Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It moved silently through the stars, a landing pod. Like the kind old rockets had, back from when there was still a USSR and the stars were the limit. It wasn’t like the old pods, this one was new, quickly created and tested so that its occupants could land on the world that held the strangest, most glorious thing one could see. They landed on the red sand, a storm billowing out at the pod as they set down at the foot of the mountains. They leave the pod, one by one, making the first footsteps ever left on the desert planet by living things.

The Planet Mars - Present Day

The first astronaut was a male, a member of Human race. Young, infant, and hopeful compared to the rest of the stars. His name is Jacob Hardy, Commander of the Ares One mission. He checks his gear as he leaves the pod, it is his step that is the first on Mars. His team, the other two men- Mihaylova and Qiao, were starting to exit the pod in their white bulky spacesuits, golden visors glinting in the sun. Jacob Hardy looked up at the mountains, at their course- The wind was howling. He could hear it even inside his helmet. It howled and roared as the sand rose up to form an all-encompassing blanket over their surroundings. Jacob Hardy turned around to his companions. He was given a script of what to say before they left. He was meant to follow it. He forgot it. Instead, he said the first thing that came to mind.

“We’re walking into a rising wind,” He warned. And the most famous gaffe in Human history was made. A line that would ring immortal for an entire species. His team confirmed, and gave their suits a final check over as they began the slow climb up the mountain. They all were equipped with guns, thought Jacob Hardy would admit that they hated having to bring them along. Only careful Qiao had grabbed his from the holster on his back. Their climb was long, and when the reached the summit, the impossible happened. It began to rain on Mars. They looked up, and before them was the product of salvation. The solution to all of Mankind’s problems and their fears. A giant white orb. They would call it, The Traveler.

-

The Cosmodrome, Old Russia - Not The Present Day

The road was littered with rusted hulks of cars, their chassis rotted and gutted, long scavenged over. Glistening white bones lingered within many of the vehicles, forever preserved to stand monument to what had happened. There was little, bare planets fought for space in the open ground, while rotting and sparsely-leaved evergreens had grown from where their seeds were dropped in the road. The rocky hills and ravines aside the road were separated by rusted and collapsed fences. Complementing the ruddy orange-red cars, the ground was covered in snow. It was pure and white, unlike much in the Old Russia. The trail of cars lead to a wall, rusted and orange just like the cars, but high and mighty, separating the wilds from what remained of the might of Old Russia. Old ships littered the horizon, taller than any building, taller than even the wall, and tipped with three orbs. Old Colony ships, from a time where people longed to explore the stars that had been opened to them. Now they too rotted, just like the bones on the ground. Above it all, a single thing moved other than the plants and the crows. A small orb, encased in a shell of angular polygons, all white but tipped in orange. It emitted light, blue and inquisitive in nature, scanning the bones and resting places of the dead.

Far away, a four-armed Captain-warrior watched the Ghost-small-great machine through its Wire Rifle, mandible-jaws clacking together and it watched the small-light-great machine move. The Captain’s name was Rahn, Captain-warrior in the House-Banner of Devils. It roared-called, signalling for its Vandals-soldiers and Dreg-slaves to move in. The kill will be Rahn’s, it merely requires the hunted-prey to be cornered first.

“Ow,” The orb muttered, as it completed a scan, before floating off to the next body.This time, the remains lay hunched against the rusted car frame. The orb emitted the scanning light once again, looking over the remains longer than it had done previously.

“Is it possible?” The orb wondered, before the polygons that made its shell spread from its orb-body, creating a larger orb of blue light. If the orb had a mouth, it would be grinning as it said, “There you are.”

The orb of light collapsed upon itself in a flash of brilliant light white. She began to think again. It was dark, darker than it had ever been. Memory returned, but not in the way she remembered. It was a like she had just woken up from a deep sleep.

“Guardian… Guardian? Eyes up Guardian!”

She opened her eyes, the bright world briefly blinding her as she slowly looked up from the snow-covered ground. She was real, but was what were the things around her real? The world was not as she remembered. She looked up at the floating orb, its singular eye looking over her, unblinking yet not hostile.

“It worked… You’re alive!” Is said, glee evident in its voice. It had a man’s voice, and it talked fast, like it had much on its mind but little time to explain. With each word, its shell moved in accordance and the light in its eye flickered. It spoke to her again, “You don’t know how long I’ve been looking for you.”

“Looking for me?” She asked, trying to remember- Anything. Her name came first. Ripley.

“I’m a Ghost,” It explained, “Actually, now I’m your Ghost. And you… Well, you’ve been dead a long time. So, you’re going to see a lot of things you won’t understand.”

She looked down at her hands, shivering as she raised her arms and tested her fingers. They felt stiff, yet rejuvenated. She hadn’t used her hands in a long time apparently, it felt a like it. Ghost looked like he might speak once more, but a roar called out over the steppes and the cars, echoing against the wall. The Ghost rapidly turned at the source of the noise, almost worridly before turning back to Ripley.

“This is Fallen territory,” He quickly explained, “We aren’t safe here. I have to get you to The City. Hold Still.”

Ghost dissolved into faint light, before the faint light vanished into nothing. Ripley looked around in confusion, trying to wonder where it had gone before Ghost spoke again.

/Don’t worry, I’m still with you. We need to move. Fast.

She moved among the cars, peering around their rusted frames for any of these “Fallen”.

/I didn’t bring you back just for you to die again. We have to move.

“Thanks, didn’t catch that last part the first time,” Ripley remarked, “Am I supposed to just call you ‘Ghost’?”

/If you want. What would you have me call you, Guardian?

