Chapter 15

I did not feel like heading back into the Plaguelands shorthanded, so I needed to find a third member of our team. I could only think of one person I was relatively certain would be both at the Tower and willing to go along, so long as I dangled the right bait. That part was easy.

"Want to see something new?"

Scott-20 was right where I would have expected, in his study. He immediately jumped at the offer, also as expected. Given his loyalty to New Monarchy, and the fact that we went to Venus specifically to get information to help their weapon foundries, I worried briefly about Executor Hideo or someone else being taken by the weapon potential of SIVA and demanding he bring something back, but I deemed it worth the risk.

If he did try, I was certain in my ability to stop him.

Zillah and I shared with him most of what we knew without specifically mentioning the download Elgan had received from Shiro's Ghost. By the time we made the short flight to the Plaguelands, he was up to speed on what we had witnessed of the Splicer's abilities. He seemed a little nervous, but eager as well.

The three of us dropped down into the Plaguelands very close to where Zillah, Celeste, and I had retreated from previously. The bodies of the Fallen were gone, which was predictable. However, there was some sort of trace residue that made me question whether they had been moved or if the SIVA had broken them down.

"One thing I do not understand," Scott-20 said, staring at the red remains while his Ghost scanned it, "is where the SIVA is coming from now. You said this Aasim-7 told you that he destroyed the replication complex, correct? The place where the Iron Lords had sealed it away so long ago? If Saladin expected that to put an end to the threat, he was sadly mistaken. Do you think the Fallen have discovered, or perhaps even constructed, a new chamber of their own?"

"We were so busy getting down here before that I never even thought about that," Zillah admitted.

Scott just glanced over at her without a reply.

"There was a lot going on," I said. "It is a valid point though. If they have chambers growing this stuff, we need to try to figure out where they are and someone needs to shut them down fast."

"Agreed," Scott said, straightening up. "The question being, 'Where do we look?'"

"A Hunter might come in handy tracking it down," Zillah said, then stiffened up, her hands clamping over the lower half of her faceplate. "I did not just say that."

"Missing ideas that are obvious in retrospect, wishing we had Hunter along... Sounds like we are starting to grow on you a bit," I teased.

"If you tell her I said that, I swear to all things holy I will end you, Titan."

I held my hands up in mock surrender, but the moment of levity did not last. There was too much danger, and my anger was not interested in being abated. We needed to get to business.

"Let's get moving," I said, letting my arms drop. "We'll follow these lines of outbreak for now, see if they lead us to any obvious starting points. Just... don't get too close."

We mounted our sparrows and set off. We actually managed to make a decent bit of distance this time before picking up Fallen signatures, giving us our first good look at the Plaguelands proper, rather than what was just along the Wall. Everything in this section of the Cosmodrome was either falling to rust or SIVA. Sometimes both. The remains of several large tankers could be seen as well, along with innumerable storage and shipping containers. This must be where supplies for Cosmodrome ships had been transported during the Golden Age.

The first contact we made was a big one. Enough signatures that I was wondering how we would deal with that many Splicers. When we finally caught sight of them, however, we were in for a bit of a surprise. It wasn't just Splicers. The Fallen were already engaged with Hive forces.

"Did we know the Hive had reached this far into the Cosmodrome?" I asked, watching the two aliens take shots at each other.

"The Fallen seem to have flushed them to the surface all over," Scott responded. "It might be less that they had already spread this far and that the Devil Splicers have driven them here with their activities."

"Regardless of the reason," Zillah chimed in, "they are in our way now. How should we proceed?"

"We hit the Splicers," I said. "The Hive we know. We can handle them. These Splicers are a threat on an entirely different level. We take advantage of the distraction of the Hive, maybe even let them take a few of the Fallen for us. After we drop the Splicers, we wipe out the Hive. They're dangerous and not a threat we want behind us."

The others nodded and we prepared to move.

"One last thing," I added. "Dibs on any Vandals."

Two Knights on the Hive side of the encounter launched volleys toward the Fallen. As the Splicers looked to track the Arc blasts, we made our move. I went in fast, trying to hit the Fallen before they knew what was coming. The last time the three of us got in the middle of a pitched battled between our enemies, they both called in reinforcements. I wanted to make sure that did not happen this time.

I vaulted onto the rusted platform the nearest Splicer stood on. The Dreg did not even have time to turn its head before I struck, punching it with a fist full of Void energy. The Fallen disintegrated and I found myself covered in a defensive barrier. Protected, I continued to push in hard. I took hold of my shotgun, blasting the next Dreg at point blank range, its body tossed back by the force of the blast. A flicker of purple light danced in my peripheral vision.

