One week later Earth's moon, Archer's line

Following their failed mission to rescue the guardian the fire team returned to the tower to give their report to the vanguard. The news of the hive preparing for an invasion of earth got the full attention of the vanguard. After receiving the report Zavala ordered a second fire team to set up a transmate zone at Archer's line and the vanguard had begun sending fire teams to the moon to deal with the hive. Within the first day guardians had managed to clear Archer's line of the remaining fallen that were still there and now had taken it to use as a base of operations for the tower on the moon.

Over the course of the week fire teams had been sent to patrol, scout, and hit the hive at key points. One of the most notable achievements that have been accomplished so far are the destruction of Crota's sword ensuring that Crota's ultimate weapon could no longer be used against the city again. Another success was when a fire team destroyed the shrine to Oryx cutting off the hive's long distance communications. With the recent series of victories against the hive the city's foothold on the moon continues to grow stronger as the darkness is pushed back.

After a week of fighting Pekis, Kelly, and Bitsine were currently inside the new base at Archer's line to resupply. Archer's line had been greatly improved in the week since the guardians had moved in. Multiply fortifications had been placed all around the facility and guard posts were now placed to watch all the roads leading to Archer's line. The buildings have received plenty of repairs and become functioning once again as computer systems were restored along with other equipment.

Pekis was currently exchanging words with the new quartermaster as Kelly and Bitsine waited for him. With the facility's systems restored and the surface debris removed from the inside the compound could now seal itself off from the vacuum outside allowing guardians to take off their helmets while inside. "This place sure has come around since we first came here." Kelly said looking around at the improved facility.

Bitsine knew what she meant. With all the changes that were made its was hard for her to remember what Archer's line use to look like when they first arrived. "Sure has. Crazy to think this place use to be a tomb. Definitely glad they removed the corpses." Bitsine stated.

Once Pekis was finished with his business he returned to his team. "Alright my supplies are replenished."

"So what's next on the to do list?" Bitsine asked.

Kelly realized this was the opportunity she had been hoping and responded "Well I've had an idea for a while now."

Bitsine turned to her "What idea?"

"Well I've been thinking that maybe we could look for the world's grave inside the hive fortress." she said catching her friends by surprise.

Pekis was a bit confused by her suggestion "What is the world's grave?"

"Its a large area within the hive fortress with a database that contains information on their history."

"Why would you want find that?" Bitsine questioned.

Kelly was a bit hesitant to respond " Well because the warlock libraries information on the hive are a bit limited and I figured that the world's grave could give us more insight on them."

Bitsine began to chuckle a little then gave her a slight punch to the shoulder. "Kelly sometimes you are such a nerd." Kelly face reddened a little from embarrassment.

Pekis saw the slight embarrassment Kelly was feeling a tried to comfort her. "Any new information on the hive will always be of use. So unless you have a better idea Bitsine." Pekis finished looking a Bitsine waiting for an answer.

Bitsine looked back at Pekis seeing all four of his eyes were focused on her. "Uh no I don't."

"Ok its decided." Pekis declared causing Kelly's facial expression to lighten up. With that the guardians put their helmets back on as they went back outside and were greeted by the site of other guardians still working on the base's fortifications. Most of the abandoned equipment had either been removed, repaired to be used, or stripped for parts. The smaller building that were underneath the accelerator had been put back to use as the computer's inside them had been restored.

Pekis mounted his pike as his team mates mounted their sparrows then they made their way out of the base's perimeter. The guardians stationed at the guard posts gave them a wave as they proceed out of Archer's line and to the Hellmount. After passing through a small canyon they began their trip around the seemingly endless dark chasm that was in the center of a large crater and proceeded to the entrance to the hive fortress that was on the opposite side.

"So how deep do you think a goes." Bitsine asked over the comms as she looked towards the chasm.

"Knowing the hive it probably ends near the moon's core." Pekis responded.

As they neared the entrance Pekis' ghost suddenly spoke "I'm receiving a urgent transmission on all channels."

Pekis clenched his fist and raised it motioning for his team to stop. One the guardian stopped Kelly ghost responded "I'm picking it up too."

"Me too." Bitsine ghost stated

Puzzled Pekis asked "Who's it from?"

"It's from the Speaker." Pekis' ghost announced with awe in its voice.

The guardians were surprised to say the least. As the the ghost played the message they payed full attention to the Speaker's voice "Nothing is more important now. We believe the Hive are engaged in a ritual that is draining the Traveler of its light. Whatever power they wield must be understood and destroyed."

