Chapter 12: The Red Planet
If guardians could sweat, then Clea would be sweating bullets. As she walked into vanguard command, her hands were shaking. She was struggling internally, trying to decide how to pitch her plan to the Vanguard. She needed a fire team, and she had a way into the black garden. However, she had taken an unsanctioned trip to the Reef, and now owed the Awoken Queen a debt that would no doubt be collected eventually. Worst of all she couldn't say anything about the Exo Stranger, who she had no idea about what she was and how she somehow had knowledge of the future. The mere mention of such an outlandish idea would surely brand her a lunatic.
As the doors opened, the speaker was talking to the three vanguard leaders. Rather than interrupting, Clea simply waited and listened.
"The vision was clear, the Vex are gathering. Deep within the black garden, they are planning something that endangers all of existence" The Speaker warned.
"How are we supposed to find the black garden, let alone get inside?" Zavala questioned.
Clea took that as her cue and stepped up to the table, holding up her prize from Venus and saying "I've found a way in, and I know where the portal is!"
All three of the Vanguards and The Speaker turned to Clea, staring at her dumbfounded as she explained "I've been conducting research on the Vex, and the eye of a gate lord can access the portal on Mars"
Ikora and Cayde gave her a smile, but Zavala was unconvinced and said "where is this portal?"
"Mars, 84 north, 32 east…meridian bay" Clea replied as confidently as she could.
Zavala shook his head and said "I haven't checked the Mars map in a while, but im pretty sure those coordinates are bad news…"
The holo table then pulled up a map of mars, and a red dot appeared showing the desired coordinates
"That doesn't look so bad" Clea stated calmly.
The holo table zoomed out and showed a massive red circle, the dot where the gate was located fell almost dead center.
That is the Cabal Exclusion Zone. Much like the moon, it's a red zone that guardians are forbidden from going to. If the gate is there….then getting to it is going to be neigh impossible, not to mention there'd be many vex waiting to defend the gate if you managed to get there"
"Why? And who are the Cabal?" Clea questioned.
Polari then materialized and said "another group of aliens from outside Sol, they aren't death worshiping fanatics like the hive, lowly pirates like the fallen or living supercomputers like the vex. They're conquerors and brutes above all else"
Cayde chuckled and said "I couldn't have said it better myself!"
Ikora sighed and said "and they're tough. The only good news is that they have no means of killing Guardians permanently in combat. They've only ever killed three Guardians permanently, and that was only because they captured them and tortured them enough to expose their ghosts, then incinerated the entire room
Clea wasn't exactly relived, but pressed her case saying "it doesn't matter, if the vex succeed, it could be the end of everything"
All three vanguards nodded, and the Speaker said " She is correct, give her whatever she asks for"
Clea gave the Speaker a smile and said "I need a fireteam, and I want Ash to be on it, along with Bela, Rand, Cassie and Tyzon"
"We just sent most of fireteam Cobalt away to a fallen base in Europe, so they'll be gone for a few days, but Ash can join you right now, go to Mars and meet with Deputy Commander Indra, she'll help you get the lay of the land. Be sure to land at her base, the Cabal shoot down any ship they can get a lock on, even those in low orbit. As soon as Bela and the others return we'll send them your way"
Clea nodded and turned to leave, only for the the Speaker to say "wait"
Clea looked back towards him as he said "be careful, and good luck"
The young warlock nodded and left Vanguard command as fast as she could with her ghost in hot pursuit
As Clea was sitting in the Castillo Lancer, checking her fuel and ammo, Ash arrived.
"Good to see you" Clea called out as she pressed a few buttons on her console screen.
Ash nodded, and said "good to see you too…" it didn't take a psychologist to hear the depression in his voice
Clea noticed his somber tone and asked "what's wrong?"
"Bela said that they needed to be quick and stealthy, and so she couldn't afford to make me smoke bombs constantly. Not to mention that if we got ambushed, I'd be pretty much dead weight…" Ash revealed.
Clea smiled at him and said "well don't worry, you're important to me!"
Ash shook his head and said" not once I run out of these" before opening a black box full of smoke bombs. Bela had topped off his supply before she left, but the mission they were on required stealth almost constantly, and since every team member besides Ash could go invisible, he would only slow the others down, since each smoke bomb only lasted about 10 seconds.
"Your useful without those, don't worry" Clea assured him.
Ash stated at her, clearly glaring behind his helmet as he said "yea, sure I am…"
A few minutes later, Clea took off, and Ash's jumpship pulled up beside her.
After making the calculations, they jumped to Mars, and exited the slip 10 minutes later.
Suddenly Ash came over the coma and said "dive now, we're gonna have to go down fast and stay low to avoid a missile lock.
Luckily they weren't yet within missile range. The two jumpships put their throttle to the wall and dove straight down. As they descended through the atmosphere, Polari marked the location of the guardian base.
