"On it," my Ghost responded, then transmatted me into my jump ship, the Aurora Lance. We activated the warp drive and rocketed through space to Venus as Amanda had told us. Rush searched the channels and Crucible systems until he found a group of Guardians waiting for a turn on the Infinite Decent track. After a minute or two, I descended to the surface with five other ships of different shapes and sizes around me. We transmatted to ground at the starting line set up on the track, all marked by small flags and colorful banners of red, white, and light blue. We all summoned our Sparrows and drifted into the racer spots marked on the ground before the starting line, which was a large gate with a holographic, patterned SRL logo displayed across the path. I noticed that most of the armor that the others were wearing was light and aerodynamic to allow for more speed during the race. "Hey Rush, give me something sleek for the race," I requested. My armor was instantly replaced with another set with a dim flash, and I was a little surprised to see that he had put on my very first set of armor. Thinking back, I realized that this was the best armor for this task that I had ever gotten. It had smaller and lighter plating, a smooth and fitting build, and had curves that should add to how aerodynamic I was. Although it now looked different with my new shader, I recognized and felt comfortable in the old armor set. "Brings back some memories," I reminisced. "Y'all ready?" Amanda's voice came in on speakers placed on the gate. The Guardians responded with whoops, cheers, and some thumbs up. Personally, I stuck with yelling "yes" very loudly. "Well I guess I shouldn't keep y'all waitin'," Amanda said after the cheers died down, "On your marks...get set...GO!" The speakers blared out in a loud trumpet and we all hit the thrusters on our Sparrows, rocketing forward out of our starting points and shooting down the path. The slope of the track automatically went downhill, taking us around a couple of bends before we went down a tunnel containing a couple of sharp turns. We left the tunnel and hovered across one of the many shallow pools of water that could be found on Venus, then went under bridge of stone that arced over the path. Lush foliage lined the track and created obstacles on it, creating a combination of beautiful scenery and more intense racing. Then I spotted an edge to the path we were going down, but didn't slow down seeing as the others around me continued to drive at it full speed. The first couple of people shot over the edge at full speed, and I followed behind, knowing that the Sparrows stabilizers would keep me upright and that the hovering mechanism would prevent me from slamming into the ground. As I fell, a Skiff rose up towards the cliff edge, almost hitting a couple of us. Bellow, a freshly dropped Fallen crew of House Winter stood off against a group of Vex, spread across the track. In the air to my sides, above me, and below me the other Guardians did tricks on their Sparrows and released stability to do insane flips. As we all came to ground and began driving through the midst of the battle, Fallen and Vex alike turned their weapons on us, most missing because of how fast we were moving. One Guardian didn't manage to come out of a flip in time and his Sparrow exploded against the ground as it collided nose-first, but the Guardian was revived quickly and summoned his Sparrow once again. As we made it through the midst of enemies and went around a couple corners, I found myself next to someone riding a bright blue Sparrow with slick pink racing armor. "I thought these tracks were cleared," I called loudly to be heard over the air rushing by and the roar of engines. "Why would Shaxx set up a huge race track without making sure some enemies were inside to make things interesting?" he yelled back, then curved off to the side to take the next turn. I was honestly surprised I hadn't thought about that; it was Lord Shaxx who was in charge of creating the tracks, after all. And when Shaxx is involved, expect action. After a few more turns, I found myself heading down a straight-away guarded by a couple of Vex Hydras, their translucent shields slowly rotating around them as they focused their cannons on us. We were more spread out now and I could only see a couple of other racers by looking around, but I managed to glimpse one Guardian getting clipped by a blast. This caused his Sparrow to break up a bit and catch fire, but still continue to run properly down the track. A short ways past the Hydras, the path ended with a Vex gate that we passed through one by one. I now found myself driving straight between several short columns of platforms set up amongst the track at the other end of the portal, all clearly of Fallen making. Continuing downhill, I spotted two Fallen Walkers perched on top of the platforms as they began to turn their weapons on us. A barrage of Arc blasts followed, but I managed to avoid being hit directly, only getting clipped a little bit while using my Sparrow's evasive capabilities. After getting out of the range of the Walkers, we shot off of yet another jump, but this one was shorter than the last. But as I flew through the air and landed the jump safely, I saw that the starting line lay ahead of me. The portal had taken us to the top of the slope to continue downwards once again, thus explaining the name Infinite Descent. I passed the starting line once again, entering the second lap, and drove down the now familiar descending slope. As I rocketed through the second and third laps, I attempted a few tricks and even some flips on my Sparrow as I went over jumps, and began moving through the track more smoothly as well as gain a better mastery of my Sparrow. Although I did crash and have to be revived a few times in the process, it was a wonderful experience. But alas, the race was over all too soon and I ended the third lap in third place, dying for another lap. But then, as all of our Sparrows clumped up next to each other on the far side of the finish line, one Guardian raised his voice. "Who's up for Mars?!" he asked loudly. Everyone responded with shouts of confirmation, apparently all having nothing they'd rather be doing, and we transmatted into our ships together. After a few seconds I was patched into a com channel and the voice of the Guardian that had suggested Mars rang out. "I'm setting course for Mars, have your Ghosts match my jump coordinates," he ordered, and the chorus of responses let me know that all four of the others were in the channel as well. I let Rush do the honors of aligning my ship as the others began shooting off at warp speed, and we were soon blasting off along with them. Friendly chatter passed through the channel as everyone talked about SRL and their plans for the Dawning. Names were exchanged, and I took note that we had two girls and four guys in our racing group. We had arrived at Mars after only a minute or two, but we had gotten all that time to talk while flying down to the surface and hovering near the track to wait for our turn, for a different group was currently racing. This track was called Campus Martius and went around in a large loop across sandy hills, jagged Vex structures, and winding canyons. When we finally got to set down and set up for our race, it began in much the same way as last time, but now we shot through Cabal defensive lines, past clusters of Vex, and amongst the ruins of Golden Age buildings lost to the sands. There's even one part of the track that has three giant, rotating fan blades right next to each other, and I admit I crashed into them a couple of times and had to be revived, but so did everyone else. And still we moved on. People began leaving the group every now and then, but each was replaced by another Guardian automatically, keeping the team full with six people. We went to the Shining Sands track on Mercury, shooting down the track's several routes through Vex and Cabal combat zones. We went to the Hakoon Precipice track in the Earth's Plaguelands, drifting over the snow between forces of Devil Splicers and Hive. There was a forklift left uncleared in the middle of part of the Hakoon Precipice track, and I found that it was far more annoying than the fan blades in Campus Martius. Many Guardians, myself included, collided with the forklift, often ruining leads; it was amazing how one small vehicle proved to be such a challenge to avoid. I went through each track more times than I cared to count before setting a course back to the Tower. I went through enough races to find out that Taken even appeared occasionally on the Hakoon Precipice and Campus Martius tracks. On the way back I recounted some of my favorite moments with Rush, even though he had been there to see all of them. It's was night whenever my feet set once again touched the Tower grounds, and the stars shone beautifully in the now clear sky along with the many golden lights floating just above and around the top of the Tower. The Dawning crystal still outshone all of them, of course, its brilliant blue glow illuminating the snow that still coated the courtyard. ______________________________________ Link to part 1:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/220044512/0/0 Link to part 3:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/220044588/0/0 Link to ToC:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0