Kira sat sullenly at the round council table, listening to another pointless speech given by Executor Hideo.

Usually the council met somewhere quiet in Bright horizon, the massive station where most of the Sol system's inhabitants now lived. This time, however, they met in the plaza in front of the main tram station, the main access to the rest of the station

The station itself looked like a sideways jack, with a large cylinder, covered in windows with four, shorter cylinders sticking out from equal distances on the stations equator. Kira's head snapped up when the large crowd meeting in front of the plaza began to clap, marking the end of Hideo's speech. Hideo sat among his aids, smiling smugly. Shaxx then stood, prepared to counter the head of new monarchy's usual speech about the time being ripe for power to change hands or some such nonsense.

Kira grew bored with the pointless politics and looked around the table. Shaxx and Eris sat near the head, with Levi and Sarna sitting next to them, the latter two representing the Titans and Warlocks. Rachel sat next to Kira, filling in for the absent Connor. Across the table sat the four heads of wings, Hideo and his two aids. Kira wouldn't usually be allowed to stay, but she had taken part in the mission and Arlak had glared menacingly at the others until it was allowed. But she knew that the real reason she was there was that she was why the mission failed in the first palace. Arlak, speaking for the awoken and fallen, had given up his seat and chose instead to stand next to where Cayde-6 sat, which was a sad sight. The former Hunter Vanguard's face was melted on right side, his face lights dim and his horn broken. He had been this way since second collapse, and while he wasn't dead he rarely spoke and never joined in the council's meetings, but simply listened.

Again she was brought out of her thoughts when the topic shifted to the matter at hand. "As many of you know, the speaker said he had a vision," the old crucible master said, addressing the crowd as well as the council.

"He believes that the Traveler had something that could help should I fight the shells.

"He and Ikora Rey took a team of guardians and went back to the tower to find this gift. Once there, they fought their way into the tower, past shells and Cabal trying to take the tower."

"Crazy turtles…" Rachel muttered, tightening her grip on the edge of the table. "For a long time, we had no contact with them, regaining it only when they were halfway to their Fallen escorts in the cosmodrome. We dispatched Connor Oak and a team of his selection to recover them. Here to give a full report is Sarna Ta'sov."

The awoken woman stood, her face tired but determined. Connor had cleared her name when she was accused of treason and his disappearance hurt her greatly.

"Our team landed near the crash site, splitting up to cover more ground. Thomas, Kira and I went to divert the Shells and surviving hive. Connor arrived, recovered the package and transmatted it onto his ship."

"However... Before we could complete our extraction, a nomad group we thought lost sent a distress call to us, and we went to assist. Kira stayed behind to save a pregnant woman, and was besieged soon after by shelled Hive. Connor sent his extraction ship to rescue her, and we lost contact soon after."

"Why couldn't he just take his ship?" One of the wing heads inquired.

"The hive controlled most of the air. The fallen skiffs were armored enough to survive, but our own jumpships would not be able to," Sarna responded.

Hideo scoffed, "And why did he not take the skiff and rescue her?"

Arlak stepped forward, "Because I would have been honor bound to return the package, and he to save his friend. It would have ended with bloodshed. It was the only way to peacefully end the debate."

"And the speaker? Ikora? What of them?" A different wing head inquired.

Sarna looked down before answering, "Both dead, as were their escorts. All shelled, all eliminated."

Hideo stood and spread his arms, "You see? The Guardians tell us they have a plan, then they come back empty handed and with a few less fingers!"

The crowd began to voice its agreement as he continued, "Now is the time for change! The speaker is gone, the Traveler is dead, the vanguard broken and we cannot trust the guardians!"

Now the crowd shouted and cheered, "Now is the time for a new leader! Now is the time for a new leader! And if it must be me, I will shoulder this burden with pride!"

As the crowd went wild and Sarna sat, shocked beyond belief, Kira put her head in her hands and wept. The only thing she could think was, "Connor, we need you. Where are you?"

::Hours earlier::

Connor Oak did not face oblivion. Instead, he faced a chair face-first.

He gave a muffled grunt of surprised, and then began to move himself upright. After several minutes of swearing and several bumps he was upright. He found himself inside the slightly cramped and dark cockpit of his Phaeton jumpship. The viewport was closed, and practically every warning light was on.

"Uh…" Connor said, confused at the multitude of lights.

His Ghost answered by opening the viewport, showing that the sky was now full of Hive dropships, blocking all escape. They were also flying straight at a building.

"Oh crap." Connor said grabbing the controls and sending his ship into an evasive roll-away from the building.

"Explain." He spit out as he began to juke left and right to avoid the incoming energy blasts.

"I piloted the ship under you, using the cliff as cover, just out of danger," his ghost responded, proudly.

"Until you flew us straight at them," Connor grunted, putting his ship through a complicated zigzag, burst-firing the dual machine guns to try and clear a path to the upper-atmosphere.

