Aaron and Sidriks continued their patrol through the snow clad area known as the Cosmodrome in Old Russia. The ground around them was covered in the black ash of the hive warriors that they had killed a few moments earlier. Sidriks reloaded his modified wire rifle preparing for the next inevitable engagement. The sun had set already upon the Russian plains and snow began to fall from the sky.

"Well, when Rasputin said that there was a lot of hive soldiers in the area he wasn't kidding," Aaron stated with a sigh. 

"Indeed," Sidriks replied. 

This was the fourth major group of soldiers they had encountered on this one patrol. Most of the soldiers that they had come across had a yellow armor, the two of them before that point had only seen two kinds of hive soldiers. The ones with the red armor and the ones with black armor. Thankfully the color of the armor made no difference, they were the same soldiers, just with a different coat of paint. 

"Why do you think the soldiers in the hive even have different armor colors? I mean, we have them for cosmetic purposes but them? I don't know what's so attractive about that." Aaron stated to Sidriks as he picked up one of the helmets from the Hive soldiers. 

"Perhaps it indicates something else. Potentially rank or commander. Much like the armies of old who had different colors for their units." Sidriks replied. 

"That does make sense, and I could only assume from the threat of that Omnigul wizard thing, that these are the minions of Crota. They are under his direct command." 

"I agree. That is the most logical step." Sidriks replied. 

The two soldiers then continued walking through the rusted structures. Aaron had wanted to talk to Sidriks about their two friends but didn't know how to start. He wondered what Sidriks thought about the two of them, but more pressingly, why was Sidriks gone for so long? He wondered about this because he was missing for nearly four weeks after the team's mission to destroy the black garden. 

"Sidriks?" 

"Yes?" 

"May I ask you why you were gone for four weeks after the medal ceremony?" 

Sidriks pondered on that question for a moment. Aaron was his friend, he had a right to know. "I was hunting for Skolas, a former Kell of the House of Wolves."

"Really? May I ask why?"

Sidriks let out a deep sigh. "It's a bit difficult to talk about. I get emotionally compromised when I do."

"My friend, James got emotionally compromised so many times over the course of our adventures. You can be as emotional as you want to be." He replied. 

"Well, a long time ago, back on my homeworld. I had a wife who gave birth to my daughter. Her name is Shandri Velkor. Velkor being my last name. I taught her all she needed to know, along with my wife. She began to reveal an aptitude for combat, so much so that it attracted the attention of the Eliksni military academy. A very rare occurrence in our society, usually it is only the males who go off to the academies and fight our wars. Shandri accepted gladly. She quickly rose to the top of her class and became an officer at the age of eighteen." 

"Wow, she must have made you and your wife very proud," Aaron remarked as the pair walked out into the snow. 

"She was my flesh and blood. Of course, she did." He said to his friend. 

"What happened to her?" 

Sidriks paused his movements for a moment looking up into the cloudy sky. "When the whirlwind hit, our race debated on what we needed to do next. A grand civil war was fought, and in that war, she was captured." 

"You showed a lot of urgency when you went looking. Any reason as to why?" 

Sidriks looked down from watching the sky to face the base ahead of them. It was the house of devils base they had destroyed three months earlier. The banners that hung proudly on its walls now tattered and damaged. "There is a custom in Eliksni armies. A custom that fills me with shame whenever I think about it. One that depressed me for our species lack of honor in war." 

"What is it?" Aaron asked slightly worried. 

"The mutilation and torture of prisoners of war," Sidriks stated sadly. 

Aarons' eyes widened. He could only imagine the amount of pain that Sidriks felt saying those words. Having the feeling of dread, knowing that your daughter could be either alive or dead right now, and having no idea as to where she could be. "I, I'm sorry Sidriks," Aaron stated to him looking at the base. 

"It's alright Aaron." 

"I didn't know that was something your people did." 

"It still is something they do, it's a darker part of my people's history that I chose to leave behind. Me and my daughter sought to preserve the old tradition of honorable combat." 

"Honorable?" Aaron asked sitting down on the corpse of the walker tank that he and James had taken out three months ago. 

"The way that the Eliksni use swords at this time is nothing like the old ways. They are untrained, undisciplined, like children." 

Aaron finally saw his opportunity to change the subject. "Speaking of children, how far do you think our two friends are willing to go?" 

"How far? Please elaborate Aaron, human idioms are still things that I am learning." 

"Well, how far do you think they are willing to take their relationship with each other?" 

Sidriks began to think about that for a moment. It was clear that James loved Cameron and the other way around. The question for him wasn't whether or not they would marry each other, but if they were willing to have a child. Sidriks began to examine the fallen tank in much more scrutinizing detail, feeling a great shame as he caressed the tanks main armor plating. 

"It's obvious that they both love and respect each other. The way I see it, it will all be up to James and his sense of timing. If they desired a child, well, I'm certain you know how that would end." Sidriks said prying off one of the armor plates of the tank in front of him. 

"I'm not too sure about that Sidriks." 

"Really? What makes you think so?"

"James's memory fragment from his conception. He told me about it and his creation a month ago, and how he was made in secrecy. I'm wondering if she gave him any "unique" features."

