Chapter 11
Warning – This chapter does contain brief mentions of story elements for Rise of Iron. You've probably played or read about it by now, but if not, you might not want to read this whole chapter.
"What do you mean, 'I know that guy'?" Celeste asked, glancing from the newly arrived Guardian to cast me a skeptical glance. "You've always scoffed at the idea of there being one 'Super Guardian'."
I watched as the Guardian, a Hunter, strode purposefully across the plaza, keeping his eyes locked forward. The crowd parted to let him pass, flowing around him like water. His armor was a make that I was unfamiliar with, covered with leather and fur, a golden shield crossed by hands holding a large ax emblazoned on his cloak. The metallic face, though, I had definitely seen before.
"Well, yeah," I replied, "I always thought the idea of one Guardian accomplishing all that he supposedly has was ridiculous, but that Guardian right there I know. His name is Aasim-7. If I was making a list of who could fit the bill, he is one of the last I would have suspected, to be honest."
"Why?"
"He's so young," I said, which drew a sharp elbow in my side. "Not young like that. Young in terms of being a Guardian. He was only revived a couple years ago in Old Russia. I met him out on patrol shortly after, when he was newly in the field, and there was nothing remarkable about him. Kind of quiet, still learning to use his abilities at the time. We first worked together to stop a dangerous Captain from the House of Devils. I ran into him a few times after that in the Crucible, then eventually lost track of him. Guess now I know why, he's apparently been very busy."
…
The sun was hanging low in the west and I had been patrolling the Cosmodrome near the Forgotten Shore for several hours. Amanda Holliday put out a call for salvage, and since I hadn't had a particular goal in mind, I decided to help. I could always use the glimmer and it usually paid to keep on the good side of Tower personnel. As usual, Elgan had been keeping me abreast of any goings on in the area such as notifying me if any Guardians came near or any other beacons came active.
When a name I didn't recognize scrolled across my HUD, I noted it but didn't give it too much thought. After a long lull, there seemed to have been an uptick in new revivals at the time, and due to the thinness of our ranks the Vanguard had been authorizing them for field work faster than ever as well. I'd had Elgan listen a little closer for trouble, but it was no longer a reason to immediately drop whatever I was doing.
I aimed down the sites of my rifle and pulled the trigger, knocking a Shank out of the air. Electricity sparked from the hole in its chassis and it spiraled into the ground. Elgan tagged the remains of the alien drone, then collected the samples Holliday was looking for. It was all fairly routine by that point. I wasn't sure what the shipwright hoped to gain from another batch of Shank parts, but the ships coming from the city foundries had been getting better, so there must have been something to it.
Two more Shanks floated into view. I took the second one down as quickly as the first, but that alerted the third. It changed direction, firing a few shots at the piece of wreckage I was hidden behind. I ducked into cover for a moment then opened fire and took it down as well, though not as cleanly as the others. I had Elgan open a line to Holliday.
"Got those Shank parts you were asking for. They'll be delivered when we arrive at the Tower."
"Thanks, Guardian," she said. "I've got to keep those ships in the air."
"Wait, have ships been falling from the sky?" Elgan butted into the conversation.
"What? No! I just... uh, I've got work to do here," was the reply and then the line disconnected.
"Didn't she just look at the Lost Days? Maybe we should take New Monarchy up on their requests for assistance. I hear they make some good ships," the little Ghost rambled on. "I'll need to run some diagnostics when we get back up, check everything out before we try to leave. Maybe..."
I tuned out the rest of whatever he was going on about with a smile. Holliday did good work, the ship was fine. Probably. I was checking for another beacon when another call came through; a Guardian in need of assistance.
A high value target had been spotted in the area, a Fallen Captain named Varjis, Clever Headed; a known Guardian killer. He'd managed to stay out of sight of the many patrols looking for his head, but now he'd shown himself. The call for help came from the new Guardian who had apparently attempted to take Varjis by himself. I had Elgan bring out my sparrow and hopped on, rocketing in the direction of the signal.
