4: The Tower: 2
Lord Sovereign
The Emperor of shitty fanfic
- Location
- England
Well I said I'd post this evening. A promise made is not something easily broken. Do enjoy.
XXX
"No…" Dimitri's blood froze. He remembered the reports of the Traveller fleeing and abandoning humanity to its fate. Like everyone else, he'd felt so betrayed and angry. Now…now he knew it came back and died for them.
"It devastated the Hive. No one knows the details, but it fought their God. The one they call Oryx…" A more superstitious person would have sworn the cockpit became colder at that name. "The Traveller died but it drove the Hive away, sparing Mankind from extinction. But by then…the Cryptarchy estimates there were scarcely ten thousand human beings left. There's about a billion scattered throughout the system these days, mind you. Still…"
"Still nothing compared to the Golden Age." The black haired man finished his Ghost's sentence. Oh, how his heart ached at what wonder and life had been lost. "Why though? Why did they do that to us?"
"The Hive are the Traveller's, and therefore the Light's, ancient enemy. In the name of their Sword Logic, a religion of some kind, they slaughtered the Cosmos."
"Religion? Oh of course…" Dimitri growled, knowing full well the cruelty "Holy War" could wreak.
"Of a sort. It's halfway between that and a Social Darwinist personal philosophy."
"I see…what happened to their God?"
"No one knows. The Cryptarchy is split to this day over it. Some think he was destroyed, some that he was injured, and even more question if he existed in the first place. Thankfully however, according to the records the Hive are a mere shadow of what they once were. Even then, the force on the moon is world ending enough…"
"You said about that, something to do with a Hive Prince and a lot of dead Guardians right?"
"Unfortunately, yes. To give you an idea of how much of a problem it is, conservative estimates but their number in the millions and one of that Hive Prince's titles is The Son of Oryx."
"Piz'det." Dimitri hissed. "How the hell have you lasted against them?"
"Oh, not just them." The Ghost sounded cheerful. "There's also the Cabal, the Vex and the Fallen, the latter of whom you're already acquainted with. There was also quite a bit of trouble with Ahamkara a while back. And that's just the Aliens, the humans in this system aren't all that friendly either."
"Okay, just stop for a moment." The young immortal raised his hands in protest. He was no incompetent at history, but this was too much all at once. "One bit at a time please. Start with what happened after the Traveller sacrificed itself."
"I'm sorry, I get carried away with myself." The little machine whirred slightly, as if both humoured and embarrassed. "Well, make yourself comfortable. In terms of infrastructure that remained somewhat intact, the belt colonies won outright there. The modern Thirteen Colonies of the Belt evolved from a few Golden Age mining outposts."
Dimitri nodded at that, not entirely unsurprised. In his time, even small asteroid mining stations could sustain themselves, so this wasn't an impossibility.
"The Outer Colonies were utterly destroyed though, and the inner ones didn't fare much better. Mars and Venus had a few thousand survivors but that was about it. Still, much more lived on them than Earth after the Collapse ended. Over the past nineteen hundred years, they developed their own cultures, and don't really care much for Earth these days. Mars in particular eventually became a militaristic and totalitarian state called the United Martian Empire. We had a war with them in the past, a bad one."
"Why?"
"The Martians think it's their sacred duty to purify the human race and remove the influence of the Traveller in the name of their War God. They want to bring the Solar System under their rule, remove all the unwanted elements and live in fascist utopia…" Yes, the Ghost was capable of sarcasm.
"Jesus…everyone thought after the World Wars that shit wouldn't come back…what about the Venusians?"
"It's Ishtarians these days. They keep to themselves and we keep to ourselves. In terms of the system's geopolitical state, the Ishtarian Collective is probably the most entrenched and stable. They have to be, especially with the Solar Wars rocking the system. Not to mention that Vex incursion they've had to deal with for the past five hundred years."
"You mentioned them before. What are they?"
