Ghost 1934-B Entry.
22 of September, 2423
Beyond.
It is a place, a place casting shadows and emotion.
It's a real place, I know.
One hot blue sun, say. And other suns too. Five? I like seven better. What I'm recalling is a giant star with a family of six smaller suns, and you could spend days and nights counting all of the planets circling those suns...except there are no planets. Not anymore. The powers in charge have carved up all of the worlds, and maybe a brown dwarf or two for good measure. With that rubble, they fashioned a topologically creative enclosure, a twisting of space and time sealed behind doors that admit only those who know the magic words. The bones of a hundred planets have been cut smooth and laid out like a floor, a polished and lovely floor creating vast living spaces. A floor bigger than ten thousand worlds, catching the fierce glory of the seven suns. For light, for food. For beauty. And nothing escapes. Not heat, not gravity. Not even the faintest proud sound.
It could be anywhere. It can live in the cold between galaxies, or folded up inside matter, near enough to touch right now...
I remember it and maybe it's exactly as I describe it. Seven suns wrapped inside magic. Or it's something else entirely, perhaps. A place still fat with life. An abundance of sentient souls, some decent, maybe a few of lesser quality, and everybody stands about or floats about, or they bounce between dimensions. The point is that the residents of this hidden realm live inside a bottle so perfectly hidden that they can't see beyond their own borders. Which shapes a mind in very specific ways.
But, Beyond is their name for a mysterious, doubtful realm that they can't see.
Which is us, of course.
Darkness, that’s all he could see, a never ending extend of black which went on forever. He didn’t know why there was just blackness, only that its mere presence was unsettling to him.
…
Who was he?
Why did this darkness bother him? For all one could know, he could have been like this since he existed. Yet he felt that wasn’t the case, like the darkness that surrounded him was not natural, as if it didn’t belong.
Then came something else, a sensation, a feeling running through him. He felt his body.
Yes, a body. At first it felt so alien, but soon it felt as it has always been part of him; it was him. But that small sense of glee at having something more than a mere consciousness was pushed away as a new sense filled his mind; pain, or rather an annoying feeling in his head which was enough to bother him.
“Well, not exactly what I was expecting for your biological structure to look like after being reanimated with the light.”
Wait, who was that? That wasn’t him talking, although he wasn’t sure how he even sounded like, but he knew he didn’t think to say what he just heard.
“Guardian, wake up. We can’t remain in here for much longer, its too dangerous.” The voice, of whoever it was, said.
After concentrating enough, he felt the need to open his eyes, how the thought of such a simple act had eluded him until now baffled him, yet he felt like he had been asleep for ages.
The thought of sleep made him feel drowsy, but was soon cut as he felt the pain in his head come back, making him bring a hoof to his head to help sooth it out. Putting the thought aside of why he knew his limbs as hooves, he concentrated to open his eyes.
The first thing that came from doing the act was the glaring rays of the sun to one side, making him shield his vision as he tried to adapt to the lighting.
“Eyes up guardian, we have to move.” The voice spoke again, this time he could feel some kind of grinding or static in its voice, as if he was speaking through something.
Lowering his arm to check his surroundings, he came to the view of orange, brown and stale yellow, with a few patches of white. His mind tried to process what he was seeing, and it suddenly struck him that the white was snow, the orange rocks, the yellow grass, and the brown….he wasn’t sure.
But his attention was soon brought to movement in front of him, as well as a blue light. As he observed it, he saw it as some kind of metal cube, with a weird sphere in the middle that had light, which was constantly moving.
“I’ve been looking for a long time for you. Well, more along the lines of a bipedal species, but after seeing the amount of light you had, I couldn’t pass the chance.” The voice came again, but this time, the metal object moved at the same time as the voice spoke, almost as it was the one speaking.
“What?” He asked, the mere action of speaking felt rusted, as if he hadn’t used it in forever. He brought himself to stand, his body telling him so but not sure why, although he felt his balance falter a bit; even his body felt rusted.
“Take it easy. I’ve heard that being reanimated after hundred of years can cause the body to experience a state of fatigue in the body as well as motor movement difficulty.” The metal object seemed to speak, before it leaned closer to him. “By the way, I’m a Ghost, Your Ghost to be precise.”