As I rounded the rusted hulk of an old oil tanker, I saw the Hunter take several shots from Varjis' shrapnel launcher and stagger behind cover. There were several dead Fallen on the ground in the immediate vicinity. It was clear that the newbie had put up and good fight, and just as clear that he was not going to last much longer on his own. I pushed my sparrow as hard as it would go, aiming right for the Captain. He was so focused on the other Guardian that he didn't notice me until I was nearly on top of him. When he finally started to turn I leaped off the machine, sending it crashing into the Fallen and staggering him.
I hit the ground with a roll and came up firing. He was only off-balance for a moment before he oriented himself and took some shots at me. I jumped up, using Lift to rapidly put some distance between us. As my feet left the ground, I called on the Void to form a magnetic grenade and hurled it at him. Varjis' raised one of his shrapnel launchers and the grenade stuck to it, exploding twice and causing him to stumble again, the energy shield covering his form flicking and falling away. Landing, I opened fire again and the Captain teleported away from me.
"You alright?" I shouted to the other Guardian, trying to track the Fallen as he teleported again.
"I'll live," he replied flatly.
"Good, because I'm going to need a hand here."
A skiff was approaching rapidly, likely called in by Varjis to provide him some backup. Its forward guns turned to lock on our location. I brought my arms in and then flung them outward, forming a Ward of Dawn to shield us from the ship's plasma cannons. Arc energy pounded against my defenses and the Void shell flickered, but held.
"We could use some firepower here," I commented, which brought a nod from the other Guardian.
The back end of the Skiff opened up, and two rows of Fallen troops emerged; Dregs and Vandals with one Servitor in tow. After a few moments, I heard the familiar sound of a Gunslinger igniting their Golden Gun, and glanced over to see the Hunter's hands and weapon sheathed in flame. He seemed to stare at his hands for a moment, then darted out from inside the Ward and fired three shots in quick succession. Each shot found its mark, two Vandals tumbling to the earth and the Servitor exploding, raining down shrapnel.
The other Fallen hit the ground, shouting in rage as they opened fire. Rounds bounced off my Ward and it flickered again, close to failing. Varjis chose that moment to make his presence known again. While we had been preoccupied by the Skiff, his shields had recharged and he had teleported around behind us. He charged silently in from the rear, shock blades at the ready.
I noted the movement on my HUD's motion tracker and turned to meet the charge. The other Guardian turned with me. We both dodged the swipe of Varjis' double blades and delivered our own blows. My right hand let go of my rifle and I punched him hard in the face. The Hunter unsheathed a knife from somewhere with his free hand and swiped across the Fallen Captain's midsection. The Captain stumbled, then lashed out with all four arms, knocked both of us back. Just then, my Ward collapsed, and the other Fallen closed in, not firing for fear of hitting their own Captain.
I managed to keep my footing and brought my gun to bear, snapping shots at the incoming aliens, striking two, one of which I caught in the head, a puff of ether emerging as the Dreg fell dead. The Hunter had rolled and ended up on one knee, taking a two handed grip on his hand cannon and taking aim at the Captain. Varjis roared as rounds peppered his shields. Snapping my rifle to the left, I opened fire at his exposed back. He turned toward me, and the Hunter took advantage. He pulled out a knife and threw it, striking the Fallen Captain just below the back of his helmet, the knife sinking into the back of his neck.
Varjis bleated in surprise and fell to his knees, dropping his shock blades. His four arms all reached back feebly as if trying to extract the blade, then he flopped forward. The death of their Captain stunned the other two Dregs, and a couple quick shots finished them off as well.
Gun at the ready, I surveyed the area around, making sure there were no remaining threats. Certain we were clear, I placed the gun on my back and turned to the other Guardian. He had stepped over to Varjis' corpse. He hesitated, seemingly uncertain, then bent down and pulled his knife out of the alien's neck. He wiped the blade clean on the Fallen's temper cloth, then sheathed it. I strode next to him and then put a boot to the corpse, flipping it over. Elgan scanned it to verify that he was dead.
"I will notify the Vanguard of Varjis' death," the Ghost stated. "They should be most relieved to know that he is no longer lurking about."
"Thanks, Elgan," I told the Ghost, then turned to the other Guardian and held out a hand. "Hey. I'm Claney. Nice work with the Golden Gun and knife."
