"Well that's just great the door's locked." the Sunsinger moaned as she kicked the corrugated steel partition making it clang loudly, "Are you sure this is where we are supposed to be?" she asked her Ghost angrily.
"Yes," it replied flatly, "And if I may be so bold may I suggest lowering your voice, we are in enemy territory."
"Oh don't you start back-chatting me!"
Jaune watched the bickering between the Guardian and her Ghost erupt into a full blown argument, what amazed him the most though was how the Ghost was managing to look at its partner with a disappointed glare while having no facial features to display emotion, after all the Ghost for all its mysticism was just a floating cube.
"Do you think they would mind if I tried to hack the door's control system?" the Titan's Ghost asked as it appeared at his shoulder.
"I don't think they'd notice." he muttered as he watched Ruby try and intervene in the argument between her older sister and the Ghost. As he watched he noted how different the two were, Yang loud and outgoing and Ruby quiet and more reserved. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his Ghost working at the lock on the door a small flicker of light bursting intermittently at the control console.
The flickering light eventually grasped the attention of the two female Guardians, "The Fallen really didn't want anyone getting in, or out." his Ghost mused as it worked.
"Well that's not ominous at all." the Sunsinger commented dryly as the shutter groaned and began to slowly roll up.
Three spotlights pierced the inky blackness that lay behind the door as the Guardian's Ghosts appeared at their shoulders and illuminated the path ahead.
The Guardians entered the darkness their weapons ready, a wet squelching sound made them all snap to a halt.
"What was that?" Jaune inquired as he scanned the pipes that lined the ceiling, experience telling him that the Fallen had a habit of crawling in the tight spaces that crisscrossed the area above their heads.
"I think I stood in something." Yang whispered.
"Oh Yang gross, you have something on your shoe!" Ruby exclaimed as quietly as she could, the two remaining Ghost lights flicked down to the Warlock's boot as their Guardians' focus shifted, a mass of thick black gunk covered the item of footwear in question.
"Gross, gross, gross…" Yang repeated as she hoped around on one foot trying to shake the black mass loose.
"Get away! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me!" her younger sister screamed in a muted voice as she tried to run from her older sibling's foot.
Yang managed to free herself from the hold the black gunk had on her boot by jabbing at the mass with the barrel of her shotgun.
"You know you were saying how awesome you were earlier," Jaune said to the Warlock, "I don't think you can say that anymore."
"Shut up," the blonde haired girl retorted with a glare, "What did I stand in anyway?"
The Ghost lights converged on where Yang had previously stood and illuminated the body of a Fallen soldier.
"Is that a Captain?" Ruby asked.
"I think the word you're after is 'was'," her sister replied.
The Fallen Captain's torso had been torn open; however where there should have been bones, muscles and organs there was only the thick black gunk that had covered Yang's foot.
"This looks like Thrall carrion." Jaune's Ghost commented.
"It can't be," Yang's muttered, "The Hive haven't ever made an incursion on Earth, there are no report of them leaving the Hellmouth either."
Jaune wasn't really following what was being discussed but from the Ghosts' tone of voice and the pale look on the sisters' faces this was bad news.
"We should keep moving." Yang interrupted.
"We should head back and report this." her Ghost countered sternly.
"Our mission is to investigate the disturbance here and eliminate any threat to the City we come across. The fact that the Hive are here on Earth means that Eris failed and the Hive are preparing to invade Earth. Whatever they are doing here needs to be stopped right away."
"I still maintain that this is a terrible idea." her Ghost muttered as the three Guardians pushed forward into the darkness.
The inky blackness swirled around them with a malevolent energy, clumping together and coiling up towards the ceiling consuming all the light that touched it, the guiding lights of the Ghosts the only thing keeping the Guardians from tripping on objects that seemed to snatch at their feet.
"Up ahead," Ruby whispered as they entered a large room, "There's a light…"
Across the room from the three Guardians was a large lantern emitting a strange vivid green light which they could clearly see but which failed to illuminate its surroundings.
A flashing red light appeared in the top left corner of Jaune's vision as his motion trackers picked up movement from every direction indicating he was surrounded, "Yang?" he said slowly, his voice low and cautious.
"I know… Ruby?" she asked hoping the younger Hunters equipment could cast some light on the situation.
"Nope," the younger replied nervously as she took a step forward crushing something beneath her boot. The cracking sound echoed around the large room, before the deathly silence fell once again as they held their breath.
