Phoenix: Eyes Up, Koru Sen

by Fireteam Pluto

By Neeb. Take a wild ride with the warlock of Fireteam Pluto as he recounts his first days as a guardian.

Eyes Up: The Memoirs of One Koru Sen

"So how about you Koru?" Phoenix asked, looking over the rim of his glass as he took a drink from his beer. The smile shone in his green eyes. "How did you become a guardian?"

"Yeah." Roy added, holding a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a glass in the other, shifting his gaze between the two as if pondering some deep mystery of the universe, and set the glass down. He tipped the bottle up to his lips and took a mighty swig. "I bet it's a crazy story."

Koru arched an eyebrow up and swirled his whiskey shot in his hand, eyeing it suspiciously. "It isn't much, really. It's not as exciting as yours," He turned to Phoenix. "And it's rather long." He looked down to his drink. He hoped that explanation would be enough to dissuade them.

"So?" Phoenix replied with an easy grin, leaning back and looking over his shoulder to the clock above the bar. It was early in the evening still. "We got time. Tell us a story, warlock."

The soft hum and beat of the rhythmic club music thrummed in his head. Koru sighed and tossed his shot back, downing the burning liquid quickly. He shook his head once and nodded. "All right, fine."

"Story time with Fireteam Pluto!" Commander Roy called out happily, leaning forward with a wide smile.

"I'm telling you, it's long and boring." Koru offered in a vain attempt to escape this predicament.

Roy shrugged. "Then can you tell it to us in three parts?"

Part One: Awakening

"Eyes up, guardian." A lax voice echoed softly through the inky blackness.

How long had the cold embrace of nothing claimed him? Time was an enigma bathed in unknowing. What was existence, the universe, but a vast mystery never to be understood by mortal men so arrogant as to even attempt?

A sudden and bright flash of white pierced the veil of blackness and ripped it away. It burned the eyes. What were eyes?

All at once the world was opened before what he guessed was his body. The sky, a sandy yellow. The ground, a hard and rocky brown. His body was sprawled out on the ground and he held his hands up in front of his face. They were in dirty black gloves. He wiggled his fingers. He could feel. Was he alive?

Hovering just above his fingers, still numb but all functional, was a mysterious metal machine that bobbed in the air almost a foot from him. Its pointed red chassis surrounded a single, eye-like core that glowed a golden yellow. It waited, watching him, tilted slightly askew midair. Without a word it shot out a bright green light from its eye and shone it up and down his face.

He squinted and brought his hand up to block his eyes from being blinded too late. His throat was dry and when he made to speak, he was sent into a hacking, coughing fit instead.

"Come on, let's get going." The machine spoke.

"What's going on?" He managed between clearing his throat and taking a gasping breath. He rolled onto his stomach and slowly clambered up onto his hands and knees. A few strands of raven-black hair hung in front of his eyes and he pushed it back absently to inspect his surroundings more clearly. "Who… what are you?" Huge cliffs of brown rock jutted up all around him, surrounding the large craterous valley overrun with green-mostly trees and weedy vines with a few patches of bright flowers-that he was in. The ground here was rocky, and he understood why. Directly behind him was a massive mountain with its upper portion missing as if it had exploded and crumbled in on itself. Near it and beyond he saw a few other mountains similarly disfigured and leaking bright blue streams of sulfuric lava down their sides. All around him stood sticks and rocks jammed into the dirt and sticking up like twisted, broken fingers.

He took a deep breath through his nose. Yes, that was sulfur.

The machine barely moved, but when it spoke again he saw its glowing center pulse in time with its words. "I am a ghost. I am your ghost." It spoke matter-of-factly and floated through the air to look him in the face.

He rose up to his knees and looked around at the vast valley around him. A soft breeze blew through it and cooled his face. There were no signs of civilization anywhere nearby. "What is a ghost? What does that mean?"

The ghost's crimson body spun around its eye rhythmically like the ticking of a clock. It did not sound enthused. "I am a spark of light sent out by the Traveler to seek out those worthy to defend mankind and the Light."

He pulled himself up onto his feet unsteadily and checked himself. He patted his chest and stomach, looking down. He was wearing black pants, a belt with a holster attached at the hip, and a white collared uniform jacket of some kind with several pins and a nameplate emblazoned onto the chest. The pins meant nothing to him, but he read the name. "Sen. That must be my name." He turned to the ghost. "Who am I? Why don't I know that?" He ran his fingers through his hair, searching the ground with his eyes as if it might hold a clue.

"Your name is Koru. Koru Sen." It responded dryly.

"How did you know that?"

"Facial scan. Your memories are gone, but you were dead kind of recently. Your face matched up with the databanks. Also, it's right there on your chest."

"Right." He sighed. The scattered sticks and stones were markers for the dead. His former comrades. "But who am I?"

"You are a guardian." The ghost rose to meet him at eye level before speaking again. Its voice was not very deep, but definitively masculine. "We should get going soon, though. Start walking, I'll explain on the way."

Koru looked around at the green valley of rolling hills surrounded by mountainous cliffs. He saw no easy way of getting out, but figured there was no other choice. He looked down again. His pants were black and well fitted, but he moved easily in them. He wore combat boots with silver soles. "And what is a guardian?"

The ghost made a clicking noise as if agitated. "A guardian is a warrior for the Light whose duty is the defeat the Darkness."

"And what is the darkness?" Koru asked, putting one foot in front of the other. He looked over his shoulder. Yes, he had been laying on a cooled lava flow.

"A really big and scary cloud. I wasn't expecting so many questions. All the other ghosts said their guardians just followed dumbly."

"There are others? Wait, you said I was dead. What happened?"

Even as the ghost floated on ahead of him, it turned and lifted the two pointed sections to either side of its eye as if offering a shrug. "No clue, man. And yeah, there's a whole bunch of other ghosts and guardians."

"I see." He frowned. "And where are they?"

"On Earth, in the Tower overlooking the city."

"That's not very specific. Where on Earth? And are we not on Earth?" He didn't have a memory of his life before the bright light, but he did know some things. Somehow. The mountains spewing blue fire on the horizon and the dusky yellow clouds of the overcast sky gave him some information to go off of. "We must be in Indonesia. Where is the City? Does it have a name?"

"I don't know, but this is Venus, dude."

Koru stopped, stood still and looked around. "Hmm. I guess that makes more sense. I don't know how, but it does. So what are we doing on Venus? How do we get to Earth?"

"Beats me. Maybe we should find a ship. Other guardians come around these parts occasionally."

"How did you get here?" He went through the pockets of his pants and coat, searching for something that might give him a clue of his past life. He found a few clumps of dirt. He drew the pistol from his belt holster and inspected it as he walked through the peaceful valley. It was lightweight and tinted the faintest hue of violet that only shone in the right light.

"I turned into a beam of light particles and came here looking for you."

"Can I do that?" He turned the pistol over in his hand. Holding it felt natural. He pulled the magazine out from the grip and counted the rounds. The spring was slow to comply. He counted ten rounds, about half of the magazine.

"No." The ghost responded flatly.

"Okay." That made sense, he supposed. When he tried to slide the magazine back into his weapon it stopped about halfway, and even though he tried to shove it in he knew forcing it wouldn't help him fire it later. He pulled the magazine completely out. "Is it dangerous here?"

"Oh, incredibly. Fallen pirates, man-killing Vex robots, hot lava, acid rain, massive tectonic shifts. A few minefields and an increased risk of death by extraplanetary collision." It turned around and watched him struggling with the pistol. "Here, give me that." It scanned the weapon with bright light in a grid pattern several times, and Koru could feel the inner parts shifting and watched the patches of rust being cleaned from its barrel. "There. It isn't Tower-made and I used a lot of materialization to bring you back and fix your clothes, so I couldn't give you any extra bullets. We should be in the clear for now, anyway."

"I guess that's fine. You said there were pirate robots?" Koru slid the magazine into the grip and it fit in comfortably with a satisfying click as it locked into place. He stepped over a fallen and gnarled old tree trunk carefully. Now he was in the exact middle of the valley, and just ahead he saw a marshy field of caked yellow earth, thick and still water bubbling with steam vents expelling gas from beneath the soil.

"I wish, that sounds awesome." The ghost sagged in the air a little as if disappointed. "The pirates and robots are separate things. The pirates are Fallen, an alien race with four arms and nasty little spider-mouths. The robots are called Vex and most of them are big and yellow, look like demented birds with just one eye. They're both servants of the Darkness, and they're not alone. There's also these nasty space bugs called Hive and these really fat jerks called Cabal, but they aren't on Venus, we're pretty sure."

"At least we're in good company." Koru said, squinting up into the sky. He couldn't tell what time of day it was. "What is your name?"

The ghost looked at him for a time. "Oh, you're actually asking me? Most guardians don't ever ask their ghosts stuff like that. Or say much at all. Anyway, my name is Dari."

"Dari." Koru repeated, testing it out. "Pretty good name. Koru Sen and Dari." It wasn't bad.

The sudden sonicboom of a ship exiting flying speed above them exploded through the air and sent shockwaves through the two of them. Koru looked up, shielding his eyes from the dust flying into his face that was kicked up by the whirring engines above him. Hovering over the ground almost directly above him and a hundred feet up, descending steadily, was a medium-sized spaceship that looked like it might carry a pilot and maybe a few passengers. It was a bright light blue, and its main body was long and pointed, its wings extended forward from the back and looked like they could fold to meld with the main fuselage to resemble a massive handgun. The ship stayed hovering over the ground at about ten feet.

"What's going on!?" Koru asked over the screaming of the engines, though the sound was fading as they settled. He backed up and watched warily, one hand hovering at his hip.

The ghost, Dari, faded into light in a flash and a moment later was speaking to him from in his own head, like a second conscience. "I don't know."

"Where did you go?" He directed it to Dari, but he couldn't find the ghost anywhere.

"I turned into a beam of light particles and now I'm in your body. For protection."

That made about as much sense as anything else. Still, though, "Why?"

"Because if you die I can bring you back. If I die, you're screwed. Now shut up and act normal."

Koru was about to inquire further when it was made clear why Dari was being so urgent. Descending from the ship's open back hatch was a ramp extending out to the ground. Boots clanked on the steel and a woman in full black armor stepped foot onto the dirt, turning toward him. She wore light armor specially contoured to her body with thick armor plating to cover the most vulnerable and less mobile parts of her anatomy, like her chest, shoulders, lower legs and neck. She had on a sleek helmet that covered her face completely. Her chestplate was adorned with a purple geometric symbol accented with gold.

The woman hailed him with an upraised arm and nearly jogged up to him. When she stood at arm's length she stopped and looked him up and down, and saluted with two fingers up to her helmet, then lowered her arm again. "Hello sir. Strange to see an officer in these parts alone. Do you need a ride back to the Reef?"

"I, uh, well," Koru stammered, clasping his hands together in front of him nervously.

"Officer? Roll with it. You need a ride to Earth, though." Dari said.

Koru's eyes widened in panic, but he quickly realized that the woman could not see or hear Dari. Somehow that comforted him.

"Sir?" She looked around to the valley. Over his shoulder she saw the makeshift graves. "By the queen... Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Were you a survivor of the battle here? There were so few." Her voice softened and she stepped closer. "Your uniform is an older style. Were you… reminiscing?"

