The highly anticipated chapter two of my story Origin. A special shout out to [b]Commandocandle[/b] for providing the concept artwork, and [b]Voraj[/b] for doing an awesome job with the critique/editing. Hit that survey, leave a comment, and enjoy the read. [b]Part two will be listed below[/b]. Chapter 2 Part 1 She had been in FTL transit for almost two hours. Getting to Mars was the longest journey she had made and the farthest from earth she had been. Few guardians had ventured to mars since the end of the collapse, and fewer still had returned to tell of the Cabal and Vex enemies they faced on its surface. Now she was going to land in the most desolate and unexplored areas the planet had to offer. “So we are going to a planet that is ninety percent desert, yet we are going to a frozen waste. Remind me again why we volunteered for this mission?” Gaia asked inside Velox’s head. “Because you said it could be a threat to the city.” She said adjusting her suit thermostat. “Oh. Right.” “What’s our ETA to the planet?” “Two minutes fifteen seconds to the planet. To the planet surface, three minutes forty five seconds.” “Surface temperature at drop site?” “Minus twenty Celsius. And there is a blizzard in our area.” “Gaia you know I don’t know the conversion for Celsius.” “Minus four degrees Fahrenheit. You really should know basic temperature conversion.” “Gaia that’s the reason I have you. I will concentrate on dodging arc rounds and killing Vex at one thousand meters.” “See this is what I don’t understand, you know the conversion of meters into feet but not Fahrenheit to Celsius.” Velox smacked the side of her mask. “Point taken. Exiting FTL in ten seconds.” The light surrounding the view screens in the cockpit suddenly cut to black and the stars came into view. The ship jolted and shuddered as its deceleration dampeners kicked in as a large red ball dominated the center of the front screen and slowly grew larger. The ship dove hard as it started heading towards the bottom of the planet. Within seconds, white dominated the view screens. The ship started to shutter again and flames crept across her view as they entered the planets orbit. “Start scanning for any signals that guardians might be using.” “Scanning now.” A few moments passed by and then Gaia spoke again. “Scan complete. There are signals from three other guardians operating one thousand miles to the north in Freehold but other than that, no other signals.” “Damn. The only way that there would be no signals is if he was deep underground. His mission reports did say that there was a cave near his last known location.” “Perhaps. He and his ghost could also be dead.” Gaia said in a depressed tone. “Maybe. It takes quite a bit to bring down a titan though. We will know more when we reach the drop off location. When we hit the ground, send the ship back into a low orbit, and keep it on standby. Start scanning for any signs of activity both friendly and enemy.” “Got it. Drop off in thirty seconds.” Velox couldn’t see anything on her view screen because of the blizzard. Suddenly, she felt the ship sharply decelerate and felt weightless. Her vision went white. She felt gravity return and the ground met her feet. The rush of wind from the ships engines was a sharp contrast to the sub-zero air outside. The sound deafening as it accelerated skyward and vanished into the storm. Velox activated her light refraction camouflage and ran to the closest jagged rock nearly thirty meters away. Once behind the rock, she tried to get her bearings. The blizzard was so intense, she couldn’t see more than fifty meters in any direction. She reached up and switched her mask to thermal vision. It improved, but was still limited to about two hundred meters. “The guardians last know transmission location is five hundred meters to the west. No signs of the titan or his ghost, although I am getting the same strange void readings.” “Alright. Save the scan for Ikora and keep a constant scan going for any signs of the titan or his ghost.” She sprinted west through the blinding snow towards the guardians last known location and reached it in two minutes. It was perched on the edge of a cliff half way up the side of a small mountain. There was a large snow-covered ship resting on the ground. Next to a small arctic dome tent sat a couple stacked crates almost covered in snow. “What do you have?” Velox asked, keeping a wary eye on the outskirts of the camp. Gaia flickered into view and floated towards the center of the camp. She began a full deep scan and remained there for almost a full minute. She finished and floated back in front of Velox as she covered the path leading out of the camp. “Nothing. Not even a hint of his ghost.” “Damn. He has to be dead then. What about his ship? Is there anything we can get from it?” “The ship’s drive core is dead. There is still enough emergency power to access its computer systems. I will see what I can glean from it.” Chapter 2 Part 2 is listed here: http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/94980638 Chapter Index can be found here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/101226805/0/0