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. ........GUARDIAN.
... .HEY GUARDIAN, WAKE UP. YES, YOU. WHO ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING TO, DO YOU SEE ANYBODY ELSE ALIVE AND KICKING AROUND? BETTER HURRY UP, THE FALLEN ARE HERE.
Jade Harley opens her eyes to see ruin. The world is blurry for a moment, and ringed by darkness that aches all through her skull, but she manages to draw herself to her unsteady feet. Her bones feel strange, as if they have been strung apart and then pieced back together again after having been shattered long ago, and it feels as if her insides are being scoured with odd tingling vibrations that skitter along her skin and behind her eyelids like dozens of tiny ants. It is unpleasant, but far more unpleasant are the howls she hears echoing in the distance.
All around her are horribly rusted cars, orangeish brown and chipping away, surrounded by thick vegetation and crumbled structures that may have once resembled buildings. There is some snow scattered across the ground, chilly winds prickling the hair on her body through her coverings. Looking towards the horizon, Jade's green eyes widen upon observing towering alien structures sticking up out of the gloom, several crows roosting on the lower spires. Further out, she can see water, but it appears to be only accessible by dropping over steep cliff sides.
The small floating object, which is vaguely star-shaped and has a glowing blue center that flickers at her when its levitating sends it spinning, speaks to her again. Its voice is predictably tinny. In the meantime, Jade studiously examines the backs of her hands, which are comfortably gloved when she flexes them, and then her steel-toed boots. She doesn't remember owning this peculiar clothing, because her own clothes never fit this well.
..
.
LISTEN, GUARDIAN, BECAUSE I'M ONLY GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE AND BE DONE WITH IT. I'M YOUR GHOST. YOU'VE BEEN DEAD FOR A LONG TIME, BUT LUCKILY I'VE FOUND YOU JUST IN TIME TO REVIVE YOU BEFORE YOUR BONES INEVITABLY WOULD HAVE TURNED TO DUST. YOU SURE MADE IT HARD FOR ME THOUGH, I'VE BEEN SCANNING ALL THESE GRIMY SKELETONS AND VEHICLES FOR HOURS.
SERIOUSLY, IT WAS KIND OF INCONVENIENT, HAVING TO WAIT ON YOU FOR SO LONG. I SUPPOSE IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT TO SEE YOU BEAT IN SOME OF THE FALLEN'S UGLY MUGS, BUT...
Another screeching cry reaches Jade's ears, which are a soft white and canine in appearance, and Jade sends the Ghost a startled look. The tiny mechanical construct continues speaking, as if there were no harsh and distinctly frightening interruption.
YOUR MISSION IS TO FIGHT THE FALLEN, BLAH BLAH BLAH, DEFEND THE LAST REMAINING SPECKS OF CIVILIZATION ON EARTH AS LACKLUSTER AS THEY MIGHT BE... WAIT, NO, THE TRAVELER WOULDN'T HAVE WANTED ME TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT, UH. HOW ABOUT WE FIND YOU A WEAPON, HM? THERE'S GOTTA BE SOMETHING LAYING AROUND HERE. WE ARE IN OLD RUSSIA AFTER ALL.
The device drifts away from her for a moment, and then disappears in a flash of brilliant blue light that peters away at the edges of Jade's vision in the very next instant. Then, seemingly from inside her own mind, the voice speaks again.
YEAH, YEAH, I'M STILL RIGHT HERE. QUIT YOUR FRETTING. NOW, LET'S FIND THAT WEAPON, SHALL WE? AND MAYBE AN OLD JUMPSHIP IS HERE. IT'LL BE GOLDEN AGE TECH, BUT I'M SURE I CAN FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOU. PROBABLY.
An enraged snarl, perhaps only the length of a ship away, sounds. Jade whirls in it's direction, squinting against a sudden wind that sends orange dust into her face. Luckily, her eyelashes keep the worst of the dust particles out, but that doesn't stop the disgruntled look that pulls across her face when a gritty feeling spreads through her nostrils and teeth.
YIKES. I SHOULD GET YOU INSIDE THE WALL. LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD, KID. MUSH!
A light appears in her line of vision, illuminating a clear and concise path for her to follow. Eager to escape whatever might be pursuing her, she breaks into a run along the glowing path, her feet falling heavily into the snow and scattering ice and debris in the wake of her quick footsteps. Somewhere far behind her Jade hears a loud clattering and vicious tearing, presumably against a decrepit automobile, followed by frustrated growling in an alien tongue that she does not wish to spend the precious time trying to interpret.
Her Ghost leads her towards a stairwell, aged and falling apart as her boots clunk onto it, and down into darkness. She stumbles a little at the bottom, her heartbeat ringing loudly in her ears, and scrutinizes the room around her. A few lights flicker on the walls, sparking dangerously and faintly buzzing, and long wires hang down from the ceiling. There are various shelves, desks and computer terminals, but all appear to be either torn apart or covered in dust, making them ill-suited for a distress call. Even if they were in working condition, Jade doubts she would be able to reach anyone, much less convince them to come to her rescue. Giving the first area one last cursory glance, Jade starts at a careful trot to continue following the path before her, occasionally drawing to a slow stagger and skimming along the walls before coming around a bend.