"You're implying the ability to make genetic material correct?"

"Yeah, I just didn't know how to correctly word that." 

"You could have just given it to me straight Aaron." 

"I thought you said you were still learning about idioms." 

"I am, and that's one of them that I learned." 

"Alright, I'm gonna pull Eris up on the comms channel, see if she knows what we are supposed to be looking for. Because as of right now, we've only come across Omnigul before she disappeared. We don't know what we're looking for, nor their level of importance." 

"Agreed." 

Aaron began loading his comms channel. "Okay, it's connecting."

"Connecting?" 

"Yeah, the two devices need to connect for there to be any communication." 

"Hello?" Asked a grim voice.

"Hi Eris, it's Aaron."

"Oh, hello Aaron. How goes the trip?" She said lightly, completely changing the tone of her voice. 

"Well Rasputin is okay, but Omnigul escaped. He told us that throughout the Cosmodrome there were significant concentrations of hive soldiers. We need to hit their commanders, is there any way that you could point us in the right direction?" He asked. 

Eris did know. She could hear the whispers of the hive commanders in her head, sometimes growing so loud she couldn't hear herself think. "Search in the refinery, close to the hive seeder is where you can find the heart of Crota." 

"The heart?" Aaron questioned. 

"You didn't mishear me. The heart of Crota is one of his commanders. You slew the might of Crota now only the fist, hand, eyes, heart, and will remain. I will direct you to them." 

"Thank you Eris, I'll call you back when we take out the heart okay?" 

"Sure, stay safe." 

"Bye." He said shutting off his comms unit. 

Sidriks heard their conversation and got his weapons primed and ready. "You all set?" He asked him. 

"Yeah, let's take 'em down." 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James was in the process of getting ready for his date with Cameron. They may live together but times, when they would go out like this, were few and far between. James already had a suit from the day he had received the lightsmiths heart since he was an Exo he didn't fluctuate his size so any clothing he had bought would fit him for as long as he was alive. James had a black suit with a white undershirt and a red silk tie. Taking the red tie making it into a not and tightening it around his neck. He took a look at his internal clock, 6:45. 

"Are you ready to go Cameron?" 

"Yeah, I'll be out in a second." She replied. 

"I wonder how she looks?" Ghost asked him telepathically. 

"She'll look beautiful," James replied to him. 

She then stepped out of their room and James was awestruck. The black dress she was wearing accented all of her curves. She was as beautiful as ever, and he thought that the black was a perfect contrast from her hair. Her hair was brushed slightly keeping some of her short hair flipped upwards. And best of all, she wasn't wearing any makeup. From her head to her feet she was fantastic. 

"Well, how do I look?" She asked him.

"You look incredible Cameron." He replied with a smile. 

"Thank you, let's get moving." She said taking him by the hand the two of them then made their way over to the tower elevator. 

"Wait, how are we gonna get there? Sparrows are only for one person and-"

She stopped right in the middle of that sentence. In front of them sat a two-door sports car with the lights on and a black chassis. The exterior was sleek, smooth, and apparently, the car had just been waxed. It had a sloped look to it, it was aerodynamic. If the vehicle had some sort of brain, Cameron knew it would plead for the driver to push it to its very limits. 

"How and where did you get this?" She asked him walking over to the passenger door of the car. 

"Well, I found the body of the car in someone's golden age garage, it was basically untouched for all that time. I had Captain hook it up to the ship, and we transported it to the city. I then read up on how to become a mechanic of sorts, and I got to work. It took me almost a day to get this into a factory new condition." He replied as the two opened the doors to enter the vehicle. 

The interior was just as elegant as the shape of the car on the outside. The seats were made out of leather, but the cushioning on them felt like you could fall asleep inside. The dashboard looked like something out of a sci-fi novel, with the speedometer glowing a bright red for the driver to see. In fact, the whole dash looked like that. James pressed his thumb against the finger scanner to start the engine, and it roared to life. 

"Wow. James this is incredible." Cameron stated to him as they began driving down the road. 

"The night's not over yet Cameron." He replied playfully. 

"If dinner's as nice as this car, then I can't wait." She said looking out the window. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Nova, are you ready?" Charon asked his daughter. 

"Almost Dad." 

Nova then walked out wearing a beautiful purple dress. She had this dress ready for a long time, hoping that one day she would have a reason to wear it. Now she finally did. A dinner with her girlfriend. Her black hair was shortly cut, not like a boy's but short enough to where it wasn't obstructive to her.  Charon thought she looked perfect. 

"So, what do you think? I can't see myself, but I know you'll be honest." 

"You look perfect Nova." He said to her taking her hand. 

"Thank you Dad, for dinner and for agreeing to take me." 

"It's no trouble, I owe it to you after all. Also, your girlfriend is just a delight." 

"Really? You like her?" 

"Yeah, she's so polite, sweet, all in all, she's just a pleasure to be around." He stated helping Nova get on his sparrow. He had his model specifically made to have two people to help get her around the city. He wanted to be able to take her wherever she wanted to go in spite of her being blind. The two then sped off to the restaurant where Kathrine was going to meet them.