The shadow of the moon had grown softer in light of recent events. Crota, the son of Oryx, was dead. A brave fireteam took that leap of faith into the dark and massacred their way to the dark prince and put an end to his existence. For a brief moment in Earth's new history there was peace… an uneasy peace… but peace nonetheless.
The sun peaked out cautiously around the planet's side, screams that once echoed in the moon's infected crevices were absent. The plants burst forth and receded, and continued their cycle of life and death. Over time the guardians surged to the moon, flushing out any remaining pockets of surviving Hive hiding amidst their broken kingdom.
The Traveler continued to hang silently above the Last City.
A little pearly white ghost paused a moment to look up at the sunset. Fresh sparkling snow blanketed the area, giving the impression that no war or even civilization had happened down this road. The only give away was the long gap in foliage since the plants had not quite yet taken over the road.
Ghost hovered just an instance longer before moving on along the ancient road. Taking a moment when she felt a presence to scan for a viable candidate, a new guardian. She'd been searching for quite some time, her previous guardian had finally reached the point he'd just wanted to rest. So he'd went to sleep… and never woke up again.
It wasn't as uncommon as the City's residence would want to believe, but even guardians had their limits.
The ghost buzzed painfully at the memory of her sleeping guardian and flew through a branch, causing the snow to explode in a white cloud and the tree to snap wildly as it was relieved of its burden. Ghost had never thought she would have to find another guardian, well, she didn't have to, but she couldn't deny what she was made for. The urge to seek was simply in her coding.
Quietly the sun set, soon the only light in the area was Ghosts' eye and the stars above. The moon did not shine this night. She came across some footprints that looked Fallen, they were not as old as she would want, edges were still sharp around the hole, signaling that the hunting party was actively in the area. She narrowed her optic as she hovered over the tracks before floating off into the woods. Finding bodies was not difficult, people had scattered to the winds which ever direction would take them during the end of the Golden Age for humanity. Oh yes, the dust of bones was plentiful. It was finding one strong enough to come back that was the issue.
The ghosts' light winked in and out, flitting from corpse to corpse reading the unreadable. Many of these people were old, closer to the Golden Age than the ghost would've liked. She didn't like doing this, it was as unpleasant of an experience as the first time she'd done it.
Abruptly the little light stopped at the sound of a snapping twig and dove for cover under a snow-laden bough.
Nothing moved.
Ghost finally mustered up the courage to peek out from her hiding place. Suddenly wishing the Traveler had thought better of making their eye so bright. Perhaps she should've kept her search closer to where the Guardians normally patrolled. This area had been abandoned for years, it used to be a very busy hub for the guardians on their way out to patrol.
"Bugger…" Ghost muttered, shaking off her fear and plowing back out into the dark.
The leaves shivered, snow fell from some nearby trees. Ghost narrowed her optic, thumping the branch she hovered over in a puff of annoyance. This caused the tree to shake just enough that snow slid off the branches above and buried the little ghost.
Her moveable plates shifted in such a manner that one might think the machine was sighing.
Nothing moved in the forest, not even the air.
After getting her fill of brooding,Ghost popped out of the snow and continued her journey across the wild lands.
She'd lost count of how many dead she'd found, or rather she'd stopped counting because the number was just too sad to continue.
A building that used to house the regular soldiers and Guardians lay in ruin, fence mangled and ripped apart, walls crumbling and burn marks from weapon fire still marring what paint was left. The ghosts' light traced the ground.
No...no...nope... You are definitely not it.
No one here seemed determined to come back. Perhaps she should move back to the Cosmodrome. Being that it had been one of the main launch sites at the end of the Golden Age it was still ripe with potentials.
The light passed over a pile of bones barely covered in what used to be a thick robe. Ghost paused a moment.
There it was... That call. A string of memories that was strong. The content didn't matter, the emotion behind it was what the Ghost had been looking for. The instinct to live was easy to find, the will to serve was a lot harder to find.
Ghost circled the bones, partially crumbled from being stepped on. Scanning once, twice, three times just to be sure. Yes yes, this one would do.
She flitted from one broken window to another in haste to make sure she was alone. Circuitry buzzed excitedly at the notion that she wouldn't be alone anymore
Ghost returned to the body, gears twirling around her optic as she gathered her strength for the resurrection.
"Up and at em Guardian!" She burst forth into a sphere of light, casting rays every which way until they were focused solely on the dust underneath her. It wasn't enough to just make a flesh body, it had to have a base, even if that base was sealed away during this process, the body would remember things, it helped the Guardians pass the stage of infancy that organics had. The ghost began to weave the atoms together, extracting from the DNA in the bones, memory and ancestry. It started with the brain, the nervous system winking into existence. Dust and leaves scattering away from the ceremony.
The first recreation held all of the ghosts' attention, she could not care about the outside world during this stage. Shadows raced across the open yard, like moths to a flame. Except in this case they would not burn when they reached it.