"Thanks," he responded, shaking my offered hand. "Aasim-7."
Aasim held out a hand and his Ghost emerged. The conferred silently for a moment, then the Hunter gave a brief nod in my direction before his sparrow materialized. He hopped on and gunned the engine, zipping away without another word.
"I wonder what signal they were looking into," Elgan mused as he drifted back to my side.
"Signal? How do you know they were looking into a signal?"
"Oh, I overheard the other Ghost," he replied nonchalantly.
"Eavesdropping again?" I asked with a chuckle. "Nobody likes a nosy Ghost."
"Well that's simply not true," Elgan stated and then integrated himself back into my armor.
…
Aasim disappeared from view as he headed down to the Hall of Guardians. The crowd lingered for a few moments, then dispersed with different groups joining in animated conversations. I stood watching the stairwell, lost in thought.
"This doesn't make sense," I muttered to myself.
"What doesn't?" Celeste asked.
"This," I motioned vaguely around us. "This announced entrance. Look, there have been claims that one Guardian found Rasputin, stopped the Heart, lead the Crota and Oryx teams, breached the Dreadnaught, and anything else that had been attributed to him, yet it was mostly rumor. Why? The Guardian responsible didn't take much credit. So why show up like this and draw attention now?"
"That is an excellent question. Maybe he got tired of no one knowing? Or maybe it wasn't his call and someone else pushed for this?" Celeste tossed out ideas.
"Maybe it's time to take a page from Elgan's playbook and eavesdrop on someone's conversation and then renew an old acquaintance." With that, I headed down to the Hall of Guardians as well.
"Ooh, I love snooping," she replied and fell in behind me.
Eris was busy with some project of hers. There are times I would swear that woman is a Warlock rather than a Hunter. I doubted she had even noticed the arrival. Lord Shaxx, on the other hand, had clearly taken an interest. He was out from behind his usual counter and openly staring in the direction of the Vanguard, though he did not speak a word. The only sound was Cayde-6's voice echoing down the hall, carrying a jovial tone. I couldn't make out what he was saying at first, but the words became clear as we drew close.
"... taught him everything he knows, of course. It's why he was such a success story." The Hunter Vanguard was standing at the end of the table with his back to the entrance, arm draped about Aasim's shoulders.
"Yes, Cayde," Ikora retorted wryly, "I'm sure it was all your doing. Welcome back, Guardian. It has been a while since you have darkened our door."
"Yes. I apologize. Things have been hectic," Aasim replied.
"Hectic? That's the understatement of the century," Elgan quipped, hovering over my shoulder.
"What are you doing?" I whispered.
"You're spying on people, of course I'm going to join in," the Ghost said, which got an eye-roll out of me.
"Well, whatever the case may be," Zavala intoned, "we gladly welcome you back. Though, it seems you have yet more news of great import to share with us."
"Right? Always something major. You know, you could just stop by for a simple hello one of these days," Cayde snarked.
"Yes," Aasim replied, shuffling his feet. "I come with news from Lord Saladin. The Iron Temple at Felwinter Peak is now open to any Guardian who would make the journey. A great evil of the past has come to light once again, and Lord Saladin is asking for help in keeping it at bay."
"Yes, I read Shiro's report," Cayde stated. "SIVA. Sounds like nasty stuff. I wonder if it has any relation to those other techno-viruses we just dealt with."
"Quite probably. The similarities in transmission tactics being pure coincidence would be highly unlikely," remarked Ikora.
"Lord Saladin believes so as well. Also," the Hunter continued, "after a long hiatus, Lord Saladin has opened the ranks of the Iron Lords again to those he deems worthy. I am the first. As such, I bring this as a token."
Aasim gestured with the banner he'd been carrying. Stepping around the table, he handed it to Zavala with a slight bow. Zavala accepted and returned the bow. He opened the banner and stared at it for a time before rolling it back up and setting it carefully on the table. Behind me, Lord Shaxx made an unintelligible sound at that. I was aware of the history the two men shared with Lord Saladin and wondered how this would play in their rivalry.
