Chapter 26: Winter's Run

"Those Fallen in the Ishtar Sink on Venus… story is they raided the Prison of Elders in the Reef. Got an Archon Priest. The Queen's bounty is high, so we know it's powerful. We need to hunt this thing down before they fully restore its soul." – Cayde-6

The sound of explosions faded as Fireteam Guardian left the caves behind and emerged back into dawn light of a now scorching hot, humid day in the jungles of Venus. The moment they were clear the nameless hunter slunk away through the undergrowth, her ghost in tow.

Whisper glanced at the other two, the shrugged. "Well, she's gone. She was something else in a fight, but I can't say I'm going to miss her," admitted Whisper.

"You and me both," grunted Vistrek. "I half expected her to turn on us at the end, there. Nice job talking her down, Alice."

The warlock nodded. "The Praxic Order has had to help many troubled guardians over the centuries. I was glad to call upon that experience. However, while we are free from the Fallen, many Vex remain in the area, and Fallen skiffs are searching for us. Might I suggest we return on foot to the drop zone?"

"Sounds good to me. Vistrek?"

"Fine."

They set off, boots squelching in the mud, rainwater streaming from their armor as they walked, occasionally ducking under the trees as a flight of skiffs zoomed overhead. Whisper led the way, maneuvering them between Fallen patrols and pockets of Vex.

They talked quietly on short-range comms as they walked to pass the time. "Vistrek," asked Alice, "I've been meaning to ask you. That yellow cloth around your waist… what does it mean? Is it from your armor's manufacturer? I've seen similar fabric on other titans."

"The manu… what? No. And I thought warlocks knew everything. All titans build their own armor based on one of the fieldplate models. Some are more defensive, others more aggressive, but they are all based on proven technique."

"You built that armor? I'm impressed." Whisper glanced over her shoulder at Vistrek, who shrugged.

"Yes. This is a basic model of fieldplate. I put it together, but following the Firebreak fieldplate design, which was refined by generations of titans," he explained humbly. "The fabric is called a mark. It can mean many things. The two downward-facing chevrons mean I am a member of the Firebreak Order. Yellow is for initiates and red is for full members. What of you, Alice? What does that band across your arm mean?"

The warlock answered in her serene voice. "This is my bond." She touched the silver band with gold flecks wrapped around her left arm. "It shows my commitment to the Praxic Order. Like the rest of our armor, it is manufactured in the City, or restored from Golden Age finds, then atomically customized by the warlock. I received mine when I joined the Praxic Order from… a ranking member. It is called Engima Burn. What about you, Whisper? Do hunters have anything worn for symbolism?"

"From what I've heard, the cloaks worn by hunters say a lot about them."

"Whisper, if I may ask, why do you not wear a cloak?"

Alice's question brought Whisper up short. "Um… I don't know. I haven't really thought about it."

"I see," responded Alice disarmingly. "Ah, we have reached the jump zone. We should be able to call our ships from here. It has been another successful venture. I will see you both back in the City." Alice transmatted away as her jumpship knifed down through the rain and the warlock transmatted away. Vistrek gave Whisper a nod as he, too, transmatted up into his jumpship and soared towards Earth. Whisper looked out one more time across the jungle until she, too, transmatted away.

The air was cool on Whisper's face as she stood atop the Tower, which was a strange sensation. She didn't even know what sensor was letting her feel that, but she was glad she could feel that crisp October air. But not as grateful as she was to be able to see the view. The City spread beneath her while above the mountains were capped with snow, hints of the oncoming winter. Maste Rahool and many of the humans wore jackets to keep warm.

"Beautiful view, huh? I never get tired of it." As if from thin air, another exo appeared beside her with a flutter of his yellow cloak.

"Thanks for coming, Shiro, but a vidcall would have worked."

"I spend enough time on my own—sometimes it's nice to see someone in person. Besides, I wanted to check in with you, see how you're doing. That was some fine work up on the moon, but fighting the Hive is always nasty business."

"Thanks, Shiro. That's thoughtful of you."

"It is." Shiro grinned. "It's also something of an investment. Forever is a long time, Whisper, and I think you're going places. I'm jumping in at the ground floor. So, what did you want to ask about?"

Whisper wasn't sure what to make of that, so she set it aside for the present. "Uh, right. I met an… intense hunter, a scout for Cayde."

Shiro-4 nodded. "Yeah, I know her. Hard to forget her, actually."

