Chapter 2: Questions
It came easy, almost too easy, the way she brought up the rifle, how she lined it up down the iron sights, and preparation for the kickback. The firearm shot out in spurts of three with each pull of the trigger. The bullets tore through the silence as it tore through the monsters in front of her. The first fell as bullets ran up its chest going from its sternum straight up in a line. The second she swiftly shifted to the right and fired. The three shots barely deviated if only because of recoil which she handled much better than the first. An oblong hole straight in where the heart of the creature would have been. When the first two fell the other three lept in both shock at the rifle, the suddenness of the attack, and the thirst for blood. From the ashes of the first one to fall, a Beowulf lept from the smoke. Another climbed on the rubble to get an angle to attack from and the other ran from the other side to complete the encircling maneuver.
Pyrrha ducked under the large arm of the monster and slammed the top of her helmet into its jaw. The monster didn't go anywhere, it just recoiled in pain and stumbled a few steps. Both of the wolves from the sides jumped at their chance for her and she fell to the floor where they crashed into each other. She rolled away where all three were once again in front of her. Holding the gun at the hip she continually pulled the trigger, squeezing it a pattern. Spurts of three riddled the monsters who fell to the ground and carried apart by the speed of the bullets. They each landed with a thud, the final one falling on its jaw making a crunch to go along with it. With a heavy breath she examined the creatures as their dead bodies started to smoke. Black colored vapor poured from their bodies and dissipated in the air. Their bodies disappeared in front of her eyes as she stared until they were gone. Once again, she was the only one on the Tower.
"Well that was a good test of skill," A voice rang out in her, her head swiveled. Eyes wide with shock to make sure she truly was alone. "Oh right, not used to this yet." In front of her a shimmer of light filled her vision and the cube that handed her the weapon appeared right in front of her. "As I said, nice work Guardian, now we just need to find a way out of here. I can't seem to get into contact with the Nautilus' tracking function. Must be some sort of interference with this Dust mineral. I'll start working on adjusting the frequency."
"Umm," Pyrrha said, having the high of adrenaline wear off on her, she looked at her gloves, the inside colored red in a rough material excellent for gripping, the outside had an opaque white armor on the back of her palm and fingers. Enough clearance was given between each piece of armor to ensure she could flex smoothly. Although the armor looked scuffed with scratch marks on them. She switched focus to look at the floating cube, "Who are you?"
"Huh?" The thing turned around, it's blue optic expanded while looking at her, "Dang it, I thought I would be ready for this, trust me when I say that this was not how I wanted our first meeting to go." The thing flew up into her face so she could get a better look at him. "I am a Ghost, I'm your Ghost. Pleasure to meet you Guardian."
A Ghost, her Ghost? Did that mean she was dead? But if she was dead then wouldn't that mean she herself was a Ghost? But if he was her Ghost how could she be dead and her Ghost not be her own? Needless to say, this was confusing.
"Ummm?" She started, couldn't quite get the words she was wanting.
"I can explain everything when we get to someplace safe, those Grimm creatures will come after us. They definitely will have heard those gunshots," The Ghost said, "and there's no way back to the city with their transportation down over here. And I didn't bring a Sparrow dang it. We'll have to walk." The Ghost floated at her and dissolved into tiny light particles, instinctively she raised her hand, "Don't worry I wasn't going to hurt you, I've marked a back entrance that wraps around to the mainland."
Pyrrha's eyes flicked to the top left of her helmet and it formed a map of the surrounding area. A white diamond a ways off informing her of her destination. It was all so much still, there was a lot floating through her head, which was still feeling fuzzy. It all felt natural, but not all at the same time. And something was stirring within her as well, like energy was being poured in. She didn't understand any of this, but she looked to the Ghost, her Ghost and nodded. "Then let's go."
"So she can speak!" Ghost said with a shout, she winced at this, "Good, here I thought you could only talk in umms and uhs."
She looked around and noticed there was no clear way down, the elevator had been gutted by the looks of it and there was no outside method of climbing down. "How do we get down?"
The Ghost spat out a sigh, she could hear the shaking of his head, "Just jump, then imagine wanting to stop in the air. Trust me," the added phrase at the end did not inspire confidence. She looked over the edge and noticed the small and not so small forms of black below. More of those creatures, Grimm he called them, were congregating on the ground near the entrance of the tower. They must have heard the gunshots and were attracted to the sound. She looked back at the beast frozen in the stone and then back down on the ground. Taking a breath and getting some distance she jumped off the edge of the tower.
