"The last time that the Hive attacked us on earth, two young guardians did an incredible job of holding them off. One of them fought a knight and won. Matt, a hunter barely a year resurrected, fought a knight, and the only reason he's not standing up here right now is that tripmine grenades pack more bang than you think when it goes off in your hand." Wei didn't bother for large gatherings, but her planned assault on Luna had just been approved, and she felt like she needed to get the word out personally, "That's just the tip of the iceberg, however," She smiled, truly happy about something for the first time in too long, "Luna has been approved by the Consensus."

The crowd roared as Wei walked down off the impromptu podium. Eris walked up to her, "You sure about this?"

She nodded, "Yeah. You?"

Eris shrugged, "Sure enough. Toland pulled though, gave me some stuff on Hive hierarchy. Could be a problem, I'll tell you later."

Wei nodded, walking away from the crowd. She needed some time to finalise plans before the attack.

-X-

Matt swore, his wrist throbbing again. He snarled, partially in pain, partially in anger, squinting at the target. No hit, again. He looked at his hand, the scars along his wrist not quite healed over. He bent down, picking up his handcannon again.

Nova floated in front of his face, "You don't have to be at a hundred percent, there's no point pushing it, the bone is still weak. Don't break it again."

Matt placed the handcannon on the table to his right, the magazine next to it. He moved over to the next station, a rack of knives arrayed next to the shooting station. His arm blurred forwards, knives spinning though the air. They sunk into the furthest targets, all of them buried up to the hilt within centimetres of each other. He grunted, turning to the table with his armour on. It had been repaired, all of the blast and impact damage fixed.

He sat down at the table, a wrist brace lying next to his right arm. He picked it up, turning it over in his hand, head cocked to one side. He grabbed his right gauntlet, prizing off the armour covering the wrist area with his knife. He stretched the brace around the wrist area, forcing the armoured part over the brace, "Will this be safe for transmat?"

Nova scanned the modified armour, "Not at the moment, but I can make it work."

Matt leaned back in the chair, "Good, "he smiled thinly, "'cause I can't do any better with this." He held up his right hand.

It was the only part of his body that hadn't finished healing. When he had woken up, he had decided, much to Nova's relief, to never set off a Tripmine whilst still holding it. He understood now why they warned against it, the bones in his right hand had be thoughly pulverised in the explosion.

"Right. Should be good for Transmat now." Matt held out his arm, feeling the weight of the armour return.

"Not bad." He stood up, turning and aiming in one motion.

Crack.

The target swung backwards, paint chipped on its forehead area.

He aimed to his left, the sound of the handcannnon firing reverberating around the large firing range. Matt paused for a second, the sound dying out. He smiled, shouldering his sniper rifle.

The low boom rang out, filling the hall with noise. The target jolted, tipping to one side, the bullet having ripped though one of the retaining chains. Matt smiled, quickly moving though the rest of the shooting range, his shot improving to the point where he was putting shot though the holes in the links of the chains.

He spun around, knife flying out of his hand. It sailed though the air, thudding into the target just outside the bullseye. He smiled, arm still outstretched, "Not bad, not bad."

Nova laughed, "Not bad? You haven't ever done better. I'd say that's pretty good."

His smile grew, "Yeah. But if I say it's good, then I won't want to do better next time." He turned, walking out of the shooting range, his weapons being transmatted away as he left. He replaced his helmet, just as Nova muttered, "Incoming."

Aria shot around the corner, virtually running into him, "How are you?" she smiled, clearly pleased to see him, "I just came from the infirmary, they said that you had walked out early." Her eyes lit up, literally, "The vanguard have announced that there is a plan to take back Luna. I didn't know what they meant, so I did some research. Apparently, the Moon was lost during the late Collapse, to "The Hive", which are the things that attacked us during that match against Carina and Akiva."

Matt smiled, "I'll try to not blow my hand up then."

Aria cocked her head to one side, "How is it?"

"Fine, mostly. My shots still good, but I had to put a brace inside the armour to help. When's the Luna mission slated for?"

"About a week. Wei wants all the guardians that want to go see her in 4 days to finalise the plan."

"You sound like you've made a decision." Nova chuckled, "Unfortunately, I think I can guess what Matt will say on the topic."

Aria laughed as Matt smiled again, "Yeah. I'll see you there."

