[b]Chapter 3: The Tower Tour[/b] Ashley took me to see the speaker, a man who is the ‘voice’ of the traveler. I called bullshit, but I kept that to myself. I would rather stay on his good side, rather than give him a reason to dislike me. Ashley knew what I was thinking and elbowed me in the ribs when the speaker was not looking. It was painful, and I gave her an accusing look, and she stuck her tongue out at me in response. The speech that the speaker made was rather bland, so I didn’t really listen to anything. I did understand that my duty as a guardian was to fight the ‘darkness’ and bring the traveler back to life eventually. Many questions crossed my mind: What happens when the traveler heals itself? Did it not create the Ghosts out of its own material? Would all Ghosts cease to be? Would that kill us guardians? I wanted to ask, but decided to find out later on. After the speaker nearly put me to sleep with his long-winded speech, Ashley took me to meet the vanguard mentors, particularly Cayde-6, the hunter vanguard. She took me to the area we were materialized in, and she guided me down a flight of stairs. “Max, meet the three vanguard mentors. On your left is Cayde-6, the hunter vanguard. On your right is Ikora Rey, the Warlock vanguard. And there at the end of the table is Commander Zavala, the Titan vanguard, and the one in charge of defending the city.” Ashley pointed to each vanguard in turn, and I greeted each with a firm handshake. “Well hello there, Guardian! Glad to have another hunter on board!” Cayde said enthusiastically, “Lately, the amount of new hunters we have been getting was not as high as the titans and warlocks. I was beginning to worry that I was going to lose my relevance!” “Welcome to the city, Guardian. The strength of these walls is only as strong as the guardians protecting them, and I am always glad to have another soldier out there.” Zavala said with a smile that still let his firm and serious personality show through. “Guardian, I welcome you to the tower. If you need to learn anything about the history of earth after the collapse, come to the library. Across from the speaker is a large circular door. On the other side, there is a library that holds all the collective knowledge that we have gathered since the collapse. Feel free to pay us a visit and learn from the masters of knowledge.” Ikora said with a smirk towards Zavala and Cayde. Clearly she thinks that titans are idiots, and hunters think with their cloaks. “Guardian, at this point, there is not much to be done other than go patrol around earth, and particularly the area that was once Russia. There is a rumor that a trove of golden age tech exists somewhere in Russia, and we need to find it before the fallen do. If they had found it, we would know, so we know that they have not had any more luck with it.” Cayde lectured in a slightly more serious tone, “Fortunately, I think we don’t need that golden age tech, and I only want to give you something to wet your feet a bit. Go to see the gunsmith. I am sure he can give you a better weapon than that crappy auto rifle and sidearm.” I went with Ashley to meet the gunsmith. She left to talk to another person nearby, as she trusted me to know how to ask a question without help at this point. “Hello, Cayde sent me to get a better gun than this ‘Crappy Auto Rifle’ as he called it.” I said, addressing the robotic humanoid, named Banshee-44. “Well, let me see what I have available… Ah, yes, this should be good for starters!” The gunsmith handed me a sleek gun with a black casing. It had a sight that was a hologram, and it had one word, ‘Suros’, written on the side of the gun. “The Suros TYR-14. This will be a good gun to start out with. Does a lot of damage and has decent accuracy. If you find anything interesting, let me know.” I took the Suros Auto Rifle, and thanked the gunsmith. I went over to meet Ashley, who quickly introduced me to Master Rahool, the Cryptarch. “Master Rahool is the most wonderful person here, as he decrypts your findings and gives you what he discovers inside the engrams he decodes. I will be honest. Weapon rarity is a big deal. Your new gun there is Uncommon. I am using a more rare version of the same weapon. It has unique modules that provide special benefits to the user. For example, mine provides the last half of the magazine with bonus damage.” Ashley clearly was not happy with him at all, but Rahool didn’t seem to mind. I felt sorry for him a little, so I gave him a slight smile as Ashley took me to see the shipwright. The meeting with Amanda Holliday was very short, as she was busy repairing a ship. Basically, Ashley bought a ship for me, and a sparrow so I could get around more easily while out on patrol. She took me to a set of stairs that led down to the lower levels of the tower. She showed me to the room that had been designated for me. It happened to be across the hall from her room, so she left me to settle in, and we made plans to look for a third member of our group the next day. Chapter 3 of my guardian's story. I will continue posting until my hands get sore, so feel free to check out the previous chapters. I will be posting a link to a thread with all my chapter links compiled sometime tonight.