Wrath of A King: Shattered Past Book 5

12

James had been flying the ship silently for the past few minutes. The jump itself wasn't going to be long. However, he was debating in his mind what happened to Mara and how that would impact this newly dubbed Taken War. If she were dead, the Awoken would be mourning her death; then there would be a call for vengeance against the Taken and the Hive from the Awoken; though it would be problematic for them to fight against a mostly naval enemy. The ship left its jump right outside of the rings of Saturn. From that distance away James could see the devastation that Oryx had unleashed upon the planet. The rings in that one location were blown to pieces. A hole being right where they used to be and a massive castle in the sky in the middle.

James felt himself start to heat up on the inside and a slight drip of water fall down the side of his head. He gulped involuntarily. "Man....it's terrifying up close." He said as he pulled the ship underneath the rings of the planet. The devastation to the Awoken fleet was immense. Ships were cracked and broken open, bodies floating about aimlessly through the debris of the rings and the ships. He stopped the ship for a moment and transmatted outside the ship. He looked around for a moment, "Ghost search for a ship matching the specs of The Vestian Indignation." James ordered him as he jumped off Eris' ship and off into the stars. 

"Rodger that, searching...got it, I found it. It's five hundred meters away." Ghost told him. James engaged his magnetic boots and started moving in the direction of the ship. After traveling for a few minutes, he approached what looked like the hangar of the ship. It was a shame to see it in such a desolate shape; the vehicle was built only a few years ago yet here it was tattered and broken. He moved to the inside of the hangar with his helmet light activated. He started searching around the ship with his lamp. The entire ship was incredibly cold, the bodies of the Awoken guards were coated with a thick layer of frost. 

As he looked around, he could feel his memory flashing back to the Collapse and all the friends that he'd lost during that time. So many people died during those days it was horrific. It had been so long since he'd seen the horrors of war, and the amount of death that it would bring. The personal loss for him had been minimal during this conflict so far. But for them? How many husbands did they leave behind? How many children? Oh god, the children. James picked up one of the bodies as it floated off the floor of the ship. He held the corpse in his arms and moved his hand to the visor of the Awoken guard. Gently he removed the visor from the body. Tears were frozen in her eyes. James sighed before placing the body on the ground.  

He grimaced at the thought and sprinted as fast as he could to the main deck of the ship. Using his Exo strength and his void abilities and cut open the blast door that was keeping the entrance way sealed. The view port on the ship was cracked and broken, many of the people who were on board the bridge weren't even corpses. James, however, noticed how different the cabin was. There was a fine dust all over the room, floating about aimlessly. James looked around and saw something else in the chamber with him. It was a body. His eyes grew wide, and he rushed over toward it. He pulled her over to him and looked at her. 

"Ghost! Who is this?!" James asked him. Ghost floated out and started doing scans of the body in his arms. 

"Its.....Mara." 

"Ghost, how long ago did she become unresponsive?!" He shouted. 

"It'd been at least....two minutes! You can bring her back! Resuscitate her!" 

"What do you mean? Like...mouth to mouth?!" 

"YES! DO IT! She needs oxygen!" 

James albeit reluctant chose to do what his Ghost told him. James removed Mara's helmet and placed his mouth up against Mara's and started blowing into her lips. He began compressing her chest at the same time attempting to get her heart to start beating. He his hand off her diaphragm for a moment and checked her pulse. He felt something on her neck. 

A small faint beat. 

Mara opened her eyes to see James' lips on hers. She moved him off her for a moment before promptly slapping him across the face. He rubbed his cheek for a moment before handing her a spare helmet from his inventory. Mara swiftly placed the helmet on her head and breathed heavily. "How dare you kiss me? You're married are you not?" Mara told him. 

"I didn't kiss you. I resuscitated you; it's different. If I kissed you, I would do it out of love and the kindness of my heart, I did that out of necessity." 

"Alright Guardian...thank you," Mara replied looking around the destroyed remnants of her ship. "Did anyone else make it out alive?" She asked him honestly. 

"I'm unsure. From the looks of things...you're the only one left." James replied honestly. Mara sighed and looked down at the floor as she tried to keep herself on the ground. 

"I let this happen James....it's all my fault they died." She said as she drifted over toward the hatch outside of the ship. "What are you doing out here anyway?" 

"I came here to rescue you, and take out the super weapon on that cruiser." He said pointing to the Dreadnought through the cracked viewport of the ship. 

"What am I going to do?" Mara asked him. 

"You're going to my ship and heading back to your people; they'll need your leadership. Dark times are upon us." He replied solemnly. Mara looked at James oddly, and something wasn't right with him. He was usually cheerful and optimistic, and using the words like "Dark times are upon us." were never things he said. Something happened, and she wanted to probe him for the actual reason as to why he was this way. However, she shrugged and decided that he was right. Her people needed her back. 

"Where's your ship, James?" She asked politely. 

"It's just outside, head down the corridor to the hangar and it should be floating out there. It looks like a Hive ship, so it'll stick out pretty well."

"Thank you for your service guardian." She replied before heading out toward his ship practically swimming in the zero gravity. James looked back over toward the Dreadnought and activated his invictus form trying to prevent the aura from being visible. He leaped off from the ship's deck and breached the window flying off toward the massive ship. Thankfully, due to his small size compared to the titan of a vessel that lay before him, he didn't seem to attract any attention. He got close to the cold chitinous ship and flew up to what looked like a deck of the ship. He looked off in the distance and saw a small ship jump to somewhere else. He smirked slightly. Mara was coming home.

He turned back over toward what lay ahead. He deactivated his transformation and pulled his rifle off his back. He had two missions, one, disable the superweapon and establish a beach head. Two, find Toland the Shattered and see if he could bring Emily back to normal.