"Again!" Morgan's voice echoed in one of the Skyspear's repair holds. As his ketch didn't have a full load of spider-walkers as other Eliksni ketches might, he'd had the spare hold turned into a training room, where he ran some of the newer Lights through their paces, and had his crew spar and work on team building. There were a few catwalks blocked off behind some shielding, where off-duty crew could watch on; the Skiffblades were clustered together, chittering amongst themselves as they looked on at the spar below. A few other crew members were hanging out on the catwalks as well.
Soap punched the mat as he got back to his feet, his broad, unlined face flushed with frustrated anger. A recently-Risen Titan, his dark brown hair was bound back in a wolf-tail and his dark green eyes flashed as he squared up again. Neither he nor Morgan were wearing armor, just lightweight athletic wear as they circled one another. Soap squared up, fists raised, then feinted right, feinted left, then ducked under Morgan's jab as he grabbed the older Titan around the waist, trying to heave him up and off his feet.
But the veteran Guardian planted his feet, pistoning his elbow down toward Soap's head, rocking him, then gripped his arms and pivoted with his hips, hurling the younger man onto his back, then driving his fist into Soap's skull. He stood and paced away. "Again!"
This time Soap came blitzing in with Arc-infused speed, and Morgan had to answer in kind to bring his defense to bear as the younger Titan's fists and elbows and feet came flying at him in a flurry of blows. The Skyspear's captain ducked a headbutt, then cracked him with his elbow, spinning Soap around. Morgan grabbed him around the waist and lifted him up and backward, intending to drive him head-first to the floor, but to his surprise, Soap broke free of his grip, flipping backward over him and landing on his feet. He had just enough time to see Soap's foot catch him in the side of the head before he laced his fingers together and brought both hands down in a heavy hammer-blow to his face.
Morgan laughed as he got back up. "That's the way to do it!" He spat some blood for a moment before he healed up. "Though I'm quite sure we agreed fisticuffs only, no powers."
"In a proper fight, there are no rules," Soap replied, a little winded, before tensing, expecting a rebuke.
Instead, Morgan laughed again and clapped him on the shoulder. "Hear that?" he called to the onlookers. "He's learning!" Then he flash-froze Soap with a burst of Stasis before grabbing the frozen Titan and propelling him upward with a leap, before turning and plunging him back down with a Thundercrash. Stasis shards and crackling Arc energy went careening around the hull, before Soap's Ghost rezzed him. As it was, the younger Titan lay there groaning.
Morgan leaned over him, hands on his hips. "Never lower your guard, kid."
A whistle from above drew their eyes up, where Luna had arrived. "Morgan! We--"
"Captain Morgan," he corrected her.
She paused, rolled her eyes, then said, "Captain, we're coming up on Savaria. Near as we can tell, Val'aug doesn't know we're here."
He nodded, then helped Soap to his feet. "Eyeball," he addressed his Ghost. "Tannoy up." There was a tone over the in-ship comms. "All hands, we're approaching the Brute's lair. Weather eyes out, keep watch for alarms and traps. Assignments to follow. Captain, out."
He turned to Soap. "I'm expecting you and our Cabal fellows to defend the ship against counter-attack."
Soap frowned. "I can help."
"Next lair we find, you might do," Morgan assured him. "But today, I want you to make sure nothing gets on board this ketch unless they're part of our crew. Can you do that?"
The new Light tried not to let his disappointment show. "Aye, Captain."
Morgan clapped him on both shoulders, looking him in the eye. "I understand wanting to prove yourself, Soap. You'll get your chance. But sometimes you gotta get through the grit to get to the glimmer. Today, it's the grit."
"Aye, Captain."
He sent him off to find Bezel and Trask, then had Eyeball transmat in his armor. He loaded his shotgun as he headed up to the bridge. There, he found the rest of his crew's Guardian contingent assembling. "Arion, Rev, you're with me. All snipers-- you're on overwatch and lookout. Figure it out among yourselves who's watching which vectors. Skiffblades will work with our defense team to guard the ship."
The quilled Servitor warbled by the conn. One of the ketch's Eliksni crewmates, a broad-shouldered cove with a collection of bladed weaponry on his belt, turned. "SCUR-V says no alarms from the enemy, Captain. We've got the drop on them."
"Thanks, Tren. You and V coordinate any defense necessary from here." Morgan loaded up his auto rifle and nodded. "Right. Eyeball, tannoy." Again, the tone over the comms. "All hands, ready your stations. These pirates want to attack our allies' supply lines, but now we're going to kick their front door in. First of many pirate raids, lads! Let's be about it."
~*~*~*~*~*~
There hadn't been many defense installations around the Brute's lair. But as the Skyspear hoved into its scanner range, they could see the pirate's crew turning out, beginning to take up positions on the asteroids around 64974 Savaria. The ketch bombarded a few of them as Morgan and his team transmatted down. "As discussed, gentlemen," the captain told them. "I'll draw their attention. You flank them."
