Chapter 9
Shores of Time, Maat Mons, Venus
After getting into his jumpship Jason had received the coordinates for where the House of Whirlwind battle group had been spotted and after sometime flying Jason had came to the Shores of Time. After he transmatted onto the ground he could see three Ketches bearing the colors and symbol of House Whirlwind.
Tantrik (comm.): An expedition team was sent into Vex territory. Find them and kill them dead.
Jason: Understood.
Jason proceeded into a jungle that leads to the location of the coordinates. It began to rain while he was proceeding through it. He then saw two Dregs in black examining a dead Vex Goblin unit. The Vex were a race of machines that had some sort of white organic fluid located in their "guts." The Vex had the power to teleport to any location and they even possessed the power to time travel. Guardians have faced Vex from the past, present, and future. Despite being machines they possess the idea of worshipping a god. They gained this idea from the Hive. According to the Books of Sorrow Crota had made a tear to another reality in the High War, his father's Ascendant Realm, and unknowingly brought them to our universe. The Vex had quickly learned the Sword-Logic, and from it they learned to achieve divinity by killing all who opposed them and adopted worship as a primary function.
When the Traveler made Venus a habitable world, humanity had encountered the Vex. Back then they hadn't been a major threat; scientists even studied Vex ruins and captured a live specimen for study. They learned that the Vex could create internal simulations to accurately predict peoples every moves. The Vex are unable to predict the actions of Warminds (An advance A.I. created by Humans in the Golden Age) and anything linked to a paracausal power (Hive and the Guardians).
It seems that the Vex want to insert themselves into the fabric of reality and control it from within. They want to turn every planet in the system into giant machines in order to create a massive supercomputer in order to incorporate themselves into the universe. The Vex had a location on Venus called the Vault of Glass, here they could manipulate reality within it; many believe it to be a testing ground for their plans. Ikora had hypothesized that a group of Vex called the Sol Progeny were meant to carry this ability into the universe. They were three Minotaurs that were 36 feet tall. They each represented past, present, and future.
One place that matters the most to the Vex was a location called the Black Garden, a separate dimension where the Vex are born and in it is the Black Heart. The Black Heart was mass of chaotic black fluid and it was a fragment of the Darkness. The Vex worshipped it as god and they constructed three massive statues that were to channel its power and become the Sol Progeny. Thanks to the Exo Stranger's warning Jason found a Vex Gate on Mars that led to the Black Garden, when he came to the Heart it sent it's power into the Sol Progeny one at a time, and when all three were destroyed so was the Heart. This allowed the Traveler to start healing so that it may awaken once more. Once the Black Heart was destroyed the Black Garden was brought to Mars.
Ghost (Voice only): Try to take them out quietly.
Jason then pulled out a sidearm that had a silencer and fired two rounds. Each bullet hit the Dregs in the head making a clean kill. He then went over to them and his Ghost appeared to scan them for anything useful.
Ghost: Their expedition team is outside of the jungle. The team is in a place that is heavily controlled by the Vex; their looking for anything that they could use against us.
Jason: Skolas had armed the House of Wolves with Vex technology before. We can't let them do the same thing.
Jason proceeded out of the jungle and came to an area that had a lot of Vex architecture. Areas with rectangular and cube shaped stones and machines lay across the area. Gunfire was heard, no doubt from Eliksni engaging the Vex in combat. Jason then entered the area and came across a squad of Vex. It consisted of two Harpies, four Goblins, two Hobgoblins, and one Minotaur. Vex came in different variations; Harpies are floating drones that serve as scouts, Goblins were common foot soldiers with cone shaped heads, Hobgoblins are snipers that possessed a horned head and a tail, Minotaurs are large Vex soldiers the same size as a Hive Knight, and Hydras are segmented machines that float through the air to attack and possesses a unidirectional defensive shield.
Jason pulled out his auto rifle and fired at the Vex. He took out a Harpy and one of the Goblins. The remaining Vex fired at him forcing Jason into cover. The Harpy and remaining Goblins fired Slap Rifles (A Vex auto Rifle) at Jason, the Minotaur fired a Torch hammer (Vex rocket launcher), and the two Hobgoblins fired Line Rifles (Sniper/Fusion Rifles) at him. Jason then threw a fusion grenade that stuck itself to the Harpy and blew up killing it and two of the Goblins. Jason then fired at the two Hobgoblins causing them to activate their Burning Shields and forcing them to stop firing. This allowed Jason to switch to his Rocket Launcher and kill the Minotaur in one blast. Jason then switched back to his auto rifle and shot at the white fluid located in the Hobgoblins "guts" once their Burning Shields wore off. This caused them to fall apart and splatter their fluids everywhere.
