"We're here," Proxima announced.
Kendrix sat up from his chair with a grunt as the brilliant light of interplanetary travel faded into the familiar starry abyss of regular space. This jump had taken a fair bit longer than the one to the moon, and sitting down in the chair for a time had given his battered, tired body time enough to lodge a few dozen complaints. His discomfort was momentarily forgotten, however, when he spotted the shape dominating nearly half of his view from the cockpit.
Where the moon had possessed a quiet, serene sort of beauty, Venus' allure was something else entirely. Cast in the light of the noticeably larger sun, the planet was wrapped in an impenetrable layer of greenish-brown clouds that flowed and swirled with an almost hypnotic rhythm, like a nest of swaying cobras. It possessed none of the moon's calm familiarity, instead displaying a visage which promised mystery and danger to whomever dared set foot on its surface.
As Nova descended down towards the planet's surface, the clouds hungrily swallowed them into a twilight of sickly gold, and for a few moments they were entirely alone, neither sky nor land in sight.
"So, any more info on where we're headed?" Kendrix asked aloud, trying to refocus on the mission at hand.
"The coordinates are on the outskirts of the ruins of a lost colony, established by the Ishtar Collective during the Golden Age." Proxima answered. "Records suggest they were studying structures that predate humanity, later categorized as a Vex complex."
"So these ruins might have information on the Vex." Kendrix murmured.
"Maybe," Proxima replied, though she didn't sound hopeful. "We're not the first Guardians to tread this territory. Any information that's easily found is most likely already in the Vanguard's database. Even then, this colony hadn't existed for very long before the Collapse came and ruined everything. They never got the chance to learn more than we already know."
"Still, if the stranger is calling us here, she must have something worthwhile to give us."
"Or she's bringing us out into the middle of nowhere so it's easier to ditch our bodies once she's killed us."
"Do you always have to be such a pessimist?" Kendrix grumbled.
"Hey, it's a thankless job, but someone's gotta do it."
The clouds parted, and Nova pulled up smoothly as Venus' surface came into view. A few moments later, and the disguised robot slowed over the spot Proxima identified, and Kendrix flashed down onto the ground below.
The first thing Kendrix noticed was the gravity. It was nothing like the almost playful force on the moon, feeling much more in line with Earth's gravity. The second thing was the wind, blowing thickly and forcefully against his scrawny frame.
"Nova, wait in the upper atmosphere, and don't come near until we give the all-clear." Proxima ordered. "I don't want to risk walking into some trap she has set up for you."
The robot replied with a dutiful beep, and disappeared back into the cloud cover.
"This the place?" Kendrix asked, bringing his Khvostov into being.
"Not quite. The coordinates are deeper into the city. There's an abandoned Guardian outpost near here, I want to check it out, see what they have on this place. Get the lay of the land before waltzing into a trap."
"Good plan," Kendrix said with a nod, before he took off towards the place Proxima marked on his HUD.
The ruins of the Cosmodrome had been rough and stocky. Even in their advanced decay, it was obvious they'd been built for function and little else. The colony's remains provided a sharp contrast, built of stone and glass instead of concrete and steel. Sweeping arches and towers dominated the skyline, while the remnants of gardens and fountains swarmed around their bases. Kendrix spotted artistic carvings, and even a few statues.
Whatever beauty the place had however was largely smothered by the overwhelming weight of destruction and decay. Windows were shattered, towers crumbled. The fountains were dry and the gardens were overrun with massive, serpentine vines that held all the natural beauty of a tumor.
This was a place of broken dreams, and Kendrix tried to ignore it as he strode forward into the ruins.
They made it to the outpost without issue. Proxima explained that Fallen weren't as common here; evidently Vex made them skittish.
Even still, Kendrix stood guard as Proxima rifled through the outpost's files, seeing if the previous Guardians had left anything useful behind.
"Bingo," Proxima said after a few moments. "Looks like they had some sensors set up around this area, to track the Vex's movements. If they're intact, we should be able to reactivate them, make sure none of the little bastards sneak up on us."
"Right, where are the sensors?"
