Chapter 4: Strife
Hey guys, long time no see! I've been a bit busy with life, finishing and graduating college, getting and starting job, all of that jazz. Plus, I haven't really been playing D2 as much as I used to, although this new season served as a bit of an inspiration to get back and finish some of my projects. As such, even though this chapter is far from my best work, it steers the story back in the direction I want it to and I actually have a solid plan for it moving forward. I'm also looking at finishing The Pull of the Past, but my outline for it is going through a bit of a rework- ever since I lost like 2 chapters worth of content I've been looking at new ways to continue the story since I couldn't make myself write 10k+ words of stuff that I'd already written... anyhoo I'll shut up. Enjoy!
/
"Akriis. You mind if I ask you something?"
The Vandal stalking along next to the Awoken Warlock grunted tiredly.
"Would you, I mean, could you teach me Eliksni?"
Akriis started and glanced at her, all four eyes wide. "Teach you… our tongue?"
Aurora shrugged. "Yeah. It's fascinating to listen too, and I want to be able to communicate with all of the Eliksni here. I mean, I can't even say hi to anybody right now. It's kinda depressing."
The Vandal grunted and walked on, bottom set of hands now clasped behind his back as he thought.
He glanced behind him strangely, pink mist puffing out of his mask. "Akriis… doesn't know how to teach our tongue. Usually Eliksni learn human-speak, not the other way around."
"Well, I still want to learn."
He stopped and looked at her critically, folding his two upper arms. "Eliksni is not a language of just sound. It is a dance of the teeth and the arms, with many eye-queues along with the words. It is another system that keeps Dregs in their place, for when we dock their arms we dock their language. You… will be at a disadvantage."
Aurora crossed her arms defiantly. "I can learn. If you can teach it I'll learn it."
Akriis' eyes slowly blinked in a clockwise fashion, each deep blue orb studying the petite Warlock in front of him.
"Hmm… Akriis… will try. You would like to say hello, yesss? Velask, is our word."
"Veil-ask?"
The vandal's eyes squinted above his ether mask with suppressed amusement. "Velask, friend."
/
In the weeks that followed Aurora threw herself into her training, both with Polaris and with Akriis. Her mornings were filled with flashing lights as she cast rift upon rift, super upon super, grenade upon grenade. And her afternoons were just as exhausting, as she tried again and again to tackle words and phrases of a language made for four-armed, four-eyed, wide-mouthed aliens. Every night the Awoken woman would collapse exhausted into her pod, falling immediately to sleep while her ghost kept a watchful eye out for any Fallen that "might try to do something fishy".
And this kept on for a couple weeks. The village was snowed most of the time, and Captain Siriks kept his patrols to a minimum as the worst of the winter storms rolled through the mountains. So it was a long while before Akriis and his squad was assigned a patrol in the direction of the nearby House Dusk territory.
This changed when reports of the northern outposts coming under sporadic attack finally filtered into Siriks' Kiess. He immediately ordered Akriis' skraal out North, with orders to bring supplies to the beleaguered outposts and investigate the reason behind the resent Dusk incursions.
And to Aurora's surprise, she was asked to accompany the skraal on their mission. She happily excepted, eager to go on a camping trip and maybe learn a little about how Fallen operate in a dangerous situation.
After gearing up and donning their travel packs, the five vandals and the one Awoken set out North, escorting a huddle of ten dregs ladened down with packs full of Ether tanks, food, spare Shank parts, and ammunition packs. The semi-clear sun that graced their departure slowly gave way to a thick cloud cover that quietly threatened snow. Aurora stuck close to Akriis throughout the opening hours of their march- even though she had been "rooming" with the four other Fallen warriors, none of them had proven friendly in any shape or form in the past four weeks. Turax, the constantly angry 'former' House Devil vandal, hissed at Aurora's every approach; appearing to allow only his prize Shank near him and his humongous red-decorated scorch cannon. Kokraks, the jittery green-cloaked House Exile sniper, would outright flee from Aurora if she ever went near his corner of the room, and Pyrrja- the light-blue marked Marauder- made it very clear that if Aurora ever tried to approach her she would "soil her last clean scraps of House Winter markings she had with the Lightbearer's blood". The only other Fallen in the skraal- Riviiks- would outright ignore her, being to engrossed with making sure his yellow-marked clothing was in perfect shape and his blades had an accurate Scorn kill count to care for Aurora's attempts at friendship.
