No Guardian, I

Part 18

"This is amazing," declared Jasker, extending his arm to point at the small cloud of chaotically moving spare parts in front of him. "None of the parts exist or need to be physical, but I can test designs as if they were absolutely real. This opens up so many possibilities, my head starts to spin."

"Careful, Jas, don't get overexcited," managed Alyona, weakly. She curled into a ball of exhaustion and misery the first chance they had, the adrenaline of the fight having long worn off. It was always like this for her, but now it was even worse. She felt weary to the point of shutting the whole world out and lying there until somehow, magically, everything became fine again.

They moved fast after the encounter with the raging Fallen, as fast as they could with a groggy Yaltrik in tow and a scared witless Ghost flying in circles around them. They marched until dusk, negotiating the woodland with far less stealth than was advisable, eager to put kilometers between them and the trashed clearing.

Jas and Alyona paused from time to time to check their direction and relative location. It felt like they were getting closer, with no more than five kilometers to the region where the cave system was supposed to be at the time they had to make camp.

They shared ration packs, now only a week from their expiration date, and drank water from a nearby creek, purified in Jasker's filter. Then they settled on the ground, around a dimmed with camo netting rescue lamp, and found things to occupy themselves until they were ready to sleep. Glazok, as always, volunteered to watch over them during the night. He also now emitted pulses of scanning waves regularly, making sure nothing would sneak up on them again.

Jas sat down and, cross-legged, concentrated on conjuring from memory the design he's been working on with Glazok before the Skiff crashed. Yaltrik sat near him, watching in fascination and chattering comments and questions that the Ghost translated and Jas tried to answer as best as he could. The Eliksni also thanked Jas and Alyona from time to time, bringing his upper arms to his forehead and the lower ones to his midriff in a ritual gesture. The missing hand had already begun to regenerate.

Alyona lay down, wishing she'd fall asleep and watched her three companions cope with the stress in their own ways. She'd be proud to have known them back then, when everything seemed so bright and hopeful. Not that it wasn't like that now - she saw that Jas wasn't a wary and traumatised scavenger that people surviving after a disaster often became. It meant that there was still hope for humanity - even with enemies as formidable as the Fallen she had slain a few hours ago.

It occurred to her that it was because they felt safe. Because... there was always a Guardian to watch over them. She could live with that. She joined the military for the exact same reason.

She fell asleep, and dreamed of peace.

She woke to sounds of gunfire.

She reached to the battered rifle that she'd forgotten to use in the fight, rolled into a firing position on her knee and sighted in.

Jas whooped as his shot melted through the empty ration pack that was set on a fallen tree bole a few dozen paces away. Yaltrik, next to him, chattered and lifted his own pistol to aim at the second ration pack. He fired three shots in quick succession, missing the first but putting the other two right where he wanted them. He chattered again, smugly.

The tree bole was already scorched and splintered in places. It appeared that they were at it for some time. Alyona slowly exhaled and let the rifle hang from its strap.

"What are you boys playing at?" she asked, approaching them. Yaltrik made the same ritual gesture of thanks and went off to gather the debris of their improvised shooting gallery.

"Oh, hey, you're awake," greeted her Jas. "There's a ration waiting for you over there. We thought we'd kill some time since you were sleeping so soundly. Yaltrik's helping me with my aim."

"Where's Glazok?"

"That's the good news. We found the cave. Just beyond that hill. And there's a hatch with a digital lock in there, hidden behind a hologram of a prehistoric wall painting. He's there, fiddling with the door. Said he wanted to try opening it on his own before using the datachip."

"Is this... the end, then? We found what you were looking for?"

"No idea. We haven't been inside yet, and I simply do not know what's in there. Just that it's related to my ancestors somehow. This may be an arsenal, might be a research facility - even a nursery for all we know."

"A nursery? Here, in the middle of nowhere? Trust me, not the case," smiled Alyona. "This region was off-limits for civilians for quite some time, if I remember correctly. It's something important, alright. You won't be disappointed."

"I hope my superiors will be, once I start my own foundry," replied Jas. "The bastards need to be taught a lesson on how to treat their employees."

"Wait... you're doing all of this out of spite?" Alyona sounded incredulous. "You left everything you had and put yourself in danger because your boss mistreated you?"

"Now that you put it in that perspective - yes, it surely looks that way. But it's not only that. The City is stale, dogmatic. Nothing ever changes. We need something new, and I had reasons to believe that I was in the position to find that something. So I left. And, yes, the idea of profit has crossed my mind. Repeatedly."

Alyona smirked.

"Well, we're about to find out. There's Glazok."

The Ghost flew over to them, flashing a few symbols at the Fallen. Yaltrik nodded and held the pistol, handle first, towards Jas. He took it with a nod and stowed it into its holster, then reconsidered and gave it back to the Fallen. Yaltrik made a surprised motion, but took the gun anyway.

"The encryption systems on the lock are quite complex," Glazok said. "I think we'll need the datachip after all."

They packed up their belongings and went to the cave. It was weird, walking into a wall, but it was insubstantial and shimmered a bit around them as they went through, one by one. The packs remained outside the nook that harbored the door.

Jas crouched and inserted the chip into the open port on the front of the lock. Nothing happened. He blew into the slot, raising a small cloud of dust, and tried again.

The lock flashed to life, blinked a few red lights and then changed their color to green. Something clanged from beneath the hatch.

"Here we go," said Jas and opened it.

***

++Cayde, there's been some weird activity in the southern Urals. We have no fireteams there, but the Fallen are like a kicked hornet's nest, all over the Orenburg ruins. Maybe a Ghost found a fresh body, but there's no way they'd reach the City without help. I'm off to investigate. I'll keep in touch.

Oh, and I think the Devils' Kell is here. Care to organize a Strike?++

++Signed: Rodren Caill++