Eyes Up, Guardian

Chapter 1

"All Ends Are Beginnings."

Being dead isn't like what you think. I think there's a waiting period, like God isn't ready for you to die yet. It's like you're sleeping, but you can't wake up, and no matter how hard you try you just float away. I don't know if I believe in God or not. I'm at a confusing stage in my life, or death? Afterlife maybe? I died, don't judge me.
     And yeah, I know, some people are meant to die, the whole 'and they let death take them' or whatever. It used to be that death took everyone. Not anymore. Not since the ghosts came along, not since the Guardians began to fight for the human race. I always thought that when death came for me, that would be my time, but apparently, my parents had other plans. 

     I gasped, clawing at my chest, only to realize there was no shooting pain, only a dull ache, as if my entire body was covered in a layer of ice and I had to move to crack it. I looked down at my torso, no Fallen bullets, no blades stuck in my back. Just clean skin, perfect, lively.
     "You're alive!" A voice beamed, "I knew I would find you!"
     The owner of the voice was a little AI device, a Ghost. He floated over me, happily bouncing and talking about how everyone had told him that he'd never find me and even if he did he'd never be able to revive me.
     "You're a Ghost, aren't you?" I asked, I had to be sure, I'd felt pretty dead before, beyond the point of revival, or at least I'd thought so.
     The Ghost nodded, moving the front prisms that made up his shell to show he was nodding.
     "Yes," he said, "Technically I'm your ghost. You've been dead a long time, so you're going to see a lot of things you don't understand-"
     A faint roar echoed through the valley, making my veins turn to ice all over again. Relax,I told myself, you're safe, you've even got a Ghost here.
     "Fallen. We aren't safe here." The ghost told me, "We have to move."
     Suddenly he vanished, my heart pounded, I felt like my blood was suddenly energized, shooting through my veins in a state of panic. The ghost must have realized, for he spoke up quickly.
     "Don't worry, I'm still with you." He told me, it seemed as though he was talking through a radio system. "We're not going to survive long out in the open like this, we need to get through the wall."
     I stood up slowly, the landscape around me was covered in old rusty cars, all crashed against each other. They were on what used to be a road, I was a little to the side of it, just away from the mess of cars. The road was in tatters, the concrete was broken and crumbling apart, grown through with tons of weeds. The signs were gone, or rusted and falling over, drooping like sad flowers. The whole landscape looked dead, pillaged by the Fallen.
     "This can't be..." I murmured, looking towards the building the ghost had told me to go to. I recognized that building, I recognized this area, but I had known it when it was still somewhat alive. Perhaps it had died with me.
     "Guardian! We need to move or the Fallen will get us." The ghost spoke frantically to me.
     I froze, only for a second before looking back, behind me where I could see Fallen in the distance. "What did you just call me?" I asked, though I didn't need to.
     "Listen, I didn't come all this way just for you to die again, so let's go!" The ghost insisted, so I went.
      I began at a slow jog, the cold wind now blasting at my face as I had gotten up from my cover of dead cars. My joints practically creaked from lack of use. I weaved through the maze of rusted cars, seeing a doorway to the building we needed to get into. I ducked inside and heard some banging up above.
     "The fallen are right above us." The ghost warned, appearing next to me and providing a light so that I could see in the dark of the building. The ghost told me which way to go, guiding me down dark corridors and up stairwells, eventually leading me out into a large section of the building with catwalks running along the celling.
     "I'm going to get us some light." The Ghost said, "Fallen thrive in the dark, we won't." A few moments later, the lights switched on and there was a loud roar of a the Fallen. Fallen were everywhere, climbing on the walls, hanging from the rafters, even some on the ceiling. All of them saw me in an instant, all ready to fight.
     "They're coming for us!" The Ghost warned, "I found you a rifle, grab it!" He told me, flying to where a rifle leaned against a crate. I ran after the ghost, ducking under a metal gate and grabbing the rifle from the crate.
     "This way!" The Ghost led the way down a long hallway, moving so fast I had to run to keep up, not that that was a problem, given there were Fallen chasing us.
     "I hope you know how to use that thing." The Ghost said as we hurried down the hallway. As I ran, the floor creaked, I wasn't sure what was solid ground and what wasn't.
     We spun a corner into another section of the hallways. Fallen ran at us from up ahead, urgently I lifted the rifle and shot at them. It took a moment before I could actually hit them, but the Ghost didn't complain. It wasn't like he could shoot any better.
