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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The hydra's caught between targets: the lurking assassin, the Hunter knocking on its shell, the Guardian speculatively pointing a rocket launcher its way - it prioritizes, and sweeps its fire after Samus while it floats in Blaze's direction.

//It's coming our way...//

//Yeah. Don't worry.// Samus drawing the fire gives her a chance to concentrate, chance tactics. The next grenade she tosses out is a ball of blue light; landed squarely between her and the hydra, it throws out pulsed waves of electrical energy in a broad ring around it. The big Vex squeals and halts, refusing to cross it.

Once more the chimes ring out, two- three? That's three, overlapping. One back among the hydra's cronies, one in the earlier half-hidden spot, and one up high, on the opposite side this time. Spotting that one, Blaze doesn't hesitate to throw her last rocket at it. The hydra's in her way anyhow.

*The chimes elicit a sigh. She can see Blaze firing on one of the cubes, and another is behind the hydra. She goes for the third, pouring void-fire generously in its direction. She's going to have to hope that the cloaked wolf goes after the third, or at least occupies it long enough for her to get there. As it is, she's scrambling to get a good angle on the cube she's fighting, and to stay a step ahead of the hydra's shots.*

How're you two holding up? Ghost, much longer?

//Almost- there!// The air changes, the wind picking up with a rush as this part of the Citadel is forced into a normal relationship with the space around it. Samus' oracle shatters- then Blaze's- a Fallen rifle plucks the air as round after round finds its mark in the last, but it's dying slow. //I've isolated as much as I can. I'm setting us up to fall! Don't let that oracle activate!//

The Wolf might need some help on that though - the hydra's turned to blast the would-be sniper. Blaze checks the odds, grunts, and heads for the last oracle. //Lock us for transmat and let's do this!//

Blaze--I'll clear the way, you kill the cube.

*So saying, she sprints for the hydra, glowing with the waste plasma of her speed boost. She doubts she'll get up enough speed to go straight through the hydra, but knocking it off-balance and pushing it aside will be enough for now. Piling on all the speed she can muster, she plows into the Vex mech shoulder-first.*

The hydra recoils under the impact; a second later Blaze tears through her comrade's wake. While the biggest Vex tries to trap Samus in its shield and retaliate, the Guardian boosts over its lesser kin and hits the oracle with all the Light she's got mustered.

The moment it breaks, the Vex waver in their fire, reassessing the situation. The Wolf, unheeded, scrambles from cover and dives for the biggest remnant of servitor it can see. Then there's a lurch as the anti-gravity suspension starts to fail, and the Vex decide. Time to disappear.

//Hold on, I'm getting us out!//

*Samus grits her teeth, weathering the hydra's retaliation while it lasts. Ghost's call to hold on gets a chuckle.*

Hold on to what?

*All the same, she'll let go of the hydra and fire a grapple line at Blaze. Wherever they go, they'll go together.*

//Whatever you want to keep!//

The grapple latches onto Blaze just before she stumbles on the tilting floor. The wind is roaring and buffeting them now. It's nearly drowned out by the groan of straining metal as chunks of Citadel start to tumble around them - not least the one they're standing on. She feels the impact on her shoulder and turns to find Samus, feet sliding under her-

The transmat takes hold then, snatching them away from the falling peak and the acidic Venusian air. The Ghost takes the simplest option and dumps both its charges onto the floor of the jumpship, still connected by the grapple line. It tries not to drop them right on top of each other, but there's barely enough space for two people in there. Blaze goes from staring at the Ishtar basin thousands of feet below to faceplanting on the metal deck two inches away.

*Samus doesn't land any more gracefully, but rolls quickly to her feet in search of a window, or a feed of the fall.*

Is everyone here? Everyone okay? And can we see it happen? Ghost, tell me you made it with us.

"Right here." He who controls the transmat gets the front seat. The Ghost hovers over the controls, projecting blue light as it interfaces with them. The little ship is already diving in response. "I'm taking us down for a look."