The Awoken woman glanced at the small group as they trudged along. Pyrrja was somewhere ahead- no doubt invisible with some sort of personal cloaking device- acting as the point man for the convoy. In front of Aurora and Akriis walked Turax and Riviiks, eyes scanning the mountains and trees around them for hints of ambushers, while Kokraks marched behind the pack dregs as rear-guard: a duty he demanded, most likely to stay as far away from Aurora as possible.
"Akriis?"
The Vandal stalking next to her gave a cordial growl, eyes never leaving the surrounding terrain and sky.
"Why are all the vandals in your squad so… hostile? Is it because they are all with Eliksni from other Houses?"
Akriis slowly shook his head. "Our skraal is one of misfits. For those Eliksni that Captain Siriks cannot easily group, but have not yet done anything deserving of a refusal of House Light's second chances. Pyrrja is to distrusting even for a skraal from her own House, Turax is too hostile, Kokraks too… 'skittish', as your Guide has said of him. Some see it as cowardice."
"And what of Riviiks?"
Akriis glanced over. "No one is left from his noble House. He says he prefers to be alone to morn, but many of our Eliksni see him as a former Captain who looks down at us all. As mere scavengers grasping at wisps of redemption." He eyed Riiviks. "One can only wonder how right he is..."
"Oh. That's uh... that's deep."
"That's... what?"
They trudged on through the waist-deep snow for a little while longer in quiet thought, eyes of the whole convoy roaming the wooded landscape warily. Suddenly Riviiks and Turaks halted, raising their weapons forward in quiet warning, halting the whole group in their tracks. Pyrrja appeared ahead on the trail, her four blue eyes glittering dangerously under her hood.
"Akriis, nankemrak!"
The vandal next to Aurora took off with a stealthy sprint, heading for the impatient marauder ahead. Aurora quietly followed, heart racing as she clutched the borrowed line rifle to her chest.
When Akriis made it up to Pyrrja the two of them started conversing in rapid-fire Eliksni, both gesturing animatedly and with Pyrrja pointing down the trail. Aurora, despite her weeks of lessons in the alien language, could barely catch a word of the exchange.
Pyrrja gave her a hiss then took off sprinting back down the trail, once again activating her cloaking device so that only two-toed footprints showed where she had traveled. Akriis turned to Aurora and hurriedly ushered her back to the waiting group of dregs and warriors.
"Pyrrja reports that the outpost ahead is destroyed, all House Light Eliksni dead. It is fresh- House Dusk raiding parties are still in the area. We must move."
Aurora clutched her rifle to her chest a bit closer, her eyes darting to the now treacherous-looking trees. "Back to camp?"
Akriis just shook his head and hissed orders to the fully alert Riviiks and Turaks, who immediately began forging west at a fast pace, the dregs following without a complaint as fast as they could walk through the snow.
"We move to another nearby outpost, maybe four of your miles out. We hope House Dusk has yet to hit them." He spat out a curse Aurora didn't know the meaning of- "Iirsoveks! They will pay." He glanced at her keenly. "We do have a Lightbearer with us now."
Aurora just gulped and focused on keeping up with the hardened Fallen warriors around her. To make matters worse, the clouds began thickening and snow began to fall as the little group moved- slowly at first but rapidly picking up the pace. Despite the warm cloaks around her and plenty of exercise Aurora was getting, the cold began its familiar bite at her face and fingers, frosting over the metal of her line rifle.
And still they charged on, desperate to reach the second House Light outpost before any Dusk raiding parties attacked it.
Their speed proved their downfall.
/
Vren Holdross stalked quietly down the hallways of the Tower's Annex, hood pulled up over her unruly mess of flaming red hair. Her ghost, Ginger, had volunteered her for a small side investigation mission that promised a good while in the field; away from the bustling noise of the Tower.
