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Most Warlocks and Titans got uncomfortable real quick with how utterly still and quiet Hunters could be. If they didn't breathe you'd think they were statues sometimes. Some Hunters had nervous hands; walking coins across their knuckles or flipping a knife, playing with their own Light that flickered or flamed or dripped from their fingertips, or toyed with a holster strap. A thousand tiny fidgets that all went away when you needed to be focused because the focus was what they lived for. The nervous hands came when they were bored. Left with more thinking and less doing.
Eric toyed with a small sliver of shiny green glimmer as she watched the camp through her sniper scope. In an instant Ghostie could turn it into a knife if she needed it. She flipped it across her fingers but didn't move her eye in the scope.
It had been a simple bounty from the Praxic Order. Go out and watch these exact coordinates and report anything and everything and most of all do not engage. So she'd come out here to the middle of fucking nowhere east Asian continent and was just... watching. She didn't see much. The camp itself was well established. Lean-to shed with a platform she often saw a figure lounging on and a well worn fire pit she saw was used every night. But for the most part the Guardian lived in a jump ship they covered in foliage to disguise it.
She didn't know why she'd been spent to snoop on a Guardian out here but the Praxic Warlocks did all sorts of weird shit. If they suspected this person of corruption they had the wrong fucking guy. No wonder she saw this bounty pop up again all the time. It was insanely boring and the Hunters who took it got bored and quit once the waste of their time wasn't worth the glimmer stream. The Guardian did leave the camp but she'd been informed not to follow. Just watch the camp.
She was set up on a cliff face about half a mile away and when the sun was in certain positions she stopped her watch so the light didn't reflect off her scope. And of course to do normal things like eat, sleep, relieve herself, and that's why it was so boring. She literally couldn't do anything else.
The sun was in that position now and she lifted her gun and sat up, cracking her back. How boring. She went and sat, back against the cliff. She had about twenty minutes before she had to go back to her watch. "How long is this bounty supposed to last?" she asked Ghostie.
"Another three weeks-
"Ugggh," she groaned. She'd already been out here four days and was going crazy! "We'll see how long that lasts," she grumbled and kept toying with that sliver of green glimmer, resting her eyes, Ghostie going back to the ship in low orbit so he didn't skyline himself.
It was a sound almost too quiet to hear. The sound of Light. It had a specific sound on Guardians they never noticed and couldn't really hear because they only heard their own Light. But Eric's Light was so weak, so faint, that she could hear someone else's Light. It was like the soft sound of twinkling bells. But she could only hear it in the dead quiet of the wilderness.
In half a second she had a knife on the side of her sniper rifle in her hand and the next half second it was thrown right at the sound of Light. She guessed they'd dodge. They did. Reaction made her grab her sidearm and empty an entire magazine into the figure. It happened so fast she barely had time to register what she did the Guardian didn't stand a chance. She'd learned early that because of her weak Light she had to prove herself other ways. She needed to be the better shot. The best shot.
"... Shit that's him," she said looking at the corpse as it rolled down the cliff side. She looked at the Ghost he'd left in his place who was staring at her in as wide eyed a look as a Ghost could. "He snuck up on me," she shrugged. Then she sighed. "You can bring him back here on the cliff," she said as she reloaded her sidearm but kept it at her side as the Ghost did just that. It teleported the corpse up to it and remade it again in the Light.
"What the fuck," he said as soon as he could vocalize and had his footing.
"It's rude to sneak up on people," she said.
He didn't respond at first and just made a few hand motions she read as quietly outraged but not actual sign. "You're stalking me!" he yelled.
"Stalking implies I care about you in some way," she said. "I'm just running a job."
"For who?" he growled. She didn't answer him. "Who?" and he pulled out a hand canon, aiming at her head. She just was completely still and silent. They stood there, staring at each other through their helmets for several minutes. Then with a sigh of complete annoyance he lowered the weapon. "Its the Praxic isn't it?" he asked her.
"If you knew why'd you ask?"
"Do yourself a favor; don't work for Praxic Warlocks. They're all fucking insane," he said and holstered his gun.
