Ghost and the Shell

by Ender Mahe

Whisper is a newly risen guardian with a deep need to look, to know, and to understand the world around her. While not the best fighter, she quickly joins with the eyes and ears of the Vanguard, giving her a unique perspective. Write-through of Destiny focused on stitching together Destiny 1's deep lore, especially the less-developed portions, into a coherent narrative.

9. The Dark Beyond

Chapter 9: The Dark Beyond

"Your foray into the Hive fortress marks the beginning of our next battle against an ancient foe. After centuries of silence, they have turned their will against Earth. We must be ready for this war." — The Speaker

Whisper spent her time tinkering with the Fallen stealth drive. She'd debated asking for Banshee's help, but with the way he'd reacted to a Fallen arcblade, she'd elected to work on it alone. Besides, it was something of a puzzle she wanted to figure out.

It was such an odd piece of technology. Her initial guess was only partially right. While she was still confident that the stealth drives on their skiffs and ketch didn't run on ether, their handheld versions did… sort of. From what she could tell after hours of fiddling, they were originally run with a different power source altogether, but the Fallen had modified it so that after an initial burst of power from a handheld battery, the field was sustained by a drip feed of ether. She wondered where in their wanderings they'd picked up and modified this technology, the sort of people they'd been.

After some experimentation, she and Ghost determined that Ghost could substitute for the initial charge, but without carrying around an ether tank, they could only keep the field up for a few seconds. And they had to let it cool down after each use, or Ghost's Light would burn it out completely. Without knowing how it originally worked, that was the best they could do, but it was still far better than nothing. Once that puzzle was unraveled, however, she started to feel restless again, which inevitably led her back out of the City once again.

Whisper was scaling a mountain peak when she received a request from the Vanguard for another meeting, so once more she transmatted up into the jumpship and made her way to the City, where she checked in the ship and climbed to the Vanguard's headquarters. All three of them were present, which immediately put her on guard.

Zavala looked up from a massive map on the table. "Ah good, you're here. Excellent work at the array and taking down Sepiks Prime. It appears, for the moment, that Rasputin is content not to attack us. That means we can deal with other problems."

Ikora Ray nodded from her position leaning against the wall, arms crossed. "The Array is the key to the Golden Age communications network, but it can only reach part of the system at any given time based on the planet's rotation. To reach the rest, the Array uses a repeater on the moon. My Hidden tell me that Dead Orbit ignored the dangers Rasputin poses and sent a strike team to reactivate it. Our best guess is that they hope this will extend our reach in the solar system or cause Rasputin to force us off Earth and back into space, where we'll be 'safe.'" She snorted in disgust. "And yet, that's not the worst part. Their strike team lost a member, and the returning guardians haven't reported in with the Vanguard. Dead Orbit is buzzing, but they've locked down communication so tightly even I can't penetrate it. We need to find out what they know, so we're sending you to the moon to recover the lost guardian's ghost."

Cayde looked up from where he slouched in a chair, boots up on the table. "You're not new, are you? I'm just messing with you, you'll be fine."

Whisper glanced across the members of the Vanguard. "Is there a reason you can't just ask them?"

Zavala grimaced. "We could, but with the unusual way they are acting they may say no, which would weaken our position. But if we can learn their secret and then confront them, they will owe us in return for not publishing their insubordination."

"That's… not a good way to run a government."

Cayde laughed. "I told you she was smart, Zavala! And she doesn't know the half of it."

Zavala shot him a warning look. "Be that as it may, it is the situation in which we find ourselves. Go to the moon, guardian, and recover any information you can."

Whisper recognized a dismissal for what it was and walked out of the room. Ghost bounced up and down anxiously. We once looked to the moon and saw hope. Now we see only the power of Darkness. We left the Moon to keep the Hive in check. If the Speaker has lifted Lunar Interdiction... well. He knows things we don't, right?

Before she could reply, the sound of approaching footsteps made her turn to see Cayde catching up. "Hey, Whisper! I wanted to translate for you that that was Zavala's way of saying you're doing a great job. I love it when hunters pull something off that Zavala has to acknowledge."

They paused at one of the remarkable vistas overlooking the City. "Cayde, I was thinking—what I'm seeing out there, it doesn't make sense."