As the message ended the guardians look at each other. "Well looks like there's been a change in plans." Pekis stated.

"Damn it! Why do the hive have to ruin everything!" Kelly said frustrated.

"Nerd." Bitsine chuckled causing her to receive a glare from Kelly.

Sensing the tension Pekis intervened "Alright you heard him. the traveler comes first."

Bitsine turned to him "Well how are we suppose to find the ritual?"

Kelly's ghost then spoke up "I have an idea for that. If you can find cracks in the surface that go deep enough I can send a pulse to map out the entire hive fortress."

"You mean crack like that." Bitsine said pointing a fracture in the surface with a ominous green glow emanating from it.

Kelly's ghost materialized "Yes that will do. The ghost flew over to the fracture then expanded it body. After emitting a few pulses the ghost turned back to the fire team "I got it. We have to go back to the temple of Crota."

"The temple of Crota? That going to be a long drive." Bitsine stated.

"Don't worry. There's a shortcut to get to Anchor of Light near hear." the ghost responded.

"Good to hear." Pekis said relived. "Send us the way point and lets get going."

The fire team then turn their vehicles around and began their journey back to the temple of Crota. Thanks to the way point Kelly's ghost sent them the trip back to Anchor of light when a lot faster. A few minutes and several run over patrolling fallen dregs later they returned to the abandoned colony. Finding that they entered the colony from the opposite direction as last time the guardians followed the same path they used to reach the temple the first time. After dismounting their vehicles they passed through the small canyon they finally returned to the hive temple.

The guardians made their way down the hill and upon reaching the open entrance Pekis' ghost materialized. The ghost expanded it body as the fire team stop for a moment to examine the area. As Pekis looked inside the temple he heard a voice suddenly speak on his comm. "You're interesting. Not entirely interesting, but you have promise."

Pekis was startled by the surprise call. "Who is that?" he asked as he began looking around to see if they were being watched like last time. His question caught the attention of Kelly and Bitsine.

Pekis' ghost began trying to trace the signal but to no avail. "I don't know. I'm losing the signal."

"What are you talking about?" Bitsine asked confused.

Pekis turned to her surprised "You're not picking this transmission up."

"I'm not getting anything." Kelly stated.

The voice spoke again " Guardian I know what you're about to do. It's brave but there are enemies out here you would not believe."

"Out were?" Pekis responded as his teammates could only watch this event unfold.

"Go down and face the Hive and if you live, come find me. Alone." The voice finished ending the transmission.

The ghost body returned to normal. "Signal dropped. I got some broken coordinates - Venus, Northern Hemisphere. Ishtar region."

Kelly was a bit concerned about the ordeal "What was that about?"

Pekis turned to her "I received a call from someone. She wants me to meet her on Venus alone."

The last part Pekis said worried Kelly more "Venus? Alone!?"

Bitsine also had her concerns about this strange arrangement. "Pekis this smells like a trap."

Pekis understood their concerns but he believed It might be worth the risk. "You might be right but I think I should go anyway."

Kelly's heart beated faster upon hearing his answer. "You can't go alone. We don't know what could be there."

Pekis heard the worry in her voice but resolved to go through with the arrangement. "I know but if their is a chance this stranger can help us I have to do it."

Kelly and Bitsine realized Pekis was determined on doing it. "Okay then. What now?" Bitsine asked then suddenly they all heard a loud roar coming from within the temple turning their attention to it.

After a few silent moments Pekis replied "We go down." Pekis pulled out his For The People auto rifle then began walking inside. Kelly followed him carrying her The Frenzy fusion rifle and bitsine with her The Variable machine gun. The way point that their ghost sent them lead them to the lower levels of the temple. After jumping down to the next floor the continued running through a hallway circling a hive seeder ship.

On their way down the guardians ran into several hive guarding the hall. Bitsine was able to mow down the approaching thrall and acolytes as Kelly and Pekis dealt with the wizard leading them with solar grenades. Continuing forward The fire team entered a large room filled with rocks, hive architecture, and another seeder ship in the middle. The guardians stopped to look at the ship that the hive seemed to be working on as Pekis' ghost spoke up "Another hive seeder. Just like the ones invading earth. I we don't stop the ritual there will be more of this hitting home."

