Chapter 11
2 Weeks Later...
"We shouldn't be here." The small navy blue ghost whispered to it's owner, an awoken girl, about 14 years old. She was crouched down up in the crossbeams of the hangar of Oryx's mothership with her ghost floating only a foot away. The girl just shakes her head at the ghost and creeps a little further out so she can get a clear view of the entire hangar. The hangar was a massive room, from floor to ceiling it was nearly 300 feet high and was about 1000 feet long, and this was one of the smaller hangars, which also made it the one with the best chance for her to escape. As with all Hive things, the room was an ugly green with strange growths, and at the current moment, was filled with Hive getting in and out of Tombships. "Sandra… We really shouldn't be up here. What if you fall?" The ghost whispered again, only getting an irritated look from the girl, presumably Sandra since no one else was around, in response.
Sandra suddenly gasped and yanked the helmet she'd fashioned from a Hive Thrall's head over her face, making her look like a Thrall with all the armor she had, as a small black and white orb floated up to inspect the crossbeams. Sandra's ghost vanished, taking it's place in a small pocket in the chestplate of the armor. Sandra touched the handle of her secret, one of a kind sword, one that she'd designed and built on her own, to reassure herself. When the orb caught sight of Sandra, it automatically assumed she was one of the Renegade Thralls which always somehow managed to get to places they shouldn't be, and it beeped at her and proceeded to encase her in a shell of energy and float her down into a line of Thrall boarding a Tombship.
In the time that Sandra had been hiding within the tunnels of this Hive ship, she'd learned to understand and speak the Hive language, so when she heard several Knights coming by, she did her best to listen to their conversation.
"Hey, did you hear that they almost caught the girl a few days ago?" The first one hissed. "Yeah, they said she took out 3 Knights and an Ogre on her own with only that sword of
hers." The second one growled.
"I heard that she took out 5 Knights, a Horde of Thrall, and 3 Ogres." The third one snapped.
"Well, I heard that she fought her way through a full battalion of Hive, and none of them survived." The first one hissed. A fourth Knight comes tromping forward, slightly bigger and clearly stronger than the other three. Sandra notices the scar on his back, and she smiles under the helmet. This was the only surviving Knight from that battle.
"None of that is true. She fought her way through Hangar A, slaughtering every Hive that came within striking distance. A Battalion you say? Ha. Try closer to 9 or 10 full battalions, 400 each with 50 Ogres a battalion. I'm the general that led that battle, and I'm the only one that walked out of that room alive." He snarls, staring all of the other Knights down with the eye he had left, since Sandra had stabbed out his two other eyes. The other three Knights back off, and then all of them turn to the entrance of the hangar as Ir Anuk and Ir Halak float in, singing softly. Sandra holds her breath in fear, knowing that the two of them will be able to tell that she's not truly Hive. Sandra's heart sinks when Ir Anuk looks straight at her, nudges Ir Halak, and the two of them begin moving towards her. Sandra stays still as the other Hive clear out from around
her, confused, as Ir Anuk and Ir Halak land in front of her and sigh. Sandra tenses the muscles in her wrist, preparing to activate the contraption hidden in her armor which would eject the sword so she could use it.
"You really wish to leave, don't you?" Ir Anuk hisses at Sandra, not at all sounding hostile. Sandra nods slightly, not releasing the tension on the contraption.
"Well then, how about we make a deal with you." Ir Halak hisses, spreading her arms. "We Let you go,"
"And you tell your daddy that we spared your life for his sake." Ir Anuk finishes, surprising Sandra. Sandra pulls just a little on the string in her arm, causing the sword to pop up out of the compartment in her leg armor, she grabs the hilt, and pulls the bladeless sword out and points it at Ir Anuk, drawing a laugh from the two sisters.
"What's the catch?" Sandra snapped back, speaking in the Hive Language, earning looks of surprise from all the nearby Hive.