Air rushed to her face, she could hear it pass by her helmet and feel it drag on her armored arms. The ground was rapidly approaching, the detailed work on the onrate floor, what wasn't destroyed or ruined, could be made out. Closing her eyes she gritted her teeth and, following the Ghost's instructions, imagined pushing her body forward as if to jump again. She didn't jump, she really didn't stop either, but instead her descent slowed, and then stopped. Her body corrected itself and kept her upright and then she stayed there. Her body felt weightless as she opened her eyes and saw her feet above the ground, in fact they were getting higher off the ground. She wasn't just hovering, she was flying. She looked at her feet and noticed a light blue sheen atop the pale white and deep red armor on her legs. Even with her shocked expression she still needed back down to the ground, so tapping into that feeling she willed the flying to stop. She experienced a sudden drop as the floor came to meet her feat.
When Pyrrha looked up she saw a good amount of those wolf creatures either ready to pounce on her or walking to the sides to surround. The tower was to her back, the doors blocked by rubble that had fallen sometime before then. She brought up the rifle again and fired at the first two wolves, they fell shortly. However by the third time she squeezed the trigger all it gave was a quiet click. Her instincts told her it was empty, and reflexively she ducked as out of the corner of her eye the arm of the monster came crashing upon her. She flipped the rifle around, gripping it by its neck, and smashed its backside into the Grimm's head. The monsters kept up the aggression swiping and grasping at her, she had no chance to reload her rifle.
"You have a sidearm!" The Ghost shouted in her head, she winced but gladly took the advice.
Mounted on her armored leg, which matched the previous color scheme of her other armor, was a pistol looking gun. However she noted two canisters underneath the barrel of the gun andthe word "Omolon" written on the side. Holding her rifle in one hand and the pistol in another she aimed quickly near the head of the monster. With a squeeze the gun fired similarly to the rifle, in a burst of three. Although the glowing hue of the bullets and smell of fur igniting was much different than her other weapon. Two bullets sprayed across the bone-like mask of one monster and cracked it, the beast falling with the sounds of sizzles leaving from the exit wounds. Not accounting for the spray of three rounds, the third bullet went wild and found itself going head first into the palm of another. The beast recoiled and howled in pain, it snarled at the burning and its jaws salivated in anger. Before it could lunge at her, Pyrrha fired again much more prepared for the recoil and the shots landed in the chest. The last wolf though she had forgotten about and it managed to pounce on her from behind. The Beowulf was larger than her, heavier than her, and was now mere inches from her face. Her rifle was knocked away and it clattered to the side stopping as it hit rubble, her pistol was squashed between the floor and her armor. She grunted as her free hand pressed into the concrete and began to push herself up. There was resistance but slowly she gave enough room to get her other hand away. The beowulf then pushed back as Pyrrha tried to turn around and now her back was smashed against the concrete. Sharp fangs met her orange colored visor that obscured her face, but beneath it she was sneering, trying to angle the pistol as her arms were pinned down by the grimm's own. With a loud cry she jerked the gun to the left and pulled the trigger. The weight of the wolf vanished in an instant as the Grimm disappeared, but not by the usual method. She had noticed they dissolved into black smoke when they died, this one though had turned to embers that would stoke a roaring fire. She stood up and grabbed the rifle that had fallen earlier.
"We need to get out of here," her Ghost said with a holo screen appearing in front of her, she went out to touch it but it quickly closed, "I've located an area that has been cleaned out of the Grimm."
Pyrrha nodded her head and ran to where it said to, trying not to attract Grimm. She reached a damaged building, looked like some kind barrack with multiple rooms of nothing but beds. If this was a school at one point then these may have been the dormitories. Most of the rooms on the initial first floor had been barricaded either by rubble or there were so many holes in the wall it provided no cover from anything that might try to attack while Pyrrha slept. So it was to the next floor which fared only a bit better, but a room located near the middle of the hallway did just fine. Not much rubble in the way and the window was mostly intact. Two beds were on the ground with what looked like two more beds had crashed atop them. Broken ropes and stakes seemed to have fastened one to the ceiling when rubble fell on it. The other was either stacked on it or the previous occupants decided to throw it atop the other when leaving. Books littered the floor and some type of canned good was thrown in the corner. The door, which barely held onto its hinged, closed behind her and her Ghost came out of her body. Something which added to the list of never ending questions.
