Chapter 11: The World's Grave

There are two layers to the Moon, the surface and the tunnels. The surface has lots of Golden Age ruins with warehouses full of supplies that were once launched to other colonies on the Fusion Coil Accelerator. There are enough supplies remaining to keep the Fallen House of Exiles going, despite the threat of the Hive. Down in the tunnels, though, it's a different story…

Whisper's Guide for Guardians

The jumpship transmatted Whisper and Blabber down to Luna's dusty surface once again. Somewhere down in the tunnels clawed out by the Hive beneath the surface was a library guarded by an ancient Hive knight that held the Hive's knowledge of Earth.

The moon itself was unchanged. The surface was marked with broken ruins from the Golden Age being picked over by the Fallen House of Exile, while unknown hordes of Hive lurked beneath their feet.

Her communications systems crackled to life and Cayde-6 came on the line. "Look, kid, I want to make something clear here. I know this feels like we're throwing you out alone on an all-important mission without any support. Because we are. But, there are lots of all-important missions. They happen all the time. What I'm saying is, what you're doing is important, but not sacrifice-yourself-for-the-cause important. If it gets too nasty down there, it's much better for all of us if you break off and let us know what you run into then you disappearing down there. Besides, you still owe me one for that armor."

"Thank you, Cayde. That… helps." And, to her surprise, it did. This was the only way to learn what was really going on, but she did feel thrown out into the deep end to sink or swim on her own. It was nice to know they were thinking about her, but also disconcerting to know that this was pretty much how all guardians operated, with little to no coordination or support.

"Well, good luck. And don't break my guns!"

The signal died, and once again she and Blabber were alone on the moon, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of Hive and Fallen. This wasn't going to be like last time, where speed was more important than stealth. This time, she was going to go deeper, and it was vital she remain undetected, which ruled out the sparrow. And so she set out on foot, creeping through the broken remnants of what mankind had lost, hiding from overflights of Fallen skiffs.

She did her best to follow Shir-4's instructions. The techniques were surprisingly effective, but very, very slow. She stumbled on the remains of a patrol of House of Exile dregs that had run afoul of wandering Hive thralls. That gave her an idea, and she programmed her boots to reconfigure to leave Fallen footprints. And slowly, carefully, she made her way towards the spot the Dead Orbit fireteam had found that led towards the entrance of the library, the ominously named Hellmouth, to follow the dead guardian's trail.

Once more she wound her way down into a shattered crater, carefully scrambling over jagged edges. And there at the bottom was another strange gateway glinting with ominous light. This, too, bore Crota's symbol, but there was no gate here, just shadow.

I'm not picking anything up yet. It looks… empty.

"For now," whispered the exo grimly. This was looking more and more like a bad idea. She should probably turn around. Someone else could do this. Only… there were answers down there. Not just to what the Hive were planning right now, but potentially for so many questions. What were the Hive? Where did they come from? What did they want?

She took a deep, steadying breath, and sent a silent word of thanks to Cayde. He was right about the rebreather. Only one way to find out. She took her first step into the dark. Then a second. And a third.

The tunnel wound downwards, twisting and turning, while the walls switched haphazardly from strange moon dust to strange stone architecture and back again. As the light of the stars disappeared behind her, the way was illuminated by yellow lanterns that were half merged into the floor and razer-edged, glowing crystals. Small crevices jutted off from the tunnel at odd angles in every direction, offering hints of the scope of the network. It would be very easy to get lost down here, especially if she had to run and fight at the same time. She felt a small part of her mechanical mind carefully recording every step of progress she took.

For the first time since Whisper had risen, Blabber spoke in an appropriately subdued whisper. The Hive really tore into the moon. Filled it with all sorts of chambers and catacombs.

A few minutes later the tunnel opened into a large chamber with carefully sculpted columns. The glowing crystals had been harvested and placed into wall sconces like ancient torches. Whisper shrank back into the shadows as she saw Hive acolytes lazily patrolling below.

