9) On Patrol

   What does a new guardian do with a newly repaired ship, fresh riches, loads of ammunition, and updated gear? He goes patrolling. He does patrols till glimmer is dropping from his pockets and he is so loaded down with engrams that he has to go back to the tower to store some items and sell others. Oh, what are glimmer and engrams? Yeah, I guess I really didn't explain glimmer before, I just mentioned it as being a currency. Glimmer is programmable matter. Essentially, engrams are as well - they just typically have already been encoded or programmed with an item or items. Old earth physicists had long told people that matter and energy were simply different states of one another - glimmer and engrams are a brilliant application of the principle.

   So, although I could travel to the ends of the galaxy and back in moments, I was tasked with patrolling the Cosmodrome. That ugly, near-barren patch of permafrost, over-laden with the remnants and reminders of a dead society, would be my training-ground. I would respond to beacons and collect items and bounties for days, then weeks, then months. My strength grew, my weapons sharpened, and my armor became not just a thing of practical protection, but artful and elegant.

   Long hours patrolling - long hours sitting and watching targets - gave me time for thought. Where were the Fallen from? They were comfortable with Earth's atmosphere and gravity. They are larger than humans, have something that seems akin to a modified caste system. I say modified, because there appears to be some upward mobility for the most tenacious and aggressive members of the lower classes. Rarely, I would find dregs, vandals, even captains elevated - docked arms replaced, enhancements to armor, weaponry, and cybernetics. What brought the Fallen to Earth? Were they driven by need of resources? Did something more powerful push them from their home? One thing was certain, they were well armed, motivated, and they just kept coming. There was one thing for certain - they hated humanity. It was as though we had violated something they held most sacred.

   Even more baffling to me was the Hive. Occult - that is to say, hiding their true purpose - in nature, I had not seen enough to really know what to think. Their appearance sent chills down my spine and their screams, both audible and inaudible, very nearly  made me sick to my stomach. There was a certain terror in facing them - I didn't understand it. I didn't understand them, but for now, they were not my most pressing problem.

   So I mused, and patrolled, and patrolled, and mused. Then one day, a harbinger of darkness spoke. Whispers of guardians lost - their lights extinguished on the moon - were heard in the tower. Then the Speaker himself confirmed our fears and then trebled them. Yes, guardians on the moon went dark - it appeared the Hive now had more than just a foothold in the system. On top of that, a mechanical god of the Fallen had taken up residence on Earth.

   "I am sorry, but there is no time left to train you more properly." the Speaker was apologetic, "I am afraid your time has come."

Popular posts from this blog

10) The Sepiks Prime War, part 1

   "Ghost, how many times have you had to re-integrate my body?" Patrols had netted us weapon upgrades, new vehicles, and even new skills, but it had come with a price as well.    "One hundred forty six times." Somehow this wasn't surprising, just a little depressing.    "What about how many times other guardians have saved us from the dark?"    "Forty seven."     Since the Speaker had called for an all out assault on Sepiks Prime's stronghold in the Cosmodrome, the Devil's Lair, guardians had been going out in larger and larger groups. Our patrols had been skirmishing against their patrols for years, but now things had escalated. Where we had been running three and four man fire teams, now we were running platoons. The area known as the Rocket Yard was crawling with Fallen. Redoubts and entrenchments had been constructed and were reinforced constantly by air and orbital drop. Aside from the large drop ships, even a gi
Read more

1) Date Unknown, Time Unimportant

 I am a guardian - Teirnan Starfall of Earth. That sounds rather pretentious, let me try again.  First of all, Ghost made me do this. Well, I suppose " made"  would be too strong a way of putting it, but you know what I mean. Ghost thinks more records need to be made of how life is being lived. So much history has been lost after all.   I have no memory of who I was before - before Ghost reassembled my body and consciousness into a single coherent, cohesive being. Whoever I was, whatever I was before the fall - those things were washed away by years of entropy. When Ghost woke me, wretched remains were scattered round me - husks of humans and their machines - dessicated by the weathering of untold seasons. "Automobiles." Ghost told me some time later - those machines around me. There was a great herd of them around, all empty save the dust of decay.   So Ghost found me, and pulled me together using the Traveller's light. and then what. Words he spoke - and I
Read more

5) Becoming Human - part 3

  I wanted to look at everything around me - everything was new, familiar but new. From the cover of the larger building, the command center I suppose, I could see crumbled highways, rusted hulks of vehicles, and broken down heavy equipment. It was amazing. It was also depressing.  All these things were a testament to the greatness and failure of humanity all at once.   "We need to get to that ship, hurry!" Ghost was virtually pulling me further into the building.   "What happened?" I was still entranced by the massively morbid scene.   "The collapse? It was essentially an extinction event, or nearly so. I'll tell you more later, just get moving. We need that ship - we need to get to the Tower." Ghost chirped fearfully.   "You really are scared." I chided him.   "Only because I know the danger." Ghost fired back.   We made our way through rooms that were rough husks, burned and rusted out computers and equipment filled t
Read more