Chapter 1: A friend in need
Author's Note
Hello readers. I have written this story based on my own take on the "Destiny" universe, but more specifically, on the "Dark Below" expansion pack. Since the game itself lacks any real explanation or lore behind the game itself, I decided to come up with this artful little piece of work for all of you to enjoy. To top it all off I brought ponies to the mix! What fun, am I right?
Chapter 1: A friend in need
“One does not truly appreciate the night until their first sunburn” – Exo #251/B6W aka “Rune”
Chapter 1; A Friend In Need
“Ghost, run through the preflight check list one last time” Echoed a smooth, synthesized voice, tapping away at the controls of a holo tab. He was checking his inventory. After the battle two hours previous, he had to make sure nothing had taken any major damages. The floating droid beeped a couple times, probably running its own calculations, and scanning the guardian’s ship for major hull damage.
The small baseball sized droid, or “Ghost” as all guardians call them, hovered around the damaged areas of the ship. It began to patch the damaged areas to make the ship as flight worthy as possible.
The Ghost returned almost as quickly as it had departed from the guardian. “Preflight checklist run and complete, note, there is damage to the aft burners. I recommend that the ship not exceed seventy-five percent thruster power.” It was matter of fact, as always with this particular Ghost, no sugar coating whatsoever. The guardian sighed, It looked as though they would be stuck planet side for a bit longer. In order to make the jump back to the tower, the guardian’s ship “Light in the Abyss”, would need to reach at least ninety-six percent thrust to make warp drive possible. With damage to the aft burners, that meant that they would be without the proper power to get back home.
“I have done all I can do to restore the aft burners, but I believe that they are too severely damaged to operate in the required fields.” The ghost’s voice was always the bearer of bad news it seemed; it never said anything unless it was bad, or negative. It did however, help the guardian gather most of the gear that took him so long to obtain…and open doors. He remembered his near death encounter with the deadly Deathsingers, and the hordes of hive the guardian had fought through just two hours previous. His gaze fell upon the gear he wore, and how he had fabricated it from the very beings he had just slain. Pieces of bone, spines, leather and claws fashioned together to create what the guardian referred to as…the Bane of Crota.
“Any word from the others yet? The other guardians should be here by now.” The synthetic voice was empty and hopeless. He stood upon a rocky outcrop where he had lingered for the last two hours, waiting for the others to crawl out of the piles of dead, victorious. The guardian peered over the edge of the cliff, where teeming hordes of enraged thrall scrabbled at the walls, trying their hardest to get at the one who had so viciously slain their master; “Crota”. He hefted the heavy blade, scavenged off of one of Crota’s knights, and sheathed it in its new scabbard strapped to his back.
“No, no new reports from any of the other five guardians, it is most likely they fell to the Deathsingers.” The ghost finally answered. So that’s it, the guardian thought, I’m the last guardian standing.
“Ghost, give me the last known coordinates of the other five guardians…and send out an SOS message, loop it every ten minutes…” The guardian ordered, a flash of crimson flame erupting from his bond.
“Recording now….” The ghost replied, the guardian approached. He straightened his posture and allowed himself a look of determination and strength to rest on his tall frame.
"This is Exo Guardian number two-five-one, warlock of fire-team "Beta Six"; Code name "Rune" . I am requesting immediate extraction. My fire-team is MIA, possibly dead or wounded...and my ship is too heavily damaged to get off planet. We are located on Earth's moon, and under attack by the Hive...please hurry...and send any medical aid you can. End transmission." The guardian drew a long barreled pistol from its case on his thigh. Its sharp, thorny design glistened from the starlight as he loaded a charge into its revolving chamber. With new found energy, the warlock took a running start. Pounding the ground as fast as his mechanized body would allow, he neared the edge of the cliff. Power surged through his body as he leaped into the air, and with barely a second thought, unleashing his nova bomb into the horde below.
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Space, Celestia never felt very comfortable in it. She always felt better with her hooves planted firmly, on un-moving ground. So it was with great effort that she stood in the command center of the planetary capital: New Hope, one of three gigantic ships carrying what was left of their world. They had held out for as long as they could, but to no avail. Out of all the battles that Celestia had fought, never had she been so badly beaten. Never has she had to escort millions of innocent lives away from the only home that they knew. The princess sighed tapping away at her holotab before pegging the private intercom.
