500 years ago, a Entity known only as the Traveller changed everything. For two, long centuries, we lived through a Golden Age of technological development which granted us longer lifespans and greater comforts. Colony ships left Earth every day, bound for the outer worlds. However, that Golden Age was cut short, when a mysterious entity known as the Darkness (a long-time enemy of the Traveller, and rumoured to be more than just a single entity) crippled Humanity, and defeated the traveller. On that day 500 years ago, I died in combat, fighting forces beyond my then-limited comprehension. Then, I met my ghost…

"Guardian. Guardian! Eyes up Guardian!"

I blinked my eyes wearily at the strange machine hovering in front of my face. It was no bigger than a fist, and composed of a circular eye with strange rotating polygonal blocks forming a three-dimensional star shape. It spun it's 'blocks' around and waited for me to clamber to my feet. I felt surprisingly energetic, and I somehow felt something was wrong.

"Thank goodness I found you! I'm a Ghost. Or rather, I'm your Ghost. You've been dead for a long time, but I've revived you. Now we need to get moving…"

"What do you mean I died? I feel fine!"

The ghost looked quizzically at me, and I somehow felt that it was about to respond. Then, a roar came from nearby. It sounded like no creature I remembered, but whatever it was made me unconsciously grab for the auto rifle I had holstered at me…My rifle! It was gone!

"Hang on," said Ghost, before disappearing. I waved my hand through the air where it was, the area around suddenly feeling very small.

"I'm still here," came the voice of my new friend. "Now quickly, get inside the Cosmodrome. We're too exposed out here."

I sprinted my was across the scarred earth, weaving though the thick tangle of rusted cars and scrap metal. I realised I was clad in some sort of basic armour. I remembered that when I died, I'd simply been wearing basic fatigues. Now, I was wearing some sort of scavenged carbon weave armour, with a tattered cloak slung over my shoulder. I also realised that I was wearing a helmet of some kind, and the visor was projecting a perfect view of the world in front of me with a very basic HUD overlayed over it. I heard the roar, this time sounding a little closer. I ran up the stairs leading into the ruined hangar ahead, and entered the filthy interior of the building inside. I scrabbled around in the complete darkness, unable to see. Then, a beam of light speared out from Ghost, who had rematerialized over my shoulder.

"Thanks Ghost," I said, glad that the small machine was with me. "The light is appreciated."

"Anytime, Guardian," replied Ghost, his single eye blinking. "I am here to assist you in any way I can."

I grinned. "Then maybe you can call me by my name. It's Ace by the way."

The ghost made a shushing sound, as booted feet trampled over the metal roof above. "Those are Fallen. We'll have to be real quiet from here on out. Watch your step, the floor looks ready to cave in."

I nodded, and moved over the metal grate. Beneath, all I could see was black fog, swirling round like a group of sharks. I reached the other side of walkway, and entered a large room that I assumed was once a major jumpship hangar. However, the fluorescent lighting had long since blown out, and the room was shrouded in darkness. Ghost cursed under his breath, and told me to wait. He then moved off into the gloom before fizzling out. I waited for about a minute, before ghost reappeared. Just as he did, the lights clunked on, confirming my suspicions. The room was empty of jumpships, and had been stripped off all vital components. Just as the lights came on at full strength, a bark sounded through the chamber, and resonated throughout the shattered building.

"Damm. They know we're here. Quickly Ace, across the bridge!"

I nodded, and sprinted across the bridge. I saw a old Khostlev Auto-rifle leaned against the wall, and scooped it up as I ran past. Ghost scanned it, and produced a few reloads of ammunition for my use. I turned into a short corridor, and skidded to a halt. Red laser beams lanced across the corridor, connected to a shape I knew pretty well despite my limited combat experience. Tripmines. Instead of following military procedure and ducking under each one, a simply let off a burst from my new gun at each of the stick-like grenades, detonating them harmlessly to the sides of me. I was almost through the gauntlet, when I met my first real alien. It was insectoid, and wore a undecorated jumpsuit with various plug sockets and spacesuit-like seals. It screeched, and fired several bolts of white hot plasma at me. I ducked behind cover, cursing as one bolt hit me. To my surprise, the bolt glanced off a energy shield of some kind surrounding me.

