Hey there guys. This is actually very exciting for me. People are actually taking time to read what I write and either help me iron out my writing or actually inspire me to keep writing, which is two to three people in total, but that's still enough for me. For now it's small, which is understandable, and I will always keep my goals small for a really, really, REALLY long time. Warning, long chapter awaits you all, good luck. Oh, and all copyright goes to Ken Penders for his characters in this chapter and so on, just in case of the copyright laws.
Chapter 3: Gaining allies
After the 3 hour mark, about 12 Guardians, 6 Guardians for each of the 2 shuttles, which includes Cayde, boarded their shuttles and waited for takeoff. "Alright, we are going there to not just scout the area for danger, but also to have you guys be more familiar with the land." Cayde said over the comm system connecting to the shuttles for everyone to hear. "We are landing on Soumerca, near the 'Mysterious Cat Country', just don't be surprised if they attack you when they see you, okay?" The exo said before hearing multiple 'yes, sirs' in the comm system.
During the landing procedure, the vanguard explained to them that they will gradually move from Soumerca to Northamer, by sparrow, of course. The main objective was to show the Wolf Pack and Felidae that they meant no harm to anyone on this planet. After that, they would head to Station Square to get the U.F. on board, then head to New Mobotropolis for the Kingdom of Acorn. When they landed, they then set up a sparrow spawning device near them to call their sparrows. After that they summoned their sparrows and took off, apparently there was a meeting that the two nations were having, so they went to an area between the Wolf Pack and Felidae nations. It was also around 10:00 A.M. where they were, which was a bit south of the Felidae nation.
As they were heading to the location, there were some feline mobians that followed them along some tree tops. When going to an open field, however, the felines had stayed behind since they didn't have that tree advantage. It took a few minutes to reach their destination, but the Guardians were greeted with threatening glares that didn't phase them, and some people were about to draw a weapon of some kind, but would never have chance to draw them on these strangers.
"Alright, set your sparrows to 'no fade' mode, we don't want to scare them." Cayde quietly said into the mic in his helmet. They then summoned their ghosts to have the sparrows not fade away, knowing that the natives would assume magic or invisibility tech for the little robots. Cayde and his merry crew went through the village that contained people with looks of both fear and suspicion, more fear in the civilians than in the soldiers. The exo and his team was stopped by four guards that were guarding the entrance to the building with the leaders inside during the meeting.
"State your business here!" The first wolf guard said.
"We are here to ask for your leaders to be allies with our people, we mean no harm to anyone here." The vanguard said, wearing his helmet to conceal his real face.
"Oh? What are you, some new nation that just popped up out the ground?" The first feline guard asked.
"I only wish to negotiate with your leaders, on why I must is information pertaining the head honchos inside. Is there anything that I have to do to get in?" Cayde asked, hoping not answer the question that would come next.
"Who are you, where are you from, and why don't you take off the helm?" The second wolf guard said, making the other guards and nearby bystanders to agree with them.
"My name is Cayde, location is confidential to you guys, and are you sure you want to see this face of mine?" The vanguard said.
"Yes, you do have to show your face, and if the location is top secret to us, then don't bother, right guys?" The second feline guard said, with the other guards accepting the top secret location part of this guys reasons and roll with it.
"Okay, just don't be surprised by my face, it would scare a lot of people away." Cayde said. He then proceeded to take off his helmet, slowly of course, and have everyone's reaction be a gasp at his metallic appearance. "Before you guys start, I was built this way and not roboticized by Eggman. Oh, and I am of course the most handsome exo you'll ever see." Cayde said in a playful tone, giving everyone a more innocent vibe from him. The guards looked at each other and then sent the second feline and first wolf guards to go get Lupe and Hathor.
"We will get our leaders, stay here until then." The feline guard said before he and the first wolf guard went to fetch their leaders. With that, Cayde was about to put on his helmet when he saw some kid mobians around him, stopping the action.
One little feline girl came up in a shy manner and asked Cayde, "Are you really a robot?"
"Of course I am, though, I prefer that you call me an exo. It be like me calling you... um... a furry human!" The robot said, making the little girl and some kids giggle a bit. "I literally just made that up." Cayde said, making them giggle more.
"Could I get a closer look at you?" The little feline girl asked in a sheepish manner.
