A/N: I'm pretty surprised with the turn out of the first chapter, sadly I might not be able to make future chapters nearly as long, but they won't be any less entertaining. Setting the groundwork for this story is pretty taxing, given all there is to work with and the multiple directions it can go there's a good amount of planning involved, many of you who have played Destiny and watched RWBY know this as fact.
But for now, the next installment is here for you enjoyment. (I own nothing)
The feeling in the air was ominous, though after the news that had been received hours ago it fit the moment.
Standing in his usual place, the Speaker gazed out over the City, ships drifting lazily through the air among the buildings below as the people went about their usual business in the shadow of the Traveler.
Head bowed forward, the man didn't speak as he collected his thoughts. He'd gotten word about the incident on Mars, Zeta-3 reported what they had witnessed along with the transmission they had gotten before the construction site caved in on itself.
And with it, the loss of a young and very brave Guardian.
The Speaker rose his head up and gazed at the Traveler, hands clasped behind his back as he contemplated recent events. He was fully aware that Guardians fell in battle frequently, it was a risk that every one of them took whenever they went out into the unknown where the Darkness was at its strongest. But that didn't make it any easier when he got word of their deaths. And Wolf had been no exception.
The ship that he piloted had been found in orbit around Mars and taken back to the Tower hanger. It sat in the dry-dock that had been used whenever the young Guardian was there, several other Guardians who had known Wolf and fought beside him paid their respects in passing. Some of them leaving a single bullet on the ship in memorial to their comrade in arms.
Amanda Holiday, the one that ran the hanger and was the top engineer of the Tower, couldn't find it in her to resell the craft. She and the young Guardian having formed a bond of friendship long ago, and instead left the ship where it was in her own form of remembrance.
Wolf had been a kindred soul, despite his youth, he gave so much of himself to make their world just a little brighter. And in the end, he paid the ultimate price to ensure their enemies didn't gain a foothold against them. He was a true Guardian, one of the many that he was proud to know.
His back suddenly straightened when he felt a pulse echo through the air, those that were around him didn't sense it given that they continued on with their business, but this was something he had felt several times in the past.
The Speaker looked up at the Traveler again as he felt another echo from the embodiment of Light, the pulse entering his being and filling him with insight. A small smile graced his face behind his mask when he deciphered what was being told to him through the sixth sense he had been gifted with.
"The Light, truely does work in mysterious ways." he said to himself as the Traveler went silent once more returning to its dormant state.
X
To say that the trip Ghost and I had been through was strange even by the standards we'd been through would be a bit of an understatement.
In the last two years since my rebirth I had endured rigorous training, fought in battles on different worlds against enemies that were both ruthless and numerous, and even squared off against my fellow Guardians in mock battles to test our skills.
But falling through an overloaded wormhole and waking up in on another world very different to what I had been used to was something I couldn't even begin to fathom. But if there was anything I had taken from my Vanguard Mentor's teachings it was to be adaptable in any situation.
And given the sheer level of unknown that we were currently in, adaptation was all we had going for us. Especially after we met the locals.
X
Something was off, that much was for certain when consciousness started to come back to him. The feel of grass beneath his form was the first, then his hearing came back into focus and he could make out the sounds of wildlife somewhere closeby.
It took a moment or two for Wolf to realize that he wasn't dead, nor in the hidden chamber beneath the surface of Mars. Opening his eyes, he saw a clear blue sky above him overshadowed by bright-green leaves, a warm sun shining down from above, the visor of his helmet polarizing enough to protect his eyes from it as he gazed around.
"Definitely not on Mars anymore. Where did that wormhole send me?" he thought as he sat up slowly. His body numb from the sudden trip he had undergone but was quickly coming back to full awareness. "Ghost, you there?" he asked outloud.
A flash of light beside his head revealed the construct hovering beside its partner, "Still online, thankfully." its parts shifted and its optic shuttered as it looked around at the environment. "Safe to say that we're no longer on Mars."
"Any idea where that wormhole tossed us?" asked the Guardian as he stood up.
Ghost was silent, processing various strands of information before turning to Wolf. "Nothing on file. Given the foliage, it resembles either Earth or Venus before the Collapse, and the lack of local and foreign pollutants proves that we're not on either planet. However, I am detecting a strange energy signiture flowing in the air, nothing harmful, just...different."
Wolf looked around them again before going back to the construct, "Can you get in contact with the Tower?"
