Chapter 116: Guardian's Rise (1)
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Writers-Ablood
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The sun hung low, casting jagged shadows across a landscape of rust and ruin. The outskirts of the Cosmodrome stretched wide—a barren expanse of corroded and sun-bleached wreckage.
The terrain was dry, cracked like broken glass, and scattered with twisted remnants of pre-Collapse machinery. Concrete bones jutted from the earth like the ribs of an ancient beast, half-consumed by time.
And there it stood—The Divide. An insurmountable wall.
The Divide loomed across the horizon. Hundreds of feet tall, impossibly long, it severed the desolate outskirts from the heart of the Cosmodrome beyond. No gates. No ladders. Just cold, corroded steel stretched to the sky—a relic of a world that feared invasion long before the Collapse ever came.
It was said nothing could pass the Divide without intent... or desperation. But with time, came decay. Across the decades, Fallen scavengers had tore through some sections of the wall, scrapping it to pieces.
Now, it stood as a reminder. A sign. One that embodied the end of an era. And now, perhaps the beginning of a new one.
A high-pitched shimmer echoed across the dust. Space folded on itself, and with a ripple of blue light, she arrived—a lone figure in the desert.
Cloaked in a tattered black coat, her armour worn but sleek, a long rifle mounted to her back. She'd appeared in a blink, as if peeled from a different timeline. The haze of transmat residue dissipated behind her as she knelt beside a scorched jumpship wreck resting on a collapsed roof.
The wind kicked up around her, she moved with mechanical precision, palm brushing along the ship's hull. Her helmet's visor flickered, lenses cycling through frequencies until it locked onto the faintest power signature.
She tapped her comms, her eyes glued to the ships hull. "I'm at the site."
A burst of static answered her. Then a garbled, modulated voice replied: "Status? Did you find anyone?."
"There's no guardians. No one on site. Scans indicate the ship is repairable. It's just like the stories. I am sure its this one."
She stood, gazing at the gigantic hole in the roof, the ship had probably crashed here. Now, it would be used by an escape by the new guardians.
Her eyes drifted to the Divide, its brutal silhouette casting a long shadow across the sands. Beyond it—she could feel the tension building and the scattered movements of Fallen packs.
"I'm in the right place," she said, her voice softer now, as if the wind might carry the words away. "At the right moment… but the wrong hour."
The Exo Stranger—stood motionless, her gaze lingering on the hull of the jumpship. Her eyes flicked up to the skies, then down to the radar projected across her visor.
Fallen signatures. Dozens of them.
Scattered across the perimeter, slowly circling in like vultures. With time, they'd converge on this place. With time, they'd find them.
All just as she'd heard. All unfolding as it should.
Almost.
A few seconds off.
A breath out of rhythm.
"It'll happen soon," she murmured, stepping back from the ship. "And when it does… the world will change."
Again.
She slowly turned, scanning the vast expanse of desert beyond the Divide. Nothing moved—yet the stillness was wrong. There was a weight in the silence, a tension in the sand, like the land itself held its breath.
Her frown deepened.
She tapped her comms again, her fingers pausing for the briefest moment before pressing down.
"I won't fail. Not again." Her voice barely carried over the crackling wind, but it was resolute.
A burst of static spiked through her ear. Then a voice—strained, filtered, trembling—cut through.
"You're our only hope."
It faltered.
Then again, more urgent now, laced with desperation:
"Don't let him find you, Elsie. If you see him, run. He's not to be trusted… please."
Elsie's expression hardened beneath her visor. Her reply was sharp. Calm.
"I know what to do."
Then, without another word, her form flickered—outlining in a pulse of blue light—and in the blink of an eye, she was gone.
Dispersed.
Scattered like mist into the fabric of Light and time.
-
[Tower, Last City]
High above the Tower the Traveler loomed overhead—silent, cracked, yet eternal. And beneath it, a stillness crept in. Not peace. Not calm. Something else.
Something… expectant.
Inside the Observatory, The Speaker stood unmoving, his masked gaze fixed upon the horizon where the light met the world's curve. His fingers laced behind his back, the quiet hum of the City below a distant murmur compared to the weight in the air.
A ripple had passed through the Light. Subtle. But undeniable.
"It must be soon," he whispered.
Behind him Ikorra Rey's eyes narrowed, she felt the same. While she had no such connection to the Traveler, she could feel the fluctuations in the light—an instinct honed across lifetimes of death and resurrection.
Something new was about to stir in the cradle of the world. Something, legendary. She had to see it through, they couldn't afford to lose more guardians.
She activated her comms
"To all Hidden operatives—dispatch teams to the Cosmodrome and Dead sea perimeter. Prioritize regions with mass records of Guardian awakenings."