"Out that way," Proxima said, drawing his gaze through a broken windowpane and down a long, overgrown street leading deeper into the city. "I patched us into their transmat array, so you've got your Sparrow. Shouldn't take long to get there, provided you don't go all kamikaze again.
"No promises," Kendrix replied with a smirk. He leapt through the broken window and onto his Sparrow, just as it materialized beneath him. Proxima sighed and vanished, and with a quick rev of the engine, Kendrix went speeding off down the street.
Fortunately, the hovering Sparrow didn't have much issue navigating over the broken pavement and malignant plants, so they reached the sensor array in less than a minute. Kendrix pulled the Sparrow into a sharp turn, letting inertia grind them to a halt just in front of the entrance to a small, worn-down building.
"I'm getting pretty good at this!" Kendrix said proudly as his Sparrow vanished. "Hey, do they do, like, Sparrow races back in the City?"
Proxima rolled her eye as she materialized over the sensor, choosing to ignore the question. She led Kendrix inside and up a flight of stairs to where a dark-screened console sat unobtrusively in a corner. A beam of blue flashed from her form as she probed the technology for damage, and after a few moments the sensor flickered to life.
"Alright, I should be able to track them now. Let's head to the coordinates and find out if we came out here for nothing," Proxima said before vanishing.
With a childlike grin, Kendrix stepped outside, resummoned his Sparrow, and rocketed towards their new destination. He wove in and out of wrecked cars and crumbling buildings, ramping off of staircases and ducking under elevated walkways.
Now is not the time for a joyride! Proxima chided. You should just walk, it's safer.
The quicker we get there, the quicker we can go home. Kendrix replied with a laugh, exulting in the feeling of racing over the ground.
…touché. Proxima replied, a hint of excitement surfacing in her voice.
After a few minutes of racing along the city streets, their path took them into the basement of a collapsed building, and Kendrix reluctantly let the Sparrow transmat away as he entered the confined space.
His feet splashed into several inches of water as he landed on them, and Kendrix resisted the urge to shiver, quietly reminding himself that his boots were more than waterproof enough to keep him dry.
Hold up, I'm detecting Vex. Like we're surrounded.
Kendrix stopped and twirled his Duke into existence, standing perfectly still as he waited for the foe to reveal themselves. But when, after a few moments, nothing happened, he slowly began to move forward, the quiet sloshing of his feet the only sound in the darkened room. Memories of being swarmed by hungry Thrall lurked at the edge of his thoughts, but Kendrix did his best to ignore them.
Eventually Kendrix reached an opening in the ceiling, and with a quick glide emerged back onto the surface, right at the designated coordinates. He found himself standing at the end of a large atrium, walled in on all sides by multiple balcony-like floors that lead up to an arched roof of shattered glass. Much of the structure with half-emptied bookshelves, filled with books that had not weathered the test of time. At its center was a statue of a winged woman, holding aloft an incomplete ring, as if warding off some adversary. And given what else was at the center of the room, Kendrix couldn't blame her.
Some distance in front of the statue, a tower of harsh white light erupted from the earth. It was constructed from lines and panels of translucent energy, climbing and branching at perfect right angles, like some abstracted, oversimplified tree. It reminded Kendrix somewhat of the digital flashes that accompanied the use of transmat, but more solid, more complex.
I'm guessing that's not from the colony? Kendrix thought nervously.
No. Proxima answered, her tone severe. Get me closer. I want to make sure it is what I think it is.
Kendrix did as he was asked, checking his peripherals for movement as he walked slowly into the open. When he got close enough, Proxima manifested and began scanning the tower, and it was only then Kendrix noted how much colder its light looked compared to hers.
Is this what the stranger wanted us to find?
Seems like it. Proxima muttered, staying focused on the structure.
Then where is she?
It's a conflux. Proxima continued, barely listening. Collecting and transmitting data, with non-baryonic streams as the transfer medium… but where is it being sent…?
Suddenly, the conflux flashed sharply, and the air around it crackled with electric power.
Shit, Vex! Proxima mentally shouted as she vanished. Take cover!
