ACT III: The Black Garden

Chapter 19: A Stranger's Call

"So… how did I do?" Morning sunlight streamed through the hangar windows as Whisper held out a data card Blabber had fashioned with all of their collected findings. At her feet Amanda Holliday slid out from beneath a custom sparrow on a creeper fashioned from an ancient ironing board with wheels welded onto it. She glanced between the card and Whisper then grabbed Whisper's offered hand and climbed to her feet to take the card. "Well, let's take a look." With a jerk of her head she lead the guardian towards her office space and plugged the card into a patched-together computer made from the remains of three other systems.

Whisper fought the urge to clasp her hands nervously, like a school kid whose first assignment as about to be graded. Now where did that thought come from? Did I got to school? Still, the seconds dragged by and Amanda said nothing, just paging through readouts that were more advanced than Whisper could follow with a growing frown. For all Whisper knew, these plans could be little more than intensely packed plumbing codes.

"Look, Blabber and I spent all night out there parsing data, trying to make some sense of it. I know there are some gaps, probably big gaps, but some idiot decided to blast the mainframe with a shotgun, so we had to reconstruct a lot of it as best we could, and… um…" she trailed off at the sight of tears in Amanda's eyes.

The pilot turned and wrapped Whisper in an enormous hug. "Thank you. It's… I've dreamed of something like this since first watching a jumpship fly by overhead. It's beautiful."

Whisper cautiously put her arms around Amanda, returning the hug. Strangely, for all the humanisms that came without thinking, this wasn't one of them. After a few moments Amanda released her and wiped her eyes on a sleeve. "Sorry, it's just… these ships, these designs, they're beautiful. They weren't thrown together out of whatever worked, and they weren't rugged, ungainly war machines, either. They're lik… like art for engineers. The smooth lines, the way the components are laid out internally. It's hard to describe. They were passion projects by people who dedicated their lives to this sort of thing. You're right that there is a lot of damage, a lot of missing and corrupted data, but Whisper, this is far better than I ever hoped for. With this, I might really succeed in making my own jumpship someday. And for that, I owe you more than a rundown of your ship. Follow me."

Whisper was taken aback, but pleased at how well things had worked out and followed in Amanda's footsteps across the hangar, clambering over power cords and ducking beneath half-dismantled ships until they got to a quitter corner of the busy workspace. Tucked away was a jumpship that looked practically spotless. Whisper couldn't help but admire its sleek lines. The rakish main body with two angled wings that made it look like an ancient aerospace fighter, joined with an underslung main cannon and two extended range external fuel tanks tucked beneath the wings. The jumpship had a slash of blue paint across the nose, contrasting with the burnished silver of the wings.

"This," said Amanda finally, patting the lethal-looking crat's main body, "is the Regulus Class 99 long range reconnaissance platform. About six months ago a hunter ran across her in a hangar in the Cosmodrome, with the entrance totally caved in. He took me out with a bunch of fuel in the dead of night, and I got it up and running, but we got spotted on the way in. We made a break for it, him in his Phaeton and me in this. Unfortunately, the hunter wasn't as good of a pilot as he thought—he got taken down by the Fallen using old-fashioned flak cannon, and they swarmed the crash site."

Whisper eyed the big gun curiously. "I've never seen an armed jumpship before."

"Most of them aren't. But the long-range ones that could, in theory, make it to the next solar system over had these railguns on 'em for defense. They should be pretty powerful, at least compared to what we have. Unfortunately, you can't just jam a piece of metal in there and shoot it out—it needs very carefully engineered ammunition, and we don't have any. Plus, jumpships are too valuable to risk fighting in them. If you want to fight from the air, take a Hawk.

"Would they maneuver better without the gun, then? Save on weight?"

Amanda smiled. "I like how you think, girl. On this model, it would save on mass, which helps making jumps, but it throws off the entire aerodynamics of the ship when you get in atmosphere."

Whisper looked it over once again, admiring it. "It's a beautiful ship."

"That she is. And now, she's yours."

Whisper turned to her, stunned. "You can't! Surely this should go to someone on the Vanguard, or—"

"It's mine, and I'll give it to whoever I think deserves it most. And right now, that's you. Trust me, if the data you got me is even half as helpful as I think it's going to be, this is a bargain for me. So please, take it. And if it makes you feel better, maybe save the world once or twice while using it, and we'll call it good."

"I… you… thank you. Thank you very much."

Blabber rotated enthusiastically. Finally! Back into the action.

