Book 2: Ch 10: Eyes Up, Guardian Pt 1
MagicMan333
Post-apocalyptic Gonzo Journalist
- Location
- Washington
Chapter 10: Eyes Up, Guardian
In the void, was a single spark of light. He did not have flesh, but he could feel. He did not have ears, but he could hear. He did not have eyes, but he saw. He could perceive the void around him and all around him was black. Not black like the Dark, but black like the night sky and like the night sky it was populated by other points of light like himself. Millions of them, as far as he could see and beyond. He considered his own form and realized that this was what it was like to be a star.
Suddenly, he found his attention drawn to something above him. It was…If he and his fellows were stars than he was staring at a supernova that never stopped burning. Staring at it, he realized it was constantly being fed by points of light that slowly drifted closer to it. He realized that he himself was drifting closer. He felt something inside himself and he knew it was joy. The prospect of becoming part of that great conflagration made him feel like, somehow, everything he had ever done had been worth it.
That was when he saw the light. At first, it was a distant glow on the horizon but it grew quickly and soon it was a mighty flame. From the edges of the void he could hear it calling to him. It seemed ridiculous. This paltry fire could never hope to match the sheer resplendence of the nova he was soon to become one with. But…
He didn't know why but he knew he had to answer it. A distant thought drifted through his consciousness, "Work's not done." He felt something prickle in his mind. It was the supernova. He realized that it was measuring him. Not merely him, but his choice to heed the fire's call. For a moment, the supernova flared and a ribbon of ethereal light began to approach him. He could do nothing but watch as the flare passed through him but his fear abated when all that was left in its passing was a gentle warmth. He remembered a face, old and marked in blue. The face was smiling at him. It was a proud smile. His fear melted away. It had been a blessing.
He turned his full attention to the flame on the horizon. He reached out towards it and in what seemed like seconds the unfathomable distance between them shrunk until the fire was before him. It was, he realized a living paradox. A wondrous paradox. For the flame before him was both cosmic in scope and complexity while being both intimate and simple as the sound of a heartbeat. The fire reached out to him and he felt it mix with his light. It was lesser than what he would have felt with the supernova but it was still absolute ecstasy. But to his surprise, it was tinged with something else. His last thought was the realization that that "something else" was the feeling of someone taking hold of his hand.
-----
"Guardian!"
The voice crashed into his brain like a tidal wave. He opened his eyes only to clench them shut at the searing light.
"Eyes up!" a voice said, "I'd like to give you time to get used to being back but we've got to get the hell out of here."
His head swam. Where was he? Felt like he was lying on…what was the word? Asphalt. He was lying on asphalt. He opened his eyes again and endured the pain until it began to fade away. It was a bright day with not a cloud in the sky.
"Hey, you can hear me right?" the same voice as before asked, "I didn't mess up your hearing, did I?" There was a pause. "Can you hear without ears?" He lifted his head off the ground and saw a little flying thing. It looked familiar to him. He tried to remember why but it felt like there was fog in his head.
"Oh, thank the Traveler," it said, "You can hear me."
He stared at it. It took him a moment to remember how to form words. "Who are you?"
"Well," it said, "I'm a Ghost. To be more specific, I'm your Ghost." Ghost, he knew what that was. At least he thought he did. How did he know? "Um, what's your name?"
He stared at it again, "What?"
"Do you know your name?" it said, not unkindly, "A lot of Guardians don't but since you didn't seem to be dead long…"
"My name…" He thought about his name. His name was…It all came back to him. Garrus began to scramble onto his feet. He almost fell backwards onto his ass a few times but he was able to grab onto to the hood of one of the cars nearby and keep himself stabilized. The Ghost was looking at him expectedly. "Garrus," he said, "My name is Garrus Vakarian."
"That's great." The ghost's eye closed in glee. It reminded Garrus of those cartoons he'd watch with his sister when they were younger with the too large eyes and other exaggerated facial expressions. As he stared at it, it finally hit him. He looked down at the ground. Part of the asphalt was riddled with small holes. The same kind of damage he'd observed from Arc grenades. He remembered pulling the pin.
He looked at his hands. H-He'd died. He remembered the world turning blue as the grenade went off. The feeling of his right side being ripped apart atom by atom. That feeling ending as everything went dark. He had died. But here he was, alive. H-he guess he was a Guardian now. He was broken out of his reverie when the Ghost, his Ghost, speaking to him.