"Not the ideal place, but it will have to do," he said, turning his small body left and right, "I'm still working on connecting to the Nautilus but I think I'll get it in a few."
Pyrrha stood there following his movements." Umm," she sheepishly said, "I have a few questions."
"Questions? Oh, right right right, questions!" He swiveled, "Right, we didn't get much of a chance to talk. Find a seat, uhhhhhh, somewhere." The Ghost looked to the room and true to his word there weren't many sitting spaces available. Pyrrha looked to the one bed that only had the top bunk on top of it. At the angle it was at she managed to get some purchase and leverage and with a few yanks the bed fell to the floor. Pyrrha then sat down on the other bed where it looked slightly less dusty.
"Well that's certainly one way of doing it," he said, "okay basic explanations, let me bring up my list." A holoscreen appeared right next to him and he scanned over it, "Ask away."
She looked at him again and tilted her head in confusion, "What are you?"
"I have already told you that, I'm a Ghost, your Ghost."
"What is a Ghost then?"
"Ah bullet point number one," true to his word on his screen, a bullet point changed colors from black to red, "I am a creation of the Traveller with the goal of finding an individual, resurrecting them, and guide them to fight the Darkness wieling the Light."
"What is the Traveller?"
A screen popped up before Pyrrha showing a large spherical structure floating above a city. Multiple bits and pieces had splintered and broken off of it. Some of these shards still hovered near the main body. "The Traveller is the bringer of the Light to worlds to grace them. It has helped terraform planets turning them into garden worlds, havens for the civilizations it blesses. It currently resides on Earth in the Sol System."
"Earth?" She asked.
Another screen this time showing a bright blue world with oceans and green landmasses, "Earth, the home of humanity. Third planet from its Sun, it's where the Vanguard are located and it is the hub of Guardians."
"And what is a Guardian?" She had heard him refer to her as such but still didn't know what it meant.
"A Guardian is a defender of the Light, the protectors of humanity, shields of justice and right. They are what you think of by a shining symbol of strength against the Darkness. Guardians are divided up into three groups." Three symbols came up. The first was a basic hexagon with two lines making an 'X', "Titans are strong, imposing figures. Herculean strength and dependable." The second were a grouping of triangles that almost looked like mountains, "Warlocks are mysterious and have an understanding of magic that no other Guardians will." The final third symbol was a grouping of shapes where the spaces between each made an arrow pointing in a general direction. "Hunters are crafty and nimble, and I don't trust them with paperwork anymore." Pyrrha looked to her Ghost, "Long story." The Ghost went up to her and a beam went over her body, "You are a Titan."
"That would explain how I moved the bed then," she looked at the wooden structure which didn't really stay together.
"Very," the Ghost continued, "Guardians can manipulate their Light into one of three affinities. Solar, Arc, or Void. By tapping into these affinities they can wield many different powers, some might call it magic. Anything else?"
"Where are we?" She asked.
"Honesty I want to know that too," his cubed shaped sides turned and rotated as he brought up a bunch of screens. Drawings, modern day pictures, star charts, geographical maps, geological scans, the whole works. "We are a ways away from Earth and the Vanguard. This planet, named 'Remnant' is not in any known star charts or astronomical surveys. Nothing even mentioned in Pre-Golden Age text. Essentially, I 'discovered' Remnant when I got here."
"Then how'd you find your way here?"
The screens closed as her Ghost turned around to face her, although he looked to the ground immediately after. "Well, umm, that's a bit tricky to understand." Pyrrha in response crossed her arms, even with her helmet on he could her stare, "Okay I may have, and this is all hypothetical here, taken a ship under the guise of a rescue mission and instead went off on an Guardian-discovery mission." The more he went on the faster the words came out and by the end it all just ran together.
"You stole a ship?" It didn't hit him until now, but she had a flat voice, "Is it the ship you're trying to connect to?"
"The Nautilus? Yes, it's an exploration ship so it was the best choice."
"So once you get back to this Tower what are you gonna do?"
"You'? 'You'? Excuse me it is 'we'," the Ghost pointed out, "We are now bonded forever, we are a team you and I. So whatever the Vanguard does to me they will do to you, assuming they even punish us. We discovered a new planet that may have been touched by the Light, you're living proof of that."
