"So the big white ball, which is the Traveler, generates the 'Light' that me and other Guardians like me can use to perform magic?" Jake asked Ghost.
"Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but pretty much."
"And these...Space turtle-gopher things tried to steal it?"
"Cabal." Ghost corrected. "They were led by the warlord known as Domius Ghaul. He killed the speaker, who was basically the conduit for messages from the Traveler to Humanity."
"And besides the Fallen and the Cabal, how many other factions of evil aliens are there?" Jake asked.
"First off, they're not inherently evil. They just have an opposition to Humanity. They're as prone to fighting each other as we are to fighting them." Ghost explained.
"Right."
"Anyways, besides the Fallen, AKA the Eliksni, and the Cabal, there's also the Hive, the Vex, and the Taken, which are more of a virus than a race or faction."
Jake and Ghost began to approach the location at which Shaw's signal had stopped, which took them through the exposed side of a building, and down a short ramp. Jake put a finger to his comlink. "Shaw? We're here. What's your location?" he asked.
"Eyes uptop." came the response, and Jake looked up to see a blade-shaped craft fly overhead. "I'll scan for signals from my jumpship." Shaw's voice said. "I need you to be my eyes on the ground."
"Copy that." Jake replied, watching as Shaw's ship circled overhead. The landscape was barren; only a few patches of dead grass stuck up here and there, with the occasional tree. A small lake lay several yards to his right, and forward there stood a single utility building, which had long since been abandoned and left to rot.

Shaw's voice rang back through the comms. "Something's causing interference; my scanner's shot. We might be doing this the old fashioned way."
Ghost appeared next to Jake, and surveyed the area. "Analyzing..." he said, before he began to emit a buzzing sound as he scanned the area. "I've got a source for the interference. Let's check it out."
Jake's HUD lit up with a location for the interference, which was coming from a nearby hill. Jake sighed, and ran off in the direction of the hill. His boots pounded against the soft dirt of the ground as he ran, and something felt right about it. Just being here, out in the wild, hunting down disturbances... it felt... right. Must be a natural Hunter thing. Jake thought as they approached the hill. Surveying the area, Jake saw several fallen grouped around a large box that had an antenna sticking out of it. The Fallen were muttering and grumbling to each other in their strange language, pressing buttons and flipping switches on the device. "Get me closer to that antenna." Ghost spoke to Jake through his comms. "Right." Jake whispered. "Just gotta get through these guys first."
Concentrating, Jake called upon the Light, and formed a small sphere of flames in his hand, before lobbing it at the group of Eliksni. The ball hit the ground and rolled to a stop, giving the Fallen barely any time to react before it exploded, sending a wave of flames outwards that consumed the surrounding Fallen, killing them instantly as their bodies were disintegrated by the blast. The three remaining Fallen turned around, aiming their rifles, but Jake was able to quickly pick each of them off with a few shots from his Khvostov, a spray of pitch black blood coming from their bodies as the bullets tore through them. After the final Eliksni fell, Jake walked up to the antenna box, and Ghost appeared next to him, who began to scan the device.
"Stolen city tech has been spliced in here. That's scrambling your scans." Ghost communicated to Shaw.
Through the comms, Jake could hear Shaw grumbling to himself. "Fallen can't resist tinkering with old scrap." He said.
"They're certainly skilled at it." Ghost replied. "This will take a minute to fix."

A loud boom sounded overhead, and Jake looked up to see one of the Fallen skiffs that Ghost had described to him descending. The circular ports on the underbelly of the ship began to open, and out crawled several groups of Fallen, carrying an assortment of weapons. "Hold them off while I work on this!" Ghost said, and Jake obliged with a volley of gunfire from his rifle, taking out several of the Fallen as they advanced on the hill. Suddenly, several drone-like machines with purple coloring began to float towards them, with tiny plasma cannons firing at Jake. Little drone things... Jake thought. Shanks! Right. Ghost told me about these things- They're weak individually, but when swarming in a group they can be deadly. Jake took several well-aimed shots at the Shank's motherboards, causing them to explode in a shower of shrapnel, circuits, and mechanical innards. Hands suddenly wrapped around Jake's neck, and he found himself being strangled from behind by an Eliksni wielding an arc spear, using it to choke him. Jake wrestled with the Fallen wretch, grabbing the spear and thrusting himself forward, throwing the Fallen over his back and onto the ground. Taking the spear, he shoved it into the wretch's stomach, killing it with a painful screech.