Their focus on the ship was broken when several knights entering the room from their right began firing boomer rounds at them. The guardians scattered as the rounds approached, then began returning fire. The knights immediately took cover behind several large boulders as they returned fire. Pekis flanked around their side as he switched to his The Calling scout rifle and began picking them off with head shots. Once their was only one left the final knight began glowing red and charged Pekis in a blind rage leaving him vulnerable for Kelly and Bitsine to gun him down.

With the knights dead the fire team continued to follow their way point deeper into the fortress. After passing a through a few more hallways the guardians ran down the flight of stairs leading to the worlds grave. Upon entering a hive tomb ship appeared through a tear in reality. "Damn! The hive can do that in here." Bitsine shouted astounded that a hive ship appeared in close quarters.

"Apparently!" Pekis replied as the tomb ship dropped off several hive then retreated. The acolytes and knights took up defensive positions as the the guardians began firing at will. As the fighting continued the sound of gunfire had alerted the hive that were farther into the room causing a mob of thrall to begin charging towards the source. As Pekis was exchanging fire with a hive wizard he heard the screeching sounds of thrall coming closer. He peaked out from behind cover and saw the approaching horde of thrall. "Shit! Bitsine!" He yelled catching Bitsine's attention.

Bitsine had finished off a few acolytes when she heard Pekis shouting. Upon looking at him she saw Pekis pointing towards the large open doorway leading into the next room and the thrall running for their light. "Oh shit!" she said then began running towards the horde. Bitsine jumped on top on a small pillar, then jump again and activated her fists of havoc. She landed right on top on the lead thrall and sent a wave on arc energy forward decimating the rest of the thrall.

After the wizard had been dealt with the fire team continued towards their objective. Entering the next room and passing several pillars sticking out of the ground the guardians made their way up onto a platform Finally reaching the ritual site. As they walked down a flight of stairs leading into the room Kelly's ghost spoke "Here it is. The darkest of all the hive's chambers." the ghost finished as the doors at the bottom of the stairs began to open.

Once they entered the three were greeted by the site of three siphon witches surrounding a large black mass hovering in the middle of the room. The wizards took notice of their intrusion and turned their attention to them. The guardians split up to take one each as the wizards summoned several clouds of black smoke to hide behind. The smoke made the guardians unable to properly see the wizards so to push them out Kelly channeled her light to fire a nova bomb. As the bomb fired the wizards imminently exited to smoke to dodge the blast allowing the guardians deal with them unhindered.

The guardians fired upon the wizards while having to dodge streams of arc blasts from them. Pekis had his situation under control with continuous attack pushing the wizard back. Once its shields were down Pekis formed a solar knife in his hand. Pekis aim the knife at the wizard's chest as he threw it but at the last second the wizard tried to fly upwards to dodge it. Unfortunately it was not fast enough. While Pekis may have missed its chest, the knife did manage to impale its leg. The fire from the knife set fire to the robe the wizard was wearing and in a few seconds the wizard was engulfed in flames. Screeching in pain, The wizard flew around erratically before finally falling to the floor reduced to dust.

While Pekis was victorious Kelly had a problem on her end. Kelly's wizard had proven itself more mobile than its sisters as it continued to fly in circles around her. Kelly was unable to get a go shot on it as it continued to fire it arc blasts at her. Pekis saw the trouble she was, and formed a incendiary grenade in his hand. Pekis threw the grenade causing it to bounce of the platform in the center of the room and into the air. The wizard saw the grenade in the air and stopped before it got to close. Kelly saw her opportunity and fired a volley of void energy balls from her frenzy fusion rifle. Two of the balls hit the wizard causing it to move to dodge the rest but moving into the grenade's blast zone. The grenade exploded, destroy the wizard's shields, and pushing it into a nearby pillar. The impact left the wizard in a daze as Kelly jump into the air to strike it with a energy drain, killing it, and restoring her shields.

Bitsine was starting to get angry with her opponent. The wizard had summoned another cloud of smoke directly on Bitsine's position. She could feel that the smoke was eating threw her shields and armor while being shot. Bitsine tried to see through the darkness but was unable to see the wizard. After a few more moments the cloud started to disperse give Bitsine a few openings to see through. As soon a she saw the wizard she focus her anger and charged. Once she was out of the cloud she jump and tackled the wizard out of the air.

They both fell to the ground with Bitsine on top. With one hand Bitsine grabbed the wizard by the throat and with the other she repeatedly punched it in the face. After a few successful blows the wizard struck her with its claws, knocking her off. The wizard tried to crawl away to take off again but before it could Bitsine managed to grab it by its leg. She made a 180 degree spin and threw it against the wall. The wizard stood up only to receive a shoulder charge to the gut from Bitsine causing it to fall to the ground. Severely weakened the wizard raised its head to look at its destroyer but only managed to see Bitsine's foot before she crushed its head with a curb stomp, killing it.

