Destiny 2: Putting "Horse" Into "Horsepower"

Chapter 23: Overextension

"Oh boy... This isn't good at all..." Cayde's voice mumbles.

"What happened?" Taiki asks.

"It looks like the Fallen got the Vex all up in a tizzy." Cayde replies. "And by tizzy I mean murderous rampage. I think I'll hunker down in the Exodus Black."

"Shitballs..." Taiki grumbles.

"Here? My hull is in 108 pieces! Decks 1 to 20 are all buried and my coolant system-" Cheery Failsafe cuts herself off. "I am a mess..." Bitchy Failsafe says.

"Oh we know Failsafe, we know." Cayde replies before explosions can be heard just outside. "What the hell?!"

"Intruder alert!" Cheery Failsafe calls out.

"It's me! The "Cayde Unit" that you keep calling me?" Cayde asks.

"No! Not you! The Fallen that you've attracted and are trying to break down the shield!" Cheery Failsafe replies.

"Guys? You might wanna get here fast!" Cayde shouts. "They're really trying to break it down!"

"Got it!" Taiki says. "Let's ride!" He adds as he busts out his sparrow. Spe-7 and Suzuka quickly follow and they ride their way down to the coordinates that Failsafe gave them. It's then that they end up coming across the Vex "tizzy" that Cayde mentioned as they're blasting up all of the Fallen they can find.

"What the heck did the Fallen do to make the Vex this mad?" Spe-7 asks.

"I don't know but we gotta get to the Exodus Black before... Cayde and Failsafe... Get destroyed... Shitballs..." Taiki mumbles as he notices that the way to the crashed ship is blocked by a barrier. "How do we get past that barrier?"

"That big Vex that's killing everything, smash it." Bitchy Failsafe replies as Taiki notices the gigantic minotaur that's currently mopping up all of the Fallen in the area. There are also remains of Fallen Walkers around it and the minotaur is still killing them as fast as it can.

"Welp, time to see if we can even kill this thing." Taiki mumbles as Spe-7 fires a rocket. It staggers the gigantic minotaur and it falls over, dazed for a few seconds before it sits up and shakes it's head. "Okay, I think that just made it mad." The minotaur then proceeds to get up and start firing at Taiki and the others. "Very very mad!"

"If that didn't do it, then THIS will!" Suzuka shouts as she charges at the minotaur and unleashes all of her void energy, throwing a wild hurricane kick that knocks over the minotaur again. This time it doesn't get a chance to sit back up as Suzuka also proceeds to throw a mighty ax kick, destroying it's core and creating an implosion blast that crushes up the minotaur's body like a soda can. When the implosion finally dissipates and sends bits and pieces of the minotaur flying, it's torch hammer goes flying at Taiki, knocking him over as he attempts to catch it. "Whoa!"

"Okay! I got the thing's torch hammer!" Taiki says. "I wonder if this thing still fires after what you did to it." Much to his chagrin the torch hammer doesn't fire, but he when he looks to the captain he finds the cannon that it once wielded. One squeeze of the trigger shoots out a gigantic fireball that explodes with the force of a rocket upon impact. "Okay, now we can use this thing against the Fallen, because it sounds like they've been trying to break into Failsafe's area for a while."

"Let's make haste." Spe-7 replies. "How are you going to get over there without a sparrow though?"

"I'll make it over there... Eventually." Taiki chuckles as the equine guardians speed off, leaving Taiki to run the whole way there. "Cayde, we're on our way. Big Vex is gone and I have a really good weapon for the Fallen."

"Good! You might wanna get here soon, I don't know how long Failsafe can hold that shield!" Cayde replies.

"I can continue to hold this shield as long as the Fallen keep going!" Cheery Failsafe replies. "If they somehow break through, you'll have to shoot them!"

"Actually... What ARE they doing?" Cayde asks as a servitor can be heard in the background. When Taiki reaches the Exodus Black he sees that the servitor is trying to hack into the Exodus Black's systems.

"Hold up." Bitchy Failsafe mumbles. "You wanna try and access my tech so bad, HERE!" She shouts. Suddenly the servitor suffers an internal meltdown as Failsafe overloads it's systems, causing the servitor's plating to explode off of it, exposing it's vital workings, and it rolls away from the shield to shut down, permanently.

"That looked painful." Taiki chuckles as he closes in on the attacking Fallen- a group of dregs and vandals led by a larger looking captain. "Hey! Hey you! Yeah you, you fly-faced idiots!" All of the Fallen look at Taiki angrily, but their looks of anger turn to horror when they see just what he has in his hands. "Get a load of THIS!" He shouts as he fires the former captain's cannon wildly, annihilating the lower ranking Fallen with a couple of blasts and sending the captain flying with a direct hit. Said captain is pulverized with two more shots- and the cannon runs out of ammo. "Aw..."

"That did it though!" Suzuka says.

"You have saved us! Updating my crew log!" Cheery Failsafe says. "New captain and crew registered! Welcome aboard! The Cayde unit is just inside!" And with that Taiki and the equine guardians walk inside to see Sundance peeking out.

"Hey hey, down down..." Cayde's voice whispers as he brings Sundance down before peeking out to see Taiki and the equine guardians.

"I think you were looking for this?" Taiki asks as he pulls out the Vex teleporter, the same one that trapped Cayde in an endless loop.

"So it's true... The light found it's way back to you guys." Cayde replies as he emerges fully. "Not that I'm jealous or anything... Just take it easy out there, making me look bad here."

"Sure." Taiki laughs as he tosses Cayde the teleporter and he immediately begins working on it. "What were you going to do with this thing anyway?"

"Get up and close with Ghaul, put a bullet in his head, then maybe eat some ramen." Cayde replies. "I recommend the bhut jolokia ramen, really makes my buds tingle. I've got to work out some kinks in this thing first. Fun fact, Vex tech is not as intuitive as you think."

"Cayde, why are you trying to do this alone?!" Spe-7 asks. "There's no way you can just do that! You can't just waltz up to Ghaul like that and just kill him!"

"Like hell I can't take him on alone." Cayde mumbles before the teleporter zaps him. "Ouch!"

"Even if you somehow kill Ghaul, the Red Legion leaves nothing behind win or lose!" Taiki says.

"The cabal are bad guys who do bad things. Yes, I get it." Cayde replies.

"No, I don't think you get it Cayde, exo to exo here." Taiki says. "The cabal LITERALLY leave NOTHING behind!" He continues on as the vex teleporter suddenly traps Cayde's hand. "They've got a weapon that can destroy a star and it is pointed directly at our sun! Even if we somehow kill Ghaul, the Red Legion will destroy our sun and we'll all be goners!"

"Hey hey hey! Easy!" Cayde replies as he finally yanks his hand out. "You're gonna blow a bulb."

"Zavala has a plan Cayde, and we were all there to hear it." Suzuka finally says. "He needs YOU Cayde."

"Well Zavala always says he has a plan, but sometimes he just-" Cayde cuts himself off. "Wait... ZAVALA, said he needs me? As in, you heard those exact words coming out of Zavala's mouth?"

"Yes, we did." Ghost replies.

"PLEASE tell me you recorded it!" Cayde pleads.

"Unfortunately, no." Taiki replies.

"Then did Ikora at least hear it?" Cayde asks.

"We've been trying to find Ikora since the city fell. We have no idea where she is." Suzuka replies.

"...Io..." Cayde mumbles. "Io, it's where she would go to look for answers."

"Then we have our next stop." Taiki says.

"And by the way, thanks." Cayde replies. "I owe you one." And with that he takes his leave.