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Chronicle 001: Graduation Day

Location: Ishtar Sink, Venus

“Dax, you picking up anything on your sensors?” Arah asked his ghost as he carefully made his way through the dense foliage of the jungle.

“Not yet Arah, but I wouldn’t expect to pick up much of a trace of anything if I were you. After all, Rose is both your teacher, and one of the greatest blade dancers to ever have existed.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know why don’t ya?” Arah retorted, stepping over a branch of a tree that had fallen from higher up in the canopy.

Arah was a Hunter, specifically a blade dancer, in training. He had been training under Rose for nine months, basically ever since he had made his journey to the tower as all newly risen guardians do. Now today was graduation day, and what was his mission? To hunt down and take down Rose. He was told it was a rite of passage for all blade dancers whom had been under her guidance. The theory behind it was, if you could take down the best, then you could handle anything the darkness might throw at you.

Arah’s armor wasn’t as high-tech as most guardian’s he saw running about the tower. His particular variant though, was dubbed Windrunner-SX. The systems were designed to maximize agility and work with the abilities of a blade dancer to help utilize them to their maximum potential. Each piece had been painted in a standard cloudy grey, with slots here and there for little extra things like knives and med kits. His cloak was short, not long and glorious like veteran Hunter cloaks were, and it was the same shade of grey with a white Hunter Vanguard symbol stitched on the back of it.

Soon Arah came to a clearing in the dense foliage, his eyes peering out through his silver visor as his heads-up display scanned for any signs of anything out of the ordinary. Nearby on the left there was a cliff, the walls of which were filled with little networks of caves that lead ‘who knows where?’, and to the right there was a sheer drop off into the ocean below. Still though, it didn’t seem there was anything that showed any signs of Rose having been here, not even footprints in the dirt.

“Damn it…” Arah muttered to himself, “Even with the coordinates we were given this seems impossible. We’ve already been looking for over two hours with no luck.”

Just then a warning light on his heads up display came on and a location marker was uploaded into his navigation system. “Arah! Distress signal detected three kilometers away.” Dax’s voice chimed in on his helmet’s comm system. Arah was about to reply when his attention was drawn upwards to a flare that had been shot up and into the sky. It was purple, the color Hunters used to indicate an ambush.

“Do you think it’s Rose?” Dax asked

“I’m not gonna just wait around to find out.” Arah said.

“Marking quickest route to marked location on your HUD.”

Without a moment of hesitation Arah leapt into the air and transmatted his standard issue sparrow, the vehicle appearing under him in seconds. The moment his hands and feet connected with the vehicle Arah opened the throttle as much as it would go and the sparrow darted forward at high speed. There was a semi-clear route through a bit more jungle foliage that he was able to cut through. He only had to dodge the occasional low-hanging branch as he sped along towards the distress signal. Only less than a kilometer left to go now. Before long the foliage of the jungle broke once again, leaving the both of them in yet another clearing with a rocky drop off into the ocean below.

This time though, there were signs of a battle everywhere. Arah’s heads up display showed Minotaur Torch Hammer residue everywhere, and there were little patches of plants still on fire from Vex slap rifles as well. But the most telling sign of the battle was the body that was in a crumpled heap not even fifty meters away. As he approached, Arah leapt off of his sparrow and darted over to the body. It was a hunter, face-down, cloak in tatters and parts of the armor had been melted through. Arah knew even before he reached down and turned the body over whom it was. The fallen Hunter was Rose, her most treasured weapon that she had dubbed “Patience and Time” was lying not far from her corpse.

“God damn it…” Arah said through clenched teeth. “Dax! Where’s her ghost? Why didn’t it reignite her spark?”

“Scanning… Sensors indicate her ghost is on the move, but the signal is weak, almost as though it has been damaged.”

“Where? Mark it for me!” Arah commanded, turning his gaze back down to the body of his fallen teacher. “I’m not gonna let them get away Rose. I’m gonna get your ghost back…”

Arah grabbed the special blade that had been made to harness the arc energy that flowed through a blade dancer when they used their Arc Blade ability from Rose’s chest plate and slipped it into a slot next to his own on his chest plate. He then stood up and made his way over to her sniper rifle and picked it up as well, slinging it over his back. Bringing his right arm plate up, he opened a latch and input the coordinates of Rose’s body for his ship, commanding the auto-pilot to bring the ship and retrieve her body. Then, with a decisive ‘click’ he shut the latch and ran back onto his sparrow, leaping onto it once again.

