Note from Colette/DarkMousySan: Hey guys thanks so much for keeping up with the fanfic! I'm going to be doing little short stories on DA for Ocena and Avi and random pointless little things and maybe… give a look at what happened to Seth and his patrol team…. ugh not looking forward to doing that. Also I have live now! If you see me don't be shy and wave ^-^ I haven't got an Xbox mic sorry won't be able to talk. My Xbox: SesshomruInu500 Do keep reading we're enjoying writing this! Also… been having trouble sleeping so I may not be working on the fanfic a lot, my writing tends to suffer when tired or sick.

Note from Eltyr: Also, you guys have the patience of saints for putting up with us not updating regularly. I have no excuse to offer. The good news is that we already have a head start on the next chapter, which will tie up a certain loose end on Earth. We're also going to have a "fun" or non-mission chapter as well before we get to the moon arc properly, which we hope you will all enjoy. Check out Colette's short pieces on DA if you're interested: she did a good job describing what happened to Seth in my humble opinion. Lastly, I'm sure you're all aware of what happens in Destiny in a few days. If anyone on the Xbox One would like the chance to team up with Victor Thane or Atom, send a friend request and message to Eltyr13 saying that you are an O.T.V.A reader. Without further ado I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I will see you in the Dreadnaught Guardians.

Ch14

"Seth I know it's been a while- okay two weeks, but no one said getting a new Ghost was easy! This hardly happens just give it more time!" Ocena said; the Hunter didn't reply keeping his head on the table. She sighed and rubbed his arm. "It'll be okay, you'll get a new Ghost. Now come on and go to the Speaker; if you come back without a Ghost again we'll go down into the City and you can look at that building you're so oddly fond of."

"Okay…" Ocena followed him as he got up and left but didn't follow him all the way to the Speaker. She knew this was hard for him.

*"He'll be alright."* Luden said hovering at her shoulder.

"I know… just I can't imagine what he is feeling… his Ghost gone and getting a new one? Can such a bond really be made again?"

*"The Speaker thinks so… but it won't be the same as the first time. A Ghost is like a Guardian's best friend and most trusted."*

"...I get what you're saying… I hope he'll be okay."

*"Victor sent a message just now: the others are gathering in the Cosmodrome for a mission. Wanted to know if we'd like to tag along."*

Ocena nodded; it would do her some good to get her mind off of Seth for a little while. "Okay, call up the ship and tell them we'll meet them in orbit."

...A few minutes later, in orbit...

*"There's reports a team of Guardians went dark near the old Skywatch."*

"Dark?" Ocena asked. "You mean-"

*"I don't think they got luck- I don't think they are as Seth was."*

Ocena frowned at that but allowed Luden to finish.

*"They were running a mission for Dead Orbit, had codes to a hidden array that could reconnect us to other colonies in the system. If we can find their Ghosts, maybe we can open that array."*

They soon landed, waiting on moving until Luden was done.

*"The Ghosts were last heard from near the Skywatch. Let's head there and see if we can find them."*

"You got it Luden. Since we got Sparrows shall we put them to use?" Ocena asked already ready to summon it.

"Beats getting there the old fashioned way," Victor said cheerfully as the others summoned their Sparrows.

The Sparrows truly did get them around faster… Ocena didn't mess around with it too much… not too much. Though she did a have a few more crashes when she didn't pay attention to her speed.

"Do you guys tend to wonder a lot about how everything used to look?" Ocena asked. She felt like she asked that often but… she always wondered how it all once looked. "I mean just look around the Skywatch, it had to have been impressive back in the day."

"All Guardians do that," Atom said with a smile. "It's the kinda thing you can't help but do. You see a rusted building that's fallin' apart and you think, I wonder what this thing looked like when it was brand new?"

"There's a small group of Warlocks and Hunters back in the Tower who call themselves the 'Artists of Days Gone by,'" Victor said. "They go on long patrols out here and take detailed scans of the environments with their Ghosts. Then when they get back to the Tower they pool their scans together and try to create detailed pictures of what everything must have looked like during the Golden Age. Their artwork is very popular among the civilians down in the City."

"Oh wow, that's really cool!" Ocena exclaimed.

"We could visit them sometime if you like," Thane suggested. "I'm sure they'd love to hear how much you appreciate their work."

"That'd be great!" Before they could get any further Luden spoke up.

