W.A.R.L.O.C.K - Prologue - Burning Alive

By: Matthew Yancy

Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or Bungie or anything like that.

You want to hear about the war? Well I wasn't there when it started. I died a hundred years or so before the darkness came, but I have made my mark. Before I died I was the first, W.A.R.L.O.C.K., most people don't know that it started as an acronym. Same with T.I.T.A.N. AND H.U.N.T.E.R. None of that matters any more of course, but I was one of the head researchers so that gives me some authority to talk on the subject.

I stared down at the glove sitting in front of me. Maybe three weeks had passed since we blew up the last one and I had finally re-created it. Our program was so far out on the edge of research that everything had to be made by hand because it was all so unique. That also meant that investors got super pissed whenever explosions like the last one happened which destroyed said unique products. Thankfully no one had died but it had happened before and wasn't out of the realm of possibility yet. As head researcher of the Solar Arms division of W.A.R.L.O.C.K. I wasn't actually supposed to be doing all of this work, but all of my researchers transferred out after the last explosion and none of those transferring in had passed their security screenings yet. Several of those that left went to the G.H.O.S.T. division in the hopes that the revitalization technology would prove feasible with more hands on it such tragedies could be made a thing of the past. The advent of the Traveler was a miracle in that respect. It made the possible the idea of a future where people could be saved from any life-threatening condition. Technology that had seemed millennia away was now only days, weeks or months out with the right amount of ingenuity and humanity had been working with the Travelers Light for quite some time already. The different divisions started out focused on various areas of research with Light and I think you will be able to see how they developed into the Guardian focuses you see today.

W.A.R.L.O.C.K. stood for Worldwide Association of Researchers in Light for Observation, Control and Kinesthetics. We definitely came up with the acronym first because by the time we really got going there were multiple worlds involved and we had expanded far beyond those three categories. We wanted to use the Traveler's Light to expand what we could observe in the universe around us, control different forms of energy and expand the limits of the human body.

T.I.T.A.N. researchers were focused on making harsh and physically demanding environments safer for people to live in or just to explore. Terrain Identification, Terra-Forming and Navigation used bulky and hardy environmental suits to survive and study extreme regions of space and were the ones in charge of making every planet, moon and large asteroid in the system survivable.

Habitat Upkeep and Natural Tragedy Eradication and Response teams spent their time developing better ways to maintain the environments that Titans tamed. They had a dream that they would be able to completely eliminate deaths due to natural disasters. Ultimately they were pragmatists though so they also developed systems and technologies to allow them to save the people caught in the disasters that did occur.

Now I have left for last the one that requires the most explanation, G.H.O.S.T. This program would have ended the war before it began from what I understand, but even in my time the direction of the teams was extremely unfocused. Gerontology, Healing, Orthopedics, Sociology and Technology wanted to stop aging, heal every disease, correct ever deformity and fix societal ills. Even with the advancements that the Traveler brought there were simply too many diseases to combat that the teams got distracted destroying individual plagues, outbreaks and super viruses. They started developed the Ghosts early on and those little guys were actually fantastic assistants in the research but they were not able to channel the Light of the Traveler until the war was almost lost and even then Guardians died in the farthest reaches of space as well as on Earth and it almost took too long to revive those who could turn the tide.

Now my division was focused on channeling the power of the sun in new ways and I don't mean using UV radiation to provide power. That was probably the weakest use for solar energy and humanity moved far beyond that shortly after the Traveler arrived in our system. Specifically we were focused on creating small controlled fusion reactions that could be channeled by an individual or a machine to provide power, illumination, healing or any number of other beneficial properties. We started out attempted to use the suits developed by Titans or the rods and staffs of Hunters, but once the Void energy division had a breakthrough with their own pieces of body armor we decided to start from scratch. I called my gloves Sunbreakers because they were going to allow us to hold a fraction of the power of a fusion reaction in our hands. Most of the time that involved blowing up a lot of things as we channeled too much of that energy or did it the wrong way. However on that day as I triple checked the shielding on the gloves diverters and receptors I swear I could feel the power of the sun sitting there in the palm of my hand before I even activated them. Finally I added the last piece of Light forged glassteel to the outer casing, to allow for the channeling of the Travelers Light in the initiation, stabilization and dispersal of the fusion reaction. Limiting the amount of Light being taken in was key to not blowing myself up because we had begun using that as our fuel source. Sliding the glove onto my hand I connected it to the various diagnostic machines, Henry and myself. Henry was the prototype Ghost assigned to my department that most often served as recorder of my errant thoughts and sounding board. When he first joined us I took the time to strip down his outer shell and replace it with one made out of emeralds and gold conducting wire. Henry was also partially responsible for the use of glassteel in the Sunbreakers because, "Who doesn't want to be able to watch the dancing flames of a fully contained fusion reaction on their arms?" All that being said he was a fully developed AI and an extremely reliable research partner but we both made miscalculations that day.

"Systems operating within acceptable parameters, reaction containment shielding showing nominal readouts and all emergency measures are activated. This is going to be so awesome." Henry droned at me as I plugged him in. That was and still is one the biggest limitations of the Ghost hardware, there is simply no room for the vocal processors necessary for inflection and emotion. "If we want to run this test before the boss gets here we have approximately 15 minutes."

Stepping over to the digital readouts I double checked that their readings matched Henry's, "Ok, let's step over to the containment area and fire this puppy up." Carefully lifting my gloved hand I connected the last wire that allowed the Light to power on the systems. "Looks like the power system is cycling properly and there are no leaks from any of the conveyors. Why don't you monitor from outside the containment field while I start the reaction and you can come back in once it doesn't explode." Henry floated away at my request and resealed the area behind him. Pressing the fingers of the glove together I started the fusion reaction and as I drew them apart a small amount of the discharge pooled in my hand. I had heard fire described as a liquid before but this was truly a pool of flame contained in the palm of my hand. The shielding on the fingers seemed to be holding well and the containment field within the gloves mechanisms actually forced the discharge into a roughly spherical shape. As the reaction stabilized in my hand I looked up and found Henry floating on the other side of the glass. I moved to give him the thumbs up with my free hand and the entire building shook in what I came to find out later was the void energy division's first breakthrough in forming a contained void energy reaction. That breakthrough is what cost me my first life. As the rumble echoed through the building and vibrated my lab I let go of the solar discharge. Tumbling towards the ground that little ball of liquid light seemed so serene and soft but I had no idea what would happen if it contacted the ground. In my haste the hand closest to the flame reached out to catch it, but the shielding on that offhand glove couldn't withstand full contact with what amounted to a miniature sun. I stared in horror and mounting pain as the orb clung to my left hand. The heat seemed to draw into the bones of my palm and began spreading up my arm and as the reaction finally dissipated I saw that the miniature sun had burned straight through my hand and left behind a fire that seemed to feed off of the flesh on my bones. Seconds later my entire body was engulfed in that radiant heat and light. Physically I could feel organs shutting down and my breathing had become extremely labored, but in my mind all I could think about was how wonderful it felt to channel the Light with my own body. I drew my last breath in that life as both agony and ecstasy took root and despite all the advances of medicine since that time my hand still has the hole burned into it by that first solar grenade and my body still balances between exquisite agony and painful ecstasy with my every breath.