A/N

No Words, just know that you have my most sincere apologies for this chapter being so incredibly late! As before reviews are below enjoy the chapter!

Human Settlement - 14 years since Risen

Louise and Atlas had just finished dispatching the last of the fallen raiders and had now begun making their way to the gates of the settlement. At a glance the gates did not appear to be very sturdy, being made up of a bunch of dismantled shipping containers welded together at various angles. Yet despite their cobbled appearance they had held strong against the barrage of fire from the Fallen skiffs.

Once the Guardian and the Iron Lord reached the foot of the gate, it became clear that whoever was in charge had no intention of letting them in.

'I guess they aren't that sturdy after all.' Louise thought to herself, automatically assuming the doors had been jammed.

"S-Stay back warlords! W-we a-a-are n-not interes-ss-ted in any of your s-s-so called p-protection!" Yelled a stammering guard from up on the wall. He appeared to be clutching a rifle of some sort, but he was shaking like a leaf in the wind. "W-W-we c-can h-handle ours-selves j-just fine!"

Louise blinked owlishly from behind her helmet. "Warlords?" She asked Atlas while being mindful to switch to a private channel to avoid th shaken guard hearing her. "I mean, I suppose you are pretty inhumanly tall."

She heard Atlas sigh beneath his helmet. Shifting his weight he straightened his back holding his hands behind him in a soldier stance. "We are the reinforcements that your settlement called for! I a-"

"I-I d-don't b-believe you! Y-you just interc-c-cepted our transm-m-msion!" The guard paused to clear his throat. "N-now y-you best b-b-be on your way! C-cuz wh-when they get here, y-you're done for!"

Louise watched as Atlas took a deep breath and...

"I AM LORD ATLAS OF THE IRON LORDS! I WAS SENT HERE BY THE ORDER OF THE TOWER VANGUARD IN SERVICE OF THE TRAVELER! UPON YOUR SETTLEMENTS REQUEST WE HAVE ARRIVED! I MEAN YOU NO HARM, I ONLY WISH TO SPEAK WITH THOSE IN CHARGE!" Atlas's voice boomed, and Louise swore she saw the walls shake from the strength of his voice.

"Holy..." Louise muttered next to Atlas.

"I-Iron Lord!? H-how c-can I be certain of this!" The guard responded even shakier than before.

"DOES MY ARMOR NOT SPEAK FOR ITSELF!?" Atlas retorted, his voice still booming. A smart tactic, while most warlords often had the highest quality armour, the Iron Lords had crafted their own sets with their own designs. This had mostly been thanks to the efforts of the famous Awoken seamstress Klyscha.

"R-Right! Forgive me for not noticing my Lord! Please right, this way!" The guard suddenly said.

Atlas nodded and stepped back from the doors. Next to him he could feel Louise's stare boring into his back. With a slight chuckle, he turned to face her. "A little trick I learned from Lord Shaxx, shout anything loud enough and even the mightiest of Titans will feel compelled to do as you command." It also seemed to have improved his mood, but Louise felt it might be best to keep that observation to herself.

"Right...I'll, I'll keep that in mind..." Louise muttered making no plans to attempt such a stunt. She was pretty certain it wouldn't work very well for her. Although, if she were to incorporate a nova bomb-'no.'

Saito shut her down before she could follow that train of thought any further.

'Spoil sport' Louise huffed internally.

Louise patiently waited as the gates creaked and groaned, slowly unbarring their access to the settlement. Although she felt her composure slip a tad as the doors suddenly screeched when the hinges scraped along rusted patches of old metal.

Resisting the urge to rub the side of her helmet that covered her ears Louise instead turned to look at Atlas. The massive Titan remained still as a statue unfazed by the ear-piercing noise. Internally Louise wondered if the Iron Lord had simply turned off the external microphones built into his helmet.

'No... even I wouldn't make such a rookie move.' Louise thought with a silent shake of her head. After surviving nearly a decade of ambushes by Fallen, and recently Vex forces alike. Deafening her helmet would be as foolish as charging naked into enemy lines.

Finally after what had felt like minutes but in reality had only been a scant few seconds, the doors came to a halt. And Louise and Atlas were greeted by... a dozen Loaded rifles held by soldiers wearing goggles and scarves around and covering their heads and faces. But what caught Louise's eye was the odd vandal helmet worn by some soldiers in the back.

'AMBUSH!' Was the first thought to reach Louise's mind.

