A/N: Alright people I've given up on The Alliance's Spartan for now. Mostly because I had this little bug in my head and I had to get it out on paper for you all to read. Feel free to send me all the PM's you want about how disappointed you are, I'm sorry. Anyway in the meantime I've been wanting to do something like this ever since I started playing Destiny (Back during the Beta mind you.) but I never figured out how to do it until now.
Destiny belongs to Bungie.
Mass Effect belongs to EA and Bioware.
All characters portrayed therein are strictly fictional, any similarity to real people is completely coincidental.
Update: 1/26/2015 Thanks to DivineWhisperV2, I now have a BETA. WOOT! Anyway he brought some comments to my attention for Chapter One and Two so I'll be making these updates now. In the future with his help I hope to bring you a more complete story with out the need to update individual chapters. Thanks for reading!
"Speach."
*Radio/Comlink*
/Ghost while in Jason's head/
Thoughts
Chapter One: Training Day
"I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade. "
In the space between universes two entities met. Breathed into life when the multiverse began, these beings were as old as time itself. There were others of course, far stranger entities that had survived the test of time, but they rarely looked to the lower levels of existence.
"Hello my dear." Entropy called out in a singsong voice.
Order gave him a flat stare, "What do you want Entropy?"
"Oh come now. We haven's spoken in an age my dear. You aren't still mad at me are you?" Entropy asked innocently.
Order didn't bat an eye. "You blew up a star." She said simply.
Entropy sighed, "I know I did. I'm sorry about the star." He said.
Order's eye twitched.
Oh boy, Entropy thought, this is going to be bad.
"You're sorry about the star! What about the people that lived on the planet? What about the solar system that's now gone? We had an agreement! We were supposed to be in this together! Do you know how much heat I had to take for you! Do you have any idea what the others wanted to do to you. It was everything I could do to get you banished here rather than destroyed!" She screeched. Finished with her tirade Order realized that she had been pummeling on Entropy. With a deep breath Order took her favorite guise, that of a young woman in a brilliant red dress. She had striking looks and long raven colored hair that flowed like silk down to her back. It was the same form she had worn for each of her meetings for Entropy.
Entropy took the form of a broad shouldered man with a square chin He was wearing a classic business suit with pinstripes complete with tie and mirrored sunglasses. "You look radiant my dear." He said.
"I haven't forgiven you, you know?" Order asked.
Entropy sighed, "I know. I truly am sorry though, but that's why I'm here. I want to make it up to you."
Order's eye's narrowed in suspicion, "I'd have to be crazy to trust you." She said.
"I know. I know." Entropy said, "But these last four million years, something's changed. There are forces moving that we need to look into. We can't afford to hide any longer. We need to start making our moves. Spending all this time among the lower levels has shown me a great deal."
Order didn't let up her gaze. Entropy, by nature, was chaotic. She had told him on more than one occasion that that name would suit him better, but he refuse saying it was too cliché. Order wasn't foolish enough to think that Entropy was completely repentant. She did consider, however, that he might be telling the truth for once.
"Alright." She said.
"Yes!" Entropy started to do a jig but stopped as soon as Order pointed a finger in his face.
"But!" She said looking him in the eyes. "You are going to tell me everything."
"On my honor." He said giving her a little bow. "Now there's nothing concrete, but the patterns are there if you let me explain. It'll take time."
"Very well." Order agreed.
"I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade. "
The first thing Jason realized was that he wasn't in any pain. Which was odd given the days events. Suddenly everything came back to him, his squad, his buddies getting shot, and the grenade coming through the window.
"What happened to me?" he asked patting himself down looking for signs of injury,
"You see that is a perfectly normal response." Said a voice behind him.
In an second Jason was on his feet with the only weapon he had available in his hand, his boot knife. In front of him was a beautiful woman with cream colored skin dressed in a magnificent red dress. Beside her was a serious looking man in a business suit with a tie.
"Oh excellent reaction time!" The man said. "I think he'll do nicely my dear."
