In the time that it took for Ellana to leap, a flare of dust and stone erupted all around. With a screech of desperation the dragon leaped after the Guardians.
In the moments between teeth and terminal velocity, Ellana's blood boiled hot and light erupted from her body. Sunsinger's couldn't fly per se but it would certainly make the landing a lot softer... if she could hold the form that long.
Osiris spread his giant wings to slow down his fall before whirling around to face the young Ahamkara. It thrashed and clawed at the air, unable to control itself with one bad wing. He pushed a wave of fire out and sent the small dragon careening off what little balance it had achieved.
With a howl and a nasty crack the young Ahamkara smashed against a Vex statue. It did not move.
Osiris turned around to face the chasm below. To his dismay there were tears in time everywhere on the way down.
"Well this is convenient!" Sagira said in his headspace, "The signals coming from somewhere down there!" Osiris flew aloft with Ellana, who still had her back to the world below. He saw her take a few deep breaths before turning and facing the dark just in time to navigate out of the way of a tear.
Within seconds they became the only source of warmth and light inside of the Vex's machine world. Ellana banked to one side carefully to avoid some flying Hydra that squealed in surprise when the two Guardians fell past it, leaving the air full of cinders and heat. Their passage downward was growing worryingly smaller and smaller, the structure of the Machine becoming less and less damaged. Then all of a sudden the machine opened into a gigantic cauldron of radiolarian fluid.
"On the left!" Sagira yelled over the open comm network. Ellana saw she was pointing out an outcropping of what appeared to be a walk way. Probably not intended to be one since the Vex didn't need them but that's what she was going to call it. She angled over to make the landing.
Flaring her wings wide to catch the wind, Ellana kicked out a massive burst of energy to slow her fall. Her stomach protested with the abrupt change in velocity.
Seemingly out of nowhere a Minotaur appeared next to Ellana just before she landed and snatched her up by the arm and swung her around violently before her flaming body melted its arm. She ignored the nasty sounding snap she heard in her body as she rolled and somehow landed on her feet.
Vex teleported all around her and began to swarm, despite the intense heatwave she sent their way to push them back. When she finally burned out she pulled out her hand canon and brought down a few more Vex before the air turned hot with malice.
Osiris landed on the pier still with full super and absolutely demolished the pack of machines, sending them partially melted and shredded into the lake of radiolarium.
With a dramatic sweep of his wings, he folded them close to his body and cinders blew off the end of his feathers and clothes as his super dissipated.
"Do you need assistance?" he asked when he noticed her arm hanging at an odd angle.
"That would be greatly appreciated."
Osiris walked behind her and took her dislocated arm in both hands. She couldn't help but notice he was still radiating heat, for some reason her nose picked up a trace of cinnamon and ash.
"On three." he said, he notice her look away and tense up slightly.
"Ok."
"One.."
She yelled in surprise when he popped the bone back into its socket.
"Ok... I feel like we need to get on the same page on what numbers are... but thank you." Ellana rolled her arm carefully to make sure it was proper.
"Beats regrowing the arm." with a tiny flash of light particles Pearl appeared and surveyed the area, "Well... so this is the machine that keeps the Forest running."
"Or did, till recently." Osiris dusted himself off.
Wish we could keep it broken honestly... but no we have to shut it down properly so the system won't go boom." Sagira sighed.
"Maybe if Wish Dragons didn't pop up out of nowhere it would be easier." Ellana knelt next to a Vex that was still twitching and sparking, fluid leaking out of its chest. Despite the flat surface they were on, when the glowing liquid did not pool all around the body, instead it slithered straight to the edge and dripped down into the lake.
"I made sure it was dead."
"That wasn't the one that chased me, it was too small... like a juvenile or something." Ellana removed her helmet so she could push loose hairs off of her face. Her saddened eyes remained on the now empty body. Osiris watched her curiously till she stood up.
"You can't possibly feel empathy for them."
She looked up at him, "So I can't mourn something even if it tries to kill me?"
"You shouldn't mourn them at all, they want nothing but to force everything to be them... which is nothing." he growled, "Do not cast emotions where they will not be received." the two Warlocks stared at each other for a few long minutes. Ellana straightened up slowly, pointed her hand canon at him and squeezed the trigger even as he flinched.
The bullet flew past him at a Hobgoblin that had been positioning itself for a shot. Its chest burst as the projectile hit and its body crumbled over the side.
He looked back at her angrily as she popped open her cartridge and slipped in a new set of bullets.
"I'm very painfully aware, of not sharing too much." she said, holstering her weapon. She brushed passed him without another word.
Osiris remained at a distance for a while and that was just fine with Ellana. She wasn't offended by his dislike for her emotional responses, annoyed perhaps but that was about it. It had been something that everyone even her own friends had criticized her for. It was a battle every organic being had when it came to fighting: don't humanize the enemy or you can't do the warfare you have to. She could hear the older Warlock arguing silently with Sagira in what she now assumed was his first language.
