Planet: 5687-C
Location: Ramsey County - North Dakota, United States of America.
Time: [REDACTED] - 3 days since the last encounter with the “Four Horsemen.”
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Cassian Whitlock had always enjoyed learning about the natural state of the universe. So much so, that when he was given the opportunity to teach others what he knew, he leapt for it. He had always felt that his stature and build betrayed his love for the Sciences. Cassian stood at a healthy Six foot eight, and while he wasn’t necessarily the most buff man on the planet, he packed on a healthy amount of muscle. He was a teacher, so he more often than not opted for simple grey jeans accompanied by a blue tartan shirt. His peppered brown hair cut short, a pair of half rim glasses sitting at the end of his nose. He was, overall, rather unassuming. He had eventually worked his way up from teaching general science at a highschool level, to being a professor at Kukui University, the most prestigious school in the entire state of North Dakota, and arguably the entire country.
Today his hair seemed even more peppered than usual, his stress obviously shown by the bags under his eyes. It was exam season, and his students were comically unprepared, despite the fact they all engaged well with his lessons.
He stood at the front of his lecture hall. Today he was lecturing second year undergrad students reading the particle physics course. He was halfway through his lecture - having written several notes and formulas on many of the sliding chalkboards, “...and so we have the Bosons, otherwise known as the ‘force carriers’. It is the reason why electromagnetism occurs, which is thanks to the photon. It is also the cause of weak nuclear force which the ‘Z and W Bosons’ carry, an example of such force is the particle decay process. Then there’s the strong nuclear force that the gluon carries, a force that binds protons and neutrons to become the nucleus that is the atom; hence the ‘glue’ in the name.” he punctuated, drawing examples of the forces. He flipped a few pages on his notebook and moved to a blank chalkboard, “As of right now, that’s how our universe and reality is fundamentally built…” he stated, drawing a chart of the standard model of particle physics. “The twelve particles of matter; the quarks and the leptons, and the force carriers. Although there's been words that this may change in a few years, and that's in no short order thanks to a theory about another particle that would explain why certain particles have mass… It's currently called the Higgs Boson-” Cassian suddenly stopped for a brief moment, as he took notice of a peculiar looking figure that stood out in the upper rows of the lecture hall. He fumbled a bit, “...We’ll get into the Higgs Boson after this short break.” he exclaimed, with an excited clap of his hands.
The class began to trail out of the hall, many among them mumbling and muttering about how much they had to remember, and how hard they thought the exam would be. Cassian sighed to himself, peering back up at the upper rows. The figure was gone, but a prickling sense in the back of his mind told him that he would be seeing the boy again before long. With a tired hand, he rubbed at his eyes, and started to pack away his supplies. He supposed that it wouldn’t really hurt to cut the lecture short, he wouldn’t be able to get any more teaching done today anyway. Even so, Cassian thought that this… mysterious boy might be something that the Headmaster would like to hear about.
But he was out, so Cassian left a note instead.
“Catch ya later Cass, say hello to the missus for ezz aye?” The security guard waved at Cassian as he left, Cassian returned the gesture.
“I’ll tell her you said hello!” He called back from his car as he left.
Cassian had always hated driving home. Driving along Devil’s Lake to the city always sucked at night, especially alone. The roads that took him to his house were barren and straight, surrounded by miles upon miles of tilled and worked farmlands. The industrialisation of this planet rubbed Cassian in all the wrong ways, even using this car made him shiver, somewhere deep inside. Part of him just wanted to live on campus, the need barely tolerable on nights like these. He hated how there were no trees to blot out the sun on harsh days, no mountains to embrace his head and heart, the only thing he could rely on was the night sky, and her stars. But even that seemed dull, the air particularly cold. Something about that boy he had seen today had shaken him, he felt familiar in ways he couldn’t explain. Like a long lost relative that looked just vaguely similar to yourself, he couldn’t stop the uncanny valley creeping over his bones. The notion dug into his mind in a way that made his brain run around and around, his confusion became all encompassing, all consuming, and he lost track of time.
But it would all make sense soon.
