Author's Notes: You know, I need to stop posting new stories. They simply hold back time I should spend on stories that haven't been updated in awhile. On the other, a good idea could be lost forever if it isn't written down. Much like a good dream.

Prologue: Going Dark

Rubicon System, 2401 A.D.

In the year 20XX, astrologists discovered an anomaly over the planet Mars. This anomaly had been tracked all across the solar system, but this was the closest it had ever been to Earth. Despite the ongoing crisis, the governments of the world put aside their differences, and launched a joint mission to the planet. Sending four, these astronauts would land upon the dead planet.

Correction. Formerly dead planet. The anomaly, a white, spherical entity over a kilometer in radius, had seemingly brought rain to this otherwise barren world.

Thus began humanities' golden age. The scientific discoveries brought about by the entity allowed humanity to conquer their home system, establishing colonies that would've taken decades, if not centuries to achieve. Human lifespan tripled, industries prospered, and even the sky couldn't hold back humanities limitations. However, even as they dominated the worlds of Sol, their gazes turned ever farther, beyond the horizons.

Rubicon.

On the surface, it seemed like just an unassuming system on the opposite side of the Milky Way, with the only noticeable exception being Rubicon 3, the only habitable planet, at least from their long range scanners.

When Soteria first sent colonists out for it in 2227, that was their only mission, to colonize. A monumental feat on its own, given that it had to compete with the other colonization options, such as Alpha Centauri. Upon arriving and re-establishing contact with Sol in 2311, however, it became so much more than just a colonization.

Coral. And unbelievable substance, able to revolutionize humanity, possibly just as great as the arrival of the Traveler.

Rapidly, a second and third expedition was sent, these ones outfitted with the most advanced technology, courtesy of C.B. Corporations, to set up mining outposts and colonies. It was not a walk in the part, however. Rubicon 3 may have been habitable, but it wasn't pleasant. Rubicon's weather played havoc on even their most advanced electronics, and progress slowed to a crawl.

However, after a hundred years, the bare necessities for a colonial and mining operation were complete. In just a few weeks, the scientists they brought will be able to study the storage capacity of this Coral substance, and send their first shipments in a few months. It'd still take a couple decades to get back to Sol, and they'd have to still experiment with it back home to see its applications.

'But, hey, that's their problem.' Colonel George Darrek said as he looked over the predicted risk assessment for the first few mining outposts on the planet. Overall, less than what they initially predicted, but it was still promising.

His door beeped.

"Enter."

The door slid to the side, revealing a uniformed woman.

"Colonel Darrek." she exclaimed, saluting.

"Ah, Private Ryung." He replied, not even looking back. He knew his men enough to know them by voice alone.

"Doctor Saresh has requested your presence, Sir."

"Oh? And what does the girl need?"

"Don't know, Sir. Only that she said it was important."

Darrek sighed. He knew Saresh enough that, if she wasn't saying why he needed him, then she doubted that she trusted anyone to tell him the truth. In short, it was either an emergency, or something stupid that he'd laugh off.

"Alright," he grunted, getting up, "I'll be on my way."

Saluting, Ryung left the room. Darrek opened a drawer, and pulled out a canteen. On one side of it was a picture, taped backwards to hide what was there. Exiting the room, he passed a holo-window showing the surface of Rubicon.

"Views like this never get old." He muttered, taking a drink and continuing forward, "And Carrek always gets the best views."

The station was the only orbiting station for Rubicon 3, serving as a jumping off point for the planet. As such, it never surprised him to find the hallways always packed with activity. Reaching the science wing, he entered Saresh's office…to find it completely empty. That alone was concerning. Saresh always had work to do, and made sure her assistants were also working, so to find it silent was unsettling. To the point that Darrek instinctively had a hand over his holstered pistol. Entering, he could hear muttering through the silence. Following them, he reached a corner of the room with a giant prototype for something Darrek didn't care to remember. Going around it, he found four people standing around a desk, with dozens of holo images above it.

One was a rather large and robust man, long red beard being stroked by his hand and piercing blue eyes. Another had gray eyes, sweat going down his bald head. The third had purple eyes, his hands either brushing his brown, scraggly hair, or fidgeting between themselves.

The fourth, a woman with long, shoulder length white hair, and matching eyes, turned to the sound of squeaking feet.

"Colonel, I'd say it's good of you to join us. But the information we've received…it's anything but good."

"Saresh," Darrek replied, then turned to the three men, "Jorgan, Mazoon, Yalein. Saresh, you're already making me nervous. Having two heads of colonization is cause for concern. All five, and we might as well be readying for a crisis."

"That's because we might well be," Jorgan grunted in annoyance. Ever since he arrived forty years ago, Jorgan has been a pain in Darrek's ass. It only made sense, though. Jorgan was in charge of their naval, sorry, colonial defense, while he was in command of their ground forces, more accurately named security. Darrek preferred to have their operations planetside, while Jorgan preferred space stations and minimalistic colonial efforts.

