I never saw it coming
A blind left turn, a sucker punch
And she said, "Stay down."
I nodded like I understood
But then got up and started running
Right into the fight, not from it
I can't stay down, this fight is all I know
These scars are all I have to show
Holding Patterns – Rise Against
A Few Hour After Midnight, January 13, 2722; Western Approach, near the Last City, Earth
"Okay," Tallulah said. "Favorite movie."
Azra grabbed a protruding stone and dug her heels into the ground. It halted her slide, sending a collection of rocks tumbling down the scree slope in her stead. "Planet Earth," she answered easily.
Tallulah's movements higher on the slope showered Azra with pebbles. "The documentary?" the other Hunter asked skeptically. "Documentaries don't count."
Azra scrutinized the potential paths before her. The angle of the slope wasn't too steep, but the ground was unstable. If Azra didn't want to slide all the way to the forested pass beneath them (and into the teeth of whatever was hiding there), she needed to pick her holds carefully.
She gathered Light in her legs and pushed off, aiming for a rock ridge about twenty-five meters away. She overestimated the distance at first, almost overshooting, but used the Light to kill her momentum at the last second. She landed on the stone no harder than taking the last step down a flight of stairs. "Okay then, hear me out," she said. "Pacific Rim."
"Pacific Rim?"
"Have you not heard of it? It's pre-Golden Age."
It was an odd conversation to be having, given the circumstances. Besides the fact that they were in an active war zone, Azra was a time traveler. She was here from the future. Most Guardians in Tallulah's position wouldn't be able to keep from prying (especially after Azra had demonstrated her terrible poker face)- but Tallulah wasn't even trying to dig. There were a million questions she should be asking.
Okay, she was asking questions, but they seemed more banal conversation starters than any attempt to gain insight on future events. Tallulah kept the stream going strong as they picked their way over the high mountain saddle. What was Azra's favorite river? (The Soča, at least on Earth). What was the last meal she ate? (Ramen, last night. The ration bars this morning didn't count). If she were a tree, what kind of tree would she be? (A Tamarack). Sidearms or Hand Cannons? (Sidearms. Duh.) It was… nice. To be able to talk about small things, like coffee preferences and gun models, instead of all the giant things looming over Azra's head like so many storm clouds.
And now on to favorite movies. Tallulah was proving herself to be quite a media critic. "I've seen Pacific Rim," the Hunter said, "It's just a long way off from Planet Earth. I'd expect you to go for some colorful animated thing."
"It's got giant robots fighting giant monsters. And camaraderie. And explosions. What more could you want?"
Tallulah snorted at that. "Of course. I forgot I was talking to a Guardian." She grunted as clambered over a scraggly tree, taking time to untangle her cloak from its branches.
It was also weird to not be sprinting about- Azra had to keep reminding herself this was a battle, not a skirmish. There were too many enemies to be moving recklessly here, and Guardian endurance would only keep up so long. Slow and steady was the pace they'd have to keep, even if it made Azra's skin itch. It was hard to stay in the present moment when somewhere, at that moment, people were fighting and dying for the City.
"Hold up," Spark interjected. "I think I have something?"
Azra and Tallulah both froze. The comms frequencies had been silent since the net had gone down. If they were reading someone, they had to be within ping range. With the mountains blocking signals, that would be close.
There was something in the audio feed. It sounded like plain interference, but as Spark tweaked the radio frequency and compressed the audio, a voice emerged from the static. It was too fragmented to work out a complete sentence, but Azra caught "party" and "Wolves" and "mayday".
"I can't triangulate an exact location," Spark reported, "but they're west of us. Probably further up the pass."
Tallulah dropped onto the stone ridge next to Azra. "Is Saint-14 there?"
"I don't know," Spark said. "That's not his voice, but it sounds like there are more Guardians there."
Azra slid on her helmet and double-checked her sidearm.
"Hold on, we're going?" Tallulah asked. "You could get yourself hurt. You're not armored for heavy combat. Or if we get distracted, we might miss Saint."