     The hallways led to a large room were a number of enemies hid behind various pieces of cover, boxes and things I didn't know what were for. Three Fallen ran at me, too close to shoot, but, as it turns out, the Ghost had provided me with a knife, which was conveniently located in my belt. I grabbed it and slammed the knife into the enemies one at a time, mostly dodging their blows. I then grabbed my rifle and ducked further into the large room. I hid behind a box that looked like a giant AC unit, ducking out to hit the Fallen. Once there were enough down that I didn't feel the need for the cover anymore, I ran at the last few, slamming my knife through their simple armor. Had the Fallen come so far on Earth that they felt they didn't need heavy armor anymore? Where were all the Guardians? Where were the outposts the fortified cities?
     "There's more ahead, keep it up." The Ghost said, snapping me out of my thoughts. The floors were covered in debris, stuff that you would find on the inside of a really old wall, only decaying and smelly. Also filled with insects, but I wasn't about to study the stuff. The ghost led me down along a catwalk, only to stop me at a landing.
     "A loot cache! Let's see what's inside!" The Ghost said.
     I glanced sideways at him, "We're kind of in a hurry, plus, these are for the Guardians, we can't just take it."
     I wasn't sure what had changed with these 'loot caches' as the Ghost had called it, but in my past life– yeah, that's a good way to put it, in my past life, the caches weren't filled with loot, they were hidden across the planets and filled with weapons and money and even ships sometimes, anything a Guardian might need in the field. They were designed so that only a Guardian or a Ghost could open them, that way the supplies wouldn't be taken by civilians or enemies.
     "Don't worry, you have the right to take it. Open it." The Ghost told me, so I did. I heaved open the lid, surprised it actually gave way. Inside was a sniper rifle laying on a pile of glimmer, Guardian currency. The Ghost led me forward, only to quickly exclaim as we rounded a corner, "Trip-mines! Don't touch them."
     Indeed, crisscrossing the hallway were two red beams, when tripped, they would set off explosions, hence the name trip-mine. I slung the sniper rifle over my shoulder and ducked under the mines, only to nearly fall backwards into one when a pair of Fallen Dregs bust from an air vent in the floor. I seized my knife from my belt, making quick work of the dregs before grabbing my rifle again. A few more dregs and vandals attacked, some only to trip another set of mines up ahead. Idiots.
     I made quick work of the remaining ones, somehow not failing terribly on my rifle skills. Good for me. Maybe when you die you suddenly become skilled at a ton of things. I doubted it, but it would be a nice touch. The Ghost led me down a final hallway that opened up into a much larger room, everything in this building seemed to be metal, metal was everywhere here.
     The room had a raised platform running along the border of the room, the only exception being the wall on the far side, in front of me. To my right, the raised platform dropped off before it hit the wall, instead going to stairs leading down to a little tunnel in the wall where Fallen were rushing in. Inside the room were multiple bin things that had the round structure of loot caches. I assumed they had probably held ammo or weapons for Guardians who might have been stationed here before, but they looked fairly empty now. They were also metal(so much metal) so I assumed I could use them as cover. The Fallen were rushing in and had spotted me, I ducked out of the way of a few Vandal shots, leaping over the railing of the raised platform I was standing on and onto the the lowerground. I then darted to the left, opposite the tunnel, and climbed up on the raised platform. I then began to shoot at the Vandals, then the Dregs. The Vandals had four arms, alien faces and carried heavy, more damaging weapons, most suited for fairly long-range combat. The Dregs, however, had two arms, also possessed alien faces but were more slouched and smaller than the Vandals. I assumed them to be a lower ranking. The dregs were armed with knives that seemed to be crackling with electricity. The Dregs advanced, the Vandals bringing up the rear, I shot at the close Dregs and the far Vandals, occasionally moving around the room. Once the room was clear, I made my way towards the tunnel, ducking into it and heading through. The tunnel led out to what looked like a sewage drain, two large fans were in front of fences on either end of the tunnel and water ran through it as well, smelly and old. The tunnel led out into the open, outside again. There building that I had exited was huge, there seemed to be plenty of huge buildings around here. In front of me was a large open courtyard, then there was a regular sized building and behind that building was a large wall, perhaps this had been a base of some sort.
     "This was an old cosmodrome, there's got to be something we can fly out here." The Ghost said. In the distance I could see a number of rockets just sitting on the launch towers, but those would be far too old from me to fly. And it wasn't like I needed to leave Earth, right? Oh god, I did not want to leave Earth.