"A lot of things don't make sense. Which one's got you in a tizzy?"

"The array I reactivated, it shouldn't exist. It should have been destroyed in the Collapse."

Cayde looked at her quizzically. "And you're complaining?"

"Not only that, but despite being completely intact, it was locked down from inside using human security codes. It's almost like the Darkness, whatever it was, wanted them to see what was happening, and they shut down the array themselves so they could stop seeing."

Cayde, uncharacteristically, was quiet for a long time. At length he spoke softly. "You're smart, kid, I'll give you that. I can see why Zavala wants you on our side. I'll tell you this much—See, the reboots, they don't wipe it all away. Not everything. And the new life - plus the Light - it does something real funny to what's left. Amplifies it, scrambles it, reshuffles the fragments like a dealer riffling a deck of cards, putting the hands we've already won and lost back into play. Most of us do what we can on our own to forget. Let the itch go unscratched. Me? I learned long ago you gotta play the hand you're dealt. So here's a little bit of what I remember. Strike that. Here's a little bit of what I know. It ain't all right, but I'll be damned if it ain't the truth."

The exo took a slow breath, then continued speaking so softly Whisper could barely hear. "I have a memory, a short one, of the Darkness. When…whatever it was hit me, it scrambled my systems, broke me down, but it left my sensors intact. It let me, wanted me, to watch. But I've never considered that it wanted all of us to see. That's… a worrying thought."

"Do you have any idea why the Darkness would want us to watch? Is the potential drop in morale worth the risk of providing that much technical data on their means of attack?"

Cayde eyed her curiously. "You've got a strange story behind you, I can tell. We'll have to talk more about this, but later. I need to check on a few things, pull on a few loose ends. Head out to the moon and get us leverage on Dead Orbit and we should have a better idea of what we're dealing with there. The big mysteries always pull at us Hunters, but don't get distracted from the threat right in front of you. Oh, and one last thing—go talk to Shiro one more time and get any last advice he has for you about the moon."

…

Shiro responded to her message quickly, eager to get outside the City once more, and they met up in the same copse of trees near the wall, where she explained her assignment and Cayde's advice.

"The moon, huh? Can't say I envy you. That place is a nightmare, and the Hive have burrowed deep. As for advice? Take at least one Solar weapon with you - they do better against Wizard shields. Hmm, what else…" he tapped his fingers on his crossed arms thoughtfully. "This usually goes without saying, but as a reminder, you should constantly be tweaking and upgrading your armor, making it work for you and matching your environment. Hunters bluster with the best of them, but the secret to our success is meticulous preparation. Scour-proof your visor, rig back-up sensors, the whole thing. For lunar or exoatmospheric work, I recommend starting with a Komarov pattern."

Whisper couldn't shake a nagging suspicion. "What I don't understand is why they're asking me. Shouldn't they send someone with a little more experience dealing with the Hive? Or some who is better with the light than I am? You would do this mission better than me."

Shiro paused thoughtfully. "They're impressed with you, clearly. But you're wrong if you think there's some objective level of mastery of Light, some plateau where you stop learning. And I think the reasons have more to do with your inexperience than you would think. Not many guardians old enough to remember the Battle of Mare Imbrium, or the Great Disaster as it would be called, would be willing to go back, and those that would… let's just say their prior experiences might color their reports. Plus, it's the Vanguard—you can't forget politics. Luna is officially off limits to guardians. If they sent someone well known, questions would be asked. You can still fly under the radar, so to speak."

That didn't exactly fill her with confidence. "So nobody will notice if I go missing on the mission, either. Wonderful. But why did Cayde send me to you?"

The scout held up a hand. "Hold on there. Don't let me give you the impression that any guardian is expendable. Just remember that the only real way to learn how to use your Light is by using it, and if we didn't send out inexperienced guardians on dangerous missions, they would never become experienced guardians. You're going to attract a lot less attention than a full-scale invasion, and you should be able to handle whatever small groups you run into, and run from any bigger groups. You can do this. As to why Cayde asked you to see me, well, Cayde and I go back a long way. Even if he somehow hasn't lost a step sitting in the Tower playing nice, he was only ever good with Solar Light. Now, Solar Light is strong against single targets and especially wizards, but it's weaker against swarms, which is where Arc Light shines brightest. That's what I do best. And if there's anything the Hive do, it's swarm."