Cassian tapped his hands on his wheel along to the tune on the radio, he could see the lights of the city of Devil’s Lake maybe a mile ahead of him. Indistinct shapes danced in his eyes as he closed the distance. He was weary from the day, and already sleep deprived; his mind rocked back and forth, his thoughts undulating in great waves. Closer and closer still he edged towards Devil’s Lake, he could almost make out… make out…
His mind wandered too much - he didn’t have time to see the humanoid shape standing in the middle of the road before he slammed into it with a hideous thud. He immediately slammed on his breaks, swerving with a consecutive line of, ‘shit shit shit shit’. Cassian kicked open his door, the metal frame shifting to accommodate the force of his leg, and began to run towards the vaguely visible form of… Cassian couldn’t figure out what the fuck he was looking at.
A solemn black robe, tattered and dirty, battered rotten bandaged wrapped hands. The air reeked of death, and decay. The musty smell shoved its way up Cassian's nose, choking his senses. He stopped running towards it, hands tightening. He gauged maybe thirty feet between them. He took a quick look around, surveying the area around him.
No tree’s, just open road and farmland - the city of Devil’s Lake wasn’t far off now, he could leave, forget this had ever happened.
But the corpse moved.
“Now that, was rather ruuuude professor,” the robes hood turned an impossible one hundred and eighty degrees, “you couldn’t have just slaaammed the breaks?” it said.
Cassian's eyes became roaring infernos, “I don’t know who it is you represent, but I’m not interested. I’d advise you to leave me alone.”
A second figure, shorter than the robe, would be on its feet, white hair and an eyepatch. Cassian clenched his teeth, the scraping echoing through his skull. The boy from his lecture had made a grand reappearance.
He uncrossed his arms, white hair shifting with the movement, “Once you find out what father has to say, I promise you’ll change your mind.”
“I don’t care,” The skin along Cassian’s began to crack, flames licking out of the now open wounds, “Leave.”
Ace braced his feet apart, raising his voice - “OverWatch returns anew and our Director calls upon you to summon the father! These are not requests you can ignore.”
The robed figure began to float, rotating in the air to face Cassian with open arms, “Your lamb reclaimed her treasure, the family must become one again. The Resistance Initiative calls upon you.”
The lamb…?
The flames along Cassian’s arms sputtered out, the glow leaving his eyes, “He will not come, no matter who calls,” he crossed his arms, flakes of steam rising, “not even for his precious… not even for her.”
The robed figure, death, landed once more - brushing dust and pebbles away, “You will try regardless.”
“The other’s will have to agree to it before anything is attempted, corpse,” Cassian huffed, smoke rising from his nostrils, “You are sure she has reclaimed her armament.”
Death laughed, joyless and hollow, “yes… yessss, she wanted to use it during our… spat. She is untested.”
If she had reclaimed it then he truly had no choice. Cassian growled deeply, the noise reverberating through the stone beneath his feet, his hand being forced annoyed him to no end - but eventually he relented, saying:
“Whatever it is you need to do to buy me the weeks I need to reach out to the others, you will do it,” Cassian smiled to himself, staring up, “Your current base of operations, where is it.”
“Resquis Academy.” Ace said, his voice unfaltering.
Cassian looked back down, frowning, “Then should all go well - we will be there,” he paused, “perhaps some are already there, watching. He will be angry with all of us for this, you realise. He will not take such intrusions lightly.”
Death clasped his hands together, “Youuuu had better hope you are persuasive then… for all of our sakes.” He began to cackle once more, before both he and Ace vanished to black dust, leaving Cassian alone to ponder his next course of action.
https://i.imgur.com/mA3AY5I.png [https://i.imgur.com/mA3AY5I.png]
Planet: 0001-C
Location: Nexus-Embla - Capital city
Time: [REDACTED] - Two weeks since last encounter with any member of the "Four Horsemen"
With his promotion, he was also placed into command of the 101st Naval Company of Sector C for a short time, before being recently picked up by first class agent Naofa Niro to work as her subordinate for her primary section of her Oppressor Fleet [https://img.wattpad.com/f78dc1184272b22e09b6eb6f4f292c26a39db489/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f66444b584e307661594f307a79673d3d2d3935373337303936322e313633373835613966383862656464383231363033373030393337392e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
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Naofas failed mission wasn't really a failure at all. The information gathered proved invaluable to the higher ups. In the ensuing chaos, High Admiral Satoru Marude - Chief of Operations in Sector C - called upon a conjoined meeting between all involved agencies. The meeting place was to be ‘Nexus-Embla’, on the capital planet of 0001-C. Over eighty officers from all branches gathered in the large conference hall. Marude, and his assistant - Rear Admiral Matthew McConnery - would preside over the meeting. Matthew was tall, his pale white hair in contrast with his blood red eyes, his hawkish features stark against his well fitting uniform.