"She had a single reddish stripe across her helmet. It was messy, like she painted it on herself. Does that mean something?"

The Vanguard scout looked out over the mountains, his gaze distant. "Yeah, it does. It's called the Vermillion Stripe. I've been around a while, but I don't know where it started. It's a single mark painted across the forehead, like you saw, in remembrance of a fallen comrade. It's a hunter mark of mourning, I guess you'd say. Funny thing is, for a lot of hunters grief and vengeance are two sides of the same coin."

"Is it a… common thing?" Whisper asked hesitantly.

Shiro sighed. "As I said, forever is a long time. You stay in this business long enough, yeah. Sooner or later, every hunter dons the vermilion stripe."

Master Rahool cleared his throat, uncharacteristically nervous in front of the Vanguard, the Speaker, and the heads of the factions within the Consensus. "Welcome, leaders of the Last City. The Cryptarchy continues to scour the troves of information recently recovered from the Hive in what we now know to be called the World's Grave, and from the Ishtar Academy Archives. This is an undertaking that will last for years, if not for generations. We express our great thanks to the Vanguard and the guardians for retrieving this information."

He nodded towards the Vanguard with more than his usual cursory respect. "I reiterate again that this is the most preliminary of reports. Without further preamble, the location discovered on Luna is known to the Hive in their language as the World's Grave. Guarded by Kranox, The Graven before his defeat, it is a vast repository chronicling the Hive's history of interstellar conquests. Every world they have devoured, every life they have eradicated, every enemy they've faced. It is… somewhat overwhelming, and I hasten to add, incomplete. The core Hive fleet appears to have split into at least three separate factions, meaning that the information we have is incomplete. Additionally, there are gaps in the information, as if deliberately purged from the Archives." This, more than anything, sparked a hint of outrage from the scholar. "Nevertheless, we hope to unravel the Hive's true goals and their ultimate plans for Earth."

There was quiet murmur in the Speaker's room at the news.

"While I reiterate that we have only gathered hints, there are mentions of a species called the Ammonites, whose civilization may have been connected with the Traveler. There were the Qugu who protected four systems. The Ecumene, who claimed at least seventeen worlds. The Taishibethi, with their silver orbitals and golden star webs. And many, many more we are only beginning to decipher."

At this, the room fell dead silent, until a single voice spoke. The Speaker, his voice even, asked "Is there any record of the Traveler fighting the Hive? Of the Traveler raising other species as guardians, and still falling?"

"No, Speaker. We have found no records that the Hive have ever fought against the Traveler in battle. While many species had strange, incredible technologies whose workings we cannot even guess without more context, there is no hint that the Traveler has raised guardians prior to Earth."

A sigh, not quite of relief, but of hope. There was a difference – maybe they could survive.

"Carry on."

"Yes, Speaker. Ahem. To be succinct, there is little else to share at this time. We have learned of the Spawn of Crota, and that Crota is a champion of some long-forgotten king. It is possible this refers to the king named Oryx of which Osiris once spoke. Indeed, I fear this may be the case – the name Oryx appears too many times in Hive rituals to be ignored, and Fireteam Guardian's efforts to destroy a Shrine of Oryx encountered a brood of Hive calling itself the Blood of Oryx, suggesting a living being with active servants. There are too many whispers of these shrines peppered across the system to ignore. As for Crota, I am sure we need little reminding." Rahool nodded his head in respect for the lost a moment before continuing. "We have also learned that the outermost defenses on Luna are called the Hidden Swarm, protecting the temples and shrines of the vast Hive fortresses below the surface of Luna.

The Vanguard Commander spoke for the first time. "Have we learned anything of the Hive itself? Of their weaponry?"

Rahool nodded. "The worms we have seen on Luna and in other locations infested by the Hive are ingested by the Hive, not for sustenance, but for survival. They form a symbiotic bond of some kind, strengthening the Hive. As for weaponry, we have heard of references to a great ship of some sort, that within it houses a chamber where the Hive contain the things they are afraid of, fears that they have not yet weaponized and unleashed."

"And those are?"

"I'm afraid at this time we do not know. The records related to it are… fragmented, at best."

The chamber fell silent for some time, each leader lost in contemplation of what awaited them out in the dark in some future day.

