[spoiler]Just a warning that this might be complete cringe. This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction and I would love some CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. I don't claim to be any good at writing, but this story has been floating around in my head since the game's launch, which means that it's probably sh*t. As the story went on longer than expected, it will most likely be in two parts.[/spoiler] War. War is the only constant. Across all timelines, all possible futures. Across all that has ever been and will ever be, war is the only thing that will, without a doubt, happen every single time. At least, that’s what Lakshmi had told Jaq when she had first joined the FWC. But she had never believed that, after all, there had to be something else. There had to peace eventually. This era was proof of that, wasn’t it? The Age of Triumph they were calling it. An age of peace. An age where the City no longer had to fear the shadows. An age of light. At least, it had been, until Ghaul and his Red Legion arrived and took everything. Jaq’s blood boiled as she planned revenge on the big ugly bastard. The millions of ways she would make him pay, that is, if she ever stopped falling. It seemed like millenia had passed since Ghaul had thrown her from his ship, and looking down, the ground seemed as far as ever. A few moments passed, and she found that time appeared to be passing as normal now, and Jaq’s head spun as the ground rushed up to meet her. As the concrete got closer and closer, an urgent thought made its way into her head, and she opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted as her body hit the ground with a sickening thud, and all her thoughts were drowned out as the impact knocked her out. [b]*TWO DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK*[/b] Jaq’s eyes flew open and, momentarily forgetting her current situation, sat up rather quickly She was reminded of the previous days’ events when a sharp string of pain seared her right side, and she laid back own as quickly as she had gotten up. Trying again, Jaq sat up much slower and took in her surroundings. She sat in the rubble of the Last safe City on Earth, only it was safe no longer. Burning debris and crumbling supports lay littered around her, a result, she guessed of the Legion. Squinting into the distance,she saw a group of Cabal which seemed much more formidable without her light or weapons. Spotting parts of the once mighty Wall that had surrounded the City, Jaq recalled that there had been an urgent matter on her mind before hitting the ground. She reached with her mind, searching for whatever had been so important and was met with a series of images. Approaching the Tower to see it in flames and the Traveler restrained. The Speaker missing and Ikora, hitching a ride to find him. Cassi giving her a brief, desperate parting kiss as Jaq ran from the Tower Plaza and...Cassi. That was it. Cassi, known throughout the Tower as Cassiopeia-8 or Cass ( although she’d kill you if you used that one), was a Sunsinger and, arguably more importantly, Jaq’s best gal, and the two had been going out for a few months now, although with Jaq’s recklessness combined with Cassi’s willingness to do dumb and sometimes dangerous things “for science”, it was a miracle the pair of them had lasted that long. Jaq sighed. Upon parting, Cassi had taken off in the opposite direction, transmatting down to the City to look for any remaining citizens and head the invading Cabal off to buy time for anyone who needed it. Jaq glanced around at the utter destruction that surrounded her. Even if anyone [i]had[/i] made it out, she doubted that Cassi had. She was stubborn and a fighter, and after losing her light, Cassi hadn’t of stood a chance. With another hearty sigh, Jaq began to push herself up. As much as it hurt, both inside and out, she had other things to do, other priorities. There was a city’s worth of people out there, scared and angry. The Speaker was missing. Their home had been reduced to a pile of smoking ashes. She had to keep going. Shambling forward a couple of steps and clutching her side, Jaq found that it was much harder to evade the Cabal without the ability to walk properly, struggling to breathe with each step. She was pulled from her deep, concentrated rhythm of [i]*step, step, breathe* [/i]when a small, shaky voice called her name. “Jaq? Jaq, is that you? Oh, thank the Traveler it is!”, her Ghost exclaimed from a few feet away, startling the Hunter so much that she promptly tripped and fell. Overjoyed and slightly annoyed, she struggled to her feet again before continuing on to her ghost. “ Sam? Sammy? Oh thank god, I was afraid that maybe the fall…”, she trailed off hesitant to state the obvious. She had lost so much in so little time, and knowing that her ghost was okay took a small weight off her chest. “Yeah, yeah, and I thought you exploded. But here we are.”, the ghost interjected, cutting off whatever thought left unfinished. “Now, uh, I’d ‘ppreciate it if you’d be so kind as to pick me up so we can get this show on the road”. Jaq chuckled nervously as she scooped up her ghost. Sitting up and shakily rotating his broken shell, Sam pulsed with a sudden burst of warm, bright light, which Jaq felt flow from her fingertips and through her whole body, healing her. She stood straight up and stretched out her arms an legs, rotating her hands and feet one at a time. “Sorry, I’ve only got enough light to heal you. With Ghaul and whatever the Hell he did to the Traveler…”, Sam trailed off, and Jaq guessed that if the ghost had shoulders, he would’ve given her an apologetic shrug. A somber mood fell over the pair. She shot him a weary grin. “What, you’re telling me you rely on that big ball up there in the sky? Thought you were your own man, you know headstrong, independent, and the like”. Sam snorted and gave what Jaq assumed was the ghost’s equivalent to an eye roll. Chuckling, Jaq closed her hand, and Sam disappeared, his voice coming through clear in her helmet. “Come on, you ass, let’s get going”. Fluffing her tattered cape out behind her, Jaq pulled herself up onto the pile of concrete in front of her and weaved through the ruins and to the outskirts of the City. “ Wait a second. I...I think I’m getting something. It’s… Ah Ha! It’s the Vanguard. They’ve sent out an emergency broadcast. They’re evacuating the planet”. Sam sputtered as the pair reached the very edge of the City, the initial excitement in his voice growing more solemn by the end. Jaq forced a smile, hoping that somehow, despite her nature, Cas had gotten on on of the ships. “Well then, guess we’re gonna have to make it on our own.”, she said with as much bravado as she could muster. Her ghost snorted. “Yeah, because you and I have always been so reliant on the Vanguard, right”? It was Jaq’s turn to snort. Taking one last look behind her at the piles of debris, in some places still burning, Jaq pushed every other thought out of her mind. There would be time for revenge and mourning later. Now, there was room only for survival.