Her voice carried absolute certainty.
"If The Speaker is right… we may not be alone much longer."
On another channel, she keyed in coordinates.
"Cayde. I need scouts across the King's Watch. Quietly. If they're going to rise, we need to make sure they reach the City—alive."
The comms crackled with a grin.
"You're sending me on babysitting duty again, Ikorra?"
She didn't blink. "You can do it can't you?"
A pause.
"Yeah," Cayde said. "I'll make sure of it."
-
[Workshop, Shore]
The air was thick with smoke and ionized dust, the faint buzz of static crackling across half-forged circuitry and steel. The workshop—if it could still be called that—hummed softly as Pahanin slid the final weapon into its case. Crude, by his standards. Functional, by Void's.
Void stood over the table, arms crossed, eyeing the loadout. A hand cannon reworked from fallen scrap and a solar shotgun. Tools for grunts, he'd said—but they were efficient, brutal. More importantly, they looked impressive.
The guns had a sleek design, most importantly, they held true to a dark theme. Matching the aesthetic he'd wanted.
Though Pahanin was confused as to why he'd asked for specific visual changes, Void knew the reality. For players, after loot was drip. Drip, was eternal.
Carrying the weapons with him, Void walked to the exit.
His quest interface pulsed again in his HUD—"A Guardian Rises."
Void closed the interface with a blink and nodded to Pahanin. "Good work. I'll be back soon."
With that, he turned on his heel and stepped onto the lift pad. A shimmer of transmat energy flickered around him.
"Obsidian," he said, the voice clear even before the interface synced, "plot a course for the Cosmodrome, we're going to the Divide."
"Roger that, but who exactly are you trying to impress." Obsidian shook his head.
Void smirked as the world dissolved into light. "Didn't I tell you? We're getting new customers."
"I'm still a bit sceptical about that." Obsidian rolled his eye but continued the operation. Moments later, the Jumpship lifted off the landing pad, and shot towards Earth.
-
[The Divide, Cosmodrome Outskirts]
The Jumpship emerged from the edge of the atmosphere, streaking like a ghost over the broken steel landscape below.
Void transmatted out, his gaze scanned the desolate outskirts that cradled the Divide—the colossal iron wall, towering like a relic of a forgotten war, casting its shadow on the sand-blasted desert.
He pinged the scan network. "Obsidian, give me a sweep. Look for Light traces, or… anything unusual. A disruption in time signatures. Maybe a trace left behind."
Obsidian's eye pulsed, "Scan's empty, nothing major."
Void nodded, he looked back at the Divide, he could see the holes penetrating the iron barrier. Right now he had only one goal, to find the crashed Jumpship site. Without a doubt, no matter where the players spawn, they'd end up there.
'If memory serves me right, it's right behind the wall. Through the complex,' Void stepped forward, and vanished.
"There," Void muttered, and descended. He'd crossed the gap in an instant. He could see it now, the same crash site. A Jumpship stationed under a broken rooftop.
As the ship came to view, Void paused. A memory flashed in his eyes, as if it was just yesterday where he stood here as a player.
'Time flies.' He chuckled.
"Void. Something....is strange." Obsidian chimed in, "I am picking up a trace. It's, a weird energy signature."
Void's eyes narrowed, he guessed right. The Exo stranger had come here. Likely recently.
"Where does it end?" He replied.
Obsidian flew around, scanning the place, "It's weird. The signal's right there but its almost as if..."
"As if it disappeared?" Void glanced around, "Keep it in your database. Keep searching, but for now, we've got other things to do."
"Got it." Obsidian stopped the scan.
Void walked to the ship, recalling the details of the first mission. He wiped the windshield of the ship.
'The player's spawn across the Divide, fight their way through to the ship, and eventually manage to fix it.'
It would be an easy mission, and it was likely that he never needed to show up at all. Void smirked.
'Who said it had to be easy?'
He didn't want easy. No, what he needed, was a downright disaster. Something that forced the players to rely on him.
"You think House of Devils still has that bounty on my head?" Void asked.
Obsidian blinked, and sighed "…Still active. Wide open. Cursing you out on the open channel."
"Perfect," Void said, his grin curling under his hood. "Send out some invitations, keep it discrete."
"Whatever you say boss." Obsidian chimed in.
Moments later, a massive chain of messages was forwarded to the House of Devils on the open channel. Void was certain that the Divide would be flooded. Multiple Fallen squads, Elites, heck he was even hoping for a walker drop.
All according to plan.
With the stage set, Void took one last glance at his System window. It was time.
-
[.....]
[...Loading]
[.....Connecting to Destiny Servers....]
[..]
[World Stage: Live!]