Lore Shaxx stood, arms crossed, overlooking the ruins of a small neighborhood overgrown with plant life creeping in between faded neon signs. Behind him lay the smoking remains of several dozen vex that had attempted to keep him from this place. Before the Collapse, this would've been just another stop on the subway line between Clovis Bray's Venus Arcology and the Ishtar Academy campus by the shore. Now, it was a grim reminder of the lives, the dreams, and the progress lost when the Darkness came. It would be perfect – a place for guardians to sharpen their blades in the Crucible, in the shadow of the vex who knew no such sentimentality.

But not here—it's too open. He moved again, considering sight lines, then stepped down a crumbling staircase where a combat frame stood waiting for him.

"Dark in here…"

"Engineering protocols dictate frame recharging bays could—"

"It's fine," interrupted the warlord. "How many of you are there?"

"Including Arcite 99-40, this Redjack fireteam comprises eleven units."

"Your name?"

"This frame's designation is Dahlia 99-40."

"Hmm…" mused Lord Shaxx. "I asked for more guardians, but they only gave me you. This City needs training grounds. And together, that's what we'll provide."

The frame twitched. "I might do that. Or I might explode."

"That's all I can ask."

Whisper sat on the swings next to Emilia at the playground while the little girl played. She wore a battered jacked and heavily patched pants and shivered at every cutting breeze through the trees of the park. She sat on the ground where she had a little protection from the wind and waived a toy jumpship through air making whooshing noises, then perked up. "Oh! Have you heard, Whisper, have you heard? Everyone is talking about it. First the moon, and now the guardians have gone back to Venus!" She gestured excitedly. "Things are happening! I'm so excited, I could barely focus in school today."

Whisper watched the child curiously. "Why is that exciting, Emilia? That sounds… far away from here."

"Well yeah," responded Emilia with an impressive eyeroll, "but if the guardians are on Venus, that must mean it's safer around here, right? If things keep getting better, we might be able to go outside the walls someday!"

She flopped back on the ground and closed one eye, zooming her jumpship across the pale moon above. Whisper, too, looked up at the moon, remembering.

Petra Venj steadied herself, then strode resolutely into the heart of the tower where the so-called Vanguard called home. The Lightbearers in question stood waiting for her, and she wasted no time. "Thank you," she managed to get out almost naturally, "for agreeing to see me."

"We are always pleased to speak with the Reef's emissary," replied Ikora Rey neutrally.

"I come bearing a message from the Queen. Our people maintain a place known as the Prison of Elders where many notorious and dangerous enemies of both our peoples are locked away. There has been an… incident at the prison."

The machine-man stared at her without blinking, weighing her words.

"The House of Winter mounted an assault on the prison. It was repulsed, but in the chaos, it seems that they made off with one of more valuable prisoners, a powerful Archon Priest named Aksor."
A sound carried across the room, lower and harsher than words, almost a growl. Sometimes she forgot that the guardians had nearly as long of memories, and capacity to hold grudges, as the Awoken. Paradoxically, the open hostility at the memories of destroyed human settlements and ravaged Awoken enclaves made Petra feel a little more comfortable, a little more at home. They may have their differences, but the guardians new revenge as well as her own people did.

"Once of the House of Wolves, Aksor is well-positioned to take over the House of Winter and pursue a vendetta against both our peoples. The Queen has placed a bounty for the capture or death of Aksor." She held out a slip of delicate crystal paper which the machine took. The paper reacted to its touch, revealing the amount of the bounty, and it whistled.

Whisper stood alongside Vistrek and Alice at the Tower where Cayde stood striking a pose while attempting to look serious. "So, Fireteam Guardian, very catchy. Those Fallen in the Ishtar Sink on Venus… story is, they raided the Prison of Elders in the Reef. Can't say I've ever seen the place, but it sure sounds impressive. Anyway, they nabbed an Archon Priest. The Queen put a bounty on it for us guardian peasant types. It's pretty high, too, so we know it's powerful. We need to hunt this thing down before they fully… I don't know, restore its soul or something."He waved his fingers dramatically. "Spooky, right?"

"It is an opportunity."

Cayde jumped as Ikora entered the room.

"With Draksis dead, Aksor is the only clear successor to the House of Winter, despite being of the House of Wolves. Eliminating him will put the House of Winter into disarray, consolidating our hold on Venus, securing the Ishtar Collective Archives for further study, and improving our fledgling relations with the Reef and Mara Sov at the same time. It is an opportunity we cannot miss."

Vistrek nodded gravely, standing tall and proud. Alice, however, looked thoughtful. "If I may ask… why us? We appreciate the show of confidence and trust, I'm sure, but there must be others who could benefit from the experience?"

