"A Kell? Here?"

I nodded. Kells were the leaders of entire Fallen Houses. They got the largest share of the Ether that the Fallen used in the liu of light, and thus were much larger and more powerful than their smaller underlings.

Anna sounded confused. "But the House of Exiles don't have any Kells!"

I frowned. "Pardon?"

Gem chuckled. "The House of Exiles are the Fallen who control the moon. They're very weak in number compared to the other houses, and tend to be Fallen exiled in disgrace from the other houses. They don't have any Kells, only captains."

I looked again. The captains were decked out with dusty green cloaks. However, the large Kell was wearing a red cloak like mine, except a lot less tattered and worn. He also wore a different emblem, one that I recognised from the Cosmodrome.

"Those captains are from the House of Exiles…But the Kell is from the House of Devils…"

The others all gasped. "Shit. It's Solkis."

I cocked my head. "Solkis?"

Grim shook his head. "Solkis…the leader of the House of Devils: our most dangerous foe on Earth. The Devils are apparently expanding their reach."

"Do we try and kill him?" I asked. "He has no guards, and while the other fallen will be difficult, they have no allegiance to…"

Gem shuddered. "Even such a battle as this is not worth the price. Solkis wears the dead Ghosts of his foes on his belt. He has killed countless Guardians throughout his reign on Earth, and he needs not travel with a bodyguard- for he is the most powerful Fallen Kell on Earth."

I looked back over the rock. Solkis was still talking with the other Fallen. He did indeed have a belt with the dead corpses of Ghosts hanging from it by loops of string. They bounced up and down in the low gravity as he moved. Then, he started walking away, towards the other end of the crater. Over there, a fallen Skiff waited with it's engines running. It had a House of Devils logo painted on the side, and had its boarding ramp down. Solkis walked up to a Fallen standing nearby, and the two continued towards the dropship after a brief conversation. The other Fallen was wearing a pilot-suit of sorts, equipped with a bulbous helmet that made the insectoid alien look vaguely it had the head of a preying mantis- the helmet having bulging domes where the eyes should be that looked like the multifaceted eyes of such a creature, and a pair of spiky antennae moulded into the top of the headpiece.

"Guys, I think Solkis is leaving. He's heading to what seems to be his personal transport."

The other Guardians let out a relived chuckle.

"Good," said Anna. "Now we just need to wait for him to leave, and then deal with the Exiles."

Soon after she said that, Solkis's Skiff lifted up into the air, and rocket off, cloaking itself as it went. A booming sound echoed in the lunar canyon announcing its departure. The Exile Captains watched it go, before turning their backs. They began walking towards a nearby servitor, possibly to receive their daily supplies of Ether from the floating robotic 'eye'.

"Right people, let's move," shouted Anna. "For the Traveller!"

"For the Traveller!" we echoed, springing into action. The Fallen Captains turned in surprise before barking out orders and sprinting to nearby cover. I ran in close to one of the Captains, Gem firing suppressive fire from his machine gun at a nearby Vandal, and began firing my Imago Loop into his chest. He staggered under the repeated hammering from the powerful revolver, before warping away to another position. He was quickly taken down by Anna with her sniper rifle. I noticed a blue engram on the floor nearby and scooped it up.

"Let me decode that for you, Ace." Said Ghost. There was a shimmering, and the engram turned into a fusion rifle. A Nox Fury V to be perfectly accurate.

"Nice," I said, firing the rifle a nearby Dreg. The dreg was not so much killed by the weapon, but thrown into the air, where he proceeded to disintegrate into a cloud of glowing orange embers.

"Fuck!" shouted Rena, slapping a clip into her pulse rifle. "More Fallen inbound on Pikes. Two hostiles. Three o'clock!"

The new enemies zoomed into the ruins, mounted on their hover bikes, known as 'Pikes' by the Vanguard. Unlike the 'sparrows' that had been created by humans (which I thought looked rather like the speeder bikes from the sixth Star Wars movie), Fallen Pikes were much more brutish and hunched in appearance, with thick armour plating covering their bodies. Like all Fallen tech, they had a almost organic appearance, looking vaguely like crustaceans huddled in their shells, and dotted with spikes worked into the outer shell of the armor plating. Also unlike our Sparrows, they were armed. With plasma weapons and grenade launchers.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, dodging a bolt of plasma. Ducking behind a rock outcrop, I pulled out my rocket launcher, and loaded a fragmentation missile into the weapon. I then fired the self-propelled munition at the closest Pike. The pilot expertly dodged the projectile- the rocket flying off into the starry sky- and fired back at me with renewed vigour.

"Look out! Those Dregs are trying to flank us!" shouted Anna.

