[IC] Gapping sky

[TheMinorFall]

The day was like any other day. The sun was coming up, it's light prisming across the sky behind the Traveler. The great, sleeping deity was still as dormant and scarred as ever. It seemed like even with the defeat of Crota and his father, Oryx, they were no closer to restoring the world to a Golden Age. Akaan considered himself foolish to think that he would see that Golden age in his lifetime. There was too much darkness in the solar system still. He wondered if they would ever push it back.

He was just standing there, gazing at the Traveler with a furrowed brow when a voice brought him out of his trance.

"You just gonna stare at it until it wakes up?" A sarcastic female voice said. It was Nora, the gunslinger who had gone with Akaan on many scout missions over the years. She had been checking up on him a lot ever since Pira was lost.

"I was just wondering if it ever will." He said with a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah, well, while your staring at your god, there's some newer guardians coming in. They said something about capturing a Fallen ketch." Nora replied.

"They captured one?"

"I'm not sure if they already got it, or if they're planning to. Either way, they're going to need a high-ranking Vanguard, and you're it." Nora told him. She had a slight twang in her speech when she talked about missions. Akaan suspected it was too much time with the hunters under Samuel's command, but he enjoyed it.

"Alright, take me there."

[Lunar]

Standing on the bridge of the newly captured ketch Jane sat in the captains chair.

"the fallen must have really sore butt's... this chair so un comfortable" Julie complained to Jane in a sour tone.

"Please stop complaining Julie"Jane said quietly.

Then with a few beeps of the radar Jane hopped out of the chair and made her way over to the control center where she saw the radar was picking up something. She immediately turned to leave the room.

"You two follow me" she said pointing to two Titans guarding the entrance of the control bridge.

"There here" after a few minutes of walking they entered the rear docking room where Jane activated the transmitter and connecting to the ships that were moving closer to the ketch. She brought the microphone to her mouth.

"the situation is taken care of aboard the ship. Preparing docking procedure" then pulling out her ghost Jane opened the blast doors and turned on the artificial atmosphere to allow the ships in. After the ships had landed Jane sat starring at the large red ship and put her ghost away.

@TheMinorFall

[TheMinorFall]

@Lunar

Akaan and Nora materialized on the hangar catwalk of the captured ketch. There were a few other guardians, likely under Jane's command, scurrying about their tasks. On the far side, the Hunter was sitting in anticipation of their arrival.

"Traveler's light, Jane! How did you take a whole ketch?!" Nora exclaimed, striding across to her fellow Hunter. Akaan slowly followed, blue-white jets of light ever burning from his helmet as he looked around. He knew there was atmosphere, but this was a Fallen ketch. There could still be enemies in hiding, so he didn't trust it. His boots thumped on the thick alien metal as he walked with much heavier stride than his counterpart.

"How many Guardians do you have here?" He asked, cutting into the small talk with business. He was more concerned with the matter at hand than the stories of hunters. "I need a head count if we're going to start operating from here. And I want to do a sweep of the whole ketch. Can you take some hunters and do that? I know you'll be able to do a better search than I."

Akaan had the utmost respect for hunters. His oldest friend, and Nora's mentor, was a hunter. He hoped he wasn't overstepping a boundary by exercising his Titan nature and taking charge, but his concerns were genuine. He was only there to help.

[Lunar]

After talking with Nora she turned to speak to the Titan who appeared to be taking control of the situation.

"I brought my fire team of ten with me aboard the ship. Don't bother counting them, I already made sure everyone was alive and well. And as for how I captured this vessel my team and I found a container of scorch cannons after fighting ourselves aboard the ketch and thought ourselves fortunate because we blasted away the competition and the captain, that good enough for ya? And as a matter of fact I was just about to send a party to flush out any stragglers that might be left aboard." Jane said with a polite tone.

"Hey Jane guess what... It's My turn!" June yelled in her head

Jane spun around and walked a few steps away from the group.

"Not right now" Jane said with her teeth clenched.

"But you said I could have a turn later." June said in a disappointed way.

"Later as in when we pick our new quarters" Jane said quietly.

"We can look for our quarters when we look for stragglers." June said trying to haggle with Jane.

Fine. She said a little louder this time.

Then walking back to the two she smiled at them both and turned to Nora and said.

"Sorry... she can get annoying sometimes." Turning back to the Titan she looked him up and down.

"How about you two come with me while I sweep the ship. Looks like your expecting a fight." She said pointing at him.

@TheMinorFall

[TheMinorFall]

"Just try to keep it together." Nora insisted back to her packmate, "Akaan can be kinda hardcore."