"I'll get to them later, they're a bit nasty." The small A.I somehow shuddered. The major power of this system, is the Kingdom of the Reef, the realm of the Awoken. And before you ask, they're sort of an off shoot of humanity. During the Collapse, some colony ships went out into the Kuiper Belt…something happened there which the Awoken are still tight lipped about. The result, a race of people immensely in touch with the Light. They dominate the Outer Rim and fought the Martians to a standstill. Highly secretive mind you, the only Reefborn we see are Prince Mordran Sov, part of the Awoken Royal Family, and his body guard. Is this all making sense?"
"I think so. Empire, Collective, Reef. If that's the abridged history of the Solar System, then what about Earth?"
"More eventful somehow. After the Collapse, Earthborn humans spent the next century or so scratching out a living for themselves in a dark age. However, after a while the population began to increase. Much of what remained congregated beneath the Traveller's corpse; overtime a settlement sprang up. Still, bandits roamed the world with reckless abandon. Then the Risen came.
"Risen?" The Russian tilted his head.
"The first Guardians. You see, the moment the Traveller died, it created us: the Ghosts." The machine shifted its body.
"The Traveller made you? What was it like…the Traveller, I mean?"
"All Ghosts remember their birth to some extent, even then it's muddled. We just popped into being, not much fanfare. But I do remember…a warm and very gentle feeling…" The Ghost spent a few moments trying to come up with anything more, then gave up. "Anyway, we were made for a single purpose. To seek out our Guardians, those who could wield the Traveller's Light, raise them from beyond death and guide them against Mankind's enemies."
"Heh, no pressure."
"Yes...oh how I wish that were so…The birth of the Risen somewhat marked the beginning of Mankind's ascent from darkness. They put an end to the roving bandits and brought stability…but it didn't last."
"Let me guess. Some of them liked their power a little too much?"
"Yup, got it in one. We call that the Warlord era. Many Risen decided to carve out Empires and Kingdoms of their own, assuming they had the right to rule simply through power. They stamped their idea of order over their own little fiefdoms…it's disgusting really. To be blessed, to be chosen by the Traveller only to turn one's back on everything it stood for…forgive me, I'm getting off topic." The little machine stopped itself snarling. "For a half a century, this persisted. Until the Iron Lords were formed."
"Iron Lords?"
"If the Risen are your great, great uncles, the Iron Lords are your granddaddies. Some Risen, so disgusted and appalled by the behaviour of their peers, created their own organization. United and coordinated they set upon the Warlords and bested them within a few decades. Some remnants of those old states exist, like Mercia, Norda, and Yamato. Fortunately for them, their rulers where a bit more constitutional and fair than so many others; for that reason alone, the Iron Lords let them be."
"Wow…so there was basically a war between space wizards in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Someone needs to write a book about this."
"There already have been. Many of them. Unfortunately, in terms of literature covering the inner squabbling of Guardians…" The Ghost sighed. "That's the tip of the iceberg."
"For fuck's sake." Dimitri rolled his eyes. As a student of history, he knew full well how awfully people behaved in the past. After something like the Collapse though, he'd thought that might have been left behind.
How naïve he was.
"After that, the Iron Lords secluded themselves in Felwinter Peak, their great fortress, striking out at only the most serious of foes. They would assist the City in many times to come and remain close allies. In the meantime, those Risen who'd sided with the Iron Lords but not donned the title, congregated around the growing settlement under the Traveller. Over time it became what we now call, "The Last City", and those Risen pledged to its defence formed, "The Vanguard." It's a military like organization dedicated to reclaiming what was lost in the Collapse. And they proclaimed themselves, Guardians."
Dimitri whistled, slumping into his pilot's chair. He'd just been given a reader's digest version of the passage of centuries. It made him feel old. To know that he'd lived long before what many alive now likely thought to be myth and legend…it was sobering.
"I must be ancient to the people who live in the City." He shook his head, still struggling to believe all this.
