Chapter 1 - Icarus
TYPE: TOWER SURVEILLANCE FEED [113207]
PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Titan [u.1]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock [u.2]
ASSOCIATIONS: Cosmodrome, Old Russia; The Crucible; Lord Shaxx; Earth; Fallen; Darius; Cayde-6
/AUDIO UNAVAILABLE/
/TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS.../
[u.1:0.1] Hey, did you hear about the newbie? The one from Old Russia?
[u.2:0.1] Nope. What makes them so special?
[u.1:0.2] Rumor has it that he woke up in the Cosmodrome and managed to steal an old jumpship from the Fallen and escape. Then he had to go back and steal the warp drive from them too. Even managed to take out old Riskis himself.
[u.2:0.2] Feh. Sounds like beginner's luck to me.
[u.1:0.3] Beginner's luck doesn't kill an Archon.
[u.2:0.3] [silence]
[u.1:0.4] Yep, he's definitely someone to keep an eye on, that's for sure. According to Shaxx, he's about to start his first game of Crucible; Cayde has bets set up and everything. You wanna come watch?
[u.2:0.4] I suppose I can spare a few moments. Let's see if this Guardian is as special as you say.
Titan Darius walked through the Hall of Guardians, slowing for a moment to let some heavy doors slide open before entering the Vanguard Hall. The three Vanguard mentors stood at a table in the center of the room, and all turned to look at him expectantly when they saw him enter.
"You called for me?" Darius asked as he approached the three.
"Yes Guardian," the Warlock mentor, Ikora Rey, spoke, "I recently received word from one of my Hidden agents. The Vex appear to have finally woken on the planet Mercury."
"And you want us to find out what they're doing and why they woke up," Darius finished. The City Commander and Titan Mentor, Zavala, who was standing at the head of the table, nodded.
"Indeed. Your task is to go to Mercury, find out what the Vex are up to, and relay that information to us. We can then start discussing what our next move should be."
Darius crossed his arms and nodded. "Anything else?" he asked.
"Be on your guard," the robotic Hunter Mentor Cayde, spoke, "Mercury has been off-limits since, well, you know. We have no idea what you'll be walking into, so make sure you're careful."
"And Guardian," the Tower Commander met Darius' eyes. "Be brave."
Darius gave a salute before turning and striding out of the room.
"Wow, Mercury," a little, white, star-shaped robot materialized into the air next to Darius' head, following him as he walked. "We haven't been there since we met with the Sunbreaker Clan. You think we can drop in and say hi?"
Darius chucked. "I don't think we'll have time for that today, Ghost. We don't know what the Vex could be up to, so it's imperative that we carry out our task."
The little drone twirled the back portion of its parts and somehow was able to make something that resembled a pouting expression.
"But then we can see them after," Ghost offered.
"We'll see... Little Light," Darius said with a small smile as he walked up the steps and up onto the Tower Plaza.
Ghost glared at Darius for a brief moment before shifting his expression to the massive white sphere hovering in the sky.
"You know, I never get tired of this sight," he said after a moment.
"Me neither, Ghost. I just hope that we'll one day be able to see the Traveler awake and in its full glory. Now that would truly be a sight to behold."
"Yeah, it really would," Ghost said wistfully, before snapping back to the present. "I'll call the ship over; we should really be getting on our way."
Moments later, a sleek gold and silver jumpship flew above the plaza, coming to rest above the Titan's head. In a flash of light, the vibrant colors and open space of the Tower Courtyard disappeared and were replaced by the cramped and dull interiors of the jumpship cockpit. Darius took hold of the levers and guided the ship into orbit. A few button presses later, and the ship was speeding away towards the first planet of the solar system.
Darius got up from his seat and moved back to the hold from his ship, where his armory was.
"What gear are you planning on taking?" Ghost asked, fluttering around the Titan's shoulders.
"Lots of stuff. Since we don't know what the mission entails, I want to make sure that I'm ready for everything."
The Titan stepped up to one of the weapon racks and lifted up a massive chain-loaded gun that glowed with an ethereal purple light. He performed a quick inspection of the gun's magazine and firing mechanism before the weapon disappeared from his hands. He then moved on, inspecting a variety of different types of weaponry. When he was finished with one gun, it disappeared and he moved on to the next.
"Let's see here," Darius mumbled as he ran through a mental checklist, "I'll be bringing Nova Mortis, Nightshade, Tuonela, Riskrunner, Gjallarhorn, Immobius, Traveler's Chosen, Origin Story, Sunshot, and..."
