The Ghost flitted about the city his body twisting each time he stopped and gazed at another building ruined by overgrowth and trees. A blue light shown from its singular eye passing over the remains of cars long abandoned and shattered windows before it flew off continuing its incessant searching.
It froze as a guttural cry spread through the city. It's metallic body seemed to shake as if in fear before it turned about briskly searching for a place to hide. Spying the forest's edge it rushed forward weaving past the massive trees plunging deeper into the heart of the wood.
Ducking into the hollow of a redwood it waited as the sounds of crashing spread through the undergrowth. It pressed itself further back against the wood of the tree and watched silently as a small bipedal creature moved past the tree. A single knife glowed in its hand, a sharp blue light along its edge.
The creature turned and looked around before crying out in the same guttural broken speech before turning and moving off back the way it had come.
The Ghost remained still for a moment letting the creature move away before leaving its hiding place. It turned about in the forest and giving a soft electronic sigh it resumed its mission.
The blue light once more spread from its eye as it scanned for the hint of Light, the trace of energy matching its own. With a silent turn the Ghost moved deeper into the wood away from the thing that had chased it.
Coming to a clearing it paused.
The clearing was simple and to the Ghost, no different from the rest of the forest except for one thing. A pulsing Light drawing it to the roots of perhaps the largest tree it had ever seen.
Nestled almost lovingly between the exposed roots of the tree lay a single skeleton. Protected from the harsh environment around it.
"Could it be?" The machine mused out loud. Scanning the skeleton for a moment the machine cried out in joy. "Finally," and with a bright flash the Ghost bonded its light to the light of the skeleton and for the first time revived its fallen Guardian.
A bright light filled her vision for a moment before she collapsed to her knees. Her breathing was ragged as her eyes darted back and forth taking in her surroundings. Slowly her breathing slowed as the clearing seemed to glow in the afternoon light.
"It's okay. I'm sure it's quite a shock but we don't have long to spend here." A robotic voice spoke. She lifted her head and gazed upon a strange floating machine. Six pyramids floated around it before connecting to a small orb in the center. It's blue eye blinked for lack of a better term. She lifted her hands shakily towards her head and grasped her helmet. Pulling it off she took a deep breathe and fell backward to rest against the trees roots. Closing her eyes sh waited trying to catch her breath.
"We really don't have time for this. Now that I've found you we really must be getting somewhere safer than here. I was attacked on my way to you and…" The Ghost spoke before it was interrupted.
"Hold on. I don't understand. What's going on?" The girl gasped out as she leaned forward resting her head between her knees.
"It's a lot to explain and as I've said it's not safe here. I promise to explain everything once we are somewhere a bit safer."
The girl rose hesitantly to her feet and pulled her helmet back on. She didn't know why but it felt right to listen to the small floating machine even if she felt a bit wary at the strange situation. "Alright but I am going to hold you to that."
The ghost floated over toward the edge of the clearing from where it had come from originally. "I passed through a city back this way. We should be able to find you somewhere safe to hide in while we talk, though we really should let the Vanguard explain everything. They do it so much better then I. Anyway off we go. Try to keep up."
She followed the floating machine with a shake of her head. It's personality seemed so weird. Serious one moment and silly the next. She paused for a moment beside one of the large trees ringing the clearing and ran her gloved fingers over a series of four large gashes carved into the tree. "Curious." With a shake of her head she picked up her pace jogging up to the machine and moving briskly.
Her eyes moved from side to side looking for the trouble and danger the machine seemed to expect. Her eyes lingered on more of the gashes, spread out as if something was marking its territory.
"So while we are moving would it be possible for you to tell me some things? Like what exactly attacked you earlier? I'd like to know what to keep my eyes out for."
The Ghost turned to face her but kept floating along leading her to the city. "They are called the Fallen. A race of aliens that spend all of their time scavenging amongst the abandoned lands. Once they claim something they will not willingly let it go."
The girl nodded as the machine spoke. "But what do they look like?"
The ghost blinked. "Oh. Well it varies. Some are a bit short and look somewhat like you. But larger ones can have a second pair of arms. They were wearing blue cloaks so it you see something like that it's best to hide until we can find you a weapon."
She smiled beneath her helmet. "Gotcha. Hide from the multi armed blue creatures…so then they don't leave marks behind like these?" She gestured to another of the tree ashes drawing the machines attention to it. It flew over and scanned the marks with a pale blue light. "Um…no. I have no idea what could have made these…and I don't like them. We really need to avoid whatever made this. But we are close now. Nearly into town, just through these trees here."
The girl rubbed her shoulders and nodded quickly hurrying after the machine before her.
And then she stopped.
And stared.
Stared at the city before her…or what was left of it. The city looked like it once was a thing of beauty. Large towers buildings wrought in silver and ivory. But now the windows had been broken out of most buildings and nature had over grown to consume everything. Large green vines trailed from one building to the next giving fruit to multitudes of pale red flowers and blue fruits. She moved forward slowly shaking her head. "What happened here. Everything is broken and…gone?"
"This was the Collapse. Before Humanity could react a great Darkness swept over all of your territory and nearly wiped you out. But the Traveler gave up the last of its life to create me and those like me to find people like you and bring you back to fight and defend yourselves."
"The Traveler?"
"Hard to explain. Better if you see it then you can ask the Vanguard about it. In the mean time, a weapon and a ship are needed."
