11/16/17: I added this new chapter to expand on the events of Europa, since I decided to undo Tactus' death, I needed to showcase the events leading up to that particular divergence from canon. All dialogue is borrowed from the chapter of the same name from the book.
Chapter 18: The Stormsons:
Arcos Estate
Europa
February 1st, 2841
Under better circumstances, Shiro would have loved Europa. But unfortunately, circumstances conspired to ruin his first impression of the smallest Gallilean moon. While floating around at 0.136 of Earth's gravity was something he would have enjoyed doing, they'd come expecting a battle, and a fight here would be like a ballet underwater. He and Darrow had to wear gravBoots just to move comfortably in this environment, and even then, every step they took needed to be measured and controlled. There was also the fact that they were there for business, not pleasure. As it was, Shiro stayed just out of earshot while Darrow conversed with his old razormaster, the former Rage Knight Lorn au Arcos, to aid them in their war against the Sovereign.
He watched the ex-Olympic Knight lean over the balcony of his castle. It was a limestone fortress set amid a ninety-kilometer-deep ocean. Rather than the medieval citadel Shiro had expected, the complex was a meld of past and present – glass and steel making hard angles with the stone island – much like the man Darrow respected above all other Golds of the man's generation. Like Arcos, the castle was a harsh place when storms came. But when the storms faded, the place would be bathed in sunshine, shining through the glass walls, and glinting off steel supports. Children would run the castle's ten-kilometer length, through the gardens, along the walls, and down to the harbor.
Wind would tickle the children's hair, and all the old Rage Knight would be able to hear from the library would be the crying of seagulls, the crash of the ocean, and laughter of his grandchildren and their mothers, who he guarded in place of his dead sons. The only one missing from his brood was Lysander. Like Darrow, Shiro got the sense that if all Golds were like Lorn au Arcos, the hierarchy would remain in place, but he would not be excessive about it, or try to hide the oppression of the system with lies like Octavia and Augustus did with the lowReds on Mars, or the Obsidians at the poles of every colonized planet and moon. It didn't necessarily make the man a good person, but it at least meant Shiro could be certain that there was no hypocrisy and deception with him. Lorn au Arcos was thick and broad. About the same height as Shiro, if not a few inches taller. The man let his empty tumbler of whiskey go and let the wind swoop it sideways off the balcony, down into the sea. He muttered something too quiet for Shiro to hear, but he was able to hear Darrow's reply.
"Storms of court have a way of drawing people back in," the Reaper said. Arcos laughed derisively, wordlessly scorning the idea that Darrow would know anything about the storms of court, or the winds that blow through the halls of power. The Black Paladin had accompanied Darrow and his inner circle to Arcos' estate in secret, flying with only a single ship, the five-kilometer destroyer Darrow had captured in their escape from Luna six weeks ago. Darrow had told Shiro that Lorn would not help them, but still held on to home that the man would want to help. Yet now that they met the man in person, Shiro knew Darrow was worried. Arcos knew that the Reaper's captains and lieutenants were listening through the com unit in Darrow's ear. Besides the presence of Shiro himself, Darrow had paid his respects and showed his com to Lorn so that the Rage Knight wouldn't assume their conversation was private.
Shiro followed behind as Arcos led Darrow inside off the balcony just as a cloud spat blue lightning across the dark sky. Europa's oceans bucked and heaved as great swells of water slithered and seeped along the white walls of the retired knight's island fortress, as if the stormy ocean world conspired to swallow the man-made island. But despite all of that, the castle, the storm, and Shiro himself feel so small compared to how large Jupiter loomed in the night sky behind the clouds. Darrow had described it as a textured gas giant staring down at them like the head of a great marble god, and the time traveller had to agree with that assessment. Arcos cheerfully greeted every servant the trio passed, seeing people, rather than Colors. Not for the first time, Shiro wondered about the odds that Lorn's view on the hierarchy might be swayed enough to side with the Sons if he learned the truth about Darrow.
Children's toys littered the halls. The Rage Knight's family was there with him on Europa, dozens of loved ones he brought together after he left public life on Mars behind. Most of them lived scattered along the southern archipelagoes in the warmer waters near the Jovian moon's equator, but hurricanes had forced them north that month to take refuge with Grandfather Lorn. It seemed to Shiro that the storm had followed them there. He kept a respectful distance behind the other two men as Arcos pushed open a grand glass gate leading into the center of his citadel, where he kept a forest several acres large and open to the air. The walls stretched around the forest, closing it off from the vicious waves, and Lorn's standards – a roaring purple griffin on a snow-white field – whipped high in the air. Rain fell on the trees, hissing into the needles until Arcos activated a pulseBubble. Then the rain sizzled on the roof of the force field and folded up in thick clouds of vapor.
