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[Cosmodrome Wilds]
The Cosmodrome stirred as dust clouds scattered across its valleys.
Piles of rusted scrap stretched across the field like ribs of a dead beast. Ravens watched from overhead wires, wings shifting in twitchy cadence as three figures darted between cracked tarmac and ancient walls.
IEatPaint grunted, slamming a dreg to the ground with a melee. "Another one down," he muttered, voice thick with satisfaction.
Beside him, Waffles kicked over a rusted ammo crate, scarf fluttering as she ducked low. "Still need one more kill with with my super. Bounties ain't budging."
TheOneWhoKnocks sat on a low pipe, shotgun on his knee, Ghost scanning what looked like a weathered comms node. His armour shimmered in a fresh shader—he'd been tweaking his look all morning.
"RNG's cruel today," he said, dry.
They'd been farming all day. Patrols, bounties and every possible reward option. The Cosmodrome's opening areas were a loop they knew by muscle memory now. Even the Fallen had started to avoid the zones. Still, they couldn't rest until they got all randomized drops.
They naturally had to figure out which one was the best one. The grind was real.
Then a ping echoed in all their heads.
Zavala's voice cut through and a quest window opened up.
"Guardians, Vanguard operations have confirmed access to a new mission: Restoration. You're receiving this message because you're ready."
IEatPaint sat up straighter.
Waffles turned, grinning. "Finally."
Knocks cracked his knuckles. "Story mission?"
Zavala's voice continued, measured but firm.
"The Jumpship you've brought back is now in decent condition. With proper retrofitting, it could return to operational flight. But it's missing a warp drive—essential for interstellar traversal. Our scans point to the Cosmodrome. Your Ghosts will guide you to information hubs."
IEatPaint's Ghost blinked into view, blue eye flickering.
"I'm already pulling schematics. There's a lead... the Fallen House of Devils. They've scavenged tech from Golden Age bunkers. The likelihood of having a warp drive is very high."
Waffles whistled. "Of course it's the Devils."
"Great," TheOneWhoKnocks muttered, flipping his shotgun onto his back. "Bet it's locked behind some big ugly Fallen brute."
IEatPaint grinned. "Wouldn't be Destiny if it wasn't."
The Ghost continued. "The most probable location of the warp drive is within the grasp of an Archon. Riksis. House of Devils war-leader. Last seen in the Skywatch sectors."
Paint mounted his Sparrow.
Waffles followed, the twin jets of her ride flaring to life.
TheOneWhoKnocks gave the Cosmodrome one last look—the rust, the bones, the silence, then he sighed, "This mission better not drop greens."
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[SkyWatch Sectors]
The wind howled across the rusted metal panels of Lunar One Complex, a skeleton of humanity's golden ambition now buried under sand and silence. What little remained had been reformed into a frontier outpost—barely holding the line.
Inside the command chamber, Tevis sat at a dimly lit console, one hand resting lazily near the receiver, the other tapping the edge of a broken screen. Outside, a storm threatened the uplands. The Skywatch always caught the worst of it.
Static buzzed. Then a voice.
"Tevis. You there?"
He leaned forward. "Levi. What's going on?"
The voice on the other end was unmistakably his. Calm, but heavy. The kind of voice you got after seeing too much.
"I've scouted the old refinery. Bandit was right. Movement in the ash tunnels. I thought it was just echoes—maybe Vandal scavengers."
"And?"
Levi paused, "It's worse than we thought. Claw marks on the wall. Like someone tried to dig into them bare hand."
Tevis sat up straight.
"You're sure?"
"I've seen those on the moon before," Levi answered. "Wouldn't mistake it now. There's more..I found some nesting sites not far. We wiped those out. But it couldn't be the only place affected."
Silence fell over the comms.
The weight in Levi's voice was real. Tevis could tell he sounded like someone trying to make deny what he'd seen.
"I thought we cleaned them out," Tevis muttered, adjusting a dial to start the station's comms interface.
"We did. Cory and I burned the breeding grounds before we even left for the War. We made sure it was over."
Tevis narrowed his eyes at the stormy sky beyond the glass. "Then why are they back?"
"I don't know. But I've got a bad feeling. This... this isn't just a remnant. It couldn't be "
The silence hung. The Hive weren't like the Fallen. They didn't retreat. They weren't interested in survival. When they came, it was to conquer. To burrow. To devour.
Tevis's jaw tightened, his face had stiffened. He refused to believe what he'd heard.
"What's the plan? Bandit and I are still on route. Gonna look for more if we can find them. But its not looking good." Levi heaved a sigh.
Tevis tapped the screen, still stuck in contemplation, but as he heard Levi's voice he wiped his forehead and reached for the encrypted relay channel. "I'm alerting the Vanguard."
"You think they'll move on this?" Levi asked.
