Matt looked out over the bridge, sighing heavily, "God this is so shit." He grumbled, spinning his knife around his finger, "Why do we have to do this again?"

Aria leaned against the railing along the side of the bridge, looking down into the water, "You know why Matt." She smiled, "It's better than getting shot at."

"But it's no fun." Matt's eyes glinted, "Nothing quite like having to babysit the civilians." He pushed himself up off the railing, walking down to the end of the bridge, taking a right into a small street, "I mean look, even the smallest streets are fine." He threw his knife into the air, watching it spin, reaching up and catching it with ease. He absentmindedly picked at a scratch in his armour, put there by a vandal that had managed to sneak up on him when escorting civilians back to the city after a study had gone wrong, for a few moments before Aria poked him, "Nova will go mad if you keep doing that."

Matt shrugged, "Yeah, I really need some new armour." He disconnected one of the bracers, picking at the tattered cloth that covered the majority of the armoured parts, "It looks nice, but I don't think I can afford another set like it." He pulled a throwing knife out of a hidden sheath inside the cloth layer, spinning the blade around his fingers, "If I could do proper guardian work, I'd be able to buy a ship from Holliday as well, but noooo, because I decided to fly one recon mission around the moon, better take all his stuff away and lock him in the city."

"Matt," Aria sighed, she could see where this conversation was going, for the thirteenth time this week, "The Vanguard have declared the moon off limits to any guardians, that, unsurprisingly includes you."

"But how are we supposed to ever do anything, Aria, there is a god on our doorstep, and there's been increased sightings of Hive all over the planet. We know nothing about the hives operation on the moon."

"Yes, and your little scouting mission found out a whole lot of nothing, you wasted your time, and got yourself stuck here for god knows how long."

"Aria, Crota killed our friends, do you not want vengeance for them, for Akiva?" Matt's voice was low, he almost spat the word Crota, "And Ekolzyn doesn't believe that Crota is truly a god of the hive, that there is something out there that commands even him." He walked backwards, looking at Aria, "Crota crushed the army we threw at him, easily, we wouldn't stand a chance against him if he attacked us here, imagine what power the hive above him wield. The light, everything, the city, the people we've been tasked with protecting, all gone." He practically growled.

"I… Matt, we can't think like that now, and I have to go." Aria shrugged, "I'll see you tonight, you will be training, right?"

The hunter nodded curtly, "Of course I will, how else am I going to manage to keep a semblance of being a competent shot without being allowed out into the world." He put the bracer back on, "Where you off to?"

"Zavala wanted to talk, something about corruption." Aria shrugged, her tone shifting slightly.

"Are you okay, you haven't seemed like yourself recently, I've been bettering you more often than I'd expect in training." Matt sounded genuinely concerned, Aria kicked herself for letting her voice slip.

"I'm fine, Matt, enjoy your patrol, I need to get going." She turned, jogging away from Matt, who gave her a small wave, "Has Jenny said anything?"

"No, I'll keep an ear to the ground, but if Aria wants to keep this quiet, I won't hear anything." Nova shrugged, floating along at his shoulder, occasionally ducking down to let a child touch her shell. Matt could feel the joy pushing against his overly sour mood. Despite himself, he crouched down with Nova as the next child walked past, forcing a smile onto his face.

The child's smile boarded, his small hand reaching out to touch Nova's shell, then looking at Matt, a mixture of awe and surprise, "Do you mind?" He asked, a small high pitched squeak.

Matt nodded, "Sure, I mean, she doesn't bite." He couldn't help but smile, watching the child tentatively reach further to poke Nova's shell, snapping his hand back like he expected her to "bite", giggling when she didn't move, patting her shell gently.

Matt smiled, hearing Nova laugh, "We have to keep going, finish the patrol route." He reminded her, "It was nice meeting you."

The child nodded, "It was nice meeting you mister Guardian." He said, running away towards a group of friends. Matt's smile broadened as the child left, turning around smartly to continue his oh so boring patrol.

"That's why the vanguard doesn't want guardian's leaving for the moon. We need every guardian we've got here, to keep people safe. There are more threats to the city than just the Hive, Matt, don't forget that there's only one known Eliksni that supported working with guardians, we've still got the Devils and some small amount of the Kings on our doorstep." Nova said quietly, "We lost enough on the moon. Don't add yourself to that list."

Matt nodded, "I'll try not to." He replied, "Come on, Zavala wanted us back by seven."

-X-

Carina looked at the message, scanning over it, "What do you think?"

Spears shrugged the front half of his shell, a short complex rhythm of sounds emanating from his damaged vocal processor, It doesn't sound malicious, but I've not found anything about this "Sunbreak order", they just don't exist. The ghost said, There's nothing in city records.

Carina looked over at Spears, "Really? Nothing at all." She had a look, a look that said that she'd already made up her mind about what she was going to do, "Mercury, right?"

Spears nodded, That's the coordinates given. He flashed up a map, It's quite near one of Shaxx's crucible arenas, The Burning Shrine.

