Hello everybody, I know you've been expecting a chapter for "Guardian of Magic" or " Force of Change," but I sort of had this idea niggling in my head and it wouldn't go away. As for the other two stories, I think I have one for TFoC, but it needs some serious editing, as does GoM. However, I may drop GoM for the time being, as it does not seem to be getting quite the reception that I had hoped for. Rest assured, I will be picking it back up, but I need some feedback on it before I do. So far, TFoC has been my best story yet, and that's not something I'm willing to just let go.

Concerning this story, I'm thinking of a Stella X Dokkaebi pairing, or do you have a different idea? I will be adding opperators as they come in the game, and will even do any events that come around for the game in this story. Now, let's see what sort of antics my Guardian can get into, shall we?

Unknown Location, France

Guardian? Eyes up, Guardian.

Stella let out a soft groan, the sound muffled heavily by her helmet. She opened her mouth to speak, but was immediately cut off as her Ghost overrode the motor functions in her mouth and jaw.

Don't say anything, Guardian. We've been captured.

That brought Stella to full alert mode in less than a second as her vision sharpened, and her mind cleared. She glanced around the room through her helmet, being careful not to move her head and alert anyone who might be watching to her state of awareness, Ghost, what the hell happened? Where are we?

Somewhere in France, nearly a hundred years before the dawn of humanity's Golden Age.

Stella frowned, her brain having some difficulty processing what Ghost had said, A hundred years before... Ghost, are you telling me we've travelled through time? How?

She could feel her Ghost give a sort of mental shrug, I'm not quite sure myself. From what I could figure out before we were pulled from the wreckage of the Arcadia, we took a direct hit to the Jump Drive's exotic matter converter.

Stella scowled, I suppose this is what we get for giving Einstein the middle finger? Who found us? Military, I assume? Are we still in the field? The Guardian's keen eyes quickly spotted that they were in some sort of tent, or a Quarantine Zone, not surprising since she was technically an alien to them. Her arms and legs were cuffed to a heavy metal table, and cameras were mounted on tripods, watching her from every angle.

Correct, the wreckage of the Arcadia is apporximately 17 metres to our east, being prepped for transport out of here, and... we have company.

Stella stiffened as a man and a woman entered the tent, speaking softly to each other. The man seemed normal enough, barring the massive, bucket-like helmet and overall bearlike stature. But the woman, she seemed to be the dangerous one. White and black make-up covered her face in the grim visage of a skull, and she leered at Stella with a strange glint in her eyes. The kind that said, 'I'm about to have a lot of fun breaking you.' Interrogator?

Looks like it... I'll see if I can't find something to wirelessly access to get some info.

Stella nodded, straining her ears to hear what the two humans were saying.

"Look, Cav. I get that Jack said it was awake, but I doubt that it's in any way capable of speaking right now. And besides, there's no way in hell it can even understand us."

"Oh, please. Pain is a universal language. You don't have to speak in order to give information. And besides, it's going on the disection table anyways, I might as well have a bit of fun before they ruin it."

So, they already knew she was awake? Interesting. She would have to ask this 'Jack' how they figured it out. She hadn't moved a muscle when she woke up... After a moment, Stella cleared her throat and spoke drily, "You know, I have no clue how you lot do things, but where I come from we don't immediately introduce ourselves with a painful interrogation. Nice facepaint, by the way. Really brings out the 'I'm-gonna-fuck-your-shit-up' in your eyes."

Both humans froze, twisting to stare at her. The buckethead man seemed at a loss for words, whilst his partner grinned and pulled out a knife, fingering the tip while she sat down at the table, across from Stella, "So, alienígena, you speak English? What poor fool did your race take that one from?"

Stella rolled her eyes, the movement hidden by her helmet, "Your mother."

'Cav' stiffened while her partner tried his best to stifle his snort of laughter. She glared at the Guardian, tightening her grip on the knife, "Listen here, alienígena. You're a long way from home, your ship is dead, and I'm the last thing you'll ever see unless you decide to cooperate. Now, what will... Are you laughing at me? Alright, it looks like you want this the hard way!"