“Call me Ripley,” She said, casually looking over her apparel. It was roughspinned, armor that glinted white over the black and olive undersuit. It was bulky, not unlike most things Ripley faintly remembered wearing.

/We won’t survive long out in the open like this. Let’s get inside The Wall.

“The one in front of us?”

/Unless you see another one.

Ripley nodded, quickly making her way past the cars, the roars growing into whoops and calls as the callers drew nearer. Ripley couldn’t see them, but she did see a door above the road that lead into the wall, probably a place belonging to the worker when The Wall was manned. She pulled herself up over the concrete barrier that separated the road from the door, quickly getting back up on her feet. She wasted little time going inside, swiftly closing the rusted door behind her. She darted up a set of boxy winding concrete stairs until she reached a metal platform, one that led her into the darkness of the wall.

/Ok…. I need to find you a weapon before the Fallen find us, The Ghost said in her mind. Ripley kept her eyes open for anything that could be used as such, but anything useful had been taken from this area a long while back. She crossed the platform into the darkness, leading her back to a concrete section of The Wall, this time with a set of metal staircases leading upwards. The ground was covered here in rubbled, and spare tanks that looked like they were used for holding coolant were haphazardly scattered on the ground. As she stepped further into the darkness, and realized she couldn’t properly see, Ghost appeared over her shoulder once more, this time emitting a bright light like a flashlight for her to see wherever she aimed her eyes.

“Quiet,” He whispered, “They’re right above us.”

True to his words, a small circle appeared in the top left corner of her vision, ringed with another larger circle. In the middle of the smaller circle was a blue triangle. She realized it must be some radar of some sort- She had heard that this particular technology was being implemented in many workplaces. That is, back before her death, apparently. As she approached the staircase, a section of her radar filled in with red, right over where a panel in the wall had fallen off, showing off exposed pipes. Something crawled up it, too swift for Ripley to properly get a focus on it. As swiftly as it appeared, it vanished, and so did the red section.

“A motion tracker,” She whispered, amazed and afraid. Whatever that thing was, it was in the walls, and it was faster than she could track with her eyes.

They quickly reached the top of the stairs- Another metal platform, this time it opened up into a great shadow that not even Ghost could illuminate.

“Hang tight,” Ghost said, flying away from her shoulder. His shell separated a bit from his core, filling the area around them with a bright blue light. He briefly hovered in the air in front of her, before floating off into the darkness, illuminated more pipes as he went. “Fallen thrive in the dark, we won’t. We need more light. I’ll see what I can do.”

He also illuminated strange moving shapes.

/Another one of these hardened military systems and a few centuries of entropy working against me, He complained. A moment later the lights blinked on, illuminating the interior of the wall. As well as the Fallen on the bridge opposite of the platform. They roared and began to move across, heading towards her location. Ghost raced back, this time chased by a pair of red flying robots. Small guns were mounted beneath their bodies, and the fronts glowed a bright orange. Optical sensors, Ripley had to guess. Or at least as much as she could when trying not to panic. For whatever unknown reason, they refused to shoot at her.

“They’re coming for us!” Ghost shouted as he stopped briefly in front of Ripley, before turning to a now-illuminated gate to their right. He swiftly projected energy from his eye at a control panel, causing the gate to open. He quickly raced atop a crate a stone's toss away from the gate, illuminating what archaic thing lay atop the old metal box.

“Here! I found a rifle! Grab it,” He said, illuminating the weapon until Ripley picked it up. Once she did so, he vanished once again, letting her quickly look the piece over. It was familiar but very old, and the glass sights of the weapon were cracked. A counter appeared on the lower left of her vision, it displayed the outline of the weapon she held, as well as two sets of numbers- One small, the other large. She assumed it must be the bullets in her clip, and the bullets on her person. She couldn’t identify where she was holding other magazines.

“Ghost- This gun only has one clip,” She grumbled.

/I’ve digitized the ammo- You’ll get more when you need it, He said in reply, /I hope you know how to use that thing.

“Relax, I’ve fired guns before,” She said, gripping the rifle. A single word was printed on the side of it. Khvostov 7G-02. She had never heard of that particular type before, but she felt naturally inclined to the old gun.

/Just keep your eyes forward. Be sure to watch your tracker, don’t want any of them to get the drop on us.

“On it,” She said with a nod. She took the opportunity to look at her surroundings. The gate led through a series of tunnels. They looked structurally intact, like they were part of the wall’s maintenance. She assumed that the bridge she saw ahead must be accessed through this way, as the Fallen seemed eager to cross the bridge so that they were on her side of the wall. Just as she finished, a shadow of a vaguely-humanoid figure appeared up ahead, projected by the bare lightbulbs. A corresponding red space on her tracker filled in as she neared it, but the shadow vanished as she grew close enough for it to appear on her tracker.

“Spooky,” She muttered, following where the shadow had moved to. Around a corner. Ahead of her was a puddle in the tunnel, with a partially collapsed section of the rafters hanging down over the puddle. Just as she took a step forward, a pair of Fallen jumped out at her, one behind a tunnel wall, and the other from the rafters above. The one that came from behind the wall was sparsely armored over its black, brown and grey jumpsuit, and what armor it wore was red in color, like the robots before. Its helmet had four glowing blue eyes, and a singular hair-like plume that reminded Ripley of a mohawk. This Fallen was armed with a single knife and pistol, though it did have a set of tubes on its back, just beneath and behind its arms. It went down quickly- a couple of shots to the body, another to its head, causing it to explode in a blast of light, white fume-like light leaving its body as she killed it.