"I don't know how Sagira puts up with him." Pearl stole a quick glance behind them. The only light here were the beams of energy that shot between giant Vex statues and pillars. If you were a regular person you would require low light vision goggles to even comprehend what was in the dark shadows. This of course was not a problem for the Vex.
"I don't know how you put up with me. I've been nothing but trouble since you resurrected me." Ellana countered.
"Touche. But you don't just go off and do what you want to do... all the... time." the Ghost twittered nervously when she cracked a half smile.
"Honestly, I think he's just been around machines for too long... no offense." she hopped up onto one of the statues to try and get a better view of where they were going. On occasion they would run into massive rivers that drained out of the radiolarium lake, but eventually those would branch off either underground or just out of site. Ellana was curious exactly what part of the machine they were in... not that all Vex machines made sense with their design.
She kept half expecting to see the large bulk of an Ahamkara somewhere in the darkness but thankfully that fear was currently proving to be an unnecessary one. Pearl however her a few more anomalies in the area so they set out in the direction to the nearest one. It was then that Ellana noticed that Osiris and his Ghost had finally settled whatever they'd been arguing about. Or at least had had enough of each other that for now they were quiet.
Osiris noticed after a few minutes that the other Guardian kept looking back at him, "What?" he said flatly.
"You've forgotten what it's like, to interact with people haven't you?" she wrapped her pinkies together behind her back, allowing her rifle to swing freely against her midsection.
"Interacting with people got me kicked out of the Last City." he snorted, "At least outside of the walls those that live are free to speak their mind."
"You're also more alone."
"Alone does not frighten me, I've the strength to do what I need to do for Humanity on my own."
"And yet here I am helping you find a time anomaly."
He said nothing.
"You're only able to operate within the Forest as you do because you're able to make copies of yourself. Honestly I would hate hearing myself talk my voice is way too squeaky outside of my skull."
Again, nothing.
She shrugged the silence off and continued walking.
Their footsteps echoed in the vast empty hallways. Occasionally they would have to either find or make a pathway to where they needed to go next if they didn't want to waste time finding said pathway. Oddly enough, they found little to no resistance to meet them, unless they smashed something that the Vex deemed was worthy of offense. The lack of aggression was really starting to put Ellana on edge.
To spend this excess build up of energy, the Awoken started humming to fill the silence. The song started off with no particular direction. She tested out different combinations of notes till a string of them caught her fancy and she latched on to it.
Light warmed inside her body but did not boil over. Occasionally a flicker of flame would pass across her body, her green eyes glowed warmly. It wasn't strange to use music as a medium, this is what another Sunsinger had told her in training. Despite his objecting Titan friend. Music was just another way to channel energy, all energy was a wave in different forms. The universe was made up of waves. It wasn't an easy medium to use in battle, which is why many didn't care for it, but Ellana enjoyed this kind of energy. She wasn't good at it by any means but she enjoyed it.
She didn't keep track of the time since it was pretty useless in the anomaly area. The Warlock practically skipped and danced as they went. Laughter bubbled up in her throat but she withheld it. Osiris was probably annoyed enough with how she behaved she didn't need more daggers at the back of her head.
"Over there! Look!" Pearl exclaimed.
The neatly carved tunnels abruptly ended in a massive cavern that had collapsed all the way up to the surface. At the bottom of this pile of rubble a few underwater springs crashed down and had made a very large pool that drained off the neatly made Vex walkway. In the center was a derelict ship that had smashed down onto its side. Not too far off to the side a column of air rippled like heatwaves off the horizon. Three Hydras and their flocks of harpies were settled in a triangular design around the tear, connected by beams of light. It looked like the surface where they were repairing time except... for some reason this one wouldn't close completely so they merely contained it.
"As lovely as your music is little Singer," Osiris stepped up next to her and she stopped humming when she saw that he was glimmering like he was about to use his super, "Thank you."
"Sorry! I didn't realize..."
"Don't be, you have potential in that area of study." all signs of his irritation from before seemed to have disappeared. He stopped glowing as he approached the ship, he started looking for the identity of the machine on the side of the tail that wasn't missing its outer panels. He asked Sagira to run the numbers through her data bases.
Ellana hopped onto a boulder near the cockpit and took a peak inside, "This was one nasty fall." she said. Forming a small ball of Solar energy to give a little light, "Whoa... uuh... that's really unfortunate."
The nose had been crushed nearly flat, what was left of the pilots was was still here, the blood only just turning brown in the thinnest strands.
"Check inside, see if there were any passengers. Pearl! Come here."
"Hmm?" Pearl looked at Ellana who jerked her chin toward the other Warlock. With a heavy sigh he went to help the other Guardian.
After a little searching Ellana finally managed to squeeze her way into the ship. She scrunched her nose up at the stench of dead flesh.
Light flooded the area when Sagira joined her, "Here ya go!"
"Sagira?"
"I didn't have the correct information to look up the ships identity... must've deleted it to make room for Vex maps... those things are ginormous to store." the Ghost sounded annoyed.
"Oh... ok."
