Chapter 2 I didn’t get what you’d call a good night sleep. I dreamt of that day; when I crashed and seeing my whole family dead. I wish I could see them again, I miss them dearly. Then I saw the thing that killed me, and it took me awhile to realize it may have been the same Fallen soldier that arrived when my jumpship came back to life. Whether I like it or not, I’ll have to face the music and kill him. As I woke up, I was greeted by another Guardian, and he looked like he was a Hunter like I am, judging from his armor. “Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey, Guardian,” he said. “I have a name, you know. Call me Chilly,” I said. As I got up, I asked him, “So what’s your name?” He didn’t answer for a few seconds, “Uh, I can’t remember my real name. An old friend of mine calls me Proto, so I guess you can say that’s my name.” Proto, huh? He said that he can’t remember what his real name is, which lead me to believe that he’s an Exo, at least I think so. I couldn’t exactly tell because he had a helmet on, and his whole body was covered with his armor and clothing. So for now, I won’t make any assumptions. “Nice to meet you, Proto. So, if you don’t mind me asking,” I said. “What’re you doing here waking up a rookie like me?” “I just felt like helping you out. I saw your ship that you used to get here, you were lucky to find it, so I did some repairs so it’ll fly more smoothly as a gift from yours truly, but…” There was a pause there; I’m guessing he wanted to add that for dramatic effect. “But,” I said. “But you’re missing a warp drive. A Guardian can’t do much for the city without one in their ship. You need one if you’re going to travel across the solar system. I know you’re probably going to ask ‘Don’t you have any spare warp drives?’ We don’t. There’s a protocol that states we’re not allowed to remove warp drives from other ships, and we don’t have the resources to make one.” It looks like I got my first assignment: Finding a warp drive. “So, you got any leads on where I can find one?” As soon as I said that, my Ghost came out. “I’m willing to bet we can find one at the Cosmodrome where we found the ship.” “Your Ghost is pretty smart, Chilly,” Proto said. “Now go on, get your gear and head out. The sooner you get your warp drive, the better.” So I got my gear on, grabbed my Hand Cannon and headed off back to Old Russia. “There’s so little left out here. Ghost, how are you certain we can find a warp drive here?” I asked. “I’m not certain,” Ghost said. “I said we may be able to find one here.” “Well it’s better than nothing,” I said. “Time to go to work.” So we descended down to the Cosmodrome and started our search. As we landed, Ghost picked something on his radar. “A Guardian ship was recently shot down here,” Ghost said “If the Fallen haven’t gotten to it, there might be parts we can salvage.” I can see a smoke column in the distance, along with some Fallen patrolling the area. As I made my way to the crash site, I looked around the area to see if there were any survivors from that crash, but there were no Guardians to be seen. There was already a Fallen patrol at the scene, and I managed to get the jump on them before they could salvage the wreckage, or call for help. I first started by shooting the patrol leader in the head, then quickly changing my position before they saw me, and I did the same thing with the other two. Once the coast was clear, I got a closer look at the wreckage and my Ghost was already scanning the ship. “The ships avionics are completely catatonic,” Ghost said. Was does that even mean? I never was good at understanding engineering. “But I can cull their last audio transmission.” The transmission had a lot of static, and it was very difficult to understand what the Guardian was saying. “They managed to restore an information hub here,” Ghost said. “Down in the tunnels below. We should check it out.” “It’ll be nice to get some directions here. Maybe we can find out why the Fallen is here at the Cosmodrome of all places,” I said. As I got into the tunnels, I was getting dark, but I wasn’t getting that strong feeling like I did before, so I can relax now but I still needed to keep my guard up. I reached an active computer that showed a map of the Cosmodrome, or rather part of the Cosmodrome that I’m in. We didn’t find any information about why the Fallen are here and there wasn’t anything about a warp drive either, so we headed to where we found our ship. “Scanning for the warp drive,” Ghost said. “Bad news: It’s already in Fallen hands.” Great, just what I need. “I hope you’re ready for this,” Ghost said. I wonder what he meant by that? Before I knew it, I got my answer. As I approached the room where the ship was that strong feeling hit me again and it almost made me collapse. There wasn't any darkness around, but it was there. “Chilly, are you okay?” I couldn't move it’s like I was frozen in place. I couldn't stop shaking, I was getting scared; terrified. But I can’t stop now, I need to press on. “I’m fine,” I said. I got myself back together and continued. As I entered the room where the ship was, I could hear something in the walls, and judging by the sounds it is making, it’s a big one. Suddenly, a giant Fallen soldier came out of the wall and started firing at me. I got into cover as quick as I could and thinking how I’m going to deal with it. His movements and firing rate was slow so I have the advantage if I kept my momentum up without stopping. I leaped out of cover and keeping my distance while staying on the move. I managed to land twelve headshots on him but he was still standing, so I thought of another idea and it’s probably the craziest thing I will ever do. I sprinted straight to the Fallen soldier and tackled him with all my strength, which was more than enough to cause him to fall. I quickly reloaded my Hand Cannon and shot all 6 rounds at his head at point blank range, and he died. “That is for my family you bastard!” I started to search the body and I found the warp drive we needed. “You just killed an Archon,” Ghost said. “This could cripple the Fallen. And we got a warp drive! I have to get you to the Speaker.” “Who’s the Speaker?” I asked. “He’s the one that speaks for the Traveler,” Ghost said. “You’ll understand when you meet him.” Before we left, I found a glowing hexagonal ball lying on the floor. “Hey Ghost,” I said. “What is this glowing thing?” He scanned it and said, “This is an encrypted engram. You should bring it with you and present it to the Cryptarch, Master Rahool. Getting these deciphered can earn you better weapons and armor.” So that’s what Cayde meant when he said that you can find better equipment out here. So I picked up the engram and left the Cosmodrome, back to the Tower.