[Campus-9, Subspace Lab]
Alemyr stood with his arms folded, "But Void."
Void turned his head, raising a brow. "Yeah."
Alemyr nodded toward the terminal. "There's one thing you didn't consider."
"Go on?"
Alemyr rubbed his chin. "You have the key. Great. But you're not a Gate Lord." He snapped his finger. "A Gate Lord doesn't just hold a key. It understands the lock. It can feel the network gate that the key belongs to. It can locate the correct gateway because it's part of the same system."
Void's eyes narrowed slowly. "Right. But."
Alemyr nodded once, as if confirming Void's thoughts. "You can't do that. Not instinctively. Which means if you want to use this key yourself, you have to locate the exact Vex network gate that corresponds to it."
Void nodded, slowly. "You're right. But I don't think that'll be too difficult. All we gotta do is run the numbers."
Uzoma pushed off the table he was leaning against, his grin fading into something more practical. "And there's another part. Keys like this take time to activate."
Taeko-3 nodded once, backing him up. "They have a handshake phase. A broadcast."
Uzoma pointed at the terminal. "Meaning the moment you use it, it'll flare. Like a beacon. It'll scream your location to anything nearby that's listening. Vex. Cabal. Fallen. Whoever happens to be sniffing the air."
"So we'd light ourselves up. Then what? The moment we enter the gate, it shouldn't be a problem." Void's head tilted.
Uzoma shrugged. "It's not automatically death. But it's a problem. Because once you enter the gateway, leaving gets tricky. If the gate gets destroyed, you're not walking out."
Isidel's voice rumbled, quiet but firm. "And if your position broadcasts, someone will try to destroy the gate."
Void exhaled once. It wasn't frustration, but exhaustion. He'd worked tirelessly to get the key, only to find that he wouldn't be able to use it immediately.
"I didn't consider that," he admitted.
Uzoma nodded. "We know because we've entered Vex gateways before. Let's just say the process is a bit slower than expected."
Void's gaze shifted across the room, catching each face. Alemyr. Uzoma. Isidel. Taeko. Gallida. The Stoic.
He ran through a new checklist in his mind.
Locate the correct gate.
Secure the area.
Use the key and survive.
Enter.
Exit.
He spoke, thinking out loud. "If we locate the gate first, we can secure the area around it. Not only will we be able to use the key easily, even if someone is drawn to it, we can also fend them off."
Gallida nodded immediately. "That's the right approach."
Taeko-3's tone stayed dry. "It's also the hardest approach."
"Yes, but it's the only way for now. Why don't we locate it first? We'll get an idea of how difficult the place is to secure." Void asked.
Gallida's eyes flicked to her terminal. "Already trying."
She quickly scoured through multiple log files, matching the Vex Gate Network's readings to anything remotely close to the key.
A moment later, Gallida's brows rose.
"Oh," she muttered.
Everyone leaned in slightly.
Gallida pulled up a coordinate and pinned it in the air.
[MATCH: HIGH PROBABILITY GATE SIGNATURE]
[LOCATION: MARS]
[SECTOR: FREEHOLD]
Isidel's eyes narrowed the moment she saw it. "Freehold."
Uzoma flashed a wry grin. "That place."
Taeko-3's voice went flat. "Of course it's Freehold."
Void stared at the coordinate, and his thoughts stirred. The place sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place a finger on it. "Freehold"
Isidel clicked her tongue and used her ghost to project a regional map of Mars. "Before the Cabal entered that sector of Mars, Freehold was a tunnel network. Golden Age ruins were buried deep under the sand, and many Guardians used them as a research spot. It was quiet enough to work, dangerous enough to keep the Fallen away. Perfect combination."
Uzoma added, "Then the Cabal landed."
Isidel continued, "Their outposts hardened the region. The Vex population spiked. Freehold became a conflict zone. It never stopped."
Taeko-3 tapped the hologram hard enough to make it jitter. "And now it's worse. City records say Freehold is under an iron grip. Cabal Imperial tanks are stationed at its entrances. Most of their heavy legionaries are stationed just outside Freehold as well. As long as the Cabal are there, no one's entering or leaving Freehold."
Void's eyes narrowed; he murmured to himself.
'Take the new lights, send in waves of them and swarm the place. Take a foothold by force.'
It would work, maybe.
But it would definitely be loud.
'And the Cabal would have a field day with their tanks. Like shooting fish out of a barrel. At the very least, the tanks themselves will blow us out of the water.'
Void exhaled. The process wouldn't work, but he thought to voice it out regardless. "I can get the New Lights to swarm it. We fight for a foothold, locate the gate, hold it long enough to use the key."
Alemyr shook his head slightly. "That's a good way to burn hundreds of lives for inches of progress."
Taeko-3 cut in, sharper. "Don't forget, unlike last time. The Cabal will be ready for a skirmish. This time, we're also hitting them quite close to their home base. They'll reinforce faster than before."
Void's jaw tightened. "The other way would be to distract them."
He leaned closer to the map, eyes flicking. "We initiate a skirmish nearby. Pull their tanks away from Freehold's border. Once the tanks free up the borders and their battalion moves to respond, that's when we enter Freehold."
Pahanin hummed, interested, but Alemyr shook his head again.
"If the tanks move," Alemyr said, "the Vex will surge. Immediately. They'll reclaim whatever ground the Cabal stops sitting on. You'd be walking into a flood."
Uzoma nodded sombrely. "Truth be told, the Cabal imperial tanks are the only thing keeping that place afloat. The moment they turn those away, there's no knowing what the Vex will do. Besides, we can't hold off a Vex surge and a Cabal battalion at the same time."
Isidel grunted. "Not with our current numbers."
The room tightened.
