Something was different about this side of the world. Aria could tell as soon as she landed, the size of the buildings, even in their condition, many of the rose far above the buildings in the City. She checked behind her as she ducked into the building, "Weird feeling about this place." She said quietly.

"You got it too?" Matt swung his rifle onto his back, "Feels like people used to live here." He picked up a bag, undisturbed until now, "Guess they did." He said, looking in the bag, a plastic bottle crumbling as he pulled it out of the bag. His visor enhanced the light in the darker areas of the room as he looked around, "I could have lived here for all I know." He mused, walking towards the stairs.

Nova and Jenny were both flying around, inspecting the ground floor area they had entered, "I doubt you lived here Matt, remember where I revived you?" Nova spoke up from behind the desk.

Matt shrugged from halfway up the first flight of stairs, "Not really, didn't really have any time to check a map if I'm being perfectly honest, there was a small Eliskni problem at the time."

Jenny popped up from behind the desk on the other wall, "Why do you call the fallen the Eliskni? The word isn't in any of my lexicons."

Matt smiled beneath his helmet as he disappeared onto the first floor, "I know some rudimentary elements of the Eliskni language. It's their word for themselves, just like we have human, awoken and exo." He explained through the comms, "It's their term for their collective selves. That's all." He went quiet.

Nova transmatted back to Matt's armour, "There's nothing in the system about either you or Aria, so I'm guessing that the two of you didn't ever live here." She said, "But this building apparently housed almost a hundred thousand people, from what we've pieced together from what we could find on that computer." She triggered a scan from Matt's suit, looking for any other interfaces that she could have a look at, "There's not much here that's going to be useful, the system had been shut down for years before we arrived." She rematerialized, "We're wasting our time here, honestly." She continued to buzz around the first floor, never straying too far from Matt, "Why can't we go and do something fun? Shaxx reopened the crucible, you know."

Matt nodded, "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I have to start going into matches again." He climbed up the next set of stairs, "Besides, there's no real point of it any more, you just go out and do something useful instead." He flicked at a peeling piece of rotting wallpaper, watching it disintegrate, "Although there is admittedly not much to do at the moment."

"Which is why you should go and do some training in the crucible instead." Nova said calmly, "You know most good guardians started in the crucible, right?"

Matt shrugged, not bothering to respond.

"I'm sure we'll find something eventually." Aria laughed, "Nova and Jenny pulled the schematic for the building, it's split down the middle, I'm going up the other stairs to you."

-X-

"Yeah, I've got it." Matt replied, "Have fun." Aria heard a pop as he disconnected from the local comms.

Aria pulled at the strap attached to her shotgun, swinging the auto rifle back over her shoulder and letting the shotgun swing under her arm. She felt the barrel tap against her leg armour before she grabbed it, carefully checking the rooms on the floor before moving up the stairs, checking each of the floors quickly and efficiently as she went up the building.

"So, how many floors are there exactly?" She asked as the climbed the tenth set of stairs.

"92. That's including all the underground levels, but a lot of them are blocked off by damage." Jenny replied, "We wouldn't be able to get to them." The ghost continued, "As much as it's unlikely, it's also very possible that there is something useful down there."

Aria nodded, pulling the armoured faceplate off her helmet, checking it was clear of dust before moving up to the eleventh floor, "What's that, seventy-nine more to go?"

"An initial survey from the top of the building indicates that the top 20 or so floors have collapsed." Jenny replied, "So it's only fifty-nine, aren't we lucky."

Aria looked at the ghost, "Guess Matt's not the only one who hates doing these jobs." She grinned under her helmet as she replaced the faceplate, "Have you run a scan for any heat signatures around? Anything we wouldn't expect?"

Jenny sighed, "I haven't, but I guess I probably should." The ghost tapped into Aria's armour systems, sweeping the surroundings for anything out of the ordinary as Aria hopped up the stairs to the twelfth floor.

"Oh look, there's footprint… oh no, that's just us." Jenny muttered, "Guess we'll have to keep looking."

-X-

Aleeza followed the tracker Lena had put out, a small suite of scanners designed to track down light. Her ship wobbled as they hit a pocket of turbulence, for the briefest moment the onboard FoF scanner read hostiles all around, then it was back as the turbulence passed, "I don't know what Vex signature just transported away, but I think it was causing that turbulence as we passed." Lena said, floating around the cockpit as the ship wobbled again, "Flying here isn't much fun." She continued, "I'm trying to follow this damn probe, but the thing isn't hanging around." The ship rolled, knife edging through a small gap between two rocks, "Oh, it's stopped, transmatting you now." The ghost sounded surprised as Aleeza felt her helmet form around her head.

