Chaos.
That single word was enough to describe the current state that the Awoken of the Vestian Outpost were left in. Multiple corsairs were either gravely injured or worse, and much of the reef was left in disarray. Though, to the Queen of the Awoken, she was furious. Furious to the point that she wanted to know two things.
Who did this… and why?
As she watched from her balcony above the outpost alongside the company of her brother-in-law and advisor, Novo soon heard the sound of footsteps echo towards her position and turned around as she watched one corsair approach her. Yet, this one was different than the others. Her face wasn’t concealed by that of the standard corsair attire and her teal hair drifted off to the side of her head.
For this one was special. She was the emissary of the Queen and the commander of the Royal Awoken Guard. But most importantly… she was the Queen’s Wrath.
“My queen,” the emissary addressed her, kneeling at the presence of her ruler as Novo and Stratus approached her, “We’ve received a message from the warden of the Prison of Elders and the corsairs that were stationed at the border of the reef…”
“And?” the queen spoke, waiting for the emissary to finish her sentence.
“Both of them have confirmed the identity of the assailants who attacked the Vestian Outpost,” the awoken continued as she lifted her head and looked towards her queen directly, “They were the Eliksni from the House of Wolves, and the attack was orchestrated by the Kell that leads their house, Skolas.”
At first, those words caught Novo by surprise. Yet, as the gravity of the situation began to set in, her anger began to rise. When her people originally found those stragglers, they were quick to make a deal. Saving their lives in exchange for their servitude. But this… this was more than just a mere act of defiance. It was an act of rebellion.
No… It was an act of Betrayal.
“My queen, what are your orders?”
At first, the only response to the emissary’s question was silence. Silence that lingered with each passing second as the emissary rose from her kneeling position on the floor and stood at attention. Watching as the queen looked over the carnage that happened in her outpost as she gathered her thoughts.
“After everything that we’ve done for them… this is how they choose to repay my generosity,” the words were brimming with rage as Novo turned back to look towards her emissary and her advisor, “There is only one thing that we can do. They will know what it's like to feel my wrath.”
“Your grace,” Stratus soon interjected, “Are you sure you want to reach out to… them? This is none of their concern-”
“Them?” the emissary then asked, “Stratus, with all due respect, who are you referring too?”
The advisor turned towards the queen, who just briefly nodded her head. A sign for Stratus to continue speaking and to answer the emissary’s question, “Some time ago, a group of Guardians came to the Reef and asked for our help in finding the Black Garden. Surprisingly, they didn’t back away and run. They accomplished the task that we assigned them and in exchange, we asked for them to answer our call if our people need aid.”
“So they owe us a favor?” the emissary’s question was answered with a simple nod of the head from the advisor, before she asked another one, “Then why are you hesitant?”
Before Stratus had a chance to speak, Novo beat him to it, “Your uncle has a strong distaste towards lightbearers,” the queen explained, before looking to the emissary, “But… even so, our people are in need. Not only that, we need to make the wolves know what happens when you invoke my wrath… Skystar.”
“Yes my queen,” the emissary immediately responded to her queen, “What are your orders?”
At first, Novo was quiet… yet, when she spoke, each one of her words were fueled by her anger and rage towards the House of Wolves. “Open the Reef to the Guardians and send a message to the one named Sunset Shimmer. Offer the riches of our realm as bounty for these traitors… Let the hunt begin.”
Elsewhere…
“And that’s one Cabal commander we no longer need to worry about anymore!” I watched Indigo proclaim triumphantly as Mac and I regrouped with the Bladedancer. It had been more than a week or so since the raid where we killed Crota and since then, we’ve been busier than ever. Not just with completing bounties, harvesting resources and competing in the Crucible (much to Thunderlane’s enjoyment), but also being assigned on strike operations that Commander Sentry assigned to us.
Such as the case for what we were finishing up on Mars. According to Commander Sentry, because of our actions in our pursuit for the Black Garden, we stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. So, we needed to make sure that the odds were in our favor. This led to our fireteam having to charge straight into a massive land tank and take out the Commander in charge.
Even though killing the commander was in itself a challenge, Indigo didn’t exactly think of it that way, “Man, for being their commander, I thought they would be more of a challenge,” she sighed, before looking back to us, “I mean, what did Flash say was his name again?”
“Valus Ta’aurc,” I answered as I let out a sigh and placed my Oversoul Edict on my back, “And if anything, he was a challenge Indigo. Hell, he was pelting us with rocket fire for several minutes and for some time, we couldn’t even make a dent in his armor while Mac and I were forced to stick behind cover.”
“Ehh, honestly, he was nothing more than a pushover. I mean, who else would have their own troops do the work for you?”
“Um, every commanding leader,” Mac deadpanned, “Did ya forget the fallen that we had to fight in the Devils Lair when we had to kill Sepiks Prime?”
“… Fair point.”
