Two streaks of armour leapt across the chasm, moving through the lush landscape of Venus. One floated while the other was propelled by a series of three jumps. In the end, it didn't matter which method was used as both made it to the other side in one piece.
The hunter glanced at their companion. ``Surprised you can keep up.''
Their face may have been obscured but the shit eating grin was very present in their voice.
``Surprised you remembered to augment your ghost to allow you to triple jump,'' the warlock ribbed right on back. ``That usually takes some forward thinking which isn't usually your strong suit.''
Both of them laughed.
The hunter continued to climb up the ridge, moving elegantly with their companion in tow. Slowly, they moved higher and higher, heading towards the very peak of this specific Venusian Plateau.
``Heard your team got torn up in Saint-14's little sadism cup,'' the hunter said.
``Well, a girl needs to do what a girl needs to do in order to get all of the good guns,'' the warlock replied. ``Not all of us are content with the scraps that we find littered around Europa.''
The hunter looked back. ``Hey, if it kills, it kills, no reasons to complain about it.''
Finally, they seemed to have reached the peak of their ascent, landing upon a solid ridge of rock and moss. The view from up here was truly impressive, giving the duo a nice look over dozens of miles of Venus' terrain.
Even with the collapse, the planet was still beautiful, the personification of Eden with jungles and flora filled landscapes clinging to pretty much every surface that existed.
Sure, there were marks of combat which were hard to ignore, little scars that dotted the terrain and fires which broiled here and there. But with the Vex on the retreat, it could only be hoped that this planet would become truly beautiful once again with enough time and care.
``Nice view,'' the warlock quipped. ``Are we here to do some recon?''
There was a mischievous edge to her voice, a playfulness which the hunter enjoyed. It was one of the several hundred reasons that they loved this woman immensely.
The hunter plopped down and crossed their legs, reaching up for their helmet. With great care, they popped it open and placed it aside, revealing their blue complexion and short red hair.
The Venusian air felt nice to breathe, even without the filters to work though the impurities. The air here felt even better than Earth with no lingering vestiges of industrial pollution waiting to slip through and burn their lungs.
``Something like that, Atiya,'' the hunter said.
The warlock, Atiya, took the hint and settled down beside them, pulling her own helmet free and revealing her own blue skin and shoulder length blonde hair. She was beautiful and the hunter couldn't bring themselves to look away.
After all, what was the point of looking at Venus when Venus was already sitting beside them?
``God, Eidra, you are so fucking gay,'' Atiya joked.
Eidra snorted and finally forced themselves to look back to the landscape before them. ``Just a little bit.''
``So, what exactly are we reconning from this suspiciously romantic scenic view?'' Atiya asked. ``Are we here to see if the Vex have a mating ritual that the higher ups want to understand?''
Eidra shrugged. ``Zavala just wanted a couple eyes on this region to make sure that the Vex don't come back. Said it would be a pretty easy mission, so I guess... we just keep an eye on everything?''
``Everything?'' Atiya asked, glancing towards them. ``I can do that.''
Eidra reached out and summoned their ghost, throwing a passing glance in Atiya's direction.
``I uh... I brought a few things that might help keep us sane while we're keeping an eye out,'' they said.
Their ghost materialized a few unconventional items from its storage. Or well, unconventional by combat mission standards.
This included a couple steaming bowls of noodles and a bottle of something that Zavala would've thrown a fit about if he knew it was being brought into the field. But hey, what his hard ass didn't know wouldn't really hurt him.
``Ramen and wine, huh?'' Atiya asked as she threw off a playful smile. ``You're starting to make a girl think that you brought her here for a date or something?''
Eidra snorted. ``I wouldn't dream of doing something so brash, darling.'' They then batted their lashes. ``That'd be unprofessional.''
They offered one of the bowls and Atiya took it, placing it in her lap. Then they started on the bottle of wine, cracking open the twist top.
``Did someone forget glasses?'' Atiya quipped.
Eidra froze as they realized that yes; yes, they had in fact forgotten to bring glasses with them for this little mission.
``Well...'' they started, holding a defensive hand to their chest. ``You can't expect to have all the luxuries of the city available to you in the field. Sometimes sacrifices need to be made.''
Atiya slowly shook her head. ``Whatever will we do...''
She grabbed the bottle and took a swig directly from it before offering it back to Eidra.
``Hope you don't mind my cooties,'' she teased.
Eidra snorted. ``I think I've already proven plenty of times that I'm not afraid of them. You have very... nice cooties.''