"Bring Captain Poseidon to the command center, I'm ready for his report." There was a pause before her sister, princess Luna, answered over the comm.
"The captain will be there in a moment, having some issues with his respirator." There was a loud fit of coughing heard on the other side of the comm, along with the audible hissing and clicking of hoses being replaced.
"Is the captain alright, sister?" Celestia asked, a tinge of worry creeping into her voice. The comm was silent for a few moments before she was met with a response. Finally Luna's voice came back again, a little worried but otherwise fine.
"The captain is fine at the moment, he blew a hose on his respirator, and his sprite had to replace them. He is on his way now." Luna responded a little enthusiastically. Celestia sighed, turning back to the expanse of space before her, and looked over the planet of earth. Strange, she thought, of how much this planet reminded her of their home world, Equss. Celestia was still mortified as to how those creatures could topple a nation so quickly.
Nopony knew where they had come from, only that they were perhaps the most deadly creatures that they had ever encountered. Celestia’s mind was flooded with those terrible memories of how Luna and herself, along with the shattered remains of their military, had to battle hundreds of thousands of the “Hive” before they were able to get the capital ships loaded with citizens off the planet. They had left the remainder of the old royal guard behind, as much as the princess hated to admit it, it was their valor that bought them enough time to get on the last of the remaining ships.
Within the last decade, thanks to her star pupil, Twilight was able to make long range space travel possible. They were able to organize a large scale military branch, called: the "UESC" or, "United Equestrian Space Corps". Within years they had discovered other sapient races, other than what they had known on Equss, and risen to become a powerful force among the stars. None of that however, could have been accomplished without the aid of the Traveler and its "guardians". The Traveler, along with the guardians, were what had given them the encouragement, and technology to get to where they were today. They had brought technology that, until Celestia had seen it with her own eyes, had previously been thought impossible. Until the guardians had come along, they had only just begun experimenting on long distance space travel, all of their previous attempts had failed. In fact, it was the one guardian that the princesses had personally befriended that showed them the path to enlightenment. He was a tall, metallic, and kind individual. He was what the other guardians called an "Exo", or an artificial life form with the memories of a creature they were based off of. He was a being with no name, save for a number, which the Princesses thought was wrong, everypony deserves a name...right? It was the Exo in question that had created the formula that imbued Equestria's native, high frequency, runed crystals with the ambient magic in the universe to create a stable energy source for long distance flight. So it was that they had named the Exo, "Rune". They had been sad to see their new friend go, especially after all he and the other guardians had done for them, but he had told them "A guardian's work is never done, and its our job to keep the peace in the universe...helping anyone, or anypony along the way..."
Times had changed, for better or worse Celestia knew not. Only that she had found herself in what she had thought was only the distant fantasies of the future, brandishing the sword of the past. As much as Celestia would hate to admit it, she had found it hard to transition from the old ways of life, and had felt like her dear sister, Luna as she had returned from the moon, dropped into a new era, carrying the mindset of the previous. With the attack of the Hive however, she found herself rolling with the proverbial tides, changing her role as leader as deemed necessary and as the time dictated.
Celestia was soon drawn out of her thoughts as she heard the heavy, command center blast doors slide open, and she felt the heavyset hoofsteps approach from behind. She allowed her worries to fade as the Solar princess assumed her motherly princess mask that she found herself wearing all to often nowadays as her new, captain of the space corps, Poseidon Seahawk approached, followed by his sprite "Neptune". He was large, larger than Celestia even, and fully armored from the neck down in dark blue and silver titanium plating, stylized in an angelic, and/or birdlike design, as a tribute to his gryphonian homeland she had learned upon his first few days as a commanding officer in the corps. The captain had stopped no less than ten hooves away from her, and stood at attention.
"At ease, Captain. No need for such formality hear." The princess assured him. Poseidon allowed himself to relax a little, if only to satisfy the princesses kind nature. The room grew silent as Celestia tried to think of a polite way to bring up the subject without causing the captain any grief. She stared at the respirator that covered the damaged area of Poseidon's face, where his beak used to be, and the smooth, almost glossy synthetic skin patch that covered a massive hole in his throat, all from a one on one boxing match with a hard hitting Hive major. The silence was broken only by the occasional intake of breath from the captain, which was then filtered several times over by the respirator, creating a continuous ambient hum that easily blended with the various beeps and clicking sounds that made up the command center.
