ERA DRAKKA [i]Echo[/i] Several members were starting to open their eyes as the roar of a warp drive awakened them. Echo noticed that the Syndicate brothers were immediately starting to check their weapons and equipment. Professional, as always. Most of the group was doing this, except for a few, and one of those was Lee. The Southerner had a special way of waking up. Echo watched silently as Lee took a drag from last night's cigarette, smoldering on the ground, and downed a bottom of whiskey before getting to work as well. He saw Reksis, his Eliksni friend from the House of Scar, taking a final sip of Ether before clipping the little bottle to his belt, amongst explosives and other experimental weaponry. Echo suddenly noticed something, and swiftly walked towards Cereghetti, who was cleaning an interesting-looking weapon. "Which foundry is it from", Echo asked, after having watched for a minute or two. "No foundry", Cereghetti didn't look up. "It's a modified CAR-15. Pre-Golden Age weapon. Has several firing modes, going from semi to fully automatic. Even with a silencer, it's accurate up to 500 meters, and several sights can be attached to it. I opted for a plain iron sight, and a 4-times scope, with infra-red capability. It fires 5.52 mm bullets and an M12 grenade launcher is attached underneath it. That one uses-" Raising his hand, Echo interrupted the Italian girl, who was clearly really, really liked guns. "That'll be enough of that, Ghetti. Will it be able to penetrate Vex armor?" A wicked smile appeared on Cereghetti's face. "Oh, most certainly, Echo. You'd be surprised" Echo decided to leave her to her work. He walked past a sleeping William, and approached one of the Syndicate brothers, a tall, red-headed man with muscular arms, who was checking an oxygen mask of another brother. "Are your men ready, McRouth?" "Aye. They always are, Commander. They have aways been, and will always be" His heavy Scottish accent gave his origins away. He was done with the oxygen mask, and when he saw that Echo didn't have anything more to say, so he walked away, talking to one of his men. Echo left as well and, after passing Validus talking to Mr. Chavam, he entered the cockpit. The two pilots muttered a welcome, but were too concentrated to have a proper conversation. Through the wide cockpit windows of the Hawkeye, Echo watched how the thick yellow clouds, which were typical for Venus' atmosphere, were pushed aside by their ship. Visibility was next to none, and the pilots could only use their instruments to navigate through the clouds. It was a stormy evening on the Evening Star, and thunderbolts crackled around the small freighter, barely missing the ship. Soon enough, they got out of the cloud layer, and the vast, mostly green jungles of Venus were displayed beneath them, darkened by the raging storm. Yet, the bright colors of the undergrowth, which could be seen in less dense parts of the woods, were still present. Ah, those forests. Sometimes described as 'the green hell' by Guardians who had been there. Others however, disagreed, and called it the most wonderful place they had ever seen. Echo always chuckled when he heard that. These people clearly had never been on Nessus. Now that was a beautiful place. Dangerous as well, Echo thought. Why was it always places where nature and the Vex came together that fascinated him. Was it the unusual combination of technology and nature, or just the sheer power, that could be felt both in the strange vegetation and enormous Vex structures? Or perhaps it was just the feeling of a looming danger that got to him. They landed at the coast of an acid sea, where there was a sizeable clearing in the otherwise impenetrable jungle. As the group got out of the Hawkeye, rain dripping from their coats, Echo gathered them around him. "Welcome on Cape Orignal!" The Warlock had to shout to be heard over the sound of rain, thunder and the sea. "It may not seem like much, but-" An long, rolling thunder interrupted the Exo. "-but we'll make it work. Set up the tents in a circle, to temporarily keep the local wildlife at bay. Oh, and you three, try to put up a palissade or something" Those final words were meant for a couple of brothers in the back. Nobody moved, until Echo grabbed a tent out of the Hawkeye, and started to walk towards the camping site. Soon, the others followed. The dome-like tents of the Syndicate were quickly set up, as they were built to be light-weight, easy to set up (if you knew how to do it) and, most importantly, extremely sturdy. Except for the three brothers, who were cursing everything and their mother because of the rain, everyone got into their tents, which had room for exactly one Fireteam. Validus, Echo and Ava-3, the expedtion's leadership, did this as well, trying to hide from the hellish weather. They sat closely together in the cramped-up space, a single light hanging from the top. "I understand that this is supposed to be some tactical meeting", Validus began. Echo nodded. "You understood that correctly. The plan is to first senda couple of drones and scan out the environment around Vex Confluxes. When we do find something of interest..." "Then we send a team to investigate it. Simple as that", Ava-3 completed, as if she and Echo were married for years. Which they weren't. The tall Titan thought for a bit, and then said: "Should we really split up like this. Seems the perfect way to lose some good men" "We'll be here for years if we don't do it this way. This place is full of Confluxes and Vex activity, you know" Validus grabbed a blanket and covered himself with it, implying that it was okay for him. "Sounds good to me. I'm going to sleep now. You should too, you'll need it tomorrow" Echo grinned. "Probably not. I'm afraid that tomorrow will be a pretty boring day" The Titan didn't answer anymore, and Echo saw that Ava-3 had left for a walk outside again. She did that more often the last time. He'd have to talk to her about it, Echo decided. But not now. He grabbed a headset and put it on, the sound of the rain immediately sealed off by the soundproof design. He turned up the volume of the radio, tuned into one of the Syndicate miltary frequencies. More specifically, the radio channel reserved for commanding officers. Instead of giving orders now, Echo just listened to the main commander, taking the lead over the others. [i]"Send the 5th and 9th Division down to establish a foothold. Provide support with Guardian Fireteams 34 to 87 and orbital bombardments from the SS Navajo, the SS Montagnais and the SS Comanche at sectors Lambda 27 East, Iota 9 North and Omikron 2 West. Follow up these bombardments with napalm strafe runs, executed by the 16th bomber squadro..."[/i] Echo fell asleep, the constant stream of orders still coming out of the small radio. TO BE CONTINUED [spoiler]More stories will be added onto the main page, which I will link here. https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/226647634?sort=0y[/spoiler]