Before I get started, this is a story idea that I'd been kicking around for a good two years. But the announcement of Destiny 2 - as well as the major plot twist to the story of the Destiny universe in the form of Guardians losing their light - helped push me to finish plotting out the story.

I'm extremely rusty with storywriting, admittedly, but hopefully if you're reading this, you'll stick with me through the first couple chapters until I can shake the cobwebs off.

Anyway, let's get to the story.

"Why do you have to spend all of your free time up here?" the small ball of the Traveler's light - Raina's Ghost - asked, its voice dripping an eerily artificial boredom. "You could be enjoying the city! Or at least find a corner somewhere, while I enjoy it."

Raina sat in the shadows of the summer sun, fully engrossed in the book that lay open in her lap, ignoring the quiet beauty of the countryside beyond the city walls. Traveler's Walk was her favorite reading spot - one of the few deserted areas in the Tower, when Lord Saladin was away at least, close to the library and the ship bay. On the days she only had a few precious hours between patrol and guard duties, any time wasted or lost to distraction was more frustrating than the "rewards" the Cryptarchs offered for finding encoded engrams or rare artifacts.

She turned the page in her book, not even glancing over at the orb as it buzzed around her head. "I am in a corner," she said simply.

"But there's nothing to enjoy up here," Ghost moaned, floating over to the railing and looking out at the mountains. "Just trees and clouds. There aren't even any ships!"

"Mhmm," Raina agreed dismissively, barely registering what her Ghost was saying as she tried to focus on the story. "That's because the airspace out here is off limits. Why can't you enjoy the clouds? Find some fun shapes in them, that's what the other children do."

That seemed to do the trick, despite a loud and exaggerated sigh from the immortal and artificial intelligence as it settled down to hover just barely above the railing. She hoped it would at least earn her a few minutes of peace.

"I see a ship," Ghost said.

Raina sighed and closed her eyes. Two sentences. She'd gotten two sentences. Sometimes it felt like babysitting. "That's nice, a lot of clouds are ship-shaped."

Her Ghost flitted over to her, hovering just above the book she was trying to read and staring at her. "No," it said, the spokes of its outer shell spinning faster than usual, "I mean a real ship."

"Wh-" Raina started, stopping herself and quickly spinning to look out over the mountains. The ship was flying low, just above the trees, but approaching quickly. Cursing as she pushed herself up to her feet, she tossed her book aside and unholstered her sidearm. "Go alert the Tower. Now!"

The ship was coming too fast. It would land before anyone else came. Raina watched it pull upward sharply, aiming right for her. She held her ground, prepared for whatever might come. It crested the top of the railing hard, rolling left as if to avoid hitting her, and came down hard onto the tiled floor behind her, its thrusters puttering out. The hull was old, rusted and welded together from a half dozen different ships, at least from what Raina could see of the ridiculous combination of colors.

Raising her gun as the ship's heavily tinted cockpit cover cracked open, she took a few quick steps forward, stopping a few paces away from the ship with her barrel trained on where the pilot's seat would be. "Get out," she called loudly, ready to move at the slightest sign of danger. The cockpit opened further.

"Touchdown!" a triumphant, distorted voice cried out, and a Ghost flew out of the cockpit, bouncing happily in the air around the pilot's seat as its occupant stood slowly, its four eyes watching Raina warily. Or so she assumed. It was hard to read emotions on Fallen, except for angry. The Ghost swirled around the alien's head, still happily repeating, "Touchdown! Touchdown!"

Raina lowered her gun, shocked, and watched as the Dreg stepped out of the cockpit, dropping the few feet to the cracked tiles and nodding to her. That more than anything confused Raina - she had never seen anything even remotely human in Fallen interactions with each other, but the way this Dreg acted, even the way it stood, was very human. "What are you doing here?" she asked, recovering from her surprise enough to remember that the Fallen was still an intruder.

It opened its mouth - as if to answer her - when the door from the Central Tower slammed open behind him and two dozen Guardians rushed through, weapons raised. The Ghost at its side finally stopped its chanting, and ducked close to the Dreg's chest, hovering slightly askew. Slowly, as the new arrivals moved in to surround it, the alien raised its three-fingered hands above its head to show it was unarmed. It looked around at the crowd. "Peace, friends," it said slowly, its words gravelly and sounding like they were being spoken with a mouth full of water, but in clear English. Raina swore she could hear an ancient Irish accent.