It's a whole necropolis down here!

Unfortunately, Blabber was right. The tunnel had given way to a completed structure with tiled floors wrapped around a black pit. Small doorways led off in every direction, while the main passage spun off to the right and into a large circular area like an underground courtyard. A humongous chunk of glowing orange crystal and been painstakingly chipped piece by piece into an orange, lethal-looking chandelier.

This wasn't the work of creatures capable only of mindless killing. There was more structure here, more organization, than she had suspected. All of which was a very, very bad sign for Earth and the Last City. The Hive were an entire civilization.

Whisper waited silently, trying to get a feel for this strange, ominous place, watching and learning. She waited for a long time.

The first thing she noticed was the remains of a firefight where the Dead Orbit fireteam had moved through. Crushed tile where grenades of light had erupted, bullet holes marring the pillars. Yet it seemed to be fading away, as if the walls themselves were alive and healing from its flesh wounds. Not a good sign.

Curiously, these Hive were different from the Hive she had encountered on earth. In the Cosmodrome, the Hive were brown with tinges of sickly-looking green to them, but these were something else. These were reddish-orange, with large spikes driven through their arms and bodies. Were their different Hive… peoples? Broods? Swarms? Could they be turned against each other?

Whatever they called themselves, these Hive were extremely, even obsessively violent. Thralls ripped and tore into each other. Acolytes blasted each other. Knights battled each other with massive black swords. Slowly, more details became clearer. They fought constantly, relentlessly, but not randomly. The fighting took place in specific spots that must be marked in some way, though she couldn't see how. Outside of those combat rings there was very little violence, and instead a strict hierarchical structure was enforced. Thralls were herded about by acolytes, while acolytes followed the guttural orders of knights.

What was less clear was what they were doing. Some of it was obvious—acolytes carrying armloads of their handheld weapons from place to place. She managed to steal one and examine it. The weapon, dubbed a Shredder by the City, was an energy cannon that filed rapidly in small bursts. Like all the Hive technology she had seen so far, it seemed at least partly organic, like a bone, and part black magic. It had no firing mechanism, or even ammunition, that she could tell, yet it someone worked for the Hive. But other parts… A wizard drifted into a dark corner, worryingly close to Whisper's hiding spot, and quietly squeaked out noises. Was it trying to sing? Was that a sign of culture?

An unusually big knight appeared of the brown-and-green variety, stomping into the big chamber beneath the chandelier. The wizard quickly floated away, and the largest local knight confronted the visitor. They seemed to communicate though she was too far to hear, even if she could have understood them somehow, then it left. Yes, there were definitely different swarms of Hive, and they communicated after a fashion. For a single knight to come speak, and have such a reaction from these Hive, there must be a hierarchy between swarms, as well.

She was really starting to push her luck, now. She could feel the dark, oppressive atmosphere pushing down on her, and she couldn't hope to remain here undetected forever. It was time to move. There was a rhythm to the Hive patrols, and she set off shortly after one, keeping to the shadows of the pillars and using the Fallen stealth drive to cross open ground. Beyond the courtyard was another large area with strange doorways branching off, with a narrow bridge over a chasm. What is with these bottomless pits? She was just about to cross the bridge when the air ripped apart with a screech of reality being ripped and a tombship warped into the underground space.

She stumbled back into the dark while the black ship, shaped like a three-dimensional letter T with an angled gash hacked out of the bottom on each side, glowed with green lights and swiveled large void cannons looking for targets. A squad of acolytes leapt from the bottom of the ship to the ground. With another shriek, the stone ship slid through a crackling green portal and away.

Whisper stood stock-still, shocked at the casual display of precision, high-risk maneuvering. The acolytes marched away, leaving the way clear, and she moved forward again, creeping past hovering black shells she hoped couldn't see her.