"You have to fight and Kill every Hive in this room, and with a broken sword like that, it seems unfair." Ir Halak said, going to reach into a pocket. Sandra smiles as she whirls and strikes at the Thrall that had been sneaking up on her, activating the hilt, and creating the blade, which is made from plasma(kinda like a lightsaber, but cooler). The blade slices right through the Thrall, killing it instantly. Ir Anuk and Ir Halak float into the air and begin preparing one of the Guardian ships for Sandra, going rather slowly to give her time to kill all the Hive. Sandra gleefully dashes into the group of Hive, spinning and leaping about as she sliced through Hive like a hot knife through butter. Sandra's unusual grace from her obsession with a kind of dance the humans used to do, called ballet. An Ogre climbed to it's feet and swiped at Sandra, and she jumped up over the swipe and landed on it's arm. Sandra ran up it's arm and stabbed the Ogre in the eye with her sword, and then she sent a flood of her light through the blade, causing a miniature detonation which blew the Ogre's head apart. Sandra jumped and hit the ground, rolling to avoid being hurt, as the Ogre's blood and brains rained down around her. Sandra came out of the roll with a forward thrust, releasing the rest of the excess light in a bolt of plasma which shot forward, tearing through the chests of several knights, and completely disintegrating several Thralls and Acolytes.
Sandra smiled as she charged her sword with more light, preparing to show the thrall quickly closing in why she was to be feared. Sandra jumps and slams one fist into the ground, releasing a shockwave that stuns everything in a 25 foot radius, and then she used the rest of the massive amount of light to dart between the stunned Hive, slicing through them with her sword, parting heads and limbs from their bodies, causing screams of pain and gurgles from the Hive, blood splattering everywhere. Sandra missed one Thrall, and paid for it rather quickly, as it jumped on her back, knocked the sword from her grasp, deactivating it, and began trying to bite and choke her. Sandra used one hand to keep it's teeth away, and since she wasn't strong enough to just pull it away yet, she did the next best thing. Sandra opened her mouth as wide as she could and bit down on the Thrall's arm, hard enough to break through it's armor and skin, and causing it's disgusting acidic tasting blood to spray in her mouth and all over her front, getting the Thrall to release her. Sandra dives forward, snatches up her sword, reactivating it, and turns and spartan kicks the Thrall, knocking it down. She then stabs it through the head, killing it. Sandra looks up and around at the hundreds of dead Hive, and looks up at the still
living ones. The moment she looks at them, the Hive turn and flee, streaming from the room in hordes, leaving only the Knight General who she'd fought before. The knight pulls out a sword made of pure plasma, but much bigger than hers, and begins walking towards her. Sandra swallows nervously, knowing that her plasma sword had been her only real advantage in their previous fight. Sandra deactivates her sword and slides it into the compartment in her leg armor, takes a deep breath, and takes off at a dead sprint right for the Knight, taking him by surprise. The Knight takes a wide stance, preparing to put all his strength into his swing, and the moment Sandra gets close enough, he swings for her head. At the very last moment, Sandra drops into a slide, sliding under the sword and the knight, confusing him. Sandra pops up on behind the knight, and keeps running, heading for the wall she'd used to climb up to the crossbeams. The Knight turned and gave chase, but was nowhere near as fast as Sandra. Once she was about 5 feet away from the wall, she jumped, activating her sunsinger abilities to create a massive blast of force under her, launching herself up to the first real handhold about 30 feet up, instead of climbing up as she had before. Sandra pushed off the wall and pulled out her sword, reactivating it and charging it up with light as she activated her Striker ability, Fists of Havoc, and shot towards the ground. Before the Knight could react, Sandra slammed into the ground, creating a massive shockwave of electricity which stunned and injured the Knight, and then she dashed past him, using Bladedancer to strike him multiple times. For several moments, the Knight just stood there, unmoving, until he collapsed, his body falling apart, severed limbs rolling a bit and blood spraying and pulling out to mix with the blood already covering the floor.
Ir Anuk went to approach Sandra, who had not yet exited her blood rage. Sandra turned and darted towards Ir Anuk, who quickly ascended above Sandra so she wouldn't be hit. Sandra shook her head, clearing her mind, and calming herself. Sandra deactivated the sword and placed it back in the compartment, which she snapped shut. Next to her, Sandra's ghost materializes, seeming worried. Sandra suddenly realized there was a strange burning sensation in her stomach and she looked down to see that she had somehow been stabbed in the stomach without even noticing, and she was losing quite a bit of blood. With her last breath, Sandra cast a Ward of Dawn, creating a pocket of light around her body and her ghost.
