Ulrek sat nearer the back, facing the pub’s entrance as other began slowly filling the dim room’s confines. He leaned against the back of his chair, bringing his cold stein up to his lips and slowly sipping from the ember fluid, his eyes carefully scanning the room from side to side, he wore no armor and instead wore only what he enjoyed calling his ‘civilian clothes’, which consisted of a black t-shirt under a dark gray jacket, his Superblack Greaves of No Tomorrow shined under the dull light beneath the table, he doubted anyone would notice, nor would they notice the almost invisible Mark of the Nexus Undone which hung between his legs like an obscene snake. He thanked the Traveler as he downed the remainder of his ale and slammed the now empty stein onto the wooden table before him that, thus far, few civilians could even sense Light let alone tell which person is the bulb.
Suddenly a waitress approached him, she refilled his stein before passing on to another patron of the bar. Ulrek’s ghost manifest on the table and, silently, the two began a conversation. His eyes lost focus as he began to play mind games with the small floating Light on his table. For a second his Light flared like a beacon, giving the table before him and the chair beneath him a nice layer of burnt wood. He grinned and downed his almost tea-like ale. “Checkmate, Ghost,” he cooed beneath his breath as he slammed the already empty stein back onto the table. He loved winning. Any worries that another Guardian spotted his Light vanished in that instance and left him a clear mind.
The sky was clear and the air was crisp, even passed his helm Ulrek could almost taste the ocean some kilometers from his current location. On his back sat his weapon, Sweet Business, but none the less ready should he require the firearm. His left hand held a journal open, his right hand busily scribed data points as they scrolled past his helmet-mounted display. Some distance from him, nearly twenty feet, floated his Ghost as it scanned what vegetation remained in the wake of the collapse. “Amazing,” the Ghost uttered, “isn’t it?” Ulrek’s only response was a click over their shared comm-link. He was busy. After a moment, he slipped the journal back into his personal dimension – the same which held the many weapons and armor pieces he didn’t want to place in his vault – and turned towards the Ghost.
“Let’s have some fun, now,” he cooed as the Ghost was enveloped in light and dematerialized, “I have bounties to complete. First,” he scrolled through the list with his eyes, behind his helmet his lips pursed in concentration before he nodded again and slammed his fist together causing both to ignite in Solar flares. “First I need two hundred Solar kills, nearest enemies?” His Ghost placed a marker and Ulrek removed Sweet Business from his back and gave the multi-barrel a good spin before heading off in that direction. After a moment, he paused and looked back over his to-do list before adding “Search for a fireteam, just a few Guardians who know what they’re doing. I don’t want to play babysitter or anything.” Ghost replied with a click and Ulrek laughed. Soon the day would be filled with bullets, death, and if he met a fellow Guardian who shared his taste in whiskey, maybe a few drinks about the campfire. He grinned and fired off into the sky before summoning his sparrow and racing north.
From the diaries of Roland Charland, Hunter, the Six Coyotes.
I don’t know what I saw.
It was a storm. Lightning cast everything in dramatic light and thunderous reports hid the bark of our weapons.
Scouts returned words of an approaching enemy, the sun had set, numbers were all but estimates. Eli said she witnessed an army, Arjack said he saw only a handful. Perun ordered us into formation, she was certain the Warlord would come and when had Perun, glorious Hunter she is, ever been wrong? We prepared, Hunters guarded the streets of our meager outpost, Titans armed rocket launchers and aimed them high, Warlock’s stood back and whispered secrets to each other no doubt ready to drop a star or six on our approaching foe.
Upon the road came a single man. His helmet bore holes of radiant blue Light that sizzled as rain collided against it. In his hands, an auto-rifle. On his back, a rocket launcher. The air grew… dense.
Perun demanded the man to stop. None defied an order from a Lady of Iron. He stopped.
Perun demanded a reason as to the murder of Guardians. The figure made no attempt to justify his actions, instead he bore the barrel of his weapon.
Perun spoke again, lifting her own weapon. Thirteen of Guardians followed her, all our sights trained on a single target.
“Speak!” Perun shouted. Her voice was thunder. The lightning lulled.
The man spoke for the first time, the only time. “I issue a challenge. Do you accept?”
Perun vanished in smoke. Our cue. Rockets flared to life and shot forward, a barrage of six warheads shot forth.
The man stood.
Six rockets collided against their target and he was engulfed in a ball of flame. As the smoke cleared, we witnessed only a dome of Void Light. Now the bark of auto-rifles filled the air as the Titan’s reloaded but the man wasn’t there.
“Over –“ A scream. Three Guardians collapsed. A tyrant of lightning stood where they had. Only meters from me. The dense air was unbearable. I fell. I am ashamed. But it wasn’t possible!