As soon as they came within 80 miles of the base, they were hailed by Martian Command and warned "unidentified contacts, you've entered Vanguard Airspace, state your intention or be fired upon. You have 30 seconds to reply."
Clea frantically responded with "IM A GUARDIAN…uh, I mean, this is Lancer two three, my wingman and I are on assignment and scheduled to meet the deputy commander. Requesting permission to land"
"Copy, Lancer 2-3, and Arcadia 9-1 cleared to land" the guardian on the radio said.
Soon enough the base was in sight, and as they hovered down to the base, Clea was more intimidated than when she was threatened to be shot down. Outpost 23 on Venus was undoubtedly a proper military base, but the stationed guardians and defenses there didn't hold a candle to Firebase Mons.
The compound was more than twice the size of outpost 23, with more barracks, hangers, and the wall were much higher. Several Drake Tanks were visible in the hangers as mechanics were checking on them. It was clear the base was constantly at full combat readiness.
The two guardians landed and were met with with a single Titan, who motioned for them to follow saying "the deputy commander will brief you immediately"
The trio then headed to central command, which was a massive concrete bunker, with several machine gun positions on the sides, and the heavy weapons barrels were just barely sticking out of the sides.
The heavy blast doors opened and they were led to an elevator that went down for a minute straight before finally arriving at central command. There were dozens of guardians at various consoles, monitoring radar, satellites, and even seismic activity.
In the center of the room was a large holo-table, just like the one in Argo's office on Venus. However, the deputy commander wasn't the only guardian gathered around it, there were several titans and a few warlocks gathered around, coming and going as they received orders.
Clea's eyes immediately focused on the nearest Titan, assuming he was the deputy commander, but he turned around and walked past them without a word.
The Titan that escorted them then spoke and said "Deputy Commander, the two guardians from earth are here to see you."
After a solid minute, one of the guardians turned around to face them. She was around 5 foot 11 inches, in a black, armored bodysuit with blue highlights on it. She had a pitch black cloak over her back, and a custom black hand cannon was holstered at her right him. She had black hair and light skin, along with piercing blue eyes. The only flourish on her outfit was an electric blue belt around her waist, made of heavy, thick fabric with several holsters for knives, and a depiction of a snake-like creature with feathers and long whiskers. She was the most intimidating and serious looking hunter either of them had ever seen.
"Welcome to Mars, I'm deputy commander Indra" the hunter said.
Clea remembered that name instantly, as Argo had been talking to someone named Indra when she had first arrived on Venus.
The two young guardians stated at Indra awkwardly, before Ash finally broke the silence with "your a hunter…never thought a hunter would want a permanent command post"
Indra gave him a stern look and said "someone had to do it, and it suits me. Now then, Commander Zavala gave me the basic rundown, but I'm going to be frank. I don't really have anything to offer you in terms of help"
"WHAT?" Clea and Ash shouted at the same time. Luckily the chatter of the command center drowned out their voices to avoid making a scene.
Indra turned back to her table and pulled up the map of Mars, showing the outline of the Cabal exclusion zone and said "your destination in 200 miles away, pretty close to freehold, which happens to be exactly where the Cabal commander is, IE the most heavily guarded area in the exclusion zone. I can't spare any guardians or tanks, otherwise my outpost won't be prepared for a Cabal assault. As you may have noticed when you arrived, we have to be at full combat readiness 24/7"
"But the vex's plan threatens the entire solar system, as in, they could be threatening to end everything! you have to understand?" Clea pressed.
"And I do, but the fact remains that I simply don't have any resources to spare. Indra admitted.
Ash started at the map for a moment, before pointing at Freehold and saying "what if we led a strike, just a few guardians, and took out the Cabal commander, that would definitely mess up their command structure for a day or two, then you could help us"
Indra opened her mouth, but then stopped to consider it for moment, then said "it's not a bad idea, but attacking Valus Ta'aurc isn't as simple as you might think, and even then, we tried it once already"
"How fortified is his base?" Clea questioned.
Indra gave her a deadpan look, causing the warlock to flinch before the hunter pulled up a map of the Cabal base, the term "fortress" frankly undersold the compound's defenses.
There was a 20 feet tall electrified fence on all sides, and anti-personnel turrets were present at every viable angle of attack. Every single open space of the base had double coverage with line length of sight to two turrets.
"Those scorpius turrets fire armor-piercing shells at 8,000 rounds per minute. Just one can shred your shield in seconds.." Indra warned
Clea noticed a massive empty space in the base and asked "is that area to land a big ship or something?"
Indra shook her head and pressed a few buttons to change the display as she said "the commander resides in the mobile command center, an imperial class land tank"
Clea's jaw dropped as a massive machine was added to the readout. According to measurements on the map, it was 3000 feet long, 2000 feet high, and 2000 feet wide.
