That prologue was a little short. Heres more. (might be better to look at the PDF)

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[Updated 19 Oct 2019]

245 Kilometers from the Last City
+9 years, 287 days

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The spacecraft shuddered as another lightning bolt glanced off the wing. It rocked and rolled through another thunderstorm; the third one since they had managed to get airborne in the ruins of Newark. While the ship's door seals had worn out centuries ago, it was still enough to maintain cabin pressure. The Hunter in the pilot's seat just would not be taking it into orbit any time soon.

The craft rocked again, shaking the flight stick in Nicole's grip. She slammed her fist on top of the instrument panel and swore in Eliksni. The ice and frost that had begun to build up the gauges cracked as she brushed it away. The defroster and cockpit heaters were both kaput, sometimes Golden Age technology was funny that way.

"How much longer do we need to stay in these clouds?" she asked her Ghost.

The small machine that had revived her nine and a half years ago was currently acting navigator. He knew where the 'Last City' was, and the ship's built in navigation system was shot.

His eye darted across the blurry view beyond the windows. All Nicole could see were angry clouds and patches of light where lightning arced between them. "You can bring us down out of the clouds now. We are getting close to the intercept point for the cities air identification zone... Though it has been a while... And my memory of my time there has some holes."

He waved his damaged fin out of the way to show the gouge in his core.

Nicole throttled down and pushed the yoke away, dropping the ship's nose below the horizon. She was not keen about staying in the storm any longer than she needed to. The clouds beneath the main brunt of the storm were not kind, but better than higher up. After just a few moments, her radio cracked with a weak signal. The voice also came over the ships unmanned communications station.

"Unknown ship pinging as Skylanes Sierra-one-zero-two-romeo-charlie. Identify immediately or you will be fired upon."

Nicole looked over at her Ghost, who nodded once. "Alright... just like how you told me..." She clicked the transmit switch and spoke into her helmet mic. "This is Sierra-one-zero-two-romeo-charlie. I am a new guardian, requesting clearance to land."

There was silence across the channel for just a few moments. "Acknowledged. Have your Ghost transmit City Ident codes and await further instruction."

Her Ghost pulsed once and Nicole heard a jumble of sounds over the radio channel. "I hope those are the right codes," he mumbled.

"Codes verified, and clearance granted. Two escorts have been scrambled to your position; follow them in to City airspace... You're too big for the Hangar, what is the status of your VTOL thrusters?" The voice on the other end asked.

"They are not functional," Nicole answered. They had tried to use those to take off back in Newark, but there were just some things her Ghost could not get back into working order.

"Copy that, you will need to land at Runway seven-west. Nav data will be transmitted to your Ghost. Welcome to the Last City, Guardian. And good luck."

Two ships flew passed Nicole's cockpit, coming from straight on. They circled around and fell into formation, one on either end of her ship's wings. They were much sleeker than her old cargo ship. After what she assumed were the pilots performing a visual inspection of her craft, they pulled ahead for her to follow. She followed them into another bank of clouds and over a tall mountain range. The ground dropped away into a wide valley with a massive sphere dominating the sky. The city sprawled out for kilometers beneath it.

"So that's the Traveler... wow..." Nicole muttered. "That's much bigger than I thought."

"Yes, that it is." Her Ghost said. "That is what made me, and helped bring you back from the dead."

"It's very impressive." Nicole had to look away from the Traveler as the escorts banked and started to descend. She could see a long straight line ahead of them; there were a few others crisscrossing across it, but this one was the longest.

"Now, normally we'd let the auto-pilot do the landing for us... but that was one of the things that was shot like the nav system. So good luck?" Her Ghost chirped.

"Well if we crash, you can just bring me back, right?" Nicole looked over at him with a worried smile behind her helmet.

The small machine turned to look at her with the most serious expression a ball could have. "Only if we don't explode on impact."

"Oh... No pressure then." She banked the craft to line up with the runway and slowed, the ship's engines winding down for final approach. The landing gear was deployed and Nicole brought the ship down as gently as she could.

