Excerpt 009: Unsettled (Open to All)

[rekindledtitan]

TYPE: Patrol log

LOCATION: The Nexus

PARTIES: Unconfirmed total [??]. One [1] Ghost-type, [1] Guardian-type, designate Blaze-37, Class Titan [[personal profile] rekindledtitan]

ASSOCIATIONS: Multiversal Nexus; Rogers, Steve; Blaze-37; Pelsor; House of Winter


By the time she returns, spring is rolling into summer. There’s a great deal she needs to catch up on – and serious work to be done. Ghost sends out a short message announcing their restoration to the friends they haven’t met with – Tina, Natasha, Adia, Katsuya, the handful of others whose PINpoint numbers they have. Then they report into the Tower, at their commander’s insistence. A very long debrief later, Blaze feels the need to go blow off some steam. When she does get back to the Nexus, it’s with a few new dents

Blaze has no time for standing around the Plaza asking questions, though given the circumstances she’s kind of obliged to show her face. So when she gets back, the first thing the armored Titan does is stride into the centre of the Plaza. She brings her hands together in a thunderclap and a flash of Arc Light, and announces as heads turn to her:

“The Fallen kept their word. The truce is sealed.”

It brings her little joy to do so, but it needs to be done. She doesn’t stand around, though. She needs to get to work. The Fallen presence and its consequences are her responsibility, and she has ground to make up. Anyone who wants to ask her questions will have to keep up as the Guardian heads out of the Nexus settlement.

From there on she can be encountered once more patrolling the Nexus streets and the Wilds, on the watch for any sign of trouble. There’s no more sitting around chatting or tweaking her weapons in plain view. Now she’s on duty at all times. She has patrol beacons to install and monitor, borders to watch over. Darkness to scout for. And the Exo never seems to sleep. Though she returns periodically to the informal Guardian outpost that Steve’s house has turned into, she doesn’t rest there. During noonday sun or gloomy night, her boots ring on the pavement or crunch through leaf litter, and those who want to find her have a good chance of succeeding.

And if not her, then it’s always possible to encounter one of the other Guardians either keeping watch at Steve’s house or roaming about the Nexus. Unlike Blaze, they’ll occasionally stop at a café or bar to sample the local fare, sometimes at peculiar hours. If there’s a ramen bar that stays open until dawn, they’re there.


(( This post is open to any characters from the Nexus who might run into her after her post-Winter resurrection. If you want your character to encounter a different Guardian in particular or set the thread in one of the settings above, just let me know where in narration and/or the header. :) ))

Comments

[rekindledtitan]

“Heh. I’ve killed hundreds of Fallen, and I’m a fledgling as Guardians go. As a team? There’s no army that could stop us.” And even that is discounting the other powerful beings in the Nexus, some objectively in a heavier weight class than any Guardian. But Blaze can’t speak for them, and she views the Fallen as her people’s responsibility.

“War brings out the worst in a society. Pares back all the nice words and shows you what people boil down to. Doesn’t mean the cruelty has to win. But it’ll show itself.” Not surprising that Kinner’s people practiced military executions: pre-Golden-Agers were like that. “And when war is survival, only the stubborn ones are left. But you don’t think about it, after that long. It’s just the air you breathe.”

[outpostcook]

Kinner smiles. "I'm glad you and the others are here to look after us. I put up a good fight, but I couldn't even take a vandal one-on-one. Made 'im bleed, though." He isn't discouraged that he lost, since from all the stories he heard the creatures are vicious fighters and deadly hand-to-hand combatants. "I'm just glad I didn't get my head torn off. Back in the Great War, people on both sides sometimes took things from enemy soldiers they killed. Weapons, belongings, body parts, even. I didn't do it, but there were people in my unit who did. I guessed the Fallen have a similar tradition."

Blaze's comment makes Kinner think as he walks. "So I guess all the 'nice' Fallen, or any of them who might've been willing to make peace with us from the start, are dead or in hiding back in your world. The vicious and distrustful, like Pelsor, are the ones who are left. Humans're like that sometimes. When people are fighting to survive and there isn't enough for everybody, they get mean." It's not how Kinner thinks the world should be, but if wishes were horses and all that, and he's no idealist. "At the meeting, some of us thought living here, where she doesn't have to fear territory or resources being taken from her, might show Pelsor things don't have to be like that. I'm not one of them. There's too much bad blood between all parties involved, and I'm guessing her attitude towards us hasn't really changed. The way Loki talked about it, she's making a truce for practical reasons, not a change of heart."

[rekindledtitan]

“Yeah, they’re big on taking trophies to prove their victories.” Blaze rubs at the back of her neck, though of course she doesn’t actually remember any of what happened. And her people aren’t that different- Blaze has a few trophies of her own. They just aren’t skulls. “Or giving them as offerings to their machine gods. But House Winter lost theirs ages ago, I heard.”

Blaze has to shrug. She has no special insight into the Fallen’s feelings, but she does know a few things about war. “We’ve got to assume there’s a practical reason for everything she does. Damned if I know exactly what they’re after, but they must be trying to gain some kind of advantage. And they want us off their backs while they do it.”

[outpostcook]

"Well," Kinner says darkly, "I reckon they'll have some replacements for the trophies they lost after they killed all those people this winter. So the Fallen worship machines?" That's not something Kinner's familiar with. "We have different faiths in my world, and I reckon they'd probably sound strange to you and the Fallen."

"When they first turned up here, they sure didn't act like all they wanted was to be left alone." Kinner breathes in deeply. "You're right, they're up to something out there, and probably not anything good. Unfortunately, I can't think of a way to keep an eye on them and learning what they're up to that wouldn't carry the risk of getting caught. Is there anything we can do to figure out their plans? We don't want Pelsor to operate completely unchecked."

[rekindledtitan]

"Not all machines. Just the servitor bots that produce their rations and pilot their ships." The Fallen sure aren't stopping to do her any favors.

"She won't be unchecked. Not with two full fireteams of Guardians here. You see the Fallen running around outside their turf, let us know what you see. There's not a lot else you can do. Probably most of them don't even know the plan."

[outpostcook]

Kinner’s heard of stranger things. He knows the Fallen made use of machines, and from their perspective the gods humans worshipped, gods you couldn’t see or directly interact with, would probably be just as alien.

“No problem. I’ll let you know what I see, though I’ll be staying out of their way if I can help it. They almost killed me once, I’m not in a hurry for it to happen again.” Kinner’s not a coward, but he stays out of unnecessary battles and fights he can’t win. “I’ll leave the Fallen to you and your allies, and I’ll tell McReady that the Guardians have the situation under control. McReady’s my team leader. If he talks, my crew will listen.”

[rekindledtitan]

Honestly, Blaze can respect a guy who knows his limits and does what he's best at. She enjoys and admires bravery, but she was a soldier before she was a warrior. Bravery isn't all about charging head-on at the enemy, at least not for other people. Besides, Kinner was out there in the battle against Reynard and Pelsor, he's got nothing to prove.

"McReady, huh? Good to know. He runs into any trouble or questions, he can come to us too. We aren't the only ones keeping watch over the Nexus, but we'll be around."