Bound in Light and Dark

The story of my Guardian in the Destiny franchise

[2257, Kazakhstan] {Kaelani, Human}

I stepped off the bus, which like most others in the 23rd century, travelled through the use of antigravity and looked up at the signs nearby. Being a cosmodrome, the signs were akin to airport signs before the Golden Age. Behind me, the doors of the bus closed and it trundled off, the humming of its antigravity drives fading as the bus grew more and more distant, presumably to try and bring more soon-to-be refugees. It was going to be a long journey but thankfully the Golden Age had given us cryogenic freezing like the 20th and 21st Centuries had imagined, albeit more... Refined since the early days (Accidentally causing cryogenic cascade failures in cryosleep test subjects does tend to be a great motivator). I finally located the right sign (Colony Ship Embarkment Bay 24C) and followed it to the waiting zone, where I joined the long line of people waiting for their turn to embark a colony ship. My mind drifted back to the broadcast Clovis Bray (The company, not the visionary) had sent out across the system.

The enemies of the Traveller have come... And our society is being ripped apart. If we do not leave now, we will never get the chance to survive their clash. Clovis Bray has thus launched the Exodus II program. The aim is to, just as with Exodus, bring Humanity to the stars and survive beyond this system. This may be the Collapse of our civilization... But what if it's not? There are cosmodromes all over Earth which are now being prepared for the departure of as many of humanity as we can manage, Exo and human alike.

Soon enough, we were ascending the support tower for one of the colony ships in the Baikonour Cosmodrome. As we ascended however, a smell began to creep up. I frowned, confused. Why does it smell like an old mineshaft all of a sudden? I thought, and turned to the Exo beside me without thinking.
"Can you smell that?" I asked, and she turned her head towards me, fixing her dark purple gaze on my dull brown eyes. After a moment her mouth lit up an electric blue as she said,
"Yeah... But... It doesn't make any sense... My sensors are telling me that it's wet earth..." I nodded and replied,
"That's the smell of an old mineshaft. But how could the smell be able to grow in strength up here? We must be a couple hundred metres in the air here." The Exo shrugged, and we looked up, thinking we might be able to make out the source of the smell. Suddenly, the entire tower shook violently, before starting to sway. After a few swings, the tower some way above us suddenly fell away, and we were rising towards open air. I looked back at the Exo and she shook her head.
"I don't like this..." She said, right before the tower tilted once more, this time twisting as it did so. All of us on the elevator plate were sent flying through the air like spilt seeds from a farm kit. I watched helplessly as the tower fell below us, and, as I tumbled through the air, I realised that this was to be my end... I was not to be among those who would escape this hell we found ourselves in now. not being able to do anything else, I resigned myself to my fate, and then the ground rushed up to meet me and-

[Unknown date, Old Russia]

I looked up in confusion, and came face to face with... Some kind of... Camera drone? No... something different.
"It worked! you're alive!" It said, and in the distance an inhuman cry could be heard. I looked around, and saw a rusted building with a tower made of bubbles of some kind.
I ran towards the building, scaring a group of black birds of some kind. Crows, the word came to me. I got inside the building and the drone that had been in front of me when I woke up said,
"We need to find you a weapon before the Fallen find us." We made our way across  a walkway around a double corner, and as I walked up the stairs on the other end, something... Alien skittered by an opening in the wall. I continued up and we found ourselves on a balcony of some kind, in a pitch black area. The drone, now a sphere of cerulean light, turned to me and said,
"Hold tight. I'll be right back." He (how did I know it was male? It was a drone of some kind) muttered to himself about hardened military systems and entropy before the lights all came on, revealing a LOT of alien things. A gate nearby rose up and the drone, which my mind was telling me was a... Ghost? hovered over an old rifle. He told me to grab it and I did, checking that it was still in working condition, before bringing up the gun to near my eye level.
"I hope you know how to use that thing..." Ghost said, and  we continued on.
"Watch out for movement on the tracker." He said, but I ignored it, scanning instead the area in front of me. I rounded a corner and 2 aliens with 4 arms jumped out at me. I quickly raised the gun to my face and squeezed the trigger for a second or so, as easily as breathing, and one of the aliens screamed as a stream of white smoke of some kind spurted out of its neck. As it fell, I turned to its companion and dropped it too. I walked over to the bodies and noticed that they were wearing some kind of armor that looked like... Cream colored plating and cloth the color of red dirt. I guess these are the Fallen you were talking about... I thought, and continued on around the next corner.

