Only On Paper

18 - Epilogue

"When the giant machine exploded, it sent me careening across the open floor until my mass was stopped by solid rock. After sliding to the floor proper, I looked briefly to my left and thanked the Traveler I hadn't been standing further that direction: the floor gave way into nothingness just inches from my hip.

There was too much smoke and static in the air, my Heads-Up Display wasn't registering radio signals, and I couldn't see anyone else. The upside was that I didn't hear or see any movement that would indicate any more Vex activity in the chamber. The shrieking had stopped, and I didn't hear the slap-rifles or the kinetic blasts of those harpies, either. The calm over the chamber was such a strange juxtaposition to the pandemonium that had rocked it moments before. Slowly I stood up, brushing drust and pebbles off my leggings and out from the creases in my armor joints.

When I finally heard the first sound that wasn't silt settling, I drew my auto rifle and pressed the butt of it tightly to my shoulder. I began sweeping the area around the inactive timegate, and the sounds of subdued struggling grew louder. My motion tracker was going haywire with all the particulates in the air, but it seemed true enough that something was moving very close by.

'Ouch!' A voice grunted and the rock I had just put my foot onto suddenly shifted under me. Then I could make out the frame of a Guardian, covered completely in dust, lying on his back.

'Watch where you're stepping, eh?' Gideon gave a weak laugh as he began to sit upright. He shook his helmet and dust sloughed off of it, clearing his visor. He looked around briefly, and I offered my hand to him. He took it and grunted and I hauled him to his feet.

'Did we, ah... Did we kill it?' He asked me uncertainly.

'I'd venture to guess, yes.' I answered him. I brought my rifle back up to my shoulder and continued my sweep. Gideon took up right behind me. We gave the husk of the large Vex a wide berth, occasionally kicking aside pieces of shrapnel, and keeping our weapons trained on it's midsection. As we continued walking, more of the dust settles and I saw Asher doubled over unconscious next to a large stone block. We picked up our pace until we reached her.

The haze in the atmosphere was still playing hell with my sensors, so I made a physical connection to her armor. All her bio-signs were showing normal, but there was some trauma to her lower spine. I immediately keyed the emergency interlock and froze all her armor joints in place. I marked her location on my area map, and Gideon and I continued with our sweep. We hadn't made it too much further from Asher before we heard Fjenne calling to us. I could hardly track the direction of her voice, but the way she was shouting told me she was in a great deal of pain.

After some searching, we finally came across a shredded and discarded mangala skin boot, and a trail of blood that led away from us. Gideon grabbed the boot and handed it off to his Ghost which began a repair cycle. The closer we got, the more strained whimpering I heard. The moment I saw her wound, I knew why she was in so much pain - her ankle looked crushed, and her tibia was poking out of her skin in multiple places. I performed as much first aid as was possible on that mess, before Gideon moved in with her repaired boot.

'This is going to hurt,' He told her. 'A lot.'

Of course she screamed when he forced the boot back on, but we all knew that her armor's subsystems could do wonders more for her well-being than we could have, down in that hole. As soon as Gideon sealed the clasps, she fell quiet, and I could see an air of relief come over her.

'It's done? We did it?' She asked me, her voice shaky from shock and adrenaline.

'It's done.' I told her.

She breathed heavily shudder, and slumped back against the floor. She was reading as stable, so I stood once more. By this time, enough of the dust had settled out of the room that I could read Asher's status. She was reading as conscious, so with Gideon's help I hefted Fjenne over my shoulder and carried her back a ways. When I set her down next to Asher, we found her grunting heavily.