But Jorgan's words did put a little more tension in Darrek.

"What's the old badger talking about?"

"We received a message," Mazoon replied, "From Rasputin."

Darrek's eyes widened.

"Rasputin…the Warmind in charge of defending the entirety of Sol. Why the hell would he be sending us a message?"

"That's what we thought, too." Yalein nervously replied, "However, it wasn't just a message. It was a report from the Augurmind, Soteria."

"Okay, that's a new term. What the hell's an Augurmind?"

Jorgan scoffed, "Why am I not surprised you don't know about her."

Saresh glared at him, "You didn't know about her, either, Jorgan, so don't bemoan Darrek. As you know, Warminds are artificial intelligences, designed for the purpose of safeguarding humanity. Augurminds fulfill a similar role, but in a more civilian sense. Soteria's purpose was to chart flight paths for colony ships. The expedition to Rubicon 3 wouldn't have been possible without her. However, what concerns us is that Rasputin sent this report."

"Got it, another smart AI. What does this report say, and why is Rasputin sending it concerning?"

Yalein opened a holo image, showing the number 329.

"Soteria was charting flight paths from our galaxy to Andromeda, when suddenly, this happened."

The number dropped to two. Even if Darrek wasn't technical, he could easily tell that something clearly went wrong.

"How did we go from over 300 trips to Andromeda, to now two?"

"Slight correction, we actually have no paths to Andromeda."

"Come again, Mazoon?"

"The report said that the two paths are actually to the Triangulum galaxy, which is farther away than Andromeda."

"Even more so!"

"We aren't sure what Soteria found," Saresh retorted, "But what we do know is that it was enough of a concern to send the report to Rasputin for advice."

"Okay, and what did he say?"

"..."

"Saresh?"

"He recommended," Jorgan answered, "That Soteria launches all the colony ships that she could, immediately."

You could cut through the silence with a broadsword.

"That's…terrifying."

"Now you understand why I've brought us here." Saresh agreed, "We need to figure out what's going on."

"Alright, I get it," Darrek put down his mug, "What happened afterwards."

"From the report," Mazoon answered, "Soteria did successfully launch most of the colony ships under her control, but was locked within a pillory bunker by Clovis Bray. Afterwards, the ships were recalled, with one missing."

"Any idea what happened to the missing ship?"

"None in the report."

"Dammit. And damn Clovis. Did they even tell a-"

"From what the report says, no," Jorgan interrupted, "Soteria acted without authorization, bypassing any clearances."

"Okay, that tells us multiple things. First, that Rasputin considered the threat dangerous enough to warrant such an action, that the threat was close enough that waiting for bureaucrats wasn't an option, and, most terrifying of all…the possibility that Rasputin didn't think that they could stop it."

"Stop what?" Mazoon questioned.

"Think about it," Jorgan replied, "An unknown threatened the entire colonization efforts that the augur was predicting. That means it's either a natural or unnatural disaster. As for a natural disaster, I have no idea what could possibly be that dangerous. Maybe a system sized asteroid?"

"Even if that was possible," Saresh added, "Something of that scale would either have been seen long ago, or is coming too fast for our instruments to pick it up. If it was the latter, then the Traveler might've been the best chance at stopping it."

"Which leads to a dangerous thought," Yalein joined in, his left hand slightly shaking, "If Rasputin sent us this report, then he likely made the threat assessment with the Traveler's aid as part of the process, which means-"

"That whatever threat is coming would make the Traveler take pause. Which means it's not a natural disaster. It's artificial, possibly even an invasion."

Darrek's words put the thought into all of them.

"B-b-but what could possibly threaten the Traveler?!"

"Every light has a shadow, Yalein. And the brighter the flame, the dark it gets."

"But that still doesn't explain why Rasputin would tell us this."

Saresh's eyes widened in horror.

"Because he doesn't know if Sol will survive the conflict."

"And how are we supposed to help turn the tide?"

Jorgan shook his head, "We aren't Mazoon."

Mazoon slowly turned his head, as if Jorgan had gone crazy.

"Could you repeat that?"

"We aren't. Even if Coral could somehow turn the tide of whatever fight's coming our way, it'd be years to mass produce anything powered by the stuff, decades to get it mainstreamed. Rasputin didn't send up this message for the sake of Coral. He did it to tell us the gravity of the situation. Like a bear approaching a sleeping campsite, we can do nothing to stop it. So our only choices are to attack the bear and die in the process…"

"Or stay hidden," Darrek concluded, "And hope the bear passes by."

Jorgan gave a solemn nod, while Mazoon and Yalein looked horrified.

"You can't be serious. You mean to tell me that we're to do nothing!? That we shouldn't even try to warn them!?"

"If Rasputin thought warning them would've changed anything, he wouldn't have told us! At best, this is simply an insurance policy. If Sol should fall, then Rubicon will be all that remains of humanity. Which means that we have to do whatever it takes to keep Rubicon's location hidden."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"Simple," Jorgan replied, "We go dark. Sever all communications with Sol."