"Aren't we all. Would you like me to continue? I'm not even sure if we're halfway through…"
"Nyet, I'm alright. Going to try and take it in, memorize all this. It's…it's a lot to process."
"Considering your mind is only organic, I don't blame you. There are plenty better suited to filling you in on the rest than me. I'm a Ghost, not a storyteller I'm afraid." It offered in apology. The young immortal waved that off with his hand.
He was on the cusp of responding, but then silenced his tongue. On the hud, directly in front of him was a storm. A vortex of grey clouds and lightening consumed the horizon. Despite knowing this was an FTL capable vessel, Dimitri had no intention of flying it into a maelstrom like this.
"We'll get through it. It's a defence the Traveller made in its dying moments…the Shield Storm." The Ghost helpfully answered his unasked question.
Knowing he'd little choice, Dimitri grunted and thrust the control stick forward. The Jump Ship roared into the heart of a storm that would have made no sense to a pre-Collapse scientist. Forming a perfect ring around the Himalayan mountain ranges, the Shield Storm was tricky to conquer.
Weaving in between lightning strikes, flinching as he felt the judder from a direct hit, the Russian grit his teeth and pressed on. Safety and civilization lay on the other side of this last barrier.
"Pull up." The Ghost said.
"What?" He reacted lethargically, so focused on not being knocked out of the sky by lightning. Nevertheless, Dimitri slowly did as he was told. Pulling the stick back and climbing, his ship suddenly burst through into pure light…
…right in front of Mount Everest.
"Pull up!"
"Cyka Blyat!" The young immortal almost wrenched the control stick out of its mounting. By mere seconds and inches, he avoided smashing into the largest mountain in the world. Dimitri's blue eyes had widened into saucers, his breathing hoarse.
"When I say pull…pull up!" The Ghost shrieked, clearly unhappy with what almost happened.
"You didn't say there was a fucking mountain in front of us!" The Russian shot back.
"There wasn't time, did you want it in writing or something!?"
"No, but it doesn't take long to point out there is a fucking mountain in front of us."
"Well I…we're here."
"What?"
"We've arrived at the Last City."
XXX
"No…" Dimitri's blood froze. He remembered the reports of the Traveller fleeing and abandoning humanity to its fate. Like everyone else, he'd felt so betrayed and angry. Now…now he knew it came back and died for them.
"It devastated the Hive. No one knows the details, but it fought their God. The one they call Oryx…" A more superstitious person would have sworn the cockpit became colder at that name. "The Traveller died but it drove the Hive away, sparing Mankind from extinction. But by then…the Cryptarchy estimates there were scarcely ten thousand human beings left. There's about a billion scattered throughout the system these days, mind you. Still…"
"Still nothing compared to the Golden Age." The black haired man finished his Ghost's sentence. Oh, how his heart ached at what wonder and life had been lost. "Why though? Why did they do that to us?"
"The Hive are the Traveller's, and therefore the Light's, ancient enemy. In the name of their Sword Logic, a religion of some kind, they slaughtered the Cosmos."
"Religion? Oh of course…" Dimitri growled, knowing full well the cruelty "Holy War" could wreak.
"Of a sort. It's halfway between that and a Social Darwinist personal philosophy."
"I see…what happened to their God?"
"No one knows. The Cryptarchy is split to this day over it. Some think he was destroyed, some that he was injured, and even more question if he existed in the first place. Thankfully however, according to the records the Hive are a mere shadow of what they once were. Even then, the force on the moon is world ending enough…"
"You said about that, something to do with a Hive Prince and a lot of dead Guardians right?"
"Unfortunately, yes. To give you an idea of how much of a problem it is, conservative estimates but their number in the millions and one of that Hive Prince's titles is The Son of Oryx."
"Piz'det." Dimitri hissed. "How the hell have you lasted against them?"
"Oh, not just them." The Ghost sounded cheerful. "There's also the Cabal, the Vex and the Fallen, the latter of whom you're already acquainted with. There was also quite a bit of trouble with Ahamkara a while back. And that's just the Aliens, the humans in this system aren't all that friendly either."
