Chapter 9: The Glassway

I have no excuse for why this took so long to post. I started working at Amazon but my shift is from 11:30pm-3:30am, I had plenty of time to do it during the day but I got lazy and kept surfing the internet, wrote a rewrite to the ending of Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, did some grinding in Warframe, and played the epilogue mission in Destiny 2's Season of the Splicer. Hopefully I won't take a long time to get the next few chapters out.

Accessing File: Taniks, the Scarred

Taniks, the Scarred is a renegade Eliksni mercenary affiliated with no House, but to those who pay him.

Taniks was once loyal to the House of Scar but was docked into subservience by his Kell who tore off all four of Taniks' arms. He then built himself new prosthetic arms and killed his former Kell out of revenge. Taniks later renounced his pledge to any House and refused to adhere to their arbitrary customs and traditions.

Inspired by Sekris, Baron of Shanks, who prolonged his lifespan through cybernetics, Taniks was among a new generation of Eliksni mercenaries who modelled their brutality and cybernetics after Sekris. He built a reputation among the Eliksni as an undying huntsman and infused his physical body with mixtures of technologies pilfered from legendary treasure troves. This continued to the extent where he was considered more machine than Eliksni.

A bounty had been placed on a crew of mercenaries consisting of Cayde Reynolds, Andal Brask, Nian Ruo, and Lush and Taniks sought to claim it.

Taniks sought to claim this bounty and ambushed Cayde, Nian, and Lush during a cache run. Nian and Lush were killed but Taniks managed to escape Cayde's wrath. Andal was later informed of the news and sought to kill Taniks out of revenge. One night, Andal and Cayde stayed up late drinking and decided to make a bet, whoever killed Tanils first would receive 10,000 Glimmer from the loser.

Cayde succeeded in killing Taniks and received his reward. It was later discovered that Taniks had somehow returned alive and was making raids on colonies in the Gaia Union frontier. Taniks was later killed by Cayde again, however Taniks' body was hauled off by his Crew.

Taniks would return once more and kill Andal Brask. Cayde would then swear revenge and track down Taniks and kill him and his Crew.

At some point after becoming an Exo Cayde would remember Taniks and tracked him down to an asteroid field. Cayde and a hired crew of mercenaries boarded his Ketch and killed him and his entire Crew. Taniks is currently listed as deceased.

At some point in his life Taniks became acquainted with the infamous Baroness, Eramis, the Shipstealer.

Close File

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Accessing File: Vex Portal

During his research on the Pyramid and how it would help him perfect the Exominds Clovis Bray I had received visions from the Pyramid telling him how to opening a portal to another universe. The gateway was constructed, and it lead him to the universe where the Pyramid had originated from.

The other side of portal to a blue hypergiant star system called 2082 Volantis, the Forge Star. It had no planets as they had been dismantled by a cyber-organic species called the Vex who used the materials to build an array of orbiting Vex "statite" megastructures that are involved with prolonging the star's lifespan and harvesting the heavy elements formed in its heart.

The system was explored by Clovis Bray I who lead research teams to find a substance called Radioleria, microscopic silica-based organisms that make up the biological component of Vex constructs. There the researchers on his expedition determined that the stone on one of the megastructures was 13 billion years old, yet the star itself should not have been able to last this long, only to realize that the Vex had been artificially keeping it alive. With the samples in hand Clovis would expose it to the Darkness energies of something that he took from the Pyramid to create "Alkahest" a substance he needed to successfully create the first Exos.

Once the Alkahest was perfected Clovis would use the Gem of Creation to study the substance to help him create a new way of making Exominds through use of Aura and succeeded. Though he kept the portal operational to study the system and hopefully use the gate to make contact with that universe's version of Earth.

What Clovis didn't know was that the version him from that universe had visited the Forge Star for the same reason, though Aura and the Spiral Gems didn't exist. The Vex within the Forge Star were confused about how their was a second Clovis Bray I and eventually they invaded the Europa of Dimension GF-007. The invasion ended when Clovis-43 and future Elsie-1 lead the remaining Exos on a final assault on the portal and destroyed it.

A manual reboot was performed on the remaining personal Exo with the hope that they could never remember what happened so no one else on Earth would make the same mistake they did. Clovis-43 asked future Elsie to make him forget who he was and had his name changed to the nickname his fellow Exos gave him, Banshee.

