S1-206
A Shadow Overhead
10:23 AM
02/16/3274
Planet Vez-2
IMC HQ - Briefing room
Music
Titanfall 2 - Anderson's Mission
An urgent call had been put through the IMC's network, and when the many who heeded the call rallied to see what was up, Zavala was there to brief them in. "The day we've been dreading has finally arrived. The Darkness is in Sol. We need boots on the ground on Io. Recon." He paused for a moment. "There's a Pyramid. It's already tried to disable Rasputin. His weapons systems on the moon were… gone. Though its attempt at truly disabling the Warmind has… only angered him." The Golem took another pause, then spoke again. "Ana says he's been… let's say 'sputtering'. I'm sure you can imagine what sort of… 'colorful' language he's been screaming back at them."
Some of the Pilots chuckled at the sound of this, prompting the Golem to raise a pointer finger, silencing them.
"I'd lean on Eris's expertise, but we haven't been able to reach her. We all know what that means." Zavala continued. "Eris is our best chance at understanding what we're up against. We need her at the HQ. She's too valuable an asset to…"
Michael stepped forward. "We'll find her. After all, there's no task too big for Eagle-Eye 9-1."
"Good luck, Pilots. Bring her home." As Michael headed to the exit, Zavala called to him. "One more thing, Michael. The Shadow wanted to show you something. Meet him in the Dreadnaught."
Nodding, the ace Pilot turned back to leave, with Samus passing him.
"I have a feeling we'll need my ship's weapons to provide aerial support." The former bounty hunter said.
"Just like during the Red War." Her husband remarked with a smirk.
The Dreadnaught
Ascendant Docks
Music
Destiny - The Dreadnaught
As Samus's gunship docked with the Dreadnaught, the Shadow could be seen waiting for them… with what looked like a Cabal cache next to him.
"I have not seen that vessel in quite a while." The Shadow mused as the duo approached him.
"Used to Widows and Drop Ships, huh?" Samus remarked.
The Shadow chuckled. "Yeah, and the occasional Ketch of Eliksni that wanna have a chat. You would be surprised at how enthralled those Splicers are in the inner workings of the Vex." He then opened the container to his left. "I've been using my Taken Hive to make some devices." The Taken King held up what looked like an external casing to a Ghost's core. "If I'm right, these should scramble whatever paracausal frequency the Darkness used to override your Ghosts."
Rocco manifested himself first. "{I'm willing to try anything to keep them out of my mind.}"
"Then please open your shell."
The pieces of Rocco's blue and silver shell parted from his core, allowing the Shadow to open the device and slide it over the Ghost's central sphere. When Rocco closed his shell again, he found that the new device seemed to fit snugly between the eight shell parts and his core. "{Now what?}"
"It'll react automatically." The Shadow replied. "Now go bring Eris back to the Frontier."
Jupiter's moon, Io - Echo Mesa
Lost Oasis
Music
Destiny 2 - Echo Mesa (Pyramid)
Touching down on Io, Michael and Samus saw that there was now a giant black pyramid, similar to the one underneath Earth's moon, hovering in the distance.
"Eris Morn. A Guardian without a Ghost. I remember how that feels." Michael shuddered.
Samus nodded in agreement. "I know. Ghosts didn't exist back during the Frontier War."
"{Hollow. Unnatural.}" Rocco added, staring at the massive tetrahedron. "{When I look at that ship…}"
Samus then got on the comms. "Eris, can you hear us? Eris?" There was no sound in response. Not even static. "Nothing."
"{Zavala, Spyglass, come in.}" Her Ghost requested, opening a channel for both commanders to hear.
"Any sign?" Zavala asked.
"{My signals are being suppressed. I can't even summon a Sparrow.}"
"What do you see?" The Vice Admiral questioned.
"The Pyramid. It's… oppressive, like a storm building." Michael reported.
"Then be quick. Get out ahead of it." The Golem ordered.
"Understood." The Pilot replied as he readied his Spitfire.
"What in the…?" Samus muttered as she cautiously approached an odd pillar of what looked like dark orange smoke.
Music
none
As the duo inspected the bizarre phenomenon, they were suddenly subjected to a paracausal gravity beam that pulled them off the ground.
"{Gah! The Shadow's new invention… It's… I think it's working!}" Rocco strained as the device started countering the Darkness's effects. "{But it… still hurts…!}"
A few seconds later, an odd voice began speaking to them… through their helmets!
"-—-You bring weapons. You will not need them. We offer only truth.-—-" This paracausal radio intrusion was somehow causing their HUDs to distort incomprehensibly. "-—-We will ha--—-" The voice quickly faded to static as an Ascendant portal appeared in front of them, taking them to the Ascendant Realm.