The Regulus Class 99 jumpship snapped out of its jump and resettled in normal space high above Venus. Bright sunlight glinted off the yellow-tinged planet as they made their approach, sensors probing ahead of them.

Our new friend must have access to extraordinary methods to have reached out to us like that. The radio message she sent came from somewhere in the jungles of Venus.

Whisper nodded as she set in their approach. The Exo Stranger's coordinates had been fragmented, but they were enough to indicate that whatever she was supposed to find, it was somewhere in the Shattered Coast within the Ishtar Sink. The jumpship began to vibrate as they entered atmosphere, plowing through the drag of air and heavy, acidic clouds. Eventually they dropped through the cloud cover into a darker world of sharp mountains and twisting air currents. On the ground stretched the tangled ruins where humans had once lived and worked.

"Somehow, this wasn't what I imagined reading the records."

Well, it has been a long time since anyone visited. The Ishtar Collective that built this place were studying ruins older than humanity itself. Once the Vanguard learned there wasn't anything of immediate value, they focused a little closer to home.

"Well," mused Whisper, "there must be something here other than ruins if the Stranger is dragging us all this way."

Hmm. Over there, that island with the big buildings on it—I think the coordinates are pointing to somewhere there.

Whisper eased the jumpship in the direction, zooming low over reddish, polluted waters, to get a closer look. Surprisingly, the buildings were mostly intact, though overgrown with trees and creeping vines. Most of the windows were even intact. More strangely, behind those buildings was a large… thing. It was a structure, in the loosest sense, but it didn't follow any design philosophy she could pick out. It was all large, blank space and hard angles. Pieces poked out at strange angles that didn't seem to make any sense. Those must have been the ruins Blabber mentioned. She hadn't imagined them being so big. Or, she thought as she picked up lines of light on them, so active.

"I'm picking up life signs, but only scattered power signals. No immediate threats. Let's head in."

The jumpship dropped them off with a quicky flyover before soaring back up into the safety of space. Whisper's feet thumped into soft grass, and she took a closer look around. They were a little way from the ruins in a rocky patch along a trail. Hardscrabble grass grew in the crevices between the fractures in the ground from tectonic motion, while more fertile ground saw vibrant green shrubs and trees. The atmosphere above roiled with frantic energy as giant twisters of wind moved across the sky, while lightning cracked and blue sulfur flames trailed upwards in the distance.

Whatever work was done to terraform this place, it seemed to be regressing with every passing hour.

Blabber emerged and examined the scene hesitantly. I know I was all for getting back in the action, but I don't like us going this far out and not being able to get the lay of the land. The Vanguard's records show an old guardian outpost nearby when they sent the first scouting missions here. Let's see what they have on this place.

Whisper looked at Blabber in surprise. "Are you doing okay? Or am I rubbing off on you?"

Blabber rotated anxiously and didn't respond. Whisper shrugged. "Well, I agree. Let's go."

They moved forward cautiously, keeping quiet and out of sight as best they could, following the trail towards the main cluster of buildings. It didn't take long until they were down among them, moving between rusted out ground vehicles. Whisper drew to a halt as movement caught her eye. "I see… Fallen? Yes, a patrol it looks like. A vandal leading some dregs and shanks. They're wearing white armor with angled, pale blue cloaks. What do we have on them?"

They must be from the House of Winter. I once heard Master Rahool mention that they were sighed in Caracas, back on earth, during the Collapse. They were at Twilight Gap with their Kell, Draksis.

"That was a long time ago. Anything more recent?"

Not really. They left Earth after Twilight Gap, and the only times we have records of them are when the Vanguard tries to put together a jumpship reclamation convoy. Then we see too much of them. Oh, wait, here's something.

"Huh. Well, this could be their base of operations, or this could be just a scouting party. We'll let them pass. No sense letting all the Fallen know there's a lone guardian out here." And so she settled in to wait. This place… what was it that the Exo Stranger wanted her to see? And why her, specifically? Being "interesting" wasn't much to go on.

Within a few minutes the Fallen had entered a broken-down building, rummaging for salvage, and they quickly pressed on past them. Blabber's guidance lead them to the edge of a cliff where the ground had peeled away. She leaned cautiously over the side and saw the water, thick, salty, and hot, being fed by springs and geysers that fed the jungle around them.