Close File

Xxx

"My team and I found Taniks and his crew hiding out in an asteroid field. We went in and killed everyone on that Ketch. We made sure that there was no alone left to take Taniks' corpse and resurrect him. I still remember his appearance. 12ft tall, brown jumpsuit under his armor, four robotic arms, cobalt colored shoulder and leg guards, and an orange helmet with eight eye optics that looked like he was peering into your soul. If he does come back, then I'll be ready to send him back to Hell."

— Cayde-6

Xxx

Riis-Reborn,

Rally Room

Inside the rally room where Eramis had presented the power of Stasis to her followers she paced around on the stage with the last two members of her Dark Council, Kridis and Atraks, waiting on the floor below her.

"Praksis and Phylaks are dead." Eramis says as she stops at the center of the stage. "We must retaliate!"

She looks to Atraks and calls her name. "Atraks."

The young Eliksni steps forward to hear the orders her Kell will give.

"Kridis and I can handle this." Eramis says to the Wildcard. "Return to the Crypt and prepare the body."

Atraks bows and walks toward the exit as Eramis returns to her pacing. Kridis sees this and talks to her old friend.

"Eramis." Kridis says. "We must take pause." Eramis briefly glances at the Dark Priestess before returning to her pacing and brings up her upper left arm as Stasis ice began to form on it.

"These powers are not what we expected." Kridis continues saying. "I, too, am impatient. But there is wisdom in caution."

Eramis stops walking and brings her arm up. The Stasis ice was growing more and more on it. With a grunt she brings her upper right arm down on it and shatters the ice freeing the arm that was being covered by it. Kridis flinches a little after seeing this happen.

Eramis flexes her freed hand and says, "Caution? Look what caution has earned us. Our enemy exploits our weakness. Now we must act. I will give these Huntsmen the destruction they crave."

Xxx

Elsie's Camp

The fireteam had returned to the camp before Elsie, Drifter, and Eris Morn. While they waited, they inserted Praksis' Splinter of Darkness into the next lock at the Ziggurat leaving them with only one more to unlock. They waited inside of the building until they heard the sound of a few engines outside. They exit the building and find Elsie and her team dismounting their Sparrows.

"Well look who it is." Cayde says. "Did you get your new grenade launcher?"

"Yep." The Drifter said as he brought out the oddly made grenade launcher. "Putting Stasis in a grenade launcher, wish I thought of it first."

Ana and Elsie approach each other and stopped when they were within arm's distance of the other. After a few seconds of silence Ana hugs her sister's alternate future self.

"I'm so sorry for how I acted to you Elsie." Ana said with sincerity in her voice. "I understand now that it was to keep me safe and-"

"It's all right little light." Elsie says as she hugs her sister back. "It wasn't right of us to keep your parentage a secret and you had every right to be angry."

"Yeah, but I shouldn't have acted like that." Ana says as she breaks away from the hug. "You were just doing what mom and dad told you to do and didn't deserve to be treated like that."

"Don't worry." Elsie said as she put her right hand on Ana's shoulder. "I may not be your Elsie but we're together now and as a family we will be bring down Eramis."

"While we're on the subject of family." Banshee-44 says catching Ana and Elsie's attention. "Hello granddaughter."

"I see you started to remember." Elsie says as she approaches Banshee.

"So far only some of it." Banshee says as he brings out The Lament. "I remember how you didn't appreciate it when the others activated me on the A.I.'s orders. But when I showed that I didn't want to be whoever I was before you began to trust me. And he convinced us to meet with him where he gave me my sword and you your pulse rifle."

"What A.I.?" Cayde asked the two.

"Before I became an Exo, I had created an A.I. copy of myself and installed it somewhere in the facility where we killed Praksis." Banshee says. "It's basically all that remains of my time as Clovis Bray I."

"And a real pain in the ass." Elsie says. "It destroyed several escape shuttles to convince us not to seek help on Earth when the Vex attacked us. When we got our weapons from it we had to undergo the Exo training program to fully understand what our weapons are capable of."

"Grandfather had the simulation training here as well?" Ana asked.

"What?" Cayde asked.

