Chapter 2: The Tower
The flight was surprisingly short, given that they had to cross a good chunk of the planet to get to this Last City the ghost kept mentioning. The little jumpship darted right out to the edge of atmosphere and let loose with phenomenal acceleration that was both exhilarating and terrifying as the battered ship started to rattle violently. They cruised for a short while during which Whisper watched the world pass by, hoping against hope to see something familiar. Unfortunately, the passing mountains and valleys remained totally alien beneath them, and soon they were slowing and once again dipped back into the thicker mess of atmosphere below. They descended still lower, easing over a mountain pass, down over a forest, and there, that must be the City, and above it, the Traveler.
Whisper gasped as she finally saw it. The Traveler was huge, easily larger than the mountains they'd flown over, and it hovered apparently weightlessly just above the City itself. She waited a breathless moment, but it didn't fall out of the sky and crush everything beneath it. After nearly a minute she tore her eyes away and took in the City below as it rapidly grew nearer. It, too, was remarkably large, though dwarfed in comparison to the Traveler. And surrounding it was a wall dozens of meters tall and at least fifteen meters thick, marked by eight huge towers, though only one had lights blinking on it.
Welcome to the last safe city on earth, the only place the Traveler can still protect. It took centuries to build, and now we're counting every day it stands. And that Tower is where the guardians live.
The jumpship slowed further, coming to a hover over a small receiving area. Whisper was about to ask how she was going to get out when abruptly she was outside the ship, and definitely not on the ground. She dropped the last thirty centimeters or so and staggered, barely managed to keep on her feet, while above her the jumpship floated away towards a large hangar all on its own.
For a moment she looked around, uncertain, while people thronged past in every direction before a voice cut through the throng of people and sounds. "Welcome, welcome! You must be a new guardian! We don't get too many new ones these days. Let me be the first to welcome you to the City and the Tower."
Whisper looked over to see an older man, his receding hair a stark white, rolling towards her on a wheelchair. He extended a hand and Whisper shook it without thought.
"Excellent, residual memories still seem to be intact. The name's Chester, ex-guardian and tour guide extraordinaire. And what's your designation, Exo?"
Whisper blinked. "I, uh… Whisper? I think?"
Chester grinned. "Nice to meet you, Whisper. Now, if you're anything like I was when I first awoke, you have about a million questions right now. So why don't we head over this way. There's a nice overlook of the City there, and I'll give you the general picture and you can ask your questions, yeah? Onwards!"
He spun adroitly in the wheelchair and took off, leaving Whisper scrambling to keep up as he darted through the crowd of briskly moving, heavily armed people milling about. By the time she'd caught up, Chester had already settled in, and . . . oh, wow.
The sun was just setting, bathing the Traveler (which looked close enough to reach out and touch) in a burnt orange glow. The City beneath it glistened with thousands of twinkling lights as hundreds of thousands of people far, far below began to settle in for the evening.
Chester grinned once more. "Amazing, isn't it?" The grin faded. "And it's just a small fragment of what we've lost." He sighed. "Better settle in there, partner. It's not that long a story, seeing as how we don't know a lot of it, but it's also a sad one."
Whisper sat down next to Chester, crossing her legs and looking out over the magnificent view as Chester began to speak in the smooth tones of a practiced storyteller.
"Many, many years ago, when humanity was taking its early, stumbling steps into the stars, mankind was bitterly divided. They bickered and warred with each other constantly. Until one day, they detected something large approaching from deep space. This was the Traveler. It settled on Venus for a short while, getting its bearings, then sat near Mars, which was just barely within reach of man's best efforts. The world, driven by curiosity and fear, set aside its differences and banded together to send a mission to Mars to meet it. And thus began the Golden Age."
"Driven by study of the Traveler, which had already begun terraforming Mars for mankind, we entered an age of rapid growth, both as a people and technologically. Colonies were started on luna, mars, venus, even as far out as the moons of titan. Science blossomed, leading to the development of jumpships and everything from exos to the mighty warminds. It was a glorious, incredible time… until it ended. While the Traveler was sharing of its light, in pursuit came the darkness, and in its wake, invaders. Even Rasputin, most powerful of the warminds, could only slow them, and in panic and fear, massive colony ships were built to take us far, far away. A few were launched, but most were still in the last hurried throws of preparation when the Collapse overtook them."
Whisper's thoughts immediately turned to the Cosmodrome, and the massive, broken starships still sitting on their launchpads.
"We know little of how it happened. What we do know is that there was a terrible battle, in which the Traveler itself fought with the darkness. The Traveler won, but it paid a terrible price for its victory. There, can you see it? No, a little lower… yes, there, you can still make out the scars the Traveler bears from that terrible battle. And with its dying breath, it gave birth to the ghosts, who traveled far and wide to find guardians to fight the battles it cannot. And there it stays, even in death its passive shielding systems guarding the City from bombardment."