She wasn't exactly wrong, as far as he could tell. "Yes. Yes, I, uhh." He stopped, working his tongue in his mouth to gather some saliva. It was getting hard to talk. "Do you have anything to drink?" He asked.

She nodded once. "Of course, sir. Here." She quickly unclipped a canteen from her belt and handed it out to him. He unscrewed it and drank the water greedily. It was warm and stale, but couldn't have been more refreshing. "Do you have a pick up coming? I could take you back to them if they're away on a mission."

"No, there's no one waiting for me." He said.

She tilted her head in confusion. "Sir, you're alone out here? Reminiscing. One of the only survivors…" She trailed off and her gaze-what he supposed was her gaze, since her helmet completely covered her features-settled on the pistol at his hip. "Oh. Oh, oh no. Sir, I know it's hard but there's a lot to think about. There's a lot you can do. Do you have friends or family?" She reached out and took him by the shoulder, leading him toward her ship. "I'll take you to the Reef as soon as I'm done scouting this area. There's a great counselor I know who can help you with this crisis. Oh, I shouldn't have called it that, I'm sorry, sir. If you need to talk about anything, I'm here. You have a lot to live for." She added the last sentence with an almost patronizing amount of forced reassurance.

"And who are you?" Koru asked tentatively. Whatever was going on, the sooner he got off the planet full of pirates and robots, the better. He had no idea what the Reef was, but if it had helpful people like this soldier, he would rather be there.

The woman nearly squeaked and straightened up as she walked with him. She dropped her hands from his shoulder and looked to him. "I'm so sorry, I can't believe I broke protocol like that. Ranger specialist Tasa Varo at your service, sir." She reached out and took the empty canteen from him, clipping it on her belt again. On closer inspection, she had many different tools and pouches on it.

"Well, miss Varo, I actually need to get to Earth." Koru blurted out as he stepped foot on the steel ramp of her ship. The engines were still somewhat loud this close, but until then they had been as soft as a kitten's purr. Her ship was very obviously outfitted to be stealthy.

"Oh no, here we go." Dari muttered.

"What?" Koru asked out loud.

"Earth? What's on Earth, sir?" Tasa asked while she ushered him into the dark space. She pressed a button on a glowing console near the top of the ramp and it started folding in behind them. It was quickly pulled up and the ship was closed, its airlock hissing steadily as it locked the atmospheric settings aboard the ship.

Tasa led him to the front of the ship's cabin, a small space with enough room for two seats and the control console. Instead of a standard windshield, the ship sported an almost three-hundred-sixty degree screen of the surroundings projected from the walls. If he didn't know better, Koru might think the whole thing was one big window. She sat down in the chair on the left and offered him a seat in the other one.

"Buckle in, it's a bumpy liftoff." She warned him as she strapped two belts across her chest and waist and into the seat. He followed suit.

"Whatever you do, don't say you're going to the Tower." Dari said to him in his mind.

"Why?" He asked, remembering too late that he had company.

Tasa nodded, both hands on the two joysticks of her ship. She flipped a few switches and pressed a button down that glowed orange. "Well, it's a slightly older model and needs some work done on its starter matrix… Oh. Right. I forgot, I shouldn't question superiors like I did. Sorry, sir. But I can't take you to Earth. It's out of my jurisdiction. I'll take you to the Reef, and you can get a ride with someone from there. Or maybe even your own ship." She rattled off names under her breath as she pulled up and the ship rocketed into the sky. "Luckily I don't have much left to patrol out here, just this mountain range. Never know when those pesky Fallen show up, right?"

As she spoke, the floor below flickered and went from a dark and dirty gray and began to match the projected image of the immediate surroundings beneath them. Koru stared around the entirety of the interior of her ship, marveling at the sight. Except for the pilot, the chairs, and the control console, every single wall of the cabin, the floor and the ceiling were each projecting a real-time view of the outside world. Yellow clouds swirled around them and craggy peaks leaking sulfuric blue lava reached up from beneath. Above, the clouds broke and the sun shone down, huge in the sky. It was beautiful.

"Don't think anything would wanna live out here, but you know how those things get. Keep an eye out, let me know if you see anything." Tasa said as she flipped a switch on the steering sticks. She pulled away from the controls and looked down as the ship flew above the mountains at a meandering pace.

Koru nodded. "Yeah, of course." He looked out in every direction because he could. He didn't know what to look for, but he still looked.

"Hmm. Nothing in this sector. I'll make a call to the captain, then we'll get to the Reef and you can find a way to Earth." She sounded somewhat cheerful still, though obviously concentrating with other things on her mind. She leaned forward and held down a large button under a speaker between the two of them. "Sir, this is ranger Varo reporting in on a closed frequency. Over."

A pause, then a masculine voice responded, "Understood. Captain Masa speaking. Report, ranger Varo. Over."

"Zero hostile activity in sector fourteen, sir. I have also picked up a passenger. An officer and survivor of the Death Valley battle, sir. Bringing him to the Reef now. Over." She took her finger from the button and turned to Koru, who was still entranced by the view of the sky above. "It's not a pretty name, but Death Valley is what we call that place after the battle. If it weren't for how well you fought back, I think they would call it a massacre, instead."

He focused again on her. "Oh. Right. It's a shame, really."

The voice from the speaker came back again. "Understood. Strange, but not impossible. What is his name? Over."

Tasa looked over to Koru again, this time silent. He wondered if she was beating herself up internally for not asking for his name herself. "Sen. Koru Sen." He was getting used to that name.

She seemed to glance at the strange insignia emblazoned on the left shoulder of his coat. "Second Lieutenant. Over."

"Understood. Bring both of you home safe, ranger Varo. Over and out."

She clicked the radio off and grabbed the steering sticks again, disengaging auto-pilot and pulling up to the sky. A second later and the ship was picking up speed at a harrowing pace, blasting through the atmosphere of Venus and up into the vacuum of space, in total blackness with only specks of light piercing the veil. Ahead of them the sun glowed a brilliant orange, and Koru smiled for the first time since he woke up.

Tasa brought up a holographic display in front of her and tapped through several displayed options before coming to a map of the solar system. The glowing orange dot in the middle indicated their current position. She turned the entire display of the system around with both hands and tapped on a large cluster of unevenly shaped rocks on the other side of the sun from them. A dotted line emanated from their position to their destination, curving around the sun and past at least one other planet-at a glance he thought it could be Mercury. After doing this, she closed the display, tapped the auto-pilot back on, and let the ship go, speeding through the nothingness of space toward the Reef, whatever that was.

With a sigh Tasa sat back in her seat and looked to Koru, still staring awestruck at the surrounding sight of flying through the stars. "Pretty cool, right sir? I guess you might never have been inside a scouting vessel, why would you? You were probably on the bridge of some big ship like a battle cruiser." She said it almost disdainfully. She reached up to her helmet and undid a few harnesses, pulling it off after the pressure was normalized. Her skin was a glowing, dusky blue; her face was lean and she had high cheekbones; her eyes were almond-shaped and their irises glowed a beautiful violet; her eyebrows were thin and her hair was a shock of pastel pink cut short. She offered him a smile and set the helmet off to her left, away from him. Her lips were curved and full, just a shade darker than her skin.

Koru's mouth hung open the slightest bit. "Right. I was on a bigger ship. Less… need for this tech, I suppose."

"Okay, so here's the rundown man. I'll keep it short. She's an Awoken, they're like humans but they're blue and they live out in the Reef. Weird thing is, you're an Awoken, too. Except you're a guardian and you have to figure out how to get to the Tower, which is where a whole lot of humans live. I'll let you figure that one out. But you're a smart guy. I'm sure you can do it. But really quick, see if you can get a mirror. Don't look so shocked. This is normal."

Koru looked to Tasa, her violet eyes watching him with curiosity. "Sorry," He muttered, finding the words fleeting as he stared into her enchanting gaze. "I must look like Hell. Do you have a mirror?"

She nodded. "Sure, here." She leaned over and pressed a few buttons in front of him, turned a knob or two and turned on a light to illuminate the cabin. The walls of the cabin all went dark and the section in front of him projected an image of the interior of the cabin. After a second of calibration, it shifted to focus only on Koru, acting as a mirror for him.

He kept his mouth shut this time. Dari wasn't lying, he was an Awoken, too. It felt right, but now he wondered what humans would be like. His skin was a similar glowing, dusky blue, but slightly more vivid than Tasa's. He had a rather round face with a prominent jawline and a thin and straight nose, slightly arched brows and somewhat full lips. His hair was a ragged and tangled mess, raven black and just long enough to get in his way. His eyes were the most striking feature, however: they glowed a brilliant and almost fiery yellow-gold. He reached up with his hands and started trying to straighten his hair out.

Seeing his plight, Tasa reached into a compartment in the console between them and handed him a small package, bound in leather and held shut by a simple strap. He took and opened it, producing a small comb and a few other items such as tweezers, a pair of scissors, and nail clippers. "Don't worry, it doesn't have any germs or anything." She grinned, unbuckled her seatbelt, and moved the console between them behind the seats. "Here, let me help you. Let's try a side part," she hummed to herself as she took the comb from his hand and started running it through his hair. "I think it could look good on you."

"Speaking candidly, now?" He asked with a smile, wincing slightly as she worked the tangles out of his roots.

"I figured we could be at ease for now. It'll be about a half-hour before we're in imperial space. Unless you like having me call you 'sir'." Tasa tugged at a particularly nasty knot and worked it out, finally able to comb some of his hair without meeting too much resistance. "So can you tell me what's on Earth for you?"

He felt heat rising to his cheeks and kept his eyes focused up at her. He thought about lying, but he didn't know enough about how all of this worked. Was the empire different from the City? It must be. She was Awoken, from the Reef, and he was going to the Human Tower. He couldn't think of anything very believable. "I'm a guardian." He replied simply, testing the words out. They fit well enough but only just so.

Tasa paused momentarily, looking down at him. "Really? Like, one of the ones who fights the Darkness on behalf of your big white god-sphere?"

He raised one eyebrow inquisitively.

"That's a really… blatant description of the Traveler, I guess. Say yes but pretend to be insulted." Dari muttered to him.

"Yes." Koru said flatly.

"How does that all work?" She continued combing his hair, starting to part it from his right side now. She seemed relatively undeterred from the conversation, which Koru supposed he was thankful for.

"I don't really know myself." He paused and closed his eyes. She had no clue how true that statement rang. "One moment I was in a cold, empty abyss. The next, a bright flash of light and this thing…" He held his hand out as if to motion where he remembered the ghost being in in that moment, and suddenly Dari popped out in a flash of dim cubic light. He remained hovering above Koru's palm. Koru recoiled slightly and Tasa looked down to see. "This thing was above me. It couldn't have been more than five minutes between waking up and meeting you."

Tasa smiled and patted the floating ghost gently on the top of its chassis. "Aww, well it sounds like you're really new to this. So I guess you're not really a survivor of the Death Valley battle?" She seemed somewhat disheartened at the suggestion.

Koru shrugged. "I don't know. If that's where I got revived, then I can surmise I wasn't exactly a survivor."

Dari piped up, looking directly up to Tasa. "Almost all guardians suffer amnesia from their past life. It blocks out the trauma of death and rebirth. So it's possible Koru was at the battle and died, but wouldn't remember it. It doesn't exactly make my job any easier, but hey, I don't get to pick who I'm stuck with."