He felt the need to ask him what he meant, he wasn’t sure what was even happening or where he was. But that was interrupted when a distant sound was heard. Making the Ghost turn towards some place behind him before turning back to him. “We can continue this conversation after we get to someplace a little safer.” It said before it suddenly vanished into thin air.
He blinked dumbly as he saw the spectacle, before being startled as he heard its voice right next to him. “I’m still here, but we better move fast.”
The pony wanted to ask what was happening, and where was he, that is, until something hit one of the brown metallic objects next to him, startling him as he saw it leave a mark as if it had been heated up to high temperatures.
“Fallen! We need to move, now!” The Ghost said with urgency after the thing struck the metal object, and he couldn’t agree more with it. He started to gallop as fast as he could, running from whatever had done that thing.
He nearly tripped several times, as his body was still trying to wake up from whatever it had been through. Looking around for some place to go, safety, but everything was so new that he didn’t know what was safe and what wasn’t.
“Go to the wall! I didn’t revive you just so you could die again!” The Ghost spoke again, making him turn towards the big wall in front of him. And as soon as he started running to it, blue lights and trails started flying past him.
“Hurry!” The Ghost nearly shouted, and the pony kept running, daring not to look back in fear that whatever was following him would get him.
He was a few metres away from some metal door, when something hot managed to hit his leg, making him yelp as he limped a bit. He thought he was gonna fall, but managed to right himself up, refusing to fall to those things after him.
With one final burst of energy, he made it past the door, and quickly went to close it. Just as the door was about to close, he got a glimpse to whatever was following him. Taller than he was, or at least it looked like it was taller, and blue lights flashing from their mid sections, followed by those lights with trails.
The door gave a clang as he closed it, and seeing the lock on it, he quickly turned it, shutting it for good and separating him from those creatures, panting a bit as he relaxed, his body feeling tired after just a short run.
“Ok, I need to find you a weapon before the Fallen can find us, or else it would have been a short trip to the world of the living.” The Ghost spoke again. the pony giving a sigh as it meant he wasn’t safe yet, and who knew if he could ever be safe.
As he started to rise from his hooves, he noted that something was on his legs, something that wasn’t part of him. Inspecting it closer, It seemed like some weird armour, but it only covered a bit of the arms.
Inspecting further, he also noted that it had more armour in most of his hind legs and chest. “What is all this?” He said, glancing at the armour, confusion written all over his face.
“That would be the armor I could provide for you. I couldn’t give you a full body one since your body structure doesn’t match that of bipeds; even without the wings.” It said from wherever he was.
Wait, wings? Looking to his back, he managed to see the mentioned feathery appendages. How did he not notice them before outside was a mystery; especially considering that he had flew with them most of his-
“Arrrgh!” The pony yelped in pain, his headache coming back stronger than before, images of some life flashing through his eyes, as the Ghost materialized in front of him.
“Guardian, what is wrong? My biometric scans show strange patterns in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus.” The Ghost said, a small sense of worry in its voice.
The pony’s headache soon started to diminish, as he breathed a bit hard. “I-I studied flight from, C-Cloudsdale Flight School, for five years.” He said, a bit surprised and glad he knew that, even if he wasn’t totally sure why.
“Ah, your old memories seem to be coming back. You are quite lucky, most Guardians don’t start remembering until a few months after their first reanimation, or even at all.” The Ghost spoke as it hovered closer to him.
He looked at the Ghost, a bit lost for words at the moment. “R-Radiant.”
The Ghost seemed to tilt to the side a bit, as if in confusion. “Pardon?”
“My name is Radiant Shield.” The pony, Radiant, said. Standing back again as he shook his head.
“Hmm, strange name; but seeing as you aren’t even an Exo or Awoken, I can’t say it really is.” He said, before disappearing again in a cloud of particles. “Still, we better find a weapon, otherwise we won’t last long enough.”
That brought Radiant back to the now, as he started to scale the stairs, which were designed steeper than he would have liked. “Where am I? And what are Guardians? Fallen? Or all this that it’s happening.?” He asked as he came to the top of the stairs.
