Hussaini's Personal Logs || The Memory Shard

[Chrysalis]

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I see myself. I am flying alongside Nomak through the mists of Minor and we are heading towards the Order's dark bastion. An unfamiliar tune draws me as we travel by the charred husk of Toledo and my curiosity is stirred. We enter Mu, and the tune becomes stronger, yet still as unclear and unfamiliar as ever. Upon the Order's border guard citadel, we are greeted by a strange sight. The ascended ones overlooking humans gathered at the station. I regard them with my human senses and my ship's instruments, and I do not notice anything amiss, other than the strange tune they produce.

I try to sing to them...but I cannot get through. I try to look at them and to hear them, but I cannot see...and I cannot understand. They are as blurs to my mind's eye. I am confused, bewildered, afraid. I speak out, I break my mask, and Nomak notices something is amiss. I come to my senses, and I evade his questions. I turn my attention back at the ascended ones. I choose to cease communicating with them, despite my curiosity. One of them does something unexpected. It...screams, and the scream echoes through the void. It fills me with terror untold and I am left petrified for a moment. Then everything breaks. I shed my human reasoning and enter a state of frenzy, I lose all semblance of control. I lash out at the closest target, the weapon platforms and the ships gathered at the station. They evade my fire and cloak or otherwise escape.

When I come back to my senses, I see that Nomak is not with me, for he had gone with the Skywolf and pursued a ship that was escaping. I take this opportunity to speak with these creatures that evade my understanding. I ask them why I can't see them, and why they are different. They call themselves 'Vagrants'. They tell me their story. I tell them bits of mine and I commiserate, for I find myself in them. I withhold the rest and I envy them, for they have something that I do not, something that I crave - each other's light.

Nomak returns, and does not speak to me. A Freelancer arrives, and he seeks an audience with the ascended ones. They grant him this, but are interrupted. An Order husk arrives and we engage it. The battle is long and Vagrants lose some of their shells, we lose Skywolf, but the pilot survives. Nomak hails the Nighthawk, and it arrives ready to deliver punishment. The Order husk retreats and the battle is over.

The Freelancer now continues his audience with the ascended ones. I observe, but then, Nomak confronts me. I want to deny, but I know he saw the red glow of my frenzied eyes through my ship's cockpit. My mask was shattered to a million pieces. I confess. He is wounded. I try to explain, but he does not understand. He says he doesn't know me. That I am no longer his brother. I am wounded back. I give him a second chance, I almost apologize. He denies me. So be it.

We continue onward and the Freelancer accompanies us. A small husk appears, the Freelancer calls it a 'Blackguard', and accuses it of hunting the ascended ones. We cross-interrogate it. I can tell it lies, but Nomak wishes to spare it. I wish to kill, but I comply. Our scanners pick up a crippled vessel in the mists as we aim to leave the darkness of Mu. We come in to investigate, it's the husk that evaded us previously. Its cockpit is destroyed, and blood is visible on the inside. I feel no life stirring within. Nomak wishes it investigated, for its pilot spoke of ancient artifacts and this stirred his ambition.

I enter the ship. I turn on my magnetic boots and my helmet's recording device. My companions now share some of my sight, but not all of it. They don't feel the palpable atmosphere of dread. Nor do they see the prints and marks of this extinguished life that still hang heavily in the air. I investigate, but I find almost nothing of value, no artifact, no corpse. Only burnt paper, blood, and the black box. A silver lining. The Nighthawk spreads its wings again and flies to us once more. It collects the husk as I vacate it and return to my vessel. We speak a few more words at the site, and we head home.

The variables have changed.

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