rekindledtitan | Excerpt 001: Enquiring Minds

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Excerpt 001: Enquiring Minds

TYPE: Patrol log

LOCATION: Ishtar Sink, Venus

PARTIES: Three [3]. One [1] Ghost-type, [1] Guardian-type, designate Blaze-37, Class Titan [

rekindledtitan ], One [1] Unconfirmed, designate Aran, Samus [

ASSOCIATIONS: Multiversal Nexus; Samus Aran; Chozo; Ishtar Sink; Hezen Protective; Pelsor; House of Winter; Drevis; Blaze-37; Ishtar Academy

They land in a clearing on the city outskirts with grass under their boots and a heavy overcast above. The breeze that greets them is hot and humid, a little acidic. Around them is a densely-grown treeline, with broad leaves that are near-luminescent shades of green. Their rustle is echoed by the distant wash of waves from beyond the ruins.

Blaze turns to scan the area, hopeful of opposition even though her Ghost already checked the site. The broken towers and city blocks are quiet within the overgrowth. But then it’s not the human ruins which really stand out. To the north a massive volcano takes up much of the sky, belching out a noxious plume of ash and gas. Small wonder that each shift in the breeze makes the scent of the air waver between sulfurous and salty. Over the hills to both south and east loom dark geometric structures. Look at them with anything other than the optical spectrum, and they emit some very peculiar readings.

“At last,” the Exo remarks, feeling a thrill that doesn’t break her readiness. Her head’s turned up to check the skyline as she speaks. Then she's moving for the buildings. “We’re in Guardian territory, more or less. Doesn’t stretch too far yet. Won’t take long to find some trouble.”

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Good hunting.

*Samus drops into her morph ball mode, the better to fade into the violence and work her way closer to the servitors unnoticed. When she can get close and catch one looking in her direction, though, she'll pop up and unload with the void fire--it's served her so well here, so far.*

Too bad for the nearest servitor, it's briefly very interested in the smaller sphere rolling its way. Under Samus' fire it flinches, too overwhelmed to fire back. By the time it musters a teleport to her right, there are cracks showing on its hardened shell. The other makes a sound as if it's speaking in a deep, heavily distorted voice and targets Samus for its own blasts.

If taking them down requires some dancing, at least she'll have room to work. The Fallen are tearing into the Vex lines, evading any attempt by robotic reinforcements to pin them down. With her Ghost's help, Blaze finds the officer now hammering the incoming Vex with a scorch cannon. She works her way close enough to crash down on them with the Fist of Havoc - and now she gets to shoot explosive balls of solar fire at everyone.

*Leaping and tumbling to keep a half-step ahead of enemy fire might well be Samus' natural habitat. She certainly takes to it now with alacrity. When she has time to notice the kind of luck Blaze is having, she chuckles over the comm line.*

Tell me you're keeping that.

*She wants to close with the cracked servitor again, if at all possible. She's watching it, trying to anticipate where it will teleport next and fake it out by being close to that spot when it does.*

//It'll burn out too fast. Nice though, isn't it?// Perfect for making everyone on the field pay attention to you. Although the late captain's comrades seem extremely upset with her anyway. Blaze plants one of the scorch bombs and bounces out of their way as they close on her. It's built up a good charge in the couple of seconds before she lets it detonate in their midst.

The servitor has a lot of space to teleport within. But it consistently jumps sideways from incoming fire, so firing on it when it's close to its twin makes it fairly easy to guess where it'll go next. Its gurgling voice takes on an urgent note when it finds itself facing the hunter, and it tries to float backward.

Not all their opponents are distracted by the larger brawl. Especially as the Vex reinforcements are slowing. There's a howling roar from atop one of the Vex structures, and a cloaked figure (in both senses) leaps down. Beneath the stealth tech it stands more than eight feet, bigger than any of the other Fallen so far. And it's coming for Samus with a grenade launcher.

You can't take it home and reload it later?

*Once she has a handle on its pattern, that damaged servitor will be falling fast. She'll have to think of something else for the other one, but it seems she has a new dance partner while she mulls it over. She turns to face the new enemy, hopping side to side to evade its grenades while she scans it for any vulnerabilities.*

I appreciate you keeping everyone occupied, by the way. Hope you're having fun?

//No-one's worked out how-// although she cuts off with a thoughtful sound. They do have some resources her fellow Guardians lack...

//You kidding? I live for this! How're your servitors?// Aside from the fact that one just went boom into a spray of scrap and energy-charged ether, soaking the air briefly.

The big officer teleports to the other servitor's side, acquiring a white glow of transferred ether in the process. What it loses in marking its position, the Wolf gains in enhanced physical resilience and strength: soaking in ether, it feeds as it fights. Both its muscular upper arms are taken up with the launcher, but that leaves two to grapple as needed. It has an energy shield around it that seems to be electrically-based. The most obvious weak point is its head, but presumably its skeletal structure is basically the same as the pint-sized dregs Samus scanned earlier.