"Okay," it said, "now that you're coming back around we've got to…" The Ghost's attention seemed to drift elsewhere. Garrus was about to ask her what was wrong when its eye widened. "They've figured out we're here!"
Garrus growled and pushed himself off of the car. No need to guess who "they" were. He looked at the bridge. Nope, still broken. He supposed two miracles a day was too much to ask. 'We can't get caught out in the open," he said. He looked at the Cosmodrome and saw the tunnel he'd used to escape. The tunnel that had actually been a trap. He sighed to himself. "Okay," he said to his Ghost, "I have an idea."
"And?"
"It's awful."
The Ghost stared at him for a moment before saying, "I've heard most Guardian plans are."
"Okay," Garrus took a deep breath and spoke quickly, "we're going to head into the Cosmodrome."
He expected the Ghost to tell him it was illogical or doomed to fail. Instead it nodded and said, "Then we can find a ship or something to get away!" Garrus smiled. Oh, thank the spirits, he wouldn't have to make it all up as he went along. "Alright, let's do this!" The Ghost disappeared in a flash of light and its voice rang through his helmet, "Now," it said, "run like hell!"
Garrus did so, bolting from his former resting place into the tunnel. As Garrus ran through the insides of the Cosmodrome's wall he came to realize he was going through it much faster than he had when he'd left. He wondered why until it came to him. He was running faster than he was before. In fact, he was running faster than he'd ever run in his life. It was then that he noticed that he wasn't breathing hard despite having run over 100 meters. Not just running but leaping over debris and sliding under tripmines he could perceive like it was second nature to him. Despite the situation around him, Garrus began to smile. This…This was amazing.
That smile began to wane as the lights began to turn off. "Damn," the Ghost said, "they know we're in here."
"Well," Garrus said as he remembered seeing Shepard fight, "we could shoot our way out."
"Without a gun?" the Ghost said. That made Garrus pause. There was something he was forgetting. Something important.
He was about to ask the Ghost when he heard her say, "Wait!" Garrus screeched to a halt. They were on a metal catwalk deep in the bowels of the Wall. Above and around them were pipes and a veritable jungle of wires and cords. Below was a gaping pit. The Ghost appeared, a beam of light shining out of its eye. "A-HA!" it said and flew over to a crate. Garrus looked over at the crate and saw a rusted assault rifle laying across the top.
He looked on in disbelief, "You want me to use that hunk of junk."
The Ghost turned around and glared at him, "I'll have you know that this is a Khostov automatic rifle. A hardy and durable rifle in use since at least the Golden Age!"
"That doesn't stop it from being so rusted that it'll probably blow up in my hands." The look that the Ghost gave him looked shockingly mischievous for its only facial feature being its one eye. It turned back towards the rifle and began to scan it. A moment later it appeared in his hand, as good as…well, not new, but good enough for operational work.
"Okay," the Ghost said as it transmatted back into his helmet, "now, we're going to want to rely on stealth and use the gun as a last…"
A roar came from further along the catwalk and, like skulking animals, a group of Fallen emerged. Three dregs and two vandals. In the blink of an eye, Garrus raised his rifle and a dreg's head became nothing but seeping light. The remaining Fallen fired their own weapons but Garrus ducked and rolled behind one of the crates.
Fallen gunfire rained above his head and Garrus knew he wouldn't be able to get a shot off. Well, he'd get a shot off but… he didn't exactly feel like testing Guardian immortality yet. He lowered his head as the barrage continued.
"We can't just sit here!" The Ghost said.
"I'm well aware of that!" Garrus said, "But unless Guardians have something that can kill four Fallen at once than I'm out of ideas."
The Ghost growled before shouting, "You have grenades!"
"What?" he looked down along his armor, something wasn't right there but… "I don't see any grenades!"
"Guardians don't carry grenades. They make them out of their Light." Garrus sat there befuddled. "Okay," the Ghost continued, "open your hand." Garrus did so. "Now feel the energy that fills you." Garrus looked deep inside himself and felt something. It was like fire mixed with lightning mixed with sunlight. "Now channel it into your palm" He did so and felt the power drift into his hand. He stared in amazement as a fiery orb formed in his hand. It was warm like sunlight.
He peeked as much as he could above the crate and lobbed his "grenade" at them. He heard the Fallen shout before seeing a flash of orange light engulf their position. He leapt out of cover, weapon at the ready, only to find four burning corpses. Upon seeing them, he ran as fast as he could. Luck was with them, as didn't run into any more Fallen packs before they were able to emerge from the tunnel into the light of the sun.
