During the collapse, the deaths numbered in the billions. The times of darkness loomed, and humanities last city barely stood. Now, we speak of the mystical guardians who use the Traveler's light to ward off the darkness. But what of the first heroes, who battled the shadows when no one else did? It was not until after the guardian's arose. Before, there were heroes. This is a tale of these heroes, and their fight for humanity.

PROLOGUE

2866 342 YRS POST COLLAPSE

His fingers sorted through the archive with ease.

"That's the only thing they said. We fell, and we retreated. That's. All,"he mumbled, his eyes tired.

"There's a reason for that. We are looking to the future instead of the past,"his ghost said pointedly.

The guardian snorts. "Come on, every time I go out on a little excursion so and so wants to take a look at a tunnel, scan an environment, and so on. Don't tell me the Vanguard and the Tower in general aren't looking back behind them. His ghost sighs.

"They need the data…"

"Define need." The ghost quiets, his constant beeping stopping.

"Feel free to sort through everything, there's nothing here but old footage of the last of humanity being forced back by the Darkness."

"And no one has considered looking through for clues? All this, trilobytes worth of data. Don't tell me this isn't valuable. We've both journeyed through labs, stations, everything! We've seen the old remnants of civilization, and we've picked up so much along the way. I'm using my leave, and as much as I can."

"To watch videos about the same civilian running away from a Cabal, or the news camera watching the Hive ships crashing into the moon?"

"There's more to it than that. If we can trace the origin of these four races. We consider them all 'the darkness' yet they fight against each other for dominance? Where did this all start? The Hive are an ancient alien race, the Hive ships constantly teleporting from seemingly no where. Where does the void go? And what about the Vex, ancient machines with the power of time snug in their grasp? We traveled through the Vault of Glass, but we didn't get enough data from it. The Fallen, clearly a race once mighty but reduced to four armed pirate houses. The Servitors? Or the Cabal, a militizaried race of reptiles who from their ships, may have their own home world? We could all figure this out…..We need answers."He finally quiets, and the ghost nods.

"Then let's start looking."