"Agreed." The woman said.
Turning back to Jason the man in the suit held out his hand. "I'm Entropy." He said.
Jason took a step back from the proffered hand and didn't relax at all.
"Ah." Entropy said. "I see. My dear would you please introduce yourself and explain everything to our friend here?" The man stepped back and the woman took his place.
"Hello Jason my name is Order." She smiled at him. "Entropy and I have a job opportunity for you. One that we'd like you to consider."
Jason slowly put his knife away. Now that he had the chance to look around he felt kind of foolish standing there holding it. Who ever the man and woman were, something about them set his nerves on edge. Maybe the fact they were also in a room so white that he couldn't tell if he was standing on a floor had something to do with his unease.
"Who are you?" Jason asked.
"Ah!" Entropy stepped forward, "That's more of a question of 'What?'" He waved his hand and suddenly Jason and the two others were washed in blackness. "You're aware of the Big Bang Theory? And no I don't mean the television show." He asked.
"Just the stuff I learned in high school science class." Jason said. "All the matter in the universe began at a single point. Then it spread out across the universe in a massive explosion called the Big Bang."
"Yes exactly." Entropy said. Suddenly there was a massive report of an explosion. With a roar Jason was suddenly surrounded by a torrent of colors and lights. Then everything stopped, like someone hit the pause button.
"This is thirty milliseconds after the big bang." Entropy explained. "Right now the universe is only about ten to twenty million light years across. In another thirty milliseconds it'll be ten times that size and there will already be four or five parallel universes, but here is the when the magic happened."
Order stepped forward, "In an instant, hundreds of thousands of new elements were created, and destroyed just as quickly."
"If you take some of these elements, bombard them with phasic photonic energy, mix in some exotic particles, add a cup of self awareness, season with some emotion, add a pinch of humor, and throw in few hundred thousand terajoules of energy and bam! You get us!" Entropy said excitedly.
Jason raised an eyebrow at Entropy's antics, "Okay…"
Entropy' shoulder's visibly sagged, "It's like talking to a gorilla."
"Hey!"
Order stepped in to calm Jason down, "What Entropy was trying to explain is that we are trans-galactic multidimensional beings. We were brought into existence by the big bang, but it took us almost fifty million years or so to become self aware."
Jason had always been pretty flexible, it's what made him such a good soldier. Even he had to admit that he was skeptical, however. "Okay, so what do you want with me? And how did I get here."
"We'll get to that. I promise." Entropy said. "When we first became self aware, Order and I traveled the multitude of galaxies and universes exploring. I'll admit we saw some pretty amazing stuff, but all the interesting crap happened in the first five billion years or so. When you get to be as old as time itself you tend to get bored. You watch one supernova you've seen them all. In the beginning there's a lot of excitement, but then its over too quickly and what's left is disappointing."
"That's true for a lot of things. Not just supernovas by the way." Order said looking at Entropy.
"Hey!" It was Entropy's turn to act all indignant and upset.
Order laughed as Entropy gave her a glare. Turning back to Jason "The reason why were telling you this Jason is because we're not the only beings like us in existence."
"Wait there are more of you?" Jason asked.
"Yes Jason. Entropy and I are among the oldest but once you consider the near infinite number of universes out there, beings such as ourselves become much more common than you'd think. For the most part they leave the lower levels of existence alone, but it has become apparent to Entropy that some of us are manipulating your level of existence."
Jason raised an eyebrow, "Why would they do that? What could they gain by messing with us. Sounds to me like you guys don't need anything of ours."
"That's what were trying to figure out Jason. That's also why we need your help, it's why we brought you here. If we make a move, we'll expose ourselves, and before we do that we need to find out why they're doing it. We'd like to send you to where we think they're going to attack next, hopefully you'll be able to learn something of their motives, maybe even stop them if your lucky."
"Are you guys nuts!" Jason yelled. "You what? Pick some random person in all of creation throw them in some random situation and laugh as they muddle through! Why would anyone go for that? I have duties back home."