-X-

Akiva sat back in the chair, "So you think we should attack that anomaly directly?"

Eris shrugged, "It appears to be where the readings are coming from. Why not? It's close to Mare Imbrium, which wouldn't be too hard to lock down."

Wei nodded, "That seems reasonable." She tapped a few buttons on the projector, a holographic map of the area came up, "So you are suggesting that we attack here." The anomaly showed up on the map as an empty circle, which turned red.

Eris nodded, "Yes. We could use Mare Imbrium as a staging point, it's massive and there is little cover, so locking it down would be easy."

Akiva stood up, walking over to the map, "It makes sense, but I don't see why we should lock down Imbrium, just to leave it. We've got about 3.8 million kilometres to work with, just set up near the anomaly and fight the hive on our ground. There's no point attacking them, from a fortified position, and if recent encounters are lending any conclusive evidence, they will attack us just because we are there."

Wei nodded again, "Again, reasonable." She smiled, "Damnit, I'm torn between the two plans. Can you two give me some time to think it over, talk to Serena about it."

Akiva nodded, "Yeah, that's fine. Just, ya know, tell us before we talk off."

They all laughed, "I'll try. No promises though."

Akiva turned, holding the door open for the two of them, "That's all us lowly grunts ask. Anyway, I need to go talk to my sister about something." He left the door close, "See you tomorrow then" before running off towards the tower plaza.

-X-

Matt sat back in his chair, holding the weapon up to the spotlight, "Not bad, not bad at all." Banshee-44 took the weapon out of his hand, examining it briefly, "I mean, it would work, but I wouldn't shoot it." He pulled the slide off the top, exposing the internals of the weapon, "Look." He pointed to the firing pin, "If that is held forwards, then the gun would jam, if it gets stuck halfway, it could set off the next round before it's chambered." He placed the gun on the table again, "I've heard that that hurts a bunch, holding an explosion."

Matt chuckled, "Yeah, I can attest to that."

Banshee smiled, "Not bad for today. I'll see you after Luna, I guess. Good luck up there."

"Thanks," Matt smiled, "I'll try to avoid tinkering with guns until I get back." He walked out, straight into Aleeza, who had the biggest grin on her face, "You made it!" she yelled, hugging him.

"Uh, what?" Matt staggered backwards, bemused by her behaviour. Akiva stepped around the corner, Carina laughing uncontrollably behind him, "One year. Both you and Aria." Aleeza laughed at Matt shocked face, the three of them watching as his expression morphed from one of surprise to understanding, a smile growing on his face, "Shit, really?" He laughed, looking over at Nova, who was hovering just above his head, "Is it?"

Nova dipped her shell in a ghost version of a nod, "Yeah, it is." She turned her optic towards Carina, who had calmed down, "I presume you have something similar planned for Aria?"

Carina nodded, stifling more laughter, "Yeah, come on." She beckoned them, running off towards the hanger.

-X-

They bundled into the training room, Amanda turning, her face turning from anger to understanding as she saw who had burst in.

"She'll be out in about 10 minutes." They nodded their acknowledgement, parting to let Amanda walk out. She paused next to Akiva, "You know that data you sent me?"

Akiva nodded, "Yeah, what of it?"

Amanda grinned, "You don't have any more, do you? I had a look, but it's incomplete. I got some co-ordinates out of it, but nothing else, it's all gargon."

Lex popped into existence, "Sorry, we gave you all we got." Akiva smiled apologetically.

"Ah well," Amanda shrugged, "Just go find it after you get back from Luna."

"Will do. Sorry we couldn't get more out of the system." Akiva sighed, "We'll dig deeper next time."

Amanda laughed, "Just don't fall down any rabbit holes, OK." She addressed the group as a whole, "Good luck up there."

"Thanks." They said in rough chorus.

They all turned to the pod, which unsealed with a hiss of pneumatics. Aria stepped out, Jenny vanishing as she left the pod.

"You made it!" Carina leapt forwards, crashing into her fellow Titan.

"Wha.. What?" Aria stuttered slightly, staggering backwards under the impact from the other Exo.

Matt decided to step forwards, Aleeza and Akiva having lost it laughing at Aria's lack of comprehension, "We've both made our first year as Guardians." He grinned, watching her eyes light up slowly.

"Shit, really?" She still sounded slightly shocked.

Matt laughed, "Yeah, really."