Ikora looked at Alice searchingly, considered her words for a moment, then responded. "There are. While we don't appreciate being questioned, we are not a military, and perhaps it does us good to explain ourselves… on occasion," the Vanguard member added pointedly. "In that spirit, the longer Aksor is free, the more he can win Winter's loyalty and strengthen his defenses. He must suspect the Reef will pursue him and will move quickly, thus speed is important. Your fireteam not only knows Venus, but knows their flagship ketch, Wintership Simiks-Fel, and how to find it. And there are other concerns. The fighting between the Hive and the House of Devils is escalating in the Cosmodrome, and though the Fallen houses are not on the best terms, they do communicate—they will know of our expansion on Venus and will test our defenses elsewhere. We have already deployed guardians to repulse these probes."

Alice nodded solemnly. "I understand."

"Great!" cut in Cayde. "Now get out there and take him down."

Fireteam Guardian raced across the shattered coast on sparrows, spray and sand kicking up in their wake. The path gradually opened up into the headlands where spikes of craggy rocks speared up from the ground where some cataclysmic event had disrupted the ground with unfathomable energy. The uncertainty made Blabber nervous.

It won't take them long to restore the Archon's soul. We'd better head for the caves.

Whisper opened a private comm channel to her ghost. "We can't just fly straight there, unless you want us to be blown out of the sky by their point defense weapons. And I'm not sure Cayde was being serious about that soul thing."

They slowed to a stop and transmatted away the sparrows at the mouth of the Ember Caves, where a contingent of Vex marched forwards. Vex!? What are they doing here?

Whisper had no idea why the Vex were there, but what they were doing was clear – they were assaulting the Fallen's entrenched position. Goblins marched forwards relentlessly firing bolts of molten metal, headless of their own losses, and covered by the sniper fire of hobgoblins.

Taking cover int eh cave behind rocks slowly beginning to melt under the barrage, Fallen dregs and vandals fired back desperately at the urging of a captain in the colors of the House of Winter.

The guardians charged forward, weapons blazing. It didn't take long to wipe them both out. Vistrek tossed aside the sparking wreckage of the last goblin. "If the Fallen are already fighting the Vex, they will be ready for us. This will be no surprise attack – the Archon Priest will be well-protected."

"No time to waste, then," answered Alice, reloading her Psi Lento III pulse rifle. They moved forward into the caves once more, with Vistrek taking the lead in the close confines. It was strangely quiet in the caves, making for a tense excursion as they crept over Fallen sleeping mats still laid out beneath white-on-blue house banners. Ether storage barrels lay abandoned, hurriedly emptied of their contents. They must have evacuated the civilians back to the ship. Were they planning to—

Blinding explosions rocked the cavern.

Vistrek simply vanished, absorbing the brunt of the force. Whisper was hurled backwards then slammed into the stone wall with enough force that her helmet cracked then slumped to the ground. She grunted, blinded and disoriented, while red warning lights flashed behind her eyes.

"Whisper, are you alright?" asked Alice urgently from somewhere behind her.

"Maybe?" she answered. Or tried to answer. Instead of words, a strange electronic squeal emerged. Alarmed, Whisper sat up and took stock. It was… not good. Her legs were crushed beneath a boulder loosened from the ceiling by the blast. Her right forearm had been blown off, leaving a sparking mess of wires and leaking white fluid with black streaks in it.

Her eyes flickered, then her neck lost power entirely and her head dropped to her chest, where she saw a razor-edged shard of Vistrek's shoulder armor, still streaked in his blood, sticking out of her chest.

Her eyes blinked out as power bled out of her. For endless seconds she was trapped in the black, no touch, no sight, no sound. Helpless, she felt her brain shutting down one processor at a time. Slower, slower… slo…w…er…

Rumbling in the rock sent a jolt of raw adrenaline pumping through her system, blood pounding in her ears. She turned and bolted as a tidal wave of darkness swept over her. She screamed in agony as her bones snapped, crushed beneath an endless weight.

Whisper dropped back to the cavern floor in a flash of Light, slipping on the last vestiges of her own remains on the floor. Woah. She looked down at her metal hands, glinting in the light reflected from her artificial eyes.

"Come on, where is it?"

Whisper turned and saw Alice scratching in the dirt while her ghost illuminated like a powerful flashlight, highlighting the dust in the air in its gaze. "What are you looking for?"

"When the explosion hit, I thought I saw… here." Alice knelt and picked up a small object, holding it in the light. The heart Whisper no longer had seemed to freeze – it was Vistrek's ghost, Guldor, its shell battered and crumpled.

