Winter - Part one: Night Warden.

Five

The rain was still viciously beating down on Winter as she was speeding towards the crash site. Her vision severely hindered by the level of fog and rainfall in conjunction with the night, however, because of her routine assistance in prisoner transportation during her training she knew the route very well and could navigate it just the same. The beacon on her wrist transponder was displaying a small red flashing dot and letting out a quiet, repetitive beep indicating that she was near the crash site. According to her map it was just off the main road, not too far from the docks, but far enough for them not to have spotted it.

She remained unsettled. Winter couldnt understand why the Templars had come that far into Warden territory uninvited, and what was worse is that they looked to have been shot down. It was also very likely that the raiders in the area were on their way to the crash site if not there already. But even with all these thoughts the one thing that was really concerning her was who shot the Vulcan down. Raider weapons were mostly salvaged scraps and certainly not powerful enough to even warrant an attempt on a Vulcan. So, who, or what, did? Could have been a malfunction, however. Hopefully she would find out soon. As she got closer to the mark on her map, she noticed that it was no longer fog, but smoke, presumably from the crash. Then she seen the feint light of what would likely be fire, within the tree line so she stopped her bike and moved it into the edge of the trees to conceal it as she disembarked and removed her helmet, flinching slightly as the heavy downpour was whipping at her face. Then she stopped and remembered. Just before, in the courtyard, she swore that she could smell burning and she felt an intense heat, like from being next to a fire. Now she was experiencing the same smell and beginning to feel a familiar heat. But how? This was more than a coincidence. But right now she had a job to do. She would revisit this potential premonition with her father upon her return. From now on, Im trusting my instincts she promised herself, quietly. As she began walking through the trees in the direction of the crash, she could smell a mixture of burning electrics and wood. But there was no noise, so she doubted very much that there were raiders and her wrist transponder was not picking up any life signs. She readied her pistol, regardless, and approached the inside edge of the tree line to the crash site itself, looking occasionally at her scanner, still showing no signs of life but remaining ever cautious still.

As she walked out into the opening the rain had become somewhat of a blessing as it dampened the heat from the burning Vulcan. As she got closer, she noticed that the ground around the ship was littered with not only debris, but raider bodies. Winter sent a return transmission back to base informing them of her findings. She knew that there was no way that survivors from a crashed ship, especially one in this condition, would have been able to kill a squad of raiders. Seven to be precise. Something strange was happening here and she was determined to get to the bottom of it, and quickly.

Winter slowly approached one of the bodies to examine it. His wounds were still fresh as were the wounds on the neighbouring corpse. These wounds were not caused by Templars Winter muttered aloud. One of the Raider bodies was missing an arm, and another was missing a large portion of his throat. There were no signs of gunshot wounds either. Winter looked at the crashed ship and through the haze she could see the side bay door bent out of shape and jammed open as a result. She made her way towards it in hope that she may be able to get inside the ship and find any leads as to what happened in order to solve this mystery which was becoming increasingly difficult to piece together. Nothing was making sense.

Winter had her pistol at the read as she walked slowly towards the opening of the gunship and as she drew near she could see the remains of a body slouched against the far wall. She got to the door. The body was burned far beyond recognition, unless, like Winter, one had studied Templars in depth. Around the right bicep of the corpse was a metal band, hanging loosely. This told Winter two things. It told her that the corpse was that of an officer, and it told her what rank the officer was. Only officers were permitted to wear such pieces of insignia due to the rarity in the materials used to forge them, it made them indestructible by any normal means. Winter stood back up, cradling her forehead in her left hand and rubbing vigorously as if to try and warm up her brain. This discovery had just made everything even more confusing. Why the hell was a Templar War priest this far into our territory? She said aloud. The only viable solution was that they were planning an attack but that still didnt let her know how the ship had crashed and was burning in front of her. But why only one ship if it was to launch an attack? Maybe a scouting part, that would make more sense. But then why an armed gunship, and why a war priest?