The ship shuddered as the centuries old tires made contact with the asphalt The landing gear suspension snapped and the stiff tires tore themselves apart from the friction; yet miraculously the brace held the landing gear at extension. The cargo shuttle slid down the runway on its rims, sending sparks and bits of asphalt bouncing off the hull. Nicole flipped a switch and lowered the wing flaps to their full extension and fired the reverse thrusters; the ship shook violently but eventually came to a gradual, but rough stop.

"Well... we made it, good work Nicole." The Ghost said, vanishing into her armor.

"Thanks..."Nicole unbuckled her restraints. The cockpit was a chorus of alarms and beeping, but she ignored it to make her way off the ship. She pushed her way through the rusted chairs and glowing blue chunks of Gimmer that cluttered the floor; something must have broken free during the landing and flung it all around. The ship's hold had been full of the stuff all crated up. If the fabricators at the Newark airfield had been working still Nicole would have been flying a fully functional ship, but of course they were not.

The outer door creaked as she pushed it open, an evacuation slide exploded out of a hidden compartment but failed to inflate, the old yellow thing hanging limply out of the doorway. She glanced up at the Traveler in the sky, "It's less impressive from the ground to be completely honest."

Nicole popped off her helmet and clipped it to her belt. The air smelled like burned rubber and fire. She spied a cluster of vehicles approaching at speed with flashing lights. They looked like the fire response vehicles she had seen across Mist Territory; the thought suddenly occurred to her that she was standing in a craft that had just experienced a crash landing and could burst into flames at any moment.

She hopped down to the ground and quickly walked away from the smoking rims, while the emergency vehicles pulled up and crews began dousing the ship down with foam. A heavily armored woman climbed off the back of one of the trucks, carrying a shotgun in front of her, but aimed down at the ground. Her armor was extremely bulky, and she had a silver sash hanging from her waist. "Are you the new Guardian, Hunter?"

"Yep, that's me. Though I wouldn't exactly say I'm exactly new." She bowed her head slightly, something she had picked up from her time in the wild.

She had been called a Hunter, which was how the City classified her abilities that had been granted by the Traveler, it seemed to come with an affinity for knives and agility. Judging by the armor, this new woman was a Titan if Nicole remembered right. "I'm Nia-" She stopped herself, that was not her name with Humans, "My name's Nicole, pleasure to meet you...?" She offered her hand to shake in that classic human manner.

The Titan took Nicole's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Matilda, I'm part of the City Defense. They send me over just in case you were actually not human, or some other sort of trick going on."

"Just you though?" Nicole asked.

Matilda laughed. "No, the rest of my fireteam has me covered across the runway. If you can't see them, they're doing their job right." She turned and waved off to some unseen Guardians. "Though it's a good thing you came out with your helmet off, else we might have had some blue on blue action.

Nicole turned to her side to show the red metal docking caps that her Ghost had grafted onto her back armor plate. "I wouldn't blame you; this is a genuine Eliksni Vandal armor set... with a few modifications. It was meant to be convincing.

"Just make sure you keep your helmet off while here in the City. I don't want you to cause a panic. In fact, maybe get a new set of gear all together. I'm sure some of the vendors have deals available," the Titan said.

"Okay, that's understood. I'll look into it." Nicole actually did not intend to look into it; this armor set has served her well over the last few years. It would take a lot more than one suggestion to get her to replace it.

"Alright, good. You'll want to go see the Vanguard in the Tower. They always want to meet the new arrivals as soon as possible. Cayde-6 is the Hunter Vanguard; he's an Exo, wears a cloak all the time. He will probably notice you first," Matilda said.

"How do I get up to the Tower from here?" Nicole glanced up at the structure that stretched tall above the runway. Long cables dangled from the top and anchored not too far away from the base, and a small ship flew out of a large box that must be the hangar. Matilda pointed out towards the base of the tower and laid out the route she would need to follow to get up to the Tower's courtyard. They exchanged goodbyes and Nicole headed in the direction she had been told.

The doors to the Tower base slid open automatically and she walked inside. A bit of rusty dust fell from the ceiling; it was evident that this area had not been used in a long time. Chairs were stacked up and covered in blankets. Crates were just sitting in the walkway on abandoned pallet jacks. They probably used the area for storage now. Only a few lights were on, leaving the open space dim.

Nicole was not impressed so far.