Whisper crossed her arms. "Fighting a horde of thralls with a knife doesn't seem like the best idea. And I've seen at least some Hive with ranged weapons – won't they cut you apart before you can get close?"

"If you don't use your Light, maybe." He took a few steps back and drew his wickedly long blade. "Say you've got your gun drawn on me. If I was a Lightless, I could run at you, but you would cut me down, right? But if I use the Light, and I'm a little bit more subtle than a titan trying to shoulder-check you into next week—" The light shimmered around Shiro for an instant and he was gone. She took a defensive half-step back and he reappeared right in front of her, blade to her neck.

"What… how…?"

Shiro grinned. "As I said last time, I can't explain how, only show you that it is possible. There are different names for this technique, but I call it Blink, because if you blink, you'll miss it. It can get you in range of snipers, dodge those shrapnel cannons the Fallen are so fond of, or get you out of a mess of thrall. We learned how to do it by watching warlocks, but please don't ever admit that."

Whisper nodded, mentally recalibrating to accommodate this new possibility. "And when you've closed the distance? What do you do then?"

"They don't call us Bladedancers for nothing." Arc energy exploded from him, crackling across his metal frame. He somehow maintained the output of Light and leapt into motion, flying through the air with lethal grace while his blade carved complex patterns. The impressive display used an incredible amount of Light and accordingly didn't last long. As it faded away Shiro took a slow breath and returned to stand next to her once more, winded.

"Some Bladedancers explode the Light around them in a real showstopper. Others launch it in a directional wave, or wrap themselves in it and vanish for a few seconds. So yes, we're comfortable in knife fight range, even with the Hive, and this makes us some of the best at fighting against them. That's why Cayde sent you to me. If you're fighting Hive, Arc energy is usually the most effective way to deal with them."

"I… see." Whisper was thrown off balance by all of this. She'd assumed the Light was, essentially, a form of energy. But raw energy didn't break the laws of physics. The Light was more than she'd thought it was.

"Anything else you want to ask?"

Brimming with questions, Whisper asked the first one that popped into her head. "Why do you wear a Fallen cloak?"

Shiro snorted, which was surprising coming from a metal body without a nasal passage. "Sometimes I forget that there isn't someone to explain all of this to new guardians. We just assume everyone will pick up on it eventually. Anyway, a hunter's cloak is one of our most important tools as we spend more time than any other guardian out in the wilds. It keeps the weather off, is a temporary shelter, hull patch, bandage, tourniquet, pressure seal, picnic basket, and plenty more. But they're more than that. They're our… calling card, I suppose you would say. A hunter identification, a statement of who you are, a description of your accomplishments and history, a record of what you've lost. Taking up the cloak of a fallen hunter is more than just wearing their cloth, it's a promise, a vow."

"But they're impractical. They might help with camouflage, but in a fight, they get caught on anything."

"Sure, and most of our enemies see beyond visual light range anyways, which is why some focus on being bright and colorful to avoid friendly fire or intimidate enemies, like a poisonous snake saying don't mess with me. But the point is, they look amazing. Who could resist a little impracticality for a dashing cloak?" Shiro winked conspiratorially. "You'll do great up there, kid. And if you ever run into a hunter out there without a ghost in the back end of beyond answering to Lush, you let me know. Ask me about him sometime. Good luck out there."

…

"So where would I go to buy armor?" asked Whisper.

The market for guardian armor is crowded with small outfits, specific vendors, scavengers... it's mostly Golden Age tech. Heavily repurposed, of course–why would you need armor in paradise? Most of the sellers were near the Tower the last time I checked.

"Well, let's see what there is to see."

Ghost was right on the money, as it turned out. It didn't take long for Whisper to locate a Komarov pattern and purchase it. Given Shiro's description, she wasn't surprised to find it was little more than a base frame with innumerable options to modify it, though it had inscribed with a list of names, Komarov, Grissom, White, Chaffee and more, in memory of lost Golden Age pilots. It took the rest of the day, but Whisper was satisfied when she finally held up the finished product.

