Chapter 22: The Archive

"Just come back with a good story, y'hear? I don't even care if it's a true story. S'long as it's good, I'm a happy hunter." -Cayde-6

Draksis, mighty Kell of the House of Winter, was displeased. He stood tall in his throne room aboard the Wintership Simiks-Fel, crouched beneath the jagged peaks of Venus. It galled him to be reduced to scavenging once more, but the Final Attempt to regain the Traveler had been… less than ideal. Worse still, this planet he had claimed was threatened, and without his Prime Servitor he needed a splicer to deal with it. But to get a splicer he needed to deal with the filth before him now. Draksis took a long, steadying breath of ether. A strong Kell's power is like the wind: swift, howling, and everywhere at once.

Draksis turned to stare down the monstrosity before him. It had been an Eliksni, once, but the towering creature nearly as tall as the Kell himself was more machine than Eliksni now, with an endless trove of artificial parts. Mechanical leg, arms, hearts, lungs, eyes… there was no telling where the machine ended and flesh began.

"I have a task for you, Taniks, the Scarred."

The mercenary grinned at the Kell. "Ha! So, the Kell of Winter seeks the aid of Taniks, the Scarred. How formal! It Was not long ago you called me self-serving scum and spat at my banner-less armor. I might have ripped each and every one of your arms from you then. And torn off your legs for good measure. But I sensed one day, you'd come begging for my services. Lucky I am such a vulgar mercenary after all, eh? It works in your favor now, that I hold payment above pride. Payment not just in glimmer. In blood and battle, too. No one Kell, no one house has been able to slake my thirst."

Fury surged through Draksis, but he restrained it with difficulty. The old adage ran through his mind – The Kell's first command is a word. If the word goes unheeded, the Kell's second command is the blade. He longed to reach for that blade, but Taniks had not disobeyed… yet.

Do not be a fool, Draksis. He remains a useful tool. And a dangerous one. He glanced at the monstrosity's mechanical arms and wondered yet again if the legends were true, that he had been docked by the Kell of Scar, then built himself new arms and used them to return and assassinate the Kell. Good riddance to that fool house, even if its remnants haunt me still. Wherever you disappeared to, Sekris, I hope you wallow in Darkness for spawning machine-fused followers like Taniks.

"I do, mercenary. I require you to break into the cursed Prison of Elders and retrieve someone for me."

Taniks perked up at this, mechanical fingers twitching. "No one job has slaked my thirst, either, though a break-out of the Prison of Elders might come close. Which mighty warrior do you want?"

Draksis ignored the omission of his title by pure force of will and pressed on. "I require Aksor, Archon Priest, last mighty one of the Drekhs that are all that remain of the House of Wolves."

Taniks sneered. "You want me to break into the Prison of Elders for Aksor? You ask me to pass over far greater warriors for that impotent Archon? You think he will serve you better than Peekis, the Disavowed? Than Pirsis, Pallas-Bane? Than Calzar? Than Drekthas?" The mercenary waved a mechancical limb in disdain. "You would choose Aksor over the Shipstealer!? Eramis, who led the charge at the Final Attempt? Who hurled herself at the wretched Lightbearers, who moved so quickly I would have sworn she had eight arms? When your pathetic Winter-ones followed in her footsteps, they had to wade through the flood of life-force she left in her wake. Ha, and still you wonder why I refuse my house-pledge. You could conquer the system, but you'd rather adhere to these arbitrary customs. Aksor belongs to Winter, and Eramis does not."

Draksis' lower hands clenched behind his back so hard that his gauntlets creaked. "My reasons are my own, mercenary. Aksor is who I require, and quickly."

The two powerful Eliksni stared each other down, Draksis' four eyes meeting Taniks' two mechanical and two organic eyes steadily. They tasted each others' fury and capacity for violence. Then Taniks nodded. "Twice my usual price. The fee is for my restraint. It will take what little I have to free Aksor over the fiercest of Eliksni fighters."

"Done," grated Draksis, and turned and stalked away before he physically attacked the wretched abomination that mocked all the Eliksni hoped to be.

Whisper's boots had just thumped onto the grass of Venus when Blabber perked up with a priority communication. Or rather, two communications. The first was a message from Master Rahool.

"Whistler, Whisker, whatever your name was - I have an urgent request. The Ishtar Collective gathered some of the greatest minds of the Golden Age. Their archive is a treasure of knowledge that we cannot lose to the Fallen. We have received word that your actions have stirred them up, and they are even now working to steal its secrets. Secure the archive and the Cryptarchs will be in your debt."