Tasa giggled and sat back down, taking Koru's hands in hers and peeling his gloves off. "Well, I think it would be easier if we told the captain you're a veteran and got you to the Tower quickly. Like I said, I can't get you there on my own, but I know some people." She plucked the nail clippers from his hand and went to work on his cuticles. "You really should keep these things well maintained, you have nice hands. And they needed work. Did you know fingernails keep growing even after you die?"

Interlude I:

"That Awoken chick sounds hot as fuck and was totally into you." Phoenix said matter-of-factly and laid down his glass. By now he was on his third beer and was likely contemplating a more potent drink.

"What?" Koru asked, looking up with a faint blush rising in his cheeks. "How do you know that?"

Phoenix shrugged. "It's pretty obvious. Pretty girl, thinks you're a war hero, cleans you up in her own ship."

"Dangles her tits in your face." Roy offered nonchalantly.

"That too." Phoenix laughed and nodded appreciatively to Roy and offered him a fist bump, which the titan readily returned.

"Oh." Koru muttered, noticeably stiffer in his movements. He quickly took another shot of whiskey. The burn helped distract him from the conversation. "Anyway," He started.

Phoenix interrupted him. "You keep up with her? If you aren't gonna hit it, I will."

Koru frowned. "I'm already dating Eve, I don't think-"

"That didn't stop me!" Roy almost yelled out and slammed the table with his open palm.

Koru propped his elbow up on the table and rested his chin in his palm. "Can I continue my story, or are we going to discuss my pending infidelity further?"

"Sorry, Mr. Grumpy-pants." Roy grumbled and sat back again.

"Okay, so anyway…"

Part Two: Welcome to the Reef

"So you were dead?" Tasa asked, reaching for the controls again. They had just reached imperial space and been scanned by the royal drones. She looked straight ahead and slowed down to weave between the huge asteroids spinning lazily through space on their way around the sun.

"That seems to be the case." Koru replied, checking his reflection in the false mirror. He ran his recently-cleaned fingers through his hair, now combed and neatly parted to one side. It looked good, he couldn't deny. "Have you ever met a guardian before?"

"No, you're my first." She smiled at that.

He looked over to her. Her focus was on the asteroid field she was navigating seamlessly through, but she managed to sneak a peek to him once in awhile. "You're taking it well, then."

"So are you. It must be really weird coming back from the dead. Around these parts you get used to dealing with weird stuff, so it's not difficult to figure it all out. But since you are the first guardian I've ever met, I have to ask: what is it like on the other side?" She looked to him, locking her gaze onto his.

He paused. "It's cold. I think. Or dark, I think. Lonely?" He looked up to the stars and rocks and dust all passing by above. His pilot must enjoy keeping the stealth mode engaged just for the view. "It's all fading so quickly. Those words fit, but at the same time they don't. It felt like I wasn't even there, didn't have anything to feel with. But I still felt things." He shut his eyes and massaged his temples gently. "Does that make any sense?"

"No." Tasa shrugged and pulled up slightly on her sticks. "But thanks for trying. Now, we're here." She smirked and nodded directly ahead. "Welcome to the Reef."

Straight ahead, embedded so deep into a huge asteroid and jutting out like a silver spire from several directions was a massive space-station. Lights glowed, flashed and pulsed all over its surface. Near the top it had a wide hangar like an open mouth that ships were constantly flying in and out of like specks of dust. Several smaller stations were on neighboring rocks, but this one towered above the rest.

"This is the Reef?" Koru asked, mouth agape. "This is where you live?"

"Hmm?" Tasa cocked her head slightly as they approached the hangar bay door. Her hand hovered near a switch to her right on the control panel. "No, this is just an outpost. Lots of things go on here, though, mostly trade and keeping watch. No one really lives here, not forever anyway. It's where I work, if that's anything."

The ship was pointed directly to the door now. Koru watched as others slipped in and out of the hangars. When they did, they each paused slightly after crossing that threshold. A lot of the other ships looked similar to Tasa's-long, multi-sectioned and a prominent color, usually blue or violet. When she crossed the horizon into the hangar she almost immediately flipped the switch her fingers had been resting on, and Koru felt a sickening drop before the ship lurched back up to regulate itself and remained in the air.

"Ugh," He held his stomach, thankful he hadn't eaten yet. "What was that?"

"Oh." Tasa perked up. "Sorry, sir. We crossed through the atmospheric field just now. Had to switch on the more powerful thrusters so we wouldn't go down. Forgot to warn you."

He didn't reply, and instead watched their approach. Most other pilots came and went via a large docking bay underneath the main platform. Tasa, however, flew around to a smaller dock tucked behind the main spire structure. After slipping through a pair of large steel doors, she landed the ship delicately between others of its make, taking the time to methodically flip switches and press buttons as necessary.

As the steel doors hissed shut and the smaller hangar was left dark, illuminated only by a series of distantly-placed lamps across the floor in a makeshift path, Koru began unbuckling from his seat. "Where are we going now?"

Tasa hummed to herself and shut the engines off, smiling as they powered down and the high-pitched whir slowed over time to a gentle halt. "First we need to report to Captain Masa, then we'll work on finding you a ride to Earth." She rose up and pressed a button on the console near the back, sending the ramp down with a series of ratcheting clanks and servos whirring as it extended.

The two of them stepped into the dark hangar and made their way through the runway, following the trail of lights set up and placed almost haphazardly across the wide floor. Koru looked around, still marveling at the sight. Even this, what was so much smaller than the main dock above, still rose up nearly a thousand feet and was twice as wide. He followed Tasa to the back wall and through a metal door painted darker than the walls of the hangar, almost humorously small in its normal-size frame.

"His office is through here." She said, stepping into the dimly lit hallway and stopping at the first door on her right. A small holographic display pulsed with an amber light above it, reading 'lead ranger' in small print.

Captain Masa sat behind an air-brushed steel desk, leaning back in his chair with his clean black boots with silver soles propped up on the table. He had black slacks similar to Koru's and his jacket was a deep forest green, crisp and clean. The pointed shoulders made him look larger than he was. His skin was a grayish green, his eyes glowed a dazzling electric blue, and his short silver hair was slicked back. He had a wry smirk on his lips.

"Welcome back from the field, ranger Varo." He nodded respectfully, pulling his boots off the desk. Koru spied a line of several pins on the chest of Masa's jacket. "Your field report can wait." He turned to Koru now, "I apologize, sir. Lead ranger captain Elek Masa at your service." He offered a salute, two fingers straight and held above his right brow, in greetings. "Varo here tells me you're a survivor of the battle of the Death Valley?"

Koru nodded wordlessly.

Tasa's eyes narrowed as she watched the two men interact.

"Strange." Masa chuckled, "Because the battle occurred more than two years ago. All the survivors have been accounted for and anyone MIA was declared dead six months after the incident. Not to mention," He rose and produced a handheld holographic tablet, showing it to Koru. On it was his face, younger by several months, and a list of his identifying information and military credentials. "Second lieutenant Koru Sen's corpse was among the identified dead."

Koru's gaze flitted between the screen and the captain nervously. He opened his mouth to speak, "Well-"

Masa cut him off. "You are very clearly lieutenant Sen." He stepped closer and set the tablet down on the desk. "Which brings me to only one logical conclusion."

Tasa Varo spoke up, "Sir, we can explain. He-"

In that moment Tasa was shoved aside into the wall shoulder-first. Before Koru could react he felt a sharp shock of pain dig in between his ribs and twist his muscles in agony. He gasped out and craned his head back in pain, shutting his eyes tight at the sensation. He felt a pair of hands grab him around his neck and slip something over his face. When he managed to open his eyes again they were met only with blackness. He could heard Tasa yelling, but it was distant. Nearer was the captain's smug voice. "Welcome to the Reef, child of the light."

/-/-/

Back into blackness. He was dimly aware of the world around him, of being ushered through hallways and rooms and elevators, of being prodded in the back with the butts of rifles and the same horribly painful shocking device that had nearly neutralized him earlier. His hands were tied behind his back. Each step rang hollow throughout his entire body. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered at the cruel irony of it all. He took a shallow breath through the black bag they had slipped over his head.

He was nearly thrown into a room after hearing its door hiss open. Another pair of rough hands grabbed him and veritably tossed him into a stiff and rigid chair. It nearly toppled back with the force. Tense silence marked the passage of time in anxious breaths. He could hear soft footfalls just past arm's reach of him. All throughout his journey here he had had no luxury of another's voice, and had been too scared to even attempt to talk to them. He wasn't sure if his kidnappers were much for conversation.

At last he could bear it no more. "Where am I?"

Silence. The soft steps continued, almost silent.

"Who are you?"

Silence. Now the footsteps stopped. There was only one person. He was almost sure.

"What is your name?" He managed.

Silence. The footsteps approached him slowly in a wide arc around the room. It was a dozen breaths before they were close enough to touch him. When a hand reached out and roughly grabbed his face he nearly screamed out, but they retreated swiftly after pulling the bag from his head.

The room was bathed in eerily dim light, and he saw the man in front of him. This man wore dark gray battle armor tinted with crimson accents on the chestplate, a tattered charcoal cloak with a feathered collar, and a slightly curved knife on his right hip. His eyes glowed a pale yellow, breaking through the darkness. His skin was a pale blue, his hair a deep black that hung over one side of his chiseled and lean face. He scowled down at Koru with obvious distaste.

The man spoke, his voice masculine but not very deep, and bathed in arrogance. "Second lieutenant Koru Sen, is it?" He mused. "Assigned to the Daras Ranath vessel, which fell during the Battle of Death Valley on Venus two years, three months and thirteen days ago. Charged with abandoning your post, direct insubordination, dereliction of duty and desertion. More recently, you are charged with impersonating an officer and of resisting detainment." He chuckled, but did not smile. It unnerved Koru.

"That wasn't-"

The man frowned and spoke over him. "Oh, I know it wasn't you. You surely had no intention of betraying your people, of that I am certain." He strode forward, leaning down slightly to stare Koru in the face. "That wasn't you."

The man clenched his jaw and reached out to Koru, grabbing roughly at the chest of his jacket and grabbing the handful of military decorations in his fist, pulling back and ripping them from his jacket and tossing them back behind him unceremoniously. They clinked on the hard ground, bouncing a few times before settling into the silence.

"What was-"

Again he cut him off. "You did not earn those honors. Because it wasn't you." He stepped back and melded into the shadows against the wall, only his glowing eyes giving away his position, "Now you are a child of the light. A guardian. And you will forever be unwelcome here."

"Why?" This time Koru wasn't cut off.

Instead he was outright ignored. "However, I may make use of you and your intriguing circumstances. Tell me, whom do you serve?"

Koru waited a moment. This man liked to talk and seemed capable and eager to answer his own questions.

The man scowled harder, if it was possible. "Answer, knave. I have precious little time for the likes of you."

"I don't know." Koru blurted.

"Hmm." The man stood still. "I'll admit, given your current situation, that is the best answer you might have been able to give." He stepped forward, standing straight to look down at Koru. He grabbed Koru's chin in his hands and forced his gaze up. "If you survive the prison, you may answer better in the future. I'll make a crow of you yet, and send you to the Tower you so desperately seek."

Koru raised up an eyebrow. "What?"

It was all he managed before he felt another pair of hands snake up behind him and pull the bag over his head, blocking his view of the world once more. He felt himself being dragged out of the chair and pulled back toward the door. The door slid open and he was dragged roughly through the archway.

