I slowly drifted awake as a message spoken by Commander Zavala played over my comms. "Guardians, those heading to the Vestian Outpost on assignment need to report to the Hanger within thirty minutes. Please be quick we need you out there." I rubbed my eyes and sat up. Charles was nowhere to be seen and the door to the bathroom was shut. I managed to hop out of bed and hobble over to the bathroom. Charles quiet voice came out. "Wait a.. moment..." "You ok in there buddy?" "Yea.. just a little..." I heard the disgusting sound of throw up. "Sick..." I sighed and walked away. "You deserve it.." "Do!... wait..." He threw up once again. "Not..." I heard the toilet flush as Charles floated out with a sickly green core. "Dear lord you look like s***." ".... Yea.... Can... can I go outside?..." I watched him for a moment. "Ok... you do anything stupid and I will kill you..." I opened the door as he pitifully floated out. "Ok..." He went out to the North Tower area and went out of sight. I shook my head and went back inside. "I'm going to regret that later..." I took a quick shower, doused the bathroom in a heavy can of freshener, and willed my armor on. I walked outside right as I bumped into Sarah O'Connor. She growled at me. "Watch where you are going!" She stomped off. I blinked and watched her go just as Thomas and Laurentine walked up. "Sorry..." Thomas said. "She can be a bit crabby in the mornings..." "Ah..." I fell instep with Thomas and Laurentine. The two were chatting about things they found interesting. I smiled. "You heading to the Outpost as well?" "Yep! There's a decent group going there actually." Laurentine nodded. "It's about eleven of us in all." I nodded. "Pretty sizable group." Thomas nodded. "Yea but it shouldn't be too hard right Laurentine?" He gently slapped Laurentine on the back even though he still tripped forward a bit. Laurentine laughed a bit. "Yea not too hard." I grinned and let them talk as we made it around to the Hanger. A large transport ship was authorized for our use and only a few people were already on board. Rex was sitting next to Kate and they both were looking at Natasha-00 as she stood over them and talked to Rex. "I just want to say again that I am sorry and I truly hope we can be companions at some point." Natasha's voice was extremely smooth and natural compared to every other Exo. Her form excelled past that of Sri and her tight robes didn't help that fact. Rex watched Natasha for a moment before holding out his hand. "Fine." Natasha grinned and shook his hand. A small arc current jolted between them. "Excellent! I'm glad we are past this useless hatred." Rex took his hand away and nodded slowly. "Sure." Natasha looked at us and sat back down across from Kate. I sat on the opposite side of Rex while Laurentine and Thomas sat near Sarah at the front. I looked at Natasha briefly. Her eyes met mine and she blew me a kiss innocently and waved. I blinked and looked at Rex. "So ah... was that the?..." "One from yesterday? Yes she's the one." He spoke quietly. "I'd prefer you drop the subject." I nodded and waited. Soon Sri got on and sat in an available seat, Amelia got on and sat near Natasha. Angelica got on and sat next to me, and another Titan got on and sat in an available seat. Soon the engines began to roar to life as Charles got in at the last second. "That was close..." He looked much better as he floated over to me and sat on my shoulder. "You doing ok?" "Yea... I needed the air..." "You didn't do anything stupid did you?" "No... Course I hope no one was near the base of the Tower when I hurled again." I glanced at him angrily. "What?! I tried to avoid anything useful!" I sighed and felt the ship rumble to move as it took of from the Tower and broke orbit. The pilot guided the ship towards the Outpost at warp speed. The ride was relatively short, about five minutes as the ship went out of warp and sailed around the Reef. The pilot clicked on a radio transmission. "Outpost Vestian this is Flight Decker 20-4. I have the payload of Guardians as cargo, permission to land over?" The radio was quiet for a second before a male Awoken spoke. "Flight Decker 20-4, this is Crow Theta Three. Follow my trajectory exactly and you will be given permission to land." "Roger." The pilot replied as they steered in a direction and headed the course. The ride was short as the ship soon touched down and powered down. "Alright here's your stop, anyone who isn't familiar with the Awoken shouldn't fool around, they aren't exactly in the greatest of moods currently." We all unloaded as were standing in a docking area. The purple haze of the Reef was visible behind the invisible two way shields. The docking area itself was rather small as it pertained to visitors only. The ship carrying us began to spin up and leave as two Frames and an Awoken guard walked up. She clicked her boots together and stood still. "Guardians, your objective here is to aid us in our rebuilding of the damaged areas of the Outpost and help us fend of any enemies that happen to get in our way. The Vanguard have chosen you all for a reason and I will expect nothing less but excellence." Charles spoke quietly to me. "I hope she doesn't see me..." "Alright." The guard continued. "We will give you quarters to sleep in and places to be assigned to and help. Before that we must scan you briefly for anything that may not be wanted here." Everyone lined up compliently as each of us were scanned one by one. Charles began to panic a bit. "Um... I need to go..." "You can't go anywhere Charles, now clam it." "I will puke on you." "You do that it will be the end of you." "Please let me go somewhere! It will be quick I promise." "Do you have anything to hide?" "Well..." The Frame stopped at us and scanned his sensor showed up red. "Illegal goods stored here." Everyone looked at me and I glared at Charles. He gave a nervous laugh. "What? I swear I have nothing!..." I grabbed him and shook him violently. He spazzed out a bit as several packs of primary and special synthesis popped out. I looked at him. "What?! These are standard issue stuff!" The Frame scanned him once more and his sensor turned red. I shook Charles once more and out popped a container of heavy synthesis. "Charles.... why this?" "Cause we need some!" "I don't even own a rocket launcher..." Charles blinked and slowly shrugged his shell. "You never know when." The Frame scanned once more and it can up red again. Another violent shake lead to several hand cannons, auto rifles, scouts and an assortment of sidearms. Charles chuckled nervously. "That's all I got!" Another shake lead to a massive rocket launcher falling out. Charles blinked. "And you said you didn't have a rocket launcher!... Liar!..." The Frame scanned once again and came up negative. More shakes lead to several more weapons and armor pieces. "How much do you have?!" "....Nothing...." I shook him again and a Frame from the Tower popped out. It looked around in curiosity. "So this is the Reef, very nice." It glanced at the other Frames and guard. "Oh dear." "How the f*** did you fit that in there?!" I yelled. ".... I swear that's not mine...." I shook him several more times and a magazine telling about the hottest Ghost shells landed on the Frames head. Charles quickly beamed back that back into storage. "You never say that...." I glared at him angrily as the Frame scanned Charles once more and gave the green light of clearance. "See?! Told you I had nothing!..." Charles said. The guard looked at me in an unamussed manor. "Will this be a recurrence Guardian?" "No." I said through grit teeth. "I'll make personal assurance that this never happens again." Charles looked between me and the guard. "So... ah... can I go now?..." "No." I held him between clenched fists. "I'll be sure of it." He whimpered. "S***." The Frame scanned everyone else and nodded. "All clear." The guard nodded. "Alright. Everyone follow me." She turned and walked away with all of us in tow. This was already staring out to be a very bad assignment. https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/175188673/0/0 link to chapter 20.9 https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/176719609/0/0 link to chapter 22