Due to length constraints, this story has been split into 2 parts. Here is the link to [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/256299448/0/0]Faction Part 1[/url] _____________________________________________ Negotiations were cut shorter than expected. The man who hadn’t spoken rushed the Exo and hooked his fist across his opponent’s face. The man automatically backed off, clutching his bleeding hand and screaming in pain. The Exo hardly moved at the impact, although I was sure he could have dodged if he had wanted to by the way he decided to take the hit. He didn’t bother wiping the blood and torn skin off of the sharp edges of metal where his cheek would be. Raising his right leg, the Exo gave the man a soft kick to the rear so that he stumbled out of the circle, which I had found myself joining as everyone closed back in to watch. “Light-forsaken can,” the remaining man spat at the mechanical man, then turned his head a little to address the crowd, “You see this?! Do you want people like this in charge?! Making our decisions for us and beating us when we don’t-!” He was cut short with a wheeze and slumped over onto the shoulder of the woman who had appeared before him, seemingly out of thin air. Her fist was driven into his stomach, and she let him slide off to the ground before standing to face the Exo. She wore full-body armor and had a rifle slung over her back, and an aura of power was coming off of her. “Break it up everyone. This turf is under protection.” The machine man was tense now, and shifted into a fighting stance. His sudden seriousness made me feel suddenly unsure about his odds. Beneath that helmet was this woman an Exo, too? “I said,” the woman’s voice was suddenly loud and fierce, and she held her hand out to her side in an odd fashion, “Back. OFF!” A knife materialized in her hand as mysteriously as she had appeared, and the next instant its tip was buried in the ground at the feet of the Exo. The Exo man looked at the knife and then at her hand in confusion, but only raised his arms higher defensively. “I don’t retreat,” he stated again, then lunged forward. At first I thought it would go down like swinging a club at a stack of wood, but the Exo was stopped dead in his tracks by the woman grabbing his wrists before he could get his arms around her. It was almost still for a moment as the metal man tried to push himself at the armored woman, but her unbudging form quickly blurred as she flung out one of her opponent’s arms and then grabbed him just under the armpit with her now-free hand. Then the Exo was swung off his feet and tossed a solid few meters away. The crowd parted with several shocked yelps, and one person got clipped by the flying man and fell over, but everyone seemed alright. Even the Exo was clearly unharmed aside from his pride as he pushed himself up out of the mud. “There,” the woman’s smug voice called, “You’re out of combat. Now it’s not retreating.” I just gaped at her. Who could toss someone so heavy with such ease? The metal man climbed back to his feet angrily and gave her a long, hard stare with cold machine eyes, but it was obvious to all of us what was happening now. That woman was one of the Risen; the people revived by the Traveler and given vast power. I’d heard that many searched the wilds for surviving humans to bring back here, but this one was one of the faction lackeys that was used as muscle to scare people. Still, seeing one for the first time left me in a state of awe. I hadn’t thought anyone could beat the machines aside from the aliens. Tension hung in the air as the Risen and Exo stared each other down: the Exo with clenched fists and the woman with her hands planted confidently on her hips. Everyone else held their breath, me included. Finally, the Exo let it go with a frustrated growl and walked away. Everyone else followed suit when the Risen turned her helmeted gaze to the crowd, ducking back into their shelters or hurrying down the street. All except me. “Ma’am,” I spoke up, stepping closer, but making sure to keep well out of striking range. She turned to me calmly, knife twirling in her hand. I glanced to the ground to see the knife she had thrown earlier was gone. I definitely hadn’t seen her walk over there or bend over to pick anything up. Safer to ignore it. “I got a farm,” I told her simply and directly, hoping it wouldn’t be taken poorly because I frankly didn’t know any more polite way to speak and didn’t have time to skirt around the point, “And it’s in need of some armed watch.” “The bugs?” She asked, her speech clipped. “Huh?” I raised an eyebrow in confusion. “The pirates,” she sighed, “Aliens. Scavengers. Four-arms. Spiders. Bugs.” “Ah,” I nodded in understanding. I hadn’t known the aliens by any nicknames other than pirates and four-arms. “It’s them?” She was suddenly really intense, and understandably so, because those aliens were big trouble. “Oh, eh, no,” I shook my head apologetically, “Just some thieves and some nasty folk who come around.” “It’s far?” The Risen checked. “Naw, just a short ways outside the border,” I described. “You can pay?” She was straight to the point like me, it seemed. “In crops,” I answered. “Hm…” she hummed to herself in thought, looking me up and down carefully, “They’ll be payment to my faction for protection.” “Fine by me,” I acknowledged. “Whose side you on?” She saved the deciding question for last. Someone in a faction with bad relations to another wouldn’t get any help from their rival. “As of now, the side you’re on.” __________________________________________ I hope you all enjoyed this tale of the days before the Faction Wars! This is a lore subject that I feel hasn’t gotten enough coverage in the game or fanfiction; the Factions are a huge part of the Last City’s society and have played a huge part in the beliefs and internal conflicts of humanity since the Dark Age, yet the game focuses solely on external threats and what the Guardians do rather than the conditions and concerns of the civilians. For more of my work, check out my [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217384398/0/0]Archive[/url]