Arc 1
Chapter 1
Eyes Up, Guardian.
"Where you come from is not important. It's what you do that you will be remembered."
Her eyes were shut tight, resting, at peace, she felt weightless, as if she were a speck of dust traveling through the wind
She had no idea where she was exactly.
But… there was now something, she couldn't tell what exactly, but it was… bright? Bright like a spark in a dark room. The kind that on its own is almost unnoticeable, but still there. Only, this spark was growing brighter, and she felt a wave travel over her body.
"Guardian?"
The voice was close by, was it talking to her?
"Guardian,"
Definitely, the voice was talking to her, she felt fear course through her body, she was at peace, but now, she felt. Before was a nothingness, a void, just empty, but she now had her senses.
What had happened to her?
Wait…
Her memory…
It was empty.
The air felt cold through whatever clothing she was wearing, despite the sun beating down on her face.
"Hey, wake up," the voice called again, this time, she listened.
She opened her eyes at last, and was greeted by… some kind of… floating ball robot. She gave a groan as she tried to move, stiff was an overwhelming understatement for how her body felt.
"I did it, I-it worked. You're alive!" The robot said
"Wha-where? Where am I?" She asked.
"We're in Old Russia… Look, umm, you've been dead for a long time, and your going to see some things that aren't going to make sense to you at first. Umm, Do you remember your name?" The floating ball asked.
"My name? My name. My name is Clair? Right? Clair? Yeah, I think that's right." She replied, not really knowing if that were true or not. Looking around, she noted the baron field of rusted vehicles that must have been here for centuries. A full name clicked in her head, and she turned back to the... ball "My name is Clair... Bronzewing." She stated. She looked around again, taking note of just how cold it was. Snow was covering the ground, but not enough to be unable to see some dirt and grass underneath in a lot of patches.
"Good, good, my turn. Well, I'm a Ghost, or, actually now I'm your G-" a sudden roar in the distance cut off the ball, who snapped around in a fear like response.
"What's that?" Clair asked.
"Fallen! We need to get out of the open, head for that old Cosmodrome." The floating ball said.
"O-okay," Clair began sprinting towards the rusted building, bypassing destroyed vehicles that looked like they'd been sitting there for centuries. As she ran through a breach in the wall, another roar echoed out from behind her.
Clair sprinted through the dark corridors, and as she ran, sunlight completely disappeared. She couldn't even see two feet in front of her. The ghost suddenly turned on a light, coming from its main eye, revealing a large room in front of them.
"You stay put, I'm going to try and get us more light." The ghost said, flying off into the distance. He began scanning a couple panels, and within a few seconds, the entire room lit up like a flashlight. Fallen began screeching, and when Clair looked up, fallen were practically swarming the walls. She ran to a nearby gate, and anxiously awaited the Ghosts return.
"There's a weapon in there that you can use, let me get the gate for you." He said, accessing a nearby control panel. As soon as the gate opened she ran through and grabbed the rifle. It's scope was shattered, and it didn't look like it had been used for a long time. She took out the magazine, and made sure there was ammo in the weapon, seeing more than a few rounds, she locked the mag back in its place. She grabbed a few attitudinal mags from the counter, and pocketed them.
"I hope you know how to use that thing."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"Just be careful, the fallen can be dangerous," The ghost suddenly seemed to disintegrate in front of her. She looked around in confusion, before the Ghost's voice chimed back in
"Don't worry, I'm still with you."
"A lot of things that don't make sense, got it," Clair nodded. She could hear movement around the corner, and she readied the rifle. She simply prayed that the rifle would work, as she didn't exactly have anymore time to perform a test fire. One of the smaller fallen cautiously walked into view. Clair pulled the trigger back, sending a short, controlled burst of fire towards the dreg.
"Dregs and Vandals by the looks of things, it shouldn't be too much trouble for a guardian." The Ghost said confidently.
Clair turned the corner, and started firing at the other fallen in the hallway, taking most of them out before they could get a shot off. Before she could get the final two, her magazine ran dry, and instinctively, she pulled out the empty one, and slammed a new magazine in.
"You keep saying Guardian, what is that exactly?" She fires again, taking out the final two, she pressed forward. The corridors were teaming with fallen, and by the end of the hall, she'd used up a good majority of her ammunition.
"Hey, look, a loot cache," The Ghost said. Clair looked around first, making sure the area was clear from fallen. She opened the box, and a long rifle began to fabricate itself into her hands. It was a lot heavier than the automatic rifle she'd been using. She took note of how much ammo she had, and slung the rifle over her back.
"So yeah, Guardians?" She asked. She'd slowed her pace a bit, making sure to check corners for any fallen that could be hiding.
"Trust me, once we get back to the Tower, all of that's going to be explained anyways." She let out a sigh, and pressed on.
Light began to shine out through an opening in the wall, and the air began to get colder again. Stepping outside, things seemed to not be much calmer. There were a couple fallen patrols mulling about.
"How many of these things are there?" Clair groaned.
"Not so many that you can't hanl-" A sudden shot came flying from the other side of the field, and landed straight into Clair's shoulder. She fell backwards, and rolled back into cover.
"Son of a-" The pain from the shot was seering in her arm. Whatever the shot was, it pretty much cauterize the wound as it hit. She wasn't bleeding, but she wasn't sure she could support a rifle.
"Don't worry, I can fix that up." The Ghost said. After a few seconds, she felt herself being surrounded by an energy of some kind, which closed up the wound in a second. She moved it around to make sure, and felt as good as new.