Beyond the chamber was another tunnel of hard-packed dust, lit by half-buried Hive lanterns. Are we going back to the surface? I thought the library was down? Still, this was the path according to Blabbermouth. Then the tunnel opened up once again, and her question was answered. Outside was an ornate battlement three stories down from the lunar surface, ringing an incredibly huge hole, as if some mammoth worm had burrowed straight down into the moon.

Far above something moved in the black, and Whisper picked up a brief signal. "—er, are you there? This is Shiro-4, here for rescue and recovery, can you hear me? I say again, this is Shiro-4 flying SAR, Whisper, are you there?"

She wasn't the only one to hear the signal, and before she could reply a dozen tombships boiled out of the depths, void cannons firing at the little jumpship above, and the blip of light in the sky leaped into motion, up and away.

Well, if she had a distraction, she might as well make use of it. She pressed forward onto the battlements hanging over the gaping maw that was the Hellmouth, and towards a barred gatehouse. There was an obvious entrance, facing the Hellmouth, while iron bars blacked the way from her side. Within the gatehouse knelt an imposing knight, clad in thick bone armor. This must be the knight with the key, whispered Blabbermouth.

She nodded mutely, considering her options. She hadn't been spotted yet, but fi she tried to take him down with a sniper rifle, every Hive in a kilometer radius would know she was there. Her other weapons weren't quite as loud, but would still carry. That left her knife, but she wasn't certain even its razer edge would be enough to penetrate that thick armor, and the thought of being within reaching distance of those arms was not appealing.

The shotgun, maybe? For its part, the knight was armed with a projectile weapon nearly as big as one of their swords. "Blabber," she whispered, "have you seen that weapon before?" Yes, replied the ghost at its lowest volume setting, that's a Boomer. Supposedly, it is grown around a shard of a dead celestial body.

Whisper looked at Blabber, nonplussed. Oh, right. How should I put it. Blabber affected a mock-military voice, though the effect was mostly lost speaking so quietly. The Boomer is a man-portable siege weapon, firing explosive arc projectiles. While only semi-capable of indirect fire due to low parabolic—

"Got it, enough." That sounded nasty, but not very wieldy. Close range would be most effective, assuming she managed to avoid getting hit with it and disintegrated. The shotgun, then.

She switched out weapons and, thanks to her narrow frame, squeezed between the iron bars to get behind the knight, who faced the open doorway. Whisper crept as close as she dared, unbreathing, then leveled the weapon at the knight's head and pulled the trigger.

The SG-Scattercast thundered as it spewed pellets into the knight, sending a spray of shattered bone chitin flying and pitching the monster Hive forward, but it staggered to its feet with a howl of rage and spun with surprising dexterity to face her, only to catch another spray of pellets to eh face. The roar cut off as its jaw ripped away, but it still grimly gripped its weapon, and the Boomer thundered, sending a blinding tear of arc energy her way.

Whisper dove to the side as the arc-bolt exploded behind her, grateful that the knight's aim was off, and pumped two, three, four more shots into the knight, who staggered backwards and finally collapsed. Once she was sure it was down, Whisper put her back to the wall and started loading more shells into her weapon. "Blabber, see if you can find the key in that mess."

Blabber appeared, rotated once in distaste, then got to work. It didn't take long. I've got it! It's made of bone and was inside his chest. Strange. The only way to get it was to kill him.

"I guess you were only allowed inside if you were strong enough to kill the knight. That's one way to enforce security clearance, though I doubt they asked his opinion."

It also has instructions carved into it. This should lead us right to the Grave. The World's Grave. Not ours. Come on, I know where to go!

Whisper grabbed him before he could charge out into the open and held the ghost close. Oh, right. The ghost transmatted himself safely inside her and she shook her head and set off.