“Not much time to cover it all, but Guardians are warrior’s forged in the Light, intent on fighting the Darkness and stop the extinction of this planet and inhabitants. The Fallen are some of the creatures that follow the darkness and try to kill us.”
That made Radiant scrunch his face a bit, the idea of killing sounded very taboo to him, but he wasn’t sure why. “What is the Light? Is it like using actual light?” Radiant asked, hoping to change the topic to something less dark.
“The light would be strenght and the life force of the guardians, its their weapon and reason why they are even alive. And you, got a lot of it inside you.”
That made Radiant look surprised, he didn’t feel any different, well, he wasn’t sure if he felt the same before being revived but….”Wait a minute, you mean to tell me I was dead!?”
“Yes, I was looking around inside Fallen territory, hoping to find a dead corpse that had a good amount of light inside it. But then I found your skeleton, which was next to another human looking one. You were lucky enough that I scanned part of yours with the human one, otherwise you may still be dead.”
Hearing this made Radiant feel uneasy, maybe a bit sick. He was dead! Or used to be dead, but he had departed the realm of the living! “I…..why revive me? Why was I so special?”
“When I scanned you, you showed levels of light higher than any other Guardian who had been reanimated before, you could have as much as a normal Guardian. And since your biological and physical structure didn’t match equines on Earth, I took a chance.” He halted there before adding one last bit. “Hopefully you pay off.”
Radiant frowned at the comment, and would have said something if it wasn’t for the Ghost alerting him of something. “Quiet, they’re right above us.”
Following the words of the Ghost, Radiant kept quiet, walking slowly through the walkway as his hooves gave a soft clang with each step. He rounded a corner, with the darkness making it too hard to see. Before he could comment about it, the Ghost materialized next to him, before shining a light through the dark, allowing him to see further.
Giving a nod of thanks, the pony walked deeper, the metal surroundings making him anxious to get out of here. Going up some steps, he heard rattling coming from above, and then in front of him. Looking towards it quickly, he caught a glimpse of a thin creature with blue eyes, before disappearing up the pipe it clung to.
“I don’t think we are alone anymore.” Radiant commented as he went up the stairs again, before coming into a large dark room with what appeared had no ceiling, and no end. That is until the Ghost left his side, showing that they were in a large suspended platform, overlooking more blackness.
“The Fallen thrive in the dark, but we don’t. Let me see if I can fix that.” The Ghost said as he went away to some other place, leaving Radiant in the dark, apart from a single pole which gave light, which the pony went to it quickly.
The pony looked every way, checking if there was any of those creatures around, just waiting to surprise him. “Another of these hardened military systems, and a century of entropy working against me.” The Ghost said, going to some other place, and leaving Radiant with a very confused look.
A few seconds passed, before the stallion could see some lights start flickering, making him glad he wouldn’t be in the dark for much longer. After a few more seconds, more lights came on, before revealing the facility with all its structures.
And all the creatures crawling around them, looking at him, resembling the things that had followed him before….He was starting to feel that not seeing would have been better.
“They’re after us!” The Ghost said as he came down from wherever he went, and Radiant was all too happy to follow him. “There’s a rifle over there, grab it!” The Ghost said, as Radiant glanced to a gate which was being raised somehow, before seeing some strange black object resting against some crate, with the Ghost now floating next to it.
Wasting no time, he went to the supposed weapon, taking the thin end with his mouth as he looked back, in case anything had followed them.
“Uhhh.” The Ghost said in an awkward tone, making Radiant look at him. “I think we may have a problem.”
Radiant looked around, thinking that there was some of those creatures around and he didn’t see them. “Whaph!?” He asked with the weapon in his mouth, not daring to let it go.
“You need to hold it in your hooves, and you lack fingers to pull the trigger….plus you are holding the end that could kill you.” At that Radiant spitted out the weapon, if the Ghost said it could kill him, then he wasn’t taking chances.
“We may need to find another thing for you to use,maybe we can find some sort of weapon which doesn’t require-”
“Hey, its this how you hold it then?” Radiant asked, making the Ghost turn to let him see the pony holding the weapon in one of his hooves by the grip, while the butt rested on top of the shoulder.