Bitsine turned around and saw that Kelly and Pekis had watched to whole spectacle. "That was definitely something." Pekis said astounded.

Bitsine chuckled before responding "What can I say. Don't get me mad."

"I'll be sure to remember that." Kelly said glad that they were on the same side. With the area cleared the guardians turned their attention back to the large black mass. All three of their ghosts materialized and began scanning it. The guardians walked around the mass to get a better picture of what they were looking at.

Suddenly one of the large doors leading into the room started to open causing to the guardians to raise their guns once again. As the door began opening a loud roar erupted from behind it. Finally finished opening the door revealed a large ogre following a squad of acolytes ready to destroy anything in its way. Seeing the the threat Pekis holstered his rifle as he activated his blade dancer. With twin arc sword in hand he charge the opposition cutting through all the acolytes almost simultaneously.

As he approached the ogre it raised both its hands and slammed them into the ground to crush Pekis. Unfortunately the ogre was far too slow as Pekis ran underneath it cutting through both its legs. Unable to stand the ogre fell to its knees holding its torso up with it arms. Pekis jump high into the air landing on the ogre's back, impaling both his swords into its head. The ogre roared in pain as Pekis then sent thousands of volts of electricity through its body. After a minute the ogre's brain had been completely fried and its body begun to turn to dust.

Pekis dropped to the floor covered in ogre dust as he deactivated his power. He walk back to his teammates while padding off the dust from his armor. "Damn that was quite the light show." Bitsine said impressed.

"Thanks. Those ogres are all brawn and no brains." he replied coolly.

Suddenly a bright white light started coming from the mass. The guardians all turned back to it as the blackness around it started to disappear revealing the object it was covering. "What is that thing?" Kelly asked as the object started to light up the entire room.

Her ghost responded in awe of what they found. "Its a shard of the Traveler!" this response caused all three guardians to become awestruck.

Pekis ghost then spoke "They were using it connection to the Traveler to drain it of its light but now it's free." As the ghost finished the darkness surrounding the shard had completely vanished reveling the perfectly white shard.

A tear ran down Pekis' face as he whispered to himself "Beautiful." Finally the shard vanish from sight leaving the witnesses in awe.

"Back to the Traveler with you." Bitsine said with a happy tone in her voice.

The guardians turned back to each other to discuss what just happened. "Wow, that was just amazing." Kelly stated proud of their accomplishment.

"Indeed it was." Pekis replied.

"It sickness me to think that the hive were doing that." Bitsine said angry that the hive to using the shard like that.

Pekis agreed with her "Its got to make you wonder where the other shards might be and who might have them."

Kelly and Bitsine gave Pekis' words some serous thought. What if the hive had more shards use or if the fallen had some just to take them apart to see how they could give them power. "So now what?" Bitsine asked.

"I guess now we'll head back to the city to report-" Pekis managed to say before getting cut off by Kelly.

"No! We're not leaving until we get the world's grave database. We're to close to just pass it up." Kelly finished then started walking away. "Ghost send me the way-point."

As Kelly left, Pekis and Bitsine with their ghosts all looked at each other. "She may be a nerd but she can be stubborn." Pekis stated as he began to follow her.

Bitsine followed a few seconds later 'Damn right she can.' she thought.

Five hours later, Night TimeThe Last City, Tower Hanger

After successfully stopping the hive's ritual the fire team set out to find the database of the world's grave. Following several hive ambushes and a few mishaps they had managed to retrieve the database. The guardians soon after returned to their ships and made their way back to the city.

Soon after transmating into the courtyard Kelly rushed to the warlock libraries to upload the World's Grave information into the archives. Bitsine had left to see the cryptarchs to decode some engrams she found out in the field. Pekis had stripped his armor off and spent the last two hours cleaning it with a few cloths.

Pekis was currently sitting down on a large crate and wiping down his armor's chest piece, removing the black liquid that the hive kept inside their fortress. As he worked he failed to notice Bitsine approach him. "Hey there." she said.

"Ahh!" Pekis yelled dropping his armor piece to the floor obliviously startled.

"Oh shit. Sorry. didn't mean to sneak up on you." Bitsine said apologetically.

Pekis set his cloth and looked back at her. "It's okay. I'm good."

