CHAPTER 10
FOUNDRIES OF DUSK
FOUNDRIES OF DUSK, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE
The ship flew low and slow, careful not to be spotted. They had to land some distance away to not be spotted by the Eliksni's defenses.
"Remember Heft, quiet," John warned. Titans weren't known for stealth.
Heft nodded, and slung his shotgun over his back. They were only a kilometre from the Dusk foundry, so they could walk there easily. John walked forward, Heft watched the left, and Rian watched the right. Gariks was close behind, with his new shrapnel launcher in hand.
John heard movement in the trees ahead.
"Stop! I heard something," he whispered. Everyone stopped moving and went completely silent.
He heard the noise again. It must be Marauders. He made sure his rifle was fully loaded, and scanned the forest until he saw a flash of blue. He squeezed the trigger, and saw the Marauder fade into visibility with its head gone, and Ether spraying out of its neck.
"Yep, Marauders," he said.
He heard swishing noises from behind him. He turned around, but before he could take out his assailant he saw Gariks slice the air with a shock blade. The Marauder in front of him fell backwards with a giant slash across its chest.
John gave a nod of approval, and stood back up. They continued through the forest.
The four arrived at wall outside the Dusk foundry with no further complications. Those Marauders weren't able to get any word out. Gariks felt the wall for any hidden compartments or entrances. He found a piece of the wall that wasn't attached all the way and pushed it in.
A small section of the wall, only big enough to crawl under, opened in front of them. Gariks motioned them forward, and crawled through the opening. There were multiple towers inside the walls that weren't too different from the House of Devil's Archon Forge in the Plaguelands.
The ground wasn't artificial, but it was completely flat. The walls covered a large area in the forests. The only other buildings other than the towers were storage buildings, a dock, and a small hangar that could hold about two Skiffs.
Gariks jogged forward and found a console he could access. The Guardians stood guard as he tapped away at the keys. He located a storage room where they kept Servitor parts, and beckoned the Guardians forward.
Right as they turned the corner, a Vandal with three Dregs spotted them.
"Uh. I can explain," Gariks started to say, but the Eliksni opened fire.
Gariks rolled to the side, and pulled his shrapnel launcher into his arms. John shoot the Vandal in the head, and Heft shot a Dreg through the chest with a shotgun. Gariks hopped up, and dispatched the last two Dregs with his shrapnel launcher, setting their rags on fire.
"We must find the Servitor parts," Gariks said, beckoning the Guardians once more.
They sprinted towards one of the storage buildings before any more guards showed up, opened the door, and went inside. Gariks sealed the door behind them to make sure no one followed them.
Rian's Ghost appeared next to her and provided light in the room. On the walls of the building was racks of Servitors. Luckily they were deactivated.
"Well, that's nice," John said out loud.
"Let's hope these things don't attack us," said Heft.
Gariks made his way to the back of the room and accessed another console. He was careful not to activate any of the Servitors, and detached one from the rack.
"Why don't we just take one of these Servitors?" Rian asked.
"Servitors think and act as living beings," Gariks explained, "dying Servitor on ship will see us as saviours and will trust us. These will not."
The Servitor that detached hit the floor with a loud metal clang. Gariks whipped out his shock blades and began cutting the shell off the deactivated servitor, then cutting into the middle of its eye and taking the circular part.
He then cut the three fins off the Servitor, and then set all the pieces up for transmat.
"Wait, we cannot leave yet," Rian's Ghost appeared next to her, "I can feel light here."
"Motes of light?" Gariks asked, "maybe they were sent here?"
"I'll stay and cover Gariks, you two find those motes," Rian ordered.
John and Heft nodded and exited the building, sealing the door behind them. Gariks and Rian watched the door, but they heard noises behind them and turned around to see purple light.
John and Heft ran across the foundry, using Console as a navigator to find the motes.
"This way," Console whispered, flying to another storage building identical to the Servitor one.
The two followed, but as they made it to the door they heard explosions behind them. They turned around and looked at the Servitor building, and as they set their eyes on it, one of its walls exploded.
"Heft, you get the motes," John said before running to the building.
"Why don't I get the fun job," Heft complained before entering the mote building.
As John made his way, he saw Rian and Gariks sprint out of the breach in the wall. A whole ton of Servitors were following them from behind. Gariks fired his shrapnel launcher into the eye of a Servitor and it spun out of control. All of its armour and interior parts flew around the foundry, and it exploded in a shower of Ether.
John fired his slug rifle into the closest Servitor, quickly tearing through it. Slug rifles were good weapons, and he was glad he had one. He heard two small 'pop' sounds and saw two rockets fly past him, impacting a group of Servitors and blowing them apart.