"Watch out! They're trying to flank you!"

I whirled to my right and shot the creature from before in the head. It literally exploded in a puff of some noxious gas that my helmet's refurbished filters couldn't quite blot out. As I did so, a new creature struck me in the back with a pair of blades. I spun, and pulled my old knife from it's holster, jamming it into the alien's head. Another puff of that noxious gas spurted out into my face. I moved from behind the pillar, and back towards the entryway to the utility tunnel I was now in. at the end of the corridor, a different creature (this time with four arms, a flattened head with mandibles and a slightly more aesthetic armour choice) shot a burst of plasma at me. I dodged to the side, expecting the bolts to pass by without hitting me. However, the bolts seemed to home in, depleting my shields (which were being displayed as a simple white bar in my helmet display) even further. I squeezed off the last few rounds in the clip of my weapon, hitting the creature in the arm. It screeched in anger, and pulled out four swords with static electricity crackling around their metal blades. It charged down the corridor, catching me while I was reloading my weapon. It hit me with the blades, taking down my shields. Before I could react, it hit me again, killing me. But that wasn't the end of me. A few minutes later, I felt my consciousness come back into being, my ghost having moved down the corridor away from the enemy to revive me. I awoke with a strangled gasp, the memories of my death an brief loss of all sense of mind and body still ringing in my head.

"How are you feeling, Guardian?"

I groaned, and unholstered my now fully loaded Khostlev. I sneaked round into the tripmined corridor, creeping into the side passage that ran parallel to the main area. I snaked under a few tripmine beams, and came up behind the insectoid alien that had killed me.

"Surprise motherfucker!"

I emptied my Khostlev into the alien's back. The creature literally flew to the floor and skidded headfirst into the opposite wall, a large hole shot through it's chest. Wisps of the noxious smoke drifted out of the rent on the alien's sparsely decorated spacesuit. Ghost whistled electronically, and told me to move on. We ran into a few more groups of aliens as we moved down the corridor. However, they posed little threat now that I was prepared for what they had in stall for me. Along the way, I picked up a old Calcutta LR-1 Sniper, which Ghost managed to restore to limited functionality. Speaking of my small friend, Ghost mainly stayed hidden, occasionally offering hints of advice, but mainly ignored my requests for information. Eventually, I realised that he was focused on some sort of inner dialogue, as I occasionally heard muttered whispers over my helmet radio. He seemed to be both ecstatic and slightly subdued. I made a note to ask him about his past later on, but I held my questions for a better time.

Everywhere I went, I say signs of decay that indicated that I had truly had been dead for a very, very long time. eventually, we came out into the open area of what once was the Cosmodrome airstrip. It was now overgrown, and filled with rusted metal and chipped concrete debris.

"Welcome to the Future, Ace." said Ghost sadly. "I didn't know what this was like before the fall, but I don't think this would be what you would call 'Golden Age Groundskeeping'."

I nodded sadly, and looked up as a massive, organic looking vessel swooped overhead, seemingly appearing from nowhere. It hovered over a section of terrain not too far away, and began dispensing troops from it's belly, their insectoid bodies falling to the ground en masse. I raised my weapon, and sprinted to the cover of a overturned shipping container. I checked my ammo, and quickly looked round the corner of the crate. There were at least four of the taller four-armed creatures, and about eight of the smaller ones. I noted that there always seemed to be more of the smaller two-armed aliens than their larger four-armed counterparts.