The screech that spurred them into action pierced the quiet like a lance before it was accompanied by a second, third, fourth from all around the room until it sounded like the walls themselves were screaming at them. And that was when they saw them the triads of glowing green eyes rising from the ground.
"It's the Hive!" Yang yelled making to turn back the way they had come only to find herself face to face with the grey unseeing eyes of a Thrall, its pale sickly skin marred with cuts oozing pus and other unspeakable fluids.
The shot that took its head broke the momentary stand still, and the chaos was set loose.
"Other way!" the Sunsinger screamed as she turned and ran towards the floating green orbs and the lantern beyond them, the Titan and Hunter right on her tail.
The purple bolts of energy of Hive Shredders briefly illuminated the faces of their wielders before streaming towards the Guardians. Firing as they charged forward the Guardians hoped their return fire would be enough to clear them a path, one of their shots caught the head of an Acolyte directly in front of them allowing them access into a corridor as they ran through its rapidly dispersing ashes.
"Up the stairs!" Jaune ordered as they continued forward, passing through another doorway they turned back to face the way that they had come, listening for their approaching foes. Using the doorway as a choke point they tore down their pursuers until only ash remained.
"I'm out!" Jaune announced as he patted down his ammo pouches.
"Try over there." Yang replied waving in the general direction of their recently deceased enemies as she tried to catch her breath, "They might have dropped something you can use."
Unsure yet mildly curious Jaune picked his way over to the doorway unsure for what he should be looking for. Ahead of him small chunks of metal and the guns the Acolytes had dropped sparkled and disappeared as he approached only for a weight to be added to the pouch on his chest, tearing it open he found a full magazine for his rifle, "What the hell?" he muttered as he pulled the ammunition out only for it to be replaced by another.
"Your Ghost will resupply your ammo with materials that it scavenges and then recycles." Ruby explained as she appeared beside him, her own pockets noticeably filling as she walked forward.
"It's definitely a handy system," Jaune replied as ejected the out magazine a loaded a fresh one.
"Just don't get too used to it, there's no guarantee that they'll drop anything useful." she warned, "Where are we anyway?"
The three Guardians had ended up in another large but thankfully well-lit room the central area of which was dominated by a large console, "I wonder what this was for?" Ruby mused as she trailed her fingers over the dusty keyboards.
Jaune stared at the central console, he had the unusual sense that he had been here before.
Lights flickered on the screens in front of Ruby causing her to leap back in shock, "No way this stuff still works…" Yang said skeptically.
"Welcome back Lieutenant Arc." a robotic voice said from a set of speakers fixed to the largest screen.
"No fucking way!" the Warlock exclaimed as she and Jaune joined Ruby at the console.
"Lieutenant Arc who are these people with you?" the voice asked, "Their biometrics don't appear on any available personnel files."
Yang nudged the male Guardian while nodding towards the screen, "Umm… They're friends of mine…" he offered hesitantly.
"Friends?" the voice queried.
"Yeah, associates, comrades." Jaune replied more confidently.
"Very well, deactivating anti-intruder counter measures." the voice's words were accompanied by a mechanical grating sound from some unseen machinery. "It is most curious that Sergeant Nikos is not accompanying you, you two are normally inseparable."
"Nikos!" Jaune exclaimed as he recalled the name from the book Amanda had shown him, "Who is that?"
"What a curious question although it has been nearly five centuries since you last interfaced with this system so your memory maybe a little hazy." the voice answered, "If I may add you barely look like you have aged a day."
"Hang on; let's roll this back a bit." Yang interjected as she stepped in-between the man and the machine, "Who are you?"
"I am personnel interface R-45, a sub-program of the Warmind Rasputin. I like to call myself Ras."
"You're part of Rasputin?" the Sunsinger exclaimed, "Oh the Vanguard are gonna lose it."
"Well I was…" Ras specified bringing an abrupt end to Yang's elation.
"What?"
"Before shutting down all operations, central program Rasputin removed all no essential programs from core servers and isolated them in other hardware." the AI explained.
"So you can't communicate with the Warmind?" Ruby asked.
"I am able to attempt a system interface with the central program but all previous attempts have been futile and as I gather errors in my own programming I doubt the odds are getting any better."
"Errors?"
