Rezic adjusts his leg, ever so slightly, hoping to relieve the pressure on his lower back. He’s been in this prone position for four hours now, and only recently the Fallen have started dispersing. Arriving on Europa to find the Pyramid gone was unsettling, to say the least, and he wasn’t sure how to proceed. Maybe this is just an excuse to take a breath, he thinks. Their arrival did not go unnoticed thanks to the two enormous Fallen Ketches in orbit. The pillaging of Mars must be going exceptionally well for a second House Salvation Ketch to be built. Rezic hopes the massive influx of Fallen forces here is enough to hide their arrival from the Vanguard. Only time will tell.
They had to land hot, and the ground fighting afterwards took a lot out of the warlock. His response was to hold this position until the Fallen activity dies down. Gus agreed obediently; the distant look in his eyes not going unnoticed by Rezic.
We’re both beginning to reach our limit. Tyr manifests next to him, staying low enough to be hidden from the patrols.
“Fallen chatter is dying down in this area. This might be the best chance to make a move. What do you think?” the ghost asks. Rezic clicks his mic off and speaks within his helmet. Only Tyr can hear his response.
“How are Gus’ vitals? Are we pushing too hard?” Tyr realizes the concern in his voice isn’t just for Gus, but for himself as well. The warlock is beginning to doubt himself, and Tyr worries this doubt will put them all in danger.
“As an exo, you know he can withstand a lot. But yes, his processing speeds are lagging somewhat. Harker and I have already been discussing it. He worries that Gus is distracted. Like there’s something else on his mind.”
Rezic lets the thought marinate in his head while he continues to glass the area with his scope. The clock is ticking. Their pursuers aren’t stopping. Tissea isn’t stopping. They can’t afford to rest, but if they push past their limit what will that lead to? Rezic looks out of the corner of his visor at the large boulder-like shape next to him. Gus senses his friend’s concern.
“I’m fine,” he says. The response is curt, but not mean-spirited. He doesn’t want Rezic to worry. He’s built for this, and any sign that would indicate otherwise is just a result of over-analyzing data. Gus knows he can withstand the pressure of this cat-and-mouse game. He hasn’t moved an inch in the four hours of waiting, and the snow covering his armor has made him almost invisible.
Rezic turns his head to address the snow-covered statue, when suddenly a Skiff zooms over the mountain at their backs. A whirlwind of snow blinds the guardians to its descent, and the subtle camouflage covering Gus is blown away, revealing the red and gray armor underneath. Bolts of arc-plasma rain down and force the guardians into action as they scramble for cover.
“Tyr! How many ships?” Rezic screams into his mic.
“Just the one, but this Captain is aggressive. He’s coming back around for a second strafing run. I highly recommend vacating this area.”
“You heard him, Gus. Let’s move.” And with that, Rezic leaps from the side of the mountain.
The skiff banks around a nearby mountain and heads back towards them. Rezic slows his descent, and then releases his glide, sliding down the bottom of the mountain. At the base, he leaps into a sprint as the snow behind him erupts into more explosions. He slides behind cover as the ship passes overhead. Turning, he readies his sniper in a crouched position. Two shots ring out as he takes care of the turret closest to him.
Looking through the dark, black smoke, he sees the Skiff slow, taking its time by maneuvering around another mountain. For a few moments, Rezic can’t see the ship until it clears the other side and heads back towards him. At this angle, the ship will cut him down easily. He deploys his rift and readies himself for the head-on attack.
The pilot starts swinging the ship back and forth, trying its damndest to keep the turret out of Rezic’s sights. The first shot pings across the front of the hull, inflicting no damage. At the same time, the pilot unleashes a volley of plasma in an attempt to suppress the warlock.
It works and Rezic is forced to scramble, abandoning his rift as the ground behind him explodes. Suddenly, he sees a blur to his right. He turns just in time to see Gus sprinting at the destroyed turret on the ground, unleashing a thunderous shoulder slam against it. The object launches into the air at a ridiculous speed, racing toward the skiff. The broken mass of metal and conduit explodes into the ship, erupting in a ball of flames, bringing it crashing down to the icy surface.
Rezic stares in disbelief.
“What made you think of that?” he asks. The large titan shrugs.
“Thinking on my feet. Harker didn’t have time to transmat a rocket launcher, so I had to improvise. I haven’t seen you miss shots like that in years.” Gus stops near the crash of the ship to look for any survivors. The fires burning from the arc-reactors burn incredibly hot, so the likelihood is low, but he doesn’t want to chance it. Suddenly, a soft, yet obnoxious, impact is registered on the back of his helmet. Slowly, he turns to see the warlock packing a second snowball, taking aim again.