Kendrix sprinted towards a nearby pillar as a bright sphere of light appeared behind the conflux, kicking up a whirlwind of dust as it forced itself into existence. A second later, just as Kendrix made it to the pillar, the light burst open like a grenade, temporarily obscuring the conflux with dust and smoke.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, a garbled, dissonant sound echoed out through the atrium.
It almost sounded like a laugh.
Within the cloud, a single crimson light flickered to life. Then another, and another, and another. The lights began to move forward, shifting stiffly as if they were held aloft by a clockwork puppeteer. When the first light stepped out of the dust, Kendrix raised his gun.
The construct was roughly the size of a human. Its surface was a dark, greyish-bronze, cast in shadow by the baleful eye it supported. There were four limbs, two approximating arms and two approximating legs. Each one was jointed and stiff, moving in a way so robotic it was almost cliché. The torso was rounded and bulky, with the chest held up by a tank-like abdomen, filled to bursting with a strange, luminescent fluid. At the top was the ruby eye, the only fixture on a thin, triangular face, crowned by a semicircular crest of metal.
The robot spotted Kendrix immediately and laughed again, firing on him with a bolt of red energy from the gun affixed where its hand should've been. The owners of the other eyes emerged and followed suit, forcing Kendrix back behind the pillar to avoid being shot.
Goblins. Proxima identified. Not too threatening on their own, but difficult to handle in groups.
Divide and conquer?
Ding ding ding.
Kendrix dashed to the side, spraying wildly with his Khvostov. He took a number of the Goblins in the chest and head, but none of them reacted to the damage. Kendrix found himself suspecting that they couldn't feel pain.
As Kendrix ducked behind a pile of discarded crates, the machines fanned out, trying to surround him. Swapping his Khvostov for his Duke, Kendrix blinked out of cover, planting a round into each of a pair of the machines, then using his free hand to punch the head off of a third. He was shocked to find, however, that the third Goblin didn't die.
The headless neck laughed, spluttering electricity and pale fluid, and charged forward, peppering Kendrix's defense with searing red plasma. With a grunt of pain Kendrix fell back, shooting the undying machine until the tank in its abdomen shattered, sending it to the ground, lifeless.
The remaining Goblins were closing in, getting too close. So Kendrix launched himself into the air with a glide and lobbed a grenade at his feet, ripping the robots away from this reality once more.
However before he'd even landed, two more of the crackling orbs manifested and burst, spewing more Goblins out into the atrium. Kendrix raised his weapon and fired, again and again, taking a machine down whenever he managed to strike one of their strange fluid tanks.
But they dealt him plenty of pain in return, and soon he was forced to retreat behind cover once more while Proxima healed his wounds.
Tough little bastards, aren't they?
I know. You gotta keep pushing them back, though. Otherwise they'll overwhelm you with sheer numbers.
Noted.
They're slow. Speed is your ally.
Kendrix nodded as the last of his wounds knitted back together. Then, a thought struck him, and a wide grin broke out across his face.
What're you… wait, no. No! There's not even enough room in here!
Like that's gonna stop me.
A flash of transmat, the roar of an engine, and Kendrix erupted out into the open, his Sparrow singing beneath him.
He immediately pulled into a tight circle, guiding the Sparrow around the atrium with one hand and lopsidedly firing off the Khvostov with the other. The Goblins could barely turn fast enough to fire on him as Kendrix literally rode circles around them, staccato gunshots filling them with holes as they laughed and screamed.
Kendrix was laughing too, the vibrations of the gun and engine harmonizing into a beautiful melody as he danced around the battlefield to their tune.
Then a sharp, fiery note rang out, and Kendrix's shoulder exploded into pain. He tumbled off of the Sparrow with a yell and rolled into the dust, his head knocking off a slab of concrete as he did so.
Dazed, Kendrix slowly pushed himself to his feet, then barely managed to blink away as a high-powered shot of whistling red nearly took his head off. A deeper, almost inquisitive laugh echoed out from above him, and he looked up to see a new sort of construct perched on one of the atrium's upper balconies.
It was taller and thinner than the Goblins, thick plates of armor hanging on an almost skeletal frame. Its sharp, triangular face held a singular crimson optic, with a pair of horn-like plates jutting out from the sides of its head giving it an almost devilish appearance, which was complemented by a tail-like cord that whipped around its feet. Most notably, however, was that its right forearm was entirely replaced by a long, rail-like weapon that flashed with crimson electricity as it sent out another vector of death just as Kendrix dodged behind cover.