"It's a simulation program our grandfather made to train Exos to fight by bringing their minds into a digital space." Ana explained. "The training was meant for people who weren't given Huntsmen training before undergoing the procedure. It would be much faster in the digital space so they wouldn't have to spend too much time learning how to fight and be able to fight immediately."

"After we were done with the simulation training, we focused on eliminating the Vex." Elsie says as she looks at Banshee. "You were always on the frontlines fighting the Vex with a sword that shrieked in the wind like a mad banshee. You always took the brunt of the horrors they tried to instill on us requiring you to be rebooted so many times and by the time we destroyed the Vex portal you were Clovis-43."

"And after that me and the other surviving Exos went under a manual and controlled reboot so we would forget this place so no one else would know of what happened here." Banshee said as he finished Elsie's story. "I remember asking you to modify my reboot so that I would forget who I was and could only go by the nickname the others gave me."

"Banshee's your nickname?" Cayde asked but everyone chose to ignore his question as it wasn't that important.

"But I don't feel like the man I use to be I feel like a different person." Banshee said as he stared into his sword The Lament before holstering it on his back again. "I just feel like me."

"You haven't been our grandfather since you underwent the Exo process." Elsie said as she placed a hand on Banshee's shoulder. "You are someone new, someone that knows what Clovis did was wrong, and will rise above it and be better than the man who you once were."

Banshee looked at Elsie and Ana and how they showed care for him for who he is and not who he once was. He then looks into the sky and felt as though a great weight on his shoulders has finally been lifted, smiles as best as his Exo face could allow.

BZZZZT!

Suddenly everyone's comms begins to go off before a voice was heard on it.

"My friends are you there?" Variks said over the comms.

"Variks, what is it?" Ana replied back.

"[wheezes] Our comms buzz with chattere, word of your success has been circulating. Eramis is most unpleased. [chattering]" Variks says. "She intends to react with a new set of reinforcements: the Vex."

At the mention of that name Elsie activates her commlink. "The Vex?! How? Banshee and I destroyed the Gateway years ago there is no way for Eramis reactivate it."

"Before his death Praksis studied the archives of Clovis Bray, making use of his Splicer training to uncorrupt files and to learn how Bray built the original portal." Variks says. "The repairs on the portal are nearly done Eramis intends to activate it."

"Then she needs to be stopped. We're on our way." Banshee-44 says before addressing the group. "The portal is back where we killed Phylaks we just need to go left instead of right when we get to the fork in the road."

"Then let's go!" Ana says as she summons hers, Cayde's, and Banshee's sparrows while Elsie summons hers and Eris and Drifter's.

The group mounted the hover bikes and made their way for the Nexus.

Xxx

Nexus,

Europa

The fireteam of six reached the Nexus and came to the cavern with the fork in the road. To their left they see a group of Eliksni guarding an energy barrier sealing the passage to the next area.

"Hello, pawns. It's no surprise to find you here." Eramis says on the comms.

"Eramis, you must not do this! Do you not care for our people?" Variks says to Eramis.

"Far more than you know, traitor." Eramis replies back.

The fireteam attacks the Eliksni guards. Elsie transforms her pulse rifle into a sword and attacked the Eliksni with it. Any blaster shots that came at her she blocked it with the blade and responded back with Stasis blasts that froze her opponents. Drifter and Eris took on the Eliksni with Eris turning her orb dark blue with Stasis energy and directing it to attack the targets she chooses, while the Drifter covered her with his revolver.

Ana, Banshee, and Cayde came into conflict with a 12 ft tall Captain equipped with a Splinter of Darkness. He formed Stasis Cutlasses and swung at Cayde but Banshee stepped in front of it and blocked the attack The Lament. Ana uses her Semblance on the ground beneath the captain making him float in the air. While he was flailing about the trio took the opportunity to shoot their guns at him. Ana deactivates her Semblance and the Captain's corpse falls to the ground. With the room clear of hostiles the Drifter goes to a control panel and deactivates the barrier.

"Tell me, Variks. Was it not you that tortured and murdered Eliksni in the Prison of Elders?" Eramis asked but in a way that showed she already knew the answer.

"Variks is-" Variks hesitantly says before being cut off.