They took a sip from the bottle themselves, sighing in relief as the sweet taste of white touched their tongue. It wasn't the best wine known to the realm but it got the job done well enough.
Once finished, they then placed the bottle back upon a rock and turned their attention towards the noodles.
``Got these from that little noodle shop down by the lower docks,'' they said.
Atiya nodded, slurping down another noodle. ``I could tell. They do something to their broth which makes it way richer.''
A moment of silence settled into place, a truce of sorts as the two of them focused upon their meals. There was plenty of slurping and rude noises, only occasionally broken up as they took turns sharing the bottle of wine between them.
``This is nice,'' Eidra commented.
Atiya nodded. ``Doesn't feel like we get too many chances to come back to Venus anymore.''
``Well, you know how they are back in the city,'' Eidra said. ``All about using us as efficiently as possible. Why waste resources here when Europa or the EDZ need us, right? If it wasn't for that stupid vault, I bet the Vanguard wouldn't keep anyone on this planet.''
They slurped another large noodle down before noticing that they were finally at the bottom of their meal.
As they glanced over at Atiya they noticed that she was also nearing the bottom as well.
``Hopefully one day things will go back to normal,'' Atiya said.
Eidra nodded. ``Though things haven't been normal for a very long time.''
``Not since I can remember,'' Atiya quipped.
``Me neither,'' Eidra agreed, letting out a heavy sigh as they shook their head. ``Me neither...''
Atiya placed her meal aside and scoped up the bottle of wine. Though instead of sitting there, she instead leaned against Eidra.
Eidra took the hint, draping an arm over their companion's shoulder and holding her close against them.
``Thanks for swinging something like this,'' Atiya said.
Eidra nodded. ``I feel like I've gone on enough strikes for Zavala that he can do me a solid.''
They leaned over themselves and gave Atiya a little kiss on the cheek.
Atiya drew in a half breath and Eidra swore they could see a little bit of red enter her cheeks.
God, their girlfriend was so fucking gay.
``So, what else did you have planned for today?'' Atiya asked. ``Just taking in the view?''
``Thought we could camp out under the cloud layer and just enjoy ourselves for once,'' Eidra said. ``I hear this planet has the best cloud watching in the entire system.''
Atiya snorted. ``I'd believe it.''
Eidra started to ever so carefully stroke her beloved's shoulder, doing so over and over again. Sure, they were only stroking her armour but still it was nice to share in a little bit of intimacy. Soon, a contented smile formed upon their lips.
As they looked over, that very same smile was present on Atiya's complexion as well.
Atiya sighed softly. ``I don't mind chilling. It's been a long time since I've been able to get some time away from things.''
Unfortunately, it would seem that neither of them had knocked on wood.
An arc of fire suddenly erupted from the sky and launched through the cloud layer. It carved through the atmosphere like some kind of flaming sword cutting through the hive. Its descent was quick, moving from the thick layer of clouds and to the planet's surface in a matter of moments.
It crashed into the jungle with a massive explosion, sending a smallish mushroom cloud rocketing into the sky and a shockwave rupturing outwards. The canopy of greens and foliage flinched away from the mighty blow and a fresh inferno took hold.
Thankfully, by the time the shockwave hit the two of them, it was little more than a warm breeze.
``You have got to be fucking with me,'' Eidra huffed. ``Nothing ever happens on Venus! Why is something happening all of a sudden?''
Atiya sighed and shifted away from her beloved. ``Come on, probably just a Vex scouting mission or some Cabal drop pod. We can be there and back in like fifteen minutes.''
She held out her ghost and suddenly a vehicle materialized underneath her. Though she also grabbed a beacon of some sort, tossing it over to the bottle of wine and two empty take out containers.
Eidra huffed and also held out her ghost, materializing her sparrow as well.
They looked at each other for a moment and offered one last reassuring smile before putting their helmets back on. Once they were secured, they nodded sternly, motioning that they were ready.
And with that they were off.
Their sparrows flew over the edge of the plateau and started careening down the mountainside. Their descent was far quicker than their ascent as they made it down to the base in only a minute or so of fast flying and reckless maneuvers.
As the terrain leveled out, they blitzed into the thick forest in front of them. Soon, they were weaving around a sea of trees and plant life, doing the solar system's most intense slalom.
Eidra glanced over at Atiya and flashed a smile, seeing that their girlfriend was staring straight ahead. So, they cranked up the throttle and went even faster, cackling as they did so.
``This isn't a race!'' Atiya chastised over the comms. ``You're going to break your fucking neck.''