Entropy glared at him, "First off kid there's no such thing as sanity only varying degrees of crazy, if you had a woman in your life you'd know that."
"Hey!" Order yelled.
"You know I love you dear." Turning back to Jason he continued, "As for the situations they're not random. I'm not going to tell you why not yet. Mostly because I haven't confirmed my suspicions yet, but I promise when I do, you'll be the first to know, I just hope I'm wrong. What I will tell you is that, if you agree, wherever you find yourself, its real. The consequences if you fail are real, for you and for those around you. If you succeed in facing these challenges, you'll have another chance at life if you fail. . . it won't matter because chances are you'll be dead."
Jason's blood pressure which had been steadily climbing for the past few minuets slowly started to come back down. As a soldier Jason knew all about operational security. "What else can you tell me?"
"Only that their efforts seemed to be focused around Earth and its many copies."
"Copies?" Jason asked.
"Yes you've heard of the multi universe theory correct?" At Jason's nod Entropy continued, "As far as we can tell Earth appears to be some sort of nexus for the multiverse. It appears in some form or another in nearly every universe. Simple mechanics tells us that this shouldn't be possible, but I've confirmed it myself."
"What's their MO?" Jason asked.
"Their interfering with events at key points. Most of which have had some pretty devastating consequences resulting in the destruction of Earth in some form or another." Jason felt the blood drain from his face at the look on Entropy's face.
"This is all real isn't it?" Jason asked slowly. "You're telling me the truth. Some where out there, some one is destroying Earth's. This isn't some fantasy I've cooked up in my head this is real."
"Yes Jason, I'm afraid so." Order said gently as she place a hand over his heart.
"If I agree to help you, what can you give me?" Jason asked.
"You mean the grenade?" Order asked. At the look Jason gave her she gave a small chuckle, "We've been watching you for a while Jason. Nothing is random remember. If you help us out, we'll guarantee your squad mates will make it home. We'll alter their perceptions a little bit, they'll think you died saving their lives. I promise they'll get chance to go home. I can't guarantee that they'll take it however."
"That's fine." Jason said suddenly, "As long as it's their decision to make." He still wasn't completely convinced that this wasn't some hallucination, but something in his gut told him that wasn't the case, and besides if it turns out this is a hallucination it would end soon enough anyway, and if it wasn't his friends would get the chance to go home, he hoped some of them would take it, be he could think of a few that wouldn't. "What's next?"
"Unfortunately we can't just throw you off the deep end. You're going to need all the help you can get in both equipment and abilities. First we'll send you to place that'll teach you all you need to know how to survive, it'll also give you a taste of what will happen should you fail. If you can't survive there then you won't be any good to us. When you're ready one of us will come get you. It'll be hard but if you can make it, you'll have saved more lives than you ever thought possible."
Jason nodded. "Sounds like you have it all planned out."
"We've had a lot of time, Jason, we're just making sure all our bases are covered." Order said. "I wish you luck Jason. Hopefully we'll figure out who's behind all this before what ever they're planning comes to fruition."
"A word of advise Jason, you will need to steel yourself, this path you have chosen it will not be easy or quick. It could be decades before you get the chance to live peacefully again."
Jason felt a grim smile spread across his face, and with a solemn voice said, "I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade. If this is what I am called to do the so be it I will do my duty to my people." And he meant it. Jason had spoken with a few Army old timers back in the day. They had told him about how it would take a special person to commit themselves to a lifetime of fighting, and that he'd know if he was one of those people when the time came. Most people would think him crazy for volunteering in such a situation, but Jason knew that if he didn't at least try and figure out was going on his old man would kick his ass.
Entropy nodded, "Alright then, let's get started." In a flash Jason was gone off to fight. "I hope that boy has the strength to face what's coming."
"He's certainly committed." Order said. "I swear you almost looked ready to join him after that little speech."
"And why not! All this subterfuge is driving me mad. While we play shadow games, worlds are burring!" Entropy growled.
