Credible Prime

Land!

Finally ashore, Koda got his land legs.  With the Beacon humming across every nerve in his matrix, the calling was unignorable. Attention must be paid to the signal. Pursuit was mandatory. On Kalus, a piece of Kalfate-whatever that might be-lay in waiting, rooted in the cortex of Koda and it controlled his mind's direction. 
" It sings to me".  That's what he had said on approach. Kalus sang.  Now all of them aboard the Hammerlight were reluctant explorers on this quest.
     In orbit, Yend ships engaged with the mercs. Ship upon ship was disabled and Merc ships tumbled and bounced and ignited against debris. Slug bursts cast burning flashes across the theater of operation all to reach what every being sought somewhere down on the surface.  The Yend Armada was colossal, but the Merc fleet, little more than privateers who had assembled a makeshift squadron, fought relentlessly against the teaming Navy of the Yend.  The call had gone out to every seeker in the area who had a ship with armaments to dispatch to Kalus.  And the call was answered by no less than ships from every corner of Seeker territory.

As the battle waged furiously in orbit above them,  the phalange of crew members from the Hammerlight, following a mesmerized Koda, snaked their way through the darkness of the small landing village.  It was dilapidated, ancient and crippled with half ruined buildings, junk ships and burned out voids cobbled together into a trading post.  As if on a predetermined course, Koda led the crew through a crowd of otherworldly beings.  From every imaginable corner of the Vast these creatures, large and small, packed the narrow alleyways of the outpost.  Kreed and his crew struggled to keep up as Koda navigated with expertise, the maze of passers- by. 

     As if he had had an epiphany but at the same time had known all along what he was looking for, Koda whispered something into the dank night air.  Whatever he said hung in front of him in a cloud of vapor before it vanished into the coolness of the singed atmosphere.
Kreed tilted his head in confusion and curiosity.
"Say again, mate?".
Koda looked at him and paused.
He whispered the word again with the same puff of vapor congealing in front of him and then fading away in the cold.
"Astor". He said.  " We have to get to Astor".
Kreed's eyes widened behind his visor. And he lowered his voice.
" Where did you hear that name?"
"I don't know", Koda said.  " The name just came to me like a word I had suddenly learned. Astor."

When he said it,  it felt right. It felt like it was a word that he had been needing to say for so long. He knew it was a name, he knew that it was a piece to the puzzle and he knew that it was something that carried with it the weight of their mission.
"Why do you ask?", Koda inquired.
Kreed stood, not in a trance but in some sort of way that betrayed his attempt at stoicism.  He too felt the ramifications of the name , 'Astor'.  The word hit his ears and then familiarity and warmth and something akin to hope, flooded him with emotion that he was not accustomed to.  Here was the leading Merc, stoic and resolute and unflinching, suddenly filled with sentiment that he had trained his entire life not to experience and certainly not to display.
"Astor is the conduit to Kalfate, the Oracle that connects to the truth.
" Well, Koda deadpanned. "I know where to find her".