"Signal restored." Ghost chimed, and returned to Jake's side.
"Damn." Shaw's voice came through the comms. "Fireteam signals are missing, and last known locations are nowhere near each other. They wouldn't split up unless things got real bad."
"So they've gotta be in some serious danger right now." Jake replied. "We'd better hurry."
"I'll track Cas, you find Maeve." Shaw instructed. "Sending coordinates now."
Jake's HUD tracker pinged with Maeve's last known location, which was on a ridge at least a mile or two north of Jake's current position. "Come on, Ghost. We need to move fast." Jake said as he slid down the side of the hill, and began running in the direction of the tracker.
"Wait!" Ghost said, stopping Jake in his tracks. "We'll never make it on foot. We need something faster."
"And where would we find something like that?" Jake asked.
"Right in front of us." Ghost reappeared and motioned to Jake's left, where a strange-looking machine was sitting. It looked like it had been haphazardly assembled using random pieces of alien junk, but had a very clear indent of a driver's seat and handlebars. Jake rested his hand on one of the bars, and studied the thing.
"What is this?" Jake asked.
"It's a Pike." Ghost answered. "It's a vehicle used by the Fallen as a mode of transportation. They're dangerous to use, but right now, it's all we got."
Jake mounted the bike, and looked at the controls, which were all labeled in an alien text. "Ghost, I can't read any of this." he said, hovering his hand over the various buttons and switches. His fingers gripped the handlebars, and he rubbed his thumb over a button that rested on top of them. "What's this do?" he asked out loud, before pressing the button. Instantly, a bolt of arc energy erupted from the front of the Pike, streaking forward and colliding with a rock, which exploded.
"That's the trigger." Ghost said.
"Yeah, I noticed." Jake shot back. "Let's see... maybe this will do it."
Jake flipped a switch resting on the Pike's dashboard, and the vehicle began to shake and hum as it was lifted off the ground, hovering only a few inches off the dirt. Jake laughed. "Got it!" he shouted excitedly. "Hang on, Ghost!"
Ghost disappeared into Jake's backpack as Jake began to steer the Pike, leading it in the direction of the tracker, and hit the thruster. The Pike shot forward, causing Jake to lean back as it went down a cliff into the remains of a small sewage ravine, and back up the ramp that led out. As the Pike climbed to the top of the hills, Jake was shocked to see a vast, open field that was littered with the carcasses of huge, rusted aircrafts from before the Golden Age, and at the other side of the field was a plateau with a large communications building sitting on top.

"What is this place?" Jake asked, his mouth agape.
"It's called the mothyards." Ghost explained. "From what I've heard, historians think that it's essentially a trash heap for aircrafts, used before the Golden Age."
"Cool..." Jake said.

Jake's Pike sped across the mothyards, kicking up dust and dirt as he hit the accelerator. When they finally reached the cliff on the other end, Jake made the short climb up to the top, and walked over to the entrance to the building. His jaw dropped when he was met with a strange, blue energy field blocking his path. A device that looked similar to the antenna he had just been at was hooked up to the door, seemingly powering the energy field. "Hey Shaw?" Jake said, tapping his comlink. "There's some kind of energy field blocking the way."
Ghost appeared, and inspected the generator powering the field. "Looks like the Fallen want to keep us out." he said.
"Or keep something in." Shaw's voice answered through the comms. "There's worse things than Fallen Dregs in old Russia."
"Right." Ghost responded. "Let's check out the control unit." Jake walked over to the unit, and held out his hand for Ghost to check out the device. Ghost hovered around the object, inspecting it with his little lasers, prodding it here and there to get scan readings. Finally, he started talking again.

"This is locked down with adaptive encryption." he explained. "We'll need access keys to bypass it. The Fallen salvagers might have some."
"Great." Jake grumbled. "I'll get back to you when I have them." He began to head off back down the hill and to the Fallen salvage yards...

...about an hour or so later, Jake made it back to the control unit, holding three access keys in his fingers. "Three Fallen access code keys comin' right up!" He said, excitedly. Ghost moved aside, allowing Jake to insert all three, deactivating the control unit. The blue energy field dissipated, and Jake began to head towards the doorway.
Before he made it there, the most terrifying, blood curdling scream he had heard all day echoed through the halls up ahead. It didn't sound like any Fallen Jake had ever heard of, and that terrified him. As Ghost had told him, there were worse races in the universe. "Shaw!" Ghost said, panicked. "You were right about this barrier. The Fallen were keeping the Hive at bay!"
At the mention of the Hive, the color drained from Jake's face, and he felt cold. Ghost had told him about many of the 'enemy' factions in the universe; the warmongering Cabal, the genocidal Vex, the infectious Taken. But chief amongst them was the Hive. The way Ghost described them, they seemed to be a vicious and savage space-cult, who gave no regard for life that couldn't prove its worthiness to live. He described how Hive activity had been on the down-low ever since another Guardian defeated Crota and his father Oryx at least a year back, but a Hive presence on the Earth was bad news for sure.