Among those in attendance were Naofa and Kenya themselves.
Kenya began to wipe his nose on his sleeve, much to Naofa’s horror. The woman fawned over him, slapping at his arms, attempting to wipe his nose herself with a tissue. Kenya eventually relented, sighing to himself.
“You think they’re gonna call on us to speak?” The boy said, his feet up on the long table in front of him, “I reaaaaalllllllyyyyy hate talking to these guys.”
Naofa tapped her papers in front of her, reading through them with a licked finger, “Chances are I’ll be the one to speak - if we’re called on at all,” she gave him a small shrug, “If not I’ll speak anyway, there’s a lot that I didn’t have a chance to include in the reports.”
Kenya looked around at the buzzing room, secret conversations aplenty, “You’re gonna make a scene?” he stopped, looking at the papers, “You still use paper?”
Naofa gave him a sidelong glance, “Yes? I did it at home and I still do it now,” she eyed her PDA, sat to her side, “Helps me keep a concise idea of what I want to be saying - I find it easier than using the notes function.”
He laughed, picking up her PDA, “Luckily for me you still have a digital copy,” Kenya looked up as Marude raised his hand, calling for silence.
The entire room went dim, all eyes on the High Admiral
"Rebel activities have begun to spike people. Over the last four weeks Sector C has erupted.” The large screen behind him lit up, a sectoral map shown - pertaining to the sector in question. "This map shows the current status of Sector C. As you can see, the aforementioned rebel activities have proven to be organised, cohesive to a degree." As Marude said that, the map zoomed into the planet 3012-C.
"Roughly four weeks ago, an unidentified high ranking OverWatch army officer defected from their post in the city of the Sargon." Marude said, as images of the damage coming up on the screen. Two videos, one of the first squad to battle him, and one of Kenya and Naofa taking him on, were played. "Just three days after the first attack, the mining guild reported an armed uprising on 8812-C. They were led by a coal miner, who we believe has confirmed connections to the first attack, and the officer." Marude continued, the videos swapping over to images of 8812-C, the flames wreathed around buildings and people alike - the room became a series of shocked gasps. Naofa frowned deeply.
“A subsequent two weeks further, we had two instances of organised refugee movement. Both carried out by what is assumed to be this resistance cell. Although yet unconfirmed, it is again believed that both of the entities that led the refugees are connected, and even further than that, we believe they are connected to the first two instances of rebellion.” Marude clasped his hands together, considering his next set of words.
He continued;
"A wave of these refugees are said to have fled to these two locations,” A map blazed to life behind him, “One,” he waved left, “Is a small municipality in a rural state of ‘the United States of America’ the second,” he waved right “appears to be a school that's located in the same country, both situated on 5687-C." He again clasped his hands together.
Officers at the back of the conference room began mumbling to each other, aghast and confused.
"Earth? I thought that place was protected." An officer mumbled.
"The Administrator won't be pleased to hear that his favourite planet's been infected by these rebels." Another officer added.
Marude cleared his throat, silencing the room.
“This… ‘school’ - If you could even call it that - in particular, has raised many red flags within Site-88. We have a count of hundreds of refugees, criminal and otherwise, held within the confines of the building. The first three platoons sent to scout out the school were massacred,” he paused, his eyes shifting down to Naofa, “Before our First Class Agent here, managed to hold this… creature off. I assume you have something you want to add?” He said, a distasteful look in not only her direction - but that of Kenya, who had been staring at him from the moment his partner was named.
Naofa stood, her papers scattered before her - although organised in a way that she was capable of reading, the room broke out into hushed whispers, before silencing as she took in a breath. Upon exhaling the wings gracing her back fizzled away into a yellow glitter that dissipated upon falling - she didn’t want to stand out too much more than she had to.