Suddenly Perun was there, a shot of Sol from the darkness. The tyrant of lightning was suddenly encased in that Void dome again, the shot caused the Ward to wink back out of reality. Was I imagining things? No Guardian can switch so readily, can they?!
Perun fired again. The man was sent flying back into the woods. “Get back!” the Lady demanded. We followed. I picked up my weapon and fired into the forest, we all did. Finally, the Titan’s stood again and more rockets raced through the air. Another magnificent fireball, but we were not so naive. The report from our auto-rifles, scout rifles, and pulse rifles was incessant. We wouldn’t relent!
He moved, now. The fireball of the rockets illuminated him. The left-side of his helmet was red hot but those horns, those devil horns, blazed brilliantly as if nothing was wrong. He leapt to the roof of a building and… and… Perun got him! Another shot of Solar energy caught the air on fire as it collided right between those hellish horns.
The man fell behind the building upon which he had jumped. We cheered. We did it! Suddenly the building flashed a magnificent blue, as if a portal to hell had become it, and then it was gone and only the man stood.
The man fired. We began to fall! Our numbers, previously thirteen, fell quickly. Ten. Six. Three. Perun and me. I was crying.
“Come, Lord of Iron!” Our adversary barked loudly.
Perun turned to me, “Run,” she said. I’ll never forget it. I wanted to hold her. Kiss her. Die for her. I should have…
Instead I ran. The man fired his rifle once, caught my shoulder and I spun before hitting the ground. Perun fired into him. But the Void Light! Why did it obey a demon such as him!
She leapt from her cover, a spent magazine I think. He threw his weapon to the ground. She unsheathed her dagger and his hands balled into fists. When the two collided, a Light so brilliant it burned me even in the rain. As it faded two figures kneeled. One stood. The man rolled his shoulders as Solar Light flared off his frame.
“The Traveler blessed you with power!” He shouted. We had risen again, though we all sat were we had fallen, afraid to move. “And this is how you use them!” He kicked the downed Perun and we all grabbed for our weapons. “Pray I do not return!” He left. Like a storm. Like a hurricane.
Perun awoke hours later. “Thank the Travelers he’s on our side.”
There had only been black. Infinite and absolute in authority.
Then a thin needle of light pierced the absolutely, ended the infinite.
The blue sky came like a crashing wave upon dead eyes. Rays of sun warmed flesh it had no business warming and the breeze cooled a body that should have long since been cold.
Ulrek gasped his first breath and sat up. He expected pain, some reptilian part of his brain almost demanded pain. A toll for this reclaimed freedom from that impenetrable veil. Before him sat a machine, smaller than his palm clade in armor of white. A blue insignia made its pupil and Ulrek knew the things was responsible.
“You’re awake!” [Voice claim for Ghost]
The surprise in its voice caused Ulrek to raise his brow, “You seem surprised?”
The machine spun its forward spiky protrusions and began to move, as if it were talking the idea of talking with its hands and modifying it to fit its handless form. “Not surprised, excited!” The machine replied, the way its eye-light dimmed and reignited implied honesty.
Slowly Ulrek got to his knees and, with the assistance of a waist-high island, he got to his feet. He stood within an enormous courtyard of a building that was tens of stories tall but was now reduced to no more than five, the remains of the building lay about his own burial site, for a moment he thought it a fitting monument. That thought was quickly erased and replaced by a panic. He tried to recall the purpose of the building, its relation to himself, any purpose such a building could possibly hold. No information returned the inquiry. Finally, his black orbs fell on the floating machine as a blue light flooded from its eye and fell onto him “Where am I? What are you?”
The machine scoffed “I am a Ghost, I am your Ghost, actually. As for where we are – “
“My Ghost? Am I dead?”
“You were,” it began, “But I brought you back. The Traveler requires your aid.” The Ghost spun its fore-segments again as it began constructing a suit of very basic armor. “Interesting…”
“What?” low-grade armor encases him.
His Ghost hums a tune as it lifts itself up and rotates, searching. Finally; “We have a long way to go, care to name yourself?”
“Ulrek,” he finally mutters as he takes his first steps into a collapsed world, “Ulrek Marcillino.”
The construct turned, as if to appraise the newly minted Risen, “Ulrek? Sounds… old.”
The township of Goldsmine was founded only years after the collapse. Nearly five hundred residents called Goldsmine their home, many lived in huts no larger than a few rooms. Goldsmine was bisected by a road that had, miraculously, come to be a sort of trading route between other townships. A Risen, known to the local populous as Jaden, had claimed the township as his own and, with the muscle provided by a small band of like-minded Risen, had come to rule the small township almost since its inception. He was a kind ruler, the humans who lived under him found protection and aid.