[Current Player Count: 0]
[...Connecting]
[Current Player Count: 3]
-
"Perfect", He smiled, and then disappeared into the shadows.
==
The terrain was dry, cracked like broken glass, and scattered with twisted remnants of pre-Collapse machinery. Concrete bones jutted from the earth like the ribs of an ancient beast, half-consumed by time.
And there it stood—The Divide. An insurmountable wall.
The Divide loomed across the horizon. Hundreds of feet tall, impossibly long, it severed the desolate outskirts from the heart of the Cosmodrome beyond. No gates. No ladders. Just cold, corroded steel stretched to the sky—a relic of a world that feared invasion long before the Collapse ever came.
It was said nothing could pass the Divide without intent... or desperation. But with time, came decay. Across the decades, Fallen scavengers had tore through some sections of the wall, scrapping it to pieces.
Now, it stood as a reminder. A sign. One that embodied the end of an era. And now, perhaps the beginning of a new one.
A high-pitched shimmer echoed across the dust. Space folded on itself, and with a ripple of blue light, she arrived—a lone figure in the desert.
Cloaked in a tattered black coat, her armour worn but sleek, a long rifle mounted to her back. She'd appeared in a blink, as if peeled from a different timeline. The haze of transmat residue dissipated behind her as she knelt beside a scorched jumpship wreck resting on a collapsed roof.
The wind kicked up around her, she moved with mechanical precision, palm brushing along the ship's hull. Her helmet's visor flickered, lenses cycling through frequencies until it locked onto the faintest power signature.
She tapped her comms, her eyes glued to the ships hull. "I'm at the site."
A burst of static answered her. Then a garbled, modulated voice replied: "Status? Did you find anyone?."
"There's no guardians. No one on site. Scans indicate the ship is repairable. It's just like the stories. I am sure its this one."
She stood, gazing at the gigantic hole in the roof, the ship had probably crashed here. Now, it would be used by an escape by the new guardians.
Her eyes drifted to the Divide, its brutal silhouette casting a long shadow across the sands. Beyond it—she could feel the tension building and the scattered movements of Fallen packs.
"I'm in the right place," she said, her voice softer now, as if the wind might carry the words away. "At the right moment… but the wrong hour."
The Exo Stranger—stood motionless, her gaze lingering on the hull of the jumpship. Her eyes flicked up to the skies, then down to the radar projected across her visor.
Fallen signatures. Dozens of them.
Scattered across the perimeter, slowly circling in like vultures. With time, they'd converge on this place. With time, they'd find them.
All just as she'd heard. All unfolding as it should.
Almost.
A few seconds off.
A breath out of rhythm.
"It'll happen soon," she murmured, stepping back from the ship. "And when it does… the world will change."
Again.
She slowly turned, scanning the vast expanse of desert beyond the Divide. Nothing moved—yet the stillness was wrong. There was a weight in the silence, a tension in the sand, like the land itself held its breath.
Her frown deepened.
She tapped her comms again, her fingers pausing for the briefest moment before pressing down.
"I won't fail. Not again." Her voice barely carried over the crackling wind, but it was resolute.
A burst of static spiked through her ear. Then a voice—strained, filtered, trembling—cut through.
"You're our only hope."
It faltered.
Then again, more urgent now, laced with desperation:
"Don't let him find you, Elsie. If you see him, run. He's not to be trusted… please."
Elsie's expression hardened beneath her visor. Her reply was sharp. Calm.
"I know what to do."
Then, without another word, her form flickered—outlining in a pulse of blue light—and in the blink of an eye, she was gone.
Dispersed.
Scattered like mist into the fabric of Light and time.
-
[Tower, Last City]
High above the Tower the Traveler loomed overhead—silent, cracked, yet eternal. And beneath it, a stillness crept in. Not peace. Not calm. Something else.
Something… expectant.
Inside the Observatory, The Speaker stood unmoving, his masked gaze fixed upon the horizon where the light met the world's curve. His fingers laced behind his back, the quiet hum of the City below a distant murmur compared to the weight in the air.
A ripple had passed through the Light. Subtle. But undeniable.
"It must be soon," he whispered.
Behind him Ikorra Rey's eyes narrowed, she felt the same. While she had no such connection to the Traveler, she could feel the fluctuations in the light—an instinct honed across lifetimes of death and resurrection.
Something new was about to stir in the cradle of the world. Something, legendary. She had to see it through, they couldn't afford to lose more guardians.
She activated her comms
"To all Hidden operatives—dispatch teams to the Cosmodrome and Dead sea perimeter. Prioritize regions with mass records of Guardian awakenings."
Her voice carried absolute certainty.
"If The Speaker is right… we may not be alone much longer."
On another channel, she keyed in coordinates.