The other fallen wore more red and white armor, this time boasting a crimson cloak as well. Its helmet was white, and had a pair of rounded horns gently pointing downwards. Unlike the other Fallen, it was larger and had a second set of arms, this time grasping a strange gun in its upper-right hand. It took several more bullets to put down, and when they were both dead the counter in her lower left corner counted ten bullets in the magazine. She released the magazine, about to toss it away when she noticed that the readout counter once again counted twenty-five bullets. A full magazine. She quickly inspected the clip, indeed confirming that there were twenty-five rounds in the clip. She looked at it in awe.

/That’ll happen automatically, it should spare you a bit of time scrounging for ammo, right? Ghost asked in her head.

“Handy. What happens if I run out of bullets stored up?” Ripley asked.

/Check your redout. The larger number on the right went up. I can automatically digitize and add ammunition to your armory, provided that the enemies you kill have spare rounds and that you have the space to hold them.

“What you’re talking about- it’s like magic.”

/We call it light. I’ll be happy to explain in detail later, but for now we need to keep moving and cross that bridge. We need to kill the Fallen hunting us, and toss them off our scent.

Ripley nodded, and moved on.

/Those two Fallen you just killed- The smaller one with two arms is called a Dreg. They’re basically slaves to other Fallen, and they get their arms removed to show it. The other one is called a Vandal, they’re like their soldiers. Expect to kill a lot of them.

“Thanks for the heads up,” She said, keeping an eye open as she neared an open space in The Wall. It was cavernous and filled with support beams. Must’ve been holding space for surplus equipment. Another step forward and a Dreg jumped down from the rafters, raising its dagger to strike her.

/Punch it! Ghost called out, and Ripley complied. Combat wasn’t the time to ask questions- but she wanted to ask more of them as she gripped the rifle’s handle with one hand and punched the Dreg with the other. As her fist made contact with the Dreg’s head, a brilliant flash of blue light engulfed her hand, and the Dreg’s neck snapped from the force of the punch. It instantly died.

She quickly moved further into the cavernous space, her boots clacking on the metal floor. Rubble and a part of the rafters falling alerted her to the ambush in the next room, and when the Dregs crashed down onto the floor she quickly lit them up, aiming for the quick, concise kill. A single Vandal evaded her bullets, and she quickly reloaded, rolling into the next room and taking cover behind a set of crates. The bridge was directly in front of her, all that separated her now was a single Vandal. She ran at it, stowing her weapon before landing a single punch on the Vandal. It staggered back, still alive somehow. It didn’t survive the second punch.

/There’s more ahead! Keep it up! Ghost said encouragingly.

“Do more of that Ghost. It really keeps a gal rolling,” Ripley said with a chuckle, crossing the bridge. On the other side, there was a cylinder covered in tubs and metal, and had a singular glowing green button atop of it.

/A loot cache! Let’s see what’s inside! Ghost said excitedly. Ripley would’ve raised an eye at Ghost’s excitement, but she pressed the green button and watched as the cylinder open, almost like a treasure chest.

There was a bunch of glowing transparent cubes that quickly vanished, but a single weapon sat inside the cache. A shotgun.

/A shotgun, handy for fighting off the Fallen in places like these. But that Glimmer will come in handy too, especially when we get back.

“Back?”

/Explain later-

“Escape now, got it,” Ripley said with a sigh, hefting the shotgun and examining it. When she picked it up with her spare hand her rifle vanished, and her readout now changed to show the shotgun’s outline, as well as the ammunition in the weapon, and how much she had stored up. One single clip, no reserves. She needed to be sure to save as much as she could.

/To bring your rifle back, just think about holding the rifle again. The weapons will switch out.

“But that’s- Ugh, nevermind,” Ripley grumbled, briefly closing her eyes and imaging that her she was now holding her Khvostov. The weapon her her hand changed shape, and when she opened her eyes once again, she was holding the rifle!

/Why’d you close your eyes?

“I thought you said I had to?” Ripley asked, confused.

/Ha, no I didn’t. Just imagine holding the weapon you want, and it’ll change out in your hands. It’s just that easy.

She was impressed.

The bridge’s end was situated slightly above the base floor, and the moment she touched the ground red lasers appeared. They blocked off a tunnel, the only way open. The other ways looked collapsed and forgotten.

/Tripmines! Ghost warned, a slight panic in his voice, /Don’t touch them, they’ll explode.

“Figured,” Ripley grumbled, getting down on her hands and knees and moving beneath the crossed lasers. The moment she got passed them, more Dregs appeared, dropping out of the rafters and popping out of grates in the floor. She counted at least seven. Only problem was that more lasers appeared as well, and one of the Dregs jumped up right in a pair of lasers, detonating them.

“Shit, don’t think I’ll survive that either,” She said, immediately taking cover behind a sturdy opening in the wall, glancing at the charred Dreg’s corpse. The other Dregs were easy to take care of, especially considering that the tunnel split into a section that allowed her to move past the Tripmines. Moving past the dead Fallen and Tripmines, she found herself at one of the base sections of The Wall, giant support beams stuck out of the ground, and strange alien machinery was littered all over the place. Seemed that the Fallen called this section home. Ripley quickly spied the exit over towards the right- leading out to a giant pipe, but before she could head out more Fallen appeared. This time, a pair of Vandals accompanied the Dregs, who took potshots at her with their strange alien pistols. These Vandals were in the back of the room, with strange rifles that seemed to draw blue energy in from the air, before emitting a beam of blue light at her. One grazed her calf, lightly burning her armor and causing her to flinch.

/Watch out, Wire Rifles pack more of a punch that Dreg’s Shock Pistols.

