Prologue:
With a burst of fire the head of a Fallen Captain crumbles in, falling to the ground surrounded by multitudes of its dead brethren. The ground slick with the blue blood of the Fallen and covered in ammo casings and a few empty mags. A lone hunter stands in the center of the carnage, smoke drifting out of the muzzle of her rifle and blood dripping off her knife. Panting heavily the hunter walks through the corpses to the edge of the room, where her ghost was scanning a downed Fallen Skiff. "That was the last of them." The hunter exclaimed to the ghost. "Now please tell me it was worth it!" The ghost floats up and looks into the hunters masked face. "We've found it."
Chapter One: The Beginning
Ever since I can remember I've enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. I was from a small settlement that existed on the exact inside of the wall. From my small town, i always lived in the shadow of the traveler, except when I left the walls of the city. I had found a small hole in the wall and would go out into the wild outside to hunt. I learned to be quick on my feet and grew to have fast reflexes. I enjoyed her quiet life inside the wall, but only felt like I was truly alive when I was outside the wall. That all changed when I saw it.
A Fallen Skiff drop soldiers nearly right on top of me. A Captain followed by a dozen vandal and half as many dregs landed in a small clearing outside the wall. I was sitting hidden in the brush on the outside of that very same clearing. As i watched the Captain barked a order in that guttural language of the Fallen, with cheers they ran into the woods, heading for the wall.
As I watched them run I noticed something... They were heading in the way of my hole into the wall! With a gasp I began to run after them, keeping them just in view, but out of this sight. They moved with a terrifying speed, they moved faster than anything than I had ever seen. It only took them a few moments to swarm the wall. When they reached the wall they stood their silently, waiting for something. The air was as silent as a tomb as a small shank whirred to life. It floated up from the small hole in the wall. "It had been there the whole time! It had been sitting on the ground of the hole I used. I crawled over it every time I went out of the wall!" These thoughts raced through my head as I panicked.
The shank floated over to the Captain then shown a light into the hole. The Fallen whispered to each other happily, then the dregs crawl into the small hole, followed by the vandals then the Captain. I sat their with tears streaking down her cheeks, holding her mouth so no noise would come out as I cried. After awhile I begins to hear the screams of the people from my village. Shaking, I sat up and crawled into the hole in the wall. On the other side was a massacre. People lay there blood pooling around them as they lay still in the streets. Every so often I could see a Fallen running someone down as I slowly walked through the town, as I walked to my house.
When I saw my house I screamed. The door was shattered and blood was dripping down the front steps, pooling into the street. I walked in slowly avoiding the blood on the ground. I stood there watching as a vandal ripped my family to shreds. I fell to my knees powerless as the vandal attacked. Tears streaking down my cheeks as my hands grasped in the rumble of what was my kitchen. They found the hilt of a kitchen knife, grasping it in her hands I stood trembling. With slow steps she walked over behind the vandal, when she was directly behind it the vandal snapped up and looked at her, screeching! I shoved the knife into its mouth, yanking it back out I jammed it into its chest, again and again! It's blood blue covered my fingers and pooled on the ground. I only stopped when I heard a noise behind me. My brother was alive!
With ragged breathing he groaned and coughed. Jazlyn dropped the knife and ran over to him, lifting his body in her arms. He smiled weakly and coughed up a little blood. "Don't go!" Jazlyn cried helplessly. She lifted him up and walked out into the street. She walked out just as a fire team of guardians dropped into the center of the town. Shooting the Fallen. "Help me! Please! He's dying!" I screamed to the guardians. A Titan looks over at me, then walks over to us. Looking at the body he shakes his head then runs off only to get stabbed in the back by the Fallen Captain. I filled with rage as the Titan walked away from my dying brother. I vowed then to never forgive Titans. They had let my brother die in my arms. And did nothing about it.
Chapter Two: The Guardians
When the guardians finished killing all the Fallen there was only one surviver, me. At the age of twelve I could boast things most other than the guardians couldn't, I had killed a vandal and survived a Fallen raid. I sat alone in the street, cradling the body of my brother. To me everything that happened next was a blur. I could only remember bits of what happened, but what I did remember I would never forget. A guardian approached her, a hunter. The hunter took of his helmet revealing he was a human. "Your special he said. To have survived all this, you have to be special." He took me by my hand and picked me up. He took me to a spot clear of blood. Then he did the unthinkable, he took out a shovel and began to dig a grave for my brother. I watched with tears in my eyes as he lowered the body into the ground and began to bury him. When he finished he turned to me and asked "What was his name?" Speaking softly I managed to say "Sual, his name was Sual." The hunter nodded then pulled out his knife and began to scratch his name into a stone. "Hurry up!" called the arrogant Titan, "I have things to do!" This was the ultimate offense to me.