Hobgoblin. Specialized for long-range combat. Proxima noted as she healed Kendrix's burning shoulder.
A sniper with the precision of a computer. Lovely.
Yeah. Don't give it another clear shot.
Wasn't planning on it.
Kendrix blinked forward from cover to cover, making sure he never reappeared in the Hobgoblin's line of sight. When he made it to a point directly below the machine's perch, he clenched the Void within his fist and lunged upward into a glide, ready to bring the compressed gravity down on the irritating sniper's head. But when he reached the peak of his jump, there was no Hobgoblin waiting for him.
Then Kendrix's body exploded into agony as a shot ripped through his back. He fell to the ground, unable to move or even feel his legs as he coughed far too much blood into his helmet's rebreather.
The pain quickly dulled as Proxima hastily reassembled the shattered vertebrae of his lower spine, but Kendrix's heart still beat like a hammer, bruising his thoughts.
Shit. It's using its transmat to perform short-range teleportation. Gonna be harder to pin down than I thought.
Kendrix wordlessly, thoughtlessly rose, and turned his head to where the Hobgoblin now stood at the base of the conflux. It began to laugh again, but was cut off as Kendrix snapped towards it in a single blink, grabbed it by the throat, and slammed it to the ground. Plating bent, struts warped, but the machine hardly reacted to the damage. Instead, it swung a bulky apparatus where its left hand should've been into Kendrix's chest.
Compressed gravity pulsed out, sending Kendrix flying backwards with a grunt. Kendrix performed an infinitesimal glide to soften his fall, rolling back to his feet with Duke in hand, and was greeted with the sight of the Hobgoblin in flames.
For a moment a hint of elation broke through Kendrix's increasingly dour mood as he hoped that he'd damaged some sort of fuel compartment and set the cruel machine ablaze. Hope quickly turned to spite, however, when he noticed that instead of burning away, the Hobgoblin was pulling itself back together, its crumpled armor returning to its original smooth state as it began to return to its feet.
Kendrix almost snarled as in one smooth motion he blinked forward again, swapped his Duke for his Khvostov, and punched the rifle's butt straight through the Hobgoblin's torso. The machine let out a gurgling scream as white fluid sprayed through shattered glass and it fell to the ground, lifeless.
Breathing heavily, Kendrix dematerialized his weapon and reached down to the broken robot. He placed a foot on what remained of its chest, took its head by the horns, and a grunt of exertion and a flush of Void-given strength, Kendrix separated the Hobgoblin's metallic skull from its body.
What's that for? Proxima asked in a tone that was both confused and exasperated.
Guardians take battle trophies, right? Besides, we said we want to learn-
More Vex!
The head was instantaneously swapped for his rifle as three more explosions of transmat shook the space around the towering obelisk of light and glass.
The conflux is drawing in more and more of them. We need to leave, now!
No way! We're not leaving until we get some answers.
Kendrix dashed behind another column, mowing down some Goblins with his Khvostov and breaking a Hobgoblin's arm with his fist as he did.
If you have a plan, you'd better start talking! Proxima shouted into his skull with mounting concern.
Is there any way for us to shut down the conflux? Prevent it from transporting more?
Maybe, but I've never even set eyes on a Vex construct before today. By the time I figure it out, we'd probably be dead.
Hmmm… Ockham's razor, then?
…fine. Just be quick about it!
Kendrix nodded and crouched down. Placing his palms against one another, he reached to the back of his mind, to the place where thought ended and action began. He called out to that nothingness, and it replied with a silent howl, moving forward as a tide that was neither eager nor patient. It simply was.
Kendrix pushed up into the air, emerging from behind the pillar aglow with the quiet death of the Void. The conflux was before him, its pale light was his to annihilate, he knew it, he felt it, he only needed to-
Kendrix's focus collapsed as a metallic club slammed into him with enough force to shatter several of his ribs. He fell to the ground with a yell of pain as his body spasmed and his mind threatened to hand him over to oblivion. The Void rebounded inside him, simmering with dissatisfaction, wanting to be free.