Before I had the chance to interject, that was when I heard Ray speak up, “Sunset, not to disturb you or anything, but you got a transmission on your ship that needs to be heard.”
When I first heard that, I originally thought it was a message from someone that was at the Tower, like Commander Sentry, Twilight or Rainbow-6, but I couldn’t entirely be too sure because none of them were they type to spontaneously contact us out of the blue… well, Rainbow was a maybe, but I don’t quite think it was her. “Ray, where is the transmission coming from?”
“I’m double checking and tracing the location of the message right now-” for a minute, Ray stopped speaking. It was something that was a bit unexpected, because my Ghost wasn’t one for interrupting himself while he was speaking. Yet, this silence did not last long as he soon picked up right where he left off. Going as far as to materialize right in front of me, “We need to get back to our ship. Right… now.”
“Hold up. Why exactly do we need to do that?” Mac then asked.
“I traced the origin of the message… It’s from the Reef.”
In the moments after getting word from Ray about the message we received, all of us immediately returned to our ships as we were in Orbit over Mars. If this message was from the Reef, then it could possibly mean only one thing. Since the Awoken helped us with finding the Black Garden on Mars, it only meant that it was time to return the favor.
“Ray, play the message.”
My ghost nodded, disappearing into the navigation console of the ship as he began to play the new audio transmission that was waiting for us.
Guardian, or should I say, Sunset Shimmer. This is Skystar; Emissary of Queen Novo and Commander of the Queen’s Wrath. We have an urgent matter that needs to be discussed and the Queen believes that you and your Fireteam are capable for such a task.
Earlier today, we were betrayed by a foe that our queen originally showed mercy too. The Eliksni House of Wolves. Many of our corsairs and other personnel were killed in their act of rebellion and now, Queen Novo wants them to pay for their traitorous actions.
In light of these events, we are now opening the Reef to all visitors. I will be providing the coordinates to the Vestian Outpost with this message. If you can assist us with hunting these traitors, my queen will reward you with the riches of our realm as bounty.
Let the Hunt Begin.
After the message ended, there was a brief pause, followed by a notification on my navigation system about a new location being added. Vestian Outpost, The Reef. There wasn’t anything in particular that I heard from Indigo or Mac. So instead, I took the initiative. “Well, I guess it's time to repay that favor.”
“Hold on a second,” I heard Indigo speak, “We’re actually going to help them? It sounds like their own damn fault for trusting the Fallen.”
“Indigo, don’t you remember what Novo originally said?” I now asked her, “We are to come when her people are in need of aid. I say this qualifies as that.”
“Ah agree,” we heard Mac speak up now, “She expects an answer from us, Indigo. We willingly agreed to this. Going back on this is going back on our word and Guardians are always supposed to help those in need.”
“The ‘last’ guardian that told me she would come when I would need aid left me on my own to fend for myself in the Cosmodrome to fend for myself,” the Bladedancer grit her teeth, “I’ve only been getting used to helping others after you had me join your fireteam.”
That… was a bit to take in. Especially with how sudden and unexpected that was. It wasn’t like Indigo to go into personal details, so hearing this caught me off guard. Still though, we had a duty to fulfill. Not just as Guardians, but as representatives of the city. “I… am sorry to hear about that, Indigo. But like Mac said, Novo expects us to respond. We need to show her that we will not ignore her or her people when they’re needing our help,” shortly afterwards, I turned towards the navigation console of my ship and began to speak to Ray. “Set course for the Vestian Outpost.”
“Right away, Sunset,” he said, shortly before all of our ships began to accelerate into space.
Upon approaching the Reef, we began to see the carnage that was left behind. Pieces of Awoken vessels, the same ones that once escorted us into the reef, were now torn to shreds and floating throughout the reef. The supplies that were on those ships were also scattered everywhere, along with the bodies of Awoken corsairs that had yet to be retrieved as we were getting closer to the hangar bay of the Outpost.
The outpost itself looked to have taken a lot of damage to its interior as well as its exterior. Though, upon transmatting in, we could still see a few other things that immediately stood out. There frames like the ones in the tower that handled the mail and the bounty board, an awoken that has the same clothes as Moondancer from the Tower and a strange human that wore a set of robes that obscured its face, but the robes and the imagery in the background reminded me of the pictures I’ve seen of Starswirl the Bearded back in Equestria.
But, they were not the only ones who caught our attention. Instead, it was someone else entirely, “Well now, you must be the Guardians the queen told me about. Got to say, I didn’t think you would respond to our summons so quickly.”
The voice belonged to another Awoken and matched the one we heard on the transmission. Yet, this one was much different than the others. Most Awoken corsairs that were standing guard wore black garments and kept their faces hidden. But this particular Awoken wore dark violet clothes that were similar to the corsairs and actually showed her face. Her teal colored hair was drifted off to the left side of her face as her right eye focused on us. Yes, I said eye as singular, because her left eye was covered by a patch.
“Would you happen to be Skystar by chance?”