Eidra snorted. ``You're dealing with a hunter, babe.'' Her grip tightened on the throttle as she pushed it to the limits. ``Breaking our necks is what we do.''
Their sparrow zoomed ahead at such unbelievable speed, bouncing along the rough terrain and narrowly dodging trees and debris. In the distance there was a pillar of dark black smoke crawling toward the sky. It acted as the perfect beacon, guiding them towards it with such ease.
The forest may have been thick but sparrows were nimble, especially when piloted by someone as reckless as Eidra.
Fortunately, they came to a stop about a hundred feet from the impact site and were mostly in one piece.
A few moments went by before another sparrow came to a halt beside them.
``You're insane,'' Atiya hissed.
Eidra snorted. ``That's what happens when you play too much Gambit. You learn to be a little insane.''
``I'm going to throttle that little rat man's neck,'' Atiya jabbed. ``I swear to god he's the stingiest prick in the Tower.''
``Kind of comes with the whole hating everyone thing he has going on,'' Eidra replied.
They reached out with their ghost and pulled a scout rifle from the ether.
Atiya whistled. ``What's the perks on that?''
``Uh...'' Eidra examined it. ``Unrelenting and Adrenaline Junkie.''
Atiya was giving them a look.
Eidra couldn't see it but they could feel those judgemental eyes through their girlfriend's helmet. They were boring a hole directly into them.
They scoffed. ``Look, I didn't think we'd actually be seeing any combat today, okay? You can't blame a girl for not bringing a better gun to a romantic date.''
``Well thankfully one of us came prepared,'' Atiya teased.
She summoned a revolver from the ether and rolled the chamber. Her gun was sexy to say the least, looking like something that could dome pretty much anything in existence.
Eidra watched as their beloved twirled it a couple times, like an old west gunslinger, before sliding it into a holster that lingered at their side.
``Gods you're so hot,'' Eidra whispered.
Atiya snorted. ``And you're pretty good looking yourself. Now, let's go fuck up some Vex.''
The two of them approached through the foliage, having the element of surprise on their side. If they thought Venus should've been abandoned then the Vex probably thought so as well. Hell, they would probably be even more surprised to see them.
After all, they hadn't announced their entrance by zooming through the atmosphere on a fire ball.
``Never knew Vex to land like this,'' Eidra quipped.
Atiya nodded. ``But who else would want to mess with this planet?''
``The Cabal seem to be getting pretty rowdy all over the system,'' Eidra suggested. ``Maybe they're thinking about making moves in this neck of the woods?'' They snorted. ``It's not like we have much to stop them if they did.''
Their answer came soon enough as they finally came into view of the crater. It was sizeable, having left a gaping and charred hole in the middle of the otherwise pristine jungle. A few of the surrounding trees were still smoldering with little fires crackling away.
In the middle of the hole was a collection of Vex surrounding some sort of obsidian object. They didn't look any worse for wear, not even scratched up a little after falling from space.
``I count at least a dozen,'' Eidra said.
Atiya nodded. ``Seems like they have a barrier champion with them as well.'' She looked over. ``Any chance that you...''
Eidra snorted. ``Unrelenting and adrenaline junkie, babe.''
Atiya sighed but nodded. ``I guess we'll just have to shoot it fast enough that the barrier doesn't become an issue.''
Eidra rested their rifle against their shoulder and Atiya drew her revolver out. Both of them took aim, readying themselves to attack.
They spared a passing glance at each other. While both their faces were obscured, they knew that they were smiling at one another. There may have been a little bloodlust involved in their relationship but that just came with the territory of dating fellow guardians.
Eidra offered a tiny nod and Atiya seemed to accept it, turning her attention back towards the enemy.
Atiya took the first shot, slamming a bullet right into the core of one of the Vex and cracking it open like an egg. Its body fell to the ground in a twitching heap while its fluids spilled all over the soil. This seemed to get the collective group's attention as they all turned towards the jungle foliage.
``I'll distract,'' Eidra barked.
They dove from their cover and cut a path through the unprotected crater. Their roguish moves seemed to work as every gun turned towards them, firing away.
Eidra cackled as they ducked and dived, seemingly unhittable.
``Is that all you got!'' they howled.
A flaming knife materialized in their hand which they sent flying towards one of the Vex, binging it on the head.
The blow made the Vex stumble back but it otherwise remained intact.
``Vex, babe,'' Atiya warned over the comms. ``That isn't their weak spot.''
Eidra howled with laughter. ``Who says I want this to be over quickly? I'm having fun!''
Atiya moved out of the cover herself, sending a grenade flying. When it landed it generated a chaotic whirlwind of void energy amongst the Vex, lashing out at them.