The Titan didn't hear the Hunter charter though, he didn't even realize it had happened. He was a Titan after all. He reached back and retrieved his assault rifle in response to Jane's suggestion. "Lead the way then." He prompted, shouldering toward the inner part of the ketch.

****

Viktoria stood, silent and unmoving at the edge of the hull breach of the Dreadnaught. The Taken King was dead. But she could still feel the mark he had left on her light. She shuddered, convulsing into an awkward position with her arms both contracting and trying to extend at the same time, only to snap back to standing straight a split second later. Her armor glowed as the taken did, especially a singular point of light emanating from her visor. Normal plating and fabric mad her uncomfortable and nervous. She was about to radio in with Akaan when a Cabal shell detonated at her feet. It threw her up and to the side, landing her in a mound of bone and ash. There was a roar that resonated metallically as the legionary celebrated, but it was cut short as she snapped upward, shuddered, and drew her dreadfang nice and slow. @Lunar

[Lunar]

Walking back to the entry way she hare come from she beaconed the guardians come over. Entering the lift she waited for them to get on before closing the gate behind them and activated the lift to go to the fifth floor.

"This os the floor where the fallen live amongst the ship. Seemed like the best place to check" then suddenly she collapsed to the ground without warning. After a few seconds she jolted then slowly stood up holder her head.

"Owww... I gotta stop doing that." Looking around she saw Nora and waved her hand.

"Hey Nora It's June! Long time no see." She said happily pointing at her helmet.

Then with the slowing of the lift it made its way to the designated floor before the gate slid up and revealed the large hallway.

"Well looks like we're gonna have some fun. It's time to go house hunting" June said with a grin under her helmet.

"Just keep your cool" Jane said in her head.

"Of course little sis" June said with hand crossed.

"Don't call me that" Jane said loudly in her head.

"Make me" kind said in a snooty tone before turning to the group.

"Let's do this thing mr Titan man" she said turning around and pulling out her dual hand cannons and spun them on her fingers while walking down the hallway.

@TheMinorFall

[TheMinorFall]

The striker just solemnly watched as she collapsed and got back up, now acting as if she were a completely different person. He shot a glance at Nora, who should have told him about things like this. She shied back a little and shrugged. Even through his helmet, he knew she could sense his berating look. He was broken from his moment of of annoyance by the way she addressed him. He couldn't help but crack a small smile.

He looked back ahead and leveled his rifle. Nora followed, an Eyasluna in one hand, and her knife in the other. They began down the hallway on the hunt for Fallen.@Lunar

[Lunar]

It had taken all day but they finally cleansed the ship of any fallen still aboard the ketch. The sisters had found a moderately sized room next to the captains quarters that they both liked and agreed to make it their's. The room was obviously meant for a fallen of higher stature, perhaps the co-pilot or first mate of sorts. June woke up at around 10:00 since she had stayed up all night shaping and moving around their room to her liking. after fixing her hair she materialized the lower half of her armor on and put on a small grey T-shirt along with the other necessities. when entering the hall she couldn't help but notice the towering door that led to the captains quarters was slightly open.

"Just one look." June thought as she crept toward the door and looked around to make sure no one would see her enter. once inside her jaw dropped at the sight of the colossal bed. "Imagine the pillow fights people could have on that bed Jane"

"This is no time for jokes June, we need to leave before were caught." Jane said while June examined the room. then with the tap of boots the door swinging open and June quickly dove under the bed and waited, noticing it was surprisingly clean in the open space.

@TheMinorFall

[TheMinorFall]

The day was gone, and Akaan was satisfied with the state of the Ketch. He found his way to a modest room in an evident barracks, and went to sleep. But a striker sleeps lightly. He heard the footsteps, and was up in a flash, his Jabberhäkke leveled as he moved toward the door. It was footsteps, light ones. It could have been anything. A drug maybe? Perhaps there were shafts or corridors they had missed. He moved out of the room, wearing only compression shorts, with his pistol ready.

Following sounds and shadows with a reasonable distance, he came to a rather impressive living quarters he was about to go in, when he heard a pair of boots hitting the floor. He ducked behind a salvage bin and waited for the sound to draw nearer.

****

Nora lay on her side, gazing at the wall in front of her. She was thinking about Akaan. He was everything to her. She couldn't help it. He was strong and confident, yet caring and delicate in his own Titan kind of way. She had always been jealous of Pira, even in death, that warlock was the love of Akaan's life. That made Nora feel like just the background of his life. She was a blur, where Pira had been like crystal.

With a heavy sigh, Nora pulled up the thick banner she was using as a blanket and gripped the knife under her pillow as she tried to calm her mind enough to sleep.