Vren hated the Tower and everything about it. Not the Vanguard per say, but the Tower was a bad place for a claustrophobic individual with too many memories. Don't get her wrong: she was one of the most social hunters many Titans and Warlocks had ever met, capable of taking on a Titan twice her weight in a drinking contests and able to keep up with the lightest of Warlocks on the dance floor. But after the old Tower (and most of her old friends) were destroyed in the Red War, she had started hanging around the Hunter Dens in the City instead of the more social spaces for Guardians way up on the wall.
And then Cayde had died. He had been one of her closest friends to her, the only individual Vren trusted enough to open up to. To drop the overconfident façade she had with. Granted, probably every hunter felt that same way with ol' Cayde-6, but Vren had taken it especially hard. She was one of the scores of Hunters that outright disappeared after his murder, not coming back to Earth for a good year after when the Pyramids had shown up.
Ugly bastards. They posed a real enough threat that Vren had manned up and reported back to the Tower, offering her services again to the Vanguard as a scout.
And so now she stood in front of the ornate door of Commander Zavala's office, wrapping her dark red cloak around her as she stared up at the regal shield embossed on the door.
She could clearly hear the weariness in the Commander's deep baritone voice. "Come in."
The Hunter stepped in and rested her hand on her hip. "I was told you had a mission for me?"
"That I do." The Commander was sitting for once, surrounded by papers and holographic screens.
"Whatcha got? Someplace in the tropics hopefully?"
He glanced at her, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Unfortunately, the exact opposite. Far North, in the Old Sweden area. Ikora's Hidden have reported consistent spikes of Light deep in the mountains. To the best of our knowledge only Fallen, of both House Dusk and House Light, live in that area. I need you to investigate. Find out the source of those Light bursts and report back to me. It could be completely inconsequential, such as a New Light practicing their powers, or it could be the Fallen have found some way to control the Light. That… we cannot have."
"Huh. So this one sounds quick at least. What was that second House called? House Light?"
"Yes."
"Never heard of 'em. Anything special I should know?"
The Vanguard commander sighed "We don't have much, other than their Kell is a former House Dusk Captain by the name of Miisraaks, and that they claim to be… 'allies' with us."
"So basically let them shoot at me first huh? Sounds awesome."
"Indeed. The mission form has been sent to your ghost. If you have any further questions contact the normal Mission Control personnel. And remember, please report the source of those bursts directly to me. I normally don't bother much with smaller things like this, since Fallen wielding Light should be impossible… but nowadays… you can't be too sure. Dismissed."
Vren stepped back out into the hallway and held out her hand, letting Ginger flash into her palm with a sigh. "Well little bud… we got posted to the Antarctic."
"Technically it's just close to the Arctic but yeah. No vacation with this one."
"Well! Let's at least go get a snowcone before we bundle up and head out!"
Ginger gave a little spin before floating over to Vren's shoulder. "I think that's a great idea."
/
The Eliksni convoy was ambushed about a mile and a half out from the second House Light outpost. First thing that Aurora new of it was when a dreg's shock grenade came twirling through the thick falling snow and went off in the middle of the House Light pack dregs, immediately killing one and knocking 3 others down into the rapidly deepening snow drifts.
Chaos erupted. Shock rounds by the hundreds came whizzing out of the blinding snow, impacting all around the hapless House Light Fallen as they struggled to find cover in the deep snow. 2 more dregs fell in the volley from both shock pistol rounds and accurate line rifle fire. Finding no options for immediate cover around them, the House Light Fallen answered with screaming barrages of their own, dreg shock pistols and grenades being supplemented by the Light vandal's line rifles and Turax's massive scorch cannon, whose thunderous booms echoed up and down the valley.
When the first shock round went flying by Aurora's head in the opening volley, Aurora didn't react exactly as she imagined she would. Her first instinct was to crouch down and put her head inbetween her knees, and while she didn't do the knee part, the Awoken did hit the deck so fast she got a face full of stinging snow stuck in her hood, further increasing her confusion and panic.
