—Nessus, Unstable Centaur; Downed Colony ship— “Well this sucks.” Giant struggled in his chains, their light suppressing nature keeping him from breaking free. Suddenly the door to the large room opened, and out of the hallway came Keksis accompanied by a few splicers, trace rifles at the ready. After they entered a few dregs followed them in, carrying a large device of some sort. They set up the machine right behind Giant, which frustrated him because he could not see what they were doing. Keksis walked right up to the captured Exo. “Unfortunately Your kind wasn’t designed with an external access port, so we’ll just have to make one ourselves.” He nodded to the Engineer Dregs standing behind Giant. Suddenly a piercing pain like that of a javelin struck the Titan’s neck. He shouted in pain, but regained his composure once the shock had worn away, his breathing heavy. Keksis seemed to find this amusing. “Begin the process, and do it quickly.” Keksis folded his arms. “But, sir,” the chief engineer dreg spoke up in Eliksni, “we have disrupted any incoming and outcoming signals from this area. There need be no rush.” “Fool!” Keksis backhanded the weaker dreg, “that’s the kind of thinking that makes our kind extinct. No, his little friend might find a way to send a signal, so we cannot risk it.” The dreg nodded, obediently, as they started up the machine. He could feel them searching through his memories. He tried his best to grasp what they were looking for but was met with only failure. A large blast rang off in the distance. Keksis frowned as he reached for his rifle. “Continue with the search. I shall buy us time to work.” ———————————————— 30 Minutes Earlier... ———————————————— Ringer’s Jumpship sped over the vast reaches of Nessus before arriving at its destination. As the ship slowed Ringer could see a lone figure on a rocky outcrop near the entrance of the Colony Ship that his friend was held hostage in. “I recognize that man.” Ringer said as he exited the ship. “By the traveler’s light! It’s Mithrawn!” The Warlock smiled and replied, “Call me Thrawn. I trust you got my message?” Ringer nodded. “Excellent. I have been monitoring the entrance for a while and have concluded that the Splicers are waiting to ambush us.” “How can you tell?” “Whoever is leading them clearly knows what he’s doing. How could he lure Giant into a trap like this? If he has a trap for Giant he probably has one waiting for us as well.” “Giant was led into a trap?” “Precisely. Giant found one of Caydes stashes and then promptly gets ambushed by Splicers. Besides, trap or not it wouldn’t hurt to be on our guard.” “You really are a master of observation.” “Indeed. Sherlock has taught me well.” Ringer drew his sword. “I’ll take point, while you provide support from behind.” “Sounds like a plan.” When they drew near the entrance, sure enough, a group of Splicers sprang out of the wreckage from the old ship. Thrawn cast a sly glance at Ringer. “Go on, Titan.” He said, “do ehat you do best.” “With pleasure.” Ringer smiled back. He stepped forward and crouched, charging his body with arc energy. A moment later he pounced, flying headlong into the throng of Fallen. The Splicers screamed one final cry of despair before they were vaporized in a blast of arc energy. “Let’s find Giant.” Ringer called back to Thrawn. Thrawn nodded and they ventured deeper into the splicer stronghold. They were almost to the prison block when a massive fallen stood in their way. “It seems you have found my little home, haven’t you? Well, you are not going to get past ME!” He pressed a button on one of his four wrists and two gigantic hatches opened on the ceiling of the large room they were in. Suddenly, two hulking machines dropped from the open hatches. They were giant, bipedal monsters, with outer plating similar to that of a fallen walker, albeit mixed in with splicer tech. Ringer had received reports about such tech, but it was all the way inside the city walls in a district lost during the Red War. It couldn’t be- “A little present from the Siviks, Lost to None! They will be sure to seal your doom!” The two Battle Mechs started firing their gigantic cannons at the two guardians as Keksis left the room, laughing. Ringer and Thrawn ducked behind a pile of scrap while they sustained heavy fire. “This is not good.” Ringer said in between breaths. “One of these beasts was taken down, sure, but it took six guardians!” “A direct assault is futile.” Said Thrawn, “and we don’t have the mobility advantage so long as there’s only two of us. You draw their attention for as long as you can while I sneak around to free Giant.” Ringer nodded, and darted away while the two large machines followed him. Thrawn blasted open one of the vents and made his way to the prison block. ———————————————— “Could you please hurry up? You’re giving me a splitting headache.” The dregs chuckled as they continued searching through the guardians memories. The loud sound of approaching footsteps was heard as Keksis strode into the room. He made his way over to the machine’s display screen, and pointed to it, saying “that’s it.” The dregs seemed surprised “Are you sure? We haven’t completed the full search.” “A am positive that is it. We have what we need. Prepare the ships.” “But sir,” The dreg ventured, “we have them cornered. We could be very well off having three less Guardians to deal with.” Keksis shot him a glance. “Our jamming Field will not stay up for much longer. They will call for reinforcements, and that will spell our doom. Even If it was just this weakling,” he pointed to the hunched over Exo on the floor in front of them, “he would still be revived by his now-scarce Ghost. No, we must leave.” As the dregs brought the machine to the transmat pad, Thrawn watched from the vents above. When Keksis’ back was turned, he silently dropped down, and made his way over to Giant. Giant opened his mouth to speak but Thrawn put a finger to his lips. He pulled out a fusion rifle, and then with a burst of energy blasted the chains that held Giant. Keksis immediately turned around. “Ah, The warlock. What an interesting turn of events! One that I predicted.” He pressed a button and two doors opened up with reinforcements. “Here,” Thrawn said, tossing a sword to Giant, “we’ll take him together.” “I was about to say that.” Giant smiled.” As Giant took the blade and stepped forward, Keksis chuckled. “Back away!” He said, drawing his four shock blades, “I will deal with these slime myself!” The battered exo’s face smiled, “Your move.” The Archon rushed forward, rage gleaming in its four eyes, and crossed blades with the two Gaurdians. Giant and Thrawn pushed away from Keksis’ blades and tried to trap him in a pincer movement. Keksis merely laughed as he met the two blades with his own. To Giant’s but not so much Thrawn’s surprise, his torso unlocked from his spine and started spinning, creating a ring of blades around Keksis. They continued their attack, as Keksis moved to the wall, trying to pin Thrawn down. Thrawn leapt over Keksis but was caught by one of his feet and thrown into the other wall. Keksis then crossed two of his blades with Giant while his other two were poised, ready to strike when he least expected. “Look out, Giant!” Thrawn said as he struggled back up. Giant quickly leapt back and drew his void shield in his left hand while still holding the sword in his right. He charged at Keksis but he sidestepped him and swung at Giant as he did a 360 and blocked his attack with his shield. “Hah! Didn’t see that coming, didn’t you?” Giant laughed, as Thrawn came up from behind the Archon and sliced off two of his arms. Keksis screamed in pain and grabbed both of them by the face and threw them toward the entrance. “Enough!” He said, clearly irritated by the defeat, “kill them!” He transmatted away to his waiting ship. As the room full of Fallen approached them, Thrawn merely leapt up in the air and sent a large beam of arc energy into the mass of Fallen, their shrieks drowned out in the sound of the Chaos Reach. “We have to go help Ringer.” ———————————————— (Continued below)