     I looked back, behind me at the building I had left, only to feel the ground shake under my feet and to hear a loud roar. I looked towards the rockets, half expecting one to be flying right at me, just to prove me wrong. Instead, I spotted multiple flying ships in the sky.
     "Ships?" The Ghost exclaimed, "This close to the surface?! Move!"
      Don't have to tell me twice, I thought, taking off at a sprit, the Ghost directed me toward another huge building across a long bridge where one of the Fallen ships was dropping off their cargo of Dregs and Vandals. I fount my way through fairly easily, there weren't that many fallen, and I could easily hit them, as they were rather clustered at the moment. Once I got onto the bridge, which wasn't exactly a bridge, just a strip of land that ran towards the building, the wall to my right, a large moat like thing to my left, I ducked behind an old shipping container that had been pushed off to the side. From the building at the end of the bridge, multiple Fallen Shanks started to fly towards me. Shanks were like militarized drones, they could shoot, and effectively dodge attacks, some even blew up when they got close to you, those were called Exploding Shanks, I'd never seen one up close, and I hoped I never would.
     I shot at the Shanks and the Dregs following just behind, one Shank exploded when I shot it and another was sent reeling into the wall, narrowly missing the third, which I simply ran over and drove my knife into. The knife sunk into the metal like it was butter, hardly even making a sound, I'd have to remember to keep it with me, and hopefully not cut myself, it was a miracle I hadn't yet.
     "I'm detecting signs of an old jumpship." The Ghost said, "Could be our ticket out of here."
     The Ghost led the way further into the building, the room that I was currently standing in could have functioned as some sort of garage, but I knew these buildings weren't residential, or hadn't been before the Fallen had come along. The ghost led me into a hallway like thing that had a staircase up into a raised platform, a staircase down to the normal floor, and then back up again. What was wrong with normal floor plans?
     The lights didn't work beyond flickers and sparks, the illumination of the room came from large glowing rods propped against the wall. They sort of reminded me of glow sticks, only they shined a lot brighter, and they were an orangey color. We made our way through the building, a grenade, generated by my Ghost, had appeared in my pocket, when I threw it, it released a fiery explosion on a group of enemies. We made it out to a small courtyard area that didn't seem meant to be a courtyard. It was a rectangular shame, I was at one side of the long end of the rectangle, the jumpship at the other.
     "There's the ship! Clear them out!" The Ghost told me. The ship seemed to be handing from something, it appeared to be plugged in, but I couldn't tell if it actually worked or not. Around the ship were a few Dregs, Vandals, and a captain that seemed to be the commanding officer.
     The captain had a glowing blue aura around him, which I identified as a shield. I pulled out my sniper rifle, even though I would prefer to be at a greater distance, the sniper rifle could take down the shield fairly easily. I raised it, finding the captain in the crosshairs and shooting at his head, taking down the shield. I shot once more at the captain and he fell backwards and didn't rise again. I then took care of the minions, who were a piece of cake compared to the plethora of other Dregs and Vandals I had already taken. Once all the Dregs and Vandals were gone, I had made it over to the jumpship.
     "Let me see if I can get us out of here." The Ghost said, heading towards the jumpship, I followed, looking to the ship then to the Ghost.
     "It's been here a while," he  said, "hasn't made a jump in centuries. We're lucky the Fallen haven't completely picked it clean."
     "Will it fly?" I asked.
     "I can make it work." The Ghost said confidently. He vanished, probably inside the ship. Slowly, the ship began to creak and hum, the lighted flickered on and the engines began to turn. I watched as the engines ignited and it began to fly on its own, pulling free of the cables. I stepped back, lifting an arm to shield my face from a cloud of dust the engines had kicked up.
     "Okay," the Ghost said, "It's not going to break orbit, but it just might get us to the city. Now, about that transmit-"
     I turned, a loud fallen roar tearing through the noise of the engines, from a gaping hole in the wall, a huge Fallen lord emerged, flanked by his minions.
     "Bringing you in!" The Ghost said, and I vanished, appearing within the ship. He flew the ship carefully out of a large hole in the celling, "You can come back for them when you're ready." He said, "Let's get you home."
     Soon, we were soaring across the cosmodrome, but I wasn't going to watch it drift away, I promptly yanked off my helmet and set it down on the floor. I headed over to the corner of the ship and sat down, leaned against the wall and fell asleep. What can I say, coming back to life takes a lot out of you.

Footnote
I give Bungie and Destiny and all the creators credit for the first chapter, the dialogue is almost entirely theirs and the locations are theirs and the Ghost is theirs, basically everything minus the narrator/character person(still unnamed) is theirs.