Chapter Text
Astra looked down at the piece of paper in her hands one more time before glancing up to make sure she had not mistaken the address. Before her was a small, prefabricated hut with no discernable features, other than its lack of windows. Judging by the shine of the walls, this building was a recent addition to the reclaimed land in the EDZ.
She could hardly believe that this was the meeting point of Suraya’s latest secret project.
She could scarcely believe she even came here at all.
A part of her still wished that it was all some kind of convoluted prank by her brothers, though how they got this hut here - or convinced Hawthorne to play along - was beyond her. The anticipation only grew when the number pad by the door accepted the six-digit code she had been given, disabling the door’s magnetic locks with a series of clicks.
Glancing over her shoulder one last time at the dirt path that led back to The Farm, Astra put one hand to the door handle and pushed it open as she walked in.
Her eyes widened in alarm before she was even completely past the threshold. Though her sight was still adjusting to the lower light, it was still clear enough to see the unmistakable forms of Fallen, skulking about the hut and seemingly unperturbed by her presence.
Acting purely on instinct, one hand went to her holstered sidearm as Astra drew on the closest Fallen she saw - her back to the doorway the whole time. Her mouth opened to shout some kind of warning, but was startled silent when a hand reached out from a blindspot to the right of the hut and grabbed her wrist.
Astra’s index finger reflexively squeezed off a shot just as the hand on her wrist lurched her arm up and away from the startled Vandal, the round leaving a small mark in the roof as a light dusting of debris rained down on her head.
“It would be wise for you to drop that gun.” a smooth, cold voice demanded as a second hand shot out to clamp down on the gun’s grip, preventing Astra from firing again. The grip on Astra’s wrist tightened like an iron vice as a thumb dug into a soft spot that made pain flash across Astra’s vision.
To her credit, the Human still kept a firm grip on her weapon as she glanced at her attacker. An Awoken woman with magenta hair in baggy, colourful robes stood by the edge of the shadow of the hut - likely how she went unnoticed when Astra walked in. The hand that gripped hers looked almost too small and thin to be holding her as hard as she did.
Still struggling for dominance over the weapon, Astra attempted to break the stalemate by striking out at the Awoken with her steel-tipped boot. Aiming for the Awoken’s pelvis, Astra let out a startled yelp as the Awoken dodged the strike and threw her to the ground in one swift motion.
Astra felt her breath leave her as soon as her back hit the steel floor. The first thing she noticed immediately after was that her gun was no longer in her hand. Glancing back up at the magenta-haired woman, she watched as the Awoken deftly removed the sidearm’s magazine and ejected the shot in the chamber with a swipe of her hand.
She had no time to feel angry, however, as Astra quickly noticed the Fallen creeping towards her from all sides. Her pulse beat like a drum in her ears as she scrambled to get some kind of footing or put more distance between her and the aliens, but everywhere she looked there was a Fallen waiting to flank her.
Just as the Human was certain one of them was going to pounce and begin gnawing her arm off, a metallic voice thundered in the small enclosure. “That’s enough!” Immediately, all the Fallen around her froze, turning their collective heads in the direction of the voice.
At the far end of the hut, standing behind a long table - with a Cabal Legionary to one side and Suraya Hawthorne on the other - was an Exo with a body painted in a black and purple pattern. He wore what looked to be battle armour emblazoned with the familiar orange and white insignia of the Vanguard.
“Tussles’ over. Everyone back to your station.” he ordered as the Fallen dispersed, reluctantly skulking back to various pieces of equipment along the edges of the hut. Moving around the metal table, the Exo walked over to where Astra still laid on the ground. He stopped before her, staring intently with his orange eyes before holding out one hand to his side. “Danis, the gun?”
With a sigh, the Awoken woman reluctantly placed the sidearm in the Exo’s outstretched hand. “I was attempting to defuse the situation. Pheris would be leaking Ether from a new hole in his head if I hadn’t.”
Astra took the unloaded weapon from the Exo’s offering hand but scrambled back to her feet as he held out a hand to help her. “Whoa, take it easy. Give me a moment to-”
“What the hell is going on here?!” Astra exclaimed in a high-pitched squeak. “Who are you people? What are they doing here?” she asked, gesturing animatedly at the nearby Fallen, who hissed and chittered back at her irately.
“The Fallen are here to help us map out our journey. And they mean you no harm.” the Exo continued to explain.
“And you expect me to actually buy that? After all they’ve done to us?”
“These Fallen are from a reformed House that has aided the Guardians many times in recent months. They’re looking to gain our trust and secure an alliance.”
“ They can’t be trusted. The moment our guard’s down they’re going to stab us in the back, strip us of our valuables and chew on our guts until we’re nothing but bone.” Astra protested.
“As if I...would be wanting...to eat you,” a raspy hiss drew Astra’s attention to the Fallen she had nearly shot. “You...skinny...meat no flavour. Prefer...goose.”