*"We're heading back through the Hive breeding ground. The Vanguard say they're spilling onto the surface now, keeping the Fallen busy."*

Ocena frowned. She didn't like the Hive. They gave her a bad feeling. Going up the stairs to the first room they fought the Hive… nothing was there. The group wasn't full of fools though they didn't relax their guard.

"Guess we scared em' off," Atom joked to lighten the mood, though he double-checked his rocket launcher as he said this.

*"Must be where the wizard was- oh sorry Ocena."*

She had flinched at the mention of the wizard. She had no plans of ever getting close to one again. "I'll be fine. If another one is there I'll just shoot it."

Atom chuckled. "Good thing the minions of the Darkness all share a common aversion to bullets and ordinance." That got a smile out of Ocena.

It turned out the Fallen were there fighting with the Hive. They decided to let the two duke it out for a minute before shooting them down once they'd worn each other out. There didn't seem to be a Wizard waiting for them, and for that Ocena was glad.

A nice big group of Fallen with a captain was waiting for them near an exit. Ocena decided to try out her Nova bomb. She forgot she had it most times which wasn't good; she needed to get used to using it.

"Ah what come on!" Ocena hissed seeing one Vandal had managed to survive her super; a quick blast from her hand took care of it. "Why the Vandal and not the captain?- Luden hush!" The Ghost was currently laughing a little. It was a little funny. She turned to her friends. "No comments from the peanut gallery!"

Victor held his hands up in surrender. "What can I say? There's just no accounting for sheer dumb luck, and even the Fallen get lucky sometimes."

"That's lucky?" Atom asked skeptically as Thane skillfully removed another Vandal's head with a well-placed shot with Thorn. "Think I'd rather be Nova bombed: cleaner way to go."

Victor stared at Atom incredulously. "That was a joke right? You'd rather take a Nova bomb than be on the receiving end of an energy drain melee? You realize that Void walkers can channel their energy in a way that makes victims of said melee explode, right?"

"I'm just sayin'," Atom muttered with a shrug. "I've been in the Crucible plenty of times. Energy drains hurt."

Thane coughed. "Perhaps we could re-focus on the task at hand?"

"Seriously," Ocena agreed with a nod, although she did find the argument a bit funny. Victor and Atom both muttered a quick apology and focused on the enemies. They eventually emerged in a very open area where Hive and Fallen were constantly spilling out from caves.

*"The Ghosts... They are in a clearing between buildings not far from here."*

"Okay we're getting closer at least."

Once outside Luden spoke again. *"The Ghosts are still here! The Fallen have them."

"They what? Oh no, they do not get to steal Ghosts!" Just because Ocena hadn't been a Guardian for long didn't mean she didn't care about the Ghosts and Traveler. She had heard most new Guardians just fought the Darkness and cared less or were too confused to do anything. She was pretty sure it was thanks to Luden and her friends that she was how she was.

Ocena found a Ghost shortly after they put down a few Vandals. "Is it…"

*"It's dead."* Luden confirmed sadly. *"Keep hunting."*

Darn it, she thought angrily as Victor applied his Light to the Ghost and made it vanish. The fire team redoubled their efforts, cutting down the Fallen without mercy. Ocena knocked down another Fallen and picked up another Ghost.

*"This one still holds the codes. Let's find the Array!"*

Ocena was a little sad the Ghosts were dead but sadly there wasn't much she could do.

"At least we got the codes right?" She said softly following Luden's directions.

"This way we can at least complete their mission for them," Thane said quietly as he re-loaded.

Ocena nodded slowly… then froze. "Uh, guys?" She pointed at a large, jagged… actually, she didn't have a word for whatever it was, but it was huge and black, and glowed green from within. "What the heck is that?" Whatever it was, it looked kind of like a giant spiked mace had been thrown at the Earth and had half-buried itself in the ground.

Thane swore softly. "A Hive Seeder. I think we've found the source of the Hive here in the Cosmodrome."

"You mean the Hive came from this thing?" Ocena asked.

"I'm afraid so," Victor said, staring at the Seeder through the scope of his pulse rifle. "Think of Seeders as giant ships that are only good for a single flight. They house thousands of Hive soldiers and at least a dozen Wizards who can raise more Hive. They are used by the Hive to send their soldiers to other planets for an invasion, as they don't quite have spaceships."

"Then what about their Tombships?" Atom asked. "Those things are pretty ship-like if you ask me, and they can hold a decent amount of Hive."

"Well, the working theory is that Tombships can only travel to places where the Hive have a certain amount of their forces already there. You might have noticed that Tombships emerge and leave through some sort of portal, right?"

