The Journey Home, Part Eleven: Simon's Story

Greetings, Guardians, here's part eleven of The Journey Home! Here's [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/223913009?showBanned=0&path=0]part ten [/url]if you missed it, or, if you're looking for a different part, here's the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/222615264?showBanned=0&path=0]table of Contents[/url]. If you like it, give it a bump, and I'll get more out soon! Stay classy, Guardians! As it turned out, the villagers had no end of questions for the little orb. In fact Alesha could’ve sworn that the mass villagers was actually making the orb distinctly uncomfortable. Still, it still gave out a lot of information; first of all, she learned that he was called “Ghost,” and that no, that did not mean that he was an actual ghost, that was just what he was called, thank you very much. Also, he was a he. After that, most of the questions revolved around the City, which the Ghost was more than happy to explain. After that, most of the questions revolved around the City. The City sounded like a truly wondrous place. The Ghost spoke of walls ten times higher than the palisade, and of how thousands of Guardians just like Erling protected it from the Fallen, along with other things. What those “other things” were, Alesha didn’t want to imagine. Eventually, the crowd dispersed, leaving Alesha alone with the Ghost. The little orb looked over at her. “Yes?” he asked. “Can I help you?” Alesha pointed at the triangle that Erling had arrived in, which was still floating over the village. “What’s that?” she asked. “Is it your. . . ship?” “Yes, it is.” Ghost said. Alesha looked up at the object with wonder. So that’s what they looked like, she thought. “Can they really take you all around the earth?” “Yep,” Ghost said. “It can even take you out into space - and the other planets as well.” Alesha frowned. “Space?” she asked. “Other planets? What are those?” Ghost paused. “Oh, I see,” he said. “You don’t . . . know what those things are, do you?” Alesha shook her head. “Well. . . do you know anything about the basics of astronomy?” Alesha stared at Ghost blankly. “I see. . . Well, you see, the Earth - that’s our planet, orbits the sun. You understand?” Alesha slowly nodded her head. Gustav had tried to sell them what he called a “science book” one time, but no one had been willing to pay for it. However, he’d let the children read some of it, and she recalled it saying something like this. “And the moon. . . that orbits the earth, right?” “Very good!” Ghost said. “But, there are other planets - some of them like Earth - which also orbit the Sun.” “And your ship can take you to them?” Alesha asked, growing excited. “Well, yes,” Ghost said. He looked around. “Look,” he said. “it would take me a while to explain all of this properly, so do you have any other questions? Preferably, shorter ones?” Alesha frowned momentarily, and then bit her lip. “Erling killed Simon,” she said. “But then Simon wasn’t dead.” “Yes,” Ghost said. “His ghost brought him back.” Alesha blinked, and felt her heart flutter in her chest. “So you can bring people back from the dead?” she asked hopefully. She thought about Gustav and his father - Oren had gone and buried them a day or two ago, but if there was a chance that - “Not exactly,” Ghost said. “You see, we can only resurrect other Guardians once they’ve fallen.” “And how do you become a Guardian?” Alesha asked. Ghost sighed. “It’s complicated,” he said. “You find them, and, well, you choose them.” “How do you get chosen?” Alesha asked. “Well, it isn’t just anybody,” Ghost replied. “The sheer amount of empty, lifeless corpses I found before I finally came across Erling, well it was . . . disheartening, to say the least. But then, I found him. And I saw him - lying on the ground, beside a pile of blackened corpses. And I looked at him, and I knew - I just knew - that he was to be my Guardian. So, I suppose it’s Destiny that determines wether or not you can be a Guardian - Destiny, and a good deal of dumb luck.” “Oh,” Alesha said. She looked down at her feet. “Is something wrong?” Ghost asked. Before Alesha had a chance to reply, the sparrow came zooming into the village, Erling and Oren on top of it. Oren stepped off the sparrow, and was instantly mobbed by several villagers. “What happened?” “What did you see?” “Are the Fallen really coming?” Oren looked like he was coming out of a daze. “They’re coming alright,” he said. “Three hundred of them - easy. They even had one of those six-legged beasts with them.” He sat down on the ground, and held his head in his hands. “We don’t stand a chance.” “A Devil walker?” Simon asked. “Didn’t have