The sounds of combat had drawn a few eyes, and acolytes were coming to investigate. She activated the stealth drive and slipped away along the battlements towards another doorway as the tombships started returning. She hoped Shiro had gotten away. The doorway Blabber had marked in her HUD was locked with glowing green chains, just like outside the Temple of Crota. She transmatted the key into her hand, looking for a keyhole, but the locks reacted to the presence of the key itself and clanged to the floor. Every Hive eye turned to stare at the door just as the stealth drive died. As one they lurched into motion, sprinting in her direction, and she darted inside. Blabber transmatted the key away and the door resealed itself as the muted thuds of weapons and fists hitting the door echoed in the sudden quiet.

The door was holding, but she needed to move. The tunnel swept downward, once again switching from hardpacked lunar dust to the stone tile the Hive seemed to favor. Even moving as carefully as she could, her footsteps still echoed in the deafening silence. Down and down it wound, until at last she heard something up ahead and froze. It was hard to tell, but… there, again! The soft scrape of bone on stone.

Whisper eased forward and cautiously peeked around the next bend. The tunnel ended in the most brightly lit room she'd seen in this horrible place, illuminated by regular clusters of white crystal in wall sconces. The room was large but felt small thanks to the massive machine that dominated the chamber. The core was a golden cylinder, but it connected to innumerable gold-colored systems in the walls around it, leaving only narrow walkways between them. Strangely, this stupendous computer system looked nothing like any other Hive tech she'd seen. It was purely metallic with none of the organic-looking crystals or growths she was starting to get used to. Was this something Earth-based they had coopted? Or did the Hive bring this with them from wherever they'd come from?

In the meantime, a number of acolytes had been sealed into this library and were doing maintenance of some sort on the machine under the direction of a trio of knights. Three knights—wonderful. At least they were more normal-sized than the one in the gatehouse. Well, this was what she'd come for. She readied her shotgun, activate the stealth drive, and moved in.

Her first shot took a knight in the chest, and her second finished it off. She fell back into the narrow walkways and kept moving. An acolyte fell to her fire, then another. She rounded another bend and unloaded on the second knight. She ducked nearly flat to the ground beneath his sword stroke, and another shot took it down. She climbed back to her feet and—

She stumbled forward as warning indicators exploded behind her eyes. Her head dropped and she saw a midnight-black, jagged edge of bone protruding from her chest.

The cleaver withdrew and she dropped to her knees, shotgun slipped from nerveless, twitching fingers. The third knight stepped around her and brought its foot down on the shotgun, smashing it to bits. With a snarl, it raised its sword and brought it down.

She stood, Khvostov held firmly in metal hands, looking out over miles of vehicles packed bumper to bumper. Desperate people abandoned them in droves, climbing out and running in a mad scramble past her, shedding prized possessions like so much dead weight as they ran. Somewhere far behind and above her, Exodus Blue test-fired its stupendous engines in violation of every safety protocol there was while passengers frantically boarded. They needed more time. And it was her job to get them that time. The crowd started to scream, and she raised her rifle. They were coming.

Whisper reappeared in the library with a hole in her armor and empty hands. The Hive knight charged at her once again, swinging at Blabber as the ghost hurriedly vanished from sight. Whisper danced away and grabbed the hand cannon at her thigh. The weapon thundered, punching gaps through the knight's armor and blowing a hole in its head. With a programmed muscle-memory twist she cleared the cylinders, inserted a quick-loader, and snapped it closed. Now, for the rest of the acolytes.

By the time she'd emptied the cylinders once more, there were no more Hive standing in the library.

After triple-checking that the coast was clear, Blabber emerged from hiding and examined the shotgun. I can fix this, but it will take a while. It transmatted up all the pieces it could find, then turned to the computer network. This isn't at all what I expected. His beam of light reached out to san the system. There is so much. They've broken the Bekenstein limit. They've turned this into a tiny black hole to hold more information than even matter can fit. The ghost fell silent, and Whisper turned to watch the door nervously while her companion worked. There was only one way out, and word of her presence must have spread. Nothing mean enough to have a key had arrived yet, which was something, but being surrounded by Hive all shooting into a narrow entrance was a recipe for disaster.