Ghost started the final stages of her weave, the memories were scattered, traumatized and loud, this one did not die a pleasant death. Just like her first Guardian she did not read into them, only tucked them away in the back of the mind like the Traveler had told them to do. Memories would only distract them from their purpose.
The body had finished being composed, the bones had once been an Awoken, light grey skinned, black hair and shining green eyes. Those eyes were currently empty as the ghost prepared her. Basic armor formed around the new Guardian in a shimmer of light.
Pain.
Ghost almost dispersed into nothingness as a bullet blasted through apart of her sphere, cracking her optic.
Her weave of the Guardian faltered, the body quivered like it was about to fall apart.
Stitch stitch stitch! No time for a perfect mold, Ghost needed this Guardian to wake up right now!
The screeches of the Fallen cut through the air as they were blinded by a flash of light as the Ghost pulled together herself and the Guardian hastily, light bleeding from not just the Ghost but from the Guardian's head as well. Ghost did her best to pull them back together. "Up! Get up now!" It was too late to flee, the bond had been made.
The Guardian hit the ground, thoughts muddled and mute, the cold air and hard concrete only becoming a real thing over a few seconds. The wall exploded next to them as the Dreg's tried to hit them again, two of the three rushing forward.
Startled, the Guardian scrambled to her feet and just happened to trip out of the way of clutching claws and knives and into the snow.
"Just pick a direction and run!"
Running. Yes. One foot in front of the other but in quick succession. Running she could do. A hot liquid was pooling in her ears but the Awoken ignored it. Her mind was still foggy so she had to make a conscious effort to focus on what the ghost was demanding she do.
The Guardian didn't know she knew it, but her armor was thin and more likely to fend off a scraped knee than a bullet. These Dregs were thirsty for her light, and where there were Dregs the rest of the pack would follow. Ghost melded with her Guardians' mind so she wouldn't be exposed.
"Just keep running!" Ghost said, realizing what a mess she'd made of her weave of the Guardian's mind, she wasn't physically inside of the Guardian's mind, more like apart of its circuitry.
The woman caught herself despite not seeing the steep slope and managed a somewhat graceful slide downhill. She hit the bottom right onto a frozen pond that cracked under her weight but didn't shatter.
Above the Dregs were waiting for something, perhaps their pack leader to arrive to bolster their ranks.
"Guardian, keep heading toward the moon, an outpost should be in that direction." The Ghost was starting to hear a ring, the crack on the side of her optic was beginning to burn. She'd never been hurt before. Dropped yes but never had she ever been ruptured.
Carefully, the Guardian pulled herself up, the ice moaning underneath her weight. Her helmet tilted up as she saw eyes at the top of the hill. The hunting party had gathered. She carefully shuffled backwards a step. Lady Luck smiled upon them, as the Vandels seemed confident and took their time getting to her. This bought her time to reach the other side and sprint off.
She wondered what her name was...
An odd thing to think about when your life was in danger. She just found it strange that... What was the term... Time, such a short time was all she could remember. There was a name...
Her other ear started pooling with hot liquid and the guardian staggered. The ground seemed to tilt this way and that. She fell to her knees.
"No no no no! Get up! Guardian!" Ghost worked furiously to weave together what she could in such a short time. Despite these efforts, the Guardian continued to sit in the soggy snow, staring at the whites and blues. She could hear the crunch of the Fallen's feet as they walked closer, the snapping of jaws and guttural words.
It was this casual pace that cost them their prize.
Shots rang out in the dark, causing two of the Dreg's heads to explode in succession. The Vandel snarled and leaped for the new Guardian but in the span of a few seconds she noticed. Noticed how close to snuffing out her light he was. The Ghost shared the thoughts, thoughts of a swelling power within.
The air around her shivered with a purple light. Just as the Vandel was about to bring down a nasty jagged dagger the Guardian rolled to one side and pushed the light in a raging wall. It knocked the Fallen back and into the pond, the ice finally giving up.
As the Vandel spluttered then exploded from another gunshot, the remaining Dregs tried to take off into the woods but were pursued by two shadows. She heard the crunch of snow as a pair of feet stopped next to her. She hadn't bothered to get up out of the snow.
She was busy staring up through her blood spattered helmet at the stars above. The other Guardian who's face was also covered, tilted to one side as he looked at her. He was covered in a heavy cloak to ward off the cold air.
"You alright?" He asked, kneeling next to her.
"No we're not! Please take us to the Tower!" Ghost appeared, causing the other to start. His own Ghost appearing and floating near her to inspect the deep gash.
The new Guardian didn't seem to hear much of what was going on as he called for an aerial pick up. Her glowing eyes went from one star to the other. She could see all the different colors. She remembered...
Did she?
Her head swam again and her Ghost was instantly by her side.
"I didn't raise you to just fade on me! Come on Guardian...!"
The rest of the ghosts' words were lost, or perhaps they just didn't matter anymore. The Guardian slipped back into the darkness of her mind.