Fireteam Ontiri

"Graceful Stumbles"

Venus, acidic and pissy, not exactly the best first mission but it means I'm getting somewhere, Vallah thought to himself.  "These vex are crawling everywhere, luckily we haven't hit a fight yet, I don't exactly want to fight 5 goblins and a Minotaur on my own" he whispered to Trevan, the titan of Fireteam Ontiri  He wasn't too much bigger than Vallah, broader shoulders, his armor decked in a blood red with gold trim highlighting the edges of his armor and a black cloth weave underneath.  His helm something of a centurion, he said once he earned it long ago for saving Saint-14 when he was still a younger guardian and the Saint was forever grateful until his disappearance.  "Honestly, me either man, lets just save shit talking the vex till we're out of here and follow Stronii to the lab, Deal?" 

"Deal" they bumped fists as a sign of agreement.

A few minutes more of walking and they finally came up on the old research lab they were tasked with finding. Following Stronii's billowing red and gold trimmed robes, She wore a helmet of what seemed to be golden wings, the only one Vallah had seen before.  Inside was supposed to be some research of Vex structures and geometry to better help the city understand how to fight the Vex.  As they walked into the lab, Vallah saw an eeire light from behind the glass cases, and in it his reflection.  He had pledged to Dead Orbit long ago while his fireteam pledged to New Monarchy, he couldn't knock them either.  At least it was the the Future War Cult.  Yet in that dirty, muddy glass was a brand new, fresh off the block hunter.  He had the thigh pad of his faction proudly displayed, his gas mask proudly painted, his gray monotones let him blend in with most of his surroundings and he loved it.  His cape billowed in the halls draft and he snapped back to reality.

"Research lab, find the thing, get the thing, don't die" he had to reground himself and re focus after getting spacy in his thoughts.  He jogged to catch up with the others, as he caught up, Stronii motioned for them to stop, trouble was close.  Vallah peeked around the corner of the hallway to find a huge courtyard with multiple labs of different levels of terrain.  At the far side of the lab were 3 portals set up and re-activated by the vex.  They were using the lab as an outpost.  The thought crept into vallahs head as he came back around and told the others what he saw.  As they were formulating a plan, they were rudely interrupted by a number of goblins coming up behind them and opening fire, forcing them into the open where many more vex awaited.  

Trevan, now wanting to deal with this today, summoned his shield and charged headfirst at the vex who interrupted them, but it was too late, the other vex knew what happened and had already summoned reinforcements through the portals.  Waves of gobbling, hobgoblin and harpys poured out, until the showed up, a minotaur through each portal.  Their void shields were menacing, swirling around them like a ripple in the atoms that hold everything together.  They took cover in one of the lab buildings, shooting out of the broken windows, successfully holding the Vex at bay...for now.  They knew the didn't have much time. Vallah called out to Trevan,

"I can shut those portals with my Golden Gun, but I need an opening"

"You got it lil' buddy" Trevan yelled back, he almost never sounded happier than when giver permission to do something entirely stupid and uncalculated.  He jumped through the window and charged headfirst at the Vex, using his massive shoulder pauldron to block the incoming fire and knock everything out of the way like the beautiful bastard of a boulder he was.  Vallah saw his opening, he jumped up and summoned the solar energy within him, it overtook him and his gun, it was a comforting warmth.  3 shots of solar energy exploded out of the barrel of his gun, letting them find the architecture of the portals and burning them down.  He came out of it and went right back to laying into the Vex.  The portals were down and the Vex were isolated, it was a shooting barrel for the guardians. 

Slowly and deliberately they moved in on the Vex, eating away at their numbers with each shot they fired until none were left standing.  A few twitching on the ground and the last drops of "Vex milk" spilled out of their cores.  There was one Vex though, severed at the waist, propping itself up on its elbows, staring Vallah into his very soul.  As he raised his cannon to fire, his ghost apparated in front of him.

"Wait, Wait! DOn't shoot it, it's trying to tell me something."

"What do you mean it's trying to tell you something?"

"It's sending me a message, I'm trying to decode it...just...wait, it's defenseless anyway"

Annoyed, Vallah understood, he would never truly understand how ghosts operated, just that they knew more than he did sometimes.  He went to tell the others, and their ghosts joined Vallah's in trying to piece the message together. "We.....trap.....you.....trapped......like....others...COOOOOOOOLT....WINCHJKPESTERRRRRR......RRRRREMINGHHHHGHTON............. VICKERS........"  And like that the robot collapsed under its own weight.  "Well that was too much for me, lets get that damn structural data and get off this piss rock." said Tevan joyfully. 

"Agreed" said Vallah and Stronii simultaneously.  

After about 10 minutes of wandering and clearing rooms, they finally found the data lab they were looking for.  Stacks of field servers all dusty and strewn apart.  "I'll see what I can do" said Stronii's ghost, the other ghosts followed suit.  Vallah pulled security with Stronii inside while Trevan stayed vigilant outside.  He squeezed his way around the tight turns and bends of the server maze until he found an opening in the servers.  It was a small box fort of servers that the scientists must have made when they couldn't evacuate from the attack.  Locked back here, they probably starved to death since their suits are intact thought Vallah.

"GOT IT" yelled one of the ghosts, snapping Vallah back into the real world once again.  He shuffled his way through the maze making almost comedic bumps and scrapes as he got closer to the entrance.  As he finally broke free, one of the highest servers toppled and smashed onto the ground like an old cartoon while Vallah's cape got caught by it and it ripped him to the ground.  The others couldn't stop laughing, even his own ghost.  After he was done being annoyed he laughed with them as his fireteam helped him to his feet.  

As they exited the research station they called their ships for pickup. Tevan owned a Minerva Zero, complete with a matte black and red edge lining paintjob.  While Stronii had a Kestrel Calss AX that had a bright red and gold paintjob to match his robes.  Vallah flew in a Dead Orbit freighter notabley the same model as the infamous Kondratyuk's Escape.  They transmatted up into their ships and headed off back to the tower.  As they flew, Vallah couldn't help but shake the feeling of what that vex was talking about.  A bunch of glitchy names it couldn't even say, all he made out was VICKERS but what did that have to do with anything.  "We'll trap you my ass" he thought to himself in amusement.  Before he even realized it, he was back at the tower, he transmatted down and decided to go have himself a nice drink in his shady little den of the tower next to all the mechanic and scrap shops, he always loved it down there, never knew why.