"Until we flew straight at them," Jeffry confirmed, hovering just to the right of Connor's head.

Connor grumbled some choice words as he continued to shoot his way out of yet another problem. As he continued to evade the lasers of the hive with varying degrees of success, he scanned the sky for a weak link in their formation. Before long he had spotted one, five dropships that were slightly further apart than the rest.
"Jeff, did they manage to load my babies?" Connor inquired, pulling back to give himself a head-start.

"I delayed us until I could confirm," His Ghost responded quickly.

Connor's 'babies' were prototype rockets, the size of lighter variety but with a yield much higher. A mix of highly-explosive, incendiary fragmentation - the only thing they wouldn't destroy was Shaxx's will.

Connor thumbed his flight stick over to the missile pods and lined up his shot. Within a few seconds, the shrill lock-on warning sounded and he gave his finger a quick twitch, sending a rocket flying. The little projectile flew at the lead dropship, leaving a multicolored trail behind it. When it collided with its target, it lit up the dusky sky, annihilating the five aircrafts entirely and throwing the ones around it away violently. Connor's eyes grew wide as he flew through the fireball, Jeffry screaming the entire time. His ship's alarms began to wail, signaling his shields weakening, and then failing completely.

"Jeff?" Connor called a few minutes later, when they were entering orbit and his ears had stopped ringing.

"Dial back on the explosives?"

"Nah," Connor responded, grinning brightly. "I was going to say I think we nailed it this time."

Jeffrey heaved a sigh as Connor directed them into high orbit, whistling an old tune, off-key.

"So, what exactly did I nearly die for?" Connor asked, setting the autopilot back to Brave Horizon. He turned his chair 180 degrees to look at his ever-important cargo.

As with many guardians, he had retrofitted his ship to have the cargo hold behind him instead of below him, so he could fit an extra guardian or have ease of access.

"I can't tell," Jeffry began, hovering over the box behind him, "The speaker said this was a gift to help save us. It has quite a lot of power, but I can't figure out how we can open it, if we can at all."

The silvery-white box was not unlike one found in the cosmodrome, but it was completely smooth, except for a round, clear crystal plate embedded in the lid.

"We lost a lot of good people for this stupid thing - no way I'll let this be until we get back," Connor muttered, probing the surface of the box.

"I'm really not sure that's a good idea, it may be a battery of-"

He missed the rest of what his Ghost was saying. He was blinded by a light so pure that it filled every corner of the cockpit and every inch of his mind.

When he could see again, he gasped. He stood atop the tower, in the Plaza where most Guardians transmatted in. But it looked different than in his early days and how it's looked in the pictures taken by the scouts during the second collapse.

The air around him was tinged with gold, like when summer gave way to autumn, and the traveler was whole, not covered by the scars of darkness. Impossibly, he heard music coming from the city below, and happy voices echoed through the air. He looked out and saw that the city was covered with rust-red and gold banners, and there seemed to be some kind of festival going on across the entire city.

"Discovery day," he muttered, remembering the day the Golden age humans took to celebrate the discovery of the Traveler.

Suddenly, a voice echoed through his mind, sounding older than time itself. "These are the days of my Traveler's gift. Use it, and bring back the golden age."

He blinked once, and found himself in the cockpit and in a large amount of pain, with Jeffry shouting his name.

"Connor! Wake up!"

Suddenly, white-hot pain shot up his arm, causing him to cry out.

"Thank goodness!" His Ghost exclaimed with relief.

"Seriously, you knew I was alive!" Connor shouted. "You know better than to try and resurrect me when I'm alive!" He pulled his sleeve back, getting ready to try and sooth the red scars that he knew would be there. But there were none. In fact, his arm was entirely free of damage, and now that the pain was gone, he felt a buzzing sensation all over his body, not unlike when he was supercharged. Then he started glowing.

"You're glowing!" Jeffry shouted, floating backwards in surprise.

"Gee, am I?" Connor said sarcastically. "I might never have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out."

"You're welcome," Jeffrey said, then began to scan him.

"How long was I out?" Connor inquired unhappily as he watched his ghost.

"An hour or so," the little sphere replied, finishing his scan. "We're nearly home. And… It seems you're charged with the same energy as the box."

Connor looked from his Ghost to the box, then back again. He looked upwards, then muttered, "I understand."

Then he started to reload his guns, strapping his hand cannon to his side and leaning his auto rifle and shotgun next to the chair.

"Jeffrey, ready the weapon systems and activate the stealth drive."

"What? Why?"

"Because," Connor replied, turning his chair back around. "Hideo will want us out, and we don't have time to do this slowly. I will not let that power-hungry sonovahusk stop me."

Jeffrey obeyed, and Connor began to prepare himself for a rough time, saying a quick prayer and focusing himself. "We're carrying more than a weapon," He added quietly. "We're carrying hope."