I snatched the hunters knife and threw it at the Titan. It stuck into his head like a bulls horn, he turned and looked at me. I couldn't tell if he was angry or not. Then he took of his helmet and pulled the knife out. He was a exo, painted blue and green. The hunter stood in front of me and punched the exo across the face. "I don't care what you have that's so important, that you can ignore the deaths of so many! These people died because of a weakness in your wall! The Titan just stood there, taking the abuse from the hunter. "That's it, get out of here! I'm dine with your shit! Get out of my fireteam!" The hunter yelled at the Titan. The Titan didn't say anything, he just pulled out his ghost and summoned his ship. The hunter put his face in his hand for a few minutes. Then he looked up at me. He offered me a hand and summoned his ship. "I'm taking you to the tower with me." He said
His ship appeared above us and we got pulled inside of it. He sat me on his lap and began to fly to the base of the Traveler. Looking at the hunter I ask "What's your name?" Looking down at me he smiles. "My name is Kalex, and who might you be?" With a sudden certainty I looked Kalex in the eyes, "Jazlyn, my name is Jazlyn". He just nodded and went back to flying his ship. Staring out the cockpit window I thought of Sual. Tears spring to my eyes and I lay back against Kalex, and that's all I could remember.
Chapter Three: The Tower
I awoke with the ships shuddering as the docking clasps grasped it. Kalex looked down at me, "Have a nice nap" he said softly. "We're here now. You're safe." Where exactly was here? I looked around, trying to find some sort of indication to where I was. Then I saw it. The traveler. It was almost directly above us. "W-where are we?" I gasped surprised. "The Tower. A place for guardians to come together when they aren't out in the fields" explained Kalex. Grasping my hand he lifted me up and lead me to the door of his ship. Opening the hatch he lead the way into a massive hangar. I could see ships everywhere I looked, they were of all different colors and strange designs, no two exactly the same. Feeling a tug on my hand I saw Kalex begin to lead me through a doorway, into the quiet block of the main tower. Kalex lead me past a old, withered awoken, past a blue exo, and down a flight of stairs. "This is the Vanguard" he explained, "They control what missions the guardians get." Nodding I follow his pointed finger, looking at three people standing around a long table.
The first was a human woman with dark skin, dressed in robes. She was intensely focused on a large tome in front of her, muttering under her breath she turned a page and wrote a quick note on a separate paper. The next was a exo, he was covered in camouflage armor and a cloak, I couldn't see his face that well due to his hood and the bad lighting. He was inspecting a map and pushing around several small figures on the map. Leafing through a stack of papers to find the latest report from the outside. The last guardian was a mid aged blue awoken wearing a suit of huge armor. He sat looking at a tablet in his hand and writing on a paper. He was the first to notice us. Setting down his tablet he looked over and said in a booming voice "How went the excursion hunter?" He didn't seem to notice me, as I was hiding behind Kalex under his cloak. "We were to late." Kalex said hanging his head in shame, "By the time we arrived the Fallen had slaughtered nearly the entire village. By the time we finished them off we were believed that there were no survivors. I'm sorry Commander Zavala. We failed." The exo swore, he stood up straight and took a deep sigh. Looking over Kalex he notice the bulge under the cloak and the second set of feet. With a wry smile he looked Kalex in the face and said "You aren't alone. I wasn't aware that it was bring your daughter to work day."
With a eep I buried myself deeper in Kalex's cloak, trying to hide from the exo. Kalex smiled and pulled his cloak back. Revealing me to the rest. The exo smiled, "Hello there, aren't you a cutie!" I blushed and hid my face in Kalex's shirt. Kalex looked at the exo, "Cayde. This little girl managed to survive the Fallen raid. She killed a Vandal with here bear hands and managed to take my throwing knife, which she then stuck into our Titans helm." Cayde whistled softly. "I thought you said there were no survivors. Ikora, take her over to a chair and fetch her something to eat." The human woman scowled, but got up and offered me her hand. Taking it she lead me out of the hall into a side room. The last thing I heard was Cayde saying "That ones got some spunk. She'll make a fine hunter."
The woman lead me to a small cot. Sitting me down on it she looked in my eyes, them did a quick check to make sure I was okay. Standing, she walked to a counter and asked softly "What would you like to eat? I can have my ghost bring you anything you'd like." She turned to my smiling. Thinking to myself I reviewed what happened today, "The Fallen killed my family, my village, my brother. And I couldn't stop them. I'm so weak. I shouldn't have deserved to survive, I should have died with the rest of my family. At least then I could be at piece with them." I felt a tear streak down my cheek as I fell backward on to the cot. For the second time that day darkness consumed me.