The first thing Garrus did was find a hiding place so he and the Ghost could plan. Well, the Ghost was actively planning due to it hacking into the Fallen battle-net and figuring out where the best place to find a ship or a car or anything could be.
"Okay, it looks like they're keeping a bunch of their salvage in a locked down facility past the Rocketyard. It's heavily defended but we should be able to do a smash and grab. This isn't an active pirating base so they won't have ships to shoot us down." Garrus made a "hm" noise as he continued staring at his gloves. Something clicked in his head and he began to scramble around.
"Um," his Ghost said, "What are you doing?" Its question went unanswered as Garrus found what he was looking for. It was a piece of glass he found on the floor. He looked into it and saw his reflection. He took a good look at the helmet he was wearing. To be honest it was less of a helmet than a environment breather with goggles. He set the piece of glass down and used it to get a look at his armor. It was a sun-bleached environment suit similar to what Shepard wore. But while she seemed to have modified hers to give her more protection the only true protection he seemed to have was a grey breastplate and some armor on his forearms and legs.
The Ghost shook its head at his dismay, "What did you expect? I had to synthesize your armor from rusted metal when I raised you. It's not exactly top-of-the-line. Don't worry. Once we get back to the City, we'll work our way up until we get the awesome gear they give to the cool Guardians!"
Garrus shook his head, "No, where was my armor when you found me?"
The Ghost cocked itself, "You didn't have any armor on when I found you. You were naked."
Garrus felt his heart sink into his stomach as that simmering worry at the edge of his thoughts finally exploded. The Fallen must have stripped his body. He'd foreseen that. That's why he'd decided to die by grenade. Less for them to get. But, if they'd decided to strip him anyway then they could still get information on it. His shields, his omnitool, the other myriad systems installed into it. That wasn't even all they had taken. They probably had his guns too.
"Forget the ship," Garrus said, "getting out of here will have to wait."
***
Thank god, I'm finally done with this. If anyone wonders, Garrus is supposed to be a little out-of-it this chapter because he's still recovering from his resurrection. Now, it's really late where I am so I'm going to go to bed. I'll give this the old once over in the morning when I'm no longer sleep deprived.
In the void, was a single spark of light. He did not have flesh, but he could feel. He did not have ears, but he could hear. He did not have eyes, but he saw. He could perceive the void around him and all around him was black. Not black like the Dark, but black like the night sky and like the night sky it was populated by other points of light like himself. Millions of them, as far as he could see and beyond. He considered his own form and realized that this was what it was like to be a star.
Suddenly, he found his attention drawn to something above him. It was…If he and his fellows were stars than he was staring at a supernova that never stopped burning. Staring at it, he realized it was constantly being fed by points of light that slowly drifted closer to it. He realized that he himself was drifting closer. He felt something inside himself and he knew it was joy. The prospect of becoming part of that great conflagration made him feel like, somehow, everything he had ever done had been worth it.
That was when he saw the light. At first, it was a distant glow on the horizon but it grew quickly and soon it was a mighty flame. From the edges of the void he could hear it calling to him. It seemed ridiculous. This paltry fire could never hope to match the sheer resplendence of the nova he was soon to become one with. But…
He didn't know why but he knew he had to answer it. A distant thought drifted through his consciousness, "Work's not done." He felt something prickle in his mind. It was the supernova. He realized that it was measuring him. Not merely him, but his choice to heed the fire's call. For a moment, the supernova flared and a ribbon of ethereal light began to approach him. He could do nothing but watch as the flare passed through him but his fear abated when all that was left in its passing was a gentle warmth. He remembered a face, old and marked in blue. The face was smiling at him. It was a proud smile. His fear melted away. It had been a blessing.
He turned his full attention to the flame on the horizon. He reached out towards it and in what seemed like seconds the unfathomable distance between them shrunk until the fire was before him. It was, he realized a living paradox. A wondrous paradox. For the flame before him was both cosmic in scope and complexity while being both intimate and simple as the sound of a heartbeat. The fire reached out to him and he felt it mix with his light. It was lesser than what he would have felt with the supernova but it was still absolute ecstasy. But to his surprise, it was tinged with something else. His last thought was the realization that that "something else" was the feeling of someone taking hold of his hand.
-----
"Guardian!"