She'd added extendible microtools in the gauntlets for fine work on her battered jumpship in case she got stranded. It also included much better heat venting for dealing with vacuum, and an upgraded and specialized visor to deal with far greater temperature ranges.

As for the solar weapon, she returned to Banshee for that.

"The moon? You're gonna want a shotgun for that - there are few weapons that offer the comfort and familiarity of a shotgun. Shotties are for those up-close-and-personal moments. Let's see, solar shotgun, solar shotgun…" Banshee rummaged behind the counter for a moment. "Got it." He withdrew an extremely short pump-action shotgun and set it on the counter. "Nadir only makes one shotgun, but it's a good one. The base model is the Graviton ESe - this one's been upgraded a bit and infused with Solar Light by a previous guardian, so it's the Graviton ESm. As you can see, it's a cut-down holdout weapon, easy to ready and aim, a perfect close-quarters weapon. There are longer-range versions with stocks, but if you're going down in the tunnels on the moon, then you'll want this, instead."

Whisper nodded in agreement, but Banshee gave her one final word of warning as she reached for it. "Be careful with this. These solar weapons are warm to the touch. Feel that? There's somethin' alive about 'em."

Whisper picked up the gun and was surprised to find he was right. Through her metal fingertips she felt the subtle but noticeable temperature difference on the gun. "Thank you, Banshee, this is perfect."

…

Whisper was both excited and nervous as the jumpship broke free of the atmosphere. The view of Earth was breathtaking—or would have been if she'd still needed to breathe. It did put into perspective just how small the City was, housing virtually all the remaining humans after they'd covered the whole planet and beyond, once upon a time. And far above circled the moon.

Ghost looked up at it uneasily. I used to look up here at night and wonder what the hive were doing, but the only activity I could ever pick up was hazy. Like it was blocked or buried. We gave up the entire moon to keep the Hive away from earth. We hoped that would be enough for them. But from what we discovered in Skywatch… we need to know what's going on up there. Are you ready?

"As ready as I'm going to be."

Then here we go. Ghost engaged the jump drive, and the view outside distorted. On the edge of her senses she felt an indescribable, massive acceleration. Lines of light surrounded them. Even her internal chronometer struggled to figure out precisely how long they held that way, until with a crushing deceleration they were back in normal space and the moon dominated the view. The jumpship hurtled forward towards what Ghost identified as Mare Imbrium, the Ocean of Storms. The surface of the moon was cracked and fractured, with ominous green light shining out from beneath the surface.

"Of course, the communication array would be right in the same spot where the Great Disaster happened in the middle of a Hive fortress."

Ghost didn't respond, instead guiding the jumpship down, skimming over the gray surface, and transmatted her down in the same spot the Vanguard sensors had detected the Dead Orbit fireteam's jumpships. She settled into the dust, and took a few exploratory steps. Strangely, gravity was exactly the same as on Earth. Did the Traveler do this? Or the hive? No way to know.

Okay, here we go.

Ghost updated a white diamond onto her HUD. Last known coordinates for the fireteam up ahead.

They set off up the hill, each footstep giving off a puff of dust. They didn't encounter anyone as they followed a rough trail left by tires from the golden age that led to a large, human-made building. The core section was a warehouse, but on top was a long, thick mechanism that looked something like an extremely oversized railgun.

That must be the accelerator. Supplies ferried up from Earth were launched to outposts across the solar system from here. Hold on, I'm picking something up on Vanguard channels. Looks like Dead Orbit have decided to cooperate with the Vanguard. They're still not saying what they found, but they've shared the missing guardian's last report. They reclaimed this accelerator from an unknown Fallen house.

"They don't want the Vanguard to show them up, huh? Now they get to say they helped. Great." She didn't pick up any movement, so they headed into cover inside. The place was ransacked, with huge cargo containers broken open and their contents scattered and looted. As they approached one of the primary control panels Ghost hummed. Some of this equipment shows recent activity. It must have been the guardian's ghost. Ghost emerged from hiding and began parsing through stored information. Alright, he was looking for the remains of an old colony base. Maybe he's still there.

Whisper froze as she heard a sound. "Movement."