"Sure. If you do stick your fingers in my jaw..., well it may not be the most pleasant thing that you'll feel?" Cayde said, although the girl was confused at the last part, she and the other kids didn't put there fingers or hands near the orange light that came from in his mouth. Cayde bent down close to their level and waited for the one who asked to examine his face.
"Woah." The small feline said while feeling the metal parts of Cayde's face. After a few seconds, both wolf and feline children went up to Cayde to also examine his face. After a few minutes, Cayde tried to stand up, but some kids holding on to his jaw came with him. Although it slightly hurt for the exo, he went past the pain and decided to go with his mobian beard. After a few moments of fun with the kids, Cayde then heard "I'm guessing this is our 'exo' friend?" from a voice behind him.
Cayde turned around as fast as he could, what with his beard of mobians, to see the two leaders he wanted to negotiate with, Grand Chief Lupe and Queen Hathor. This did make Cayde freeze in place for a few seconds before he set the kids down, which also made the kids make disappointed sounds. "Oh, hello. So nice to see you two." Cayde said in a somewhat nervous tone.
"I'm surprised. When they said that you were some mechanical being, I was planning on taking you out when we came out here." Lupe said, making Hathor giggle a bit.
"Okay, before we go to talk in private, how much did you guys see?" Cayde asked, dreading for it to be a long amount of time.
"It was about a minute, right Lupe?" Hathor asked, which made Cayde groan before Lupe answered.
"It was about a minute and a half." Lupe answered, looking at the vanguard as he groaned louder. "On a serious note, you said that we would speak in private. Why would we agree to that?" Lupe said.
Cayde snapped to attention at that question to answer with, "Because, what we need to tell you is something we don't need the civilians to worry too much about. Don't worry, it's only about where we're from, and that alone is confidential in our books." The exo said, which made some people suspicious. "Trust me on this, we do need to talk and negotiate on these matters." Cayde finished.
Lupe looked over at the feline queen to see what she thought, which Hathor gestured 'your call'. "We will hear it out and see if we can negotiate, you may also bring three of your guards along with you, robot." Lupe said, making a joking tone with the name she called Cayde. Some of the Guardians did groan for Cayde to choose a group of three with him.
"Alright." Cayde said to Lupe before turning to choose a group three he had already thought about. "Before I pick a group, know this. Two days of dishes for verbal attacks on the locals, two weeks for any physical attack, a month that you guys start fighting each other when left alone, and two and a half yearss for starting a war between these nations. With that out of the way, Team Steel, your with me." Cayde said. His dish threats alone made only Team Steel move from their spots, everyone else just waited for Cayde to be out of sight before they moved around.
Cayde, Alex, Zardic, and Sarifine went to the room that the two leaders already met for their meeting, discussing about Eggman's sudden disappearance. Team Steel still had their helmets on, concealing their species. The six of them finally made it to a room with some lone rows of chairs in it, two tables facing each other, and some oil lanterns to illuminate the room. Hathor and Lupe then spun the tables around to have the long sides face the rows of chairs, and sat down behind the table to face the Guardians that were just sitting down when they saw them.
"Now that we are in private, please explain to us what you're doing here and where you're from." Lupe said.
"Our main objective is to secure some allies for a war that will soon arrive. This war is not fought by the ideals of individual people, but by the two most popular named entities, it is fought by the Light and the Darkness. I'll try my best to explain where we were from and what it's history was. You may not believe it, but you must trust me on this." Cayde explained before starting with his story.
Cayde started with the time before the Traveler came to Earth, 700 years prior to his present day. He then told them about the stories of the Golden Age, a time of tranquility and advancements in technology to colonize the local planets that were already terraformed. He went on to the stories of the collapse, which was little to no information with the exception of the cause being the Darkness. He kept going from the formation of the Guardians, to the Traveler in a slumber before it came back, to the dark armies themselves, and then from the major victories and defeats of the Guardians, to the end of their universe and it's cause, Oryx. Cayde had to tell them everything he knew about the war against the darkness and how they found this universe. The explanation alone took about an hour to finish, but it did let the two think on the information and see if he told the truth.
"Okay, we know about you and your 'army'. But how do you know about us if you were in a different universe." Lupe asked, giving off a suspicious tone in the air.
"You'll have to trust me on this, but we know about your universe through these things." Cayde said before taking out some comics from the small courier back pack he had on him. The comics that he showed were issues 213 and 214, the same ones that showed the events of the Wolf Pack and Felidae nearly going to war over the Ancient Onyx. This did answer their question but were still confused on how this was possible. But before asking, Cayde already went and answered that question.
