Chapter 3: Atomic Backstab

Slipping into Vale was surprisingly easy. The sleepy attendant at the docks didn't stir, even when I walked past him and onto the ferry. Being invisible probably helped. A short trip later, and I find myself staring at a rather familiar-looking city.

At first glance, at least. Taking another look, the differences become apparent. There is no Tower, looming over the walls. The walls are smooth and uniform, with none of the vast shield projectors that adorned the walls I had long defended. It was smaller, too, but it lacked the massive, abandoned districts of the Last City. Instead, every square inch of land seemed to be packed to the limit with buildings, roads, and people. So many people, despite the late hour, doing whatever it was civilians did.

I frown. It's sights like this that really drive home the differences between Guardians and humans. It wasn't like we are warriors 24/7 – no living being can be, not while hoping to remain sane or productive. But they lack the purpose a Guardian has. They take their lives a day at a time, probably worrying about making rent or what to have for dinner. It all feels so… small. How do they do it - ignore the dangers out there, isolate themselves in their own little worlds? Every day I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, while they haven't a care.

I shake my head. There's no time for idle thoughts. I wait, clinging to the railing of the ferry as it pulls up to a dock. Rather than wait until the ship disgorges its passengers, I jump, the clanging of my boots against the steel walkway muffled by the hustle and bustle of a busy port. The mission begins, but where to start? I shrug, walking across the docks and choosing a random street. Somehow, I have a feeling I'll find something useful.

I have found nothing useful. With a groan, I flop down onto a bench in a park I've somehow wandered into. I figured after mapping the Vex Gateway network, a city would be easy to navigate, but no. I swear I've walked past the same damn coffee shop six times already. This would be infinitely easier if I could just look up a map, but our Cryptarchs are still deciphering their communications protocols. Lots of unguarded radio chatter to pick up, but we still can't crack into their infosphere. But then, if we could, I wouldn't need to be on this fact-finding mission and could focus on what really matters.

A sharp shrill makes me sit up, looking down at my bracer. A priority message from the fleet. I'll have to take this, but not here. Looking around, I see a public restroom nearby. Jackpot. Jogging over, I poke my head inside. "Is anybody in here?" I call out.

No response. Just to be sure, I walk inside, sweeping the stalls. Nobody. Turning back to the door, I send out a quick pulse of Light, jamming the locking mechanism. Bringing up my left forearm, I flick the holoprojector on. The blue light shimmers and distorts, before stabilizing into the form of the captain. He salutes sharply, which I return. "Speaker!" He says, "I have good news and bad news, sir. Which do you want first?"

I blink. Unexpected. "Let's hear the bad first, captain." I say.

"It's the Fallen, sir – they've followed us to the system."

I bite back a curse. "How many?" I demand.

"Three Ketches, sir. No house markings. Thirty-six smaller ships, a mix of support vessels and light frigates. Our sensors are still getting a count of their skiffs."

I pause. Worse than I hoped, better than I feared. We have nineteen vessels, but barely half of those could ever hope to stand up against a Ketch, much less win. But… perhaps we won't need to? "Split up the fleet," I order. "Detail two warships to escort the Cryptarchs and support vessels, instruct them to take cover in the moon's debris field. Should keep them off their sensors. The rest will form up on the Orphean Rescue, commence hit and run attacks against the Fallen fleet. Remain out of weapons range of those Ketches, try to pick the off the smaller craft one by one. It'll force the Fallen to pull back to the Ketches for safety, buy us more time." My gaze sharpens, as I stare at the captain. "Our primary objective must be to prevent them from making landfall – the casualties would be catastrophic." And I could lose my chance to search for the Spark.

"Understood, sir." He replies coolly. "What shall we do if they reach the planet, sir? Once they arrive in-system, we will have less than seven days before they make orbit."

"They won't," I respond. "Pull back our scouting teams from the rest of the system. They'll be tasked with boarding and scuttling the Ketches. Once they're down, we'll be able to pick the rest of the fleet off at our leisure." I grin ferally. "The Fallen won't know what hit them."

The captain seems shaken for a moment. "Very well, sir." He replies after a moment. Pausing, he then continues. "And where will you be in all this?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Where do you think, captain? I'll be leading the teams on the boarding action. Never send a human to do a Guardian's job."

The captain coughs, looking over his shoulder. "Sorry, Speaker." He says. "But I have orders from Dead Orbit… that we're not to risk our vessels in any operation you're personally involved in."

"WHAT?" I roar, outraged. Dust flies into the air as my fist slams into a nearby wall, cracking the concrete and spraying chips of stone across the floor. "Why!?"

Even thousands of miles away, the captain leans back, afraid. "Sir, I-"

I bite my tongue to hold back my shouts. The metallic taste of blood clears away in a heartbeat as the Light kicks in. "Who ordered this?" I whisper quietly.

"I'm sorry sir." He says, shrinking away from the receiver. "But that's confidential information." He pauses, before nodding to somebody offscreen. "Transfer this call to my quarters, Lieutenant. I'll handle this in private." He turns back to me. "Please hold for a moment." The hologram switches off, flickering into darkness. Standing upright, I clench my hands into fists and try to restrain my anger.

I make it about a minute before I lose control. Whirling around, I channel my Light into a fist, slamming it into a mirror. I flex my knuckles as they pop back into place, shards of glass falling out as my skin knits back together. I'd do more… but burning down a park in the middle of the city is bound to attract the wrong kind of attention.