She was distinctly not enjoying her first firefight- it was close to dark, which with the snow made visibility less then 10 feet- there was an horrid torrent of noise, gunfire, screaming, explosions, and Eliksni curses; Polaris was yelling incoherent instructions in her ear and his own surprise and panic was not helping with her own emotional situation. With everything clashing in her brain, Aurora was surprised she was even able to start crawling away from the (assumed) Dusk positions toward the cover of the woods on the other side of the path, the constant zinging and sizzling of shock rounds landing near her giving her plenty of urgency to crawl as fast as she could across the snow.
"Aurora, you have to get up and fire back!"
"Shoot where?! I don't know where they are!"
"Just shoot anywhere!"
Akriis however- knew exactly where their attackers were, as did the rest of his skraal. With their natural heat-detection abilities combined with their sharp night eyesight, the Fallen on both sides could clearly see where all of the combatants on the battlefield were. So while the firefight seemed to Aurora as if both sides where just firing blindly into the snow, for the Fallen is was a battle of maneuver and marksmanship.
And it was about to soon be a battle of blade and claw.
The ambushing force was smaller than the members of the House Light convoy thought it was- it was merely a blocking force of 30 or so dregs and 5-6 House Dusk vandals. Akriis could clearly see one of the Vandals drawing a bead on one of his scrambling pack-dregs- crouching low he brought up his line rifle and took the shot- obliterating the Vandal's head in a cloud of brains and Ether.
Riiviks, Turaxs, and Kokraks where keeping up a steady and accurate fire on the woods where their attackers hid. Akriis glanced behind him to see the surviving pack-dregs had huddled together and where now using their packs as a sort of massive set of sandbags, sending volleys of shock-pistol rounds towards their attackers. Good, just like they trained, he thought to himself. Usually in this situation most dregs would have run, but his were putting up a fight.
A line rifle round whizzed past his head and he turned farther to see the Lightbearer on her knees in the snow, firing blindly with a look of panic and fear in her eyes. Akriis allowed himself a moment to wonder at this- never before had he seen a Guardian show fear for a few dregs. And why isn't she using her Light?
An cry from Kokraks brought his attention back to the fight- the attacking Dusk vandals, rapidly loosing dregs to the more heavily-armed House Light convoy, where sounding a charge while they still had the advantage of numbers: and before their dregs realized the situation they were in. From the woodline a good 20ish Dusk dregs ran screeching forward toward the surviving Light Fallen, taking a few loses from Turax's scorch cannon before the "lines" clashed.
Akriis' lower hands drew out his pair of shock daggers before sprinting forward to support his fellow Vandals, his line rifle now rendered effectively useless due to the close range. In the corner of his eyes he saw a flash as Pyrrja appeared behind the 2 remaining Dusk vandals farther in the woods and she cut them down. Akriis grinned to himself as he tanked a shock pistol round to the chestplate and smashed his rifle butt down onto the perpetrator. With the enemy Vandals down the dregs would be easy to defeat. To his left he saw Riiviks howl as he cut down two Dusk dregs simultaneously with his twin swords, his 3 blue eyes gleaming through the snow, and the crazed laughter of Turax echoed farther along the trail as he blasted dregs point-blank.
Then, in a flash, quiet descended onto the wooded path. The fight was over, the few surviving Dusk dregs sprinting as fast as they could go down the path toward the second House Light outpost. Akriis waved his group together for a quick head-count. The grinning Turax was drenched in Fallen blood and rapidly-freezing Ether, Riiviks was nursing a wounded lower right arm but was otherwise ok, a relieved-looking Kokraks was checking on the 7 surviving pack-dregs, and Pyrrja was grinning to herself as she wiped off her twin blades.
Akriis sighed. Not a bad engagement at all. Could have been much worse Then his eyebrows furrowed. "Where is the Lightbearer?"
Pyrrja smirked and tossed her head behind Akriis. There, with her blue hair frosting over in the quickening snow, the Light vandal could see the Awoken laying face-down on the ground- with a shock-dagger in her back.
