A/N: Alright, here we go! Back for another chapter! I'll be answering reviews at the end of the chapter this time, so that we can get started without delay! I'd also like to apologize to those of you that I might've given a bit of confusion a few days back, I updated a couple minor things in a previous chapter and took down the update page that was 'chapter 12' beforehand. Meant to get this out a few days ago, but exams and such came up.

Chapter 12

The Dark Sun

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Surf

Ghosts were innately hard to notice, thanks to a variety of reasons. They were very small, to start, a little larger than an apple really. Not only that, but their singular eye could be dimmed or even turned off if they saw fit to, without truly impairing their vision. These two factors, combined with the relatively dark blue and red color scheme that Surf's shell possessed, allowed for him to simply hover in the low branches of a nearby tree and watch as several...unfamiliar creatures landed around the doorway, sniffing at it and investigating like wild animals. If Juno were here, the two of them would have probably found observing the creatures to be fascinating, but he was alone and vulnerable now, highly aware that without his Guardian nearby, he couldn't revive her, and she couldn't physically protect him.

While two of the creatures, which vaguely resembled overgrown and mutated bats, were likely understandably wary of the door frame sitting in the middle of a forest, the third and more curious one approached it, making huffing noises as it crawled along the ground. Wickedly sharp talons casually tore up the grass as it moved, and Surf decided he really didn't want to get caught by one of these things. The thing hesitated for a moment, then bumped the frame itself with its head, finding it immovable and sturdy. It circled around, gazing into the shimmering void that was the 'portal' hosted by the frame. With one talon, it reached out to touch it, and the instant that it came into contact with it, the entire creature simply...vanished.

That probably wasn't a good thing.

Pender Commune, Massachusetts

Vaz, Nu-7 Operator

When the sounds of a storage crate shattering echoed up the stairwell, he nearly jumped out of his pants, not that he'd ever admit it. When it happened again, his rifle snapped up and he radioed the perimeter team that there was some kind of disturbance in the basement and that he was moving to investigate. The quiet reply that the rest of his team was on the way was reassuring in a way he couldn't quite quantify, given how strange this whole Operation had been.

When he was half-way down the stairs, the first dent appeared in the door. That was a bad sign. Tension coiling in his chest, he slowed his descent down the stairs and pressed against the wall closer to the door. When wicked sharp looking blades punched through the heavy steel door, he started backing up the stairs. After that, things happened very quickly.

A creature that faintly reminded Vaz of European gargoyles introduced itself then, leaping into the staircase with a shriek and a clatter of too many limbs. His silenced M4 spat half a dozen rounds as soon as he had a clear mark, and while the wet whack of their impacts were easily audible, it didn't seem to have much effect on the otherworldly creature. Behind him, the front door to the house slammed open and the first of his backup barged in, forgoing stealth in favor of speed.

The creature, whose attention had been on him, whipped its head around to look up the staircase and shrieked. It wasn't like anything he'd heard before, a strange warbling cry that echoed when it shouldn't have. With deceptively powerful legs, the thing pushed off and launched itself up the stairs, bowling over Vaz and knocking him downwards. Striking his head against a wall, he doesn't hear the screams as it tears the other Nu-7 operators limb from limb, nor does he see the front door shatter as it forces itself outside, where it's finally killed by half a dozen Zeta-9 Operators who had been prepping to move out and investigate several of the holes that'd been found around the property.

What he does see as he falls unconscious is another, larger set of similar claws appear in the corner of his vision, another creature emerging from a pitch-black doorway.

When Vaz wakes up several hours later, it's already dark. The skies are overcast, and the moon hidden, and it's far too quiet. Even during the night, there would've been Foundation personnel everywhere, especially inside where the dead men of his team lay unattended to. Stepping quietly over the unmoving bodies and giving them a silent apology, he creeps through the broken front door and finds his answer.

Wrecked equipment, more bodies, and no signs of life anywhere. No one in the central camp was still alive. At least his radio still worked, he reflected as he toggled the device. "Anyone still on the net? This is Lieutenant Vaz, sound off."

