FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-221

HG01: —took heavy fire! Jax and Klaid are gone! Cabal dropped out of nowhere; they must have our transponder signals!

VSYS: Vanguard ship, ID code is scrambled. Please reauthenticate.

HG01: We need to make an emergency landing at Venus FOB!

VSYS: Please reauthenticate.

HG01: Five times! I tried reauth five times! Look, I have a damaged jumpship, and I'm escorting a frigate of civilians! Clear me for landing!

VSYS: Clearance denied. Venus Forward Operating Base automated orbital defenses now online.

HG01: No! Turn 'em off!

VSYS: I cannot comply.

HG01: Worthless piece of scrap!

HG01: New plan! Captain Hennek, you still with us?

CC03: Reading you loud and clear, Guardian! What's the plan? Those Cabal cruisers are right behind us!

HG01: I'm sending you new coordinates! We'll make a few short jumps; try to lose them in the Re—

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-236

HG01: —still work. Ah, see! Green blinking light means power.

UNK1: This ship will never fly again, Human. What value is there in a flight recorder?

HG01: You never write a journal before?

UNK1: I have. But I fail to see the value.

HG01: Well my options here are to talk to you—and no offense, but you Reefborn are an acquired taste—or talk to that one, and I don't speak Fallen.

UNK2: [untranslated]

HG01: You see what I mean?

UNK1: So you would rather… talk to yourself.

HG01: Now you got it. C'mon, help me disconnect the primary power coupli—

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-238

HG01: Been trying to figure out how to word this. Don't know if I'll ever make it back to Earth. The thought of not saying goodbye to you keeps eating away at me.

HG01: I don't know if you're safe. Don't know if you made it out of the City.

HG01: Comms are down, Cabal control the channels. Been trying to get the Awoken to help, but after the whoopin' Oryx gave them, they're reluctant to get between us and the Cabal.

HG01: I miss you so damn much.

HG01: If we see each other again, none of this will matter. I'll complain about Reef cuisine, you'll criticize all my tactical choices, and I'll fall asleep in your arms… None of this'll matter.

HG01: But in case it does, I just—I want you to know I love you. That, even out here beyond the light, I never forgot you.

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-239

HG01: We got the old Dead Orbit ship set up as a shelter. Atmospheric controls are still working, heat, radiation shielding seems good. The friendly Fallen out here are real helpful. I thought they were slaves of the Awoken at first, but it's… not like that at all.

HG01: Captain Hennek finally succumbed to his injuries. I was with him when he went. Last thing he said to me was, "I guess, right now, we're not all that different."

HG01: [long silence]

HG01: I wish you were here.

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-240

[ENTRY DELETED]

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-241

[ENTRY DELETED]

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-242

HG01: A Fallen named Kesk is helping me hardwire a linguistic modulator his people built into the flight recorder. Should translate their speech back to me in something I can understand, and then I can run it through the vocal processing heuristics onboard my jumpship to speak back.

HG01: Faster than learning a language I don't have the mouth parts to speak.

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-243

HG01: Today was our anniversary. I hope we were looking at the same stars.

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-244

HG01: Traveler.

UNK2: <<Great Machine.>>

HG01: Huh. Okay.

HG01: Family.

UNK2: <<Ketch.>>

HG01: Okay, that's where we're hitting a wall. Can we try some root words? We need to build the Fallen database.

UNK2: <<Eliksni.>>

HG01: Right, sorry. Eliksni.

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-245

[ENTRY DELETED]

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-246

HG01: I had this dream… like a memory of a memory, you know? But I swear, I heard your laugh when I woke up.

HG01: Being Lightless is hard, but it's… it's these little phantom pains that are the hardest.

HG01: I feel like my whole life is a phantom limb.

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-247

HG01: Light.

UNK2: Light.

HG01: I'm not sure why I'm surprised by that.

UNK2: <<We are all forged in the Light. It is what we lost.>>

HG01: Yeah.

UNK2: <<We are not all that different now, you and I.>>

HG01: W-why do you say that?

UNK2: <<When we live, it is in the shadow of the life we once had. When we die, it is the end of our story.>>

[Long Silence]

HG01: That… makes sense.

UNK2: <<Many things do, when you take the time to stop and listen. To hear.>>

[Long Silence]

HG01: Dig.

UNK2: <<Dig.>>

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-248

[ENTRY DELETED]

FLIGHT_RECORDER_LOG // VG777-T // L-250

HG01: I'm heading back to Earth. The locals agreed to take care of the civilians.

HG01: I don't know if I'll find you, but I can't sit here anymore.

HG01: If I find you, you'll never hear this. But if I don't, and I live… Being here has opened my eyes to a lot of things and I just—I can't fight like this anymore. Not without you. There's an enclave out past the Jovians; pacifists. You'll find me there.

HG01: Kesk will have my Sidearm. I told him to give it to you if you come looking for me. Or… if he finds out you're—gone—to send it to the Vanguard.

HG01: I won't need it anymore.

HG01: All I need is you.

// End Logs