As I went, I subconsciously reloaded the gun, and rounded another corner. Another of the Fallen jumped down from the rafters and yelled at me, holding some kind of blade. Without thinking, I shot a couple of bullets into the thing's chest but it kept coming so I shot a few more into it, and it finally fell to its knees and then fell forwards. I noticed its armor was slightly different; being more made of black cloth, and that on its back it had 2 red tanks with a tube running out of one end of one of the tanks. Apparently they didn't breathe air like I did.

I continued on, rounding the corner and then as I stepped into what was assumedly another room before this place became a ruin, a group of Fallen jumped down and I reflexively shot at them. I didn't manage to kill any however, and made my way around to the right, and flanked the Fallen. I shot and killed one, then put some bullets into another right in front of me before, as if out of habit, rapidly grabbing a knife at my belt in a reverse hold and stabbing into its nose, or at least where its nose would be on a human, and it screamed as my knife pierced its brain. I pulled the knife back and flicked the blade to clean it off, before quickly wiping it on my leg and sheathing it again.
"There's more ahead, keep it up!" Ghost said, as I approached another walkway.

I crossed the gap and found a chest sitting beside the stairs leading onwards.
"A loot cache! Let's see what's inside!" Ghost said, sounding surprised. I opened it up and found an old sniper rifle. I shrugged and put it over my shoulder, then continued on. I rounded a corner and then stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a line of lasers appear in front of me.
"Trip mines. Don't touch them." Ghost said, and then as if to illustrate his point, an overeager Fallen ran forwards, and, as a cone of light appeared and then became a line, one of the mines detonated, killing that Fallen. I carefully picked my way forwards, firing down the hallway whenever a Fallen decided to poke its head out and take a shot at me. Soon enough, we were through and I turned another 2 corners and the area opened up.

I jumped down and yet more Fallen came down, but I worked my way through them all. Another small group came out of a doorway on the right, only to be mowed down as well. I made my way through the tunnel they came through, which had apparently been some kind of... Ventilation or something?

As I walked out of the tunnel to the side of that, Ghost remarked,
"The Fallen have a tighter hold on this place than I thought. I just hope they haven't picked this whole place apart. There's got to be something we can fly out of here."

Suddenly, a red flare went up, and then a bubble of... Something appeared in the sky and a giant ship fell out of it, knocking a distant pillar over as it did so. It flew overhead and then there were whooshing sounds as 3 much smaller ships appeared and as the large ship flew overhead, knocking me off my feet with the force its the air it displaced, Ghost cried,
"Fallen ships, this close to the surface?! MOVE!" And so I did. I glanced to the right and saw only open space. Not good. I glanced to the left and saw a small walkway, and sprinted that way, not stopping until I was back in cover. As I ran along the edge of what appeared to be a waterway, a different looking Fallen took aim at me and I saw its rifle barrel begin to glow. I leapt forwards, letting my feet slide out from under me, and skidded under the shot it fired. As I slowed down, I regained my footing somehow and leapt up and turned left... right into another group of Fallen, including some kind of attack drone. I ran past them, firing blindly behind me to deter them from following and heard one of them scream. I had apparently dealt a killing blow to one of them. I continued around the corner and eventually came to an open room again... This one with a ship suspended by cables. I smiled grimly and dropped my assault rifle and unslung my sniper rifle. I aimed down the scope at the head of the much larger Fallen on the ship, and fired. Its blue shield remained intact. I grimaced as it jumped down, followed it and fired again. The shield went down. I fired once more and it fell, dead.