"Right then, let's get going." She checked the message once more, "I'll go and tell Aleeza I'll be gone for a few days."

"I mean, why can't I come with you? If you're going to the biggest Vex machine in the solar system, wouldn't you want someone watching your back?" Aleeza said from the door, "Why are you going out there anyway?"

Carina smiled, "Got a strange message, from "The Sunbreak Order". Spears can't find anything about them in the archives, so I was going to go and have a mosey around."

Aleeza raised an eyebrow, "Nothing in the archives, at all?" She stepped into the room, "Weird, there's normally something, even if it's an official, "You shouldn't be here" notice."

Spears let out another series of shrill whistles, Lena translating for Aleeza, who smiled, "I see." She took a few more steps into the room, "You leaving today?"

"I was planning on it, yeah." Carina swung her rifle over her shoulder before dropping a sidearm into her hip holster, "I'll be back in a few days." She pulled Aleeza into a hug, "I love you."

Aleeza kissed her cheek, "Love you too." She said, "Kill a few Vex for me."

Carina nodded, slowly disengaging from the hug, "Of course." She smiled, backing away, waving as she turned to walk to the hanger.

-X-

Matt opened the door to the training room, the barrage of sound assaulting his ears. He walked over to Aria, who was instructing an Awoken who was struggling to control their rifle, the first shot of each burst was on target, the next three or four were flying massively wide. As was customary, each guardian wore their helmet, and most wore full armour. Many of the hunters were grouped up, flicking knives at the targets between rapid shots from their preferred weapon.

Matt walked over to the booth next to Aria, lifting his hand cannon up to fire, "Twenty targets, right?" Nova asked, looking at a panel on the wall.

Matt nodded, Nova looked down range as twenty targets flashed up at medium range. Matt fired in short groups, his hand cannon ringing loud, the targets dropping in quick succession. He took a brief break, flicking a new magazine into the gun, resuming his firing at the targets. The last ten targets dropped, he reloaded again, dropping the gun back into its holster on his hip, "That wasn't too bad." He grinned, drawing his sniper rifle, "Long range, twelve targets please."

The targets appeared, Matt firing three quick barrages of bullets, reloading after each set, "Good, at least I'm still accurate." His knife flicked out, thudding into one of the closer targets, "Yeah, still got it." He closed his fist, looking over at Aria and the small Awoken that she was still helping. Matt shot a few more sets, sighing in disdain, walking over to Aria, "Everything alright?" He asked, more or less looking for something to do.

Aria looked over her shoulder at him, "Aaren is struggling with his aim. He asked me to help, but it hasn't been the most successful time." She turned back to the Awoken, "Fire in shorter bursts, squeeze the trigger for less time. You need to control the rifle from the barrel." She pulled her own rifle off her back, demonstrating to Aaren how to hold the gun right, "Keep the stock in your shoulder." She stepped back, letting her gun swing on its sling as Aaren stepped forwards, holding the gun up, firing a short burst of three or four bullets. The first one flew true towards the target, the second one was high, just clipping the top of the target. He pulled the barrel down, the third shot sparking of the floor in front of the target and the fourth clipping the bottom of the outermost ring. He lowered the gun, looking back over at Aria, "How was that?"

Aria nodded, "Much better."

Matt stepped forward, "Do you mind?" He held out his hand for the gun, taking it when the Awoken offered it to him.

Matt lifted the gun to his shoulder, looking though the sight, firing a single shot, checking the accuracy. He fired, a short burst rattled out of the gun, the bullets landing within the two innermost rings of the target. He turned back to Aaren, handing him the gun, "Honestly, it's mostly just practice, what Aria said will work, fire smaller bursts, learn to control them, then you'll work your way up to that." He pointed to a Titan a few booths over, who was firing a similar looking gun, spraying a relentless onslaught of bullets towards the target, peppering the inner two rings. The gun clicked empty, the Titan was already lifting a second drum to the receiver, the first one bouncing away on the floor. Aaren nodded, lifting his rifle up again. Matt stepped back, "So, how was the talk that Zavala gave?" Matt asked, walking over to his booth, "What was it about?"

"Just a quick talk on corrupted guardians." Aria said evenly, firing a magazine of her rifle into a target, "Some sightings of Yor, but aside from that, nothing." She put the gun down, Jenny transmatting a new gun into her hands, "Just to talk to them if anything 'unexpected' happened."

Matt nodded, "Yeah, I heard there were some guardians out looking for him." He fired his old machine gun, a short burst, the shots thudding into the target, "Some people get the fun jobs." He added bitterly.

-X-

"Sorry I'm late." Aria maneuverer her way through to the end of the bar, "Where's Carina, I thought she was going to be here as well?" Aria asked, sitting down on a free stool, "Or has she abandoned us for Aleeza again?"

Matt shrugged, "I don't know, Aleeza just said neither of them would be here." He took a short drink, "Bit of a bummer really, you lot are gonna have to foot more of the bill, 'cause I'm almost broke as it is."