Sandra gasped in a breath as her Ghost finished rebuilding and reviving her with the light from the Ward. Sandra shakes her head and nods at her ghost, acknowledging it with a silent thanks. Sandra sighs, and then her ghost transmats her into the ship which is powered up and waiting. Sandra had never flown before, but she knew how from all the manuals and simulations she'd done. Sandra plots the coordinates for Earth into the ship's navigation system, and launches out into space, quickly engaging Hyperdrive and jumping forward at immense speed. Sandra laid back in the chair, and switched control over to her ghost as she closed her eyes and fell asleep for the first time in almost a week. Unknown to Sandra, the Hive Blood she'd accidently swallowed was already working on changing her DNA, just like with Ana.
On the other side of the galaxy, back on Earth, there is a small flash of light from a tunnel and several Fallen stumble out, then collapse, dead. A new guardian, revived only minutes before, comes stumbling up and out of the tunnels, looking around in awe. A small red and black ghost hovers next to this new guardian, seeming satisfied and a little curious. You see, the ghost had looked through all the databases since the arrival of the Traveller, and this
particular human didn't show up in any of them, almost as if they had lived and died long before the arrival of the Traveller. This new guardian was clearly an oddball, laughing and enjoying the predicament, instead of freaking out like all the others had. The Ghost pondered the existence of this strange guardian and why the light had chosen her.
"Hey Tim, you think we could go to that big tower over there? It looks awesome." The new guardian exclaims, right before taking off at a jog towards the Tower and the Last City, without even knowing that that's where she was headed. The ghost sighs and takes off after her, grumbling to itself, slightly irritated at being referred to as Tim.
Ana groaned as she climbed back to her feet on the training mat. Her ears were still ringing from that last hit from Shaxx.
"Oh come on. Up you go, you said you could beat me. I'll humor you a bit longer." Shaxx said, mocking her with a genuine smile of amusement. Ana shook her head to clear her head, and then she takes a step back, then runs at Shaxx, throws a feint to the left and switches momentum to a high kick towards the head at the last second, but Shaxx ignores the feint and then catches her leg and uses her momentum and his strength to swing her up over his head and back down onto the mat, stunning her. "Alright, we're done for the day. You need to train more before you can beat me." Shaxx helps Ana to her feet, then removes the strange cuff from her wrist. Ana sighs as she feels all of her strength and magic from her Light and Hive magic come flooding back. Ana shook her head and stormed away, irritated that Shaxx had beat her so easily for the tenth day in a row. Ana sighed again as she made her way through the Tower back to her old dorm. Since her strange mutation, she'd been put back on duty in the tower, and so had Edward. At any given moment, if they wanted to see Belen, they just had to go visit Eris. Ana opened the door, placing her palm against the new hand scanners that had been implemented after Baris-7 was killed by the renegades.
Ana walked in, shut the door behind her, and made her way to the bathroom, stripping out of her filthy sweaty clothes on the way. She sighed in relief as she unhooked her bra and took it off, tossing it to the side. wearing that thing was torture. As Ana stepped into the shower and turned on the water, making sure it was scalding hot, a thought occurred to her which made her laugh.
"Wonder what would happen if I just stopped wearing underwear. It'd definitely make my physical exams with Shaxx much more entertaining." She said aloud, smiling to herself at the thought. She decided then, as she leaned her head back into the water, sighing in happiness as she felt the scalding water clearing the filth from her body, that the next time she went to train with Shaxx, she wouldn't wear underwear of any kind just to see his reaction. Ana giggled to herself and slumped down against the wall of the shower, using her magic to seal the drain and the shower door so that it would fill up with water. Once it was mostly filled up with water, Ana placed a bubble of magic around her mouth, nose, and eyes, and curled up under the water, completely submerged, but still able to breathe. Ana closed her eyes, meaning only to close them for a moment, and drifts off to sleep, her magic bubbles and seals staying put.
