*Takes place during the events of Destiny 1*
If I am a machine, then so are you. If you are not a machine, then neither am I. Exo minds are human. It is incontrovertible. Now. This is what I believe happened, back in the time before any Exo can remember. It explains everything.
I think someone wanted to live forever.
The ruins of civilization surrounded the ghost as she floated through the fallen city. She scanned pieces of rubble and wreckage along the streets hoping to find what she was looking for. Some of her ghost brethren told her that she was foolish to be looking for her guardian in North America as it was commonly believed that there were no more potential guardians. When the ghosts were first created, North America was swarmed by them looking for their companion but after so many centuries, there was no one remaining.
The ghost remained hopeful that she would find her guardian, though after so many years her optimism has started to falter. She scanned some of the signs in the streets and added the information to her own database.
She looked at the sign for a moment reading what it said, "I wonder what type of place New York City was before the collapse" she said to herself before continuing her search.
She entered a giant skyscraper and began looking around the lobby. She scanned some of the dead bodies lying around but just as she expected they weren't suitable for light resurrection. As powerful as the light is, a person needs to be compatible enough with the light to be infused with it. To be compatible relies on certain aspects of said person such as their morality. If they were a good person in their previous life and showed signs of heroism even in small ways, then they might be able to be infused with the light and become a guardian.
The ghost sighed in disappointment. She knew that ghosts that don't find a guardian eventually return to the city to serve as material collectors and messengers for the vanguard. Some ghosts prefer that life and see the need for it but not her. Ever since she was created, she longed for fighting the darkness with her guardian, being right there next to someone who may become legends of their own.
The thought of that cheered her up a bit, even if it was just for a moment. She pulled up a set of blueprints of the building made up of hundreds of previous scans done by other ghosts before her and approached some stairs. she was about to go up them when she noticed something shining behind a ton of wreckage near the stairs. She floated through the gaps of the twisted steel and stones and found a door that was not marked on the schematics.
Intrigued, she scanned the electronic lock on the door and opened it up. Inside was a small room filled with some broken tables and chairs. She noticed some dead human bodies laying on the floor but what caught her attention was a broken exo sitting against a wall.
The ghost floated towards the old exo and scanned it. Most of its systems were still somewhat intact though very rusted and in need of repairs. The exo's exterior was extremely rusted so it was hard to get a good image of what it looked beforehand. Its right arm was missing, its chest looked like it was punctured by something and its left eye socket was blown clean through like someone shot through it. When she was finished scanning, she continued to look at the broken exo.
She felt a connection to it, like she was meant to find it. Exo's weren't like humans or awoken, ghosts can't just scan their body and determine if they could wield the light. Imbuing an exo with light was a huge risk, it takes a lot out of a ghost to imbuing the light into something and with an exo there is always the possibility that its beyond repair to make use of its new gifts. The ghost knew that if she tried to revive the exo and failed, she wouldn't be able to find another guardian. She would be stuck at the city on clean up duty for the rest of days.
"I have to try", she told herself, "I have to take a chance". She took spin metal and other materials from around the room and began to repair and clean the exo. As the rust disappeared from the body, she could clearly tell that the exo was mostly silver with grayish undertones. She noticed that around it left eye socket was what appeared to be a reddish orange paint splatter. She replaced its missing arm with materials around which made it look darker than the rest of its body and then closed the puncture wound in its chest and repaired its eye socket.
Once the ghost was satisfied with the repairs, she began to focus her inner light. She started to imbue her light into the exo, allowing it to intertwine with its circuitry. As it continued to combine with its target, the exo began to start up for the first time in ages. Lights started to turn along the exo's body and its system started to run again. The exo's head titled up and its mouth opened allowing it to take one deep breath almost like it was jumpstarting itself. Finally, its eyes turned on with red lights, at first kind of flickering and dim but quickly became bright and full. The exo started to move every so slightly, it looked down at its hands and move them for the very first time in who knows how long.
As for the ghost watching this, she couldn't be happier. After so many years of searching and almost losing hope, she finally found the one she was looking for. A person to call her own. She couldn't believe that this moment was finally here, she has been practicing this moment for so long. The moment she could say the words she had only dream about.
"Eyes up Guardian, there's a lot of work to be done."