"Captain!" I shouted, pointing in the direction it had come from. Just then, several blasts of energy just missed striking me.

I looked in the direction the shots had come from to see a Vandal perched on a high railing overlooking the battlefield. The four-armed alien raised its arms in defiance, then lowered the gun to unleash another round of fire. I sprinted toward its position and leaped, using Lift to power me upward quickly. I could not get high enough to land on the railing, but I did not need to. I stuck up a hand at the last moment, grabbing the bottom of it, then swung myself upward.

I faced off against the Vandal, and it charged. It swung wildly at me and I ducked, avoiding the blow. Thankfully it was not the SIVA fueled rampage that we had seen from the wounded Vandal earlier, but the alien had still been enhanced enough by the SIVA worming through its body that it severely damaged the wall when it struck. I grabbed my shotgun again and quickly swept it upward. The barrel stopped just below the Vandal's chin and I pulled the trigger, taking its head off. As it dropped, another one of those red SIVA orbs emerged. I barely had time to get out of the way, dropping to the ground as it exploded above me. Pieces of the platform rained down where I landed.

"Servitor!" Zillah called out suddenly.

I looked around and spotted the large machine emerging from behind the Fallen line flanked by Shanks. The normally smooth silhouette of the Servitors had changed, lines of energy running along the outside of it and giving it a spiked appearance from head on. Void energy seemed to bleed off of it. The Servitor shook and a rapid stream of energy blasts erupted from it, hammering the ground around Scott-20 and sending him scurrying for cover. Apparently, like the Shanks, the Servitor had gotten an upgrade in its rate of fire.

"Have you noticed that no ether escapes the Splicers when you killed them?" Elgan's voice sounded in my ear.

"Now is not really the time, Ghost," I replied through gritted teeth.

"Oh, you can shoot while I talk," he said dismissively. "So, like I was saying, have you noticed the lack of ether from the Splicers?"

"Nope."

Scott poked out from behind cover and opened fire, dropping two of the enhanced Shanks. Zillah took the other two out with well placed shots from her scout rifle. That left the Servitor, which peppered the area with more Void blasts. I summoned a grenade and heaved it at the machine, watching it stick and then explode. The Fallen construct staggered under the blast, then turned and opened fire at me. It was all I could do to get behind cover as well. While the Void energy slammed harmlessly behind me, I quickly reloaded the Curtain Call.

"Well, lucky I'm here then," the Ghost continued. "It seems that SIVA removes the need for ether. As such, this Servitor seems to have been modified as well. It no longer produces the ether and is now purely a weapons platform."

"Noted. Now let us finish killing it, please."

A scatter grenade hit the ground next to the Servitor as well, breaking apart and sending several destructive pieces at the orb. The three of us targeted it then, the concentrated fire quickly destroying the Servitor. Any feeling of relief was quickly drowned out by a shriek from behind. The Hive wanted to make sure we had not forgotten them.

Three Thralls were running in a beeline toward me. I dashed forward and away from them briefly, seeing a Dreg I had seen duck behind cover moments before. I surprised the Dreg and put it down with a blast of buckshot before turning back to face the Thrall. They had closed the gap between us, and the first was launching itself toward me, claws outstretched.

My fist met its face, and it spun and crashed to the ground. The others were on me then. I threw punches, connecting, knocking the two of them back enough to give me room to maneuver. Taking the opportunity, I snapped my shotgun back up, taking out one. Unfortunately, that was the last shell in the chamber. Using the butt of the gun, I struck the other Thrall and knocked it down. I finished it off by hand.

Around me, the cacophony of battle raged. The report of Fallen weapons had nearly died down, but the Hive fired with renewed vigor. I could hear the sounds of my team's weapons, then the energetic crackling of a Stormcaller unleashing Arc energy. I reloaded again, then charged in behind Scott. I had to sprint to catch up to him. The electricity flowing from his hands began to fizzle and then died, and I leaped over his head. A Knight in front of him had put up it's barrier to protect from Scott's Stormtrance, but my jump carried me over the defensive shield. Caught off guard, the Knight could do nothing but crumble to dust when I shot it in the head.

Several more shots rang out after that, but the field had become much quieter and nearly all the red had disappeared from my HUD. I finished off an Acolyte that was firing from behind a broken piece of wall, and that was the end of it.

"I'm detecting a strong SIVA signature in the building the Fallen were emerging from," Elgan said suddenly.