"Just a quick note for you Guardian," whispered Ghost. "Those two armed creatures are Dregs. They're the grunts and have little rank. Those four armed leaders are Vandals. They act as lieutenants to the larger creatures, and carry considerably higher rank. The same applies to danger. Be very careful."

I nodded, and raised my weapon. I charged into the group, and took down four of the 'Dregs' and one of the 'Vandals'. I quickly switched to my Calcutta, and delivered a killing blow to a vandal that was charging towards me. The Vandal's head exploded into a cloud of blue blood and the gas that Ghost had told me was 'Ether'. Another one of the Dregs stabbed me in the back with one of the knives it carried. I whirled, pulled my knife, and threw it right into the retreating alien's head. I spun, and fired another round from my sniper into a Vandal that had fired another burst of those seeking projectiles at me. Finally, the last few creatures retreated over the hill, presumably to regroup. I charged over the hill, and slaughtered them with my Khostlev, their attacks uncoordinated and useless. I stood there, and panted for a brief moment. I went to retrieve my knife, and found it had disappeared.

"Don't bother," said Ghost. "Your original knife was ruined long ago. I simply created one from your Light."

"Light?" I asked. "What's that?"

Ghost appeared in the air before me, and began speaking in person. "Every Guardian, whether they are Hunter, Titan or Warlock, uses a powerful resource called Light. When I revived you, I gifted you with the Traveller's Light, which brought you back to life, and allows you the incredible abilities you use in your fight. However, your light can become depleted, which is something you should avoid."

He paused, and told me to get going again. I nodded, and kept moving. Eventually (after fighting off some more enemies, and threading through a series of corridors), we came to a large, ruined hangar. In it was a Jumpship. Ghost reappeared, and began scanning it.

"It's old. Really old. We're lucky the Fallen haven't stripped it of components yet,"

"Will it fly?" I asked. I looked up at the dented hull, hoping that the dents hadn't damaged anything important.

"Ghost flitted about a bit more, and then looked back at me.

"I can make it."

He disappeared into the hull. The old ship creaked, and began to awaken. The two engine intakes began glowing, and spinning up. Exhaust outlets did pre-flight sequences, and fired up to full power. The ship tilted on it's rickety supports, and then righted itself as the already shaky supports collapsed. It hovered there in the air, the hull regaining it's original colouration. I smiled. I recognised the ship, as my Dad had once had one in his possession back before the war. An Arcadia Class Jumpship. Classic.

Just then, more fallen began spilling into the room, lead by a much bigger and bulkier fallen clad in gold armour with a red cape. I prepared for a fight, but instead felt the characteristic tingle of a transmat in process.

"Bringing you aboard," said Ghost. "Let's get to the Tower. We'll be safe there."

I rematerialized in the cockpit, the instrumentation free of dust and filth. I reclined in the leather seat as the ship fired it's engines and rocketed into the night sky. For now, we were safe.

Author's Note: Hey readers! This story has taken a while to write, but it's been sitting around in my head for a while. Now, for those who expected an sequel to my Warhammer 40k story, here's a quick note: I'm still writing it. Now, I've nearly got the first chapter of that done, but I'm taking a brief break from publishing it to both finish off my SubNautica story and star writing this new story. For those who are experts in the small pool of Destiny Lore, you may know that Cayde-6 was once a human with a son called Ace. Coincidence? You'll just have to see. I'm also going to announce that I'll be writing a /Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Crossover sometime next year. I'm also going to tell you that due to me taking a holiday overseas over Christmas (What? Are writers suddenly denied a brief break?) I will probably be not publishing any chapters for three weeks over Christmas. After that, who knows? Maybe I'll give you some more stuff. But, with all things, enjoy this continuing story. Well, unless I unexpectedly stop writing. In that case, this could be my last story (Just kidding, it's not. Well, at least I hope it isn't).

Thanks again to CapitalClassShip and HellfireIncubus for following me and supporting my writing. If you'd like to see more stories from me, follow me on my user page. That's all for now fans!