"Yeah," Atom nodded. "What about it?"

"Well other than those brief appearances you never really see a Tombship flying, so we think that the Tombships have very limited flight capability, which is why they travel through portals."

"So… what?" Ocena asked. "They can only open portals in places where they have a lot of soldiers?"

"That's the theory," Victor nodded. "Unfortunately so much of the Hive's technology relies on this sorcerous-like process that we really have little to no idea how it works."

"Well as fascinating as all of this is," Atom said, "we really oughta call this in. The Vanguard will want to know we've found a Seeder here on Earth that we didn't know was here."

"Agreed," Thane said, holding out his hand for Prayer to materialize. For a few minutes the Guardians kept out of sight while Thane attempted to contact the Tower. Eventually Thane shook his head as Prayer vanished. "No good. Prayer keeps getting interference. Either the Fallen or the Hive are jamming comms, or something else in the area is putting a strain on the local data network."

"Either way, we're not gettin' a message out until it clears up," Atom said. "C'mon, let's see if we can't reach that Array." The way to said Array was surrounded by fighting Fallen and Hive.

"Yeah, just make yourselves at home, we don't mind you destroying everything." Ocena said sarcastically as they took out their enemies. She was really getting the hang of fighting large groups of enemies, especially since her friends were with her to even the odds.

Inside the building Luden and the other Ghosts cast light for them to see. *"The Darkness is growing stronger. We have to finish this. The Array Control Station is in the next sector."*

"Okay let's, not have those poor Ghosts have died in vain." Ocena said as they ran up a set of stairs, they ran right into a darkness zone. Ocena hated these… she wondered how Seth would feel in one- no, she didn't want to think about it right now.

Fallen were around every corner, but they were better than the Hive honestly, easier to handle on some levels. Another set of buildings… more things for Ocena to wonder about. She wondered if there was disks or videos… recordings of what once was. She really needed to find the Artists of Days Gone by once they got back to the Tower.

*"Approaching the Control Station. This is it!"*

"Only Fallen?" Ocena asked as they came within sight of an open courtyard occupied by a handful of Dregs and Vandals led by a single Captain. "Okay guys not complaining but doesn't this seem… a little too easy right now? The Fallen are a cakewalk for us."

"I'll take cakewalks," Atom muttered as everyone picked a target and got ready to make their presence known. "Not exactly like this war has been a bed of roses. But yeah, these mooks look a little short-handed, especially if a fire team bit it out here."

"Think it could be a trap?" Thane asked, briefly moving his finger off of Thorn's trigger to look over at the Titan.

Atom shook his head. "Nah, not even the Devils are fond of throwing away troops as bait. Even though we found em' red-handed with the Ghosts, I've got a feeling in my proverbial gut that they're not the ones who offed the last fire team." He paused and took note of the Fallen again. "Besides, goin' off of the blues and golds their wearin', it looks like we're dealing with the House of Kings."

"The Hive then?" Ocena suggested. "Only I don't see any around here, and if they were here the Fallen would be fighting with them, right?"

"True," Victor nodded. "But then, the Hive have never been known for skulking about in plain sight. Even on the moon they mainly stick to their temples and catacombs beneath the surface." He sighted up on a Vandal that looked to be holding a shock rifle. "Either way, we're not going to get any answers just standing here."

Ocena nodded and, after checking that everyone was ready, started the fight off by tossing a scatter grenade into the midst of the Fallen. A Dreg shrieked in alarm moments before Ocena's grenade went off, giving the Captain enough of a warning to teleport out of the way in time, leaving the nearby Vandals to take the brunt of the explosions as the Guardians opened fire, methodically cutting down the rest of the scavengers. The Fallen took cover behind various crates and generators while some of them attempted to fire down upon the Guardians from atop a series of railings, but several quick shots from Thane's sniper rifle quickly persuaded them to adopt a new strategy. As the Fallen began to dwindle, the Captain came to the mistaken conclusion that Ocena would be the easiest to deal with and promptly teleported closer to her, its shrapnel cannon spraying bursts of superheated slag.

Ocena had been on the receiving end of this tactic an annoying number of times though, and instantly brought out her fusion rifle. The weapon's arc rounds quickly tore through the Captain's shields, causing it to revise its ill-considered bravery and retreat while firing to cover its escape. It nearly backed right into Atom, who promptly tore it down with a near point-blank blast from his shotgun. At last the fight brought the Guardians into what looked like a monitoring station of some sort, housing a few Fallen that were easily put down.

