Unto The Breach
Far, far away from the planet Earth, existed a world known to it's inhabitants as Derlokk. It was a modest world, with gravity not too high nor low, a perfectly breathable atmosphere and vast plains and forests covering its surface, if it didn't have a lake or river. The world was also in a rather curious state of being at the moment, with two rather large galactic powers vying for conquest, of the planet, currently duelling above the planet for the right of conquer, the natives unaware. Also unaware of what was happening was a certain Exo Warlock by the name of Sentry-32.
Travelling through Wormholes is an unpleasant experience, for those who've never done so before. The strange whiplash like feeling, the spots in your eyes, that queazy feeling that one gets after having been thrown through the galaxy at the speed of light.
Thankfully, with Sentry-32 being an Exo, those were of no concern to her carbon-silicon 'organs'. The only thing of concern to her was stumbling through the Stargate, having not expected as little resistance as there had been. "Okay, note to self, listen to Ghost more often." She muttered to herself, quickly overlooking the armoured plates that made up her skin and robes, looking for any signs of damage.
Nope, all good.
Suddenly, she heard a rather familiar humming sound behind her, that of someone floating.
"Sentry, what is the one thing I always ask you?" Ghost said, his voice holding a bitter edge to it, and for good reason too. Ever since they'd arrived at the military base, all she'd done was run around and do things Ghost had told her not to do. It was like a mother overlooking an ecstatic child, always running to and fro with no regard to their own well-being.
On further reflection, Ghost realized that analogy was far too well fitting, especially since Sentry didn't even seem to be listening to him, her eyes focused up on the stars, which she'd obviously seen a thousand ti-
Wait a second, stars? Hadn't it been day time when they'd approached the military base? And more importantly, hadn't they been inside military base?
Ghost spun in a full 360 circle, his eyes analyzing what he saw.
This was not Cheyenne Mountain. This was... A forest? Large pine trees filled the locale, their branches and leaves almost blocking the night sky entirely, except for a small crack. Shining down were stars and constellations not of Earthly origin, some of them shining bright blue, violet and red, with others being the normal specks of white dots.
"Hey, Ghost?" Sentry said, her photoreceptors still locked on the constellations.
"Yeah?" Ghost replied, his computerized mind trying to understand what was happening. Had they entered through a Vex Gate of some sorts? He'd heard they operated on a similar function. But that couldn't be, the Vex had only arrived after the Collapse, and on Venus and Mars, certainly not Earth. And that still wouldn't explain why they had found the device in a human military complex, or why it led to a normal world as opposed to some strange, foreign universe/dimension.
"What was the name of that dial?" Sentry asked curiously, knocking Ghost out of his Calculative trance. He quickly checked his memory, and found the name of the set of coordinates entry. "PXJ-277." He replied.
"Eh, boring name." Sentry joked, looking down from the stars and turning her gaze around the forest. "I think I'll call this planet 'Bob'." She said, gaining a short silence from Ghost. "No." He replied.
"Ah come on, why not?" Sentry whined, giving Ghost a puppy dog face... Or at least, as close as one can get to doing so when your face is entirely metal.
"Do I seriously need to tell you why you are not doing that?" He questioned, looking around the forest as well. "Personally, I think the planet should be named Joyeuse." He said, eliciting a tired sigh from Sentry. "One, I don't know how to even spell that, and two, no. You didn't want to come here, so you don't get to name it." She said, looking away from Ghost and muttered lightly, "Plus, it's a stupid name."
"Oh, and Bob is so much better?" Ghost questioned.
"Ah, shut up." Sentry said, overlooking the forest. "So, what do you think we should do? Head back home, or do some exploring?" She asked, not waiting long to hear Ghosts' pessimistic answer. "We are going home. Who knows what kind of wildlife may be on this planet? I'd rather not deal with something like a Venusian Acid-Toad." He said, shuddering at the memory.
"Hey, those things were cute!" Sentry argued.
"They are the size of a Cabal Centurion, have 6 short stubby legs, a mouth as large as you and vomit out acid potent enough to make a Vex Minotaur into a pile of melted brass." Ghost replied in a tired monotone. "How is any of that 'cute'?" He questioned.
"They have big, adorable eyes." Sentry replied.
"Yeah, let's go." Ghost said, turning around in the direction of the Stargat-Wait, where is the portal?
The Stargate stood there, this one looking the same as the one from the Planet Earth. However, whereas the one from Earth had been active and alive, this one was... Dead. Oh sure, it was in excellent condition, but the lights were off and the strange blue 'liquid' was nowhere to be seen, not a drop.
Ghost looked down at a small stone(?) tablet next to it, a series of buttons centred around a large red gemstone.
"Uh..." Ghost said, at a loss.
"What is it?" Sentry asked, spinning around and seeing the inactive gate. "Oh." She said simply, also looking down at the tablet.
A short silence played between them.
"Welp, guess we should go exploring!" Sentry said cheerfully, turning around and marching off.
"Wait, no, stop!" Ghost said, looking at Sentry. "I know how to do this!" He said, making Sentry stop and turn around, piercing him with an untrusting gaze. "Really?" She said skeptically. "You know how to operate the device we've never seen?" She said. "Well, of course!" Ghost lied, floating closer to the tablet. "First you just got to..." He trailed off, quickly facing the tablet and giving it a cursory scan. "You got to, erm..." He said, annoyed at the fact that the scan had given him nothing. This technology was unlike anything utilized by other alien races. "You just gotta poke this," He said, one of his spikes touching a button. "Then this," He said, touching another one. "Do that a few more times." He said, his spikes touching the other buttons in a slightly erratic fashion, making Sentry restrain a laugh.
