Destiny 2: Putting "Horse" Into "Horsepower"

Chapter 10: The Farm

"Oh would you look at that! Someone left a perfectly good guardian lying around! At least your friends are here, but damn things are getting worse than I thought." Hawthorne says as she helps Taiki-9 get back on his feet.

"What the hell just happened?" Taiki asks as he recollects himself.

"You fell a good few feet down that's what." Hawthorne replies. "These two were running circles worried about you." And with that Taiki is nearly tackled to the ground by Spe-7 and Suzuka. The happy reunion is cut short when an explosion can be heard, and the three quickly part.

"You got ANY guns on you robot boy?" Hawthorne asks, and Taiki realizes that he lost all of his weapons when Ghaul threw him off his ship. "Well never mind that, that's our cue to get out of here."

"Wait, where are we going?" Ghost asks.

"As far away from here as possible." Hawthorne replies as Louis comes forth and lands on her arm.

"Wait, the falcon belongs to you?" Ghost asks.

"The name's Hawthorne, and that's Louis." Hawthorne replies. "You fit to fly?"

"Yeah, I guess." Taiki says.

"Well you're gonna need this. Might be hard finding ammo for this thing but it's better than just your fists." Hawthorne replies as she tosses Taiki a shotgun. "Now let's get ourselves back to the establishment. Spe, Suzuka, lead the way back."

"Roger." Suzuka says as she and Spe-7 begin leading the search team back to the establishment where all the ships are. That's when yet another group of Fallen decides to ambush the group- this time a pair of captains and a group of vandals move in to try and annihilate everyone there.

"Incoming!" Spe-7 shouts. A captain attempts to decapitate Taiki with it's swords but the exo quickly dodges, shoving the barrel of his shotgun into the captain's face before firing, splattering it's guts everywhere while Spe-7 and Suzuka blow away the rest with their auto rifles.

"At least your skills haven't gone with your light." Hawthorne says as she playfully shoves Taiki, and it's not long before they reach the establishment where all the ships are. "All right! Let's spin em up! We've got quite the flight ahead of us!"

"So wait... Who am I going to be flying with? There's not that many ships." Taiki asks.

"We'll fly alongside you." Spe-7 replies.

"And there we go, problem solved." Hawthorne chuckles. "Let's get going to the Farm." And with that the three guardians cram into one ship and make the flight to the farm, hoping that a cabal gunship doesn't spot them and shoot them down on the spot.

"So far skies look friendly." Hawthorne's voice crackles through a radio. "Looks like the cabal are celebrating their victory so I don't think we'll be seeing them out there any time soon."

"Well that means less worry about being shot down. We've already had some pretty close encounters with them, and we don't need any more." Suzuka says as they fly over the farm. That's when Taiki also notices something strange off in the distance- something that appears to be almost glowing. "Wait... Is that what I think it is?"

"No way... Is that a shard of the Traveler?" Taiki asks.

"That's what you tower people call it. We farm people call it "not a place to be snooping around". That forest is cursed I tell you." Hawthorne replies. "Whatever that shard has done, it hasn't been the same since."

"And there's the farm!" Suzuka says as everyone lands and Taiki is introduced to the farm for the first time. He sees just what his new home will look like until they can beat back the Cabal holding up the tower and he looks impressed.

"Well, this should be interesting- at least until we can get the tower back." Taiki says.

"Welcome to the farm my boy." Hawthorne replies. "You could try and get your tower back now but that would be suicide, I would just stay here for the moment."

"She's right. We're without light." Suzuka says to Taiki. "We'll have to stay here until something can be done. Maybe when we have more experience fighting without our light can we go into that forest and try and get it back. For all we know that shard could mean the difference between humanity surviving or perishing to the cabal."

"You're right." Taiki replies. "We'll have to reserve a couple of days for just pure training in that case."

"We should." Spe-7 says.

"Well when you three are ready I can drop you off at the entrance to the forest. From there on, you're on your own because we ain't sending anybody down there." Hawthorne explains.

"We're pretty well aware of what we're going up against, and if it pays out, we may just be what humanity needs." Taiki replies. "But while we're here, you wanna play a little soccer?"