Order gave him a pitying look, she had long since forgiven him about the star so many years ago, "You know why my love. This is the best we can do, for now."
"You know with this we just declared war." Entropy said.
"I know, but it'll take time for the other faction to realize it, but when they do, we will be wrath and fury. Have pity for those that have done this, they will pay a thousand fold for each world they have burned." Entropy shuddered at Order's tone. Looking in her eyes he saw a righteous anger waiting to be unleashed.
"Then let us hope our agent learns something soon."
"But first he must be prepared, let's hope he stands up to the challenge." Order said. "Now, we need move quickly onto the next planet. There is much work to do and we need to seed as many agents as possible before they enemy get's wind of us."
"I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade. "
"Guardian."
"Time to wake up Guardian."
Jason's eye's snapped open and he quickly sat up. "Oh crap." He said. Less than an hour ago he was a corporal in the United States Army. Most civilians operate under the assumption that Army guys never get a break that they're always on the clock. Sometimes that's true, but for the most part the Army works just like any other job, you do get days off from time to time, the only difference is you have to stay close to base a lot of the time, that means you get a lot of bored guys with money to spend and nothing to do. Most end up buying an Xbox or something. Jason was no exception, so when he saw the iconic shape of a Ghost in front of him he couldn't help but say, "Ah crap, it's the Dinklebot."
"I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade. "
"Alright Ghost." Jason said, "Where does the Speaker want to send us now?" Jason had learned long ago the Ghost did not in fact like being called 'Dinklebot'.
"To the moon." Ghost said. "We've picked up a signal coming from the surface. The Speaker has already sent two guardians ahead of us. They stopped reporting in soon after they got there. Rather than lose anyone else he wants us to take care of it."
"Sounds like fun, how come we get all the crazy assignments." Jason complained.
Ghost blinked at him, a feat which had unnerved Jason the first time he had seen it. "You know why. He trusts you. He knows you can help."
Jason sighed, "You know that's not true Ghost. It's been six years since Order and Entropy sent me here. They told me that this was just the first step of my journey. That I'd gain the ability, equipment, and skills necessary to help me on the next step. Sure I've helped win a few battles, but nothing's changed. Earth still belongs to the Fallen, the Hive control the Moon, the Vex are doing whatever the hell it is they do on Venus, and the Cabal have turned Mars into a fortress."
"That's true but the weapon designs you've helped create have been a boon for the City. Our walls are more secured that ever, and you've led the push for us to start attempting to retake our old territory. Don't sell yourself short."
"Maybe." Jason said, not believing it for a minuet. When Jason had gotten to the City he'd been appalled at the way the security of the Walls had been run. The first thing he'd done was show the Guardians and the City how to properly design and man a fixed gun emplacement. He'd learned, to his shock, about a hundred years ago the City almost fell to the Fallen because they didn't have adequate defenses in place. Jason had done his best to impersonate the wrath of every drill Sargent he'd ever met. Five minuets later he'd been told that if he felt so strongly about it then he could fix the problem. A year later and the City walls were a mass of artillery, mortar, and machine gun nests. He almost felt sorry for the poor bastards that tried to take the walls next time, almost.
After that Jason had gone to the Speaker and told him everything. He told him about Order and Entropy and why they sent him here. He told him about his time in the Army and how where he came from this was all a game (He'd made a note to ask Order about that next time he saw her, but in six years she hadn't shown up once) and how in two hundred years the Darkness would return, and unless they did something chances were the City would fall.
The next day the Speaker pulled Jason and a number of other Guardians off the walls and sent them out to start exploring and start taking back their old territory. Soon enough the Walls were manned by volunteers from the City and every Guardian was out fighting. Over six years Jason had fought on Earth, Venus, and Mars, but this was the first time he'd be going to the Moon.
"So who did the Speaker send before us?" Jason asked Ghost.
"Tera 985 and Joran Tel." Ghost answered.