"And Vóila! Portal!" Ghost said, looking up at the Stargate, expecting something.
Empty ring.
"Yeah, nice try Ghost." Sentry said, a laugh in her voice. "Now, come on, let's go." She said, spinning around and sauntering off into the woods. Ghost stared down at the bare tablet for a few moments before letting out a tired sigh, following her. "Why didn't it work?" Ghost murmured, unaware of what was most likely a universal rule when it came to handling alien devices:
Always hit the big, red button.
Sentry walked through the woods, whistling out the cheerful tune of a song she's heard Fallen Captains singing... At least, she assumed it was a song they sung, and that they were singing, although it came off as more of a choked howling sound. Still, the tune was rather catchy and pleasant to her ears anyways.
"Hey, how long have we been walking for?" She asked Ghost, floating behind her dutifully. "Exactly 2 hours, 18 minutes and 4 seconds." Ghost said. "Earth time." He quickly added in. "You know, the planet we should be on." He said, somewhat bitter.
"Ah come on, stop being so whiney! It's not that bad! Heck, Planet Bob-"
"Joyeuse." Ghost interrupted, although Sentry ignored him there.
"Planet Bob," She said, as if he didn't say anything. "Is a rather nice place. Nice air, beautiful stars, somewhat suspicious people, I'll admit, but still."
"Yes yes, Planet Bob is so lovely, but don't you find Earth bett-" He trailed off for a moment, fully processing what she said. "What do you mean, 'people'?" He asked, the slightest bit of unease flavouring his artificial voice.
"Hm? Oh, you didn't notice?" She asked, her artificial voice tinged with humour. "Those people hiding behind the trees, looking at us every now and then." She said, as if that were perfectly normal.
Ghost twirled around to stare at the treeline, and sure enough, he saw a dark something hide behind a tree. It had appeared to be humanoid, but that could mean any number of things. Fallen Dreg or Vandal, Hive Acolyte or Thrall, Cabal Psion, all of them sharing something in common: They don't like humans.
Well, there was that one Fallen Vandal in the city that swore he wasn't a menace and sometimes offered tales of great bounties to any Guardian that would listen, but he didn't count.
"Sentry?" Ghost asked.
"Hm?" Said Exo Warlock said, stopping.
"Why have you not done anything about this, or told me earlier?" Ghost asked, somewhat unnerved.
"Well, to answer your questions, One, they haven't shot first or anything, and two, you didn't ask." She replied. If she had the facial expression to do so, she would have gave him an amused grin. A shirt silence passed between the two of them for a moment.
"Sentry?" Ghost said.
"Yeah?" The Exo asked in return.
"I hate you." Ghost said, his voice utterly without emotion.
"Love you too." She said, giving a mock-affectionate wink at the small sharpened sphere.
Suddenly, the forest was filled with whooping and shouting, the would-be trackers having decided enough was enough and ran forwards to them, shouting some strange language.
From what Sentry and Ghost could tell, they were all humans or a species with a remarkable resemblance to humans and wore animal furs in makeshift rags, as well as woven thread tunics and moccasins. This primitive attire was matched with their primitive weapons, simply bows and arrows or spears.
Sentry gave a quick sound that was half laugh and half snort, raising her rifle to the sky and firing off a single shot. The attackers quickly stalled their advance, eyes and mouths wide. Sentry looked around the group, slinging away her rifle. "Alright then, who here knows where the nearest village is?" She asked in English.
The people continued staring at her.
So she repeated the question in French, Cantonese, Rather poor German, a smidgen of Russian and a single word of whatever language the Fallen used, before turning to Ghost. "Could you help me out here?" She asked.
"And do what? Scan them and speak flawlessly in their own language?" Ghost said in biting sarcasm.
"Well, it's better then anything I got." Sentry replied with a shrug. She turned and looked at the natives, now less shocked and more confused. "I surrender?" She offered, taking on the universal 'surrender' pose.
That seemed to be something they understood, triumphant whooping and shouting filling the forest.
"Yeah, yeah, lovely." She murmured. "Now can someone lead me to some civilization, please?" She asked as one of the tribesmen came up behind her and bound her hands with thick rope, not that it would do much. "This seem's like a bad idea." Ghost said, hovering above the grasping hands of the natives and silently floating behind Sentry-32 as the natives lead her away.
"Ah come on, it's not too bad! At least their friendly!" She argued.
Far above the planet, sat a trio of ships, currently firing massive bolts of plasma and physical ammunition at each other, belonging to two different races. One of the ships, the one using physical ammunition, had a rather crude appearance to it. All it was were giant slabs of metal placed upon each other, with massive gun emplacements and engines being the only true distinguishing features of it. The ship was over 3 mile in total length, and in a word, flew like how a concrete slab wouldn't.
The other two ships, much smaller in comparison, were large golden pyramids placed upon angular 'rings' of a sort and firing bolt after bolt of plasma at the Cabal warship, scoring large gashes through the armoured plating but due to the sheer size of the ship, it was more cosmetic damage then anything. The Cabal warship replied in turn with massive rockets, exploding against the shields of the two Ha'Taks. The shields on one of the Ha'Tak fell entirely from the barrage, being destroyed by the rest of the explosive ordnance. The remaining Ha'Tak quickly drew away from the Cabal warship, exiting it's weapon range and entered orbit around the planet, Al'kesh and Death Gliders released from it's cargo bays and swarming to the planet below.
The Cabal didn't even deal to fight against the cowardly foe, seeing no use in it. If they would not die a warriors death, why should they provide them one? The Cabal ship also entered in orbit around Derlokk, releasing heavy gunships unto the planet surface.
The battle for Derlokk had begun.