Eris sighed as Belen started screaming again. Once again, the little girl had thrown her rattle on the floor and couldn't reach it. Eris picked up the two and handed it back to Belen, who proceeded to stick it straight in her mouth. Eris smiled and sat back down on her crate and watched as the girl chewed on the rattle from her highchair. Eris shook her head a little, astonished by the girl's exceptional growth speed. The Girl wasn't even a full month old yet, but was already the equivalent of an eight month old human child. Eris had no doubt that in the next few weeks she'd already be up and running around. Eris and Belen were in Eris's dorm room, and due to Eris having Belen, she had cleaned and straightened her room until everything she had was packed away in boxes and locked chests and drawers. Her room was the bare minimum, a bed, a desk, a bathroom and a closet. She had nothing on the walls(anymore) and there was no additional furniture. Her dorm didn't have all the extra stuff everyone else's dorms did. Hers was this one room, and that was all she wanted. A sudden pounding at her front door made both Eris and Belen jump, and Belen went completely silent. Eris grabbed her Thorn hand cannon from the bed next to her and approached the door. Eris had to stand up on her tiptoes to look through the peephole, and the person she saw beyond brought a look of disgust to her face.
Garret Harting, one of the older guardians and one of the only guardians Eris truly despised, was standing at her dorm room door, looking as impatient as ever. Reluctantly, Eris opened the door just enough for her to look at him, and he sneered at her out of pure reflex.
"Cayde sent me here to talk to you. He said he needs you in the War Room." Garret sneers, clearly irritated about being sent to get Eris. Without any response, Eris slams the door in his face and begins gathering things and putting them into her bag. Next, she put Belen into a carrier and put her bag on and lifted the carrier. When she opened the door, Garret was gone, which made her a little happier. Eris quickly made her way to the War Room, and what she found there was something she thought she'd never see again.
2 months later… But only here.
War. War was everywhere. It took different forms and different peoples, but no matter where you went in the Universe, there was always war. This is the conclusion Zara came to as she fired another shot from her sniper, taking out another charging Acolyte. To Them, it had been 2 months since they had crashed on this wretched planet, and according to Zeph's watch and the Ghosts time systems, Time was odd here. It was moving faster than it was anywhere else in the known Universe, or, at least it'd seem to be that way from an outside viewers perspective. Zara snapped out of her thought process as an Ogre came into view of the battlefield. It was about midnight, and like every other night these past two months, the Hive had attacked in a massive flood, throwing as much as they could at the small town of warriors. Ammunition was hard to come by, and harder to make, on this world, so only the snipers were allowed to use it. Due to the lack of ammunition for the Guardian's modern weapons, they were forced to return to using old fashioned Human weaponry, from before the golden age of the traveller. Zara fired another shot from her sniper and growled angrily when the bullet just bounced of the Knight's armor. She now understood these poor people's frustration. Only 2 out of every 5 shots actually managed to penetrate the armor of the Hive, excluding the completely unarmored Thrall, and even then it was only a minor annoyance to them. Zara quickly pulled the
slide on the sniper, ejecting the used casing and placing in a new one, and she pulled the trigger, but the gun only clicked. She was out of ammunition. It was only midnight, and she had already used all 6 clips of ammo. Zara looked around, and through her helmets zoom, she saw the same thing occurring with all the snipers. Zara reached over and grabbed the sword, called a katana, that she'd been issued, and jumped to her feet and took off towards the main battlefield. Technically, this was against regulations, but if she didn't go then they'd lose this fight and have to evacuate this camp as well. This planet was thick with Hive magic that it was actively draining Zeph's light, constantly, and Zara had unwillingly agreed to hide the fact that she was Hive. Even though she had told these people that she was, they had not believed her. Well, it was about time to show these people that there was still hope. As she ran, Zara allowed her Hive magic to flourish, and she began to draw in power from the surrounding darkness, until it was trailing from her like she was a shooting star.
Only moments before Zara would have fallen over a ledge, she jumped, and then sent herself flying straight down to the ground, using her own version of a Titan's Fists of Havoc, sending a deadly wave of Hive magic, solidified into spinning blades, outwards, creating a wide swath of destruction amidst the Hive. Zara let herself go completely, and she retook her true form, and proceeded to summon her own personal army of Hive, which she had changed the colors of. Instead of the gross brown and green she'd made them purple and blue. In less than a minute, she had the invading Hive fleeing from the area, terrified. Zara threw back her head and let out a spine-chilling cackle. All of her Hive gathered around her and kneeled, watching with no surprise as she landed on the ground, and retook the form she'd had been using for so long.