"What's so funny?" Jenny asked, peering into Aleeza face.

"Oh," Aleeza managed to splutter through her laughter, "Nothing really."

"Matt? You have any ideas?" Jenny looked over to him, the hunter still smiling.

"Yeah. I had exactly the same reaction." He turned to the Wahl twins, "So, I'm guessing you have something planned."

Akiva nodded, containing his laughter, "You know that bar we met you in?"

Matt nodded, "Not again, really? Even after last time?"

Aleeza nodded, "Especially after last time. Anyway, humanist groups have been on the decline, so we'll be fine."

Matt nodded, looking uncertain about that logic, "Right. Nova, didn't we have a plan for discreet armour?"

Nova materialised, "Yep. Oh, it's a good one." She expanded her shell, Matt armour glowing blue, before being replaced with a basic chestplate over his undersuit. A shirt and jeans appeared over the armour, within seconds he had gone from Guardian of the last city to another civilian on a tower visit. He held out his arms, turning in a slow circle.

Aleeza clapped, "OK, wow." She sounded genuinely impressed, "That, that was impressive." She sidled up to Nova, stage whispering, "How long did it take to get that right?"

Nova twirled her shell, "Not long. About 3 days, I spent most of it working on reducing the transmit energy so that I didn't burn anything in transmat."

Matt nodded, "When you can't move properly because everything hurts from hitting a wall, you've got plenty of time to stare at power output screens." He leaned in close to Aleeza's ear, stage whispering, "Although it's boring as hell."

Nova jerked backwards, mocking horror, "What? You said it was fine."

Matt leaned against a wall, "Maybe I did, but I was stuck there, so at the time it was probably great fun." He said, laughing. He punched the button for the ground floor of the tower, "I'll see you all down there."

-X-

Matt leaned back, laughing at some bad joke Akiva had just told. He scanned the other patrons, his eyes flickering across the many booths and tables. Aria looked over at him, seeing his eyes flick constantly from left to right, "You know you don't have to be suspicious of everyone, right?" she smiled, "We didn't come out for you to be on edge the whole time."

Matt sighed, "I know." He laughed, "You know, I don't even notice when I do it, it just sort of happens. Hunter training, I guess."

Aria smiled, "Yeah, I guess." She paused, glancing over at Aleeza, who was telling a story about how she found her brother on Mars. Matt interjected before she could, "Sorry, I zoned out for a bit then, what?"

Aleeza looked at both of them, "You haven't heard, have you?" She laughed, "Dumb question, you won't have, nobody will have told you. Me and Akiva are brother and sister, despite our obvious differences. We worked out that we died within months of each other, too. He died protecting civilians fleeing the Collapse, I died in a crash." She smiled gently, "It's not the happiest starts to a story, but trust me when I say I've heard worse." She paused again, taking a drink.

"So Akiva here lost a previous fireteam, I won't tell that story, ask him if you want to. Because of this, he often visited Mars, many time for years on end. I bumped into him there. He was being attacked by several centurions, and I saw this and decided to help."

She pulled a small holoprojector out of her pocket, placing it on the table. A 2D image appeared on the wall, it showed a red desert, sand billowing up in the wake from a Sparrow. The guardian was instantly recognisable as Aleeza, her distinctive armour hunched over the Sparrow. A spattering of fire kicked up sand in front of her, as a transcript flickered into view under the video.

G-09742[Akiva Wahl]: Any nearby Guardians, I could do with a hand.

G-09827[Aleeza Wahl]: I see you, on my way.

G-09742: Oh thank the traveller. I'm pinned down by 5 Centurions, Lex, send co-ordinates."

A data stream flickered on in the bottom right of the video feed, co-ordinates and a route to get to them half a second later.

Gh-09827[Lena]: Got him. Just north of our current position.

G-09827: 09742, you got a name? Numbers are a bit hard to yell in combat.

G-09742: Akiva. You?

G-09827: Aleeza.

She soared over the ridge, kicking off her sparrow, a nova bomb already forming in her hand. The ball of Void energy grew, swelling to the size of a football, then an old car tyre. She twisted in the air, hurling the orb of rolling energy towards the towering creatures. Two of them turned their attention to her, miniguns spewing hot lead towards her. She landed hard, dropping to the ground to hide herself behind a small hill. The Nova impacted, purple light bathing everything in a deep violet glow. One of the Centurions collapsed, a gap where its torso should have been.

