Forward:I've re-done this about five times. I may end up deleting and reposting this chapter, along with writer's block, I'm revising. A lot. Also try to ignore some of the minor grammar issues, some of it is from transitioning between Docs and Fanfiction.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Chapter 4:

Nightfall

We'll learn the song down there. We can learn it from Her. She comes up from the deep dark places where the greater Hive await to sing it to us, and here's a puzzle for you-The song is

death. To hear it is to die. To know the words is mortal. Oh, good point, Eriana, death is just a word, isn't it? A catch-all term for the failure to go on, nothing spiritual, nothing with its own

quiddity. We all died once, and it did not prove insurmountable.But what if what if what if, shhh listen, what if death were reified, described in its totality, made autonomous and universal, separate from any context or condition? What if She could invoke the ending of anything?How, then, would She know the song, and sing it, without Herself dying?Perhaps they know a way to make themselves part of the song, part of something vast and burning that rots and peels into ash but never ever ends. Perhaps She has engineered this for Him, and pinned His power up against the quiddity of death itself.I am so terribly curious to know.

~ Recovered from a found dead Ghost near the entrance to the Oversoul, in the Stills ~

The ship is silent.

I've dug through it's stores, and among the books I've found the fabled Pocket Infinity fusion rifle, along with a mostly-assembled linear fusion, the front half covered in heat sinks styled in the geometry found in the warmind vaults of Earth. Crux-Lomar's Truth, a rocket launcher with violent seeking abilities, Dark Drinker, The Jade Rabbit, Outbreak Prime, and an assortment of less... 'exotic' weapons. A faded book-styled pamphlet with the faded title 'Khvostov Field Manual' printed on the top. Flipping through, it's clear that the previous owner had some 'disputes' about the instructions, especially the firing mechanism. Books of every kind are on the shelf, mostly informational, but a few are fictional. Kyle's been lain on the floor, Shi's propped up against the wall closer to the cockpit. I spend a few hours looking out the viewport down to the Earth, our ship drifting in mid-Earth orbit. The Traveler looks so small. Compared to the the planet, it is. Our miserable little planet with it's little miserable people.

I know Kyle's alive. Barely. He's still breathing and moans from time to time. I can't do much for Shi, there's no way to put pressure on the wound, or stitch it, or whatever. There's nothing. Nothing that I can do. And out of all of her books, there's nothing on exo repair. I went through every title. The closest thing was the aforementioned 'Khvostov Field Manual'.

So I'm going to do what I know best.

I enter the Moon's coordinates into the NLS drive.

The Moon was eerie the first time I came here. Still is. The LZ is right next to an abandoned chinese base, and somehow, the century-old structure is still (mostly) intact. One large compound connected to a smaller building by a massive tube/pipe/thing. It's pretty cool, and the Fallen have taken basically everything except for the wiring (some of it) and the lights. As I switch the power on, I can hear the rumbling through my arm. The lights flicker, some break, but most of them stay on. I saw a few transport shuttles on the way here, most heading to the main structure, the only unbroken one large enough to hold a dozen people. The air will be thin for them soon. They will most likely all suffocate in a day or two, as the near-millenia old air filters struggle under the load of the CO2 that will become present. Using some external power extension cables, I hook the power from the (barely) functional station, saving some ship fuel by using the recycled electricity as environment control power.

Entering the ship again, Kyle greets me.

"Hey... you going to just leave me again?"

The ramp closes behind me.

"I've hooked up external power to the ship, so we've got life support for as long as we need."

"Are we on the Moon?"

I walk over to the main command module.

"There's a civilian transport. They've huddled up inside one of the old hab stations."

"That's not good," He props himself up a little bit more on the ship wall. "Those are almost eight hundred years old, right?"

"Fallen likely took everything out that can actually provide stable power."

"Well? You just going to let them freeze to death?" He tries, again, to get propped up.

"Get back down. Otherwise you're open the wound more than it already is. They made their choice, I'm going to make mine." I look through the weapons rack, pulling out Outbreak Prime and Dark Drinker. "I'm going back. I have to."

"You don't have the light. How can you survive down there?"

"I'll just have to." I open the ramp again. "Otherwise even more people will die."

