Saladin stood there as the impromptu "Fireteam Blazier" reported their from the eventful mission they had. Saladin listened to every detail, from the war on top of the bridge, to the Hive Lab hidden inside of the Archon's Keep. The grip on his ax tightened as the briefing went on.
"...In summary, the newfound leader of the uninfected Devils said that for as long as Aksis is alive, we should remain in a temporary alliance." Barloc finished his four minute report of the mission. "Getting these Fallen on our side could potentially turn the tides with some inside field intelligence. The Splicers would finally be at a disadvantage."
"I see. And do you have confidence in this testimony Lady Rose?" Saladin asked, still uneasy about trusting this sub faction of the house of Devils.
"No reason not to. I was there first hand. Plus, Randel wants to keep me alive so he could kill me himself. Not that it wouldn't be fun to see him try." She said that last bit with a hint of wickedness in her voice. Saladin wasn't sure how to respond to that last statement. He cleared his throat before continuing.
"Well, in any case, our list of allies are thin and as much as I despise the fallen. Aksis is a far greater threat than any scavenger." He then looked at the stone carving detailing the Iron Lord's history. "Felwinter, Radegast, Gheleon… all under the control of SIVA, before you freed them. All ready and willing to infect countless others. We cannot have another Oryx on our hands."
How dare this light compare me to that insect! If I were around, I could've easily just taken them all with naught but my own hands!
Summer shook her head from the mental shouting and went back on track.
It was too soon a recovery however, as Barloc had noticed. His face turned to one of concern and confusion. "Is everything alright Summer?"
"I'm alright Barloc." She pretended to act casual, even though all eyes were upon her. "I was just thinking."
"Just, about all this." Summer tried to deflect the warlock's questions before they came out as best as she could. "It's just one extinction level event after another."
"Mmmm." Barloc stepped back, appearing satisfied with the answer. Saladin looked back to the group, finished with his reminiscing.
"For now, go gather what you need, and prepare. When new information arrives, we'll plan our next move then." He sighs, "Be Brave, guardians." his age showing in his voice. "I have a feeling these next few days will decide the fate of us all." Summer and Barloc nod before leaving the hall, leaving Saladin to his devices.
00000
Later that night, Summer found herself by her ship, checking over her inventory and storage of items and gear. Barloc had retreated to somewhere, probably to go be grouchy about something else, summer figured. She was going through all the new loot she had acquired in the past few days, dusting the stuff she didn't want to keep around for materials.
"Not this, not this, not this…" She muttered as she dusted a blue grade autorifle. The next item she held up was a bright red cloak. The material seemed of rather high quality, but it was stained with what looked like fallen blood. "Ew, definitely not this." She was ready to dust it too when a voice interrupted her.
"You know, Ruby likes that color."
Summer spun around, her hand going to Thorn on reflex.
"Whoa there, please." Summer found herself looking at Pyrrha Nikos, who had her hands up. "Sorry for sneaking up on you like this." Summer relaxed and let go of Thorn's handle.
"Oh, Pyrrha. What's up?" Summer greeted.
"Still, well still trying to kind of come to terms with all this. It's overwhelming if I'm totally honest." Pyrrha sat down at the edge of the landing platform, looking out towards the mountains of Felwinter as Summer transmatted out two cans of cola from her storage and walked over, before sitting down next to her. She hands Pyrrha one who graciously accepts as she continues.
"You're experiencing how I felt when I first woke up, resurrected." Summer began as she popped the tab on her can and took a sip.
"How did it feel?" Pyrrha asked as she took a sip of her drink. She found the taste quite pleasant, though she would have preferred less sugar.
"Confusing, chaotic, words like that." The white cloaked huntress replied. "It was so much to process all at once. Drei filled me in on everything as we went along, but it didn't make anything feel less maddening."
"It feels the same for me." Pyrrha replied. "A year ago, my biggest worry might have been an Elder Grimm, the White Fang, or Oobleck's next exam. Today, I just fought against aliens, machines, and fusions of both, learning that all of these dwarf the threat of the Grimm by orders of magnitudes." The amazon sighs. "It's a lot to take in, that there is a threat out there so much greater, and more powerful."
"I know how you feel Pyrrha." Summer responds. "I know, everyone likes to put me up on a pedestal as this fearless champion of the light and all. But I've personally lost count how many times I've stared down a threat and considered running away, or feeling panic take over and become reckless."