“Figured that out,” Ripley muttered, jumping behind a support beam until she felt the pain go away. She glanced down at her leg- Her armor seemed to have self-repair and healing properties. Handy, considering how she didn’t know medicine at all. The firefight was longer than the ones she had earlier, but she was successfully able to get behind the barricades that the Dregs and Vandals were hiding behind and slaughtered the aliens. Once that was done, she paused to catch her breath, reloading her rifle as Ghost offered up his opinion.

/The Fallen have a tighter hold on this place than I thought, He mused, /Just a little bit further Ripley. Let’s hope there’s something left out there…

“Something?”

/You have to see it to believe it.

The exited that room, moving into the giant pipe. It looked like a giant air vent, just overgrown with vegetation and covered in pooled water. She followed through the pipe until she reached the far end, and a grate covered the exit to the outside, and a service hatch was open to her right. Rather than trying to meddle with a giant iron grate, she took the door and followed the service tunnel to outside. Outside seemed to be a serious of old buildings, mostly metal and concrete and covered with rust. There was Russian written everywhere, as well as broken and rusted tanks. There was less snow on the ground here than outside the wall, and much more vegetation. A single large colony ship was just above the clearing of buildings that she stood in, rising high into the sky and clouds. She wondered what the view was like, and if it was quite nice to behold.

/This was an old Cosmodrome, Ghost observed, starting to speak faster again, /There’s got to be something we can fly out of here.

He had barely finished speaking when an orange flare shot up into the sky, prompting Ripley to run and take cover behind a tank as a rift opened off in the distance, distorting the sky.

/Incoming! Ghost cried out as a ship’s mast pierced through the portal, it’s long sharp edge cutting through the air and the force of its engines blowing down a colony ship that was too close to the ship. It began to fly closer, passing over the buildings and heading off into the distance. Smaller ships appeared in the sky nearby, some landing off in the distance, a single one landing on the other side of a building.

/Fallen ships! This close to the surface?! Ghost explained sounding dumbfounded.

“This happen every day?” Ripley inquired.

/I’ve never seen them this low to the ground. They must be searching for something.

“Wonder if they’re searching for us?”

/No, if they’re deploying in these numbers, they would have to be looking for something much… Bigger.

“There’s a second dropship incoming,” Ripley growled out, spying a second ship land on the other side of the buildings, “Looks like I’m going to have to fight them.”

She carefully crossed round the buildings, looking out on the plaza before her. large building was to the left of the plaza, and looked like it was the Fallen’s interest, especially considering the decent amount of Dregs that darted in through the sole standing door. Ripley wasted little subtlety on engaging the Fallen, quickly jumping out of cover to spray three Dregs full of lead, rolling to dodge a bolt from a Vandal sniper’s wire rifle, and popping back up to nail the Vandal in the head. The first carrier’s inhabitants must’ve gone inside the ruined building, as only three Dregs were left out to engage her. She made short work of them as she neared the building in question, checking her weapons once again before hearing the sound of small engines from inside, growing closer and closer-

/Shanks! Ghost called out, as the red floating robots from earlier darted out the door. Unlike the Dregs, these Shanks grouped themselves together, and in three short bursts she managed to take out the drone, watching them freeze up as the bullets penetrated their systems, then they fell to the ground and detonated.

/You’re doing well- The Light is growing strong with you. You should be able to generate grenades now, Ghost instructed.

“How am I supposed to do that? The same thing as before with my guns?”

/Exactly! Imagine the grenade in your hand, and the Light will manifest it for you. You just have to throw it, no pulling of pins or pressing buttons. If I’m correct, after the initial blast your grenades will stun enemies, blinding them and making them weaker.

Ripley felt content with this, “Excellent- Sounds like my sort of equipment.”

Ghost appeared once again in front of Ripley, his shell expanding from his body and filling the entrance of the ruined building with blue light. He briefly mumbled to himself as he began to scan the area, looking about for, well, something.

After a moment of Ripley’s confused stares, he finally explained, “I’m picking up signs of an old jumpship. Could be our ticket out of here.”

“Shame, I was just starting to warm up to this place,” Ripley quipped, resting her Khvostov on her shoulder. Ghost did his best impression of rolling an eye. He vanished once again as Ripley walked into the building. The halls of the place were covered with dust and ashes- Everything was ruined. It was almost a bit depressing. Then she saw them. Three dregs, right as she turned a corner. With pure instinct, she summoned and tossed a grenade, watching with pleasure as a blue orb materialized in hand and landed in the smack-middle of the trio. The grenade detonated in a brilliant blast of Arc light, instantly taking out the Dregs.

She barely had a moment to make a comment when she heard a roar- there was a window separating this room from the next and a Vandal and three Dregs were running in to end her. She immediately opened fire- but the Vandal caught her in the chest with a beam from its Wire Rifle, she staggered back and continued to fire until the clip was empty, taking out the Vandal and one of the Dregs before taking cover. Of the two remaining Dregs, the first tried to rush her, only to have her fist come into contact with its skull, killing it, and the other one was soon killed by being pumped full of lead by her shotgun. Easy. She walked through the hall that the Vandal and Dregs had came from, taking a sharp right to see that the building wasn’t a regular building- No, it was a hanger. Suspended by cables was a Jumpship, she briefly recognized it was an Arcadia Class. She wasn’t sure how she knew this knowledge, but she wasn’t about to question how she knew. Because the Jumpship was crawling with Fallen.

/There’s a ship! Clear them out! Kill the Captain!

From the look of things, there was a single Vandal flanked by two Dregs- but there was a fourth Fallen, this one towering above the other Fallen, wearing a mighty horned helmet and wielding a big gun. Its cape was long and flowing, even though it was tattered, and Ripley could see anger and might broiling within its glowing eyes. She quickly dispatched the Vandal and Dregs, but found herself dodging the Captain’s attacks. It held a different weapon, that shot three fiery orbs at her, one of which knocked her and knocked Ripley off her feet.