"But the people... a few hours can't hurt that much."

I turn to look at him. Of course he's right. Whenever it gets to the deep-spined truth, he's always right. I hate him for it. Sighing, I walk over and sit down, sliding down the wall next to him.

"What do you suggest?"

"How long do you think they've been there?"

"It's hard to tell. Took me a couple of days to get here after the assault."

"Think they got here sooner?"

"Definitely," I nod. "The ship I saw had some cuts on it. Looks like the Fallen are taking it apart."

"Though they don't much care about the people-" He coughs. Bloody phlegm comes out. "-it seems."

I'm concerned. Not just about him and the people, but myself. I've been pretty bad at trying to handle my feelings, so I might just have to go with another's now.

"So, what do we do?"

After waiting a couple of hours to charge the ship's backup power supply, I detach the power cable. The ship rumbles underneath the pilot's seat as It accelerates slowly upwards, engined burning at low power.

"You alright back there?" I ask. I've taped the ship's pre-installed headset into my helmet so I'll be able to communicate from outside of the ship.

"I'm as good as ever... oh g*." I can hear him wheezing slightly. "Please tell me that there are more painkillers."

I flip a few switches on the main console, plugging the transport's approximate position into the ship.

"I hope you don't mind your gun flying the ship." I adjust a control setting then head back to the cargo-living-everything else area. Kyle is fully conscience now, and he sees my side.

"You prime?" He asks. I've forgotten all about it. I look down, expecting to get nauseated at the sight of...

The...

Blood...

There is none. Well, there's a little bit, dried on a long incision-like scar, but other than that, there is no sign of any wound. Just a gaping hole in my armor.

"The heck?" I feel it with my hands, making sure I'm not hallucinating. "That is weird."

"I'm as confused as you." Kyle asks. "Looks like you were shot, but..."

We're both confused. I feel the back of my armor. The exit wound is also sealed, little trace of the massive wound from being violently deposited from the ship

"Can you-" I nod to the duct-tape next to him. He tosses it to me, and I get to work covering the holes in the armor. I can tell, even through the silence, that he wants to ask something, but I'm not sure how I would answer. It seems like he's not sure what to ask. So we both try to get back to whatever we were doing before.

It ends up being an awkward silence.

"It's not looking good." Kyle sits in the pilot's chair, looking down at the 'base' that the evacuees have held up in. They're being besieged by Fallen, shanks slowly warbling towards the entrance. "They can't last much longer."

"I'm going in. You stay up here on the ship, transmat me about one hundred meters behind the Prime Servitor." I pull another four shells out of Invective's core, slotting them into Immobius's tube magazine. I look up at him. "Don't do anything too stupid."

"Don't do anything you would do. Got it."

I grin at him, putting my helmet on and snagging Jade Rabbit.

"See you on the flip side."

My vision blurs a little bit before flashing white as the ship's system transmats me down. I run towards the side, crouching behind the wall-railing, looking up at the ship.

"Radio check?"

"Check." His voice is laced with static, using the radio channel so I can communicate with him, since I don't have my Ghost. "Yell if you need anything. This ship has front cannons." The ship turns and flies upwards and away from the area. "Be safe"

There aren't that many Fallen. Two Prime Servitors, a Captain, and a handful of Dregs and Vandals. They're pulling in Shanks to run the survivors out of ammunition. From the sound of it, they don't have much more than simple rifles. Pulling out Jade Rabbit, I take aim. I shoot the ground a meter or so behind the Prime Servitors. They both turn, arc energy pulsing as they angrily warble, looking for the adversary. I shoot as fast as the precision rifle will allow me, each shot matching a heartbeat. Seven shots. Within three seconds I've shattered the eye of one Servitor, and after reloading, I pop back over cover and blast another seven shots. The core crumples, the massive floating machine spinning viciously in the air as it short-circuits, detonating with a wave of Arc and ether, staggering the Captain and disabling the other Servitor momentarily. I drop down behind the thin wall to reload again, Arc-empowered bolts barely missing me as the Vandals take aim, followed by the three seeking shots of a trace rifle.

