Welcome To The New Age

The ghost has been looking a long time for its guardian, its companion. It was a Ghost, a floating artificial intelligence made from the travellers light. It found its way in Russia or commonly known as old Russia by the people now. Scanning the graveyard of rusted cars it searched among the ancient dead. The screams of fallen in the distance could be heard, but it kept going set on its goal to find the heroes. Old Russia was once a beautiful city filled with people, now wind and sand beat at what remained of the cities crumbling wall where millions of people tried to flee from the darkness.

Ghost looked around aimlessly, scanned another body and left the bones to rest in peace. It floated upwards towards a lone rusted car resting next to the cliffs edge. It scanned the dead body that rested against the car. Cause of death was unknown but he sensed the light in them. Ghosts scanner beeped in a positive chime before flying closer shocked. "Is it possible?" it questioned before splitting open its shell revealing a energy strong enough to bring the man back to life. Another chime and churp confirmed it was the guardian, "there you are."

It was like being born again. The muffled sounds of english hitting them but they still did not understand. The feeling of weightlessness then feeling whole once again.

As Shadow tried to open his eyes he heard a voice calling him. "Guardian… Guardian? Eyes up guardian!" His vision began to come back to him at a slow pace but the first things he laid his eyes on was a small starch white looking robot with a blue "eye" that floated in front of Shadow. "It worked… You're alive!" it started, chirping once more in long awaited excitement.

Alex bumped into Sprinkle drunkenly and the just awoken teen shoved him into Shadow who finally opened his eyes. He tried to talk but found it difficult to even open his mouth, the young adult wanted to correct it and tell the thing his name was Shadow, not guardian. "You don't know how long I've been looking for you. "I'm a ghost," it beeped at its error "actually now I'm your ghost" it rephrased. Shadow looked down at his hands flexing them as if he was a newborn child. His body was covered in some sort of thin tight suit, his hands had black matte color metal plating covering all his fingers down to the wrist. Now it was close to their face, "and you… Well, you've been dead a long time. So, you're going to see a lot of things you won't understand."

Alex felt hands grab him, he was assisted up by Shadow who still felt dizzy. They couldn't speak yet for no words would come out. They've been asleep for so long. Each of them finally managed to get up. Sprinkle fell against the rusted car their bodies once leaned against and tried to shake the drunk uphoric feeling in his head. Screams, no roars, in the distance alerted this "Ghost," that whatever was in the distance was not friendly. It spun back around to face the three of us. "This is Fallen territory. We aren't safe here. I have to get you guardians to the city" the little bot scanned the area worried that whatever these Fallen things were to catch up to us. "Don't move!" It ordered then disappeared into a soft drizzle of light. A second later they each could hear the things voice in their head. The heads up display on their helmets flickered on to life. The armor that Ghost had given the three activated once it recognized the power of light.

Each of them took a moment to look at each other confused at what to do. "Don't worry. I'm still with you. We need to move, fast." Standing in place their eyes set upon the ruins of a great wall, the dead trees swaying from the wind and piles of abandoned rusted vehicles. A path in front of us led towards the wall. What looked like a digital image of the ghost flashed over the right side of their helmet, was this some sort of heads of display? "We won't survive long out in the open like this… Let's get inside the wall." Just as it said we began to make a slow stride towards the wall making sure one foot would go in front of the other properly enough to start sprinting to close the distance to the wall. The sound of roaring in the distance made Alex more worried than the build up of cars at the base of the wall. Did it close before it could save the people? The build of questions he had grew.

Shadow finally managed to speak.

"...Guys?"

The three stopped.

"What is going on. I feel… different?"

Sprinkle only shrugged his shoulders. He tried to speak again to no avail.

"Give it time our bodies need to process what's going on still." Alex spoke like a sage.

Shadow just nodded his head and patted his friends shoulder before continuing up the daunting stairs. We ran into a door leading into the wall ignoring the eerie feeling it gave us as we slowed down to a walking pace up the stairs. Now that we were inside the ghost set a new objective. "Ok… I need to find you three a weapon before the Fallen find us." Trusting the voice in their head, errr helmets we slowly walked across a rusting catwalk. To the right were window panels covered in dust only letting in the barest of light to shine my path. Ahead of us was only darkness which only made this already journey a tougher one until Ghost spoke up.