At one point, the room looked to have been used as a shopping area, stalls were closed up tight, but their faded signs were still legible. An advertisement for some sort of rifle had been slapped up on one of the pillars not too far from an illuminated bank of elevators. Suros Weapons Foundry: DIS-47 was boldly printed over a sleek white plated rifle. The bird decal on the weapon extended off of the frame and splashed across the paper. It was a very good looking gun. Much more uniform and fancy than her old assault rifle, or the Fallen Wire rifle that hung across her back.

She pressed the elevator call button at the back of the chamber, and then a small display lit up above the door and began to count down. There were a lot of floors. Glancing back the way she came, she spotted a group of Guardians playing cards at a table off in one of the dim corners. Their table was lit up by a couple camping lanterns scattered around their little fort. They had been hidden behind a particularly tall stack of crates blocking her view of them coming in. Nicole noted that they were Hunters like her, judging by their gear. She debated whether or not to go over and introduce herself, but the elevator arrives and dinged open making her mind up for her.

Nicole signed and boarded the lift, pressing the button that was labeled Tower Commons. The elevator zipped upwards at a slight angle to account for the Tower's superstructure. She reached the top in no time at all. Once the doors opened she was greeted with an absolutely amazing view of the Traveler, or The Great Machine as her Eliksni friends had called it. Nicole walked to a railing and glanced down; the 'Last City' stretched out beneath it, rising up to meet the Traveler and went as far as she could see... A few more towers dotted the skyline further in, and the entire place was circled by mountains. "That's some view..."

Her Ghost popped into her helmet through her helmet speakers. "You'll have plenty of time to enjoy the view later, you should probably go see the Vanguard like that Titan said."

"Fine... where..." Nicole turned to see if there were any signs giving her directions.

Up the courtyard, there was a staircase leading down into the Tower interior, a helpful sign indicated that this was the path to the Vanguard Operations Center. That was probably where she should start.

Nicole walked down the steps and walked into the interior of the Tower. The signs directed her forward, but she passed one of the largest Humans she had ever seen. He stood tall with his arms on his hips, clad in orange and white armor; definitely a Titan. "THE CRUCIBLE NEEDS GUARDIANS, HUNTER!" he bellowed. "YOU LOOK LIKE YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES. GET OUT THERE."

Nicole nearly jumped out of her boots; she was not expecting him to be so loud all of a sudden after sitting there quietly. She just hurried passed him and through another doorway. Vanguard Operations was displayed above the door, so this had to be the right place.

There were three Guardians there, as far as Nicole could tell, the rest were what looked like regular Humans working at computer stations. The Guardians were standing around a long table, A Titan stood at the end of the table and a Warlock, the third class of Guardian, was at the other end. A Hunter stood opposite of the Warlock, looking at a large map of some region Nicole did not recognize.

"Hey there, Hunter!" The Exo that had to be Cayde-6 pointed at Nicole with both fingers as she walked into the command space. "Nice gear, new girl, right? Just came in on the Pterosaur? Great landing by the way, come on over and let's get you set up."

Once again, Nicole was taken off guard with how... non-abrasive everyone was being. She came down the steps into the sunken meeting area, and walked over to the Exo before bowing her head in a greeting with a small smile. "Good afternoon."

When she straightened back up, she noticed the Warlock Vanguard squint at her, then type something rapidly into their tablet.

"Oh-ho-ho, don't gotta' be so formal there, Guardian." He leaned his side against the table. "Soo, where do you come from, how long have you been around? Tell me, everything."

"Ah, well I come from the old Seattle region." She summoned her Ghost. "He brought me back... what would you say? Nine years ago?"

Her Ghost blinked once. "Nine Years, five months, thirteen days, and... five hours."

Nicole was going to go on, but the Warlock Vanguard stopped her. "It's you. The Fallen Guardian. Cayde, this is the one that stopped the Strike going after the Umic Archives."

"I... uh... Yeah..." Nicole frowned, and felt her heart began to beat faster. That was the incident that finally encouraged her to go to the Tower.

"What are you talking about, Ikora?" Cayde seemed to be puzzled for a moment, but then it seemed to click. "OH right, the Tank." He slapped the table, "Man, when that thing came through the wall, your expression was priceless."

"Cayde, this is serious," the Warlock stated.

