[spoiler]Story 2 Act I Part 2 Archive: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/242853482/0/0[/spoiler] The [i]Graceful Brick's[/i] engines flare forward as Lee delicately rotates the ship over the docking pad, the two security escorts behind them pulling away as he entered the hanger. Her landing gear extendeds as secondary jets fire to stabilize the final approach. As Lee powers down the engine systems, the nervous silence between the team is interrupted by the soulless voice of the on board computer, "Warning: Magnetic docking holds enabled." "They really think we've done something," Bee said, looking up at her brother as she slumped forward on one of the rear jump seats. A security team can be seen making its way toward the vessel: a titan adorned in bulky, ornate armor flanked to either side by two armored security droids carrying automatic rifles. Patterson reached his arm up to the rear door release, looking back at the other three before exhaling and pressing the button. He was the first to step off, raising his hands to shoulder hight in a non-threatening, yet confident gesture while the other three followed closely behind. "I can explain..," he began. The titan put up a hand to cut off Patterson and began shaking his head. "Not to me. You can give your statement to the security office, but I'm to take in the anomalous passenger for questioning. Your fireteam is grounded until further notice." The Onyx Guard moves forward to step around Patterson and raises a finger "[i]I request to bring a character witness[/i]." "Denied," the titan responds as he pulls a set of cuffed braces from behind him. "Turn around and place your hands behind your back." "[i]A translator[/i]," the Onyx Guard replied, opening his hands and keeping his arms straight while lifting them slightly up from his sides. "[i]I need a translator[/i]." "No..," the titan started to snap back. "[i]Bee![/i]" the Gear interrupted, "[i]you're my translator.[/i]" Bee put her helmet back on to quickly cover up her smile from the security team. "Gladly," she followed, leaning forward in front of the Gear before the titan could say anything else. "Fine," the titan said out of frustration, completely forgetting the restraints in his hand. "The two of you will come with me." He turns and motions for Bee and the Onyx Guard to follow, and the two security Droids fall in behind them after all three take a few steps forward. Lee and Patterson stand silently for a few moments after losing sight of the others. Lee takes a quick breath through his nose not dissimilar to a dry sniffle, "To be honest, I expected worse." Patterson glances over at him, frustration clearly evident across his face, "I at least expected them to listen." Lee chuckles slightly under his breath and gives Patterson a hard pat on the shoulder, "son, this city's head is buried so far in the dirt they can't hear the rain that's drownin' 'em. The longer they paint this city as our biggest target, the harder everything out there is going to try to hit it. Que ball can't hold 'em off forever." "I know," Patterson sighed. Lee takes a step forward, "tell you what, Pat, we're stuck here anyway, so you go at least start looking up what you can with the scans you've already taken. I was plannin' gonna heading over to check in with the gunsmith. It's along the way to the detention center anyway, so after I check if my rifle is finished I'll go bug the chief so they'll be catching flak up both ends of their pipeline." With the calm approach Lee was taking, Patterson couldn't help but grin. The fireteam's grumpy old hunter once again showing that there is no use in lingering on events beyond your control. He looked up and replied with a sarcastic, "business as usual?" Lee turned to give a quick thumbs up as he continued to walk on. "Business as usual." ................................. Several hours later, Patterson is sitting at a table in one of the great archives. To one side is a written journal on variations in the coordination and behavior of individual Vex conglomerates. To the other, Eular projects the a graph comparing the temporal field emitted by Vex after exiting a time gate to that of the Onyx Guard and Exo they had rescued on Mars to see if any combinations generate notable anomalies. Though it felt he was heading in the right direction, he had no progress to show for it. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Bee's cheerful excitement. "Time to put the book away, Pat," she said while grabbing the top of the chair next to him with both hands. "We're getting sent out on mandatory recon!" "How did we go from grounded with half of our team detained to mandatory recon?" he asked, a look of utter confusion spread across his face. The Onyx Guard walked around to the other side of his sister and leaned in slightly to enter Patterson's view. "[i]I may have convinced your superiors I'm a sub-terrain warfare specialist[/i]." "That doesn't even make sense," Patterson said as he closed the journal and pushed back on the chair to stand up from the table." "[i]Well, I was a part of a large scale unground assault, and at one point I used to carry a tiny shovel[/i]." He slid the journal off of the table and began taking it back to its shelf, mumbling, "it's hardly been a month and I already can't tell if it's you or Bee that'll get us killed first." "No time to admire the bs craftsmanship," Lee jumps in. "Tower says that if we can map out some of new Hive tunnels their scanners picked up in New York they'll let us all off the hook, or at least won't detain anyone again. Besides, I've always wanted to see the Big Apple."