Chapter 1: The Beginning
I wandered in an infinitely dark and vast space, looking for someone, anyone to help me. I was lost in darkness with no memories and no purpose. I continued to walk for ages, eons maybe, until finally...finally a light broke through this seemingly impenetrable void.
I heard a distant voice calling out to me and filling me with such hope, that I felt I would collapse and cry at any moment. I reached my hands out toward the light and let it bathe me in its warmth, accepting it and letting it pull me from this despair.
The next thing I remembered was opening my eyes and seeing a small, black ball, with a light blue diamond like pattern in its center, floating in front of me. I took a deep breath and began to slowly move my fingers before feeling around my body in mild confusion.
"Ahem, hello Guardian! I am your Ghost, and I have revived you to become my Chosen! I hope we can be good...friends..." The little robot slowly looked over and said "Oh shit...RUN!" before disappearing into blue particles.
'What are you doing!? Run!' The robot's voice called out in my head frantically. I looked over and saw a total of ten large, four armed, four eyed creatures, each wielding two serrated swords in their top two hands, with blue energy shields covering their bodies.
I turned and began to run as fast as my stiff body would let me as I jumped over clumps of rusted cars. 'Over there! You can hide from those Fallen Captains!' I looked toward where my little companion had placed a translucent circle and leapt toward it.
I found what looked to be a sewer pipe and dived inside, ignoring the various scrapes and cuts I had received in the process. I waited and heard the aliens loud footsteps and foreign speech just a few meters away from my position. I heard one of them shout angrily before walking away with the rest following shortly after.
I waited for a few extra minutes while the robot materialized out from my body and went to go check and see if the coast was clear. The little guy soon popped up from outside of the pipe and said "It's all clear! Thanks to me, you evaded the experience of being shred to pieces!" in a cheerful voice.
I sighed in relief before crawling out of the pipe and taking a good look at my surroundings. I seemed to be in a ruined and rusted city filled with skeletons and decaying structures. Something about this place felt familiar, but I just couldn't remember what it was, and that frustrated me to no end.
"So, what should I call you from now on? I feel like we'll be together for a long, long time." I said to my floating companion. He looked toward me and released a thoughtful 'hmm' before giving me the impression that he shrugged his nonexistent shoulders before saying "I don't know, that's for you to decide not me."
I cocked my head to the side and began to think of a multitude of names, but none of them really fit the little guy at all. "Hmm, how about Jack...no that's not it. Jester? No. Um...what about...Sam...?" I began to spit out random names that popped up in my head, but I really didn't expect him to respond to any of them, but he did.
"Oooooh I like Sam! Sam sounds kind of badass!" Sam said with a hearty laugh. I cocked an eyebrow before shrugging and saying "Well, Sam it is. Nice to meet you, my name is...my name...?" I couldn't remember my name, who I was before I had died, or what I was even revived for, but I quickly decided on a name for myself.
"Well, I guess I'll just go with Lucifer Blake. It seems somewhat familiar, so it may have been my previous name..." I heard Sam snicker as he tried not to laugh before saying "Pfft...who came up with the name Lucifer Blake...Pffhahahahaha!"
I felt my eye twitch as I stared at the lively robot with a deadpan expression. Sam coughed before muttering "Damn killjoy..." and disappearing into my body once more. I noticed that I had a sort of radar in the top right corner of my vision that alerted me to dangers or potential resources, which I found pretty useful as I followed it and found a few edible berries.
I munched on the berried as Sam began to tell me about the the Light, Guardians, and our purpose in the world. He informed me that we were on Earth, the birthplace of Humans, and that Earth had been left in ruins during the Collapse and that Humans were almost wiped out before the Traveler had came and drove the Darkness back from Earth.
I listened to his explanation thoroughly and began to connect some of his explanations with others. "Wait, so this 'Traveler' had created your kind, the Ghosts, after it was injured in order to protect humanity before going into some kind of stasis over the last standing city on Earth? First of all, how did the 'Darkness' even get to Earth? I thought you said it was only prevalent on the Moon and the planet Io...?"
Sam emit a low 'mmm' before saying 'The Darkness is an ever present force within the world just like the Light. They both exist to balance each other out as, without one of the other, the world would be chaotic.' I adopted a thoughtful expression as I rearranged the information from the beginning.
"I still don't understand how a world where the Light became the dominant force would be bad, but it's getting dark and I don't have a weapon." I stood up and began to look around before setting my eyes on the distant city behind me. I heard Sam emit a low beep, indicating that he was thinking, before saying 'I think there should be some kind of vault inside of the city. Maybe we can find some gear for you in there?'
I nodded my head and began to walk toward the ruined city, taking care to watch my radar for enemies that I couldn't see.
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I crept around a large group of Fallen as I entered the surrounding area of the city, taking extra care to not start a fight. I stopped and held my breath as a two armed Fallen walked out in front of me and continued on toward a large tent-like building off to the side. I took a deep, albeit quiet, breath as I continued to sneak around through the night.