A light penetrated the darkness from Alex's helmet ghost activated. "Quite… Their right above us" he whispered. The sound of rustling made them think they were going to be attacked by whatever scurried up the panels in the walls. As they climbed the stairs two orange beacons lit up the platform enough for them to see their two feet. Ghost had shown up from behind us separating into five pieces, his eye floated in the middle of a bright light parting away the darkness around me but not by much. We came to a stop next to the railing as Ghost began to float away. Below was a pit of pure blackness. "Hang tight. Fallen thrive in the darkness, we won't. We need more light. I'll see what I can do" it finally flew away to do whatever it had planned. "Hope it won't ditch us in this foreboding place" Shadow thought to himself.

We could hear its voice echoing past the sounds of not so distant roaring. "Another one these military systems… And a few centuries of entropy working against me." Sprinkle chuckled at the things words because he couldn't figure out if the little thing was joking or being serious. What sounded like sparks and a explosion could be heard from where ghost flew, then the lights began to flicker back on section by section revealing those things.

Monsters with knives and guns scattered away on a huge beam from the sudden bright light. "They're coming for us" Ghost exclaimed as he quickly floated back by my side.

Those things! Ran across a platform trying to reach us. We ran to the right where Ghost told us to go into a small room. The little bot closed the shutters behind us and lit up three rifles that were leaning against a crate. "Here! I found a rifle. Grab it," we did what he said without a second thought. Khvostov 7G-02 was it's name, how we knew was because right as we grabbed the futuristic looking weapon in our hands its name was highlighted for us. Twenty four rounds in the magazine and 186 in reserve, its ammo count was at the bottom left for the three to keep an eye on which was very convenient. Not heavy but not light, the trigger wasn't touchy and the stock of the rifle rested firmly against the crook of their armored gauntlets.

"What the hell is going on?" Sprinkle finally managed to ask, glad that he was able to speak.

Alex shook his head. "no idea man but don't aim at us. We're on your side sparkle" he chuckled pushing the barrel of the rifle away from him. Shadow looked at Ghost who floated between the three.

"Ghost where are we headed?" He asked resting his finger on the safety.

"follow the highlighted path. I hope you three know how to use that thing" Ghost's voice sounded worried that they wouldn't learn on their feet fast enough.

"Don't worry" Shadow said with a smirk on his face, "Sprinkle is the only scrub in here."

The only reaction the young adult got from Sprinkle was the bird and a soft chuckle from Alex.

We walked down another corridor in a slow brisk jog. Our heavy feet echoed off the walls making us more worried that those things would hear us. Something down the end of the corridor ran past a light, its shadow appearing then disappearing in an instant. "Eyes forward. Watch your tracker" Ghost referred to the circle looking motion tracker that kept tabs on us, the little blue triangle. Enemies were red and fellow Guardians were green. A light blew out to the left of me making us all jump. Sprinkle thought he heard Alex scream like a girl. Shadow aimed down the red dot sights of his rifle out of some instinct. Despite the scare they kept walking down the end of the hall. Around the corner something came jumping out of the wall, another one dropped down from above at the same time with some sort of odd plasma rifle. Streams blue energy shot out of their gun almost hitting us, one flew past the left side of Alex's helmet and another shot just barely missed Sprinkles torso.

Shadow took a shot to the shoulder, luckily the shields on his armor withstood the shot and only threw him off balance. Sprinkle dragged him behind the wall and Alex ducked behind a crate. Three more fallen showed up.

The hunter was the first to lean out of cover. A dregs round from its plasma pistol missed skimmed his shoulder and he growled in anger. Three bursts and the Dreg went down in a pool of blue blood. "Take that bitc-" Shadow tossed his friend behind him when the vandal came rushing around their cover. With quick timing he threw a hard straight punch at the four eyed beings face. His Titan strength easily broke the neck of the vandal killing it almost instantly upon impact. Even Alex was shocked when he threw out a vortex of void energy that ripped apart the remaining dregs atom by atom until they were nothing left but purple ether.

They stood side by side looking at the dead beings they took out in a single minute. None of them said anything. Ghost didn't comment on the kills shockingly so they continued quickly trying to hide their heavy breathing with slowed down gradually. Even if they shot first the three still felt sick a little, they just killed some sort of… Alien, out of self defense, something told them they didn't have much of a choice though.