"The theory is that every universe can look at each other through certain media and storytelling. We hope to find a connection in this universe to confirm our theory, but that was 12,000 years ago in this universe, long enough for the evidence to be wiped from this planet and the entire universe completely." The two leaders then tried to process the information given to them. Then they relaxed a bit from the exo's answer and proceeded to go back to their listening positions, setting aside what Cayde said for later.
"Now, before we move on to the aliens that caused the collapse, let me introduce the species of the Light. Alex, please take off your helmet." Cayde said, turning to Alex and walking to him.
"If you insist." Alex said before removing his helmet. The two were not very surprised that an overlander, to them, would be revealed to them. He then straightened his posture and said, "Alex, human Titan, and member of the New Monarchy."
"Thank you, Alex. He is a human, to you that would be the overlander's ancestor. I'm not sure if it would apply to mobians as well, but let's leave it as the ancestors of overlanders." Cayde said. He then turned to the hunter and gestured him to present himself. The exo complied and removed his helmet.
"Zardic-3, exo hunter, and member of Dead Orbit." Zardic said, which made the two mobian leaders throw an eyebrow up while looking at Cayde.
"I thought it would be more formal to only have him look like the only exo, but the kids were having too much fun. Now, exos used to be human looking war machines, but were then given full intelligence for the need of more Guardians. Now they're an entire, mechanical species. Sarifine, you know what to do." Cayde said, with Sarifine complying and takes off her helmet.
Before Sarifine removed her helmet, Hathor and Lupe assumed awoken looked like humans, but with a light and dark texture that looked like the taken. Instead, they get a human with faint purple skin. Her cheeks glowed with some sort of light aurora, purplish white hair that looked like it glowed a bit, and literal glowing blue eyes. It definitely made the two leaders amazed in her glowing beauty.
"She's absolutely stunning, even for someone of human origin." Hathor said. Lupe just made an "uh-huh" sound for agreeing with the feline.
"Well, with these three out of the way, let me just give you some data pads on the five dark species. It will only take a few minutes to download and-" Before he could finish, Cayde was cut off by an exo Titan over the visual broadcast provided by his ghost. When the exo came on screen, he immediately said what was going on outside.
"We have movement out here, sir. And from the looks of it, it ain't even friendly." The exo said in a British accent. "It looks like some organized fallen preparation out there. They seem to circle around the village. It's only an assumption, were not really seeing what's moving, but the movement pattern suggests fallen." The exo finished. This made Cayde worry a bit for it to be fallen activity outside the borders of this village.
"Understood, we'll be ready for whatever it is out there when we finish up here. We should be done in a few minutes." Cayde said.
"Good, these things could be coming at us in a matter of moments. If you don't come out by then, we'll hold the line as best we can until you do show up. See you in a few." The mechanical Titan said before terminating the broadcast.
"Ghost, do you think you could get some data pads or papers ready for them?" Cayde asked the ghost that was still on front of him.
"Yes. Will it be about the dark species and their leaders?" The ghost asked his robotic friend.
"Yeah. Also add in some details I didn't mention yet about the guardians. In the meantime," Cayde said before turning to the three other guardians in the room. "We need to head out and try to find out if it's fallen or local activity out there." Cayde said.
"There aren't any of our people out there, or anyone for that matter, to be circling around this village." Lupe said. "It could be these 'fallen' that you speak of. Hopefully we will know enough about them to drive them out of these lands."
"Well, that's problem number one. When any species of darkness settles in, they will fight to there last man and breath to keep the territory that they claimed as their own. In other words, we need to kill the fallen to at least give them a thought to not attack here or give them a reason to keep on attacking. Luckily, we have our own fallen house that we can call up for backup." Cayde said, making the two leaders confused at the last bit of information.
"I have the pads ready, which was easier to do than print it on paper. I've highlighted the fallen in them so that you know what it is you'll be up against. We already know what they are and how they work." The ghost said before handing Lupe and Hathor said data pads. It was very simple to use just in case they didn't know how to use some more complicated data pads that were the norm for the Guardians.
With information in hand, the two leaders prepared their warriors for battle after leaving the building. The Guardians needed to work quick for immediate defenses. With the permission of the village inhabitants, they literally tore down the building that the meeting took place in to set up basic, temporary hard cover for the immediate attack. The Guardians then put down some strange device that was very peculiar to the feline and wolf people.