"Okay, just stop for a moment." The young immortal raised his hands in protest. He was no incompetent at history, but this was too much all at once. "One bit at a time please. Start with what happened after the Traveller sacrificed itself."
"I'm sorry, I get carried away with myself." The little machine whirred slightly, as if both humoured and embarrassed. "Well, make yourself comfortable. In terms of infrastructure that remained somewhat intact, the belt colonies won outright there. The modern Thirteen Colonies of the Belt evolved from a few Golden Age mining outposts."
Dimitri nodded at that, not entirely unsurprised. In his time, even small asteroid mining stations could sustain themselves, so this wasn't an impossibility.
"The Outer Colonies were utterly destroyed though, and the inner ones didn't fare much better. Mars and Venus had a few thousand survivors but that was about it. Still, much more lived on them than Earth after the Collapse ended. Over the past nineteen hundred years, they developed their own cultures, and don't really care much for Earth these days. Mars in particular eventually became a militaristic and totalitarian state called the United Martian Empire. We had a war with them in the past, a bad one."
"Why?"
"The Martians think it's their sacred duty to purify the human race and remove the influence of the Traveller in the name of their War God. They want to bring the Solar System under their rule, remove all the unwanted elements and live in fascist utopia…" Yes, the Ghost was capable of sarcasm.
"Jesus…everyone thought after the World Wars that shit wouldn't come back…what about the Venusians?"
"It's Ishtarians these days. They keep to themselves and we keep to ourselves. In terms of the system's geopolitical state, the Ishtarian Collective is probably the most entrenched and stable. They have to be, especially with the Solar Wars rocking the system. Not to mention that Vex incursion they've had to deal with for the past five hundred years."
"You mentioned them before. What are they?"
"I'll get to them later, they're a bit nasty." The small A.I somehow shuddered. The major power of this system, is the Kingdom of the Reef, the realm of the Awoken. And before you ask, they're sort of an off shoot of humanity. During the Collapse, some colony ships went out into the Kuiper Belt…something happened there which the Awoken are still tight lipped about. The result, a race of people immensely in touch with the Light. They dominate the Outer Rim and fought the Martians to a standstill. Highly secretive mind you, the only Reefborn we see are Prince Mordran Sov, part of the Awoken Royal Family, and his body guard. Is this all making sense?"
"I think so. Empire, Collective, Reef. If that's the abridged history of the Solar System, then what about Earth?"
"More eventful somehow. After the Collapse, Earthborn humans spent the next century or so scratching out a living for themselves in a dark age. However, after a while the population began to increase. Much of what remained congregated beneath the Traveller's corpse; overtime a settlement sprang up. Still, bandits roamed the world with reckless abandon. Then the Risen came.
"Risen?" The Russian tilted his head.
"The first Guardians. You see, the moment the Traveller died, it created us: the Ghosts." The machine shifted its body.
"The Traveller made you? What was it like…the Traveller, I mean?"
"All Ghosts remember their birth to some extent, even then it's muddled. We just popped into being, not much fanfare. But I do remember…a warm and very gentle feeling…" The Ghost spent a few moments trying to come up with anything more, then gave up. "Anyway, we were made for a single purpose. To seek out our Guardians, those who could wield the Traveller's Light, raise them from beyond death and guide them against Mankind's enemies."
"Heh, no pressure."
"Yes...oh how I wish that were so…The birth of the Risen somewhat marked the beginning of Mankind's ascent from darkness. They put an end to the roving bandits and brought stability…but it didn't last."
"Let me guess. Some of them liked their power a little too much?"
"Yup, got it in one. We call that the Warlord era. Many Risen decided to carve out Empires and Kingdoms of their own, assuming they had the right to rule simply through power. They stamped their idea of order over their own little fiefdoms…it's disgusting really. To be blessed, to be chosen by the Traveller only to turn one's back on everything it stood for…forgive me, I'm getting off topic." The little machine stopped itself snarling. "For a half a century, this persisted. Until the Iron Lords were formed."