The other two nodded and split off as Morgan charged ahead, leaping over the edge of the asteroid, letting Arc spark off his armor as he dropped down to another rock, leaping onward toward the lair. The pirates saw him coming and the air filled with bullets and grenades, trying to take him down. A large Eliksni pirate hefted a shrapnel cannon to its shoulder, but Morgan lunged to one side as the first salvo reached him, hurling a flashbang in front of the defending pirates.
The glare from the flashbang allowed Morgan to charge into their midst, scattering several with a blast of Arc from a shoulder charge, as Arion-5 came from the side, gunning down several more with a hand cannon. A separate pack of Eliksni began to move back toward the side tunnels from which they'd deployed, but as they turned to flee, they found the forbidding glare of the Stag waiting for them. Screams briefly rang out before Revenant-19 tore through them with Void and shotgun fire.
The three Guardians reconvened in front of the hatch leading into the pirate hideout. "Arion, you have Splicer training, yeah?" Morgan inquired. When the Hunter confirmed it, he tossed over the skeleton key he'd gotten from the Drifter. "Get us inside, we'll cover in case anyone's left."
But it didn't take long for Arion to get the door open with the skeleton key. "This thing's amazing," Arion remarked, tossing it back to Morgan. "Remind me to take a look at it later, see if I can get or make one of my own."
"Priority is taking out Val'aug," Morgan reminded them as they went inside. "Take out the leader, the crew's going to flee."
"Should probably take them out anyway," Revenant advised. "They'll just end up flying another crew's banner. These Fallen aren't going to suddenly convert and join House Light, or they'd have already done so. Same for the Cabal, they're deserters, even Caiatl won't welcome them back."
"Maybe," Morgan agreed. "But I have enough blood on my hands, rather not add more if there's any avoiding it."
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Lights breached bunker!" Val'aug, the legion-less Cabal known as "The Brute" turned as one of the Eliksni vandals in her crew came in, speaking in broken Ulurant. Like most of her crew, the Eliksni had dropped whatever banners they'd worn previously to adopt her new standard-- a broken double squared-arch in white and gray over a scarlet field, reflecting her erstwhile company of the Red Legion.
Val'aug growled as she began to load her slug launcher. "Then stop them! Or do I have to do everything around here?!" She shoved the vandal back out, turning back to the holoprojector in her quarters. "Seems you were right. The Guardians are here."
Eramis nodded grimly back to her. "I warned you they would come for you. They will never let us live in peace." She spoke in the common tongue spoken by mankind, they only language they both spoke with any commonality.
The Cabal snarled. "Then I'll do what you couldn't, and stamp out these Lights. Then we can talk about my little trinket."
The Kell of Darkness's eyes narrowed. "You will deliver the relic to me. The Witness demands it."
Val'aug slammed the breach of her cannon closed, priming it. "The relic is mine by right of proving and conquest! If you want it, I demand recompense, Eramis."
"Eramiskel," she hissed.
"Kell of what? Your House is shattered, driftling. You are in no position to demand I give you anything without asking for payment!" Val'aug picked up a jar-like container, encrusted with muck and which gleamed with a strange luster. "The only way you're going to get my trinket otherwise is from my cold, dead hands."
"Yes," Eramis sighed. "I suspect that's true."
She cut the feed from her end, but Val'aug had already attached the trinket to her belt, picking up her helmet. As she fastened in in place, the Brute stomped out of her quarters to go deal with the Guardians, scarcely hearing the whisper that crawled through her mind.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Eyes up," Revenant warned. "Psion snipers."
Arion-5 snapped in a fresh magazine to his sniper rifle. "I got 'em." The Exo Hunter did not flinch as headhunter rounds went whizzing past his head, cracking off two shots and taking down two snipers. "Looks like they're sealing the next hatch, and got two captains guarding it."
"They're mine." Revenant blasted a rushing legionary with his shotgun, then summoned up his Penumbral Staff, sending two bursts of Stasis at the captains, freezing them both in place, just in time for Morgan to crash into the hatch with an eruption of Arc lightning.
The hatch crumpled under the force of the collision, and Morgan kicked it open before hurling a flashbang through it. "Eyes down!" he warned the other two Guardians, before the flashbang burst and blinded the pirates within. Arion dashed in behind it, hand cannon barking and flinging a burning knife into the throat of a Cabal centurion that tried to bellow the crew into formation. As it fell choking, Revenant Blinked into their midst and blasted them with Void Light, scattering them into atoms.
The room they'd emerged into was a large communal space. To Morgan's eye, it resembled a number of Eliksni hab structures he'd seen, including the one that had been built in the Tangled Shore, housing Spider's bar. This one lacked many of the fixtures and furnishings, but it had been filled with a great deal of plunder-- glimmer, silver, other treasures, including what looked to be castellum-gold. That, in Morgan's opinion, showed a lot of brass, to have stolen from the former Cabal Emperor's personal barge.