It was followed by a message from Ikora. "Whisper, as Master Rahool said, the Fallen have become more active on Venus, though we don't know why. With the Archive now out in the open, we can no longer afford to ignore it. I am sending additional guardians to back you up, but you're the closest we have at the moment. Be careful with the House of Winter – their Kell is Draksis, and he is dangerous. He has been an elusive target for years now, with countless raids on jumpship reclamation convoys. Good luck.

Whisper and Blabber looked at each other. "I guess the gate lord will have to wait. Do you know where this archive is?"

The Archive is buried under the rubble of the Academy. It won't take the Fallen long to strip it like the rest of the planet. We better find it before they get inside.

"Wonderful. I guess it's time for speed over stealth." She transmatted her sparrow into existence, hopped on, and opened the throttle. They raced through the now-familiar ruins, sending up sprays of water from the puddled road in their wake, and barreled past a Fallen patrol who squawked in dismay.

Whisper leaped off at the steps of the Academy entrance, transmatting away the vehicle, and retraced her steps back into the Academy proper where she'd first encountered the Vex. As she moved she heard weapon fire, both the crackle of Fallen arc weapons and the sizzle of Vex solar tools. She barreled forward, trusting her shields to protect her from stray shots as she leaped into the midst of battle, careening off a Vex goblin and shoulder-checking a Fallen dreg, before launching out the back of the building.

She was in the midst of the full complex now, with burnt-out buildings on all sides and a Fallen Skiff crash-landed into the ground and half grown over. She followed Blabber's guidance to the left, and through another building into what looked like a large conference center.

Movement ahead. Great, the Fallen have already set up shop here. Let's hope they haven't gotten into the Archive.

Whisper sighed and readied The Devil You Know, the hand cannon from Banshee-44 that was starting to grow on her, and eased to a slow walk, creeping forward to scope out the scene behind a pile of boxes already stacked with stripped wires to be transported by the Fallen. It didn't look good. The House of Winter was clearly here in force, though much of it was dispersed around the area as perimeter guards. She could hear fighting with the Vex in three different directions. Unfortunately, they hadn't neglected their internal security, either. A handful of dregs were dragging back more materials to the piles, assisted by a small army of shanks, but further on she could see a captain and several vandals. And there was something…

She pulled out her sniper rifle and set up to get a better look. Yes, there at the back, she could make out a huge bunker door marked with an insignia like a large x with a small circle at its center, bisected by a + sign. That had to be the Ishtar Collective logo. The Fallen were clustered around the door, but scorch marks proved their efforts to brute force it had failed. Instead, they had a beefed-up servitor hooked up to it. They must have restored power and are trying to hack into it. Well, at least they aren't inside yet.

My readings indicate that that is Simiks-3, a House of Winter High Servitor, whispered Blabber. Interesting… it seems to have been made of parts of the House's Prime Servitor and customized to store huge amounts of data. Maybe the rumors that their Prime Servitor was destroyed are true? Either way, they must really want whatever is in the Archive.

"Then it's up to us to stop them," she whispered back, and considered the problem. There were a lot of Fallen, but they were also gathered at the end of a long, narrow hallway. She thought for a moment longer, then pulled out The Swarm. This wasn't going to be pretty.

The heavy machine gun thundered to life, and she swept it left and right, scything through the dregs and shanks, then focused her fire down the tunnel. With no place to hide, heavy caliber bullets tore through captain and servitor armor alike. In a very few seconds, it was over. She transmatted the weapon away in favor of the hand cannon and darted forward. "Blabber, see if you can find an access point. It won't take the other Fallen long to close in on us."

She skid to a halt at the vault door, overgrown with ivy, while Blabber scanned the recently repowered computer systems. Radial-A encryption… They were serious about keeping people out. Not a problem

With a hiss of compressed air, the vault door broke in two and ground its way open, metal groaning in protest, to reveal a large staircase that spiraled down to the right. After you?

"Can you seal it behind us?"

Yes, but if whatever the Fallen are doing to power this place goes down, we would be trapped down there.

"Ugh, good point. We'll just have to be quick, I guess." Whisper moved downwards briskly, and jumped in surprise lighting blinked to life around them. Unbelievable… the Archive's internal power is still partially activated.

