up and the shots hit it instead. Then the Titan slid into them and they shattered into shards that exploded out and at Ken and Drake. This was not normal ice, it was sharp and tough as a rock crystal and it embedded itself into Ken's leg. He yelped out in pain.
"Agh- Son of a bitch that hurt! Drake! Don't let them hit you!" Drake ran over to Ken and put his healing rift down but it would only do so much and the Titan was not stopping to let the Hunter go through rehab. Chao slid into Drake and landed a punch knocking him off his feet and over Ken as he clutched his chest in pain. Elsie helps Drake up.
"I've called for Drifter and Eris, they'll be here shortly. Kenneth! Can you keep him busy?" Ken dodged out of the way of one of Chao's attacks and pulled out the shard with another scream.
"Yeah I can keep him busy but where the hell are you going?!" Elsie summoned her sparrow once she heard Drifter and Eris coming up the ridge.
"The Drifter and Eris are coming to help! I'm taking Drake somewhere where we can even the odds! We'll be back soon!" With that she and Drake sped off.
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And here it is everyone! Part 2 of Chao's story here on Europa. I know this is like 2 seasons late and we're almost to Splicers (which looks really cool btw definitely look out for stuff around this new season) Hunt was the worst season for me and the burnout hit quick, I played enough of Chosen to hear all the voice lines of my favorite blonde mechanic during Battlegrounds and took down Caital's champ in the tank. Long rambling short: It's almost summer and I'm ready to write more stuff as the longest and hardest school year finally starts to wind on down. And as always I hope you enjoy!