"Cayde. I need scouts across the King's Watch. Quietly. If they're going to rise, we need to make sure they reach the City—alive."
The comms crackled with a grin.
"You're sending me on babysitting duty again, Ikorra?"
She didn't blink. "You can do it can't you?"
A pause.
"Yeah," Cayde said. "I'll make sure of it."
-
[Workshop, Shore]
The air was thick with smoke and ionized dust, the faint buzz of static crackling across half-forged circuitry and steel. The workshop—if it could still be called that—hummed softly as Pahanin slid the final weapon into its case. Crude, by his standards. Functional, by Void's.
Void stood over the table, arms crossed, eyeing the loadout. A hand cannon reworked from fallen scrap and a solar shotgun. Tools for grunts, he'd said—but they were efficient, brutal. More importantly, they looked impressive.
The guns had a sleek design, most importantly, they held true to a dark theme. Matching the aesthetic he'd wanted.
Though Pahanin was confused as to why he'd asked for specific visual changes, Void knew the reality. For players, after loot was drip. Drip, was eternal.
Carrying the weapons with him, Void walked to the exit.
His quest interface pulsed again in his HUD—"A Guardian Rises."
Void closed the interface with a blink and nodded to Pahanin. "Good work. I'll be back soon."
With that, he turned on his heel and stepped onto the lift pad. A shimmer of transmat energy flickered around him.
"Obsidian," he said, the voice clear even before the interface synced, "plot a course for the Cosmodrome, we're going to the Divide."
"Roger that, but who exactly are you trying to impress." Obsidian shook his head.
Void smirked as the world dissolved into light. "Didn't I tell you? We're getting new customers."
"I'm still a bit sceptical about that." Obsidian rolled his eye but continued the operation. Moments later, the Jumpship lifted off the landing pad, and shot towards Earth.
-
[The Divide, Cosmodrome Outskirts]
The Jumpship emerged from the edge of the atmosphere, streaking like a ghost over the broken steel landscape below.
Void transmatted out, his gaze scanned the desolate outskirts that cradled the Divide—the colossal iron wall, towering like a relic of a forgotten war, casting its shadow on the sand-blasted desert.
He pinged the scan network. "Obsidian, give me a sweep. Look for Light traces, or… anything unusual. A disruption in time signatures. Maybe a trace left behind."
Obsidian's eye pulsed, "Scan's empty, nothing major."
Void nodded, he looked back at the Divide, he could see the holes penetrating the iron barrier. Right now he had only one goal, to find the crashed Jumpship site. Without a doubt, no matter where the players spawn, they'd end up there.
'If memory serves me right, it's right behind the wall. Through the complex,' Void stepped forward, and vanished.
"There," Void muttered, and descended. He'd crossed the gap in an instant. He could see it now, the same crash site. A Jumpship stationed under a broken rooftop.
As the ship came to view, Void paused. A memory flashed in his eyes, as if it was just yesterday where he stood here as a player.
'Time flies.' He chuckled.
"Void. Something....is strange." Obsidian chimed in, "I am picking up a trace. It's, a weird energy signature."
Void's eyes narrowed, he guessed right. The Exo stranger had come here. Likely recently.
"Where does it end?" He replied.
Obsidian flew around, scanning the place, "It's weird. The signal's right there but its almost as if..."
"As if it disappeared?" Void glanced around, "Keep it in your database. Keep searching, but for now, we've got other things to do."
"Got it." Obsidian stopped the scan.
Void walked to the ship, recalling the details of the first mission. He wiped the windshield of the ship.
'The player's spawn across the Divide, fight their way through to the ship, and eventually manage to fix it.'
It would be an easy mission, and it was likely that he never needed to show up at all. Void smirked.
'Who said it had to be easy?'
He didn't want easy. No, what he needed, was a downright disaster. Something that forced the players to rely on him.
"You think House of Devils still has that bounty on my head?" Void asked.
Obsidian blinked, and sighed "…Still active. Wide open. Cursing you out on the open channel."
"Perfect," Void said, his grin curling under his hood. "Send out some invitations, keep it discrete."
"Whatever you say boss." Obsidian chimed in.
Moments later, a massive chain of messages was forwarded to the House of Devils on the open channel. Void was certain that the Divide would be flooded. Multiple Fallen squads, Elites, heck he was even hoping for a walker drop.
All according to plan.
With the stage set, Void took one last glance at his System window. It was time.
-
[.....]
[...Loading]
[.....Connecting to Destiny Servers....]
[..]
[World Stage: Live!]
[Current Player Count: 0]
[...Connecting]
[Current Player Count: 3]
-
"Perfect", He smiled, and then disappeared into the shadows.
==
