The Forsaken
Chapter 4: a captain's journey
-two weeks later-
The skiff was almost quiet as a clear night on earth. The only sounds that of Syivax beeping and gurgling, and instruments in the cockpit. Mithrax sat in front of a table near the wall, staring at the mysterious machine sitting on it.
"what is this thing? I think I've seen one near a human once⦠or at least an alive one" he grumbled before heaving up into a stand, then turned towards the front of the ship. Walking to the front, he signaled his servitor to come over.
"Syivax, set a course for earth. There's something I want to see" the floating machine obliged, attaching itself to the ship's navigation computer. Soon enough, the stars melted away into the subspace tunnel, until they emerged just outside earth's atmosphere.
"I'll take it from here" said Mithrax, steering the ship towards a mountainous area on the planet. through the clouds, he could see faint flashes of light, like from a cannon. careful to not be within firing range, he landed the ship a few miles away from his target location
"I'm gonna bring that object with me, syivax. alert me if there is any activity nearby, and keep the skiff in low orbit." the servitor gurgled as mithrax jumped out, and began heading up the mountain. the cloud cover was thick enough that he wouldn't be spotted from above, yet his own vision was clouded.
the humans must have such reverence for this place he thought, mithrax had only known the place to be where many eliksni skiffs are shot down and destroyed, among other craft. as he poked out of the cloud cover, he marvelled at a large old world complex. a mass of rusted iron and cannon batteries, patrolled by human-form machines painted red. the captain waited until it was clear of robots to move further in, admiring the ability of the humans to keep hold of the place for so long. he swiftly climbed to the top of the building and sat down, then stared out across the vast mountain range, until he took sight of something on the distance.
"Is that... the great machine?" said Mithrax, squinting his eyes to see better. yes! he knew just by it's white color, and spherical shape that it was the great machine from the stories. the captain sat there, staring at the Traveler for a solid hour, until almost like deja vu, there was a sharp "hey!" behind him.
"Fallen scum! how did you get up here?!" the eliksni slowly stood up, and turned around. it only took a split glance to notice it was the same human from before, standing there brandishing a gun in his direction
"you?" growled mithrax, lowering his arms as slowly as he had stood, making the guardian lower his gun in confusion.
"you're- you're that captain from Io... the same one who sneaked into the cradle?" as if something had clicked in his head, he felt the need to yell,
"why?! why are you always in places of light?! How do you keep sneaking in?" he lurched forward, fist clenched.
"misraaks do not know..." the fallen said despondantly, looking down. he slowly turned around to face back to the traveler, pointing to the white orb in the far distance.
" great machine, left eliksni... race fell. no leave terra, what different?" Elys walked forwards, and holstered his weapon.
"when the darkness came to us, the traveler didn't leave, it stood its ground to protect us. just before the collapse happened, it used it's last breath to create ghosts, and they created us, guardians." Elys turned towards the captain, and took off his helmet, revealing his face to a fallen for probably only the 2nd time ever. Mithrax's eyes widened, this human was not flesh, but machine!
"you..."
"are an exo, yes." said the guardian, turning back to the traveler.
"this place is where many guardians and fallen alike lost their lives. the fallen houses stormed this complex, as well as the Last City, and had it not been for one of our heroes, possibly the entire human race would have been wiped out."
"Misraaks understands, humans... deserve great machine..." he sat back down, and pulled out the tiny machine from mars, turning it in his clawed hands. ghost, eh? just as he was about to put it back into his bag, Elys glanced over,
"w... where did you get that?!"
"red planet" replied mithrax in reverence. this tiny little robot was responsible for the gift of life, he had only seen these things when guardians died, floating in the air.
"did you kill someone to get it?!" yelled Elys, pulling a sidearm out, pointing it at the captain's head.
"no, was there, near dead human" he replied, looking down at the ghost again. the exo slowly put his gun back, realizing the it was a salvage, not a murder.
"you know what... keep it. it's dead, a piece of metal that is useless now." he said, turning back.
"stop, misraaks team with guardian?" the Eliksni asked, as Elys stopped in his tracks. quickly glancing over his shoulder, he shrugged then threw a device to the fallen's feet.
"it's a transponder. if you ever desperately need my aid, press the red button." and just like that, he disappeared. mithrax picked up the transponder, and put it in his bag. the trek down the mountain, away from twilight gap went about the same as before, foggy, and now colder, as day turned to dusk. the captain radioed Syivax to bring the ship back down, then boarded. he would have much more to think about now.
