[Opening theme music. Ominous horns over driving percussive rhythms giving the impression of things to come.]
[SFX: Digital beep. Birds chirp as footsteps move through a plant-filled area.]
TITAN VO: I transmitted into the Cistern and found her already scouting the area. She was crouched attentively behind an outcropping scanning for hostiles.
WARLOCK: (Snarky) Are all Titans as punctual as you?
TITAN: (Snarky right back) No. Some of us have to put up with lazy Hunters instead of overbearing Warlocks.
[SFX: A sharp thump as she looks at him.]
TITAN VO: Her head snapped around, and those green eyes locked a death stare on mine.
[SFX: Metallic swish.]
TITAN VO: (echoing) And that gas kicked in again. That sassy, intoxicating, infatuating gas that only comes from pent-up passion. (echoing stops)
[SFX: Footsteps moving away from Warlock.]
TITAN VO: I didn’t need the distraction, so I casually walked down the hill toward the massive waterfall.
WARLOCK: (from a distance) Where are you going? I’m not done scouting yet.
TITAN: There’s a few Fallen over there and some up in the cavern. Cabals skate through here from time to time. There you go. Scouting done. Let’s move.
[SFX: A thump as Titan gets moving. Trickling, moving water fades in.]
TITAN VO: She let out an audible hurumph, and I smiled to myself. As I approached the entrance to the Pools, I looked up at the stream pouring above the pond. It looked a bit odd. I turned to see her staring at her datapad again.
TITAN: This stream looks funny. The color is off.
[SFX: Warlock approaches Titan.]
WARLOCK: (annoyed) Ugh. “It looks funny”? I’m the scientist here. You’re the muscle. Just keep your mouth closed and your weapon ready.
[SFX: Fuzzy crackling from her datapad.]
WARLOCK: The radiolarian saturation is lower than normal. Significantly lower. By 21%. Hmmm…
TITAN: We need more data points to confirm anything. Is the flow rate of that waterfall any different than normal?
TITAN VO: Just as I turned back to her again…
[SFX: High pitched laser shot.]
TITAN VO: …a sniper round zinged past my head. The Fallen had noticed us.
[SFX: He runs, his bow charging up.]
TITAN VO: I pulled out my bow and sighted in. One well-placed arrow later and…
[SFX: The shot goes off.]
TITAN VO: …well that takes care of that. I noticed her scanning the waterfall. I was about to ask another question when…
[SFX: Thuds and soft booms. A high pitched whine.]
TITAN VO: …the whine of a Fallen grenade invaded the investigation. I turned around, pulled out my shotgun…
[SFX: Mechanical clicking and energetic pulses.]
TITAN VO: …and sprinted across the red grass field.
[SFX: Rapid footsteps. A piercing laser-like BOOM.]
TITAN VO: Three dregs and a vandal scrambled around, looking for angles from which to attack.
[SFX: Titan grunts as he runs, sliding.]
TITAN VO: I slid in and quickly took down the vandal.
[SFX: The shink of blades and grunts of exertion. A snarl.]
TITAN VO: A single, brave dreg decided to slash me in the back with its knife. It stung a little, but I turned and punched a hole in its head…
[SFX: A wet pulling crunch. Chittering fading into the distance.]
TITAN VO: … neutralizing the threat. I could hear the other two dregs scampering away.
[SFX: Mechanical clicks. Footsteps.]
TITAN VO: I casually reloaded my shotgun and walked back to find my partner dipping her hand in flowing radiolaria and scanning it repeatedly.
WARLOCK: OUCH, dammit.
TITAN: (laughing) There’s an easier way to do that.
[SFX: Clattering rocks followed by a thud then scraping.]
TITAN VO: I grabbed a decent-sized rock and squeezed it hard enough to break it in two. I took one half and ground it against the corner of another rock to hollow it out. I handed it to her. She took it without another word and scooped some fluid into the small hole.
[SFX: Water fills the hole.]
TITAN: Well?
WARLOCK: (annoyed) Well, what?
TITAN: You have to be purposely hurting yourself for some deeply scientific reason.
[SFX: Fuzzy distortion from the datapad.]
WARLOCK: I think I figured out why the flow rate is significantly slower than normal. The level of radiolarian saturation is merely one factor. The strength of the electrochemical bond combined with the saturation level directly affects the flow rate because the strength of the bond increases the weight of the molecule along with the relative gravity of each molecule. The combined gravo-metric pull of each individual radiolarian molecule pulls harder on the millions and millions of all the other molecules along with it; thus, the fluid moves faster due to the exponential nature of relative gravity…. and you aren’t listening, are you?
TITAN: (sarcastic) Oh, I am totally listening to you ramble on and on… and on.
WARLOCK: For the love of the Traveler! Can you stop being thick-headed?
[SFX: High pitched laser shot.]
TITAN VO: Another Fallen Sniper round zinged past her head. I quickly deployed my towering barrier and turned back to her.
TITAN: (sarcastic) Please. Go on. You have my undivided attention.
TITAN VO: (echoing) She just stood there with her arms folded, hips cocked to one side with her mane of red hair flowing down her square shoulders.
[SFX: Heartbeat.]
TITAN VO: I couldn’t deny it any longer. I was smitten. Smitten like I hadn’t been in a long time. All that sass. All that attitude. All that hair. All that intelligence that had me inebriated like I hadn’t been in decades… and those eyes. (sighs) Those translucent windows into her fiery, powerful soul could inspire my heart to greater heights of courage and strength of conviction. All for the love of a woman who could render me helpless faster than a Super’s disintegration abilities. I could see her mouth moving, but the words didn’t register in my brain. She started pointing at something behind me as she was getting more demonstrative by the second.
[SFX: A high pitched noise in the background.]
TITAN VO: There was this delightfully blinding fog inside my head, blocking the words.
[SFX: Warlocks words echo through the noise, muffled and at a distance.]
TITAN VO: I started smiling at her, and that made her madder. (echoing stops) Big mad. Like, the redhead had enough of your crap, smack you upside your head mad.
WARLOCK: WILL YOU DO YOUR JOB?
TITAN: You got it, babe.
[SFX: He moves, his weapon powering up with clicks and beep. A quickly pulsing tone sounds.]
TITAN VO: I pulled out my rocket launcher and sighted in, looking for the sniper on the hillside. I adjusted my position slightly. Why is the reticle so cloudy? I thought I cleaned it off the other day. I adjusted again and found my target. I tried letting the tracking on, but it wouldn't engage.
[SFX: Negative chirps from the weapon.]
TITAN VO: I figured I was a good enough aim to hit my target. So I pulled the trigger.
[SFX: Click BOOM. High pitched ringing.]
TITAN VO: Then there was a massive explosion, and everything went dark.
[SFX: Deep musical tones fade in.]
TITAN VO: My ghost resurrected me…
[SFX: Digital beeps.]
TITAN VO: …and I looked up.
TITAN: Did I just-
GHOST: (dryly) Blow yourself up again? Yeah. Totally.
TITAN VO: I’m never going to hear the end of this one.
[Ending theme music fully comes in. Deep toned strings and horns over driving percussives again. The music moves until it ends on a final echo.]
Credits
Titan: James Marinari
Warlock: Giselle Marbello
Titan Ghost: Whitney Holland
Sound Engineer: Matias Torraca
Chapter Art: Zion Zeta
Chapter music: From available Destiny 2 playlists on Youtube
Transcripts: Eli Barraza