Her feet touched down on the edge of a sand dune, the sand falling away below her heels. She pushed down with her light, gliding to safety. She looked up as her ship spiralled up into the sky, "I'm down, next time put me a bit further away from the sand dunes, they don't hold up too well." Aleeza smiled, "I'll start walking." She turned towards the marker on her HUD.

-X-

"Magistrate, there's a warlock advancing on our location now." The report came in through the main console, causing several of the Titans in the room to turn their heads, clearly curious.

Ourus sighed, "What have I told you about that, I'm not the Magistrate, not until Aodh says I am the Magistrate." She walked over to the console, "I see them. Thank you." Her helmet formed around her head, "Liu, with me. Let's go and find out what our warlock here wants."

The Titan stood, picking up her pistol from the table, dropping the angular weapon into its holster on her hip, "I'm guessing you want us to start diplomatically." She casually threw her hammer, juggling it, "Else you'd take one of the boneheads." She laughed.

Ourus barely chuckled, "If our diplomacy was the thing I was trying to put across, I would go out there alone Liu. You're here to make sure the warlock knows she's got to deal with us seriously."

The smile on Liu's face dropped momentarily, her hammer thudding into her hand, "Way to kill the mood." She muttered as she picked up her helmet, "What's the betting that the warlock is looking for the origin of those gauntlets?" Her smile returned, quickly swallowed by her helmet, "I would if I was a warlock."

Ourus laughed as she stepped out into the almost blinding light bathing the dusty ground around the outpost, "You called them Sunbreakers. Not exactly subtle. I bet even a hunter could figure out who made them."

Liu shook her head, "Well, let's go find out, I guess." She dragged her sparrow out from under the plasteel sheet that she'd thrown over it, "I'm sure as hell not walking the whole way."

Barely five minutes later, Liu hopped off her sparrow as it skidded into a dune, kicking up a massive cloud of sand and glass as the vehicle skidded onto the dunes. She slid over a patch of glass as she landed, hearing the familiar whine of Ourus's sparrow slowly cycling down. She kept her eyes on the warlock, who continued to walk forwards, slowing slinging her rifle over her shoulder, "Titan." She called out through her helmet broadcast system, her voice echoing off the ancient stone pillars.

"Warlock." Ourus replied, her voice perfectly level, "We don't see many of you tower lot around here."

"I'm not here on tower business." The warlocks' words were defensive, "I'm looking for Carina." There was a hint of demand in the short sentence, "I'm not leaving until I find her."

"Carina?" The name was vaguely familiar to Liu, "Exo, about so tall?" She held a hand at about chest level, "Quite a fast talker, doesn't like standing around?"

The barest flicker of a smile played across Aleeza's face, "Sounds like her." She said levelly, "She came here a few weeks ago. I got a message from her three days ago. Nothing since." Aleeza continued to walk, making her way past Ourus and Liu, "I need to talk to whoever's in charge."

Ourus looked across at Liu, the slight angle of her helmet signalling the other titan not to speak up, "Well, I'm sure we can bring you back to the facility without angering anyone too much." Ourus shrugged, stepping backwards towards her sparrow, "Have you got one, walking across the deserts isn't the easiest thing to do."

"I've got one, but Vex interference isn't allowing me to transmat it down at the moment." Aleeza shrugged, "Guess this is why the Vanguard doesn't really want people to be showing up around here."

Liu looked at her own sparrow, then across at Ourus's much larger model, "Get a lift with Ourus then, I can't support another person on mine."

Ourus chuckled, "This is why we don't use tower requisite armour Liu, it weighs way too much for the protection it gives. You should forge your own." Her sparrow rumbled into life, the low growl of the engine quickly rising to a high pitched whine as the Acting Magistrate made ready to go, "Come on warlock, unless you want to spend a good few hours walking behind us."

Liu smiled as the warlock reluctantly climbed onto the back of Ourus's sparrow, "It's okay, she's only crashed that one three times in the past week." Liu laughed, shooting off back towards the facility, Ourus's sparrow quickly following.

-X-

Aria pulled herself up onto the roof of the building, looking around for Matt, "Come on then, I thought you hunters were supposed to be the fast ones." She laughed, "I can't see you around here at all."

"Wait, you're at the top already?" Aria could hear the disbelief in Matt's voice easily, it only made her laugh more.

"Yeah, it was easy going the whole way, once you get to the broken sections it's so much easier to make the climb."

"Right, I'll see you up there then. I've had a few dodgy floors, it's not been the easiest climb." His comm's popped again as he disconnected.

Aria wondered over to the edge of the remaining roof, sitting down, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the roof as she looked down at the city below her, minute cars lying where they'd been abandoned an eternity ago, "Do we actually have any information about the collapse?" She asked, looking down at the roads, all of them straight, joining at right angles, "What really drove us to where we are now?"