I killed all the remaining fallen, and then we walked up to the ship. Ghost floated up and began scanning it.
"It's been here a while..." He said, and I grimaced again.
"Will it fly?" I asked, and he replied,
"I can make it work." Ghost vanished again and then the ship roared to life. I heard a noise coming from the hole in the wall to the right, and whipped around, raising my assault rifle. A Fallen, bigger than any of the previous ones, clambered out of the hole, and I froze.
"About that transmat..." Ghost said, then noticed the big Fallen too.
"Bringing you in now." He said, and I felt my body vanish before the world flicked and I was inside the ship.

A few hours later, after a visit to the City Ghost had mentioned, we were back in the Cosmodrome and hunting for a warp drive. On the way back, Ghost mentioned that we would need one to be able to go beyond just earth. We landed and Ghost noted that there was a ship nearby. We ran over to it and Ghost scanned its memory banks, learning that the pilot had managed to bring back online an old data hub. We went there and found a map of the whole area, before Ghost stated that we would need to go back where we found my ship to get a warp drive. Which meant facing off against that huge Fallen.

After a rather chaotic couple of minutes where I used my newfound ability to jump on pure air, and after discovering I could create grenades after seeing an image appear in my mind, then focusing on that image to try and work out what it was, only to have a crackling replica appear in my hand, which I reflexively threw at the Fallen, I managed to land a killing blow to the face of the huge Fallen. As I killed the last of its minions, Ghost said in a shocked tone,
"You killed an Archon! And we've got a warp drive!" I had no idea what an "Archon" was, but I was happy that we had managed to get the warp drive.

Another hour or so later, we ventured to the Forgotten Shore and found that the Fallen were trying to break into some machines for some reason. While Ghost was working on hacking the machine, I felt a kind of... Tingling in my fingers. Frowning, I focused on the tingle and suddenly knives of pure electricity grew in my hands, and I smiled. This was going to be fun. I ran at the Fallen and slashed at them, watching as each one floated up and disintegrated, being electrified out of existence. Soon enough however, the blades faded and I returned to using my new gun, which was a pulse rifle. After a short time though, I felt the tingle again.

[4 Years Later, Last City...]

I ran out onto the exterior of the ship floating high above the City, and stopped as I looked up at the Traveller. It was... Bound, somehow. I turned around as a Cabal in white and gold armor strode out after me.
"You are not brave... You have simply forgotten the fear of death." He said, and gestured to the bound Traveller.
"Welcome," he said, "to a world without Light." Suddenly, Ghost said,
"Guardian... I feel strange..." Before dropping to the deck like a stone. The Cabal walked over to me, and I managed to grab Ghost just in time, and pulled him beside me. As I watched, the Cabal put a foot on my helmet and pushed. I went tumbling down to the City streets far below.

[Some Time Later...]

I stumbled through the streets, limping heavily on a leg that I was sure was broken. But without the Light, I couldn't heal it. "...Guardian...?! no, no, no... This can't be happening..." I tripped on something and fell heavily, the sound alerting Ghost, who was nearby looking for me.
"Guardian! You're alive! I can heal you buy I can't resurrect you. Not since..." He trailed off, not being able to say the words. Since we lost the Light. Together, we walked out of the City, avoiding Cabal patrols, eventually managing to get near an area we would come to know as the European Dead Zone. Ghost noticed a bird of some kind, and told me to follow it. Eventually, it led to a gap and I tried to leap across, but fell short. I landed heavily and knew no more.

[A Little While Later...]

I woke up to a woman standing over me. She smiled and held out a hand, saying,
"Oh look, somebody left a perfectly good Guardian lying around." She helped me up and for the next while, we helped her bring humanity back together.

######

It's... Been a while since then... I've taken on the name Kaelani, a moniker which came to me in a dream... And ever since I got my Light back, things have been... Different. Darker, almost. I can no longer channel Arc energy... but I can ride the thin line between Light and Dark, it would seem; Cayde, may he rest in peace, said that my Void blades were what I pulled from the Light when I felt the Caress on my mind from the Void letting me know I could unleash its power because I had taken up Tevis' Bow back during the Taken War as well as my own Arc Blades. Losing the Light had led to me not being able to create the Arc Blades any more, but the Void was still part of me, thus allowing me to wield Void Blades now.

