"Vague recording as always," the titan muttered. "Ghost, what's the details?"
"Hang on," his ghost said. "Okay, looks like there's a Vandal near here that's causing trouble. The Vanguard wants us to take it out." It spun in the air. "Looks like it usually hangs out near that cave over there."
"Think we can get him from a distance?" the hunter said, pulling out her sniper rifle.
The two took cover on a nearby hill and took aim.
Two shots. "Shanks are down."
Two more shots. "Dregs are down."
Four more shots. "Target still up."
Four more shots. "Target still up."
Eight more shots. "Target sti-Ghost, are we making ANY progress?"
The hunter's ghost spun in place. "No idea."
She sighed. "Do we have any sniper ammo synths?"
The titan stowed his rifle. "I'm out," he said. "I'ma go punch him."
While the hunter reloaded her rifle, the titan rushed forward toward the unusually strong Vandal. With a war cry ("For Midgard!") he leaped and Smashed the ground right in front of the Vandal.
It barely flinched.
The titan got to his feed and gave the Vandal an arc-infused punch. It staggered back a foot or so, then shook it off and just... waved?
The titan stood for a second, nonplussed. Finally, he waved back. "Hi?"
"Hey!" the Vandal said in an oddly high-pitched voice. "I'm Randall!"
Before the titan had a chance to process this, the hunter resumed shooting. Each shot struck its mark, and each strike was punctuated with a surprised "Oh!", a giggle, or a "That tickles!" from Randall.
"Ghost," the titan muttered to the side, "what do your sensors say about his stamina levels?"
The ghost spun. "It's... a very large number."
"Is it over nin-"
"Yes, it is."
The titan looked up to the hunter. The hunter looked back.
"Nope!" they both said as their sparrows materialized and they took off.
Randall's face fell just a little. "Oh, well," he said to himself. "Guess I go back to guarding the cave then..." He kicked the dirt. "Cave's empty anyway..."
"The Nexus: it's opening!" the hunter's ghost yelled.
The hunter and the titan surveyed the enormous Vex hydra from the top of the well.
"Got enough ammo for this?" the titan said as his ghost materialized his rocket launcher.
"Plenty," the hunter said, reloading her sniper rifle. "Just as long as we don't get any company up here."
"Um," the titan's ghost said, looking behind them. "Funny you should mention that..."
The titan turned around to see a minotaur coming toward them.
"Really?" he groaned, pulling out his shotgun. "Keep on the Nexus; I'll handle the adds."
The first and second minotaurs were made short work of, with enough time to spare to fire a few more rockets at the Nexus. The third took a little longer; a couple of stray shots squeezed the shotgun's already small magazine. The hunter kept up her slow-and-steady firing, taking time to dodge the Nexus' blasts and reload.
The fourth minotaur caught the titan flat-footed, and in a panic he Smashed. It destroyed the minotaur but left the titan disoriented, and when a blast from the fifth minotaur left his ears ringing, he fell against the walls of the tunner.
"Hunter!" he yelled, fumbling for his shotgun in a panic. He managed to get one shell in the chamber and immediately fired it at the minotaur. Its shield splashed but it kept rushing forward. "Hunter!"
He heard the sizzle of arc energy from her end of the tunnel, and she was suddenly there. Her blades cut through the last of its shield and then into its arms. Its legs were separated at the joint. And its head dissolved in a wave of blue sparks.
She stood there, letting the remainder of the energy fall off her, down her cloak and past her boots, her lithe figure glowing in the dim light of the tunnel.
"Well met, Titan?" she said.
The titan shifted. "My armor's a little tight, Hunter."
The warlock-an exo with silver and blue plating-led the hunter and the titan through the alleys of the city. "It's a hole-in-the-wall," he said, "but it's great."
"Okay..." the titan said uneasily.
The warlock glanced at him. "You don't believe me."
"I just... um..." the titan fumbled, knowing he was on shaky ground.