The radio was dreadfully silent for near ten seconds before he got a reply, drawing a silent sigh of relief that he wasn't alone. "Lieutenant Walker here, Perimeter Team 3, what the hell's going on over there? We heard gunfire but we couldn't reach anyone. Haven't heard from either of the other Perimeter Teams, either."

Casting a quick glance around, he doesn't see any of the gargoyles around, but that doesn't mean they're not there. "I'll explain once you get here, Walker. Move quick and quiet. If you hear movement, hide."

There's a moment of silence once more, presumably as Walker relays his info to the others in his team. "Roger that, any other words of advice before we go silent? We'll be there in twenty if everything goes well."

"Yeah, one thing," Vaz answers, glancing out at the dead creature on the lawn, "They can be killed by massed fire, but they're tough as hell and quicker than you'd expect. Look like giant gargoyles almost, like the ones you'd see in Europe."

"Gargoyles, seriously? Christ on a bike, what has Juno done now? Right, right, we'll be there soon, going silent," came the almost annoyed response. Vaz grinned beneath his mask, sounded like Walker already knew their errant specialist, and that she caused trouble easily enough.

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Warlock Juno

The guns overhead still hadn't stopped firing, at least not in total. At times, certain guns would fall silent as they cooled or reloaded, but as a whole, the wall had never ceased its blistering defense. She wished she had asked her mysterious savior how long these raids could go for, before she'd fallen asleep. She could feel the faint echoes or her Ghost on the edge of her mind, he was getting ever so slowly closer, and that concerned her more than anything.

If Surf had abandoned his studies of the doorway, something had happened. He'd been discovered, or the Reavers had gotten close enough that he wasn't safe. Regardless, he was still too far for mental communications, and she found herself agitated and itching to do something about it.

Lumina popped off her hip, and the chamber slid open as she dropped the magazine into her hand, examining the unusually light cylinder. No defects, no rounds missing, and no imbalances, not that she expected any. Exotic rated weapons such as Lumina were incredibly rare, and to have even a slight malfunction or problem would have to be the result of deliberate sabotage or years of neglect.

Lumina slid back onto her hip, and The Long Goodbye came off her back, the long barrel clinking on the wall behind her. The magazine dropped into her other hand, and setting the rifle to the side, she popped out each round to inspect those, followed by a check of the magazine's condition.

The Drifter made good gear, at least. Solid and robust, likely a style founded by his Dark Age experiences, based on what little she'd gotten out of the man. He was a dozen mysteries folded into one, a Risen who never sought the power of the Warlords, who never rose up against them as with the Iron Lords, and who just...kept living. He was old, far older than her, and so jaded it shocked her that he spoke to anyone at all. He refused to trust his own Ghost, and that was a story she'd never managed to extract from the man. Something to ask about when she got back.

Regardless, she found herself with a new world to explore, and perhaps a new threat to neutralize. If what her mysterious friend had said was true, these 'Reavers' were a consistent and lethal threat, one that this woman's presumed ancestors had built walls and war machines to defend against, though the battlefields beyond the walls hinted at much larger threats than the winged creatures.

Each round was slotted back into the magazine, which found itself returned to the rifle's receiver, and it was slid back onto her back. Juno frowned when she considered that she didn't have a heavy weapon. Typically Surf would transmat one out of the inventory space that they shared when needed, but Surf wasn't here, and she wasn't sure what Lumina or Goodbye would do against a new enemy. Especially one that seemingly mandated the kinds of defenses Cabal would be proud of.

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Surf

Surf had been heavily debating leaving the gate and heading out to find Juno when it happened. Perhaps 'find' was the wrong word. Even this far apart, he could tell almost exactly where she was, and the trouble was simply in getting to her intact. Regardless, the Ghost's singular eye was once more drawn to the doorway between spaces when movement from the other side caught his gaze. It was one of the Foundation soldiers, he realized after a moment.

Hands shaking, rifle pointed towards the doorway, and breathing heavily, it was obvious the poor man was having a bad time. Surf assumed it had to do with the creatures that had gone through earlier. Another man tumbled through, disoriented or injured. The manifestation of Light couldn't tell, but the first one rushed forwards and started dragging him back as a third came through, visibly worse for wear if the blood pouring out of their side was any indication.

