[url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/250301867/0/0]Table of Contents[/url] "What if they get angry if we mess with their stuff?" Keis' Ghost fretted, looking in every direction to make sure they were alone, "What if there's some here? What if they notice?" Keis leveled his gaze on the Ghost, and it caved in, "You're lucky I'm as curious as you are." Knowing he'd been given permission, Keis reached out and touched the Vex construction, sliding his hand over the sleek metal. "These things are appearing more and more frequently," the Ghost reported nervously, floating around the structure and scanning it with beams of blue light, "We might be heading straight towards a Vex hotspot. I need to correct our course. Maybe if we move our grid straight east for a little..." Keis ran his fingers around a circular protrusion with a light in the middle while his Ghost planned, "Then we could resume the pattern we've been doing. Later we could wrap around and come back this way." Keis kneeled and scooped soil away from the base, revealing more metal extending downwards. The Ghost hovered over him and commented, "Isn't it odd that the plants don't grow over it? I hope that doesn't mean the Vex visit to keep them clean..." Finished, Keis stood and strolled east. "Good," his Ghost said gladly, gliding over his shoulder, "The sooner we get away from these, the better." • • • "I think that's a building!" The Risen's Ghost exclaimed, darting off to the left. Keis followed it to the source of its excitement. The side of a small building was visible, nestled between trees and masked under the pale morning light by a layer of vines. The Ghost buzzed over it and upward through the canopy of the trees. Keis waited for a moment before it came back down and cheered, "There's a city right there! Follow me!" It zipped ahead and Keis jogged to keep up. "I should have been checking over the trees this whole time!" the Ghost amended enthusiastically, bursting out of the woods, "Yes! It's here! Come on, Keis!" Keis came out of the thicket, taking in the dilapidated remains of buildings around them. His Ghost cheerily led the way deeper into the sprawl. Plants broke through the ruptures in the pavement beneath Keis' feet, making it difficult to navigate the jagged and uneven surface. He loped over the remnants and down the old street. "Oh, it's been so long since we found a city! We'll go around the outskirts first, like last time," the Ghost directed, "If…if we don't find anything, we'll go deeper to the less promising areas." They rounded a corner, moving down another aisle of crumbling buildings. They had barely passed the first edifice when the Ghost squealed and vanished in the blue haze of a transmat. Keis tensed and raised his fists defensively, scanning the street. "Ghost?" He asked quietly, not wanting to draw the attention of whatever had scared it. "The Fallen have been here," the Ghost whispered fearfully, "Look right." Keis turned his head and stepped back, taking in the grisly sight. A symbol was painted over the entire wall in front of Keis with a white substance that bled down the wall, depicting two incomplete circles boxed in by jagged lines. "We need to get out of here," the Ghost begged. Keis looked down the street, then back to the glyph, "We need a ship." "They could still be here!" His Ghost bleated. "We need a ship," Keis reiterated firmly, striding down the broken path. "Keis!" His Ghost pleaded, "Keis!" • • • "This is suicide!" The Ghost insisted, "What if they find us?" Keis ignored it and walked into the warehouse. The weak sunlight filtered in through shattered windows and brightened the bay, revealing a scattered mess of overturned crates and junk. "Looted," the Ghost observed, "They might come back." Keis bent over to inspect a crate, and his Ghost warned, "Don't touch anything. If they come back, we don't want them knowing we were here." Keis withdrew himself, then shifted around the box to study the bare frame of a small one-seated vehicle. "A Sparrow," the Ghost muttered, "Stripped to the bone. That would've been useful…" Sliding back to the door, Keis scanned the street. When he was confident that it was safe, he crept out, staying close to the desolate frames of buildings. "Keis," his Ghost reasoned, "We've been looking for hours. They took everything they could get. Even if there was a jumpship here, it would be nothing but scrap." Keis stopped, looking back at the warehouse meticulously. After thinking for a minute, he agreed, "You're right." "Thank you!" The Ghost gasped with relief, "Go back the way we came. We can follow a route out from there." • • • Pebbles and stones slid under Keis' boots and tumbled down the rise, marking his path as he hiked up a rocky slope. His Ghost lit the ground at his feet, making sure he could see where he was going in the dark of night. "The Vex ruins were first unearthed by the Traveler's terraforming," it conversed, "That's why the Ishtar Collective was made. To study them. The Vex are unbelievably complex. I can't begin to understand them. Just their ruins are an enigma. Their code surfs the quantum vacuum from simulation to reality and- are you listening? Keis?" Keis looked up into the beam of its light and apologized, "I was thinking." "That's alright," the Ghost forgave, "Besides, repeating myself just means we can go longer without running out of things to talk about. Wait…did I already talk about the Vex code a few years ago…? What were you thinking about?" "Terraforming," Keis replied. "Ah," the Ghost nodded, turning its beacon away from Keis' face and back to the ground, "I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm glad you're thinking when you blank out like that. I was still talking about the intricacies of the Vex. Which would you rather talk about?" Keis didn't answer, but continued his ascent. "I'll pick, then," his Ghost decided, "Terraforming is certainly a fascinating subject. It’s been decades since we talked about it. I always thought it was odd that Venus has maintained its permanent cloud cover despite the change the Traveler made. The runaway greenhouse effect still seems to have lingering vestiges, though it leaves me confused as to why there isn't sulfuric acid raining on our heads. But, honestly, I'm better with math than that kind of thing. With this atmosphere, I'd assume liquid wouldn't evaporate at-" At the summit of the hill, Keis halted abruptly. "What?" His Ghost inquired, gliding over his shoulder. He kept his gaze locked straight ahead as he put a hand in front of it and warned, "Your light!" The Ghost turned off the spotlight, casting them into darkness. "What is it?" It asked in a whisper, its glowing blue eye drifting next to Keis' red ones. "Look," Keis directed. His Ghost turned to where he was looking and made a sound as if taking in a sharp breath. Far in the distance, in contrast with the dark clouds, a few large yet dim lights softly illuminated the hull of a massive vessel. Its knife-like form hung ominously in the sky, where a cluster of obscure figures jutted out from the horizon below. "It's a Ketch," the Ghost lamented, "The Fallen. And a city. I should have known there would be another one nearby. It's hardly been half a cycle." "What do we do?" Keis questioned. "There's nothing there for us," the Ghost reasoned, "We do the only thing we can. Keep going and hope the Fallen don't find us."