Bitsine noticed the pile of dirty cloths that were on the floor. "Wow. Two hours and your still cleaning?" Bitsine asked slightly surprised.

Pekis shrugged "Well when you have double the arms of other hunters there tends to be more work."

Bitsine chuckled a bit "I do think it was kind of funny when you slipped into that black shit."

Pekis was clearly not amused by her comment. "Yeah and I thought it was funny when that boomer shot made the ceiling collapse on top of you."

Bitsine realized that it might have been too soon for her to joke about it. "Sorry." she replied lowering her head.

"Its fine." Pekis stated. "I don't get why the hive have pools of that stuff around or how five foot thrall can climb out of it when it's only ankle deep."

Bitsine turned her attention to the armor pieces Pekis had laying around. "Did I ever tell you how elite your captains armor make you look."

Pekis turned his head to his armor then back to her "No. Thank you." Pekis got off the crate to stretch his legs "The warlock order better be grateful after what we went through."

"Definitely." Bitsine replied in understanding. She stepped back to get a better view of Pekis who was only wearing his skin suit. "Your muscles are quite toned."

Pekis blushed a bit at the comment "Combat and wearing heavy armor will do that to you. Provided you have an organic body."

Bitsine was about to replied when they both noticed Kelly approached. Before she could say anything she stop at the site of unarmored Pekis. 'Damn' she thought 'I wounder what he looks like under his-' Kelly stop her train of thought as she noticed both of them were waiting for her to say something. "I handed over the data to the archivists."

"So what did they have to say?" Bitsine questioned.

Kelly smiled as she responded "Well I pretty sure the three of us are heroes to them now."

"Really?" Pekis said surprised

"Of course. If there's one thing us warlocks love it's knowledge and the World's grave is an absolute treasure trove."

"Well that nice to hear." Bitsine stated. "I was afraid they were gonna be ungrateful."

"Of course not. To prove it wanted us to have these as a reward." as Kelly finished she transmated three reward packages out of her inventory. Pekis and Bitsine each took one then began opening them. Pekis was the first one to open his and inside he pulled out a large bag with several thousand glimmer. Pekis simply stared at the large quantity of currency he was holding until finally speaking "Thank you warlocks!"

Kelly and Bitsine were happy for him as they saw him claim his reward. The turn of events had caused them both to become excited at what theirs could hold. Bitsine was the second to open theirs. The contents reveled themselves to be 30 strange coins. Bitsine was confused as to what they were as she grabbed some of them in her hand. As she gripped them she could feel them vibrate gently.

"What the hell are these?" Bitsine asked a bit angry believing she might have been ripped off.

Kelly noticed her anger at her prize. "Let me see?" she asked holding out her hand. Bitsine responded by giving her one of the coins. Kelly brought the coin up to her face, turning it around in her hand. "I heard of these. They are suppose to be a special form of currency that are only accepted by a specific vendor."

This was the first time Bitsine and Pekis had heard of them. "So what vendor am I suppose take these to?" she asked calming down but still slightly confused.

Kelly handed the coin back to her "I don't know. I heard he only visits the tower every few weeks and stays only for a few days."

After hearing Kelly explanation Bitsine decided to hang onto the coins encase she found said vendor. With the matter resolved the three all turned their attention to Kelly who had the final package. After a few moments she finally opened it. Reaching inside she grabbed what she could feel was a grip. Pulling it out reveled a red, grey, and tan color auto rifle. As Kelly and her friends looked over the weapon she ran her finger along a word on the side of the barrel while reading it out loud "SUROS."

The name Kelly said caused a bell to ring in Bitsine head. "SUROS? Wait I've heard of this gun. Its full name is SUROS Regime."

Bitsine's words made Pekis and Kelly turn their attention to her. "SUROS Regime?" Pekis questioned.

"Yes. It's an extremely rare and powerful form of auto rifle. They are very hard to make and therefor few exist." Bitsine finished her words intriguing her friends.

As the two processed the information a question rose in Pekis' mind. "So are their other weapons like it."

"Their are plenty of other different weapons like it and each of them is has a unique design and properties. But their all so rare that a lot of people consider them to be quote." Bitsine then raised her hands in the air and extended two fingers on each one in order to make air quotes as she finished "Exotic."

As Bitsine finished Kelly looked back at her new gun and a thought occurred to her. "So technically I have an exotic weapon now." Kelly said causing her to receive a nod of agreement from Bitsine. With the rewards claimed the guardians decided to head to the tower barracks to get some sleep after the long day they all had.