“Dax, where are we headed?” Arah demanded.

“The ghost seems to be headed to a location known as the Endless Steps.” Dax replied, “It’s about five kilometers away.”

“Damn…” Arah said under his breath. He still didn’t know much about Venus but he had read some files from the Vanguard.

The Endless Steps housed a massive vex gate that hadn’t ever been documented as being active before. If the ghost was headed there that could only mean that it wasn’t running, but had been captured instead. Arah’s hand gripped the throttle of his sparrow and opened it up again. As he sped towards the Endless Steps he was dodging trees and rocks left and right, even shot a gap over a cliff that hung over the ocean below. Soon he and Dax came upon a massive Vex tunnel built right through a cliffside, but Arah didn’t slow down at all.

As they headed into the tunnel and up towards the opening on the other side Dax chimed in on his helmet’s comm system again. “The ghost’s signal is coming from just up ahead. Detecting only a few Vex- No wait, multiple Vex time-space ruptures! Incoming!”

Just as Dax had warned him Arah had reached the other side of the tunnel to see at least fifteen Vex Goblins moving towards their location. Not even bothering to brake Arah leapt backwards off of his sparrow and sent it flying into the two Goblins at the center of the group, damaging their bodies enough that they were incapacitated. Just as his feet his the ground, Arah’s right hand pulled his Vanguard hand cannon while his left drew his melee knife. Instantly he kicked off and to the left, headed right for the nearest Goblin and vanished. A split second later he re-appeared right in front of the Goblin and slammed his knife right into the circuitry on its neck, his hand cannon coming to rest right at its vulnerable mid-section as he pulled the trigger. White Vex goop spattered his armor as the Goblin lost power and Arah braced his left arm, using the knife in the Goblin’s neck like a hold for his hand so he could keep its body right in front of him. By now the other Goblins had opened fire and slap rifle shots were raining all around him and impacting the Goblin’s body in front of him.

Quickly, he stuck his hand cannon under the Goblin’s arm and returned fire, each shot aimed at a different Goblin’s weak spot. He started with the Goblin’s nearest to him, felling one Goblin with each pull of his trigger. By the time he had two shots left there were still four Goblins remaining, and the body of the Goblin he had been using as a shield was so severely damaged he couldn’t use it for much longer. The furthest of the remaining Goblin’s suddenly teleported right in front of Arah, surprising him a bit, but not enough to throw him off. He quickly delivered a hard kick to the damaged Vex body in front of him, turning his knife so it would slip from its neck, and sent the body on a collision course with the Goblin that had teleported in front of him. Naturally it was a direct hit, knocking the functioning Goblin onto its back with the damaged body atop of it. Quickly Arah leapt atop of the Goblin and sunk his blade into its mid-section, ripping

it right open and letting the biological white goop leak out as the unit powered down.

Just then some slap rifle bolts splashed across his armor’s shielding, causing a warning light to flare up on his heads up display. Arah leapt up quickly and vanished from sight again, reappearing to the left of the next nearest Goblin, hand cannon already aimed at its center. Another trigger pull, another Goblin fallen. Two left now. More slap rifle shots whizzed by his head and Arah ducked left, aiming his hand cannon again for another of the Goblin’s center. He pulled the trigger for his last shot, the furthest Goblin’s center bursting open and its body dropping to the ground uselessly. The last one seemed frozen for a moment, as if surprised that their force had been destroyed, and in that moment Arah vanished again to reappear right in front of the Goblin, flux grenade in hand, and he slammed his hand right into the Goblin’s chest plate before leaping back and blinking to a safe distance as the grenade exploded, leaving the final Goblin in multiple pieces in a heap.

“Arah! Look over there at the gate!” Dax said

Instantly Arah’s attention moved to the huge gate at the top of the steps where a Vex Minotaur knelt, holding something up like an offering. The massive gate hummed to life as it began to power up and open the Vex network.

“Oh no you don’t!” Arah growled through gritted teeth, sheathing his hand cannon and pulling Rose’s sniper from his back.

His gaze moved to the scope of her sniper and he zoomed in on the Minotaur. No way was it going to escape with her ghost. He fired off the first shot, causing its void shield to flare up, then fired another, the void shield still holding.

“Damn it!” he cursed loudly as the Minotaur began to stand up, the gate seeming to be almost at full power.

