We moved slowly down the rocky tunnel that lead further into the Hive temple. We came across numerous Acolytes and Thralls, the Acolytes being the small armoured Hive carrying energy weapons of some kind, and the Thralls being the disposable grey-skinned minions who seemed to be only armed with their very, very sharp claws and their numerous shark-like teeth. We crossed into a series of catacombs, with the walls hewn from moon rock (sometimes covered in beaten metal plating), with the floors made from a number of hexagonal stone tiles, and the rocky roof held up by menacing metal arches, which glinted in the dull light cast by small green lanterns set into the rock. We reached another set of tunnels, with a spiral ramp hewn from the rock. The ramp descended into a crossroads of sorts, the floor bare rock. Throughout the temple, bones and rubble were strewn everywhere in piles. Wherever I walked, there always seemed to be a crunch of some poor soul's ribcage snapping into pieces under my foot, or a skittering of a rock scraping across the ground. I spotted human bones, bits that looked like they'd come from a Fallen, and the carcasses of small rodent-like creatures that even Ghost couldn't identify. We moved through the tunnels for what seemed like hours, fighting small groups of enemies along the way. Eventually, we reached a large open space, with a massive spaceship rising out from the dark below. It was open at the top, with a gangway connecting to the lip of the walkway we stood on. The thing was shaped sort of like a spire, with the engines lost in the murky black mist in the pit. Steam hissed from hydraulics and a tangled web of cabled wove their way up from the ship into the tunnel that lead upwards.

Anna grimaced. "A Seeder ship. That's real nice."

I cocked my head. "What's a Seeder ship?"

Rena spoke up. "The Hive use them to land troops on Earth and claim territory. They're just massive, massive troopships that are designed to embed themselves in the surface of a target world, usually launched from a Hive-owned location. They hit the ground with enough force to embed themselves upright, and then deploy their troops into the surrounding area. Earlier in the war, the Hive used to send these buggers crashing down all over the place. The Hive claimed Australia that way, and most of the western US. They've also established a large presence in the European Dead Zone, and have been engaged in a bitter war with the House of Devils ever since then. they've kept sending them, but as far as we know, only those three have successfully disgorged their troops."

Ghost popped out. "What happened to the others?" he asked.

Rena grimaced. "We honestly don't know. One of them attempted to land on top of the Last City, but was stopped by our defences. That was how we initially learned of the buggers. The others landed, sure. But we lost track of them after that. The Guardians sent to their landing sites in Old New York, New Berlin and the Tennessee Wastelands found nothing but dead hive and a wrecked vessel. It hadn't crashed. Something or someone had destroyed them."

"The Fallen were probably responsible," added Anna. "From the limited records available at the Grand Library in the Last City, the teams found evidence that the Fallen had destroyed those ships. However, they couldn't figure out how they managed to destroy them. Not could they find more than a handful of Fallen corpses. It does make for a good ghost…"

Anna's Ghost appeared. "Yes?"

"No, not you," Anna said, shooing her machine back into the dimensional pocket that it had appeared from. "…story. Yeah, I think you get the picture. Come on people, let's get moving. We've got to make up lost time."

Before we could leave, my Ghost spoke up. "Anna, can we make a brief stop here?"

She turned around, and looked at Ghost with her head cocked. "Why?" she said in a bemused voice. "There's nothing here."

Ghost flitted over to a nearby console, the surface covered in strangely shaped buttons marked with glowing green hive runes. "If I can get some data from the Hive's mainframe- assuming they have one, and that it's linked to this console- I can download mapping data that can get us the fastest and least defended route to the place where the ritual is being conducted. My short-range scans show that there's a large number of Hive between us and the Traveller's energy signature, and from what Ace and I gathered from our limited scans of the tunnels the last time we were here, this place gets more and more labyrinthine as we get deeper into the Moon's crust."

Anna nodded. "Do so. We'll keep watch while you scan. Gem, take North watch. Rena, take East guard. Ace, you guard your Ghost. I'll take a sniping position on top of that Seeder ship. Grim, keep a eye on our rear. Let's move people!"

We moved into position and took cover, guarding our respective fields of fire. I huddled next to the console Ghost hovered above, and looked up at him.

"Everyone ready?" asked Ghost. "Beginning scan now. The Hive will cotton onto the network intrusion pretty fast, so be prepared to take on a lot of incoming targets."

He began probing the console with beams of light, the console's lights blinking rapidly. Suddenly, a screeching sound came over the temple's PA system, or whatever passed for it for the Hive. At the same time, the console began speaking in the Hive's language.

"Everyone stay on guard!" shouted Anna from the top of the Seeder Ship. "I can hear the Hive coming. Ghost, what's the deal with that console?"

Ghost clicked his polygons a bit before responding. "It must have a audible output rather than a visual one. My translation unit is taking what the console is saying, and outputting the data I'm requesting. The Hive mustn't use a visual-based interface like the Fallen or Cabal."

"Can you get it to shut up?" exclaimed Rena. "It's really beginning to grate on…shit, Thralls at 5'oclock!"

She began firing her pulse rifle, the gun sending precise bursts of ionised plasma into the Hive grunts. A stream of other Hive began pouring from a doorway on a platform further down, merging with the other. The room surrounding the Seeder Ship was built rather like a missile silo. As such, the platform we were standing on was level with the entry to the Seeder Ship, and had a series of sloped ramps leading down from our position to other platforms below. There were two ramps that lead to where we were. One was being guarded by Gem, whose machine gun was spitting a hail of bullets into the hoard advancing up the ramp. The other was being policed by Rena, who was currently being assisted by Anna, her sniper rifle firing into the crowd to take out the occasional knight or acolyte among the ranks of grey Thralls. I fired my hand cannon into those who got close to Gem, while Grim took out a few Hive Acolytes who had taken the initiative to sneak round to our rear and try and assault us from behind. Eventually, the torrent began to trickle off, and a few minutes later the final Hive thrall fell to a bullet from Anna's sniper rifle.

"Ghost, you got the information?" I asked. "We need to get moving. We've lost a lot of time here."

He clicked a bit, before nodding. "I've got the data. Anna, we can leave now. I'm forwarding the navigational information to your Ghosts."

We walked further into the caverns. The bones that littered the tiled floor cracked under our boots, and the dim illumination cast shadows into the corners of the room. After fighting our way through what seemed like miles of corridors, we came to a rocky passageway, spiralling down into the black. In the darkness below, a ominous chanting could be heard. Ghost spoke to me briefly with our telepathic link, and I relayed the information to the rest of the team.

"Ghost says that the ritual is down there. A place called 'The Chamber of Night'. We'll have to get through a locked door, but he knows how to unlock it thanks to the console."

Gem laughed. "Ha! Saves use valuable time!"

I chuckled. "Yes, it does. Ghost also says to be careful, but then again…he always says that."

The others chuckled as well, as we checked our gear. I reloaded my hand cannon, before taking point as we began to move. Then. We descended into the darkness whirling below.

Author's Note: Merry Christmas everyone, and this has been quite a short chapter. I didn't quite know how to write this one, so it has been more than a month of work trying to get it to click. It's not QUITE what I wanted, but I've been stumped on how to write this particular chapter of Outbound Hopes, and I feel that whatever I write in this chapter, it's still not going to click well. Even the planning is a bit shaky here, mainly because at that stage, the story is still closely following the Destiny one. It doesn't help that I stuffed a few things in earlier chapters, and it's thrown off events further down the line. Anyway, I'll be on hiatus next year, but I'll be back by Christmas next year. See you folks, and have a very merry Christmas!