Krix-13, Nessus Surface, 1 Week After Xol's Defeat
Krix froze, his eyes going wide and his hand flying to his sidearm. Beeper just looked mildly surprised. The voice had come over their radios, and it took Krix a second to catch on.
"Who is this?" He said, a bit sharper than needed.
The voice, despite sounding ever so slightly disappointed at not being recognized, cheerily answered him. "My apologies, I did not intend to startle you! I am Failsafe, the Exodus Black's failsafe. I was- I mean to say- I AM picking up some very intriguing signals from your area, one of which I seem to recognize! Namely, yours. Would you mind telling me your name?"
The voice suddenly dropped and became… almost disgusted with itself. "Ya don't have to if you don't want. I just… I've been hoping for some of my old crew to still be alive for the past, I dunno, [REDACTED!] years, and like an idiot, I got overly excited when I picked up your signal."
Krix stood up, a confusion etched across his features. "Uh… no problem. My name is Krix-13. I'm a Guardian just passing through. I uh… woke up here."
Silence.
"Failsafe? Hello?"
Under the blanket of her perpetual cheeriness, Failsafe sounded- stunned. "Krix Unit, would you mind visiting me? Both your readings and your grammatical identification code match that of one of my former crew members, but I would like to meet you in person to confirm. I hope I'm not troubling you?"
Krix gave an incredulous look to his ghost, who just looked at him in a 'well that was easy' kind of way. "Uh… no problem at all. In fact, I'm sort of looking for any information I can find on uh… pre-Light me, if you will. If you could catch me up with what ya got, that would be great."
She sounded sincerely overjoyed at the news. "Wonderful! I am uploading my central node location to your ghost now. Krix Unit, I genuinely look forward to meeting you in person!"
"Same here Failsafe. On my way now." Krix cast one more uneasy look at the hilltop before summoning his sparrow and taking off toward the nearest waypoint marker.
The disturbed remains of the red and white Exo lay behind him, weeds entangled in her rusted arm as she reached out to him in perpetual desperation.
/
It was quite the ride to get to Failsafe. They had to speed past a duel between a Fallen walker and some sort of Vex monster, guide his sparrow through the flaming remains of what must have been an exhaust funnel for one of the Exodus Black's engines, and fight through a full-sized Fallen pirate gang just to get to the AI's hiding spot.
By the time he reached Failsafe's coordinates he was down to half ammo and a bit out of breath. Another annoying thing that Exos shouldn't have to deal with.
Failsafe was eagerly awaiting him. At least he thought she was- she was just kinda… a big ball in the wall.
"Hey Failsafe, I'm here. Finally. Damn, that was a bit of a trip."
"Welcome back on board the Exodus Black Lieutenant! It is an absolute pleasure to see you again."
"It's uh… good to meet you. Again, I guess. How've you been doing?"
Failsafe's lights blinked a bit as she considered the question.
"Well, working off of the assumption that you do not remember anything, I used to be the AI to one of the most impressive ships in the Human Fleet, one of only-" Her lights flashed red for just a second "-[REDACTED!] ships ever to be built! I had a stellar crew, and a captain who genuinely cared for my welfare."
The background lights of her node slowly transitioned back to red and her voice switched from what could only be described as Sunny Failsafe to Rainy Failsafe. "And then we crashed before ever leaving the system, all of my crew died, and I've been stuck here since. I was kinda coping until the Cayde Unit came along and revealed my position to all of these aliens, and now I'm periodically set on fire, eaten, or stepped on. I mean, it's not too bad, since I've got all of these 'Guardians', or whatever, to help around the planet, you know, something to do, but… I still hate it here."
Her LEDs suddenly switched back to cheery yellow. "How have you been doing since we last spoke, Krix Unit?"
The hunter took a quick glance around the room before spotting an old crate. He dragged it to in front of the AI and sat down. "Fine, I guess. Living the hunter life. I've been dead most of the time-"
"I noticed!"