“Note to self, don’t get hit,” She breathed out, quickly dodging to avoid the second volley, then returning fire. The Captain had some sort of energy shield that prevented her bullets from hitting the Captain, but she instinctively knew that it couldn’t last forever. Two magazines of dodging and firing later, and her hunch paid off. The shield dissipated with a small flash, and she tossed another grenade at the Captain. She quickly ran towards the Captain at a breakneck pace, drawing her shotgun out to deliver two quick rounds right into its gut. The Captain, not quite disabled by the rounds and the grenade, lashed out with two of its arms, knocking her into a nearby column before she dropped her rifle to deck the Captain in the face with her fists, this time seeing blue light run down her arms into her fists, and when they connected with the Captain’s face, it quickly fell to the ground, dead.

“So much for them,” She said, relieved that the fight was over.

/Alright, let me see if I can get us out of here, Ghost said, rematerilizing in front of her, before floating up and scanning the Jumpship. Ripley herself looked over the vessel as Ghost carried out his examinations.

“It’s been here awhile. Hasn’t made a jump in centuries,” Ghost observed, “We’re lucky the Fallen haven’t completely picked it clean.”

“Will it fly?” Ripley asked, wasting no time on fanciful words or jokes.

“I can make it work,” Ghost said, sounding pleased with himself as he vanished once again. In mere moments, the Jumpship’s engines began to power up, exterior lights turning on as the engines returned to full power, and the Ghost had the ship break free from the cables supporting it, dust flying everywhere as it moved for the first time since an age long past.

/Okay… It’s not going to break orbit, but it just might get us to the City, Ghost broadcasted from the ship’s speakers. Ripley couldn’t help but feel impressed, Ghost certainly knew how his machines worked, /Now -- About that transmat…

There was the sound of scratching from behind Ripley, as she turned to see a hole in the wall. Crawling from it were a pair of Vandals with Wire Rifles, and something bigger in the darkness of the pipe they had crawled from. Something bigger than the Vandals, bigger than even the Captain! She hefted her rifle again in preparation of having to fight the large Fallen and its entourage, but found that she didn’t have to.

/Bringing you in! Ghost called out as Ripley’s surroundings changed in a flash of light- She found herself now inside the pilot’s chair of the Jumpship, full of basic controls, piloting stick, and sensor readouts. A primary screen in front of her displayed the interior of the building, and of the Vandal’s firing at her ship as they lifted up out of a hole in the ceiling, preparing to fly off into the sky.

“We can come back for them when you’re ready,” Ghost said, appearing over Ripley’s shoulder once again, “Let’s get you home.

“That… That’s fine by me,” Ripley said, relaxing back into her seat as she took her helmet off, deploying her head fins. The green Exo breathed a simulated sigh of relief as her purple eyes looked up, relaxing for the first time since coming back to life. Something that she was certainly grateful for. There wasn’t a mirror, but she knew that above her left eye was a purple star, and that the paneling around her right eye was covered in purple paint over green. The asymmetry pleased her, to an extent. But it was peaceful in this ship, slowly rising above the ruined world and into the clouds.

Which is why she failed to see a hooded figure on the roof of the hanger, watching her ship blast off into the atmosphere.

Chapter Text

Their new Jumpship soared over old mountains, formerly the tallest in a Golden-aged world, across wasted forests and other lands where Humans once prospered. The clouds grew darker around them, causing Ripley to stare out at their surroundings.

“Ghost- It looks likes there’s a storm ahead…” She said, wondering if the storm could damage her ship somehow.

“Don’t worry, this ship can handle a little lightning- Just fly straight, I’ll handle the rest,” Ghost said, hovering over her shoulder. And she did. Mere moments later the clouds and lightning vanished, and she could see light ahead. Then she could see it. A city, a city with a single tower facing towards the way she had came. And above the city, was a single giant orb. A white one. It’s bottom though had been marred, and looked like parts of it had been torn off- but it impossibly hovered above the city, acting like a comforting shadow to all beneath it. The sunset sky bathed the land in golden light, and cast deep shadows across all things in the City. It looked beautiful. They partially circled round the tower, before coming to a stop towards the a balcony at the top, the side that faced the orb, and Ripley and her Ghost were transported onto the balcony below, before Ghost sent the ship off, having it circle around the tower again before sending it to the hangar for repairs and storage.

“Welcome to the last safe City on Earth,” Ghost said, looking out at the city below them, “The only place The Traveller can still protect. It took centuries to build. Now, we’re counting every day it stands.”

Ghost circled around her head, turning to look at the Tower behind them. It looked regal- Small plants were strategically placed throughout the building, and leaves swept across the tiled ground. Majestic banners fluttered in the wind, and above all it was inhabited. Inhabited by other people, people and their Ghosts.

“And this Tower is where the Guardians live,” Ghost said, looking at his partner, “What do you think?”

“There are others- Of me? Guardians?” Ripley asked, breathless. She looked out across the Plaza in front of her, at the other Guardians. Some seemed to share her armor style- larger, and more protective, and strange cloth marks hung from their waists. There were other Guardians as well, such as smaller, leaner ones who wore long coats and seemed walk with power in their step. They weren’t as armored as her, or the other Guardians who wore the similar armor, but Ripley felt as though they were more than capable of handling themselves in a fight. There was one last group of Guardians she could easily spot out- They seemed to wear equal portions of armor and cloth, and cloaks and capes hung from their backs. Several had hoods up, obscuring their faces. One such Guardian stood not too far from her, he wore a red cape and hood with dark armor, the back of which was embroidered with an angry-looking squid. He had passed a large red and white belt-fed gun to one of the bulkier Guardians, who was inspecting the weapon. Even though all these Guardians looked different, she could see them all intermingling, unified in purpose but various in appearance.