I checked my radar and saw it filled with red as I entered through the outer layer of the city and weaved through the ruins. Sam had told me that the defining feature of a Guardian was their ability to harness the light in three different forms, Solar energy, Arc energy, and Void energy, however, I had yet to produce anything involving the Light so that was out of the picture.
Thankfully, I could see relatively well in the dark despite my lack of equipment or ability to use my slumbering powers. I found a building that was, for the most part, intact enough for me to seek shelter inside of it. I silently vaulted through a window and carefully walked through the ground floor in search of anything useful before moving up the stairs and to the next floor.
I saw one of the tiles on my radar suddenly light up, indicating that an enemy was close by. I crouched up the stairs and, thankfully, found a lone Dreg leaning its elbow against a window with its head in its palm as it stared outside with a bored expression. A small smile crept up to my face as I silently made my way over and snatched the ugly bastard's shock dagger from its sheath and stabbed it into its head, ending its life quickly.
I looted the thing and found a shock pistol with a generous amount of ammo, causing me to almost shriek out in glee. I calmed down and stored the extra ammo in some kind of dimensional storage, like Sam had said, before continuing my journey toward the center of the city. Toward a massive building that looked almost a little too intact.
Sam not-too-surprisingly had the ability to read my thoughts, so we conversed with each other throughout our journey to combat the growing boredom we faced, despite being surrounded by hundreds of hungry and violent aliens.
I took the time to kill any Fallen that had wandered off by itself every time I saw one. Mainly to scavenge their gear. So far, I had killed three Dregs, counting the one from earlier, and one Vandal, which gave me a nice pair of shock blades that I wore on my sides.
I was steadily getting used to my own body, increasing my strangely natural proficiency at stealth, as well as aiding in my use of the shock blades. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a master, but it truly felt like my weapons were an extension of my body, not lumps of materials in my hands. The sun had began to crest over the mountains in the distance, forcing me to retreat into the shadows to conceal my position.
I cursed silently as I flit from shadow to shadow, carefully taking note of the increased activity in the city now that it was day. The Fallen seemed to be somewhat relaxed, almost like they knew that people wouldn't venture out this far from the Last City.
'These Fallen don't have a banner, so they must have become outcasts and took in other Fallen who became outcasts to bolster their numbers. It seems like they're preparing to try and take over a neighboring clan...' Sam said as he muttered to himself. I could see that they were polishing their weapons and practicing their aim and formations, so I also suspected that they were either expecting an attack from something or that they were about to attack something.
I stopped and pressed my back against a nearby wall, concealing myself completely, as a Vandal and a Captain walked past the alleyway I was in. I had forgot to watch my radar, hence why they were able to get so close. The last thing I want is to get this whole mob of Fallen on my ass...
A loud horn sounded out, signaling something, causing the Fallen to cheer and gather around a large stage with three Captains on top of it. These Captains looked like they were at the top of the food chain since they were so much taller than the other Captains. They began to talk to the massive crowd of Fallen in their language, earning many cheers and hollers from the crowd.
I took this as a chance to slip by and enter the large building, but I had ran into some...complications...
"Ha Go Lovos" (roughly 'An enemy belonging to hunters!') source- https://errata.ishtar-collective.net/the-fallen-language/
I whipped my head around and saw a vandal brandishing its rifle as it yelled out, alerting every single one of the Fallen gathered a mere 50 meters away. I cursed and drew my shock pistol and blew the damn things head off before making a mad dash toward the building that was more than a few hundred meters away.
I evaded countless bullets and shot countless Fallen as well as these big ass flying robots that also shot at me. I was now less than two hundred meters away from the building when three captains teleported in front of me, each wielding different weapons. They activated their energy shields as the one in the middle lunged at my with its shock blades aimed for my throat.
I took a few shots at it before diving to avoid its attack, but I instead took a shot from the captain wielding a shock rifle. I grit my teeth in pain as Sam hurriedly tried to activate my own shields while I continued to dodge their attacks and run.
I rapidly sunk ammunition into the sword wielding Captain's shield, eventually making it collapse. I then holstered my pistol and took out my two shock blades before rushing the stunned Fallen. I threw out a slash to catch its attention before stabbing forward with the other blade, but the Captain just teleported a few meters away to evade.
I looked at my radar and saw it furiously blinking red as the Fallen began to surround me. Their leaders soon entered through the large ring that the rest had formed around me as the largest one said "Hu...man...I...de...cla...re...com...bat..." in broken English.
I heard Sam practically scream in confusion as the large bastard drew two long, golden swords from their scabbards before adopting a stance and raising its shields. I nervously looked around at the Fallen surrounding me and saw that they were snickering and standing by with their weapons at their sides.
Sam had finally activated my shields, helping to make me feel a little more confident than before. I faced the Fallen Captain patiently waiting for me to accept his challenge and said "I guess I have no choice...alright, you're on you ugly son of a bitch!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone