Chapter 23: The Nexus

"The Cryptarchs are overjoyed, Guardian. An entire hidden Archive full of Vex research. Even chronicles of the legendary Vault of Glass. Perhaps this will finally help us crack its riddles." -Master Rahool

"Shaxx, is this really a good idea?" Ikora Rey sat at the large desk before the mighty Titan who was far too energized to sit. "I know it's… let's say intriguing, but we have no idea what that anomaly is capable of. The cryptarchy's best efforts to scan it were futile, and those that studied it reported symptoms of insomnia and worse. My recommendation is that only remote sensing equipment be used to study it, and you want turn it into a Crucible location?"

Shaxx waved a hand impatiently. "If something bad happens, you know the guardians will be the ones that have to handle it. Why not have them on-site, armed and ready, when it comes? Call it… call it stewardship of the location to ensure its isolation while maintaining watch over the Hive forces the keep trying to retake the location."

Ikora sighed and nodded. "Alright, Shaxx. But no streaks – I want a hard limit of one match per week at that location. Call it… high-end tournament matches."

The Crucible handler laughed. "I like how you think, Ikora! And what would be more appropriate to kick off this elite match site than the return of—"

"I have a fireteam waiting on the line, Shaxx."

"Fireteam Guardian, this is Ikora Rey. The Cryptarchs continue to review the data you have sent and have provided a little more information. Below the Ishtar Academy lie the ruins of the Vex. The ruins were recently reactivated, though we do not know by what. This is what the Fallen feared, and why they attempted to breach the Ishtar Academy's records, to find what they learned of the Vex long ago. The Fallen have sealed the way to the something called The Nexus, and are fighting off Vex attacks. You will have to go through them."

"Ikora," responded Whisper, "I understand that time is of the essence, but can you back up for a minute? Last time you mentioned an intergalactic chain? And what sort of 'mind' were you talking about?"

"Yes," added Alice serenely, "I, too, would like to know more."

Vistrek grunted. "How are we supposed to destroy that?"

The Vanguard leader spoke tersely, and Whisper could vividly imagine her facial expression of aggrieved patience. "I will be brief. There remains much we do not know about the Vex, but this much we do know. They did not come from our solar system, and possibly not even our galaxy. They are living metal with incomprehensible intelligence. They are builders more than anything, architects of ancient and complex structures we have reason to believe are buried within every celestial body. They are linked by a network unlike anything on Earth, and they operate in unison, guided by a single unfathomable purpose and directed in practice by powerful Vex minds. From the data you collected, we learned that a Vex Mind on Venus has accelerated their schedule in converting the planet to a massive supercomputer as they did to Mercury. If you can destroy the Mind, it should put the local Vex network into disarray."

The line fell silent as each of them tried to wrap their minds around the radical readjustment in scale of the threat they faced. Whisper was stunned. The Vex could convert entire planets, and they did it just to increase their processing power? What were they using all that power for? And if they really had seeded much of the galaxy, how could they ever be stopped? Humanity couldn't even reach beyond the solar system—how could they face down something that commanded the resources of a dozen solar systems? A hundred? A thousand?

The Exo Stranger was right. What were the Fallen compared to that? Even a moon full of Hive was nothing compared to that.

"How many people know this?" she asked shakily.

"Few, for what should be obvious reasons. I share it with you only to help you understand the vital importance of this strike. Now, go. Descend through the ruins of the Ishtar Academy, down into the Vex structures below, find the Vex Mind, and destroy it. Shrio-4 will monitor your coms. If you fail, let him know whatever you learn so a followup team can try again."

The connection died, and the fireteam looked at each other. Alice's normally calm demeanor had cracked just enough to show the deep worry beneath, and Vistrek's expression was grim. "Well, let's give this a try." Whisper led the way out of the Archive, heading back up the ramp and out into the jungle above. As they cleared the tunnel a flight of six skiffs flew in low over the Academy and out of sight, letting loose a small army of Fallen.

"Ikora is right—the Fallen must know what the Vex are doing down there and are trying to stop it. Maybe they won't attack us."