Ascendant Plane
Court of Savathûn
"Something pulled us out of the beam." Michael stated as his helmet rebooted.
Her vision now clear as well, Samus looked over the chasm before them. "What's happening? What is this place?"
"Not sure."
Suddenly, the glowing energy eye of a Hive Shrieker opened, and there were a lot more closed Shriekers around it.
The two were then pushed right back out of the Ascendant Plane.
Jupiter's moon, Io - Echo Mesa
Cradle Descent
"{We're back on Io. Close to the Cradle.}" Rocco observed as he picked himself back up.
Without warning, a Taken rift tore itself open. The familiar skeletal form of the Shadow stepped through. "I just felt your Light in the Ascendant Realm for a few seconds. What's going on?"
"We just had a communication attempt by the Darkness interrupted by an Ascendant rift." Samus briefly reported. "I have a feeling that wasn't one of yours."
The Taken King shook his skull. "No. Not my doing."
"{I'm… I'm getting faint readings from Eris now. Let's keep moving.}" Rocco said, trying to narrow down a signal source.
With the Shadow now tagging along, Michael and Samus pressed forward and headed down into a cavern… with Hive in it.
As the trio fought through the Hive, the ace Pilot attempted to establish a form of communication, but to no avail. "The air down here is choked with strange communications. I don't know if we can-"
Suddenly, a familiar voice broke through. "Is that you, Pilots?"
"You're needed back at the HQ. Zavala sent us." Samus said as she unleashed clusters of three micro-missiles at five larger Hive targets.
"Of course he did." There was an audible scowl in the Lightless Guardian's voice. "I'm moving toward the Cradle. It calls to me."
Eris's words, as usual, confused Michael. "'It'? What is 'it'?"
"The Hive are frenzied." A thrumming layer of static quickly faded in, making it hard to tell what Eris was saying. "...cut through them. We mu-" A strange whir of static cut the transmission.
"Zavala? Spyglass? Did you catch that?" Michael tried his comm again. Nothing but static.
Rocco wasn't getting any better results. "{This interference… I can't triangulate a point of origin.}" He said as he transmatted in a Pilot Sentry. "{Keep going. Maybe the signal is better up ahead.}"
"Pilots, your assistance would NOT be unwelcome!" A distressed Eris rang over the channel. "There are forces at play here I do not fully understand! The Hive-!" She was interrupted by Hive screaming, crying out in pain afterwards.
"We need to move!" Samus then took the lead, arm cannon at the ready with charged energy swirling around a loaded explosive projectile; a Super Missile.
Peering deeper into the cavern, Michael's helmet automatically locked onto a giant Shrieker, along with a giant Ogre with Ascendant energy coursing through it.
SCANNING…
NEW ENTRIES
1: Savathûn's Witness
2: Ogre Ascendant
The big guy wasn't alone, so Michael and the Shadow held off the Acolytes and Knights while Samus tanked the Ogre's eye blasts and let loose the Super Missile.
Her target was staggered, so Samus changed her selected weapon. The light of her arm cannon turned an icy blue as she charged up the Ice Beam.
Unleashing the arctic blast, Samus coated the Ogre in a large block of ice, allowing Michael to score the kill with a deftly tossed sack of explosives down its gob.
Michael [Satchel] Ogre Ascendant (Savathûn's Hive)
The explosion shattered the frozen Ogre from within, sending icy fragments everywhere. The giant Shrieker watching overhead disappeared as well, leaving Michael, Samus, and the Shadow the only ones in the area.
"All channels, is anyone there?" Michael transmitted, getting only static and pained breaths as a response. "Eris, talk to us. Say something!" The only response he got was more distorted cries of pain. "Please."
Jupiter's moon, Io - Echo Mesa
The Cradle
Music
Destiny 2 - Interference (Ambient)
After passing through a narrow corridor, the trio came across an unusual structure resembling a giant silvery-white tree.
"{What is that?}" Rocco asked as he phased in to get a better look.
The same Shrieker from before appeared up ahead, simply staring at the trio as Hive reinforcements poured in through the green rifts of their dark magic.
Music
Destiny 2 - Interference (Tension)
The Shrieker then opened up and started raining Void bolts down at the three, forcing them to return fire and deal with the smaller Hive at the same time. Not long after, the Shrieker fled again, vanishing out of sight.
"I'm going for Eris!" The Shadow collapsed himself into a trail of dark cinders, zipping along the ground towards Eris, who seemed to have kept that L-STAR from her near-death experience back during Operation Shadowkeep.
But before the Shadow could reach Eris, he and the Pilots were torn out of the physical realm.