They arrive in what seems like an old docking bay, perhaps, and the Ghost resumes speaking.
OKAY, I THINK THERE'S A GUN OVER THERE. IT LOOKS TO BE IN GOOD CONDITION, GO AND PICK IT UP WHILE I SEE ABOUT GETTING THESE LIGHTS ON.
Jade does as she has been asked, hefting a fairly large rifle and looking it over critically; it's a Khvostov 7G-02, a basic auto rifle. She muses, somewhere in the very back of her mind, that she is used to better, but decides in that same instant that she can make do. The lights flicker on, and her Ghost returns to her.
ALRIGHT, GET A MOVE ON. FOLLOW ME.
The luminescent path reappears. Jade, now fueled by confidence from the steady weight of the gun in her hand, jogs along it. Upon hearing something heavy crawling above her, what sounds like claws or tendrils scraping along metal, however, she quickens her pace and lengthens her strides with each passing step. Then, up ahead, she spots a glaringly red drone and carefully takes aim. The resulting explosion of smoking sparks is satisfying when she shoots it down, but other enemies pour out from behind it. Jade eases herself behind a relatively intact computer terminal, desk included, and falls into a steady rythm of shooting each one of the vicious-looking, four-armed creatures dead before they can reach her.
A few strange blue sparks drift lazily in the air towards her, whirling around oddly, and Jade eyes them a moment, befuddled, when it collides with her shoulder and burns before fizzling out. She jerks and quickly claps a gloved hand to her shoulder but finds that the synthetic armor has somehow managed to keep the worst of the damage out, but unfortunately not the searing heat.
WOW. DID YOU SERIOUSLY NOT DODGE THAT? EMBARRASSING, YOU BETTER SHOOT THAT FALLEN VANDAL BEFORE HE TRIES THAT AGAIN. I'D RATHER NOT HAVE TO RESURRECT YOU SO SOON.
Frowning but willing to comply, Jade shoots what her Ghost had designated as a 'Vandal', sending the creature flying backwards before succumbing to the relatively quick throes of death that Jade had observed while fighting them. It scrabbles at the floors for a moment, the whitish blue underneath its armor shuttering out. Then all goes deathly silent save for her heavy breaths, and she rises to her feet uncertainly. She hopes that her Ghost will tell her about any incoming danger before setting off along path that shines even through the settling dust.
The gun feels more heavy in her arms than it did before as a result of her descending exhaustion, and Jade tiredly picks her way through the broken corpses. Listening idly as the Ghost pratters on in her head about locating a ship that might not actually work, she listens carefully for any more stealthy footfalls, broken growls and alien phrases or telling whistles of impending gunfire.
She treads lightly into an area connected by broken windows and a door that has clearly been thrown open none too gently to an adjoining room, the hairs on the back of her neck raising. The lights dim, ensconcing her in a terrible black, but Jade can just make out the glittering of four eyes in the darkness. Raising her rifle and carefully eying along the lone red dot that appears, she blows the thing's head off and hears the sickening crunch as it collides with the unforgiving floor, and prepares herself for the accompanying troops that swarm towards her just as the lights flicker back on.
After managing to dispatch all of the Fallen that are nearby, Jade's boots prevent her from coming to any harm by the broken glass shards that crunch underneath them when she resumes the difficult trek towards her destination. Just as she rounds a corner beams of red light fall in her path, and the Ghost in her inventory sounds urgent when he alerts her to the pressing danger.
TRIP MINES. DON'T TOUCH THEM, GUARDIAN.. . .
Jade looks for a path through them, but decides not to take her chances with ducking and weaving her way along. Besides, up ahead she can just make out a few Dregs and Vandals, and it wouldn't do for them to have a clear shot at her when she's distracted by the mines. Glancing around, Jade notes another passageway beside the mines that easily lets her pass them by, and so she takes it, ready for the group she's about to walk into. Still, it is a shock when suddenly she finds her nose and eyes mere inches from the sharp teeth of one of the Fallen, and she almost immediately brings a hunter's knife out from her cloak to jam it into it's skull while in the clutches of sheer terror. It falls back and pulls the blade out with its deadweight, and so Jade is still armed for close distance combat when another snarling creature replaces it.
Somehow, she avoids any damage to her armor during the scuffle, and is able to continue on with the Ghost's voice ringing in her ears in much lighter spirits.
THE FALLEN HAVE A TIGHTER HOLD ON THIS PLACE THAN I THOUGHT. JUST A LITTLE BIT FURTHER. LET'S HOPE THERE'S SOMETHING LEFT OUT THERE... . .
