On the Front S5: Didact's Dilemma Pt.1

(Read the previous part here)

Rain pattered against the thin window of our new quarters, the newly risen sun forcing its rays through the gloom.

I was still in bed.

As it happened, I was reading. And as the old saying goes, A Hunter reads the news, a Warlock the histories, and a Titan doesn't read much of anything.

The lower levels of the Wall had not been completely charted, but I was reading what little information was available.

Missing children, the sounds of dogs barking from somewhere in the black, and a series of blocky, modular apartments placed into the side of the wall.

Maddie and I had secured tenancy of one flat, overlooking the City.

Through a series of fly-bys, general approximations, and some figuring, I'd decided our apartment consumed some space in the outward peninsula of concrete where Zavala stood at seemingly all hours.

Maddie, for her part, was sitting on the floor in a fluffy pink bathrobe eating breakfast.

“You gonna eat something?” She mumbled, watching a Crucible recap show on her DataPad.

“Probably.”

I scrolled through some schematics, before sighing and pulling myself out of bed.

It occurred to me at that point that I had no clothes on.

Maddie looked back and giggled as I pulled on an old, mostly scrunched pair of grey trousers, and headed into the tiny galley kitchen.

A few buttons were tapped and scrambled eggs appeared in the oven.

Some salt and pepper and few strips of ham later, I joined Maddie at the foot of the bed.

A rerun of a Crucible match that had taken place the night before flicked across her DataPad.

I watched it for a few minutes, shoveling egg into my mouth.

As the commentators tallied the scores, I heard my DataPod chime.

I got up and grabbed the tiny device.

‘New Message: Jefferson Hayes: Sarech, I decided to contact you because I might have an assignment for you, on behalf of DO, of course.’

At the end, an event listing was present.

‘Tower Hanger, 1200’

I thumbed out a quick affirmative, and got fully dressed.

“Hey, uh Maddie...I’m going to go…”

“Yeah….I’ll probably be at work when you get back.” She said.

“Ok, see you later.”

---

Jefferson was waiting, smart, crisply pressed suit, tiny Dead Orbit pin stuck to his lapel.

“Sarech!” He said as I entered the hanger.

“Good to see you Jefferson.” I said, extending my left hand.

He looked down at it, eyes widening for just a second at the replaced metal appendage.

After a moment, he shook it.

“All of us lost something.” I said, calmingly.

“Yeah...Yeah.”

“You, uh, had an assignment for me?”

“Yes! I did, didn’t I.” He mumbled.

“What was it?”

“Right, DO seems to have something of a PR problem at the moment. The general feel is that we were too distracted, what with the fleet and all, to worry about the War.”

“Right…”

“We need you to gather some footage, vidcaps basically. We’re planning to pull together as many operations as we can, and release them to show all the work we’re doing now.”

I nodded.

“Fair enough. What’s the OP?”

“The Fleet’s picked up Red Legion cargo vessels heading for Io, most likely to resupply Terrabase Charon. We think they’ll drop the supplies a couple klicks from the base, and send troops to pick them up. It’s in that gap we want you to pick them up.”

“Fair enough. Solo op?”

“Preferably.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I know.”

---

The sulphury, yellow moon of Jupiter appeared from behind a veil of subspace emissions.

“Echo Mesa coming up.” Ghast said, pushing the ship into a dive.

Sulphur stained the heat shielding a peculiar shade of Yellow.

“Attention, Echo class ship approaching Io, please state your name and ship ID number.” Came an irritated voice.

“Echo Mesa, this is Echo-class 4377 on approach to Rupture Zone.”

“Echo 4377, this is Asher Mir, you are clear for landing.”

I flicked off the comms.

As I spiraled through the atmosphere, I saw a flash followed by a boom.

A Red Legion ship appeared a few hundred metres above the surface.

“That would be the supplies.” Ghast pointed out.

I was transmatted onto the surface and summoned my Vehicle.

I sped along, sighting small but well armored barrels of supplies pulsing a signal to every receiver in the area.

I lept off my Sparrow, and drew the sword that appeared on my back.

The blue blade cut through the top of a gas tank on the back of an angry cabal, causing an explosion that altered my flight path, and slammed me into a rock.

“You know….” Ghast began, “I can’t actually override their Transmat locking system if I’m not actually close to the supplies.”

“Shut up.” I said.

I pulled myself to my feet and charged forward, this time holding my position next to the supplies.

A Centurion tried his luck at head-crushing, and made quite a good effort of it, but found himself at the wrong end of my very pointy implement of death.

“Ghast, you’re definitely recording this right?”

“I literally can’t stop, so yes.”

“Fair enough. Music?”

“Sure.”

A gangly guitar melody reached my ears.

A Severus flashed suddenly before me, inches from my faceplate.