"Good luck!" The mysterious man called after him with snide sarcasm.

/-/-/

He didn't see the Reef's outpost station's hallway again, or the ship he was ushered onto with prejudice, or the journey back into space. He felt it, heard it, and could sense the tension surrounding each event. It took what felt like an eternity until they were jettisoning through the vacuum of space once more. The silence was maddening. He shifted in the hard angular seat of the vehicle, which he supposed couldn't have been more than a convenient stack of crates, searching for some comfort and finding very little. Ahead, perhaps by about ten feet, he could hear the familiar sounds of flight-buttons being pressed, switches being flipped, dials being turned, with all the calm of a tranquil sea.

He talked, if only to make sure he could be heard. "Prison?" He had asked about it several times already, but had been met with the same silence as always. "Why am I going to prison? What have I done wrong? Is there no trial, no due process?"

He was of course met with silence.

"Is it because I'm a guardian? What does that have to do with anything?"

Silence.

He sighed and slumped into a slightly more amenable position on the boxes, hanging his head. Somewhere, distantly in the back of his mind, he regretted boarding that ship with Tasa Varo.

The seconds passed, turning to minutes. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since he had been thrown aboard this ship, but he detested every minute of it.

"Hey dude, what's going on?" Dari whispered in his head. "Looks bad."

Koru's eyes widened and he nearly shouted at the ghost. "What do you mean what's going on?" He hissed. "Where were you?"

"Taking a nap. So what's up?" Dari's nonchalance and apparent apathy ticked a particular nerve in Koru, but the guardian managed to keep his voice low.

"I got to the Reef-"

"I told you to go to the Tower."

"She didn't have clearance."

"Oh right. The Reef Wars."

That stopped Koru for just a moment. "The what wars?"

"The Reef Wars, man, don't you know your history?"

"I was dead for two years! And you brought me back!"

"Oh right. Anyway man, the Reef Wars were crazy. So a bunch of Awoken and guardians started fighting and a lot of people died. There were lots of explosions. It was pretty cool. No battle of the Six Fronts, but still."

"So there was a war between the Tower and the Reef? Is that why I can't get an easy ride there?" He pondered in silence for a moment, working his jaw nervously. "A ban on trade, commerce, communication and migration. Total isolation." He nodded slightly.

"Told you you were smart. I hope you're not a warlock."

"A what?"

"So what's up with the bag over your head, dude?"

Koru sighed. "I got to the Reef. I was taken captive and interrogated. Now I'm on a ship going to prison."

"Oh shit." Dari cursed.

"What, is that worse than it sounds?"

"Worse. I… oh, then yes. It is worse. So, you know how usually in the movies the good guys let the bad guys live?"

"No." Koru said flatly.

"Well," Dari continued without regarding him, "That's what the Awoken do. They shove all their criminals, hostages and captives into a big place called the Prison of Elders. Except instead of getting a tidy little cell, most inmates are kept in racially segregated cell blocks and released to the common room for gladiatorial amusement."

"How do you know so much about this?" Koru asked, bewildered.

"Wasn't always an embargo on the information trade out here. And a few prisoners have escaped that the guardians have had to clean up. You know, those Awoken are really bad at the whole 'responsibility' thing. No offense of course."

"Right. So what can I expect?"

"You remember those thingies I told you about, the minions of the Darkness?"

"Pirates, robots, bugs and fat guys?"

"You're about to meet them."

"Wonderful." Koru stiffened in his seat. "Gladiatorial amusement." He sighed, and wondered how much worse his first day of new life could get.

Just as he was contemplating his place in the great wheel of the universe, he felt the familiar bump of the ship entering an atmospheric field and switching to high powered thrusters. The cabin rocked back hard and he struggled to brace himself on anything-he could not reach or grab a hold of anything with his hands tied behind his back still.

Finally a voice other than his own or Dari's spoke. The pilot called back to him. It was a man and he had a cruel intonation. "We're here. Get out." Without any further warning, the pilot strode back and hauled Koru to his feet, opened the back hatch of the ship and tossed him out of the vessel without so much as quieting the engines first.

Koru fell to his knees and scrambled to sit up, taking shallow and frantic breaths. He mouthed a silent 'thank you' that he landed on solid ground.

He felt another pair of hands grab him by the shoulders and steady him, then pull the bag off his head. He squinted as the light of his newfound surroundings threatened to burn his dark-attuned eyes, but he quickly adjusted. He rose up onto his knees and gazed at the world around him. The deep violet light of the Reef lended its ethereal hue to the dingy metal station he was on. The ship, a rusted and tarnished silver cargo carrier, roared and lifted away quickly, rocketing off into the vacuum of space and toward the outpost again.

He was on a small docking bay atop a huge asteroid, which looked to be hollowed out to house the mysterious prison. To either side of him were two docked ships-on the right was a battered and worn red single-passenger model that looked more traditional than the ranger Tasa Varo's, the one to his left was long and of familiar make that was black in color. At last he looked up to the one who had pulled the bag from his head and was currently tucking it into their belt.

It was a female, wearing medium battle armor colored a deep violet and a helmet that covered her face. On a sling and hanging in front of her was her rifle, a simple but deadly thing almost as long as her arm. She looked down at him and quickly hauled him to his feet. Her voice was gruff and commanding. "On your feet, new meat. Time to earn your new life."

It must have been common knowledge that he was a guardian by now. He sighed and followed her down the short pathway toward the topside facility of the asteroid. He peered over the edge of the raised path to the body of the rock below-his assumption had been right: the entire asteroid seemed to have been carved out to make room for the prison. Some sections of the facility jutted out like jagged metal sores from the dark brown and silvery rock.

The woman led him through the huge pair of metal doors of four-foot thick steel into a simple, large steel room. They waited as the main doors slammed shut and a second set in front of them opened up with a whine of metal grinding on its own weight.

He was nearly dragged by the woman past a long hallway with many doors of similar make to the last two on either side. He supposed they must have led to different cell blocks. From the ceiling hung a copious and unnecessarily large amount of crates held up by nets of rusted black chains. The lights were dim, few and far in between. The hallway ended in a large circular chamber whose floor was divided up into a dozen shards, their lines forming a spiral centered in the exact middle of the room. He was pushed ahead and stumbled the next few feet, gathering himself on the other side of the room from his captor.

Curiously, the guard did not cross the threshold into the room. Instead, she stepped to the side to a small, dingy computer station with a cracked monitor. It glowed with stale yellow ambiance, illuminating her featureless helmet with its reflection of a long list of commands and fleeting graphics.

"What kind of prison is this?" Koru asked, looking around his new supposed cell. Chains dangled from the ceiling, ending in sinister little hooks. The room itself was a cylinder no taller than ten feet, however.

"This," The guard said as the floor shifted beneath him to open from the center and spiral outward, "Is the Prison of Elders. No normal jail. Only for our majesty's most coveted menagerie of monsters." She turned with a right-face and clasped her arms behind her back as she watched Koru scramble madly to stay up above the precarious drop into pure darkness below even as the floor receded ever further into the wall.

Koru pressed his back against the wall and watched in horror as the steel shard of floor he was standing on steadily slid into the wall. He shuffled his feet to keep up with its movement and his eyes widened in fright. Below was nothing but darkness for who knew how long.

Just as the last sliver of floor slid beneath his feet and out from under him, he looked to the guard, who was already turned and walking away from him. Without another word he was dropped into the abyss. The wind rushed by and he shut his eyes. He wondered if this was how it ended.

"Listen to me, dude." Dari said as he materialized in front of the guardian in freefall. "I know this is weird but you need to like, try to jump. When I say so-"

"What?!" Koru asked, eyes widening to no avail.

"Just do it, damn! Now!"

He tried to shrug and followed the ghost's instruction, forcing himself to twist midair and point his feet down, then tensed his muscles and jumped. To his surprise, the rushing whoosh of air stopped and his body jolted still. A new sound, like air hissing through a tunnel, was emanating from the soles of his boots. He was still in the air and he struggled to find his balance to keep aloft in the enveloping darkness.

"I… Am I flying?" He asked, reaching out to press his hands on the wall of the drop's shaft, wiping a streak through the dust and dirt with his fingertips.

"No. This is… Hm. Either gliding or using lift. Hold on." Dari muttered, his pointed body spinning around his glowing eye. Even in the darkness he could be seen perfectly well. It appeared he was a piece of light made real after all. He hovered down to inspect the guardian's boots before coming back up nonchalantly. "I'm not registering any rise in altitude, indicating that your fall has not been reversed and is instead simply reducing the efficacy of gravity's pull on your mass."

Koru nodded, glancing up. Far above, about thirty feet, he could see the faint light diminishing as the floor of the first room closed in again. "Which means I can slow my descent to effectively maneuver in the air. Do I always have this ability?"

"Not always, it needs to recharge and you can do that by letting your boots touch down every once in a while. Huh. Shit." Dari looked down and seemed to visibly sag as if in disappointment.

"What?"

"That means you're a warlock."

"Is that bad?" Koru asked, with no idea what the ghost was so concerned about.

"No, I guess not. Hunters and titans are just cooler. And they can jump."

Koru narrowed his eyes. Instead of following this conversation, however, he switched gears. "How long can I use this floating ability at a time?"

"I'd say you're about at your limit right now. Also, it's called gliding." Every word dripped with palpable disappointment.

"Wait, what-" Before he could continue the wind hissed out of his boots and faded away, sending him falling back through the abyss once more. Just a few seconds later he emerged into dim red light and landed with his feet on the floor, rocking forward and rolling onto his shoulder to spread out the force of impact. He rose up to his feet quickly and dusted himself off, inspecting his new surroundings. The floor was a pockmarked steel grating with a five-foot diameter spiral opening in the center that was currently closed. Below he could make out several platforms in the inky darkness caddy-corner to one another leading down even further.

This room appeared to be an intersection with a thick steel door in each cardinal direction. Around each were telltale decorative distinctions he didn't recognize: spore-like growths and organic crystals, rounded cargo crates painted with crude symbols, mysterious metal protrusions, and large cubic cargo crates dripping with black liquid. With a hiss the third door, surrounded by geometric brass-colored protrusions, slid open to reveal a floating, flaming, dark eyeball almost five feet across. It hovered and when a voice spoke from the central chamber, its iris flashed in time with the words.

This voice was male, but spoke as if in a growl with drawn out syllables and somewhat choppy English. "Vex machines stir from slumberrr. Send them baaack," the voice paused, then continued with a surprised lilt in its voice, "Guardiaaan." It spoke the word with genuine enthusiasm before fading away. The giant flaming eyeball blocking the doorway lifted up into the ceiling and left the way open for Koru.

Koru Sen stood still and looked down the long hallway lit with bright blue light for a long while before speaking in quick fragmented sentences. "Gladiatorial amusement. Vex machines. Send them back to slumber." His hand hovered over the grip of his pistol and shook nervously. He addressed Dari now. "Vex. You mentioned them, which ones were they?"

Dari materialized and looked Koru in the eyes. "Those would be the man-killing robots."

"Ah. Right. Well, best to get this over with, I suppose." Koru made to take a step forward, but the sudden return of the voice interrupted him.

"Do not waste time, guardiaaan."

"Oh no." Dari muttered, disappearing in a flash again.

"What?" Koru asked.

