Mattaus trailed his fingers through the large, lush leaves hanging from a drooping tree branch. Droplets of water fell, catching the light of the grow-lights high above and casting miniature rainbows around him. “I can’t believe it” he whispered wonderingly. Hausen barely heard him, dipping his head slightly in greeting to a young man walking along a path that crossed in front of him. The man was dressed in pale green overalls with ‘Eden XXV’ stitched on one breast pocket. He carried a large bowl of what appeared to be grain seed. The young man smiled nervously, eyes darting to Petrisen, Alfren and Garen. He quickened his pace to pass the group and cast furtive glances behind him as he walked. “People here are not used to new faces”, Petrisen said quietly. “Don’t mind the looks you are going to get”. Hausen gestured after the man. “He was carrying some sort of food stuff. I thought everything here looked after itself?” “It does”, Garten said, “but people like to have something to do. Besides, planting and tending to animals is good for the soul. Everyone works in some fashion in here, no matter if their ‘official’ place is as an engineer, nurse or guard. Even Macky, a giant of a man that rules the western perimeter with an iron fist has a herb garden! It doesn’t cause any harm and it brings us together”. “How do you keep all of this safe?” Mattaus asked. “We keep an eye on things pretty good”, Petrisen explained. “The buildings along the train route provide good visibility of the surrounding area and into the city, so we have people in the higher levels pretty much all the time. We also have small teams patrolling into the city, though not as far as they used to. We keep to the area near here; and talking about the Garden, we locked down and barricaded many entrances to limit the ways in and out. We got the cameras going in all the tunnels and they are walked every few hours”. “Until recently the Fallen have been few in number and rarely come close to us. Sometimes we get a ship fly into the city and a group goes exploring, but we keep things locked-down whilst they are here and they never see us. So far under ground and without power signatures, this whole area is invisible. The nearby city access point is just a collection of dead derelict towers. "When the Fallen do decide to scavenge, they keep to the denser parts of the city - the former factories and warehouses, the main city centre etc. They never find anything though, this place was picked clean a long time ago. We have seen fewer and fewer patrols over the past couple of years. To be honest, I thought that they had pretty much given up on this place”. “Because there is nothing here or because of what’s killing them?” Mattaus asked. "Both I guess," Petrisen replied. “And what is killing them?” Felicia prompted. “Let me show you”, Alfren said and gestured to a door set into the cavern wall nearby with the same black panel set into its centre as the doors they had originally entered through. After Alfren had unlocked the door with a quick swipe of his card, the group passed through and began climbing a narrow, tall metal stairwell in the space beyond. At its top was another door with another black panel that Alfren opened in the same manner. The small room behind the door was obviously some sort of laboratory. Microscopes of varying sizes stood on clean metal tables with small racks of empty test tubes, collections of clean petri dishes and stacked battered folders on their surfaces. Against the far wall were a series of dusty flat computer screens preceded by even dustier keyboards. Slightly discoloured overalls hung on an adjacent wall next to charts and tables of chemical compounds and the periodic table. What captured everyone’s attention though was the large shard of burnt orange rock sitting in a sealed glass box on the table at the centre of the room. "There is something in the earth here", Alfren said as they gathered around the glass container. "Alfren found it", Petrisen added gesturing to his companion. "We found some dead Fallen at the mine site", Alfren continued. "Only a couple, but without any injury. I'm no expert on Fallen biology, but without any obvious cause of death my thoughts turned to an adverse reaction to something, maybe even a virus". "We've seen Fallen around here from time to time" Petrisen added, "and they seemed fine. We have encountered them throughout the land before coming here and I have never heard of any sort of 'infection' or anything like this. If it was a reaction to something, then that something would have to be localized to the mine". "We might not know alien biology, but what we do know about is soil", Garten interrupted. He gestured around the lab. "Everything here monitors and controls environmental conditions. So we brought back samples from the mine and tested them". "There is...something in the ground around the mine", Alfren explained. "The land there is different to anywhere else. There are additional compounds the likes of which I have never seen before. It seems that close and prolonged contact with them causes cellular damage to the Fallen". "Huh?" Mattaus grunted, looking around the group in confusion. "It kills them", Garten explained simply. Cayde-6 leant on the rail and stared out to The Traveller. "Penny for your thoughts". The Hunter Vanguard turned at the gruff voice to see Banshee approaching. "Penny?" The Gunsmith shrugged. "No idea. The phrase popped into my head. Ever heard it?" Cayde-6 shook his head. "Me neither", Banshee replied. "Great" the Gunsmith muttered and rapped his knuckles against his skull. "I needed something else in here I can't explain". "Tell me about it", the Hunter growled. "I have a Guardian out there investigating something I don't understand and I can't contact him any more". "Rough that", the Gunsmith replied. "Tough business being a Guardian. Exploring things we don't understand. Going places we don't fully know about. Killing things we don't really know how to kill". The Vanguard looked curiously at Banshee. "What do you mean? That last part?" "No idea", Banshee replied calmly. He cocked his head to one side and tapped his forehead. Cayde-6 sighed. "Must be tough not knowing half of what you remember". "I don't remember being any different" the Gunsmith replied with a shrug. Cayde-6 grinned at the phrase and was about to joke about it before seeing that the Gunsmith was being serious. "Your Hunter", Banshee continued, "can you send help to him?" "I'm thinking about it", Cayde-6 admitted, "but I don't know what I'm sending others into. I'm reluctant to risk anyone before I know more". "The Guardians were built to risk", Banshee replied. "They risk so we can learn and survive". He turned to the Vanguard. "Ask yourself what you learn by leaving your Hunter out there lost and silent versus what you could learn by finding him. I've never learnt much through inaction. Risk has to be managed of course, every possibility weighed and analysed, but wars are more often lost through paralysis of command than decisive action". Cayde-6 stared at the Gunsmith. "That was really good. Where did you learn that?" "Who knows", Banshee replied. "Good luck", he said, then turned and walked away. "It's a train carriage", the Ghost said as it flew around the metal shape filling the tunnel. "I suspected this might be a transport terminal. Wait whilst I take a look". The Hunter collapsed to his knees on the platform and hung his head breathing heavily as his Ghost disappeared. The tunnels he had stumbled through from the buried Fallen vessel had seemed to be unending, turning and twisting and climbing and falling... He dimly remembered waking on the ground with his Ghost hanging in the air above his shaking body pulsing light back into him and calling his name, pleading with him to return. He had woken…twice? Maybe three times? The Hunter shook his head. His vision was greyed at the edges and bright sparks seemed to flash all around him. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. When he opened his eyes the lights were even worse. He could barely see. [i]I think I can get this working again[/i], his Ghost said in his mind. [i]It looks like it used to transport people from here to a population centre a way down this tunnel. It looks like it was intentionally disabled to block the way there, but if I...[/i] A deep baritone hum filled the Guardians ears and small lights winked on along the carriages side. Two panels pushed themselves outward to reveal a brightly lit cabin interior. The Ghost appeared above the Hunter. "You must get inside. There might be people that can help you". The Guardian coughed violently and took several deep breaths before he was above to speak. "I don't think anything can help me Ghost. Everything hurts so much. It feels like my bones are burning". "Please", his ghost pleaded. "Please get inside. I will take us". Slowly the Guardian crawled into the carriage.