One of those Dreg things came jumping off a rusted beam from above in front of Alex. "Watch out!" Shadow shouted raising his rifle to fire. The teen was to fast though and stepped in front of his rifle blocking his aim. Right as the alien went to swing Alex drew his arm back, focusing that light filled energy he could feel in his bones. He threw his arm out yelling as he did so a burst of purple energy struck the Dreg dead in the chest. The thing squealed in pain as its chest caved in and it was thrown through the air, dead before it even hit the ground.

Ghost could begin to see the threes light grow stronger with every kill. He praised their progression silently to himself.

Shadow and Sprinkle slid behind cover closing the distance as much as possible. The Titan and Hunter leaned out of cover shooting Dregs left and right. If felt odd. How the three felt no fear, as if they had done this before in some sort of past life. A lone Dreg bobbed out of cover hoping it could get the Warlock who killed another one of its brethern. To bad Sprinkle had his comrades back. He drew the sleek blade from the sheath on his hip. He spun the blade around the palm of his hand with a devilish grin and let loose the knife like a skilled knife thrower. It flew through the air as the Dreg peaked around the corner to get Alex and buried itself right between the eyes of the Dreg.

Another Vandal had tried to get the Drop on Alex but he drew his arm back and launched the thing back over his makeshift cover. Accidentally the thing was sent flying at Shadow who only noticed by Ghosts warning bell in his HUD. The Titan spun around gathering arc light into his right fist and punched the dreg dead in its face. The thing was sent back flipping through the air, headless, towards a Dreg knocking it down. He took this chance and vaulted over cover. He took up sights on another Vandal and took it down the three shots. then rolled forward dodging the swing of another Vandals blade and side kicked the hostile dead in its chest sending it plummeting to its death over the railing.

The room was clear of hostiles.

Sprinkle walked over to the poor Dreg he so awesomely killed with his throwing knife and pulled the blade out. "We should be freaking out but that was the shit!" He exclaimed throwing out his hand at his two friends who shrugged their shoulders with a smile and returned the high five. They were almost done with this place.

The team ran into some sort of huge huge room filled technology they didn't recognize, far ahead was a dark hole drilled into the wall big enough for some huge creature to easily to crawl out of. More fallen had showed up in overwhelming waves. Even though they were outnumbered they some how managed to kill them all. They could feel themselves growing stronger, even acquainted at how they moved and fought. "The Fallen have a tighter hold on this place than I thought. Just a little bit further. Let's hope there's something out there…" Ghost trailed off. After that I walked through an entrance, a huge fan and that must of been used to circulate oxygen into the wall still was spinning. Another one right in front of me was not and I was able to walk through it towards another entrance leading down some stairs to the divide. Ghost hoped something in the Cosmodrome would fly us out of this wasteland. A red flair was suddenly shot into the night sky, howls of what sounded like more Fallen could be heard was the warning that something was about to happen, and they was right. A flash of red, blue and purple tore apart the sky way out into the land as if something had space jumped into old Russia. "Incoming!" Ghost beeped as what looked like a giant bronze submarine came flying out of the portal along with a couple of smaller drop ships. An electromagnetic wind hit the land disturbing their vision for a few seconds, Ghost told me them they needed to move. Those drop opened up the back end to let more Dreg and Vandal out like spiders dropping out of the sky.

Sprinkle squeezed the trigger of his old rifle and the head of a Dreg blew up commencing another fight.

They were a little bit closer to the building now, right in front of the entrance. Shadow and Alex hid behind a forklift and Sprinkle was reloading his rifle to the back right of them. "Look out!" He yelled when he saw the things. Three shanks appeared from the entrance. Before the Shadow could duck into their combined fire tore through the Titans shields hitting his armor. It held off three shots before a fourth round grazed his shoulder armor sending a white hot pain through his arm. Each of the shank tried to outflank us until a sudden explosion and flash wiped them all out and disorienting the Dreg hiding behind a crate. The flash grenade Ghost provided with when "he" awakened the Titan with were awesome!

"I'm picking up signs of an old jumpship. Could be our ticket out of here." Hearing their little companions words filled them with hope that this fighting would stop soon so they moved faster cutting down any Fallen who got in their way. Nothing could stop them now.

