VANGAURD (TITAN'S REACH)

The Two Forces

The Story Of Locke

The locken shutter and shrink at the sight of the weapon, the earlier locken quickly speaks up to descalate the situation, "oh! no need for that" he said "we only want you to listen to our story in exchange for the map" , we locken believe that the more souls we tell our story the longer we will be able to wait".002 was intrigued and inquired "wait... for what? The loken quickly answers with a hopeful tone" to wait for the champion who would rid Locke of it's heart".002 unimpressed still decides to pull the trigger, but the SAI interrupts him with a question "is it necessary they die?", 002 taken back by the question, he revalutes the situation and understands that an altercation wasn't necessary, he wasn't planning on moving through the night, and as the say goes, "knowledge is power". 002 withdraws his gun and stands up, casting a shadow over the Locken,and in a stoic and commanding tone, he says, "I will hear your story".

The Locken eagerly begins to narrate the story of Locke, the story goes like this he says, "long ago, when Locke was still lush and filled with life, all Locken lived in harmony. But our harmony was broken when an alien ship crash landed on our planet, we thought it a gift from the heavens but it was our misfortune, for behind it was it's enemy in pursuit, they turned our home into a battlefield disregarding our lives and home, their battle ultimately left our planet a barren wasteland, yet the Victor continues to reside on our planet as the Heart of Locke, unrelenting in it's pursuit of our demise". The story 002 just heard left him with so many questions, but what he needed was the map, "I have heard your story, hand over the map now" he said. The Locken handed him the map and warned, "beware the beasts that lurk beneath at night".

The Unavoidable

002, having aqcuired a copy of the map, moved to his veichle and entered the podlike space of the TMV and proceeded to enter a sleeplike state to quicken the healing process of his slightly damaged neural cortex, as he slowly loses consciousness he thinks of the story the Locken narrated to him. "Fire the force canons, don't allow them to safely leave the atmosphere", a commanding voice shouts with a passionate and furious tone, "if we allow them to leave, the princess will not be able to escape" he added. The owner of the voice, who is shown to be a tall and muscular man, turns around and looks at the display on the screen, and without looking at who he was speaking with, inquires "how are the thrusters, can't we take off?" another voice with a calmer and emotionless tone answers, "the ship's thrusters are beyond repair, and the fighters are insufficient to breach the forcefield, I suggest we use the energy core at 100% output to destroy them before they enter light speed", the room was momentary silent with all eyes on the Admiral in command, using the energy core at 100% meant self destructing the ship, the explosion was potent enough to permanently damage the ecosystem of the planet, much less those on board the ship. As if to urge the Admiral's decision, a timer that indicates the amount of time left until the enemy ship would enter lightspeed appears on display, intensifying the pressure. "what will it be sir? " the voice asked.