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Prologue
Mars.
The early 21st century.
After a long, uneventful flight lasting almost a year, the spaceship Mercury is finally in orbit above the red planet. The 7-man crew makes final checks and preparations. Lieutenant Commander Emily Stewart, Lt. Nathan Cade, and Warrant Officer Stephen Unwin prepare to descend to the surface.
After several aerobraking maneuvers to slow down, the landing pod makes its final descent towards the surface. A metal heat shield protects the pod as it enters the atmosphere. As the pod slows, the shield detaches and several powerful thrusters bring it to a speed where metal landing gears can safely land the craft. After a few seconds, the door opens, flooding the inside with sunlight.
"Ooh, ooh, me first." Nathan comments, making his way to the front of the landing party. Stepping off of the ladder, Cade leaves a footprint on the Martian soil - the first in human history. The movement ever so slightly dislodges his backpack, and Lt. Cmdr. Steward readjusts it for him. She points forward, to the mountain ahead. Warrant Officer Unwin checks his M16 rifle.
They trek from their landing spot to a small, rocky hill almost a mile away. A rock breaks apart under Unwin's weight, and he almost slips. Finally, they crest the hill, coming to face an ominous sight. A massive, grey sphere the size of a city looms over the Martian plains.
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We called it the Traveler, and it's arrival changed us forever.
Great cities were built on Mars and Venus. Mercury became a garden world. Human lifespan tripled. It was a time of miracles. We stared out at the galaxy, and knew that it was our destiny to walk in the light of other stars.
But the Traveler had an enemy.
A darkness that had hunted it for eons across the black gulfs of space. Centuries after our Golden Age began, this darkness found us, and that was the end of everything.
But it was also a beginning.
Legends say The Traveler sacrificed itself to save us. The mysterious sphere still hangs where it made its last stand, low above the Earth, keeping silent watch.
The years that followed the collapse of the golden age were hard, but slowly we joined together to build a City beneath The Traveler. And now we've begun to venture back into the wild, only to find that we're not alone.
Strange and deadly creatures have occupied our old worlds, pressing hard against the Last City, probing for a weakness, trying to stamp us out for good.
That is where our story begins.
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It darts through the rusting shells of automobiles, scanning skeletons of those long past; floats past the hulk of an old truck; flies underneath a faded green sign. Small white pyramids form a shell, constantly rotating and changing with clicks and whirrs. A gap is in the shell, providing room for a single eye, glowing blue. The whole contraption is small enough to hold in one hand, but contains the knowledge of centuries.
The machine slows to a stop.
"Is it possible?" it asks. It will receive no answer; there is not a being to be found for miles. Well, not a friendly one, anyways. The shell of the machine bursts outward, held by a blue, spherical field. The black orb inside it is exposed as it scans the ground in front of it.
"There you are." The shell contracts, and suddenly expands again, bursting into brilliant light.
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Consciousness was something Lykos had not known for a long, long time.
Days; months; years; decades; centuries, even. Each possibility just as likely as the next, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that just recently, Lykos was dead. He had been killed in a fiery steel rain among pileups of cars. He had been killed, he had been dead.
And now he wasn't.
The first thing he heard was a voice. An unfamiliar voice, though, right now, any sensation at all was.. odd, to say the least.
"Guardian..." It was a voice seemingly awed at Lykos' mere presence. And Lykos was awed at his own presence, as well.
"Guardian? Eyes up, Guardian!" Lykos managed to open his eyes. He was facedown in the dirt. Rising to his knees, he looked at his hands. The front; the back; stretch them around; ball them into fists. Finally, he cracked his knuckles - old habits died hard.
Die hard, indeed.
Rising to his feet, Lykos lifted his head to find himself facing a floating, whirring machine, examining him with its blue eye.
"Whoa.. What..." Yeah, smooth. Real poetic first words, Lykos thought. "I'm a Ghost. Actually, now I'm your Ghost, and you - well, you've been dead for a long time. So, you're going to see a lot of things that you won't understand." it explained.
"Like what?" Lykos' question was quickly answered by a screeching roar in the distance.
"Like that. This is Fallen territory; we aren't safe here. I have to get you to the City."
Dozens of questions raced through Lykos' head as the Ghost floated a few feet away. What was a Ghost? Who, or what, were the Fallen? What was the City? And most importantly; how was he still alive? The Ghost turned back toward him.
"We need to get inside the Wall before the Fallen find us." the Ghost said. Both Ghost and Guardian turned to the looming, rusting hulk standing before them.
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