"What the Praxics care so much about you anyway?" she asked him.
He looked at her, then over at his Ghost like she was an idiot, then back at her, head now tilted. "You took a job to stalk someone and you don't even know who the target is?"
"It wasn't on the bounty," she shrugged.
"... You must be real young huh?"
She folded her arms in annoyance, "I don't know what my age has to do anything with it," she said even though it was true. She was almost in her third decade. Exact number she wasn't sure. She'd ask Ghostie if she wanted it.
"Heh. Funny. Anyway stop watching me and get the fuck out of my turf."
"Or what?"
"Or I'll make you," and she had her sidearm up before he could pull his hand canon out of his holster and had fired a warning shot over his shoulder.
"No one's ever made me do anything and I don't plan on letting someone like you start," Eric said. "I'm quicker on the draw. Don't fuck with me."
He contemplated her for a moment before he finished drawing his gun. She pulled the trigger at what had to be the same time.
--
It was dark when Ghostie revived her. The other Hunter was gone. So was her sidearm, her sniper, and all her knives. That asshole! Far off down the mountain she could see the campfire. He hadn't even moved. The nerve of this man!
"Ghostie, show me the bounty," she said crossly. He put it across her HUD and she looked it over. You were paid a not insignificant amount of glimmer ever day you were out here and could pick what color you wanted it to be at various rates. It was a good deal too. At the bottom of the bounty was the one who'd placed the bounty. Aunor of the Praxic Order, it said.
"Ghostie, get me that Aunor," she said and sat on the side of the mountain in irritation.
Ghostie expanded and tried to connect. "She's not answering," he said.
"Keep pinging her until she does," Eric said, folding her arms.
It took fifteen minutes for Aunor to answer the Ghost ping. "Hunter, what do I owe the pleasure?" her voice was strained and irritated. She hadn't liked being constantly bothered.
"Who is he?"
"Who?"
"The Hunter you're making me watch, the one in your bounty."
"That isn't relevant to the bounty. Only do as it says," Aunor said, now even more irritated about being questioned.
"If you don't tell me I'll send it up to Andal who has to approve all Hunter bounties. And if doesn't know he'll ask Ikora. I assume you don't want Ikora knowing you're paying Hunters a not insignificant amount of glimmer to watch someone who does nothing out in the middle of the wilderness," Eric said, being irritated right back. Warlocks were so insanely annoying. Always acting like they were better than you or somehow beyond having to answer for what they were doing. It'd be a cold day on the surface of the sun before she was friends with a Warlock. And that was while she was very much friends with Warlocks.
Aunor didn't answer her right away. But Eric did hear the soft noise of her annoyance. "The object of your bounty is a renegade Hunter named Shin Malphur," she said at last, biting it out like she loathed to tell Eric anything about her mission.
Eric stared at Ghostie. "You're an insane person," she said at last. "Consider this a bounty termination."
"Hunter you can't just-" Ghostie terminated the call when Eric signed for him to do so.
"Shin Malphur? What sort of person wants anything to do with him?" she asked and looked down at the campfire down the mountain.
"Either everyone gets bored or they find out," Ghostie said.
"Yeah no shit," she said. Every Hunter knew dealing with Malphur was a bad idea. He was a loose cannon. Powerful, reckless, and completely unpredictable. Say nothing to the fact he was a known Ghost shooter. No smart Hunter wanted to get messed up in whatever was going on with Malphur, not like this at least. Engage in civilization but Malphur was on the list of Hunters you did not fuck with in their 'natural habitat'; the wilderness.
Eric looked up at the stars. And she'd totally shot the shit out of him earlier.
She was sure the only reason he hadn't just shot her Ghost was because Ghostie was nowhere he could get to.
Malphur also had all her weapons.
Eric was a young Guardian still and wasn't exactly swimming in glimmer. This bounty was the most glimmer intake she'd ever had and that was sad. That sniper rifle, even if it was a prefab from Banshee, had cost her weeks of collecting glimmer. She couldn't just buy a new one so easily. Her sidearm had cost less but it still took time to accumulate that glimmer. She couldn't just afford to throw away two guns like that. Or all her knives. Ghostie made them out of glimmer so she was effectively just throwing glimmer away.