She looked around the room, “Agent Naofa Niro - First class.” She started with an introduction, as was proper for meetings like these. Kenya, his feet still up, gave her a subtle nod, comforting her.
“Yes, we all know who you are, Missy,” He waved an idle hand, clearly annoyed by the fact she actually had something to say, “On with it, what exactly can you confirm bar what we already know?” Marude said.
Naofa could sense more than see Kenya as the boy stood, drawing attention not only to himself, but off of Naofa. She pressed on.
“Seen as both I, and my partner, were involved in the investigation of this attack - This is where I will start,” she nodded to Kenya, who swiped across her PDA - Images of a crumbled and defunct overwatch site were shown on the screen behind Marude, plumes of smoke rising from its still burning substructure.
“As many of you are aware - the attacks across the cluster aren’t the first signs of rebel activity that we’ve had recently. Nearly two months ago now, Site-7 was attacked by a group of previously unknown extremists. The Offices of Criminal Investigations… investigated as they are want to do. According to their Board of Special Investigators, and I am paraphrasing here, they thought this was 'beyond our capabilities as an agency' and that after 'thorough deliberation' they've decided to 'hand off' the case to the ISCB. This is again, another common theme among their ranks.” she gave a pointed look to a group of four suited men over to the right side of the room, sneers across their faces, “Acting on a hunch, I accepted the case - given to me by the ISCB, and followed the trail to Site-7. And as I had initially suspected, evidence had been left behind, for reasons I could not possibly hope to assume.”
She leaned down towards her desk, stacking her papers once more.
“I have been granted permission by the ISCB, to show you images of the relic in question - Kenya, if you wouldn’t mind putting them up?”
The boy nodded, the screen changing. The pictures of the burning site became pictures that had been taken at the scene of the crime. A large intricately made scythe, suspended in the air - a gentle glow surrounding the entire weapon.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Marude leaned back, peering at his own screen, “Do tell us, First Class Agent, what this is exactly.”
“As you can obviously see, it is a scythe. I followed the trail, and found that it had been originally held by these extremists… and then acquisitioned by Site-7 some time later,” She flipped her page, “Assumedly, they were trying to take it back before the entire facility crumbled. I took the time to chase up the results of the tests that the Science Divisions had been conducting, and we found that it exuded specialised, highly potent, AuraCells. A kind that hasn’t been seen in a very long time. At least within the last…” She allowed a pointed moment of silence before saying, “two hundred years.”
The entire room erupted. Voices came at her from all directions, some agreeing shouting her, and her partners, praises. Others however disagreed with their assessments, screaming about how this was another hack job done by the ISCB. Naofa huffed into her hands, and slapped them together, the sound somehow amplified to a degree that several officers began to hold their heads. She looked up at Marude, who waved her on to continue with a slight smile.
“It may seem unbelievable to some of you, but it's the truth. I, in my off time while Kenya was dealing with the armed insurrection on 8812-C, took the chance to track down the remaining members of this group,” she gave marude a toothy smile, canines showing, “and dealt with them.”
Marude leaned forward, eyes wide.
“Their personal logs told me that this God-level SSS weapon was being shipped to somewhere named Kukui University,” she turned towards her partner, “Kenya - the first set of images,” the images became that of a verdant university campus, full of students, “These images are of that very school - collected by The Notches,” she paused, waving her hand in the air as she looked back down to flip her pages again, “the elite scout-sniper unit.”
"Kukui..?" Marude said, disbelief across his features.
“While the current objective of these rebels is unknown, at least on a smaller scale, I can confirm one thing with absolute certainty,” Naofa inhaled deeply once more, “Weapons like this scythe,” she could feel bile rising from her stomach - her very nature pressing her to stop referring to the weapon with such moronicity, “confirm that the insurgents have ties to the Council of old.”
The entire room grew tense beyond belief. They all knew of the Council. They all knew about the devastation it wrought across OverWatch during the first era. Naofa could sense their fear, the scent palpable in the air. So she sat back down, gently dragging Kenya with her. The boy returned to his laid back position.