"Oh I know, just... it. Was. Great." Cayde stood a little straighter. "So what made you leave your four armed buddies and finally came to the Tower?"

"Well that was just it, the Strike. I thought it was about time I made my way here, and maybe I could prevent another one of those happening." Nicole was honest with them.

"Nothing like being drawn to your duty to protect Humanity or things like that?" he asked. His tone was sort of betraying the seriousness of the question.

"I was... well... you could say that was another part of the decision process." That was a lie.

From the end of the table, the Titan Vanguard raised his voice and joined the conversation. "The House of Mist is not currently a threat; we can leave it off of the list of targets... for now. But your duty first and foremost should be protecting Humanity, and the Last City. Not some Fallen House in the north. Until we are sure you have those priorities straight, you will be restricted to the Tower."

"Ooh harsh, but the big man has spoken, Hunter." Cayde said.

"Furthermore, once we have deemed you fit for duty, you are forbidden from returning or contacting this Fallen House in any way." the Titan continued, ignoring the Hunter Vanguard's comment.

"I... understand, sir." Nicole frowned, but kept the sadness inside her from showing. This had been a mistake to come to the Tower. She should have never let her Ghost talk her into it.

"Can she at least keep the armor? It looks really nice. Love the cloak." Cayde pointed at her.

The Titan hesitated momentarily. "Yes... she may keep the armor, but not the House colors."

Another twinge of regret. Not only was she never allowed to return to, or talk to anyone in House Mist, but she was not even allowed to display her colors anymore. "Understood... may I leave now?" Sure this would be a short first meeting with the Vanguard, but everything had just been thrown for a loop right in front of her. At Least they had not hesitated to take Mist off the 'target' list.

"Just a few quick things to take care of..." Cayde picked up his tablet from beneath a pile of paper maps. "...alright... I've just assigned you quarters in the Guardian flats, and activated your City Ident so you can access services across the tower while you're under house arrest."

"I... well thank you." Nicole managed to mumble, she was not entirely sure how much of her feelings she was keeping off her face at the moment.

"Sent it to your Ghost, so now you're good to go... good luck." Cayde gave a half wave as Nicole turned her back and walked back up the stairs midway through what he was saying.

She felt horrible. Everything she had built for nearly ten years was gone from her. Sure... it was entirely possible for her to just cut and run back to Mist, but that would jeopardize the House, and the Humans that relied on it. For the good of the House, and Humanity, she would stay with the Last City. Nicole decided to suck it up and go visit the Shipwright, she had seen the signs for the hangar earlier.

Her Ghost flew around her head when they walked back into the courtyard. "Access to the Tower information network, news on the going-ons of the solar system, this is great," he paused. "Oh... right... I'm sorry about Mist, but I'm sure they'll warm up to them eventually."

"Do you really think that?" Nicole asked. She took a left and walked down a corridor marked for the Hangar. There were a few other Guardians coming the other way, one gave her an acknowledging nod.

The Ghost took a bit longer to respond than it should have. "Yes, I do... Everything will work out find in the end." Nicole eyed her Ghost briefly, and walked into the hangar.

The hangar was a wide open space; catwalks crisscrossed the flight deck where dozens of small spacecraft say on lifts. There were small vendor stores and offices suspended from the ceiling above the hangar floor. It reminded her a bit of some of the military sites she had visited on her journey to the Tower. Nicole walked up to the stall with the big Shipwright sign above it. Inside the stall, a woman was sitting on a crate in the back, reading something on a tablet. She looked up when Nicole approached.

"Hey Guardian, haven't seen you around here before. I'm Amanda Holliday, the best Shipwright in this here City." Her voice had a southern accent to it. Nicole had heard it before while crossing the remains of the North American Empire.

Nicole did her best to put a smile on her face. The result was probably a bit flat. "Nice to meet you, so I just arrived here and-"

The Shipwright cut her off. "That your wreck out on the runway?"

"Yeah-"

"You want me to fix it?" She asked.

"If you can." Nicole replied.

Holliday hopped off the crate and walked over to a screen; she flipped through a few windows and brought up a camera view of the runway. Her ship was front and center on the screen. The fire retardant foam had been washed away and the craft just sat there, crooked, on what was left of its landing gear. "She's an ol' Pterosaur Vi-two-twenty-one... She'd be a beaut' when all cleaned up... I can do it, so long as you've got the Glimmer."