The old Rage Knight walked ahead of them, but Shiro and Darrow lingered. Darrow took small black spikes from a hidden pouch in his sleeve and scattered them through the moss just outside the door. Arcos looked back curiously as he asked why Darrow had come to him in a stolen warship asking for his ships and his men. Darrow sped up his gait while Shiro took over dropping a few more spikes when the old man turned again. Shiro stood against the tree in silence as Darrow tried to persuade Arcos to join them in their war against the Core. But Arcos refused to participate, explaining in detail that Augustus was just as much a tyrant as Lune was. While Shiro knew that they needed the old man's help to stand a chance against the Sovereign, but he shared the Rage Knight's disgust for the Martian ArchGovernor's uxoricide, and he could empathize with the older man's desire to avoid going to war again.
Rain dripped from the pine trees as the three men walked through the forest to find Icarus, Arcos' pet griffin, sleeping in a bed of moss on a high promontory inside the forest. Despite himself, Shiro gasped as he took in the sight of the majestic creature, carved by Violets right out of ancient myth and legend. The best's paws curled into its body, wings curved around it as it slept, iridescent and glittering with droplets of water. Icarus was gigantic, his head almost as large as Darrow, and each of his eyes nearly the size of Shiro's skull. The Black Paladin stood still, in awe of the creature as he marveled at the Carvers' work. I've been living on Luna for two months, he thought to himself in amazement. But it's still another thing altogether to see what Carvers are capable of.
He was dimly aware of Darrow and Arcos discussing the details of the griffin's creation as he watched it in awestruck wonder at how far human technology had come. He forced himself to focus on his surroundings as the conversation shifted towards a critique of Darrow's fighting form during the duel with Cassius back on Luna. After Darrow made a comment to the effect that he knew Arcos cared about him, the old man went quiet. Shiro took a deep breath to steady himself. They'd known this moment was coming, but that didn't mean that they welcomed it. In fact, when they'd been making their plans, Darrow had admitted he'd been dreading it. But there's no turning back now, Shiro thought to himself. We need to see this through to the end.
"In another life, you would have been one of my sons, Darrow" the old warrior began as he addressed the young warlord. "I would have found you earlier, before whatever happened that filled you with this rage. I would not have raised you to be a great man. There is no peace for great men. I would have had you be a decent one. I would have given you the quiet strength to grow old with the woman you love. Now all I can give you is a chance." Then his voice boomed as he called for his griffin.
"What's going on?" Darrow asked.
"Look to your ship," Arcos answered as he pointed upward into the night. Through a break in the clouds, the three men could see the long form of the Pax glittering in orbit. But it was no longer alone. Ten torchShips were coming for it now, slipping around the cover of Europa's equator to capture her. Shiro's eyes widened at the sight. He'd been expecting an ambush like this but not so many ships.
"A Praetorian death squad waits for you inside my home, Darrow." The Rage Knight continued. "Aja au Grimmus leads the. They will take you, chain you, and bring you before the Sovereign." Shiro paled at the thought of confronting Aja au Grimmus again. He'd been high on adrenaline when he'd burned her arm on Luna. If they faced her now, she'd probably tear his head off on sight.
"You betrayed me?" Darrow asked. They probably threatened his family to make him cooperate, Shiro observed as she remained by the Reaper's side.
"No," the former Olympic answered. "They arrived days ago. They threatened. What could I do? Kellan au Bellona leads their fleet. It will destroy or capture your ship. I can't stop that. But I do not want you to die. So, Icarus will take you and your bodyguard to an island where I have hidden a ship for you. Use it to escape."
"Will they hurt your family if I escape?" the Reaper inquired. Shiro figured they probably would, and the Rage Knight shared that assessment.
"They may try," Lorn growled as he stood with his back to the sea. "That is the consequence of your decision and mine. I want to fade in peace. So please, leave and never return, Darrow." The man gestured to his pet griffin and Shiro saw a thin saddle on the beast's back, the new toy Arcos and Darrow had discussed earlier. But they didn't need to flee, and Darrow shook his head for what was about to happen.
"I'm sorry, my friend," the Reaper told Arcos. "But I cannot allow that." About time, Shiro thought with a smile.
"Allow?" the old man commented, turning.
"You will join us in this war," Darrow replied as his razor uncoiled. "Whether you ike it or not." He spoke into the com, telling the Howlers to prepare to rise and for the Telemanuses to bring the ships around. Shiro fought to keep his expression neural as the blood drained from Lorn au Arcos' face and the man looked at the beast emblazoned on the younger men's tunics.
