//------------------------------// // Chapter 46: The Edge of Our Hope // Story: A Rift Between Worlds // by Cinders of War //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer had always heard this one phrase in a lot of the human world’s movies. In space, no one can hear you scream. She didn’t think much about it, seeing as she thought she would never ever get to fly up there with the planets and stars. Now in her Warframe and archwing, that phrase was all the more related and was slightly true. If she were to die up here, hit by a missile which could potentially breach her suit, no one would hear her and she would simply drift off into the darkness of space. But she wasn’t alone up here. The Tenno, Ember, shared her Warframe and together, they were going to make sure their home stayed safe. And besides, they weren’t alone in their endeavour. “Right side, Sunset!” Velvet Breeze flew by her left, lifting her huge archwing bowgun and firing at a cluster of bullets coming towards them, igniting the darkness with brilliant flowers of explosions. Sunset shook out of her dumbfoundedness and activated her archwing thrusters, flying through the explosions, her archwing sword in hand. She emerged on the other side, catching the Grineer dargyns off guard, slashing through two of them before the rest had the idea to scatter. Sunset watched the two Grineer vessels fall away, their pilots’ mouths opened in silent screams, before pursuing the remaining dargyns. Velvet and Ash followed suit, pulling out a long scythe and flying close behind one, her thrusters burning bright behind her. With a swift spin, the dargyn fell away in half. “Just one left, Sunset!” she called out, swapping out for her gun, which Ember had called a fluctus. “I see it,” Sunset nodded, switching her veritux for her imperator, which was like a long machine gun-like weapon. “Once we’re done, we can head back and join Home Run and Rarity.” “I doubt it will be as simple, Sunset Shimmer,” Ember spoke, appearing on the side of her vision. “There are but thousands of Grineer spacecrafts in each galleon. I still see dozens of those. The Grineer have an attacking force far greater than anything you have faced before.” “So what can we do?” Sunset eyed the larger vessels. Then an idea struck her. The archwings and their weaponry were meant to take down spacecrafts after all. “Ember, do you think we can take out the galleons like this?” “Exactly what I was wondering, Sunset Shimmer. Only one way to find that out, right?” Sunset smiled. There was a reason why they drifted well. Nodding to Velvet, she poured her energy into the thrusters again, heading for the closest Grineer galleon, readying her weapon. Once close enough, Sunset held down the trigger, watching a spread of orange projectiles blast out of her gun, pelting along the side of the galleon as she flew past, creating little explosions all along its hull. “Sweet.” Sunset flew on, making a u-turn once she past the end of the Grineer spacecraft. “Watch out!” Ember took over, spiralling Sunset so that she was now flying backwards, firing at a cluster of missiles that had flown out from the galleon’s side. “Grineer defenses, Sunset Shimmer. Be careful.” “That’s why I have you, Ember,” Sunset joked. But the Tenno was right. If not for Ember, perhaps she would’ve met her match right there and then. More dargyns poured out from the hangar as Sunset and Velvet racked up more explosions on the galleon, now switching targets as the dargyns made beelines for them, trying to protect their ship. Sunset created an energy shell in front of herself before firing at the Grineer with her imperator, while Velvet took a more direct approach, wielding her kaszas scythe as she fired a cluster of seeking missiles at the spacecrafts, already detonating a few of them on impact. Sunset and Ember took out the ones further away from Velvet and Ash as they sliced their way through metal and ferrite. When Sunset couldn’t react fast enough, Ember would shift her arms for her, turning their gun’s barrel to another dargyn faster than Sunset could ever do on her own. “How much will it take to go down?” Sunset turned to see the galleon’s hull on fire. “I mean, these things are huge. Surely it takes more than this to down one.” “The faster way would be to strike the galleon’s core, deep inside the ship’s structure,” Ash said on the comms. “But it will be heavily defended.” “Hey, it’s worth a shot, huh Sunset?” Velvet came back, spinning her scythe in the air, then stowing it under one wing and taking