Before Dari could reply, Koru's entire field of vision was taken over by a blinding flash of white light for just an instant. He shut his eyes just too late and brought his hands up to cover his face. He felt his entire being lift and move through space against his will. When he opened his eyes again he struggled to blink away the residual spots of color before them. At last he managed to straighten his vision and surveyed his surroundings.

He was in what looked like the center of this chamber, with an open roof that looked toward the cosmos. The entire arena was tinted a pale blue, with huge stone platforms rising up on either side of him made with conspicuously precise right-angles. Directly in front of him and up a steep slope was a center platform of that same mysterious stone, and atop it in nearly a complete circular ring was the familiar brass-colored metal in a geometric array, with a web of pulsing liquid light shimmering within the nodes. Above him to the right was an unfinished, or perhaps halfway destroyed, raised catwalk; beyond that was a monolithic stone structure with a hollowed out tunnel. To his left was an overlooking platform and further on was a slightly raised outcropping of rock. Around the back side of this huge room looked to be a tunnel broken up with various openings to the interior.

"What just happened?" Koru asked, rubbing one eye at a time and turning to try and look in as many directions at once.

"He teleported you inside." Dari explained simply.

Koru glanced behind him and saw a door slam shut and its center locking mechanism spin clockwise for several rotations before stopping. It looked like the only door still in working order along the tunnel's back wall. "Okay, so now what?"

Dari sighed in exasperation in Koru's head. "You heard the man. Kill them. Look alive, on your twelve."

Koru snapped his head forward and watched the bright glowing web of light as it pulsed and shimmered. Shadowy forms appeared and stepped out of it, heavy footfalls from thin legs clanking on the hard ground with loud thuds. Four pale yellow metal things emerged from the light, each with a single bright red eye set behind their beak-like protrusions. Their bellies glowed a pale off-white color. They looked about the same height as he was.

Koru leaned forward a bit to watch, and stepped lightly to the left to keep his eyes on the new incoming threats from behind the solid cover of a huge stone cube.

Two additional figures emerged to flank the initial group. These individuals had spikes sticking up out of their heads like large horns and tails lashing the air behind them. They also sported bright red eyes and off-white cores on their torsos, and were about the same size as the others.

"Okay, doesn't seem too bad. Four goblins and two hobgoblins. If we just take it slow we can take them out without much hassle." For the first time, Dari sounded generally concerned.

The group of six split into two groups of three now, each led by a hobgoblin in opposite directions-thankfully both away from Koru's hiding spot.

With a palpable liquid noise another form emerged from the portal, this one was much larger and bulkier than the others. It sported a domed, heavily armored head with the trademark single red eye, but lacked the glowing core in the center. It also hefted a large cannon on its arm with ease. Its heavy footfalls made its whole body jerk almost clumsily.

"Well shit." Dari cursed.

"What is that thing?" Koru whispered. Even as he did, the bigger robot turned toward him and began its stiff march toward him, calling out in a synthetic call not unlike a bird's frantic chirp.

"That's a minotaur. And you should run."

The first bolt of arcing purple plasma slammed into the wall inches from Koru's face, sending sparks flying past the corner. He jumped back and turned on his heel, scrambling up the hill away from the minotaur. At the fork in the tunnel's path he darted to the right into the cover of the thick steel walls. He drew his pistol and tried to steady his rapid breathing to little avail. He kept running down the length of the hallway and toward one of the small structures that might offer some cover and tactical maneuverability.

Directly on his right when he exited the tunnel was one of the birdlike robots, bright eye flaring harshly into his face.

His eyes widened. It chirped in an ear-piercing pitch and brought the weapon in its hand up.

Dari sent a message into Koru's frantic mind. "Aim for the belly, dude."

Koru brought up his own pistol and pulled the trigger, sending a bullet ricocheting off the goblin's chassis. He did his best to steady his hand and fired again, this time finding his mark just as the red stream of burning energy shot past his shoulder, narrowly missing his head. The pale white core of the goblin flashed in a brief explosion and the robot went limp in a pile of metal limbs on the ground, its eye dimming.

The warlock breathed a sigh of relief. He kept moving, circling around the arena and keeping his eyes open for any more of the robotic terrors. He slipped around a stone outcropping and watched as the second goblin inspected the remains of its fallen comrade. Koru tightened his jaw and held his pistol in both hands. He had precious time to make a decision.

He peeked out from behind his cover and quickly sent another two bullets into this goblin's belly. He rolled into a crouch and slid back behind a fallen pillar, just high enough to hide him from enemy fire. The second goblin jerked and sparked as it fell next to the first, milky white fluid leaking from its stomach. He breathed a sigh of relief. Two down, two to go. And the hobgoblin things. And the minotaur.

Koru sat up slightly, his back still pressed against the pillar, and surveyed the scene. Ahead was a low structure, and beyond that was a somewhat steep rise to the main portal these things had come out of. Before he had time to register anything else the pillar seemed to explode in a shower of dust and dirt with a bright red flash. The smell of burning plasma hung in the air for a second too long. He quickly fell back down into cover.

A deep synthetic growling chirp emanated from nearby. Heavy metal footfalls followed. The minotaur was upon him.

"You gotta run, man."

Koru hissed in effort and got his legs under him before he jumped up and bolted for that low structure. The minotaur squealed with what sounded like triumph. Up on the far catwalk he saw one hobgoblin with a bright eye aiming its rifle at him. Up almost directly ahead he saw the other one crouched near the portal doing the same. That must have been the shot that hit the pillar earlier. He heard the volley of violet energy arcing behind him and quickly stepped to the side, putting that low structure between him and the snipers, watching the explosive bolt slam into the ground a few feet from him.

"How do I kill that one?" He asked in a panic, noticing quickly that the minotaur lacked the weak point that the goblins had.

"Just keep running. I'll think of something. Get the snipers off your back first."

The minotaur rushed forward with its cannon arm raised. Koru turned and ducked just in time for the robot's massive swing to slam into the wall instead of his head. He rushed forward and slipped around the corner, running straight for the closer sniper near the portal.

He fire a bullet into the hobgoblin's face. The shot bounced off its head, doing little damage, but it folded in on itself and seemed to cower before him, its whole body glowing a bright and fiery red.

Koru slowed and looked up to see the other sniper readying a shot. Where were the other goblins?

"Hit it when it stands back up!"

Seemed reasonable. Koru ran at the prone hobgoblin, closing the distance quickly. Just as he approached it stopped glowing and rose up on its legs once more. He leapt and tackled it, feeling the heat of the other sniper's shot sear the air where he would have been. Koru knocked the hobgoblin onto its back and straddled its narrow waist. When it brought up its free claw to try and pry him off, he knocked it aside and then slammed his palm down into its face. To his surprise his hand seemed to be alight with the same orange-red glow of the thing's shield thing earlier. When he felt his palm slam into its eye and crack its lens, the glow rushed out from his arm and into the hobgoblin, incinerating it before it could even scream in terror. It dropped its rifle and tried to grab at him too late. It was gone before the weapon hit the ground.

"What the-" Koru gazed down to his hand, flexing his fingers as if testing to see if more fire would reach out from them. He was cut off by the minotaur's scream.

Koru blinked once and reached down to grab the hobgoblin's rifle. He ran forward, across the flat stone plateau of the portal's base, and slid down the slope toward the other side of the arena. He would have to take his time here. One misplay could mean his death.

Directly ahead was the other structure, this one slightly larger with a tunnel carved into it. Beyond it was the other end of the semi-circle tunnel that almost looped around the entire arena. There seemed to be some cover there from fallen stone pillars and huge slabs of metal. On his right was the catwalk where the second sniper was perched.

He darted into the tunnel dug into the structure and pressed his back to the wall. He caught his breath as quickly as he could and inspected the rifle he had stolen from the first hobgoblin. It looked straight-forward enough as a sniper rifle with all the obvious pieces. He kept it in his left hand and raised his pistol in his right. He'd only use the Vex weapon if he needed it.

He heard the soft chirp of goblins. Were they conversing? It seemed to echo through the tight space and he edged closer to the other opening into his hiding-hole. He peered around the edge to see the last two goblins walking side by side, laser pistols at the ready, even their footsteps perfectly in sync.

Koru furrowed his brow. They were facing away from him. From behind he could hear the telltale stomps of the minotaur as it searched for him, as well.

The second hobgoblin was barely visible, but it was facing him as it scanned the battlefield from the catwalk. He noted its distance and the angle. He wasn't a good enough shot to use the pistol effectively at that range. He holstered it as silently as he could and took his Vex sniper rifle in both hands now. He had a small window. He knelt down and leveled it, its barrel just barely poking out of the doorway. He stilled his breathing and took aim at the hobgoblin's belly core. He squeezed the trigger and was dismayed to find it wouldn't fire. He pulled again, this time holding it down almost instinctively. To his chagrin it began charging, a glowing gathering of energy growing at the end of the barrel, before it fired. The second hobgoblin barely had time to notice him before it took a laser beam shot to the belly and crumpled pathetically before disintegrating like its brethren. The recoil kicked Koru's arm back and the sound rang like a roaring sun in the confined space, but he smiled at his victory nonetheless.

The two goblins tensed and turned their upper bodies, but not their legs, to see him. Koru cursed under his breath and brought the rifle up again, charging his shot but when it finally fired it whizzed between the two robot aliens.

"I was going to congratulate you. But I think you have to earn it again after that shot."

Koru sighed and the goblins wasted no time firing red energy into the doorway, and the warlock slipped away from them the direction he had come before any shots could land. Just as he backed away he saw the massive metal leg of the minotaur stomp down in front of the doorway, blocking the goblins' shots.

He slipped out of the building and looked up to its roof perhaps fifteen feet tall. This could work. He jumped, already an impressive height, and quickly jumped again in the air to activate his glide. With ease he crested up and over the roof, landing softly and inspecting the field. The two goblins were twenty feet away from the building and the minotaur was stomping around in front of it, almost directly beneath him.

He took up the rifle and aimed at the goblin on the left. The one on the right perked up and looked directly at him before chirping out a call and firing at him with hasty and wild shots. The warlock squeezed the trigger and the rifle charged, the beam slamming through the unaware goblin's belly with ease. He felt the hot burning sting of the other goblin's red lasers in his right shoulder, and he dropped down onto his belly, out of sight of the creature. He gasped out in pain and looked to inspect his wound, but found none.

He scowled. What was this? A field of shimmering translucent light was fading from his shoulder.

"That's your shield, dude. Get used to it, it'll save your ass."

Koru took a deep breath. He only had two enemies left but he was in a bad position. He heard the minotaur frantically searching for him beneath him, and the goblin's softer clinks as it stepped closer as well. A thought dawned on him.

"How good is my shield?" He asked quietly.

"Not bad, you're a decent light level, really. And you're a warlock, so you guys's shields recharge faster for some reason."

"Good." He pressed his left hand down onto the ground and lifted himself up to a standing position quickly, taking a step over to the edge of the roof. He called out, "You want me? Come get me."

The minotaur and goblin both looked up to him silhouetted against the blue sky, hissing and chirping angrily as they readied their weapons. He smirked and jumped up off the roof and again to glide toward the goblin, tossing his rifle down to the ground below and drawing his pistol. The minotaur fired its arcing bolts of violet ballistics at him, missing each one as he floated through the air. When he touched down just in front of the goblin it raised its hand up and palm out, and it glowed white. He slipped around the side and past the goblin just as a small explosion of purple light reached out from its extended arm. He turned to see the minotaur's mad and rushed volleys slam into the goblin's back, sending it flying in several pieces in as many different directions.