“Well,” Marude began, “Something’s definitely starting to smoulder in our ‘Local Group’. I understand why you were named the ‘Head of the Academy,’ Agent Niro.” He slowly glanced back at Kenya.
“Aren’t you lucky boy, having such a brilliant partner must have allowed you to slack off even more than you already do.” Marude began to laugh, Naofa opening her mouth to say something that would probably get her in trouble.
Kenya tugged on the back of her dress, and she looked at him, rage in her eyes.
“Absolutely. The most luckiest officer in OverWatch’s history. With all due respect,” he bit out the word, “Mr. Marude, I have much better things to be doing than rehashing information that I, frankly, was already very aware of.” He glared up at the man, his jaw twitching.
Marude scoffed, “Well whatever…” he grumbled. The senior officer then pointed at one of the front row tables, “Admiral Kirsk, I am assigning both First Class Agent Naofa Niro, and L.T Commander Kenya here to your new… ‘Inquisition team.’ Please forward that onto both Kenya's subordinate, and the commander of the Elite-9. I enjoyed reading about how well you all work together. You will follow his commands, and work well. Am I understood?” Marude finished.
"Yes, sir." Kirsk replied.
"Good, and as for you two?" Marude asked as he glanced towards Kenya and Naofa.
"Understood, Sir." Naofa replied. Kenya gave a slight nod.
“I find this deeply unsettling. All of this information will be forwarded onto the Administrator, the next course of action will be theirs alone. Only four years since the Sector C insurrections. I can’t help but think this may be a glimpse into not only our future but our past. The cosmos at war yet again. We can’t lose focus. We must protect the peace and livelihoods of all that live under us! No matter what we face, that will be our TOP PRIORITY!” Marude yelled out, a fist raised into the air.
The entire room burst into applause, all bar two.
"Alright people, this meeting is now adjourned. Dismissed!" Marude stated.
https://i.imgur.com/mA3AY5I.png [https://i.imgur.com/mA3AY5I.png]
Planet: 5687-C
Location: Western region; "Resquis" - Oregon, United States of America.
Time: [REDACTED] - Three weeks after Nexus-Embla conference.
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“So, the Five-A. How powerful are they really?” Famine asked.
Pestilence gave him a dumbfounded look, “You faced off against them what, two weeks ago? Why are you asking?”
"No, not like…” Famine sighed, “in terms of manpower. I've seen their high powered and heavily armoured tanks and vehicles... And highly advanced spacecraft-"
"What are you getting at?" Pestilence interrupted, placing his glass of scotch back down on the table.
“What I’m getting at,” Famine said with gritted teeth, “is that they don’t seem as advanced beneath as they do on the surface. They still use gunpowder and lead, we all know there are far more advanced ways to produce firearms.” War looked up, his viewport glowing a deep teal.
“It’s far more advanced than you think,” War said, “One of my old friends worked on weapons research - military branch. It’s about the cost. Trying to produce highly advanced firearms for an army in the billions doesn’t make much sense when cheaply synthesised lead can do the exact same thing at a fraction of the cost.” War tapped at his glass.
Famine scratched at his head, Pestilence giving him a look of befuddled amusement.
"Full house, by the way." War said as he placed his cards down. Pestilence and Famine grumbled over their loss, although maybe it was fortunate that the game was called there, because Aaron rushed in, out of breath.
“Director want’s a word lads - new developments‘n’such.” War nodded to his companions, all three stood, sauntering out into the empty halls of Resquis academy. They had convinced Loniu to evacuate the school, but she had put up a fight. A number of more, ‘powered’, students had remained behind - choosing to defend their home rather than run for safety.
The Director was on the roof, sparsely populated by tree’s, and small shops. War hadn’t realised how large the school actually was, and how much it supported. He quickly picked out Ace, sitting on the railing surrounding the roof, with a gently rotating hunting knife above his open palm. He marked his location, towards the front of the school, facing the forest - committing it to memory.