"This is quite an honor, Lord Aasim," Zavala said, "one Lord Saladin would not bestow lightly. You have more than earned it with everything you have done for us."
"When you get back to the Iron Temple," Cayde chimed in, "tell Shiro he doesn't get to join up. I need his scouting reports too much. He can play Iron Lord for a while longer if he wants, but eventually I expect him to get back to work."
Sensing that the meeting may be coming to an end, and not wanting to get caught snooping, I chose to retreat over to Arcite 99-40 and pretend to shop. It quickly became an actual shopping trip as I saw that he had a whole host of new weapons for sale. A new shotgun, the 44 Curtain Call caught my eye, and I spent a few marks that I'd been saving up. Elgan transmatted my reliable old Burden of Proof into storage and I placed the new weapon on my back. The orange and blue color scheme might be a bit garish, but the specs looked quite promising. I had just finished up with Arcite when Aasim exited the Vanguard meeting room. He noticed me and paused.
"Claney?"
"Hello, Aasim. Or Lord Aasim-7, now," I said with a smile, holding out my hand in greeting. "It's been a while."
"Yes, it has," he responded, shaking the offered hand.
"Allow me to introduce you to Celeste. She's my... uhm... sidekick?"
"Hey!" came the indignant response, bringing a brief flash of Exo amusement to face of the Iron Lord.
"Greetings, Hunter," he said with a nod. Celeste just glared daggers at me.
"So," I began, "I couldn't help but overhear a little bit of your conversation with the Vanguard. I would be very interested in hearing the story of how you started working with Lord Saladin."
"I have a little bit of time before I have to head back to the Temple," came the reply. "This might actually be beneficial to both of us."
"How about we head over to the hangar bar," I offered. "We can have some refreshments and you can tell us about it."
So the three of us made our way through the courtyard and headed left, passing the Vanguard Quartermaster and the Dead Orbit representatives. Everyone we passed gawked at Aasim, who didn't seem completely comfortable with all the attention. As we passed underneath, I couldn't help but cast a glance up toward the meeting rooms of the Future War Cult and caught a glimpse of Lakshmi watching us intently.
Once in the bar, we settled into a booth in the back. For the most part, the bar was empty. A couple off-duty Guardians hung near the jukebox dancing and a few other people were seated at a table across the room. Aasim then told of us everything that had happened recently. He had managed to avoid being affected by the nanites that had been wreaking havoc with Guardian ranks.
Being one of the few stable Guardians available in the field, he had responded to a report about some Fallen attacking an old observatory. Once he had climbed the mountain, he discovered that it was actually the Iron Temple. He fended off a host of Fallen, including an apparently rebuilt Sepiks Prime, and that was when Lord Saladin tapped him for a specific purpose. Stopping SIVA.
Since then, it had been, to borrow his words, a hectic time. He had traced the release of SIVA to a Clovis Bray facility on Mars. He'd chased Splicers from the House of Devils who had been upgrading themselves with the Golden Age technology all through a previously sealed off area known as the Plaguelands. He'd fought the resurrected remains of SIVA corrupted Iron Lords.
"I'm now on the trial of Sepiks, who the Devil Splicers revived and upgraded with SIVA. Sepiks Perfected, so to speak. When I find him, I will need a few Guardians to help me bring him down permanently. It's convenient then, that I ran into you when I did. When the time comes, can I count on you?"
"Without a doubt," I replied. "Call on me and I will be there."
"Me too," Celeste said.
"I am curious, though," I continued, "why you wouldn't just call on one of your previous fireteams. The crews that killed Crota and Oryx should be able to handle a rebuilt servitor."
"This is true. I prefer not to work with a permanent team, though, and many of them have moved on. I might not have sought out the spotlight, but others used those successes to propel themselves into leadership positions for their own squads."
I nodded at that. It had been a while since I had been in a permanent team myself. Things tended to get too complicated. Silence descended then as we considered everything he had told us. Never able to stand silences for long, Celeste excused herself.
"Think I'm going to join those two at the jukebox and make a fool of myself for a second," she said before slipping away from the booth.