Stella watched with mild disinterest as the woman stood up, walking around the table before grabbing Stella's helmet and yanking her head back. For a brief moment, Stella thought she was going to go with the standard 'Threaten-Your-Life' tactic that so many interrogators adopted, but was pleasantly surprised when she opened a small cut at the softer fabric of Stella's neckpiece. The soft hiss of escaping air filled the room as the pressurized suit began to slowly equalize with the surrounding atmosphere. The buckethead man stepped forward, pulling out a roll of duct tape, "Cav, what the hell are you thinking! It'll suffocate!"

Cav held the man back, a twisted grin on her face, "She won't suffocate for at least three minutes. Plenty of time for her to make a decision."

Stella sighed, shaking her head, "You know, this was one of my favorite armour sets. Why'd you have to go and ruin it?" She could have laughed at the confused look on 'Cav's' face, but was growing tired of playing games. With a moment of concentration, she vaporized the cuffs on her arms and legs in a flash of void energy. Bot humans backed up abruptly and reached for their respective weapons as Stella stretched in her seat. A silenced pistol for the woman, and a rather worn looking handgun for buckethead. She scowled, "Oh, stand down, you lot. I'm not part of some invasion force. Nor am I here to abduct anyone. My jump drive was hit in a combat situation, and I was sent back in time due to the resultant chain reaction. Judging by your rather primitive looking tech, I'd say… early to mid twenty first century?"

Stella was trying not to laugh anymore as Cav's head looked like it was about to explode. Her jaw worked silently for several seconds, before she turned around sharply, and marched out of the tent. Buckethead looked after her for a moment, before shrugging and dropping down heavily in the chair across from Stella, "Sorry about my comrade. Caveira tends to get a little… enthusiastic about her work. So, tell me, чужак, what brings you to our little corner of the universe?"

Stella shrugged, crossing her arms. She was liking this guy already, "Like I said, I didn't actually come from some distant planet or anything. I mean, I do live on the Reef, which is somewhere in the Kuiper Belt, but I frequent Earth quite often. I come from a little over a thousand years in the future. I was engaged in combat over the European continent, and was attempting to retreat before my jump drive took a direct hit. Throw in my incredible luck, and instead of dying in a fiery flash of light, it blew a hole in space-time, and sent me here. I'm Stella, by the way, Warlock Class Guardian in the Vanguard of Humanity, part of humanity's last line of defense from extinction. I'm not here to hurt anyone unless they hurt me first, and even then I'll try not to kill them."

The man paused for a moment, before letting out a hearty chuckle, "Well, then Stella, welcome to the twenty first century, where cash is king, conspiracy is the norm, and vodka is the only thing that keeps Russians like myself sane. By the way, I know you don't breath some foreign atmosphere, so why don't you take that helmet off?"

Stella thought about it for a moment, before shrugging and letting the helmet vanish with a flurry of bright light. She waited a moment to let her eyes adjust, before nodding at the man, "Sorry, I'm not actually used to taking my helmet off outside the Last City. What's your name, big guy?"

Buckethead scrutinized her Awoken features, steel grey eyes thoroughly inspecting his first example of an alien species. After a moment, he shrugged, "My name is Alexsandr Senaviev, though I am called Tachanka by the other operators on account of my weapon of choice during situations."

Stella raised an eyebrow in surprise. She honestly hadn't expected the human to be so open with such information, "You seem rather... talkative, Tachanka. Much different from your skull faced companion."

He waved off her concerns, "Ah, don't worry about Comrade Caveira. Like I said, she gets rather... excited about her job. I was here to make sure she didn't go overboard. Though, from the wreckage we're about to cart off, I'd say that would be very difficult. You seem to be rather healthy for someone who just crashed from orbit. As for your time travel story..." The big Russian paused, his eyes somehow conveying a sharp frown. "I honestly don't know what to think of it, but there's no other explanaition for what you've said, so I'll just go with it for now. Don't expect the other Operator's to go along as easily though."