Bright light shines into her face, and Jade finds that she is outside once again. Her Ghost mentions something along the lines of finding a jumpship, and she nods absently along. The ground is still speckled with snow, almost metallic-looking plants glinting throughout. The sky is still a deep murky blue, with shapes that look almost like fractured pieces of spacecraft floating there but which Jade recognizes to be thousands of stars. Something like a wisp of a faint and pleasant memory tugs at her soul, and Jade remembers nights of stargazing all alone on a balmy night, out in the middle of the ocean with no one but Bec to keep her company.
Then, the memory is gone, fading at the edges of her senses and tingling there before dissipating entirely, and Jade is yanked out of her reverie when her Ghost shouts at her.
WHAT THE HECK IS THAT? ARE THEY OPENING A PORTAL? FALLEN DROPSHIPS, THIS CLOSE TO THE SURFACE? OH, CRAP, KEEP YOUR HEAD LOW AND RUN, GUARDIAN!
And she does exactly that, dodging and weaving her way along a broken platform while still following the path laid out for her. A dark ship, large and bulky and altogether unseemly with blazing orange thrusters keeping it aloft, coasts by overhead. Its shadow covered nearly all of the platform she tried to hide at the side of, and Jade's hair stirs with the whoosh of air that rushes over her. She glances around then, trying to determine if the coast is clear before even thinking about setting out again.
The decision is made for her by her Ghost's urging, however, and Jade continues on. Promises of a jumpship that might take her to safety bolster her step, and she vigorously engages in combat with the Fallen that await her arrival outside Dock 13. It almost frightens her, how good she's getting at killing these things, but then she doesn't have time to think about it anymore as she nears her destination.
Inside are several Fallen soldiers, some lower on the food chain and standing nearer to her, hissing and shifting restlessly, so its relatively simple to take them out. Hanging from the ceiling is a fine jumpship, and Jade observes it appreciatively before catching sight of a much larger enemy awaiting her. It appears to Jade that this Fallen is of higher rank than those she has fought previously, and from watching the way it stalks about below her prized ship, it seems to be on guard. Looking at the creature's height, she's not so certain that this rifle will be enough to take it down before it reaches her. It seems that Jade will need to get creative to deal lasting damage.
She takes the incendiary grenade she hasn't used yet and tosses it with all her strength, the alien turning to face her at the very last second with its face curling up into a nasty fanged snarl just before the grenade knocks it on the side of the head. There's a beat of silence as it seems to regard the grenade in puzzlement, head cocked curiously to the side and a strange trilling noise emitting from its throat, but then it's obvious when realization dawns. The Fallen warrior makes to take a step backwards just as the grenade goes off, sending it toppling to the ground but not killing it entirely. Jade takes this chance to repeatedly drop hits on the alien with the limited amount of bullets she has remaining and is satisfied when it ceases making aborted attempts to rise.
ALRIGHT, LET ME SEE IF I CAN GET US OUT OF HERE.
The Ghost drifts out, reappearing in midair before it turns to scan the ship over. Jade follows along, occasionally throwing glances over her shoulder at the places she had left behind.
IT'S BEEN HERE A WHILE. HASN'T MADE A JUMP IN CENTURIES. WE'RE LUCKY THE FALLEN HAVEN'T COMPLETELY PICKED IT CLEAN.
Jade watches in silence as the blue gridded scan lines travel over the entirety of the ship before growing slightly impatient. She shifts her weight from foot to foot, teetering precariously on the verge of hyperactivity.
GG: will it fly??
I CAN MAKE IT WORK.
The jumpship's engines power on and the jumpship breaks free from the cables, hovering in the air. Her Ghost continues to say something above the din but Jade is more distracted by the heavy footfalls from inside the walls. She turns, expecting the worst, the muscles in her arms and legs burning from over-expending her strength.
OKAY, IT'S NOT GOING TO BREAK ORBIT, BUT IT JUST MIGHT GET US TO THE CITY. NOW, ABOUT THAT TRANSMAT... . .
A very large Fallen enemy stalks out of the gloom from a gaping hole in the wall, several smaller foot soldiers at its sides. Jade takes an unconscious step backwards, hair being pulled into the air by strong gusts of wind.
BRINGING YOU IN!
Jade disappears in a glittering array of lavender-blue sparks and in the next instant finds herself seated inside the jumpship. The Ghost flits around in front of the controls, occasionally pausing to do a swift scan.
A fearsome roar sounds from below and the bright gunfire from Fallen rifle spirits past as the ship begins to rise out through a tear in the ceiling. Below lies the remnants of Old Russia, and Jade eyes the destruction below for the briefest of moments before her vision is overtaken by poufy clouds, scattered swathes of rose and blue peaking through them. She blinks lazily; her eyelids feel weighted down and her movements sluggish. The Ghost's voice seems farther away and softer than it did before.
WE CAN COME BACK FOR THEM WHEN YOU'RE READY. LET'S GET YOU HOME. .. .
Jade falls into a deep and dreamless sleep, clouds and engine fire whispering softly in her ears.