PART THREE: IMPULSE

Chapter Twelve

| RUSSIA, PLAGUELANDS REGION |

"Aren't you a little bit excited?"

"What's there to be excited about?"

She rolls over in the snow. "We're being sneaky and doing reconnaissance. Doesn't that get your heart racing?"

I sit up against the concrete pillar we were hiding behind. "Not really. There's nothing here - and my Commander knows it. Do you know what this is? It's a routine scouting mission. Guardians are sent to go dancing around the earth. Making sure the hive, fallen or whatnot aren't spreading and taking over more territory. AKA, doing jack shit." I play with the scope of my rifle. "Notice, note, never engage.' There hasn't been anything in this area since the SIVA outbreak years ago. Fallen moved out after the Young Wolf blew it all up or something."

She sits up and crosses her legs. "Sounds like there's history with this person."

"Actually, yeah," I admit. "Anything that Guardian does turns out to be really fucking cool. At least in the stories people tell."

"Who are they?"

"They're insane. They go by 'Godslayer, Iron Lord, Young Wolf, Conqueror, Kingslayer, Shadow of Earth', literally 'The Chosen One'."

"What."

"No, I'm serious. They have too many titles to keep track of. You know, I think they were resurrected about the same time as me? Maybe a bit later." I bring my knees up and rest back. "Saved humanity a couple times. Slew Gods. Killed a space rhino that was stealing everyone's light - story for another day. It makes you think. Why rez something that can't do shit for itself or others when you can choose a prodigy like them instead. Someone that can take down a Kell without breaking a sweat and make a legend of themselves without even trying. Why would that planet-sized football even choose me when it could have just chosen another one of them. It doesn't make sense."

"By their names alone it sounds like they do a lot of 'slaying'. Are you sure they're worth the praise? All that murder must be horrible."

"If you say so."

"I do."

I don't respond.

"... Well, if it makes you feel any better about your mediocrity," She begins, shifting to sit beside me against the pillar, "I still don't know how to use my guardian-powers."

I suppress a snicker. "'Guardian Powers'?"

"'The Light'..." She rolls her eyes. "Whatever you call it."

"Might want to download that into your empty drive up there." I tap my temple. "Those terms are kinda important."

"People will know what I mean," She insists.

After another foggy breath from her mouth, she removes the blanket from around her neck and wraps it around her body. Before we arrived I had told her we could be here all day in the freezing cold and yet she still came unprepared. Her fault. I'm not handing over my shit. She can snuggle into that little blanket of hers. At least our camp was sheltered from the wind - we found a spot that gave us a clear view of our surroundings, which happened to be on the ridge of a hill beside some collapsed bridge. There were factories and giant facilities scattered everywhere within this region, but without a single soul bringing them to life. And the broken-down gun turrets and tanks combined with the dead glow of that red SIVA wiring gave it this strange post-apocalyptic feeling… ironic that it feels any different to the city.

"What's their name?" She blurts out.

"What?"

"That guardian you mentioned. You said the 'young wolf' blew this all up," she recounts, gesturing out at the view in front of us. "But I asked who they were, and you only really told me a list of titles."

"Does it matter to you at all?"

"Well, no? Maybe?"

"And so you're asking because?"

She takes a frustrated breath and waits for a moment as the thoughts run through her head. It felt like she was literally trying to peer inside and rip the data from my frame. "You don't like to make connections with people, do you?"

The blatancy of the question made me do a double-take. "What?"

"Your Commander'. 'The Young Wolf.' You never call people by their name, with the exception of your Ghost… Callisto? But I've got this strong feeling you even tried to keep that relationship distant for as long as you could." She searches for a response on my face, and I found myself thankful for having rigid metal features. I'm not budging. Her head falls back down toward the snow. "I've met only a couple of other people so far: some humans in the hangar back in the Last City, a blue-skinned woman who gave me the code for a door, and a strange soldier standing in the rain at night. They all had something in common: one of the first questions they asked me was what my name was."

I finally started to catch up with her. "And you realised that…"

"... You have never asked me for mine." She finishes.

"And you're upset about that." I conclude.

She wipes her freezing nose. "Well no, actually. It saved me from an awkward conversation. So thank you."

"Because you don't have a name."

"Yeah…" She sinks into her blanket more.

I watch her quietly think for a moment.

"Wait, is that why you didn't ask? Because you knew I might not have one?"