"You don't think I eat?" the warlock continued. "You think just because I'm a robot I can't appreciate a good chicken sandwich?"
The titan winced. "Sorry..."
The warlock shrugged. "No worries. Took me a week to figure out I needed to eat."
That brought the hunter up short. "Wait, serously?"
"Yeah," the warlock said with a weak smile. "Exos are weird." And with that they arrived at the bar.
The hunter read the sign on the door, then turned to the titan and grinned. "Told you."
The titan sighed and handed her fifty glimmer as they walked into The Exclusion Zone.
"You have to help me!" the titan's ghost nearly yelled, zooming over toward the hunter and her ghost.
"Easy, easy," the hunter's ghost said, floating over. "What's wrong?"
"I've made a horrible mistake," it moaned.
"I doubt that," the hunter's ghost said, attempting patience, "but go on."
"Well," it said, "I was browsing through some of the old pre-Golden Age archives."
"Out of curiosity?"
"Mostly. Every so often I wonder what humans were like before The Traveller arrived. It... helps me appreciate things."
"Fair enough. So what did you find?"
The titan's ghost twirled. "I found a massive collection. It was labeled with some pre-Golden Age fruit; not sure why. But it was essentially every piece of recorded music up to that point."
"That sounds amazing!" the hunter's ghost said. "What's the problem?"
The titan's ghost eye narrowed. "Have you met my guardian?"
"Hey Ghost!" the titan said, strolling up to them. "Cue the music!"
With a longsuffering sigh, his ghost obliged.
"C'mon and SLAM! And welcome to the JAM!"
The titan ambled away from the assembly. As much as he loved being the center of attention, this was a bit much. While it felt awesome to have taken down the heart of the Black Garden, he wasn't sure he wanted that kind of attention. Thankfully, The Speaker wasn't lifting him and the hunter up on a pedestal, choosing to acknowledge them in the abstract. It made it that much easier to slip away to the hanger.
Of course the hunter was already there. She's a hunter; she probably went invisible and snuck out an hour ago. She and The Stranger were finishing up a conversation, or at least as much of a conversation that one can have with The Stranger.
"All ends are beginnings," she said. She turned to the titan and added, "Our fight is far from over," before striding away and disappearing.
The titan scoffed. "Oh, that is textbook enigmatic," he groaned.
The hunter turned to look at him. "Not staying for the ceremony?"
He shrugged. "I already got my reward."
The hunter smiled. "Honor? Dedication? The knowledge The City is safer?"
"That, and one of the minotaurs dropped an engram that decrypted into these!" He patted his arms, showing his new gauntlets.
The hunter's eyes got wide. "Do those have hand cannon loaders?"
"Eeyup." He motioned to the yellow rifle the hunter was holding. "She give you that?"
The hunter nodded, brandishing the weapon and looking down the sights. "Might take it into the Crucible some," she said. "Feels a little weird."
"About that," her ghost said. "I've done a quick scan of the rifle, and some parts don't show up on any parts list that I know of."
The titan shrugged. "So it's got some custom parts?"
"Made with alloys that neither I nor any other ghost have seen." It scanned the gun again for good measure.
They settled into an easy silence.
"It's been fun," the hunter said, finally.
"Yeah," the titan said with a smile. He took a breath and continued. "Actually, I'd like to keep working with you."
"Really?" the hunter said, raising an eyebrow and sliding closer to him.
"Yeah..." He scratched the back of his head and tried to fight off a blush. "I mean, I feel like we work well together, we've kind of got a good thing going, we've proven we can take down some major threats..."
The hunter slid a little closer. "And?"
The titan blinked. "And I..." His blush felt obvious to him. Or was that the blood draining from his face? "I might..."
The hunter sighed and grabbed his chest piece. "I like you too," she said, before pulling him towards her and kissing him.
The hunter's ghost floated to the titan's. "You owe me 50 glimmer."