On instinct, Louise dropped into a ready stance in one arm her hand cannon poised to shoot, and in the other, a vortex grenade primed to be released. Noticing her hostility the majority of the weapons turned to her. Variously clicks and clacks resonated from the weapons as safeties were undone and rounds were chambered. Louise felt the world around her slow to crawl as she analyzed the combatants before her.

'7 rifles of human origin, two bullpup pulse rifles, what I believe is a scout rifle, and four standard-issue golden-aged auto rifles. Hmm, rusty and in worse condition than mine, must be dark age then.' Louise deducted, sweeping her gaze up she examined the backline.

'The remaining 5 are all fallen rifles. Two Line rifles two shock pistols and... a Shock rifle? Damn, how did they get their hands on one of those? Focus! Not the time to get distracted. Their Human rifles have no charge time and are only hindered by the reflexes of their wielder. My armour and shielding will have no trouble stopping their rounds, however, their fallen rifles will pose a problem. I'll have three seconds once they begin charing to make my move. I might be able to take a hit or two from a single Line rifle but I don't want to push my luck.' A plan quickly formulated in her mind, targets were prioritized and shots were lined up. 'Let's see how they like a supercharged vortex grenade, with spacing like that how could I possibly resist!'

With a plan in place, Louise began siphoning more void energy into her left hand. Feeling the power grow with every passing second, it wouldn't be long before her opponent realizes what she is doing. But by then it will be too la-

"ALL OF YOU GUNS DOWN NOW! THAT'S AN ORDER!" A booming feminine voice commanded from behind the 'enemy' lines. Approximately half of the guards present lowered the rifles to point at the dirt. But the remainder refused to let down their guard.

"But Ma'am, they could be warlor-" "If they were, then we would already be long dead." One soldier tried to protest but was cut off by the commanding voice. The owner of said voice decided to make themselves known by elbowing their way to the front of the crowd. Forcefully shoving down the barrels of any weapons that were still pointed at the two guardians.

When Louise finally caught sight of the woman she felt her breath hitch for a moment. Half her face was covered in a nasty burn no doubt from a fallen weapon, but of what calibre Louise could not tell. What she could tell however was that the wound was very fresh and very painful.

'She shouldn't be walking around after a hit like that. How is she even conscious? Let alone barking out orders!?' Saito suddenly chimed in. Louise nodded in agreement, she knew firsthand how painful arcsinge was and was baffled to see a regular human walking it off. The first few direct hits she had experienced on her bare skin had her rolling on the floor in pain.

Once the scarred woman had broken past the line of guardsmen and women Louise got a better view of her. She had the build of a hunter, she was dressed in a brown leather jacket covering up what Louise suspected was a thick bulletproof vest, covering her legs was a pair of ripped blue jeans that had been covered in dried mud and blood. On her feet were an impressive pair of black combat boots that were also covered in mud and what seemed to be some ether as well. She showed no fear she strode across the clearing towards the two guardians.

Finally realizing that the people behind her were most likely dressed like Fallen due to their gear being salvaged from them, Louise lowered her weapon. Closing her left fist she felt the void energy scatter harmlessly through her closed fingers. Returning to a neutral stance she bit her lip as she noticed how the woman seemed to tower over her like Atlas did.

Coming to a halt before the two Guardians she looked them both over with a calculating gaze.

"Iron Lord huh?" She asked rhetorically, while she examined Atlas's armour. "What did we do to earn such a privilege?"

"Convenient timing." Was all Atlas said.

The woman raised a brow but she did not inquire further. Instead, she offered a hand, "Name's Sarah. I'm the boss of the sorry bunch you met earlier."

Atlas shook her hand. "Atlas." he introduced himself, noticeably leaving the 'Lord' out of his Title.

"And her?" Sarah jerked he chin in Louise's direction.

Louise folded her arms. "Louise, pleased to meet you too." She said in a sharp tone.

Sarah narrowed her eyes at her for a moment before turning her back to them. "Come with me, we can discuss things in my office." She said over her shoulder.

Louise felt her anger rise at the clear disrespect shown to her. She has no right to tell her what to do! And that stupid flippant tone of hers! How dare she use that tone to address her! A Guardian! She shou-

Louise abruptly raised a hand to her helmet, rubbing the spot where her temple was located. 'What the hell was that?'

'I- I'm not sure. Your brainwaves just took a suddenly one-eighty when Sarah turned her back on you. I- I actually lost track of your thoughts for a minute there... Are you alright Louise?' Saito asked worriedly.

Louise hesitated, she wanted to say yes... but she knew that was a lie. 'We have a mission to do. We'll talk about this later.'