"Let's check it out," I replied.

Cautiously we entered the large doors into what appeared to be some sort of storage room. Everything inside looked tossed around haphazardly, though I got the impression it was more related to the Collapse than the Fallen. Here and there, pieces of machinery still seemed to be still trying to perform some long forgotten function, a testament to the engineering capabilities of the Golden Age.

There was no sign of active Fallen or SIVA visible at first, but as we pushed further in, several nodes became visible. Most of them were closed, but a few were split wide at the top, spewing red clouds from the opening. At the base of these nodes, several red tendrils were beginning to grow and spread.

"It couldn't have been that easy, could it?" I asked rhetorically. Of course, my Ghost never met a rhetorical question he did not like.

"No, I don't believe so. I am detecting SIVA strands similar to what we were following leading here, not moving away from it. This just seems to be a staging ground of some kind."

The mass of SIVA growing near the node continued to expand, creeping in our direction. The individual strands almost looked like fingers reaching out toward us.

"Whether this is one of the chambers or not," Zillah chimed in, "I think leaving this here is a bad idea."

"Agreed," Scott said.

Each of us had our Ghosts transmat in a rocket launcher along with a heavy ammo synth. We each unloaded, blasting each node that we were able to see. When we ran out of rockets, we used grenades to finish the job. The SIVA tendrils burned and crackled, curling in on themselves. Satisfied, we continued on our way.

After several kilometers, it started to become clear that just following a line of SIVA was not going to get us anywhere. The stuff stretched everywhere and we did not have an unlimited amount of time to sight-see. We needed a better plan.

"We need a better plan," Zillah said, echoing my thoughts eerily. "Let's find a place to stop and figure something out."

Scott and I agreed, and we stopped at the next building we came to. It was a smallish two-story that looked like used to belong to a small business. The walls would hide us from prying eyes, even if the broken roof would not provide similar protection should the weather turn for the worse. It also had the benefit of having a clear view in each direction so that we could watch for any approach.

"I'll keep an eye out for any visitors," I told the others. I held out my hand and Elgan materialized. "You stay with the Warlocks and their Ghosts. Between the five of you, I'm sure you can figure something out."

The others convened in a room on the first floor to pour over the information we had on SIVA again, see if they could figure out a better way to track the stuff. I climbed a rickety set of stairs up to the second floor, positioning myself where I had a decent view of the path we had followed.

Between the earlier entry into these Plaguelands, the trip back to the Tower, and now this excursion, we had burned a good chunk of the day. The horizon seemed to burn as the sun began to dip out of sight. The faint luminescence of the SIVA outbreaks became visible as the sky darkened. Looking the direction we had been traveling, I could see a brighter glow in the distance. The light from it seemed to flicker, as if caused by a flame or intense heat. No telling what the Fallen were up to over there, though I am sure we would find out soon enough.

Stars appeared over head and the sun completed its tactical withdrawal. Light giving way to darkness. Not a very pleasant notion when phrased that way. The Darkness pushing against Light. Dawn still came each day, though, so maybe there was some hope in that.

A hole in the roof gave me a perfect view of the ceiling of stars. I stared hard at the little pinpricks of light for a while, wondering what the old me thought of them, back in that other life I couldn't remember. Did I pay them any mind? Wonder about them? Dream of visiting them? I would like to think that I did. I wondered, not for the first time, what it would be like to live in a world where the stars represented something more than the source of myriad threats to our survival.

I shook my head and blinked hard a few times, wondering where this sudden maudlin line of thought was coming from. Tonight was not a night to let my mind wander. I checked out the windows one more time. Satisfied that everything was clear for now, I made my way back down to the others.

The two Warlocks were standing side by side, studying a projection that Scott's Ghost was making on the wall. Formulas and text I couldn't make out from where I stood made up the bulk of the projection, but there was also an image which at first I thought was some sort of cell before I realized it was mechanical. A SIVA nanomachine, perhaps?

"Making any progress?"

"Actually, yes," Zillah replied. "Based on the scans that have been made of the SIVA outgrowths and the Splicers we have fought so far, we believe the Ghosts will be able to tap into our ships systems and get a strong enough reading to at least point us in the direction of any replication chambers the Devils have set up."

"It is all a hypothesis, of course," Scott supplied, "one we have yet to test. Once we have made some modifications to the ships we can run a scan and see what it shows us."

"Great work, you two," I replied, impressed. "We might want to wait until morning, however. Communications with the ships might be detectable. I wouldn't want to give away our position in the middle of the night with Fallen and Hive around. They would both have the advantage over us in the dark."