Ascendant Plane
Court of Savathûn
Reconstituting himself, the Shadow took in his surroundings. "Something pulled us back in. It's keeping us from Eris!"
As Michael and Samus joined him on solid ground, the ace Pilot looked around. "Look." He pointed to the numerous Shriekers floating around, all closed up. "Those are all Eyes!" He cried out as the Shriekers opened up, preparing to reduce the trio to shreds. "There are too many of them!"
The Shadow conjured a protective dome of his own Darkness to shield his companions. "I can't focus on this AND open a rift back out!"
Just before the Shriekers could overcome the Taken King, a voice echoed loudly across the realm.
"ENOUGH!"
Green energy quickly enveloped the dark dome, pulling it and those within back out of the Ascendant Plane.
Jupiter's moon, Io - Echo Mesa
The Cradle
Music
Destiny 2 - Ikora
The trio found themselves safely back in the Cradle, where Eris waited.
Approaching the Lightless Guardian, Michael looked her over, seeing that her old armor was severely damaged. "You're hurt."
"It… is nothing." Eris said with a shaky breath. "But this… this is something." She gestured with her free hand to the massive growth. "A Tree of Silver Wings. It grew from the last place the Traveler touched before it left this world. The Darkness was drawn here, as the Hive is drawn to the Darkness. These eyes of mine. The things they have seen…" She then reached for a sort of partially orb-shaped object, momentarily dispelling the black aura around it. A faint screech could be heard as her hand was suddenly repelled.
"What was that?" Samus wondered, her Scan Visor unable to derive any information.
"Something that does not want us here." Eris answered with suspicion.
"Darkness?" Michael asked, scratching his head.
"No. But it is of the Darkness." The Lightless Hunter turned to face the ace Pilot. "It has to be you, this time."
Cautiously, Michael took hold of the small object. Moments later, the static on the comms quickly began to clear up. "-anyone's there. I repeat; come in."
"We hear you, Vice Admiral." The ace Pilot replied as he put a hand to his helmet radio.
"Have you found her?"
"The Seed breaks through the interference." Eris stated.
"Eris."
"Spyglass."
"Report back to me back at HQ. Our transmissions may be compromised."
Eris then faced the trio, giving them a reassuring nod. "Let's not keep him waiting, Pilots."
10:39 AM
02/16/3274
Planet Vez-2 - IMC HQ
Briefing room
Music
none
As Eris and the trio entered the briefing room, Zavala spoke up. "What did you find?"
"It found me." Eris said as she shambled over to the central table. "The Darkness reached out, but something interferes. Its messages to us are being… defaced."
Upon this, Spyglass put a hand on where his chin would be. "'Defaced'?"
"By the witch-sister of the former Taken King Oryx." The Lightless Guardian interacted with her rock, causing it to project a new Hive symbol. "Savathûn."
Zavala turned back to Eris. "Your obsession gives her power."
"No. She feeds on denial. Ignorance." Eris then pointed to Michael and Samus. "The Pilots have discovered a means to circumvent her; a Seed of Silver Wings." The ace held up the small object from the Tree of Silver Wings.
"Eris-"
"If the Darkness reaches out, we must reach back!"
"I will not sanction this-"
"-without the help of the Shadow."
Zavala frowned at the Vice Admiral before seeing his logic. "Darkness against Darkness. Very well."
"I will return to Io. If we cannot determine what the Darkness seeks, we will find ourselves on the verge of a second Collapse… on a larger scale than the first." She let out a sigh as she turned away. "Perhaps that is what Savathûn wants…"
Approaching Eris, Zavala gently put a hand on her arm. "Please don't."
Eris shot a glare at the Golem. "Let me go, Zavala." She then opened up an Ascendant rift in front of her, going through it just before it closed itself out of existence.
"Where were we?" Zavala questioned.
Michael looked over his PDA, which was displaying a blueprint-like diagram of the pyramid. "According to spectral analysis, the Pyramid... its propulsion... the energy it's manipulating on Io…"
As his Guardian trailed off, Rocco spoke up. "{We don't see a ship. We see a being; paracausal in nature.}"
"Like the Traveler?" Spyglass suggested questioningly.
Multiple data entries opened on Samus's visor. "All records of the Golden Age agree. On the first day, the skies filled with Darkness. On the second, the Traveler fell."
After looking at the data for a while, Zavala seemed to have changed his mind. "Help Eris where you can, but be ready to deal with the enemy fleet when it arrives." He said. "We need you, Pilots." He then turned his gaze to the hooded paracausal skeleton. "You too, Shadow."
The two Pilots and the Taken King saluted him before departing as the latter willed open another portal.
Season of Arrivals. We're gonna get into some serious paracausality soon.
-—-We will see you all next time, Children of Sol.-—-