"I, I wouldn't have been able to tell." Pyrrha admitted as she took another sip. "I thought that the fact you can resurrect yourselves would alleviate that."
"Being a Guardian doesn't mean we learn to live without fear." Summer explained. "Yes, death is no longer a concern for us, but that doesn't mean we will always come back. Even if we're not aware of it, everytime we go out on a mission, in the back of our minds, there's always that sliver of worry that this will be the one that ends us."
"And for some of us, that fear became truth." Summer concluded as she gazed out towards the peaks of Felwinter.
"What happened?" Pyrrha asked. "Warlock Byf mentioned a great disaster, but didn't explain further, saying it wasn't a story for the faint of heart."
"Crota happened." Summer began, the memories of her raid team for Crota flooding back to her. "The Dark Prince of the Hive, whose sword could devour the Light and permanently kill Guardians. When the City launched a full scale attack at the Moon, many of us didn't realize it would have ended it the way it did. We lost a thousand Guardians that day in a slaughter we never saw coming. I wasn't part of the attack, but I heard stories. Some of the survivors broke from the carnage and the shock of what had happened. The Consensus put a permanent ban on travel to the moon except for absolute emergencies. Well, until a few years ago. I flew to the moon with a fireteam, ready to end what had been started. I faced the Hive Prince head on. I slew Crota with his own sword."
"Oh." Pyrrha simply said, her mind trying to comprehend what such a task could have required.
"Basically, Pyrrha, I know it can be difficult now. But people like us, Guardians and Huntsmen, we do what we do because of our love for humanity. We put ourselves out there for those who can't do so themselves. It is an honor, and a privilege, to fight for them." Pyrrha gave a slight chuckle.
"I can see why Ruby admired you so much." She mused.
"I doubt my little rose remembers much of me, but it seems that much rubbed off on her." Summer laughed. "It was quite jarring to meet her. It was almost like looking in a mirror."
"You got impaled by your own daughter upon meeting. I doubt many parents have that kind of story to tell."
"I didn't react because I was admittedly in shock. I mean it makes sense right? Suddenly meeting a mini-me and then learning you had a kid, a family, all that you have no recollection of." Summer took a deep breath at the memory. "Not exactly as bad as that one time I got stuck in a Hive torture trap, but the revelation of the whole 'past life family' was what really hit me hard after I found out she was my daughter."
Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at that. "Should I be-"
"Yeah, the Hive love torture and brutality." Summer said, as if it was no big deal. "So take that to heart when you get a mission involving them, because death would be better than being in that situation."
Pyrrha noticeably paled at the thought of having to fight such monsters, but otherwise nodded.
Summer then looked to Pyrrha. "So, what of you Mistral champion? Put up on a pedestal a lot too before I came in like a wrecking ball?"
Pyrrha also cringed at the reference. "Well, people did have high expectations of me before I finished training, like expecting me to single-handedly defeat the White Fang…"
00000
He watched the two share their life stories from afar with a flat look upon his eyes. It was a lot of work, trying to convince Pyrrha Nikos to talk with Summer, but the end result was achieved nonetheless. Summer was beginning to talk more now, and in turn this had begun to allow him to collect the data he needs to determine whether or not Summer is ok… and so far, it proved to be nothing.
He felt his scroll vibrate. He took it out, and saw that Cayde was on the line. He picked up.
"Hunter."
"Space Nerd."
"What is it you want, Cayde?"
"Oh nothing much, really." His voice came out with a faked casualty to his tone, but not sloppily done enough to come across as such. "Just checking in on my favorite guardian."
"...She appears to be doing well, despite what's happened to her so far. A noticeable change is prevalent compared to the historical account I've received from you, however."
"And that is?"
"The frequency of stale humor is slightly off, and rises to normal levels when back around those close to her, such as you. I also have suspicions Oryx is speaking to her and the Hive she comes across. Your instincts appear to be correct in the regard of a potential change… and we know why we don't particularly like that."
Cayde took a deep breath, before sighing. "Try to keep death off of you two. I don't want her to end up like that."
"Underst-"
"I mean it, warlock. She's the closest thing I got to an 'Ace'... you feel me?"
He took a deep breath.