Zillah nodded, "We have plenty we can do on this end before taking that step anyway."

"I can work on that as well as keep watch if you would like," Scott offered. "I will not require any sort of rest anytime soon. It would be best if the two of you got some sleep."

This time, it was my turn to nod, "Fair enough. Wake me up if you see anything, though. I don't care if it's a lone Dreg sleepwalking past us, got it?"

"Agreed." With that, Scott and his Ghost left the room, headed toward the staircase.

Elgan drifted over to me and dematerialized. I saw Feivel float over to Zillah and do the same. Picking a corner I crossed the room and settled down, leaning my head against the walls. I set my shotgun across my lap.

"Do you think it will actually work," I asked my Ghost over a private channel.

"Ninety three percent change it will work as expected the first time," he said. "Two percent chance a ship explodes."

"Oh, is that all?" I replied. "Well, so long as it is less than three we're good, right?"

"Exactly."

I couldn't tell if he was being facetious or not and decided I might prefer not to know right then. Thankfully, my thoughts didn't return to the same track they had been on before. I closed my eyes and started to drift when I heard a voice.

"Claney?"

My eyes opened and I glanced over at Zillah. She had chosen to lay on the ground, flat on her back. I couldn't tell exactly where she was looking due to the helmet, but her face was pointed in my general direction.

"Yes?"

"For the record, I hate sleeping on the floor. If this is how your missions always go, I want you to know that I won't be joining you anymore."

"Noted."

"Claney?"

"Yes?"

A short hesitation. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

…

Scott let us sleep through the remainder of the night. I woke with the dawn, standing to stretch muscles sore from sleeping upright in armor. I noticed Zillah had rolled into a prone position at some point in the night. She stirred shortly after I woke, pushing herself up. A few moments later, Scott came strolling into the room.

The brains of the operation all got together again and implemented their plan. Scott agreed to let his ship be the one used to test the modifications. I returned to the upper floor, keeping watch and eating a ration bar. A shout from downstairs drew my attention and I hurried back down.

"It worked," Scott said excitedly as soon as he saw me. "Or, it did what we expected it to. We are picking up what should be SIVA replication chambers."

"Chambers? Plural?" I asked.

"Yes," Zillah replied. "That is the good news/bad news situation here. We think we have a way to track SIVA to its new source, but it seems the Fallen have set up multiple locations. It would seem they don't want one Guardian coming in and destroying their prize."

"We'll need to let the Vanguard know what we've found," I said. "But first, let's make sure it is what we think it is."

"The closest one is only about five kilometers away from here," Zillah stated.

"Then let's go visit the neighbors."

…

AN

Got a little sidetracked by Iron Banner, but we're back on, uhm... track. Anywho...

Man... you guys are mean. I'm pretty sure I said no negative reviews. *checks profile* D'oh!

Nah, I kid. Feedback is good. Guess I didn't explain some of that as well as I thought. I went back and made some minor adjustments to Chapter 14 shortly after posting in response to some comments in the reviews, both to the violence of the action and the response to the injury. So if you haven't looked at it since it was first posted, you might want to, see if you think it works better now. If you saw it with an AN at the top, then you saw the updated version.

Thanks to PSYCHO IAN13 for the story follow and Harmonybass for the author follow!

Order and Chaos – Qui Iudicant – I replied through PM, but, as always, commenting here too in case others had questions. Doing my research, something I read gave me the impression that berserker Vandals hit as hard as Ogres. Might be a misinterpretation on my part, but if that is the case, I would think a blow that hard under the chin, snapping the head back the way it would there would be a fear of brain/spinal damage. As for the Ghosts... my Guardians might not be as fragile as Jayfeattheris', but I don't want the Ghosts to be able to magic everything away, otherwise there is little peril. The notion of "I can fix you if you're dead but can't heal you if you're hurt" might be a little wonky, but... it is what it is.

Jayfeattheris Awesome – Yes, I read that. First chapter was a little confusing due to the format/SIVA corruption in the messages, but the second installment was a good start to showing the actual events. I have plans for some creepy SIVA stuff here, hopefully it will scratch that itch for you a bit as well.

Daydreamer B.A – See the response to OaCQI. As for how it affected him... might need to be reworded a bit (and was ever so slightly), but just thinking about it personally, I would find it more traumatizing if something happened to a child than to a friend, even if it turned out to be less severe in the end. Especially if I was right there when it happened and couldn't stop it from happening.