Jason stiffened at the names, he knew both of those Guardian personally, "Alright Ghost. Take us to the Moon." Jason felt the vibrations shift in his seat as Ghost put more power to the rear thrusters. Jason had found his jump ship in what was once northern Ireland, and had spent the better part of year scrounging for parts. When the clouds parted and they exited the atmosphere Jason felt a slight twinge of nausea as the warp drive kicked in jumping him to the moon in a matter of minuets.
Jason checked his weapons one last time before hopping on his sparrow. His shotgun was a masterpiece, a Guardian had built if for him years ago after describing called the Kal Tech KSG which he'd seen pictures of way back in the day. The ten gauge pump action fired modified four and half inch magnum rounds. Instead of gun powder the shells were filled with some kind of oxygenated jell that was ten times more effective, and the best part was the jell let him fire the gun in a vacuum or low oxygen environment. Jason was pleased to learn that guns did actually work in space and not just because Bungie said so.
At his hip was an old Desert Eagle 50 AE he'd found just last week. The thumb sized bullets had been difficult to make, but now that he had and Ghost had a pattern to follow, if he ever ran out all Ghost had to do would be to transmat him some more. This would be his first time taking the gun into the field.
"I'm dropping a beacon on your HUD. It should lead you right to where we lost contact with the other Guardians." Jason nodded and took off across the lunar landscape.
As he traveled Jason could help but feel uneasy. In space there is no sound. He could feel the sparrow underneath him, and he knew from experience that it made a lot of noise, but if felt like he had cotton stuffed in his ears. The loss of one of his primary senses kept him on his tows. "Ghost I'm not seeing any Hive."
"I know it's strange. Reports from right after the Collapse state that there were enough Hive on the moon the they could bee seen from Earth."
"Then where'd they go?" Jason asked.
"If we knew that we wouldn't be here." Ghost said.
Jason slowed his mad dash and began scanning his surroundings. The last thing he wasted was to be surprised so far away from help. "How much further Ghost?"
"It should be just over the next ridge."
Jason stopped his sparrow and dismounted. He had Ghost store the bike back on the ship via transmat. With one quick check to make sure he could pull his pistol in a flash if he needed to, Jason slowly crawled his way up the ridge line. On the other side he saw the entrance to was appeared to be a box canyon. He scanned the cliff face for movement, the distinct lack of which served only to unnerve him more.
"Is this where you lost sight of the other's?" Jason asked.
"Yes. They must have gone in." Ghost scanned the two distinct sets of boot prints. Noting the distinct lack of a returning set. "I don't like it."
"Agreed. Keep you eye peeled."
Jason stood up and slowly made his way into the box canyon. He scanned every blind spot. It wasn't to long before he felt something like an oppressive blanket thrown over him, smothering his Light. It was hard to describe what the Light felt like. For Jason it was some kind of Aura that came from his body, it empowered his movements and muscles, giving him near superhuman reflexes and strength. If he focused he could use his Light to send out a shockwave blasting nearby enemies back killing all but the strongest, or he could throw it like a grenade blinding his opponents. Each of the different classification of Guardians used the light in their own unique way, Titans like himself specialized in strengthening their bodies to the point that they were walking tanks. Coincidentally they also made excellent shock troops. Normally his Light flowed freely, but now it felt like he was trying to walk through water, or breath through a thick mask. He could still use it, but it would require more effort.
"Darkness zone." He muttered.
"That explains it." Ghost said.
Darkness zones were the most dangerous places a Guardian could go. Anywhere else and Guardians could be considered invincible, if they died their Ghost could store their Light until a new body could be transmated down to them, in a Darkness zone that wasn't possible. There was some kind of jamming effect that interfered with a Ghost's ability to store Light.
Following the tracks of his comrades Jason soon enough found his way to a some kind of chamber. The walls of the canyon opened up into a massive square. Jason eyed the area with distain there was absolutely no cover out there. If the hive showed up he would be hard pressed to get back to where he stood where at least the close proximity of the walls would provide him with some cover.
"There they are!" Ghost called out. Sure enough Jason could see the bodies of his two friends out in the middle of the square. "You're going out their aren't you?"