I walked over to the ramen shop in the Bazaar and saw a familiar Exo sitting there eating some spicy ramen in memory of Cayde. I strode over and sat down, then gestured to the shopkeep.
"I'll have a 2-star Ramen please. Large." I said, and after a short pause, added,
"And some Kvurrac as well." The shopkeep nodded and prepared the ramen for me. I turned to the Exo and said,
"Been a while... Tempest." The Exo, Tempest-2, turned to look at me, his eyes glowing an electric blue.
"Indeed it has, Kael... Indeed it has. Haven't seen you since uh..." He trailed off, and I nodded.
"Since Cayde, I know. Been busy, what with helping out Spider, hunting down Uldren and then helping Petra in the Dreaming City... This curse, man... It's just never-ending." I sighed. The shopkeep placed a glass of Kvurrac in front of me and I nodded my thanks.
"Then there was the whole business with Eris on Luna... And now..." I trailed off and flicked my hand, a shuriken of ice forming in my hand.
"This. It's... Not quite as dark as I thought it would be... We were always told that the Darkness wanted to destroy us but... I don't know." I said, and the shuriken melted. Tempest huffed, his mouth flashing the same blue as his eyes, and said,
"I ain't touched that stuff yet... Even if the Stranger wants me to. I don't really trust her yet..." Tempest replied.

A while later, we were standing at the Tower balcony, looking out at the Traveller from near Ikora. I sighed and turned to Tempest.
"You know... Things are getting a little murky these days... And I don't think I like how some of the events we're seeing are going." Tempest nodded in agreement.
"I know what you mean... Osiris seems to be... Different. You remember how he was when we fought our way through the Infinite Forest... And now Lakshmi seems to be getting converted to the side of the Darkness..." It was my turn to nod.
"Yeah... These days, anyone whistles that tune, or says something is our "salvation"... I slip into the Shadows." I chuckled and shook my head.
"I'm glad I had a high impact scout on me that day on Titan though... I managed to completely avoid Miisraaks and now... He's here in the City. A House of Light... I still have the Outbreak Perfected from when he worked with us to stop Eramis getting her hands on SIVA... It's sitting in my vault though right now cos right now I'm working on trying to find a good energy scout rifle to use. Right now I gotta stick with my Night Watch I got off Shaw Han though. Dropped by cos I heard a rumor he needed help, and he said he had a spare gun. Good thing the Night Watch is a pretty sweet piece of craftsmanship too."

We watched the Endless Night below, and Tempest finally pushed off the railing.
"Well I gotta go help out a friend with his rite of Proving. See you sometime soon?" Tempest said, and I nodded.
"Good luck, and may the Light stay with you." I replied, and he responded,
"May the Light stay with you." And with a flash of transmat energy, he was gone. I sighed and pushed off the railing myself.
"Time to go to work, I guess..." I muttered to myself.

Reviews

[JayG]

• I stepped off the bus and looked up at the signs nearby. Behind me, the doors of the bus closed and it trundled off, presumably to try and bring more soon-to-be refugees. It was going to be a long journey but thankfully the Golden Age had given us cryogenics like the 20th and 21st Centuries had imagined...

So…we open with someone unknown getting off a bus and looking at “signs?” Unfortunately, and unlike you, we don’t know what they’re seeking, or anything that would provide context to make the words meaningful to the reader. In fact, paragraph one is written as a report. We’re not on that street with the protagonist, we’re being given a synopsis of events by someone who claims to have once done that, in a voice devoid of emotion.

Why do I make a big deal about this? Because here is where the agent, first-reader, or, customer stops reading.

The goal, as E. L. Doctorow puts it: “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader. Not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” But you have someone unknown talking about someone unknown getting off a bus, for unknown reason, in unknown surroundings.