Pyrrha looked to the side and sighed, she reached up to her neck and fiddled with the underside of the helmet. A switch flicked and it loosened and she raised it up above her face. The Ghost saw her long red, like tomato colored red not like a typical 'redhead', bounce free and drop below her shoulders. She shook her hair free and opened her piercing green eyes, they looked like emeralds or an untouched plain of grass."So what do 'we' do when we get back to the Tower?" She put an emphasis on the 'we' and she put the helmet beside her and leaned back with her hands behind her on the bed.
"Well we could either lie to Zavala and the Vanguard about where we have been and just say you were out on some other planet and hope they don't go through my logs. Or we tell them what happened and hope that the discovery doesn't get us into too much trouble," The Ghost said.
"You've mentioned them a few times but who is this Zavala and this Vanguard?"
In response a screen came up with three images. The first of a blue skinned man, the second a bald headed dark skinned woman, and symbol of a blue and orange 'V'. "The Vanguard are elite Guardians in charge of overseeing the defense of the Last City on Earth. They coordinate assaults, missions, and coordinate defenses with other Guardians. Some Guardians will work directly under the Vanguard as scouts to threats to the City. The Vanguard is currently led by Commander Zavala on the left and Ikora Rey on the right."
Pyrrha glanced at the symbol above the two people, that 'V' looked familiar. She changed her gaze to her pistol and raised it up. Just as she suspected, the blue and orange pistol had the similar mark plastered in the middle of the gun. Her other rifle had a similar color style to it. "Where did you get these guns from?" She had a sneaking suspicion she already knew.
"Well," conveniently he turned away to not meet her gaze, "I may have acquired them from the Vanguard Armory."
"So you stole them?"
"No!" He sounded affronted as he swiveled back to her gaze, almost offended that he would ever steal some guns, however him turning around again did not inspire confidence, "I submitted the proper requisitions and went through everything breaking as little rules as possible. I just happen to lie about their intended use."
A hand ran over her face as she breathed out a sigh. Perfect. The only person, or at least contact, that she had to rely on was a thief. But she had nothing else to go on, and when she tried to remember what happened before she was resurrected it all proved for naught. It was wall hazy and nothing came to mind. "What do you mean I was resurrected?"
"Ah, I was expecting this question earlier. Well to put it simply you died, I don't know when and I don't know how but at some point you kicked the bucket. As a Ghost it is our job to find battle capable warriors and bring them back to life," the Ghost explained.
"Well thank you for doing that," she chuckled so matter of factly.
"Didn't have much of a choice," he replied thinking about if he didn't he would be a chew toy to those Grimm creatures.
"So what made you do all of this? What made you acquire a ship and some weapons to go off and search for me?"
"I got tired of looking at spreadsheets, plain and simple."
"What?"
"Listen, you've seen one graph, you've seen them all, doing it for decades will make anyone go nuts. I worked in accounting and finance for the Tower, boring work, so I thought let's get out of here."
"I see," she really didn't, but that wasn't up to her, "so until we get the ship back what are we gonna do?"
Any of the remaining screens all closed leaving just the red square shell and blue optic of the Ghost. "That's the big question isn't it? As of right now I'm having to modify the navigation code due to whatever is causing the interference. It may be days before we can get off this planet. However reading into some of this world's communication they have a primitive array of towers around the planet. This campus had one of these towers but it was destroyed in the battle that destroyed the rest of the campus. If I can get into it, I might be able to repair it temporarily and get a signal out and connect to the Nautilus."
"Well that doesn't sound too bad," Pyrrha said.
"You say that now," another screen was brought up showing the main campus and a multitude of red blips, "when I revived you I must have triggered those monsters and they've begun to congregate en masse towards the tower in the center. If we knew more of their technology I wouldn't hesitate, but with you being brand new and not knowing your own strengths or the enemy's strengths I recommend we not do that. Instead I've noticed several weaker towers sparsely placed throughout the region. These would suffice as well but we'd have to find a way there and their signal strength is not as strong so it may take longer to contact the ship."
It was true she didn't know what she could do, what her limits were or where they ended. But going in an unfamiliar environment didn't fill her with confidence. "What are the chances of us scoping out the site of the tower, maybe sneak in and then sneak out?"
The Ghost hummed in thought, "It's possible, but very dangerous. We don't know the full extent of these Grimm or the lengths they'll go through to chase us if we're found out."
"Is there anyways to maybe contact the locals?" If there were people here then maybe they could be helpful.
