The Leviathan was quiet and dark; Whisk and Arial sat in the pilots’ seats, looking out the windows into the darkness of space, which was lit up by billions of stars. “So,” Whisk began to ask Arial. “Why all these picky details? I mean, why do we have to use Fallen “Blue” ammo? Who’ll care?” “Just cause,” Arial remarked. “That’s my reason.” “Alright.” Whisk said, unmoved by what she said. Arial tried to think of other things, but her remark towards Whisk about his mother hung on her mind. “I’m sorry about what I said about your mother.” Arial said, trying to make up for what she said. “Don’t worry about it.” Whisk remarked and changed the topic by asking about Arial’s story. “What’s your story?” “What?” Arial asked in return to Whisk question. “Your parents and you?” Whisk specified. “My parents were Hunters, Awoken born, and were famous for holding the line at Folia Creek. My father, Captain Cornelius Yaintz at the time, was in charge after the Major, who was in charge, was killed. My mother, Esther Yaintz, had been taken prisoner; the rumor was she had given the Vex information on our positions for her release. It was a lie; she never talked, though she did tell them something my father and the other Guardians had planned on her to tell the Vex: That the Guardian forces were camped in the creek bed, three hundred yards from the village of Folia. The Vex fell for it and my father and the rest of the battalion ambushed them there. My mother was killed holding her position, though she supposedly killed several guardians in friendly fire; she had damaged sight from the mechanical claws of the Vex she had received from her “interrogation.” I’ll tell you the rest my story latter, when you earn it.” “Oh.” Whisk said in response to Arial’s story. “That’s interesting.” “I’m curious,” Arial began to ask. “Why doesn’t Alec belong to a faction of the city? Has he ever belonged to one?” “All I’ll say is this,” Whisk started to say. “Alecs never trusted the factions, he sees the majority of them as being greedy, power hungry, and war mongers; things Alec doesn’t like to associate himself with. You want to know the whole history why, ask him yourself. I can say he has had good relations with some members of a particular organization known as the StarSide Echoes, though I don’t know his total involvement with them.” The rest of the ride to Venus was quiet, filled with only the hum of the engine and Boris’s’ snoring. As they came into Venus’s atmosphere, a thick mist hung over the jungle canopy; the jungle was mostly quiet, undisturbed by conflict or movement by any sort of creature on its surface. Suddenly, like the galaxies loudest, most annoying alarm clock, Jk-Bx woke everyone up to the sounds of techno and bass. “Up everybody!” Jk-Bx boomed. “Up, up, up, up, up, etc. etc. We got a mission to accomplish!” “We?” Asked Whisk. “Where’d you get ‘we’ from? You and the mouse in your pocket? You’re not going with us.” “Awwwww.” Sighed Jk-Bx, hanging his head and arms. “Let’s get ourselves ready now.” Arial instructed. Alec, Whisk, and Arial walked back to the armory and went through the weapons Alec had collected. Various sorts of weapons, about two dozen collected, twenty-five in all; three FOTC tactical shotguns, four FWC stinger smgs, two BARRON lmgs from Dead Orbit Munitions, about ten Orion Thorian hand cannons, two Monarchy bolt-action M-73 sniper rifles, a very rare Mrk 17 FWC Fusion Recon Rifle, two semi-auto FOTC handguns, a common breech 49 rocket launcher, and a very wide selection of blades, varying in sizes, shapes, and alloys. All had custom mask, but had been wearing Dead Orbit armor; whoever they were before meeting Alec, those Mercs were well supplied and financed it seemed. There was also an assortment of grenades, traps, explosives and other miscellaneous devices Alec had found. Alec grabbed the Recon rifle; and older retro style rifle, it was mostly black with red and gray trimmings, possessed a precision sight on it for longer ranged shooting than most rifles of its like, it also had two fire modes: Semi-auto and three rounds burst. In addition to the sights attachment was a recoil reducer on the left side of the weapon near the shell ejection port, giving the weapon some reduced recoil from each shot fired. The stock was fixed so it wouldn’t move, and there was a rail under the barrel for attachments, the clip was in front of the trigger guard instead of in the back like most modern weapons. The rifle had to of been in someone’s personal collection at one