"That's a wrap…" Atom began as the last Dreg fell, only to curse as the Guardians caught several blips on their motion trackers.

"Gah! Whoa!" Ocena back paddled as several stealth Vandals dropped from the rafters and attempted to skewer the Guardians. Victor quickly hurled a fusion bolt grenade into the center of the room, the bolts striking each of the cloaked Fallen and leaving them with lingering flames that revealed their positions. Now able to see them more clearly the fire team quickly put some distance between themselves and the Vandals and cleared them out.

"Okay," Atom said slowly and carefully. "I think that's a wrap." He kept his auto rifle trained on the ceiling just in case he was proven wrong again.

"So… this big wide open space?" Ocena said while gesturing at the area outside that they had just come from. "Yeah this doesn't scream big fight at all…"

*"...We could get lucky."* Luden said as he hovered over her hand.

"Us lucky? That'll be the day. Well go on over," Ocena said with a nod at a series of active consoles.

Luden drifted off and got to work. *"Let's see if these codes still work... Ok, negotiating cryptosystems. Shor-resistant security lattice verified... It's working!"*

There was an odd sound outside. "Uh… anyone else hear that and get a bad feeling?"

*"Outside! The Array! It's opening!"*

As one the Guardians rushed over to the entrance. In the distance an enormous metal construct was rising out of a nearby facility. The structure was absolutely massive, and Ocena had a feeling that she hadn't seen the full scale of its size just yet. The moment of awe and triumph suddenly turned sour when both Ocena and Victor flinched and a sense of menace covered the area.

"Something's coming!" Victor warned, right as a trio of smoky green portals appeared in the air between the Guardians and the array. Ocena was guessing it was the Hive based on the feeling she was getting.

*"Hive Tombships!"* Luden cried out. *"Cutting through!"*

"I'm not one to curse but shit!" Ocena cried making sure all her guns had plenty of ammo, her Nova bomb ready for use and grenade ready. "How should we go about this guys?"

"Pull back into the control room and stack up on either side of the entrance," Atom commanded, instantly going into field commander mode. "Vic, you and Ocena play mid-field; dart out and take pot shots while tossin' grenades to keep em' on their toes, but back off if they turn the heat up on ya'. Thane, hang back in here and shoot anyone who looks important. I'll take point and put the screws on em'. Anyone got anything to add?" He asked as the Guardians stood with their backs pressed to the inside of the entranceway and watched Hive soldiers beginning to disembark from the ships.

"Just one," Victor said as he stepped out of cover, fire beginning to wrap around his figure. A moment later the flames roared with fury, forming a flaming cloak with wings around Victor as he formed his first grenade in his free hand. "For the Traveler!"

"For the Traveler!" The Guardians echoed, and battle was joined. For several long moments all of Ocena's focus and awareness narrowed to a fine point, her concentration reserved solely on taking down the first wave of Thralls that rushed her way. Atom and Victor were keeping the majority of them at bay with their auto rifles and Radiance enhanced grenades respectively, and thanks to Victor's Light Beyond Nemesis he was producing orbs of Light like no tomorrow. Remembering that her own super was charged, Ocena noted a fresh platoon of Acolytes taking position on their right flank. She leapt as high as she could and used glide to hover in place and line up her Nova bomb, taking a few hits in the process that were quickly avenged by her comrades.

"Please don't miss!" She hissed as she conjured her Nova bomb and let it fly. She grinned in triumph a second later as the Acolytes were consumed by a great flash of void light, and was even more gratified to see that the vortex ability Victor had tutored her on was now damaging the hordes of Thralls as they attempted to advance. Ocena quickly fell back to the control room to reload, taking a moment to absorb the orbs that Victor had dropped as she did so, gawking at the fact that her Nova bomb was already close to fully charged again. Her elation was interrupted as she heard the sound of more Tombships warping in, firing slow moving violet orbs as they slowed down and prepared to disgorge more Hive.

"Fall back inside for a sec!" Atom called out as he and Victor retreated into the control room, Victor's Radiance having worn off some time ago. Ocena risked a glance back outside as she reloaded: they must have killed dozens of Hive in the last minute, yet more were dropping in and they had several Knights with them! A sudden shriek caused Ocena to curse softly as a Wizard came into view as well.

"Damn," Thane swore softly. "Several of those Knights bear marks of the hallowed; elite Hive soldiers. They're determined to stop us."

"And they weren't before?" Atom quipped as he reloaded.