Among the corps, the captain was something of a legend, rumored to have been one of the first to discover the hive on Equss, and seen as bad luck to be around, since he was one of the few to survive the Hive invasion. Even still, he was one of the most experienced for his age, having risen to captain shortly after his twentieth birthday, and one of the best of the titan class in the corps...second only by the element of honesty's big brother "Big Mac"
Celestia sighed, returning her thoughts to the subject at hand. The Princess smiled, she had read the officer's report several times over already, but felt that she would like to hear it from the captain himself, or rather, from the sprite itself, since Poseidon's vocal cords were rendered useless after his throat had been torn open.
"So, captain, are you ready to give your report? I have waited a long time to hear it for myself." She asked, practically dreading what the sprite would say. To read it in a report is one thing, but to hear it in words was another. For weeks now, the princess had been running that one day over, and over again in her mind, hoping that one day, they would be able to return and reclaim their home world, but those hopes were crushed by the sprites next words.
"Your majesty, as long as you have been waiting, I am afraid that the report is still the same. As of two hours ago, we lost all contact with the five hundred and first solar regiment, and the second lunar battalion...I don't think I need to tell you what it means princess...but seeing as you did specifically want me to report it-" The sprite trailed off, as if confirming something with the silent griffon as they exchanged glances. The two were uncertain about what they were seeing before them. Celestia had turned her back to them, with tears threatening to flood her cheeks, her princess mask broken.
"Go ahead, Neptune, finish the report." Celestia urged. She had waited to hear it for so long, she couldn't just drop it now. Neptune beeped in acknowledgement and continued. Poseidon allowed himself to slump a little, seeing as Celestia's back was turned.
"As I was saying, we lost contact with all remaining militia forces of Equss, and that the civilian depot that they were guarding has fallen silent...your majesty...Equss has fallen..." Poseidon and Neptune backed up, giving the princess a little room to breath. Celestia shuddered. Yes, the princess thought to herself, it feels quite different to hear it voiced.
"Neptune, Captain, thank you...you may be dismissed." It was given more as an order than a request, but the pair seemed to eagerly vanish into the darkness as soon as it had left her lips anyways. The solar goddess found herself watching over earth once more, doing her best to imagine it as Equss instead.
Luna had overheard the conversation from her position outside the command center, in the briefing room. The lunar goddess felt just as heartbroken at the loss of their home world, but was currently occupied in a much more urgent matter. Luna had been surfing the public broadcast channels,as was her usual pastime, eavesdropping on all the juicy bits of news and gossip floating around all the networks. When she had stumbled on it, she first didn't know what to think of it. She had picked up an encrypted message being broadcasted on the guardian specific comm networks, but before she could get her sprite, Mika, to decrypt the message, it had disappeared. Luna had switched to all other channels to see if she could find it again, but failed. Finally she had just left it on the previous channel and waited, so that if it came again, she would hear it...and it did. Mika quickly decrypted the message, and this is what she heard.
"This is Exo guardian number two-five-one, of fire team Beta-six. This is an emergency distress call that will broadcast every ten minuets. I have been separated from my fire team, and I am unsure of their location. They are either missing in action, wounded, or...dead" The message went silent for a moment, as if the weight of its words were meant to settle upon the lunar princess, which they did. The message came back to life, only now it was full of gunfire and static, and within moments the quiet had resumed. The voice came back, sounding slightly gritty, the smoothness of it earlier lost. Wounded maybe, Luna though to herself.
"-My ship Light in the Abyss has been damaged, and I am stuck inside the moon's interior. I can't make the jump to the tower." The message fell silent once more before a thunderous boom, a gun she figured, went off. The gurgled scream of whatever was shot could be heard as his voice came back, sounding more strained than before.
"- this moon is plagued by the hive, and Crota's servants are even more active than before...I'm surrounded by them and trying to find whats left of my team...if anything at all." A string of shots rang out, followed by the hiss of what sounded like the shots flying overhead, and the voice barely dodging them.
"Listen...if anyone hears this...I need immediate evac, send whatever medical aid that you can, there are wounded here and-" there was the sound of a point blank, high octane explosion, and the message went dead. The sounds of fighting and combat replaced by eerie silence, broken only by Luna's heavy breathing, and the static that floating over the channels.