"Of course, it took years, centuries for the guardians to rally and gather survivors here, where they constructed the City. And every day, the guardians fight to defend the City, the Traveler, and humanity. And now the Traveler's light has found you, young Guardian. And it is your duty to stand with your fellow guardians and fight the good fight."
Whisper considered Chester's words. That was… well, there were gaping holes in that story, but then again, there would be holes in any story that spanned what seemed to be thousands of years. But above all the uncertainty, a single question immediately bubbled to the top. "Who am I? And… what am I?"
Chester smiled gently. "Difficult questions, I'm afraid, but not unusual. You've experienced permanent memory loss when you were raised by your ghost, but it's not the ghost's fault. And it's not just exos—no guardian truly remembers their past, their life before the light touched them. A handful recall their names, but most give themselves a new name, to mark a new beginning. And as for what you are, you are, first and foremost, a guardian. More specifically, in your case, you are an exomind, usually shortened to just exo, an incredible person built at the height of the Golden Age, a full citizen. Beyond that, I'm afraid I can't say much more. Exo's are incredibly complex and deeply encrypted. Only a ghost has the processing power to begin to understand them. I'm afraid you'll have to ask another exo if you wish to know more."
"And being a guardian, what does that mean? My ghost healed me, even… even seemed to rebuild me from scratch. How is that possible?"
Chester shrugged. "Beats me. All we know is that it's the Traveler's light that does it, working through your ghost. But before you let it go to your head, it doesn't make you invulnerable or invincible. Keeping the memory of each death, it weighs on the mind. And going out to be killed again and again, it… well, sometimes a guardian breaks. And there are places the Traveler's light cannot reach, places of darkness where no ghost can bring you back. And, of course, there is no way to restore your ghost. So take care of it, young lady, or you'll end up like me, growing old and filled with regret." His eyes grew dark with remembered pain.
"I'm sorry."
He gave himself a shake, then smiled again. "Don't worry about it. It's a new day, your fist day! It's a time for celebration, not melancholy. Now, I'm sure you have more questions, but it's best to take it in a little a time so you don't overwhelm yourself. I've got a datafile here for your ghost to catch you up when you're ready. But in the meantime, you should head over that way and up those blasted stairs. That will take you up to the Vanguard's quarters, the leaders of both the guardians in the Tower here and, to a point, of the City down below. Go on, introduce yourself!"
She stood and turned back to Chester, but he was already caught up in thought, staring out over the City as the twilight came on. She turned and headed up the steps, and at the top she saw for the first time another exo talking loudly with a human woman. Whisper hung back for a moment, watching. He was remarkably human-looking for a machine, with a fully articulating face. Somewhat surprisingly, given the amount of effort that went into making him look human, he also had a horn coming out of his forehead.
The exo noticed her and stepped away from his companion. "Well, hey there, stranger. Welcome to the Tower. By the look of you, you're a new hunter. I'd toast your health, but I'm supposed to be all reputable now. It's good to see you made it to us in one piece. It can be rough out there in the wilds. Come back in an hour or so and I'll have some equipment for you and we'll talk. In the meantime, take a look around and get a feel for your new home. Oh, and the name is Cayde-6. Nice to meet you."
He gave her a thumbs up and wandered back towards his friend.
Well then. Whisper decided to take Cayde's advice and began to wander the Tower, getting a feel for the layout and trying to gather her thoughts, to process and come to grips with the strange new world she'd somehow entered. She wandered through the Tower passing strange shops selling a remarkable variety of firearms, shops selling hovering single-person vehicles called sparrows, custom-made artwork, tattoos, all types of food, and everything in between.
Her thoughts wandered farther still. I'm an immortal machine, reborn through an alien power, to be a guardian fighting a battle between unknown forces that has been going on for centuries. She'd been selected by her ghost, another alien creation, for this strange mixture of gift and curse. There'd been no consulting her, asking what she wanted. Not that they could have, of course. Still… She'd been thrown into this mess and, from everyone's reactions to her, was expected to hit the ground running without asking too many questions.
The hour passed quickly, and she found herself, almost by accident, back where she'd started. Cayde was there and waived her to follow him. She fell in step as he easily moved through the crowd and ducked into some sort of conference room. Maps and charts covered the walls, surrounding a huge table that dominated the room. Cayde hopped up to sit on the table's edge, lounging carelessly. He took a moment to really look at her, taking in her posture, her stance.
"So… here you are, a brand-new guardian, and an exo to boot. You've got more questions, so shoot."
Whisper didn't even know where to start. Her hour of trying to come to grips with things had left her even more lost than before. "I… I guess my first question is, what is an exo? What are we?"