"I'm...going to advise we don't make contact with anybody here," the Ghost said slowly.
"Why not?"
"I said you were the first Guardian to come from this planet, and they haven't dealt with the Darkness like in the Sol System. They've been isolated from everything, they have no interstellar travel and thus no way to know about Guardians, the Vanguard, or the Light. If we show them our level of technology it's going to create a scramble to try and schmooze up to us. They'll be bidding against each other to get some of that tech, and then it will be a war over it. It's going to cause too many questions and pull people in who have no business with us. Once we leave this planet we'll figure out what to do about Remnant, but right now we need to get off of this rock first."
Pyrrha hummed, not really in agreement but she would have to go along with him for now. Sure the locals didn't know about all the stuff she did now, but would it really be so bad? She dropped it as she fell flat on the bed, a plume of dust jumped into the air. The ceiling above had cracks in it, a poster drooped forward reading something with "achieve" written on it. She turned to the side where the Ghost was beginning to scan over the books and then glanced at her helmet. The window was broken and the curtain was disheveled. Through it she could see the moon shattered in pieces. Up there in the sky laid the Nautilus that would take her to this City, to the Vanguard where her life as a Guardian was just beginning.
-X-
There was a buzz at the door to Zavala's office, the screen he had been reading at his desk went away as he looked up. "Come in," the door opened and the sound of footsteps slowly stepped.
"Ikora told me you would be in here," a deep grating voice said to him, "I got some of those reports you wanted. Sloane tells me they're clearing a path out to some of the generators on Titan."
"Excellent," he replied, pulling up a datapad going over the whole message, "what of the situation on Mars?"
"Ana and that Guardian think they may have found a previously undiscovered tunnel connected to the Warmind's network, seems like the Cabal are trying to pry into it," the voice read off another datapad.
Zavala merely hummed in response, he didn't like the idea of fiddling with the ancient Warmind. Powerful as it may be, they didn't know where his allegiances held true. Would he be a friend today and a foe tomorrow? It was only one of many things that kept him awake at night.
"Oh and Zavala, you know that ship you wanted me to find a week or so back?"
"Yes, the Nautilus, has there been any developments regarding it?"
"Sort of," a cybernetic hand reached down and handed another datapad, "I was in the Reef when I picked up a signal, it was the onboard distress beacon. There's only one issue, I have no idea where it currently is. The coordinates it gives me aren't matching up to anything in the nav computer. And there's this," the Guardian pointed his metal finger towards multiple blips making a pattern. "These are the coordinates it gives off every few hours, and then it repeats. Commander it isn't lost in space drifting, it's orbiting something. So either it found a big asteroid in the middle of uncharted space or it may have found something."
"What is it you are trying to say?" Zavala asked looking over the multiple datapads.
"I'm saying I'm going to go rescue a ship," the Guardian said standing up, "I plan on leaving in three days, if I find something I'll let you know, if not then we just get a ship back no issues. Sure Holliday might not like it, but I hear she got some nice tools recently."
"Yes," Zavala brought up a screen with a picture of the Ghost who had forged documents and stolen the Nautilus, "what do you think this Ghost was planning?"
"Probably a vacation," the Guardian chuckled, but when Zavala replied with a dead stare, "I'm just kidding. I'll find the Ghost, bring him back, and we'll hear it from the horse's mouth. You can punish him however he wants."
Zavala leaned back in his chair, "What will you need for your trip?"
"Well I'll need extra fuel and ammunition. No telling what state the Nautilus might be in or if it's operational. And if I'm going into deep space there's no telling what might be out there. I'm gonna have to help out Banshee and Amanda acquire some replacements for how much I'm asking."
"See to it that it's done," the Vanguard Commander told him, he turned in his chair to watch the City from his window. From the reflection in the glass he could see the Guardian's blue and grey cape, one leg covered in normal pale blue armor and the other purely mechanical. Attached to his hip was a shining white and gold gun fastened to a holster. The door closed and his head fell back into the chair and sighed. "Godspeed Guardian."
Good to see you all again, first let me say thank you for all the positive feedback on the first chapter. Second, when I said that I might get things wrong on the lore I didn't think it would happen in the first chapter, but I did. If you noticed it and pointed it out, thank you, and if you didn't notice it or read after the initial publish date then nothing was wrong at all. I wrote 100% correctly with no faults. Trust me.