"Or maybe this will help us find him," Azra countered.
Tallulah didn't look happy at that. "Do you know?" She asked. "Listen, I'm trying to not spoil things, I'm really not, but if you know he's there then you don't have to pretend."
"I don't know," Azra said. "If I had any idea where Saint is, we'd be making a beeline. But I have no clue, and we could speculate 'till the sun comes up and be no surer than we are now."
"Then what do we do?" Tallulah asked. "This could ruin everything. You could die. I could die. Or we could end up pointed in the wrong direction."
Andal picks up his rocket launcher. "We'll talk strategy on the way over. No time for subtlety on this one- we take a Jumpship, get in there fast, get out fast."
"I'll drive," Shiro offers, already holding a hand out for his Ghost.
Azra stands, stretching the last of the sleep-stiffness from her muscles. It's kind of funny, she thinks to herself. It's not even aquestionthat they're going to go throw themselves at a Fallen army. Someone needs help so they're going, just like that. Not even a second was taken to weigh odds and rewards. The ping goes out and they're all hauling their butts up at two thirty am, skipping breakfast and throwing on armor so hasty half of Cayde's buckles are still unfastened.
"Or maybe he is there," Azra said. "Or they know where he's supposed to be. We can't know. But if I let 'what ifs' keep me from acting, I'd never move." She settled her weapons. "And all things even, I'm not going to ignore a distress call because I'm afraid of getting hurt. Are you coming?"
04:24, January 13, 2722; Serena Pass, Western Approach to the Last City, Earth
The distress call wasn't far away at all. The two Guardians elected to keep their height advantage, picking lengthwise across the slope rather than descending to the pass floor and bullying their way through whatever Fallen were stationed there. The comms signal slowly cleared up as they progressed, then they came around a shoulder in the mountain and the strength suddenly jumped to full.
Tallulah hunkered down behind a boulder. There would be no use in charging in until they had a lay of the land. Azra Jax obligingly took a position next to her, peering down into the pass through the scope of a long rifle. "We're practically on top of them," the time traveler reported gravely.
One would have thought there would be more warning, but signal could be weird in the mountains. "Shandi, can you establish a comms link?" Tallulah asked. Her Ghost beeped in acknowledgement and-
"That's the fucking Kell of Wolves!" Azra hissed. "What the fuck?"
"That's Pirrchaks?" Tallulah asked. She carefully peeked around the boulder and- yes, in the clearing below them, there was a Kell-sized figure in navy regalia. "How do you know? You recognize them?" There were scattered Guardians in the clearing, too, fighting the Fallen hand-to-hand.
"They're being called Pirrchakskel on the Fallen comms," Azra said.
Huh. So Azra could both access Fallen comms and understand Fallen language. Tallulah tucked away that tidbit for later. The time traveler seemed to have recovered from her brief bout of shock and had pulled out a tube-fed grenade launcher.
"I don't know if I like you having access to high explosives," Tallulah joked.
"Who are you, my mom?" Azra said. "I can distract the Kell for a few minutes, if you can rally the Guardians."
It would have been a good plan, if the numerical odds were better. Tallulah did a quick headcount of the Guardians below. "They're outnumbered at least fifty to one. You're gonna be under a lot of fire."
"That's only forty to one with us," Azra pointed out cheekily. "If you're worried about crowd control, get everyone together to provide covering fire before the shock wears off." She slung the grenade launcher on her lower back, gave the long gun to her Ghost to store, and flexed her hands. The shield-thing on her back shone with its odd fluttering light. "If we can kill the Kell, the rest will scatter. We could break the Wolves' offensive."
That's likely why the team down in the pass hadn't retreated when they should have. The opportunity was just too good. "There's nothing I can do to keep you from charging right in, is there?" Tallulah asked.
"You could always try to drug me and carry my unconscious body around," Azra offered unhelpfully.
"You're giving me a lot of cheek, considering I'm your only ally right now."
