Cayde-6 Reminisces

Okay, okay, I'll tell the story about that one Fallen. It didn't happen like that. We didn't, you know, do anything >actively - no handshake, no icy stare of grudging mutual >respect. I don't even know which hand you would shake. >Do they shake hands? It must be complicated. Anyway, it was like this. I was on the Moon. I cracked a >Hive structure near Mare Imbrium, looking for a Shrine, >and they just - swarmed. Ranks and ranks and ranks of >Thrall, pouring out between the columns, but the columns >were Knights, and all the shadows behind them rose up >hissing sorcery. Of course I ran. I had a line of egress and while yes it was full of Thrall I >had a backup too. I went upslope. Took cover in the >shadow of a crashed Phaeton. Emptied my machine gun, >ducked down to reload, and saw her at the other end of >the hull, killing Thrall: a Fallen in Exile colors, bannered in >the marks of a Baron, though the flags were claw-torn and >stained with Hive ash. She was alone. I think she must >have lost her crew. I didn't really have time to shoot her and she didn't really >have time to shoot me so we just went back to killing >Hive. Knights pushed me out into the open and back up >the range to a high stone saddle in the shadow of an old >interferometry array. It was good ground so she came up >there too. For a while we just killed things which is hard to make >interesting in a story so I'll pass it over. At the end the Wizards came. I climbed the array to get an >angle on them and she fell back to the base of the >antennae where she broke her swords off in a Knight. I >saw that happen and I don't know if I can tell you how I >felt. She was another living thing with a mind I could >understand and she hadn't howled at me or tried to eat >my Ghost. I cheered when the Knight went down. When I came down, empty on all guns, she was slumped >against a bulkhead staring at me with all her tiny black >eyes. Ether leaking out of her like smoke. The Knight >hadn't died easily. Downslope the last Wizard moved like >fire behind another line of Thrall. I looked at her and wondered how many innocent human >lives she'd ended on those broken blades. She did the strangest thing then. Took the last shock >pistol from her bandolier and threw it between us, as if to >offer it. When I went to pick it up she tried to knife me, but >she was slow, and when I broke her arms and opened her >throat she didn't seem surprised. To this day I wonder if she hated me, or wanted to make >me kill her, or just felt she should spare me the choice. I did kill a few Thrall with that pistol.