"Yes I was designed to interface with and interpret for the Warmind Rasputin and military personnel, however access to both external systems has until this moment been an impossibility. The state can be likened to being trapped within one's own mind and the development of psychosis."
"You're saying you are going crazy." Yang stated while taking a few slow careful steps away from the machine.
"For want of a better phrase you are correct, for example I was never programmed to select a name for myself, yet I have chosen Ras and I like it." Ras replied in a matter of fact manner, before being cut off by the ringing of alarm bells the rest of the AI's words being lost. "It would appear you are not the only ones seeking the Warmind Rasputin." Ras's disembodied voice mused as its volume grew to be heard over the alarms. "The ones that chased you here are part of a larger whole whom now appear to be trying to take a hold of the Skywatch array's controls. You probably shouldn't let them do that…"
The AI's voice fades before it can share any other knowledge, leaving Jaune to stare at the now blank monitors.
"Jaune!" the Titan jumps as Yang's shout brings him back to his senses, she and Ruby are moving towards a door their Ghosts at their palms.
"This way there's a short cut, if we can cut them off we might be able to gain control of the array the machines here seem to be responding to you." his own Ghost relaying to him the information undoubtedly being relayed to the sisters.
"Where are we going?" the male Guardian asked as he ran after the sisters through the narrow twisting corridors.
"The Terrestrial Complex," Ruby called over her shoulder, "Ras supplied us with a set of ancient activation codes for a communication array that links with the outer colonies."
"What Miss Rose is trying to say, is that we have the opportunity to reactivate a piece of Golden Age technology that will greatly improve our chances of survival in this war." his Ghost reiterated for him.
The crackle of Arc and Void weapons could be heard from the far end of the corridor, the brilliant sparkle of the bolts of energy fizzing out on or glancing off the surfaces of anything they hit. Fearing they had been spotted the three Guardians slid into cover in the shadow of a chest high wall. When they noticed the air around them had not suddenly been filled with gunfire and the smell of ozone the three slowly poked their heads over the edge of the wall.
Before them was a battlefield, or at least the remains of one, the gruesome quickly decaying corpses of Hive Acolytes litter the ground while a small group of Fallen Vandals and a single Captain advance towards their fallen foes.
Writhing on the ground inky darkness leaking from her wounds was a Hive Wizard, she screeched angrily at the approaching Captain, raising her hand she tried to summon her power but the Captain stamped his foot down on the outstretched hand crushing it beneath his tread. The cry of anger escalated into a scream of pain as the Fallen leader ground the appendage into the dirt while looming over his Hive counterpart, grabbing the back of her head in one of his large hands and pulled her face to his eye level his small beady eyes staring into her glowing green ones. Drawing a shock pistol from the holster at his hip the Captain pushed the barrel of the gun up under the Wizard's chin, pausing for a second as if he was savouring his enemy being entirely at his mercy. He pulled the trigger the Arc bolt tearing through the Wizards skull spattering her blood over the ground, the Captain regarded his kill briefly before dropping the lifeless shell at his feet and stepping forward over the corpse.
"They're heading for the Terrestrial Complex," Ruby muttered.
"We're going to have to take them out if we want to take control of the array." Yang's Ghost added the Guardians nodding in agreement.
The Fallen had taken losses of their own diminishing their numbers to the Captain, three Vandals and a handful of Dregs but that didn't diminish the threat they posed as they were all armed to the teeth.
"Ruby, take the two Vandals with the Wire Rifles, get the one with the cutlasses afterwards, burn them down. Jaune take the Dregs there's only armour on their chests, pick your shots and you shouldn't even have to reload." Yang said taking charge of the situation, "I'll take the Captain out as quickly as possible and then help you mop up the rest." the Sunsinger waited for a few seconds, allowing her instructions to sink in. "Ready?" the Titan and Hunter nodded a sharp affirmation of their understanding.
Wordlessly they stormed forward out of their hiding place, Ruby's power flared in her hands as she summoned her Light levelling the flaming hand canon she fired twice the Solar rounds immolating the two Vandals that crossed her line of sight however the Vandal wielding the cutlasses had disappeared from sight.
Jaune barely registered Ruby's actions as he concentrated on his own job, using the still yet to be repaired sights he lined them up with his targets firing in short bursts dispatching his targets with ease Ether leaking from the stumps where their heads had once been.