Koru smirked and kept running down the main tunnel. He could see the door he had come through just ahead. "Any ideas on how to take out the minotaur?" He asked Dari.

"Try your grenades?" The ghost suggested.

That stopped Koru in his tracks. The minotaur came crashing into the tunnel a stone's throw behind him. "I have grenades?"

"You should. All guardians do."

"How do I use them?" Koru turned and stared down the minotaur as it stomped down the hall menacingly. He raised his pistol.

"Just try to like, throw your light at them."

Koru stared blankly at the minotaur. What the hell did that even mean? He shrugged and tried it anyway. He raised up his left hand and imagined throwing a ball of light through the air at the minotaur. Instead of a grenade, he saw a geometric pattern appear in glowing orange-red lines on the minotaur's chest.

Now just ten feet from him, the minotaur fired a celebratory volley his way, but the arcing shot crashed into the roof of the tunnel and rained violet sparks down on its approach.

"That's… weird. Do you think it tickles?"

Koru took a step back and fired two bullets at the minotaur, but a shimmering shield of translucent purple blocked the shots before they connected with its body. He groaned in despair and balled his left hand into a fist, punching the wall next to him in frustration. "What do I do-"

His musings were cut short by the sudden flare of the pattern he had laid of the minotaur's chest and the bright explosion of fire that engulfed the robot. Its shield came up but was quickly blown away by the force of the blast and the resulting inferno that swallowed the thing. Koru's eyes widened in delight and he smiled now, raising his pistol up and calmly putting the last three bullets into the minotaur's eye as it squealed in confusion and pain. It jerked with every shot and sparks flew as its inner workings were roasted. As the flames receded, its melted and mangled body fell to the ground in a heap.

Koru holstered his pistol and surveyed the arena once more before he turned to leave. Here he had faced the Reef's test of strength and hopefully passed.

The drawn-out announcements of the man over the speaker echoed through the arena. "Well done, guardiaaan. Return to airlock, yeees? Prize awaaaits."

With that, Koru stepped back into the entrance hall and into the intersection he had fallen into earlier. When he was in the door hissed shut behind him and a single chain, thicker than the rest, swung lazily in the center of the room at eye level, with a large hook at the bottom. The voice returned. "Hold on, yeees? Tight, now." It chuckled and clicked off.

Koru looked up to see the spiral trapdoor he had fallen through was wide open now, what he thought was the guard that escorted him here looking down the shaft to him. Taking the hint, he reached out and grabbed the new chain and gave it a test tug. It seemed secure. He gripped it tight and it began being raised up at a steady, quick pace and he was up the shaft almost as quickly as he had fallen down it in the first place.

Once he was cleared of the trapdoor it closed beneath his feet as he hung in midair. Once it was safe he dropped down the last few inches and walked forward, not eager to repeat the fall.

He was greeted by the familiar guard and she was joined by a hunched over, four-armed figure in green. The new figure carried a metal walking staff and had four bright glowing blue eyes on what Koru guessed was its helmet.

It reached out one of its lower arms to him as if ushering him forward. It spoke familiarly, and Koru immediately recognized it as the announcer for the arena. "Welcome out of Prison of Elders, guardiaaan." Its drawl was apparent, but he noted that it kept its mouth veiled behind a loose mask made of chainmail. As if noticing his confusion, he continued. "No need to fear, yeees? You are champion. Conquered Vex machines. Earned favor of Master of Crows today."

"Uhm." Koru started, bewildered. "What?"

The creature laughed. "Ha! Master of Crows sent you, you fight well. He made you a Crow. An honooor." If it could smirk, it certainly would have at that point. "You get a ship now." It said matter-of-factly and turned to walk down the long main hallway. The female guard said nothing, and followed without hesitation. Koru did the same.

"What are you?" He blurted out.

The thing looked back over its shoulder, its metal staff clinking against the floor. "Could ask you same thing. But, rude. I am Variksss, yeees? Warden of Prison of Elders. House Judgment scribe. Or kell. Only one left."

"Oh." Koru nodded. He didn't quite understand it, but he went along with it. "I am Koru Sen."

Dari whispered in his head, "He's a Fallen. A space pirate guy. But he seems… nice?"

"I know. Lots of taaalk about yooou." Variks continued on. The guard fell a step behind so that Koru could walk side by side with the alien. "Valuable spy in Tower? Could be. First Awoken guardiaaan. Or, first one from Reef."

They stepped through the pair of steel doors and out into the cosmos once again, the violet atmosphere of the Reef tinting everything a pleasant lilac hue.

Variks gestured to the red ship on the left with his staff. "This one for you. Belonged to old guardian. Could not handle Prison. Before Reef Wars. Still works, no worries." He reached out and patted Koru on the shoulder with what looked like a mechanical upper arm. "Time to go, guardiaaan. But come baaack. Real treasure awaits. Bring guardian friends to challenge Prison of Elders with."

Koru nodded. "Right, of course. Thank you." He stepped forward onto the dock and the ship opened its back hatch for him automatically. He stepped onto the ramp and into the dark hold of the ship. He inspected his new prize, running his fingers along the walls and the black leather seats at the helm. He took note of a ladder that led up one floor and down to another. On the upper floor was a small cabin complete with a bed, small table, and what looked like it could be a bathroom. Below was the engine room and cargo hold. For a small vessel, it seemed to have everything it needed to make a journey somewhere.

Dari materialized in a quick flash and scanned the somewhat dusty instruments of the dash. "This is definitely a guardian's ship. It only opens and operates for a wielder of the light. Even the Awoken couldn't break into it without rendering it completely inert. It must have been parked here for years, just waiting for a guardian like you to claim it." He floated over the co-pilot seat. "I can fly it for you, that's how these things are designed. You could give it a go, but I think we should get to the Tower ASAP. I've had enough of this place."

"Me too." Koru said halfheartedly. He sat down in the pilot's chair and let Dari go to work, but kept careful track of what turned on and when. He looked out the front window and saw Variks and the female guard waiting, watching for his departure. He offered a slight wave that the prison warden returned.

Dari brought up a map of the solar system and a dotted line traced through the orbits of planets to settle on the third one from the sun-Earth. The ship lifted up out of the dock and floated up and away from the asteroid before blasting off into the darkness of space.

Not a minute had passed before the radio buzzed with static. Koru looked around and finally found the button to answer the call. Dari hummed slightly as he tuned it for a clearer signal as they sped through space toward the Tower.

"Hey Koru, this is ranger specialist Tasa Varo. I was hoping you'd wait a bit before leaving but I guess you're eager to get going. After the whole kidnapping thing, I would too, if I could. I saw you make it out of the prison and wanted to meet up before you got the Tower, but you'll be out of imperial space soon. So listen, if you ever need anyone to talk to or anything, especially if you need a hand out here in the Reef, you can call me. I sent you some contact information and radio signals to your ship. You've got a friend out here, guardian."

Dari and Koru shared a look. He pressed the button to reply. "Thank you for that. If I'm ever back, I'll contact you."

She laughed, and it sounded almost sad. "Ha, or you know, if you ever get lonely. Need someone to talk to."

He smiled. "Uhm. Right, I'll keep that in mind, Tasa. Thank you again."

"Take care. You know where to find me."

The radio clicked off and they were met with the silence of the vacuum again.

Interlude II:

"Yup. She wants you. Like, holy shit dude." Phoenix laid down his seventh glass of alcohol, now empty. He had been ordering beers, cocktails, and several mixers and was at what Koru assumed was a good buzz.

"You ever call her?" Roy asked.

"Call who?" A new but familiar voice called out from behind Koru.

The warlock's golden eyes widened as he turned to look up at Eve, dressed down in a simple black shirt and pants tonight, her bright green eyes staring down at him.

Koru stammered out a fumbled response and cursed himself for it. "Ah, well, you know, it's just a story."

"Uh huh." Her full lips curled into a smirk and she slid into the seat next to her boyfriend, hailing the bartender over as she continued, "So what's going on here? Telling stories?"

"Story time with Fireteam Pluto!" Roy called out with a hearty laugh. "And you too, now"

Phoenix smiled and let the female warlock order her drink, and spoke. "Well, we were just talking about Koru's first girlfriend."

"Really?" She looked over to the Awoken man, now holding his hand over his eyes and groaning.

"She wasn't my girlfriend. She was just a friend. The one who found me when I woke up. Look, it's not a big deal."

"Hmm. And do you still call her?" Eve took the two brightly colored martinis offered her by the bartender frame and set one down in front of her, sipping the other almost daintily.

"Of course not!" Koru looked her in the eye.

Eve gave him a sly look, leaning back in her seat. "Doesn't sound like you're a very good friend, then."

Koru sighed and motioned for the whiskey. Phoenix passed the bottle to him and the warlock poured himself a shot. "There's just no winning with you."

She giggled. "I think I want to meet this girl."

Roy snatched the bottle back as soon as Koru had finished pouring his shot. "Koru has her on speed-dial still."

"Really?" Eve looked over, a feigned shocked expression painting her features.

"Can I just finish my story?" Koru asked exasperatedly. "I don't really want to bring Tasa into this."

"Oh, that's a pretty name." She took a few sips from her martini and looked over to Phoenix. "Isn't that such a pretty name? Is she an Awoken?"

"Yup. How did you describe her, buddy?" Phoenix asked a clearly frustrated Koru. "Pink hair, purple eyes, blue skin. I think you even used the word beautiful. And you talked about how she gave you a makeover and everything. And asked you to keep in touch. Sounded obvious."

"This is news to me," Eve slid in a little closer to Koru, nudging him in the arm gently. "How long ago was this?"

Koru shut his eyes. "Before I came to the Tower. Look, I'll tell you the whole thing later, can I just tell the rest of my story?"

"Sure, sure." Eve backed off and regarded him with a warm smile.

Roy looked over to Eve, "So when is your hot friend coming by?"

"Hmm?" Eve regarded him and took just a second to register his question. "Oh. Lily should be around in a bit, she had to-"

"Trick question!" He laughed out loud and raised up his bottle. "She'll be coming by inch six or seven." He proceeded to point down to his crotch with his free hand.

Koru sighed. "Anyway…"

Part Three: Welcome to the Tower

"There it is." Dari said, his usual lax demeanor replaced with a chipper, almost prideful tone. He gazed out of the windshield and bobbed in the air rhythmically.

Koru stirred from his nap and straightened in his seat, watching as the ship careened through the sky. The primary thrusters were on, meaning that they were flying through a stable atmosphere. He nodded in appreciation that the earth's planetary atmosphere was not as hard and difficult on his ship as the Reef's artificial one.

The warlock leaned forward and gazed out at the sight before him. The cyan blue of the sky stretched on far past the horizon and faded off into the distance. Puffy cumulus clouds rolled across the stratosphere, offering patches of lazily meandering shade to the green fields of grass and trees down on the ground below. He saw flashes of green and brown and blue on the ground, of rocks, trees and rivers passing by beneath him. High in the sky the sun shone a bright yellow, warming the earth with its radioactive embrace.