"I thought you wanted to see my cheeks," Azra said. "Shame time travel doesn't need you to be naked." She still hadn't moved from her crouch. "I'm going to head a bit further and get directly on top of them," she said. "Don't wait for me."
But she still hadn't left. She shifted her position, tugged at her armguards, straightened her cloak, almost like a fidget-
Oh. Azra was one of those people that started mouthing off when they got nervous. She was waiting for permission. "Go," Tallulah said. "I'll try to find some cover down there for you to get to when things go south."
Tallulah was still twenty meters from the closest Guardian when Azra leapt clear off the mountainside and practically Thundercrashed down onto the Kell. The impact caused a boom and a shockwave that rattled Tallulah's knees.
"That's an Arc Staff," Tallulah's Ghost noted. There was only a second to be surprised by it- Azra reversed her grip and swept upward in a vicious uppercut, catching the Kell behind its leg and sending the giant Fallen sprawling.
Tallulah didn't have any more time to watch the show. Many of the Fallen were distracted by Azra's assault, but just as many were not. "Cover!" Tallulah shouted on the common frequency.
The Guardians were just as confused by the sudden entrance as the Fallen were. Tallulah sized up the battlefield as she ducked and weaved through the Wire Rifle fire. There was no safety to be had in the clearing, but there was an embankment on the north side that could provide security, with a little work.
There was also a conveniently-placed tree, a large pine of some sort. If it fell in the right direction, it and the slope would form a nice little bunker. Tallulah summoned her Golden Gun and fired a few test shots at its base.
"What are you doing?" someone asked on the comms. "Who are you people?"
"We can't hold this without a secure position," Tallulah said. "Help me get this tree down. Save the talking for later."
The distinctive bell-tone of a Hammer of Sol rang out in response. The weapon sailed through the air in a perfect arc and collided with the base of the tree. Tallulah's Golden Gun had done little more than take chunks out of the bark, but the heavier Light-construct splintered the wood easily. The Titan (who'd come up a few yards behind Tallulah) summoned their Hammer again and let it fly. In no time at all the tree was creaking. Tallulah aimed a few more carful shots at a weak point, and then there was a groan and a cacophony of snaps as the pine toppled over.
"We have cover, now get to it!" Tallulah commanded.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight, and she turned to watch a wave of Arc rip across the battlefield. It cut a narrow line between two Titans and smacked squarely into an errant Servitor, stunning it. Tallulah traced its path backwards and found, no, it wasn't a stray shot. Azra was facing towards them, her back to the Kell (who was on the ground, flailing to right themself). Evidently the Kell wasn't giving her too hard of a time, if she was finding free moments to help with add clear.
The other Guardians wasted no time in getting to cover, for which Tallulah was grateful. She was forced to physically dive into the ditch as Wire Rifle fire struck up plumes of dust from the ground near her feet. It didn't take her long to sort herself- stowing the Hand Cannon and loading the Sniper Rifle Shandiin provided her.
"Priority target is the snipers," Tallulah called, "then focus on the Kell!" A grumble and an earth-shaking boom of purple light against the embankment changed her mind. "Scratch that. Servitors, then snipers, THEN the Kell." She took a few shots at one of the Servitors herself, but had to duck back when the Fallen directed their fire at her.
"You, Striker!" She elbowed the Titan next to her. "Sally out. Help our Arcstrider keep the pressure off."
The Titan gave a mute nod and vaulted back over the tree trunk battlement. Tallulah reloaded her rifle, absentmindedly noting the crackle-snap of their Fists of Havoc. The other Guardians brought their weapons to bear, finally laying out effective suppressing fire.
Tallulah heaved a relieved sigh, rolled her shoulders, and then took position again.
Azra was having the time of her fucking life.
She shouldn't be. This was serious. This was a major Fallen offensive. It was Dark. She was facing off one of the most powerful Fallen currently alive, and she had only light armor on. She couldn't afford even a glancing blow.