out her fluctus from the other wing. “I’m with whatever decision you choose.” “It’s either we go in there or we sit out here.” Sunset eyed a breach in the galleon’s hull. “I suggest we go in. They can’t possibly send that many of these things after us.” “I’ll lead the way, Sunset Shimmer.” Ember took over and extended their wings. “I shall map it on your radar.” “Got it.” Sunset flew up, then into one of the many new holes dotting the hull, heading down and deep into the galleon. The insides were marred with fire and debris now, but there was still enough space for Sunset and Velvet to fly through, following tunnels and openings towards the core. Just in the next room, which led back into a generator room, Grineer fired back at them, some floating in the air because of gravity. Sunset projected an energy shell, blocking all their attacks while she and Velvet shot back, their giant projectiles tearing the Grineer apart. Then something hit Sunset from behind, sparking off her shields. She swiftly turned around, bringing the energy shell behind her to block the bullets as three dargyns flew in behind them, their machine guns ablaze. Velvet Breeze jetted to the side, then came back in like a whirling tornado, breaking up the Grineer spacecrafts into tiny pieces with her kaszas scythe. The two pilots and their Tenno continued on, hoping to get in and out before more reinforcements showed. On the bright side, the internal segments of the galleon were too small for a horde of dargyns, and the regular Grineer troops were easy to pick off with their artificial gravity disabled. Blowing a hole in a tunnel wall, Sunset and Velvet flew along an access duct, taking them along in a zig-zag pattern before emptying out into a large room with a huge generator in the middle, its gears spinning, giving off a faint yellow glow. “That’s it.” Ember lifted the gun’s barrel to it. “This is the galleon’s core. Time to go to work.” Both of them released a cluster of seeking missiles at the machine, while firing at it with their archwing guns. Tiny explosions formed along the core, followed by cracks and escaping steam. Soon, even the ceiling above seemed to be unable to handle the core’s damage, with bits of debris falling down and sparks shooting across the room as wires came undone. And then the machine caught on fire, portions of it blowing open to reveal a pulsing yellow inside. A group of Grineer lancers rushed in, but Velvet made quick work of them with her fluctus, shearing them all in half with just two shots. “It’s going to blow soon,” Ash said. “We should leave as quickly as we can.” “Got it.” Velvet headed for the way they had come from. “Time to go, Sunset!” “Right.” As they boosted out, Sunset turned once more and fired a single shot at the core’s center. Ember spun her back forward just in time to dodge of falling piece of metal as the core exploded, the entire room engulfing in fire almost immediately. The flight out was total chaos. Grineer forces had dropped their weapons, running or floating as fast as they could, but there was no way they were getting out alive unless they were fast like the archwings. A single dargyn stood in their way at the next turning, but Sunset and Velvet simply passed it by as it attempted to shoot them, bringing up an energy shell each to defend themselves from its bullets. Sunset looked back as the dargyn was swallowed by the expanding explosion. “Can this thing go any faster? I don’t think we’ll make it!” “We’ll make it, Sunset.” Velvet yelled beside her. Even in space, she could hear the sound of this explosion. Nothing she learned in school made sense with all this Warframe and alien stuff. “But seriously, Ash, can this go faster?” “Hold on tight!” her Tenno said. There was a flash of green and suddenly, they were flying almost two times faster, blasting down along the destroyed corridors of the galleon as the explosion behind them began to get further away. Even at high speed, their Tenno were able to dodge debris as it fell from above, fires as they burst from ruptured pipes, and even sudden turns. Whoever had built these Tenno, they were really something else. “Make a left!” And then they were out, back in the darkness of space as the entire galleon tore in half from the raging ball of fire. Sunset and Velvet turned around once their Tenno stopped their thrusters, watching as the explosion rocked another galleon beside it, sending a flaming shell of its hull into the side of the other. “Wasn’t that something…” Sunset smiled. She began taking deep