"All right." Blaze leans against the wall, reaching up for a handhold as she peers through the forward window. "Let's see how the Vex like that parting gift."

Even from this height, the dark mass of the Citadel is visible ahead. So is the wall of cloud rippling out from one end, where the falling sections are punching through. For a moment there's a low rumble through the hull, like a premonition. They drop beneath the cloud cover just before the first of the sections crashes down into a region of overgrown Vex structures, vanishing in a spray of stone and dust and electric haze. The others are close behind.

Up in the ship, they get a few seconds to admire the landscape resculpting before the first thunderous shockwave rattles their hull.

*Samus is recording the view with her helmet, and grinning fiercely beneath it.*

I think they might've felt that one.

Blaze lets out an impressed sound as the largest section plows into the ruins below, breaking apart as it does. Watching that black monstrosity wounded, turned back on itself... she can almost hear the Vex collective keening.

"That's beautiful," she says happily. The Ghost's bringing them around in a circle to stay clear of the the debris, but switches feeds to the lateral port sensors so they can keep watching.

It is. This'll make quite a story, when you get home.

*Samus is content to watch the destruction until the last thing that's going to fall has done so and the dust has cleared enough for her to admire the subsequent cratering.*

The next time we go after Vex, we should transmit this first, and give them the leave-or-surrender offer again.

Oh, isn't that a nice thought? Blaze perks a little. "No kidding. It's a great start."

The wreckage makes for some very peculiar terrain down there, tangled and embedded with caved-in bits of jungle and other ruins. Could make an interesting arena for Guardians to play in - Blaze makes a note to come and find out, if no-one claims it.

At Samus' latter remark, she laughs. "You think they'll need reminding who you are? Those oracles never got to work. Wonder if the Vex can remember what they erase."

//The Fallen comms are swamped with messages. ...Actually, ours aren't much different.//

How well can they tell one of your people from another? Can they tell I'm not a Guardian? Make them wonder, every time some of your people pay them a visit, whether staying to fight means another costly loss like this one. Teach them to fear, and teach them to doubt.

*Leave it to Samus to deploy psychological warfare against the inscrutable thoughts of an alien mind. She glances to Ghost.*

Good news, I hope?

"Pretty sure they can detect you're not a Guardian. But I don't know if they can tell the rest of us apart. Either way they've got plenty to chew on. No doubt about that." Like their own scenery.

//

No casualties reported on our end. Just a lot of confused and surprised Guardians. I suspect we're going to get a talk from the Commander about choosing mission objectives and sticking to them. But at least some people are enjoying the show.

//

"Not bad. We took out a chunk of the Citadel and survived a run-in with oracles. That's worth some trouble to explain."

You can blame anything that gets you in trouble on me. I'm outside the command structure, and I was the one who suggested we drop the citadel.

*And she sounds just so very repentant, doesn't she? But she'd rather her friends didn't take the rap for this. To the glory, they're welcome.*

Besides, sometimes a recon run finds an opportunity that won't be there to act on later.

"Scrap that. We did it together." Blaze snorts. None of those blame games for her, thanks. "Besides, you're right on target with that last part. I don't think oracles are even supposed to deploy outside the Vault. We drew them out, stopped the Vex getting to use them, and eliminated tech the Fallen could use to control the Vex network."

"

That's no small threat. The Wolves actually succeeded in tapping into the oracles before. We'll still need to monitor them carefully in case the survivors recovered anything useful. But they're probably too disorganized to use it anyway. They can't have many nobles left.

*Samus smiles inside her helmet, clapping Blaze approvingly on the shoulder.*

Glad we cost them the chance, then. One enemy with that kind of weapon is bad enough.

*She glances around the interior of the ship, then.*

It's good hunting with you, the both of you. Do you have a decontam unit or something, where I could hose this Vex fluid off before I open up?