Famine tapped War’s shoulder, pointing to Ace’s left. War’s visor glowed yellow - a sign of frustration - There was a third party here. Tall, casually dressed, peppered dark hair. He couldn’t see the man’s face as he leaned on the railing, staring out into the forest. What he did see was a vicious looking war hammer leaning off to his right, between him and Ace. It looked freshly forged, glowing a dull molten red. It stood about as tall as the figure himself was - the head of the hammer was meaty, each side ending in a series of jagged points, surrounding the square head. The handle was covered in runes, each one glowing a similar colour to the head.
Jeremiah turned to face the approaching group, “Excellent, we’re all here,” he smiled, nodding to Famine, “we had you decipher the codes for OverWatch’s comms if you remember; we’ve managed to extract some valuable information from their transmissions, and it has unfortunately confirmed what we had already suspected,” he paused for a moment, inhaling, “They are preparing a raid, on us, right here.”
"How long do we have to prepare for this attack?" War asked.
“As of right now, we couldn’t say for sure, although I’m certain that it’ll be sooner than anyone could reasonably assume. We… don’t have much prepared just yet, but,” he waved his hand towards the assembled body of students, “we have them, and we have our new friend over there, who Death say’s will be able to gather us… some additional firepower.”
The figure turned, a single smouldering eye illuminating his face.
"Students? You’re going to let fucking kids fight an intergalatic ARMY?” Famine said, raising his voice.
"They all share unnatural abilities my friend. Each possesses an AuraCell count high enough to be of use in the coming conflict.”
"I think you're missing the point: we're letting kids... fight." Pestilence clenched his fists.
“Do you really only see us as children? This is our home, we want to protect it!” War turned towards the students, picking out the one that had spoken. He was abnormally tall for a teenager. He was muscular, although lean - his white hair framing his most notable feature; Deep indigo eyes. “I don’t CARE if you think we’re just kids. We’re going to put our lives on the line for this school. Your cause can go fuck itself, but we’ll fight till our last breath for our home.” The young boy stomped his foot, punctuating his point.
War’s visor glowed a deep yellow once more, but Death knew he was probably impressed by the kid's determination. He had planned for this. This is why he had prompted the Director to allow the kids to help.
“You're a gutsy kid, but the last thing I want is to see them splattered all over the floor. Jeremiah, I’m going to take the Horsemen around, and start preparing for this… raid,” War spared a glance for the man with the hammer before speaking again, “what’s your part in this.”
The man looked towards him over his shoulder, a slight sneer on his face, “Above your paygrade boy - go play commander while the rest of us get to business.” War clenched his fists, the man placed a hand on his hammer, grinning wildly.
“Cassian, this is unbecoming of you.” Death said, his arms crossed. Cassian grunted, leaning back against the railing.
“Never been a fan of defectors,” Cassian said, “apologies Director.”
“C’mon War, we’ve got shit to do.” Famine said, pulling both him and Pestilence away. Cassian turned back towards the forest, Ace giving him a sideways glance, a smile on his face. The purple eyed boy stood, taking the students with him. Leaving Jerimiah, Aaron, Ace, Death, and Cassian on the roof. Aaron placed a small spherical shape in the centre of their group, it blazed to life showing them a map of the supercluster.
Jeremiah coughed, “The four Horsemen project worked as intended. It boosted our morale, and greatly increased our strength and cohesion. War has managed to recruit a large, and powerful, amount of foot soldiers.” The hologram shifted, showing digitised data structures, each detailing the Restances progress among each branch of their military thus far. They had been a malitia up until this point, but it was time they evolved into something greater. Something strong enough that even the 5th Army wouldn’t be able to ignore them. Once upon a time, The Council of old had relied upon their Elders, each one a deity - some hailing from dimensions far removed from this one, pulled into a conflict they could no longer hope to ignore. Jeremiah turned towards Cassian, maybe they could hope to rely on that strength once more - but he had more to discuss.
“Pestilence has had similar success in his own branch. His knowledge of chemical warfare and biotech, has sparked many a flame among those… less reputable members of our army. They are ready to engage in hazardous combat,” Ace said with a grin - the holographic map changed to show Pestilences Haz-Combat soldiers, each one geared in specialised chemical resistant suits, “to that point, I also had a chance to help Famine briefly - he’s decided to take care of our research divisions, and the atmospheric Air-force. We managed to procure some of the 5th army's defunct craft and weaponry.”