"My children, you have done your duty. Return now to your home and rest, for the attack shall no doubt resume tomorrow. These humans are our allies, and currently our only hope of taking down my father." Zara turns in a circle as she addresses her Hive, and after she is done, they vanish back through the portal with which they came through. Zara stumbles, completely drained of power, and attempts to make her way back to the townspeople, but passes out, unable to draw power fast enough to keep consciousness.
Zeph sighs as he watches Zara sleeping. He had very clearly instructed her not to reveal what she was, but she had done it anyway. He could not fault her too much, if she had not done so, they'd all be dead right now. What really surprised him is that the people did not care. They knew what she was, and hadn't doubted her claims from the beginning, they just wanted to test her loyalty. They appreciated her for saving their lives, despite their slight disgust at her being Hive, they said they could get over it rather quickly. He didn't know quite what to do with her now, but he needed to figure out how she had gathered the darkness as she did. He could feel it all around, thick like a fog, but he did not know how to reach out and use it. Zeph sighs and gets up from his chair and walks out of the hut Zara was in and stares out at the sun rise and quickly makes his way to his little hut. Apparently, they had arrived during the spring equivalent of this wasteland, and now they were in the summer months, where all 3 suns are out at once, bringing temperatures of up to 250 degrees fahrenheit. Zeph shut the door of the hut and blew out the candles, then climbed into the hole he'd dug in the cold earth, falling asleep easily.
Back on Earth(meaning only 2 weeks have passed. And it's the next day now.)...
Ryan stumbled and nearly dropped the ship engine he was carrying, which would have gotten him another smack upside the head from Amanda, who was watching him closely. After he had gotten back, he was almost immediately assigned to helping Amanda with repairs. He had been working nearly nonstop, and had had to repair the same ship 8 or 9 different times now. He didn't know who was piloting it, but they clearly had no cares whatsoever about the ship. As he reached the ship, he carefully set the replacement engine in the ship, and set about attaching the engine. He got so wrapped up in his work, that he did not notice the sound of boots clicking on the steel tiled floors, heading straight for him.
"Ah. So you're the one repairing my ship. I owe you a great deal." A male voice said behind him. Ryan just grunted as he finished attaching the engine. He then stands up and turns around to see Edward, sword across his back and fully armored from head to toe, as if he was about to leave. "Unfortunately, I'm being sent out again in 15 minutes, so my ship is probably about to get seriously damaged again. It is ready to go, isn't it?" Ryan just nods in response and shuts the engine compartment, making sure he heard the hiss of the seal. Almost immediately, Holliday hit the switch by her area and a crane lifted the ship up using magnets and transported it into the launch bay. Edward sighed and made his way out of the repair area, missing the death glare Ryan shot his way. Ryan hated Edward, but not for any personal reasons. At least, not anymore.
Now he hated Edward for the utter disrespect of his handiwork. He put a ridiculous amount of time and effort into repairing that ship and making sure everything was far above Guardian standards, and it was always brought back looking like a wreck. Well that wasn't happening this time. Ryan had had every piece of the titanium hull replaced with a metal of his own design, much stronger than titanium and much, much lighter. He'd tested it against bullets, rockets, AA guns, even had it put under the titanium press. Well, the bullets just crumpled, the rockets didn't even scorch it, the AA guns bullets were just deflected, and the titanium press broke, so it was pretty damn sturdy. Ryan had decided to name it Etherium, after an indestructible metal in an ancient card game called Magic The Gathering. Secretly, he had used his Knight Strength to try and bend it, and where he could bend titanium easily, trying to bend this new metal only resulted in him pulling a muscle. As Ryan moved on to the next ship to repair, he smiled to himself, thinking of the surprise Edward will have.