"I've got it," said Grim, raising his hand and shooting a arc of lightning from his hands. The electricity danced among the Dregs, chaining between them and throwing them into convulsive spasms as they collapsed to the ground. They slowly flaked away, their bodies disintegrating into blue embers. He then threw a grenade towards another group of Vandals, who were moving up behind the Dregs. The grenade exploded, creating a small electrical storm in the midst of the Vandals. The grenade sent crackling lines of energy down the Fallen's bodies, killing most of their number. A few survived, but were quickly cut down by machine gun fire from Gem, who was now running up the hill, firing his massive gun from the hip. Rena fired off her shotgun into another one of the captains, sending him crashing to the ground dead, Ether hissing from his broken chestplate. She proceeded to huddle in cover behind a nearby rock as the closest Pike began firing at her with its plasma cannons.

"Rena, throw me that Wire Rifle there!" shouted Anna, laying down covering fire at the Pike attacking the other Hunter. The Pike stopped firing and moved away out of the line of fire, a few holes in the armour dribbling spurts of black smoke. Anna ducked back down as the other Pike began to attack her with it's plasma cannons to cover its partner. Gem fired a suppressive burst at the wounded Pike, forcing its pilot to manoeuvre it behind the crater lip.

"Got it!" replied the slender Hunter, rolling out of cover and sprinting to the nearby weapon. Scooping up the Fallen weapon, she chucked it through the air towards Anna. The rifle seemed to glide through the dusty air in the low gravity, before it was snatched up by it's recipient. Anna popped up from behind the rock, and turned the captured weapon on the attacking Pike. A arc of electricity lanced out towards the vehicle, and crackled along it's hull. The engine of the vehicle whined and popped as the high-voltage electricity fried its essential systems. Flames began to spurt from the machine's exhaust vents as the wiring shorted and set fire to the engine. Smoke billowed from the crippled machine as the pilot jumped free of the doomed machine. The pilot was swiftly cut down by Rena, her pulse rifle walking a burst up into the alien's head. Three seconds later, the hover bike crashed to the ground and exploded violently, sending a cloud of dust up into the air. The battlefield became obscured by a billowing cloud of moondust, forcing me to activate my helmet's thermal imaging system. Looking around, I spotted movement from the crater edge. Reloading my launcher and aiming, I then fired a rocket at the last Pike, the machine exploding into chunks of debris, taking its pilot with it. More dust billowed. The Fallen were nearly all gone, the remaining Dregs fleeing away. Gem, a blue outline on my HUD, fired a sustained burst into the fleeing minions, cutting them down as they fled. I searched for a new enemy, locating one of the Captains sprinting past in a panicked rush to cover. Firing off a few shots from my hand cannon, I forced him into cover behind a rock. He fired a few panicked shots at me, all missing. I sprinted towards his position, pulling my fusion rifle. I then leapt through the air to land in the dust in front of him. I raised my gun.

"Got you now!" I exclaimed, firing my fusion rifle into the terrified alien. The Fallen foe cartwheeled through the air, disintegrating into a shower of ash. A pair of purple-coloured engrams plonked to the ground and lay there. Picking them up, storing them for later decoding at the Tower, I turned to see the Gem swing his fist into the ground in front of the last Fallen Captain, sending out a bright flash of light that swept away the surrounding dust cloud. When the light faded and the dust settled, the Captain and every remaining Fallen within three meters had been reduced to ash.

"Alright, everything dead now?" I asked. "Cause there is a shard of a certain being that needs our assistance."

Anna nodded, and raised her head. "Ace, is it through that tower there?"

I looked over at the cracked observatory, a ragged hole broken through the wall. I nodded, proceeding to reload my hand cannon, dropping the spent cylinder into the dust. The housing emptied, I summoned a fresh cylinder loaded with bullets, and slotted it into the receptacle. With that, I snapped the new load into place and raised my gun. The fireteam and I proceeded to move towards the tower. Jumping up, Rena and Grimm checked the other side of the ruined structure for any Hive or Fallen.

"It's clear. There's some bodies down there, they look fresh," reported Rena. "Looks like a Fallen raiding party. Mostly Shanks, I guess the hive dragged the other bodies away. God knows what they do with them."

"Probably eat them," I said. "When I was in the temple entrance, I saw a few glimpses of what looked like badly gnawed ribcages in the corners of the room. Fallen, Human…and Hive. They just don't eat other species you know."

The other Guardians shuddered, with the exception of Grim who stared impassively at the monolith-littered crater below. We descended the slope into the crater, and stared up at the massive double doors in front. They were still wide open, casting wide shadows on the ground in front. Inside the mouth, darkness obscured the chamber within. The green runes carved into the doors pulsed weakly, their strange light darkening the shadows it touched rather than brightening them. I shuddered in fright at how this species had the ability to cause this perversion of the simple laws of physics by their eldritch magic. Around us, the grey rock walls of the crater loomed, their impassive nature concealing the hoards of Hive contained within. Rena shifted nervously.

"Think it's a trap?" asked Rena, her usually bright voice trembling slightly with nerves. "It seems…odd to leave the doors to your fortress wide open like that…"

"Ha! If it is a trap, then there's more killing for us!" exclaimed Gem, proudly standing tall. Anna sighed and shook her head.