"… Yes…?"

She exhales out her nose. "You're a dick."

"Okay, then we'll find you a name. There's tonnes of em and since you're a Guardian you get to pick whatever you want. Most of the time." She starts aimlessly drawing in the snow between us while I talk. "I've seen Guardians called John before, or Spacelord, and there's even this big blue guy called Zavala."

"Pretty sure those names wouldn't 'fit me'…" she mutters.

"Right. Obviously. Just trying to make a point. What about Julia, or Elsie? Pretty sure I've met some woman called Mully before…"

She looks up at me and raises an eyebrow. "You think I should name myself 'Mully'…"

I scoff. "Why not? It's-" I look down at the snow. "What are you doing."

She had drawn a series of hard angles into the snow with an angry face in the middle. "It's you."

"No, it's not. That's shit."

"It reminds me of you, of Leo. And that's what I think a name should do," she suggests, while drawing in a ghost shape beside me. "I think they should be linked - the name should feel like what I remind you of."

"How about 'Annoying' then."

"No! Obviously."

"'Really annoying'."

She swipes the drawing so that the snow flies up and into my eye modules. I recoil back for a moment. "Hey!" And start wiping it off with my hands. "For fucks sake. You got it in the eye things…"

"Wait,"

"What."

"What's that?" She asks.

"Oh I don't know, maybe it's snow? It doesn't hurt but it is—"

"No, really, there's something down there."

"Wish I could see it but there's snow in the way."

"Give me that rifle," she demands, before leaning over me and grabbing it. I finish wiping the snow out and notice her looking down the scope of my gun. "It's a really big person," she guesses. "Or maybe another alien? It's huge. Oh my god, it's hurt. I think that's all blood."

"Let me see." She points me toward the 'big person' as I snatch back the rifle and peer through the scope. It's Cabal. Legionary. No, incendior. It was leaning up against a gaping hole within one of the factory walls, with its blood - possibly oil - staining the frost around him. It searches through the snow and strains its bleeding arm to grab the weapon laying within it, before crawling back inside of the hole. How did we not notice it earlier? It must have previously been inside. Now it's going back in?

"We need to help him, he's going to bleed out."

What? "Listen. Humanity and those 'aliens' are having some relationship issues at the moment that you might not know about, but I can definitely tell you that we aren't friends. So that is a terrible idea."

She stands up and wraps her blanket back around her neck.

"What the hell are you planning. I can tell you now—."

"I'm going down there."

"That is a terrible fucking idea. We're just here to report - and you still refuse to fire a weapon. What are you gonna do, wrap your blanket around his wounds?"

Without letting me blabber on for a moment longer, she vaults off the bridge side and lands within the snow below. I jump down after her and thanks to my metal frame I sink directly into the puffy layers, trapping my legs underneath. She races ahead of me down the hill while I free my legs and try to follow, sprinting down the snowy hill.

"Callisto!?" I shout.

"I'm here."

"Patch me in with the Commander!"

"On it."

"Quick!"

I run and stumble over my front foot, rolling for a couple of metres before getting back up. What is she thinking! And what's in that hole?

Grey's voice echoes into my ear: including the whole package of his worried and disappointed tone. "Leo. You called. Is there a problem."

"Yes! I have a problem!"

"What is it."

"It's the girl! I know you said scouting only, but she's jumped off the bridge and I fell into the snow and she's running down the hill—"

"Leo I'm busy flying - if this is this serious cut to it."

"I think she's about to run straight into a firefight!"

There's barely a moment of silence on the other side before he speaks up.

"I'm on the way."

And after the sound of a violent air manoeuvre, the feed cuts.

I collapse into the snow once more as I reach ground level and force my head up. She's standing by the hole, shouting at her ghost - and that cabal still isn't in sight. If she goes in there she could be killed, so could her newbie ghost. Who knows?! She's completely unarmed!

… so am I.

"HEY!" I scream, dashing up toward her. They both turn to face me as I approach. "You can't go in there! What's wrong with you!?"

"Exactly what I'm telling her." Her ghost says.

She steps toward me. "He's going to die in there!"

"You don't even know what it is!"

"It doesn't matter!" She persists, before walking into the hole.

I grab hold of her arm and prepare to say something else, but before I do her other hand had already struck my chest and my frame had ended up flat in the snow.