"I should probably be going as well," Aasim said after another moment. "There is much work to be done. Come to the Iron Temple when you can. See the Plaguelands and you will see the threat SIVA holds. I would advise doing it quickly so that you will know what you face in Sepiks Prime. You may rethink your willingness to help. Or," casting a glance toward Celeste, "your willingness to allow others to. Good day, Claney."
"Farewell, Lord Aasim. Traveler's Light go with you."
I watched him leave, then turned my gaze to Celeste. She was laughing at something one of the dancing Guardians had said. Lord Aasim seemed to think she might not be ready for whatever would face us with these Devil Splicers, but I believed he underestimated her. Most people did because of her youth, but the unusual circumstances of her resurrection and training meant that she could handle more than many Guardians who had much greater experience.
I was preparing to leave when Elgan chirped at me and then materialized over the table.
"Comes to gossip now that he has left, Ghost?" I asked teasingly.
"No. I mean, I'd love to, but no. I have a hit on Jaeger."
"Tell me," I said, instantly serious.
"A ships bearing Future War Cult markings recently docked at the Reef, piloted by a Hunter matching his description."
"Well then, let's head to the Reef."
…
AN:
So, here we have "The Guardian", the chosen Super Guardian who has apparently done what every other Guardian has been unable to seemingly for decades, the character that represents the player in-game. I have been very intentional about not having Claney, or any of my other characters, be the Guardian that was involved in any of the main game storyline. As much as I would like to give him, or the others, that level of import, I feel it better if they stay on the periphery. However, to get where I needed to go, I felt the need to bring in this character.
For the curious: I opted to make him a Hunter because of Cayde's interest in the player, particularly recruiting you to board the Dreadnaught. Why would the Hunter Vanguard pick any other class? I went with Exo because I had read a discussion a while back about the game storyline in which someone stated that originally there were supposed to be different openings depending on what race you chose, but when the storyline was scrapped at the last minute they only kept what would have been the Exo opening. (Which helps the explain weirdness of an Awoken waking up on a deserted highway in Old Russia... they were never supposed to.) As for the name, it's an African name that means Protector Guardian.
Varjis, Clever Headed is a Fallen Captain from the House of Devils mentioned by Variks. He has never appeared to my knowledge, though is thought to be in the Prison of Elders. I decided to make use of him for my own purposes.
I considered making the original meeting a new entry in "Tales We'll Tell", but felt it would be better here. You're welcome. I also opted to spare you an in-depth rehashing of the story of the Rise of Iron update, as you have probably played it by now. If not... sorry. I'm sure other fics will spend more time delving into the details.
Jayfeattheris Awesome - Thank you for the enlightening review. :P Get some rest.
Order and Chaos – Qui Iudicant – Glad you liked it. As a rather quiet person, I've spent so much time in my own head I would hope I could make it believable. As for Zillah, there is a little bit about her in my other story "Tales We'll Tell" ("Broken") that gives a little insight into what has been going on with her prior to this story. I was thinking it mentioned her taking up residence in the Reef, but rereading it now I guess I cut that point out. And thanks for letting me play with your toys, I'll try to do your Guardian(s) justice when I get to that point. It was the chapter that got the least response (though it did just get a review), so it might have been easy to miss. As for our FWC Hunter, a confrontation is on the horizon there.
Daydreamer B. A – Well, thanks for double checking and leaving feedback. I probably threw you off by updating twice in about a week. I wouldn't say the Vanguard "can't do anything about it" exactly. I would agree that they come across as amazingly incompetent in far too many fics here, Guardians bossing them around, etc. I think part of that is due to them never leaving that room in game other than the one cutscene of Cayde plotting to sneak on the Dreadnaught. That and some people wanting to show how tough/amazing their Guardians are. A big downside to this being written in first person strictly from Claney's POV is that I can't just jump to another point and show things he isn't seeing. So I can't show the conversation between Zavala and Lakshmi unless Claney was there, and having him be at every important thing might feel a bit contrived.
As always, thank you for stopping by, oh reader mine. Reviews welcome. Still accepting submissions for upcoming Crucible related chapter. Don't make me have to be creative and come up with more characters!
Longest. Author's note. Ever. Fitting following one of the longer chapters, I suppose.