Saito was silent, but he did not speak up when Louise made to follow Atlas into the settlement.

When they reached the line of guards, the gathered humans made it very clear they did not trust them. They muttered various insults and threats under their breaths however not accounting for the Guardian's enhanced hearing. Louise and Atlas made no indication that they could hear them, opting to instead pretend they could not hear them.

Midway through the guards, Louise's patience was beginning to run out. Growing sick of the comments she decided to be a little cheeky. You see, since the battle, she still hadn't switched her subclass back to Sol energy, and as such, she was beginning to feel rather chilly. Thankfully this settlement had not been as close to the planet's pole as the last city but it was still well below what she was comfortable with.

Taking a deep breath she silently attuned her light to Sol energy. And with a small prodding, she felt it blossom throughout her frame. She smiled devilishly as a few flames rolled off her shoulders and head, startling some of the nearby guards. This time she made certain to keep it subtle enough that it could easily be mistaken as their imagination.

'Louise, do not give them a reason to fire at us. This situation is tense enough as it is, I do not need you making it worse.' Atlas radioed Louise accusingly. His tone made it clear he was gritting his teeth at her actions.

'My apologies Lord, it won't happen again.' Louise replied respectfully dipping her head in shame. In front of her, she noticed Atlas twitch.

'Just... just don't be so rash. We have reputations to uphold, the field is no place for games.' Atlas answered, his voice sounding a little strained.

Finally, they broke past the guards and strolled into the settlement without any further conflict. Still neither the guardian or Iron Lord relaxed, years of experience had ingrained habits into them. To them, an urban environment was all the more dangerous. If on the enemy's home turf, they held all the advantages, rooftops and windows alike could be occupied.

Louise did her best to curb her paranoia but was finding it difficult as she passed between the various homes and buildings built out of recycled shipping containers. Some being stacked up to four stories high, offering an immense height advantage.

Louise could only take solace in the fact that the residents were currently preoccupied with repairing the damages from some stray fire in the city.

A quick look at the dirt beneath her feet revealed some tracks from Fallen that started rather deep in the dirt and mud. Evidently, one of the Skiffs had gotten rather bold and attempted to drop some fighters in the center of the settlement.

"A fat lot of good that strategy was, we have gunners set up along the rooftops. Fallen bastards didn't even know what hit em'." Noticing her stare Sarah had easily put two and two together for Louise.

Louise nodded along but did not say anything. Sarah frowned and returned her gaze forwards. Evidently displeased by Louise's silence. Their walk led them to the rear of the settlement, where the old tanker made up the rear wall.

Upon entering the capsized tanker Louise noticed how the humidity made its way through the filters of her helmet. She shivered thinking how the residents put up with such filthy conditions. Ironically, her living conditions on mercury had been arguably worse than here. Sarah led the two into the belly of the ship where a makeshift command room had been set up.

Lanterns were propped up on tables, and light bulbs strung up like Christmas lights were suspended above. Various old metal tables and wooden furniture was dotted around the room. Louise caught sight of more than a few texts on their shelves. She forcefully throttled the side her that so desperately wanted to dash over to them to force them to spill their secrets. Tearing her gaze away she noticed she had missed Atlas and Sarah making their way to the center of the room where a table had been set up with a paper map at its center.

Walking up to it she noticed blue images flickering on its surface. Shifting her gaze she tracked its source to a holographic projector displaying overtop of the paper map. Louise nodded in approval of the setup, she knew it could not be easy tracking down a fully, or even partially functional war table.

"Now then," Sarah said leaning over the table. "To business."

Atlas nodded and removed his helmet placing it down on the table. Louise however opted to keep hers on. "At 1300 hours yesterday Tower command received a request for a small escort to guide and protect a small group of refugees headed for the city."

Sarah nodded in confirmation. "Then approximately six hours ago we picked up on Fallen chatter nearby and our situation went from bad to desperate." She paused to sigh, letting her shoulders droop only a fraction. "The timing of this attack had been devastating. A few days prior there was a reported breach in our armoury. The guards standing watch were both killed and our only two anti-air weapons and a handful of rifles were taken right under our noses. We never caught the culprits."

"So when the skiffs showed up you had no method of dealing with them until we came along." Louise surmised.

Sarah nodded. "Had you come only a few minutes later I doubt our gates would still be standing."

"Just fulfilling our duty." Atlas said in a firm tone.

"And for that I thank you. But I'm afraid I might have to ask you a pretty big favour." Sarah said apologetically. "Unfortunately because of the severity of the most recent attack the number of people looking to leave for the city just tripled."

