Destiny | The Blackened Heart | Discontinued

1: Eyes up, Guardian

Rounding a corner I stop short, startled by a flock of crows that take to the air, probably more frightened by me than I by them. I let out a shaky breath and try to soothe my nerves.  As I start to run again I find myself more attentive than before, feeling rather naked without any sort of weapon. There is a modified hunting dagger belted across my chest, but it is rather small to face any large number of enemies. Still there are lots of old broken cars around I could peel something off of. I'm glad to reach cover at the base of the wall.

The ground on my right drops away as if a road went under the wall at some point in the past.  Above it, there are several railed bridges crossing over the vehicle clogged former road, but their supports sag and I doubt they could hold much weight.  Ahead of me, there is a stair case leading to a doorway into the wall.  The door has fallen- or been ripped off- the frame and now lays across the stairs.  The top two steps are broken and twisted down on one side.  I take the case in bound, leaping over broken stairs, door and all through the door frame and into the wall.

Immediately on entry the hall turns, going left and up a longer flight of stairs followed by a second set that weaves up over top the first going higher and deeper into the wall.

"Ok..." the ghost muses as I run.  "I need to find you a weapon."  Weapons are good.  "Before the Fallen find us."  I get the feeling Fallen are not so good.

After a third flight the floor levels off into a bridge, crossing over what might be the road beneath me.  Sunset red light streams in through the filthy window open to the outside giving the bridge and room a rusty glow.  At least as far as the window lasted.  The room grows dark quickly as I keep running and I feel a shiver at the thought of what might be hiding in that dark.  A light pierces suddenly through the dark as we reach the end of the bridge, coming from the ghost hovering at my shoulder, and another staircase looms ahead.  In the silence I am keenly aware of the noise my boots made on the metal floor.

"Quiet!" the ghost hisses.  "They're right above us!"  They?  Does he mean the Fallen?  There is a flicker of movement in the dark directly in front of me at the top of the stairs.  Through a gap in the wall I glimpse the legs and lower body of a humanoid creature for a split second before it is gone in to the dark on the other side of the wall. For the first time, I notice the edges of my monitor have gone red. But the color fades as the sound of the Fallen's footsteps fade. Cautiously I make my way up the stairs, but the thing is gone now.  The steps turn another corner before evening off into a platform or balcony.  I cannot tell, for whatever is beyond the railing around it's edge is invisible in the inky blackness.

"Hang tight," the ghost tells me.  "Fallen thrive in the dark, but we won't.  We need more light.  I'll see what I can do."  Before I can move an inch the ghost has materialized in front of me again and is floating away, his luminescence lighting up the dark around him.  The geometric shell splits and detaches, orbiting around him in a glowing spherical energy field.

Where the light touches I can see long pipes running the length of the inside of the wall.  Aqueducts of some type maybe, or supports, all painted a dull orange and blue.  As the ghost drifts further up I catch a flicker of motion along one of the braces.  Another vaguely humanoid creature scurries up the pipe and disappears out of the circle of light.  Fallen.  An enemy.  I step back a few feet, trying to get closer to a wall or anything to guard my back.  Surveying the room further I notice the gleam of eyes in the dark.  A few pairs at first, but they seem to multiply the longer I search for them.  I glance around for the ghost as the light waxes and wanes with his movement, wondering what is taking him so long.

As if he can read my thoughts he calls out from across the empty space between us, "Another one of these hardened military systems.  And a few centuries of entropy working against me."  His tone is light despite the fact that the glimmer of the Fallen's eyes have begun to move in on me.  I wonder if he is trying to reassure me.