His eyes wandered around the room, searching for something. His eyes brightened a moment later, and he lifted a sword embedded with a fiery orange crystal at the base of the blade.
"...my trusty Sol Edge." He inspected the blade with a small smile on his face dropping his arm and sending the blade to his inventory. The console at the front of the ship beeped once, and Darius moved back to his chair in the cockpit.
"Just in time too," he said as the ship lurched and fell out of the warp and back into real space. The golden rays of the sun burst through the ship's viewport and Darius had to shield his eyes for a moment while the screen polarized itself.
"Well Ghost," Darius announced as he approached the rocky planet below, "welcome back to Mercury."
The ship zoomed down into the planet's fleeting atmosphere, navigating massive stone towers and the strikes of lightning that flickered from their tops down to the surface far below.
Darius navigated the ship towards one of the many stone spires, circling around it until he found a blocky overhang jutting out of the side of the tower. He released the controls and moved out of his seat and back out into the hold. He reached to the side and picked up his round and smooth helmet and placed it on his head. It fit snugly and there was a short hiss as the helmet was locked in place.
A moment later, Darius' dark world lit up as the HUD flickered on and various electronic elements appeared on his screen, displaying things such as a motion tracker, ammo counter, and energy readings that measured the buildup of Light in his body. A gold and silver weapon of alien design materialized from thin air and dropped into Darius' arms.
"You're bringing the Mythoclast too?" Ghost asked, peeking at the weapon over Darius' shoulder.
"Yeah," Darius responded.
The Vex Mythoclast was a Vex instrument that was mysteriously made to fit human hands. Darius has found it simply waiting for him in a Vex stronghold after he disposed of a menace that was threatening time itself.
"Fitting," the construct said. It glanced back at the cockpit for a brief second.
"Looks like we're over the drop zone. Boots on the ground in seven."
Darius saw only light as his body was broken apart into data and reformed outside the ship. When his sight returned to him, he was greeted with the face of the large, alien structure. A perfectly square corridor stretched deep into the tower.
He saw the shadow cast by his spaceship move away as the ship turned and ascended back into orbit. The Titan turned to briefly look over the surface of the barren planet. Blocky Vex structures extended as far as the eye could see and the massive glowing sun dominated the horizon. Darius turned back to the mission at hand, only to find that his vision was dark and splotchy.
"Well shoot," he said, "I think I'm blind."
Ghost sighed as he formed next to him. "It's unhealthy to stare at the sun on Earth," he chastised, "What did you think was going to happen here?"
"Yeah, yeah."
"Hold on, I'll repair your eyes for you." The Ghost disappeared again, but Darius could still somehow hear his grumbling and complaining.
"There!" Ghost said proudly in the Guardian's mind as the splotches in his vision slowly faded, "Eyesight restored!"
"Thanks buddy," Darius replied, "I don't know what I'd do without you."
With that, the two set off into the stone tower.
"Vanguard, this is Guardian Darius. I've reached the destination," Darius spoke through the comms.
"This is Zavala. We read you loud and clear. You are clear to proceed with the operation."
"Thanks. Got any intel for me?"
Ikora's voice sounded through this time. "A Vex conflux lies at the heart of this fortress. Find it, gather all the data we need, and return to us."
"Roger that," Darius said as the comms returned to standby.
Ghost looked over at his companion. "I've got some Vex signatures incoming. Get ready for a fight." He disappeared in a shower of white sparks.
"Aye." Darius readied his enigmatic weapon. Up ahead, glowing red eyes emerged from a cloud of data and thunder.
A horde of Vex Goblins stepped forwards, firing at him with bolts of solar energy. Darius ducked to the side, narrowly evading the projectiles, and returned fire. One bolt of energy hit the casing of a Goblin's core and it clattered to the ground as the radiolarian mind fluid poured from its cracked container. Another Vex disintegrated entirely when the Mythoclast's bolts ripped into the cyborg's frame, reducing it to a pile of embers.
One Goblin strayed too close to Darius. The Guardian reached out and grabbed the Vex core and crushed it in his hands with a wet crunch. Darius followed up the devastating blow by conjuring an orb of electricity in his hand. He tossed it on the ground in the midst of a crowd of Vex. The orb exploded outwards, periodically emitting potent blasts of lightning that fried the robotic chassis of the Vex unlucky enough to be caught in the blast. Darius finished the last Vex in the group up with persistent fire from his weapon. The Titan stepped over its lifeless shell and continued onward.
The Guardian continued down the corridor until he noticed a calm blue glow up ahead. Darius increased his pace to a jog and he soon discovered it to be a Vex lift. A quick glance told him that it would take him deep into the spire. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by an unbreakable barrier.