"Most of those Knights are carrying Boomers," Victor observed. "I hate those things: they lob rounds of explosive arc energy that explode like grenades on impact. That'll make it tricky to get to a good firing angle."

"Leave that to me," Atom said. "Get ready to move on my mark. We're setting up right in front of the entrance. Step inside my ward if you take too much fire, and then pop back out and target those Knights."

"I have my Golden Gun ready," Thane said as he patted a shabby looking hand cannon hidden by his cloak. "I can use my shots either to thin out the Thralls or to take out that Wizard."

"My Nova bomb's almost ready too," Ocena spoke up. "Just need a little more time."

Atom nodded. "Okay, Ocena will use the orbs from my ward to charge up and take care of the Thralls and Acolytes. Thane, you handle the Wizard. Vic, as soon as you've got your Radiance back go nuts and cause as much damage as you can. Everyone ready?"

Ocena's heart was pounding, but she found herself a little bit excited by all of this. Sure it was scary, but with the way her friends fought together like this, she was confident that they could beat anything. She nodded, and Atom squared his shoulders, focused void light building up on his armor.

"3...2...1… GO!" Atom shouted. Everyone sprinted out of the control room with Atom in the lead. Soon he came to a halt and thrust his arms out to the side, the Ward of Dawn blooming into existence and providing the Guardians with some shelter from the relentless bombardment of the Hive Knights and Acolytes. Victor and Ocena both threw their grenades to get the Knights to back off a little before focusing on the advancing Thralls, while Thane drew his Golden Gun and channeled his Light into it. At the same time, Ocena felt her Nova bomb reach full charge thanks to Atom's super, and she quickly darted out of the ward and lobbed her Nova bomb at the biggest group of Hive within range. The explosion shook the air and caused the Wizard to hiss at her angrily, but before it could smite the young Warlock with arc blasts a single solar charged shot smashed right through its shield and burned a hole through its chest. Thane's next shot caught an exalted Knight before it could conjure a shield and caused it to explode, scattering flames that scorched any Hive standing near it, while his final shot took out a group of Thralls that were standing too close together.

Ocena cheered in triumph seeing that the plan had worked; now they only had a few more Knights and some lesser Hive to mop up, and thanks to her and Thane Victor was already activating Radiance again.

Ocena knew that only a few minutes had gone by since the fight started, but it had felt like hours to her as the last Thrall fell and the Tombships stopped warping in. 'This… this is what Guardians can do when they work together,'She thought to herself as everyone reloaded and swapped praises while keeping an eye out for more Hive or Fallen. A frown settled upon her expression as she wondered, 'but then… why are we losing?'Her train of thought was interrupted as Luden called to them.

*"I think we're clear! You need to see this!"*

Returning to the Ghost, the group observed that there were now screens online showing Mars, Venus and the moon.

*"This Array is controlled by the last Warmind - Rasputin. It's connecting to defense constructs all across the system. There could be something out there to help us survive the Darkness."*

Atom hummed thoughtfully. "Sounds like we let him out."

"Let him out?" Ocena asked. "What do you mean?"

"We think that the bunker that holds Rasputin's main processing core is hidden somewhere here on Earth," Victor explained. "During the Golden Age there was a whole series of arrays like the one we just opened that served as communication points between Earth and the colonies on all the other planets in the solar system. They went offline during the collapse, and that network became isolated. Rasputin could still move around any systems and networks still functioning on Earth, but without any active arrays he couldn't reach any systems on the other planets."

The senior Guardians all went still and silent for a moment as if something had just dawned on them. Just as Ocena was about to ask 'What?' Thane gave her an answer.

"That would mean… that Rasputin now has access to war-satellites, surveillance drones, any remaining defensive systems and platforms on Earth and beyond it."

"And since the Warminds are meant to protect humanity," Atom continued excitedly, "that means Rasputin might start to wage war with the Darkness again! With him back in the fight, we might finally be able to leave Earth for more than just Crucible sorties!"

"One thing at a time," Victor cautioned sagely. "We need to report what's happened here to the Vanguard and the Speaker. They'll be the ones to decide whether or not we can leave Earth and start fighting to reclaim the rest of our colonies."

"Well… I think that went as well as it could have eh guys?" Ocena said rubbing her arms feeling a little chilly. "Shall we head home? I want to check on Seth, he's been really down about… about not being able to get a new ghost." On the inside though, she was trying to hide how excited she felt. If Rasputin really was on their side like the others said he was, and he now had access to surveillance and defensive systems across the solar system, then things were about to get a lot more interesting...