The "outpost," as Blabber had called it, turned out to be something of a misnomer. There on the cliff's edge was an old subway entrance, its blandly tiled floor and pillars standing in contrast to the wild plant life around them. Stacked against the inner wall, most shielded from the elements, were two large, battered cases. Whisper popped them open to reveal scanning equipment that the Fallen hadn't found yet. Speaking of – she hunched a little lower as a Fallen skiff flew slowly overhead.

Whisper watched the Skiff sail by while Blabber scanned the equipment. There's a lot here about some war machines called the Vex. Indestructible, relentless, supremely intelligent. And they can teleport. Great. These sensors used to track them. Let's get them back online. According to this, they were in a building on the other side of that courtyard.

Once again they pressed forward, keeping within the foliage as much as they could to sneak past increasingly heavy Fallen patrols. The courtyard Blabber mentioned wasn't too far, and it must have been a major thoroughfare once, with large staircases leading upwards surrounded by tastefully arranged trees (now overgrown) and a single statute of some sort of angel, a woman holding up most of a circle and wearing robes. One of her feathered wings was broken off.

On the other side was a squat, functional building with none of the artistic sense, but a practical solidity that had served it far better in the centuries since. On the second floor was another City-built case. Got it. These sensors are extensive – they were must have gone to some effort to install them. Okay, I should be able to track these Vex machines. Oh… that's clever.

"What's clever?"

The coordinates from the Exo Stranger. They weren't randomly corrupted, they were missing specific pieces. The data from these sensors fills in the gaps exactly. That can't be a coincidence.

Whisper looked around them once more, holding her rifle tightly. "I think you're right. And I don't like it. Where do they lead?"

You remember the courtyard we passed? Up the stairs was a big building. The coordinates are inside it.

"Of course they are. Making us easily surrounded, in the middle of an island of full of Fallen. I don't think I like this lady."

Blabber floated in front of her. Why do I feel like you're about to say 'but'?

Whisper sighed. "But, I admit that I'm intrigued. Where did she get her advanced tech from? Why did she come all the way out here, and make us tie into the Vex detection scans before finding her? What does she want?"

I guess we're going to find out. Blabber hid away once more. "I guess we're going to find out," she answered quietly.

It took a while. Instead of fighting her way through Fallen patrols and getting a skiff parked on top of her, she elected to stay out of sight and move quietly. The courtyard itself was too open to move through, so she hunkered down and waited for nightfall to make her move. It gave her a while to watch, and to think.

There were a lot of Fallen down here, all of them in the white and blue colors of the House of Winter. They were running patrols, and lots of them, but not just the captain-led, heavily armed security teams. Others were like the first bunch she'd seen, led by a vandal and with lots of shanks loaded down with pilfered technology. What they took was just as interesting. She would have guessed they would be most interested in Golden Age's most advanced technology, digging for computer systems and data retrieval. And they did that… some. But for every carefully preserved computer system they pulled out, there were five or six consoles just ripped out of the walls, trailing wires that they stripped for copper and other materials before dumping the plastic. Batteries, semi-conductors, and other basic technological pieces were just as highly prized, if not more so, than the information they might find.

They really are scavengers, she thought to herself as she watched two vandals get into a fight over salvage, before a captain came over and knocked them both down. They have the technology to travel from an entirely different star system, wearing fine cloaks and their leaders in intricate headdresses, and they pick through humanity's trash for scraps. What could have driven them to this?

Finally, the light faded and most of them Fallen packed up and boarded skiffs to return to wherever their base was. Time to go.

Whisper crept out quietly, keeping out of sight of the Fallen who had stayed behind and picked out spots to keep watch until morning. It was a lot easier when she knew exactly where they were, having watched them set up. Around, behind, over cracked flooring where the ground had heaved in a quake, and finally up the steps and into the front door of a soaring building. The entryway was bare, with twisted holes where Fallen had stripped every light fixture, containing just a large lobby with a welcome desk. The dirt had piled high here, and plants were growing over the entrance to the building proper, sealing it shut. The Fallen hadn't bothered to tear their way through – instead they'd dug down, tunneling like insects through the concrete floor into a basement parking structure. The battered remains of HVAC hung from the ceiling and cracked pipes lined the walls. The Golden Age must not have cared much what the regulars saw, so long as it was pretty for the guests.

The tunnel lurched upwards once again and into the interior of the building, where a large scaffold was built around a towering, but very thin pillar of white. It was active, but the crackling energy seemed to be at least partially solid, sticking out at weird angles the reminded her strongly of the big ancient structure outside. What was that?