What dominated his view was the huge floating sphere that hung in the sky above the relatively short walls of a city. Its gray-white body was perfectly still in the air, with several large portions dug out and chipped off its frame. The silhouettes of ships flew around it looking like gnats in comparison.

"What is that?" Koru asked, sure he already knew the answer. It was the only thing Dari ever mentioned with any kind of real respect.

"That's the Traveler. It's sleeping now, but when it was awake it helped humans reach technological peaks. Before it went to sleep, it made us, the ghosts." Dari explained eagerly. "We're going to the Tower, which overlooks the last city left on Earth."

Koru nodded. He rummaged in the glovebox of the ship for a mirror, muttering under his breath. "Does the city have a name?"

"I don't know. Probably." Dari responded with a hint of hastiness. "I sent a message to the Vanguard already. Someone should be ready to meet us in the hangar as soon as we land!" His cheerful temperament returned.

He grunted in response and managed to find an old mirror that looked like it could have once been mounted on the interior windshield of a much smaller vehicle. He balanced it on the dashboard and produced the small grooming kit that Tasa had let him keep before their disastrous landing at the Reef. He combed his hair and made a pass over his fingernails before slipping his black leather gloves back on. "Hopefully it isn't as exciting as our last debriefing."

The ship banked to the right and Koru looked out to the left as it flew by the Traveler. Whatever it was, it was massive-almost as big as the city it hovered over. He wondered, distantly, how it kept itself aloft.

The Tower, as Dari called it, was a tall and pristine building built on the edge of the city's walls, overlooking it, the Traveler, and the lands beyond the city. Its apex jutted out high above the clouds. The ship pulled right and slipped into a docking bay hangar, significantly smaller than the last one he had entered, but much busier. Other single-passenger ships, what he presumed were the many other guardians, buzzed in and out of the hangar like bees in a busy hive.

A female voice drawled out over the radio. "All right, you just park yourself and we'll see about gettin' you right next time you head on out." As quickly as she spoke, she was silent and the radio clicked off.

Koru looked to Dari, who stared out the window and seemed intent on piloting the ship into a specific, empty lot in the hangar's floor. He found the spot he wanted and set the ship down with a gentleness Koru hadn't expected. "Who was that?"

"That was Amanda Holliday. I sent her a message earlier that our ship might need repairs when we came in. When I sent one about our arrival just now, she responded. Quickly, too. She's nice, you'll meet her soon."

"Right." Koru watched as the rectangular section of the floor the ship was parked on raised up slightly and mechanical arms reached up to brace it on the wings and fuselage. He saw a lot of people running around in the hangars to and from ships, especially in the catwalk blocked off by a tall black fence. From rather far away, one gave a wave to him. He didn't bother returning the gesture, and instead stood up in the cockpit and made his way to the back of the ship. "Let's meet this 'vanguard.'" He had to consciously stop himself from scoffing at the mention of the title.

The ramp of his ship hissed open and he stepped out onto the cold hard ground of the hangar floor. He looked up and around, seeing several others doing the same. When they left their ships they made beelines straight for the more populated areas of the hangar. He shrugged and took a step down off the platform his ship rested on. Immediately, it jerked and lowered down into the floor, covered quickly by a trapdoor contraption.

"Good afternoon, warlock." A smooth, feminine voice called out to him. He turned and saw a woman with dark skin, light eyes and a shaved head standing before him with her arms crossed. She wore a long, flowing purple robe and heavily adorned boots and gloves. She seemed weary and contemplative, but was relieved when she offered him a smile. "Walk with me, if you wouldn't mind?"

The woman turned on her heel and walked away. She didn't look back to see Koru, and instead banked on his following her. He did so almost sheepishly. He liked the look of this place much better than the Reef already, but couldn't be sure of it until he managed to get somewhere without a bag on his head.

"I know you have a lot of questions, and they will be answered in time. For now, let's take things one at a time." The woman slowed to let him walk next to her. She held her hands behind her in the small of her back, her back straight and her chin high. They walked together through the crowds of passersby, and others seemed to give her a wide berth as they passed. "My name is Ikora Rey, and I am the newly appointed vanguard of the warlocks."

Koru nodded. "Nice to meet you, ma'am." He offered her a customary salute as they walked on, two fingers above his brow. "I am Koru Sen. I'm told I'm a warlock, I suppose that makes me your charge?"

"You catch on quickly. Yes." She led him up the steel stairs and down a corridor of broken scanning machines, complete with magnetic floor pads. "Unless otherwise specified, any missions you undertake on behalf of the Tower will be handed to you by myself or another of my staff. Any missions undertaken on behalf of some other faction or outside organization may need my sanctioning, but your proclivities are your own in the regards of earning more money on the side." She smiled knowingly. She spread her arms out and raised them up as they emerged into the bright, sunlit plaza of the Tower. Carefully trimmed grass and trees dotted the area, high concrete walls dominated the architecture, and various buildings and stalls jutted up and out into the open space. "Welcome to the Tower, your new home."

Guardians milled about, stopping at one of the various booths. The center building housed a single robotic laborer that doled out packages to waiting guardians. To their right, an Awoken man in dark yellow and brown robes worked to prod open a stubborn bundle of iridescent, blue light. Far in the corner a few guardians handled new rifles and seemed to exchange words with the vendor, a robot that was much more human in appearance than the postal worker.

"Wow." Koru smiled appreciatively. "This is beautiful." He followed Ikora as she made her way through the plaza and down a centrally located stairwell that led into a wide hallway. They passed an imposing and large man who wore full armor that hid his face.

The man nodded his head in greeting to Ikora as they passed, his one-horned helmet dipping slightly. "Good day, Ikora." He spoke softly but with consternation. "I trust all is well?"

Ikora stopped and regarded the man with a friendly gesture toward Koru. "Ah, well met, Lord Shaxx. I am simply showing our newest warlock around the Tower."

The man called Shaxx turned to Koru. Even with his face covered, the warlock was humbled by the large man's scrutiny. "He has the eyes of a warrior." A palpable pause. "But nothing else. Have him come to me if he wants that to change."

"Of course." Ikora reached out and tapped Koru on the shoulder. "Let's keep moving. The rest of the vanguard needs to see you."

"Oh." Koru stammered out as he turned away from the intimidating man in full armor, thankful to no longer be the subject of his inspection.

They emerged into a single ornate and somewhat large room. The back wall was a single large window that overlooked the outskirts of the land beyond the city's walls. A statue of some kind stood in the back, a floating black sphere above a black iron pedestal. On either side of the room were rows of blue-lit computer terminals manned by either human or thin robotic assistants. Down almost a dozen stone steps was the main office area, dominated by a huge and long table at its center. To either side of the table were a few small bookshelves tucked into the walls and out of the path of egress. The shelves were draped with banners of varying colors and symbols.

Two men stood across the table from one another, engaged in what sounded like a heated debate.

One, a bald and large Awoken man with bulky red and white armor, had his hands on the table and was poring over an arrangement of papers and battlefield maps. He moved a piece from one region to another absently. He spoke with a deep baritone that commanded authority. "No. The Fallen movement across the steppes is the same as it always has been. A migration for resources left over by other houses. We aren't going to send a fireteam out on a hunch. Again."

The other man, robotic in his features with a metallic blue face and a large horn protruding from his brown and weathered hooded cloak. He spoke with incredulity, his voice grating and snarky. If the Awoken man commanded authority, this man snatched it. "How about the last time I had a hunch? Turned out it was an insurrection plot that we were able to capitalize on and cripple the Devils' leadership in one fell swoop."

"You got lucky. The Devils have always been a shadow of their former selves, anyway." The first man snapped back. "They could have mounted a full on assault and we would have routed them as easily."

"But we didn't have to." The cloaked man shrugged. "But all right, you're the veteran here. I'll defer to your sound, unflinchingly stubborn judgment." He turned and settled his bright yellow gaze on Ikora and Koru in tow. "Well, this is a surprise!"

The Awoken man looked up and stood straight to address the newcomers. "Good afternoon, Ikora." He nodded to Koru, "And sir."

"Drop the formalities for once, man." The man in brown stepped forward and offered his hand in greeting to Koru. "Don't mind him, he's a stick in the mud." He leaned in and whispered loudly, "A disappointingly soft stick in really stinky mud, get it?"

Koru took the man's offered hand and shook it almost regretfully. He looked to Ikora.

The elder warlock addressed the two men one at a time. She deliberately motioned to the Awoken man first. "These are the vanguards of the respective guardians. Commander Zavala leads the titans, and is well regarded for his tireless work to defend the walls of the city." She turned to the robot man in front of Koru now. "And this is Cayde-6, the hunter vanguard. He is most well-known for-"

Cayde-6 held a hand up to Ikora as if to shush her, then proceeded to talk over her anyway. "Known first and foremost for my devilish good looks. Second, for my razor wit, and third," He paused as if for dramatic effect, "For my winning personality."

Koru stared blankly at the scene before him. He blinked once, twice. "What is going on?"

Cayde seemed to smile and waggled a finger at Koru while turning to address Ikora and Zavala. "He's the one you told us about, right? Abducted by the Awoken and sent to their old folks' prison, right? Hey kid," He turned to Koru again, "How'd you get out of there, anyway?"

"They let me go after I killed seven of their robot prisoners. Vex, I think they're called."

Zavala nodded approvingly. "If you listened to the ghost's message, Cayde, you would be aware already that this warlock has made great strides in battle even during his first day on the job."

Cayde rolled his luminescent eyes. "Well, I was distracted by your poor intuition regarding suspicious movement of enemy units across our backyard." He took Koru by the shoulder and led him further into the office. "Can you believe this guy? Amateur."

Ikora spoke now. "Cayde, I suggest you heed Zavala's advice. He has been at this longer than both of us." She sighed. "Besides, this is about our newest guardian, Koru Sen." She motioned toward Koru, "And what to do with him."

Cayde shrugged. "What we do with all the others. Hand him a gun and send him to the field. Hey kid, wanna take a look at some Fallen migration patterns for me? Up close."

Zavala ignored Cayde and squinted at Koru. "It's been years since I've seen that uniform." He eyed the warlock's uniform coat, its crisp edges and pristine white color, with its high collar and glaring holes on the chest where the Master of Crows had so unceremoniously ripped off the military decorations that had adorned it. "An NCO of the Awoken fleet wouldn't exactly be a welcome sight, even if the uniform is almost unrecognizable. They don't get out of their ships often." He amended.

"Exactly." Ikora said. "Until you know more about the politics and culture here, Koru, I'll ask that you be grounded until further notice. The Reef Wars only recently came to an end, and Reef-born Awoken are not yet trusted."

Koru frowned as he pieced together the puzzle in his head. "So I won't be allowed to go on missions until further notice, based on the virtue of my birth?" He asked, hands at his sides and clenching into fists. He was angry, but he also understood their reasoning well.

"Yes." Ikora answered with a hint of shame. "However, I've arranged for your apartment in the Tower already. Report there and I'll have a frame fetch new clothes for you. In the meantime, I'd ask another of my warlocks to take you on a tour. I think that you can still serve the Light via labor in the pursuit of knowledge." She smiled. "Until you are relinquished of your duties, Koru Sen, you will be in the employ of the vanguard at the Tower's library."

Koru Sen steeled himself and nodded. "Understood."

Cayde shook his head. "Could've sent him out to monitor the Fallen." He muttered, seemingly only half-jokingly.