The image shifted to massive bombers, force fields, and all sorts of weaponry.
"He's using recycled 5th Army air-strikers? Good. I’d love for them to know what it’s like to have six tonnes of explosive ‘fuck you’s’ dropped on their head.” Aaron said, his face smug.
"Now... Onto further business," Jeremiah said, the remaining Horsemen approached once more, nodding to Jermiah, they had arrived just in time for the main event, “Cassian, I believe this would be the appropriate time for your… ritual, although, If you wouldn’t mind could you explain exactly what it is you’re attempting?”
Cassian pushed off of the railing, aiming for the group, “I’ve been asked by the corpse to attempt to call out to an old member of the Council, one of the Elders, of the navy I think.” Cassian looked around, his eyes narrowing on the floating islands above, “they will arrive soon.”
Aaron gulped the noise audible, “Which of the Elders still remain? I thought they had all died during the battle of the Crucible.”
Cassian spared him a forlorn glance, “I’m not sure who still lives on this side of reality, but I know that Equinox - the Butcher - still remains beyond the borders of what is known. That is who we will be calling out to.”
Aaron’s eyes widened with abstract horror, “You’re insane.”
Cassian sighed, “It wasn’t my Idea kiddo,” He crossed his arms, “on your best behaviour, these two don’t take kindly to idiots.”
Cassian pushed the Horsemen out of way as a singular large, portal like, rift opened some five feet in the air above them. It shifted and swirled, its visage like that of cosmic dust - green’s, and purple’s, and red’s, and blue’s, all moving together - before a singular line was drawn in the middle, splitting it in half.
Two women stepped out. The first wore the uniform of the OverWatch Intelligence and Special Combats Bureau, properly kept and neat - not a crease to be seen. Tumbling locks of bubblegum blue hair framed a set of verdant green eyes, glowing with soft light, her pale skin and face contrasted by the darkness of her uniform. Her features were soft, homely - War tensed at the sight of her uniform, and she looked at him with narrowed eyes, before disregarding his presence to behold Cassian, who she beamed at wholly.
The second woman stood taller than the first, rolling swaths of silk encompassed her body, shrouding most of her form - though War could make out her face and hair. He could see braided, ginger hair slung over a shoulder, resting on her chest. Unlike the first woman, her skin was tanned, flush with colour - freckles dotted her nose, her brow was sunbleached, as if she spent all her time outside. Her eyes caught his attention, each pale white and eternally shifting as if they contained storms within. She raised an arm to regard the group, her hand was full of calluses.
The blue haired woman spoke first, holding her officers cap in her hands - “Cassian, Cassian, Cassian - who knew we’d be able to draaaag you away from your dead end job for some real funnn.” She clapped her hands together excitedly, again completely ignoring the rest of the group.
Cassian sighed into his hands, and looked towards Jerimiah - he waved a hand towards the blue haired one, “Aurora,” he waved towards the other “and Filianore,” he sighed again, “please excuse their lack of manners, we don’t typically interact outside of… family emergencies.”
Aurora cast her eyes towards the assembled group of Resistance leadership, her voice taking on a seemingly uncharacteristic solemn tone, “I hope you realise what summoning him means. He will not enjoy being disturbed.”
Famine groaned, “So we’ve been told. I don’t even know who this guy is.”
“Our father, an extradimensional God from a realm buried deep beneath reality itself” Filianore said to Famine, who’s mouth hung agape, “who’s grand Idea was this?” she looked to Cassian, who pointed at Death.
Both sisters tilted their heads opposite directions as they took in Death’s form, before looking to one another.
“I’m… I don’t understand why this is necessary,” Aurora stopped, tilting ear to the sky - then looked up to the floating islands, before looking back at Cassian with a quizzical expression, “Is tha-”
“No idea rory, no Idea,” Cassian held his hand up palm open, a piece of chalk falling into it, “nor do I particularly care. I need to start drawing the circle, filly do you have what I asked you to bring?”
Filianore dropped a burlap sack at her feet, one War hadn’t seen in her hands somehow, “Mmm, yes - I believe so.”
“Good. Let’s begin then.”