Atlas visibly winced at this. Placing his hands on the table he drummed his fingers on the map. "With a group as large as that I fear we are going to need another fireteam..." Pondering his own words for a moment he nodded and stood up. "I'll make a call, but I cannot guarantee anything at this time. Excuse me."

Atlas stood up straight and picked up his helmet, placing it over his head with a hiss and a click he stepped away to radio the tower. Leaving behind an awkward Louise and a stern Sarah. Louise watched Atlas's retreating back and waited patiently for him to return. Next to her, Sarah saw no reason to strike up any form of conversation. Instead, she stared at the map on the table searching for any magical change to the still images set up on it. The holograms on the map were pre-programmed and had yet to be updated so they weren't changing anytime soon.

Finally finding the silence suffocating or perhaps seeking a distraction from the searing pain on her cheek Sarah spoke up. "I noticed Atlas removed his helmet. Why didn't you do the same? Is that a thing only Iron Lords do and not Guardians?"

"It's a personal matter," Louise said coldly.

Sarah raised a brow but did not inquire further. She knew better than to get on any Risen's bad side. Backing off she returned her focus to the war table. Thankfully Atlas returned shortly after, sparing them any further awkwardness.

"I managed to secure a line to the tower, they will be sending a new fireteam as soon as possible. At the earliest, I am told we can expect them to arrive in six hours' time, so I strongly advise we prepare to leave tomorrow morning at sun up." Atlas informed the two occupants of the room.

Sarah nodded. "Good, I'll get to informing them immediately. Feel free to explore the town in the meantime, it might be a good idea to make a good impression on the people you might be protecting tomorrow."

With those words, Sarah turned and left the two alone in the command center.

Louise turned to Atlas. "So... now what?"

"Now, we wait." Atlas replied.

Last City : The Tower - Minutes later

Located on the residential floors of the tower a young warlock was enjoying the peace and quiet of her room. Perched upon the window sill of the apartment living space she enjoyed the dim light of the afternoon sun shining through. Her braided ocean blue hair was done up behind her head and away from her face. Her glowing white skin indicating her race as an awoken. Perched upon her nose was her favourite pair of reading glasses, of course, they served no real purpose other than her own comfort. Her vision was already far sharper than any ordinary human, Awoken, or Exo for that matter. However, whenever she sat down to read, she felt the urge to put on a pair of reading glasses.

Her ghost, Pixie had wagered a guess that it had perhaps been a habit she formed in life due to poor eyesight. Whatever the reason it had to do with her past, and since such research was considered taboo, she was forced to strangle her curiosity on the matter. A task many Warlocks frequently struggled with.

As such in order to prevent any act of 'heresy', as some would choose to put it, she kept herself busy with other tasks. Books were her favourite, but they rarely shed any light (no pun intended) on her main issue. Her lack of any affinity with Void light.

When it came to the void most warlocks had a natural affinity to its power. However, she appeared to be an exception to the rule. She had been meaning to sign up to learn under Osiris, the current Warlock vanguard but she never had... well, she never made the time for it. She always typically distracted herself with a book or her fireteam leader would abruptly sign them up for a mission.

"Hey Violet! I got us another mission!" an obnoxiously loud Exo suddenly yelled as he kicked down the warlocks door. Speak of the devil and he shall appear apparently. The Exo in question had a black shell with gunmetal grey faceplates. Whenever he spoke his orange lights would glow in sync with his voice.

This was her fireteam leader, a hunter class Guardian Jaeger-9 the second most unprofessional Exo she had the pleasure of knowing. The first went to the hunter Cayde-6, him and his terrible jokes and a bad habit of never turning down any bet that comes his way. Funny it seemed Jaeger had a similar issue only instead of bets he could never seem to turn down a mission offered to him.

"Nope, we got escort duty!" Jaeger said uncharacteristically cheerful.

Violet glared at him suspiciously. "You are way too excited for escort duty." She stated. "Fess up, what's the catch?"

The Exo grinned. "We'll be shadowing an Iron lord!"

"Bullshit." Violet said automatically. There were only two Iron Lords left, and one of them had isolated themselves in the mountains. The other... was rumoured to be out with a guardian with a suspicious backstory.

"Not at all! Obviously, it isn't Lord Saladin, because he's out in the mountains, but Lord Atlas is still out and about!"

"Excuse me for not believing that an Iron lord of all people has been delegated the task of escort duty." Violet said flatly. Even at their prime, Iron Lords rarely took up the duty of escorting civilians. It was mainly due to their mentality of maintaining the front lines at all times. So now with only one Iron Lord not presently chained to a desk at the tower, Violet had a great deal of trouble believing what she just heard.