"Iron Lords?"
"If the Risen are your great, great uncles, the Iron Lords are your granddaddies. Some Risen, so disgusted and appalled by the behaviour of their peers, created their own organization. United and coordinated they set upon the Warlords and bested them within a few decades. Some remnants of those old states exist, like Mercia, Norda, and Yamato. Fortunately for them, their rulers where a bit more constitutional and fair than so many others; for that reason alone, the Iron Lords let them be."
"Wow…so there was basically a war between space wizards in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Someone needs to write a book about this."
"There already have been. Many of them. Unfortunately, in terms of literature covering the inner squabbling of Guardians…" The Ghost sighed. "That's the tip of the iceberg."
"For fuck's sake." Dimitri rolled his eyes. As a student of history, he knew full well how awfully people behaved in the past. After something like the Collapse though, he'd thought that might have been left behind.
How naïve he was.
"After that, the Iron Lords secluded themselves in Felwinter Peak, their great fortress, striking out at only the most serious of foes. They would assist the City in many times to come and remain close allies. In the meantime, those Risen who'd sided with the Iron Lords but not donned the title, congregated around the growing settlement under the Traveller. Over time it became what we now call, "The Last City", and those Risen pledged to its defence formed, "The Vanguard." It's a military like organization dedicated to reclaiming what was lost in the Collapse. And they proclaimed themselves, Guardians."
Dimitri whistled, slumping into his pilot's chair. He'd just been given a reader's digest version of the passage of centuries. It made him feel old. To know that he'd lived long before what many alive now likely thought to be myth and legend…it was sobering.
"I must be ancient to the people who live in the City." He shook his head, still struggling to believe all this.
"Aren't we all. Would you like me to continue? I'm not even sure if we're halfway through…"
"Nyet, I'm alright. Going to try and take it in, memorize all this. It's…it's a lot to process."
"Considering your mind is only organic, I don't blame you. There are plenty better suited to filling you in on the rest than me. I'm a Ghost, not a storyteller I'm afraid." It offered in apology. The young immortal waved that off with his hand.
He was on the cusp of responding, but then silenced his tongue. On the hud, directly in front of him was a storm. A vortex of grey clouds and lightening consumed the horizon. Despite knowing this was an FTL capable vessel, Dimitri had no intention of flying it into a maelstrom like this.
"We'll get through it. It's a defence the Traveller made in its dying moments…the Shield Storm." The Ghost helpfully answered his unasked question.
Knowing he'd little choice, Dimitri grunted and thrust the control stick forward. The Jump Ship roared into the heart of a storm that would have made no sense to a pre-Collapse scientist. Forming a perfect ring around the Himalayan mountain ranges, the Shield Storm was tricky to conquer.
Weaving in between lightning strikes, flinching as he felt the judder from a direct hit, the Russian grit his teeth and pressed on. Safety and civilization lay on the other side of this last barrier.
"Pull up." The Ghost said.
"What?" He reacted lethargically, so focused on not being knocked out of the sky by lightning. Nevertheless, Dimitri slowly did as he was told. Pulling the stick back and climbing, his ship suddenly burst through into pure light…
…right in front of Mount Everest.
"Pull up!"
"Cyka Blyat!" The young immortal almost wrenched the control stick out of its mounting. By mere seconds and inches, he avoided smashing into the largest mountain in the world. Dimitri's blue eyes had widened into saucers, his breathing hoarse.
"When I say pull…pull up!" The Ghost shrieked, clearly unhappy with what almost happened.
"You didn't say there was a fucking mountain in front of us!" The Russian shot back.
"There wasn't time, did you want it in writing or something!?"
"No, but it doesn't take long to point out there is a fucking mountain in front of us."
"Well I…we're here."
"What?"
"We've arrived at the Last City."