Arc energy. Fallen. We're being hunted.

Ghost vanished and Whisper started to reach for Void Light, then paused. If she was ever going to learn, it might as well be now – so instead, she reached for arc light. Into the groove, Whisper, into the groove. The first Fallen dreg appeared and she opened fire with her SMG. The impact launched the dreg, hurling him into a bulkhead with a sick crack of bone.

More dregs attacked from every angle, and she returned fire in short bursts. What was that shimmer?

Freezing cold metal pierced her side, followed by an explosion of arc energy. She staggered as the stealth vandal withdrew its arc blade and another stealth vandal brought down its own blade. It tore something deep inside and she lost all feeling in her legs. The arc blades came for her once more.

…

The house was too big and too empty. She felt exposed, vulnerable, and above all, alone. She ran out the doors to the rose garden, determined never to return.

…

Ghost restored her in a flash of Light. She triggered her own stolen stealth drive, disappearing from view, and the vandals hesitated, unsure, and her own blade cut one to the heart. See how you like it! The other turned to run, and she pulled on the Arc Light, leaping into it, and blinked forward, driving her blade into the Fallen's back.

The stealth drive failed, its charge exhausted, and she flickered back into visibility, crackling with Arc energy. The dregs cried out in alarm and fear at the display of Light that marked a guardian and turned and fled.

Whisper watched them go, then turned to look at the vandals she had killed. They were Fallen, much like any other, but they wore tan armor so faded it looked gray which blended into the background of the moon. Its only decoration was a green fringe and cloaks with a house sigil she'd never seen before that looked like a plant; a long white stem with radiating lines like leaves around the diamond flower. The armor was even more beat up and scavenged than usual. Stranger still, an independent raiding party led by two vandals? Where was their captain? And why did they have so many dregs, but no shanks?

We've got a skiff coming in.

She left her musings for later and headed outside, transmatting her new sparrow into existence. "Time to go. Did you get anything?"

Yes, the colony base the guardian was looking for should be on the other side of the ridge. Follow the accelerator support structures for a few kilometers and there should be some sort of road off to the left.

Whisper nodded and hit the throttle. Despite all the questions swirling around her and her own most recent death, she smiled at the smooth acceleration of the sparrow. She wound her way beneath the large support columns, weaving between scavenged supply caches and ancient, ruined vehicles.

Of all the places the Fallen could go, why here? Why the moon? There were lots of ruins to loot, but this was also near a Hive fortress on a Hive fortress world. You had to be truly desperate for that… didn't you? Could they be exiles of some sort? After ten minutes they were halfway down the length of the accelerator, and Ghost indicated that they had reached the turn. Whisper followed the ancient tire tracks and rounded a small hill where a round, elevated platform stood, surrounded by smaller depots.

This is where he was headed.

A handful of dregs screeched in alarm at her approach, turning to run away from their idle picking over the ruins. Whisper frowned at that. Very strange, and very risky. Wandering alone in Hive territory? She felt nervous doing it, and she had the Light. These Fallen were desperate and disorganized.

She put away the Sparrow and approached the small command center. The airlock had fallen apart, leaving the whole thing open to vacuum. Still, the lights around the computer console were turned on, so someone had spent some time here searching for data. More tellingly, a sleeping bag had been laid out against one of the walls.

Looks like he set up camp here. Let's see what he left behind. Ghost set to work on the systems while Whisper kept watch out of the doorway. Found his notes. They're all about a place called the 'Temple of Crota.' It's not far from here. Sounds like a death trap. This way.

The ghost updated her HUD icon, and together they ventured out again, heading down into a fractured area. Some incredible force had cracked the moon's surface complete, leaving it in jagged edges stretching up to the night. Ghost hummed nervously. The ground here is hollowed out for miles. Who knows what's happening under your feet.

"You're not helping, Ghost." They didn't run into any more Fallen in this direction - it was just them silently picking their way ever downwards. And then, wedged into the bottom of a crevice, was a structure. Unlike the browns and yellows of the human structures above, this was made of a strange, dark gray substance that looked more like bone than metal. Teal lights glowed from inside the walls lining both sides of an oversized set of double doors that were held closed by thick, black chains marked with strange symbols. They both stared at it silently.