The siblings spent the better part of three hours drawing out a complex circle of runic shapes, each one requiring an absurd amount of detail. War watched them with gentle amusement, although they worked in an efficient tandem, they couldn’t help but step on each other's toes. It was maybe thirty by thirty feet by the time Cassian had finished his set of runes, Aurora finishing at almost the same time. Filianore stood in the centre, her voice carrying gentle murmurs out onto the wind.
Cassian looked to his sisters, “You remember the words?” they both nodded, “good,” he turned to Jerimiah, “you ready?”
The old man offered them a terse nod, pulling the rest of the party back.
They all inhaled deeply, and began;
“Verily unto us, I command you by the domains we control - beseech the father below to return his form once more to the positive we inhabit.” Cassian said, the runes began to glow faintly.
The air around them began to pick up - War could feel tremendous energy spilling out of them all, spilling out of the runes on the ground.
“In the name of the mother, we demand his appearance, by the word of the forgotten we force the hand of God’s to reveal themselves once more,” Aurora said, as each sibling began to glow with a violent thrum. War held on tightly to the two Horsemen next to him as the wind began to batter them, peering at Death - he seemed unaffected.
The ethereal glow of the siblings began to take on colour - Cassian a flaming red, Aurora a verdant green, and Filianore a deep raging white.
“You will step foot onto the mortal coil to do battle against enemies old, the time has come for you to reclaim our lost lamb, allow her to channel the power you gift unto us all, let the corruption take her heart and birth her anew - better than before.” Filianore finished. The wind died, the power seemed to fade.
Each sibling looked at eachother, confused. Aaron approached the group, hand up - “What exactly did you d-”
An explosion of power. Thrumming, violent, ancient power. A mind scrambling to regain form. Rage of untold centuries. Cassian could make out the vague form in the swirling dust that surrounded their burning runic circle. The wind threw him, threw them all back, before dying once more.
A single lavender flower, left in the centre.
Famine lowered his hand that he had used to supposedly shield himself, “Wow. Three hours to draw the most complicated game of hopscotch… And this is what happens?”
Filianore turned unwaveringly cold eyes to Famine, “You are very, very, annoying.”
Jeremiah coughed as he stood, dusting off his cap - “Where is he then? Did you fail?”
Aurora dusted off her own cap, placing it back on her head, “No. He’s here, Director. Just not… here here,” She looked to Cassian, who nodded, “It’ll be safe to assume he will make a reappearance soon. Stupid mother fucker couldn’t help himself.”
Filianore glared at her sister, before looking to Cassian, “You will stay to greet him?”
“I suppose so,” he turned to the Director, “Aurora is undercover, so she can’t stay for the fight - but I will, and so will Filianore, even if briefly. Though for now, I need time to think, and to talk to my siblings.”
Jeremiah nodded, “Please, take the time - Just know that it is in short supply.”
Cassian nodded to the Director, leaving with his siblings, though he stopped, gazing once more back to the floating islands. “Sìth,” each sibling said in unison, nodding their heads, before they truly left.
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He had never seen the summoning ritual used to summon this particular Elder before, but from the vantage of these floating islands, he supposed this was what he expected. He had always aspired to be like them. The leading elite of the Council. Though he knew this one to be gentle at heart, they had named him the Butcher for a reason, and he hoped he would remind them why. It had been many years since he had seen a battle like he knew this one would turn out to be. He looked towards his trembling hands, memories of a life forgotten assaulting him with vigour. Rage coursed through his body. Rage that OverWatch would come to know not only from himself, but from the man he knew knelt at graves, deserted and discarded. He would protect them all this time, The Council would rise anew, reformed under this… Resistance, he would make sure of it. He let his body melt away into scorching liquid - flowing far away.
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"Sir, new info; we’ve learned more from our tapped comms.” Aaron
"What is it?" Death asked, but he already knew the answer.
Aaron clasped his hands together, “OverWatch plan to attack in four days, they’ll be bringing the full might of Sector C’s marines.”
Death looked up towards the sky, “Let us hope our godly patron show’s face then.”
Even from here he could make them out, the ever dancing forms floating gently downwards towards what he assumed was Site-88. Death cocked his head sideways, turning towards Aaron, a pointed finger to the sky.
“Dropships.”
…