I walked into the lounge casually, still in my regular clothes, and looked around to see Cayde and two others sitting near the back. I approached and saw both Sierra and Amanda Holiday, the Tower’s shipwright sat talking with the Hunter Vanguard. “Ah, good morning night owl.” Said Cayde as I sat down beside Sierra. “Morning.” I replied sipping my coffee. “Ok, the Reef’s scouts got a good scan of Oryx’s flagship, it’s a Hive dreadnaught sitting out near Saturn.” He pulled up an image on his own holopad of the massive battleship. “Just before they lost contact with the scouts, they recorded this…” He swiped across the screen and it changes to a video feed of the dreadnaught charging a large central cannon, much like the ones on the other Hive warships, only when this one fired, it released a pulse-wave all around it, throwing asteroids, debris, and the other awoken fighters in every direction with tremendous force. “With that kind of firepower, we’ll never get anywhere close to it. With that said, you want to hear the good news or the… significantly worse news? No one answered. “Right then, good news it is. We got you a ship, one that can get past the dreadnaughts defenses. Stealth tech. Holiday and I did the modifications ourselves, totally foolproof.” Amanda shook her head ever so slightly, smiling. “Give me a heads up before you take her out. I’ll show you how to get the cloaking drives working.” “And the bad news…” Cayde continued. “Simply put… we’re screwed.” If there had been anything in my mouth I would have spit it out. “uh…What?” I asked, in total disbelief at what he had just said. “Our friend Orek has so kindly informed us that, for right now, we have no way of stopping Oryx. He’s feeding off the strength of his army and preparing for his final assault while his sons and daughters lead the attacks on the rest of the system.” “Oryx has more children?” Sierra asked. “Yeah, apparently. Crota was the strongest of the bunch but not the brightest. Anyway, killing off Oryx’s generals will weaken him. Make him vulnerable. Here’s where that deal I mentioned comes in. Orek told me to give you this.” Cayde handed me a shard of pure black stone. It was the size of my thumb and smooth as glass on one side. On the other, there were shallow carvings, Hive runes. “He, it, whatever, said The Nine would trade relics of the Light for the memories of Oryx’s spawn. I’m assuming that’s what the rock is for. Whatever these relics are, we’re going up against a god of Darkness so any advantage helps.” “How do we even know where to start looking? What are we going up against?” I asked. “Take a look at Eris’ old stuff, maybe she wrote something down that actually makes sense to someone else. Ok,” Cayde finished and stood up, “You two go save the world, and I’ll… monitor the situation here.” Amanda followed him out, smiling and waving as she left, leaving Sierra and I here alone. “You really think we can do this? Kill a god?” Sierra asked, a nervous edge creeping into her voice. “Another one?” I said trying to brighten her mood, “I don’t see what’s to stop us… other than the rest of his family. Cmon, let’s see if Eris had any idea of where we can find Oryx’s sons and daughters. I thought stepping into Eris’ room would be the same as Toland’s, to my pleasant surprise, the atmosphere was much lighter. There were many jars and slates of stone inscribed with Hive runes, along with hanging pieces of fabric and a desk covered in notes. “Woah,” Sierra gasped, walking in behind me, “where’d she get all this.” Huh, I hadn’t thought about that. Probably just things other guardians had brought back from their adventures. Many of the notes and pages that covered the desk were unreadable scribblings, but as I sifted through the piles, I pulled one out that was written in clear cursive. My eyes widened as I scanned the page. “Guardian,” it read, “If you read this, my suspicions are true. The one who calls himself Toland is not the one who once was. There is something dark in him no guardian could bear. He is not the man I knew, and certainly not one who will aid us. Do not trust him, uncover the evil that speaks through him. What lies in the chest is yours now, I pray you use it wisely. Eris Morn” I folded the note and slid it in my pocket. The chest lay on the floor beside the desk. It was more than a meter wide but merely a foot thick and tall. I lay my hands on the top, looking for a lock or keyhole in the front and it clicked, three times then the top popped up. Sierra knelt down beside me as I opened the chest. Inside sat only two items, a page listing a dozen sets of coordinates and locations across the system, and a sword. An real sword. I grabbed the blade by the hilt and rose it in front of me. The dark blue crystal at the base glowed to life, arc light flowed from my hands into the blade as it began to crackle with lightning of its own. Wow, I thought, now this, is cool. I let the energy in my hands die down, and the blade shimmered out of existence, leaving only the hilt in my hands. “Whoa” Echo said, returning to my side for the first time today. I attached the hilt to my belt and turned to Sierra. She put the page of coordinates in her pocket, “Let’s go, we’ve got a lot of work to do.” She said, a smile growing across her face. She was right, but we just got the upper hand. Oryx was out there, and we we’re coming for him. Prologue/directory [url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/139146382/0/0[/url]