Jason glared at Ghost through his helmet.
"Okay. Okay. I'm sorry I asked." Ghost suddenly came flying at him and they became one. Jason could feel Ghost's consciousness bush up against him. /Be careful out there. Even I can tell this is a set up./
"I will old friend." Jason stood up and walked out into the square. He didn't bother trying to cover himself. If the enemy came he'd see them coming with enough time to react. When he reached to bodies rolled them over to look at what had killed them. Both of them had had their chests torn apart. He looked at the fallen Ghosts and pulled his hands back. Suddenly an orb of Light appeared in each of his hands. He always felt a rush when he used his Light. He fed the light into the Ghosts and with a twitch they both revived. They floated up with a flash they were gone, off to look for new Guardians.
/Let's see if we can find out what killed them./ As soon as Ghost finished speaking, Jason was thrown to the ground.
"You had to jinx it!" Jason shouted. He picked up his shotgun and scanned for enemies what he saw made the blood drain from his face. All around him the walls of the square were moving aside revealing dozens of Hive dropships. Along with hundreds of Hive warriors. He could see Thralls, Acolytes, and Knights. He could count at least a half dozen Wizards and two Ogres.
"Crap." Jason took of running with out a seconds hesitation. He knew the enemy was hot on his heels. He'd fought the Hive before, normally their charges are accompanied by the shriek of their undead warriors, but all Jason heard was silence.
A group of Thralls managed to get ahead of him attempting to cut him off before he could make it back to the narrow canyon walls. If he got bogged down fighting them Jason knew he wouldn't make it. With out a seconds hesitation he leaped into the air and crashed down punching the ground releasing a shockwave of Light in the classic 'Fists of Havoc' move. With out missing a beat he stood up and continued running. He feathered the trigger on his KSG putting the one Thrall that managed to survive out of its misery as he ran past.
/What ever you do don't stop running! As soon as we're clear I'll have the ship pick us up!/ Ghost yelled. Jason didn't bother answering him and instead focused on running. Now more than ever he wished he had been a Hunter, some of those guys could sprint upwards of forty miles per hour in good terrain. What Jason lacked in raw speed he made up for in tenacity. A few times he felt the long fingered claws of a Thrall warrior on his back, rather than fight it he just tore free and continued running. When he felt the pack was closing in on him Jason dropped a Light grenade at his feet.
The first skill most Guardians learned was to generate a ball of Light. From there it wasn't much of a stretch to learn how to throw the highly unstable ball of energy, when done so at enemies it could realistically be called a grenade. The first grenades most guardians used were pretty simple, like Jason's own flash-bang. With practice more complex and devastating grenades could be made. The one that Jason just used was an example of the latter, the orb of Light shattered and bolts of electricity scythed through the Hive troops buying him the time he needed to escape.
"Ghost give me the launcher!" Suddenly the shogun in his hands disappeared in a flash of light and rocket launcher replaced it. As beautiful as it was deadly the launcher was covered in reliefs of wolf carvings and pictures depicting a hunting pack of wolves. The barrel was mounted coming out the mouth of a massive wolf. At the top of the ridge Jason stopped and spun around. Firing three quick shots in rapid succession each rocket split into four others. The mouth of the canyon blossomed into fire and Hive warriors died in droves. Jason calmly raised the bird to the encroaching hoard.
In a flash he was gone and the Hive trampled over each other in an attempt to find a Guardian that was no longer there.
"I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade. "
"Hello Jason. You look well." Even though it was a voice he hadn't heard in over six years, Jason recognized it instantly.
"Hello Order." He gave her a cool smile. "I see you've finally decided to stop wasting time." Jason couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice when he spoke to her.
"Now now Jason we told you that you would need the time and experience before you were ready."
"Six years!" Jason shouted. /Quantum displacement detected. Guardian, Jason, what's going on? I've having trouble finding out where I am./ Jason took a deep breath after realizing Ghost was still there, he had half expected him to be gone. "Ghost this is Order. I told you about her before."