"They have to." He stood, "If the Hive are returning, we don't get a second chance. They don't send scouts. They send tombs."
The console hissed as Tevis activated the uplink to the Tower. The transmission request flickered, then locked in. The Vanguard had received it.
But just then, Tevis stopped. His eyes narrowed and as he paused to think. A few moments later, he sighed.
Tevis switched channels again. This time, the line was unlisted—buried in the old tech beneath the console, masked beneath a thousand relays. He keyed in a simple encryption phrase. The screen glitched, and a faint blue sigil shimmered across the monitor: Recipient Confirmed – Void.
He typed out a simple message, just to alert him about the presence of the Hive. Though Void wasn't in his squad, Tevis was sure he'd want to know. One thing was certain, Void had a knack for the Hive.
What he'd achieved on the moon was only proof.
If the City truly wanted to eradicate this problem, he needed to let him know now. Tevis sent it, then leaned back in his chair and stared at the blinking cursor on the blank screen. He could only pray that Levi was mistaken.
But in his heart, Tevis knew that wasn't possible. After all, a Nightstalker rarely stalked the wrong prey.
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[Workshop, Shore]
The Tangled Shore was never quiet.
Even at dusk, metal groaning under gravity, strange whispers in the static of channels, and the occasional burst of Fallen gunfire in the distance. But here, within the workshop, Void sat still.
His back leaned against a console, his cloak drawn close as the warm blue glow of a screen pulsed faintly across his visor. Crates of supplies were stacked nearby—fabrics, glimmer cores, broken weapon frames, and alloy salvaged from Spider's old caches.
Pahanin paced across the deck, his latest rifle build disassembled before him, muttering to himself about recoil harmonics and thermal compensation.
Void wasn't listening.
His HUD flickered. A ping—encrypted. Secure. From the SkyWatch relays.
'It's the squad.' His eyes narrowed.
Void's posture straightened as the message decrypted. Obsidian floated silently, reading alongside him.
Hive signs in the Skywatch. Nest sites .You'll know what to do.
For a moment, Void didn't move. His hand flexed slightly, fingers brushing against the grip of his sidearm. The noise in the workshop seemed to quiet just enough for his thoughts to echo back.
'Crota'
That name hadn't surfaced in a long time. Not since the Moon had quieted. Not since they'd escaped.
He exhaled, low and slow, as if steadying a recoil. "No... not now."
Void muttered. "They're not just nesting. They're preparing. The city isn't ready for a second onslaught—not again."
"How could the hive recover this early?" Obsidian pulsed, "The war must have impacted them too."
Void stayed silent.
Another window opened on his HUD—a mission file auto-generated from his system.
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Mission: An Army of the Undead
Objective: Investigate Hive resurgence on Earth.
Rewards: +100 Reputation (City), +100,000 Glimmer
Remarks: Something's wrong... I can feel it. Just a feeling!
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Void clicked his tongue, a habit when deep in thought. His mind spun as he recalled the game's missions and events.
If the Hive were returning to earth....that meant only one thing—Crota stirred from his slumber—then nothing was a coincidence anymore. The Traveler was healing. And now, new Lightbearers were awakening across Earth's ruins.
It was only fair that the Darkness returns.
"Too many signs," he said aloud.
A wrench clanked behind him. Pahanin turned from the forge with grease on his hands and suspicion in his eyes.
"You're brooding," the old Gunsmith noted. "Again."
Void didn't answer immediately.
"I got a message. We got Hive nests in the old ash tunnels beside SkyWatch. My old squad confirmed it."
Pahanin blinked. "You're serious? "
Void nodded once. "Presence of the Hive is no joke. It's likely we'll enter a new territory war again. This won't be easy."
Pahanin set his tools down. "So what do we do?"
Void stood, cloak swaying as he moved toward the central deck. He stared out across the stars, his eyes distant.
"We build."
He turned back, voice sharper now. "We forge gear that lasts. Curated frames. Reliable perks. Focused output. No junk."
Pahanin arched a brow. "You're sounding like a Vanguard quartermaster."
Void smiled behind his visor. "Please. I'm just imagining the loot we'll get when we trade for it."
Pahanin snorted, then nodded. "Alright. VENOM's first proper line. Let's make sure it survives."
Void agreed, rushing back to the work. But then his eyes drifted across the system terminal, landing on an old quest.
[Golden Age Vault Encounters 1/15]
His thoughts raced.
"Perhaps we'll need more than guns," he whispered to himself, "We'll need an army."
Void paused, recalling the mission list. It was around this time that the Fallen would begin their little skirmish with the Old Rasputin bunkers. If memory served him right, Rasputin would retaliate.
But the warmind couldn't possibly do it alone. He needed help.
'I need to find him fast.' Void resolved, the only way to secure earth's defences was to arm Rasputin, and despite the risks, if the Hive truly were coming back, Rasputin was one hell of an ally to have.
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