His partner whirled and shifted a bit, "Hmm...I'm not picking up any signal from the Tower or the City. Let me boost the signal." Ghost suddenly separated, triangular parts orbiting around a sphere of energy with its optic in the very center. Pulses emitted from the construct as it attempted to contact their allies, seconds ticking by before the AI reassembled itself. "I'm still not getting anything...it could be that we're too far out of range."
"Stuck on an unknown planet with no way of contacting anyone, could be worse..." The Guardian thought with a sigh, compared to the various situations that he had found himself in before, this really wasn't the worst case scenario.
He brought up his digital inventory on his HUD, checking to see if everything that he had on him survived the trip as well. Breathing out in relief that everything was where it was supposed to be.
One of the things he liked about the technology where he had come from was the Ghosts' ability to materialize objects to an internal inventory for safe keeping. Like weapons, ammo, minerals and elements, and even his sparrow.
There were limits to what could be stored depending on the size of the object and how much there was to store. But it was a beyond useful tool when he was out in the field.
Going through what he had in stock, the Guardian found a good supply of various things he had bought and found on past missions. Spare armor components and cloaks, civilian clothes, he also had a large number of elements like spinmetal and helium filaments along with weapon parts and sapphire wire for upgrades and repairs.
In addtion to the guns he always used, there were also a few backup weapons he kept on him just incase. A spare revolver, shotgun and a scout rifle depending on the situation where he needed to switch up. Sadly, he left his heavy weapons back at the tower in his personal vault.
After checking to be sure everything was where he had placed it, Wolf pulled up a branch of his inventory where he kept the ammo replenishing packs. He found it imperitive to purchase a good number of these from the Tower gunsmith every so often in the event of an emergency.
Even though Ghost was able to salvage things after combat and use it to replenish his munitions, there have been known to be times where the option wasn't open to him and he had to use the consumable resource to restock his bullets, knives and grenades. Times like right now.
The Guardian selected one of the packs, the item dissolving into nothingness as his supply of ammo was brought back up to full along with his throwing knives and grenade while his assault rifle, sniper rifle and revolver appeared on his form in their usual places. He only had a dozen of the packs left, so he'd have to make his shots count until he could be sure Ghost could salvage what they needed from the enemies they might encounter in this world.
"Our best bet will be to hit up civilization where we can gather as much intel as possible before planning our next move." Wolf said unslinging his AR and holding it at the ready, "Chances are this could be a one way trip, and it would be better if we weren't caught unprepared."
Ghost blinked its optic in confirmation before teleporting back inside his head as he started making his way into the forest ahead of him.
Unaware of the sets of glowing red eyes that were watching him .
X
Time passed easily, the sun still beating down from the sky above with many animals and insects filling the void as the Guardian walked amongst the foliage.
The peace and quiet around him was something that was both calming and a bit disconcerning, though given the various scenarios that he had been a part of he was more than used to it by now.
Stepping over a fallen log, Wolf continued his trek through the forest, stepping over a fallen log as he kept his eyes and ears sharp for any kind of hostility that could be waiting for him amongst the trees.
It was unusual how serene things were in this place. It wasn't anything like the worlds he had been on before, even when it was quiet you could still hear the sounds of combat somewhere in the distance. But here, it was strangely quiet, something he wasn't used to.
Shaking his head, Wolf brought his mind back into focus as he raised his machine gun to his shoulder and moved around a crop of trees. Finding himself in a larger clearing than the one he had been in before. Several rocks dotting the area with a small stream running through it.
Lowering his weapon after scanning the vacinity multiple times, he slowly began making his way forward. He didn't like wide open spaces, too many possibilities for an ambush, but so far everything looked clear and his motion tracker wasn't reacting.
The running stream was the only sound he could hear, and the itching-burn in the back of his throat was reminding him that he hadn't had anything to drink in god only knew how long. Slipping his AR over his shoulder, he digitized his helmet and pulled his hood down as he pulled a canteen from his belt and filled it from the water in the stream.
"This place seems peaceful." said Ghost appearing over his shoulder, optic flickering around the clearing and taking in all the sights.
"Then we're definitely no where close to Earth." Wolf after gulping down the cool water and refilling the canteen a second time. After the collapse, and the invasion of the various alien armies fighting for sepremacy on the surrounding planets, 'peace' seemed highly unlikely for Earth. However, the Guardians had made good headway when it came to pushing back the Darkness and ensuring that the innocent could at least sleep without having to worry about getting killed at night.
"Though it's a good thing that we haven't run into any enemies yet, gives us a chance to figure things out." the Guardian relented a moment or two later.