"A hypocrite? Yes. At least here they die for a cause." Eramis says as the fireteam enters another checkpoint with more Eliksni guards.

"These guys just don't know when to quit!" Cayde says as he summons three fire daggers and throws them at the Eliksni. They strike three enemies and explode killing them and a few nearby Eliksni.

The explosion kicked up some mist from the snow and ice and from it emerges a Captain with Stasis abilities. In his hands was a hammer made of Stasis ice, he swings it down onto Cayde but the attack is halted by Eris. She moves her orb to block the hammer and she throws a dagger between the Captain's eyes killing him.

"Thanks Eris." Cayde says to the three-eyed mystic.

"You still owe me a new ship." She coldly says to the Exo.

The Drifter goes to a control panel and deactivates the barrier. The group makes their way forward and as they go through the caves Eramis and Variks continue their talk on the comms.

"You are a monster if you do this." Variks says accusingly.

"I'm no monster. What I do, I do for the future of our people." Eramis says in defensive of her actions.

"Open that portal, and you kill them all!" Variks says hoping to reason with his old friend.

"Many will die, yes. But more shall live." Eramis says in response to the words of the old scribe words.

The fireteam makes their way to the next checkpoint and engages the Eliksni guarding it. While Eris, Drifter, Cayde, and Banshee dealt with the foot soldiers and robots, Ana and Elsie dealt with the Stasis Captain guarding the checkpoint.

"I got your back sis." Ana says as she switches her rifle to its energy glaive form.

"And I'm watching yours." Elsie says in response to her sister's statement.

The Stasis Captain throws a crystal at the sisters forcing them to move out of the way as it erupted into a blizzard dome that froze anything inside of it. Ana charges forward and swung her glaive at the Captain who summoned a sword made of Stasis to block it and was pushed back by Ana's assault. Elsie moves in and swings her sword at the Captain's legs. The strike hits and the Captain howls in pain and tries to hit Elsie with a Stasis blast from his right hand. Elsie jumps back and channels Stasis energy into her left hand and slams it into the ground. A line of Stasis crystals emerge and hit the Captain causing him to freeze. Ana slashes her glaive at the frozen Captain causing him to shatter into pieces.

Elsie and Ana nod to each other and return to the rest of the fireteam seeing that they have already eliminated the rest of the Eliksni guarding the checkpoint. Drifter goes to a console and deactivates the energy barrier blocking their way allowing them to move forward.

"The Pyramid showed me the universe it came from Variks and how our home world's counterpart in it died." Eramis says over the comms. "It reminded me of how powerless I was to stop Solkis from killing my wife and children as punishment for my attempt to usurp him and the other corrupt Kells. I tried everything to put it behind me. To move on. But in my head, I could not silence the collective cries of my family dying. But then… Darkness presented itself. And I took it. Finally, Variks — finally, I felt I could do something. So go ahead. Call me a monster. But do not doubt that what I do, I do for the future of our people."

As the fireteam moves on they enter a large cavern with a strange Vex structure ahead of them and Vex platforms that marked their path toward it. Making use of their thruster packs they traversed the platforms allowing them to reach the entrance to the structure.

"Welcome to the Glassway." Elsie says as the group enters the structure.

"Could use a bar and a gambling floor." Drifter says in a joking manner.

"Believing all this, the desperate plan of a Kell gone mad, rather than a step towards absolution. Let's call it justice. For spilling the blood of worthy Eliksni and taking what was rightfully mine." Eramis says to the group.

"'Taking what was rightfully mine?'" Cayde asked. "Is she talking about us using Stasis?"

"Sounds like the Shipstealer ain't too happy about us using the Darkness." Drifter says as he switches from his revolver to a scout rifle. "I'd be pretty pissed too if someone else was using the same toy as me."

"Whatever the case she's gone made." Elsie says. "We need to kill her and prevent the Vex from returning to our universe."

"[wheezes] Eramis has always been brash, but this… [insect-like chattering] is different." Variks says worriedly. "The Darkness pervades her mind and spirit."

"We'll stop her, Variks." Ana says to the old scribe. "We have to."

The group makes their way through a hallway bringing them to a large room made of Vex architecture. At the far end they could see the Vex portal, a massive circular gateway awaiting activation. And near it was Eramis standing beneath a Skiff.