More of the pirates were here, wearing the scarlet of the Brute's standard, quickly spreading out and finding cover behind the piles of treasure, finding positions to prevent the Guardians from seeking cover. Not that Morgan, Arion, or Rev were looking for it. The Hunter lobbed a seeker grenade over one pile, sending psions and dregs scurrying off. The Warlock simply Blinked around another one, where his shotgun boomed. Morgan surveyed the scattered trails of gold and dropped a pulse grenade on top of one, the metal conducting the electrical charge into the piles, shocking more crew hiding behind them.
Then there was an echoing thud of titanic feet landing, as a large Cabal colossus dropped from another hatch. Val'aug rose to her full height, teeth showing in a scowl. "Lightbearers! You have until the count of one to get out before I kill you all!"
"The count of one?" Arion frowned. "That doesn't seem--"
"One!" The Brute swung her cannon around, and it boomed as it began spitting high-speed projectiles in their direction. Morgan brought his auto rifle around, bullets spraying off the colossus's armor, before Val'aug pumped a fist, sending a cluster of blinding rockets in his direction. The Titan dove for cover as the cannon started firing toward him, allowing Revenant-19 to throw a grenade toward the pirate lord.
Val'aug roared in agony as the singularity grenade tore at her armor and flesh, leaving livid red scars across her body, but as they watched, a relic on her belt seemed to pulse with a wicked luster. The Cabal squared her shoulders as a spherical shield formed around her, deflecting all of their fire. Before their eyes, blackened, fibrous material crawled into the Cabal's scarred flesh, knitting it together, before the same material wove her armor back together. A thick loop of the fibers formed from her shoulders, like a perverse halo, framing her head as the barrier dropped.
"Great. She can generate a barrier shield," Morgan muttered as he reloaded his auto rifle. "Rev? Anything you got that can--"
"Didn't bring any anti-barrier mods with me," the grizzled Warlock interrupted. "Didn't think we'd need them."
"Arion?"
"Same, captain," the Hunter replied. "But I have an idea. Keep her distracted?"
Morgan glanced around as more of the Brute's crew rushed into the room. "I can do that. Rev, take care of the crew?"
The former Iron Lord nodded. "On it." He drew the Void around himself, before warping around the room, scattering the crew and preventing an effective defense. This drew their fire, while Morgan took out his heavy grenade launcher, emptying its magazine toward the pirate leader to draw the Cabal's angered glare.
"Come on, you tuskless bitch!" Morgan shouted as he thumped a fresh drum of ammo into the launcher. "You think you can take me?"
Val'aug bellowed a challenge, sending another salvo of rockets toward him, but this time Morgan threw up his barricade to blunt their effectiveness, pulling on Solar Light as he hurled a flaming hammer toward the Brute's head. The colossus grunted as it knocked her helmet askew, but she just slammed it back into position before firing toward Morgan, the fibrous halo glowing with the same Dark luster as the relic on her belt.
The same relic that Arion-5's sniper shot knocked from his belt.
The Brute turned as she heard the jar clatter to the ground, but her sharp turn toward it caused her foot to kick it across the floor, sending it careening off the piles of treasure. The pirate lord started to charge after it, shoving aside her own crew as they scrambled to keep up with the Guardians that were gunning them down, grimacing as she felt the Dark fibers twisting against her flesh and bones. She paused as she saw the Titan raising his grenade launcher again, and began firing her cannon toward him again.
This sent Morgan behind cover again, but then the Warlock materialized in front of her, eyes pitilessly glaring from behind the skull of the Stag, and knocked the Brute against the wall with a blast of Void. Val'aug squared his shoulders, calling upon the power he'd felt to summon forth the barrier again-- then grunted as a spear forged of Arc Light slammed into her chest, pinning her in place. She roared with pain as the electricity discharged into her, until nothing filled her armor but charred flesh. The fibrous halo disintegrated as the Brute fell limp.
Morgan nodded to Arion-5. "Nice throw," he congratulated the Hunter. He glanced around, seeing the remainder of the pirate's crew fleeing from the room. "I think that's that finished. Eyeball, raise the ketch." The comm warbled as his Ghost made the connection. "Captain to Skyspear. The Brute is dead. Send over the crew so we can pillage the treasure."
To the two Guardians with him, he said, "If you see anything that strikes your fancy, better grab it now before we divvy up the loot." Morgan frowned at the relic that had fallen from the Brute's belt. "That thing's mine, though."
"Hey, I'm the one that shot it off," Arion interjected. "I should get it."
"Captain's privilege," Morgan returned. "I'll give you half my cut to make up for it."
He picked the relic up, holding it by the ring-like handle at the top. He wasn't the best at sensing energies, not like some Guardians were, but even he could sense the Darkness dripping off the thing. He wasn't sure what it was, but he could think of a few people back home that might express some interest in finding out for him.
He started back toward the entrance of the pirate's lair to lead his crew to the treasure haul, scarcely hearing the whisper crawling over his mind.
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