When my eyes opened a moment later I saw Callisto hovering above me.

"GET UP. Find a firearm!"

I push off the ground and practically dive into the hole. It lead to a tunnel carved out in the ground but my adrenaline was pumping so fast and so the details turned into a blur. It went down on a decline and it just kept going and going like a spiral downwards but I just kept running because I hadn't found her yet - fucking hell how far has she gone - how far is this tunnel?! But then I stopped. And I noticed what was speckled around me.

Spores.

And sludge.

And disgusting overgrowth.

All over the tunnel's ceiling and floor.

This is a hive nest.

My heart shrunk. Suddenly I felt a lot smaller than I was and certainly a lot more alone. How far down this tunnel am I? Should I run back out - Is there anything behind me? Can I run?

That moment's decision turned into a lifetime but was cut short by a scream just a little further down from me. I sprint towards it and continue down the decline until the passage opens up and I see her. She was standing still. And in front of her opened the darkness of a cave filled with sludge and protruding growths. It smelt like rotting flesh and death; the sensation of it made my artificial stomach turn. Rising within the sludge were the silhouettes of disproportionate thin monsters. Hive. Thrall. Undoubtedly. But I can hardly see them moving in the faint light. A series of gut wrenching screeches echoed throughout the cave system and beyond, originating from directly in front of us. Instinct takes over again and I grab her arm. This time she doesn't resist my pull and we both turn toward the exit. But the moment we turn around, the dirt and sludge begins to erode from the tunnel as an array of hands and limbs spray up from the earth in our path. They blocked the exit. I could hardly see their bodies rising up from the ground.

Hundreds of feet approached from behind in the dark. Smelling flesh. Smelling light. It sounded like rain.

Time stopped.

With each of their steps another second was lost to decide, another second lost to think. I couldn't. This artificial frame simulated only what mattered. I could only hear their sprint. I could see their movement. I could smell their rotting limbs. I could feel the freezing mud and growth that my feet sunk into. I was no longer in control.

My hand raises into the air and lights the cave's interior with solar light. Never could I have imagined what I was so blissfully unaware of before that moment. They're everywhere. My arm is now outstretched and golden rays lit the room like a strobe light. It made no difference to this horror in the seconds since it began and I only begin to notice that I'm screaming. My arms pull the girl underneath me as my remaining shots are fired upwards. The light is ripped out of the room once more as the mass of bodies press into my back. The sound of claws overpowered my screams of agony and pain numbed my senses so that nothing remained of them except the ringing of overstimulation. There was nothing for those last final moments before the light returned. Not as the light of my ghost, but as blinding flames, roaring around us and scorching my body.

Only adding to the stimulation was the heat of that fire and blaze. It conducted through my frame, and I only hoped I wasn't adding to the girl's burns. However, the flames died faster than they began, and the screaming eventually came to cease.

She coughed through the smoke, and our breathing could be heard over the remaining flames. But it was more than just ours.

Grey?

I forced my head up, and my eyes stopped inches from a metallic armour plate. As my gaze meets the ceiling I see our saviour: A scarred, ripped and bleeding cabal legionary. Armed with a belt full of grenades and an incendior's flamethrower. He acknowledges us in a blank, dead stare. Then continues walking away into the flourishing lights of the flames. I felt my arm being tugged and my body raising up. The girl was pulling me, urging me to run. But I was barely conscious; my body was broken. We stumble over mounds of ash and bodies as I fade in and out of the blackness. She heaved me the entire way. So that, eventually, the light of day poured onto our faces as we collapse out of the hole, putting as much distance between it and us as we can before finally falling into the snow. I could hardly recognise her under all that mud and grime.

The wind picks up violently and begins obscuring the air all around us. Our clothing thrashed about as a ship descended from above and landed nearby. Its hatch falls open, and out pours a series of guardians. Including my Commander. Grey. It felt dream-like. I began to question what I was really seeing.

We're guided into the ship and sat down on the cargo seats, still dripping with sludge. Grey's face is inches from mine as he shouts questions and commands, but I couldn't understand. I felt nauseous and out of breath - like I was choking. Is that a malfunction? He shouts out for our ghosts and places me on the floor. His fireteam members hand him a heavy weapon and Grey jumps out the hatch with them. Strange people crowd over me as he signals the other pilot and walks toward the hole with them. The hatch begins to shut.

The Story Continues... 13/09/22