After simply a half hour of traveling between Mars and Earth, the ancient jumpship broke orbit around South America, travelling across a beautifully blue ocean, presumably the Atlantic, before reaching the European Dead Zone. A thousand mile long area, which used to hold the major cities of Old Europe, it was dead, no communications, no electronics, nothing. Gothic architecture from the 21nd and 22nd centuries sprawled across rolling faded green hills, rugged mountains, and shallow lakes. Soon, as if a moon was floating about a miniature New York City, was what ghost called 'The Last City', a simple collection of steel topped buildings, small crowded shops, and multiple walkways spanning tens of miles. 6 tall, noble towers stood along a mile high wall, all but one ravaged or seemingly abandoned. The final tower was the one his ship gravitated towards, with red banners, white concrete structuring, and grey metal support beams. Sparkling detail and lighting seemed to emanate out of every crevice and crenelation, before he eventually was brought to a lavish courtyard. Bringing him a shock, as he was previously in his ship not too long ago, he cowered onto the ground.
"Wait, wait, wait, how am I here? I was just in my ship!" He nervously stuttered out, the relaxation of his ship enveloping him in a husk of metal and electronics, now surrounded by air with the faint scent of vanilla, pine, and slightly copper. His ghost popped out with the same materialization effect she had previously used on Mars.
"I transmatted you out, your ship should be docking right abouuut..." She waited, a whooshing motion sounded behind him; His ship flew on its own, docking in a lavish blue hangar hidden from his current view, where it would be checked for any form of tracking device or damage. "... Now." She finished, turning to him. "Well, here we are. The Last City on Earth."
"It's... Beautiful. And this place is so peaceful." He slowly eased himself up to his feet, looking better at the expansive tower. More Guardians were walking, talking, and... Handing glowing dodecahedrons of various colors to a man with bluish-purple skin? This struck him as curious, moving over to see what was going on. This man, dressed in drab tan robes with yellow detailing, was under a tent like structure with multiple tables, crates, and hanging lights off the front edges of this 'tent'. The individual stood a few inches away from the table under the front of the structure, locking his hands into a professional gesture in front of him. A guardian dressed in robes, a helmet with a visor seemingly made of pure dark matter with gloves that seemingly held a sun around her wrist, handed this man this crystalline structure, he gave her back an armor piece? Strange, maybe once these two were done conversating...
"Here you are, Warlock. Magnificent find." He handed robes of a lavish black towards this 'warlock', thankfully not of an evil variety, who took them with very little thanks, almost as if she wasn't pleased with them. She walked off, no other guardians seemingly going to him again.
"Excuse me, sir?" He walked towards the figure, asking with an enquiring tone. "Hmm? Was there something you needed, Guardian?" Again with the formalities, but still... At least this man had respect.
"I'm so sorry, I just came to the tower and was wondering... What do you do here?" He asked rather sheepishly, this being one of his first human contact from his awakening. "Well, thank you for a curiosity into my work. My name is Master Rahool, and I am the tower's Cryptarch, studied in the arts of Cryptoarchaeology, or the art of decoding crystalline structures of condensed matter." He explained, rather as if no-one took an interest in the work he was doing. "You mean the thing that she brought to you?" He motioned to the Warlock, who had stored her new robes away in a large, octagonal totem, with consoles on 4 sides. "Yes, they are known mostly by the name 'Engrams', which I will happily decode into items for your use in combat." He said, with a minor level of excitement. Rahool seemed like an interesting person, decoding items for his fellow guardians to use to their leisure. He smiled, taking an immediate liking to this man's profession. "Thank you, Master Rahool, I shall certainly bring any engram I find to you." Rahool replied back with a small smile, before a bulkier armored guardian brought another to him. It was time to explore this tower some more, to see what his new 'home' would be like.