Stella nodded, twitching slightly as her Ghost appeared in her head, Guardian, you won't beleive this, but I don't think we have anything to fear from these people. These 'Operators' are part of a clandestine, international organization codenamed: Rainbow. They assist with hostage situations, bomb defusals, and biological terror threats. The government of France has asked for their aid in transporting you and the Arcadia to another location, but it sounds like Rainbow's leader, a person by the name of Six, has other plans. I can't quite break their encryption systems though, so it's hard to tell.

Stella nodded, "Tachanka, I think you should meet my little friend. Just don't shoot, okay?" She gestured with her hand, summoning her Ghost. "This is Ghost, an artificial intelligence created by a massive mechanical entity known as the Traveller. He's been poking through the wirelessly accessible information availble on hand, so we know a bit about Rainbow. Why would Rainbow assist with the recovery of alien technology?"

Tachanka paused for a longer moment, trying to process what had just happened. After a few seconds, he seemed to mentally shrug and just roll with it, "To be honest, I'm not sure myself. Six, our superiour, simply tasked four of us with defending the wreckage and anything found within. You've actually been here for about five days, and we just got here yesterday. I am rather curious why she went with four of us instead of the standard five. You've already met Caveira and myself, then we have Jack, aka Pulse. He's the one who knew you were about to wake up, probably because your heartrate sped up. Then there's Doc. Well, he does have a name, but we always call him Doc. He's the field medic."

Stella nodded, frowning slightly. That explained how they knew she was awake... sort of. But Tachanka's explanation only raised more questions, "Well, I suppose you've given me information. It's only right that I return the favor. I am a Guardian, a soldier resurrected to fight anything that could be a threat to humanity. Specically, the Darkness and its followers. I reside in the Reef, deep in the Kuiper Belt, and far away from the main body of the Vanguard. I serve under my Queen, Mara Sov, and assist the Vanguard when needed. Barring that, I lead a team of Fallen, an alien race, under the banner of the House of Wolves, and Queen's Wrath."

She tapped her right shoulder plate, where a worn, but still visible insignia of stylized wolf could be made out, "I have served under this banner for the last seven years, and have been a guardian for nearly ten years. I also have... powers, but they are too destructive and energy consuming to use in a simple demonstration."

Tachanka nodded pensively, "You're a soldier. I can respect that... Maybe Six saw the report of you being recovered and decided to look into it herself. I hope you can find your place in our broken world, Guardian Stella. It's not going to be much compared to your glorious future, but-"

Stella cut him off, holding her hand up, "PLease... My time is dying. There are less than a million humans alive, and we are beset on all sides by threats that would make a normal person scream for their mummy. The 21st century, while somewhat polluted, is infinitely better than my time."

Tachanka's eyes widened, and he began to notice the haggard, dark shadows in Stella's eyes. She looked young, yes, but he had seen those eyes... He had them himself. He knew what she had seen. Friends killed, tortured even. Cities ransacked... Civilian families torn apart. Just the way she held herself. Relaxed, yet it was false. She was expecting to be attacked at any moment. "Comrade Stella... I sincerely hope these French fools know how to treat a war veteran. Otherwise, I will personally be back to teach them a lesson."

Stella let out a sharp laugh, shaking her head, "Gods above, I like you already, Tachanka. You are the epitome of a Titan Class Guardian. Built like a brick shithouse, optimistic to a fault, and yet willing to take a bullet for someone without question."

Tachanka puffed his chest out, his eyes twinkling merrily, "That's me. And call me Alex."

Stella nodded, opening her mouth to respond. Before she could though, the loud chatter of automatic weapons broke the silence of the French night. Stella and Tachanka leapt to their feet, with the latter drawing his weapon again. He glanced down at Stella as a rather unusual, futuristic rifle appeared in her hands with a flash of light. He wrote it off as future technology, before looking at the tent entrance and gesturing for her to be quiet. Stella nodded, creeping over to the entrance and standing off to the side with her weapon pointing at chest height to someone walking in. Her helmet reappeared in a flash of light, and her Ghost vanished. Tachanka glanced at the table again, before letting out a silent chuckle and sitting down in the chair, crossing his arms. He sent a wink at Stella, who nodded and readied herself.