Got one. I'm going to focus on this guy for a moment, though. Any advice, Ghost?

*Charging up a super missile, Samus aims it not at the Wolf, but at the ground between it and the servitor--the blast wave should, hopefully, knock it out of range of the energy feed and sever the link. Or hurt, she'd settle for hurting.*

//Most Fallen shields are Arc-based. If you have any electrically-based weapons, they'll knock it out quick.//

Not that the missile did it any good: the big officer's stealth field overloads and reveals it fully. But the Wolf beneath seems largely unscathed as it's sent skidding away from the servitor. Also angry. It growls something wrathful (and presumably deeply uncomplimentary) at her. For all its size, it's plenty agile: unless Samus keeps it separated, it can be back at the servitor's side in a swish of its tattered blue cape.

//With a big one I normally break a couple of arms first. You know, so they get in its way,// Blaze comments helpfully. //And I think we just ran out of Vex.//

I have just the thing.

*Samus' smile in her helmet is predatory and cruel, as her arm cannon shortens and widens, the seams glowing purple and brightening quickly as she charges it up.*

When all eyes are on me, take out that servitor. I can only keep this up for a little while, I want him to lose his support before I run out of power.

*As the Wolf is about to learn, stealth and agility mean very little to the electricity-based wavebuster. Her predatory laugh is similarly hard to evade.*

//Got it. Just don't stand too close to it.// She beats her way free of the nearest vandals, saving the last couple of scorch rounds as she maneuvers to get a clear shot.

The Wolf shows no fear at Samus' shift in weaponry - but under the lash of that beam, his taunting abruptly turns to a howl of pain. His shields don't even have a chance to flicker before they're stripped away. He staggers and tries to lunge aside, fur-trimmed armor blackening as inbuilt systems fight to stop him roasting inside it.

Blaze can't stop to admire the show, alas. She lands a boiling orb of solar energy under the servitor. She lets it detonate fast and succeeds in planting the second bomb right on the smooth black shell. A high whine builds as it charges, turning nearly white.

*Lunging is no help--Samus matches the Wolf, move for move, and the beam of the wavebuster bends and writhes to remain attached. If the Wolf is angling back toward the servitor, then Samus is angling away, circling to keep out of the blast radius of whatever Blaze is going to do. Which looks spectacular, by the way.*

Nice shot.

//Thanks. Think these rounds track a little.// That was her last one, so she holds it until the last second before letting go off. Afterwards, though it's webbed with glowing cracks, the servitor's still up. She drops the cannon and closes in, hitting it with a blast from her fusion rifle to finish it off. //Tough servitors. Must be important.//

The Wolf is on his knees when it shatters. But the machine's destruction brings his head up, four eyes burning blue beneath the bent wings of his helm. He roars in fury and pain, surging back to his feet through sheer willpower. He's weakened - he's failed - but he intends to rain explosives on them for this blow.

//His friends seem pretty mad at us... and I'm detecting a strange signature in the Vex network. Great.// Not that there are more than a handful of cloaked Fallen left, at this point.

It's their beachhead inside a Vex stronghold. That sounds important to me.

*As the Wolf forces itself to its feet, Samus stops the wavebuster, opting to conserve heavy weapon energy for the moment. Her enemy gets a moment's respite as she charges up a more mundane shot from the wave beam. She hopes, though doesn't expect, that the abrupt end of the wavebuster will throw him off balance long enough for her to stun him with the charged wave beam. It's nice to hope.*

We've cleaned up their houseguest problem, they're probably hoping to step in and roll over us while we're still tired from the fight. Thanks for the heads-up.

//...You're welcome. Incidentally, I'd just like to point out that we've been cleared to drop this section of the Citadel.//

The Wolf rocks as he's first released and then hit again. He powers through it, holding down the trigger on that launcher and throwing blast after blast at them- but he is on his feet through sheer willpower now, and it can only take him so far. His surviving crew rally to try and draw Samus' fire from him; even the last snipers have descended from their perches to get a clear shot. Blaze has her rifle lifted to meet them, since Samus has their boss on his last legs.

//Okay. Once I get you into these machines, pull any more data the Wolves left and get us set to drop.//

The Vex don't intend to let anyone recover, let alone hijack bits of their architecture again. Well past the servitors' former position, at the very end of the platform, the black mist forms once more. Did anyone want to see some Vex prototype weapons?

