[u]Chapter Two: Encounters[/u] (Part 3) Guardian, you can stop running..." He said, a cautious tone to his voice. I stopped and looked around. The street ahead of me looked clear, but then I saw a head pop up, and Fallen began climbing on top of the cars littering the road, revealing themselves and taking aim. There were at least a dozen, and more Fallen were running into the street to join. My sides were being covered by the Fallen that had been coming out of alleyways the whole run, and my flank was blocked by the ever growing swarm of Fallen. "Um, why are there so many?" I asked nervously. "The European Dead Zone is completely under the control of the House of Devils, the group of Fallen that occupies most of Earth. You're one of the few Guardians to set foot here since the Collapse, they have grown here, and it's only natural that every one of them would mobilize when a Guardian enters their territory. We're fighting a city of Fallen..." My Ghost replied. "I don't like those odds." "Maybe we should've stayed in the alleyway. It would've been easier to hold them off." "Too late now," I said, watching the Fallen around me, ready to shoot whichever moved first. There were several dozen Fallen, and a couple dozen of the Shanks they built. There were a couple Fallen of a rank I didn't recognize; they were like Vandals, but larger and wearing more armor, bearing red capes with the same symbol on them. That brought to my attention that the other Fallen had a lot of red coloration to their armor and cloths. [i]So House of Devils wears red. Fitting. So that symbol must be for the Devils[/i], I thought. "So I'm guessing you noticed the new unit, those are Fallen Captains. But now's not the time to start studying all this because THEY'RE MOVING TOWARDS US! Get your head out of the clouds!" My Ghost shouted at me. He was right, the Fallen had started advancing slowly, the Captains egging on the others to move. The Fallen definitely didn't seem like they knew how to handle me, so I probably was one of only a few Guardians who had entered here. That would hopefully play to my advantage. I whipped out one of the shock blades and flourished it in the air, pointing my gun at the Fallen and bellowing. Making myself big seemed to work and the Fallen line stepped back a bit, but the angry chatter from the Captains pushed them forward again. "I'm impressed, that almost worked," My Ghost muttered, "Guardian, this seems to be the end of us. I was so glad when I found you earlier today; I've been searching for you for years. I know we haven't spent much time together, but before I even found you I felt you would be wonderful, that you could make a difference in this awful conflict. I'm proud to go out with you at my side; you are the reason for my existence, and I wouldn't want to go out any other way than battling through the darkness with you." Emotion shook his voice, and I was touched by his words. "Thank you, Ghost, for finding me and teaching me what you could in this short time. But we're not dead yet, and I'm not gonna go out so soon without leaving something for the others to take advantage of or learn from," I raise my gun and pointed it at the nearest Captain, "Now let's show these alie-" I trailed off as the roar of engines approached, then sighed and asked, "What now?" The ship grew closer and I looked up at it as it stopped directly over the street, keeping my weapons raised. The ship was blue and orange and had a flat, arrow like shape. Ghost scan read 'Phaeton class'. "That's no Fallen ship, that belongs to a Guardian!" My Ghost exclaimed in surprise. Right as he finished talking, the loud ring of a sniper rifle firing cut through the buzz of the engines and the Captain I had been aiming at crumpled to the ground. More rounds began flying from somewhere above and another Fallen fell with each one. I began firing into the mass, too, targeting any that collected themselves enough to charge at me, and as I did a voice spoke though on my coms. "Guardian and Ghost, prepare for transmat into my ship," said the voice of a young woman, "I will join you shortly." "Will do, miss," my Ghost responded. "What's a transmat?" I asked him. "It's molecular rearrangement from one area to another, typically only possible for short-range. It's basically teleportation," he answered. "I know what molecular rearrangement is, Ghost," I sighed. "Just making sure," he said dismissively, "Now you should stop shooting and try not to move too much." I complied and put my gun down, waiting for something to happen. Nothing happened for a few moments and I grew worried of the swarming Fallen. There were still a few dozen very close and they began pushing forward, no longer intimidated by their comrades' deaths. But then I felt a slight tingle and my environment suddenly changed. I was in a cockpit, assumedly that of the ship above the street. "Hold tight, Guardian," the woman's voice said, "I'm going to move the ship closer to me and transmat in, then we'll head out full throttle towards the Last City." I felt the ship start to move and looked around the cockpit. The interior was rather plain, aside from the elaborate controls, and was completely blocked from the exterior by the vehicle's armor. However, there was a screen displaying sensor and camera views of the ship's surroundings. Then I realized that I was in the pilot's seat. "Ghost," I began to ask, "if she's the pilot, and I'm in her seat, then isn't she gonna-" A person suddenly appeared in a flash like my Ghost's earlier disappearance, falling down into my lap with a Ghost floating next to her. She landed with an "oof" and looked at me, then at her Ghost. "You put him in my seat?!" She yelled at her Ghost, "Now is not the time to be playing tricks on me!" But she let me be and took the ship's controls, a small jolt signaling that we were picking up speed. "John," she said to her Ghost after a few minutes, "Take over on the controls." "Will do," the Ghost replied. I noted the Ghost's male voice and realized she had named it John. She got off of my lap and let me get up and move to the space of the ship behind the pilot's seat, then moved back with me. She looked me up and down for a moment before speaking. "Hello," she said, "I'm Sierra." ________________________________________ Link to ToC:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0 Link to Chapter 2 Part 2: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/209968383/0/0 Link to Chapter 3: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/210206176/0/0