I half crouch, half crawl a few meters to the side, peeking to the side of the wall in a different location. The three Vandals fall, as do the two Dregs, but the Captain's shielding holds, rounds being deflected or absorbed by the Arc shield. I hear the whine too late. I see the massive purple ball of energy coming towards me and I duck to the side, the shots missing by millimeters, burning through my armor and burning my skin.

I miss my Ghost.

I stick another magazine into Jade Rabbit, using the pain to focus beyond the distractions of all the previous events. The final Servitor falls to the ground, taking the Captain with it.

I instinctively look to the top left corner of my helmet's HUD, but the motion radar is gone. Without my Ghost, it's just a helmet. I sprint straight to the building, adrenaline coursing through me. I walk in, as not to 'startle' them, but even still, I can tell they almost fired. But, they is a broad term. There must have been one or two people in there that were alive still, judging by the discoloration of the corpses. Two still have blood slowly leaking through semi-cauterized wounds. I walk back outside, pacing.

"They're all dead."

"How many- -o you thin- -ere were?"

I look around the room.

"I count five casualties. All adult males."

"Ship c- -rry at least twen- -ople"

He's right. The ship, or what's left of it, is large enough to 'comfortably' hold around twenty-twenty five people. It's possible that they were the only ones, but not likely. I grab a trace rifle from one of the Vandals, grabbing the six magazines from the three, clipping them to my armor.

"Do you see another building nearby?"

"None. Th- -y must be in- -ide or r- -lose."

"I'll check inside again."

As much as I can wish that there was a 'secret entrance' somewhere, there isn't.

And something else feels wrong. Where would everyone else be?

"Brad..."

"What!?" I sprint outside.

"You're not going to like this." He takes a deep breath. "Another ship crashed next to an entrance to a Hive nest.."

"Bring the ship around!" I continue running out into the clearing, seeing the ship fly over towards me, my vision blurring to white as I'm transmatted to the ship.

"Got him. We're going straight to the tunnels." Amica, Kyle's Ghost, tells us over the radios as she invisibly pilots the ship. I grab the Cabal Arc shotgun and Pocket Infinity, slinging Jade Rabbit over my back.

"The h-"

"I'm barely functional, so don't argue to much." She says over the comms. It takes me a minute to wrap my head around. Eventually I do, just after the fading light from the transmat disappears and I stare down the small canyon at the mouth of darkness.

"I'll scream if I need anything."

The tunnel is deep.

It spirals down for what must be at least a hundred vertical meters. Dead Hive Worms, Thrall, and even Human remains litter the side of the path. I lost radio signal almost immediately. Without pause, I continue sprinting into a dark cavern, slowing only when the residual light is too little to continue on. I crouch, catching my breath for a brief second as I turn the helmet-mounted flood lights on.

There are corpses. Dozens of half-decayed skeletons laying against the wall, wormspore growing from some empty rib cages. Nothing new, though.

"Kyle?" I hear some static break through. "I can't hear anything you're saying. Hit the broadcast once for yes, twice for no."

After a second, I hear the static again, but in a single quick burst.

"Now we're getting somewhere." I mutter under my breath. "Kyle? Just stay on standby. I don't want you dying on me."

Silence. Static. Silence.

I'm not seeing any signs that there were any people that had come down here. I keep a steady pace down the passage. I hear the sound of Thrall, and I switch off the helmet lights, gripping the Jade Rabbit tightly. My skin starts to crawl as the ambient sound of the Hive nest makes its way to my ear.

I hate the Hive.

Creeping forward, slowly, I level the Cabal Arc Shotgun, holding it at my side. Turning around a corner, I see a few Thrall feeding on, the, whatever it is they feed on. I fire the shotgun, and with one shot, miniature rockets tear through all of them. The recoil almost makes me drop the gun. I hear the roar of Knights in the distance.

I heft the shotgun again and continue down the passageway.

Thrall start pouring out of the passage. Waves of a dozen or so, easily cleared with one or two shots each.

There are songs in the air.

There are ritual Witches nearby. I recognise the starting of the song as the Deathsinger's Dirge.

I remember sitting in the corner of the stairs leading into the Vanguard halls, listening to the miscellaneous conversations of people and Guardians as they passed.