Ghost flashed into reality next to his head. "Let me at the controls. I should be able to get that barrier down."
Darius nodded, and the Ghost glided over to the alien control panel and got to work, hacking into the Vex network and working to override the lift controls.
"Ugh. Really?" Ghost sighed.
Darius glanced back at his partner. "What is it?" he asked.
"I swear, this happens every time!" Ghost complained, "We've got Vex coming to intercept us."
Darius dropped the Mythoclast and it evaporated into particles right before it hit the ground. He withdrew his heavy machine gun from his inventory and fitted a drum into the frame of the weapon.
"I'll deal with them. You keep working."
More clouds of lightning formed and more Vex emerged from within them. Accompanying the small force of Goblins were some Minotaurs. They were bulkier and towered over their smaller brethren. Hints of an energy shield danced upon their bronze casings. Darius' hands flew with practiced ease as he quickly loaded the weapon.
Then he let the Nova Mortis sing.
Void-infused rounds tore into the advancing Vex force, shredding their energy shields and causing them to explode outward in a shockwave that damaged the Vex around them. As the first Minotaur fell, its body began to glow a dangerous purple. The violet light soon tore itself outwards from the Minotaur's body, shattering into several deadly streams of Void energy, which bombarded the other Vex. The streams of purple light impacted their metal frames, tearing them to pieces. As they clattered to the floor, they also began to glow with a dangerous light before bursting into that deadly purple light, causing a chain reaction of Void explosions, which quickly spread through the group.
Taking advantage to the momentary confusion, Darius charged his fists with lightning and dove into the crowd of remaining Vex. His first punch knocked the large fan-shaped head of a Goblin clean off. It charged at him in a wild frenzy, but Darius' next attack vaporized it completely. The Titan flew through the swarm of Vex like a wrecking ball; anything he touched was destroyed in an instant. The last Minotaur charged at him, screeching angrily and firing its Torch Hammer rapidly, but the Titan ducked under the particle cannon fire and drove his shoulder against the Minotaur, shattering its energy barrier with sheer kinetic force and causing the burly robot to fly backwards, impacting the far wall with a small crater. Its unmoving body fell to the ground a moment later.
"I got it!" Ghost crowed happily as the energy barrier powered down, "Finish up those Vex and- oh. They're already dead."
Darius strode over to where he had dropped his weapon. He picked it up and returned it to his inventory, swapping it for a sleek black rifle. Ghost returned to its preferred place over Darius' shoulder as the Titan approached the lift.
"This is Titan Darius," the Guardian opened communications again. "We have unlocked a Vex lift and are approaching the heart of the tower. We'll contact you again when we've accessed the Vex Conflux."
"Affirmative," Zavala replied. "Good luck to you both."
The Guardian stepped onto open air and was gently lowered down the lift and into the crux of the Vex structure.
A small patrol of a few Goblins was waiting for Darius at the bottom of the lift, but he gave little thought to them and destroyed them in seconds.
"Hey Ghost," Darius spoke, "We almost there yet?"
"I'm glad you asked," Ghost responded from the mental link the two shared. Both Guardian and Ghost had agreed that from here on out, it was too dangerous for the little robot to stay out in the open. "I actually managed to get a map of the place while I was overriding the lift controls. Follow my directions and we should make it there fine."
"So what do you think the Vex are up to?" Darius asked after a moment.
"I don't really know what to expect- take a left at this fork-, but it can't be good. I mean, the Vex on Venus were bad enough. How are we supposed to fight an entire planet?"
Darius was silent for a moment. "We'll find a way," he finally replied. "After all, we've faced insurmountable odds and have come out on top before. Remember the Vault of Glass? Remember Oryx?"
"I guess you're right. As long as we're together, we can accomplish anything."
Darius smiled behind his helmet.
"That Vex gate will take us straight to the conflux," Ghost directed.
The Titan felt the familiar odd tingly feeling of reality bending around him to place him somewhere else that accompanied traveling through the Vex gate system. He stepped out of the bright portal to find…
"That," Ghost said nervously, "is a lot of Vex."
Scores of Vex littered the room, surrounding their prize: a white, glassy obelisk that pulsed with a faint light: the conflux. The Vex guarding it squealed angrily in an attempt to intimidate the warrior.
Darius was unperturbed. "Not anything we haven't dealt with before. Ghost, supercharge me."
Darius' body began to glow with Light.