Yang absorbed the recoil of her shotgun into her shoulder as the package of fiery pellets decimated the Captain's shield. The Fallen leader recoiled slightly as the Warlock's fist connected with his chest however the strike failed to put him down. Yang ducked under the Captain's sweeping return strike spinning on her heel so she finished facing the leader's back a level her weapon at the base of the Captain's skull, who merely froze as he seemed to realise his imminent end.
"Yang look out!" Ruby's cry of alarm alerting the Sunsinger to the Vandal that had been the Gunslinger's final target swinging the cutlass it was wielding in at her unarmoured neck, blocking the weapon with the barrel of her gun she moved creating some distance between her and the Vandal she kicked her attacker square in the chest allowing her sister pick off her final target with practiced precision. However this sacrifice allowed the Fallen Captain to recover and level his own weapon at the Warlock's chest.
Yang was sent flying backwards as the molten flax crashed into her, "Yang!" Ruby and Jaune screamed in unison as the girl they both saw as an unstoppable juggernaut crumple into a heap on the floor.
Jaune rushed forward shoulder first tackling the Captain to the ground, both of their weapons skittering away across the ground. By nothing other than pure dumb luck he landed straddling the Captain's chest managing to pin the Fallen's lower set of arms beneath his knees leaving only the upper pair to content with. The Captain's right arm shot towards a large knife on his free left shoulder, realising his foe's intent the Titan pressed his weight forward pinning the knife to the enemy's chest.
The Captain growled at him and Jaune brought his armoured forehead down into the centre of the Fallen's face stunning the alien momentarily, but unfortunately had the added effect of shaking the male Guardian allowing the Captain to draw the knife fully before Jaune pushed his weight back down in a panic driving the knife into the Fallen's throat spewing Ether everywhere, the alien foe struggled beneath him weakly and Jaune watched the life drain from the Captain's eyes.
Once the body ceased to move Jaune struggled to his feet before a loud hacking cough behind him jolted his memory of the previous events, "Yang." he muttered worriedly as he rushed to join Ruby at the Warlock's side. Ruby had managed to prop her sister in a sitting position against a wall, "Yang, are you okay?"
Ruby had removed the other girl's helmet which now lay at Yang's feet; fortunately her eyes were open showing that at least she was conscious although she was breathing very heavily, "I'm okay… Just winded…" Yang replied as she tried to stand before clutching her side and hissing in pain.
"I think you've broken a few ribs." Ruby explained as she moved to help her up.
"No- I'm good." Yang said with a wheeze as a warm aura began to emanate from her before she stood up slightly straighter than before, "Helmet." Jaune rushed to his feet grabbing Yang's helmet and handing it to her, the Sunsinger accepted the armour piece without comment and secured it on her head. "Let's get this thing working."
Yang's Ghost appeared above her palm as she summoned it, the small brightly coloured cube floated towards the system before setting to work on the ancient machines. After a brief pause the Ghost began to mutter to itself, "Negotiating cryptosystems. Shor-resistant security lattice verified." The loud metallic groaning sound that came from outside as the centuries old machinery struggled to move caused Ruby and Jaune to rush towards the exit at the far end of the room.
In the distance two large hanger doors slowly pulled themselves apart and a large structure began to rise from the ground, "Amazing… It's activating." Jaune's Ghost muttered as they watched the structure ascend skywards. However their moment of awe was cut short as three inky black cuts appeared in the sky, green flames licking around their edges as a dark menacing ship pushed its way through each of them forcing them to grow wider.
"Hive Tombships! They're heading right for us!" Ruby's Ghost exclaimed as Yang rushed to join them, as the ships continued their ominous approach the Array finished its ascent and slowly began to unfold like the petals of a flower, a large extremely rusty metal flower.
"They can't take this console." his Ghost warned.
The bays on the underside of the Tombships opened disgorging their contents and that was when all hell broke loose…
Authors Note: And... another chapter down hope you guys enjoyed it!
Many thanks to everyone who helped by offering their opinions on some of the future plot points and some of their own ideas, your support has helped to solidify my ideas in my head.
One of the points that was bought up was that some of the action heavy scenes takes away from the story and but the missions are all very action and combat heavy so I tried cutting a bit of it out in this chapter as a test to see if it was too jarring, thoughts?
PS. Imma be going dark for a bit (3 weeks or so) so the next chapter will take longer than usual... I'm sorry please don't hurt me...
PSS. Has anyone found the Roosterteeth reference in Night Under the Stars (chapter 11) yet?