“I can’t explain it well, but yes,” Ghost replied, nodding once, “But I can introduce you to people who can explain things better. The Tower is run by a group called the Vanguard. You’ll report to Zavala, the mentor for all new Titans. He’s very responsible. A good man. Never seen him smile, though.”

“A Titan? That’s what I am?” Ripley asked, now even more confused.

“The kind of Guardian that you are, a Titan. The City’s strongest line of defense, the Titans are supposed to be walking juggernauts. Commander Zavala is more or less the leader of the Titan Hosts, let’s go see him now,” Ghost said, spinning off in front of Ripley, “You coming?”

“Doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice,” She replied, starting to follow Ghost. The Balcony they landed on had a set of steps leading up to the main plaza, to the left was a robot inside a small building who seemed to be operating a stand of some sort. She seemed a bit stressed out, muttering to herself and hastily handing Guardians packages. Apart of the same building, was another stand that a moderately bored blue human woman stood, reading through a book and occasionally tinkering with empty Ghost shells.

“The Frame over there is the Postmaster, Kadi 55-30. She’s nice, for a Frame anyway. She handles a lot of messages and packages that go through the tower. Normally she’d welcome you personally, but she’s been busy lately,” Ghost said, stopping not far from Postmaster.

“And the woman?,” Ripley asked, tilting her head to try to catch a better glimpse of her.

“The Awoken?” Ghost inquired, “That’s Tess Everis, she’s in charge of Special Orders. Really important things that Guardians have earned, or been sent by sponsors. She’s a good troubleshooter, and if you keep on her good side, a Guardian can earn a lot of unique opportunities.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” She said, eyeing the Awoken one last time before moving on. To her right were three large pillars that Guardians seemed to cluster about. Each pillar was six-sided, and three of the sides had computers attached to them. Guardians stood in a line for these computers, and occasionally some of the rowdier ones attempted to argue for a better spot in line.

“Those pillars? Those are the Vaults- You can store a lot of things in there,” Ghost said, chuckling as bored Ghosts watched their Guardians wait in line, “Everyone’s always clamoring for a turn to use the Vaults.

“Can’t they just digitally hold items?”

“They can, but they- and we -don’t have unlimited space. We’ll have to use them to store some things eventually.”

“I’m bursting with joy,” Ripley remarked, her tone deadpan.

“Relax, most people don’t spend more than a minute or two pulling things out of the Vaults, and some Guardians are clever enough to have a remote connection to the Vaults, so they can pull items out or put things in on the go.”

Ripley nodded as Ghost floated onwards. There were a pair of stairs on her sides that led up to a section that was elevated over the plaza. Though she had a feeling that wasn’t where Ghost wanted her to go, she’d explore that section of the Tower soon enough. Though she could see that the only people up there were another Frame, as well as a blue and yellow Exo. Ghost seemed to want her go to a set of stairs directly in front of her that descended beneath this other level, so she went below. It was another hallway, leading out into a grand room. In the hallway, various Frames were about cleaning, and Guardians engaged in conversation with one particular Frame on the left side of the hall. He was white, had a fur collar, and a pair of bull horns affixed to his head. He passed out weapons and digitalized gear to Guardians who paid him in purple coins, and when he wasn’t doing that he was tapping away on his computer. On the right side was a Guardian who wore similar armor to herself- A Titan, apparently. Except his armor was white and orange, and wore a medallion on the outside of his armor. His collar too had fur, as did his shoulders and his helmet boasted a single great horn on the right side of his helm though it looked like at one point it had two. He stood in front of a wall of trophies, some of which she recognized as fallen Wire Rifles and Shrapnel Launchers. He was a full head taller than any of the other Guardians, even the ones who looked like they could punch through a Fallen Captain.

“On the right is Lord Shaxx the Crucible Handler, and on the other side is Arcite 99-40 the Crucible Quartermaster, his Frame,” Ghost explained, “Together, they manage the Crucible, a live-fire training exercise that pits Guardian versus Guardian in an attempt to train us all for the field.”

“A live-fire training exercise?” Ripley asked, incredulous.

“You don’t realize it, since it hasn’t happened yet, but death is cheap for us,” Ghost said, “So long as I’m around, and you carry the light within you, you can come back from any wound, any mortal blow.”

“Damn.”

“Yea, I thought you would say that,” Ghost said, sounding almost like he was going to laugh, “But we don’t need to do that now, right now we need to get you introduced to Zavala, and make sure that you have some good gear.”

The two walked through the hall into the large room beyond it. Workers were busy managing consoles all across the room, or fixing various machines. Guardians occasionally seemed to mess around with special kiosks by the room’s entrance. Occasionally one pulled a special-looking weapon or piece of gear from these kiosks, apparently by instantly turning digitized gear into matter. In the far back of the room was a window that looked out at the storm that Ripley had came from, and in front of the window was a statue, it looked awfully similar to the orb and the city at the balcony. In the smack center of the room was a big table, and three Guardians stood sparsely about it. On the right corner closest to Ripley was a human woman, dark-skinned and had her hair cut close to her head, almost looking like she was bald. She examined various books with her Ghost, and occasionally sent her Ghost off on some strange errand. On the left edge, overlooking a map was a blue cloak-wearing exo, except he had a single angular horn protruding from his forehead. He seemed moderately unhappy, yet strangely faithful to his work. Finally, on the edge furthest from Ripley stood a Titan, like herself, but an Awoken. He was bald, but strange energy seemed to glow under his skin, and he looked full of thought and action. A natural-born leader, and he managed a datapad, occasionally whispering thoughts and plans to his Ghost.