Moments later the staircase bottomed out and past an abandoned reception desk was a huge open space lined with enormous pillars. Whisper slowed to a stop, taking in the sight, when a feminine voice spoke from the dark. "Welcome, Dr. Shim. Please enter your security clearance code."

Dr. Shim? … Never mind that. Let's hit that terminal up ahead.

Whisper shrugged and moved forward, as more lights lit up around them. Blabber was more interested in primary terminal access point. He buzzed ahead and immediately started to examine it. This place is amazing… it's bigger than the Archives in Old Accra!

"Hold on, what archives in Old Accra?"

It was a capital city back in the Golden Age, answered Blabber absently as he set about cracking a security clearance. It was the largest the cache of Golden Age data the Cryptarchy had found until now. There, that should do it.

"Thank you, Dr. Shim. Your queries related to Vex Mind Core samples is noted – shall I begin correlation with other Vex Mind Core samples?"

So polite! Well, let's see what they've got.

"Dr. Shim," the facility's voice cut in urgently, "security breach detected—intruders! Initiate protocol 19."

I don't know what that means, but we've got Fallen incoming. It didn't take them long to follow us.

Whisper grunted and pulled out The Swarm once more and set up in the cover of one of the pillars with a clear sight line on the single tunnel in or out. She laid out her reserve ammo belts neatly to the side within easy reach. It didn't take long for the Fallen to make their presence known with their typical tactics – send in the dregs and shanks first to soak fire, then charge.

The heavy machine gun roared to life once again, cutting through every Fallen that dared show their face until they fell back. They were at an impasse – they couldn't get in, but she couldn't get out, either. For the moment, at least. Tense minutes crept by as Ghost continued to scour the Ishtar Collective's Archive, but that was good. Every moment that passed meant reinforcements were getting closer. Now if they would go on doing nothing, that would be—

The lights cut out, leaving Whisper in darkness so perfect even her electronic eyes were blind. "Remote hub failure" warned the computer system, "Routing disrupted."

They must have a servitor feeding off the power! The ghost left off the main console and opened up into a large spotlight. We may be able to route around the Servitor's access point if we reset that junction over there.

"It will leave the door open, but I don't see a choice. Come on!" She charged forward and met Blabber there. He quickly scanned through the electronics and directed her where rewire. It took them seconds… but it took the Fallen less time than that to move forward. Blabber whisked away as another House of Winter servitor floated down the tunnel flanked by the faintest twitch of stealth vandals pouring in.

Whisper hurled a void grenade at the entrance, which burst into purple flames and blocked off still more Fallen, then opened fire with her hand cannon on the servitor. Sparks erupted where the heavy bullets ricocheted off armor. She danced behind another pillar, holstered the hand cannon for SG-Scattercast, then ran out the other side, blinking past the arc rifles of the vandals to unload two, three, four shotgun shells into the servitor's purple eye. The machine crashed heavily to the floor and Whisper leapt back into motion, picking off the vandals one by one.

It didn't take long to clean them out, but Blabber had bad news. I'm picking up new signals from outside and it's, well, it's bad, Whisper. A Fallen Ketch just touched down. There must be a Baron out there, and they're moving in on us. I… I don't know what to do.

"We hold on, that's what we do." Whisper blinked back over to the The Swarm as more Fallen came down the tunnel. But this time, they weren't led by dregs and shanks. Instead, a single huge Fallen led the charge clad in heavy white armor with the angled pale blue cloak of the House of Winter. Whisper held down the trigger, sending a swarm of bullets at him which ricocheted wildly off his shield. He immediately broke to the left, seeking cover, and Whisper tracked to follow him. Vandals and dregs charged through the now-open doorway.

The Swarm clicked dry and Whisper dropped it and leapt back as the Baron fired a massive shrapnel launcher at her, tearing through the concrete floor where she'd knelt. She leaped into cover, but at the Baron's harsh calls the dregs and vandals began to advance. She peaked out and The Devil You Know thundered, dropping one, but an avalanche of return fire forced her back again and their advance continued.

Again Whisper peaked out, took down a single Fallen, and retreated, blinking to a more distant column as return fire poured in. And again the Baron forced his minions armor, leading the way each time his shield recharged.

Whisper changed tactics, blinking out to the side and smashing through two vandals with the Scattercast, when she was bowled over by a hurricane of white-hot shrapnel and fire, throwing her backwards to crunch into a pillar. She crunched back to the ground, damage icons dancing around her. The Fallen moved in for the kill, but a harsh command from the Baron stilled them. The blurry form of the massive Fallen towered over her, examining her crumpled body, looking… looking for Blabber.