I think we found the temple.

There was no movement or other sign of living things, Hive or otherwise, so they approached cautiously. I'm getting something up ahead. Oh. Guardian down, he added quietly.

Sure enough, at the foot of the doors was the armored form of a guardian, enclosed in a space suit and surrounded by the churned dust of a violent struggle. He had been badly beaten, leaving big dents in the armor and cracking his visor, exposing him to the vacuum that had ultimately killed him. Everything was gone – his weapons, identification, any information. "There's nothing left…"

Ghost emerged, agitated. Not even the Light is there. I'm almost afraid to find out what can do that to a guardian. Where is his ghost? He started scanning the area. Whisper, meanwhile, felt like she was being watched, just like that very first day in the Cosmodrome. She turned, and there at the top of the pit stood a stranger, a female exo with a white-painted face. Her body was painted blue with white hashing from her belt over her chest, wrapped in a tattered blue cloak over her left shoulder. Her right arm had a large spike over her elbow, and she held a strange pulse rifle. The exo stranger stared down at her, impassive.

Uh oh.

Whisper turned back to the doorway, where the designs on the chains had started to glow. She glanced back at the exo stranger, but she was gone.

We… may want to move back. Whisper didn't argue, taking several steps away from the door and drawing her SMG while Ghost transmatted himself to safety. The chains on the door glowed white hot and crumbled, falling into a heap. We've woken the Hive!

"Ghost, what did you do!" It wasn't me!

The door divided three ways and peeled apart to allow a swarm of thrall to storm out with their tortured war cries. Whisper pulled on arc energy and threw it into the doorway, where it crackled with electricity and fried the first dozen thrall. She gunned down the stumbling survivors, but now bigger Hive creatures were emerging, firing bolts of thrumming void energy from handheld weapons.

Whisper retreated, seeking cover in the shattered terrain as her shield took several hits.

I'm picking up the dying light of a ghost inside the temple!

"Not now, Ghost!" Her shield broke and she winced as void energy sizzled against her armor as she jumped over another shattered fissure and slid down the other side, then rolled over to return fire. Something else was coming out of the doors now, something big. She'd just caught sight of one previously, but now she got her first good look at it.

It was more than double her size. If the smaller ones were overgrown thralls, then this was the next step in evolution, with ever larger growths of hardened bone all over its body and framing its three glowing green eyes. It wielded an enormous cannon that seemed to have grown around a seed at its heart. The monster let out a battlecry shriek and fired the cannon, which sent out bombardments of Arc energy that pulverized the ground into dust around her. Whisper cursed and triggered her stealth drive, quickly backing away from her meager cover and dropping the SMG at her feet for her sniper rifle. The armor-piercing bullet bored into its skull, extinguishing the light of its eyes, and it crumbled.

The vibration of the rifle short-circuited the stealth drive, and she was exposed again. Six Hive opened fire, hammering her with energy. The first three were absorbed by her shield, but the next slammed into her head, blinding her left eye, and two more blew large chunks out of her right leg. She fell backwards, floating back to the dust. She'd lost her rifle, but as she scrambled in the dust she found the SMG again, and fired blindly while she dragged herself away.

Her magazine clicked dry and she managed to throw another Arc grenade while Ghost hummed. Her eye flicked back to life as the ghost did its work. She switched to the shotgun which thundered, blowing to pieces another two Hive, but they were hugging cover now. What were they waiting for… oh. The door was opening again and yet another Hive emerged, floating in the air. A little smaller than the big one, its fetid robe fluttered as it cried out in rage, accompanied by another two-dozen thrall. This was definitely an "oh crap" moment. She traded out the shotgun and pulled into reality the rocket launcher, leveling it awkwardly from her prone position, and fired into the doorway.

The warhead erupted in an explosion that funneled out of the narrow confines. The floating Hive burned to a crisp, her screams drowned in the thunder of high explosives, and the thralls disintegrated. The explosion was violent enough that the edges of it caught the last of the Hive, burning them to husks.

Ghost emerged once more, scanning her leg worriedly. I can fix this, but it will take a few minutes. It would be faster if I, you know, start from scratch.

Whisper started. "What? What are you saying?"