12 Hours Later
Edward's ship sat still, hiding below an unknown massive ship which had just recently entered the solar system. It was a massive spiked ship, very much so built as a warship. Edward had no idea where it was going, but it had completely ignored his approach, and ignored all his hails. From what his ghost had calculated, it was heading straight for the Dreadnaught. They weren't very far away from the Dreadnaught now, and Edward could see it clearly now. Suddenly, the massive ship cut it's engines and used reverse thrusters to slow to almost a stop. Along the massive forward spikes, a bright green and blue light begins to build, and then massive amounts of what appears to be lightning crackles between them, creating a massive ball of energy at the end, pointed straight at the Dreadnaught. The Dreadnaught begins to glow, as if preparing for something, and then the massive warship fires at the Dreadnaught. A massive beam of bright green and black energy arcs across the great distance between it and
the Dreadnaught, and impacts the Dreadnaught. The Dreadnaught absorbs all the energy and pivots to point towards an incoming Fallen fleet, then fires all the energy the ship had shot at it at the fleet, striking the ship in the front and causing such a massive explosion that the entire fleet is wiped out.
Suddenly, all the warnings go off on his ships consoles as thousands of turrets come out of the underside of the massive warship and all swivel to lock onto his ship. Even with his piloting geniusness, if all of those turrets were to fire at him, he would be shredded in an instant. A bay door opens amid the turrets, and the message becomes very clear. Dock or Die. Edward cautiously docks his ship, and the very moment it touches the ground within, the bay doors close and literally millions of Hive come swarming out to surround the ship. Edward stays inside his ship, then summons his Ghost.
"Is it ready yet? Please tell me it is ready." Edward said, on the verge of panic.
"A couple more minutes, the connection is unsteady at best. I believe you will need to distract them for awhile, but be careful, I can sense Oryx's presence, and a different, much stronger, presence within this place." His Ghost sighed before vanishing, going back to doing what it had been doing before. For the first time in nearly two years, Edward reaches up and hits the cockpit release button on the roof, causing it unseal and open so that he could climb out. All the Hive scatter away from him, putting a rather large distance between him and them. At first, he was confused, but then he say that quite a few of them were staring at the hilt of the sword on his belt. Edward then noticed that many of these Hive were missing arms and fingers, and many more had scars from a blade that must have seared through their armor. Edward knew not of the kind of blade that would leave battle scars like that, but he wasn't about to draw his blade and show that it was a normal Guardian sword. The massive doors at the far back of the bay burst open, and Oryx comes floating in, dragging two Hive Wizards with him. After just a moment, Edward identifies the two wizards as Oryx's daughters, Ir Anuk and Ir Halak. Oryx stops about 10 feet away from Edward and throws his daughters to the ground.
"Ir Anuk. Ir Halak. This is your very last chance. You shall destroy this Guardian, or I will destroy." Oryx snarls at the two of them, but neither move. Edward here's a small beep from his helmet, and a message pops up on his visor, informing him that his ghost had finished. Edward slowly climbs back in his ship and closes the cockpit, and Oryx looks up at the ship, getting a little more pissed as his daughters continue to disobey. Ir Anuk, gets up, floats up and begins charging a massive blast. Edward jams the startup button, and braces himself as Ir Anuk throws the bomb ball. To Edward's surprise, it goes right over the ship and hits the lock on the bay doors. Edward quickly pilots his ship up, and with a roar of rage, Oryx sends a wave of Hive magic at Edward's ship, and all the Hive open fire. Edward quickly pilots his ship backwards into the bay doors, blowing them open, and begins to fly out. Every single one of the turrets turns it's gun towards Edward, and he swears. He had completely forgotten about them, and now he was gonna pay for it. All the turrets open fire on Edward, and he sighs, preparing for death, and is shocked when the worst that the hail of deadly blast energy does is leave scorch marks.
With the most evil smile he could have, Edward readies the new gun that his Ghost had just finished installing, and places the marker on his hud on the inside of the bay doors, right on Oryx.
