The ~SIVA Crisis

The Last City,

Earth

Grey.

The walls of the Tower were all a very monotonous, dull grey. The particular wall I was staring at had a class symbol on it, albeit not attuning to my own. The symbols were mentally etched into every class, so having them painted on the walls of our home reminded us of the pride we carry. But as of late, I can’t say there has been much self-pride for me to bathe in. Being the Tower’s recon scout meant that I was assigned all the mundane chores while my other fellow Guardians got to administer the missions they received. Chores like fixing broken computers and maintaining the SATcoms.

Ever since Oryx’s defeat, which was led by my fireteam a few months ago, Commander Zavala put me out of commission for eight months since he believes I need some time to decompress and be home. Cayde-6 and Ikora Rey disagreed with him, but there wasn’t much they could do for me. It was a little infuriating since he didn’t give my other fireteam members the same treatment (it made zero sense to me, and coming from someone like Zavala, it was jarring). So now I’m stuck here, at the Tower, overseeing the recon station to provide other guardians with coordinates and other intel their Ghosts can’t scrounge.

I let myself fantasize, picturing Cdr. Zavala siding with the other two Vanguards to let me back on the field where I can do my part to ward the Darkness with my Light. My fireteam members often came by my post to see how I was doing. They’d tell me stories about some mission they were on, who got hurt, what they managed to scavenge. Sometimes they’d bring me back planetary materials along with other useful items I would surely use one day.

But life at the Tower inevitably began to eat at your soul and spirit, as there wasn’t much to do other than busywork. Most of the time we use drones and robots to execute tedious tasks. Me? I just happen to be an expert at repairing things and navigating my comrades.

Reality came crashing back as I stared at the eternally grey wall, along with my ghost hovering over my right shoulder. Its shell was rotating and it blinked its eye at me. “You all right there? You seem lost.”

I didn’t say anything back. Instead, I walked over to the set of monitors overseeing the Cosmodrome. Not a single hit from a guardian or beacon. And certainly no messages form the Vanguards. I sighed as I started to realize that tonight was going to be another slow night.

Come to think of it, ever since Oryx’s demise, nothing major has really come up. It’s been quiet. I mean, sure, there are still those Taken goons running around and causing havoc, but there hasn’t been anything threatening.

I plunked myself on the chair and pressed a fist onto my cheek.

“Oh, dear, is it really that bad?” a voice came from behind.

And there he was, Paledon, one of the toughest Titans I’ve ever seen in my little career as a warrior of light. Towering about six and a half feet tall, he was a force of nature, and only a cocksure idiot would get on his bad side—given he has a tendency to oddly intense and direct. As strange as it may sound, he was a gorgeous Titan with streaks of white in his black hair, along with his deep voice that would surely put anyone at ease. He was standing in the doorway to my post, and I practically choked up. Ever since I met him, I’ve sort of developed a strong liking toward him, albeit I doubt the feelings were mutual.

We were good friends already, and not to mention he was part of my fireteam when we took Oryx down. But since then, we haven’t conversed all that much, and if we did it was very brief and didn’t go beyond anything business-related. My other fireteam members used to laugh at me when I told them I wanted to take Paledon out on a date. “Hunter,” they would say (that’s not a pun by the way) chortling with other guardians, “Paledon doesn’t swing his hammer that way.” I would roll my eyes and traverse in the opposite direction, trying to forget about even going to them for moral support. Sometimes I wondered if Paledon knew I had a thing for him.

Meanwhile, I hadn’t realized that he was asking me something. “What? Huh?”

A plus, Hunter. Very elegant. I wanted to bash my head against my desk, but I refrained from the violence and gave a weak smile.

He smiled back, and said, in his deep voice, “You looked like a lost ghost when I came in. Is everything okay?”

Did he just ask me if I was all right? For a brief second, I plunged myself into the void and thought about his reasoning for coming down to see me. If he’s here, then he wasn’t called out to dispatch anything field related or else…And not only that, but it wasn’t like him to stop by and see me unless he needed something or unless something really impacted that thick brain of his.

After snapping back into reality once again, I peered at him and saw a compassionate expression crossing his face. He came closer to me and took a seat on the desk. “I hate to bother you while you’re working, but I thought I’d see how things were with you, given you haven’t been out of the Tower for some time.”

Well, that was unexpected. But I had to say something. “Uh, I’m doing okay, I guess. Work here is…how do I put it? Boring. I’m not sure how I’ve gotten this far without going insane, but I have.”

“Hmm,” he said under his breath, taking a peek at the monitors that were behind him. “Looks uneventful tonight.”

“It is. I don’t get why I can’t be out there with you.”

Whoa, take it easy there, Hunter.

“Huh?”

“I mean with my fireteam.”

“No, not that. Look.” He pointed at the flashing light that was displayed on the screen. “Looks like you got an incoming transmission. Gonna answer it?”

I rolled my chair over and sought to the signal that was being read by our SATcom. I disabled all active broadcasting channels so only I (and technically Paledon) could hear it before I sent it through the Tower’s announcement system.

Turning the dials and knobs, the feedback registered and played through the speakers.

“Any guardians on this frequency? This is a distress signal being sent by Lord Saladin, at the top of the mountains in the Cosmodrome. I need immediate assistance…” There was static. “Fallen…they’re trying to raid the temple. The coordinates will be sent to your ghost. Act quickly. Oh. And please don’t notify the Vanguards. I don’t need them heckling around here.”