He proceeded down a flight of stairs, diagonal to this tent structure, quite a few feet away, to find a small place with two more smaller stairwells. After descending down the steps on the left side, he found himself in a brightly lit hallway, a window capping at the end, overviewing the outer wall of this city. A large rectangular pit was in the middle of the floor, a 12 foot long and 5 foot wide table overflowing with papers, ink pens, maps, and other clutter, with three guardians around it without helmets on. The first guardian, closest to the entrance, was an African-American warlock, her having purplish grey robes, with a simple white ghost. The second, an Exo, was standing across from the table, near to the middle, with a ghost having shield like projections on the top and bottom, loomed over a map of some sort. The final guardian, similar to the Cryptarch upstairs, was in the same position as his Exo friend, but instead having bulkier armor, with a curved shoulder pauldron almost over his head. He was the first to notice the new visitor, greeting him in with a stoic expression. "A new guardian? I believe introductions are in order." He stood up, crossing his arms behind his back, the Exo shooting up and looking over, "Oh, hey! Didn't see ya there." He leaned up against the table, facing him. Mrs Warlock barely moved, looking simply over with a slight smile, "Greetings, welcome to the Vanguard Hall." In the same order of noticing, they introduced themselves accordingly. "My name is Commander Zavala, I am the Awoken Titan Vanguard." "Name's Cayde-6, Hunter Vanguard. From the looks of you, I know you know I'm an Exo." "Ikora Rey, Human Warlock Vanguard. It's a true pleasure to have another bright spark of light." They all spoke in distinct tones; Zavala addressed in a more civil, commanding tone, respective of a leader. Cayde seemed to be more of someone who joked, but he still seemed like he did some work. Ikora spoke wisely, addressing in almost a mystic, magical manner. "I'm, well, not sure how to welcome myself, but uh, it's a pleasure to meet all of you." They nodded once, understanding that being so new was confusing.
"I believe we should introduce this new light to the Speaker." Zavala suggesting, Cayde and Ikora agreeing almost immediately. "Yeah, sounds good." "Wonderful idea, he must have so many questions." The Hunter Vanguard got up, and rubbed his hands together like he was scheming. "Alright, since all of you must have important Vanguard business, I'll get him to the Speaker." "Cayde, don't you have paperwork to do?" Ikora seriously reminded him, this seemingly something that happens a lot. "What? Sorry, my audio sensors cut out. Anyways, let's go." He walks up, past 'the new light', and motions him to follow. Eventually, after going up all the flights of stairs, they moved right, opposite direction from Rahool, up only a few stairs, to a doorway that lead down into a darker hallway. Mostly stairs, they both walked down the stairs and winded around a corner, being met with a smaller tower with an extremely tall opening.
"Alright, just go through that doorway and talk to the Speaker. I gotta go, Zavala's probably gonna tear me a new one." Cayde joked, going the same way they came. After the jokester had left, he went through the door to what was, presumably, where he would get some answers. "Hello?" He said to no one, hoping his all his answers would be solved in this room. No reply came back, until a man walked down, in full robes, with long sleeves, black gloves, and black boots, along with a face mask that hid his entire face. "Welcome. I assume you have just arrived here?" As if he was watching his entire arrival, the man softly spoke, a slight English accent almost drifting along his words. "Yes sir, so you're the Speaker? What does your title mean?" "I speak for the Traveler, whose voice has gone silent after our war with the Darkness." "Darkness?" "Yes..." He descended almost dreamlike down a winding staircase, recollecting a story that must have been ancient, "Long ago, when we had met the Traveller, it had granted us powers beyond imagination. Space travel, technological marvels... But, that changed when the darkness found it. The Golden Age brought about by the Traveller ended, and in its dying breath, it made the ghosts. But the Dark has not diminished... There have been stories told about it to frighten children: The stories have stopped, but the children are frightened anyway..." He held his head slightly lower, obviously saddened by the need to cower behind a dying protector. But he continued, trying to forget the horrible thoughts of this 'Darkness', "You are the last hope of the light, and it is your destiny to join your brothers and sisters beyond Earth." After absorbing this mission ahead of him, he slowly asked, "Where can I start?" He bravely stood upright, filled with determination to help humanity regain its strength. "You must find who you are. Talk to the Vanguard, and they will help you find the path."
"But, they don't know who I am, they don't know how new this is to me." He simply replied, still feeling somewhat hopeless against something much bigger than himself. "Guardians find their path, and you will too. But the reassurance the Traveller gives you is what defines you. Who are you?" The Speaker asked such a great question, but almost as if a second voice erupted within the Exo, he replied. What he said was simple, but powerful.
"I am Leonidas-3, and I am a Guardian."