The Ghost said nothing before answering back. “Not gonna question how are you even holding it without any other appendages, but you rest the big end against the shoulder, not on top.” The Ghost commented, which Radiant followed to the word.
“Ok, this solves one problem, now the trigger bit.” The Ghost said as it hovered close to the grip, before shooting a ray to the weapon, surprising the pony a bit. “I’m just cutting the trigger guard, should allow you to pull the trigger.” He said, before he finished, the bit of metal falling to the ground with a rattle.
Radiant looked at the weapon a bit intrigued at how it worked. “Ok, I got some ammo with me still, but not much. I think I can help you reload it once the magazine runs out. But you have to give me time to do it.” The Ghost said as Radiant asked how.
“When you are unable to shoot, take the magazine out by pressing the button on the side, then I’ll take it into my memory banks and load more ammo in the magazine, then you have to push it back into the weapon and pull the bolt handle on the side to load the round in. Got it?” He asked, which the stallion gave a slow nod.
Taking a moment to practice, the stallion was confident enough to go forward, hopefully the Fallen haven’t reached them yet. Moving around the corner, he came to a long corridor, bits of metal and cables falling off.
Watching every corner, he made sure no Fallen would surprise him, before catching movement down the corridor, making him look forward. “Eyes front Guardian, I’ll be your radar for now…..I’ll tell you later.” The Ghost said, having a good guess that Radiant was confused at the word radar.
Moving deeper, he rounded a corner, expecting Fallen, but saw nothing, making him sigh a bit in relief. “I hope this can continue without any problems.” As if tempting the universe by saying those words, two Fallen fell from the ceiling, surprising him as he hid around the corner, avoiding their fire just in time.
“Seems like fate has other plans for you.” The Ghost gave a quick quip and Radiant looked around the corner, before popping out and spraying rounds at the Fallen.
Enough shots landed on the larger Fallen, causing it to fall to the ground, but the smaller one managed to avoid most of them and come close enough to Radiant, pinning him down to the floor, trying to stab his throat.
Radiant saw this as he bucked it off him, giving him enough time to grab his rifle again, and finish emptying the mag on him.
“That was kind of sloppy, try to aim next time, and don’t hold down the trigger, try to shoot short bursts.” The Ghost commented as Radiant took the magazine out and let the Ghost teleport it away, before giving it back to him.
“Not my fault that they didn’t give me time to aim, I had to shoot wildly.” He said, before looking a the corpses, a pang of regret hitting him suddenly, taking into account he had just taken two lives.
“Hey, they were trying to kill you, and they are known to kill innocents as well for no reason.” The Ghost said, sensing that the stallion was feeling guilty for killing the Fallen.
“I know, well, I know they tried to kill me, and not the second part. But, I still killed them, without even thinking.” He said as his ears pressed to the side of his head. “But, you did say they have been killing your kind, or whatever, for ages. So maybe its good I did kill them, so they don’t take any more lives. But….”
“Look, we need to get out of here, otherwise you will die against them.” The Ghost hammered that in as Radiant gave a sigh, moving forward as he tried to find a way out.
“Oh finally! Out of that place!” Radiant exclaimed as he came out of the building he had been for the past twenty minutes. “I’m starting to feel less and less guilt towards these things, considering they nearly shot my head off!”
“Calm down, you still got adrenaline running through your body, and it would be better if you didn’t lose it until we got out of here.” The Ghost said as he started scanning around, trying to find a way to leave the place.
“Sorry, I just got really annoyed from those, vandals was it? Well, those lights that they shot, they freaking followed me around to where I was hiding! I was lucky they missed me.” Radiant said, grumbling to himself.
“Shock Rifles.” The Ghost said as its body extended out, increasing the power on his signal finder to see if there was some kind of ship or other way to escape.
“Whatever. Point is that they’ve become very bothersome.” Radiant replied as he went next to the ghost. “Found anything that can help us?”
“From what I can gather from the installation layout that I downloaded from the system, it seems like there is a hangar not too far from here. We may be able to find a ship to get out of here.” It said as its body returned to normal.