"Ghostie, go back up to the ship," she said and got up.
"Why do I not like what you're thinking?" he asked.
"I'll call when you can pull me," she said.
"Eric-
"Just go up to the ship," and she patted the top of his star shaped body. He twisted in a way that was worrying but knew he couldn't stop her.
"Just... be safe," and he winked out.
"Sure," she said, knowing he could hear her, either over comms or in her mind. Then she took a running jump off the cliff. She fell hundreds of feet, kicking off to push herself further away from the mountain. She landed hard on the forest floor below, almost breaking her teeth but she shook off the pain and stood upright.
She made her way to the campfire and at the edge of the clearing steadied herself. She couldn't see Malphur but she knew he was around. He had a pot on some coals with something cooking and his helmet and gauntlets were sitting on the platform under the lean-to. Maybe he was in his ship. Maybe he'd stepped away for a minute. But she also saw on the platform her weapons! Perfect! Maybe she could grab them quick while he was gone.
Taking a deep breath she moved out from the tree line and entered the clearing. Malphur didn't immediately appear. She went quickly over to her weapons and picked them up, slotting all her knives into their sheaths and straps with rapid efficiency. As she was she heard footsteps, turned and saw coming down the open stair of his ship, was Malphur.
He stopped and stared at her a step above the ground and she stared back. She was expecting him to be no helmet but she wasn't expecting him to be dressed in no gear at all. He was dressed down in a long sleeved shirt with a soft jacket over and a pair of warm pants, a knit hat smashed over his head since it got cold out here. It was always jarring to see Guardians without any gear on and Eric froze in surprise.
Then he stepped down the last step, breaking the staring contest.
"What are you doing here?" he asked like he wasn't a thief who'd taken her weapons.
"These are mine," she said and quickly grabbed her guns.
"Pretty gutsy coming down here," he said and while he didn't have his gun she was still wary of him as he stepped away from his ship. "Where's your Ghost?"
"On my ship," she said turning her head to keep him in her sight at all times as he walked over to the fire.
"Smart," he said gravely. "Guess you know who I am now then?"
"They told me," she said.
"Who took it out?" he asked as he picked the pot up by the handle bare handed. Perks of being a powerful Solar empowered Guardian she guessed.
"A Praxic Warlock named Aunor."
His face twisted in annoyance. "Course she did," he huffed a sigh and brought the pot over to the raised platform.
She stepped back. Closer now and with the fire illuminating him she could finally get a good look at his features. She knew, reasonably, he was attractive with dark hooded eyes and in the firelight his skin was a brassy golden color. "You going or what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"... You're not going to shoot me?" she asked as he opened the pot. Inside was something cooked inside a leaf on a bed of rice. So some rations from the City and some from the wilds. Made sense.
"Did that already. You learned your lesson in one, can't say the same for all Hunters," he said, sitting on the platform. "I take it you're done taking bounties for Aunor."
"She'll run out of Hunters for it eventually," she said and took another step back.
"You'd think," and he ignored her and took his dinner out of the pot. She didn't take a chance. She was properly wary of him. She knew what he could do. What he was capable of. Acting like he was otherwise was a good way to get killed again. She holstered her sidearm and left the camp slowly, keeping an eye on him. Malphur had already decided she wasn't a threat and was ignoring her. She entered the tree line.
"Ghostie, grab me," she said. A moment later she was transmatted to her ship.
"How'd it go?" Ghostie asked her.
"I got my stuff back," she said, showing him her weapons. "I was respectful and then left without a hassle."
"Probably for the best. I did tell Reza you were doing this. He's waiting for you at the Tower."
"Ugggh, you're such a snitch," she said, pushing him. "Yeah yeah. Tell him I'm coming," and she hung up her sniper rifle to go sit in the pilot's chair. She looked down and could see the mountain she'd been watching Malphur from but this high up his campfire was too small to see. No other ship in the sky. Everything looked good on her end. She set a course back to the City.