How strange. A distress call from Lord Saladin? I turned off the distress signal since it was on a loop. I leaned back in my chair and exhaled loudly. Looked at Paledon. “What was that about?”

“I dunno,” he said as he got up from the desk. “Why don’t we go find out?”

“But you know I can’t leave. If the Vanguards find out they—”

“Can’t do jack shit. Look, Hunter, you’re a guardian, and you shouldn’t be all cooped up here in the Tower doing another poor sucker’s job. Granted, you’re great at what you do here, but still.”

Paledon chuckled hesitantly, lowering his hand from my shoulder. As his warmth dwindled from in my shoulder, I felt the need to give him the cold shoulder and let him venture on this mission alone, but I didn’t want to turn down an offer to team up with my crush. Yet, at the same time, how could I disobey the Vanguard?

Getting my shit together, I glanced at Paledon. “Give me a few hours? I’m sure Saladin can handle a few extra Fallen.”

“All righty,” Paledon said. “I’ll be back here in two hours. Take your time. I’m in no rush. I’m going to head to my room and suit up.”

“All right! I’ll be ready by the time you come back.”

“That’s the spirit.” He smiled at me again, and all the grey or dullness of Tower couldn’t darken my day.

And then he turned to go. As I watched his Titan mark disappear around the doorway, my ghost slipped from whatever dimension it resided in said, “Are you sure you want to do this? It seems like a pretty big risk just to be with your crush.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ghost, you don’t know anything about emotions do you?”

“No, I don’t. But what I do know is you could get in really big trouble if you leave. Are you sure you’ve thought this through?”

“I have.”

“Well, okay. As your Ghost, I’ll stick by you and your decisions, no matter what. After all, we’re in this together, right?”

“Right, Ghost.”

Over the course of the next two hours, there still hadn’t been a beep since Saladin’s distress call. More importantly, I had gone to my room to equip my armour that I hadn’t worn in months. Most of my armor was given to me by Variks, back at the Reef, where most of the Awoken reside in the Solar System; apparently, it was crafted by him, since he had learnt how to forge armours back in his days as a Fallen warrior, with metal the Fallen used to create their own gear. So far it’s been the best armor I had used.

As I was adjusting my gauntlets, I heard a knock at my door. “Come in!”

Paledon, wearing the armour he collected in the Iron Banner, was standing in the doorway, but made his way in, after which he closed the door behind him. “All ready?”

“I am.”

“Hold up. Why are you wearing that? Didn’t you collect a new armour set back when we took down Oryx? Why not use that. I feel that suits you better.”

I staggered and nearly tripped on my two feet, just by standing. Wonderful move. How’d you manage that, Hunter? So elegant. I couldn’t believe he just complimented me. “You think so?”

“Well, given your odd interest in the Hive, I think so,” he said, taking a seat on my bed. “Go on. Let’s see it.”

“Hmm…Okay. Hey, Ghost, could you give me those pieces of armour I collected during Oryx’s fall?”

“Certainly,” Ghost said, placing the pieces on my bed. “Anything else?”

“Think I’m good.”

After putting the new armour on, I sorta of felt like a new Hunter. There was nothing like putting on new pieces of gear. As I gawked at my reflection in my mirror, Paledon came over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You look good. Now shall we get a move on?”

“Yes. But first let me get something I’ve been meaning to use for a while now.”

Turning around, I headed over to a treasure chest I kept beside my bed. In it was probably my most prized treasure: The Warpriest’s weapon, the Boomer. After the priest’s defeat, I stuck around on his battleground to get a better understanding of the high knight, while my fireteam went ahead.

I remember everything that. I had knelt in front of the fallen Warpriest and, as weird as this might sound, felt its hard chitin plating; and that’s when I discovered what the priest’s intentions were—what his function and purpose was. It was admirable how much work the Warpriest was doing before we confronted him; and even though it wasn’t an easy battle (for there was a lot of blood, pain, and misery that came with it), he fought valiantly, and because of that, I had to honour him, but in my own way, as demented as it sounds. While I fight for the Light, I like to think of my enemies as equals rather than part of the Darkness, especially if they put up a good fight, since it means we are both on opposite sides that want to achieve the same objective: Peace and resolution to this eternal war between light and dark.

So what did I do? I retrieved the Warpriest’s weapon and had Ghost analyze it to determine whether or not it was safe for me to use. Turned out it was so I kept it with me. I also relinquished his red cloak that had short yellow bones atop and swore to always wear it. Others didn’t agree with me, though, but it didn’t stop me from doing what I thought was right.

Picking up the weapon (which was shrunken to proper guardian size), I held it in the air and could feel the power radiating from the dead shard from some celestial body in the centre. It was heavy to hold, but I didn’t want to seem weak in front of Paledon, especially with a weapon as ruinous as this. If I were to guess, I would be the first guardian to use this instrument of siege.

“That is…terrifying. If I hadn’t known any, I’d say you were an enemy.”

I chuckled and put my weapon in sheathe. Before we left, I grabbed some ammo syntheses and other items that would surely be of use. “Ready?”

“Let’s go,” Paledon said.

I was going to leave the Tower (despite me being forbidden to do so) for the first time in months, to go on a mission only Paledon and I knew about.

This was awesome.