10,000 miles away, the massive satellite in orbit of Saturn swivels and points one end right where the marker is, and begins to charge, drawing vast amounts of Light from the Traveller which is so far away. If the gun had fired on Earth, the sheer amount of sound energy created would have been strong enough to blow the Dreadnaught apart. The gun fires, ejecting a massive beam of bright white energy, which arcs across the distance in nearly a second, going over Edward's ship and into the ship. Mere moments before it strikes, unknown to Edward, Oryx, Ir Anuk and Ir Halak, vanish, leaving the ship. The energy goes into the ship and causes a massive explosion, which begins to spread throughout the ship as Edward pilots away as quickly as he can. The shock wave from the massive blast hits his ship, and then a strange wave of green and blue energy washes over his ship and he passes out. His ship, somehow back near Earth, re enters the atmosphere and the autopilot kicks in and it carefully lands.
"Huh. This place looks awful." The new Guardian had finally reached what her 'Ghost' had called the Last City, but to her, it didn't look like much of a city. There was nothing but Ashes. As if someone had firebombed the place. As she continued walking further in, the ashes gave way to rubble. A small sound, like a stick breaking, came from the guardians left, and she froze, summoning her nightstalker bow and drawing back an arrow. From seemingly nowhere, at least 40 guardians pop up from the rubble, on rooftops and out of alleys and small nooks and crannies, all of them with guns pointed at the new guardian.
"Oh….. Well Hello there. Uhm… I come in peace?" The new guardian said uncertaintly. Her ghost, now accepting the name Tim, appears, hovering right above her left shoulder.
"Hello Guardians. This is a new Guardian, my Guardian. I was not able to identify a ship in the vicinity of the revive location, so we came on foot. We have come to see Cayde and Ikora." Tim said, rotating around a bit as the other Guardian's Ghost scanned them. After a few moments, the other Guardians lower their weapons and two of them walk up and grab the newbie by her arms and hold their other arm up. After just a second, a large ship uncloaks overhead and transmats the three of them up inside the ship and then begins making it's way up towards the Tower.
Shannon was grateful to be able to talk again, although she hardly ever talked. The fallen had repaired Je5u5 the best they could, but they didn't have technology anywhere near advanced enough to fix him correctly, and Je5u5's ghost couldn't fix him either. They would just have to wait. Shannon wanted to return to Earth, but the Fallen had refused to pilot their ship anywhere near Earth, saying something about not wanting to be found. Shannon stumbled over a small dip in the hallway floor, and cursed at herself. She tripped over that stupid dip every single damn time, and it made her look like an idiot. Now completely irritated, Shannon stomps the last couple of steps to her room and kicks the door open, storms in, and slams it behind her.
Here she was, trapped on a Fallen Ketch with no contact with Earth. She had no way of knowing what was happening to anyone or anything, and she had no information on her beloved, Ryan. Shannon strips out of her armor and down to just her underwear, letting all of her rippling muscles and numerous scars show to anyone who may be watching(literally no one), and throws herself onto the bed. Out of habit, Shannon reaches over and picks up her comm unit and checks it, expecting nothing, but her heart stops when she sees the words, '1
new message', on the screen. Very quickly, she checks the ID of the sender, and she sits up real quick when she sees that it was from Ryan. With shaking fingers, she opens the message, and nearly starts crying at what she sees. It was her ship. It had clearly been picked up from Mars, and Ryan had repaired it, and underneath the picture was a message, it reads 'Home is where the heart is, and my heart's with you. I will find you, and when I do, I will come Home.'
Shannon quickly sent a small barrage of messages, praying that one of them would get through, but none of them did. Her connection wasn't strong enough. In a sudden fit of anger, Shannon threw her comm at the wall, and when it hit, it shattered, breaking into multiple pieces, and Shannon instantly regretted her anger. She scrambled out of the bed and scooped up the pieces, actually starting to cry as she attempted to repair the comm unit, but to no avail. For the first time since they had boarded the ship, Shannon's Ghost materialized right next to her, and floated down to her hands. With a slight nudge, her ghost pushes her hands away, and it sets about repairing the comm unit in absolute silence. After only a minute or two, the comm was repaired, and Shannon actually spoke, for the first time since she had gotten on the ship.
"Thank you. I… I don't think I could have kept this up without that… it's… it's my only hope of ever seeing him again." Shannon said quietly, staring down at her Ghost. Her Ghost floated up and rubbed it's Soft, smooth, violet, velvet shell against her cheek, and then dematerialized back to wherever it had been before. Shannon clicks the comm back on, and her heart leaps in joy as she sees that a single one of her messages had gotten through, and after a moment or two, Ryan sent a return message. All it said was, 'Wait for me.' Nothing else. No pictures, no I love, just, wait for me.