"Well… yeah. I woke up about… three weeks-ish before the Red War started? So roughly three weeks before Cayde found you. I found out during the first battle for the City that I have uh… some sort of combat programs in my head." He shrugged. "Apparently that's not normal."
"No Krix Unit, it is not. Not even for Exos! Please continue."
He gave her a funny look. "So after the War ended I didn't have much to do, other than routine Vanguard stuff. And that stuff is boring."
"Agreed."
He gave her another weird look.
Her yellow lights gained a slit pink hue. "My apologies, Krix Unit. I am just moderately excited over the discovery that one of my crew members is still alive! I also have yet to re-adjust myself to having normal verbal interactions with individuals other than… well, me! I am somewhat out of practice."
He chuckled a bit before continuing. "Don't sweat it, you're doing fine. I'm just glad you're still functioning. Anyways, I've decided to try to figure out why I have these programs in my head, how they got there, and maybe… how to get rid of them."
Her voice became curious. "Get rid of them? My record inquiry and data scans suggest that the programs you are referring to greatly increase your combat effectiveness AND efficiency. Combined with your Light you could make quite the opponent. Why would you want to deprive yourself of them?"
Krix sighed a bit, studying the room around him as he thought. "Mainly because the way it works. From my limited experience, the programs almost completely take over my functions. It's basically not something I can use, it's something that does a task for me, in my head, while I watch. A separate entity almost… I don't know if I'm explaining it well, but it's really disturbing, and I want them out. Or at least a way to understand them and a way to use them properly."
Failsafe brightened a bit. "Oh don't worry Krix Unit, I completely understand what you're talking about." Suddenly Rainy Failsafe started talking. "you have something stuck in your head that's both you and yet not you, but at the same time only shows up here and there? Oooohhh yeah, I TOTALLY know what you're talking about. And from personal experience, it's actually really cool."
And just like that Sunny Failsafe was back. "But I understand if you would like to get rid of yours. How may I assist you in your task?"
Krix looked slightly unsettled, but he plowed ahead anyways. "Well, I figured someone put these things in my head, since obviously I didn't have them as a human."
"A valid assumption."
Krix just shook his head.
"So I have to find out where these programs got put in my head. Logically, I'm going to assume it's the same place where I became an Exo. Find wherever that is, and maybe there'll be some information there I can use."
The AI paused a bit, contemplating something. "Krix Unit, I have an inquiry for you."
"What's that?"
"Based upon my interactions with The Guardian, the Cayde Unit, and other Light-users, I was under that assumption that looking for your past was highly frowned upon in the City. Have you taken this into account with your decision-making algorithms?"
Krix grinned a bit. "Why yes I have. Long story short? It's not encouraged, but there's no rule explicitly banning things like that. It's pretty easy to pull off, actually. Especially if you're a hunter."
Failsafe glowed a brighter yellow. "I see. Will this annoy the Commander?"
Krix tilted his head a bit in confusion. "I'm sorry? You mean Commander Zavala?"
"Why of course."
"Uh… probably. Actually yes, it would. Very much so. Why do you ask?"
Failsafe was looking as pleased as a giant computer disk could. "Well, if I help you, you will break a Vanguard rule. This will annoy the Commander. This in turn will both please the Cayde Unit, and annoy him because the Commander will talk with him about another one of his hunters breaking Vanguard rules! This in turn will make him bother me more for 'revenge', and him bothering me means he'll be talking to me!"
Failsafe's disks turned red as Rainy took over again. "And him talking to me means that I can annoy him some more. A triple annoyance, with both indirect and direct approaches. This is gonna be so awesome."
Sunny Failsafe was back. "We're in! How may I assist you?"
Krix was openly laughing now.
"How about you tell me where the Exodus Black picked me up? Can you do that?"
The Golden Age AI didn't blink. "I will check my logs now. Please be aware that due to extensive damage during the crash many of my records are either damaged or outright destroyed." Rainy blinked in. "So don't get your hopes up."
