S1: The Unique IMC Pilot

by IMC Librarian

Michael W Johnson, found and raised by Spyglass unit #826591740-A, grows up to become an IMC Pilot, but soon discovers that he is more than that. More than a Pilot, more than a soldier, more than anyone knows, even himself. He is endowed with a destiny that will change his life and the lives of those around him for good.

107. CH106

S1-106
Deep Storage

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11:32 AM
08/09/3272

Planet Earth - The last City
Bazaar

Music
Destiny - The Tower

"So... it's the end of everything." Ikora let out a dry, forced chuckle. "I thought after the Red War, we'd get a bit of a break."

"You seem to let time slip by a lot, Ikora. Jenny was just a little girl when the Red War ended, and look at her now!" Michael replied.

"Yes, I am aware of that. Thank you for pointing that out. I'm not giving up yet. If nothing else, the Vex are methodical. They'd have a schematic of the Forest, a map, and that map will show where Panoptes is. There's only one place they could possibly store that much data: the Pyramidion on Io."

"The 'Pyramidion'? I don't know about that place." Jenny was left confused.

11:47 AM
08/09/3272

Jupiter's moon, Io - Echo Mesa
The Rupture

Music
Destiny 2 - Echo Mesa

The Shadow was still waiting on Mercury, so one of his Echoes was on Io, keeping the Vex on the surface in check. "Here we are, Jenny. Welcome to Io." Samus announced.

"{Are you sure there's a map of the Infinite Forest here?}" Sagira asked.

"If the Vex are trying to reshape the future, the Pyramidion is part of the plan." Ikora transmitted. "The map has to be here."

Up ahead was a circular Vex tech plate. They stood in it, and it lit up, with a conflux appearing nearby. "{I know a trick with that conflux.}"

"Have at it. Let's see that 'Sagira magic'."

"{Oh please. There's no magic here. Just technological advancement.}"

"Ugh... You know what I mean." Michael was unimpressed.

"Brace yourself for the Vex welcoming party." Ikora transmitted. The door up ahead opened, but there were no Vex on the other side. "Or not."

"{With me, you get the shortcuts.}"

"I wonder, how do the Vex feel about being skipped?" Samus asked, stifling a laugh.

"They must probably feel stupid right now." Replied the Echo.

Ikora spoke up again. "Sagira, I know we didn't leave one another on the best of terms."

"{You led the group that exiled my Guardian. I didn't like it, but people weren't ready to hear what Osiris was saying back then.}"

"It wasn't just his prophecies. He never understood that there was more to being a Warlock than being the smartest person in the room."

"{Osiris has changed. You're still the same by-the-book Ikora I remember.}"

"I'm not so sure about that. Losing my Light was revealing. I see now I need to be more than I was. Maybe we all do."

Jupiter's moon, Io - Echo Mesa
Pyramidion

Music
Destiny 2 - The Pyramidion

Up ahead were some Vex, and they were easily destroyed.

Eventually, they got past a large group of Vex, leaving dead machines in their path. "{Great. Looks like Ikora was right. My scans show the Pyramidion does receive data from the Forest. I've got the location of a conflux where we can access it.}" More Vex, then more dead Vex. Up ahead was a Transfer Gate. "{I can reprogram that warp gate. It should get us close to the conflux.}"

There were Vex blocking their path, until dimensional rifts opened, then pulled them out of existence. "You just took them, huh?" Michael asked.

"If they're gonna be in the way, might as well give them a different post." The Echo responded.

"{Calculations are ready. All you gotta do is jump through the hoop.}" They all jumped through the Transfer Gate, with Sagira following them. Unfortunately, they weren't that close to the conflux. "{Well, that didn't work as well as I expected.}"

"The Sagira I knew would never admit to anything less than Osiris-level perfection."

"{Ikora, here's a secret. No one has ever lived up to Osiris's reputation. Not even Osiris.}"

"OK, that's a pretty funny secret." The Echo laughed.

"{I wasn't aware of it being funny.}"

"Nevermind..."

They went through another gate, then faced a Vex Cyclops. "Haven't seen one of those in a while." As Michael said that, Samus froze the Cyclops, then used a Super Missile to shatter it, causing the force field it was stationed on to collapse. With that, they jumped down.

"{I can tell that the conflux is somewhere nearby, but the Vex must be cloaking it.}" There were two circular pads; one on the left, one on the right.

Michael went to the plate on the right, Samus went to the left, and Jenny kept a lookout.

"{Look out! We've got incoming!}" Vex started to appear, but they were being blown to bits by Jenny's SMR.

The force field surrounding a cube of Vex tech vanished, and Jenny used the MGL to destroy it, causing the conflux to become visible.

"{There we go.}" Sagira started looking through the Vex data connected to the conflux. "{The map's not here. I don't understand.}"

"Keep looking." Ikora ordered.

"{Wait. I've got something. Coordinates for a node in the Infinite Forest. That's where our map is.}"

"It wasn't a total loss, but this will be useful." Replied the Shadow's Echo.

Jenny thought about this. "I guess the Vex moved the map. It WAS here, and now the Infinite Forest holds its own map."

"Intuitive and a thorough thinker, just like her parents."

"Can't say I'm not proud. I don't wanna lie."

Michael and Samus were proud of their daughter.

"She's brave, just like the both of you." The Shadow's Echo added.

---

OK, OK, enough of that. Let's get on with it.

See you in the Infinite Forest.