"….what are you doing?" A soft feminine voice asked.
"What? W-who's there?" Came the frail reply of a young man before a flash of light shot out, forcing him to shield his eyes. A figured appeared, their features being concealed and blocked by the blinding light.
"I asked what you are doing." It was the same female voice as before.
"I….I don't know." He said, wondering who this woman was and what purpose she served.
The figure shifted, "Well….you better start figuring it out."
"How?" Sounding desperate, he took a step forward.
"It's time." The figure started to float away.
"Wait!" He yelled. "Time? Time for what?!" He asked, even more desperately, reaching out towards her.
"Time to wake up, Guardian." She replied, her voice seeming to change near the end, and in a flash of light, he was left looking at a blue sky. A small robot floated in front of him, looking at him with it's singular eye.
"Time to wake up," was the slightly distorted voice emanating from the small machine, "we're nearly there." It's modular body shifted around before he floating off, out of sight as the man continued to look at the sky. After a few moments the robot whizzed back into view, "Well, Come on."
The man sat up, forcing the little machine to move out of the way, "What time is it?" his voice sounding dry, he took a moment to clear his throat.
"Nearly twelve." Came the quick reply of the "Ghost," floating about lazily.
Standing up, the "Guardian" picked up the gun laying nearby, glancing around the close area, seeing nothing but overgrown foliage and ruined buildings. "Alright, let's get going."
"It's about time," Ghost said before vanishing into particles of light.
Footsteps echoed through the concrete hall as the two of them entered, light streaming from the open doorway down the dark hall. One crunched on glass as he stepped over it while the other floated over it with ease. "How much further, Ghost?"
"Not much further," came his reply as he turned on his flashlight in order for the both of them to see. They continued down the dark hall until they entered a large room. The Guardian looked around, light from the skylights above shining over the broken glass and rubble in the room, nature claiming a lot of it, and seeing a console placed on a concrete reception desk off to the side. Ghost floated ahead of him and started scanning the computer system.
The Guardian looked down at his forearm, seeing the name "Zaid Harlo" carved into his armor, one of the only things he remembered after being resurrected by Ghost, having put it there himself after realizing that he had little to no memory of his past life, and was worried he'd forget his own name too. "What is this place?" He asked, changing his focus back to the room.
"It's a lab," Ghost stated, "a lot of things were invented and created here. It was a very important facility before the collapse."
"What are we doing here?"
"We're here to get you home." And with that, the large doors on the opposite side of the room started to open, grinding it's old gears as it ripped apart vines that had grown in from the broken skylight. Once parted, the doors revealed a dark stairwell spiraling downward. Ghost looked at Zaid, "Well, after you."
"You're the one with the flashlight, Ghost," he said, looking back at him.
"That is very true," he said as he approached the door, "heh, what would you ever do without me?"
"I'd still be dead," Zaid said matter-of-factly as they entered through the doors.
"That is also very true," Ghost said as they descended into the depths of the stairwell.
Ghost shined light from his one eye as they continued down the steps, getting darker and darker as they went. The stairs seemed to go one for a while, but eventually hit a smaller set of doors. The doors seemed automatic, but without any power, Zaid was forced to pry open the doors himself. With a loud screech, the doors slowly slid open to reveal nothing but darkness on the other side. Zaid stepped through, "Is this it?" He asked.
"Yes, we're finally here," started Ghost, "let me see if I can't get some of the power on." Ghost started floating along the wall, searching for an access point, "Here." He said as he stopped in front of a metal panel. Zaid approached the panel, examining the lock before raising his gun in the air and smashing the lock with the butt of it, causing a loud clang to echo through the dark room. Ghost then proceeded to scan the inside, fixing electronic pathways, or whatever Ghost does with his beam of light. "Alright, here we go," he said as lights started to flicker on all across the room.
The room was quite large with random machines, tools and computers everywhere. The place looked like it hadn't been touched in centuries. But, even with everything that was in the room, there was one thing in particular that grabbed Zaid's attention, "What is that….?" He asked, standing in awe.
Ghost turned his attention, "Oh, that? That is a prototype Saber Class Jump Ship," he said, looking over the large spacecraft, "that's how we're going to get you home."
Zaid stared at it for a few more moments, "Huh….neat," was his simple reply, "I guess we should go." Sounding more like a question, he was interrupted by the echoes of voices from the nearby stairwell. The dialect was nothing human, which meant it was nothing good.
The two looked at the doorway before looking at each other, "That would be good," Ghost said before floating off towards the ship, "let me get it started up." Zaid approached a table, swiping everything off of it before flipping it and positioned it facing the door before grabbing the rifle off of his back and hulling up behind it. He heard more chatter coming from the stairs, much closer than before. But then, everything was quiet. Zaid gripped his rifle in anticipation as he stared through the doorway.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, blue arcs of light flew out of the darkness, forcing Zaid to duck behind the table as the energy rounds clashed into the table. The barrage continued and as soon as there was a break in the fire, Zaid sprang up from behind the table, firing into the group of enemy assailants entering through the door.
These "Fallen" were a race of alien pirates that showed up after the collapse. All Zaid knew about them so far were that they were the enemy, and that they were ugly. A few of the insect like humanoids fell to the floor as more enemy fire came flying through the door, whizzing by Zaid and making him retreat back behind cover. Across the room, the sound of engines wiring up was apparent as the spacecraft started floating off the ground, "How much longer, Ghost?!" Zaid yelled as he reloaded his magazine.
"Just got to open the hanger doors!" He replied as he flew over to a nearby computer system while Zaid blindly fired over the table, hearing the cries of the Fallen, cries both of pain and anger. Loud screeches started emanating from the large retractable doors up above, signifying that Ghost was successful in activating the hanger doors. "Time to go!"
"Got it!" Zaid replied before sprinting out of cover, tossing a grenade towards the door to the stairway. Loud shrieks of surprise were heard before being silenced by an even louder explosion. Arc streams flew by as Zaid ran towards the ship, stumbling a bit as he went.
"I got you!" Ghost said as he transmat the guardian into the driver's seat of the aircraft. "Let's get out of here!" Turning the ship around, they took off out the large doors while arc bolts flew after them. "Let's get you to the city."