breaths. It felt almost like she had run a marathon, but really, the contraption on her back did all the work, though it didn’t stop her heart from racing. The two girls shared a laugh as they thought about how close they had come to frying in there. “Remind me never to try that again…” Velvet said after they calmed down. “You don’t need to tell me.” “What, are you two tired?” Ash asked. “That was just a single galleon. There are so many more.” “I know, I know…” Sunset groaned, eyeing the rest of the fleet. “I don’t know how we’re going to manage this…” “We’ll find a way, Sunset,” Velvet encouraged. “We always do, even in our darkest moments. Don’t we?” “Yes, we do, Velvet.” Sunset watched the closest galleon. “Now the only question that remains… How are we going to take the rest of them down without trouble?” “I doubt it will be without trouble, Sunset Shimmer,” Ember said. “You won’t like what I have to say, but I think the quickest way to end this is to do what we just did in the first galleon. Destroy the core.” “I had a feeling that was our only option…” Sunset sighed and gripped her imperator rifle tightly. “Looks like we’ll be starting on the next galleon then. Anything to protect our home.” “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Velvet nodded. Just as they were about to zoom off to the enemy spacecrafts again, a shudder seemed to pass through Sunset’s whole body, like during an earthquake, but they were in space, so that couldn’t have been possible. Right? “Wait.” It was Ember’s voice in her head. “Something’s coming.” “Something?” Velvet looked around. “From where?” She got her answer three seconds later. The shocks continued to pulse out somewhere within the Grineer fleet, and then almost as abruptly as they had started, a large structure shot out into view, like it had just grown from a tiny microbe. It stood taller, much taller than any of the Grineer galleons, floating vertically in space, like some sort of giant’s head. In the center was what looked like a huge round eye, its center flaring an angry red. Sunset watched as part of it bumped into one of the galleons, knocking it off course and breaking part of its thrusters off as it continued to move. “What… is that thing?” “Balor Fomorian!” Ember alerted them. “We thought we had taken them all down before our sleep.” “I’m guessing since the Grineer weren’t extinguished, they could always build another one,” Ash added. “These things are the strongest of the strong out here in space. No battleship can withstand a Balor Fomorian’s might.” “Well, this really changes things…” Sunset watched the massive craft float towards them, the rest of the fleet moving aside to let it pass. “But we can’t let it get to Earth.” “But how can we fight this?” Velvet looked at the new ship. “I mean, fighting fearful odds is one thing, but this just looks crazy.” “What else can we do?” Sunset looked on. “Come on. We have to try.” Although it looked like it was really close, the Balor Fomorian was actually a good distance away. It took Sunset and Velvet a few minutes to actually get to it at top speed, but just when they arrived, they almost instantly regretted it. The huge eye near the center of the vessel fired a beam of red energy at them, forcing the girls to pivot around it, which then followed by the gunfire of various Grineer spacecrafts orbiting it. “What is this?” Sunset watched as the eye began to charge again. “I suggest a tactical retreat for now.” Ember took over and maneuvered Sunset away from the fleet. “Two of us alone cannot beat this. Not like this.” “What else can we do?” Sunset asked, almost to the point of frustration. If they left now, who was going to stop this thing? “The only thing we can do…” Ember sighed, if a Tenno could sigh. “We regroup and come back.” “But we have to be quick,” Ash emphasized. “It will eventually get close enough to destroy your city, or worse, your whole planet. Time isn’t on our side.” “Then why are we still floating here talking?” Velvet faced their homeworld and jetted to it. “Come on! We need to get the others and stop this thing!” Sunset nodded and flew after her. She remembered the queens and how the older one needed a human body. What happened to that? Did she still need one? Because if she did, she wouldn’t risk blowing up the whole planet, right? There were too many questions buzzing in Sunset’s head right now and there was nothing she could do about any of them, at least not yet. First, she would have to find the rest of her friends. And hope she can make it in time.