Vistrek snorted. "Sometimes I forget how newly risen you are, Whisper. The Fallen fight to protect the planet because they think it belongs to them. They will fight us as well as the Vex."

"Decreasing the chances either of us will succeed. What a waste." Whisper sighed. "Well, let's go."

The fireteam advanced from the quiet and into chaos. Vex moved sporadically towards the Academy from every direction, like ants swarming to a nest more than any sort of military maneuver. They were met by heavily reinforced roving Fallen patrols, cutting them down with overwhelming firepower. Arc and solar energy sizzled back and forth, until the fireteam crushed both sides with a tide of Light and lead.

They approached the Academy grounds proper when Blabber spoke up. I'm picking up Fallen signals. They have put up energy barriers blocking the path down, powered by High Servitors, each guarded by a captain.

Alice picked off a straggling Vex goblin with a burst form her pulse rifle. "The House of Winter has committed much of its remaining resources to—"

The ground trembled beneath their feet, and the air resounded with the startled cries of Fallen. The shaking stopped after a few seconds and Whisper regained her balance and looked at the shaken aliens. "Not much time. Split up, each take one servitor to knock out the barriers, then regroup here." She pushed out new coordinates to the fireteam. "Go fast and hard."

She added action to her words, leaping forward towards one of the three heavily armored servitors. She raced past stunned Fallen, leaping over a crushed bookcase, pushed off a vandal's head and launched into the air. She reached for the Light and grasped the storm, which crackled around her. The Fallen captain charged to interrupt her as she raced to the servitor. He raised mighty arcblades and brought them down with all his might. At the last moment Whisper blinked past and drove her lightning-wreathed blade deep into the eye of the servitor. The machine floated back urgently, but Whisper clung to the metal sphere and drove the blade in again and again. The servitor's light went out and both of them crashed to the ground in a tangle of metal limbs.

Whisper extricated herself quickly and looked up tot find the captain lunging at her. Light drained, she raised her arms to take the blow when another quake struck. The captain stumbled and his strike went wide, sending a burst of sparks off the concrete floor. She kicked clear of the wreckage and leapt away, using the Light to step off the air, and grabbed the top of another bookshelf and hurled herself up. She raced on, leaping over a group of dregs who ducked in fear, and made it to the rendezvous. Alice and Vistrek were already there holding back the Fallen.

"The barrier's down! Go!" shouted Vistrek, and Whisper didn't hesitate. She kept going through the hallway, trusting Vistrek to guard their backs.

The tunnel took a hard right, and on a balcony above them five Fallen vandals leapt out of hiding in ambush, pouring fire down on them. Arc energy sizzled against her shield and one broke through, searing carbon scoring across her armor, but the fireteam returned fire that devastated their unshielded targets.

Past that last rearguard the tunnel crew silent as it sloped downwards, branching off into smaller research labs that still held pieces of Vex machinery under microscopes and more esoteric instruments. More pressingly, there were more recently destroyed Vex machines scattered through the halls, burned by arc energy. The Fallen hadn't had it all their own way, however. The bodies of dregs and the occasional vandal of the Fallen assault force had been left where they fell in a headlong rush deeper.

Vistrek caught up with them, announced by the thuds of each step of his heavy armor. "The Fallen are falling back to regroup, but they'll be back."

"Then let us continue," urged Alice.

Whisper nodded and pressed forward, winding down into older and older sections of the Ishtar Academy. We're getting closer, chipped in Blabber. I'm detecting a massive power surge from the dig site below us. "The defenses grew stronger, too," added Alice as she eyed an entire squad of dregs cut down side by side by a scything Vex laser.

The laboratories fell away and were replaced by a dirt floor illuminated by flood lights re-powered by the Fallen. At its center was an excavated pit. Down ten or twelve meters they had broken into an enormous chamber. At its center was a perfect circle of Vex structure that glowed with power. And at its heart was an enormous Vex machine.