"Under any normal circumstances, I would agree, however, Lord Atlas is under... unique circumstances." Jaeger trailed off looking for the right words. Before he could find any, someone else supplied their own.

"It's because he's got some parasitic leech anchoring him to grunt work." Came the disgruntled voice of the fireteam's third member.

"Oh, Athena! Didn't see you there." Jaeger said cheerfully turning to address the Titan. "How's my favourite Titan?"

Athena shot him a sour glare.

"Don't smile! But! I got us a Job!" He said with a cheeky smile or at least the Exo equivalent of one. Depending on the design of their face it may be difficult to read their expression.

Athena glared even harder.

"Wait, if we are meeting up with Lord Atlas, how are we getting there?" Violet questioned. "Last I heard he was in some settlement down by the Earth's equator. We all have sparrows, but taking into account all of the fallen, and probably hive we are going to run into along the way..." She trailed off mentally running the calculations in her head. "That could take weeks at best!"

"Ah! But that's where you are wrong my friend!" Jaeger explained joyfully waving a finger as he spoke. "We won't be taking the sparrows by land, we will be flying!"

"What!?" Both violet and Athena questioned in unison.

"You heard me, we're all getting ships!" Jaeger repeated the metal plates that covered his cheeks sliding away to give him an enormous fanged predatory smile. To those not familiar with him, and his face's unique design. It would appear threatening, or evil, sadly, it meant neither. Despite its menacing appearance, it was just his way of grinning ear to ear. Unfortunately whoever he had been in life apparently had not shared his good nature. Meaning that he was stuck scaring off every fair maiden and child he met.

Violet was forced to stifle a fit of giggles that threatened to arise at the memory of Jaeger trying to hit on one of the tower staff. He cracked some corny joke or was it just a terrible pickup line? It didn't matter, what made it hilarious was when he 'smiled'.

The poor woman ran screaming as if a horde of fallen were chasing after her. Still, she had to feel bad for her fireteam leader, the Exo had been down in the dumps for a while after that. Sadly, it did not dissuade him from trying to flirt with the tower staff. Discourage maybe, but he was far too stubborn to quit.

"Although..." Jaeger continued his face falling into a more somber expression his faceplates closing once , very un-jaeger like. "The ships are all... well, hand-me-downs."

"Doesn't that term literally apply to everything we have these days? Heck, even our weapons are hand-me-down, what's so important about these shi... oh." Violet trailed off as her brain connected the dots in her mind.

"Yeah..." Jeager replied awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

"What? What am I missing here?" Athena asked confused.

"These ships... they uh... well, they belonged to the late Iron Lords." Jaeger supplied.

"Oh..." Suddenly Athena understood why everyone was so down.

The three stood awkwardly in silence as they digested the information.

"Wait... these are memorial ships. What did we do to even deserve these in the first place!? Last I checked we weren't anybody important in the tower." Violet abruptly broke the silence.

"That's... uh... yeah I got nothing." Jaeger tried and failed to produce an explanation.

"Did, Lord Saladin maybe scout us as potential recruits?" Athena asked in a hopeful tone.

"No, actually as I recall it was Saint-14 who put in a good word for us." Jaeger said. "I think I caught him in a good mood or something, he was going off about a freshly Risen. I stuck around and listened to his usual spiel about his vision for the future of this city. Then I suppose I asked if I'd ever get to meet this Guardian of his, and here we are." He added with a shrug.

Violet nodded this was Saint, after all, he had a reputation to act on his emotions at times. Sighing she got up to put her book back on its shelf. It seemed she would have to put reading off until a later date. Noticing her intent the others turned to leave. However, as Jaeger turned Violet caught sight of his right pauldron. As soon as she saw what was engraved on it she groaned. A revolver and a dagger crossed within the jaws of a human skull. His personal play on the classic skull and crossbones.

"Really Jaeger?" Violet questioned. "Didn't you already get told off for that looking like something a Warlord would have?"

"Oh come on, it's original!" Jaeger whined. "And! And, Saint said he liked it! So you can't complain."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you." Violet said in a flat tone.

"No no I'm serious, it's actually the whole reason I know the guy in the first place. He said he liked the symbol, said something about him recognizing it... I think. I don't really remember, I was out drinking at the time."

Violet groaned and pushed past him to get to the tower's hangar. This was going to be a long mission.