A second later, a blue bolt split the sky as Akiva leapt upwards, before falling down onto two centurions still focused on Aleeza.

G-09742: Got the... Agh

G-09827: Akiva!

She stood up, void energy pouring from her hands. The centurions, aimed, bullets chewing up the ground where she was standing. She vanished, reappearing next to one of the centurions. She grabbed its arm, pulling herself up onto its back, her hands digging into its armour. Her hand came away from its arm, Void energy eating away at the place where her hand had been. The centurion reeled backwards, as Aleeza poured energy into its head. A spurt of oil shot out of the top of its helmet, igniting in the stream of energy. She leapt off its shoulders, the body falling backwards as she vanished, landing next to Akiva. The final centurion roared, its minigun roaring with it as bullets peppered the ground around Aleeza and Akiva tracing a line towards them.

Aleeza held up a hand, a stream of void energy folding back on itself, fanning out into a rough hemisphere. The bullets slashed though it, dissolving into nothingness as they did. Akiva staggered to his feet, void energy building up across his chest. The energy rippled outwards, coalescing into a perfect hemisphere around both of them. He fell onto one knee.

Aleeza turned, crouching down next to him.

G-09827: You OK?

G-09742: Just about, that still takes it out of me a bit. I just need a minute.

He looked up at the warlock, watching her nod, dropping her pulse rifle. A ball of Void energy formed in her hand, which grew rapidly to the size of a large beach ball. She slammed her hand down onto it, compressing it to the size of a ping-pong ball.

G-09827: Got any requests for where I shove this?

G-09742: In its face.

G-09827: laughter Got it. One Nova, coming up.

She vanished, reappearing in the air above the creature. It stopped firing, swinging its minigun upwards. She opened her hand, the Nova falling onto the creatures upturned face. It detonated, the energy washing over Aleeza, who landed next to the body as it was burned away.

The feed cut out.

"So after that, we returned to the tower, I had done what I needed to do on Mars and Akiva wanted to talk."

Matt fazed out, his attention grabbed instantly by a large group of people walking into the bar. He lent forwards, eyes snapping between the individuals in the group. He tapped Carina on the foot, "Do you recognise any of them?"

She turned around briefly, laughing slightly. "One second." She paused, her eyes dimming slightly, "Yeah. One match. One of the group you beat up last time you were here."

Matt leaned forwards, resting his chin on his thumbs, his fingers laced together.

"You're watching them, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Don't trust 'em."

Aria laughed, Aleeza had finished telling her story.

Matt continued to watch them, as they approached the bar.

"Drinks. Uh, 20 beers." One of them yelled.

The barkeep walked out from behind the bar, "Get out."

"Whaddya mean, get out? We're customers, we wanna drink or 2."

The barkeep stood his ground, "Last time you were here, I had to put up with FOTC crawling over this place for weeks. Also, we don't serve the openly racist here." He lowered his tone, pulling a handgun out of his pocket, "Last chance."

The leader backed away, "Hey, hey, we don't want no trouble. We'll go, won't we lads."

The group jeered, shouting about how bad the bar was as they walked out.

The barkeep turned to the rest of the patrons, "Sorry about that folks. Don't want to have anyone disturb your evenings." He smiled, easing behind the bar.

Matt leaned back, relaxing his shoulders.

-X-

They landed, the Hive set upon them as soon as their boots touched the ground. He drew his handcannon, firing into the mass of thrall that assaulted them all. The creatures screamed as they fell, more of them scrambling over the growing piles of corpses.

The acolytes poured out of the Seeders, bolts of purple light whizzing past his shoulder. Akiva grunted, a Ward bursting forwards. Shots slammed into it, purple energy dissipating into the shield.

A electric blue bolt slammed into the shield, the hard light surface pulsating this the energy. 5 knights swarmed out, Thrall and Acolytes swept out of the way or just crushed underfoot. They roared, more knights stomping out of the Seeders.

They fired, the shots all landing on the same point on the Ward. It glowed, changing colour from purple to white, before shattering, blasting all of them backwards.

Matt sat up, groaning as the Knights charged. He stood, a Golden Gun forming in his hand.

Three bolts of yellow-gold light smashed into three of the knights, their armour melting then boiling as the energy pierced their plating. They swelled, bursting apart in flowers of destruction.