"I saw him fly past me. Lilith, how is how?"

Alice's ghost hummed anxiously as she examined her fallen comrade. "There's still Light inside. I… I think he'll be okay." Lilith began to glow, her shell floating away from her core of raw Light as she pumped out energy.

The fallen ghost quivered, then rose up into the air. "What ha—Vistrek!" Guldor darted towards the pile of rock from the collapsed tunnel. Light flashed, and Vistrek appeared before them once more.

"Uh… what?" The titan looked around, confused, as Alice wrapped him in a brief hug, then released him.

Whisper, too, took a moment to confirm that Vistrek was unharmed, then examined the rocks more closely. "The Fallen must have set up tripwires linked to explosives to bring down the tunnel. They must have known we were coming. If one of us had come down here alone…"

"Exactly," Alice said grimly. "They know we're coming."

Vistrek's fists pounded together with a deep thud of metal. "Let's not keep them waiting."

"Yeah… but let's stay a little more spread out, at least underground."

The others nodded and they set off more cautiously, still shaken. Thankfully, they made it to the end of the caves and the overlook of the canyon where the ketch Simiks-Fel lay moored without further incident. And once again, they found the Fallen in pitched battle with the Vex. Hordes of goblins, hobgoblins, and even a handful of heavily armored minotaurs. Squads of Fallen fought back ferociously. Even the dregs, normally liable to break and run, fought fearlessly at the foot fo their starship and home.

I'm picking up the signal Cayde gave us from the Reef. It's… not on the ship. It's on the other side?

"I'm getting the same thing," said Vistrek. "Likewise," added Alice.

"Alright, let's head around, then. Follow me, keep your heads down, and stick to the perimeter. Come on."

They moved forward, ducking behind rocky outcrops while their boots crushed thin sheets of calcium over pools of hissing water. The thunder of battle filled the canyon, echoing and reverberating off the rock walls. They cut down the handful of Vex and Fallen that moved to stop them.

There!

Whisper looked up at a sealed doorway built into the hillside and pushed out the marker to Vistrek and Alice's HUDs. "Blabber will get it open – cover us." Blabber emerged and began scanning the electronic lock while Whisper stood directly in front of him, boldly bodily blocking any incoming fire. Vistrek and Alice knelt a few steps away, picking off any approaching enemies.

The Fallen were content to let the guardians be, but the Vex were not, and more and more of them turned away from the ketch and marched on the Lightbearers.

"Whisper?" shouted Vistrek over the weapons fire.

"Still a ways to go!"

"We've got hydras! I'll slow them down!" Vistrek rose to his feet and charged forwards, lightning crackling in his fists. More Vex were teleporting in now, and not just goblins. In addition to the minotaurs were smaller versions of Axis Mind robotic centipedes, which must be the hydras Vistrek mentioned, flickering into being and lobbing a torrent of void destruction their way.

The seconds seemed to stretch as Vistrek smashed Vex to bits. Whisper's sniper picked off priority targets and Alice's pulse rifle buzzed as she cut down the closest Vex who threatened to reach them.

Got it!

"Vistrek, it's open. Let's go!"

The titan's Light faded as he lost his grasp on the arc energy. He pivoted with surprising dexterity in his heavy armor, grinding his boot heel on the chassis of a hobgoblin, and bounded through the air from outcrop to outcrop to rejoin them as the retreated through the doorway.

With a final push he made it through the door and Whisper slammed it shut. Vistrek's armor smoked, and at least three holes had been burned through it completely. His ghost hummed and buzzed about him, plugging holes in man and armor alike. "I'm good to go."

Whisper nodded and turned. The doorway revealed a narrow fissure between the canyon walls, more of a gap where the mountain had split under the enormous violence that had torn up the landscape. The Fallen had stashed pikes there, waiting silently to carry their masters out to open ground on the other side of the pathway.

The door clanged inward as a Vex crunched into it.

"They're locked onto us, and I'm not eager to fight in a kill zone like this. Let's see if we can get these pikes to work." Vistrek looked at the machine skeptically, but nodded. Thankfully, the code locks on the vehicles were no match for their ghosts, and the pikes rumbled to life and they set off down the fissure.