The machine flew off into the city and the girl followed along. It seemed more at ease here surrounded by all the buildings then out in the woods. She looked behind her and caught a faint glimpse of a large scaled limb vanishing into the shadows of the trees. Quickening her pace she pushed further down the street before pausing before a large circular building with a massive tree growing out of the center.
"Hey…um machine. Why don't we check in here?"
The ghost paused and flew back over to where the girl had stopped. "Here?" It scanned the building's front door. "Well it still has power. Should be safe enough for now."
The girl moved forward and placed a hand upon the door. Lights flickered one and the words Rabbit and Research could barely be made out from the access panel by the door. The Ghost slipped itself in between the girl and the door and started to access the panel with a series of blue beams. "I'll have this open for you in just…a …moment. There we go." And the door slid open.
The pair entered and the door closed behind them. They spread out without a word and both looked around. The girl paused by the skeletal remains of some poor soul and gently picked up the rifle laying across its bones. Without knowing how she pulled the magazine out and looked at it before sliding it back into the gun.
"Well I've got the weapon part handled but I'm not sure how I know what to do so easily."
The ghost turned and flew over giving the gun a quick scan. "While you memories are fragmented, skills and intuition carry over from you old life to this one without fail. Luckily you had some weapons training. Not all newborn Risen are so lucky. Since we are inside…and armed, why don't we look around. If we are lucky we'll find a ship in here as well then we can get out of here and to the Last City."
She smiled and pulled off her helmet and hung it from her belt. "Getting a bit stuffy inside that and since we are inside it should be fine to go without right?"
The ghost gave what looked like a shrug. "Your loss. If something kills you I can revive you anyway. But it'll still hurt either way if something hits your face. But its your choice Risen."
She shrugged and moved up a flight of stairs leading deeper into the facility. "That it is I guess." She moved slowly, poking the rifle around corners before she peaked to make sure it was safe. The building was full of empty offices and labs filled with broken glass and machines. After an hour of searching the pair made their way down the last unexplored staircase within the complex and approached a door with a blinking red light above it.
"So…is that a good sign, or a bad one?"
"Good I'd say. Let's see what's behind it." The Ghost responded and floating before the access panel it began to hack and with a spark of electricity the ghost was thrown backward. A robotic female voice spoke softly.
"Access denied. Only members of Operation Looking Glass can proceed beyond. Retinal scans are required to verify identity."
The strange pair shared a look. "Well I don't think we are getting through this door." The girl spoke softly with a chuckle at the machine's discomfort. Taking a step forward to pick up the machine her eyes passed through a faint red beam of light and with a soft beep and hiss, the door opened fully.
"Welcome back Aria. It has been -error- days since your last visit. Hopefully you have a pleasant day with us."
The two froze. The girl, Aria, partially bent over as if to pick up the Ghost turned her head to look into the room. The laboratory before her seemed to be in pristine condition. Soft light filtered though a glass wall surrounding a large garden where the massive tree from earlier grew.
"What are the chances that I used to work here?" She asked in a whisper.
"Next to impossible…the chances are astronomical."
Picking up her ghost she stepped into the room and the door hissed shut behind her. Setting the Ghost down on a nearby table along side her recently acquired rifle she wandered through the circular office and laboratory. Nothing seemed familiar to her like she had hoped. But one of the computers had turned on and simply displayed the words, 'Welcome Agent Aria.'
Reaching down to the keyboard she started hitting keys at random. A list of logs appeared. Scrolling towards the top she accessed the file and hit play. A video of a large set balding man began to play. He gave off a jolly vibe even in the video.
"Well today is the start. Of both this project and my new family. Such joyous news to receive today. We have officially been granted permission to begin Project Looking Glass of which I am looking forward to starting. Gene splicing what an exciting project. And being able to experiment on the new mutations of our natural flora and fauna brought on by the Traveler's arrival, fills me with almost as much excitement as the news of my wife's pregnancy. Yes you've heard correct in nine months time I shall be a father. I shall end this log here as Samual and I select which specimen we shall study first."
Aria's eyebrows rose and she glanced upward to the file name of the log. .0. .
"Well that's interesting. What else is here…"
She scrolled back down the list and selected another file.
.2.
"Today was my daughters second birthday. We celebrated with a large party and much cake. But this log is for Project Looking Glass. We have finally selected the specimens we shall be splicing together and begun our work." He paused and looked disheartened. "So far we are missing a crucial clue as none of our attempts are proving successful. Hopefully Cleo will have an idea as to what to try."
Aria turned from the computer at the sound of the Ghost floating over to her. "Feeling better eh?"
"Yes. It seems you use to work on some sort of research project."
Aria looks at him with as neutral an expression as possible. "You don't say." She responded deadpan. She pulled open one more log, this one text only and read through.
.3.
Today I brought my daughter, Aria, into the lab to introduce her into her younger sister. It was a stroke of genius to mix human dna into the gene code for our project. I chose to use my daughters as she seemed to have a strange connection to the energy given off by the Traveler. We shall be looking into this at some point in the future but for now Project Looking Glass has its first Viable Wyvern. We have christened this new species a Jabberwock after the poem by the famous writer Lewis Carroll.
Aria wiped away a tear at her eye and ran a finger over the still image on the computer. The ghost remained quiet letting it's Risen sort through what she must be feeling. Aria was interrupted from her thoughts by the female voice from the door speaking up.
"It's good to see you again Aria. It's been too long since we've spoken."
Aria turned around to come face to face with an image floating before her. "Who are you?"