Most of the cargo's restraints had snapped in the tumble down into Mercury's bowls. The remains of two bodies were in there, poor souls crushed to death by the crates. One of the blood smears on the wall looked curious to the Warlock, she used her gloved hand to touch it and found it crunchy. The water outside must've come later, most of these remains were mummifying from the dry air.
Despite knowing what she would find, her heart still sank when she reached the passenger area. Here there were three strapped to their seats, eyes cloudy and skin taught. Their mouths hung open as if they were still screaming. Ellana frowned and dipped closer to one, it was rotting and mummifying at the same time. She looked up when the metal of the ship creaked. A very small point of rust on a nearby pole was slowly growing bigger the longer she watched it.
"Hmm." Sagira went up to each and every face, "Broken necks... probably from the ship spinning as it came down. Oh... oh poor thing." she pointed with her eye light at an EXO that had had a sharp object driven straight through their eye socket, "Really hope that happened after the neck snap."
"That's all you could hope for at that point... a quick death." her eyes surveyed the area again, "We're missing a body."
"We are?" Sagira looked around.
"Yeah, two pilots, two crew chiefs in the back, I would assume they'd sit there when they had guests." she pointed at a couple seats against the wall, uncomfortable but safe. The belts were unclasped so the crew must've gotten up at some point to try and secure something in the cargo hold.
"Three guests... four seats." she pointed to the remaining seat.
"They could've had only three guests? I don't know... there's a lot of blood in here."
"Let's see if we can find the roster of this flight."
Sagira took to the computers while Ellana sorted through what documents were data pads and paper.
"Ugh... no good, the computers are fried... maybe the black box?" Sagira dove into a precarious looking hole to try and find the object.
"We found it!" Pearl yelled from the other side of the wall.
Something crunched under Ellana's foot when she turned. Looking down, she saw it was a piece of metal with a symbol on it. The Awoken frowned and picked it up, "Interesting..."
Outside, Osiris was standing next to a loose panel he'd cleaned off. Next to him Pearl was holding out a hologram with a very very long list. Ellana glanced at the triangle of Vex near them but they hadn't moved.
"So this ship was called NM-024, medium cargo class. Here's the fun part, it took off shortly after the Collapse and was reported missing. Cargo was listed as medical supplies, a couple of coma chambers or something like that. Also the full crew and four passengers."
Osiris sighed heavily, "A tear must've swallowed up the ship... but what was it doing on Mercury?"
"Who knows, might've been rouge for all we know." Ellana held up the pin she'd found, "It's not exactly the same, but this looks like a New Monarchy badge, like before it became the faction we know today."
Osiris made a sound of disgust, "That faction wasn't much different than the Speaker with their intentions. We've wasted enough time here, let's move on."
Ellana lagged behind, she looked down at the old/not old pin in her hand. Abruptly she turned on her heel and climbed straight back in to the NM-024. Ignoring the call of Pearl, she rummaged through the disaster that was the cargo hold.
The Guardian shoved crates just as tall as her over trying to satisfy that itch in her mind about the whole situation. She stood on top of one of the bloodied containers to get a better view of the chamber. Osiris ducked into the ship and just stood off to the side watching her. Pearl was afraid he was about to get grumpy, his instead his eyes showed curiosity.
"Ellana?" he inquired.
The female Warlock bit her lower lip gently and didn't answer. She dropped down and picked up a chain that appeared to be snapped, one side still linked to the floor. Her mind was working faster than the deterioration being caused by the nearby portal.
"What does medical supplies have to do with chains?"
"Hold down the shipping containers?"
"Have you ever seen Holliday give chains to hold down cargo? Aviation practices haven't changed significantly other than adding space to them. Nope... no they were holding something closed." she pointed at Pearl, "You mentioned coma chambers right?"
"Uh... yes?"
Ellana looked over every inch of the cargo hold and finally in the darkness she spotted something, something that didn't quite belong there. She dropped off her perch and walked over to the tiny wink of light. Picking up a piece of shielding with one hand, she looked down to see a cracked curved little plate with a pearlesque hue to it. It was the only thing in the room that didn't appear to be slowly breaking apart.
Hesitation made her pause with her hand just above the odd object.
She picked it up.
Nothing happened.
Ellana swallowed her nervousness and took the object to Osiris, "See? It's an Ahamkara scale I think, they were transporting these creatures. They somehow found a few survivors of the Great Hunt."
"... and now they're here in the future." he reached out and plucked the scale from her palm to examine it further. Sagira flew above all of them and scanned the entire area.
"If her theory is correct as well as my assumptions... there were at least four of these... Ahamkara. Two of them bigger than others..." she continued to talk but Osiris had stopped listening.
At first he was just examining the broken scale in his hands, now he couldn't but stare at it and admire its beauty. Such a shame that a wondrous creature caused so much grief.
'... seeker?'
The Guardian realized his mistake and quickly dropped the scale. It clattered against the floor with an unnatural ring.
"Are you alright?" Ellana asked, concern in her eyes.
He nodded, "Yes... yes I am." he wiped his hand on his coat like that would get rid of his tingling nerves, "Let's go... before I... let's go."