“I don’t know, Gus. My aim seems pretty good right now,” he says as he strikes his friend square in the helmet. Gus doesn’t even flinch; he just laughs. Before he can provide his own witty response, both their radios start cackling.
“Guardiansss…”
Rezic and Gus share a look of disbelief. They’ve never worked closely with Variks, and to hear his voice over their private channel is more than a little concerning.
“Salvation hunting you. Need help, yesss?“ The transmission ends with clicking and then goes dead. Tyr and Harker float into view, sharing looks of concern as well.
“He sent us coordinates. Pulling a waypoint up on your HUD now,” Tyr says.
“I’m not sure we can trust him right now. This may be an attempt by Zavala. Makes sense for him to try and use a third-party to trick us,” Rezic says. Gus isn’t necessarily convinced, but he withholds his doubt yet again. Variks is always looking for his own gain, he thinks. Maybe he can help us and we can avoid relying on the Stranger.
“What do you think Zavala could have offered him?” Gus asks. Rezic shrugs, not sure if the question was rhetorical since the titan calls forth his sparrow and hops on. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.” With that, he kicks up a plume of snow and debris as his sparrow races across the Europan landscape. After a few moments, Harker opens the private channel between him and Gus.
“What are you doing?”
“Not much of a choice for us, Harker. We need help. If it is an ambush, we’ll fight our way out like we always do.” His voice carries days of exhaustion on it. He may still be operating at a high level, but Gus is torn. His life is in a dark place, and there doesn’t seem to be any light ahead. Physically, he’ll continue to put one foot in front of the other, but mentally? Emotionally? He’s wearing thin. He tightens his grip on his accelerator, feeling the vibrations course through his hands, arms, and up into his shoulders.
The shuddering of the sparrow at this speed gives him something to focus on and distracts him from his thoughts. His sparrow inches closer to maximum speed as he consumes the landscape towards the waypoint. His mini-map shows a valley ahead, with tall mountains on either side. Danger lurks in every corner of Europa, especially these days, and a valley is a perfect ambush spot. Gus squeezes ever harder, breaking through the entrance of the valley, falling through the air towards the ground below. The scene ahead gives him pause.
It seems an ambush had already been sprung.
Fallen and Vex forces, both in large numbers, battle over who knows what, dead bodies on both sides litter the ground. Gus scans the edges of the valley, looking for an avenue of safety, remaining calm. He clicks his mic to the private channel.
“Rez, avoid the valley. Vex and Fallen are going at it. I’m pushing through.”
A momentary pause before the response comes through. Gus dreads the inevitable reprimanding Rez plans on giving him for speeding off. Lucky for him, he answers shortly.
“Copy. See you on the other side.”
Is he mad? Was that resentment? Gus thinks to himself. The channel goes quiet. Whatever – I need to focus on this mess now. He races towards the battle with reckless abandon, but a plan starts forming in his mind. His hands tighten around his handlebars, squeezing every bit of speed out of his sparrow.
Minotaurs rain splashes of void energy against the Fallen skiffs in the sky. Dregs race across the small section of no-man’s-land between the two forces, firing their shock blasters at the Vex goblins mirroring their actions, firing their slap rifles with terrible accuracy in response. A dreg looks over just in time for it to be run over by the hulking titan. Gus hopes to cause confusion as he races through the Fallen ranks, knowing the analytical minds of the Vex would react too quickly to his presence. Clearing this battle unscathed is going to be difficult, and he needs luck on his side.
Banking around the rear of the Fallen, Gus stays low to the mountainside, weaving in and out of rocks. His shields react to the energy in the air, shimmering,creating a frozen specter on a white backdrop. The explosions landing around him threaten to rattle his handling of the sparrow, but he pushes on. His shields are holding, and his eyes are set on the horizon at the end of the valley. Halfway now, and the heaviest fighting is behind him. Gus counts his blessings, until Harker pings his HUD with a warning.
“Fallen Skiff is targeting you. The Vex have been momentarily halted near the center of the valley and one of the Captains has decided to turn his attention to you.”
Shit.
He turns sharply, crossing towards the center of the valley hoping to find cover in some of the rocks. Mid-turn, he looks over his shoulder as the Fallen ship comes barrelling down on him.