/-/-/

The days bled into weeks as Koru Sen found a niche in the Tower's vast community of guardians, servants, leaders and workers. He admired the front facing facade of the library, with its Romanesque columns carved from marble overlooking several dozen stairs.

To the right the sky stretched out unimpeded, the twinkling of sparkling glass and lights of the city far below. He had taken to training in private with his fellow warlocks, and he had been dubbed what they called a 'sunsinger.' He had a quick mind in combat, but he found that no matter what decisions he made, others made better calls faster. He would have to work on that.

Since his landing, his ship had been repaired to pristine conditions by the talented shipwright Amanda Holliday; and his Awoken officer's jacket had been hung up in his closet and replaced with a new ice-white coat whose tails extended down below his knees, fitted with a red belt around the waist. He wore an armband around his upper right arm that glowed with ever-burning solar flame.

As he took a step up to the library, a strange whirring crept up on him and dug into his brain. He stopped still, turning to look over his shoulder, searching for the source of the sudden intrusion. In the twilight of just-before-dawn he saw no one else in the library's front plaza with him. He was alone.

And yet he was not. The mysterious buzzing noise came closer, screaming in his head now. He clamped his palms over his ears in vain and grimaced, eyes narrowed and still scanning for the source.

As quickly as the buzzing had started it cut off and left him with a maddening silence. Koru felt a small object bump into his chest. When he managed to straighten his vision again he saw it was a round, gray drone small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Its wings fluttered swift as a hummingbird's. It seemed to look up to him expectantly, and when he held his hand out it landed gently.

Confused, Koru held it up a little closer to his face to inspect it. Etched into its body was an engraving of a familiar mark: the royal crest of the Reef. Then the small spherical robot crackled softly, a voice emanating no louder than a whisper from it.

"What are you doing? I should not have to send my crow to the Tower." The voice was unmistakably the confident timbre of the Reef's Master of Crows.

"Why?" Koru hissed back. "And what was that weird buzzing?"

The thing's wings flexed as if agitated. "Because guardians who actually know what they're doing have an order to shoot these things on sight." He paused. "The buzzing? A safety precaution. A frequency designed to disorient human threats to my crow. Make sure you're alone." The man sneered.

Koru nodded and closed his fingers around the robot softly, looking around. He was coming into the library remarkably early-he enjoyed the view of the sunrise from the stained-glass window of the main atrium. He crossed the plaza and slid past the low-hanging gate that led to an employee's only service path that ran around the perimeter of the building on the outside. He found a spot facing the east and the sun distantly threatening to rise up over the snow-capped mountains, and sat down on the pavement. He unfurled his fingers and let the thing speak.

"There. I'm alone." He looked out to the city far below. A chilling wind howled in from the north and made him shiver until it passed.

"Good." The Master of Crows spoke coolly. "Explain why you haven't been in the field for months."

"They won't let me. They say I have to stay in the Tower because I'm from the Reef."

"Hmm." The man trailed off, pondering for a moment. "How unjustifiably racist and short-minded of them." He offered.

Koru took the bait. "Right? I've been cooped up in the library. On the bright side," He paused to admire the burgeoning sunrise, "I've been learning a lot about the guardians and the Traveler. Quite a lot of books available."

"You have access to records?" The man asked too quickly.

"Yes?" Koru answered, unsure of his own words.

"This is a good time and place to meet you?" He paused, waiting for an answer.

"Yes." He was slightly more sure of his answer this time.

"I'll be waiting here in three days. You will gather any important records of the Tower that you can, and upload them to my crow unit here." The robot's wings stretched out and the tiny motor within it stirred back to action. "Do not disappoint me, child of the light." He sneered with disdain and clicked the radio off.

Koru sighed and watched the mechanical drone, called a crow, fly off into the early morning mist, out beyond the wall until it could no longer be seen by the naked eye. He held his hands in his lap and watched the sun rise over the crest of the mountains and bathe the city and Tower with warm golden light. Without a word he rose up and took the short walk to the main entrance of the library, signing into the main desk before making his way through the great double-doors that led into the labyrinthine shelves towering and full of books of all sizes. His duty was foremost at the front desk to provide service to guests, but he sometimes delved into the main foyer to peruse the selection or return books to the shelves.

Three days came and went. Koru had managed to procure records from the library's central computer and pass it to the crow, whose master remained silent on their second meeting.

Another three days had passed before he received a reply. The Master of Crows' little robot unleashed its horrendous buzzing again and forced him to seek solitude once more in the early morning mist. He clapped his hands over his ears and hissed in pain. The robot floated up just in front of him, wings vibrating furiously and its spherical body bobbing in time with the throbbing sound pounding into his brain.

"What the hell is this, warlock?" The Master of Crows' grating voice rang out in a shout, clearly not caring for who else might be listening. "I asked for Tower records." He did not deactivate the crippling frequency.

"It was," Koru gasped as he tried to speak, finding a knot tightening in his stomach growing taut with each pained syllable. "All I had access to." He managed.

"I can't use a list of overdue books, idiot!"

"My clearance-"

"Damn your clearance! You've wasted my time enough as it is. Get me reliable and valuable information or so help me, not even the Queen could pardon you out of what I'll do to you." He seethed, finally letting the disorienting and nauseating buzzing die down.

Koru slumped against the wall and mouthed a silent 'thank you' before he replied. "I don't have anything else. The database-"

"Enough." A measure of calm washed over the Master of Crows' voice. "You're looking in the wrong places. You have until tomorrow to send me good intelligence. Something valuable about the Tower, its vanguard, the Traveler. Anything that shows itself as a force of power in that place, I want dirt on it. Do you understand?"

Koru nodded that he did.

"Good boy." He sounded pleased with himself. "And if you don't, you will regret ever waking up in that Cytherean mudpit." He clicked off the speaker and again the crow flew off into the sunrise back to its master on the other side of the solar system.

Koru held his stomach in both hands and took deep, measured breaths. Though he felt well enough to stand after a few minutes, it took the better part of the morning for the nausea to fully pass.

He wracked his brain the entire day, but found what he hoped would pass for valuable intelligence for the Reef's spymaster. The next morning he passed off the information on the service path, and again the Master of Crows accepted it wordlessly.

Three days later, however, and he was once again punished with debilitating nausea and a horribly throbbing headache on his way to watch the sunrise, and wait for a reply. He hurriedly rushed to the service path while the crow followed him, harrying him with blasts of vibration that sent his mind and body into flux.

This time when the speaker clicked on, the Master of Crows laughed almost uncontrollably from the other end. It was clear even to Koru, however, that it was an act. "Ha! Oh, warlock, you are a riot. Can you tell me what you sent me that you claim to be useful intel?" He crooned, his voice calm but with a hint of rage just beneath the surface.

Koru grit his teeth and was forced to sit and catch his breath, clutching alternately at his stomach and forehead. "Ugh, it was… records. Records of the vanguard. And… the Speaker." He uttered the last word and curled up into the fetal position on the ground, eyes shut tight against the coming dawn while the crow hovered over him.

"Records, you say? That does seem useful on the outside, doesn't it? But, my dear little double-agent," His voice dropped low and the frequency of the crow's buzzing intensified, sending waves of pain through Koru's body, as if his bones were rattling and would break within his body. His guts were churning and quivering, his heart pumping too quickly and his lungs holding air back from his throat. "I have no use for knowing what historical fact-books or trashy romance novels your leaders have rented, or whatever inane philosophy your Speaker has donated to the Tower. If I did, I take it you wouldn't feel the need to leak from every orifice in your body."

Koru gasped and whined out, "I'm sorry."

"Oh, you will be." The calm, cool anger of the spymaster returned and Koru could barely hear the rustle of paper from the speaker, as if pages were being turned too slowly. For show. "I had a copy of one such novel, one of a dead guardian's favorites. It's absolutely scandalous that Ikora would borrow this, and the four in the series that preceded it, so publicly."

With a soft series of clicks the buzzing frequency dimmed, the screaming all through Koru's body lessened. But it was still there.

"You're off the hook." The Master of Crows said simply. He waited for a reply.

"R-really?" Koru stammered.

"Ha, no." He steeled his voice and the robotic crow looked Koru dead in the eye. "You've failed me twice now. Once was enough to earn my ire, but you are in a very unique position. Out of the goodness of my heart I gave you a second chance. And now, you have let me down again and left me no choice. You are a traitor in both lives, now. Do you feel accomplished?" He paused and let the words sink in for a moment. "There is no pardon. There is no quarter. If I see you again, I will not hesitate to cut your throat. I highly suggest you watch your back, as others may not feel so merciful as to wait."

Without a further word, the crow lifted off and flew into the sunrise again, taking its painful, innard-wrenching noise with it. After it had gone, Koru found the comfort to take a deep gasping breath, but he nearly choked on the air as he tried to exhale it. It would take him an hour to feel well enough to sit up, and another to make his way into the library. He had burned his bridge with the Reef, and knew it could only mean trouble down the road.

For now, though, he would be content to be able to stand straight again.

Interlude III:

"So what happened then?" Phoenix asked, sipping on his glass of ice water. He had hit a good level of intoxication, and was barely holding himself up on the table as he leaned forward. "After the robot made you poop?"

Koru scowled over to his teammate and poured himself another shot of whiskey. This would be the fifth one, and he knew he was about at his own limit, as well. "What do you mean? After that the days went by…" He paused, looking for the word, "Unimpeded until you and Roy showed up fighting in my lobby. Then we went on a mission and I had my grounded status lifted."

Roy snickered and finished off the last few drinks of the bottle Koru handed over to him. "Ha, his lobby he says. Good shit."

Eve finished off the last few drops of her martini and licked at the rim of the glass a little, making sure she got the last of it. "Wait, so what about when you met me?"

Koru's head felt just a tad too heavy for his neck, and he felt as if he swung wildly when he turned to face her. "What about it? It was after all that."

Eve shook her head and patted him on the shoulder lightly. An easy smile crept onto her lips and she brushed the hair from her face almost clumsily. "It's okay glowstick, you'll figure out how to talk to girls someday."

Koru felt the blood rising in his cheeks and grabbed her hand to hold in his own. "Maybe you could show me?"

Phoenix and Roy gave each other sideways smirks as they watched the two warlocks fumbling around each other in what might have been their idea of flirting, but simply looked to be drunkenly offering awkward compliments and terms of endearment.

"Hey," A female voice called out, "What'd I miss?" Lilei, the huntress of Fireteam Hades, approached their table and sat across from Eve and in-between Koru and Phoenix. Her short blue hair was brushed to the side neatly, and she was dressed down in a black skirt, high-heeled peep-toe boots, and a colorful strappy top that showed off a good amount of her glowing violet skin. Her black-painted lips parted slightly as she watched Eve perk up at the sound of her voice.

"Lily!" The female warlock exclaimed loudly, nearly pushing Koru away so that she could lean forward over the table to talk. "You missed Koru's story! It was all about what happened when he first woke up."

"Oh, so I didn't miss much at all." Lilei smiled slyly, motioning for Phoenix to hand her a glass and a bottle of whiskey.

Phoenix obliged and grabbed the bottles from in front of Roy one at a time, but each of them were empty. "Shit, we're dry." He mumbled.

Eve sat back and smiled, ignoring her teammate's catty remarks. "I thought it was a good story."

Roy slapped his hands against the table and pushed himself into a standing position over the others, announcing over the booming beat of the music, "My turn!"