"Perhaps none of our enemies have set up shop here." said the construct. "Unlikely, but it's worth hoping for at least."
Nodding in agreement, the young Guardian drank a bit more water before refilling the canteen a third time and slipping it back onto his belt. He'd been walking through the forest for over an hour and had yet to see any sign of civilization yet.
The trees looked a lot like something that could have been found on Earth at one time, the air was breathable and clean, free of pollution in any form and the foliage looked to be mostly untouched. Where was this place? It's impossible for this planet to be in such a way if it was in the same solar system as home.
Back where he had come from, Earth and the Last City was were the last of humanity's population resided. The Fallen had a good portion of control outside the boarders, with the Hive having a few pockets here and there beneath the surface, though they had lost much of that after the fall of Crota.
Both factions also had claims on the Earth's moon and dug themselves in pretty well. The Fallen having control of the surface, while the Hive had the underground, more often the two sides would fight each other when one or the other wandered too far into the other sides territory.
Mercury had belonged to the Vex. The ancient machines having turned most of the planet synthetic just like them in the early years of the collapse. But with the destruction of the Dark Heart the Guardian's were able to reclaim it and now use it as a training ground for new recruits.
Venus was mostly ruled by the Vex, the Cryptarch's believing that they had inhabited the planet long before Humanity set foot on it millenia ago. Though the Fallen have set themselves up pretty well and were at war with the machines for territory.
Mars, the last planet in the solar system still touched by the light of the Traveler, had been taken over by the Cabal. However, much like Venus, the Vex were also there and were believed to have set up shop beneath the surface long ago. The military-based giants using their superior firepower and tactics to keep the machines at bay and stay in control of the once populated instillations on the surface of the red planet.
And lastly there was the Reef, which sat on the boarder between the light and darkness in the solar system. A conglomerate of ships and stations where the Awoken resided under the leadership of their Queen that mostly kept to themselves.
A small truce existed between the Guardians and the Awoken royalty, the Queen never got herself or her subjects involved in the dealings involving the Last City and stayed in her domain for the most part. They were self-sufficient and well defended in their space, sending only a handful of merchants and emmisaries to trade with a few people at the Tower.
The Reef was also home to a handful of Fallen that wanted to live in peace and rejected the beliefs of those of their kind trying to control the system. Many still found this little situation odd and foolish, but the Queen wouldn't be moved and merely brushed off their words as though they meant nothing to her.
Given the status quo of how things operated with the Queen, she never offered assitance without something to be gained in return. When asked to help with finding the Black Garden and stopping the Vex from gaining more power, several favors had to be paid in return. One of which involved the betrayal of a Fallen clan which resulted in the death of a good number of the Queen's followers.
The Fallen House of Wolves had been loyal, but attempted to deal a harsh blow to the Awoken in an attempt to gain more power and status. But this had only angered the Queen and forced her to call out for assistance.
She had sent out a message to all Guardians, offering them the riches of her realm in exchange for hunting down and killing those that had betrayed her people. Many rose to the challenge and eliminated the Fallen House of Wolves one bounty at a time, Wolf had been one of them and had secured his own head-count which aided in the capture of the clan's leader Skolas.
Wolf blinked as he returned to his own mind, he had found himself wandering in his thoughts much more frequently these days. He'd been told by many veteran Guardians that he needed to cut back on missions and make more time to get himself back in order.
He was young, only nineteen years old according to Ghost. But he possessed just as much courage, drive and strength as Guardians several years his senior. Though at times he had a tendancy to push himself too far, infact he'd been going almost non-stop since-
"Stop." he told himself mentally and cutting off that particular train of thought. Not wanting to go down that path again when he needed to stay focused on his current situation. Closing his eyes, he took slow, deep breaths, entering a meditative state as he eased his troubled mind and regain his combat edge.
Ghost had watched its partner closely. Knowing what was going through the young Guardian's head given the link they shared with one another. They'd been through a lot in the time when he brought the young man back from the dead, but nothing compared to what he had watched Wolf endure in the past year.
He was the lone survivor of a mission that was suicidal at best. Venturing into the Hellmouth located on Earth's moon with his team and six other Guardians to stop the rise of Crota, the supposed god of the Hive.
The battles that followed their descent into the darkness was gruesome and hardpressed, a few of them falling before they even reached the chamber where Crota was waiting for them. But they were determined, fighting with everything they had, when they ran out of bullets, they used their blades, when the blades dulled, they used their fists.