Radiant raised an eyebrow at the response. “A ship? I’m not sure escaping by sea or a river will help us here. I don’t see any rivers or coasts here.”
The Ghost turned to him, giving a sort of amused look, if that was even possible. “No, nautical ships wouldn’t help us get anywhere near freedom, even if there is a coast line a few miles from here.” He said as he disappeared in its cloud of particles. “We are getting a spaceship, hopefully it gets us to The Last city.”
Radiant seemed even more confused now, how could a ship be in space? What, was there a spaceport on the moon even? Where aliens shipped their stuff too? And would there be space pirates seeking a treasure planet and….where was he going with this?
All further thought and mental debate stopped as a booming sound could be heard all around, followed by the sky darkening as well. “Incoming!” The Ghost yelled as Radiant quickly hid behind some large metallic object, hoping to avoid whatever was coming to get him.
Soon, the sound of more distant booms was heard, before some large, no, humongous object appeared out of the sky, terrifying Radiant at its sheer size, as well as seeing it topple over a distant pillar which was identical to the one near his location; which was massive.
“Fallen ships!? Rift jumping out this close to surface!?” He said, before even more smaller booms were heard, as a pair of smaller ships came closer to where Radiant was.
“Oh hay seeds, this is bad.” Radiant said as he attempted to hide more behind his cover, hoping he wouldn’t be spotted. “What do we do?”
“I think they haven’t spotted us yet, I’m picking up a few of them separating from the rest, we may be able to surprise them and take the rest from a distance with the sniper rifle” The Ghost said as Radiant looked a bit shocked.
“Are you crazy? I couldn’t handle that thing, its too heavy at the front.” Radiant said as he peeked from behind cover, not seeing any of them yet.
“But you could lay down on top of that building and snipe them from there.” The Ghost said, making Radiant look to said building, noting it could be good to take them out, if they didn’t get to him first.
“Ok, better than to wait and get overrun, right?” He said, more to reassure himself as he went out from behind cover, before getting next to the building. “Any idea how far away they are?”
“Just three of them around the corner, you could try and take them out stealthily.” The Ghost suggested as Radiant peeked around the corner, seeing it was only three of the small guys.
“Either that, or get on top of the building and risk them getting to me and killing me.” Radiant said, shuddering a bit at the idea. Slowly, he crept around the corner, making sure his hooves wouldn’t make noise.
As soon as he got near enough to the first one, He tackled him to the ground, before delivering a hard punch to the back of the head as it fell still. Unfortunately, the other two heard the commotion, as they turned around to see his comrade down and the guardian they were seeking in front of them.
Before either of them could raise their Shock Pistols and fire, Radiant took his rifle from his back and aimed quickly, landing three shots to one, and finishing the other with two shots to the head. “Well, there goes stealthy.” Radiant commented as he heard roaring coming towards him, as he placed two shots to the downed Fallen as he went to confront the rest of the enemies.
“Buck!” Radiant exclaimed as another piece of shrapnel got dislodged from his flank, as the Ghost used a beam on the wound, closing it up quickly. “Can’t you make it hurt any less!?”
“While I can help heal wounds at a much faster rate, I can’t apply anesthetics into your system. Otherwise I may risk an overdose if you get hurt multiple times in a short period.” The Ghost explained as he finished healing Radiant.
“Stupid thing, shooting me as I was running to cover.” Radiant grumbled as he stretched his leg, no longer feeling pain on his flank as it bent. “And what were those things that came after us once we got here? They sort of looked like…..you.” Radiant said, coughing awkwardly as he wasn’t trying to insult the only help he had.
“Fallen Shanks, they are field machines used to replace Fallen Dregs when needed, as well as repair crews for any of their other machines.” The Ghost said as he vanished once again. “Guardians tend to call them the bulldogs of the Fallen.”
“I could see why.” Radiant said as he walked deeper into the installation. “Also, what happened to me back there? I felt like a strange surge of power or something, it only lasted a second, but I felt it.”
“Oh, it seems like your light has started to evolve already, impressive.”
“Evolved?” Radiant asked as he halted, wanting to listen this.
“As the Guardian grows and fights, their light grows as well, allowing them to use it in new ways when fighting. Let me check what you can do now.” The Ghost said, as Radiant shivered a bit, feeling as if his privacy had been invaded.