The three guardians made their way down to the tower's makeshift hangar, previously the only people who made use of this place were the late Iron Lords. Now... it felt like she was walking into to a ghost town. On the far wall, an enormous monument had been erected in memoriam of the fallen heroes. A few dozen helmets had been recovered and were arranged neatly with a bouquet of bronze and Iron crafted flowers at their base. Many guardians that passed by paused to pay their respects.

Jaeger felt a pit form in his stomach as they passed by. His brain overclocking itself to account for the dizzying number of emotions running through his head at that time.

Did they really deserve to use these ships?

Especially so soon after they lost their previous owners.

What would lord Saladin think of this?

Did he even approve of this?

"Ah, so I take it that you three are the ones the mighty Saint-14 vouched for?" A gravelly voice interrupted his thoughts.

As he slowly turned his head the pistons in his neck audibly hissed as if it was in response to his anxiety.

'Traitors, you're making me look bad here!' He thought to himself.

'As inanimate objects, I calculate they are incapable of any form of sentient thought. However, factoring in the paracausal nature of our light it may be-' 'That was rhetorical!' Jeager quickly cut his ghost BD off from ranting.

Turning to face the source of the voice Jaeger was greeted by the scowling face of the mighty Lord Saladin himself.

"U-Uh, hello there," Jaeger said uncertainly.

'I thought you said he was up in the mountains!?' Violet hissed to Jaeger over a private channel. Unfortunately, he could not reply as he was not wearing a helmet to mute his voice.

"You three are here to receive ships, are you not?" He pressed, his scowl deepening.

"Y-yes sir." Jaeger quickly replied. Internally screaming at his fireteam members to bail him out.

"Hmm..." Lord Saladin hummed as he looked them over. Finally, after a tense few seconds, he nodded his head and turned on his heel. His scowl never leaving his face. "I'm sending each of your Ghosts the available selection of ships. Make your selection quickly, you will be leaving as soon as you receive them."

As the leader of the Iron Lords walked away Jaeger let his shoulders slump as he let out a breath he did not realize he had been holding. Turning over his shoulder he faced his two fireteam members.

"Thanks for the assist, really feeling the love." He said in the most sarcastic tone he could muster.

Violet chuckled sheepishly, while Athena was frozen in shock from speaking with her hero. It was no secret that she Idolized the Iron Lords, ever since they bailed her out when she had been fresh out of the grave, she had made it her mission in life to join their ranks. It was a shame she may never get that opportunity anymore.

"Athena? Athena..." jaeger said waving a hand in her face trying to get her attention, but sadly to no avail. His best guess was she was speaking with her ghost. "Urgh... hey Li-"*CLANG*

Whatever Jeager was about to say was cut off as Athena's fist collided with his jaw. Her dreamy expression quickly replaced with one of smouldering fury.

"Welcome back to earth, did you enjoy your trip to Lala land?" Jaeger asked in a teasing tone as his ghost quickly tried to repair his now dented face.

"It's Athena, prick!" Athena said with venom in her tone. She stalked past the damaged Exo-Guardian without further comment.

Ignoring her fuming teammate Violet crouched down next to her fireteam leader. "You kinda deserved that one, not gonna lie." She said offering no sympathy. "Until you actually learn the definition of 'boundaries', that's gonna keep happening."

As his ghost slowly finished patching up his face, Jaeger groaned and hauled himself up. "Yeah, yeah, let's just pick out our ships and get going times a wasting... I suppose."

"I have analyzed each ship available to us and have compiled a compatibility list based on each of your performances in the field. Please take care to reference each of them before you make your decision." BD broadcasted to each of the fireteam members.

"Thanks buddy!" Violet cheerfully called back over her shoulder with a wave.

With his Jaw finally repaired Jeager shifted it side to side experimentally before nodding. "Well then, that sucked. So what ship did you pick out for me?"

"Based off your performance in the field I have selected an LRv2 Javalin as your first pick. The LRv2 Javalin is a variant of the standard Phateon-class Jumpship, this variant has been retro-fitted for dangerous flight." BD stated in his usual robotic tone.

"Oh-ho! My favourite," Jaeger said with a grin. While rubbing his hands together in front of him. "Oh, and how about the others? What ships did you pick out for them?"

BD twirled his shell once, "For Athena, I suggested a Minerva class, due to her penchant to chase fights and take hits, I selected the ship with the most armour to protect the ships integrity."

"Alright, that sounds about fair, now what about Violet?"

"For Violet I selected a smaller ship, however, I am afraid I was unable to determine its class. The only name I could find for it on record was 'the Alessa'."