"Right back at you." She sounds delighted. "Nothing like fighting alongside a friend again. Just back up a second, I'll get the hose out." Given the ship's size, it's probably no surprise that the unit is basically a reinforced tent; Blaze unseals the hollow base from the ceiling and pulls it down before locking it into the floor, reaching up again to power up the pressure jets and foam sprayers. It takes up the whole back wall, giving just enough room for an armored user (and possibly a small pile of alien salvage).

Someday she'll earn (or inherit) a bigger ship.

For now she just points out the various dials and their functions to Samus, pulling a small tray of cleaning tools from a drawer. Can't be any less than meticulous when it comes to your armor.

Edited (Premature posting yay) 2015-10-30 04:21 (UTC)

*Maybe sucker-punching a Vex citadel out of orbit will help Blaze earn that ship upgrade. It's nice to dream.*

I'll go one better: nothing like fighting alongside a friend and all of you coming out of it alive. I could do with more days like this.

*Form follows function, and Blaze's decontam shower reminds Samus a little bit of her own. With her friend's guidance, it isn't too difficult to clean herself off.*

Thank you, that's much better.

*She will be leaving her armor on until they've all had a spray-down, just in case.*

“Hah, we’ve definitely got some advantages on that front. Got to admit, I really didn’t expect you to be that good.” She cops to it breezily. Hey, it’s the good kind of mistake.

While Samus is showering, she gets to watch the dust settle down below, as well as the other sensor readouts. “Hey, Samus, last chance for a peek at our new playground. We’re not the only ones in the air any more – gonna have to swing back to orbit in a few seconds.”

Then shower time, and coaxing-the-Ghost-into-the-shower time.

*She chuckles.*

Glad you enjoyed the show--you're pretty good, yourself.

*The opportunity for a last look is welcome, and she takes it, a satisfied smile curling her lips at the ruin they've wrought.*

Who else is up here? Friends, or...?

"Aiming to get better," she replies cheerfully.

Blaze leaves it until the Ghost starts giving her worried looks before she sets the ship back on an upward course, climbing past the luminous volcanic plumes and the distant skyscrapers of the old Ishtar colony.

"Couple of them, it looked like. But mostly-" she pulls up a visual from behind them: a trio of streamlined dropships with curved blue armor and shark-like silhouettes, "we have Fallen sniffing around." The skiffs aren't bothering to pursue the fast little ship, not when there's a fresh breach in the Vex defenses to investigate.

*With everyone cleaned off, Samus takes off her helmet.*

May they and the Vex have no luck at all with one another.

Ghost is shaking off the last foam from its shell, so Blaze is up front on piloting duty by then. She nods to that sentiment, then adds, “I’m still finding it kind of hard to believe we did that. You want to head back to the Nexus while we go report in?"

Excerpt 001: Enquiring Minds

Taniks, man. /What/ a showman.

Mad respect for the dedication to craft.

A guy who teleports out from around every corner to /personally/ roar in your face.

That's fine, artisan-crafted menace, that is.

You can have all the poison vents and mook waves you want, but it's the heart that counts

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeartIsAnAwesomePower

Awesome and terrifying. Especially in the hands of a fifteen-foot piratical augment-addict.

Big pirates into augments. Samus knows who she wants to kill next visit.

There's quite a queue but he can totally fit her in.

What a guy!

He just loves (taunting) his audience!

He's sure to have their attention.

Please make sure to take a feedback form if you survived!

Please notice the suggestion box, and remember, my door is always open.

Your feedback is the key to your experience and our kill ratio!

Your final gasp is important to us. This battle may be monitored for quality control.

Satisfaction guaranteed or your ammo back!

(Replacement ammo returned at speed. Allow six to eight milliseconds for delivery.)

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catch-up time!

Welcome back

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Almost forgot to add: thank you for the awesome thread! :D

[See you next mission!]