Cayde smiled. "The short version is, you're a guardian, no different from any other. The longer version is, we don't really know. We know some bits and pieces, sure. We were built during the Golden Age of humanity as full citizens, whatever that means. We were built by the Clovis-Bray Corporation, and they were doing some mighty secret research on the human mind."
"And? Are we… are we humans, or machines?"
Cayde shrugged. "Hard to say. The most common theory is that we're machines with human minds uploaded into them. I'm afraid we don't come with any squishy bits, so the body is definitely machine, not any sort of cyborg."
Whisper hesitated. "But… why do I feel hungry? Is it even possible for me to eat?"
"Of course! I'll have to show you my favorite ramen place sometime. Look, we're getting into some touchy stuff here, so for now I'll just say this. They decided to give some human impulses to exos to help us stay more… stable. It looks like you got eating, but good news, you can eat! You don't need to, but it's nice all the same. In short, your mind is human, so for all practical purposes, you are human in every way that matters. I'm sure you'd like to hear more, but we'll leave it at that until you've gotten used to living again."
Whisper frowned, waiting for more, but that was apparently all Cayde had to say on the subject, so she moved on to her next question. "What does this mean?" she asked, holding up her left arm where Whisper-0 was stenciled in white paint.
"Now that there is your unit designation. The number after it is the number of times your memory was reset way back when. Apparently, that also helped stabilize some of the early models. Odd though—can't say I've ever seen an exo with no wipes before, but I guess it doesn't make a difference seeing as how you lost it all becoming a guardian anyway."
Whisper started pacing back and forth. "But what am I supposed to do?"
Cayde smiled. "You need something to focus on, a goal, a purpose. I get that. So tell you what, I'll go ahead and give you your first mission, your try-out as a guardian. That jumpship you brought in is serviceable, but if you're going to do your job, you'll need a warp drive in it. So, your job is to go back to the Cosmodrome and find a warp drive for your ship."
Whisper stopped pacing and crossed her arms. "And why should I do that?"
Cayde laughed. "Oh but you are a hunter, aren't you. Look, the guardians are led by the Vanguard. That means one titan, muscle-bound folks that talk serious all the time, one warlock, crazy space-wizards, and one hunter, specifically, me. So, as one of the leaders of the City and as leader of the hunters, I'm asking you to do this. And besides, you don't have anything better to do, do you?"
Whisper just stared at him.
"That's what I thought. So, trot on down to see Amanda Holliday, our tech lady, get your ship checked out, and get back in the game. I'm sending you an invite for tomorrow morning to meet up with Relkis who will walk you through the basics and let you know you're a hunter. Oh, and I almost forgot—in honor of your unofficial-but-totally-going-happen addition to the hunters, I brought you this to help you on your way."
He reached over on the table, rummaged around amid a pile of papers and boxes, and pulled out a long, oddly-shaped package and tossed it to her. "Good luck!" And he dashed out of the room.
Whisper sighed and looked down at the package in her arms. She opened the parcel and was surprised to see a full suit of body armor. And not only that; there was also a long, thin weapon there as well. The Calcutta-LR2 sniper rifle. And then it vanished form her hands. Let me hold onto that for you.
"Okay, what is that? How do you do that?" she demanded of her ghost.
It's called transmatting. Golden Age technology built into ghosts, transmats are basically small teleportation units. The amount of energy it takes goes up exponentially with size, so I wouldn't want to try it with anything much larger than, say, a sparrow, but I have a fairly sizeable memory and I can encrypt things like weapons into engram and hold onto them until you need them again.
"Into what?"
Engram. The fourth state of matter, discovered—
"During the Golden Age?"
You are quick. The easiest way to think of it is if you encrypt something enough, you can digitally store physical matter and retrieve it again. It's very useful.
Whisper desperately needed some time alone to think. Here, surrounded by people she didn't know, doing things she didn't understand, for reasons she couldn't begin to fathom, was not helping. She needed to get out.
Without knowing how to get the jumpship back, she settled for climbing as high as she could get on the Tower, and so she wandered, climbing staircases, crossing corridors, and once or twice (when no one was looking) scrambling up a wall, until she found herself on a balcony near the roof. She leaned against the railing and looked out across the view.
Just as before with Chester, she couldn't help but stare in awe at the magnificent view. The City stretched out below her, its innumerable glittering lights surrounded by massive walls with a number of towers like the one she was standing in dotted across it. And above it all the Traveler, the massive, scarred, silver-white sphere floating protectively over the City.
All eight of the towers were manned by guardians once, long ago.
"What happened to them? I thought guardians were pretty resilient."
