My Jumpship screamed over the mountains, contrails marking its passage over the earth below. As I sat at the controls, Ghost fussed over little things I had to remember when I met the Speaker.
"…Don't be too formal: that's very important. Remember to wash that Ether off you: use some of the GibOff detergent in the cupboard back at the Tower. Make sure your gun is polished, and your hair is brushed. We'll need to…"
"Ghost," I said sternly. "Have you seen the Star Wars movies from the 20th century?"
He bleeped a bit, and nodded his frame up and down. I internally gave a sigh on relief.
"Right now, you are acting more-or-less like a certain fussy golden android. So unless you feel like reviving me after I jump off the top of the tower 150 times in a row, please stop fussing. I'm sure that he's seen worse. Hell, I'm sure he'll be glad I'm not a very good dancer. Stop acting like my mother!"
Ghost quizzically clicked a few polygons, before giving a affirmative bleep. The sound he made was comically forlorn, something enhanced by the fact it sounded rather much like R2D2 when he was sulking. I gave a hearty laugh which my friend hesitantly joined in on. This caused me to go into further hysterics, leading to a near loss of control. Luckily, I pulled out of the spinning dive four meters above the tip of a particularly tall mountain.
"Don't do that again," reprimanded Ghost. "You can be revived, but jumpships's can't be. Please be careful with the ship."
"Yes mother, I'll even give her a wax and buff," I snarked. "Please Ghost: no backseat driving."
We stayed silent for the remaining few minutes of the journey back. As the ship cruised over the last of the mountains, I piloted the ship down through the lowest layer of the clouds. As I did, we say the Last City in all it's glory. The first time I had seen this, I had been more focused on the people and the dormant body of the Traveller to notice the finer details. Now, as we passed over for another time, I noticed some of the finer details. While from a ground level the city looked dilapidated in parts, and lived-in in others, the city looked beautiful from the air. The wall which lined its border was dotted with defence turrets, some of which tracked my craft for a bit before swivelling to look back out at the plains surrounding the city. The wall was dotted with several armoured doors, many with battle damage. To my surprise, the fields round the city were being tended by tiny figures, with others standing guard at regular intervals.
"Citizens of the city, protected by some of our earthbound Guardians," stated Ghost, noticing what I was looking at. "They tend those fields to provide the last city with the crops that we can't replicate from glimmer. As a result, they knowingly are vulnerable to enemy attack, so the Vanguard offers a rotation of Guardians from the dedicated defence forces to protect them while they work. As a Hunter, you will not be given such duty. Instead, you are expected to perform field work most, if not all of the time. Warlocks are assigned research or administrative tasks when not fighting. But for Titans, that duty is simply part of their duties."
I banked the craft over in the direction of the Tower. As we came into a landing in the hangar, I noticed that the majority of the gunships and Combat Jumpships that were usually in their berths were gone. I noted that Amanda Holliday was at some screens on the upper level. After connecting the hangar's fuel hoses to my Jumpships connector ports, I walked up to her. She was intently studying readouts showing diagnostic information. As I watched, a red warning popped up on one of the diagrams.
"What's going on Amanda?" I asked. "There some trouble?"
The Tower Shipwright turned around, telling the Exo on duty at the station to monitor the situation. "Ah, Ace. Yes, we've got a major Fallen raiding party moving in on our innermost threat perimeter. We've dispatched a pair of fireteams and the majority of our ground-attack craft to engage them before they reach the farming grounds. As of now, the battle's going quite well for us. The Fallen are from the House of Kings, and they aren't really the shiniest wrenches in the toolbox. Where are you off to now?"
"I've been asked to meet with the Speaker in the observatory," I said to her. "Any pointers on where to go? I didn't know we had such a place in the Tower."
She grinned. "Most people say that. Even I have trouble finding people here. Just go out into the Plaza and go underneath the staircase on the far side. Head through the tunnel there, and you should come out near the Tower Marketplace on the other side. There should be a short bridge connecting the area to the Speaker's observatory. It's hard to miss the observatory. Only place with a giant, spinning telescope-globe thingy."
I thanked her, and headed out of the hangar. The message from the Speaker had not given a definite time, so I went back to my apartment and showered in the small bathroom. After drying myself off, I headed back to Master Rahool and had my new engrams decoded. After dodging another long rant from Rahool, I went back to my apartment and changed into the unsoiled gear that he had given me in exchange for the Engrams. I now had a Vaquero 1.1 helmet, with much better filters and sensors than my last helmet. My chestplate was now a Corsair Revenge 1.0, with much better armour than I previously had. I now wore a pair of Sinaa Lamprey armoured pants, which were a lot more comfortable than my last pair of Battuta 1.0 pants. My gauntlets were a pair of Cryptid 4.6D's which I found to be incredibly comfortable (I remembered that Cryptid Armourium built solar-powered heating systems and knuckle massagers into each pair of Gauntlets, and Ghost had informed me that the company had kept the tradition of doing so after the collapse). My looted Fallen cloak remained exactly as it had been. I did take Ghost's advice and put some of the nano-doped cleaner he suggested onto the stains that had accumulated on the material. As I watched, the cloak's various stains and dirt patches simple melted off. This happened as the formula of passive nanotech and waterless cleaners that made up the GibOff cleaner reacted to the various compounds and materials that composed the muck, causing the unwanted soil, alien blood and Ether to disintegrate into component atoms. I held up a dry and completely clean cloak for Ghost to examine.