But she was showing up the Kell of Wolves. The fight was all reflex and muscle memory, a dance on the razor's edge. She couldn't afford to take a hit but she didn't. She was in the zone- her muscles warm, her heart pounding, her senses on fire as she ducked and weaved. The Aegis on her back limited her flexibility somewhat, but she was so fast it didn't even matter.
This had always been where she felt most alive, laughing in the face of death, making magic with speed and skill and footwork. The Kell took hit after hit and never managed to touch her. Azra threw out a few taunts in Eliksni and Pirrchaks lost it, spitting in rage- and that just made it easier, the Fallen fighting sloppy and thoughtless, staying in melee instead of doing the smart thing and getting some range. It must have been a funny sight to the rest of the Guardians: a giant Kell running around, arms outstretched, chasing the Hunter like a City toddler trying to catch an unruly chicken. Azra even had time, between all her dodging and jabbing, to smack around a few of the Servitors for good measure.
She was actually disappointed when Tallulah keyed into the private comms channel and ordered her to fall back. Even though she wasn't supposed to be, she was having fun.
She knew not to push it, though. She slipped through the Kell's grasp one last time, performed a rude Eliksni gesture, then bolted for the rest of the Guardians, who'd set up off to the side of the clearing behind a downed tree.
She did not get away unscathed. A few meters from the position, a stray shot caught her in the calf. She hit the ground, stunned, the wind knocked out of her. Her leg hurt in that cold, detached way adrenaline made, and Azra wasted precious moments trying and failing to stand before realizing it wouldn't support weight. Frantically, she started dragging herself towards the barricade. A few Titans reached out and hauled her over, even as stray shots peppered the dirt and wood around them. Azra flopped gracelessly into the ditch and the Titans turned back to their positions with their long guns.
"You're batshit insane," Tallulah commented dryly.
Azra pushed herself into a kneeling position, taking stock of her aches. "I only got shot once," she signed in defense. (Even in the heat of battle, she wasn't sloppy enough to speak out loud).
You've been it four times, Spark corrected mentally. It would be more if you didn't have a shield strapped to your back. Spark quickly removed metal shards from a long-distance Shrapnel Launcher shot and got to work repairing the damage to her body and armor.
It wasn't to be. Azra heard the sound of heavy footfalls, and then one of the Titans, panicked, shouted "Incoming!"
The Kell was rushing their position, screaming in rage. Everybody freaked. The Titans started firing wildly, losing all discipline, and one of the Warlocks was frantically swearing in what sounded like Old German. Tallulah pulled her gun and got her feet under her, ready to dodge free.
Azra stood, brushing off the pain. Spark hadn't even gotten to her leg yet- but with the Void in her bones, she could make it work. All fire was focused on Pirrchaks now, but they were berserk, spitting half-liquid Ether from their cracked face mask.
Time seemed to slow. Pirrchaks was battle-mad and pissed- pissed at Azra. Azra, morbidly, took a second to philosophize on the intelligence of drawing the boss's aggression and then running back to the only entrenched position. There was no time to run- and even if there had been, her leg was hurt. Azra looked death in the eyes, breathed deep, drew, and loosed.
The Kell staggered when the Void shot hit them, stopped in their tracks a dozen meters away. Pirrchaks bent over double, their enraged screaming replaced with a deathly wheeze.
Azra wheezed herself and half-fell, half-sat back down. That had been a bit much. Let me heal you up before you stand again, Spark chastised. You made your leg worse.
Doesn't matter, Azra thought giddily. Kell's dead.
The other Guardians were crowing in victory. Azra heard a Hammer of Sol ring out, Tallulah's Golden Gun, the thoonk thoonk thoonk of someone unloading with a heavy Grenade Launcher-
Then, silence. Spark finished healing Azra as the other Guardians collectively paused, reloading their weapons and peering at the Fallen corpse, searching for movement.
"We did it," Tallulah said, sounding stunned. "We killed the fucking Kell of Wolves."
Azra, behind her helmet, grinned.