"Before you ask, this is a hard light shield generator that will put up a protective dome around the village. Upside, none of the fallen will get in until the shield runs out of power, which is a short term generator. Downside, we can't leave or shoot at the fallen without ricochet hitting us. Lupe, permission to activate the shield?" Cayde said.
"Go ahead." Lupe answered. When the device was activated, it sent some sort of energy/plasma substance into the air from the center of the village. After reaching a certain point in the air, the dome formed and continued downward until it forced it's way into the ground with a loud bang. It did startle the mobians, but the Guardians were already used to loud bangs.
"The shield will last for another 40 minutes, giving us more than enough time to plan a good defensive strategy before it expires." Cayde said. But then a huge explosion appeared at the front of the village. "Or have the fallen use a walker to decrease the time. Team Onyx, head out and destroy that walker. We don't need both the immediate fallen and a long range tank." Cayde said, prompting a team of two Titans, one of which was the british exo who was named Serven-13 and the other being Jack from previous chapter, and a Warlock to get on their sparrows and ride toward the shield. When they were close to the shield, it opened up with a wide enough opening for the three of them to exit at the same time. They then went in the direction that the shot came from, as well as kill some fallen on the way out.
The fallen outside moved to the open area in the shield to try and get in, but their attempt failed when the shield closed. Another explosion, like the last one, hit the same area like the previous one. "We only have about 20 minutes to think of a defensive plan against the fallen. Guardians, warriors, round up!" Cayde said, prompting every Guardian and mobian warrior to gather around the exo for a plan to fend off the fallen attack.
Their plan was to have the Guardians to be their first line of defense, since they had guns and armor that can be hit by a modern day rocket launcher and barely have a scratch on it. The mobians were put closer to the center of the village for a last ditch effort and to send in warriors when the Guardians were overwhelmed. The warriors would also use arrows for long range support.
When they got into position with the help of Cayde, Lupe as a warrior chief, and Hathor as a strategist for the three forces to listen and follow. The mobian fighting force had about 40 trained warriors, 20 from each nation, and an extra 16 militia warriors from the village. Everyone was ready to fight, all familiar with killing and not showing mercy to the fallen. Cayde was with two other Guardians, a hunter and a warlock, and told them what they needed to do. When the warning from the shield generator rang, they knew they had only mere seconds before the shield disappeared. Everyone's hearts were racing, waiting for the shield to go down.
Hm... Que Two steps from Hell: Unforgiven for the extra excitement, like in movies, if you want.
When it did, the fallen ran toward the village as fast as they could before being gunned down by the Guardians. Fallen death cries could be heard from everywhere if one would listen hard enough, but it was drowned out by the sound of gunfire. Luckily, the walker was either distracted or destroyed, since there were no other shots from it so far. Lupe was worried and anxious to protect her people, while Hathor was worried that some her own would die from the enemy or she would be killed, but decided to accept the death of some of her own and her very life when it happened.
The death of Guardians prompted the mobian warriors assigned to a certain area to charge at the fallen and try to kill as many as they could before the Guardian that died returned to his/her spot. This went on for an hour before the fighters were pushed back to the next line, which was littered with hard cover from the meeting house that they tore down. The fallen went from pushing forward with numbers to organized skirmishes of twenty every few seconds before the next wave came. The ground surrounding the village was reddish purple from the bodies of the aliens heading toward the village. Arrows and bullets were filling the air along with screams from friend and foe alike, either from injury or death.
The battle was nearly over after a few hours of fighting and only very few fallen being seen on all sides every now and then. The Guardians and the mobians thought that they had won, but then they saw the fallen that were gathering at the end of the road that lead to the main road. What was left of the fallen soldiers were about thirty or so dregs and vandals, but were accompanied by an Archon Priest that was wielding only swords. They gathered at the entrance of the village and started their charge toward the village.
The Guardians and the warriors had to try and meet them between the village and the main road. Cayde's guys were tired from the main part of the initial battle, while the mobians had 5 warrior casualties and 7 militia casualties. Were it not for the fallen having mostly melee soldiers, the warriors would have had more dead on their hands. The small army of light was later accompanied by Team Onyx, both confirming that the walker is destroyed and giving the fallen two sides to fight. "Everyone, focus on the dregs and the vandals! Leave the Archon Priest for last!" Cayde yelled, knowing the fallen would eventually figure out their plan.
