I piloted the jumpship through the clear skies, my attention wandering to other things. I hadn't really had a chance to think through the happenings of the last few weeks since my resurrection, or the implications of my new life. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a spiritual issue. I'd never been a religious individual. Since the Traveller arrived on Mars 500 years ago, and made contact with the international team of astronauts sent to investigate it's appearance, religion had become mainly sidelined in everyday life. People still believed in God: they just were fewer in number, and mainly forgotten about in favour of the new cults that had sprung up worshipping the Traveller. I wasn't thinking about 'my immortal soul' or any of that crap. It was more along the lines of the reason for my resurrection, and the unusually large amount of recollections I had of my past life. I could remember far more than I should, and in almost perfect clarity. Hell, I could remember things that I'd forgotten about years before my death. However, I found my memory was fuzzy in places.

I had talked to a few Guardians while at the tower. Many didn't recall a single thing about their past lives. A few had vague memories, and even fewer could recall even 50% of their past lives. But I could remember a lot. I remembered my Dad, going off to war when I was five. I remember him coming back on leave when I was seven, two years later. I remember the video calls he made, detailing how the peacekeeping operations in whatever place he was in were making him miss his family. I remember Christmas, albeit more faintly. I remember my dad telling me he'd be back, as the men from Clovis Bray came to take him away. But the thing is that all my memories either were from my final months before my first death, or ones involving my Dad. I began wondering whether it was pure coincidence…or if the Traveller had reunited me and my father deliberately.

"Ace…you seem troubled. What's up?"

Ghost hovered over my shoulder, his lights burning a light green instead of their normal blue. I nudged him and he drifted away before flying back, his lights switching to a dull yellow.

"Don't do that," the small machine admonished. "It's embarrassing."

"You can get embarrassed?" I asked, attempting to divert the previous question. "So you have human emotions?"

"Sort of," replied the machine. "More like I have some impressions of them that were imprinted when I bonded with you. I can also tell when you're diverting my questions, so just tell me what's wrong."

"Ghost…I just don't know what to do. I mean, I've been resurrected by a mystical alien intelligence to fight alien invaders, I've been dead for hundreds of years, and I'm probably not even entirely human anymore. I've got a Exo that has the mind of my dead father as my boss, I've been given a mission to save the last of the human race, and all this has happened in the space of a few weeks. Honestly? I'm pretty sure that I should be feeling more overwhelmed than I already am, but I can't seem to find the time to do so. So, you tell me what's wrong. Go on."

Ghost spun a little, and then answered. "Ace, you're having a metaphysical crisis."

"Oh, thanks Dr. Freud."

"No, it's perfectly normal for someone in your position. You've been awakened more than 500 years after you died, you're now a defender of humanity, and you've got no idea what you've been forced into. I've heard about plenty of cases of this while I was looking for you. You wouldn't believe what some other Ghosts have experienced in their travels..."

"Ghost, focus."

"Sorry. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that you're feeling exactly how someone in your situation would feel like. I wouldn't exactly know, being a floating eyeball, but anyway…"

Ghost paused, then clicked a bit.

"Ace…have you ever considered visiting your home?"

I started at that comment, accidentally switching the jumpship's airbrakes online. I was thrown forward in my seat, and the craft went into a steep dive. I rapidly deactivated the control surfaces, switched them back on in their normal positions, and throttled up the engines. At the same time, I pulled back on the joystick, and pulled the nose of the craft upwards until I levelled out. Hastily setting the autopilot coordinates to the Tower, and activating the navigational computer, I turned to admonish Ghost.

"Ghost, seriously. Stop. This is the second bloody time I've nearly crashed because of a statement from you that caused me to lose focus. No one likes backseat driving, and no one likes being thrown fastballs when piloting a bloody spacecraft…."

Ghost waited until I was done ranting, and then spoke. "…you sure it isn't that you're just not a very good pilot?"

He quickly disappeared back into his dimensional pocket as a pair of fuzzy Ghosts were chucked at him half-heartedly. I sat for a while thinking.

…Does my home even still exist?

I thought back to the days before my stationing at the Cosmodrome. It was soon after my graduation from uni. I had just enrolled in the military and completed basic training. I was enjoying some leave while waiting for my orders to be issued. Things were going great. The civil war raging in the African Sahara was quieting down, with the newly formed provisionary government beginning to restore civil order for the first time in nearly a century of conflict. The fiftieth anniversary of the colonisation of Venus was in full swing across the solar system. A generation ship designed for extrasolar flight was just passing Jupiter, ready for a gravity-assisted burn manoeuvre that would put it on a trajectory out of the solar system. The Traveller had voiced doubts about the flight, even going as far as to warn off the government about the venture.