Her lights flashed for a split second. "Krix Unit, I'm back! I hope that what I have is to your satisfaction. For purposes of time I will skip the headers for all of the logs and files and will just give you the summary for it. I believe the term the Cayde Unit used was… 'jist'. Yes. I will give you the 'jist' of it."
Krix could almost imagine her settling into a chair with a look of complete enjoyment and importance on her face. "The earliest mention I have of your name is a log mentioning the assignment of a 'Krix-12' and a 'Synthia-3' into the crew of the Exodus Black. Both classified as 'Special Forces'. A few logs after mentions that both Exos had been assigned to the ship-board company of marines. It is at this point that a large gap in my records exist."
Rainy kicked in for a second. "Because of the crash. But… you probably already knew that. Ugh. Never mind I said anything."
Sunny continued without missing a beat. "Next in the list is the notification that due to exemplary performance a 'Krix-12' had been promoted to 1st Lieutenant and assigned command of the Exodus Black Force Recon Team: an all-Exo unit that specialized in hazardous environment operations and scouting. Their main purpose was to serve as the first crewmen on the ground on potential new home planets. Of course, that situation never developed because we crashed and everyone died!"
That last sentence was spoken with a disturbingly cheery attitude.
She went on. "The last thing my search turned up was an audio log my 1st Officer made shortly after said crash. It was stated that the remains of the Exo Recon Team had been dispatched under your command with their most intact communication array to establish contact with the outside world. They were never heard from again!"
Krix took out his knife and began polishing it. "Well… that certainly explains where I woke up. Can you go over any details that were in the first log? Every little thing helps."
"My pleasure. It says here that the Krix Unit and the Synthia Unit were picked up in a mid-space juncture with a Braytech shuttle, authorized via a signal from the New Pacific Archology."
Krix studied his knife again, his brain churning. "'Authorized', huh? That's strange. Is that all it says, location wise? 'New Pacific Archology'?"
"Yes. No further details regarding location could be found."
Krix slapped his knee and stood up. "Welp, that's where I gotta go next. That shuttle must've come from Titan, so hopefully I can get a manifest or something like that. And Failsafe?"
"Yes Lieutenant?"
Krix slid his knife away and scratched that back of his head. "I don't think it's a good idea to go telling everyone what I'm doing, if at all possible. I know that's a bit much to ask, but uh…"
She sounded a bit disappointed. "I understand Krix Unit. Is it ok if I add your name to my official crew logs?"
Krix shrugged. "Sure, why not. As long as you don't mention my name directly, I don't see a problem. I am still technically part of your crew, right?"
She brightened a bit. "That is correct! Updating crew logs now: the roster of the Exodus Black's crew currently alive is now three!"
Krix turned to leave then paused. "Three? Are you counting Beeper?"
"No. Considering their dependence on their Guardians, I do not count ghosts toward my roster. The roster currently stands as: 1) myself, 2) the Captain, and now 3) yourself."
"The Captain eh?" Krix looked at her pityingly. "Well, I gotta say Failsafe, it's been a real pleasure talking to you, and I really appreciate your help with my uh… quest, I guess you can call it."
She brightened even further. "My pleasure Lieutenant! I genuinely enjoyed our conversation, and I sincerely hope you and I will be able to speak again!"
Krix grinned a bit as he slid his hood back up. "We will Failsafe, don't you worry."
/
The Guardian, West End Ramen Shop, Present Day
"So you're the third crewmember in her roster!"
Both you and Krix glanced up at the interruption. It's your ghost. Again.
"What? I always thought I was the third crewmember. Ugh. I swear, next time we're at Nessus I'm going to have a talk with her about this."
Krix looked rather surprised. "Wait, why would you be the third crewmember? She still has Jacobson on the roster. Me, her, and the Captain."
Ghost shook his head. "No, she calls my Guardian the Captain. It's a long story, but that's why I thought I was number three. Anyways, sorry for interrupting. Please continue."
Krix gave your ghost a look before continuing. "Well, back to the story. From there I headed straight to the Archology, which was the place where I ran into my first wrench. The first of many, actually."