"A lion after all," he said. Darrow had prepared this trap before they'd even left the main fleet. As Mustang had told Shiro before the fleet had separated to carry out the Reaper's long-term strategy, all secrets found themselves whispered into Pliny's ears. And Pliny would wish for nothing more than Darrow's timely demise, especially after the young warlord had provoked him in the ArchGovernor's war council meeting. So, the Politico did his work, scheming and plotting until he found himself an ally against the big, bad Darrow au Andromedus in the Sovereign herself, a fact that Shiro knew Darrow would be happy to share with Augustus as soon as possible.
The Sovereign's ships had hidden themselves among the ruins of a derelict space station that had once been used as a terraforming base. Kellan au Bellona, Cassius' uncle, was smart, but predictable. Darrow's larger, secondary force, a detachment of Telemanus ships, which had been hidden by the mass of another, smaller moon, would ambush the Bellona force in the next sixty seconds, slingshotting around the other side of the moon by using its gravity to gain velocity. With Roque in command, Darrow's personal armada would add ten Bellona ships by the end of the day.
"You knew," Arcos accused Darrow, his thick hand gripping the Reaper's uniform at the neck and shaking him. Shiro smirked as he put a hand on his razor, ready to act should the Rage Knight turn violent but enjoying how smoothly their trap had been sprung. "You knew." Shiro pitied the old man, knowing what this meant for him. It wasn't simply Darrow's victory, it was the Rage Knight's defeat. One way or another, he had to ally himself with a faction. And Darrow had made it easy for the man to pick aside.
"'If you're a fox, play the hare.'" Darrow replied, quoting Arcos' lessons back to him. "Isn't that what you taught me? But it will look like you knew I set a trap for her. That you slipped news of her trap to me." Darrow touched the man's shoulder as he released him, and Shiro relaxed. "I am sorry, friend. Truly. But you are part of this war." Arcos worked his jaw, but said nothing.
"The Sovereign will send her Praetorians again to Europa once I have left," the Reaper continued. "Only this time, they'll come for you and yours. Their black-and-purple ships will shell you from orbit till your islands and your cities on the archipelagoes and mainland and the rising mountains in the south are made of glass and swallowed by the seas. The waters will weep over your shattered towers, and of your house, there will be nothing but crypts in the deep. Unless we win." Arcos searched Darrows eyes, desperately trying to think of something that could buy himself time. But instead, Shiro knew that the old man only saw what had made him take Darrow under his wing from the start – himself. Most men would give anything to see that, but here and now, the Rage Knight clearly wished to see anything else.
"I put my family at risk to help you escape," Arcos snapped at the young warlord. "I took you in, taught you. And you betray me like the others. Like Aja."
"You let me come here, Lorn," Darrow retorted. "You would have consigned my friends above to torture and death even as you gave me a path to escape. But my friends will not be prisoners." Darrow pointed upward to the fiery gashes in the night sky as the secondary force rocketed around Europa. "Hate me," the young man told Arcos. "But fight at my side. Only then will your family survive. He put a hand out for his former teacher, but Arcos pulled out his razor.
"I should kill you," the ex-Rage Knight replied. Shiro slipped into a combat stance, ready to pull his razor or activate the energy weapon in his hand if the Peerless Scarred even tried. Over the com, Sevro asked if he could come and shoot the old man, but Darrow told him to hold. Arcos reminded the two men that he could have his own House's fleet destroy theirs. But as Darrow pointed out, his ships would take the Sovereign's by the time the Arcos ships could get in range.
"But she would know then where House Arcos stands," the patriarch replied. "She would know that you tricked me. That my house is not part of this." Not like you'd have a choice either way, Shiro thought quietly as he sparred a glance at the battle above. It was almost laughable how thoroughly Kellan au Bellona's forces were being routed. He half listened as Darrow dared the old soldier to launch his ships if he believed their cause evil, to put the Reaper down if he believed the young man was a monster. The Black Paladin brought his gaze back to the ground as Darrow stepped forward, closer to his mentor.
"But you know the heart that beats inside," Darrow finished. "Choose me, or choose that darkness." Darrow nodded down the hill of the forest to where the three men had entered the room. Shiro went back into a combat stance as twelve Obsidian Praetorians filed through the same glass door they'd used to enter the garden, huge men and women in black-and-purple armor and skull helmets. Only one of the warriors was a Stained, thinner than the others, with white armor splashed with colors like blood. The kill squad was less than fifty meters away, accompanied by the Protean Knight, shorter than the rest, but more glorious in her golden gear. Aja's razor shimmered with the colors of a nebula, and her armor writhed like the waves that battered the white walls of this island. She peered up to the night sky, where she saw Darrow's ambush unfolding as she let her helmet recoil into her armor.