"You do not know of a Deathsinger's power." Eris started saying. Turns out there was a blueberry Guardian that made the mistake of asking.

"They weave a dirge, and describe death in its purest form, a complete understanding of ceasing to exist. To hear the words is to have your life leave you."

I run. Straight down the tunnel towards the sound. I jump and boost over the next packs of Thrall, trying to remember if I've ever been down here.

"You will die if they are allowed to finish their songs."

I see the green ritual circles after a few more seconds. My ears are starting to bleed a small amount, and my vision is blurring. The Dirge is seconds away from finishing. I sprint, jump, and boost as fast and hard as I can, pulling out Pocket Infinity and pulling the trigger.

The Wizards next to the Deathsingers turn, solar orbs generating and preparing to shoot towards me.

Exactly one second after the coils start charging, Pocket Infinity starts firing.

The Wizards are ash in moments. I drop the mag, slamming another one in and charging immediately. My vision starts to double as I blast through the first of the Deathsingers, turning towards the without releasing the trigger.

My shoulder dislocates from the push-back of the rifle, but I hold it at the front as the last Deathsinger's shield disintegrates and the solar charges rip through the Hive's form.

I collapse.

The song was a couple of seconds away from finishing. I feel bile trying to come up from my stomach, feel blood running from the corners of my eyes and ears.

I can't do anything as I see Knights approach me.

I try and lift my arm to fire the Pocket Infinity again, finger wrapping around the trigger, almost lazily.

The coils spin up.

But the Knights get their first.

The sword swings at my hand. I move it and the sword buries itself through my gun and inches into the solid rock of the Moon.

My vision is blurring.

More Knights are coming. I can hear them.

I manage to pull myself up and stagger out of the cavern. Water splashes over my feet, chilling them. Everything is wrong about this.

I slip, falling into the foot-deep pool. I feel something soft-ish. I vomit as a half-decayed face looks up at me.

The noises are louder. How have they not reached me yet? I feel drugged. I push myself up again. I hear bursts of static over the com as I climb up onto the exposed Moon-rock of the hall-like cavern passage.

"Don't come down here!"

Static. Silence. Static.

"Leave-" I cough bloody phlegm. "-now. Go!"

Static. Silence. Static.

A Knight hits me hard, knocking me to the ground, placing its foot on my head. I try to move sideways, but it pushes me down into the hard ground. My helmet cracks, fractures spreading across my vision as it deforms to fit the shape of the rock.

"on- -ry! Shi- -ming fo- on't- -ve-"

"LEAVE!"

My nose begins pressing into the helmet. Pressure builds.

"-ET DOWN!"

I hear the fire of Truth's rockets grow louder. The Knight moves to the side, stepping off of my head, and I immediately roll the opposite way. I see the rocket track the Knight viciously, detonating as it plows into the Knight. Heat rushes over me as I'm thrown back a couple of yards.

I hear Black Hammer fire, Solar rounds ripping through hive.

More shots fire from Necrochasm as I see Kyle stalking towards me. He empties a mag into a group of Thrall, crackles as explosions come from the torn corpses. The rock next to the Thrall cracks, chunks of rock falling. The whole cave groans. Shi grabs me.

"Kyle! We need to move!"

"Yep! Go! Now!" Kyle drops a magazine, slotting a new one into the rifle.

I hear it.

Whispers.

"Kyle-"

The gun fires.

Take.

Kill.

Grow.

A Knight explodes.

The cave groans again.

"Stop-"

The cave collapses.

The sound is incredible. Shi covers me with her frame. Something hits my head.

Everything is black.

My leg is probably broken. I'm not able to move my leg out from under the rocks.

"Shi?"

Shoot.

I see Necrochasm lying a few feet away from me.

Kyle's out. Likely dead.

I see his arm sticking out from under some boulders, his head visible with a massive gash. The skull is visible, a large fracture crossing his forehead.

D* it.

Why did they come?

I told them not to.

Shi's not visible anywhere.

I groan. Try to move my leg again.. Nothing. I'm able to push the bolders a little bit at a time, so I resort to pushing it, then laying down. Push, rest.

This goes on for some time.