Whisper struggled to keep the pike in line as they made their way onwards. While they looked roughly similar to sparrows, it was immediately clear to Whisper that they filled very different roles. Where sparrows were light and agile, offering little protection as a fully committed rapid transport vehicle, the pike was bigger and heavier. Armor plating protected the engine and offered at least a little cover to the rider. That made the pike slower, but also gave it more staying power. And with that extra time, it could dish out some serious hurt with twin forward-mounted arc cannons. That put the pike in the world of support and fast-attack vehicle. To direct that much extra mass, the engine had to be upsized and utilized a pair of large maneuvering vanes to make it surprisingly agile for its bulk at the cost of some speed.

All in all, the thing looked and sounded like junk compared to the sleek lines of a well-designed sparrow, but with the engineering know-how of the Fall, the half-scavenged vehicle moved like a shark.

The fireteam moved forward with gathering speed as they grew more comfortable with the controls and the pike's movements, which was good, because Vex began teleporting in around them.

The next minutes were chaotic as heavy fire tore back and forth down the narrow fissure. The pike's weaponry tore Vex to shreds, but they didn't have it all their own way. A hobgoblin's incredibly, or lucky, shot impacted directly on Whisper's engine, detonating it and her into a fireball. Blabber brought her back and she hopped on Alice's pike as Vistreks' was already struggling under the weight of his armor.

Finally they exited the fissure into a wider canyon filled with spiky outcrops of rock where a Vex hydra awaited them. "Split up!"

Whisper dove from the pike and rolled into cover behind the rocks. The Vex's shield was nigh-impregnable, but only on its facing side. Thankfully, the hydra had little support and went down quickly.

There! We're very close now.

"This is turning into a much bigger job that it was supposed to be," grumbled Whisper as she signaled to the fireteam. True to Blabber's word, around two more bends they finally reached the source of the signal. It was an enormous pod, maybe eight or nine meters in diameter, standing upright on four squat legs.

A heavily armored squad of Fallen were fighting off Vex. Strangely, they did not wear the colors of the House of Winter, or of any House that she could see.

"Is that a cryopod?" asked Alice incredulously.

"Does it matter?" returned Vistrek as he opened fire. The Vex went down quickly between the guardians and Fallen, but the Fallen were much tougher customers. Smart, well-armed, and better armored, they dug in and fought back furiously. Whisper picked off another dreg and ducked back behind cover as three vandal snipers that seemed to track her every move fired back with their wire rifles, cracking into the rock.

The pod began to hum and a siren went off, drawing every eye. Then the Fallen captain barked and the Fallen began to withdraw.

What in the world?

"Whisper?" shouted Vistrek.

"Uh, let them go. Our mission is the Archon, and I think we're about to meet him."

The pod gave one more warning blare and the door slowly opened in a hiss of condensed gas, obscuring whatever was inside.

"The moment he's out, hit him with everything you've got," ordered Whisper over the comms.

Inside, something stirred. Something big. Then from the mist clambered out a massive Fallen, easily the size of Riksis, the Archon from the House of Devils.

His blue ether mask bore two ornately carved horns over four glowing blue sensors where his eyes would be. The rest of him was covered in heavy body armor, still painted in House of Wolves blue. For a moment Aksor and Whisper stared at each other, then the moment shattered as Vistrek's rocket and Alice's grenades detonated on him.

The archon's shields burst, overwhelmed, but they absorbed most of the weapons' fury and his heavy armor withstood the rest. The archon stumbled, but he was unbroken, and he teleported away to the body of one of the downed Fallen captains and retrieved a shrapnel launcher, and the fight was on.

A/N: Sorry for the delay on the chapter upload. A lot of things going on, and this chapter ended up being quite long. Hopefully we can get back on schedule.

Lore Referenced:

D1 Grimoire:

Winter's Run

Kranox, The Graven

Spawn of Crota

Shrine of Oryx

Blood of Oryx

Sardok, Eye of Oryx

The Hidden Swarm

Ghost Scan: Worm

Ghost Scan: Asylum

Asylum

Ghost Fragment: Asylum

Pike

Items:

Mark of Diligence

Mark of Renown

Firebreak

Highlander Type 0

Mark of the New Front

Mark of the Martyr

Praxic Vim

Enigma Burn

Vermilion Stripe 1.0 (head, arms, chest, legs)

Verity Brow

Psi Lento III

Lore Books:

Books of Sorrow:XV: Born as Prey

Books of Sorrow:XXIII fire without fuel

Books of Sorrow:XXV: Dictata ir Dakaua

Books of Sorrow:XXX: a golden amputation

The Awoken of the Reef: Tyrranocide I