Jenny bobbed up and down, in a rough approximation of a shrug, "We don't really know, there's no real accounts of the collapse past a few stories passed down generations and told in the city. Of fire and darkness, and weapons turned against us. Some say that "the warminds" saved us, others claim that they were instrumental in our downfall." She spun around, "And the hunter's here."

"What?" Matt pulled himself onto the remaining roof, "I had to grab some stuff on the way up." He shook the bag he'd thrown up onto the roof before him as he wondered over the sit down next to Aria, "It might be useful, but I'm not really sure." He tipped the bag upside down onto the roof between the two of them, a few tablets and some engrams falling out of it, "The tablets have a lot of information on them, but someone has encrypted it all, Nova tried to decrypt it, but she couldn't get anything that made sense."

"I got a few words, thank you." She materialised, scanning the tablet again, "Look, it's hashed using a system I can't find anything about in the city records, so I can't see anything about the data within it, but the final command unpicked itself well enough. Look." She switched the tablet's screen on, showing Matt and Aria the final command line: AI-COM/RSPTN_SIGNOFF/STOPSTOPSTOP

"So, what does that mean?" Matt looked at it, "Just looks like a load of jargon to me."

"That's what we thought." Nova explained, "Then I asked Jenny to do a general search of the archives for anything with a close match to that AICOM and RSPTN bit. He's a known at least."

Aria looked at Nova, "So, what's this RSPTN got to do with all this then?"

"He's a warmind." Nova said by way of explanation, "We believe that they were built during the golden age, as a network of AI to defend the solar system from any internal or external threat. There's more in the file, but it needs vanguard clearance to see it."

Matt pulled his helmet off, setting it down on the roof next to him, "No way around it?"

Nova shook her shell side to side, "None. There's some stuff with a different clearance as well, Saladin."

"The old titan who does the crucible variant?" Aria asked, "Why'd he have anything to do with warminds."

"No idea, there's whole sections of this report that are just blacked out, guess Saladin doesn't want anyone to know about it."

"I guess. Might ask him about it if I ever see him." Aria shrugged, standing up, "Come on, we've got three more buildings to check, then we've done everything we need to do today."

Matt rolled his eyes as he stood up, picking up his helmet, "Oh joy. Gotta love doing work in a dead zone."

-X-

"Aleeza, if I had known I would have told you." Lena settled on the arm of the chair, "I'm sure they'll be back."

"How many guardians have ever made it out of the Vex gate network?" Aleeza asked bluntly, not noticing as they accelerated away from Mercury, heading back towards Earth.

"A few." Lena said, "I added the expeditions that the Sunbreakers told us about, but it's less than twenty."

"And how many have entered the network?" Her voice was quiet, she knew the answer already.

"There have been over fifty reports of guardians entering the Vex network, all of them made from a tower fireteam."

"Pahanin was the only guardian to return from a Vex gate system alive. He was without his ghost." Aleeza said, her voice barely a whisper, "Out of over one hundred."

Lena didn't reply, her silence was an answer enough for Aleeza as she choked back tears.

-X-

Carina looked around, slowly letting the void light around her hands dissipate as the final few Vex fell, the remaining sunbreakers similarly letting their light dissipate. She picked up her rifle from where she'd dropped it, checking over the frame for obvious damage as Spears materialised to start repairing the damage to her armour, the process taking slightly more time than usual as he tried to conserve the materials they had available to them.

She sat down, doing a more thorough check of the rifle, methodically dismantling and reassembling it, absentmindedly humming to herself as she did so.

A short burst of light snapped her out of her task, light coiling around her as it formed a second barrier even as she stood up. She looked towards the source, seeing three of the Sunbreakers stand up slowly, revealing a damaged chest plate lying on the ground next to a shattered ghost, the points of its shell lying around a cracked core. She sat back down, quickly finishing reassembling her rifle before standing and walking closer to the group, who seemed to close her out slightly. She could just not make out the words being exchanged but recognised the carmine shell of the ghost, and the soot coloured chest plate.

She didn't say anything, continuing to walk past the circle of Sunbreakers, making her way over to one of the titans standing near the entrance to the cavern, "I'm sorry." She said simply.

"Don't be." The Sunbreaker snapped back, "She knew the risk, as we all did."

Carina was slightly taken aback by the bluntness, "Did you know her well? Aodh?"

"Not really. But she was a good leader. One of the most powerful Sunbreakers around." Her shoulders rose then fell, a hiss of static as she took a deep breath, "They'll hate you for it."

"For what? I was just trying to stay alive." Carina looked at the scars on the sunbreakers armour, "Do you not have anything to repair the armour?"