He managed to look up and witness the metal abomination looming over him. Nearly twice as tall as he was, the machine was built like a tank. Its arms looked like they could tear a building down with little effort, and its torso was so heavily armored that it would likely survive doing so from the inside. Its head was unlike the Goblins and Hobgoblins that accompanied it, bearing no ornamental crests, only more thick bronze armor. However, its single, face-encompassing eye marked it as one of their kin nonetheless.
The machine raised the segmented maul where its left hand should have been once more, not hesitating to deliver a killing blow. Kendrix barely managed to roll into a blink before it struck the ground, splitting the weathered concrete apart with ease.
Minotaur. Vex heavy infantry. Keep your distance and try to get that Nova Bomb off.
Kendrix opened fire in the direction of the conflux as soon as he rematerialized, trying to sweep away the cackling Goblins and get a clear shot. Unfortunately, there was a flash of the Vex's strange not-transmat, and the Minotaur appeared in front of him, blocking the path with an electric roar.
Kendrix scowled and blinked past it, but the Minotaur teleported again, nearly taking his head off with another swing as it did so.
He's persistent. Kendrix thought as he ducked below the swing.
Yeah. Might need to take care of him after all.
With pleasure.
Kendrix waited for the Minotaur to strike again, then leapt up onto the machine's frame after dodging the attack. He pushed off of its arm and into the air, Void filling his hand as he clenched it into a fist and plunged it towards the robot's face.
The Minotaur's eye shattered as Kendrix's arm pushed through it, bending metal out of its way as it sank up to the elbow into the Vex's head. Then, Kendrix let go, falling from the robot for a moment before blinking away. Just as the pulsating grenade he'd left in the Minotaur's skull exploded.
The machine screamed as it was engulfed by a violet vortex, whipcord tendrils of warped space tearing away at its body from without and within. Kendrix reappeared on the ground a few meters in front of it, the Void within him still howling, still begging to be released. And who was he to deny it?
Kendrix planted his feet, tensed his body, and placed his palms together. Breath in. Breath out. Release.
The minotaur's near-atomized body was ripped into the air by upturned gravity and scattered into dust as the Nova Bomb tore past it, tore through it. The manifested oblivion flew onwards, until it struck the spire of glass that pierced the air before it and detonated in a flash of blinding power.
For the briefest of moments, the conflux's pale light turned an agonized purple. Then the spire died, shattering into an explosion of lighting that took what few Vex the Nova Bomb had not claimed with it.
Kendrix's body nearly crumpled as the energy abandoned his body, but he managed to keep himself upright with a small smile of victory.
That's the last of them. Proxima thought with relief.
She appeared in a flash, floating down to one of the felled Goblins, scarred as it was by Arc and Void alike. Kendrix knelt next to her as she began to scan the remains, his mind awhir with questions.
"Well fought," a voice called out, echoing through the recently silent room. Kendrix turned his head, and quickly rose when he saw the figure approaching.
At first, he mistook her for a Hunter. But the hooded cloth she wore wasn't as long as the Hunters' signature cloak. It was more like a… poncho, Kendrix decided, dredging the word up from deep within his pseudo-memory. She was wearing more cloth, some slim, practical combat fatigues, that were seemingly worn over further metallic armor.
When he saw her face, however, Kendrix realized he was mistaken. She was an Exo, and the metal he saw was flesh, not plate. Her face was a pale white and her eyes a soft blue; she was almost reminiscent of a Ghost. Kendrix didn't recognize her, but that made sense, given he'd only ever heard her voice.
"You're here," he said to the stranger, where she stood at the top of the wide stairs at the back end of the atrium.
"We haven't got much time," she said, almost to herself. She swiftly stepped forward and down, coming towards them.
"Who are you?" Kendrix said warily.
"Why have you been watching us?" Proxima added as she floated up to Kendrix's shoulder.
The Exo woman let out a small laugh. "I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain," she muttered as she walked past them, back towards where the conflux had stood. Kendrix spotted a strange-looking rifle slung across her back. She paused after a moment, and muttered something. "I will. I will! I know."