"Alright, I'm a bit more confident about this now." She admitted. She hauled the rifle off of her back, and checked the magazine. There were four shots in the mag, and with that, she inserted it back into the rifle. She quickly peeked out around the corner, getting a feel for where everything was. She managed to identify the vandal sniper, and raised her rifle to meet it. She quickly lined up the scope, pulled the trigger, and fired. The vandal dropped to the floor, with a large bullet hole firmly planted into its head.
"Nice shot." The ghost commented.
"Thanks, now, let's get moving." She switched weapons again, and charged the fallen, making short work of them. She made her way to the other end of the field, and found an opening back into the cosmodrome.
"Hey, good news, I've found a ship that should get us back to the Last City."
"Okay, great, where is it?"
"Well, that's the bad news, it's behind a whole mess of Fallen."
"Nothing we can't handle, right?"
"Right,"
Clair ran at a brisk pace back into the cosmodrome, the rifle in her hand pointed forward, ready to take on any incoming targets when the first Dreg popped its head around the corner, Clair was ready. The corridors were tightly spaced, and not really optimal positions for firefights. She never stopped moving though, no matter what stood in her way. She kept close tabs on her ammo supplies, and reloaded when required. More vandals came around the corner, guns at the ready. Clair slid past them, a knife in one hand, slid the blade across the Fallen's leg, causing it to double over. She quickly raised her rifle, and fired at the second.
By the time she'd reached the location, Fallen were already all over the ship, including a larger one.
"Captain, stay calm, it'll just be a few more rounds to take this one down." Her Ghost said. Clair rolled behind a concrete pillar to her left, avoiding the incoming fire that was directed at her.
"Wake up, shoot things, get shot at, great first day so far." She gave a sigh, and poked her rifle around the corner. She fired a volley of shots towards the captain, taking its shields down in the process. The Captain moved behind cover, but she could tell that a few shots had made it passed the shield. The dregs and vandals attempted to flank her from either side. She ran out of her cover to the left, and fired her rifle to cover her movement. She could feel a small amount of energy in her core build up. Looking down quickly at her hands, they were beginning to glow a orange aura. She ducked behind another column, and began to try and focus on this. The energy began to take form in her hand.
"An Incendiary Grenade! Great! Throw that thing at the Fallen and that'll make really short work of them."
"I made a gre- You know what, screw it." With that comment, she tossed the ball into a group of fallen. The ball bounce a couple of times, before exploding into a burst of blast took out a good chunk of the Fallen, and those who weren't caught in it scattered away.
"Okay, that was pretty awes-"
"Watch out, Captain's on your right!" The Captain took two shots at her, and was charging quickly. Clair rolled out of the way, and readied herself in a firing stance. The captain came around the corner, and she unloaded every shot she had in her rifle, breaking its shields. It returned fire, and the shots hit Clair to the ground, hard. Her rifle slid away from her, and she looked back at the approaching captain. She took the sniper rifle off of her back, and fired as the captain did.
For a moment, she couldn't feel anything. It was like she was weightless. A single spark of light at the end of a dark hallway. The light came towards her, and things began to flood back to her mind
She sat up suddenly with a gasp, breathing heavily. Looking around, the captain she was fighting had a sniper round in its skull, and the remaining Fallen had scattered.
"W-what happened?" Clair asked in confusion.
"You and that Captain killed each other."
"What?!" Clair had to feel around in order to verify that her Ghost was telling the truth.
"Not to worry, you're not dead anymore. I brought you back to life."
"You can just do that?"
"Under most circumstances, yes. But there are some areas that could have heavy enemy occupation, or circumstances prohibit Light from reaching back to you. In those cases, I might not be able to do anything."
Clair gave a sigh, and slowly got up onto her feet. She looked around, and saw the ship that they had come here for in the first place.
"So, will this thing fly?" Clair asked, picking up her rifle, and slinging it over her shoulder.
"Hmmm, this thing hasn't flown in a while…. We're definitely not breaking orbit with this, but it should get us to the City." There was a sudden roar that echoed out from behind them as the jumpship's engine sprang to life. Clair looked back to see a massive Fallen climb out from one of the pipes.
"I'm bringing you in now." The Ghost said. She was suddenly inside of the cockpit, looking out to the Fallen below. The ship took off, leaving the Fallen behind.
"So, care to explain what's going on?" Clair asked.
"Look, Guardian, I know you have questions, but right now, I'm not the person you need to be asking. I'll admit that I've been searching for you for a very long time, but everything's just blended together, I don't want to say anything that could endanger you… I'll leave the important stuff to the Vanguard"
"So… you're pretty much in the same boat as me."
"Basically."
"Great. Well, once we get to this City, hopefully that'll clear stuff up."
"Agreed" And for the rest of the trip, the two sat in silence. Clair's head was swimming with questions. Ranging from "Why am I alive right now?" To "What's going to happen once we get to this so called City." There was a small amount of fear that she was trying to keep suppressed, and even though she knew she was safe, the fear of the unknown presented to her was keeping her on edge.
A.N.: Well, this is just chapter 1 out of many more on the horizon, I kinda just wanted to post this to see how this goes. If you have any constructive criticism that could help me out, or any thoughts on the chapter itself, I'd be glad to hear what you have to say.
I hate saying this kind of thing, but if you liked the story, please consider following or even favorite the story. If not, that's fine too.
Anyways, that's it for now, more chapters (probably) coming soon.
