As she rose from her bunk in the barracks, she caught sight of the calendar, the date circled in red. It was time again. The same day, the same patrol, the same injury. She signed out her weapon and reported for duty. They served the same breakfast in the mess hall, the same pilot flew her out. It was all the same. At first, they tried to change things. The first month or two, the adapted strategies, changed tactics- it didn't do anything. No matter what the tried, it was like the results were written into stone, immutable. Fate had decreed that everything come about as it had. The were locked in the loop. On the trip to her patrol, she smiled. There was one bright point to all of this. It had been, what, eight months now? Eight time she had done the same thing, gotten the same result. Eight times exactly similar bar one glaring exception: the guardian.
She didn't know their name, their past, or even their race. For all she knew, they were one of the traitors to the throne who left. Nothing could be discerned, their face was hidden by a helmet, they never spoke, but she knew it was them.
She remembered the first time she met a guardian, back in the reef, back in the Skolas days. Queen Mara had opened Vestian outpost to the guardians to coordinate against the traitorous fallen, and there she had first seen them. The came in all sorts, doing all manor of things. (far too often for her comfort, they jumped from the rails of the station into the void, only to have their machines bring them back. In her opinion, there was something very, very wrong with them.) There was however, one exception to the others. One besides the cocky and flashy hunter known as Cayde-6. One of the guardians never said a word. Pure silence. They managed their disability well, pointing and writing or having their little machine speak for them. One night, over drinks she asked Petra about the guardian. It was there that she learned. The silent one, they had defeated Skolas. And, if prince Uldren's reports were true, had cleansed the black garden. Rumor spread once that spilled into the barracks. The most outrageous one? That Queen Mara had met with that same guardian, and that this whole 'open the reef' business was purely for one guardian.
The next she heard of the guardian was after the taken war. Or, in the midst of it. A shade of Oryx had popped up in the reef, and a distress call went out. Guess who would answer it? The silent protector. Slowly, she tracked the silent guardian. She lost track when the Red Legion invaded, but anyone with sensors could see the Almighty being taken offline. Three guesses as to who could pull that off.
Now, now she met them in person. She shakes her head in memory. Their first meeting, in that cave in the dreaming city, did not go great. She was injured and delirious, and worried sick about the artifacts, she barely noticed it was the silent one. Then, in the second month, she realized just who was coming to her aid. By the fourth time, she warmed up to them. They never replied, but that was alright by her. Eight months. She smiled. She'd get through this once again. She had every time before. They would come rescue her and the artifacts. So, she dropped into the halls of memory, checked her ammo and waited. Soon, the hive would be here, and then…
"We've got contacts moving through the garden of Esilia!" The radio spouted.
"Right on schedule."