one of those when I saw them.” Erling got off his sparrow, which promptly disappeared. Then, he strode over to Simon. “Alright,” he asked. “What’s going on?” Simon frowned. “What do you mean?” “Fallen don’t move in groups like that unless something big is going down,” he said. “What’s going on?” “I don’t know!” Simon said. “Me and my mates saw the buggers marching towards here a few days ago. We noticed the village nearby, and we . . . offered our services.” “And what were you doing out here?” Erling asked. Simon looked down at the ground. Erling sighed. “Tell me, Simon,” he said. “It’s not like it’s possible for me to think any less of you.” Simon didn’t respond to the gibe. He sighed. “Alright,” he said. “Me and my mates found some people. They were a bit suspicious at first, but, once we told ‘em who we were and what we did, they warmed up to us. They said that there were some bandits nearby that’d been attacking them, givin’ ‘em trouble. We, of course, volunteered our services. “After they payed, of course,” Erling said. “I’m a mercenary!” Simon snapped. “It’s what I do, alright? Do you wanna hear the story or not?” Erling rolled his eyes. “Continue,” he said at last. “The bandits were holed up in an outpost,” Simon said. “They went in with us, and we started attacking. We broke through the walls within minutes.” He shook his head. “Most of them surrendered after that. We offered to help deal with the prisoners, but they. . . declined. Said they had their own way to deal with it.” Erling cursed, and slammed the palisade with his -blam!-. “Dammit, Simon!” he shouted. “Don’t tell me you believed that crap!” Simon kept his eyes fixed on the ground. “I had my suspicions,” he said. “We came back a few hours later, to confirm them, but we were. . . too late.” He shook his head. “They’d lied to us. The ones who’d paid us had been the real bandits; they’d been attacking the village for a while, but hadn’t been able to breach those damn walls! And after we left, well. . . they took care of the prisoners.” Simon sighed. “They executed all of them,” he said. “Every last one. Even. . . even. . . those kids, those bloody kids. You expect that from Fallen, you know? But when it’s people. . . dammit.” Alesha looked down at the Sunbreaker. He actually looked like he felt bad about what had happened - like the guilt hung from his neck like a lead bar. Erling nodded, still staring at the palisade. “What did you do?” he asked. “I informed Ouros myself,” Simon said. “She was bloody furious.” “Really?” Erling asked lamely. “We’re mercenaries!” Simon snapped. Then, he looked back down at the ground. “Doesn’t mean we don’t have morals. “She ordered us to hunt down the bandits, which we did. Ouros told them that if they didn’t put up a fight, she’d let them free later. Most of them took her up on the offer. The rest. . . well. They didn’t last too long.” Erling nodded. “What happened next?” “Ouros packed them all into an old dropship, and then took ‘em up into space - probably gave the the best view they’d ever had.” “And then?” Simon shrugged. “She opened the doors, and let them go. Just like she’d promised.” Erling frowned. “She spaced them?” “Oh, don’t tell me you feel sorry for them!” Simon said. “They were bandits! They deserved what they got!” Erling turned towards Simon. “And then she gave you the suspension.” Simon nodded. “Ten years suspension from the Sunbreaker legion,” he said. “No backup, no resupplies, no support. Just us and the Wilds.” He looked around the village. “We were hoping to spend a part of that suspension here.” “Seems like a pretty light sentence to me,” Erling said. Simon looked up at Erling, a strange sort of fire in his eyes. “Look, mate,” he said. “I did what I did. I’m not gonna sit here and defend it, but what’s done is done. So either kill me now, or sod off and leave me alone!” Erling didn’t respond. He simply walked away, and moved towards Oren. “Well?” he asked. “Are your people ready to go?” Oren didn’t acknowledge the Guardian. But after a moment, he stood up. “Those Fallen are coming, whether we like it or not,” he said. “And we don’t stand a damn chance against them.” He looked around the village. “Look, I don’t know anything about the City - like all of you, I thought it was a myth. But the way I see it. . . “ He looked over at Erling, and then back at the villagers. “Erling here is our best shot.” He turned back towards the Guardian. “How soon should we leave?” “Noonday tomorrow,” Erling said. “At the latest.” Oren nodded. “If you want to live,” he said, “be ready by then!” Then, he walked off towards his house. [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/1371758/224530649/0/0]Part Twelve[/url]