Surf was just lowering himself out of the branches to approach them when a fourth soldier emerged from the doorway, making it perhaps two steps before a razor sharp claw punched through their chest. The arm that followed belonged to one of the creatures that the Ghost was now updating from 'Possible Threat' to 'Definite Threat'.

Quiet cries of alarm from the others signalled the apparent command to open fire, and the silenced rifles from the three standing troopers launched hypervelocity rounds into the doorway. The bullets did a seemingly negligible amount of damage, if the way that the creature pulled itself through the gate and launched itself forward was any indication. It leapt over them and into the trees, overshooting or more injured than readily visible, who knew, but Surf took the chance to do something.

Dropping down from his little hiding place, he whirled around the soldier he recognized on closer inspection as Vaz, dropping a Transmat Beacon from his inventory at the mans feet. "Activate that, quickly!"

Rather than question the Ghost's sudden appearance or instructions, he dropped down to one knee and quickly looked over the unfamiliar device, even as the other two did their best to keep the creature suppressed. Locating a switch on the base of the cylindrical beacon, he toggles it and looks to the Ghost with an almost desperate energy.

Surf furrows his shell in concentration, running through calculations faster than a human mind could comprehend. He addresses all three soldiers, "Hold on, this is going to be unpleasant."

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Warlock Juno

When three Foundation Troopers and her Ghost materialized in the already cramped room, and with the exception of Surf, dropped to the floor with a clang, Juno was on her feet within seconds, and her mysterious companion was but a moment behind her. "Surf, what in the Traveler's name is this?"

One of them, Vaz by his helmet markings, tore off said helmet and threw up onto the grating beneath their feet, groaning at what was most likely his first Transmat experience. Her companion floats over to her, shell twirling. "Sorry, I had to use one of our Transmat Beacons. These three came through the doorway, a winged creature was attacking them, one of several that went through the doorway earlier. I assume they're all that's left of the base camp."

The loss of a Transmat Beacon was annoying, but not debilitating in any way. In comparison to saving these three, it was a decent trade all things considered. Crouching down next to them, even as her 'friend' watched with apparent apprehension, she checked over the three temporarily debilitated soldiers, finding wounds only on one, nasty looking gashes like claws across the woman's side. Juno felt the well of Solar Light rise up in her, and she channeled it into one hand and cast it to the floor, forming a healing well in the center of the room.

She watched as the gashes began to heal, and small bruises and scrapes disappeared from the other two as well. The stranger's rifle clattered to the ground and she looked up to meet the woman's wide eyes curiously. "You...You're a Caster? This changes everything!"

Right… Well, that would have to be dealt with after she made sure her only surviving companions were alright. She man-handles the woman into leaning up against the wall, her breathing steadying as the light of the Healing Well fades away. Vaz had tucked himself into a similar position, seemingly still somewhat out of it. Juno always did forget how unpleasant it could feel to have your atoms rearranged.

The third and final member of their little group was spread-eagle on the floor, breathing deeply as they seemingly tried to keep themselves from being sick too. The rasp of the air filter on the mask that he wore seemed louder than it should have been in the small room. "Everyone else is gone…"

Juno just grunted, pulling him up and pulling the helmet off of him. Nothing that she could say would change that. Best she could do was keep him from going into shock. "Be glad you're not dead, too."

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Lieutenant Shane Walker

Shane had been incredibly lucky by Foundation standards, during his service. His team had walked in and out of almost every Operation alive and intact, with anything more than injuries being incredibly rare. His team were supposed to be the 'Untouchables' of Nu-7, the men and women who walked in and out of Hell without issue, until now. Now there were three of them, of the entire Nu-7 Platoon deployed on this mission.

Claws on otherworldly metal clattered overhead, and the booming of the defense towers echoed as they tore apart a creature far too close for comfort. It was like being in a warzone, the worst he'd ever seen. Shane had done a tour with the Marines in Afghanistan before he'd been picked up by the Foundation. He'd seen things he'd never forget there, heard gunfire and explosions in his dreams, but this was somehow worse. Because not only could he not fight this enemy, but because they killed his people with so little effort it felt almost mocking.