The Vex reared back in alarm as they tried to stare into shining beacon before them. Darius stepped out of the fading pillar of Light, wreathed in flames, holding an ornate hammer that was glowing red-hot.
A Minotaur blinked forwards, raising its heavy arm to strike at the Guardian. Darius looked at it calmly and raised his hammer.
The Minotaur flew backwards, its plates fusing together as it clattered to the ground in a burning husk.
Every single Vex stared Darius with their calculating eyes and opened fire, only to find that their weapons did nothing to the purple dome that had been conjured in front of their target. A moment later, the barrier fell, and the Titan streaked forwards in a burst of Light. He slammed his fists into the stone floor, rupturing the ground and annihilating the Vex that stood there.
The Vex fired again, but Darius had already moved, driving his knee into the torso of one Vex and thrusting his hand at the frame of another. A bolt of lightning lanced from his palm of his hand and into the unfortunate Goblin and the lightning bolt jumped to six more Vex, charring them instantly.
The Vex fired a third time and were met again by a barrier of Void energy. Darius held his left hand up, emitting a half-dome of Void Light and charged, summoning a flaming sword in his other hand. The Vex continued to fire at the Titan, but to no avail; the barrier held, and when the Guardian was close enough, he jumped high into the air, dropping the barrier and bringing his Sol Edge down upon them and cleaving a Minotaur in half.
A Hobgoblin charged up its line rifle and fired, but the Guardian held up his sword in a defensive stance and a shield of fire sprang to life before him. The particle beam caught on the shield before reflecting back at the Vex. The bolt pierced its core and sent it tumbling to the ground.
The sword disappeared a moment later, and Darius once again snapped alight with the power of the sun, causing a large pillar of flame to erupt from the ground where he stood, melting the frames of the Vex that stood too close. With a measured eye, Darius hefted the hammer and threw it with all of his might. It arced into a cluster of Goblins before exploding, reducing the recipients to ash.
Darius dismissed the hammer and channeled the Light to his feet jumping up into the air and using the Traveler's energy to keep him aloft. He drew his sidearm from its holster with his right arm and summoned his submachine gun with his left and fired down upon the few remaining Vex in the room. The cyborgs collapsed in a hail of bullets.
The last Goblin's eye flickered before fading to black and its body toppled to the ground. Darius landed a second later, holding the two smoking guns at his sides. He returned the electric submachine gun to his inventory, and his pistol to the holster on his waist.
Darius slowly walked up to the Vex conflux, which had miraculously managed to come out of the battle unscathed. Darius extended an arm towards it and Ghost alighted upon his palm.
"Good job out there, Darius!" The little drone praised, "Now, to do my part."
He floated towards the glass structure and began to scan it, attempting to retrieve the information stored within.
"Wow, there is a lot of stuff in here," Ghost said. "Info on the Taken, The Vault of Glass, underground simulation spaces, doorways to the past, present, and future, and even alternate realities. Forwarding this to the Vanguard now."
The Vanguard channel opened up and a voice spoke in Darius' ear. "Guardian Darius, this is Commander Zavala. We are receiving your transmission now. Excellent work, you two. Return to us and we can discuss what to do with this new information. Zavala out."
"A job well done, if I do say so myself," Ghost said smugly. Darius smiled and went to reply, but was interrupted by the sound of static and Vex warping tech.
Darius turned to see a giant Minotaur emerge from its own portal. Unlike the usual bronze coloration of the Vex, this Minotaur had a cream-white frame and was ornamented with two angular horns, one jutting from each shoulder blade.
Ghost gave a small gasp of surprise. "A Gate Lord. We must have really ticked them off."
The Gate Lord focused on the Ghost and Guardian with its single eye and leveled its weapon at them.
"Duck!" Ghost screamed, and Darius dropped to the floor just in time, as a large bolt of Void energy flew overhead.
Ghost gave a sigh of relief. "That was a close one," he said.
Crash!
The glassy structure behind them cracked from the force of the mighty blow. Strands of light began to burst from the conflux until it shattered, and a glowing rectangle of energy stood where the conflux once was.
The Gate Lord looked at the energy and then back at the Guardian and Ghost, still prone on the floor. It raised its massive foot and stomped the ground, sending a rippling shockwave towards the two. Caught unaware, the duo had almost no time to react. Ghost only just managed to dematerialize before the shockwave struck. The Guardian was flung into the air where it was met with another powerful bolt of energy that impacted his helmet, cracking it and rendering the HUD almost unreadable. Darius was thrown backwards by the attack and directly into the rectangle of light and energy. Upon contact, the rectangle glowed brightly, and everything went white.