Ghost (voice only): Remember the Vex possess a hive mind. One of their Axis Minds (Individual Vex that act as leaders) could have been alerted to our presence.
Jason: Don't worry. I always manage to pull through.
Jason continues on fighting through Vex and several Eliksni that he comes across. A group of Eliksni he took out had a communicator that was going off. Jason then picks it up and presses a button turning on its receiver.
Whirlwind Eliksni: (Eliksni language)
Tantrik (Comm.): One of their Captain's is calling for all members of the expedition team to report to her location. Her squad has come to a heavily defended area.
Ghost (Voice only): And that's where we're heading.
Jason then followed the signal from that transmission and came to a location that had Eliksni and Vex fighting each other. Eliksni were coming through passageways and Vex were appearing from Time Clouds that pulled them through time and space. What really got Jason's eye was the giant Vex Warp Gate that a Captain and her squad were fighting a Vex Hydra. This was a Warp Gate that is protected by a Vex Gate Lord. Gate Lords are Vex Minotaurs that are three stories high and they guard the realms that the Vex keep locked outside of time. Jason had faced one get its eye so he could enter the Black Garden and another in the Prison of Elders with Grace and Jack-10.
Ghost (Voice only): This is perfect if we can get the house of Whirlwind forces to send come to the area we can trick them into summoning a Gate Lord.
Jason: And since this place is so large it can erupt into a large scale battle.
Ghost (Voice only): Take out that Hydra and the Eliksni attacking it. Don't worry about the others by my calculations they'll all end up dead from killing each other.
Jason ran past the Eliksni and Vex that were fighting each other and came to a large set of stone stairs that leads up to the squad of Eliksni that were fighting the Hydra. He ran up the stairs and killed several Vex and Eliksni that stood in his way with his Auto Rifle. When he got up he switched to his rocket launcher and fired at what was left of the squad. This got the Hydra's attention and it looked at Jason with its giant red eye with some sort of confusion.
Jason (Engages his super): Hi there.
Jason then throws a Hammer of Sol at the Hydra causing it to make some sort of metallic squawking sound. The Hydra fired its two cannons at Jason forcing him to dodge the oncoming fire and when he got a clear shot at the Hydra, when its shield wouldn't block him, he threw a Hammer of Sol at it causing major damage to it. As soon as he ran out of energy for his Super, Jason switched to Rocket Launcher and got to cover. As soon as the Hydra began to approach him with its shield in front of it, Jason got out of cover and ran toward the Hydra. The machine then fired at him but Jason was got hit a few times but when he was close enough he slid under the machine, getting him behind it, and allowing him to shoot it in the back with the Rocket Launcher. The blast caused enough damage to destroy it. Jason then surveyed his surroundings and saw that the battle was over no one was left.
Jason then heard the Captain's communicator going off he then picked it up and turned it on.
Eliksni: (Eliksni language only)
Jason: If you know English I suggest it you speak it.
Pasiks (Voice only): This is Baron Pasiks of House Whirlwind. I demand to know who this is!?
Jason: My name is Jason. I'm a Guardian from Earth and your expedition team has been destroyed.
Pasiks (Voice only): By you!?
Jason (Thinks for a minute): Yes, by me.
Pasiks (Voice only): Let's see how you handle my entire force!
Jason then sees three Ketches approaching the area, so he puts the communicator within a metallic circle that is used to summon Gate Lords knowing they would come to where he was transmitting from.
Ghost (Appears): Okay since they were no doubt tracking the signal they'll send a Skiff here.
Jason: Once they see the communicator in the circle they'll pick it up and unintentionally summon a Gate Lord.
Ghost: I'll transmat us back to the ship.
The Ghost tries to transmat them back to the jumpship but it doesn't work for some reason.
Jason: Ghost?
Ghost (Worried): Something's blocking our signal! We can't get out!? I can't even send a message to Tantrik. This is the Temple of Crota all over again!
Jason: Oh no.
To be continued.