He turned around and saw Heft standing next to an Eliksni crate, holding his Two-Tailed Fox in his hands. On the racks of the wall was about thirty Servitors, and they had only killed ten.
The four soldiers heard the familiar woosh of Rian's ship appearing above them. They materialized into the ship, leaving the swarm of Servitors behind, and flew upward as quickly as they could.
In the transmat room was the Eliksni crate, and the Servitor parts that Gariks had acquired. Gariks quickly picked up the parts and ran as fast as he could to the cargo hold. Heft dragged the crate of motes there as well, and Rian sat down in the pilot seat.
When John saw Rian clearly, the whole right side of her body was covered in void burns.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said, but he could tell from her voice she wasn't.
"Come on, lay down and I'll fly."
"Fine," she accepted she was hurt, but when John saw her face he could tell she was relieved.
Rian walked to the cargo hold where the Servitor was being kept, and saw Gariks working on it. The spot in the middle of its eye that was missing before was now filled, and Gariks was attaching the fins to the sides.
As Rian entered it began making noises, and it started shaking violently. Gariks took off his helmet, and said something to it in Eliksni. It seemed to calm down, and Gariks put his helmet back on.
"He does not like lightbearers," Gariks said without looking at Rian.
"Well, he'll have to learn that we aren't all bad," she said, holding onto her side, noticing Gariks referred to it as a he.
She knew the Eliksni worshipped the Servitors as gods, at least they worshipped the Prime Servitors. If it weren't for the Servitors their race would have died out long before finding Earth.
The Servitor began to speak again, but Rian couldn't understand its deep booming voice.
"He does not like it here," Gariks translated.
Rian began to pity the poor thing. Even though it was just a machine. She wanted to get up and hold it, but her whole body burned so she laid down.
"Tell him he's going to have to get used to it then," she groaned.
Gariks took off his helmet again and spoke to the Servitor. It began to slowly shake again.
"Don't worry," he said after putting his helmet back on, "he will get used to it."
FIREBASE ZEUS
NORTHERN WILDS, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE
Uldiks watched over the hill. He has done this too many times, and now he was doing it again. This time attacking a full base instead of just a simple convoy.
"Me and my barons are in position," he said into his communications device on his upper arm.
"Good. I will launch the distraction," said the soft Awoken voice of Uldren Sov.
Above the base a Skiff appeared, and it immediately triggered the bases alarms. The Red Legion soldiers that guarded the entrance of the base quickly ran inside, and closed the door behind them.
Uldiks jumped off the hill and advanced to the door, stabbing it in the centre and cutting it open. Once the door was open, his soldiers walked out of their hiding spots. The Cabal guards ran back down the hallway, only to run into a surging crowd of Dregs and Vandals.
He heard the faint screams of the Cabal and watched as the Dregs tore them to shreds with their daggers. Crowds of Dregs surged through the halls of the Cabal base, running over and tearing apart anything they come across.
Everyone moved through the other halls except for Uldiks, who continued forward. He was so tall he had to crouch in the hallway. When the door in front of him opened he saw a Cabal Phalanx in front of him, shielding two Legionaries behind him.
The shield wasn't enough to hold Uldiks off, and kicked the Phalanx onto the ground. He fired his giant shrapnel launcher at the two Legionaries behind him. Another Legionary turned the corner of a hall ahead of him, and Uldiks stabbed him with the flaming barrel of his shrapnel launcher, smiling at the deep screams.
The next door led Uldiks outside, where Skiffs were appearing and disappearing, dropping off Dregs. Outside was a large square area full of landed Harvesters and Threshers. Under his feet was the oil that the Cabal used in their armour.
A Cabal warship appeared above them and launched ripper pods onto the ground. The pods dissolved and Legionaries jumped at Uldiks, which he quickly decapitated with the blades on his lower arms.
The Dregs that finished wreaking havoc on the inside of the base began to flow out of the doors, and climb over the dormant Cabal vehicles. A ripper pod smashed into a group of Dregs, causing them to fly into the air, and land far away.
Uldiks heard a deep boom and looked up in the sky to see what looked like another sun. It was red, and disappeared after a few seconds, leaving a Ketch behind. The Ketch flew over the base while firing its weapons at the much smaller Cabal Warship.
The Ketch circle around and fired again, gutting the Warship with its energy weapons. Explosions tore the metal on the ship, and it started to fall apart onto the base. Pieces of the Warship slammed into the base itself, luckily not hitting any of the Eliksni.
Beautiful. Uldiks thought, continuing towards their target. The reason they were attacking was to steal Cabal Harvesters, and use those to steal even more equipment from the Cabal. His Dregs were already using Cabal slug rifles, and if he wanted to he could drop some Cabal Interceptors onto the ground.