Okay… I got… as much… as I can hold… Blabber retreated to her slowly, his memory nearly at capacity. "Let's go, before more Hive can gather."

She moved quickly back to the door and transmatted the key. The door opened and a hurricane of fire stormed in, wiping away her shields like they weren't there and crashing into her with enough force to launch her backwards. She hit the ground and shattered.

Whisper opened her eyes in a pillar of light as Blabber brought her back and repaired the gaping holes in her armor. It wasn't as good as new, but it was close enough for now. The good news was that she had slid backwards far enough that the door closed and locked again. As for the bad news… This was very bad. Pinned under overlapping fields of overwhelming suppressing fire with no other exits and no support. There was no way she could shoot her way out of this. I told you Shiro! I told you they have ranged weapons! I'm not good at fighting, I can't do this! She stared at the wall blankly, trying not to panic, as the darkness of this place rushed in to crush her doubts home.

Blabber sensed her distress and floated out in front of her. Whisper, listen to me, he spoke earnestly. I don't know anything about your past, what your limits once were, but I do know this. You are a guardian. You've asked me what that means, and I haven't been able to explain it very well, but I think I know how to now in a way you can understand. Guardians are more than soldiers that keep coming back for more. You are champions of the light. It's not a gimmick, not a support, not secondary. The light is your primary weapon, the core of who you are and how you protect the City. So, gather your light, and let's do this. Eyes up, guardian.

The light…even in this dark place she could feel it, touch it. And in touching it the darkness and despair retreated a step, and she could breathe again. Blabber… Blabber was right. Guns weren't going to get her out of this, but maybe the light could. She closed her eyes and reached out to the distant crackling waves of arc energy. Seconds past, slipping into minutes as she struggled, bouncing off it, feeling it slip through her fingers as she gripped too tightly.

It clicked, and she was riding the wave.

Whisper burst into action, charging forward with knife drawn while arc energy crackled off her metal skin. Once more the door opened, but this time she stepped into the storm, blinking forward and past the destruction and impaling an acolyte on her knifepoint while she threw a grenade at a clump of knights. She blinked again as they redirected their weapons at her and wiped away another half-dozen acolytes from friendly fire. A knight swung its massive cleaver at her and she slid beneath it and stabbed it in the back while arc energy ripped the monster apart. She blinked past a wave of darkness thrown by a wizard, then turned to face another squad of acolytes with a grin—and she lost the wave.

The arc energy vanished.

Run!

She ran, leaping over obstacles and careening off startled Hive. The chase was on. She raced upwards, past the crystal chandelier, grateful her mechanical legs charged uphill without tiring while void energy flashed past her and sizzled on her shields. Up and up she climbed, now with a howling pack of thrall in tow, before finally bursting out of the tunnel onto the lunar surface. She whirled and threw an arc grenade into the opening and whipped out The Swarm. Hive charged for the surface, those behind pushing so hard the front-runners were shoved into the grenade, swallowing its fury so those behind could pursue.

She grasped the heavy machine gun, which normally required a crew of three humans to manage, in her bare hands and held down the trigger, unleashing hundreds of fiery rounds into the horde. Thrall disintegrated, acolytes were torn apart, and knights were cut down under the furious barrage, as it was the Hive's turn to be bottled up. When the drum mag finally clicked empty the entryway was littered with the wreckage of Hive monsters, but the way was clear… for now. Enraged screams of wizards echoed up from deeper underground, and Whisper transmatted her Nomad into existence and threw the throttle wide open on the sparrow, racing away from the nightmare place as fast as her mechanical wings could take her.

A/N: The first few pages didn't really fit with the rest of the chapter, so I decided to break it off into its own short chapter and post two instead. I hope you like it. And I got to hint at something I've wondered about – was the Hellmouth carved out by Xol before it moved on to Mars? What do you think?