Chapter 11 Epilogue
Edward awakes only a few minutes after he crashes, his head pounding and blood running down his head. His helmet had cracked and broken in the crash, and his ship had suffered considerable damage in the crash landing, even despite it's clearly more advanced Shell. Edward's ghost materializes next to him, and begins to heal his wounds.
"Ghost, where are we?" Edward asks groggily as he attempts to climb to his feet, stumbling around a bit.
"If my calculations are correct, we are in what used to be America, specifically, a state known as Indiana. A discrepancy has arisen though. I can no longer sense the Traveller, and all traces of Hive and Fallen have vanished. There is an unnatural amount of activity outside the ship, and my sensors indicate that they are Human. Strangely, none of them show up in any of my databases. I'd suggest going exiting with extreme caution, and to keep your identity a secret." His Ghost responded, as it materializes his helmet and recreates it, fully repaired, on his head. Edward readies his Her Memory auto-rifle, places his Dreg's Promise in the holster in his boot, and places the hilt of his Void Edge on his belt, right in reach. Edward walks over to the exit door for passengers, and kicks it with all his might, sending it flying off it's hinges, and almost hitting the people in the crowd outside. Several of these adults, wearing blue uniforms with stars on them, and some wearing green with stars and strange stripes, all turn their primitive pre-golden age weapons on him.
"Halt! If you understand us, lower your weapon or we will open fire!" One of the men yelled at him through a large cone shaped device. Edward's ghost flipped on his external speakers, adding a voice modulator to make his voice much deeper.
"I understand you perfectly well, but I shall not lower my weapon until I am no longer being threatened. Now, where am I?" Edward snarls, keeping his gun trained on the middle guy, the one who had spoken.
"Sir, you are in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA." He yelled through the cone. Edward looks around without moving his gun, and realizes that he is surrounded by massive buildings, and his ship appears to have crashed right in the middle of a busy street.
"So then, my next question is, When am I?" Edward asks, his heart slowly sinking. "What do you mean, When are you? Do you wish to know what year it is?" The man
asks.
"Yes, I am from Earth as well, but from the year 2746. I want to know what year it is now." The answer Edward got was not one he liked, and he nearly screamed in rage at this information. The man simply stated,
"Today is March 7th, 2017."
Chapter 11 Epilogue Of The Epilogue
It had been so long since he had taken a breath, and yet, he finally breathed again. The ritual was complete, and he breathed once more. As he climbed off the stone slab, flexing his muscles and testing his strength, he looked down, to the two near dead beings lying on the ground, almost completely drained of power. He reached over and grabbed his once destroyed sword, and stabbed it down into the middle of the first beings chest, bringing a scream of agony which slowly turned into a gurgle and was then silent. The other one made a feeble attempt to crawl away in terror, but could not escape fast enough. She was the lucky one though, he only needed one sacrifice. With swift yet terrifying grace, he grabs her from the floor and holds her up, his face only inches from his, and then he spoke.
"I trust that you will not betray me as you did Father, dear sister." He snarls. She nods, and he snarls, "I can't hear head nods, worm."
"I am forever loyal to you, Brother." She wheezes, still exhausted.
"Then you shall do as I say, and you shall henceforth address me as King, or My Lord. Do you understand me?" He snarls, baring his teeth.
"I understand My Lord, My King, My Brother, Crota." she wheezes, before passing out. Crota laughs, and drops his sister, Ir Anuk, to the ground, and storms over to the massive balcony where uncountable numbers of Hive await. All bow at the very sight of him, and he throws back his head and lets out a roar.
"I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE DEAD! YOUR KING HAS RETURNED TO FIGHT ONCE MORE! I WILL LEAD US TO VICTORY AGAINST THE TRAVELLER AND IT'S VILE GUARDIANS! TODAY, THE WAR BEGINS IN EARNEST!" Crota roars. An answering roar from the crowd of Hive brings a smile to his face, and as they chant his name, his smile widens, all of his evil and malice showing on his face.