[u]Chapter Six: The Crucible[/u] Part One The Tower was lit softly in the light of the rising sun, but it was no less busy or lively than the evening before. Guardians and civilians still wandered about, socializing and performing tasks. I made my way to the Hangar, wearing all of my armor aside from the helmet; I didn't need the waypoint to find the Hangar now. The Hangar was bustling in preparation for the coming day's activity, but that was normal as well judging be yesterday's visit. I walked down to where my ship was to find Amanda walking out from below it with a box of tools and fresh grease stains on her outfit. "Hey there, Guardian," Amanda called when she spotted me. "It's William," I said as I came up to her. "Well good for you, William," she said, "I was just making sure your ship was tuned up before letting you go." "Thank you, but you didn't have to though, I'm sure you have plenty of other stuff to do." "Nah, my crew knows what they're doing and I was bored. Now get on that ship, I wanna here those engines taking you out of the Hangar." "Will do, Amanda," I said with a smile, then walked up to the ship. When I got close I felt the tingle of a transmat and found myself sitting in the pilot's seat. My Ghost appeared at my side. "Should I take us out of the Hangar?" He asked. "I'll do it, might as well get used to handling it in small spaces," I answered, then took the controls and hit the ignition. The engines roared to life and the ship lifted up out of its dock space. Shifting the wheel forward and to the side I made the ship drift forward and turn out of the Hangar, then began increasing my speed as I got further away. After a moment an impulse called me to speed up and I pushed the wheel forward. The engines flared and we shot forward quickly, rocketing higher into the atmosphere in a roar. "WHOA!" I shouted, laughing in enjoyment, "Amanda was right about hearing those engines!" "Aurora Lance..."The breath of suns"," my Ghost muttered. "What was that?" I asked as I maneuvered the ship around, doing tricks and loops while we ascended. "Just a phrase that the manufacturer implanted with the ship's blueprints," he told me. I listened to the sound of the engines, then pictured how they must look, blazing with light and heat as a star would. I imagined the heat and noise as the breathing of the star and smiled, "I like it. It's fitting. Hey, why don't we find ourselves a Crucible match like Shaxx told us?" "Sure thing, I'll check the channels for other Guardians," my Ghost said, then got to work hovering over the ship's controls. "Found one," he said after a moment, "I'll steer the ship over." I released the wheel and felt the ship turn as our course changed and we headed back down to the surface. Our ship eventually caught up with some others and we slowed down to match pace with them. No one was on their coms so I just sat and looked out at their ships and the surface below. They all suddenly dipped downwards and we followed, assumedly to our destination. We came down above some old buildings with a tunnel-like metal structure between them. "Designation: Frontier, located at the City perimeter," my Ghost told me, "This used to be an outpost to keep an eye on the Fallen, but it was was overwhelmed too much so we turned it into our own battleground." "I guess the Fallen wouldn't want to walk into the middle of a bunch of Guardians fighting," I laughed. Our group of ships split into two groups and I counted six in my group and six in the other, stopping over opposite ends of the area. I was transmated out of my ship and found myself standing inside one of the two building, five other Guardians appearing at my sides; the interior was mostly concrete with a train car sitting in the middle of it. Shaxx's voice suddenly came in on my coms, and I assume on the coms of the other Guardians. "The game is Clash. Stick together team, and you just might win this," he said, then cut back out of the channel. The other Guardians rushed forward and I walked after them, talking to my Ghost. "What's Clash?" I asked. "They've really made a game out of the Crucible," he replied, "There's different ways Guardians play and Clash is where two teams of six fight each other." "Interesting," I said, coming out into the open. The other Guardians on my team had waypoints above their heads and they were all bunkered down behind crates and a couple of old trucks. A few had out what appeared to be sniper rifles and were focused on the opposite building. "Why aren't they already going out?" I asked. I looked across to the other building and saw a Guardian poke his head out from a crate over there. Then I saw the glint of a glass scope and realized that was where the enemy team was. "Is that a-" a bullet shot through my skull and my body collapsed, leaving my question unfinished. But I was aware, and I could see my body laying before me and watched the Guardian that shot me take a bullet as well. Then I was back in the building I had started in. "What the heck!" I shouted, confused. "Don't worry, I can revive you as long as you and I can muster our Light," my Ghost told me. "Oh," I said calming down a bit, "But I didn't know we were killing each other, I thought this was some game." "It is. Don't ask me why Guardians enjoy it so much, but it is useful for experience and improving skills." "Well as long as we can't kill each other for good," I mumbled, then ran out, keeping my gun raised and ready. Bullets had started flying across the arena outside, but now everyone was rushing around and not many shots were landing. I saw a few of my teammates inside the tunnel-like structure, firing down its corridor, and I could see Guardians from the enemy team rushing into the other end. I decided to loop around on the left and as I ran down the side of the structure I came upon an opening in the side. Through the gap I could see an enemy crouched down and shooting at my allies and I launched myself through the opening. He noticed me as I came at him and began turning his gun at me, but it was too late. My fist connected with his chest and he slammed back into a train car that went along the tunnel. He bounced off, but I had continued moving and my shoulder slammed into his gut, launching him back into the car and then sprawling to the ground. I loaded a round from my scout rifle into him and flipped around the corner to find half the enemy team looking down their scopes at my teammates. One had been advancing down the corridor and was right in front of me when I turned the corner. He clearly knew I was there because of the commotion and his motion tracker, and he fired at me as I came around the corner. His gun was a revolver, thankfully my Ghost was still feeding me scan information and I saw that the gun was called a hand cannon. A couple rounds hit me and my shielding went down, but I came at him too quickly and slammed the heel of my scout rifle into his face, then shot him a few times after he stumbled back. I managed to shoot one of the others a few times before I once again fell to a sniper bullet. In the moments before I respawned I watched as a few of my teammates pushed forward to where I had advanced and took down the last couple of snipers. Then my feet were on ground again; I was standing in a smaller attachment of the building I had been spawning in that had a couple exits and stacks of crates. The process continued on and I kept running into the battle, engaging, dying, then reviving and running again. My team would stick close to each other as we fought our way around the area, but no one was on coms and there was no talking when anyone was side by side, yet we still worked well together and managed to keep the enemy team from taking the advantage. ____________________________________ Link to ToC:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0 Link to Chapter 5 Part 2:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/211043949/0/0 Link to Chapter 6 Part 2:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/211674445/0/0