The voice crashed into his brain like a tidal wave. He opened his eyes only to clench them shut at the searing light.
"Eyes up!" a voice said, "I'd like to give you time to get used to being back but we've got to get the hell out of here."
His head swam. Where was he? Felt like he was lying on…what was the word? Asphalt. He was lying on asphalt. He opened his eyes again and endured the pain until it began to fade away. It was a bright day with not a cloud in the sky.
"Hey, you can hear me right?" the same voice as before asked, "I didn't mess up your hearing, did I?" There was a pause. "Can you hear without ears?" He lifted his head off the ground and saw a little flying thing. It looked familiar to him. He tried to remember why but it felt like there was fog in his head.
"Oh, thank the Traveler," it said, "You can hear me."
He stared at it. It took him a moment to remember how to form words. "Who are you?"
"Well," it said, "I'm a Ghost. To be more specific, I'm your Ghost." Ghost, he knew what that was. At least he thought he did. How did he know? "Um, what's your name?"
He stared at it again, "What?"
"Do you know your name?" it said, not unkindly, "A lot of Guardians don't but since you didn't seem to be dead long…"
"My name…" He thought about his name. His name was…It all came back to him. Garrus began to scramble onto his feet. He almost fell backwards onto his ass a few times but he was able to grab onto to the hood of one of the cars nearby and keep himself stabilized. The Ghost was looking at him expectedly. "Garrus," he said, "My name is Garrus Vakarian."
"That's great." The ghost's eye closed in glee. It reminded Garrus of those cartoons he'd watch with his sister when they were younger with the too large eyes and other exaggerated facial expressions. As he stared at it, it finally hit him. He looked down at the ground. Part of the asphalt was riddled with small holes. The same kind of damage he'd observed from Arc grenades. He remembered pulling the pin.
He looked at his hands. H-He'd died. He remembered the world turning blue as the grenade went off. The feeling of his right side being ripped apart atom by atom. That feeling ending as everything went dark. He had died. But here he was, alive. H-he guess he was a Guardian now. He was broken out of his reverie when the Ghost, his Ghost, speaking to him.
"Okay," it said, "now that you're coming back around we've got to…" The Ghost's attention seemed to drift elsewhere. Garrus was about to ask her what was wrong when its eye widened. "They've figured out we're here!"
Garrus growled and pushed himself off of the car. No need to guess who "they" were. He looked at the bridge. Nope, still broken. He supposed two miracles a day was too much to ask. 'We can't get caught out in the open," he said. He looked at the Cosmodrome and saw the tunnel he'd used to escape. The tunnel that had actually been a trap. He sighed to himself. "Okay," he said to his Ghost, "I have an idea."
"And?"
"It's awful."
The Ghost stared at him for a moment before saying, "I've heard most Guardian plans are."
"Okay," Garrus took a deep breath and spoke quickly, "we're going to head into the Cosmodrome."
He expected the Ghost to tell him it was illogical or doomed to fail. Instead it nodded and said, "Then we can find a ship or something to get away!" Garrus smiled. Oh, thank the spirits, he wouldn't have to make it all up as he went along. "Alright, let's do this!" The Ghost disappeared in a flash of light and its voice rang through his helmet, "Now," it said, "run like hell!"
Garrus did so, bolting from his former resting place into the tunnel. As Garrus ran through the insides of the Cosmodrome's wall he came to realize he was going through it much faster than he had when he'd left. He wondered why until it came to him. He was running faster than he was before. In fact, he was running faster than he'd ever run in his life. It was then that he noticed that he wasn't breathing hard despite having run over 100 meters. Not just running but leaping over debris and sliding under tripmines he could perceive like it was second nature to him. Despite the situation around him, Garrus began to smile. This…This was amazing.
That smile began to wane as the lights began to turn off. "Damn," the Ghost said, "they know we're in here."
"Well," Garrus said as he remembered seeing Shepard fight, "we could shoot our way out."
"Without a gun?" the Ghost said. That made Garrus pause. There was something he was forgetting. Something important.
He was about to ask the Ghost when he heard her say, "Wait!" Garrus screeched to a halt. They were on a metal catwalk deep in the bowels of the Wall. Above and around them were pipes and a veritable jungle of wires and cords. Below was a gaping pit. The Ghost appeared, a beam of light shining out of its eye. "A-HA!" it said and flew over to a crate. Garrus looked over at the crate and saw a rusted assault rifle laying across the top.