Uldiks set beacons on the ground next to every Harvester he found, so he could transmat them up to the Ketch. The House of Crows was a new house, the Ketch hovering in the sky was their only one.
It occasionally fired at the base to weaken it and kill the Cabal survivors. The Red Legion had a very large fleet, but they probably wouldn't waste it on a single expendable base.
"Are the beacons set?" Uldiks heard Uldren's voice.
"Yes my prince," Uldiks responded.
Uldren was now an enemy of the Awoken people, but he was still their prince. But now he was the House of Crow's prince, taking the place of their Kell. Uldiks was simply an Archon. They didn't have a Prime Servitor either, but they don't need one. Not yet.
"Excellent work Uldiks," Uldren responded, "return to the Ketch, and prepare the Harvesters for transmat."
Uldiks looked up and saw Uldren's ship fly over the base, towards the Ketch. He rounded his Eliksni, and they boarded the Harvesters and Skiffs. Uldiks got in his own Skiff, and together all of the ships flew up to the Ketch.
RIAN'S SHIP
THE FARM, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE
Their ship landed at their normal spot, at the base of a hill outside the farm. When Rian woke up it was night. Her side still hurt, and the armour was still blackened. She did feel a lot better, but wondered why she still hurt. Her Ghost should've healed her.
"Ghost?" she asked, looking around the room.
When she spoke, the Servitor across from her turned on and floated up. Rian could see Gariks fully repaired it. The Servitor slowly approached her, its armour lifted up and it started to glow purple. A purple shield formed around Rian. She felt a mix of fear, and confusion, but the burn on her side started to feel much better.
"Servitors are unique yes?" the door opened and Gariks stepped inside, "could not find your drone, may have left it at foundry?"
The thought of this scared her. She didn't have her light, but she still needed her Ghost. And if her light came back, then the Ghost would be even more useful. She didn't even give her Ghost a name, no matter how attached she became to it.
"Where are Heft and John?" she asked, shoving the thought of her missing Ghost deep in her mind.
"At farm, said Hawthorne brought back new Guardian."
"What's so special about this new Guardian?"
"They have their light back."
Rian knew they would be able to get their light back at the shard! No matter how much she wanted her light, she was glad she took in Gariks. He was a good friend, and he was good at fighting for a Dreg.
Gariks beckoned the Servitor towards him, and it slowly moved. They exchanged a few words and the Servitor floated back to its spot.
"His name is Hegiks," Gariks said to Rian.
"Didn't know they talked," Rian said, putting her head back and resting it.
"As I have stated. Think and act as living creatures."
She heard the swishing sound of people entering the ship, and heard John and Heft chatting about something, she couldn't tell what.
"Hey Rian, guess what," Heft said in an excited voice, almost laughing.
"A Guardian got their light back?" she responded.
"Oh… you know?" he replied, sounding disappointed this time.
"Gariks told me."
Heft turned around, and walked to the cockpit; disappointed. Then John entered the room and saw the Servitor staring at him.
"Woah woah! Hey buddy…" he said awkwardly, putting his hands up and leaning away from it.
The Servitor began to say something.
"Hegiks asks if he should kill you," Gariks said with whatever the closest an Eliksni could get to a smirk under his helmet.
"Uh… no he should not."
Gariks let out a laugh, the first time Rian has ever heard him laugh. Hegiks really seemed to make him happier. John walked into the room all the way, staying as far away from Hegiks as he could, and then sat down on the floor next to Rian.
"How are you doing?" he asked sympathetically.
"Better, but my Ghost is missing," she replied.
"How did you lose your Ghost?"
"I don't know. Gariks thinks I lost her at the foundry, but we can't go back to check."
"Do you think you could survive without her?"
"No. She can't resurrect me but she can heal me."
John stood up.
"Maybe I could search the ship?" he said.
"Worth a try. If she's not here than she has to be at the foundry."
John turned away from Rian and exited the cargo hold. He searched up and down the ship's compartments, not finding anything of use let alone a Ghost.
He went to the cockpit where Heft and Gariks were talking about something he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to, and searched the compartments in there. He still couldn't find anything.
"What's got you up and about?" Heft asked, turning away from Gariks.
"I'm looking for Rian's Ghost," John replied.
"Oh. If her Ghost is missing we need to find it."
"Obviously. The only place we think it would be is the foundry, and we are not going back there."
"Why not, it was fun."
"Because her Ghost is probably dead, and the place is probably swarming with Fallen now."
Heft just turned back, continuing to talk to Gariks. He was obviously disappointed that he didn't get to go out and shoot things. As he turned back towards the cargo hold he hoped Heft wouldn't get bored enough to kill Gariks.
"Your Ghost isn't here," he said walking back into the cargo hold.
"Then she must really be at the foundry."