If only they had listened…

I remembered that the first warnings that the alien fleet was entering the solar system was when the generation ship that had been humanity's first attempt at leaving the sphere of influence belonging to our sun was confirmed destroyed. Then, the fleet of warships sent to investigate were lost. Then contact was lost with Europa Station. Then we lost the asteroid belt stations, and the fleets hastily scrambled to defend them. Then Mars went dark, followed by Midway Station, and then the lunar colonies. Finally, they struck Earth. It happened too fast for significant preparations to be made. The attack that claimed all the other colonies beyond Earth happened within days of the initial contact. Mars took the longest to fall, but there wasn't enough time after that to prepare more than a rudimentary defence. The warmind Rasputin wasn't responding to input, locked into a diagnostic cycle that froze up all of the orbital defences. On the ground, I didn't know what was going on. The military commanders in charge of the Cosmodrome had ordered us to full alert, but they hadn't disseminated any of the information about the threat. For all I know, they were just as confused as us. Then, the troops landed. This is where my memory becomes fuzzy. I remember dark shapes, billowing smoke, burning flames. I remember the crackle of energy weapons and the chatter of automatic rifles. I remember the Cosmodrome alarm blaring out futilely as we lost sector after sector to the threat. I don't know whether it was Hive, Fallen or god knows what else, but they hit us hard, and they definitely killed me. I remember nothing of my death, other than the fact that it was painful, but thankfully quick.

…I never considered trying to find my old house after my death. Hell, I haven't thought much about what happened back then till now. It has only been around a week and a half since I woke up, and I had barely combed through my memories about that day. The jumpship banked suddenly, and shook as the craft passed right into a storm front.

"Shit!"

Ghost appeared beside me. "Something wrong?"

I nursed my shoulder, which had hit the casing of the starboard control panel rather hard. My shields were aimed towards stopping life-threatening injuries. Hitting a shoulder on a control panel was not one of them.

"I'm fine Ghost. Just a little turbulence."

The jumpship dropped out of the clouds into the middle of a torrential rainstorm. Up ahead, the lights of the last city came into view, shining out of the darkness like a beacon. My jumpship's radio came to life, crackling slightly with interference.

"Guardian Ace, this is Tower Control. Once your jumpship has landed, report to the Vanguard immediately to deliver your report. Be advised that automatic guidance for landing is currently down due to damage from the storm to the antenna array."

"Rodger that Tower Control," I replied, flipping off the autopilot and grasping the controls once again. "Please inform the Vanguard that I will be with them shortly."

I turned to Ghost. "Let's hope we get down safely. This storm doesn't look like it's going to make it any easier to land, especially not manually."

Ghost sighed. "Revival on standby. Try not to wreck the jumpship. We don't exactly have a spare…"

I patted Ghost on the head, and turned back to the controls. The wind was blowing fiercely, but thankfully it was moving to my tail for the moment. Unfortunately, this was increasing my velocity a bit too much. I eased off on the thrusters, lining up with the hangar bay entrance. Pulling back on the yoke, I thrusted downwards, watching my trim as I did. After a bit of struggling with alternating wind speeds and directions, I managed to bring my craft to a stop yes inside the hangar. As the landing crews hurried to get my craft stowed away so that other craft could land, I jumped from the cockpit, and hurried to get to the control room. This would be a interesting meeting….

"…and thus, this matter requires immediate attention," I finished, having given my report to the vanguard. Ghost was hovering over my shoulder, displaying the data we had collected on the map table. Zavala leant over the map, looking troubled.

"So you definitely encountered a new variety of Hive?"

I nodded. "We decided to dub them 'Wizards', due to their abilities. They are quite strong, and appear to hold a position of rank among the Hive. The Wizard we encountered was in charge of a large number of minor Hive creatures."

"…I see. As for the fragment of the Traveller?"

I shook my head. "We detected a large number of targets inbetween the entrance to the tunnels and the Fragment. Assaulting enemy territory on our own would be suicide, especially considering that we were almost out of ammo, and only equipped for scouting operations. We would like to request a strike team be assembled to head after the Fragment."

Zavala turned to the other two Vanguard. "Cayde? Ikora?"

Cayde shrugged. "I hate to say it, but we Hunters aren't exactly the best equipped for assaulting fortified enemy locales. We may be short on resources, but if the Kid says that it's urgent, I'm going to say that it's urgent."

Ikora looked dubious. "We don't know for sure that the Traveller itself would be affected by the alteration or destruction of the fragment. I think we should…"

"…If you are saying that you should not devote all that is possible to this venture, then you are a fool Ikora!"

The room fell silent, all eyes turning to the door. Eris Morn stood in the doorway, staring down at the Vanguard. She walked forward into the room, and loomed over the four of us, her glowing rock clutched in one hand.

"The Hive are servants of the Darkness who have been granted much power by it. They are ancient, and they are thirsty to consume the light of the Traveller. If we do not stop them from corrupting what you erroneously call a 'Fragment', then we shall all die. Nothing is more important in this moment than the halting of these events. You may defend this city all you want. But the Darkness will still come one day, and we are not prepared for it now. If we do not act, the Traveller will fall, and we will be facing our greatest enemy long before it is due at our doorstep. Be a fool all you want, but do not blame me when you are squeezing out your last, haggard breath as the Hive burn this city to ash."

Eris spat on the ground, and stalked out of the room. There was silence, and the room remained still. Then, Cayde spoke up.

"Well, I think we know what we're doin' now. Kid, get ready. You're going to the moon, and we're sending you some help. Let's save the world, and look awesome while doing it."

Author's note: Well, that was chapter 11. Sorry everyone for taking so long to update. I've been busy, and I haven't had much time to write. I'm going to be going silent for a bit longer, so hold on till chapter 12. Let's hope the Assault on the Moon goes well!