Astra gawked at the Fallen as he stepped in a circle around her, moving to stand by the Exo’s side. “You speak?!”
“And understand...Not appreciate your insults...or that you be shooting...me.” The Fallen snarled to accentuate his words.
“Yeah? Well I don’t appreciate you being so close to my home.” Astra snapped back.
“Precisely why I didn’t want to tell you about the odd...additions to this mission,” Hawthorne added as she approached the gathering, with the Cabal in tow behind her. “You make a good marshal, Astra, but I didn’t want you leaking word about what’s going on out here for this exact reason.”
“Well a little head’s up would’ve been nice.” Astra felt the breath leave her throat as she stared up at the Cabal, realising she had never been this close to a live Legionary before.
Most of the times someone did, they didn’t survive to talk about it.
“Care to finally fill me in on what the deal is with...any of this - any of you , for that matter?” Astra asked, feeling like she was on the verge of hysteria.
“It’s probably best if we talk by the table. Carve even prepared a handy presentation in case you freaked out.” Hawthorne gestured to the table as she stepped out of way to make room for Astra to pass first.
Astra reluctantly approached the table at the far end of the room, stopping as she passed by the Legionary to stare at it with a look of contempt. “What?” the Cabal growled out, causing Astra to flinch before resuming her walk at a quicker pace.
“You better have a good explanation for why that thing is here - along with all of... them .” Astra demanded as she rounded the table.
“ He has a name, and it’s Duol,” The Awoken woman piqued up as she stopped on the opposite side of the table to Astra. “And you’d best show him some decorum, he’s on our side.”
“ Our side ?” Astra yelled incredulously. “His people blew up my home and massacred my friends. No way in bloody hell am I going to be on any side he’s on.”
The Legionary let out a barking grunt, taking a step closer to the table only to be stopped by a hand to his side from the Awoken woman. “His people, maybe, but not him. He’s defected - didn’t partake in the invasion of The Last City at all. He’s not even a member of the Red Legion.”
“Blind Legion, Martian detachment from years before,” Duol stated in a booming voice. “My legion was broken long ago. If I returned to the empire, it would be in shame and to face a dishonourable execution. I have spent many years since then, drudging through exile as I searched for a new purpose.”
“Then why are you wearing Red Legion armour?” Astra shot back.
Duol glanced down at his black and red cuirass and bracers. “Times are hard. Sometimes salvaging off your own dead gives you better chances of survival. Besides, Legion-forged armour makes better protection than rusted plates.”
“And how can I believe anything you tell me?”
“I am one footsoldier. My word is my own, but there is no grand army to my flank. I act alone. The Red Legion never acts alone.” Duol replied resolutely.
“You’ve already met Danis Roev, our resident Gensym Scribe,” the Exo - Carve - introduced. “I am called Carve-4, Vanguard Outpost Settlement and Logistics Officer. And you know Hawthrone.”
“Seeing as she’s the one that referred me to this circus…” the sharp look from Hawthorne told her that it would be in her best interest to drop that line of thought. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you’re the one in charge?”
“Both the Vanguard and Hawthorne have appointed me as leader of this expedition, so from a technical standpoint…” he shrugged his shoulders. “But I won’t be leading alone.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s probably best if we start from the beginning - again,” he turned to look at the settlement leader. “Hawthorne? You know what she knows, bring her up to speed for us?”
“That presentation of yours might come in handy after all,” Hawthorne muttered as she put both hands to the surface of the table, which began to change colour to a reflective black after a few seconds. “Alright, I’ll keep this simple - partly because I can’t bother remembering the whole story. Ever since that red tower showed up on the moon, the Guardians have been getting antsy. They believe that some...thing, is coming. They’re not entirely sure what it is yet, but the Vanguard is pretty sure about two things: it’s somewhere out in the space beyond the system, heading our way faster than we’d like in larger numbers than any of us would be comfortable with.”
“What’s the second thing?”
“These...entities, caused The Collapse.”
The implications of what Hawthorne was telling her fell over her mind like a tidal wave of fear. “That enemy of the Traveller the Speaker was always going on about? They’re real ?!”
“Afraid so,” Carve-4 added. Placing one hand to the table, a white line trailed across the black surface towards Astra, where an image appeared before her. “Guardian strike teams responsible for pushing back the Hive found this at the centre of their resurgence, buried beneath the Lunar surface. It’s make is unlike anything we’ve seen before, but several Guardians have claimed to have seen it in visions.”
“It’s just been...waiting there this whole time?” Astra asked incredulously. “Why? What was it doing? Why hasn’t anyone made mention of this before?”
“There’s still a lot of questions we don’t have answers for, but from what we can gather this seems like just the beginning.”
“One of these ships alone is enough to manifest Darkness across your entire moon,” Danis commented, having stayed silent until now. “Even a trace of that Darkness was enough to throw my homeland into chaos. If the prophecies your Guardians have foreseen come to pass, there’s going to be a lot more of these things all over the system, and only so few of us.”