And by the end of it, Crota had fallen...but the price had been crippling.
Wolf had been the only one to crawl out of the pit, battered, bloody, and barely clinging to life. Ghost had been with him every step of the way, sending out multiple SOS signals when they reached the surface, and thankfully a nearby recon team found him and brought him back to Earth so he could be treated.
No one save for Wolf, his Ghost and the Speaker knew what happened inside of the Hellmouth. And the young Guardian was forever changed because of it, never wanting to be a part of another team and taking on missions solo instead after he had recovered. Through this, he had gained the nickname 'The Lone Wolf', an alias that fit him completely given how much had changed.
Ghost's optic shuttered before spinning itself around, its two halves whirling and rotating when it detected something approaching them from the trees. "Wolf, I got movement."
A sudden snap of wood somewhere in the forest behind them had the young Guardian moving in an instant. Hood up, helmet materializing back on his head with AR in hand as he spun around in a crouched position as he aimed back at the treeline he had come through before, his motion tracker highlighting a red mark where he was now pointing his weapon.
His eyes swept back and forth, the shadows cast by the trees keeping whatever made the noise hidden. His position rigid as his senses stretched to their limits as he what he might be up against.
Nothing happened for several seconds, then one of the shadows started to move. Wolf tightened his finger on the trigger, but waiting to see what came out. No point in wasting the ammo or killing something that wasn't a threat.
Though, what came out looked anything but 'non-threatening'.
Coming through the trees was a creature the Guardian had never encountered before. It was bipedal, standing on bowed legs over seven feet in height with a hunched form covered in black fur. Long arms dotted with sharp claws stood out to the sides, but what stood out more was the bone-like armor and spikes covered in red markings that laid over certain points of its form.
It's head had a long snout, like a dog or a wolf with a plate of bone-armor laying over it like a mask. A pair of glowing red eyes leering out of the holes in the openings for them that directed straight at the him.
"What...is that?" Wolf asked as it tried to figure out the creature that had just revealed itself.
"...I honestly haven't a clue." replied Ghost, doing a quick scan and trying to find something to compare it with in its databanks.
The creature tensed before throwing its head back and letting loose a bellowing howl that seemed to echo throughout the entire forest. In the next moment it was charging toward Wolf, maw gaping and claws tearing up the ground as it closed the distance fast.
Not even flinching when the creature howled, Wolf pulled the trigger sending a salvo of sabot rounds right into the creature's center of mass. Black, ichor-like blood exploded out of its body in small fountains, it was about halfway across the clearing when it collapsed face-first to the ground. Wisps of dark smoke drifting off its body as it laid there unmoving.
Ensuring that it was truely down, Wolf stood up and approached the dissolving body. Ghost floating ahead, shooting a beam down on the corpse and scanning it before it faded completely. "Interesting." the construct said after collecting the data.
"What?" asked the Guardian, searching the trees incase more of the creatures showed themselves.
"This creature is unlike anything encountered before. It possesses no heartbeat, or any form of life energy for that matter. If anything, it seems like this thing is made of pure Darkness." when Ghost finished the analysis, the creature faded completely, leaving nothing of its existance behind. "If we hadn't seen the Dark Heart, something like this would seem impossible. But it seems that even Darkness can take different forms."
"So I guess we're not alone afterall." Wolf's head came up when his motion tracker went off again, this time detecting multiple signatures.
A dozen sets of glowing red eyes appeared in the shadows. Each one belonging to a wolf-like creature that skulked out into the open where its comrade had once been, drool dribbling down from their maws as their growls turned into a loud chorus.
"And it seemed to have friends..." The Guardian and Ghost looked at the opposition before looking at each other. "Music?" asked the construct knowingly.
Wolf pondered to himself for a moment before speaking, "Something classical.", he said rolling his shoulders and raising his weapon. Ghost blinked its optic and disappeared when music started playing in his head.
(A/N: 'Black Betty' by Spiderbait)
The dark-hounds leapt at their target, claws prepared to rend flesh. They were quick, agile, but the Guardian was faster, his AR resonating amongst the trees while the rounds tore through the creatures , three of them dropping and dissolving when the clip ran empty.
Tossing the rifle onto his back, Wolf leapt back to avoid slashing claws, a throwing knife slipping into each hand that he immediately threw at his attackers. The sharp blades penetrating through the bone-masks of two of the creatures right between their eyes.