The Guardians and archers focused on the fallen with firearms while the warriors with spears and swords focused on the melee fallen. The warriors, regulars and militia alike, did lose another 12 people, but kept fighting anyway. The fallen grunts were finally taken care of and the Priest was the only one left. The Guardians and the warriors then attacked the Archon Priest all at once, but the Priest would not go down easy.
After the first attack, the Priest did not waste time to counterattack. The giant fallen swiped his sword and nicked some of the fighters, nearly killing some warriors. Every one kept their distance from the alien to not die from it. Luckily, the Guardians saved up their super abilities and would use them when the fallen's guard was down. Cayde was able to use multiple super abilities, which did keep the Priest on it's toes.
When the alien's shield went down, some of the mobian warriors charged toward the legs and stabbed them to bring it down on it's knees and drop it's swords as well. The Guardians then got their supers ready, which were all the third subclass of each class, and waited for Cayde to say so. The warriors then headed to the middle of the village to tend to their wounded. Cayde readied his Golden Gun, aimed it at the Priest's head, and fired it in it's eye, with Cayde walking away as it hit the fallen's eye. As the Archon Priest screamed in pain and rage, the other Guardians then used their abilities and pretty much vaporized the Priest. Cayde walked over to Lupe and Hathor with the carnage behind him.
"How's everyone doing over here?" Cayde asked in a mixed tone of curiosity and seriousness. The carnage that was behind him had mostly died out, with the Priest giving it's death scream. Lupe and Hathor gave Cayde some sad faces before telling him the conditions of their warriors.
"We've lost 24 warriors already, with another 5 dying from internal bleeding. Some have lost their limbs and the lucky ones have minor cuts and bruises. My only complaint is that while we die, you guys just come back within seconds of your deaths, ready to go on fighting." Lupe said in a somewhat saddened tone, giving Cayde a guilty feeling.
"The whole revival thing is both a blessing and a curse. We can come back to keep fighting the Darkness, but that means that when this is all over we stay as Guardians and keeping fighting what ever evil there may be out there. It's a coin that we keep for the rest of our lives. One side is good while the other is bad. It's something we also hate talking about." Cayde explained, giving the two leaders both surprise and remorse, only imagining the true torture of immortality.
Lupe looked over to Hathor for any sort of signal. The feline queen nodded her head with a confident face while still frowning. Lupe gave Hathor the same look before turning toward Cayde. "We will become your allies and will agree to any terms you may have. Were it not for the Guardians, we would be decimated. I'm certain only Eggman would stand a small chance against a bigger force than this." Lupe said.
"We are indebted to you for saving this village and it's people. Most of them any way." Hathor said. "I only hope the terms you have won't be too extreme."
"No, only that you might accept some Guardians and make a small city. The city itself will be in open plains, or areas without trees, and will be used for any of our civies that can't stay in the main city. We will understand if you don't want that, that's something that we won't force on you." Cayde said.
"We will need to see if both the wolf and feline people will accept these terms. We will most definitely accept the Guardians and consider this city you want to build." Lupe said
"I wouldn't have said that any other way. Welcome aboard the 'army' of light." Cayde said before shaking hands with Lupe and bowing to Hathor. The negotiations between the Guardians and the two nations did go well. The Guardians told the two leaders to not tell the Kingdom of Acorn about their presence for now. After saying his goodbyes, Cayde went to the direction of the United Federation capital city, Station Square.
Cayde and his team were on their way over, just getting out of the general territory of the Wolf Pack and Felidae nations, they heard distant cries of help. They weren't close enough to Station Square for it to be from the city, and it sounded like only one person. When they heard it, they stopped using the boost to try and hear the screams again. They did hear the distant cries again and went to the direction that they think it came from.
"Come on, we need to find out where it came from. The sooner we find whoever is making that sound, the sooner and better we can help." Cayde said before the other Guardians responded with "Right!" The closer they got, the louder and more distinct the cries of help got. It became apparent that it was a female voice, one that Cayde didn't really know since he only read the comics and that he made up voices for the characters. Soon enough, they made it to a clearing and found out who was making that sound. The revelation did shock Cayde since he knew who it was, the only red vixen with black clothing and revealing some parts of her fur, Fiona Fox.