"Even if we did that," Saresh countered, "That won't stop Sol from contacting us, or, at least, attempting to."

"So we don't answer them," Darrek retorted, "If we don't, then the only intel our enemies will have is the direction. They won't know how far, and that might be our only saving grace. Mazoon, how much can you delay the excavations? We need to hold off on the celebrations for as long as possible."

Mazoon sighed. He couldn't fathom the idea of just abandoning Sol to its fate, but it seemed like it was out of his hands.

"I can slow them down long enough to give you a week. After that, they'll start to suspect something."

"Alrighty. Yal, I'd suggest you start getting your boys to begin locking down the communications. Do it slowly, give the rest of us time to get everything settled before we finally cut the wire," he placed a hand on Yalein's shoulder, "Are you going to be good?"

Yalein shakily nodded…then shook his head, "No, no, NONE of this is good! But…b-but I think I could keep calm to get to work."

Darrek gave a sad nod. "Okay. Saresh-"

"You don't need to say anything, Darrek. I'll start working on isolating us."

Darrek nodded as he leaned over the table, bracing his hands. As the others began to leave, Jorgan turned to Darrek.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"..."

"..."

"...No. But we don't have a choice. It's either this…or possibly death."

"You don't even need to warn Earth. You could just say to send the next convoy of colony ships. Make an excuse that we need more men."

"Even if they bought that, what if this invasion force ran into them halfway, or, worse, ended up tracking them here? No, this is the only chance we have at surviving what's coming."

"But your so-"

"I KNOW!" Darrek roared, fists slamming on the table in rage. After a moment, he calmed down and repeated it, softer, and with more sorrow.

Jorgan sighed, patting him on the back. "I'll get the ships ready. Should I contact your men?"

"No. I know them, so I can deploy them more efficiently. Just, give me a few minutes."

Jorgan nodded, and left the room. Darrek reached into his uniform, and pulled out an audio recording. The timestamp was years ago, just before he went into cryosleep for the trip to Rubicon. Pressing play, he listened.

"Hey, Darrek," a feminine voice replied, soft and nervous, "It's me, Cya. I know it must be a surprise to hear from me after all these years, but…(sigh), no. I can't pretend this is some happy call. Look, George. I don't know if you want to hear this or not, but…we were both in rough spots when we left. You had your drinks, I had my work. We let that boil over until we said things we couldn't take back. And, out of all of us, it was Tyron who took the worst of it. Top of his class, and our divorce just robbed him of any joy in life."

Darrek choked on the sob coming up.

"He's gotten better. Not top of his class, but better. By the time you get back, he actually should be getting into that college he always wanted. He was thinking of working at Europa, though I did suggest a closer job at Ishtar's Venus places.

Which leads me to why I'm calling. When you get back…I want to talk, just the two of us. Nothing too serious, maybe just a coffee. I want to give this another chance. It won't fix the damage we did to each other. But I'd like to try.

"Mom, I'm home!"

"Oh, just a minute! See you in a few years, George. Goodbye."

The recording ended, and it slid out of his hand, his body numbed. When he first got here and played the recording, it brought him joy that he hadn't screwed up, that he could still have a family. But, now…all it will ever bring is more sorrow. For a brief moment, he contemplated chucking it at the wall, destroying it. But then he'd never get to hear his sweet Cya's words, or his brave Ty's.

"This universe is cruel." Darrek said, chugging down his canteen before heading out.

He wouldn't get any sleep for a week. How can you, when everyone you know and love will soon experience hell itself.

Author's Notes: In case this wasn't obvious, this is a crossover between Armored Core 6, and Destiny. I'm going to be playing loose with both IP's lore for two reasons. One, AC6's lore needs to be adjusted so that it can actually impact the Destiny universe. So the Fire of Rubicon will not be happening. The second...Destiny's lore is REALLY expansive. It's highly like that I'll write something down, and then someone who's intimate with the lore will be like 'Um, actually, that's not possible'. It's like trying to manage the Warhammer lore, you know anything new will contradict five different things.

Now, let's lay down some facts for this story, so you can set your expectations. Armored Cores will be 4.5 meters tall, much smaller than in canon. Why? Well, considering that Crota, one of the biggest early threats in the Destiny universe, who slew hundreds of Guardians, is only 3.4 meters tall, it's going to be a LITTLE breaking if we have 30 foot tall behemoths. That being said, AC's will still be just as deadly, just a bit smaller.

Another is the timeline. I've searched everywhere I could, but there are conflicting reports on the timeline pre-game. The only constants are that the Collapse happened in the early 2400s. Some sources say the game starts in 2715, others say that it's 500 years later. So one particular event that will be very important to this series is going to be a bit difficult if there isn't a concrete date on when it happened. So I'm freeballing it. If I'm wrong...well, it is fanfiction, after all.

As always, leave a review, fav/follow, and I'll see you all next time.