Jake was brought back to his senses when Shaw's response rang through the comms. "Then Maeve is in more trouble than I thought. You need to hurry!"
"Going as fast as I can!" Jake responded, starting to pick up the pace as he ran. The HUD on his visor indicated him to Maeve's location, making Jake take sharp turn after sharp turn as he ran throughout the dark building. As the halls began to get really dark, Ghost appeared next to Jake's shoulder, providing a light source for Jake to see where he was going. Suddenly, the hallways opened up into a large, open room. Ghost shined his flashlight around, until it fell on a single, skeletal figure. It was hunched over, making strange groaning sounds as it twitched randomly. "Hive contact!" Ghost shouted, making both Jake and the creature jump in surprise. Jake turned, seeing the strange creature, which he quickly recognized as a Thrall- mindless, bloodthirsty drones, who served as the Hive's first line of invasion, swarming and overwhelming their enemies.

"SHIT!" Jake shouted in surprise, and drew his rifle, firing off several rounds into the Thrall, causing it to collapse to the ground, black-and-green goo oozing from its wounds. Several screeches and howls erupted throughout the chamber as more Thrall began to swarm into the room. Jake whipped out his Stubborn Oak shotgun and began blasting away at the oncoming horde, wiping out wave upon wave of Thrall as they charged him. Suddenly, his shotgun clicked empty. Shit. Jake thought to himself, looking around in a panic. He drew his knife, yelling a battle cry as he thrust himself into the fray, slashing and stabbing with wild abandon. Jake began to lose the fight, getting chunks torn out of his body, beginning to bleed out. His vision started to get blurry, and he finally collapsed onto the ground in a heap. The Thrall piled on top of his body, feeding on his flesh like deranged hounds that hadn't eaten in months. Ghost was barely able to shine his beam through the gaps to revive his Guardian, but after several tries, the shining laser finally touched the body of the fallen hunter.

Jake erupted from the pile of Thrall, bursting into flames as the Golden Gun formed in his hand once more. The bodies of the Thrall were showered in the flames erupting from the hunter's body, vaporizing their bodily forms, leaving behind nothing but charcoal shadows burnt into the ground, and the echoes of their pained squeals. Jake turned to the exit, spotting several Thrall lumbering through the doorway, these ones looking slightly different than the others; their hands were wrapped tightly around their forearms, resembling what one might do to keep warm in cold weather, and they had bulbous growths on their heads, which glowed with an eerie green light. Jake recognized them as cursed Thrall- a special variant of the normal Thrall. They specialized in suicidal tactics, willingly letting their bodies explode in order to destroy their opponents. Jake fired a single shot from his Golden Gun at the cursed Thrall in front of the pack, causing it to blow up in a satisfying display of orange flames and brilliant green light. This set off a chain reaction that destroyed all the other cursed Thrall, the green fluid from their bodies staining the wall. The flames surrounding Jake's body dispersed, and he continued following the hallway in the direction the Thrall came from. Suddenly, Jake felt very cold- as if his very life force was being sucked out of his body.

Ghost spoke up.
"The Darkness..." he said. "It's suffocating my light."
"Wait, does that mean-" Jake started, but Ghost answered for him, confirming the worst.
"I can't bring you back if you die here."

Jake's eyebrows arched. "Well, then let's play this smart."
He then crouched down, letting his hunter instincts sink in. Sneaking over to a window by a doorway, Jake looked in to see several humanoid figures walking around the room. They were fitted in bulky-looking armor that looked like it was made out of bone (Or perhaps those were their bones.) and they all had skull-like faces, and had three glowing green eyes on their heads that were arranged in a triangle pattern. Each of them carried ritualistic-looking blasters in their hands, which occasionally pulsated with a dim, purple light.

Ghost peeked over Jake's shoulder. "Woah." He whispered. "Those are-"
"Acolytes." Jake cut him off. "Yeah, I guessed. Soldiers of the Hive, right?"
Ghost nodded, before disappearing into Jake's backpack. Jake retrieved his rifle, and took aim at the nearest Acolyte. The humanoid had its back turned to him, and was looking around, scouting the area. Jake waited a couple seconds, before squeezing the trigger. The rifle popped, ripping a hole straight through the Acolyte's head, piercing the creature's center eye. It collapsed to the ground as the black-green blood began to pour from the wound, forming a small pool around the body. The other Acolytes looked towards the source of the noise. Seeing Jake, they all started communicating in a low, grunting language, and began to fire at Jake with their blasters. Purple bolts whizzed through the air, causing Jake to duck down as the beams tore up the space where his head was seconds before. Jake rolled to the side, kneeling in the doorway and opening fire on two of the Acolytes who were standing on an elevated area of the room. The Acolytes were caught by the fire, collapsing to the floor. One of the two lurched forwards, his body toppling over the railing and landing on another Acolyte, sending both of them to the floor.