The Guardians froze, a few lowering their weapons. Even behind their helmets, Raina could feel their shock. The stunned silence lasted a long few moments, Raina holstering her sidearm slowly and stepping forward. The Dreg wasn't a threat. That much was clear. She nodded to it, and she could see that it was manipulating its odd mouth's muscles to give her a smirk in return. "Who are you, stranger?"

"Guardians, holster your weapons!" boomed the unmistakable voice of Shaxx, and in an instant the assembled Guardians had all lowered their guns. Shaxx strode confidently into the middle of the group, stopping within arm's reach of the Dreg. "And you, trespasser. Who are you?"

The alien glanced over at Raina quickly, before slowly lowering its arms. "My name is Luc, friend. Short for Lucifer." It reached into a small pouch on its hip, and tipped the contents out into its hand, raising them up for Shaxx and the rest to see. Dog tags, the oldest type, from before the Collapse. "I promised to bring my friends home, and I failed to keep them safe. But I could not let them be forgotten."

The stunned silence of the Guardians surrounding Luc grew heavy, and after a moment of stillness, Shaxx nodded, stepping back. He turned to Raina. "You were here when this ship landed?"

"Yes, sir," she said with a curt nod, tensing up slightly. "The only two occupants are who you see here, this Ghost and this D- Luc."

Luc smiled again, looking over at her. "I have heard the name Dreg before, friend."

Shaxx nodded, gesturing to the Ghost still cowering against Luc's chest. "And where did you find this Ghost?"

"The forests south of Tepev Mons," the Dreg answered in its slow voice, shaking its head. "I found it among fragments of a human starship. It... won't leave me. No matter how hard I've tried."

"That is a matter for the Speaker, I think." The Crucible quartermaster turned to the Guardians. "You are dismissed. I will escort our visitor from here on. And you," he added, pointing to Raina, "come with me as well. I'll need you to debrief once we're finished with more important tasks."

Raina nodded quietly, watching Luc's Ghost as it moved to hover at the Dreg's shoulder once the Guardians began to disperse. It didn't move up and down when it was hovering in place, but at random, slight angles. Like it couldn't keep itself centered. Could a Ghost be broken?

Shaxx looked at Luc from behind his helmet and nodded. "Follow me." He led the odd party out of Traveler's Walk and down the steps to the Hall of Guardians, opening a blast door near his Crucible recruitment desk to reveal a long staircase that spiraled downward. "You will have to tell me how you came to get those tags," Shaxx said, once they were safely away from curious ears. "And how you learned to speak our language."

Luc laughed - or at least, it sounded like a laugh to Raina - and shook his head. "I lived with humans for two centuries, friend. We became partners, then family. They taught me your language, your history, and some of your customs." Glancing back at Raina again, he added, "I think you're surprised."

"Yes," she replied simply, which earned another short laugh. "How did you meet them, anyway?"

"That... is a question for another day, friend." As they reached the bottom of the staircase and followed Shaxx into a small, stark white room, Luc sighed. "There are more important things to say before I tell my story. I will need to speak with whoever is in charge."

Luc's Ghost suddenly spun around to Raina, bobbing up just inches from her face and saying in a distorted, hoarse whisper, "The monsters. The monsters. The nightmares."

Shaxx opened the door at the far end of the room, and it was just as he swung the door inward that Raina realized it was operated using a doorknob. She had never seen one of those before outside of books and paintings. "You, Guardian, wait here. This space is not for just anyone to enter." He gestured for Luc to enter, and together they walked into the next room, closing the door behind them.

Raina sighed and moved to the window overlooking the Last City, leaning against the wall alongside it and crossing her arms.

"Well, this is more exciting than that book at least," Ghost said, materializing beside her. Raina ignored it.

-----

Shaxx and Luc returned from their private room nearly an hour later, neither saying a word. The air hung heavy, and even the odd Ghost seemed to be holding more still than it had been. Raina followed them as Shaxx led the way back up the long staircase, and out into the Crucible headquarters.