A sort of ship was hooked to cables along side the wall under the blown out roof, and on it were Fallen trying to scavenge it. Upon seeing the ship Ghost sounded stern. "There's a ship! Clear them out." A sort of Fallen taller than the rest held what looked like a plasma shotgun in hand, a few shank and Dreg surrounded it.

Another skillful toss from Sprinkle hit the shank sending it spiraling out of the sky and exploding into bits on the cold floor. Alex ran past bullet fire trying to get a better vantage point and flanked a dreg. He filled his fists with Void and decked the Vandal right in its face as it turned around. The strike took its head clean off. Shadow cursed as he shot down two more shanks with three round bursts.

He felt a pair of hands pull him backwards when a grenade landed between his feet. Both Sprinkle and Shadow were tossed through the air and sent sprawling across the floor. His ears rang. Everything was so distorted he had to take his helmet off. "Guys-" before he could call for his friends name he vomited on the floor. The ringing in his ears didn't cease, he couldn't even hear the captain walking towards him. Alex jumped through the air. He hit the Fallen Captain in the face but Alex grew tired and didn't have the strength to draw any void to his punch. It backhanded the Warlock sending him into the wall with a heavy thud.

"ALEX!" The Titan yelled, finally able to draw some strength. Shadow drew the shotgun from his back and pumped it.

"Watch out!" Ghost warned in his head.

It was too late and the captain teleported right in front of Shadow. It slapped his shotgun out of his weak grip easily then grabbed him by the throat with its two hands squeezing the life out of the Titan slowly. The other two grabbed a pair of twins swords that danced with electricity. Those four eyes stared at him with a sort of sadistic pride. To bad Shadow was too reckless to die just yet. Reaching for his belt he drew a flash grenade. With the fire it took from earlier the shields were already weakened so a strong knee broke through the shields startling the captain. Shadow kicked off of its chest giving him some distance between the captain and the grenade, you could hear it roar in anger before being engulfed by the pulse of blue energy.

That didn't even kill the stubborn Fallen, three of its arms were blown off including a good portion of its mid sections exposing its insides.

Weakly Shadow picked back of his shotgun. He could see Sprinkle struggling to help Alex up out of the corner of his eyes as he walked towards the Captain. Shadow pumped the shotgun chambering another shell, it only took one shot to finally end its life. Ghost floated around him to check if he were okay because Shadow had fallen to one knee in exhaustion, too reassure the bot he gave a tired thumbs up before fixing himself. He sounded delighted that he was able to kill that captain. Alex seemed fine after Sprinkle had helped him up. Though the hunter was a bit banged up from the grenade it was better than seeing his friend blown to pieces he thought to himself.

"Alright, let me see if I can get us out of here" he chirped before floating up towards the ship to check its flight records. As I approached he scanned the ship, "It's been here awhile. Hasn't made a jump in centuries. We're lucky the Fallen haven't completely picked it clean." Looking at the ship I grew worried that it would blow up before we could get it out of here."

"Will it fly?" Alex asked confidently for the three. Ghost scanned the ship one more time before looking at the three, "I can make it work," why is it that he didn't sound the least bit worried? The odd AI disappeared again to take control of the old ship. It's lights came to life, the engine started up with a slow whirring of sounds then a burst of power when the thrusters accelerated. The cables broke off from the ship like chains once the engines began to awaken finally, then it floated in the air sending dust on to the visors of Alex and Sprinkle, Shadow had to guard his face since he took his helmet off.

"Okay… It's not going to break orbit, but it just might get us to the city," Shadow thought over his words again in his head then realized he said might. "Now… About that transmat…" The sound of a deep growl could be heard behind us coming from a giant hole in the wall. Two Vandal and some huge Fallen with a big gun came jumping out of the hole, it looked to strong for us to fight in our weakened state, reaching this ship was way too difficult. Just as the Archon set its eyes on us Ghost beamed all of us up into the ship for a quick escape. It didn't take long for the ship to start up and out of the roof giving them some relief. As Ghost told us we would come back later It felt as if weight on their chest when he said "Lets get you home." Little did he know those words hurt the three, none of them knew how they knew each other. They just did. It didn't matter though because the next few hours gave the Guardians enough time to rest.

A figure in the distance watched as the ship left the Old Russian Cosmodrome. "They are promising," the elusive warrior thought aloud. Its eyes set upon the moon, blinking away the evil hidden under the beauty then disappeared into the starry night.