With her, the Destructix was badly injured from what appeared to be fallen and hive scouts. Fiona was hunched over her lover, Scourge the Hedgehog, tears streaming down her face. She looked up to Cayde, with his helmet on, and showed a surprised face that was shortly followed by a relieved face. "Thank Aurora. Please help us, everyone here is injured from those... things. We were about to head to the Felidae nation from the U.F. when these creatures came after us." Fiona said. This did prompt Cayde to fear that the hive were near U.F. territory and would most likely attack Station Square.
"It's alright, we're here to help. We're gonna look at you guys and see the extent of the wounds to either patch up now or head toward Station Square for more serious injuries, if it's okay with you." Cayde said in a sympathetic voice to try and show the vixen that he means no harm.
"Thank you, I had no idea what to do. I just lost hope for them until I heard your hover bikes in the distance. My only natural response was to cry for help at the top of my lungs." Fiona said, feeling more than relieved for someone to show up and help.
"Alright, Guardians. Check them for injuries and patch up what you can. Still, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious with them, I heard that they can be tricky, no offense." Cayde said, having the last statement make Fiona giggle a bit. The Guardians cautiously and carefully looked over the six members for any bad injuries. After knowing that the mobians couldn't really fight back in terms of physical pain, the Guardians were then careful with their "patients". Every two Guardians took one member of the Destructix, since the Guardians had twice as many members then the mobian team.
The other five Guardians were 1 Titan, 2 Hunters, and 2 Warlocks. Between them and Onyx Team, they were left with Lightning Lynx, Sergeant Simian, Flying Frog, and Predator Hawk. Alex and Zardic got Scourge as their patient, leaving Fiona to Cayde and Sarifine, who was surprisingly the only one that was in good condition minus some big scratches and bruises. "I'm actually surprised you guys lived through an attack from these guys. Normally one of us would handle this many and only have some fairly big scratches on our armor, but the six of you did handle your own pretty well." Cayde said to Fiona.
"We are a tough group to kill, and that does go for the other me and his team." Scourge said, overhearing what Cayde said. "Unlike us, we know when to kill if somethings gonna kill us. Soft hearted Freedom Fighters wouldn't kill these things, even if they were left with no choice." Scourge continued, making himself sound more prideful with every statement. Just then, some of the bodies started to move, luckily it was only 7 thralls and 1 knight in some groggy state. "Looks like we missed a few. Damn, if only I could fight, then they would know not to mess with me." Scourge said with a sinister smile.
"Look after Fiona here, I'll take care of this." Cayde said before walking toward the nearest thrall. Before being arm width from the hive creature, he pulled out a hand cannon and shot the thing's head off. He then aimed at the next thrall and shot it in the head, rinsing and repeating until the knight was all that was left. When the gun clicked, he activated his Blade Dancer ability and charged toward the fully aware undead alien. In retaliation, the knight slashed at where Cayde would have been if he was still there. At the last second, the knight looked behind him to see Cayde make his swing before being killed by the electric knife. "Enjoy hell you abomination." Cayde said in a somewhat dark tone. The living corpse fell to the ground and slowly dissipated from the arc ability that the exo used on it.
Everyone from Destructix was in awe of the Hunter's speed and abilities. "Any serious injuries to report from our friends here?" Cayde said before seeing that Simian and Hawk didn't look like they needed serious treatment. When they got up, Simian held a rag on his arm and didn't move it. Hawk couldn't get up from what looked like a broken leg. "Alright, let's head to Station Square and get rested." Cayde said. The Guardians and the Destructix complied and got on the sparrows, the six mobians decided on which Guardian to ride with.
On the way to Station Square, they did see a massing of hive soldiers about a mile or so from the city. The Guardians didn't waste the time to count how many there were at the time being. They needed to prepare G.U.N., Destructix, and themselves for the coming battle. When they got to the hospital around late afternoon, they dropped of their mobian passengers to treat Simian and Hawk, and find Scourge, Frog, Lightning, and Fiona some place to sleep for the next few hours.
I'm gonna try to make this really quick since I don't want to waste some more time to pretty much have the same battle on a larger scale. In short, Cayde contacted the other vanguards to see if they had progress. Ikora went to Albion and other echidna capitals to get their support and Zavala went to the Dragon Kingdom for their support. They were also attacked by a species of darkness. Ikora got the cabal and Zavala handled the vex. These attacks seem to only be supporting the Guardians in their cause against the Darkness. The evil species might be trying to claim Mobius for their personal gain. Later the following evening. Cayde did tell the story of where the Guardians are from and everything else needed to be said, and also get more time to prepare the U.F. for the hive attack.
