“Control! I know you can kill, but can you hold territory?!” boomed Lord Shaxx’s voice through Jocky’s headpiece. Everyone else got their own front and center concert to Shaxx’s commentary but the big man paid special attention to him for some reason.

‘Bannerfall,’ thought Jocky. ‘Interesting map for Control.’

A and B spawns for each team, and a middle C spawn. The Crucible also made a D spawn out in the front courtyard where the tree stump was. The main central pillar provided ample cover to prevent guardians from C or D to attack those in the opposite capture point. One had to go around the pillar, on the ground or in the air, to get at the other capture point.

Jocky was put on Team One. With him was a Sentinel Titan, two Nightstalker Hunters, a Well of Radiance Warlock, and a Nova Bomb Warlock.

As soon as he spawned in, Jocky pulled out his ghost for a brief check of his opponents.

‘Oh, great,’ he thought.

Two Arc Strider Hunters and two Blade Barrage Hunters, all on the same fireteam. The other two members were a Striker Titan with Heart of Innermost Light, and a Stormtrance Warlock, both on a fireteam as well.

On his team, only the two Nightstalkers were working together. The other four, himself included, were solo players.

Jocky thought to his ghost to pull their Kill Death ratio, aka KDR numbers. Things got bleaker. The fireteam of four had two point two numbers, average, and each of the two members of the smaller fireteam had just under two points.

His own team, the Sentinel Titan had null point eight. But he was also decked out in blue armor so he might be a new guardian. The Nightstalkers had about one point three, above average stats. The ‘Well-Lock’ had one point one. And the Nova Bomb guy had a straight one oh.

Jocky’s stats were one point five, the best of the team, but he was going in with a bunch of newer and average guardians while the opponents were at least average and some pretty good. This was going to be a rough match.

Regardless, Jocky would try his best. He pulled out his trusty The Palindrome. It was an Adept variant, won after a brutal week of pushing Grandmaster strikes against the worst enemies of humanity to ever crawl out from beyond the stars, and a perfect ten out of ten roll, with Hammer-forged rifling, ricochet rounds, quickdraw, rangefinder, and slotted with Adept Range. This baby could nail a target at thirty-four meters before damage fall off started to affect performance.

He paired it with an okay Astral Horizon shotgun. Smooth-bore, Light Mag, Threat Detector, but a yuck Vorpal Weapon and Reload masterwork. Not ideal for Crucible but worked well enough in strikes and gambit for mowing down beefy majors.

Jocky also had a machinegun for his heavy slot. He didn’t think he would use it since power ammunition was both rare and hotly contested whenever it showed up, but the machine gun would be able to kill two guardians before it ran dry, or three if he could land all head shots on them.

Jocky was a gunslinger. He was, however, not a Hunter Gunslinger. He was a Titan Gunslinger, baffling everyone he encountered.

Truth be told, the standard subclass layouts were only a guideline for guardians. In theory, a Titan could roll with subclasses traditionally used with Hunters and Warlocks, and they could use subclasses that Titans identified with. This meant that Striker Warlock, Behemoth Hunter, Berserker Hunter, and Nova Bomb Titan were all possible, as well as mixed-subclasses. Sunbreaker mini-hammers and Well of Radiance but both on a Hunter.

But this level of tinkering was something that most people just didn’t want to deal with. His encounters with other guardians were a mixed bag. Every other person was aghast at his apparent blasphemy and the other one, while tolerant, was clearly uncomfortable. Only really the top-level guardians, such as Shaxx, Ikora, and Saladin, were openly accepting of the build crafting.

Lord Shaxx loved it. But he loved pretty much everything about guardians. Anything new and spicy for the crucible was amazing in his eyes...

Jocky rolled out from Point A. He avoided going up to balcony. That balcony was an obvious scout and sniper rifle engagement point. Whoever won it would be able to get a bead on their opponent’s spawn point. At least before the spawns flipped.

Three of his teammates went up there, though. Two aspiring snipers and a guy with a cracked Dead Man’s Tale.

Enemy team scored first blood. Both of the sniper boys died.

“First blood! Two for one!” boomed Shaxx, for the enemy’s double kill.

The guy with the DMT picked up the clean up kills, though, allowing him to push across Point C and take point against the enemy spawn.

“Tell them to line up faster!”

Jocky ran towards the middle courtyard in front of Point C. He came across two opponents. He went down but his hand cannon took one of them with him.

While dead and awaiting respawn, one of his teammates slid in and unloaded buckshot into the second opponent for a quick kill.

“And that’s why we have fire...”

The man was sniped from the back of the map on the outside side, though.

“Maybe I spoke too soon?”

‘Par for the course. One kill, one death,’ went Jocky’s thoughts.

When Jocky respawned, they were at four kills to five kills. One of his other teammates had fusion rifled someone but the enemy team nabbed a pulse rifle kill and another guy got his teeth punched in. Neither team had managed to secure either of the two neutral capture points.

Jocky decided that he would lead the charge into Point C. He went around the inside corridor and found an unlucky hunter. He put that man into the ground with the shotgun and turned into the open area with the capture circle. A second poor unfortunate soul went down with his remaining shot and Jocky started to capture the zone.

Things weren’t going so hot elsewhere. The enemy had captured Point D and with their two cap circles killed four of his buddies, netting a bunch of points. Two guardians tried to stop Jocky’s progress but a flaming fist ton the face stopped that one’s effort. The second bloke hesitated long enough for Jocky to finish capping before charging in.

Jocky’s radar showed two targets. One from the front, Mister Hesitant Man, and a second guy to his right, someone from Point D. Jocky dipped back into the corridor and popped a few shots back to try to keep them off the cap. It worked enough. Three of his teammates boiled over the second story ledge with shotguns and a fusion rifle and pumped those two full of lead and energy bullets.

Elsewhere, though, things were not looking so hot. Point D was firmly in enemy hands and Point A where their spawns were was being challenged. At least two guys in there versus three of his buddies. Jocky decided should those two hold them off long enough, he could double back and flank them from the rear.

The three charging boys pushed onward into the enemy spawn while Jocky took the long route around the cap circle, into the courtyard, up the ledge, and into the enemy’s rear. The three blueberries got sniped and pulse rifled for their trouble but Jocky slipped up to the two enemies sieging his capture point. They had killed one of the two men defending it but were unprepared for a quick shotgun plus melee, and then as the second enemy turned to face Jocky, his friends took their brave pills and showered the last guy with bullets.