Chapter 1 Last safe city on Earth Everything just went flying by. The speed of this jumpship is unbelievable, especially that it hasn’t made a jump in centuries; it felt like the ship was exceeding mach 10. So much has changed since the Golden Age; I’m surprised there’s a city out here. As I was sightseeing, everything went blank and that’s when I realized we were heading straight through a cloud, so I had my hands on the controls just in case I needed to maneuver manually. As we were going straight through the clouds, they started getting more violent and I could see lightning. Somehow, the lightning didn’t hit the jumpship once and we continued on our current course. As we reached the other side of the storm cloud, I could see light leaking through and then I saw the city and a massive sphere hovering over it; the sphere was called The Traveler; the thing that started the Golden Age. At first, I thought we were heading straight to the city itself, but we were veering off and heading to a tower watching over the city instead. As we got close, I could see a plaza on top of the tower and people roaming around. The ship dropped me and my Ghost off and flew off on its own into the ship hanger. The first thing I did was look off into the city. “Welcome to the last safe City on Earth,” Ghost said as I was admiring the view, “The only place the Traveler can still protect. It took centuries to build. Now… we’re counting every day it stands.” As I turned around I can see Guardians, robots, and civilians roaming around. “And this Tower is where the Guardians live,” Ghost said. As I started to walk around a bit, a robot greeted me. “Welcome, Hunter.” I was surprised that it talked, especially that the voice was feminine. “Uh hi,” I didn’t know what to say. “Cayde-6, the mentor of the new Hunters arriving in the Tower, and Vanguard of all the Hunters, can help you with some equipment,” the robot said. “Okay, so where do I find him?” “You can find him at the Hall of Guardians. Go straight ahead down the stairs.” “Thank you.” As I made my way to meet Cayde, I saw many other Guardians; Hunters, Warlocks, and Titans. There weren’t as many as I thought there would be, so I assumed most of them are doing what they can for the city and its people. I heard a few whispering but I couldn’t pick up what they were saying exactly. I could only pick up a few parts of sentences like, “Have you heard about…” or “Looks like he’s at it again…” and then all of a sudden, “Hey, looky here! We got ourselves a new Hunter!” A voice came from down the hall and I saw three Guardians standing around a long table. Each Vanguard was one of 3 races; two of them were uncommon when I was around. The Vanguard on one end of the table closest to me was human that represented the Warlocks, the Vanguard in the middle was an Exo that represented the Hunters; a robot with I guess you can say a pure AI. He sounded like he has a lot more personality than the greeting robot, that’s for sure. And the Vanguard on the far end of the table was an Awoken that represents the Titans. That voice came from the Vanguard in the middle and it came to me that he’s Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard. “You two Vanguards owe me two hundred Glimmer, each.” The other two Vanguard Guardians moaned and sounded like they were annoyed. When I approached the Cayde, he turned his attention to me; he ran up to me and was giving me a rough handshake. Is this guy really me my mentor? “Hey there, Rookie. Welcome back from the dead. I’m your Vanguard, Cayde. Nice to meet you.” As soon as he finished that sentence, he let go of my hand and I looked at the other Vanguards and they both had a look that said, “God, this guy is ridiculous.” “Uh, hello Cayde, I’m Chilly. That greeting robot said you would help me with equipment. Can you also-“ He cut me out in the middle of my sentence. “Woah, slow down there Chilly Willy. One thing at a time.” Is this guy seriously for real? “Please don’t call me that,” I said, and Cayde nodded. He clapped his hands together and gave me a hand gesture to follow him, and so I did. He led me to where the armor for the Hunters is and they looked pretty standard, but better than my current armor. “Okay, here you can find different kinds of armor, but first things first, we got to get rid of that scarf you have on,” he said, as he was pointing at my scarf that I forgot I still had on. “What’s wrong with it? Why do I need to get rid of it?” I said, and then I realized that was a bit of a dumb question. “Because, each Guardian has a specific item