time; its manufacturer markings had been machined off for some reason, but Alec could tell it wasn’t from modern times; he checked its breech, then grabbing some clips to go with it. Arial double checked to make sure her rifle was ready by checking the rifles sights and making sure the barrel was clean; Arial’s rifle was a modified version of an old twentieth century rifle known as the Mosin Nagant Model 91/30 rifle; the stock was wood (hollowed out) stained cherry. It had a chin rest for a right handed shooter and a range conductor for long range accuracy on the right side of the barrel. She also checked the tension on the trigger to make sure it was set to the right amount pull for her. She had wrapped a flag around the barrel; it looked like the flag of the Fallen, though it was hard to tell. Whisk picked up the Double Tap smg he had grown accustomed to using. He turned on its holographic sights to check them out then powered down the fusion smg so he could get into its internal chamber and swap out the conductor coil for a Thenix crystal, to increase its fire rate and to assist in conserving energy. Going over to one of the cabinets in the armory, Whisk opened the drawer to reveal multiple barrels for smgs of the FWC Stinger type smg; pulling one out, he removed the Double Taps original barrel and screwed the new barrel into place, which stuck out about two more inches than the original barrel, he hopped this would help improve the smgs accuracy. Turning on the weapon once again, the weapon began to glow red, and a humming could be heard as it finished charging and then went silent; a green light near the hollow sight indicated that the weapon was ready to fire. “’Double Tap?’” Alec asked to Whisk, noticing the name on the weapons side. “That’s the best you can come up with for a name?” “Yeah.” Whisk remarked. “What’s yours?” “’Mortal Reckoning.’” Alec said in response. “Read that on the back of a cereal box?” Whisk asked in a mocking tone. “I got you both beat,” Arial said, interrupting their conversation. “’Should have stayed in bed this morning.’” “I like it…I like it...” Whisk said, nodding his head. “Not bad.” Alec remarked. “Aren’t Thenix crystals illegal?” “The Elders of Commerce lifted the ban on them,” Arial responded to his question. “As long as you have a ‘special' weapons, equipment, or artifacts permit. Something Whisk doesn’t own I imagine.” “Not yet.” Whisk said with a grin. Whisk knelt down on the floor and lifted up on a grate and set it aside, revealing a smuggling compartment underneath the floor. He brought up a small, gray box with an orange “T” on its lid. “Shhh.” Whisk shushed, pressing his finger to his lips. He opened the box to reveal that the whole container was filled with coils and crystals; the rare sort used to enhance weaponry of the fusion type. “Its Lyles secret stash,” Whisk said, hoping Jk-Bx wouldn’t hear. “He collects them and uses them to modify Fusion weapons behind closed doors without a license to do so. It’s the only license he doesn’t have…well, one of them anyway…..and these are but a few of his collections of rare parts.” As Whisk continued to talk, Boris had some rather upsetting news. “Boss! Boss!” Yelled Boris. “We have big problem….yes, big.” Everyone entered into the cockpit room, leaving their weapons in the armory. “We, uh,” Boris began to say. “We are in area where Fallen and Cabal are meeting, yes? Well, you all know as well as I that Vex bots are here as well; so… (takes drink from vodka bottle)…Vex has detected us and…” Alec had no sooner heard Boris say “…Vex had detected...” and he was gone, running through the Leviathan to the armory, grabbing Arial’s rifle and the blue ammo she had; then running for the cargo door (which had been lowered already by Jk-Bx) and jumped. “Alec!” Yelled Arial after Alec. “He can’t go alone!” Whisk wasn’t sure what to say, but he knew one thing: Vex were quite particular about Guardian ships in their airspace. “He’ll be fine,” Whisk shouted. “He’ll get it done! “ The wind was blowing rapidly around them from the open door. “He can’t do this alone!” Arial shouted. “He needs one of us to go with him!” As Whisk, Arial, and Boris stood near the doorway yelling and arguing over the situation, a loud yell came from the cockpit. “I’M COMING BUDDYYYYY!” Jk-Bx yelled, as he ran between everyone and jumped out the back, after Alec. As he fell through the air, Jk-Bx hadn’t realized how high he was. “I feel like I’m falling…” Jk-Bx began to sing as he fell. [b]Continued below...[/b]