"So that's an Axis Mind," whispered Alice, and Whisper had to agree. It was a floating fortress, with a massively upsized head of a hobgoblin with its horns swept up instead of out. An enormous siege cannon hung from a stub pylon off each side. More unusually, a smaller version of the head seemed to be plugged into where its neck would be, complete with scaled down cannons, and then another, and another, like a segmented spine that trailed off below it until it was too small to see.

The cannons weren't for show, either. They lobbed hissing bolts of void energy at the last of the Fallen assault team, decimating every living thing they contacted. The Fallen fired back desperately, but most of their fire dissolved against the translucent matrix that rotated around the Axis Mind.

Energy pulsed from two angled antennas on the yellow-and-grey machine's back and flickered into the circle and downward, and anther quake rocked the continent, sending Fallen sprawling. More Vex were teleporting in to defend the Axis Mind that looked vaguely like minotaurs, to keep with the Greek theme. These were bigger, built solidly where the hobgoblins where spindly, and protected by a void energy shield and wielding a stocky weapon somewhere between a bow torch and a hammer that fired radioactive elements that melted Fallen.

"Quickly, while the Fallen distract them!" shouted Vistrek and he launched himself into the pit. Alice and Whisper shared a glance, then threw themselves after him. Vistrek slammed into the ground, trusting his armor to absorb the impact. Whisper leaped off the air to soften the impact, and Alice simply floated down elegantly. Despite their different means of entry, they charged forwards as one. Vistrek hurled himself forwards, daring the Axis Mind to attack him. It turned its siege cannons, but its aim faltered as Whisper's rocket slammed into it, sending the void energy astray where it burned holes in the solid rock. The titan followed up by slamming his body into the machine's massive red eye. Its forcefield rotated back into place, stunning Vistrek and hurling him back to the ground.

Before the Axis Mind could move to finish him off, Alice's Nova Bomb slammed him, ripping through armor and cracking the eye. The Axis Mind returned fire and Alice leaped away, the corona of a near-miss blowing out her shields. Another rocket from Whisper rammed the machine. Vistrek and Alice joined in with a rocket launcher and grenade launcher, expending all of their ammunition rapipd-fire.

Battered by the non-stop barrage, something within the mighty machine gave away, and the incalculable power coursing through it went awry. The Axis Mind crackled with energy, then detonated in a massive explosion that hurled the fireteam backwards.

Whisper recovered slowly, sensors ringing. Her shields still blinked a warning light and her armor was pockmarked and battered. "Blabber, is it dead?" The ghost responded hiding. Scanning. I think it's gone. It was transmitting coded commands with the authorization signature of Sekrion, Nexus Mind, and I'm not picking up anything with that signal. Whisper closed her eyes as the internal sensors reset to neutral. "Yeah, and the earthquakes have stopped." She opened them again and her vision was back to normal.

To her left, Vistrek was back on his feet and moving towards her gingerly, weaving slightly. Tough one. Don't think I can walk yet.

He dropped heavily into a seated position next to her, armor wheezing in protest. "Alice… you alright?"

A gloved hand, still smoking, popped up where the warlock was lying flat on her back. "Just waiting for the world to stop spinning."

"Good. We did it."

Whisper tried to sit up then thought better of it as her systems angrily protested that they needed more time to recalibrate to an equilibrium. She eased back down instead, and a question occurred to her. "Vistrek, how did you do that? If I dropped from that far, my legs would have broken… and they're made of metal."

Vistrek pointed to his left shoulder, where the armor had been blown through by a piece of the Axis Mind to reveal the pink of newly healed skin and circular plates of machinery. "All titan's use armor called Field Plate. Beneath the armored superstructure, it's tiled with inertial sinks and field drivers. The inertial sinks absorb kinetic energy from falling or weapons fire, and the field drivers act as artificial muscle, like an exoskeleton, which helps absorb shock and makes us stronger and faster – enough to keep up with you two while carrying three times the defenses. Field drivers give us most of our strength."

Whisper sat up cautiously once more, and this time her systems blinked ready. "Interesting. What else have you got tucked away in there?"