Nicole straightened up; finally something was going right about today. "Sounds just fine. Just take what you need from the ship's cargo hold. That should be enough."

"If you say so, then alright, Guardian." Holliday pushed the screen back up against the wall and pulled her tablet off the container she had been sitting on. "I'll send down my team to take a look and see what needs fixin'. I just need your CID for contacting you if we've got any questions."

Nicole summoned her Ghost to take care of that part of the transaction; she had not learned her number yet. He spun around and made a chirp. "I've transmitted our City Ident code to your device."

"Alrighty then, I'll send you a message with an update on your ship when I know something." she said.

"Thank you, finally something went right today." Nicole exclaimed.

"Awe, what's biting you?" Holliday asked.

"Vanguard shit, just leave it at that."

"I hear you, sister." She nodded her head. "You just do you."

"Thanks, I um... I'll get going now." Nicole started to backup and then turned and headed back up the steps.

Nicole hurried back up the steps, and took the lift to the lower levels. She would find her assigned flat next. Maybe another thing would go right. The lower level branched out below the open courtyard. Scents wafted through the air from shops and food carts that stuck into the narrow streets. Guardians and civilians stood at kiosks that were selling all sorts of wares.

Her Ghost looked around from his perch on her shoulder. "Sort of reminds you of home, doesn't it?"

She nodded slowly, wishing that he had not reminded her of that so soon. "Yeah... well... let's find this apartment. Do you have a map?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," his eye lit up and projected a map of the floor into the air. Normally it would just appear on her helmet, but she had been told not to put it on. A path snaked through corridors and ended up on a corner unit near the far edge.

"I hope it's not too bad..."Nicole sighed and followed her Ghost's projection.

It took her well over an hour to find an open path to her assigned space. Doors had been walled up, sealed, or locked with some looking as if they had been that way for centuries. One doorway that was labeled as a throughway on the map turned out to be the back door to someone's ramen shop. Once she had found her room, the sun had begun to set already. It was only midday when her ship had crested the mountain and seen the Traveler for the first time.

"Ghost, how old was that map you downloaded?" Nicole asked, turning to look at the little machine.

"Lemme check- oh- It's dated around two hundred years ago..." He flinched. "Sorry."

"That's fine," she grumbled. "Just get one that's more up to date for the future." The door was locked, and the control beside it did not have any visible control surfaces. Nicole slapped its surface, nothing happened. She pressed her hand on it. Still nothing. "Got any ideas, buddy?"

"Yeah I'll take a look." He floated down off her shoulder and looked around at the pad. A beam of energy shot out of his eye and interfaced with the pad. The door clicked open a moment later.

The flat was not small, but it was not big either. Compared to where she had been living before though, it might as well have been a closet. It had everything she would need, a kitchen, bedroom, and main room. However, much to her happiness, there was a new looking bathroom. Everything looked like it would work when she needed it to. That was almost worth being restricted to the Tower.

She opened one of the cabinets above the counter in the kitchen and found a dozen cups wrapped in plastic neatly stacked up. Taking one and stripping the wrapper off, she checked the fridge; a water dispenser was in the door. With hope, she pressed the cup into the dispenser. A soft hiss came from the fridge as the cup filled with water. She could feel the cold water chill the cup in her hand. "Ooh..." Nicole raised the glass and drank the water; it tasted... well like water, but was almost as refreshing as fresh glacier melt.

It had been months since she had been anywhere close to civilization.

Nicole circled the bed and unclasped the backpack she kept under her cloak. She dumped it out onto the bed, and then stripped out of the armor and scattered it across the floor. Nicole flopped out on the comfortable surface and stretched out with a moan. When she was just starting to feel good about showing up at the tower, she rolled over to look at the contents of her backpack.

She ran her fingers over the leather cover of the sketchbook, tracing the alien glyphs embossed into its surface. Flipping through it slowly, all the regret that had started to fade came flooding back to her.

Leaving was the hardest choice she had ever made, but it had been made a necessity. That Strike had caused so much grief and so many problems. She should have stayed with them, and just worked everything out from there. Getting forbidden from ever returning or even contacting them was going to be tough.