Fucking Dead Orbit. I should have expected they'd have their hands in this. Traveler forbid I have to rely on them for any sort of fleet action, but for them to have the audacity to challenge me like this? I saved them all! ME! And without me, it's going to be a massacre! The Fallen are going to arrive and cut the fleet to pieces, and there's nothing I can do about it thanks to some smug asshole sitting behind his desk a million miles away, who probably hasn't fucked or fought anything for a dozen years.

It all goes back to the damn Consensus. Power-hungry, selfish assholes. They were always jealous of the Guardians, hated how we were above their influence. Sure, they could have cut off our material support and kicked us out of the City, but we both knew the walls wouldn't stand a fucking day if they tried it. The Red War proved that. This must have been a golden-fucking-opportunity for them to sabotage my efforts to rebuild the order, if not simply get me killed. I can see the headlines now, 'Speaker killed during fleet action in distant system'. All far away from home, where none of their voters and lobbyists can see the mess. After all, what's a few thousand lives when they can sweep their biggest enemy under the rug? I thought things would be different after… I should have accepted New Monarchy's offer. Should have fucking known better, treacherous sons of a –

A beep from my comms unit interrupts my internal rant, flickering back on to show the captain sitting behind a desk, formal posture seemingly abandoned. I move to speak, but he raises a hand, interrupting me.

"Sorry about that, Speaker." He says. "But I have my orders, and I need to keep up appearances for the men. Many of them are still true believers, and I can't trust them to overhear what I'm about to say."

He levels his gaze on me, face unreadable. "But I trust you, sir." He says. "Even if Dead Orbit doesn't, I remember the day you saved us. Saved all of humanity. That's a debt I'll never be able to repay."

I bite my tongue again, silently counting to ten. "Then what are you going to do, captain?" I say, having calmed slightly.

"I can't risk the fleet if you're involved, sir." He stresses. "But if you were otherwise occupied, by, say, a scouting mission…?"

"It'll be a disaster without me there." I say angrily. "The whole damn team is going to be slaughtered, and then the Ketches are going to tear the fleet apart. Just like they planned."

"No." He says. "It won't. I'll follow your plan – It's a good one, the best chance we've got without abandoning the entire system. You'll just need to make yourself scarce during the actual fighting. We're soldiers too – at this point, you need to trust us to do our jobs."

I snarl angrily, leaning back against the fractured wall. "Fucking hell." I say. "Fine – but tell whoever ordered this that I will slit them open mouth to anus and drag their corpse through the City when I return, so they'd better get their affairs in order." I pause, trying to calm myself. "Thank you, captain. I suppose I'll… leave this in your hands." The words taste like ash in my mouth even before I say them.

"I won't let you down, sir."

"That's what they all said." I whisper softly. "And for the good news?" I say, louder.

He snaps back to attention. "Right!" He says. "The Cryptarchs have identified one of the major communication hubs used by the natives. They are unable to remotely access it, but if a physical connection could be established, they could finally make headway on decrypting their communications."

"Tell me where it is," I order. "I'll have my Ghost set up a direct connection to their ship."

"It's not far from your current position sir. A few miles outside the city you're in, in the middle of some sort of castle, there's a tower that houses the communications equipment. According to some intercepted radio transmissions, it's known as a Cross-Continental Transit system. And the castle's name is Beacon."

Well. That was an interesting conversation. Fucking Dead Orbit, fucking… no, Urs, you're calm, you're calm. Forget about it. Beacon… that's the academy, that woman told me about. At least I have a destination. Now, all I need to do is –

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"Hey!" A voice cries out. "You done in there? It's been like ten minutes!"

Glancing at my HUD, I see that about five minutes have passed, but, whatever. "Yeah," I say. "Give me a second."

Turning, I walk over to the door and wrench it open. On the other side... damn. I freeze, anger draining away as I stare at the woman in front of me.

A veritable waterfall of golden hair, framing a pair of lilac eyes and a pair of reddened lips, twisted in shock. As my gaze trails down, I see her jacket isn't fully buttoned, revealing the largest… I snap my eyes back to her face, slightly ashamed to catch myself staring at her chest, even if she is one of the hottest women I've ever laid eyes on. I shake my head. No, down boy. She's gotta be, like, fifty times younger than you.

"Dude!" Her voice breaks me out of my daze. "What are you doing in the girl's bathroom!?" I look to the side. Did I…? Yep. Must have missed that. You know, the lack of urinals was kind of weird, but I thought maybe that it was a cultural thing?

Looking back to her, I shake my head slightly. "Sorry, sorry." I say. "I didn't realize…" Stepping out, I release the door, giving her an embarrassed grin. "I was in a bit of a hurry, didn't stop to check. Have a nice day."

As I started to walk away, I suddenly stop. Maybe? It couldn't hurt to ask. "Excuse me, ma'am?" She stops, turning back to me, 'what do you want' seemingly written over her face.

"What's up?" She snaps, impatient.

"Do you know how to get to Beacon?"

A/N: A bit short, I know. Actually, all these chapters have been pretty short, but writing, proofreading, and uploading takes a lot of time, especially since I'm working a lot more now. Great for the wallet, terrible for everything else. That, and I have to drive all the way to my parent's house just to update my stories, since we're in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and I can't afford to shell out thousands of dollars to get an internet connection run out to me.

Anyway, longer chapters are hopefully coming, since I should have plenty of time to write this weekend. Expect the next update on Monday... whenever I wake up.