"She's talking to someone else," Proxima murmured. Kendrix could feel the suspicion in her mind.
The woman turned back to them, looking at Proxima with a smile. "Yes, little light, yes I am."
"Don't call me that," Proxima replied, her upper fin narrowing her gaze into a frown.
The woman just smiled again, then looked at Kendrix, and her face sobered.
"Many Guardians fell. Strong ones. But you made it here. Even without your friend's help."
Kendrix tensed. Even the implicit mention of Nova made him uneasy. He wasn't sure how she knew about the Cybertronian, but if she chose to share his existence with anyone, Kendrix worried there'd be trouble.
The woman turned her head suddenly, and muttered some more. "Yes. I'm listening. They are here. With me."
Proxima floated forward, getting closer to the woman. "Who are you talking to?" Kendrix could see Proxima's shell flexing in and out, as though she was suppressing the urge to scan every inch of the stranger's frame.
"Understood," the Exo muttered. Then, she turned back to Kendrix. "You need my help, Guardian."
"That's why you brought us here?" Kendrix asked, glad to finally be getting some answers.
The woman's gaze turned down to the dead Goblin Proxima had been examining. "They brought us here." Kendrix heard echoes of hate in her otherwise calm voice as she crouched down to stare at it. "The Vex. Evil so dark it despises other evil."
"You're not a Guardian," Proxima said. It wasn't a question.
The woman looked back to her, silent for a moment. "No," she finally replied. "I was not forged in Light. But I believe where our paths cross, ground could break."
"What do you mean?" Kendrix asked, with curiosity sharpened by fear. The woman's eyes found him.
"Have you heard of the Black Garden?" she answered and asked.
"I've heard the legends," Proxima answered, sounding uncertain.
"The greatest threat to us all lies there, where these machines are born. Find the Black Garden, rip out its heart. Only then will your Traveler begin to heal."
"There are other threats," Kendrix vaguely pointed out. "We may have other priorities."
"Yes, I know. That threat," the woman said with understanding. "I think you'll find that your priority and mine are one and the same."
Bludgeon said he was looking for something in the system. Proxima thought, understanding dawning in her voice. A gate to be opened. If there's really a way into the Black Garden somewhere in Sol…
…then that could be what he's searching for. Kendrix finished, the pieces falling into place. A place that births Vex… if he replicated that tech…
Yeah… we need to beat him to the Garden. Stop this before it starts.
Kendrix nodded. "So be it. Can you help us find it, then?"
The woman looked away, disappointed or… ashamed? "My path's my own. I can't." Kendrix quietly sighed with frustration.
Proxima looked down, and Kendrix could feel the wheels spinning in her mind. "If we're going to find the Black Garden, we need to see the Awoken," she said with sudden certainty.
"Ah, yes. The Awoken," the woman said with a huff. "Out there, wavering between the Light and the Dark." She glanced at Proxima. "A side should always be taken, little light. Even if it's the wrong side."
The woman's head darted down again, and this time Kendrix could hear the crackling static of a transceiver as she turned away from them. "Too late, returning. How many?" She paused, and evidently received some reply. "Hold position, kill the engines, and don't let them find you." She pulled the rifle from her back, walked forward, and vanished into a bubbling flash of transmat.
Kendrix watched her go, feeling like he'd earned more questions than answers for his trouble.
"So, how do we find the Awoken?" Kendrix asked with a sigh.
Suddenly, his blood ran icy cold as he felt something press against the back of his neck. Even through his undersuit, he could feel the shape of the gun barrel digging into him.
"I'll be asking the questions," an all too familiar voice said from behind him. "Turn around, slowly."
Kendrix did as he was ordered, feeling Proxima vanish back into his mind as he did so, and came face-to-face with a black, triangular faceplate affixed in the center of a white helmet.
And though he couldn't see her face through the tinted glass, Kendrix knew that the Hunter was smiling.
AN: Annnnnnnnnd we're back. I have no explanation or excuse for why it took me so long to come back to this. But I am back! And hopefully to stay, asusming my motivation doesn't give out again. Hope you all are well, and that you continue to enjoy the story!