He looked on in disbelief, "You want me to use that hunk of junk."
The Ghost turned around and glared at him, "I'll have you know that this is a Khostov automatic rifle. A hardy and durable rifle in use since at least the Golden Age!"
"That doesn't stop it from being so rusted that it'll probably blow up in my hands." The look that the Ghost gave him looked shockingly mischievous for its only facial feature being its one eye. It turned back towards the rifle and began to scan it. A moment later it appeared in his hand, as good as…well, not new, but good enough for operational work.
"Okay," the Ghost said as it transmatted back into his helmet, "now, we're going to want to rely on stealth and use the gun as a last…"
A roar came from further along the catwalk and, like skulking animals, a group of Fallen emerged. Three dregs and two vandals. In the blink of an eye, Garrus raised his rifle and a dreg's head became nothing but seeping light. The remaining Fallen fired their own weapons but Garrus ducked and rolled behind one of the crates.
Fallen gunfire rained above his head and Garrus knew he wouldn't be able to get a shot off. Well, he'd get a shot off but… he didn't exactly feel like testing Guardian immortality yet. He lowered his head as the barrage continued.
"We can't just sit here!" The Ghost said.
"I'm well aware of that!" Garrus said, "But unless Guardians have something that can kill four Fallen at once than I'm out of ideas."
The Ghost growled before shouting, "You have grenades!"
"What?" he looked down along his armor, something wasn't right there but… "I don't see any grenades!"
"Guardians don't carry grenades. They make them out of their Light." Garrus sat there befuddled. "Okay," the Ghost continued, "open your hand." Garrus did so. "Now feel the energy that fills you." Garrus looked deep inside himself and felt something. It was like fire mixed with lightning mixed with sunlight. "Now channel it into your palm" He did so and felt the power drift into his hand. He stared in amazement as a fiery orb formed in his hand. It was warm like sunlight.
He peeked as much as he could above the crate and lobbed his "grenade" at them. He heard the Fallen shout before seeing a flash of orange light engulf their position. He leapt out of cover, weapon at the ready, only to find four burning corpses. Upon seeing them, he ran as fast as he could. Luck was with them, as didn't run into any more Fallen packs before they were able to emerge from the tunnel into the light of the sun.
The first thing Garrus did was find a hiding place so he and the Ghost could plan. Well, the Ghost was actively planning due to it hacking into the Fallen battle-net and figuring out where the best place to find a ship or a car or anything could be.
"Okay, it looks like they're keeping a bunch of their salvage in a locked down facility past the Rocketyard. It's heavily defended but we should be able to do a smash and grab. This isn't an active pirating base so they won't have ships to shoot us down." Garrus made a "hm" noise as he continued staring at his gloves. Something clicked in his head and he began to scramble around.
"Um," his Ghost said, "What are you doing?" Its question went unanswered as Garrus found what he was looking for. It was a piece of glass he found on the floor. He looked into it and saw his reflection. He took a good look at the helmet he was wearing. To be honest it was less of a helmet than a environment breather with goggles. He set the piece of glass down and used it to get a look at his armor. It was a sun-bleached environment suit similar to what Shepard wore. But while she seemed to have modified hers to give her more protection the only true protection he seemed to have was a grey breastplate and some armor on his forearms and legs.
The Ghost shook its head at his dismay, "What did you expect? I had to synthesize your armor from rusted metal when I raised you. It's not exactly top-of-the-line. Don't worry. Once we get back to the City, we'll work our way up until we get the awesome gear they give to the cool Guardians!"
Garrus shook his head, "No, where was my armor when you found me?"
The Ghost cocked itself, "You didn't have any armor on when I found you. You were naked."
Garrus felt his heart sink into his stomach as that simmering worry at the edge of his thoughts finally exploded. The Fallen must have stripped his body. He'd foreseen that. That's why he'd decided to die by grenade. Less for them to get. But, if they'd decided to strip him anyway then they could still get information on it. His shields, his omnitool, the other myriad systems installed into it. That wasn't even all they had taken. They probably had his guns too.
"Forget the ship," Garrus said, "getting out of here will have to wait."
***
Thank god, I'm finally done with this. If anyone wonders, Garrus is supposed to be a little out-of-it this chapter because he's still recovering from his resurrection. Now, it's really late where I am so I'm going to go to bed. I'll give this the old once over in the morning when I'm no longer sleep deprived.
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