"Even so Gem, we need to be cautious here," she said. "Just blindly jumping into combat without care could be fatal. There may be more trouble ahead than just ambushes. Stay together and don't wander off. Keep line of sight on each other at all times. And remember to…"

"Yes Mum!" groaned Rena. "Look, everyone knows the drill. Heh, we wouldn't have been able to take on that Fallen Servitor Septiks without knowing at least SOME common sense."

The last remark was directed at Gem, who was pointedly studying his feet. I made a mental note to ask about that sometime, or ask Cayde to help me look up the public mission records at the Tower. This sounded like a story worth exploring. Without another word, the fireteam moved forwards, with me taking the pointman position. The inside of the room was deserted, although we could feel ourselves being watched. This sense of wariness only added to the air of malice that permeated the room. I looked up at the ceiling of the large chamber in which we stood. It was domed, rather like a cathedral, although it was (alongside the rest of the columned and arched chamber) hewn from a material that looked suspiciously like bone. I looked around, noting that the chamber looked less like a pure cathedral, but rather like a cathedral that had been invaded by a hoard of termites, and turned into a hive. Quite apt a description, considering the residents who had built the place.

We walked down a roughly carved incline to the lower level. This area looked battle-damaged, and there were Fallen weapons strewn on the floor. Many were broken in two. Grim picked up a wire rifle with the stock cracked off, the said fragment lying on the ground nearby. The broken gun had wires and coils spewing out of the back, still sparking with residual charge. Grim's Ghost appeared from his hiding place, his shell customised with a dull green and grey casing.

"They fell in battle," said the machine, his voice as gritty and grainy as his master. "Despite the Fallen being our enemies, I can't help but feel respect for them."

Anna nodded. She briefly inspected something on the wall, and turned to Gem. "Gem, take a look at these burns. They look like they were made by Fallen weapons right, not Hive?"

Gem inspected some more scorch marks on the wall nearby and nodded. He placed a finger against one and pulled it away suddenly. "These are still quite warm. This battle did not take place long ago. However, there are no bodies. Be on the watch for foes, my friends. Something removed those bodies…"

I holstered my pistol and drew my fusion rifle. Clicking a new charge pack into the receptacle and dropping the spent one into the dust, I holstered the weapon again, and drew my hand cannon. With that, I spoke up, addressing the rest of the fireteam.

"Come on then, let's get this party started. We've got a civilisation to save."

Author's Note: Wow. Ok, so firstly: Thank you everyone who's been reading this. This story surpassed 5300 views the last two months, getting nearly 2000 views over the last 20 or so days. Second, I'd really like to thank all the people who've been suggesting advice for writing this story better. You're really helping me improve, and I'm currently working out ways to implement your advice. The next chapter is going to be longer, as I know that I've only really been putting about 2000 words or so in each chapter. I try to finish each chapter on a nice note, and thus they can be a bit short at times.

In other news, I'd like to do a bit of advertising for two other stories that have a simular theme to this one. I'd encourage viewers to have a look at the stories The Ace Of Spades by Aurora313 and The New Guardian by StarGazerNightSky, both Destiny stories with Ace as the main character. Aurora313's story is older than mine, and is a lot more detailed. I highly recommend it, as it portrays Ace & Cayde in a much darker light than I've done in my story, and is taking/has taken it's time with the reveal. I don't know yet, as I'm still working my way through the story.

As for StarGazer's story, it's a very good story with a much-more relationship-centric focus on the characters. Sure, there's some really good action in there, but I much preferred the scenes with the main characters to the action, as I think that StarGazer did a much better job with them than the other scenes.

Now that that's over, I have a third advertisement. There is a place where the bravest souls (or possibly the craziest) come together to perform a heroic task. A task which brings them to the deepest of all insane hellmouths, and confronts them with some of the shittiest writing ever to grace (or rather soil) the halls of the internet. Yes, I'm talking about the Fanfiction MST site Library of the Dammed. As this bloody site doesn't even allow me to add stupid URL's, I'll simply tell you to plug Literary Travesty into Google, and look for Library of the Damned, featuring talents such as Herr Wozzak (Mass Vexations), Erttheking (From the Ashes; How to avoid stupid deaths in the 41st millennium) and other writers of note. I've also posted a guest riff on there, which you can read alongside more than 3000 other riffs, including snarks of My Immortal (the eponymous 'worst fanfiction of all time', Trapped (a absolutely fucking awful story by the "writer" EclipsePheniox that trivialises rape of POW's, rape in general, sexual slavery, and other unsavoury acts), and other stories that to be honest are either the shittiest pieces of writing that have ever been penned, or the milder sort of "badfic", which are just written with poor grammar or a mostly-absent plot.

Well, that's all from me for now. I'll see you soon for chapter fifteen of Outbound Hopes soon people. This is Crazy Minh, signing off.