Jake charged from his hiding spot and took cover behind a metal column, hearing the Acolytes growling to each other, coordinating their attacks. Jake peeked out from behind the column, seeing the Acolytes slowly approaching his position from either side. They got me pinned. He thought. Or, at least they think I'm pinned. Jake grinned, concentrating on the Light's power, forming another ball of fire in his hand. He dropped it to the ground on his left side, and kicked it back towards the Acolyte on that side. The ball erupted, letting out a stream of roaring fire that engulfed the Hive soldier. Jake could hear the Acolyte's screams of agony as its body was disintegrated by the fire, leaving only ashes. Suddenly, the other Acolyte jumped out from the opposite side of the column, trying to catch Jake off guard, but Jake was more than ready for him. Whirling around, Jake brought the barrel of his shotgun right up to the Acolyte's face, before pulling the trigger. The shot blasted the Acolyte's entire head off his shoulders, letting out a spray of blood as the body toppled over.

"Alright, looks like we're cleared out here." Jake said. "Ghost, where's Maeve now?"
Before Ghost could answer, Jake was knocked to the ground by what felt like a freight train, and heard a deep, growling roar. He looked up from the ground to see a much larger version of an Acolyte, with a horned helmet and a large, wicked sword.
"Shit, that's a Knight, isn't it?" Jake asked, remembering the stories Ghost told him, in which entire fireteams of Guardians were wiped out by a single Knight. The Knight charged at Jake, and swung his sword violently down to the ground. Jake rolled out of the way as the Knight's sword slammed into the ground with a loud CLANG! The Knight turned to look at Jake, anger boiling in its three glowing eyes. Jake crawled backwards as the Knight pulled the sword from the metal floor, before approaching the hunter menacingly. Jake got up onto his feet, drawing his knife. A knife, Jake? He yelled at himself inside his head. Really? Against a sword?
Jake had no time to think of a better plan, as the Knight was already swinging its sword again. Jake held up his knife in defense, just barely blocking the sword. The Knight made a noise that sounded like a mix between frustration and bewilderment, confused at why a Guardian would attempt to use a knife against a sword, and angered at the fact that the Guardian even thought a flimsy knife would beat this hardened warrior.

The Knight began to overpower Jake, pressing forward with his sword, almost breaking Jake's guard. "Ghost! Little help?" Jake shouted, prompting Ghost to appear in the air next to him. Ghost shined his little laser onto the blade of Jake's knife, causing it to burst into flames. The Knife looked at the knife in utter panic, but Jake was infinitely faster. Thrusting upwards, Jake knocked the Knight backwards as the knife was flung into the air. With one swift motion, Jake kicked the butt of the knife while it was midair, sending it surging towards the dazed Hive warrior. The Knight barely had any time to react before the blade embedded itself square in the middle of the Knight's head. The warrior's body went limp, dropping the sword to the ground before falling to its knees, and collapsing on the ground. Jake approached the body, retrieving the knife from the Knight's skull, and sheathing it on his belt.
"Quickly!" Ghost urged. "Maeve's signal is just ahead!"

Following the indicator on his HUD into the next room, coming right up on Maeve's location-
But he was too late.
A large, robed Hive creature levitated in the air, using some kind of Hive magic to hold an unfamiliar Guardian that Jake figured was Maeve.
"No!" Ghost cried out, catching the Hive creature's attention. It scowled, and tightened its fist, causing Maeve to yell out in pain as she was strangled to death, her body falling limp to the floor. The Hive witch let out a terrifying, demonic laugh, before disappearing in a black mist. Jake didn't even get a chance to fire off a single shot.
"Come on!" Ghost appeared next to Jake, flying over to where Maeve's body lay. "There- there may still be light left in her Ghost."
Jake followed Ghost, but a gut feeling told him that this was in vain. As if to confirm his suspicions, next to Maeve's corpse lay the shattered remains of her Ghost's shell. Jake's comms crackled to life, and Ghost spoke first.

"Shaw, I'm sorry." he said solemnly. "We were too late."
Shaw's response came through, his voice an equally somber tone. "I was too. Cas, I..." Jake could hear the hunter's voice faltering. "I couldn't get to him in time."
"There was a Hive Wizard," Ghost explained. "A powerful one. We tried-"
Shaw cut him off. "This isn't on you. You did what you could."
Jake scooped up some of the Ghost shell fragments that were lying on the ground. "We have the remains of her Ghost." said Ghost.
"She'd... Appreciate that." Shaw answered. "You should just... just head back to camp before that Wizard comes back." Shaw's signal then cut out, indicating that he had deactivated his comm.

Jake picked up Maeve's body in his arms. He'd bring her back to Shaw- he had to. She deserved a proper burial, whatever that may be for a Guardian.
"The Light can only do so much..." Ghost said. "If a Ghost is killed, or if they can't get to their Guardian..." Jake knew where this conversation was going.

"Then their next death... is final."