*Samus springs aside, leaping and tumbling to make herself a difficult target for the Wolf, firing back with rapid pulses from the wave beam. She knows by now that she can trust Blaze to cover her, and so angles her dodges to carry her closer to her foe--into grapple line range. She latches on to his weapon, looking to either pull it from his grasp or pull him off his feet and to her.*

*The black mist forming gets barely a glance, though, as she needs to focus on the battle at hand for another moment.*

You'd think they could thank us before killing us.

Edited 2015-10-20 00:58 (UTC)

//Guess gratitude wouldn't be efficient.// With targets appearing on both sides, Blaze works on taking down the Wolves before she has to keep the Vex busy. Although even as they start materializing, the machines don't move to advance, so they have a few more seconds of respite.

In the meantime, the Wolf Samus is dueling loses patience with this maddening and blasphemous foe. He spreads his clawed fists in challenge- and then her grapple line all but plucks the big launcher from his hand, leaving him momentarily off-balance in both senses.

*Samus is quick to take up the grenade launcher for herself, leveling it at her opponent and squeezing the trigger. She'll be quite amused if she can kill him with his own weapon.*

If efficiency trumps manners, then let's kill them quickly so they can appreciate it.

Instinct prompts the Wolf to teleport aside, sparing him the first few rounds- but that launcher was made for spamming, and she'll swiftly be able to catch and hammer him off his feet.

Blaze might be laughing at that. Or Samus' suggestion. Both! The remaining Fallen see the way the fight is going; still, it's only when their leader falls for the last time that they fall back, briefly at a loss: a few hunker down and teleport out there and then. Blaze abandons them and turns to charge the Vex.

As she does, a high tone resonates through the air, the toll of a strange bell. Something else appears behind the cohort of machines: a cube that shines with a blinding golden light, that bends space and time and reality with its gaze. And it's looking at them, Hunter and Guardian and Fallen alike.

The Ghost is briefly perplexed by the readings, and then cries out in terror: //The light behind the Vex! Destroy it now!//

They're thanking us in person, how nice.

*Samus has an arm-cannon and a borrowed... spam-bomber? It probably has a better name, but that's not what's important. Two guns: no waiting. She charges at the cube, unloading as much fire as she can send downrange on the way.*

//Even breaking out the good weapons!//

Spurred on by the Ghost's fear, Blaze throws a grenade ahead of their charge. It doesn't do much to the mystery cube, but it softens and blinds the Vex line, helping them punch through to their primary target. A big minotaur comes teleporting from the side to try and break their charge- and yet the damage is already done. The cube flares bright and disintegrates under the combined fire of two heavy guns and a couple of fusion blasts.

//Huh. Kinda anticlimactic. What was it?// The remaining Vex are no big deal, Blaze thinks. Even the Fallen, if they remain, have left off attacking.

The Ghost's panic is not receding. //Ontological weaponry! More are coming! You have to destroy them quickly or they'll write us out of existence!//

//...Oh.//

Ontological weaponry.

*Shards. When the Vex get riled up, they fight like Chozo. Samus launches a grapple at the nearest one--she needs to siphon off a recharge now. An overcharge, if she can get it.*

Blaze, Ghost, find a terminal. I'll pop cubes as they come, we need to drop this place as soon as we can.

//On it.// So. The circular gate structures around the edges of the platform look like they're wired up to more bits of Wolf tech. The Vex haven't even tried to use them. Plus it's the closest place to start. Blaze throws aside a goblin and hightails it to the nearest console. She can ignore the fire on her back until her Ghost's deployed, then turn to defend it.

The goblin Samus grabs doesn't have the all-you-can-drain option of a sniper model - one big gulp of energy and it's dead. There are three or four in range, but she'll only have seconds to work.

*She'll take what she can from the one she's got, and siphon another, shooting the rest to clear some space. While she'd like to find someone with that deeper, unhindered connection, she realizes the Vex have probably accounted for that trick of hers by now, and her attention needs to be focused on shooting down the ontological weapons before they can fire. At least a lack of snipers means they don't need to worry about that particular type of enemy support fire.*

More Vex are spawning all around them, but even before the guards appear two tones ring out in quick succession. The oracle lights appear on either side of the platform, one almost hidden by the broken metal and stone around it.

While she's got some breathing space, Blaze leaves her rifle aside and pulls the loaded rocket launcher from her back. Regular Vex can wait; they're the least of the threats here. So long as Samus doesn't cross her line of fire, she can probably take out the more visible of the two oracles. Or the guard Vex teleporting in around it, either would be worth the ammunition now.

//This connection will work! Give me a few more minutes: I can get this!//

*With Blaze going after one of the cubes, Samus leaps for the other. The jets that help her to jump also turn her leap into a flying somersault, her suit's shields catching the jets' waste plasma as they did before, molding it into a protective, destructive shield around her. The oracle will have the honor of being the first Vex to have a taste of her famous screw attack.*

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