Ciryus and Lynx were sat on top of a very tall tower, the rust slowly decaying the building which made the journey up it quite perilous. Ciryus perched herself on top of the rails, looking over to him. Lynx wore a pair of binoculars.
"You see anything?"
Lynx looked at the huge cobble buildings built inside a massive crater.
"Nah, the only thing I can see is the base. They don't allow me to gather anything else..."
Lynx scratched his chin and looked around at the vegetation, trying to come up with an idea.
"Luna, can you tap into the fallen comms? See if there's any relating to this base."
Luna fluttered around, switching between the radio waves to see if there's anything she could pick out.
Ciryus stopped her, "Wait. Go back a bit"
Luna looked over to her and acknowledged, there was heavy distortion but Ciryus could pick out and translate the word, "shipment"
"Uh. Shipment? What're they expecting to receive?"
Ciryus frowned, her mandibles clicking in unison when she's thinking. Lynx adored that look and stared at her in appreciation.
Ciryus looked over, "What?" She gazed at him with a confused expression. "Something in my teeth?"
Lynx chuckled loudly, "No not at all. You're just very beautiful." He gave a smile afterward, Ciryus smiled and looked away. Back to the base.
"Listen." She spoke, "In that base, it'll be dangerous. You'll face a lot of very tough challenges, just... please promise me you'll stay safe, okay?"
Lynx looked out at the crater then back to her, her deep pearl eyes stared at him with sincerity. "You have my word. Running into danger, it's what us guardians are best at. You don't have to worry about anything."
They embraced. Ciryus turned to him with a worried look on their face, "Listen... I-" Just before she was able to speak a pitter-patter of steps could be heard climbing the tower
A few moments later, he heard Desmond speak "Sorry, am I interrupting something?" He smiled and leaned against the rusted wall.
Ciryus smiled and turned to Desmond, "No. You weren't" She then left and climbed down the ladder much to Lynx's dismay, he wonders what she was going to say to him?
Desmond rested a metallic hand on Lynx's shoulder, concern pressing on the other exo's face.
Desmond spoke, "You sure you trust her? I mean you know how cunning the fallen are." He looked out at the crater and questioned Lynx's leadership.
Lynx looked over to him, "She's not like most Eliksni. I mean if she really wanted to why didn't she kill me when I first met her?" He grazed his hand over the dent left in his arm, remembering that day at the archeology.
Desmond said, "Yeah, fair. Just be watchful, okay?" Lynx smiled in response, "Man everyone's getting so worried today about me. Trust me, when say this. We got this."
Desmond appreciated this carefree version of Lynx, reminded him of when they first met. Then he started to become distant and... that's why.
Desmond pulled out his throwing knife and started to gracefully through his fingers, starting from the index to pinky. "Remember that fallen base we attacked long ago? Heh, I remember how scared you were when you didn't see us."
Lynx looked out at the trees, watching the leaves sway from left to right as he thought of what to respond with.
Lynx chuckled and said, "Yeah. I forgot that we are immortal for a minute there" Lynx then remembered something, "Hey, why did you think I was into Wilhelmina?"
Desmond turned to face him, his left side still leaning against the railing. "Honestly?" he chuckled for a second to himself, "I think it was to rile you up. I did think you had a bit of a crush on her considering you tried to keep your distance."
Lynx chuckled, "I think that was out of the fear she would kick my ass" They both exchanged laughter.
For a couple of hours, they sat on top of that tower, reminiscing about the times they spent together and what they've been up to. Lynx missed this, for a while it was just him and Luna together, she did make him mad at a couple of points with her constant vexing.
"No way," Lynx spoke, "You really?" Desmond smiled gleefully, feeling very illustrious. "Yup, beat the old man at a game of cards." Lynx was in awe at how he was able to outplay the trickster known as the Drifter at a game of cards. "He bet the whole house on it too" Lynx really was amazed, he remembered the days when he first tried out gambit and he didn't realize you had to collect motes and ended up dying a lot, they ended up never summoning the primeval.
After a while, Desmond left to group up with the rest. Lynx decided to spend a bit more time on top of the tower. He watched how Ciryus was interacting with the other fireteam members and smiled a bit, she carried herself strongly and was quite the jokester.
Eventually, he climbed down, looking up as the sky darkened into a galaxy blue. He gathered everyone up for a meeting around the campfire. "Alright, everyone. The plan is quite simple, we have intel that suggests a shipment will be arriving in a few hours from now, at the dead of night." He shifts his gaze to focus on everyone, "We also have confirmation that Eramis is going to be there, helping to carry out the shipments. If we're able to take her out, that would protect a lot more innocent people from getting hurt." Lynx grabbed a stick and outlined the base in the sand, along with where they're at. He detailed how they're going to silently take out the fallen on patrol, then meet up at the warehouse to engage Eramis.
They expressed their approval of the plan, Wilhelmina spoke, "Glad to have you back, your plans are actually sound unlike Tre's." Tre's face puffed up and he spoke, "I can hear you know!" Everyone burst out laughing, despite what they were going to do there was an air of calm amidst them. Everything felt all right.
They continued to make jokes and tell stories until they heard the sounds of a frigate breaking into the atmosphere and landing on the base. Lynx looked up, walked a bit forward to get a better sight, then turned to everyone, "Shall we head off?"
Been a while, hasn't it? Well rest assured I haven't abandoned this story, I'm starting work on the next chapter then the epilogue. Have a great rest of your day.