"Poor foolish pawns." Eramis says to the fireteam. "This time, I've made you one of my own."

"There she is!" Banshee said as he raised his weapon and fired. But the Kell of Darkness merely jumped up onto the Skiff and climbed into one of its entrances.

"Unfortunately, you're too late." Eramis said over the comms as the Skiff flew away. "I'll just have to eviscerate you another day. If you make it out alive."

"What did she mean by 'if' we make it out alive?" Cayde asked the group.

"Do we have to spell it out for you Cayde?" Banshee-44 asked dryly.

Suddenly the portal starts to glow as it hums to life.

"The portal — it's on!" Elsie said in surprise.

From the portal a white glowing fluid pours out of it into a basin built beneath the portal.

"That's radiolaria, what the Vex actually are, don't touch it it's hazardous and a very potent hallucinogenic." Banshee warned the fireteam.

Suddenly the group hears a bird-like squawking coming from the portal then multiple brass colored humanoid robots with conical heads emerge from it. They each had a singular red eye, their "guts" contained radiolaria, and their right hands held unusual looking rifles. They see the fireteam and emit their squawking cry before opening fire on them.

"Take cover!" Elsie ordered as the group went left and hid inside of a structure. Occasionally Eris and Drifter would peek out the doorway and use their rifles to shoot a few Vex.

"Well…crap!" Cayde said in frustration of the situation they were now in.

"Elsie, you and Banshee took this portal down last tie so what do we do?" Ana asked her sister's alternate future self.

"Last time we had explosives and this time we don't have enough fire power to destroy the portal." Elsie explained. "Not to mention the Vex will just keep endlessly pouring in from their universe into ours until we're overwhelmed."

"Maybe we just need to find the portal's weak spot." Banshee said as he took a quick glance of the portal. "I used my Semblance, and that rebuilt portal was kit bashed together and shoddily built. If I can find the right design flaw, I should be able to destroy it."

"Take this brother." Drifter said as he took the Stasis Grenade launcher off his back. "The Eliksni call it Salvation's Grip and I figure it should do some real damage to that portal."

"Thanks." Banshee said as he got out his sword and placed Salvation's Grip of his back.

"Let's do this fireteam!" Ana said to the group before they rushed out.

Ana and Elsie transformed their weapons into their melee modes and swung at any Vex that came near them. A few held out their hands that released a concussive blast when the sisters got close but they duo were able to avoid the attacks. Ana made use of her Semblance to launch her opponents into the air while Elsie transformed her sword back to its Pulse Rifle mode. Drifter and Cayde went in with revolvers drawn out and blasted any Vex they saw. Drifter would make use of his Stasis abilities as well to freeze his enemies while Cayde backed him up with his Semblance Sundance to incinerate any Vex with his Golden Gun technique, frozen or nonfrozen. Eris moved in with a Scout Rifle in her right hand and with her left hand she directed her orb when she channeled Stasis into it killing dozens of Vex still walking through the basin of radiolaria.

Banshee meanwhile hacked and slashed any Vex in his way as he made his way to the side of the portal. Looking at it he sees cables hooked up to Eliksni machinery and with his Semblance examines the mechanisms presented to him. Looking around he sees something off with one of the cables in the portal. The portal's outlet was sparking showing that the power was not being carefully transferred into the portal.

"Found you." Banshee says to himself as he switches to the Salvation's Grip and aims it at the sparking outlet.

He fires and the grenade freezes the cable and outlet. It starts to crack and shatters from the unnatural cold. Small explosions begin to come around from the portal as it flickered and died from it's lose in power. Mentally congratulating himself on a job well done he returns to the fireteam to see them destroying the last of the Vex forces.

"Job's done." Banshee says as he tosses the Salvation's Grip back to the Drifter.

"Alright, alright, alright." Drifter says cheerfully.

"Good riddance." Elsie says as she looks at the destroyed portal and pool of radiolaria with disdain. "Evil bastards."

Suddenly the pool of radiolaria drains into a hole in the floor catching the group off guard and causing them to walk up to the hole.

"Wait — where is all that radiolarian fluid going?" Ana asked worriedly.

"Eramis… what have you done?" Variks asks in shock over the comms.