The titan shrugged, then winced at the movement, while Whisper noticed for the first time how effortlessly he moved his massive shoulder pauldrons. "The outer layer is mostly just armor – ceramic and other alloys."

"But where does the power come from? What makes the field drivers work?"

Vistrek frowned, puzzled. "The Light, of course. You would have to plug a jumpship power core or better to power titan armor without the Light."

"Could I add those to my armor?"

"The field drivers, maybe. I've heard of hunters using those. But not the inertial sinks. They need enough base mass to work with, which is partly why titans like to use Relic Iron in our armor – it's hard, but it's also really dense."

"It's possible," added Alice as she, too, sat up. "I once saw a warlock who had incorporated inertial sinks into his robes."

"Impossible," scoffed Vistrek.

"Not impossible, merely difficult. Density is a matter of molecular organization. Reassemble the atoms, restack the molecules, and you can be as dense as you need to be."

Whisper cut in before Vistrek caught the barb. "But how? We don't exactly have nanotechnology lying around."

"The Light provides. It can be wielded like a hammer," she said, gesturing toward the blasted ruins of the Vex, "or a scalpel." She picked up a warped piece of metal from the Axis Mind in her hand and held it out. Whisper sensed a gathering of Light, then release as the bent metal vaporized, floating away to dust.

"How is this possible?" asked Vistrek, awestruck.

"A lot of practice," replied Alice wearily, sapped by the display of power. "Warlocks use our hands a lot to help focus our technique when we channel the Light, so our gloves are our most important equipment." She glanced at her hand, which pulsed with Light for a moment. "Axion condensers help focus our control to reach the molecular level, but their discharge nodes handle a lot of excess power, and pain inhibitors limit our control. Losing control of that much power for even a moment can hurt." She pulled off a glove to reveal the blue skin of an awoken marred by scarring from what must have been agonizing burns. "Between the axion condensers and sensory cortex in each finger linked via interwoven neuromotors directly the mind, and with enough patience and practice, I could pull an atom from a molecule or reshuffle a substance's atomic makeup with a wave. Or, as needed, vaporize particularly annoying Hive."

Vistrek stared at her. "I had heard legends that a warlock could shake your hand and unmake you by accident, but I thought they were tales told to new titans as a joke."

Alice grimaced. "Not by accident. We disable the focusing equipment in our gloves for social occasions. Though a select few warlocks have occasionally found it an… amusing prank," she finished distastefully.

"Huh."

Whisper pulled herself to her feet. "I'm not getting a signal this deep. We should probably let Shiro-4 and Ikora know what happened." Vistrek offered Alice a hand getting to her feet, and they began the awkward climb back to the surface. By the time they reached the light of day, the Fallen had broken and run, and the remaining Vex milled about in confusion, then began to wander back to whatever they were doing before the fighting began.

"Ikora, Shiro, this is Fireteam Guardian, can you read us?"

"Yes, Ikora here. Report."

"We did it. Sekrion, the Axis Mind here, is destroyed."

"That is excellent news. One tendril of the Vex surge has been severed. But their presence here still grows in other dark places, far beyond our reach." She exhaled softly. "We must continue to understand their power and haunt the realms where they gather if we are to hold them at bay. Return to the Tower. I'm sure the Cryptarchs want a full report."

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter this week, but I didn't want to delay it again. It was just an awkward length, too long to add more, but a little short. This one took a lot of research.

Lore Referenced:

Grimoire:

The Archive

The Anomaly

The Vex

Hydra

Minotaur

Torch Hammer

Sekrion, Nexus Mind

Items:

Mark of Renown

Firebreak (chest)

Vanir Type 1

Ursus Tactical

Scoutmail (legs)

Highlander Type 1

Molniya Custom T1

Rustburner 1.5

Knight Type 2

Vanth Orcus 0A0X

Code Fire (gloves)

Scalpel Wing (arms)

AOS#AI-Suhail I

Chroma Vow

Unity Clade

Apex Harmonic

Azoth Bend II (arms)

ISTANU-GNT Razor (arms)

Vector Home (gauntlets)