He fired the third round from the sniper, this time the Minotaur’s shield burst and the shot did minor damage to the body. Then with the fourth shot he watched as pieces of the Minotaur’s chest armor flew off of its frame, but still the Minotaur stood, though now its attention was on Arah.

Arah slipped his teacher’s sniper rifle back onto his back and dashed towards the edge of the hill he was on, a small ravine between him and the steps. His body filled with brilliant arc light as he leaped and vanished from sight, appearing safely on the other side of the ravine and landing. With an angry cry Arah sprinted towards the top of the steps, jumping and blinking to increase his movement speed, and once he was at the top the Minotaur was waiting for him, shields fully recharged. That was the least of Arah’s problems however. The Minotaur seemed to be gazing at him defiantly as he rushed towards it, and with still too far of a distance between them for Arah to blink and be able to hit the Minotaur, he was forced to watch as it took Rose’s ghost in its mechanical hand and squeezed. There was a loud crack and a pop as the ghost’s body was crushed in one fell swoop. It would seem if the Vex couldn’t have it, then they had decided neither could Arah.

“NO!” Arah cried as he pulled both his special blade and Rose’s from his chest plate, both igniting with arc light.

Arah was fueled by rage, absolutely blinded by it, and he vanished from sight only to appear next to the Minotaur and slam his blade home into its void shielding, yet it still held. The Minotaur then moved to slam the ground where Arah stood and he rolled to the left quickly to dodge the powerful strike. Again he kicked off of the ground towards the Minotaur, this time swinging with Rose’s blade, the shielding finally breaking. Immediately he swung with his, slamming into the Minotaur’s body and knocking it backwards. Sensing he was almost out of arc light Arah braced both feet on the ground and crossed his arms before kicking off with all of his might and he swung both blades in a mighty cross-strike, the arc-infused blades literally melting right through the Minotaur’s armor plating and slicing it into four different pieces while Arah landed behind where it had previously been standing.

The large Vex gate at the top of the stairs immediately powered down, leaving Arah standing at the top of the steps with his teacher’s killer in pieces. He turned to stare down at the pieces, sheathing both blades and pulling out his hand cannon. He slapped a new ammunition cartridge into it and aimed it right at the pieces of the Minotaur, pulling the trigger again, and again, and again.

“Arah!” Dax said, but Arah just kept pulling the trigger until only clicking noises were being made and the pieces of the Minotaur’s body were riddled with bullet holes.

“ARAH! That’s enough, it’s dead. Shooting it won’t bring her ghost back.”

“What do you know??” Arah shot back, “Huh?? It may not bring her back but it makes me feel better! Rose was there from day one when I got to the tower…” Arah trailed off at that and slowly fell to his knees, his blood still at a boil. Despite this, he could feel tears forming in his eyes. “She may have been my teacher, but she was also my first friend at the tower.”

Arah’s gaze turned to the small pieces that remained of Rose’s ghost there at the top of the Steps, his mind awash with the memories he had of her. The moment she had volunteered to teach him, the moment he had been given his current set of armor, all the countless times she had stepped in to save his dumb ass, but above all he remembered how despite how dark their worlds had become she always kept a smile on her face and had hope that one day they would all bring the light back to their solar system.

Slowly Arah stood and moved to gather the pieces of her ghost that he could, stowing them in a satchel on his belt before opening up the latch on his right arm and calling for his ship.

“Are you going to be okay?” Dax asked, a tone of concern sounding in his mechanical voice.

Arah was quiet for a moment, simply closing the latch on his right arm plate and staring up at the giant Vex gate before the both of them. Then, with the hum of his ship sounding in the distance, he finally spoke.

“Time heals all wounds they say. Time is something the Vex had plenty of before today. Now their time is limited for the first time in their history, even if they don’t realize it yet.” Arah looked up as his ship slowly hovered down to their level, then looked back at the Endless Steps one last time. “C’mon Dax, we’ve got work to do.”

With that Arah was transmatted inside of the cockpit of his ship and it sped off up and out of Venus’ atmosphere towards Earth and the tower.

Audio File 01:

“That day was the first time that I felt it… The tug of the darkness at my light. I could feel it beckoning to me, promising me the power I needed to destroy the Vex. I was afraid, but not of the darkness. Rather, I was afraid of what I would become should I let my light become tainted. Little did I know that this was but my first test, and I had many, many more to come.

I am the guardian they call Arah, and this is my story.”

-End Chronicle 001