Ambrose dodged through the triangular doorway, his cloak smoking from the energy blasts of the Axis Vex. They poured after him, robots moving with mechanical precision, firing their weapons in wave after wave. The Hunter had felled many of them, but his shotgun was out of ammo and there was no time to reload. Instead, he fled deeper into the Corridors of Time, his footsteps echoing into eternity.

"Shouldn't we be close to finding Saint-14?" he panted to his Ghost. "If that corpse back there was him, then we have problems."

"That was a dead Hunter," Peach replied. "Saint-14 is a Titan. Also, my scans don't work in this place. My Light pulse just goes out into infinity and never comes back."

"I can't fight the Vex here," Ambrose said through his teeth, running toward the next doorway. "This is their ground. I could fight for a thousand years and never defeat them."

"Then let's find a better vantagepoint," Peach said. "We might be able to-oh."

There was no courtyard through the next door. Instead, they emerged into the blazing sunlight of Mercury's daytime. The shock of seeing color again was almost as welcome as the heat. For a confused moment, as Ambrose's boots crunched in dry grass, he wondered if they had emerged on the correct planet at all.

Then a bullet zinged past his head, and Ambrose dove for cover behind the nearest stone pillar. Pillar? Yes, some kind of Vex construct, with walls rising fifteen feet high, built of yellow stone, roofless. He glanced at the sky and was shocked to see clouds floating against a pale blue firmament. "Peach, where are we?"

"Mercury, I think," she replied. "We seem to have journeyed back in time to before Mercury's terraforming was completely destroyed. This looks like Mercury during the Dark Ages."

Another bullet tore a large chip out of the stone.

Ambrose ducked. "Who is shooting?"

"That would be a Fallen wire rifle. There's rather a large number of Fallen on the other side of these ruins. I think there's-Wait. I'm picking up a transmission on an old emergency band."

A new voice crackled through Ambrose's helmet radio. "...repeat, this is Saint-14. Zephyr Station is lost. The Fallen have destroyed everything."

Ambrose leaped to his feet in sudden hope. "Saint-14! I'm a Guardian and I'm coming to help you!"

"Who is this?" Saint exclaimed. "No, no, save yourself! I'll hold them off as long as I can."

Ambrose pelted through the ruins, stuffing shotgun shells into Perfect Paradox as he ran. "It worked, Peach! I can't believe it worked! Osiris was right!"

"I think it's that shotgun," Peach said. "It affected the timeline as we were traveling. I could feel those corridors opening ahead of us. It's like it was trying to get back to-" She broke off in an incoherent cry.

They had rounded a corner and blundered into what had once been a human camp. Tarps had been stretched across the tops of the ruins to create sunshades, and water collectors were still spread out along the perimeter of the walls. Inside were generators, computers, electrical wires and equipment, obviously a communications hub. But it was filled with bodies.

Human bodies were sprawled everywhere, blood splattering the walls and equipment. Many still had spears or daggers sticking out of their torsos. Some of the corpses had been mangled as if the Fallen had been eating them. Ambrose stood speechless for three horrified seconds. Then he ran onward. "Saint, are any survivors with you?"

"Negative," came the Exo's Russian-tinged voice. "The Fallen tracked us from the Cosmodrome. We came to Mercury to start a new life. Instead, we found nothing but death."

"Peach, scan for survivors," Ambrose said, peering down other passages among the ruins that had been converted to living quarters.

Saint-14's voice rose on a note of grief. "There are no survivors, Guardian! None! I have failed."

Peach said in an undertone, "I'm not detecting any life signs, Ambrose."

He halted beside a wall where a bloody handprint had smeared along its length. Ferocious, helpless rage grew inside him. The Fallen had butchered this poor settlement, and for what? To try to impress the Traveler?

Ambrose turned a corner and left the ruins behind. He had emerged high on a hillside. Below, in a little valley, stood a single Titan beneath the violet bubble of a Ward of Dawn. He was surrounded by Fallen, shanks, Servitors, and a walker, all raining fiery death down on that shield. As Ambrose looked, Saint-14 collapsed, supporting the shield with one hand, but holding his side with the other. He couldn't hold out much longer. By the looks of Zephyr Station, maybe he didn't want to.

Ambrose drew on Void Light to wrap himself in shadows. He seemed to disappear from sight.

"Peach," he muttered, "let's defend Saint-14."