Bullets that would put down an insurgent or enemy soldier hit like wet tissue paper when used against these things, and he doubted anything short of a SMAW would put one down for good. They weren't equipped for that regardless, and whatever QRFs moved in once the base camp failed to report wouldn't have the slightest clue what had happened, or what they were walking into.

Juno murmured something to her intelligent drone and her signature hand cannon disappeared in a flash of light, with two more weapons appearing instead, one on each hip. A blocky silver handgun that looked impressively high in caliber, and a smaller grey weapon of similar design, with a long thin barrel. She looked to the other woman standing up, one Shane had never seen before. A local, he assumed. "What's your name?"

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Warlock Juno

The other woman blinked, blinked again, then shook her head. She crouched down, picking up her rifle and slinging it across her chest, bowing her head respectively. "Diana, Lady Caster. What would you have me do?"

Juno furrowed her brow in confusion, the woman's complete 180 in attitude was throwing her off. "Right… Diana, how far to the nearest entrance into the wall? We can't stay here with this many people."

She shakes her head dismissively, "Maybe fifty meters, but we'd never make it like this. Even the Defense Cannons can't shoot down all of the Reavers, and they'll pick us apart on the run."

A ball of flame appears in Juno's off-hand, roiling and twisting, but utterly controlled. She smirks beneath her helmet. "And if you had a diversion?"

A conflicted look crosses the other woman's face, what's visible of it, at least. "Maybe, but... you'd almost certainly die!"

The ball of Solar power disappears and Juno removes her helmet, looking the other woman firmly in the eyes. She smiles. "Trust me, Diana. Even death can't stop me."

A/N: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I'M STILL ALIVE, I PROMISE. I'm SO sorry for the delay, I really underestimated the impact the end of High School would have, and how much work I'd have dumped on me. I'm also sorry for the lack of any real action in this chapter, but it's mostly meant as a filler chapter while I work out what to do next, and punch out updates for my two other active stories as well. Now, Reviews!

Trsmuted: I'm really sorry you feel that way, and that was not my intention. The only thing I can really say on the matter is that I'm very new to writing like this, and I can't and won't expect myself to be perfect.

djmegamouth: Right on, and thank you.

Guest on Chapter 11: All will be revealed soon, and I really do appreciate that there's some semblance of debate in the reviews, I enjoy reading through the comparisons and lore tidbits yall have.

Mend1cant Bias: I'm not terribly familiar with Tau-5's experiences outside of Site-13, but I feel like fighting Hive Gods and Vex Time Manipulators is fairly comparable, at least.

tomahawkESP: :)

Crazy cakes 23: Who knoooooows~

Julbot1: That's one of the major things I struggled with, is that she was gone before Europa happened. She doesn't know that Mars and Io are gone, or anything about the Pyramids beyond what was learned in Shadowkeep(which was fairly little). I'm also thinking of ways to bring one or two of the exotics added since then into the story, but who knows.

Khoashex: I know, right? It's almost entertaining how unlucky humanity is in a lot of sci-fi.

Marcellasnow231:Wouldn't you be wary of the effectively immortal warrior-monk from another dimension, too? Relationships are a slow thing to develop, and I'm still not entirely sure where I want to take it and how to get there. As for the Reavers, you're close, but not quite there. Reavers are hardly the worst thing to appear in this new world…

CheesusChrist15: Like I said in the foreword, did a couple minor things, sorry for the false start.

Mend1cantBias(Again_): I did read about the "When Day Breaks" event, real spooky stuff, but again I've gotta read more into SCPs(I've only gotten about a thousand or so in over the last year).

OnePunchPlayer: Gotta be honest, your comments really threw me for a minute with the wording, before I realized what you were doing. Rest assured, this story IS NOT DEAD. Not if I have anything to say on it!

Alright, that should be everyone. Once again, I'm sorry and honestly ashamed of how long it took me to get this out. To those of you who stuck around, thanks, and I hope to see yall soon.

Editing thanks to Perseus and Florida Man, plus others!