"Sounds nice, what's it look like?" Jaeger asked.

BD created a down-scaled hologram of the ship with a human for reference. Jaeger tried and failed to suppress the exo equivalent of a snort.

"Okay, forgive me if this sounds insulting, but I can hardly imagine any of those giants squeezing into this tiny thing." Jaeger said with a slight chuckle. The ship was incredibly compact, it almost appeared as though it was just a cockpit and an engine.

"Affirmative, while the sight may have been comedic once upon a time, I did not select it for those reasons," BD affirmed. "Due to violet's more passive nature, I calculated she might appreciate being the smallest target."

Jaeger nodded, but he was not certain Violet would see it in the same way.

Rolling his neck, Jaeger turned to his fireteam, unconsciously running a hand along his jaw as he caught Athena's glare. 'At least she didn't throw me off the tower... again.' He thought with a wince.

"Right!" Jaeger clapped his hands to grab their attention. "Has everyone picked out their ships?"

Violet looked to Athena and nodded. "Yeah, we're all good here. We just went with BD's suggestions, they seemed pretty good." Violet said, before muttering. "I just hope the cockpit is Iron Lord sized, or I might have some space issues when I try to read."

"Great! Then let's get this show on the road!" Jager said eagerly.

With the decision of the ships out of their way, the fireteam of three made there over to the current shipwright. A middle-aged man who claimed his great grandfather worked at some golden-aged spaceport. Most people believe it was just an excuse to get close to the Iron Lords as they were the largest group of Guardians to possess any ships at all. Still, the man at least knew his way around the ships, he couldn't do much more than simple repairs. But it was, at the very least, better than nothing.

"All right, have you three picked out your ships?" The man asked, scratching his clean-shaven chin.

"Yep, BD, if you would?" Jaeger asked. A brief moment later the shipwright's tablet chimed next to him. Wiping his oily hands on his already filthy blue overalls he picked up the rectangular device. Giving it a quick once over he nodded to himself before tapping a few buttons on the screen.

"Alright, so just to confirm here that I have everyone's selections right... Let's see, Guardian class Hunter, Jaeger, you have selected LRv2 Javalin correct?" Jager nodded. "Right then, Guardian class Titan, Athena, you have selected the Minerva class Correct?" A stiff nod was all the response Athena gave. "Very well, and Lastly Guardian class Warlock, Violet, you have selected... huh, you went with the little guy, the ship titled Alessa, correct?" A small smile and nod was Violet's response. "Oh-kay, I guess that's everything in order then..."

The shipwright nodded to himself as he tapped the screen in his hand.

"Right, so Lord Saladin over there wanted to say a few words to each of you before you depart. He's just over there..." He waved his free hand to the side, Lord Saladin's cape was visible on his back from a great distance. "While you go chat with him I'll send the transmat data to your ghost's and you'll be free to go. Ship's are all already on a full tank, but Oh! Right, I almost forgot. The Minerva Class ships are the only ones with an operable jump drive. We've been reallocating the functional jumpdrives to the ships with the most carrying capacity... hmm there's a thought" He trailed off drumming his fingers on his leg he stared at his tablet for a few seconds before looking up at the three guardians that were still present.

"What? I've said my piece, go talk to Lord Saladin already. I'm a busy man here, and I'm sure he is too, quit wasting time." The shipwright said in an almost annoyed tone.

The three fireteam members were surprised by the snappy attitude they just received from the shipwright. Turning on their heels they took his advice and made their way to see Lord Saladin.

"What was his deal?" Athena questioned, insulted by the brash treatment.

"Dunno, bad day at work maybe?" Jaeger lazily offered, 'stretching his arms behind his head.

Violet let out a sigh before speaking up. "I can't believe you guy's haven't noticed." She started.

"Noticed what?" Jaeger asked innocently.

"Noticed why everyone is so on edge right now." She said as if it was the most obvious answer in the system.

"Well, I think everyone's gotten pretty used to all the aliens hellbent on our extinction scratching on our walls. So I don't see what you mean." Jaeger replied.

"Seriously!?" Violet raised her voice, before quickly dropping to a whisper. "We just lost this city's strongest warriors, hundreds dead in a matter of hours! But despite this, the vanguard is still sending out guardians left right and center to collect more and more refugees!"

"Good." Jaeger said.

"Good!? The hell do you mean, good!?" Violet hissed.

"It means we haven't given up yet," Jeager stated. "So long as the vanguard is still sending out guardians to collect refugees and bring more and more Risen under their tutelage the more Guardians we will have in the fight."

