There is no emotion, there is peace…
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge…
There is no passion, there is serenity…
There is no chaos, there is harmony…
There is no death, there is the Force
-The Jedi Code Mantra
The Tower, the Last City, Planet Earth, Sol System
8:21 PM, City Standard Time
Hall of Guardians
It was late evening in the Last City, and in the Tower, it was quiet. During the entirety of the day and at times in the evening, there would be Guardians going about whatever business they had. This was not one of those times. Lord Shaxx and Arcite 99-40 had retired, Eris Morn was absent from her station in between the staircase, and the other Vanguards, Cayde-6 and Ikora Rey, had also departed for the evening.
That left Commander Zavala, the Titan Vanguard and head of the defenses for the Last City, alone in the Hall of Guardians. He and his Ghost, named Targe, had been reviewing some minor work that had escaped his notice during the day. It was mainly some reassignments for a few Guardian fireteams, updates on a few Strike targets, and sensor data sent to them from the Reef.
Zavala was silent, with Targe processing his thoughts and responses as if they were his own. With his Ghost's aid, he finished what was necessary, and left for later what was not. He started to move towards the stairway that led to his office, when a familiar voice spoke.
"Zavala? I'm surprised to see you awake at this hour."
The aforementioned Awoken Titan, the leader of the defenses of the Last City of Humanity, turned to glance at Ikora Rey. The Warlock Vanguard, clad in her ever-present robes, approached the Titan Vanguard, with a curious air about her.
"What are you working on?" She asked.
"I'm reviewing some minor intel, including the sensor logs from the last four evenings." Zavala replied. "Whatever it is that caused those distortions in space remains a mystery to us, even now. I intend to solve that mystery before long."
Ikora raised an eyebrow, but nodded. For the last four days, a series of strange energy bursts had appeared near the Reef, piquing the concern of both the Awoken and the Vanguard. Whatever it was that had caused them was a matter of debate, as none of the four races in Sol that opposed the Light were apparently the cause. Analysis of records in the Vanguard Archives regarding FTL travel for the Fallen, Hive, Vex, and Cabal, and to some extent the Taken, all showed that this was something new.
It didn't take too much of a mind to understand that something was coming, and though this knowledge was kept from the population of the City, Zavala still pondered on it even now.
"You should still get some rest." Ikora replied thoughtfully. "Why not wait until the Frames return to their posts in the morning? You'd have significantly more speed in your process. Besides, you've been reviewing that data for over four nights now. There's nothing there you haven't already seen."
Zavala gave a quiet huff, knowing that even now, he was still very much indebted to Ikora's advice. This time, though, he reasoned, was different.
"The Frames often miss the ever-so-small details that I often catch," he replied. "And might I remind you that this was sent to us by Petra Venj, on the personal behalf of Mara Sov? The Queen of the Reef does not share information lightly. Even after her disappearance from the Reef after the battle at the rings of Saturn."
"True." Ikora nodded. "However, even Petra herself, the Corsairs, or Variks were unable to identify the source of those distortions in space. I feel that whatever they might be, I trust the source will be revealed in time."
Zavala nodded again, as usual, Ikora was correct in her words. He was about to sign off and power down his terminal when Ikora's hand suddenly grasped his shoulder and she forcefully pulled him away, leading him towards the back window. Zavala was stunned, as Ikora had never managed to move him like that before. Granted, he hadn't expected it, but it was still jarring.
"Ikora, what has gotten into you?" Zavala asked, only to stop and let his jaw slacken at what he saw before him. In the brief time Ikora had turned away to gaze out the massive window at the rear of the Hall, a massive form had appeared in the distance. As it approached, Ikora and Zavala gasped.
It was a spaceship, a carrier or battleship by the looks of it. Ikora could make out that it had a central tower atop an angled frame, and judging by the fact that it was blackened from fire, multiple sections were torn open and heavily damaged…it was certainly not in an operational state.
The most shocking thing was that from its current trajectory, as it was heading on a collision course for the walls of the Last City and towards the Tower. Ikora stood paralyzed at the sight, but Zavala immediately swept back to his data terminal and activated the Tower's Mass-Alert system, switching on the Tower PA as well.
"All stations, this is Commander Zavala! An unknown vessel has appeared near the city, and is on a collision course for the Tower. Red alert, I repeat, red alert! All airborne City Hawks converge on the ship. All Guardian fireteams, report in, and prepare the Skyline defense system! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill! Battle stations!" Zavala bellowed into the PA, and near instantaneously, alarms began to blare, and the quiet was replaced by a cacophony of noise and activity.