It took only a few seconds, before a bald man with a shotgun rushed in, looking worried, "Tachanka? Thank god, I thought the bastards had already gotten here. Where's the alien?"

Stella grinned, stepping up to the man and placing the weapon to the back of his head, "Pulse, I presume?"

Tachanka roared with laughter as his fellow operator spun around, falling to the floor with his weapon drawn, "Jack, I thought you of all people would have checked your corners before rushing in!"

The shotgun wielding operator scowled, pulling himself to his feet, "And I thought you and Cav of all people wouldn't let the alien go!"

"Not an alien, but we'll get to that later." Stella held out her hand to the downed human, offering her assistance. When he refused, she shrugged and looked towards the door. "Right, so how many pricks are we dealing with?"

"About thirty."

Stella jumped, letting out a string of curses in Russian that made even Tachanka pause. Caveira had managed to sneak into the tent with them without alerting either operator or the guardian. She glared sourly at the woman, who was grinning smugly at her, "I could have shot you. You know that, right?"

"Yes, alienígena, you could have. But you didn't." Caveira crossed her arms, gesturing to the front entrance of the tent, "I managed to get a few questions answered, thanks to a wonderful volunteer. It seems that someone leaked the discovery of our alienígena to the White Mask organization, and they've decided to try and steal some of its tech."

Stella scowled, "I'm a female, by all accounts, thank you very much. And my name is Stella. Where's your medic?"

Cav's grin turned nasty, "Why? Does the alienígena have a little boo-boo from when I cut her armour?"

Stella's eye twitched behind her helmet's visor, before she raised her weapon without warning and fired. Two purple bolts of energy lanced across the tent and punched through the wall behind Cav, resulting in a terrified scream of pain and a brilliant flash of purple light as an enemy was completely disintegrated, "No. There are three of you here, and according to Alex, four of you were sent here. Now, where is your medic?"

Pulse raised an eyebrow, "Doc is probably still over at the medbay. He knows how to take care of himself th-"

"Team Rainbow, what an unpleasant surprise."

Everyone froze as a distorted voice boomed out in the cool French air. Pulse looked at Cav with an alarmed expression, but the face paint operative looked even more confused than him.

"Team Rainbow, we only want the alien technology discovered here today. No one else has to get hurt. We have your comrades in the medical bay, and will begin killing them within the next four minutes if you do not surrender and comply with our demands. This will be the last you hear from us."

Stella narrowed her eyes, turning to Caveira, "You were saying?"

Tachanka growled, standing up, "Alright, Pulse, what's our move?"

The bald human frowned, "Shit, I wasn't expecting to have a hostage situation today! Six should have sent Sledge and his team for this… Woah, alien girl, where the hell do you think you're going?"

Stella glanced back at the humans, "Me? I'm going to get your man out of the fire. It seems that humans are just as helpless in this era as they are in mine. Now, you can either sit her and twiddle your thumbs, or you can help me. And as much as I would love to show up the wannabe grimm reaper over there, your help would be gladly appreciated." Without bothering to see what their reaction would be, Stella strode out of the quarintine/interrogation tent, and out into a warzone. She spotted several individuals in white masks milling about, keeping a vague watch on the tent she had just left. Several of the humans immediately noticed her and began pointing her out, the others readying their weapons.

Guardian, I have prepared a small playlist of music. Do you have any preferences?

"Hmmm... Something... Classical."

The humans paused as the field camp's PA system suddenly squealed, Ghost hijacking it for his own purposes. Stella grinned as 'Back in Black' began blaring from the speakers, an idea forming in her mind, "Belay that, Ghost. Give me, the Russian National Anthem."

The Russian... Ooooohhh... Got it.

The rock music suddenly cut off as the brass section of a Russian band flared to life. Stella resisted the urge to laugh at the utter bewilderment in the terrorists' body language as the music started playing. Hey, it was just as popular in the future as it was in the past.