And...who cares what the past gave the present if we don’t have context to make the words meaningful? Cryogenics is the study of extremely temperatures. But you use the word as if it has specific meaning relative to the story. And who but you knows what that is? True, everyone in the story knows, but who did you write the story for? Shouldn't they know, too?

You have two things your reader lacks: Context and intent. The reader has only what the words you supply suggest to them, based on THEIR life’s background. And without context, all we have is words in a row, meaning uncertain. Clarifying later? A waste of time if the reader stops right here.

So, to the reader, someone we know nothing about is providing an info-dump of context-free data about things that have no meaning to that reader, as they’re read. And since there can be no second-first impression…

Bottom line: The techniques of writing fiction are unrelated to those we were given in school. And like those of any profession, must be acquired in addition to the nonfiction report-writing skills of our schooldays. Use those skills in an attempt to write fiction and the result is instant rejection because the focus is on informing the reader, where fiction’s task is to move the reader, emotionally.

Think about it. Every book you’ve chosen was published—written with the skills of the Fiction-Writing profession. The reader and the publisher expect to see the result of those skills in what they read, and will quickly know and reject what hasn’t been, which means that if we want to entertain our reader we need to take the time to pick up the tricks the pros take for granted. There’s no way around that, and the only shortcut I know of is to not waste time looking for shortcuts.

That being said, there are ways of minimizing the time it takes, the most obvious being to find the best teacher. The library’s fiction-writing section is a great resource, especially given that you can work when you have the time, and at your own pace. And the best book I’ve found to date on the why’s and how’s of fiction is Dwight Swain’s, Techniques of the Selling Writer, followed by Jack Bickham’s, Scene and Structure, and Debra Dixon’s, GMC: Goal Motivation & Conflict.

And making it a bit easier, Swain’ book, because it’s out of copyright, is available on several archive sites, one of which is just below.

https://archive.org/details/TechniquesOfTheSellingWriterCUsersvenkatmGoogleDrive4FilmMakingBsc_ChennaiFilmSchoolPractice_Others

It won’t make a pro of you, but it will give you the tools and knowledge of what they can do for you. And free is always nice.

It would be great if all the fiction we’ve read gave us those skills, but does eating make a chef of us? As they say, “Art conceals art,” so while we learn to appreciate the result of using the professional tools, there is no substitute for learning them.

So grab a copy and dig in. And while you do, hang in there, and keep on writing.

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/the-grumpy-old-writing-coach/

[Kaelani Revyruun]

Admittedly, I wrote the first part as almost like an afterthought to the story, but I'll update the section so that it's more detailed xD

Also, the main audience for the piece is actually those who play either game in the Destiny franchise xD As for the cryogenics part, it's being used in the classic sci-fi context of "freeze people so they don't age for an extended period of time before going on a journey that would see them aged visibly by the time they get to their destination", which admittedly is a bit of a trope at this point xD

[JayG]

• it's being used in the classic sci-fi context of "freeze people so they don't age for an extended period of time before going on a journey that would see them aged visibly by the time they get to their destination"

That's your intent. The reader has only the words that are the result of that intent. When you read that he got off the buss, in your mind, the picture you held as you wrote the words forms, complete with ambiance, backstory, and characterization. Will those words create that picture in the reader's mind? Or will they call up a picture of the bus stop near their house, in their city?

Never forget that intent doesn't make it to the page, and without context you have words in a row, meaning uncertain. The techniques of fiction were developed to make use of of the strengths and avoid the limitations of our medium.

There's a good reason why a film, or even a video game presented on the page is very different from when on screen. There, in an instant, we take in all the visual details that would take several minutes to get on the page. And because no one is willing to read several pages of, "This is what you would see were you watching a screen," our approach is pared down to what has the protagonist's active attention.

So instead of the generic, "He looked up at the signs nearby," we tell the reader what he saw that matters enough to respond to. If he only glanced at them, and didn't react in a way meaningful to moving the plot, who cares? It matters as much to the story as reporting that he scratched his balls.