The sky was on fire…

My friends… My family… Screaming…

Hot blood clung to my arms…my legs…my chest…

The Darkness…

"Hello? Guardian? Wake up!"

My bones burned, searing pain into every cell of my body. The sun above cast blinding light onto my face, and I let out a weak groan from the agony pulsating so feverishly through my body with each beat of my heart. What happened? As I risked a look into the sky above, my eyes focused on a small, floating object. Its blue eye fixated on my form, not with anger, or fear, or hunger…but with concern. That was more I could've asked for after waking up from the dead.

"Alright…so you've been dead for a long time, and you're probably going to see a lot of things you're not going to understand right away-"

A screech in the distance cut the little white robot off, his miniscule body turning to face the horizon with what I could only assume was fear.

"Like that?" I rasped with extreme difficulty.

The robot chuckled, "Like that," he agreed, "Come on, we need to get out of here."

With difficulty, and the land of the dead still claiming a majority of my strength, I pushed myself into a sitting position, now examining my body with more detail. I was wearing…armor?

"Oh…yeah, I used the scrap lying around here to make some…temporary protection for you, I hope you like it."

I did like it. The armor that now was clasped over my flesh felt soft on the inside, but looked like it could pack a punch. It fit perfectly; I'd been born to wear it. Over my head, a hood wrapped my helmet in a gentle embrace, and extended to a cloak that ended at the back of my kneecaps.

Yeah, I could do this.

…Or so I thought.

"Thank you…" I breathed, still enduring waves of nausea and vertigo that now plagued my awakening body. The little robot whirred in a silent reply…then vanished in a wave of white pixels. I panicked, my heart picking up in my chest as I frantically searched the scene around me for the bot that had brought me back…

"It's fine. I'm still here with you…I'm a Ghost by the way, well, actually, now I'm your Ghost."

"Ghost…" My tired mind mulled over the name for a few moments, and I smirked slightly, "Where to?"

"To the Wall, straight ahead, there should be a path that leads to the Cosmodrome, that's our best hope of finding a ship and making it to the City."

"The City?"

As we cut through the wall, killing members of a race of extraterrestrials that had taken control of Earth called, 'The Fallen', I was explained the condition of the planet on which humankind had once thrived upon. The arrival of the Traveler. The Golden Age of our kind. The Darkness which consumed our colonies and wiped out all but the entirety of our race.

I was exhausted by the time we cleared the metal barricade that extended as far as my eyes could see. Ghost would continue talking when we weren't in a firefight, calming my nerves and reminding me that I was no longer alone. For that I was grateful. Despite waking up after being dead for…I don't even know how long it was…and immediately being thrust into a war between humans and aliens, I kept calm. All those Sci-Fi horror flicks came rushing back from my childhood, panic meant death.

I would not die. Not again.

"Up ahead! There's a ship, Dock 13, it's in shambles…but it might fly."

"Might?"

"Would you rather stay here? With all the Fallen?"

I paused, glancing around at the corpses of Dreg and Vandal alike. If the world I knew hadn't been destroyed, I might have felt guilty…but now, I only felt a horrid sense of pride at my actions. Flexing the knife I'd stolen off a Dreg soldier in my left hand, I switched my gaze back to the little white bot that seemed to be my only ally right now in this screwed up world.

"Lead the way."

My feet echoed in the empty, metal halls of the Russian buildings, making sure the check the corners I passed as well as the hollowed out ceilings that lay in contrast patterns above my head. More than one Dreg had decided it to be wise to drop down onto the girl with a knife, because of these recurring instances, my armor tattered together from my Ghost was now bathed in tears, scratches, and blood.

Fortunately for me, as I turned into the Docking Bay, a lowly Vandal was all the resistance I had to deal with. As it turned, I fired twice on my pulse rifle, the first trio of blasts landing on the Fallen's torso, and the second finishing him off. As the corpse fell to the ground, blood now ebbing out of the gunshot wounds and staining the ground beneath it indigo, Ghost materialized to my left, flying towards the rust bucket for a ship.

"Will it fly?" I questioned, gun still trailed at the door in case any Fallen nearby had heard the dying screams of the Vandal.

"It's damaged…but it might just get us to the City."

Screeches of outrage echoed down the halls, sending goose bumps up my arms, and causing me to tighten my fingers around the smooth, white surface of the rifle. I retreated, step by step, watching and waiting to see what awaited me down that hallway… Bony creatures, with brown and white streaks of rotting flesh and horrid claws charged towards me. I fired blindly at them, now turning and sprinting towards the ship. One of their wicked nails caught me in the calf, and I fell. A burning sensation covered my body…I thought I was dying.

I leapt up from the bone chilling creatures, my gun seeming to burn golden for a second. I fired trio after trio of burning gold rounds into their ranks, the bodies disintegrating at the first touch. What little strength I had seemed to drain, and left me lightheaded and breathless. I hit the ground, everything around me going white. I shut my eyes.

"Ghost!" I screamed, feeling the ground beneath me vanish for a split second…but when I opened my eyes the environment around me had changed. A rusty, metal floor now dwelt beneath me, a chair has come out of nowhere to rest in front of me, positioned in front of a control panel straight out of Star Trek, and Ghost, a blue beam emitting from his eye and probably piloting the ship all by his lonesome.

"You're okay. We're safe…" He was trying to keep me calm, but I could see in the shining blue eye of his as he turned to me that something was wrong.

"What?" I snapped irritably picking myself up from the floor of the ship that now lurched higher and higher into the sky.

"What attacked you… They're members of the Hive, designated name, Thrall."

"Not Fallen?" I began to feel woozy, and clasped the wall beside me for support. Risking a glance back at my leg, I almost vomited. The claws of the Thrall had cut cleanly through my armor, and torn deep into the flesh beneath, oozing pus dripped out of the deep slash, and I swore the specks of white that I saw in there was bone…

"Guardian!" Ghost whirled to look at me in worry, and swiftly turned back to the control terminal near the front of the ship, "This is the Arcadia Jumpship, bearing Mark 127! My Guardian is down!"

"Reading you loud and clear Arcadia, permission to dock in Bay 1, medical personnel on standby."

The scene blurred in shades of black and blue, and I slid down to the ground, breathing shallowly in what I assumed was a panic attack. The ship rumbled and with a jolt, stopped moving altogether. My head hit the ground, and the darkness covered my vision.