“Commander Zavala?” Ghost had flown over to the Awoken Titan, startling his Ghost, whose shell seemed to spin at the presence of Ripley’s Ghost. Ripley was barely down the stairs when her Ghost sped off, leaving her to catch the full gaze of the three Guardians and the rest of the workers in the room. It was pretty damn quiet, much to Ripley’s contempt. A place as busy as this should never feel quiet.

“Another Titan,” The blue Exo said with a sigh, breaking the silence, “Just as I was thinking that life was getting good.”

Some of the workers chuckled at this, leaving only the dark-skinned Guardian to admonish him, “Now now Cayde, didn’t you welcome a Hunter to the tower the other day?”

Cayde looked as if he was about to spew out some witty reply, before being interrupted by Zavala, “Don’t antagonize him Ikora. Besides, we have a guest. Step forward, Guardian.”

Ripley cringed somewhat at the attention she was receiving. She couldn’t really remember her past life, but she definitely knew she wasn’t fond of attention. Regardless, she tried to put on a brave face, stepping over to Zavala.

“A new Guardian!” He declared. Although his face was stony, Ripley could see that Zavala seemed pleased that Ripley had come to the Tower. He held a hand out for her to shake, while exclaiming, “The hope of the City grows stronger today. Welcome to the Tower, Titan. Your shoulders will help us hold up the weight of the walls. I think as your Ghost has said, I am Commander Zavala of the Vanguard, head of the Titan Hosts, as well as general operations for Guardians in the field.”

“Ah… Thanks,” Ripley said sheepishly. The Awoken seemed just slightly intimidating to her, but she did her best to not show it, “I’m Ripley.”

“No reset number?” Ikora questioned from behind Ripley, earning her a stern glare from Zavala.

“Nevermind her, I assume that before your death you must have been new off the line, or you don’t want to talk about your resets, several Exo don’t,” Zavala said, glancing at Ikora again. He then nodded at his Ghost, who materialized a package in Zavala’s open hands. It was a thin plastic-like tablet, similar to the kind that Ripley had seen Guardians obtain from the Postmaster. He then offered it to Ripley, who gently took it, examining the item.

“New members of the Vanguard deserve our support. Take this armor, Guardian. Wear it proudly,” Zavala said with a nod. Ghost, who seemed to have a better idea of what should be done, re-digitalized the armor, and soon she realized that the armor on her body was changing in response. There wasn’t much of a change, but she instinctively realized that it had became more advanced. Movements seemed more natural, her armor was a bit thicker, and of course it had changed to a dull dark blue instead of the olive and white.

“Some Guardians spend hours in the shops of the City, finding the perfect pigments and plastics to customize their gear,” Zavala said as Ripley inspected her armor, folding his hands behind his back again as he said this, “I only have one requirement for armor: strength.”

“Sounds good, but what if I don’t like this shade of blue?” Ripley asked, tilting her head to the side.

Zavala seemed to roll his eyes, whilst the Exo- Cayde seemed to snicker. Ripley simply tilted her head, it seemed like such an innocent question- until she realized she had just asked Zavala a question he really didn’t care to answer.

“Your own time, Guardian. Do that in your own time,” Zavala said, finding his words again, “Before you leave the Walls, we need you in fighting form. Your gun is an antique. Go requisition a new one from the gunsmith, Banshee-44. He’s an odd one, but reliable. Then report to Lord Shaxx for a round in his Crucible. While I don’t always agree on his methods, his training environments are second to none, and if you are going to make mistakes, better on the training grounds than in a firefight.”

Ghost flew back over to Ripley’s shoulder as she nodded in confirmation, “I’ll be sure to do that then.”

Zavala said nothing in reply, just a single nod before returning his attention to planning with the other members of the Vanguard. Ripley just hurried out of there, not wanting any spare eyes on her. Back on the balcony where there were more Guardians, it didn’t really seem like she was the center of attention, the other Guardians just seemed to mind their own business, down with the Vanguard everything seemed like it was some grand show for an unseen spectator.

“So, Banshee-44?” Ripley asked as they began to climb back up the stairs to the balcony, “Where is he?”

“When we reach the top of these steps, he’ll be on the left, past the tree,” Ghost chirped, hanging around her shoulder.

“The woman- Ikora was it? She said something about a reset number.”

Ghost glanced at her, “Well, most Exo have a number attached to their names- It tells you how many times their systems have been wiped. Some Exo describe as losing pieces of yourself- I mean, you have the same personality and everything, but no knowledge of your past life. Just whispers, little inklings that some things have happened to you before.”

Ripley shuddered, “That sounds horrible. And this Banshee we’re supposed to see, he’s been reset 44 times?”

Ghost nodded, “Yes, what Zavala meant when he said that Banshee is eccentric is that, well, he mutters to himself a lot, and doesn’t have the best memory when it comes to people, but weapons on the other hand…”

It wasn’t even a full minute before they were standing in front of the Yellow and Blue Exo, who gazed at them with distant mechanical eyes. It took him a moment to refocus on them, but when he did he simply nodded, fingers folded against each other as his hands rested on his stomach.

“Uh huh. New Guardian, right? Sure,” He said, half-speaking to himself, half-talking to Ripley. He didn’t even ask for her name, Ripley somewhat doubted he was capable of remembering it. He waved to the table in front of her, where there was an assortment of various guns, all of them looking more advanced than the one she had found, “Pick a gun. I’ve been keeping them cleaned and prepped. Won’t jam. That’s important.”