Wonder if that other Skiff got a message off in time. Or is this Variks’ doing?
Gus pushes harder, feeling the g-forces as the sparrow weaves between boulders at breakneck speed. Components on the speeder start rattling. He hasn’t touched his brake since Harker spoke up, and the machine is doing everything it can to stay together. Looking ahead, he sees that once he clears the boulders it’s just open ground between him and the edge of the valley. However, it’s a perfectly terrible shooting gallery that he’s sure to be caught in. His mind races, but not nearly as fast as the landscape is racing past him. Running out of time, he does what any titan would do, and chooses brute force.
Hopefully, with a side of luck.
He shoots the gap between two rocks as explosions destroy them in his wake. The Skiff is getting closer. He won’t make it. Not with how open the valley is ahead of him. Behind him, the sounds of battle between the Fallen and the Vex fade away. The only silver-lining is that it’s just one ship chasing him, but right now, one is more than enough.
“I’m sorry, Rez,” he whispers into his helmet, leaning ever closer to his sparrow, doing his best to reduce his drag.
Clearing the last of the rocks, the Skiff unleashes hell on Gus’ sparrow. The blasts surrounding him throw up so much snow and debris, he can’t even see the landscape in front of him anymore. All he can do is push faster. One of the blasts gets too close and knocks him off course. Immediately, another blast lands perfectly on his left-tail guard and sends the sparrow spiraling through the air. The momentary weightlessness of it all oddly puts him at peace, as he sees his destroyed sparrow flying past him, barely meters away, and slowly falling back down to the Europan surface. He tries activating his lift, but he’s rotating too fast. He can’t control his spin as his body slams down into the snowy surface, followed by the explosion of his sparrow in his periphery. He slowly gets to a knee as the Skiff bears down on him. Harker moves to appear next to him, but Gus shakes his head and closes his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
“You need to survive this if we have any hope.”
“I’m not sure…” Harker replies. His voice too thick with emotion to go on.
Despite the threat being directly in front of him, Gus is surprised by the blast that soon follows. He sees the fireball, but it’s not very hot. In fact, the explosion wasn’t even that loud. Opening his eyes, the Skiff, now very badly damaged, careens over his head and explodes into the mountainside in an even bigger ball of fire.
“What the -”
With the threat seemingly gone, Harker appears next to him, searching the landscape.
“Apparently, Variks sent us some help,” he says to Gus while dropping a waypoint on his HUD. It’s on the ridge to his right, and as he turns, he sees a group of fallen Vandals with scorch cannons on their shoulders, the House of Light emblem visible on their armor. Five of them in total, with a squad of dregs making their way down to his location.
“I guess we can trust him,” Gus says as the dregs walk up to him, forming a small perimeter. One of the vandals that followed them walks up to Gus, but doesn’t say anything. It simply nods and gestures back towards the ridge. Gus can see a Captain now looking down at him. The vandal hurriedly motions again and again, then turns and runs up the hill. “And I guess they want us to follow them.”
Harker’s response is to disappear into his pack, while Gus runs up the hillside surrounded by the Fallen. As he approaches the Captain, he can see it fiddling with a translator around its neck. Gus stops a meter or so away from it, waiting for a greeting.
“Guard..ian..P-please, keep g-going to Vaaarikss,” it says, although the translator doesn’t seem to be picking up everything the Captain is trying to communicate. “W-we…watch rear. You…safe.”
Harker speaks up inside Gus’ helmet.
“Seems like they’re going to provide cover for us, while we push on to the location Variks gave us. Probably a good time to go with the flow and not look a gift horse in the mouth. I’ll respawn your sparrow.”
Gus hops on and speeds away from the House of Light patrol, glancing back to see them forming a defensive position at the rim of the valley. It isn’t long before his radio cackles to life with his friend’s voice.
“Glad to see you made it out OK,” Rezic says. “Coming up on your left.”
The mini map on his HUD shows a friendly green marker coming in fast. The black sparrow of Rezic soon comes into view over a small ridge. As he gets close to Gus, he opens the channel again.
“Everything alright? We lost your signal for a bit.”
“Just fine – sorry for the scare. I shouldn’t have raced off like that.”
Rezic is surprised to hear the normally stubborn titan admitting his fault so quickly, but doesn’t dwell on it.
“Nothing to apologize for. Let me do the talking with Variks. We’re coming up on his location now.”
“Copy.”
The two guardians go radio silent as they approach the makeshift camp in the shadow of a large mountain.
Writing by Adam 