Then she fired away, sending bullets flying into every creature who was in her crosshairs. It turned out that her aim was a lot better than Eidra's as more and more Vex turned into shrapnel and little puddles of glowing fluid.
Not one bullet missed its mark, an impressive feat.
``How are you this good at shooting,'' Eidra chided.
Atiya snorted. ``Maybe if you took more time to practice, you'd be this good too.''
Eidra saw a Vex approaching on their right, so she leapt towards it, tackling it to the ground and plunging a knife right into its core. Though before it exploded, they just as quickly dove away, getting out of range just in time for a belch of fluid to erupt upwards in a geyser.
The rapid pace of carnage meant that eleven small robotic corpses surrounded a larger Vex who was currently taking pot shots at Eidra. Fortunately, this was not their first rodeo as they ducked aside and weaved between the slow-moving projectiles.
``I got this,'' Atiya called.
Eidra glanced past the champion and noticed that their girlfriend currently had an impressive rocket launcher on their shoulder.
``Is that...'' Eidra started.
Though they couldn't hope to finish this thought as Atiya fired the Gjallarhorn, sending a rocket flying directly at the mighty Vex. It impacted, soon enough, and this Vex was not left mighty for long as a rapture of explosions detonated around it.
Eidra threw themselves away from the explosion, ducking behind cover as shrapnel and debris went flying in every direction. This explosion was almost more potent than the crash itself, starting all sorts of fresh fires in the nearby canopy.
``Holy shit,'' Eidra hissed.
``I mean it's anti-barrier in a way,'' Atiya quipped.
Eidra poked out from behind their cover and watched as their girlfriend stepped down into the crater.
Somehow the obsidian object remained intact, looking like it had endured the explosion without taking any additional damage.
``What is it?'' Eidra asked, peeling themselves off of the ground and stepping back into the smoldering crater.
Atiya hummed. ``Looks like a Bofa-Class Cabal spy satellite.''
``Bofa-Class Cabal...'' Eidra began.
Atiya looked up at them and they instantly knew their mistake. The helmet may have obscured their view but they could feel their lover's evil smile lingering underneath.
``Bofa these nuts,'' Atiya howled, grabbing her crotch as she cackled like an absolute mad woman.
Eidra sighed and slapped a palm to her head. ``Oh, woe is me for having to be the grown up in this relationship.''
They made their way over to the obsidian and carefully touched it. It was completely black in colour with blue streaks that coursed through it, showing off some sort of artificial life inside. Overall, it was a strange discovery, nothing like Eidra had ever seen before.
``I guess tag it and send the coordinates back to the Vanguard?'' Eidra suggested.
Atiya nodded and pulled a beacon out of their ghost, placing it next to the strange object.
``It's probably nothing,'' she said. ``But I'm sure Zavala wants to know if the Vex are messing around in this neck of the woods again.''
She taped a couple of buttons on the beacon and placed it next to the satellite.
With that, the two of them looked at each other.
``So...'' Eidra began, rubbing at their head. ``Back to our date?''
Atiya nodded. ``Back to our date.''
They both pulled out their ghosts and locked onto the beacon left at their campsite. In a moment, they were turned into dust only to return a moment later overlooking the beautiful planet of Venus below.
It seemed pretty much the same except for the pronounced crater that was now present in the corner of their vision.
Thankfully, their wine remained upright as they pulled their helmets off and scooped up the bottle. They took a generous pull from it before offering it to Atiya.
Atiya was more than eager to take it and finish off the rest, gulping it down quickly.
The two of them looked at each other and shared a laugh.
``So, this has been a pretty interesting date,'' Eidra quipped.
Atiya nodded. ``Sure was.''
There was a tick, a pause, the briefest break in the conversation.
This was all it took for them to launch themselves at one another, sharing a passionate kiss. Their mouths melded together and tongues came forth to fill the gap. It was the perfect post-battle reward, filled with endorphins and more than a little adrenaline.
Though it was also woefully brief as they parted ways, sharing in a shaky smile.
``Now what?'' Eidra asked.
Atiya shrugged. ``We could get up to stuff.''
``Like banging on top of a Venusian Plateau?'' Eidra replied, flashing a coy little smile.
Atiya smirked right on back. ``I mean, yes, that was what I was implying when I said stuff.''
Eidra chuckled and reached for one of the locks on their armour. ``Then let's get up to some stuff.''
``Stuff is the reason why I like coming to Venus in the first place,'' Atiya teased. ``Getting up to stuff is so much harder on Europa.''