"Comrade Stella, if you wanted to see the might of the Motherland, you only need ask." Stella glanced back at the tent, where Tachanka and Pulse were leaving, the former exuding a very smug air of satisfaction.

"Oh, now where's the fun in that, Tachanka? I figured I should get permission to kill before I start some international incident." She noticed that Caveira was nowhere to be seen, but that was good. It was part of the plan. She noticed Pulse looked rather uncomfortable, so she cleared her throat, "Pulse, sorry for the cutaway from AC/DC, but I wanted Chanka out here. It's nice to have a little conversation when killing, isn't it?"

All three of them winced at the extremely forced nature of what Stella had said, but Pulse got the idea. He shrugged, "I think our medic would disagree, but he's not here right now, so I suppose so."

The Operator Caveira is currently disabling several enemies. ETA to completion, two minutes.

Not good enough. They needed more time. She glanced at one of the White Mask terrorists, "Hey, don't just sit there like a bump on a log. What do you lot think? Do you like killing alone, or with your buddies?"

The human she looked at glanced around helplessly at his allies, before growling, "What the hell do you think you're doing? We're trying to kill you! Who the hell holds a casual conversation with their killers, anyway?"

Stella shrugged, gesturing around, "Well, you obviously outnumber us, and you're probably going to kill us anyways, so might as well go out peacefully. By the way, what exactly is this White Mask organization? I mean, I heard a bit about it from my... friends here, but they didn't exactly explain what your end goals are. You do have one, right? Or are you killing just to kill?"

The man snorted, "You're fucking insane, woman. But hell, you're right. You're dead anyway, so I might as well humor you. We're here to usher in a new age of humanity. The weak shall die, the strong will survive, and those left after ourselves, and our employers are finished, shall rebuild a new world, free from pain and hunger."

Stella whistled after a moment of silence, "Geeze, that's not cliche at all. Who's your boss? I assume someone rich, despite the paper masks you're wearing. I mean, I get the need for anonymity, but surely you could have splurged or something a little more durable."

Tachanka nodded, crossing his arms, "I agree with my Comrade. Your paper masks only look slightly less intimidting than a kindergartner's school project! You see my helmet? Now this is intimidation and protection!"

The terrorist growled, "Fuck you! Get on your fucking knees, now!"

Stella grinned, "Oh, and and are you going to make us? You and what army?"

The man glanced behind him, only to realize that his entire team had been taken down by the stealthy Caveira. His eyes widened, and he reached for a radio. Before he could do anything, or alert his allies, Stella had raised her rifle and sank two bolts in his chest. Caveira stepped out of the shadows, blood splattered on her face and a look of utter bewilderment in her eyes, "That had to be the strangest distraction I have ever seen in my life. How did you do it?"

Stella shrugged, "When your closest friend is a Queen who hates parties, you tend to learn how to distract large crowds. Thanks for the assist, boys. Now, let's go get your friend."

She shouldered her rifle, moving quietly through the dead silent camp, emphasis on 'dead.' Caveira watched her suspiciously, "Hang on, why would she be helping us? She obviously has some sort of motive."

Tachanka shook his head, putting massive hand on Cav's shoulder, "She's a soldier, like us. You didn't hear what I heard. She isn't an alien in the technical sense of being directly off planet. She's a soldier who fights to keep humanity alive."

The woman snorted, "Right. Is that why she just helped to butcher two dozen White Mask recruits?"

Pulse cleard his throat, "She was providing a distraction. You did all the work, barring the first kill. And judging from that weapon, I doubt she would need any help killing whatever stands in her way."

The two men took off at a brisk jog to catch up with Stella, with Cav bringing up the rear, grumbling to herself. Pulse hissed quietly for Stella to slow down as they approached the hub of the camp, which had been built around Stella's downed ship. The girl was already waiting for them, watching the ship with a silent, almost mournful air from the edge of the small crater produced by the Arcadia's impact. Pulse gestured for Tachanka to look at the front of the ship. A woman in a white lab coat was being held at gunpoint, appearing terrified as two gunmen demanded that she open the ship.