Lucky for them, they would be ready a few hours before the attack. The Destructix had no problem killing a few hive and readied themselves for the upcoming attack. Simian and Hawk were healed by Alex's and Zardic's ghosts, same as the rest since the Guardians need everyone they could get. Instead of a couple hundred enemies back at the village, this attack would have thousands of hive soldiers. When the hive force hit, it was still a challenge to protect Station Square from the undead army. G.U.N was able to gather about 50,000 immediate soldiers, and got another 20,000 soldiers later on. The hive were absolutely relentless on mainly the G.U.N., since the abominations knew they couldn't take out the Guardians permanently. Like the village, the city had the same idea and assigned two Guardians to each of the six segmented fronts along for the first line of defense and started at the farthest part of the city, specifically the suburban area after evacuation. Unlike the village, G.U.N. soldiers were needed at the front line for extra defense and the hive had about 3,000 of their own at the six fronts. The soldiers weapons weren't very effective since the hive were rotten and armor-like all over, but could still be useful.
The fight started in the last 2 evening hours and it lasted way into the next morning, tearing up the suburban area. The soldiers did lose about 1,200 people, which I think was better than the wolf and feline warriors. Don't quote me on that. The hive did gather at the central road, like the fallen, but no noticeable champions among them and they had about 400 "soldiers" and charged toward the city. The Guardians and the G.U.N. soldiers held the line as best they could and fight back the undead soldiers before they resorted to CQC. Luck was on their side once again since they had kept the hive from getting past the first line of buildings going into the main part of Station Square. Afterward, the president of the U.F. thanked the Guardians and the Destructix for protecting the city from the invaders. After some talks, the Guardians and the U.F. came to terms that were agreeable and easy to hold on both sides. Oh, and the vanguards did tell the nations to not tell the Kingdom of Acorn and explained why. It was strange to the allied nations, but they agreed none the less.
The Guardians then headed out towards New Mobotropolis with the Destructix as company for the trip there. The Destructix had chosen certain riders that they liked or were just comfortable with. Serven got Simian, Jack got Frog, Sarifine got Lightning, Zardic was paired with Hawk, Alex got a rather cranky Scourge, and Cayde got Fiona. The group of 18 did get along on the way there and even shared stories between them when they rested for a little while, mainly at night. Cayde was contacted by the Speaker to be told that the taken had attacked the tundra Freedom Fighters and some chapters of the Dark Egg Legion. The Speaker got several groups of Guardians, 3 at the most per group, to kill the attacking taken. Cayde had a feeling that the Kingdom of Acorn was going to get the blunt of the multi-alien invasion and told the current vanguards on the planet to group up at New Mobotropolis when they were done with what they were doing. The rest of the Guardians would try to meet Cayde in a few days, around the same time that they could interact with the Freedom Fighters in New Mobotropolis.
After several days, Cayde's Guardians and the Destructix had gotten close enough to see the nanite city from a far. "Man, that city is very pretty from here. Let's just hope we can make it in time to prepare them for the upcoming attack, if I'm correct." Cayde said. They were about to head out when they saw the Death Egg heading toward the city from above, shortly followed by a red flash of light from the city half a minute later. "What the hell did we just witness? Is this normal, because I don't remember seeing this in any sort of StH comic." Cayde stated in a confused tone, which Fiona simply replied with a "Nuh-uh".
"Cayde, I'm picking up a broadcast signal from that city. Do you wish to see what it is?" The exo's ghost replied with after a few moments of silence from the sudden flash.
"Sure, go ahead. Make sure we can't interact with them, it's not time yet." Cayde said. The ghost presented Cayde with a visual broadcast of both Sally and Eggman talking about the ultimatum. Of course, when Eggman finished his ultimatum talk, the group had feelings of anger, unbelievability, and confusion. "That is one cleaver bastard, I'll give him that. Still, that's one hell of an ultimatum he has, a little extreme if you ask me." Cayde said. Sally's half of the screen disconnected, but Eggman's didn't. In fact, the video setting was somehow turned on, possibly hacked from some of Eggman's techies. Cayde did say "Uh oh" after seeing that he was being watched. He wasn't wearing his helmet, so Eggman could see his face and what he is.