She raised The Devil You Know weakly, and he batted it away. All she could do was look on, head lolling to the side.

An explosion rocked the entrance, and the Baron turned abruptly. More orders, more weapons fire, but it was all… fading… She opened her eyes in a flash of Light as Blabber got her back on her feet. She leaped into cover, ignoring the smear of fluid where she had been lying in a broken heap, and took in the field. There were more guardians now. Alice and Vistrek!

With all the Fallen focused on the two guardians coming down the ramp, they had their backs turned to Whisper. She drew her Sorrow MG2 SMG and made them pay, cutting into them. They half-turned, and Vistrek streaked forward in the opening, crackling with Arc Light. He smashed directly into the Baron, sending him staggering, and all three guardians piled in on him. The Fallen fought on desperately as chunks of his armor were blown apart, but under the combined might of three guardians, he finally went down.

For a few moments the guardians paused, coming back out of the vortex of violence. "Thank you both for coming. He just about finished me off," she said, nodding towards the enormous Baron.

Vistrek nodded. "We came as fast as we could when Ikora sent the word."

"Yes," added Alice, "and you did well to last as long as you did. This is Grayliks, Baron of the House of Winter. He had the blood of many guardians on his hands. His defeat will be celebrated in the City."

"I guess Fireteam Guardian strikes again."

Vistrek groaned and Alice let out a small sigh, then asked "What were you doing down here, anyway?"

Whisper shrugged. "I was asked at the last minute by Master Rahool to divert to secure this place. It's the Archive for the Ishtar Collective, a Golden Age research group apparently. The Fallen made a big push to secure it, but the Vex seemed intent on stopping them."

"We noticed," grumbled Vistrek. "We had to fight our way through a battlefield out there, but it seems to be winding down now. So… what next? We've secured this place, but we can't just sit here forever, and the door is wide open."

"Let's see what we've got, then we'll call Ikora and ask what she has in mind. Blabber, what did you find?"

The ghost popped into being cautiously, before hovering to his accustomed spot at her shoulder. I don't even know where to start. This Archive is amazing. Pathways to other galaxies, mappings of a Vex underworld, a place they call the Vault of Glass. Hopefully the Cryptarch can make sense of it.

"Let him know what we found while I contact Ikora. Then I guess we set up a perimeter at the door out there and wait. I just hope it was worth it." Blabber set up a relay to bounce off her orbiting jumpship and soon enough Whisper reached Ikora on the VanNet.

"Whisper, good work securing the Archive. I have another fireteam of guardians en-route to Venus now, under Shiro-4's command. They will be setting up a forward operating base for Vanguard forces to secure the Archive."

"Good to hear," responded Whisper. "And thanks for sending Vistrek and Alice – I would have been a goner without them. Have you found out why the Fallen changed their tactics so abruptly? They went from looting the place to committing a big, heavily modified servitor and a Baron to breaking into this place."

"The Cryptarchs are still pouring over the data still coming in from your ghost, but yes, I think we've found it. According to the remaining sensor relays still running in the Archive, the Vex have set something in motion far below the Ishtar Academy. We don't know what prompted it, but the Vex have activated a world-eating machine that is transforming Venus into another link their intergalactic chain. This Nexus must be stopped and the Mind that controls it, destroyed. Wait until Shiro-4 and his team arrive to secure the Archive, then take your fireteam and stop the Vex."

"Since when is it my—" The connection cut. Whisper looked at the other two, then shrugged.

Alice dusted off a centuries-old bench and sat. "So, Whisper, I guess you're now the expert on Venus as well as Luna. Why don't you tell us what exactly is going on around here?"

LORE REFERENCED:

Items:

KD Bogatyr 2.0

Kellhunter's Path (D1)

Cloak of Taniks (D1)

Kellhunter's Rally (D1)

Does Not Bow (D1)

Mask of Sekris

D1 Grimoire:

Variks, The Loyal - lists House of Scar as being an enemy of the House of Winter. It is implied that Taniks "the Scarred" is a member of the House of Scar.

Taniks, the Scarred

Draksis, Winter Kell

Simiks-3

The Nexus

Lore Books:

The Lawless Frontier: A Blind Eye Toward Tomorrow

The Once-Shipstealer: XIV. The Scarred

Other:

Grayliks, Winter Baron (D1 Bounty)