The Awoken responded at first with a nod of her head, before she began tossing around the knife she had on hand. “Indeed I am. You must be Sunset Shimmer,” she paused for a moment, before looking behind me at where Indigo and Mac were standing, “I apologize, but I don’t think I quite got your names.”
“To be fair, the queen never asked for our names when we saw her,” the titan retorted, “Ah’m Big Macintosh, but everyone ah know just calls me Mac.”
“And I’m Indigo Zap,” The hunter now spoke up as she folded her arms and looked back at Skystar, “So, what do you need for us to do exactly?”
“Itching to get into the field now, are we?” the emissary asked as she let out a small chuckle, “I know the feeling. But before we do that, we should brief you on the situation. As well as introduce you to someone who will be helping us.”
That part got me a bit curious as I look back at Skystar. But before I could say anything, the three of us turned around at the sound of a new voice. Yet, none of us expected for the person that was to help us to not be an Awoken. In fact, given the circumstances, it was honestly the last thing we thought would be helping us.
“Well now… You must be the Guardians… that will hunt down… the wolves, yes?”
At first, none of us said anything, but that only lasted for a few moments as Indigo turned towards Skystar, “Hold on, I thought your message said that the Fallen were the ones who attacked you? What’s this one doing here?”
The eyes of the fallen moved towards Indigo, glaring at her as it spoke again. “I am not… with the Wolves. I am… Variks, the Loyal… of House Judgement. Warden… of the Prison… of Elders.”
“Variks remains loyal to my queen and to us as well,” Skystar assured us, “He is an essential ally to assist us with our hunt, and he watches over the Prison of Elders, where the Awoken keep the most dangerous criminals in the system locked up.”
That… was new. In the last few months of being a guardian, I have fought against four different alien species, traveled to several planets, ripped out the black garden’s heart and killed the son of a hive god. But this is honestly the first time that I have heard of what would be considered as a space prison.
Around then though was when my ghost materialized in front of me, before looking towards Skystar, “I’m sorry for abruptly interrupting, but I have a couple of questions that I would like to ask.”
Skystar herself turned towards Ray, looking rather surprised, “Well, I was wondering when one of your ghosts would introduce themselves,” the emissary replied, “What would you like to ask?”
“Well, first and foremost, what are these ‘wolves’ I hear Variks speak of?” Ray asked, before looking to me, “And Second, what is the Prison of Elders? I’m only vaguely familiar with the name, but not its purpose.”
Skystar was quick to respond as she looked back at an awoken terminal. One that looked to have a map of the solar system projecting from it. “The Wolves are an abbreviated way of referring to the Fallen House of Wolves. Thanks to Variks, we know of numerous other houses with different names, so we are referring to these particular fallen by the name of their house.”
With a quick swipe of her fingers, the projection changed as we looked at a giant spire that was floating in the reef. We were also looking at areas that appeared to be inside the prison that seemed to be holding… wait… are those Cabal? Fallen? Hive and Vex? What the hell are they all doing there?
“This is the Prison of Elders,” we heard Skystar begin to explain, “It’s a maximum security facility where we imprison the most dangerous criminals in the solar system that have committed crimes against the Awoken. Variks is the warden, as he has already informed you, but now is not the time to be discussing about that.”
Ah right. The Wolves.
“Since you will be helping us, the Royal Awoken Guard will provide the tools and supplies that you will need to hunt down the wolves. We will also be issuing out a message to the Tower as well as provide bounties on key Fallen Targets, where removing them from the picture will cripple their forces,” Skystar told us, before turning towards Variks as he walked over right next to her, “But first, before you arrived, Variks had a breakthrough in searching for the Wolves current location.”
“Indeed…” We now heard the Warden speak, his voice echoing like a low-pitched cackle, “Wolves on Venus… Kell with them too.”
“Excellent,” Skystar smiled, “Provide us the coordinates for where you found them. It’s time for the hunt to begin.” It was not the words that she said that caught my attention though, but her tone of voice. Almost as if she was eagerly anticipating the chance to get started.
“You seem pretty excited,” Indigo remarked.
“You have no idea,” Skystar remarked, shortly before the three of us transmatted onto our ships as the coordinates for Venus began to show up on our navigation console. As we prepared to leave the Reef, we heard Skystar patch in to our comline.
“Guardians, I can’t wait to work with your fireteam. Personally, it’s been a long time since I was last in the field, so it feels great to be back,” we heard her speak, “Even if it's just on coms.”
“We’re glad to have you,” I replied, “Now, is there anything you can tell us before we touch down? That way we have some kind of idea as to what we’re getting into?”
“Certainly,” she replied back, “The House of Wolves are led by Skolas, the last of their kells. Based on the information that Variks has provided, it appears that Skolas wants to take control of the Fallen House on Venus, the House of Winter. By killing their leaders, he’ll be able to take control of their troops and add them to his ranks… But with your help, we’ll stop them cold.”