"-Kyle?"

I recognise the voice as Kyle's ghost. I try my radio.

"Kyle's gone."

"Brad?"

"He's dead."

I see the light of Amica as she advances through the cave.

I shove the rock. Again. Again. Again! Ag-

It finally moves, rolling off of my leg.

"Brad-"

Shoot.

"Your leg…"

"It's fine." I push myself up, immediately collapsing as my leg snaps, folding over itself.

"Hold still."

The beam of light from the ghost as it's low amount of remaining power washes over me.

"This is going to hurt. And take a bit. Hold on-"

"Friggin- shoot- puppies- butt-"

Shi-2 comes around the small corner.

"Just swear for goodness' sake."

"Nope. I'll just-EEAAAAGGH!"

My vision multiplies.

My helmet twists as Shi pulls it off. She looks into my eyes.

"Focus on me."

Her form begins to glow with a faint golden aura. I feel warmth spread over me as the Solar power from Radiance empowers me, taking pain away from my let.

"Schhh- that's kin-gah - kind of nice." Shi nods, turning to talk to Amica and her own Ghost. It has a basic white shell now.. They converse something, the single glowing eye of the Ghosts and the lights around where Shi's mouth would be flicker in turn.

Kyle groans.

"Kyle?!"

"F*-" he groans.

"Kyle!" Shi is almost crying as she runs over and kneels by him, grabbing his free arm.

"Here to help-" He drawls. His eyes are still closed. "Having Radiance must be nice. Don't have to worry about dying all of the time."

"You idiot!"

"I've a rock in my lungs, m'lady."

I cough.

"Mind saving the fl- flirting for once we're not bleeding out?"

They both look over to me.

"No." They both reply in unison. We stare for a second before bursting out into laughter, tears coming from Kyle and I. The sudden shift between one person to three knowing each other is alive is huge.

"But seriously," I wipe tears from my face, smearing Moon ash over my face. "My leg and Kyle's lungs are in a bit of a predicament."

Shi looks at Amica again, than over to me.

"Hold still." Shi grabs my leg and forces the bones into the original position.

I lose my mild tongue.

"Why don't you use your Void powers?"

"They only-FFFFFF- work when the- -there's an abundance of light ffFFFF-"

Kyle comes next, Shi and I taking turns pulling on him while lifting the rocks pinning him. Because we're on the Moon, we're about six times stronger here than on Earth. Even on the ground, I'm easily able to lift a couple of tons of Moon rock. It takes another hour to get Kyle out and mostly mended, and Shi reports that her Ghost is piloting the ship. We wait in the cave as the ship flies to us.

"Thank you."

Shi looks up at me. "For what?"

"For coming for me."

"No need to thank. We're friends."

"I told you not to come."

"Oh, just shut up about that!" Shi looks at me angrily. "None of this is on you! We can't blame you for trying to save people that you didn't know whether they were dead or not-"

"I rushed. If I had waited a hour, the three of us could have gone in together."

I feel Kyle punch my side.

"We're here for you."

"So we're getting cliche now?" Shi notes. "Cliche."

"I've still got to go to th-"

"We know."

"Aaaand- we're going with." I turn to look at Kyle.

"Sure?"

"Dead sure."

"To bad we don't have the three Nightstalkers with us."

"Ah- oh well. We've got the one-man-army over here." He hits my armor again.

I still don't know why they stick with me.

Me.

The idiot.

To be honest, that might be the reason why.

A lone Ghost floats in, stopping in front of us.

"Found you!"

It's shell opens as is floats slowly upwards, beaming light over me. Shi's mouth gapes.

"What the f-"

AW:

jsm1978: I'm still not that good at writing, but I'm imagining he's been stumbling around for a while, and a sudden rush of adreneline might help with that, plus the rage on top of it. Imagine Shaxx in the Crucible. It'd be mental. It'll all be explained in due time. (You can probably guess by the title)

Chapters should continue getting longer for a while, but updates will not follow any kind of schedule. I'm in the 4th term of high school for this year, so it will likely be a while for chapter 5. I have some page-long stories fashioned like Grimoire that I might upload in between chapters for y'all.

Waddle_on