"Don't make oldies take promises, kinderguardian."
"Thanks."
00000
Meanwhile at the Rocketyards
Under the cover of night, a small contingent of Randhel's Fallen slink through through the snowed out landscape. Greig had tasked them to scout out a Refinery that Randhel believed is being used as some sort of base for the splicers. The Fallen squad had begrudgingly accepted, having protested first at doing the bidding of "lightbearers" before Randhel silenced any opposition by threatening to dock whatever arms they had left. As a result, the two marauders and two vandals of the squad were creeping up towards the rocketyards, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.
"This task is bothersome." one of the Marauders complained as they drew close. "It is revolting to have to be the dogs of that, Summer Rose."
"Silence." One of the Vandals spat. This one had a yellow stripe on his cloak, designating him as the squad leader. "We do as we are ordered. The lightbearer offends me with her presence, but better her than that traitorous Aksis."
"We're about to cross into their territory. Activate your active camouflage, and stick to the shadows." the other marauder called out. All at once, the squad disappeared into vaguely visible translucent outlines. They quickly and cautiously sprinted across the courtyard into the main complex. Crawling on the walls and avoiding lights where they could. Once they had made it inside, the group paused to make sure they didn't set off any alarms.
"Procede lightly. We are in their maw now." the Vandal leader warned.
They walked into a hallway with a hole in the wall, jumping out of the hole into a place full of snow covered trains and SIVA nodes. Construction shanks were all about the place installing turrets to be infected by SIVA, with the trees surprisingly remaining untouched. The roof above them however, was torn to shreds from combat and rust, with several small and huge holes in it as snow fell from above and onto metal ship crates that were buried in snow. An oil pipeline was threatening to fall down, teetering on the edge of an opening in the rooftop.
Deeper into the complex, they could hear the sound of the splicers chatting. They went deeper within, passing by an inactive Hive seeder as they listened in from behind some crates.
"The SIVA augments from Splicer Priest Kovik are quite useful, yes?" A Splicer Vandal couldn't help but comment at his new wear, idly playing around with his new Hive claw appendage he took for his new arms. "Hive missing out."
"They will not join our banner." A captain said, grunting. "Nar bar ban di. Better off using them as vessels."
"I agree." The Vandal nodded. "Blind fools do not know of our plans. Nar dras den zes SIVA… the plan Aksis has laid out is foolproof. Gods through their folly. Blind faith to old machine god. The home of the Rose, ours..." The two splicers then went to get out of earshot, still making comments about other races and fallen houses being 'foolish and inferior' to the gift that is SIVA.
One of the marauders crept further in, to try to get a closer listen on what the splicers were saying. However before he even made two steps, an alarm went off throughout the complex. The Fallen squad looked around in panic, not expecting this turn of events. From above there was a mechanical growl, as a shadow fell over the space they were in. The Fallen band looks up as a Splicer Walker drops down in front of them. At the same time, other splicers stream into the room.
One of the Marauders spat out a swear.
"Scatter!" Ordered the Vandal captain. The four dove behind cover as the walker unleashed a barrage of missiles in their direction. Missile explosions echoed and flashed around them as the Splicers also opened fire. Ducking under the hail of laser fire, the captain vandal brought his wire rifle to bear and started taking down the Splicers on the balconies. In rapid succession, three fell to his well placed shots. At the same time, the two marauders cloaked once more, the pair of them scurrying around the battlefield to flank the Splicers. The last vandal was busy dealing with the Walker, trying to distract it from its allies, while also trying to figure out how to destroy it best. The vandal fired off his wire rifle at the Splicer Walker but his shots glanced harmlessly off the SIVA armor encasing its carapace. At the same time, the walker's turret started charging, and the Vandal dove out of the way, just in time for a blast of solar energy to scorch the area he was just at.
"The walker is resilient!" The vandal called out to his captain who was busy dispatching more Splicers. "We lack the necessary weapons to destroy it."
"Then perhaps they do." The vandal captain replied as he blew the head off of another splicer. The splicer's headless corpse fell next to the captain who retrieved its Siva shock rifle. Aiming it at the walker's exposed joints. He let loose a barrage of red energy at the Walker, the SIVA enhanced bolts seeming to be far more effective than their normal weapons, as it started stripping away at the walker.