Detecting Vex in front of us and… behind us? It's like we're surrounded.

She scanned the room quickly, but there was no movement, no trace of energy anywhere except for that pillar. I don't like this. The room itself was wide open around the pillar, going up at least four floors with balconies that gave every possible view of the pillar that dominated the room. The exterior walls of those upper floors were lined with bookshelves. On the ground, boxes surrounded the pillar, piled high, most of them cracked open and ransacked by the Fallen. The other side of the room held another statue, identical to the one outside, down to the broken wing. Was it built that way? Not important. This was way too good of an ambush site.

The coordinates lead here. Exactly here. Let me get a closer look.

Whisper moved forward, eyes darting everywhere with each step, before letting Blabber emerge.

Fascinating. A conflux of non-baryonic streams going… where? Energy crackled from the pillar and out into the air, kicking up dust from the floor. Whisper traded the rifle for her SMG and darted to the side behind the cover of a group of boxes. No, no, no, no, no! It's the Vex!

The energy from the pillar crackled and traced up and down in the air like the lightning outside as a half dozen robots transmatted into view. They were strange in their familiarity – two legs, two arms, and a head, but the similarities stopped there. Their heads were small with no noticeable features apart from a single large eye that glowed bright red in the darkness, but marked by a large fan-shaped metal top. Their cores were framed around a glowing white substance of some kind.

A bird-like squawk of alarm echoed out and they immediately fanned out, every joint turning as one, moving together with surprising speed on their short legs. They opened fire with a light carbine of some sort, spitting out searing bolts of solar energy. No communication, no hesitation.

She returned fire, blowing the head off one of the machines. The fan crumpled under her fire, but it didn't go down – instead it started to twitch manically, abandoning the lock-step synchronicity of its fellows and charging forwards recklessly, attacking rapid-fire. Whisper dove towards another set of boxes and returned again, this time aiming for its body. Her bullets clanged off the metal jacket, but punched through the glass shielding and blew out its center, sending fluid flying in a spray of white. The machine dropped immediately.

More of them transmatted in and she retreated quickly. Solar fire burned around her, but they weren't hitting her. Their tracking mechanisms were slow. Got it. Keep moving. She hurled a void grenade at them, crumpling several of them, and kept on the move. Yet it seemed for every one of the little goblins she destroyed, another transmatted in to take its place.

Whisper finished off another goblin when something crashed into her like a runaway sparrow. She staggered backwards, warning lights twinkling in her eyes at the new hole in her arm, and looked up to see a new kind of Vex had appeared. It was a little taller but no wider, giving it a lean look, with a larger single red eye and a much wider, more pointed head, and attached to its arm in place of a hand was some sniper rifle that still sizzled with solar energy.

She leaped upwards, gathered the light beneath her, and leaped again to reach the second story and the respite of cover for a few moments so Blabber could put her back together again. So they're bringing out the hobgoblins now. She leaned over the railing and peppered the machine. Like the others, it staggered backwards, but began to glow orange and froze in place. Her bullets ricocheted off as the machine put itself back together. What on earth?

Back down behind the railing, Whisper snaked her way to a new firing position. If I have to kill them quickly, I can do that. She traded the Sorrow SMG for the Devil You Know hand cannon and popped up once again. Two shots in quick succession brought the hobgoblin down. Still more of them were appearing now, followed by the biggest one yet. It fired up at her with bizarre projectiles that sizzled with radiation and particle decay. Once more she ducked down and out of sight, considering her next move. Light flashed in front of her, and three goblins pointed their rifles in her face.

With a strangled shout of alarm she flung herself over the balcony, catching two shots to the back, and slammed into the ground. Forgot. Teleporting. She tried to roll over when the big one stomped on her leg, crushing it and pinning her in place. She fired up at it, but her bullets sprang of an energy shield as it leveled its own heavy weapon and opened fire.

Machine eyes clicked open. Mind blank, awaiting instructions… Something was slightly off, not quite in its place. This piece of imperfection tickled an itch inside that couldn't be scratched. What was it?

A new voice boomed in the silence of vacuum. "Reset successful. Designation reassignment successful."

Whisper's eyes clicked open once again. This time, she pulled out the Baron RS/1 rocket launcher.

The destruction was impressive, leaving a small crater in the floor and flinging the remains of vex around the room. Yet for all that, it hadn't left a single scratch on the pillar of white. Well, at least they're not really indestructible.

With the coast clear, Blabber reemerged. What are these things!? Are there any still intact that I can analyze?