that makes them stand out. The Hunter’s item is cloaks, the Warlocks item are bonds, and the Titans item are marks.” “I see, so where do I get said cloaks?” “I’m taking you to them, just follow me.” We kept walking until we reached a kiosk. Cayde turned around and said to me, “Just select any cloak you want and a robot will send it to you momentarily.” As he walked away, Cayde stopped and looked at me again and said, “Oh, before I forget. Don’t expect to find the best armor and weapons here. You’ll have better luck finding better equipment on the field.” I was confused so I asked, “Then why do you have this stuff? Redundancy?” I heard Cayde laugh a bit, “I asked the same thing. The reason being is we have top of the line weapons and armor, but they are really expensive to make and the resources to make them are getting scarce, so we’re making armor that isn’t as expensive.” That actually made a lot of sense. “Anyways, once you’re done here head to the gunsmith, he’ll trade you that old rifle of yours with something that packs more of a punch. As you go back the way you came in, make a left at the top of the stairs and you’ll see a gun merchant named Banshee-44, with a bunch of guns around him. When he sees your old rifles, he’ll know what to do from there. If you have any further questions, just come back to the Hall of Guardians, I’ll be waiting as always,” Cayde said, and he walks off. As I was browsing the cloaks, I found one in particular very interesting, it was called the “Ghost Angel Cloak.” It was a long cloak and it reached down to the back of my knees. The design on it was kind of a zigzag pattern about a fifth way down, and the cloth on both sides’ splits off into two parts where the pattern stops and it comes back together at the bottom area of the cloak. So I chose it and it was delivered to me roughly around thirty seconds. At the same time the cloak was delivered, a messaged popped up on the kiosk and it read, “When you are ready to equip your armor, use the room on your right.” Before I did that, I looked around what kind of armor I could get. I wasn’t expecting much, but I managed to find armor that was decent. So I went to the room the message said to go, and I equipped my armor and cloak. I even found out you can change the armor into any color that fits your style, so I went with black being my main color and white as my secondary color. I noticed that none of the armor was symmetrical; as in one shoulder piece was more or less bigger than the other or isn’t on the same spot, and the leg armor looked uneven, but they felt exactly the same on both legs. I imagined people with major OCD problems would go crazy. So I made my way to the gunsmith, he was working on what looked like a prototype. “Excuse me, Banshee?” I said, but he wasn’t listening. “Hellooo,” I said a bit louder. “I heard you the first time, Guardian. Just let me finish with the gun then I’ll get to you,” he said. So I waited and it didn’t take that long for him to finish. “Alright, let’s see those guns you got,” he said. So I gave him my Khostov and he was examining it carefully. “I was lucky to find this gun,” “That you were, Hunter. It’s hard to find a gun like this laying around. Maybe I can strike you a deal.” That caught my interest and I’m willing to bet it involves upgrading the gun I just gave him. “If you can get me enough resources, I can upgrade this into something better. Deal?” He extended out his hand and I shook it without hesitation and nodded. “Anyways, back to business, for each Guardian, you are given the choice to pick one of four guns. An Auto Rifle, Pulse Rifle, Hand Cannon, and Scout Rifle.” He showed each different type of gun, and I chose the Hand Cannon. “Good choice. Most Hunters I’ve seen choose the Hand Cannon or Scout Rifle.” As I was examining my new gun, Banshee was putting some ammo on the table. “Here’s some ammo. Since the cylinders for these are small, you can hold more ammunition than you would with the rifles.” “Thanks Banshee. So do I need to pay you? I don’t have much Glimmer,” I said. He just shook his head, so I took the ammo and left. I noticed it was getting dark and I was getting tired. “Hey Ghost, is there a sleeping quarters around here for Guardians?” I said, and my Ghost came out and said, “Yes, I know my way around here. Follow me.” He started floating off and I followed him. We reached the sleeping quarters and I found one that was open and nobody was using it, so I took my armor off and left the clothes on and went to sleep. I could tell tomorrow was going to be a busy day for me.