“It looks like you can use an incendiary grenade, seems like you are a Hunter Class Guardian. I wonder if those wings have anything to do with it.” The Ghost said as Radiant tried to understand what he meant.
“Umm, explanation please?”
“Once we are out of here, the hangar is just a bit further.” The Ghost said as Radiant continued walking.
“So, what is an in-, uh, cediary grenade? I hope its not some weird fruit.” Radiant said, finding the first word weird.
“Incendiary Grenade, its an explosive made from your own light, which expands radically and sets the nearby surroundings on fire.” The Ghosts said as he managed to see something on his radar. “And we may be able to try it out.”
Radiant was about to ask why, when he heard noises and weird talking, making him go alert as he sneaked further. Soon, he could see three Dregs through a broken window, walking about in the room.
“Ok, lets try your grenade out. Focus your light into your palm, err, hoof, and then throw it at those Dregs.” The Ghost said as Radiant looked at his hoof, confused at how he was supposed to do that. “Try to imagine you have an orb in you hoof, one that contains a lot of fire.”
Radiant looked confused at the description, but decided it was worth a shot. He imagined said orb appearing in his hoof, but didn’t seem to work as he felt nothing happening. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine a small orb, pouring his will into it.
He felt a small warmth on his hoof, which made him look at his hoof, to see a small orange orb which gave a small light. Yes! He said mentally proud, before noticing that the orb was growing brighter…..Oh-Uh.
“Throw it!” That was all the Ghost had to say as Radiant panically threw the orb away, followed by a resonate boom and some screams from the Fallen. Radiant wasted no time as he took his rifle out and ran out, quickly ending the Dregs suffering with a few shots.
But they were soon replaced by another two Dregs and a Vandal, which started shooting back at him, forcing him to take cover behind some kind of generator as he quickly took the magazine out for his Ghost to refill it. “Any day buddy!” Radiant said as more bolts hit the side of his cover, making sparks fly from where it impacted.
He soon got his mag back, as he put it back into his rifle and cocked it back. Before going out of cover and taking down the two Dregs,before the Vandal charged him.
The stallion was too slow as he was swatted to the side, smashing against his previous cover. He managed to stop the Vandal from plunging a shock knife into his throat, bucking him back before catching the same knife in the air and ramming the Fallen.
The Vandal recovered quickly as it used one of its four hands to grab the stallion by the neck, choking him as he pinned him to the ground, reaching for a shock pistol to finish the job.
Radiant didn’t give him a chance as he plunged the knife into its wrist, making him roar in pain as it let go of the pony,iving Radiant enough time to pick one of the knives from one of the dead Dregs, and plunging it into the throat of the Vandal, ending its life.
Radiant removed the knife from the corpse before putting away, feeling he may need it in the future. “Well, that could have ended horribly.” The Ghost commented as Radiant picked up his rifle.
“Don’t say that, only bad stuff happens when ponies say that.” Radiant said as he sighed. “How much, ‘ammo’, do you have left?”
“About two mags worth, so not enough for a big battle. If we are lucky, we could find some ammo crates around here. And I’m still processing the shrapnel from those rifles into usable ammo for us, so aim for the head from now on.”
Radiant gave a sigh as he passed the the doorway from where the Fallen had come from. “Just what are we looking for? I know you said it was a ship, but what does it even look like?” As soon as he came into the new room, he froze in a bit of fear.
“Well, good news, that’s a ship we could use.” The Ghost said as Radiant saw the ship, or rather what was on top of it. “Bad news, we got a captain to deal with first.”
“....Ghost?”
“Yes Guardian?”
“I hate you for tempting fate.” Radiant said as the Fallen Captain gave a roar, making all the other Fallen with him turn to the pony, ready to kill him.
The next moment, he was running behind a pillar, as multiple shots were fired towards him. “How many are there!?” Radiant asked as he popped out to take a few shots, missing as the enemies hid behind cover.
“I’m picking up nine, two of them Shanks.”
Radiant grunted at the info. “Great, two of those metal cans. Just my luck.” He said, before popping out again, managing to down two Dregs, before being forced back to cover.