Matt spun to his left, knife drawn. One of the knights lunged, Matt flicked the blade away in one sharp motion, before jumping forwards, his arm burying his knife in the knights skull. It screeched as he heated the blade, a jet of plasma ejecting out the back of its skull.

The second knight slashed downwards, bullets slamming into its armour. The low boom of a sniper caused it to slow, a hole bored though its head. Matt jumped backwards, snatching the sword out of the air as it fell...

...

...

THANK YOU. I'LL TAKE IT FROM HERE.

What? This new voice growled, rocks rubbing past each other.

MY TURN, LITTLE LIGHT.

He screamed, or at least he tried to. He thought about it, but his mouth didn't move, he vocal folds didn't respond to the signals from his brain. The creature laughed.

LIKE I SAID, MY TURN the voice dripped with malice, snarling as it spoke.

"Matt?" Aria walked up to him, "You alright?"

NOT QUITE. I APERE TO HAVE A GUARDIAN IN MY HEAD.

The sword whipped around, Aria had no time to react.

NO!

Her torso whipped sideways, the force of the swipe cutting straight though her. Jenny materialised, shell glowing.

FOOLISH SPARK.

NO NO NO NO!

The thing lashed out with Matt arm, grabbing Jenny in a vice grip. The creature laughed, Matt heard it with his ears. It tightened his grip, crushing the shell. He felt the shards piece his hand, light arcing down his arm. He reached out, grabbing it before the creature could.

Nova, get out, NOW!

No, I'm not leaving you. Nova's voice in his head was full of fear.

GO! He roared, lashing out against the presence in his head. The creature didn't respond, turning towards Carina and Aleeza, who opened fire.

He blinked, metaphorically, he was behind them, looking though his eyes. The creature picked up Carina, arc energy surging though her as she swung repeated punches into Matt's ribs. He flet each of them break, screaming in pain.

THESE BODIES ARE FRAGILE. YOU ARE WEAK. HOW COULD YOU FIGHT ME. I AM A GOD

He kicked out, Aleeza flew backwards, denting the water tower. The creature grabbed Carina head, twisting and wrenching the helmet back and forth, before ripping it off.

Carina yelled, arc energy rippling though her. The creature didn't acknowledge her, stabbing down though her neck. Her expression morphed from anger to pain, the light in her eyes dying.

She managed one word, "Don't"

The creature ripped the sword out, her body flying backwards. Akiva's shot slammed into his neck, piercing the weakened shields. Matt felt the bullet slash though his throat, blood pouring into his lungs. The creature laughed, sealing the wound with a thought.

CAN'T HAVE YOU DYING YET. It laughed, I HAVN'T FINISHED YET.

It spun around, firing a rocket, then 3 sniper rounds into Akivas head. He fell over backwards, Lex apering over his body.

The creature didn't even aim, it just fired another rocket, obliterating the ghost.

Aleeza staggered to her feet, screaming in anger. Her whole body glowed with void light, until it seemed she was made of the void. The energy roiled around her, barely constrained by her rage. It compressed, she lunged forwards, energy pouring out of her palms.

Matt felt the creature grimace at the energy being directed at it. It turned away, letting Matt back soak up the energy. He felt it eating away as his flesh, his body being consumed by the void.

The creature spun, sword thrown with such speed that Matt saw it turn more red as it flew. It hit her with such force that she flew a good 500 metres, landing in a bloody heap on the ground. The creature held out Matts hand, letting the sword fly back to them. It grabbed it out of the air, slamming it into the ground.

THAT WAS FUN. GOODBYE, LITTLE LIGHT.

It raised Matt knife, plunging it into his heart.

Hi.
Sorry I missed the schedule, I had some issues with my laptop that completely drained my will to write. It blue screened and didn't back up 3/4 of what I'd written. I took a few days off, to cry and murder folks on the crucible. Came back and finished.
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK SO FAR.
Quite the ending wasn't it.
Well, I guess it's time to start properly, this is but a taster of whats to come.
I'll try to hid the schedule for the next chapter guys and gals.
Whilst your waiting, if you haven't read Tormented and Redacted, GO READ THEM. They're much better than what I write, and you have about 80 chapters that exist.

LOOK KEY MEGA HYPE FOR D2 BETA, ANYONE READING THIS ON XBOX?
Sorry, got a bit carried away there.
Until next time.