Vestibulum
Lorem
"Hey, water boy, hand me the phone. Brim, Harbor gave you the deets, hm? Look, Hourglass kills scientist instead of kidnapping them. And they try to leave no witnesses to their journal. And now THIS with the Nexus? This is about erasing information! Keeping it from the public! That place the journal describes? It will show us how deep this goes. Of this, I am certain."
Lorem
"Hey boss, I spoke with our new friend. Wanted to know more about uh. Where they go when their soul takes a break. Nothing like the astral plane-o. I checked our database and at my small collection of guardian records there. As far as I can tell, immortality is not rare in radiants. It is unprecedented. Hm. They worry me. That there power it's a blessing now... But later... Chale... I'm not so sure."
Ut
"Boss, where are you? Come on now, the food's ready and the fam's all here, you know they're not gonna wait for you and they're not gonna save you a plate. Team potluck dinner and you're the last one I gotta track down, are you serious? The world won't die tonight, so put down those reports and move."
Ut
Participants:
Skye, Astra, and Harbor are heard running through a forest-like environment.
"Astra, Harbor, how we looking?"
"We're almost there."
"The Atlas troops are gaining on us!"
"Course they are. Hold up!"
The agents come to a halt. Skye activates her healing trinket.
"How far to the lost city? Any chance we outrun 'em?"
"It's too far, we need a contingency plan."
"Whatcha got?"
"We'll hold them here."
"There's no time, we must move!"
"Right. You two keep going, I'll stay here, slow 'em down."
"Are you sure?"
"Only you two can open the gate. No wukkas, I'll handle it!"
"Go, good luck!"
"Be safe, Skye."
"Ah, you know me..."
Astra and Harbor continue on their journey, leaving Skye. Skye takes a deep breath in and out. Motorbikes can be heard approaching. Skye takes cover.
"This way, stay sharp."
"Sweeping the area."
"Keep it tight, keep it tight."
Skye begins silently eliminating Atlas troops without them being able to raise an alarm.
"Perimeter control I said keep it tight! If I can't see you you're too far. Where the hell'd you go?"
Skye creates a Tasmanian tiger summon and sends it forward.
speaking into his radio "Field command, this is Titan lead, I've lost eyes-"
The squad leader is brought down by the tiger. Skye executes them with a Phantom.
"Titan lead? Titan lead, come in. Sector 7 ground units, Titan lead is not responding, check the position?"
"Roger, approaching now."
The Atlas troops can be heard walking by.
"Titan lead, you there?"
"Can't see crap out here. "
"Wait a minute. Shit, got a body here."
Skye creates a hawk summon.
"Titan lead down, call in-"
Skye commands the hawk to explode. She engages and brawls with the three troops, eliminating them with a knife, Phantom, and the last one with a shot from a Sheriff.
"in the distance Shots fired, shots fired!"
"Call it out!"
"West, sector 7!"
"Sector 7, we hear shots fired, report. Sector 7 ground, report in."
"Yeah, that's gonna be a problem."
"Who is this? Identify."
"Why don't you come and find out, mate?"
"Alpha contact, sector 7! All units respond, I repeat, Alpha con-"
Skye crushes the radio.
"Should buy 'em some time. "
More motorbikes can be heard approaching. Skye starts shooting down the incoming troops with an Ares. Some are heard exclaiming "over there-" and "get her out-" before they are shot down.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Skye creates seeker summons to chase after the Atlas troops.
"Kill them, kill them!"
The last remaining troops in the area are taken down. Skye picks up one of the motorbikes and hops on.
"Thanks for the ride."
"The ATV, she's on the run!"
Skye rides away on the bike, more Atlas troops in pursuit.
"RPG, bring her down!"
An RPG is fired at Skye.
"Oh, shit!"
The blast knocks Skye off the bike. She picks herself up, screams in rage, and opens fire with the Ares, killing all troops in the area until the magazine goes empty.
"Hmm"
A helicopter is heard approaching.
"You got to be kidding! Argh!"
She begins running as the helicopter opens fire on her position.
"Bloody hell!"
"She's heading for the waterfall!"
Gunfire continues.
"Don't let her jump, get her"
Skye successfully makes the jump and lands in the water below. She pulls herself to the surface and then to shore, exhausted.
"Harbor...Astra...you owe me. "
Vestibulum
"Brimstone, can you hear this? Hope so. Sending comms to the other side is not easy. We made it out of Portugal, but they are on us, these Atlas force are all over the place. We split up, I drew them away from Skye and Water-boy. We'll work through Europe then regroup. No sign of Legion yet, could be very good or very bad. But we'll make it, I promise you. Just wish us luck, okay? Okay."
Vestibulum
Participants:
"And this is our research wing, you and I are going to spend a lot of time here."
"Hehe. At least it's near the kitchen."
"Now, that artifact. Let's have a look."
"Huuuh. Right here?"
"Chale. The time for traps has come and gone. No one is after your bracelet here. Trust me."
"I hope not. It's such a small thing, but there's so much power in it. I don't even know how."
"I do. See these engravings carved along the inside?"
"Yes m'am. I ran them against every record in the world linguistic archive. No matches."
"Because the script is not of Earth. It's in the language of The Guardians."
"The Guardians? So they're real..."
"Yes."
"And you can read it?"
"Only some. I am still learning."
"What do you recognize? Any touchstone words?"
"Guardian, flo-wer, gift, key."
"Key? I'd love to find a lock."
"Perhaps... Legion already has."
"What do you mean?"
"The knowledge left for me is vague. Incomplete. But the lock, I think it's a place. Something called "This Nexus", a lost city built by The Guardians. I could never find it."
"Because it's gone."
"Gone? Please explain."
"At REALM, I studied the city of flowers. Even tracked it down with a map we pulled out of Gulf of Khambhat. When I got there, well, it wasn't pretty."
"Ruined?"
"Worse. Decimated. Sabotaged. I couldn't even get close."
"Sabotaged by who?"
"I don't know. I'm sorry."
"Destroyed on Alpha. What about Omega? Maybe it's still there."
"Maybe and if Omega me activates this Nexus..."
"That is a question for Killjoy. Why don't we pay her a visit? Bring the relic."
"Yes m'am."
Vestibulum
"Brimstone, I didn't know before, but now I'm sure. This is the one. It has to be. Every mention of the artifact is a match. And if this runaway can use it, game-changer. So we must hurry chale. Our waterboy is out of time. REALM is too close, they're gonna get him. They cannot, it has to be us."
Ut
"Fade says you spoke to REALM. So this guy's a man on the run? A thief? Huh. The universe never makes it easy. And now these REALM people want to shut you out? "Stay out of our business" - they said that as if they're gonna tell you what to do. I like making friends, but not this time. We gotta find this fugitive before they do. We wanna know what Legion's up to. He's the key."
Vestibulum