A Fateful Meeting
The wind blew across the field on some forgotten corner of Earth. This wind blew with the mournful sound common in abandoned, desolate urban areas and battlefields; this is a sight all too common on the Earth after the ruin of the end of the Golden Age. This particular field ore the signs that it was the former rather than the latter. The earth here bore the scars of conflict; it was scared with old fighting positions with old rusting cars near them for added cover and the ground was pock marked with craters from long since silent artillery and explosive charges. The grinning skulls of the humans that had fallen here bore silent witness to the sacrifice that was made here to try and stem the flow of the Hive during the final days of the Golden Age. It was amount these that the Ghost roamed scanning the silent skeletons lying where they fell, some alone and some in clumps, all were scanned until he came to a lone bullet scarred boulder in a small clump of tress on the edge of the battlefield.
"Could this be him? "the Ghost thought out loud in his deep mechanical voice. He was defiantly a warrior, but so were the other men and women here, but he was smart too, the Ghost thought as he looked at the position the warrior took. It clearly showed that he knew what he was about with the high vantage point that the slight rise it was on provided of the avenues of approach to the human lines with a log to medium range weapon the human would have had an easy time picking off targets until they reached him on the rise. After he made another quick scan the Ghost made its decision "Defiantly Guardian material. Time to wake him"
The acid taste of gunpowder and the screams of the dying as the Hive final overwhelmed the human lines on the third day. The small multi colony force had been sent to evacuate the nearby town to a designated safe zone deep in the ever shrinking human controlled areas of Earth. By the third day the last of the townsfolk were on their way to the last evacshuttle and the soldiers were beginning to run out of ammunition. The law of war being what it is, the Hive had to choose that moment to send their largest attack forces yet. The task forced managed to secure the civilian evacuation, but not a single member of the task force ever made it out of that field. Needless to say he was quite surprised to wake up again after the blast from a Hive Knight's motor took him down and he was even more surprised to see some sort of flying machine floating near him. Sensing his surprise the Ghost spoke up " Be at ease human you have been dead for a long time, almost longer than I have been searching for you, some things you may not understand yet, but know this humanity needs you again and this time the need is even more dire. Now stand still." , with that the Ghost assimilated itself inside the man's helmet system and soon he heard the voice again this time through his helmet. "I am still with you. I am here to guide and help you in your new quest, but for a more detailed explanation we need to get you to the Tower. The fallen roam this area we must get inside the walls." The human thought for a moment and then said in a deep voice with a tinge of amusement
" Well, I suppose it is better than being dead and if you wished to do me harm I see no reason why you would resurrect me just to do so." Then his voice turned more solemn "First there is something I must do.
" Ok, but make haste. Remember the fallen" . The human chuckled slightly and as he walked to a nearby fighting position one of the last to fall including his thought, "Funny that this machine would put it that way. That is exactly what I am doing." He cleared the years of brush to reveal a skeleton smaller than those around it, which the Ghost assumed to be one of the female of the human species based of the shape of the pelvic girdle and then he removed a small holographic I.D. card used by the military of his time to identify their dead and the design was such that as the Guardian touched it a small image appeared along with a name of an attractive young Sargent with raven black hair and blue eyes. The Guardian also took a spent casing that was lying hear the skeleton that still clutched the remains of an antiquated rifle and then put both in his amours chest pocket. "All right flying robot let's go to your Tower I have had my fill of this place." , the Guardian said with a voice that even through his mask filters was filled with sadness. The Ghost guided the Guardian to an door way that led into a massive set of walls that had certainly not been there when the Guardian had last walked the Earth. If the need for haste had been less apparent he might have marveled at how such a large construction had come to be in what he knew as enemy territory." What is still enemy territory." the Guardian reminded himself as he heard the cries of the Fallen as they began their pursuit of the Guardian and Ghost. As they descended into the near pitch black that was the Cosmodrome the pair were beset by the sounds of Fallen above them until they came to a large railed scaffolding deep inside the Cosmodrome.
"Fallen thrive in the dark. We will not. Give me a moment or two to try access the lighting system. I have centuries of disrepair and harden systems working against me. Shouldn't be too much of a problem though." As the Ghost darted off to perform its work the Guardian noticed forms crawling on the walls in the half-light; forms that gave him the feeling of eyes on him and a itch to grab a rifle or a knife both of which had long since rotted away. As the lights flickered to life the situation proved the Gurdians instincts to be true as the Fallen scrambled like roaches to get away from the artificial light the Ghost came through the Guardians helmet again " I've open a way for us and found you a rifle. Let's hope for both of our sakes that you remember which end the bullets come out of." The Guardian chuckled a bit and replied " If my hand remember one thing, it is how to operate a rifle, flying robot." "My designation is a Ghost, Guardian" " And my name is Justin, Ghost. Now let's get the hell out of here before we become Fallen trophies"