“But, the Guardians-”
“Aren’t going to be enough,” Hawthorne interrupted. “The City sustained too many losses during the Red War, and the Guardian ranks are more scattered than the Vanguard wants the public to believe. Between Gambit, the moon, that whole debacle with the Tangled Shore and Dreaming City, it’s hard to imagine the Guardians of Earth banding together to fight a common enemy - at least without fighting each other at the same time.”
“...So where does that leave us?”
“If half of the Consensus is to be believed, on the brink of another war. One we are vastly underprepared to fight.” Carve responded solemnly.
“Unfortunately for them, I’ve got no time for doomsayers or pointless board meetings, so I went ahead and found a few ways to improve our odds when this apocalypse comes rolling our way,” Hawthorne followed-up, making a sweeping gesture at everyone at the table. “That’s where you come in.”
Glancing about at the various faces around the table, Astra grew increasingly disconcerted. “You’re joking, right? You’re going to place the survival of Humanity on us ?”
“Not on you alone. See, we’ve got assets and allies all over the system that either have no idea what’s coming our way, or aren’t being put to proper use,” a map of the solar system materialised on the table along with several images of objects both familiar and new to Astra. “Inactive Warmind installations, derelict, intact ships that drifted to the Kuiper Belt, unpaired Ghosts that ventured to the edges of the system on long-range reconnaissance missions - all valuable resources we could use to bolster our defences.”
“The Queen has also long been hiding valuable resource and weapon caches throughout the system, stockpiling fortifiable positions for a threat we were only made prvy of recently,” Danis added. “I know of a few of these locations - ones I’m sure the Queen wouldn’t miss if they were...plundered.”
“I thought the Awoken were fiercely loyal to Queen Sov,” Astra asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Isn’t telling us this kinda like treason?”
“Being here at all is tantamount to treason - at least as far as our Regent is concerned,” Danis corrected. “But, some of us have grown...doubtful of the Queen’s ultimate plan, knowing now how much she’s willing to give so that she may keep her throne by the end of this,” The white-knuckled grip the Scribe had on the table’s edge did not go unnoticed, but Astra didn’t mention it. “If saving my people means helping your kind to fight our shared foe, then it is a deal I will gladly make - tenfold.”
Her gaze flitted to the Cabal, and then the Fallen crew working in the background. “And what about them? What’s their stake in this?” Astra asked, making a dismissive gesture with a tilt of her chin.
“They’re in just as much danger as us,” Carve replied, gesturing to Duol with one hand. “This enemy we face, it doesn’t play favourites. All must either submit to it, or die.”
“My people might be willing to fight to their last or swear loyalty to a new god, but not me,” Duol explained, resting both hands on the table and causing it to tilt on his side. “I’m a survivor, and so are most of The Deserters. If we could, we’d do away with war entirely. For now, we’re just going to have to settle for the side that’s reluctant to wage it.”
“You’re Cabal - all you know is war,” Astra spat back, turning first to Carve then Hawthorne. “You can’t seriously be buying into this? They’ve been trying to wipe us out for hundreds of years, and now we’re just supposed to trust them? Why, because they suddenly want peace? Because they know they can’t win? You’re holding the door open for the wooden horse!”
“Astra, these Fallen and Duol’s deserters are being hunted by their own people - have been for about a year. They’ve been on a run for going against the chain of command and defying orders to engage City forces. Trust aside, we’ve got a common enemy and - like it or not - we need all the help we can get.” Hawthorne reasoned, matching the young woman’s fury with her own steel determination.
Eventually, Astra relented. “I still think this is a bad idea.”
“I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t thought it through.”
“Alright then,” she nodded. “Where do I come in, then?”
“Everyone you see here is going to be part of the crew for the odyssey-”
“Plus, one more Fallen. The crew are still deliberating who to send.” Danis interjected before Hawthorne could continue further.
“We have a ship souped-up and ready to lead a voyage to the edges of this system to recruit, reactivate or recover any allies or defences we can find, starting with the old Warmind installations. It won’t be easy and we’ll be dealing with a lot of unknowns heading out, so this is going to be a joint-operation between the Vanguard, The Farm, emissaries from the Reefborn Awoken, our allied Fallen House and a few reps from The Deserters.”
“It might just be the most ambitious project we’ve ever undertaken. With any luck, this could be the start of a new, powerful alliance built on the shared interest of preserving this system,” Carve continued, looking down with a solemn expression as he continued. “And hopefully start to mend a few old wounds.”
Astra began to understand where this was going as she nodded. “So you want me to take over your leadership position at The Farm while you’re searching the edge of known space for dusty old space relics. I don’t get why you couldn’t have just paged me, but alright.”
“Oh, I’m not the one joining the odyssey,” Hawthorne shook her head with a chuckle. “You are.”