They are, you are, but you're far from invincible. The Battle of Six Fronts, the Great Disaster, the Battle of Twilight Gap… a lot of guardians have been lost in major battles, and that's not counting the steady trickle of losses over time, or those we lose for… other reasons. And there aren't many new guardians – I was one of the last ghosts still searching for mine. I mean, for you.
"But who were they fighting? More of those Fallen?"
… Maybe it would be easiest if I explained a little more about the City's history.
Whisper shrugged. "That seems as good a place to start as any."
The time after the Collapse was called the Dark Ages. We don't have very many records, but from what we know, it was very chaotic. Pockets of darkness remained from the Traveler's battle, and the survivors were scattered. As the guardians began to group up, they slowly gathered people and moved towards the Traveler, where they built the City to protect them.
"So that's it? The guardians just showed up and immediately saved everyone, immortal protectors against the unending onslaught? How am I supposed to live up to that? I'm just… me. I was just born!"
Not… exactly. The first brought back by ghosts were called risen, and they were… confused.
Whisper perked up at that. "What do you mean, 'confused'?"
The ghost continued reluctantly. Remember that our records are far from complete, so there may be a lot of missing context, but those early risen, well... they gathered bands of people and protected them.
"And?"
And they may have, on occasion, fought against each other for territory. Probably to secure more resources for the people they were protecting.
Whisper snorted – or rather, she tried, and a rough approximation of the sound came out anyway. "You don't know much about human history, do you?"
The ghost rotated in place. Do you?
Whisper opened her mouth… then closed it again. She remembered… well, some things. She remembered that humans bickered a lot. She remembered that they'd fought wars with each other for resources. But specifics, names… she had none.
The ghost waited a moment to see if she would respond, then continued. Eventually the early risen were united by the arrival of the Fallen and the threat they represented. That's when they began settling the City.
"And everything was just great then? No more roving immortal tyrants?" she asked sarcastically.
As Chester said, over time being a guardian is a great physical and mental strain. There have been some who… weren't up to the challenge over the years.
"So you're saying that guardians cut and run? That some fail? That we are nothing more than imperfect people?"
The ghost spun uncomfortably. Well… yes, though that's not how I would—.
"Good." Whisper let out a sigh of relief. "Maybe this is something I can do after all."
Oh. I've never thought of it that way.
"It seems like these Fallen are the most pressing issue for the City, so, tell me more about them."
The ghost bounced in the air. You mean you're going to do the mission?
"Probably. Cayde was right when he said I had nothing else to do. And I need… I don't know. I feel a strange compulsion to look. To know. To understand this crazy world."
I see. Well, I don't know how much else there is to say. They arrived from beyond the solar system some time after the Traveler's last battle in their big ketch starship and skiff raiders. Their political structure is very strict, with a Kell at the top, then captains, vandals, and dregs at the bottom. There's a unique position called an Archon that serves as intermediary between the Kell and its Prime Servitor. The troops are supported by shank drones and the servitors.
"What's a servitor?"
Oh, it's a large spheroid machine that creates ether, the fluid every Fallen needs to survive, we think. We're not positive, but it seems like the Prime Servitor creates the ether, or possibly coordinates the other servitors in making it.
"And their ground support?"
You've seen a ketch, their primary vessels that also serve as troop transports with jump drives and cloaking devices. They deploy smaller skiff dropships armed with arc cannons and anti-personnel mines. You've also seen their heavy fire support, the walker tank. They also have a version of the sparrow called a pike, which is slower but more heavily armored and armed with forward mounted arc cannons.
The rapid-fire information should have been overwhelming, but instead it slotted neatly into place in her mind, filling out a force table. "So there's a single Prime Servitor providing, or coordinating, ether production for every single Fallen in the system? If they lose that one unit potentially all of them will die in the whole system?"
Oh, there's far too many Fallen to survive off only one Prime Servitor. There's a Prime Servitor for every House. And we're not positive that the normal servitors don't make at least some themselves.
Whisper tried to raise a questioning eyebrow, and was somewhat startled to feel an articulable face plate move to replicate the expression. "Uh, sorry, what? Houses? Just how many Fallen are there?"
Difficult to say, though there are at least a few million of them in the system. The most concerning of the Houses for the moment is the House of Devils, which is closest and most threatening to the City. They appear to be based in old Russia, and attempted to conquer the City by banding with the Houses of Kings and Winter in the Battle of the Twilight Gap, but were defeated by the guardians with heavy losses on both sides.
Whisper mulled over this information as she watched the sun set and the stars begin to twinkle above. She stood there for a long time, mechanical eyes adjusting unconsciously to the dark, metal legs never tiring. As the sun began to rise over the City one more she came to a decision.
"I have no purpose, and with no purpose, there is no point. And so my purpose is to discover my purpose. My only half-remembered instinct is the need to get out there, to see for myself, to understand. And so that is what I'll do."
