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What if... We were never the Travelers chosen, but the Pyramids champion instead? |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have come to know the Traveler as the light bearer, the torch god, the thing that gives us hope but what if we weren't given this gift? What if the Traveler that we depend on so much never arrived? What if instead, what we thought to be our biggest fear brought us a new hope, what if we weren't bathed in light... but born in darkness? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A light flashes as vision return to my eyes, the bright light of the sun blinds me as my eyes adjust. When my vision returns the sounds and feeling of warmth from the sun floods my senses overwhelming me as I look down and see my hand, covered in gloves, then down to a pair of pants and shoes, then my eyes adjust fully to the light letting me see that I am in fact wearing a helmet to which I touch pulling it off my head. The soft warmth of the sun touches my bare skin and fills me with a feeling of hope, determination, but also a sickening feeling of dread. Suddenly, a noise catches my attention, a crackling noise, almost like a staticky television sound. I look and see a shape, it looks like a black sphere with orange and black spikes on it and when it turns to me I see the front of it has a red diamond shaped plate on the front that seems to move like it has emotions, and suddenly it speaks in a deep gravely tone. "Ah! It seems you're alive!" it says excitedly floating towards me the spikes coming off and orbiting around the shape in a changing light of green, a dark blue, and a reddish color. Startled by it's sudden movement I move back and go to speak but no words come out, instinctively reaching up to my throat. "Ah... it seems you haven't fully healed" it scans me to my shock and fear then collapsing back into its normal shape, again speaking "You were... dead for... a long time." hearing this fills me with more shock that I was dead and somehow now alive? "I brought you back! Oh gosh I must have forgot to introduce myself! My name, well what I am is a Splinter, sent by the pyramid to find a suitable host to bring back and become a champion... AKA You." hearing more about this scares me more but also fills me with a weird warmth and hope like I have a purpose. In the distance there is a sound of loud almost insect like chattering and the shape looks at me and suddenly says in a hurried tone "We need to go, like now! It's not safe here. You are going to have to trust me!" It suddenly disappears and I hear its voice in my head "alright get up and move towards that large building we need to move out now, I'll explain everything later". Not wanting to stay here and die I chose to trust this weird object and get up moving forwards in a slow limp, my body still not used to it's rejuvenation. As I continue to move though my body gets more and more sure of myself and by the time I get inside the large structure I can comfortably move at a walking pace with some difficulty running if I really need to. "Okay, I've scanned the area and if you move forward just a bit more you should find a crate with a gun on it, just in case we need to fight out of here" the splinter says in my head as I continue forwards soon finding it and as I walk I hear the same chittering from before putting me on edge and when I turn a corner with my gun drawn I see a small group of bug like alien beings with clothes and scarfs. They turn and cry out in my direction and raise their guns ready to fire, instinctively I squeeze the trigger and a volley of bullets fire out of the gun striking them down in quick succession, my heart pounding out of my chest. "Good work, but be on edge those were just the weakest of them, they are called The Fallen and those were Dregs, the weakest of them, so be on edge for Vandals, and hopefully we don't cross their Captain..." I move on, stepping over their bodies as I move up a set of stairs, the clinking of my boots on the metal steps echoes around me as I keep my gun ready. Walking into another room I see more of them and before they realize I'm there I fire away at them, their bodies drop like sacks of flour and slump against the floor. But out of nowhere a flurry of bolts pelt against my arm and chest sending pain throughout in small stinging smacks, instinctively I dodge out of the way but it doesn't feel like a normal dodge, it feels enhanced almost. "What was that?!" I think to myself and turn from behind cover to see a small floating machine and the splinter says "Shoot it, it's a shank, a Fallen machine that floats and shoots things, quite weak though." noticing that the shots didn't really hurt I go out of cover and shoot the machine, it exploding and falling to the ground in pieces. A few more come out of the shadows and I shoot them too, falling to the ground in pieces just like the other one. I continue to climb through varying hallways and staircases ducking under broken walls and doors as I make my way along. I look forwards and see red lasers coming off the walls in a web-like pattern and I'm moving cautiously towards them. "Don't touch the lasers, they are trip mines and they WILL explode. So duck under them or shoot them from a distance." taking his advice into consideration I duck and weave through the lasers making sure not to hit any. "Alright continue moving on, but watch out for more of them, those definitely aren't the last of them." Moving on I make my way up a set of stairs and see more of the trip mines but also some of the dregs and a couple of the shanks, they see me and cry out shooting a barrage of bullets at me again dodging out of the way making my heartrate shoot through the roof and my newly reborn blood pump hard. I peek around the corner and have to duck because another volley of bullets fly past and I try to peek again but they don't seem to stop. I once again peek the moment they stop shooting and I shoot one of the trip mines, a chain reaction of explosions wiping out the group and I smile under my helmet. "Smart thinking champion! Using the trip mines to your advantage!" I do a little victory dance in my head and move on stepping over the pile of burned corpses. |