Ripley inspected each of the weapons laid out before her, each one had a basic white shell overlaying the core mechanics, sealing up the more sensitive parts and protecting them against damage or weathering. One in particular stood out to her, which was a mostly rounded gun, with the clip in the back stock of the weapon. She picked it up.

“Nice,” Banshee said with a nod, watching as she hefted and further inspected the rifle. His grumbly voice soon rang out, “That there’s a Psi Umbra 1. Cassoid Foundry. Pulse rifle. Common variant, accurized for long-ranged work. Excellent choice Guardian.”

“Burst fire?” Ripley asked, raising an eye at the yellow and blue Exo, “Like, three bullets at once?”

He grunted and nodded at her.

Ripley suddenly realized that the Khostov was no longer on her back, and when she thought of putting her weapon away, it was soon replaced between her shoulders.

“See you soon,” Banshee said as she put the weapon away, no longer seeming to focus on her, “Come see me if you have any problems.”

“Thanks- I will,” She said giving the older Exo an approximation of a smile before waving and walking off.

A short walk back into the plaza later, Ripley found herself on the front law of the tower, overlooking the city. She almost wished she could breath in the clean air instead of just cycling it to clear out her internal heat. Her sensors told her that it was almost entirely free of pollutants. Probably as a result of close proximity to the traveler, or something of the like.

“What’re you thinking about?” Her Ghost asked, appearing in the air beside her head.

“How… Peaceful it is here. You were right, you know,” Ripley said, doing her best to smile.

“Right about what?”

“This place is home,” Ripley said, feeling content as she looked out over the last city on Earth, “Which is even more reason to keep it safe.”

Ghost just watched her for a bit, his single eye blinking softly at her, “Well, before we go anywhere, we’ll need an update on our ship. That thing has been out of action for years. Hopefully Shipwright Holliday will have some good news for us.”

The walk to the Shipwright wasn’t too horrible. A corridor that led her away from the central plaza was the path to take- And it opened out to a pretty impressive view of the tower’s hangar. The floor of which was home to several ships that were parked in the alcoves of the hangar- Whilst the floor looked as it could collapse beneath the ships that land to store them easier. However, their path led them to the left, continuing on the walkway over the hangar. Above the walkway, a smaller box was in plain view- With people walking about inside of the room. To the right of Ripley was an orange Frame who silently stood over a stand of weapon- Similar to the Frame that aided Lord Shaxx and his Crucible Stall by the Vanguard’s War Room. On the opposite side of the walkway was a group of civilians- With an Awoken dressed in black and white robes tapping away at a datapad in front of a wall emblazoned with black and white circles.

“On the right is Roni 55-30, he’s the Vanguard’s Quartermaster, in charge of handing out Weapons and the like to Guardians who they feel are deserving. Opposite is Arach Jalaal- Dead Orbit’s Tower representative. Roni doesn’t say too much- Though maybe in awhile you should talk to the Arach. Don’t know about you, he’s always seemed a of a downer to me- But maybe you’d be able to cheer him up?” Ghost suggested, nodding at set of stairs just past Roni, “Up that way- That’s where the Shipwright will be.”

Up said stairs sat a young blonde woman- She was dressed in pretty loose-fitting black clothes, with a red scarf around her neck. Also suspended from her neck were a pair of heavily worn goggles- And her arms were covered in black tattoos and grease marks from working on spacecraft. She was standing by a stack of crates, idly chatting with some of the various techs, occasionally fiddling with a datapad that sat beside her. One of the most unusual parts about her was her right leg- It was purely mechanical, and while her black boots covered up most of it, the hollow robotic knee cap was in plain view. As Ripley walked closer to the Shipwright, her Ghost zoomed forward and began to circle around her head, much to the woman’s amusement.

“Hey Guardian, how these look to ya?” The shipwright asked as Ripley came to a stop in front of her, smiling as she held up a datapad with a long list of technical statements and numbers upon them, which Ripley found indecipherable, though she nodded to appease the shipwright. Holliday just smiled and set the datapad down, “Thought so, nice meeting ya Guardian, I’m the shipwright ‘round these parts. Call me Holliday. Amanda Holliday.”

“A pleasure,” Ripley said with a smile and nod, “I’m Ripley. I believe my Ghost had my jump ship delivered to your hanger earlier?”

“Ah, so ya’ the one- Right, lemme get it pulled up outta storage,” Holliday said, sitting down on several crates nearby as she swiped up another datapad and began to tap on it. A few moments later what appeared to be the technical specifications of her ship popped up to the plasma screen next to the shipwright, “Well Ripley, ah’ve got some good news, and some bad news for ya’.”

“The good news first, please?”

“Ya’ lucky.”

“And the bad?”

“Ya’ ship is missing ah warp drive, preventing ya from breaking orbit and reaching other celestial bodies in ah timely manner.”

“So I’ve got to find another one then?”

“Seems like it, we don’t have any in storage, unfortunately. On the bright side, the Arcadia Class ships always were resilient. Shame about that warp drive, though. Still, lucky ya’ didn’t explode on takeoff!”

“That’s… Fortunate?”

The shipwright chuckled softly as she handed a small plastic tablet, much like the ones she had seen and received earlier, to her touch, “That’s nice. That there’s ya’ key. Should prevent anyone ya’ ain’t on friendly terms with from getting inside.”

“Thank you so much, I’m sure we’ll be able to find a warp drive.”

“I’ve yet to meet a Guardian who hasn’t,” Holliday said with a smile, “Good luck, and so long Ripley.”

“So then, we need to find one of those Warp Drives?” Ripley asked as she and her Ghost walked away, dematerializing her key.

“Exactly- But first you need to be trained. Time to talk to Lord Shaxx,” Ghost said with a nod, speeding back the way they had came, leaving Ripley to silently follow.