"There she is!" Cayde-6 called out, causing Raina and Luc both to jump a little, turning to see the Hunter Vanguard leaning against the large blast doors marking the entrance to the Vanguard headquarters. "Heard someone was up there playing chicken with a ship and won, and well, I knew it had to be a Hunter. Good on ya, uh-" He paused, cocking his head. "What's your name, again?"

"Raina," she said, sighing a little and walking down into the headquarters with Shaxx and Luc, looking up as Cayde fell in alongside her.

He slapped her on the back lightly, squeezing her shoulder. "That's right, good name. Good Hunter. I knew it!"

"Cayde, please," Zavala said, not even a hint of annoyance in his voice. Either he was so used to Cayde's antics that they didn't bother him anymore, or he'd just given up long ago. "Lord Shaxx, if you'd introduce us?"

Luc stepped up to the head of the table opposite where Zavala stood, glancing over and catching Ikora Rey's eyes before addressing them. "My name is Luc, short for Lucifer." Pausing for a moment to let the surprise of a talking Dreg set in, it continued, "I come here from Venus to return the memory of the friends I lost, but I also have information that may interest you."

"And what information would that be?" Ikora asked, crossing her arms. Raina shivered. Where Shaxx's voice would overpower you, Ikora's would cut deep into you.

"A weapon. A monster. I don't know what to call it," Luc said, shaking his head. "I was scavenging for parts for a ship to take me off of the planet when I found an old human settlement just west of Nyx Mons. It was... abandoned. Tech, buildings, everything. None of my brethren, none of the Vex had come through, but every settlement around it had been torn apart."

Opening a map of Venus as the Dreg spoke, Zavala shook his head. "That's impossible, there's no indication of a settlement anywhere east of Tepev Mons."

"It's there, friend," Luc interrupted, resting his hands on the table. "And there was something in the building complex there. It... Ghost, show them."

Slowly, Luc's Ghost rose from behind its back, moving over the table and angling to look down as it began a projection of a recording it had taken, showing a massive shadow charge at incredible speed behind the tinted windows of one of the buildings, disappearing from view after a moment. Cayde opened his mouth, probably to make a smart remark, when the shadow appeared again at the entrance of the building, raising an arm that looked like a distorted version of a Minotaur's and shooting a single energy charge in the direction the Ghost's recording had come from, and as it approached, the recording fizzled out.

Luc waited for a moment, then filled the silence. "That shot hit a building, and destroyed it. Completely."

A new, heavy silence filled the air, only to be broken a second later with a long, soft whistle from Cayde. "I want that gun," he said, pounding the table lightly with his fist. "That's gonna be a hell of a gun."

"Why would the Vex and Fallen not have gone after this kind of firepower?" Zavala asked, ignoring the Hunter Vanguard. "Do they just not know it exists?"

"And why is there no record of this installation existing?" Ikora added, her hands on the table as she pored over the map Zavala had pulled up. "Are our records incomplete? Or...?"

Cayde pointed excitedly at the Warlock. "Secret base! You were gonna say secret base!" Pumping his fist as Ikora rolled her eyes, he added, "I definitely want this gun now."

Zavala nodded, looking at the map and pointing out a small gap between the territory known to be claimed by the Fallen, and territory claimed by the Vex. "We can send a fireteam in here, but they'll have to go on foot past that. We don't have a Sparrow network set up that far out. We'll send the team that took down Oryx. Ikora-"

"They're unavailable," Ikora interrupted, shaking her head. "Busy in Russia with the Iron Lords."

"Then what about-"

"She can do it," Cayde said, and the other Vanguard commanders paused, looking up and following the Hunter's outstretched hand, all three sets of eyes resting squarely on Raina. "Hunters are the best option, they'll be able to sneak through the forest undetected.

Raina blinked, stunned. How the hell did she get into this mess?

Zavala sighed and straightened up, meeting her eyes. "Well, Guardian? Do you agree?"

"Yes." The word came out even as she was thinking 'Hell no.' It was a terrible idea. All she wanted to do was sit up in Traveler's Walk and read her damn book.

"It's settled, then. Go get ready to leave."

This was a terrible idea.