A Step too Far

Chapter 0

Harmless Curiosity

An old Titan decides to climb off the walls and take a step away from the Traveler. He never intended to walk so far.

"You know, when Cayde asked for volunteers… I don't think he was expecting you." The little drone began, gliding next to his Guardian.

Heavy footfalls and a deep chuckle answered him.

"I even had time to snap a picture." The drone exclaimed. "I think he almost caught a fly with his mouth."

"I will admit, little Ghost." The Guardian rumbled. "It was amusing to see him so…" he paused, waving his hand around and clicking his fingers as he searched for the right word. "Perplexed? No, no that doesn't sound right. Flabbergasted! Yes, that's the right one."

The Ghost, as the Guardian called it, he was talking to was a small cuboidal drone, its four face plates twitched and slid as it talked in an odd imitation of a mouth. In the middle of this was its eye, shaped like a diamond within a diamond.

"I don't know, perplexed sounded right." The Ghost pondered, only to get a slight glare from the Guardian as they approached the balcony edge. "Right, right. Well the ship's here so let's get going."

A green and black arrowhead-shaped craft rose up over the edge. On either side of the craft were angular hulls with triangular intakes. Resting along the spine was a rotary turret as well as a tailfin/communications package.

A small burst of glistening light washed over the Ghost and the Guardian as they were pulled into the ship through the Transmat-system.

The Guardian settled into his seat. While his body went about setting a course and guiding the ship, he began to reflect on this recent development.

Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard, had recently put out a volunteer only mission. Apparently his Hunters had found a new gateway hidden on Oryx' Dreadnaught. The Warlocks couldn't make heads or tails of it and sent drone after drone through it. As soon as the drones passed through, all channels that previously would have sent instructions and receive reports through had gone silent.

The carved inscriptions were impossible to translate, even to the Ghosts who seemed to crack just about every encryption and know every language. The only thing that seemed to be certain was that it seemed to absorb Light to become active and it would continue to drain the Light until it was shut down.

After it was first activated, it only took a few seconds for the Guardians and Ghosts to start collapsing and gasping for breath. The Vanguard had decreed that it should only be opened on Ikora's order, any breach of this order would see the one responsible grounded, disarmed and confined to The City for the next year.

The mission came with a warning. This was likely to be a one-way trip.

So when Cayde was approached by him, he was undoubtedly puzzled.

"Why would You, of all people, want to sign up for this?" Cayde had asked him.

"We all have to pay our dues sometime, Cayde. Even me."

"…tor!"

Especially me

"Praetor!"

Praetor jumped and looked around, his gaze landing on the Ghost, who had rotated his face-plates in a quizzical manor. "We're here." Praetor's gaze moved past the Ghost and focused on the view outside the ship.

Saturn and its majestic rings. He had heard so many tales and stories of its splendor, but none of them seemed to hold weight to the actual thing. But sadly, there was a stain on the beautiful canvas.

Right in the middle of the rings was the Dreadnought. The Taken King's vessel. In a single attack, the Awoken fleet had been obliterated along with a sizable chunk of the rings. The vessel's size was practically immeasurable in traditional scales. The Dreadnought was a small planet of its own.

"Sorry, j-just distracted." He admitted, gaze not wandering from the view.

"Well, maybe I should take over, just in case." It suggested coyly.

"No need, I can fly us."

"Ok, get us closer and I'll contact Ikora."

As Praetor drew closer to the immense vessel, a sense of dread began to well up inside him. Something would go wrong, he could feel it. His mind burned, telling him this was a bad idea. Praetor pushed past them, he could not allow fear to compromise his mission.

"Ikora has given us a ten second window to get through the gateway." The Ghost chirped. Beneath his helmet, Praetor allowed himself a little smile.

"I'll make it five."

The ship blasted along the spine, occasionally spinning and weaving to avoid the spikes that formed over the chitinous hull. Barely a kilometre away was the gateway, two massive arched spires that had joined above the midway of the spinal trench

The moment that he crossed the kilometre mark, the Guardian standing-by activated it, sending ethereal green light up, through the rune-lined spires and creating the ominous black-grey flame that filled the void between the two spires. From the middle out, rippled a glinting red wave.

In that very same moment, the icons identifying the Guardians morphed into a blaring red exclamation mark, indicating that they were in danger. Praetor ignored them and pushed the throttle all the way forward.

400 Metres.

As he got closer, he started to feel weak, his Light was getting weaker.

300 Metres.

Why did he feel… tired?

Everything felt so… slow.

He was cold.

200 Metres.

What was his name?

Praetor?

No.

Peyton?

That sounded familiar.

100 Metres.

What was his Task?

To Protect

No.

To… Live?

Contact

A small girl looked up in wonder at the night sky, at how the stars sparkled and how the moon glowed. She made a game out of making shapes with the stars, so far she had seen a bunny, a sword, even Mum and Dad.

Then she glanced something new something different. With a squeal of delight she ran to get her parents and show them the wonderful thing.

"Mummy, Daddy!" She called, her excitement mounting.

"What is it sweetie?" She heard her mother ask.

"A Shooting Star!"

Chapter end

Hey guys

It's been a very, very long time but here I am to try my hand once again. Now this is just a prologue, so please forgive me for the short length, I'm going to try and get more words in the next time around. I'll be aiming for about 5k words, but don't hold me to it.

Any way, please let me know if you liked it, if not please help me to make it better.

That's all for today, Bye.