Letting the Ghost refill his mag, it took the chance to comment. “We still got eleven shots in the Sniper Rifle, its rounds should be able to deal with them easy.”
“Only if I have no choice!” Radiant said, a bit irritated as he barely dodged some shots from a shrapnel rifle, remembering his bad experience with them. He was about to pop out again, when one of the Dregs popped from around the corner, holding two shock knives, charging the stallion.
He barely had enough time to dodge, as he felt the blade grace his armor chest, reacting quickly as he unloaded a few shots into it, taking it out for good. “Nine shots in your current mag, and thirteen for refill.” The Ghost said, making the stallion nervous.
“Ok, lets try this grenade again.” Radiant said with a bit of dread as he concentrated on making the orb of light again, this time seeing it form on his hoof, before he quickly tossed it away, hearing some shrieks as he most likely took out some of them.
“Got one Shank, two Vandals and the Captain still.” The Ghost informed as Radiant let him refill his mag one last time.
“Ghost?”
“What is it Guardian?”
“I’m about to do something very stupid.” Radiant said as he gulped a bit.
“Do I want to know?” The Ghost sounded a bit nervous now, but it could have been the stallion’s imagination.
“I think not.” That is all he said, before spreading his wings and taking flight from around the corner. He quickly took advantage of his speed and height to shoot the shank and one of the Vandals, but only managed to hurt the other one as his rifle clicked empty. “Oh crud.”
Ditching the gun, Radiant dive bombed into the Vandal, knocking it off its feet as it smacked against a wall, hearing a sickening crack as it most likely broke some bones. If not its armor; who knew if they actually had bones.
However, his moment of flight was short lived as he felt his wings burn, making him fall and land hard against the ship, before falling to the ground. Radiant whimpered in pain, feeling his wings scream in agony as he felt the burning sensation.
“Guardian, watch out!” The scream from the Ghost made Radiant snap to reality, just in time to evade more shots from the Fallen Captain, standing up quickly he ran to cover, avoiding more of the hot projectiles.
“Hnngh, Ghost, what do I do?” Radiant was scared, scared that he is soon close to death, as well as the pain that ran through him.
“You still got a weapon, you can still- watch out!” The Ghost said, too late as Radiant’s head was grabbed by a claw hand, making the stallion struggle before being thrown against a wall.
Radiant groaned in pain, sitting up as he tried to get back up, but was halted by a foot pressed against him, right against the wall. The Captain aimed his weapon at the head of the pony, pulling the trigger slowly as he saw the fear on the ponies face.
But was interrupted as something shot it from behind, again and again, until its shields were gone. It turned around to face whoever had attacked him, but saw nothing.
Taking the moment, Radiant shouted in desperation, his life depending on it. “Sniper, now!” In an instant, a long rifle appeared in Radiant’s hooves, quickly aiming it to the Captain as it turned around, and pulling the trigger.
In an instant, the head of the Captain was blown off, a white light and fog escaping from the neck before the body fell to the floor, lifeless.
Radiant held his breath for a bit longer, before exhaling loudly, shocked at how close he had come to death, again.
“I guess its good that the magnetic clip on your chest piece wasn’t working. I don’t think I could have given you the rifle in time if I were to transmat it from you and back.” The Ghost said, appearing again as it went to heal its Guardian.
“Don’t worry about me now, we need to get out of here before we get surrounded again.” Radiant said, struggling to get up as he shoved the Ghost away. “I hope this thing can really get us out of here.”
The Ghost looked to the ship before flying closer to it. “This ship hasn’t taken flight for centuries.” It said, as it started analysing the ship with some kind of light. “Kind of surprised the Fallen haven’t looted it clean yet.”
Radiant looked skeptical at the machine, since he said it could fly. “This thing flies?” He said, not seeing any wings that could do it. “How?”
The Ghost turned to him, kind of giving him an amused look. “You’ll see.” He said, disappearing in its cloud of particles. Before long, the ship had lights turn on, as a roaring sound could be heard coming from the machine.
Radiant’s ears folded back as the noise started to grow loud, as well as wind starting to pick up, suddenly, the cables that used to hold the ship in place, broke off, letting it hang in the air as it righted itself.