It was a vexing problem that didn't have an exact answer. Not one they were willing to bargain for. Every move created a new enemy. Every solution created a new risk.
Void stared at the Freehold map projected in front of him. His eyes ached, and he took in a long breath. Doubt began creeping into his mind.
'Was this around the time the Blackheart was destroyed? Or do I have to wait longer? Does that even matter if I've already derailed the timeline to this extent?' Void looked around the room aimlessly, as if trying to search for an answer to his own thoughts,
But as his eyes passed over the room a few times. Something clicked. A strange inkling of an idea bloomed.
His gaze drifted away from the coordinate.
Down.
To the table.
To the Gate Lord's corpse and its exposed mind core sat there.
Void's eyes narrowed slowly. The idea settled in his head with that calm inevitability he didn't like. Because he could already see it happening.
He begrudgingly spoke it out. "What if we don't fight them separately?"
Alemyr's brows lifted.
Uzoma leaned in. "What are you thinking?"
Void's gaze stayed on the corpse. "If we make the Vex and Cabal fight each other… and then we join the fray… our odds go up."
There was silence.
Then Pahanin chuckled, a low sound. "Naturally. If the Cabal and Vex are at complete odds, we only have to stab both in the back. But..that. "
Void didn't smile. He kept staring at the corpse.
"Is not really gonna happen-" Pahanin followed his gaze.
The chuckle died. His face paled.
"No," Pahanin said immediately. "No. You wouldn't dare."
Void finally looked up at him. "We have to take risks if we want to succeed."
Pahanin's mouth opened, then closed. His eyes flicked to the radiolaria sphere, then back to the corpse. "That's...Is that even just a risk?"
Marcus Ren, who had been quiet for once, frowned. "What's happening?"
He looked from Void to Pahanin, confused.
Then his eyes followed theirs to the Gate Lord's corpse.
Understanding struck him.
His mouth parted in a gasp.
He stared at Void, then slowly lifted a thumb up, a grin creeping back like he couldn't stop it.
"You are definitely crazier than I thought," Marcus said, almost admiring. "I'm in."
Pahanin shot him a perplexed look. "Really?"
Uzoma and Isidel exchanged a glance.
The two recognised Void's idea at just one glance.
Alemyr's jaw tightened. "You want to reanimate it."
Void nodded once.
Taeko-3's voice went careful. "Letting radiolaria touch its mind again is quite an unstable process. If we let it roam free, the Gate Lord is bound to cause chaos."
Void's eyes stayed cold. "Not fully. Just enough."
Gallida spoke quietly, already seeing where it went. "An artificial Vex surge."
Void nodded. "We wake it in Freehold. It panics. It tries to escape and probably signals the Vex. Naturally, they respond, but the Cabal respond harder. That's when the battle starts."
Pahanin sighed, " Then we let them scuffle."
"And then we drop in," Void nodded.
Alemyr stared at the corpse again. "That would draw everything. Every Vex unit nearby. Cabal armour. Reinforcements. It turns Freehold into a standoff."
Void's tone stayed calm. "Exactly."
Uzoma's grin returned, sharp now. "And while they're busy killing each other…"
Pahanin muttered, bitter. "We stab both in the back. It'll be dangerous."
Void didn't deny it. "It'll be a three-way standoff by the time we're done with it."
The room stayed quiet, and everyone measured the idea. Practically, it was a difficult implementation.
The Stoic looked to Alemyr, and the latter grumbled. "Containment protocols must be absolute. If the Gate Lord escapes the battlefield, it will run away."
Void nodded. "We don't let it escape. No. We can't let it escape. If containment fails, we'll just have to kill it before it leaves. "
Taeko-3 sighed. "So we're really doing this."
Pahanin rubbed his face with both hands. "We're actually doing this."
Marcus grinned. "This is going to be legendary."
Pahanin shot him another look. "Shut up."
Void looked around the table at all of them.
"This is the plan," he said. "We do it clean. We do it controlled. We do it with an exit strategy. And we do it fast."
He paused, gaze hardening. "Because once Freehold lights up, it won't just be the Cabal and the Vex listening."
Uzoma nodded. "Yeah. Even the goddamn Fallen will hear it."
"Good," Void said. "Let them. Chances are, they don't want anything to do with that battle."
"We'll start working on a way to make the containment portable and more secure." Alemyr crossed his arms and walked away with The Stoic.
But just as Void was about to reply, Obsidian appeared above his shoulder and flittered in.
"Sorry to cut in, but there is one more thing we do need to consider." Obsidian floated above the group and circled them.
"That is?" Uzoma raised his head.
"Suppose we do execute the plan." Obsidian hummed in thought, "Wouldn't you say such a concentrated number of Cabal and Vex might just trigger something we didn't expect?"
"Yeah, you're losing me here, bud." Marcus scratched his head.
Obsidian turned to look at the others, but found similar reactions.
He sighed, "Guys. Not to be a killjoy, but. The first thing Rasputin did when he woke up was drop a devastating barrage of Warsats on Mars."
"So you mean." Uzoma brushed back his hair, squeezed his eyes and shook his head.
"The moment Rasputin sees the Vex and Cabal duking it out again. He won't hesitate to drop another generous barrage. And chances are, we would definitely be in the strike zone. Worst comes to worst, his Warsats could outright destroy the Vex gate or tilt the tide of battle for any side. "
"Damn." Marcus clicked his tongue, "Your boy is right."
"That he is." Void rubbed his forehead and took in a dogged breath, "he really is."
"A four-way deadlock." Pahanin cursed under his breath.
-
A/N: Destiny might have ended, but our story has just begun! Also, the overall fanfic rankings on the site finally reset. Please throw stones, let's try to get a high rank!
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