The Vanguard Analysis Frames and workers were soon present and working at their stations to coordinate a response, and a detachment of seven City Hawks flew towards the approaching vessel. It was no surprise that Amanda Holliday was in the lead aircraft, judging by her IFF-tag's presence. The Hall was soon ablaze with communications chatter and responses from multiple stations across the Last City. Out in the entranceway, a fully armed Lord Shaxx could now be seen speaking with Arcite 99-40, no doubt to alert the Redjacks to prepare for action.
"Commander! Guardian fireteams Horizon and Tradewind for you!" a human worker called from his station.
"Patch them through, immediately!" Zavala replied, as Cayde-6, sprinted in, tugging at his cloak to pull it up.
"Hell's going on here?" the Hunter Vanguard asked, only to glance at the window and have his question answered. He huffed in astonishment and moved to his post at the command table, pulling out his own datapad and terminal.
"That's a big ship," he nodded towards Ikora. "What are we looking at here? Cabal?"
"Certainly not Cabal, the profile doesn't match any of their vessels." Ikora replied, cross-referencing multiple designs for vessels belonging to each of the hostile alien races in the Sol System. "Clearly not Hive or Vex, either. It's not a Ketch, so it doesn't belong to the Fallen."
"So this really is something new." Cayde murmured, before turning to the comms readout. "Holliday, any signs of survivors?"
"We'll let you know when it stops moving." the Tower's top shipwright replied over the comms, as her Hawk's engines roared in the background. "It's coming in too fast to scan at the moment!"
"Let us know as soon as it does!" Zavala barked. "Status on the Skyline defense system?"
"Standing by, Commander Zavala." a Vanguard Frame replied.
"Hold all fire until we are certain who we're dealing with!" the Titan Vanguard responded. "Whoever that might be."
As the Tower staff and the Guardians present continued to watch with bated breath, the vessel slowly came to a stop outside the walls of the City. There was a thunderous roar of sound and screeching metal, a monumental crash…and then silence as it faded. The vessel was around fifty miles outside the City at its resting point, and had it come any closer, it would've impacted against the Tower.
As the entire Hall collectively breathed a sigh of relief, Zavala strode towards the window.
"Are you able to scan now, Holliday?" He asked.
"Yep, firing it up now." Holliday replied. "This might take a while…well, never mind! We've got two, I repeat, two faint lifesigns aboard. Marking their location now!"
"Fireteams Horizon and Tradewind, deploy immediately to assist." Zavala responded. "Lord Shaxx, have the Redjacks follow and secure that ship. Look for weapons, intelligence, anything of value. Frontline Frames, secure a perimeter!"
As Lord Shaxx responded in the affirmative, and three additional Hawks soon departed, bearing the Redjacks, Zavala took a breath and looked to Ikora.
"I need to alert the Consensus and the Speaker." He said as he prepared to leave. "Ikora, you have tactical command while I'm away. Cayde, alert the Medical wing that we are potentially expecting company."
"Of course."
"Aye."
As Zavala strode towards Tower West and the Speaker's chamber, six Guardian jumpships flew towards the waiting City Hawks orbiting the ship's command spire.
"Listen up, Guardians." Said the leader of Fireteam Horizon, Anubis-13, an Exo Titan. "Our primary objective is to search for survivors near the beacon set by Amanda Holliday. Keep yourselves at the ready, but be careful. We don't know what else is aboard that ship."
"Agreed." Said Seahawk-8, an Exo Hunter and the leader of Fireteam Tradewind. "We're not sure if there's anyone else alive on that ship, so that means we're going to be extra careful, and expect trouble to find us at some point."
"Understood." The other four Guardians replied. Rainea Thoren and Adrianne Titus, both Awoken Warlocks, alongside David Paulson and James Mendoza, a human Titan and Hunter respectively, each prepared to disembark alongside their Ghosts.
"Where's our infil point, Holliday?" James asked.
"A hull breach on the starboard side, near what I reckon is the bridge. You should start there and work your way down." Amanda replied. "Good luck, Guardians!"
"Thank you kindly." Anubis replied. As each jumpship flew to the hull breach and each Guardian disembarked, their Ghosts automatically flew the vacated jumpships back to the Tower Hangar.
"Ready to head in?" Anubis-13 asked, loading a Vanguard-Issue Auto Rifle. There were no objections, and the six Guardians entered the vessel, their Ghosts illuminating what was in front of them.
"This is certainly creepy." Adrianne said quietly, as she swept her City-Issue Scout Rifle from one dark corridor to another. "Where's the crew? A ship this big should be packed with crewmembers, not to mention its captain and command staff."