An alarm rang out over the township of Goldsmine, as the sun began to poke its head over the horizon. Jaden had, in his employ, a Risen who claimed to be capable of reading the, for lack of a better word, light of a person’s aura. Called it a sixth sense and had never been wrong. On this fateful morning that Risen burst into Jaden’s office, perspiration flooding his face and dampening the fabric about his collar. “Jaden! Some… thing approaches!” His voice is hoarse, his hands shaking as he slams them against Jaden’s desk, “It feels like… like the entire universe is moving towards us!”
Jaden stands, he isn’t one to take chances. “Get the other Risen ‘rounded up and situate them near the entrance – “
“No! We must run!” Jaden recognizes that its not sweat pouring down his employee’s cheeks but tears. He can feel, now, static in the air. The Warlock speaks again. “You can feel it can’t you!”
“You’re hysterical. Hide then, fool!” And he does.
The Warlock would return, long after the coming storm has passed, and he would be alone.
Jaden steps into the soft light of morning. No animal calls fill the air, only the blaring of the siren. Two of his men rush up towards him, weapons loaded but aimed harmlessly skyward. “Wait here,” Jaden’s Ghost highlights the areas, “Take a few more guys with ya’. Keep a low profile for now.”
The air feels heavy. An ocean is forcing its way upon them, the Risen can feel its pressure. Movement becomes strenuous.
“Oh, it appears a party has come to greet us.” Ghost muses as it falls back behind him. Ulrek can feel it, tiny pulses of energy. Each is a star and each pulse with fear. It’s an ugly, dark vibration that permeates the air and sickens the newly Risen. “Play nice.” His Ghost chides as it vanishes in a wink of blue light, yet remains on vigil, he can even feel it like a distant star, watching.
Jaden stands at the center of the welcoming road. A weapon slung within his hands. Does he think Ulrek is incapable of sensing the other six that hide on either side of the road? The Titan stops and tilts his head “Can I help you?”
The Exo whirs, Ulrek can only guess annoyance. “Who are you? What business have you in Goldsmine?”
“I am Ulrek. Is this Goldsmine?” He half turned and cast an eye at the shacks. The stars wobble, stumble, one drops a weapon and another whimpers. “I am only passing through. I have business beyond this town.”
“Hard luck, fella,” the machine says as it levels its rifle, “I don’t much care for you.” Jaden can feel it. A pressure. Like the ocean is weighing against him. He’s almost surprised his chassis isn’t groaning in response.
Ulrek lifts a finger to retort. Suddenly a rocket flares to life. With no more thought than one would put into leaping back, Ulrek wills a wall of purple energy to form. The wall of dense energy domes away from the Titan, the rocket explodes against the impenetrable barrier and consumes the Exo before him. More scream. Many more scream curses. Ulrek can only take a step back before weapon fire begins to collide against the purple barrier.
“Impressive,” His Ghost whispers from within his head, “There are many who need to meet you.”
“And Goldsmine?” Ulrek asked, momentarily unafraid of the guns emptying into his Ward.
“You’re not nearly as emotional as I thought you’d be.”
“I don’t scare easy, Ghost.”
It hummed “I can see that.” After a half-second, “You created that Void barrier, Ulrek, shape it.”
The Void barrier wavered as Ulrek placed a hand upon it, the weapons fire stopped. He caught sight of them beyond his barrier. Scared. Many crying. The purple wall collapsed and encased him in blue, ionic flame and, in a wink, his opposition is reduced to ash. Now the civilians cry out, begging for mercy. “I only wish to pass through.”
“They’ll awaken shortly.” Ghost whispered in his head while cataloging exactly what it had just witnessed. He repeated it. The crowed shuffled into huts.
“If you’d like,” he repeated as his Ghost talked, “I will guide you to safety. An outpost. A… A City.”
Jaden sat next to the Titan, nearly a month after they had found their way to the Traveler’s shadow. “Ulrek, I…“ Speech was difficult, Jaden often felt he would be torn asunder beneath Ulrek’s hard gaze, “I swear to follow you,” the two horns of blue Light which constantly flowed from Ulrek’s brow didn’t ease Jaden’s nerves.
Ulrek took his companion’s hand, gave it a reassuring squeeze, then stood. “I am needed elsewhere, Jaden. Aid the City, follow the Traveler.”
A salute “Yes sir!” Came his eager reply before Jaden leapt to action.
“Are you sure about this?” His Ghost questioned, as if Ulrek had ever lead them astray.
“Ghost, I died and was risen again only to fight in a war. Its clear conflict is eternal. Here,” he motioned towards the humble beginnings of the Last City, “We want to make something good and the only way to make something good is to make it unbreakable and the only way to make something unbreakable is to try and break everything.”
His Ghost considered this as they walked further from the City, “Even the Iron Lords?”
“The Warlords wanted to make something good,” Ulrek countered, “And the Iron Lords broke them. This is the nature of the universe.”
“I never thought you’d be so fatalistic.”
Ulrek smiled, his horns burned the air and his Light cast an unbelievable pressure, “It is better to know.”