A sudden thud shook the cup sitting on her nightstand.

Nicole scrambled up and threw open the curtains. Face down on her balcony was the body of an Exo; he looked like a Hunter. Bits of metal that had broken off of his frame spun on the floor. After a few breathless moments, their Ghost appeared and revived the Exo; who immediately rushed her railing and went over the side.

"What the fuck?" Nicole ran over and looked over the edge. She was honestly surprised to see that he was still there, holding onto the lip of the balcony.

The Exo looked up at her; his face was white with a black stripe coming down the middle. He smiled; completely contrary to what it looked like was happening. "Oh, hello?"

"Are... are you alright?" She asked, taken off guard by his cheery attitude. Something must be wrong with Exo Guardians.

"Yeah, I'm fine... why?" He asked as if he was completely oblivious to his current predicament.

Nicole waved down at the drop beneath him. "Well you're just hanging off the ledge!"

"Yeah," he said. "It's cool though. I mean, we can't die."

Nicole nodded slightly. She had experienced that moment more than a few times. That high that came with resurrection was a strange sensation. "Are you new?" she had to ask. He looked like a fresh Guardian, even if she had never seen one before.

"I might be, why?" The Exo decided not to drop himself over the edge and climbed up into her balcony.

"Because you were just hanging off the side of the Tower!" She waved her hands at the edge wildly again.

"Well I am, I've been here for a week. How long have you been here?" He asked.

"Oh, well I got here today, actually." Nicole replied.

"So you were just revived too?" The Exo said with excitement in his voice.

She shook her head. "No, I just took a long time to get there."

"Cool, it took me a while to get here too. I was revived in a hospital in Meridian Bay on Mars... I'm pretty sure." He held out his hand and his Ghost appeared. "Jinx?"

It seemed that he had named his Ghost. Nicole had thought about it, but she had yet to find one that really fit her little buddy.

"What is it, Guardian?" His Ghost asked. It had a feminine voice unlike hers.

"How did you find me?" he asked Jinx.

"You were in a pile of dirt in the Clovis Bray Medical Research Facility... Floor seven, room forty-two. Meridian Bay, Mars." Jinx then sprouted off a few exact coordinates that meant nothing to Nicole.

Midway through the next line of coordinates, Nicole saw the Exo's eyes go up and down her body. "You have nice eyes," he said without warning. His Ghost stopped suddenly and swung around to face the Exo. He broke into laughter at whatever look his Ghost was giving him.

Nicole felt herself blush. "Oh... um... thank you."

His Ghost vanished and he rolled his arms. "Would you like to continue this conversation over a drink?" He asked. "There isn't much in the Tower Commons, but a few levels down there is a place with decent food."

Nicole glanced back at the sketchbook on her new bed, in her new apartment, and then turned back to the Exo. "Sure... I could use a drink."

"Okay, its four floors down. I'll meet you there!" The Exo backed up and threw himself over the ledge again without another thought.

"Oh what the fuck." Nicole sighed and headed back into her bedroom. She grabbed one of the plain tabards she kept in her pack and threw it over her body suit before heading down to where the Exo should be waiting.

Right off the elevator, four floors down, was a good sized bar. The Exo already had a table and waved her over. Spotting the waving robot in a crowded bar was pretty easy. Nicole came over and plopped down into the seat across from him. One of the serving Frames, legitimate robots she had seen around the Tower a few times, came over with a tray of alcoholic drinks for them. Nicole took one and had a sip right away.

"My name is Brutus by the way. I think we should get names out of the way pretty quick," he said.

"I'm Nicole; it is honestly really good to meet a friendly face." Brutus offered his glass, and she met his with hers. It was interesting having actual conversation with someone here. It had just been painful business so far. All the other Guardians she ran into seemed to just silently nod when they passed.

"So," Brutus asked. "You how far I came to get here. What's your story?"

"Well it's a long one..." Nicole trailed off and took another sip of her drink. "How much do you want to hear? Short and sweet?"

"We've got time." Brutus nodded. "Tell me everything."

"Well alright, we'll need some more drinks." She finished off the glass and set it off to the side. "So it all started..."