In another part of the room, the two marauders, with their shock blades drawn, snuck up behind a group of Splicer dregs. Before any of the splicers realized it, the pair had decloaked, driving shock blades into necks and torsos alike, silencing them for good. Just as the two marauders were about to move onto their next targets, the door behind them slid open with a hiss. A hail of shrapnel flew out, burrowing into the marauders, sending them flying backwards. From the shadows of the door, a Splicer captain stepped out, more splicer soldiers streaming in behind him.
"Slaughter the interlopers!" he ordered to his minions as the fresh troops started attacking as well.
With this sudden turn of events, the battle was dramatically no longer in the Fallen squad's favor. The two marauders were severely wounded and were now locked in a pitched battle against the new horde of splicers. In the back, the Vandals had only successfully disabled one of the walker's legs before it unleashed another hail of missiles at them. The vandal captain found himself blown against the wall with a crunch. Pain lanced through his body as he fell to the ground, his two right arms broken. The other vandal faired better, having landed further back, near the way they came in. The tank turret was rotating about as the Splicer Captain approached them as well.
"Prepare to die. None may disturb the awakening of our god." The captain growled as he grabbed the vandal captain by the neck, lifting him into the air. The vandal captain clawed at the Splicer captain's hand, trying to break free but to no avail. With a grunt of effort, it turned its head towards the remaining vandal by the doorway.
"G-Go!" He growled through choked gasps before with a snap, his limp body went limp in the Splicer captain's hand. The remaining vandal, realizing what would happen if he stayed, leapt onto his arms and scurried out as fast as he could. Behind him, he could hear the Splicer captain, ordering his soldiers to go after him.
00000
A/N: Hello there, this is Dustiniz117 here to give you some news. (dodges a boot) First off, apologies to both my fellow readers and my co-writers for my absence, been playing both borderlands 3 and the new Shadowkeep. (dodges another boot) And I've been suffering a case of extreme writers block. (dodges two consecutive boots) Good news is that I'm 90% done with my next chapter for my Iron Rose shorts and 5% done with the one after that. I'll give you the latter here: "The Spider and the Schnee".
Diluation:Take that!(throws boot) And that!(throws another boot)
So please(dodging boots from my fellow co-writers) be patient.
Diluation:I'll be patient when my hair is grey!(throws another boot)
*Ahem* So, that out of the way, sorry we didn't get it done on time. School got in the way(math class that requires almost full attention), as well as family issues.
Aquilos: I was caught up with school, and was also grinding for every crucible pinnacle weapon in Momentum Control. (I got them btw)
Diluation:And Animeak and I also got into an original project that's an anime inspired by RWBY and Game of Thrones. It's top secret, so can't spoil it! But you know what we can do? Reviews!
Miniatmat:Loving the series so far. I was wondering, is there a hub or something where there are all the side-stories related to this one?
Diluation:Unfortunately, no, does not allow links to external fanfics or sites. The best we can give you are the names of said fics, which can easily be searched up or looked around for. You can identify 'Remnant of a Iron Rose Shorts' by looking for the title, and looking for the bit where it says"Ptabs0101's 'Remnant of' universe" or something similar to it. Additionally, Neo and the Wolves Of Mars, as well as 'Mapping A Forgotten World' can be found in this manner.
As a reminder, you can all feel free to make fanfiction/art/ about Ptabs0101's 'Remnant of' universe(and we'd definitely share some art we've personally received for this from another author here to show it). We have no qualms about what you do or make, unless it is directly gets in the face of our plans for the future sequels that we may do. Like all other fanfiction, if your stuff gets in the way of our future plans, well, it's just tough luck.
Rebiele:Do you plan to purify Summer?
Diluation:Maybe we will, maybe we won't. Though I must say, it is rather interesting how they have veteran dialogue and newbie dialogue in Destiny 2, is it not? ; )
Mini:Just a thought but, dont fallen speak more of a broken/simplistic english? seems kinda inconsistent during this chapter, especially with Greig.
PS: Loving this version of Shaxx
Diluation:I was embracing my inner titan to do my best Shaxx impression for that.
As for Greig, he's more of a leader. And good leaders generally need to know how to talk to others more than fight.
With all that said and done, hopefully we can try and get back into writing on a normal schedule again. Expect more foreshadowing and explosions next chapter!
In memory of Ptabs0101 ~