"Nice job Ace," he said jokingly. "But I think you missed a spot. Anyway, we need to get to the Observatory. Remember: stay cool."
I grinned as he disappeared into his interdimensional pocket to wait. I walked out of the apartment, the door shutting and locking behind me. I walked out of the apartment units, and headed for the tunnel that Amanda had mentioned. As I did, I was relieved to hear the tower announcement system calmly congratulating the two fireteams (apparently called Fireteam Javelin and Fireteam Spearhead) who had participated in the mission to stop the Fallen Raiding party. I had worried about the guardians on that mission, as there are few enough Guardians and not many others who live as long (or short) as we do. The Traveller's light apparently is responsible for this, as it produces a side effect of loyalty for ones team and for those other servants of the Last City. This is to ensure that as few Guardians as possible defect to the darkness, the exceptions (at least those I had discovered while talking with Cayde during the Halloween festival the previous day) being Dregden Yor and Osiris. Dregden Yor had apparently been corrupted by his gun Thorn (which he had infused with cursed Hive bones) and Osiris had gone mad after researching the race of robots known as the Vex, before nearly destroying the Vanguard and disappearing from recorded history.
As I walked out of the tunnel and into the other section of the city, I immediately saw the observatory. I walked across the bridge and entered the massive chamber. In the centre of the room was a massive glass lens mounted on a rotating bracket. That must be the 'telescope' Amanda mentioned. Beneath the lens, a massive pit surrounded by a guard rail housed a glowing circle that pulsed as the lens twisted and adjusted. Out of the window in front, the Traveller proudly hovered in the night sky, solemnly and silently guarding the city below.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
The soft, melodic voice came from a small study area atop a platform to my side. Standing up on the platform was a tall, slender man wearing white robes and a full-face mask. His face mask was without any facial features, instead featuring inset lines that curved around the face. He seemed to have a almost serene aura around him, as he descended the steps to stand next to me, his mask tilted towards the traveller above.
"Nobody today knows why the Traveller really came to us. Some say that it was to escape the Darkness. Others say that it was looking for a people to subjugate. But I believe differently."
The Speaker tilted his head to stare at me. "While this city is protected by the last known act of the Traveller, an act that was essentially selfish and ensured the current survival of Humanity, there are things that lurk out there beyond it's protection. I have never ventured beyond the city. For I am not one of you. But I am the person who interprets what the Traveller desires. What it desires is for our race to survive."
The Speaker walked back up the stairs, and stood at a console that rose from the ground seemingly on it's own accord. He manipulated some controls, and the lenses shifted. The Traveller's surface suddenly leapt out as a detailed holographic representation. A chunk was missing from the surface.
"Long ago, during the battle where the Traveller sacrificed itself, weapons of unimaginable power were unleashed by the Darkness, in a attempt to destroy the Traveller. Many of the weapons successfully managed to damage the Traveller. What exactly they did to it are unknown. But they were responsible for it's comatose state, one that has lasted for nearly 500 years."
He turned away, and walked hallway down the stairs as the console slid back into the floor. The Speaker leaned on the railing, and stared at the hologram.
"Many of the things we know were lost to science. But one universal, unchangeable law is not among the knowledge lost: matter and energy cannot be created, nor destroyed. No matter what the power of the weapons that were unleashed upon the Guardian of Guardians, the 'flesh' of the Traveller still exists. Those who would wish humanity to fall have come into possession of such a piece. While the Darkness may be absent, the minions that serve it still retain control of those lands which we lost to the Collapse. Those fragments fell on such lands"
The Speaker turned to face me. "You must go to the moon, where you will find the race known as the Hive. Eris Morn, Bane of Crota will assist you in your endeavours there. I have uncovered evidence that the Hive are preparing to weaken the Traveller beyond what has already been done. As a Guardian- a servant of Humanity, and a Solider of the Light- you must stop them before it is too late."
The softly spoken man walked down to the bottom step and relaxed his posture slightly. He spoke once more. "You may be wondering about my view on why the Traveller came to us. While some see the Traveller as a refugee much like those who fled here during the collapse, and others see the Traveller as a conqueror much like the enemy we fight daily, I have a different perspective. Every person, every object, every unifying concept in the universe has a destiny to fulfil. Humanity is quite simular. I do not see the Traveller as a Refugee. I do not see it as a Ruler. I do not even view it as a god, or a simular deity. It is simply the herald of humanity's shared destiny. Which is why we must continue to follow it's desires."
With that, the slender figure gracefully walked back up the stairs, leaving me with my own thoughts. I looked back at the massive orb that was the Traveller, and left the Observatory. I needed to go see Cayde.
Author's note: Well, this is the longest chapter yet, and things are going swimmingly. As a bit of a side note, it turns out that TV writers have a sense of humour that carries over into practical jokes. Last week I emailed Red Dwarf creator Doug Naylor to ask about the early years of the mining ship Red Dwarf because was writing a fanfic about those years. Unfortunately, he emailed back hinting that they were working on a prequel series. I fell for this (in hindsight) obvious practical joke, and announced on my profile that I was stopping work on my fanfic. Somehow, this got back to Mr Naylor, and he sent another email apologising for his practical joke. So now the Red Dwarf fanfic is back on track.
In other news, I'd like to thank all those people who have taken the time to review my story. It really helps to have you aiding my writing and I'd like to say that everyone who has given that vital feedback is a Big Damm Hero. Clap yourself on the back, guys/gals!
That's all for now! Crazy Minh signing off!