Enjoy! [b]Five Years Ago [/b] “The scythe is an extension of your arm,” Clio instructed. She stood over Lance holding her own arc blade at his throat. She backed off and held out her hand, smiling through her helmet. She helped him up, walked a few steps back, and took a readied stance. Lance took his. A moment passed in silence as they eyed each other down. Lance broke the silence first as he charged at Clio. Sparks erupted from the collision of arc blades against one another. Quick fluid motions kicked Lance back into the ground. “Get up,” Clio teased. “That all you got?” “Not even close,” Lance panted. As he stood, a dizziness took his footing. As he stumbled and tried to catch his breath, he felt a tightness in his chest. He dropped the scythe and fell forward. He could not shake the double vision. His heart rate skyrocketed and as he curled into the fetal position, he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. His body went cold and shivers shot up his spine. “This is called shock,” Clio said. “It happened to me, it needed to happen to you so you know your limits, and eventually, how to push passed them. The scythe requires you to channel arc energy into the blade, but it has a side effect. With that connection, it eats your energy, your life force. If you use it too much, it will kill you.” Lance coughed and tasted iron as consciousness failed him. He awoke to a massive pounding in his head. The throbbing pulsed through his body as each of his muscles screeched in retaliation to his sitting up. The door to his room slid open, the light from the hallway nearly blinding. Once the door shut, his vision refocused on a slender figure holding a plastic bag and large water bottle. Without a word, Clio kissed his forehead and laid him back onto the bed. She poured water over a cloth and folded it over his head. He opened his voice to speak but a quick finger to his lips stopped him. Clio shook her head and pulled a handful of ice chips from the bag. As she squeezed them in her hand she let the cool drops fall over his face. The gesture was more than anything he had imagined. Excitement and joy bubbled through the pain in his body. He chuckled, grinning from ear- to-ear. “Give it time,” Clio whispered. “For now just rest.” [b]Present Day [/b] Solar fire engulfed Raze-Lighter in a white glow. Water below the blade flash steamed. A rage burned in Lorelei’s chest turning her face red and burning her ears. Each, rage filled, step quicker than the last as she clenched the blade in her hand so hard it shook. Her eyes locked on the Baron, she finally broke to a full sprint, clenching the blade in both hands. She heard the snap of the sound barrier and felt an unstoppable force crash into her back. Lance took hold around her waist and tackled her to the ground kicking away Raze-Lighter. As they slid, the Baron and his guards turned. They rolled their eyes and proceeded onto the ramp of the Ketch. “What the hell are you doing!” Lorelei shouted. She elbowed Lance as he was standing and kicked him the rest of the way off her. “Saving your life!” Lance spat back. “You are just trying to give me a reason, aren’t you?” “I’ll be damned if I let you anywhere near that Baron…” Lance stopped. “This was your plan, wasn’t it?” “Let me stop you before you say something stupid. All I wanted was to eliminate the pilot servitor so the Ketch couldn’t leave. The Vanguard can take care of the rest.” Lorelei took lance by the collar of his armor and pulled him face to face. “If you try and stop me this time, I will not hesitate to kill you,” her glare pierced his visor. Pushing him away, she picked up Raze-Lighter and holstered it, marching towards the Ketch. “You’re not going to let her go, are you?” Charlemagne asked unenthusiastically. “No,” Lance answered. The hulking ship hovered above the canyon, its hull exposed with a ramp extending down towards the canyon. Crates and boxes with metallic markings were strewn across the deck as the pair of guardians boarded. Covered Pikes and disassembled Walker parts lay piled and organized in rows. Crossing the lip into the hull, they stopped. Splicer bodies were cast about the hull in every direction. Parts of Dreg here, Vandals bodies there, a Reaver Captain class Splicer skewered on a makeshift spear. Blood laced the floor and some of the bodies still leaked ether. There were scorch marks from the weapons fire and explosions of arc energy. “Upstairs,” Lorelei commanded. The door was open, barely still on its hinges. The twisting hall of the ship access way was lined with the same scene as the hull. The body count was massive, Splicer victims left dead or dying on the ground. Scorch marks along the walls and ceiling. The guardians made their way passed a junction where the blood pooled by a pile of bodies protecting the doorway leading to the bridge. Lorelei rushed up the stairs with Lance not far behind. Voriks laughed, staring down the Pilot Servitor in front of him. His guards stood ready at his command, their wire rifles trained on the nearest targets. An undisciplined Dreg rushed forward, its animalistic cry echoing in the bridge. The Baron fired a shot from his launcher, and a burning husk fell to the ground. There was an electronic whine as the Pilot Servitor summoned reinforcements and blasted energy bombs at Voriks. “Kill the trash,” he said in Eliksni. Voriks held out his arm and waved away his guard. The Vandals separated breaking off their leader. Voriks laughed once more tanking the energy bombs from the enormous Servitor. His personal shield barely flickered as he moved forward. Tossing aside his launcher, he pulled the cutlass pair from his back. His muscles bulged as he leapt at the machine god. With one of its arms it took hold of the Pilot Servitor’s eye. Piercing it with one of its humming blades, the machine expanded. Electric energy shot out in all directions. Voriks plunged his second blade into the monster laughing as his shields remained strong. He snapped the hilts from the blades and fell back. The door to the bridge slid open as the guardians made it up the stairs. Voriks jumped off the Pilot Servitor, the machine twitching and blinking rapidly. Its parts remained uncontrolled, one protective plate pulling back to release an electric charge, another covering its eye. Voriks picked up his launcher once more. He fired five rounds of solar buckshot into the machine. A small part melted off as it floated back. The light in its eye faded as its gravitational boosters failed it. The massive ball fell to the metal floor of the bridge with a loud thud. Lance and Lorelei stood back as the Vandals maliciously assaulted the remaining Splicer troops. One used its wire rifle as a bludgeon. He pummeled another Vandal into the ground, ground flesh and shattered bone fragments pooled in a vat of blood and ether. He jumped to a Dreg and twisted its neck around four times, removed its skull from its body and threw it at another challenger. The stunned opponent was met with a four-armed grapple as the Baron Guard ripped it apart limb from limb. The other guard was more refined, remaining true, it fired quickly and efficiently. Each of its targets met with a scorching electric round center mass that stunned them if not killed them outright, and then, another to the head, the round burrowing holes clean through their armor. Voriks turned motioning to his guard. The aggressive one threw the last body across the hall and immediately stood at attention before his master. The other bowed and saluted the Baron. Voriks pointed to the guardians. “If you want Honor,” it hissed in human tongue. “Kill the thieves.” There was a satisfying growl from each of the Baron Guard as they turned to face the guardians.