/I remember. So what's going on?/
"I'll tell you as soon as I find out myself." Jason said leveling a glare at Order.
"Jason, when we first sent you away, how long was it before you died. How long did it take for you to survive a week with out dying, a year? Believe me Jason, if we were not running out of time I would have left you there for another six years, but you are needed now. Something has forced our hand. Entropy's had to get involved personally, leaving me to continue operating in the shadows."
"What happened?" Jason asked.
"We told you that Earth is a nexus remember, well its not the only one. There are dozens just like it. All of which are under attack. He's out fighting on another planet."
Jason hung his head, it had been six years. He had forgotten the bigger picture, but seeing Order again brought it all back, "I'm sorry. It's been a long six years."
She smiled at him, "It's alright Jason."
"Why video games?" He asked suddenly.
She shrugged, "We needed a way to make people aware of the different universes that would be accepted with out much criticism. Showing them as a world of fiction has been the most successful means to date."
"So what's the next step?" Ghost asked suddenly appearing. "I got tired of just listening." He said apologetically.
"Ah, such a wonderful creation. Your father was marvelous you know? I'm sorry about what happened to him." Order said looking Ghost.
"You knew the Traveler?" Jason asked.
"Of course, he was one of our agents just like you are Jason. He failed to protect humanity, but in the end he gave them a chance at redemption." Order said. "Little Light, I'm afraid I must ask you something very hard. I need you to leave your Traveler, I need you to go with Jason on his journey. If he is to have a chance of saving the next Earth he is going to need your help. I promise I'll do what I can to try and help the Traveler when I can in return."
Ghost's eye dimmed in sadness and he sunk down a few inches, "I understand. I always dreamed that one day I would see the Traveler awaken and humanity rise again, but I am bound to my Guardian."
Jason felt his throat tighten. Six years of constant combat had formed a strong bond between himself and Ghost. Jason might be a man of few words but he had grown fond of Ghosts company, just knowing he wouldn't be facing the Darkness alone had been to only thing that kept him going sometimes. "Thank you Ghost."
Ghost turned back to him. "What else could I do."
Order smiled at the two fighters. "Then it's time you move on Jason, Ghost. Don't worry about your ship or equipment I'll take care of that. Good luck you two. I'll keep in touch when I can."
And once again Jason, this time with the company of his Ghost, were sped off across the multiverse.
"You should see him Entropy. He looks good. Hell, he's everything you said he would be and he's still growing. They both are. He might just pull this off. Hurry my love. There's a war to plan." And with that the being known as Order left the space between universes.
"I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade. "
"Guardian!"
"Guardian! Wake up!"
Jason snapped up right in an instant shotgun drawn.
"Guardian where are we?" Jason could hear the fear in Ghost's voice. "I'm scanning for known constellation's but I can't find any. Also the gravity and atmospheric composition are not matching up with any planet in the home system."
"Don't worry Ghost. We'll figure it out together. Can you contact the ship?" Jason asked.
"Yes I can. I also have access to the ships transmat. Do you want me to bring you the sparrow?"
Jason looked around. He was in some kind of forest, but he didn't recognize the trees. And the blood red sky was a little disconcerting. The sparrow would do him little good here. He'd more likely break his neck hitting a tree than anything else. "No. I'll head out on foot. Let's get to high ground."
It didn't take long for Jason to reach a clearing of sorts when he got there the shotgun fell numbly from his hand. "We are so screwed." He said.
"What is that!" Ghost called out.
"Ghost you can stop looking for where we are. I know exactly where we are." Jason said in a whisper. It might have been a few years, but he knew exactly what that thing off in the distance was. "We're at Eden Prime, Utopia system, Exodus Cluster, Milky Way Galaxy, and that is a Reaper."
A/N: Wow that was fun to write. The Kal Tech KSG is a real gun by the way, you should look it up to see how awesome it is. Trust me you won't be dissapointed. The Next chapter will take us all the way to through the Eden Prime mission. Tune in next time folks!