"Whoever, or whatever you are, I know that you listened in on the conversation between me and the mechanized princess. Of course, it's just a hunch, but judging by your face I'd say that you know about my ultimatum." Eggman said, sending a chill down the exo's mechanical spine.
"I might, what's it to you?" Cayde said, giving him a stern look.
"I will say that if you try to kill me, everyone at the jail will die. In order for me to do that, I created this small heartbeat monitor that's connected to both my heart and the poison injectors at the jail. I'm sure you can figure out how that works." Eggman said, baffling Cayde at first, but he was quick to figure out how it works.
"If your heart beat is stopped in any way, then the injectors will be activated and kill the citizens you have in the jail. Why the hell would you do this to those innocent people? They've done nothing to you that would harm you in anyway." Cayde said.
"It was the only way for Sonic and his Freedom Fighters to back down, as well as some of the other teams that fought me." Eggman said, making Cayde curious about the last statement. "If you excuse me, I need to talk to someone." At that instant, the ghost kept it open for them to see Sally's response to the ultimatum. The ghost got it so that Eggman couldn't see them listen in on this part of the broadcast.
After hearing Sally accepting the ultimatum, everyone headed toward the city and had to watch what happened afterward from a far. The time that was set to interact with Eggman had already past, but Cayde didn't care about it at all. However, he was still cautious about interacting with the Freedom Fighters and the incoming mobian teams with what was happening because the keeper said so. What was weird was that the other teams were not told about the Guardians, even though they were allowed to know about them. "Never defy the keeper of this universe." Cayde said to himself.
When they saw Sally and Sonic get teleported, they just waited agonizingly to interact with the distraught friends that were still in the city. When the couple got back, there was more waiting afoot. It was extremely boring for the group of mobians and Guardians. "All this waiting is just... AGONY!" Fiona said, letting every one know what she thought. "When can we interact with them!?"
"They expect to die within one hour and 45 minutes. We can interact with everyone, except Sonic and Sally, at the one hour mark, and we can interact with the couple at the hour and 15 minute mark. These are very strict rules from the keeper, but let's not try to ignore it." Cayde said, who was equally bored and kept it more subtle. "Alright, me and Team Onyx will follow Sonic and Sally while everyone else follow the other guys. If my hunch is correct, and I know it is, then the royal couple will want some alone time and spend their last moments together. Don't ask how far they would take it, we all hopefully know the answer to that. Are my orders clear?" Cayde stated, said, and asked.
Everyone said "crystal" and headed toward the city and follow the two target groups across the city. Thankfully, Nicole was occupied by her group of friends to notice the uninvited group of people in the city that were sneaking about from a far. Even if she wasn't occupied, the ghosts did jam their presence just in case. When the mixed Guardian/mobian group then split due to the fact that the obvious meeting site was being deconstructed. Cayde and Team Onyx was heading to the Lake of Rings when seeing Sonic take Sally to that direction, while the rest of the joint group went to the deconstructing castle for... everyone else in the city. I'm not clever.
Cayde and his team did follow the royal couple to the Lake of Rings and waited. They did wait beyond the interaction time, but waited for the best time to butt in and tell them what they need to know. This is the point where Sonic and Sally started their make out and Cayde has a suspicion that it's time to butt in. "I'll call you guys when I feel it's necessary for you to come in. Don't look hostile when you guys are in their view, okay?" Cayde said quietly just in case the couple could hear them. The Guardians response were some thumbs up. Cayde then walked to the couple while noticing that they were getting kinky. "Whoa, whoa, careful now, there could be kids watching from a far." Cayde said. We already know the rest of the conversation.
WOOOOHH! End of Chapter 3. Now, I ask that you please don't scold me on some parts that might confuse you. This was a little rushed, especially the battles, but I will take my time on later chapters and they will go beyond the four thousand whatever mark to like the six or seven thousands as the new limit. Everything's not explained entirely because of the rush, so sorry on that. Some of the post Super Genesis Wave characters will appear in this story. To be clear, Mighty and Ray are back in the Chaotix, if the comics didn't establish that, and Matilda will not be in the Chaotix. If there is some stuff I missed, then please tell me, I'm not near any comic store that I know of that sells the StH comics. I really just look at the wiki for that info. That's all for now, in the mean time, we will meet again in Chapter 4.