"Do you think they didn't make it?" David Paulson asked the Awoken Warlock.
"Not sure." Adrianne replied. "So far, there's been no sign of the two survivors our scans found. Where could they be?"
"I think we're going to find out soon enough,"Seahawk-8 replied, heading over to what appeared to be an intact computer terminal. His Ghost, Talon, began scanning through the ship's database, extracting every bit of information he could. After five minutes or so, Talon stopped and turned to the others.
"What'd you find?" Seahawk asked.
"Plenty. I'll talk as we go. This vessel is apparently called the Chimaera." Talon replied as the Guardians resumed walking towards the bridge. "It's an Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer, whatever that means, under the command of a "Grand Admiral Thrawn", whoever that is. It was apparently the flagship of a detachment called the Imperial Seventh Fleet, deployed on a planet called Lothal."
"Lothal?" James asked. "It's definitely not in the Sol System, or anywhere we'd know of."
"That's the thing. It's not from our galaxy as a whole." Talon replied. "I managed to pull a complete star map off of the ship's database, and it's far larger than our own galaxy, with planets I've never heard of before. Only problem is that there's no clue where it is in relation to our own."
"So how did this ship get here?" Rainea asked.
"Still working on that." Talon sighed. "Much of the data I pulled is heavily encrypted, corrupted, or was erased prior to the crash. Let's go find our two survivors in the meantime."
The six Guardians soon found an intact corridor that led to the bridge, and as they walked, they found something that unnerved them. There was an abundance of bodies in white armor with a black face visor, along with others in naval uniforms. What the Guardians presumed were weapons lay at their sides or scattered about.
"That armor looks really bland to me." Adrianne murmured. "Must be standard-issue, or regulation required."
"Probably." Her Ghost, Echo, added. "That armor, from my scans, does seem rather flimsy compared to our own armor. Light plating, no shielding units, barely any other accessories to be found. A life support unit, for example."
"Quiet." Anubis-13 suddenly whispered. "Looks like we're at the bridge. Weapons up."
Anubis-13 and David Paulson pulled the blast doors open with some effort, and found more bodies to greet them. However, Rainea noticed a cylindrical object laying in an open case on what appeared to be a command table.
"Wonder what this is." She mused, looking the object over. Her immediate thought was that it was a sword hilt, but it seemed…different. She pressed a button near the guard, and a bright blue, meter-long blade appeared out of the object.
"Woah." James whispered. "That's something to see."
Rainea deactivated the blade, and clipped it to her waist-belt, thanks to a magnetic link on the end of the hilt. At the same time, Anubis-13's Ghost, Dusty, began scanning the bodies, only to jolt at seeing another set of blast doors.
"Our two survivors are in there." He said simply. After some physical encouragement from the two Titans present, the door unsealed. Inside was a young man of about eighteen, wearing a tan, yellow, and orange jacket with brown bracers, and brown cargo pants. A utility belt and a holster was at his waist, and his dark bluish hair was cut short.
Adrianne and her Ghost immediately knelt down next to him and began stabilizing him, with Echo sending out small amounts of his Light into the unconscious boy to aid in the process. David soon found the other survivor, a man wearing a white naval uniform, with a holster and utility belt. His dark blue skin, red markings under his eyes, and his sea-green hair cut short made David think he was an Awoken at first, but his Ghost, Evs, confirmed he wasn't through a bioscan.
After stabilizing him as well, Anubis-13 reported over the comms to Commander Zavala, alerting the Vanguard that the survivors were secure and stable, and the Redjacks were clear to move in.
"Understood. Amanda Holliday is en route to your position." Zavala replied. "The Tower medical bay is standing by."
"Copy, Commander." Anubis-13 confirmed. "We're on our way."
As the City Hawk flown by Holliday moved to an open window and deployed its cargo ramp, the Guardians helped a pair of civilian medics and two Frontline Frames help both survivors onto stretchers, and then onto the Hawk itself.
After both survivors were fitted for oxygen masks and an IV line, the medics got to work as the Hawk departed for the City.
"Fireteams Horizon, Tradewind, you are clear to return home." Zavala said. "The Redjacks will take over securing the ship. For now, come home and stand by for further instructions. Ikora will watch over the survivors once they arrive."
"Understood, we're on our way." Seahawk-8 replied. One by one, each of the Guardians' jumpships flew towards them, and once each of them had transmatted aboard, they flew back towards the tower hangar.
As the sun began to rise over the Last City, the medics aboard Holliday's Hawk didn't notice the younger survivor start to stir, open his eyes slightly, then fall unconscious once again.