Zoe laughed, "Not like that isn't your fault though." She elbowed Jace in the ribs, "Didya here what this goon did?"

Jace smiled, "No, but I noticed he's been around a lot more recently." He grinned, "Not like a hunter to like being stuck in the city."

Zoe had had a drink while Jace was talking, and was now ready to tell her tale, "So, Matt here was bored of doing stuff on Earth, right?" She looked at him, expecting an answer.

"That's not entirely untrue." Matt mumbled into his glass, "I hate you." He said with the faintest traces of a smile, although he still got an elbow from Aria.

"So, Matt here gets bored, right, as you do when there's nothing to shoot for a while." Zoe's smiled broadened, "So he decides to go on a bit of a scouting mission, nowhere far."

Jace's smiled grew knowing, "I think I can see where this is going." He took another drink, looked around the group, waving at the bartender for another round.

"So he decides it would be a great idea to…" Zoe was cut off by Jace.

"Let me guess, the moon?" He was positively grinning now.

Zoe nodded, "You know it, he went to the moon, just a quick fly over recon of Imbrium, right, nothing too bad like landing. At least that's what you'd think." She drained the last of her glass as the next round appeared on the bar, "Who's buying?"

Matt looked around, "How many have you paid guys brought?" He snuck a look at the prices, doing some quick mental maths, "Sod it, this can be my round." He handed a card over to the bartender, "May as well pay for my great ideas."

"So," Zoe picked up her story again, "Matt does a few close flybys of Imbrium, and the surrounding areas, nothing too bad. Doesn't really find anything, so he comes back home. Lands to find a rather angry looking Zavala and Holliday waiting for him, gets himself ground locked for god knows how long because he forgot to turn off telemetry recording." She laughed, "And now he's stuck doing whatever guardians do in the city, not getting paid much." She spluttered out between fits of laughter, "You have to have known about the telemetry, right?"

Matt looked daggers in her direction, "Yeah, I knew about it, but I didn't think it would be set to transmit, I mean, who does that?"

"Most people." Zoe laughed, "You're such an idiot."

Matt was red, incredibly embarrassed, "Right, but I'll take any argument to the crucible once it's open again, settle it how guardians are good at settling arguments."

Zoe smiled, taking another drink, "No way, I'm claiming my victory now, you're not getting a one over on me like that. Speaking of which, is there any news on Yor?"

Matt shrugged, "Not like I'd know, apart from the fact that every civilian in the city is craping themselves about him. Consensus was to go public about him, from what I could gather talking to people, or at least, people talking to me, shame that they think everyone in the city doesn't know what's happening." He took another drink, "So there's a ton of differing rumours going around, and it's all compounding to a proper shit show."

Aria shook her head, "If the Consensus knows anything, they sure as hell aren't letting anyone else know, Zavala only had rudimentary facts, and I got the impression that most of the information had come from the fireteams trying to find him."

"To be honest, I've seen worse recon data." A hunter said in passing, smiling amiably at the group, "I'm guessing you guys haven't heard anything new either, but at best guessing, he's over in old America, that's what my contacts have heard." He looked over his shoulder, leaning in closer, "Rumour has it that he's been killing whoever he comes across, and that some notable guardians have been killed." He sighed, draining the last of his drink, "Proper shit show really." The hunter stood up, pulling his hood further over his head, "Gonna go find him, end him if I can. For those I've lost." and left, leaving surprised looks on faces.

"Well, that was cheery," Aria smiled, "I'll get the next round."

-X-

Mercury was, interesting, to say the least. Endless sand up the horizon, occasional vex structures gutting out of the landscape, clouds of flickering energy coiling and writhing around them, providing an imaginative insight to what was going on, if it was only from looking at the patterns the lighting surged in. Carina kept her hand near the sidearm on her belt, her eyes flicking around, checking for any sign of the blue cloud of flickering energy signifying an encroaching army of Vex.

"Are you sure this is the right place, there's almost nothing here."

Just checking now, we have a one-point five-kilometre walk to the coordinates specified by the message, I couldn't fly us any closer, the Vex might get curious, and I'm guessing we don't want to have to deal with that all the time.

Carina shook her head, "Right, so all I've got is a nice walk on a desert world with a surface temperature of about 400. Seems fair enough." She slid down a dune, constantly checking around for any sight of Vex or guardian presence.

An hour later, it took her much longer than she'd expected for a short walk, but the constantly shifting sands made climbing up the dunes a chore, and she'd had to hide in a Vex ruin as a brief sandstorm blew up around her. Eventually, arriving at the coordinates specified, she stopped, swinging her rifle around, not quite holding it ready to fire.

"Carina-23." A voice, female, rang out from the rocks, "You are here to accept the fire of the Sunbreak Order?"

Carina looked at Spears, who nodded, floating next to her shoulder, "Yes." She said firmly, "Yes I am."

4 months is better than 6, right?
I blame exams and getting distracted by video games and other projects.
Sorry about that.
I'll probably have a new chapter out soon, as exams are drawing to a close, and I'm enjoying writing a lot more.
As always, hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you next time.