"That's Dr. Lisa Heartfield, the lead scientist brought in to investigate your ship," Pulse nodded to the scene, a frown on his face. "Is there anything inside your ship they might want?"

Stella shook her head, "I'm surprised it's still intact. I mean, maybe the engines, but they run off of Glimmer, something humanity won't discover for a few hundred years. Think contained elecromagnetic energy."

Caveira scowled, "Are you sure there aren't any biological agents in there? That's usually what they go for."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm a soldier, not some scholar transporting tissue... SHIT!"

All three operatives jumped at her outburst, grabbing her before she could throw herself into a potential firefight. Tachanka forced her to the ground, trying to keep her quiet, "What is wrong with you, Guardian? What is on that ship!?"

Stella opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted as a sharp crack echoed through the air, followed by heavy coughing and cursing. They all looked down at where the ship's cockpit had opened up, releasing a yellowish haze. The three humans standing next to it had collapsed, and were clawing at their faces. Their skin appeared to be hardening and rotting at the same time, and it looked like any internal organs were withering away, leaving a concave hollow. Bones cracked and elongated, and teeth sharpened and lengthened. Cries of pain and agony quickly turned into inhuman, ethereal shrieks and screams. There was a bright blue flash, and all three operatives were thrown off of Stella. She jumped to her feet, electricity crackling off her armour. She looked down at the humans, "Get your medic... And run."

Stella didn't bother waiting for a response before throwing herself down into the crater. All three of the newly made thralls immediately noticed her as a brilliant beacon of Light. She leveled her rifle at the nearest one, only to have it knocked from her grasp. The thrall tackled her to the ground, biting and clawing at her Philomanth Visor to try and get at her face. But Stella was having none of it. With a grunt of effort, she channeled Arc power through her fist and slammed it through the Thrall's head, disintegrating it with a bright blue flash. She jumped to her feet, glaring at the other two Thralls warily. Her weapon was to the right of her, and while she could potentially summon another weapon, she didn't want to risk not having access to her Vault. Graviton Lance was a weapon she kept on her at all times, but it was too far away for her to make a run for it now, and she needed to wait a moment to recharge her energy for the melee strike. Any suggestions, Ghost?

Yes. Duck.

"GUARDIAN, GET DOWN!"

Stella whipped around to see Tachanka standing on the rim of the crater, alongside Caveira and Pulse. The bear of a man was set up behind a mounted LMG, while his comrades stood to his left and right with automatic weapons. She yelped, hitting the dirt as the weapons roared to life. The Thralls stood no chance against the onslaught, each bullet removing a fist sized chunk or more from the diseased creatures. Stella could do nothing but cover her head as the Thralls were torn to shreds. The gunfire quickly died down, and Stella hesitantly poked her head up. The thralls were nothing more than dust on the wind now, having disintegrated when the necrotic magika cursing them was unable to sustain itself from the damage. She hesitantly stood up, staring shakily at the spot. She could have died... If she had died, who knew how long it would take her ghost to revive her in this time. The thralls could have gone after the humans, and she would have failed in her duty as a Guardian.

"You're lucky Tachanka likes you." Stella jumped as Caveira appeared at her side. The interrogator was frowning at the now open ship, unease in her eyes. After a moment, she shook her head, "We'll speak about this later. Right now, we need to get Doc out of here. Pulse has already called for an evac, but we need to secure the area before they arrive."

Stella nodded slowly, turning away from the wreck and climbing up to meet Tachanka and Pulse. The Russian was collapsing his mounted weapon, slinging it over his back with little to no apparent effort. She sighed, "Thank you, Tachanka. You and your team may have just saved the human race from an early extinction."

He shrugged his shoulders gesturing to a brightly lit tent a few hundred metres away, "It was nothing. Just doing our job. Besides, we need all the hands we can get if we're going to secure the area."

Stella nodded, turning to look at the tent with a much calmer mind. They needed a plan... And a good one at that."

Next chapter: They save doc, kick some ass, but loose something important.

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