Radiant was in awe, not believing a thing like this could even manage to do the act of flight, let alone hover. “It won’t be able to break orbit, but I’m positive it can reach the City. Now, just to let you know about the transmat.”
The explanation was cut short, as a new roaring sound was heard coming from behind the stallion. Turning around, he saw two more Vandals come out from a hole in the wall, before a giant Fallen followed through, making the stallion back away in fear, knowing he was in no condition to go against it.
“Bringing you in!” That’s all the Ghost said, before the pony was surrounded in blue particles, as it found itself inside somewhere else, surrounded by buttons, lights, levers and screens. In one of them, he saw the image of the Fallen shooting at them, glad he was not there to face them anymore.
“We’ll come back once you are ready for them, don’t worry.” The Ghost said, which made Radiant’s eye twitch, the pain in his joints and body increasing as the idea of facing that thing filled him with dread.
“Guardian, something wrong?” The Ghost said, putting the ship in autopilot as he materialized next to Radiant. The Ghost would be dealing with a crazy and hurt pony for the next couple hours after that.
“...So, this humans, have been at war with creatures from the darkness alongside Exos and Awoken for centuries?” Radiant asked, having being healed and recovered from his small mental breakdown some time ago.
“Yes, Exos being war machines made by humans to help them, and Awoken being humans that were at the edge of the Solar System when the Collapse happened.” The Ghost said as it hovered next to the pony.
“Dang, and if it wasn’t for this, Traveller, you would all be dead?”
“Most likely, the ward that he has placed around itself is the only thing stopping the darkness or its servants from reaching him. So we built the City right below him, for protection.” He said, before brightening up a bit. “Speaking of which, we are nearly there, I’ll send a message to the Speaker to expect our arrival, he will most likely want to speak with you.”
Radiant smiled a bit, so far he had been surrounded by chaos and death. Maybe visiting this City, or Tower, as the Ghost had said they were going, would be nice for him. “That’s good, do you think the other Guardians will react bad to me? From what you told me, I’m the first other alien to become a Guardian.”
“I’m positive that they won’t do anything to you. Worst case scenario, they’ll distance you from the others, but that its unlikely to happen.” The Ghost said to assure him. He then lit up again as he turned towards the consoles. “Might want to look at where we are arriving.”
Radiant followed him to a monitor, and the image it displayed was breath taking. In the distance, a large sphere hung above the ground, the rays of the sun hitting it as it made it shine as it was some type of gem.
Underneath stood a city, lights from buildings shone bright under the shadow of the Traveller, as the City itself expanded out towards the edges. And coming closer, a large pillar with a wide top rested by the mountains, a beacon of hope to the city below.
“Wow, and Guardians live there?”
“Yes, apartment complexes are provided to the Guardians to use as their homes while in the Tower, with multiple levels going across and underground.” He said, moving the ship to pass next to the small plaza that stood at the centre of the tower, before both of them got transmatted onto it, with the ship flying to the port.
“Oh wow, its amazing.” Radiant said, looking at the architecture of the place, as well as what one could think were shops of some sorts.
“I guess you could say that. Not much to show, but this is-”
“What the hell is that thing!?” Someone shouted, getting the attention of the many Guardians and Ghosts going about in the tower.
“...Uhhh-” Radiant tried to say something, but was stopped as multiple guns were raised towards him, making him halt in fear; as well as multiple ghosts got near him, trying to analyse him.
“Doesn’t look like any of the creatures we have knowledge of.” One of them commented.
“It must be a new race that has joined the darkness!” Another declared as she gripped her weapon tighter.
“Seize it!” Another one shouted as a few Guardians came closer to him.
“.....Ghost?”
“Uhh, yes Guardian?”
“I think I’m gonna hate it here.” That’s all he managed to say, before another Guardian managed to sneak behind him, knocking him out cold.
Author's Note
If you find anything wrong with this chapter, regarding the way its present it or information I may have gotten wrong, please do tell me. Constructive criticism is appreciate it, as well as telling me if you prefer this style of writing or would prefer a faster pace one.
Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day. Peace!