Bringing his arms down from behind his head he folded them in front of his chest his gaze floating upward. "Let the Iron Lords be a lesson to all of us, Immortal we may be, we will never be invincible. If we charge headfirst into every confrontation believing our Ghosts will pick us up when we fall we'll be joining them before long."

Both Violet and Athena stopped to stare at the Exo's back stunned by his actually serious words for once.

"Who are you and what did you do with our dolt of a fireteam leader?" Violet quipped.

"Oh, does this mean are you perhaps finally noticing my signature charm?" Jeager said in his usual tone with a flutter of his eyes.

"And he's back," Athena said with a sigh. "Let's move, we've Kept Lord Saladin waiting long enough, no respectable Guardian would keep an Iron Lord waiting."

Not waiting for the others to catch up Athena marched over to where the leader of the Iron Lords was waiting.

Falling behind for a moment Jager took a second to speak with his 'I do believe using your old personality matrix technically counts as investigating your past. I must strongly oppose any further use of this course of action.' BD chastised Jager.

'Relax BD, you know I don't plan to, besides we both agreed the fireteam needed that speech. Violet especially.' Jaeger responded.

'I calculate that overuse of this course of action could lead to problems down the line. Please exercise caution when requesting use of this matrix in the future.' BD robotically continued.

'*sigh* Sure thing buddy, sometimes I swear you are more robot than me.' Jeager replied dejectedly.

Evidently having heard their approach Lord Saladin turned to face the fireteam, his enormous bronze cape swinging behind him as he did. "Have you picked out which ships you will be inheriting?" He asked in a serious tone.

Jaeger and Violet nodded, while Athena gave a "Yes sir" instead.

He held each of their gazes for a moment longer, once more showing no emotion beyond his scowl. He then turned to face his Ghost hovering over his shoulder, who then informed him of their selection.

"This city has suffered more than enough loss for many lifetimes to come. As Iron Lords, and as Risen we have been blessed by the traveller to wield the light. But while our light will never fade from time itself, the many enemies of humanity actively seek to tear it from our grasp. They may be many, but at our best I have seen a single Risen face armies alone." Lord Saladin took a moment to straighten himself. "As the Leader of the Iron Lords I hereby bestow the ships upon each of you. I only ask this of each of you, Honor the memory they represent. Honour their sacrifice and bring the fight to them!"

"We shall!" Athena swore, beating a fist against her breastplate.

Lord Saladin locked eyes with each of the guardians and held their gaze, testing their determination. After a full minute, he was satisfied and stepped away.

"Your Ghost's should have finished configuring your transmats now. Take good care of these ships, they belong to you now. Take good care of them." Lord Saladin finished before stepping away. "Eyes up Guardians, you have a job to do."

With those parting words, the three Guardian fireteam felt their vision distort as they were transmitted aboard their ships.

A/N

Aaaaaand that is finally a wrap! Holy smokes that too waaay longer than it had any right too... Damn.

Well, I just sincerely hope I don't get so stuck as I did last time, but before that, reviews!

Zekken182 : Yup, I was really proud of that one. Hope to see you in two weeks for the next chapter! (for real this time)

Raven : Haha indeed, it's only going to get more awkward with time as she grows older and wiser... and maybe a tad chaotic. Thnas for all your constant reviews and I hope to see you in the next chapter!

Knight of Fire : Yup, she seems to be struggling a bit now. Also I chose plebian because I figured it would be a bit more of a red flag than commoner. Just tends to hit a bit harder that way.

Donout : Thanks, this came at an important time and I really needed to hear this. I'm really sorry this chapter took so long so I never got the chance to thank you for this review. Thank you for all your constant reviews and I hope to see you in the next chapter!

Guest : Yeah I was always curious about that, thanks for confirming it! Hope to see you in the next chapter!

Hellion117 : Haha! she has to hold back because otherwise she might get her allies caught in the blast radius too! Also I totally agree, if there was a method of charging a nova bomb and not having a limit on how charged it would be, I could picture myself waiting a good few hours for a good show. Thanks for the review and I hope to see you in the next chapter!

Right that's all of that out of the way now allow me to just say this. My most sincere apologies, this chapter has been borderline ready for nearly a month now but I was never able to properly finish it. I am very glad to see how this story is evolving and where it will go, I already have an entire plotline and sequence of events to come plotted out, so I hope you can all stick around for what's to come.

Until then however, thank you all for putting up with this incredibly long wait and I hope to see you all in the next chapter.

Sincerely,

Sir Jonas Morningstar