Exos are complicated! I can repair the damage, but it's faster to start from a clean template, and—

"Ghost, I am not shooting myself! Not now, not ever!" Her mechanical chest heaved with unexpected, burning passion mirroring the internal emotional turbulence. What is this? Where are these feelings coming from? What is going on?

"If it's going to take a while, then get started, and tell me what the hell those monsters were back there."

The ghost complied, focusing its energies on stitching together the badly mangled leg, adjusting complex electrical signaling systems and rearranging advanced composite materials, as it spoke. You already know about the thrall. The others with the guns, those are called acolytes. We call their guns shredders.

"But how do they work? I didn't get a good look, but I didn't see any trigger mechanism.1 Wait, let me guess, we don't know because nobody has bothered to find out." She gasped as Ghost snapped her leg back into place.

The bigger ones we call knights. We know a little more about them - they're at least a few centuries old, and their bone growth is as hard as relic iron and covered in scratches from past battles. They sometimes summon black energy fields as shields.2Sometimes they carry giant cleavers, too.

Whisper forced herself to set aside more questions and keep her eye on the temple entrance while she reloaded her weapons. Fortunately, the Hive had exhausted their gate guards, at least for the moment, and a few minutes later the last loose panel snapped back into place on her leg. She tested her weight on it, and no warnings popped up.

"Let's get this over with quickly, before more of them show up." Ghost didn't respond, so she pressed forward grimly. The doors opened at her approach to reveal a round entryway leading up to a corridor lit by large, yellow shapes with unsettling designs carved into them. Two pillars supported the roof, each marked with a symbol in green that looked bizarrely like the Fallen's sigil, only without the stem. Did the Fallen steal their symbol from the Hive? Could they be allied with the Hive somehow? It might be possible for these Fallen wretches, but it seemed unlikely the Hive would accept them. Was it a twisted sense of pride, that the Fallen survived on the Hive fortress world where no one else could?

So many questions. Fortunately, the temple itself was quite small. The corridor ended in a sort of altar, backed by more yellow lights. A round bowl that looked disturbingly like a mouth ringed with teeth held the remains of a ghost trapped in its grasp as an offering. But to whom? Or to what?

The ghost is dead, its Light drained away, but I can still read some of its memories. They found some sort of library with information but were chased here, cut off from the rest of the fireteam. They found… the Hive are raising an army here, preparing to invade Earth! We need to stop them!

"One step at a time, Ghost! A handful of Hive nearly took us down—we need to get out of here, get back to the Tower and regroup."

Right. Of course. I'm with you. He transmitted away, but continued to muse quietly. People always seem surprised when they hear that Ghosts can die. Everything dies. I bet that scout's Ghost would have been proud to know his last memories could lead us to the World's Grave.3

Whisper rode the Nomad a ways from the temple before calling in the jumpship, both because she didn't want to risk losing their only way off planet to any defenses hidden around the temple, and to give herself some time to think. And the more she thought, the angrier she got. There were so many questions, and it was about time she started to get answers from the people in the Tower. They had to know more than they were letting on, and she was sick of wandering around in the dark. If they wanted any more help from her, they were going to start talking.

Referenced Lore

Grimoire

The Dark Beyond

The Dark Within

Moon

Blink

Shotguns

Moon

Shredder

Knight

Weapons:

Graviton Ese

Graviton ESm

Armor:

Night Rain Cloak

Mangala Skin 1.3 (head)

Komarov 3.1 (chest)

Nemesis Plane (legs)

Night Rain Cloak

Makeshift Scarf

Nagari Cloak

Hardcase Cloak

Pleiades Hood

Not a Fallen Hood

Maverick's Cloak

Hustler's Cloak

Dustwalker Cloak

Komarov 3.1r4 (legs)

Komarov 3.1 (arms)

Quest Descriptions:

The Dark Beyond

Equip Armor

The World's Grave

Bounty Description:

Lunar Reconnaissance

Advanced Shotgun Calibration (D2)

Firestarter

Lore Books:

The Man They Call Cayde: Raise

Other:

Cayde's Treasure Island Book

1 Shredder (D1 Grimoire)

2 Knight (D1 Grimoire)

3 The World's Grave