James lay back in the seat of his ship with his head up against the headrest. He looked up and spun the chair around as the ship went through the jump tunnel. Ghost floated as he spun the chair, hoping not to get dizzy. He looked at his partner inquisitively, thinking about what he had done a few hours ago. 

"James...are you okay?" Ghost asked him. His guardian perked up at his question and placed his feet on the dashboard to stop the chair from spinning.

"Yeah, I'm fine...I'm just thinking of what to do next. I knew it was big but, not that big." He thought out loud. He placed his hand on his chin looking out the window in thought. Then his eyes widened as a proverbial light bulb went off in his head. There was one person that he knew loved exploring new things, he could go to any other one of them, but he knew that there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he'd love to come along.

"James, you've not had that look in forever, what are you getting at?" Ghost questioned tilting his chassis slightly to the right. James glanced over at him with a slight smirk on his face. 

"Ghost, there's  one guy I know, who'd love to be on that ship." He smirked. "You remember Aaron right?" He asked. 

"Oh, no...he may not be that welcome to the idea, you know, now that he and Eris are together." He replied. 

"I guess we'll have to see," James replied taking the reigns of the ship's controls. He pulled into the Tower to an odd sight. There was an immense amount of frames with weapons out and about. Far more than usual. He walked out of the ship as it descended into the lower depths of the Tower's hangar. He saw that Eris' ship was back in one piece, but how did it get here? That ship had no autopilot as far as he knew. He grimaced before deciding that there were more important things for him to do right now. He walked up through the stairwell and over toward a small ship that was underneath the deck. 

It was originally an exploration vessel, built for the hunters to travel across the stars. However, its engine got clipped and couldn't fly anymore. Rather than junk the ship the Hunters turned it into a lounge of sorts. James usually found Aaron here chatting up the Bartender about one of the shots that he made in the Crucible that day. Sure enough there he was, just relaxing on one of the couches with a glass of his favorite whiskey in his hand. The black exo looked over in James' direction and perked up. "James!" He shouted. 

"Hey, Aaron." He said taking a seat next to him. The Exo chugged down the rest of his glass and gently placed it down on the table in front of them. 

"So, I heard about what happened to Emily...I'm sorry, really I am." He said seriously to James. "I looked in when she was in her little box." 

"That's fine. Aaron, listen, I need your help." James said seriously. The eyes of the Exo widened and looked over to his right at James. 

"You're kidding." He said shocked at what he just said. 

"No, I'm not. Look you know about the "Taken War" that we're in right now right?" He asked. Aaron just nodded in reply, still stunned that he needed his help. "Good, so, the big bad has a giant spaceship up near Saturn, it's chock full of traps, treasure, and secrets to be revealed. I can't explore the whole thing or even a small chunk of it. I need you to help me with this. You able to do that?"  

Aaron smiled and pulled out his handcannon. James studied the gun carefully as he twirled it in his hand. He remembered when Aaron bought that gun a few weeks back from a vendor in the City, while it may look like a typical Tex Mechanica hand cannon it was far more than that. This was a gun built by hand, as was evident by the uneven welding on the weapon itself and the scratch marks on the handle. Leather wrapped around the grip and had the logo of the maker's shop pressed into it. The gun's silver barrel and chamber glinted in the light of the room showcasing its elaborate engravings on the side. When he bought it, the gun never had a name, so he gave it one, Peacemaker was what he settled on. 

Aaron pulled out a spare mag and tossed his gun into the air with the mag well open. The pistol ejected the cartridge on its own will and the new one locked into place before the magazine well shut. The hunter caught his pistol in one hand and the empty mag in the other. "You had me at treasure." He said putting the gun back in the holster. He stood up out of his seat on the couch and looked at James eagerly as the Warlock stood up with him. "So, where do we start?"

"We take a ship to get to the landing zone that Caesar secured on the Dreadnought, then we start looking around from there." He replied. The white antennae on the sides of Aaron's head twitched a bit before widening his eyes. 

"You left him on the Dreadnought?" Aaron asked. 

"Yeah, why?" 

"Oh, nothing, it's just...wow. If you want someone to clear an LZ that's one way to do it." He chuckled. 

"So...before we get going, how have things been going with Eris?" James asked. 

"Oh, they've been going great, she's really come out of her shell." 

"I think that she has you to thank for that buddy," James said as he started walking in step with Aaron. The Exo perked up at this and looked over to him. 

"You think so?" 

"Yeah, you being as loving to her as anyone should be has gotten her self-confidence back. I remember she didn't really like wearing her hair down when she got back to the Tower. But over the few months, you've been together, that seems to have changed a lot." He said as two Vestian Guards ran up to him. 

"Can I help you with something?" James asked the two of them. 

"We wanted to send our Queen's gratitude to you. She's too busy right now to do it herself. Being that all of our collective is at war, she needs to plan." One of them said holding out a box to him. "This is her gift to you Guardian." James took the box and opened it. Inside was a small handgun. It was blocky yet smooth on the edges with the Queen's sigil painted on the side of it in yellow. He recognized it as the sidearm that the Vestian guard's usually used. A VD-23 sidearm. 

"Thank you. I'll make sure to put it to good use." James replied putting the sidearm in his inventory. "Where is Mara anyway?" He asked. 

"The Queen is meeting with your Consensus and the Kell of Light to formulate a plan to deal with this contagion that you call the Taken." She replied before the two of them turned back around and headed back over to the hangar bay. James looked out at the sky and noticed that there was CG-10 starcraft flying above and around the Tower. James looked over to Aaron and pointed over to his ship as it was coming out of the hangar bay's depths. 

"They're trying to deal with the Taken like you would deal with a disease or some other kind of plague," Aaron noted as he climbed into the cockpit of the ship along with James behind him. 

"Well, it's the best way that we can. Apparently, based on some tests that Monty did, the Taken can transmit their "Takenness" to someone else if they bite them." James replied as he stepped into the pilot's chair. 

"What is that the scientific term for what the Taken and what they can spread? 'Takenness'?" Aaron questioned sarcastically as he buckled into the ship. 

"Shut up," James chuckled. "How else can you describe it? It's what the Taken are, and Taken is already a pretty descriptive term for what they are." He replied as he took the ship out into the atmosphere. 

"So, why bring me and not Cameron?" Aaron asked. "She loves going on adventures with you." 

James looked over at him for a moment as a hypothetical scenario played in his head. One that scared him to the point where he nearly seized up. "You know that Taken can spread their infected properties to things to anything that can breathe and think. And I just learned from my Granddaughter that Guardians aren't impervious to this as I thought they would be." 

"So you're trying to keep her safe from the same fate of being Taken," Aaron remarked finishing his friend's thought. He remarked as the ship took off up into the sky. James nodded not diverting his attention from the front of the ship as they slowed down when they broke orbit. 

"Okay, just so you know Aaron, there are probably going to be Thralls on this ship," James remarked turning over to him for a second. Aaron looked over to his left and sighed. 

"Please, don't get knocked out and pulled into a pit like you were last time?" He pleaded. There were two things that Aaron couldn't stand in this world, one, a lack of cool places to explore, and two, Thralls. He didn't know what exactly it was about them that he hated so much. They were loud, frail, and there was usually a lot of them. They were easy to kill, typically one bullet to the body from any of his hand cannons were enough to do the job. He just didn't like them. Something about them was unsettling. His experience in the Hellmouth was more than sufficient to solidify that hatred, it borderline scared him. 

"I won't buddy, I promise." James replied punching the jumpdrive to Saturn.