Spinning on the ball of his foot, the Guardian whipped out his revolver, solar-light channeling throught the weapon as he fired at the closest creature. The hound was thrown back when the shot nailed it in the chest, it's body exploding in a burst of golden light as it disappeared from existence.
The action was repeated two more times with the same results, now there were only four creatures remaining that quickly regrouped and attacked again.
Wolf reloaded his revolver and blinked out of sight when the creatures converged on his location. Their red eyes blinking in confusion until they saw two sphere-shaped devices laying in the grass where their pray had been standing, loud beeping emitting from them both before an explosion consumed them.
Reappearing on the other side of the clearing, the young Guardian holstered his revolver and dusted off his hands. "Well...that was an experience."
"Indeed it was...On your six!" Ghost exclaimed from inside his head.
Wolf jumped into the air, kicking on the thrusters in his boots to give him more height just as a black form lunged through the air where he had been. Doing a small back-flip, he landed in a crouch with his revolver back out as he took in his newest opponent.
It was another hound-creature like the others, only this one was twice as big in comparison and had much more prominent bone-armor and spikes covering it. A thundering growl rumbled from its chest as it whipped around and glared at him with burning-red eyes.
"If they work in a pack like actual wolves, then this must be their Alpha." the Guardian thought, keeping his weapon trained on the larger creature.
"A safe assumption, ideas?" asked his partner. Wolf tossed his revolver to his left hand and drew his short-sword in his right, arc-light channeling along the blade from his body. "We could always just shoot it, but you're the boss."
The Alpha roared and ran at him on its hind-legs, slashing its claws as Wolf blinked around them to avoid taking the hit. His revolver registered when he shot it in the side, black blood and smoke bursting from it with each successful hit. But the creature only growled and swung its other arm back in response.
Wolf leapt over the long limb, kicking his thrusters on when the other arm came around avoiding that one too as he came down. Slashing his sword in a downard angle and slicing clean through the creature's flesh.
It cried in pain, which intensified when the electric-based energy coursed through its body making it immobile and giving the Guardian a wide opening.
Crouching low, arm holding his blade cocked back, Wolf launched through the air in a white-blue blur. The Alpha let out a strangled cry when its left leg was severed at the knee and it toppled to the ground, flailing its limbs as it managed to stand on three of its four remaing limbs and snarl at the Guardian.
Wolf slipped his revolver back in place and placed his left palm on the handle of his sword, the weapon glowing brighter as he channeled more light-energy into it before blinking out of sight. In the next moment, he appeared before the large creature, glowing sword in hand as he slashed through the air so quickly it would have looked invisible to the naked eye.
There was a pause, then the hound split in half before bursting into a flash of white light and fading away. The clearing falling back into silence like before.
Sure that the fight was over, and no more enemies waiting in the shadows, Ghost appeared over its Guardian's shoulder and looked around. "That appears to be all of them, for now anyway."
"As much as I want to stick around and add more to my kill count," replied Wolf, arc-light fading away while he slipped his sword back in its place. "We better keep moving forward, creatures of Darkness aside, there still might be something here that could help us understand this place better."
"Well when you put it that way." the construct paused a moment before turning and facing a certain direction, "I'm picking up data transmissions a few kilometers from here, nothing similar to what our own techs use for communications, but it doesn't seem hostile."
The Guardian nodded, "Then we'll try there first." A nav point appeared on his HUD while he summoned his Sparrow and powered it up, "If the locals are as colorful as the wildlife, then this could prove to be a hell of a challenge." Ghost blinked out of sight before the Sparrow fired off into the forest.
X
A few seconds after Wolf had taken off, another form dropped down into the clearing from the trees. A black cloak shrouding their form with a massive scythe held in hand as they looked to where the Guardian had been.
Reaching into a pocket, they withdrew a handheld device and pressed it to their ear. "Ozpin, its Qrow, I found the source of the disturbance. You're not going to believe it."
A/N: A small chapter, but I'm trying to build everything up before everything flows into the main storyline. I figured some of you guys might be curious about the weapons and armor Wolf is using, and given that there is too large a number of each I decided to go with the current loadout for my own Hunter on the game.
Armor = Brusilov 1.0 (All pieces)
Auto Rifle = Frontier-AR1
Hand Cannon (X2) = MOS Calamus I
Sniper Rifle = Chandragupta-A
Shotgun = DIDO-A
Scout Rifle = Shinigami SR1
The next chapter is coming soon, with the amount of feedback I'm getting I'll try to keep a stable update schedule going. Till next time guys.
