The Vanguard received intel that the hive were performing a dark ritual deep within the temple of Crota that was weakening the Traveler. In response, me and my ghost were dispatched to investigate and put a stop to it. Before we entered the temple, however, we were reached out to by a stranger telling us that the real fight was elsewhere on Venus. Curious...
We ignored the message for the time being, and proceeded as planned. The further we delved into that dark temple, the harder the hive would fight back. When we entered the Chamber of Night, the darkest part of the temple, we found three wizards praying to a giant shard that seemed to be enveloped in darkness. They appeared to be tied to it. I quickly put them down, and all hell broke loose.
Thrall, knight, and ogre alike were attacking us from three fronts. But we stood our ground, and we fought hard. When the chaos subsided, that shard of darkness lit up like... a christmas tree. Whatever the hell that is. The shard belonged to the traveler. From what we could tell, the hive were attempting to corrupt the shard in order to weaken the Traveler. To cripple it. We transmatted the shard to our ship, and left the temple.
After leaving the moon, instead of going straight home, we headed to the Ishtar Sink on Venus. "In the Golden Age, this was a place of learning. The Ishtar Academy. But more than that, it was home to a research group known as the Ishtar Collective" my ghost told me. "What happened to them?" I asked. "The collapse happened to them," it answered, with its little light blinking. "Just like the light, darkness knows no bounds."
We landed about a mile outside of the Academy, and continued on foot. We set up a vehicle link, and found a comms station in hopes of learning more about whatever was posing a threat on Venus. What we found was a bit disturbing. The Vex. A race of time-traveling cybernetic war-machines all connected by a singular interface. Oh, and they can teleport. Fun.
We headed inside the Academy to face our new foe. For the most part, they didn't seem too difficult to fight. No more than the Fallen or the Hive. What made them so special? When the last vex was defeated, we went to investigate. It was then that the stranger showed herself.
She was mysterious. Elusive. And she spoke of a way that we could help the Traveler to heal. But we would need to travel to a place called the Black Garden, and... rip out its heart. But first we would need to seek an audience with the awoken. My ghost says he would rather stay with the murderous robots, but I'm pretty sure he's being dramatic. Only one way to find out...