"Good question." They hunkered down over one of the battered vex. Blabber started to scan the remains of its core, while Whisper took a closer look at its weapon system. It was… well, it was weird. In some ways it made sense. Tactically, it was a fairly straightforward directed energy weapon for light infantry. But if that were all it was, it would be a lot smaller, and probably a lot more effective. For instance, it wouldn't need a viable field transmitter, a navigational beacon, a welder, a network repeater, or any of the other dozen functions she couldn't identify built into it. For practical purposes, this vex had taken a computer processor and messed with it to spit sparks at whatever annoyed it. The last thing it was intended for was a combat weapon… but that didn't make it any less effective. And that was a terrifying thought.

The larger hobgoblin, as she'd dubbed it, had a much longer tool that looked more like a traditional weapon. But it, too, was more computer than gun, but a high powered computer. Unfortunately, the big one's weapon didn't have much left to examine, so she had no idea how they fired decaying matter at her. On the other hand, there was enough left of the vex itself to learn some things. It, too, was more akin to a construction manager than a soldier, and if she was seeing this right, they might be building structures through multiple dimensions…

"Well fought."

Whisper jumped back, hand cannon half-drawn before she recognized the distinct voice of the Exo Stranger. "You… you're here."

"We haven't got much time." Her glowing white eyes tracked over to the remains of the vex. She frowned and walked past Whisper towards it.

"Who are you?" And why have you been watching us?

"I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain." She looked down and to the side, listening to something. "I will. I will. I know."

Will what?

The Stranger looked over her shoulder at Blabber. "I wasn't talking to you, little light."

I'm a ghost, actually.

The Stranger ignored him and took another step towards Whisper. "Many guardians fell. Strong ones. But you made it here." She twitched once more, looking away. "Yes. I'm listening. They are here with me now."

Blabber circled the exo, examining her. Who's she talking to?

"Understood." The Stranger looked up and noticed Blabber examining her closely, and gave him a gentle push. "You need my help, guardian."

Whisper had no idea what to make of all this. "Is that why you brought us here? Why not just ask?"

For the first time, the Stranger hesitated, looking away. "They brought us here. The Vex." She turned to face the broken remnants once more. "Evil so dark it despises other evil." She knelt over one of the goblins that still twitched faintly with light, studying it.

Blabber twitched in surprise. You're not a guardian!

She spared him a glance. "No. I was not forged in light. But, I believe where our paths cross," she said, standing back up once more and placing a foot on the vex's core, "ground could break." She punctuated the thought by stomping heavily on the vex, crushing it beneath her foot until white fluid leaked out. She turned back to Whisper. "Have you heard of the Black Garden."

Whisper stared blankly, but Blabber chimed in. We've heard the legends.

"The greatest threat to us all lies there, where these machines are born. Find the Black Garden, rip out its heart. Only then will your Traveler begin to heal. And you will need it ready for what is to come."

"Can you at least tell us where to find it?"

The Stranger once more looked away. "I… can't. You'll have to trust me when I say that it won't work if I try. Your path must be your own."

In the legends, the Black Garden was found by an Awoken.

"Ah, yes, the Awoken," said the Stranger almost mockingly. "Out there, wavering between the Light and the Dark." She shook her head pityingly. "A side should always be taken, little light." Her voice turned serious and she turned to look straight in Whisper's eyes. "Even if it's the wrong side."

The Stranger's head twitched again, and she turned away rapidly. "Too late, returning. How many? Hold position, kill engines, and don't let them find you." She pulled the pulse rifle over her shoulder and stepped forward, transmatting away… somehow. She was gone, completely off sensors, as if she had never been there. How does she do that?

Whisper and Blabber turned to look at each other. Whisper shrugged. "So, the Awoken. How do we find them?"

They live all the way out at the edge of the Darkness. Last place the Light touches. Can't we just stay here with the murderous robots?

Whisper rolled her eyes. "No, little light," she retorted, doing her best Stranger impersonation.

Blabber twitched in a surprisingly accurate imitation of a shudder. Don't do that.

"Now, about these legends you mentioned…"

Lore Referenced:

D1 Grimoire:

Venus

Draksis, Winter Kell

Ishtar Sink

Goblin

Hobgoblin

Torch Hammer

Slap Rifle

Line Rifle

Minotaur

Other:

Bungie Weekly Update 10/11/2013 (sulfur)

Master Rahool (idle dialogue)