"Some of the more zealous members of the Sunbreak order see other forms of light as a weakness. The void and arc sources are seen as a waste." She explained, "You saved some of us today, but they'd rather have died than be saved by a titan using void light." She pulled her helmet off, dropping it against the floor, "I know, Pheonix." She said softly, "Thank you, for everything." She bit back a sob, "Sorry for snapping at you." She knelt down, removing a ghost from its perch on her shoulder.

The ghost's optic flickered, once, "Pleasures been…" twice, coupled with a glitch that shattered the next word, "Mine, Sam.", then shut off. The damage done was clear, most of its shell was missing, and the core-shell had broken, revealing the circuits inside. The titan, Sam, nodded once, a quick burst of solar light incinerating the now dead ghost. She retrieved her helmet from the floor, wiping the tears from her eyes before jamming the helmet back onto her head, "Right." She took a deep breath, before opening a comm channel to all of the remaining Sunbreakers, "Send the dead on their way." She ordered, "Retrieve what will be useful, but we need to move."

The group that had been around Aodh turned, one of them picking up the chest plate, walking slowly over to Sam, offering the plate to her, "You have command, in her name, avenge our Magistrate, Samantha."

Samantha nodded, changing the chest plates over manually, while ordering people around, organising their path through the network to get them back to Mercury. Carina spent a few minutes checking over a few guns for some of the group while they checked over some maps, projected onto walls by their ghosts.

It didn't take long for a route to be planned out, although it was quite clearly reliant on many of the pathways being open at the right time. With the route now planned and shared, Samantha set off, the remaining Sunbreakers falling in behind her, moving at a good pace.

-X-

"Oh, come on Matt. It'll be fun." Zoe spun around on the chair, "At least try it. Saladin doesn't have the same rules as Shaxx, it's much more competitive than your regular crucible." She held up a hand cannon, "Plus, I got this earlier for winning 10 matches. Don't even know if it's legal in normal crucible, I almost broke my wrist first time I fired it."

Matt laughed, "So, work on shooting hand cannons then or make an arm brace. That or don't use it. You own a few good rifles, right?"

Zoe spun the snub-nosed gun around her finger, her eyes glinting, "I do, but everyone says that hand cannons are the way to get there properly in the crucible." She looked at her rifle, resting against her chair, "And that doesn't have the right sort of kick." She shrugged, "It doesn't feel right to shoot I guess."

"Go for something in a higher calibre? I'm sure someone has something to sell you. Banshee often has a few good pieces, might cost you a bit though." Matt stood up, draining the rest of his drink, "Let's have a look at that."

Zoe handed it over, her ghost materialising as she stood, "Time to go again? I thought we'd get more time off before the next match."

Matt spun the gun around, aiming down the sights a few times, reloading it, "It's not bad, could weigh a little less, but I'd imagine that's for the kick." He flipped the gun over in his hand, "I guess you should just try it out at some point. Take it on a patrol, I dunno." He looked over the warlocks head, "You need a sixth?"

"Yeah, but there's always people... oh." The look of confusion dissolved into a smile, "You volunteering?"

"If Saladin's handing out guns like that, I am." He picked up his sniper, swinging it over his back, "Ready?"

Zoe looked up at him, grin still plastered over her face as she put her helmet on, "I should ask you that, you've never seen the crucible like this."

Matt shook his head, following the warlock out, "Sure. I'll bring my A game." He spun his knife out of its sheath, the blade dancing in small circles around his hand and wrist, "I hope I will anyway."

"Any news on Yor?" Matt asked, "Past the whole, 'he's out there, watch out'?"

Zoe shrugged, "There's been a lot more security around the crucible, but aside from that, I've not heard anything. Apparently, people are saying that Saladin himself has said that he'll fight Yor if he ever shows up at one of his matches."

"Well doesn't that sound like something I'd watch." Matt grinned, "Have you seen the duels that Saladin and Shaxx have had over the years, I was watching some of them from the archive footage."

-X-

Aleeza.
We've been in the gate system for about a day now. It's not gone well, honestly. I've been told that plain text messages are the most likely to pass through an open gate, but even that's not a guarantee. We're on the move again in a minute, at least the map has been useful so far.

Can't wait to see you again once we're out, our current estimate is about 3 more hours to the final gate.

G-Spears[sd] – Carina misses you, but well be out soon, I promise

MSG_send_24/11/c134-11:13:43(l_gt)

Three months
That's a solid improvement over four months, right?
Sorry about the long times between chapters, I don't write very fast, and reviewing it takes just as long...
I'm trying to be quicker, but it doesn't seem to help xD
As always, reviews are nice, critique appreciated
I'll see you next time, in (hopefully) less than three months.