As it fell again, my sword rushed to meet it, Hadium sparking off the foreign metal.

The momentum was against me.

I retreated a half-step, into a Psion standing behind me.

I jumped into the air, sword swinging about violently and cutting open the Psion’s skull, ‘nectar’ spilling forth but not before my sword had met the second of the Gladiator’s twin blades.

A Vibro-Sword was plunged into my back.

I howled in pain and staggered into the backhand of a Centurion.

I balled my artificial fist and threw it into the face of the Centurion, whose skull collapsed under the pressure with a satisfying crack, followed by a less satisfying oozing noise.

I turned and swung my sword through the abdomen of the nearest Legionary and lunged forward, my blade pushing straight through the almost nonexistent neck of an Incindeor.

The blade protruded violently, like an unnatural appendage, before being pulled back from whence it came and swung around through the singular eye of a Psion.

A blast of void hit me in the right leg, which was hurtled forward ahead of me, causing me to collapse, prone, onto the yellow dirt.

The massive Vex structure crackled and sparked with infinite realities, whole minds born and killed within ruthlessly efficient milliseconds.

A War Beast leapt onto my chest and gnashed its teeth.

“Ghast!!! I don't mean to rush you buddy, but could you possibly hurry up?!”

“I'm trying, but there stupidity is proving to be a better security system than their actual security systems.”

“Fascinating.” I said, dryly.

I filled over suddenly, and silenced the beast with a swift sword stroke.

There were a lot of Red Legion around now.

War Beasts circled around me, Psion lasers drawing a bead on me. Gladiators dragged their blades slowly across the ground.

“Please tell me you're close to done.” I said, slotting my sword back into its scabbard on my back.

“Yes. Why?”

“Because I might need you for resurrection here in a minute.”

Ghast sighed audibly.

A bolt of Arc lashed between by hands.

The first of the Beasts charged.

I unleashed the howling fury of the hurricane upon them, their veins glowing in painful blue.

A Gladiator swung where I had been, every atom of my being coalescing around a new center, behind the giant creature.

Two streams of Arc shot through its body, before it collapsed, smoking, atop a small vent.

Those with conventional weaponry opened fire all at once.

Bronto Cannons and Arc Pulse Launchers and Headhunters. All firing at me. Fantastic.

The bronto shot doubled me over, the Arc fire staggering me backwards, and Headhunter pellets punched small holes all the way through me.

I staggered forward, electrons singing, but not killing the ugly bastards.

I grabbed a Centurion by the mask and poured everything I had into him.

His eyes popped first, swelling to fearful size, and exploding, remnant nectar running down its face.

I kicked it hard in the face as another Bronto shot threw me away, into the reassuring embrace of a Phalanx shield, which chucked me through the air, my helmet scraping along a piece of Vex stone.

My head had come to rest looking into the entrance pit of the Pyramidion.

I turned myself onto my back and gazed fleetingly up at Jupiter’s massive bulk.

A Colossus placed its gigantic foot on my chest and pushed.

I began to feel my ribs cracking, one piece of bone pushing into my heart.

The pressure continued to increase.

I can get out of this, I thought to myself.

Arc Energy charged in my fists.

Just as I was ready to release it, as my vision began to blur, three lines of red, possibly orange, entered the Colossus.

The looming bulk of the creature sublimated. Disappearing into the Ionian atmosphere.

My vision corrected, and I flipped myself over.

The shots had come from within the pit.

A small figure, draped in black, stood, looking up at me.

Then, it turned back towards the Pyramidion and disappeared into a shadow.

---

“You're sure?” I asked the irascible scribe typing into a DataPad.

“Are you questioning my sanity or my memory, Warlock?” Asher Mir snarled.

“Neither, I simply wish to understand.”

“Don't we all.” He softened, “I'm quite certain, yes. You were the only Guardian, other than myself of course, in the Rupture today.”

“Interesting. Excuse me Asher, I've got some VidCaps to send.”

---

“You did what?” Jefferson asked exasperatedly from across the system.

“I sent the VidCaps through to the CDA.”

“Why?” He sounded on the verge of tears of annoyance.

“I saw...possibly the last remnant of SIVA in the system. That's not something I can just keep quiet.”

“No, I suppose not.” He conceded.

“I saw him heading into the Pyramidion. A Strike team is being rallied as we speak.”

“Might I put in some suggestions?”

“No. They've already been locked in.”

“Ah.”

“Goodbye Jefferson.”

“Wait, but I…” I ended the call.

Mako. If you're in there, I'm coming for you. To finish the job.

(Read the next part here)

//Technically posted on Sunday by 5 minutes, but for most of the world, it's still Saturday, so going to call it good. Didact’s Dilemma will conclude next week. After that it's onto a certain Unstable Centaur. Horsepersons here we come!//

(Read the whole series here)