"That is Valus Ta'aurc's command center. The land tank is heavily guarded, as is the entire base. What's worse is that if we get pinned down in there there is no way out. Sparrows are a no go, the land tank emits a jamming frequency which prevents unauthorized transmat. All our airpower is useless, since there are anti-air batteries all over the exclusion zone. These are the ones we know about, and there are likely more" Indra admitted, as over 80 red dots appeared on the map.
Ash was looking outside via one of the security cams and asked "what model are those drakes….Mark 2 or 3"
"3…why?" Indra questioned.
Ash then had Orion project an image of a tank shell, saying "Mark 3 Drakes are outfitted to fire smoke canisters to cover advancing. If you loaded up the canisters with some metal shavings, and modified the explosive charge to detonate midair, the chaff could scramble cabal radar and communications. I could rig up a dozen in an hour"
Indra shook her head and said "that won't help us, the bases have sirens to warn of attack. One of those go off and were dead"
Ash then turned to the map and said "then let's give them a reason to go off" before pointing to the edge of the exclusion zone and saying "roll a few drakes up to the edge and pummel this forward operating base, along with sending in a few guardians. With communications jammed, they'll think the attack is going to come there. They'll scramble their forces to defend the base. Then with cover of night we fly a strike team to freehold and infiltrate the land tank. You've got to have a few hunters or warlocks with void light skills right?"
Indra opened her mouth, but then paused for a second to consider the plan. Eventually nodding and saying "it's a solid plan, and if it works, we could gain a major foothold in the exclusion zone, and help you at the same time…but I'm still not sold"
Clea let up an audible groan and said "come on, you just said it's a solid plan!"
Indra nodded and said "it is, but there's still one problem. Let's say everything goes to plan, the Cabal react the way you say, which they very well could, and that your chaff works. The problem is Valus Ta'aurc always keeps a portion of his legion at his base, around 500 soldiers. The second Ta'aurc is attacked, he'll raise the alarm and all of those soldiers will pour into the land tank."
Clea then noticed the large ramp leading up to the land tank and said "what if you use arc light to fry the door of the tank shut. That will take us a while to cut through"
"No shot, they'll cut through it in 10 minutes. There's no margin for escape there, we'd have to kill Ta'aurc in less than a minute and we still have way too small of an escape window." Indra explained.
Ash once again had an idea and said "why don't we have a group of titans wait on top of the tank, and then they can hold the line for us with cover"
Indra once again shook her head and said "Pragmat Harriers engines are too strong, two in formation would scatter the chaff and ruin our cover, so we only have one spare seat since the co-pilot runs the radar and countermeasures on the harrier. The three of us, and my two stealth experts take five of the six passenger seats."
"Us.." Ash said in a fearful voice.
"Yea, you it's your plan so you're gonna be accountable for it and be on it, same with your friend" Indra pressed.
Clea once again interjected and said "Indra please, we've given you a solid plan. You have to know some strong guardians, everything is at steak here"
Ash sighed and said "Clea, one guardian versus 500 Cabal…there's not a guardian in the solar system who could do that. Maybe Ikora or Zavala, but the vanguards can't risk getting themselves killed, as losing one automatically weakens guardian operations across the entire system."
Indra was silent for a solid minute before rasing her voice and saying "Clear the room"
Every guardian in the command center froze, before Indra repeated her order and said "Clear the room, i've got a call to make, NOW"
Clea and Ash rushed out of the room and the rest of the stationed guardians followed suit.
The command center was now dead silent as Indra then pushed a few buttons, turning off the map and preparing to make a call.
Indra's ghost, Zeus , then appeared and said "you can't be serious…your not really going to call him are you?"
Indra nodded and said "I am. He owes me a favor, and he's the one guardian who could do this. As much as I hate to admit it, this is our chance to breach the exclusion zone, and Griffen would want us to"
Zeus's eye widened as Indra mentioned her fallen mentor, and said "you're really serious about this…still, I for one am against this"
Indra shook her head and said "honestly I am too, but if what the speaker says is true, then we don't have a choice. Patch me through to Merrick.."
Author's note- Im back.
1. I could go on and on about the delay. It's a triple threat triad of writers block, family obligations and first full time job starting. I won't abandon any of my stories, but a consistent schedule is an impossibility now.
2. We've met my second Deputy Commander, Indra. I doubt many remembered Argo mentioning her. I was as careful as i could be in making her a stern commander without being genuinely mean.
3. Firebase Mons is part of my anwser to a recurring plot hole in Destiny, what the heck are all other guardians doing when the next big threat rears its ugly head. Admittedly some events like the Taken War excuse this problem, but most don't.
4. Next chapter will be our formal introduction to Merrick, as well the most iconic strike in Destiny history.
Leave a review, nothing motivates me to write more!