//------------------------------// // Piercing the Veil // Story: The Light Behind the Veil // by Gunner59524 //------------------------------// "Hey listen to this," Came the voice of my companion. My Ghost, born from the last breath of the Traveler before it began its long slumber like millions of others. His blue glow of the Traveler's Light contrasted with his shell, a red set of prisms highlighted with white stripes called the "Frontier Shell" by Ghosts and Guardians alike. Upon hearing his voice state those words I began a mental checklist. My ship, the Valkyrie-O5X, gift and pet project from Shipwright Amanda Holliday, was in good order. No warning lights, and her engines hummed in a satisfying and calming manner. Holliday was adamant about teaching me how to care for my vessel before allowing me to depart with it. The weapons were primed and ready on a moment's notice as always, not that I ever had to use them. My Sparrow, a blue hoverbike with orange flame decals called the EV-30 Tumbler, was in good shape according to the onboard fabricators, dissolving any worry I had about that particular piece of equipment. My Striker abilities were all ready to go according to how they felt when I reached inward, good. I had quite the loadout of weapons at my disposal as well. The 123 SYZYGY Pulse Rifle, the Atheon's Epilogue Auto Rifle, the Husk of the Pit Auto Rifle not exactly upgraded yet, and the Saterienne Rapier Scout Rifle, were my primary weapons of choice in the field, constantly available to me whenever needed through the same fabricators that deployed my Tumbler. The same could be said for my Ice Breaker Sniper, a self recharging solar class weapon that never needed to be reloaded, and sometimes randomly made my enemies explode, was ready as well. Good. My Void class Amina- E7 was ready as well, along with my "Murmur" fusion rifle, a charge to fire energy blast weapon that was capable of switching between arc class and solar class on a moment's notice, were both prepared just like my "Found Verdict" arc class shotgun. My Hezen Vengance solar rocket launcher was upgraded in full and ready for war as well. I love feeling the kick of that weapon and watching the fireworks as it decimates whole groups of Hive Thralls and Acolytes. My Deviant Gravity-A arc machinegun was good to go too, ready to chew through squads of Vex, Cabal, Fallen, or Hive. It mattered not the foe, it still shredded em the same. Of course then there was my "One Way Ticket 000" void rocket launcher. My good ol standby. "A vacation at the ol' triple zero" the gunsmith would say about it. The thought made me chuckle. Finally, my armor. A Toutatis Type 5 helmet, Monarch's Gauntlet, Holdfast Type 2 Chest Piece, Molniya Type 0 Leg Pieces, and my Titan Mark.... The Mark of the Duskborn.... one of my many rewards for helping in the hunt for Crota and his Right Hands. Omnigul's screams still echoed within my mind from time to time, making me shudder. My entire kit was colored with the Thunderdevil shader kit, giving me a black as night appearance. This allowed me some semblance of stealth till I strike at my enemies. Not a scratch on the paint yet, good. With my checklist run through in a matter of seconds, I looked at my companion expectantly. My ghost began, realizing I was ready to hear the briefing. "We got a message from the Speaker himself. It looks like we have a new assignment. Sorry Tiberius, we gotta go it on our own." I chuckled. "Not a problem, we've been to hell and back and we're no worse for the wear." 'Liar' I heard in my head. I knew it too..... the horrors we've faced have given me many a nightmare. I was often a lone wolf as well, my only companions being my Ghost, my Sparrow, my Jumpship, and my guns and armor. The Darkness claimed any others I could call friend.... well maybe except for Holliday..... who I can't help thinking is kinda cute. OKAY back to the matter at hand. "I'll hold you to that. You'll have to hear this for yourself.... it's big. Alot of other Guardians are getting similar missions too," my Ghost explained. He started the message playback. "Tiberius," came the voice of my mentor, the Speaker, "I understand that this is likely unexpected. I apologize... but I must ask of you a difficult task. With the Traveler healing and the forces of Darkness given pause, we must press the advantage. Shining beacons of light glow bright out there beyond this system. With each passing day however, more and more wink out, no doubt claimed by the Darkness. One such distant system is now your objective. I have transmitted the coordinates to your Ghost along with a few experimental procedures and blueprints from Holliday that you can act on using your rather vast resource surplus. It is still beyond me how you Guardians find so much out there. These new tools and procedures will allow you to breach the veil. You must hurry Tiberius. We can sense the darkness encroaching on your very destination. The Fallen will be the first to arrive for certain. Your Ghost has the ability to translate any language as you have no doubt seen. Use this to your advantage. Speak with the leaders of any local populations that radiate Light like our own. Warn them. Help them. Give the forces of the Dark reason to fear. I wish you luck Guardian. Traveler's Light be with you." The message ended there. Did I hear that right....? He wants me to go to an entirely DIFFERENT solar system? I looked at my Ghost. "Well," he said, "I guess we better get to work. Your call Tiberius." I made up my mind. A job needed doing. "Get us underway Sparks," Yes I've taken to calling my Ghost Sparks. He seems to like it. "Re-calibrate the fabricators to construct these attachments on the ship." Sparks laughed. "I figured you'd say that. Already got the process started. By the way, you have plenty of ammo fabricators in the cargo hold. Should be pretty easy to stay stocked, especially if we're gonna run into Fallen out there. Anything you want taken care of before we head out? We likely won't be able to visit the Tower until we finish up out there." "Nothing to do but get there," I said. "Well if you're game, I'm game. Let's go." I smiled at Sparks. He's always so loyal. "Alright. I'll invoke a course from the Navigator." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Equestria, Equis. February 15th, 2300 Hours It was late evening in Equestria. As always, many slept, and many gazed up at the beautiful blanket of stars brought forth by Luna herself. Some simply marveled at the beauty of it, others pondered weather there was life out there other than what existed on Equis, some even guessed at the distance of each star. For one particular Alicorn mare however, it was all of the above. "Spiiike, I need those books! Please hurry!" Twilight called down from the Crystal Tree balcony. "I'm coming!" her faithful young assistant called back. He soon arrived with the stack of books she had requested. She floated them over with her magic even as she continued to gaze through the telescope. "Luna really outdid herself tonight huh?" Spike chuckled. "I know right? And a meteor shower is coming up too! I can't wait!" Twilight exclaimed with glee. "Darling, I know what you mean. These displays are always just dazzling," Rarity agreed. Twilight's friends had also come along to gaze at the amazing spectacle. As always, Pinkie and AJ had brought some snacks, which everypony was munching away on, until Pinkie called out, "OH IT'S STARTING!" Surely enough, the sky was graced with an amazing display of shooting stars raining across the heavens. Gasps of wonder and amazement were the result. "Best one yet," Spike smirked as he watched. The display continued for a few minutes as Twilight gazed through the telescope.... until something caught her eye. Lost upon the naked eye, a small flash of blue light was visible through the telescope among the shooting stars..... then a streak of light came out and collided with one of the shooting stars to result in a brighter flash which was a little more visible. Rainbow gawked at the sight. "W-what was that....?" "I don't know.... but it was rather amazing," Rarity giggled. "I don't think Luna would have done something like that though," Twilight voiced her concern, "Whatever that was, it wasn't originally part of the meteor shower." "You're worrying too much Twilight. I doubt it's too serious." Spike smiled. "Besides, it was a great show." Twilight gazed up at the sky in wonder and worry, "I suppose......" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I gazed out at the swirling blue and black light of FTL, deep in thought. My mind wandered home, to the Tower, the City, and the Traveler. In truth, I was rather somber about being away from it all for what appeared to be a long while. My train of thought was interrupted by the blinking light and beeping of the ship's systems alerting me that we were about to leave FTL. "Sparks, we're here," I called. Sparks floated up from the back. "I know. Fair warning, sensors are a garbled mess out here. We've got no comms from the Tower either. Be ready for anything...." I nodded in affirmation and primed the railguns. What happened next caught me completely by surprise. Between us and the earth-like world that appeared before us, a massive meteor shower rained through the atmosphere. The gravity well was completely messed up too. Evasion was gonna be tough. "GIVE ME THE CONTROLS!" The systems complied and I took the flight stick. "LOOKS LIKE A BUMPY RIDE!" Sparks yelled. I managed to dodge three meteors.... but two of the smaller ones made contact, one hitting the firing chamber of the right railgun and shredding it, creating a brilliant flash in the process, and the other hitting the left engine, further adding to the flash and damage to the ship. As a result, we were knocked further into the atmosphere. "Weapons damaged! Left engine is offline!" Sparks yelled, "Last meteor went through a couple of stabilizers too! Best you'll manage is a controlled crash at this rate!" "THEN HANG ON!" I yelled, "This is gonna hurt!" "Please don't get us killed!" Sparks cried out. His little blue diamond eye was wide with shock and perhaps fear. I didn't blame him..... This kind of situation sucks. Below us, a forest rushed up to meet us. I tried to pull us into a more controlled decent. It only partly worked. The airbrakes weren't working and only one stabilizer was working. The other engines had overheated from a bad reentry as well. Next thing I knew, the sound of muffled metallic thumping, wood cracking, and a whole lot of jerking around happened.... then everything went black. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Equestria, Equis. February 15th, 2330 Hours Everypony was staring out at the Everfree in absolute shock. Earlier, a brilliant orange streak had begun descending shortly after the meteor shower ended. An object was entering the atmosphere. Twilight had been the first to notice it. Soon they could only watch in horror as whatever it was struck HARD within the Everfree Forest. Fire glowed and smoke rose from the impact site. "W-w-what was that....?" Fluttershy stuttered. Twilight could only shake her head slowly and say "I don't know" rather quietly in response. "Well..... so much for Twilight overreacting..... Guess I spoke too soon," Spike muttered, shock apparent in his voice and expression as well. There were nods of agreement all around as smoke and flame continued to rise.