Chapter 38: Calm Before the Storm

You have bested one of the Cabal's champions. This day will be remembered, but the larger Cabal threat still remains.

Whisper stood in the Tower looking out over the impressive mountain ranges in the cool air of late October. Storm clouds were gathering, their dark shapes prominent against gray skies as the first flutters of snow started to fall.

She thought back over the events of the past few days, trying to process it. The Cabal had almost launched an invasion of Earth.

And they might not be as monolithic as she'd first thought. Why was a Dust Giant commanding the Siege Dancers? They were both elite units, one a rapid response team for fighting Vex incursions, the other a heavy assault and landing force focused on dismantling enemy fortifications. They should not like each other, or at best have a friendly rivalry. They should not be commanding each other. Why? Was there division in the ranks? What was going on behind the scenes?

Either way, the Cabal were not invulnerable. They were improvising, at least a little. And from everything she'd seen, improvisation was not one of the Cabal's many strengths. Maybe she would ask Cayde about it.

"The weapon is very upset."

Vistrek stood in Banshee's small shop, helmet under his arm and a puzzled expression on his face. "The weapon is… upset? What, did I hurt its feelings?"

The exo shrugged. "I don't think it was you. I've spoken with it, and it's grieving for someone named Pahanin, and fears for its own future. I think you'll need to give it a gift. Maybe a new ammunition module?"

Vistrek took the heavy machine gun back, still trying to wrap his head around the concept of buying a present for his weapon.

"Normally, I'd scoff at the idea of smart systems spontaneously developing personality and awareness… but it's hard to deny that the gun has a personality and a… certain sass to it. Maybe try to find out more about this Pahanin person."

Whisper stood in front of Cayde-6 once again, who was as usual lounging in his chair in the Vanguard's headquarters. He waived cheerily. "Hey, you're back! Nice job out there, I didn't doubt you for a second."

She pulled up a chair and sat beside him. "Maybe not, but it was a closer thing than it looked."

Cayde nodded. "It always is." He sighed, his good mood slipping into somberness, and he gestured around him. "Sitting in this damned tower, it's easy to get complacent. Once you ain't getting shot at, it's hard to remember how dangerous the threats out there truly are. You, my friend, are why the City rests easy today. Don't forget that."

Whisper shrugged. "I wasn't the only one out there. There was my fireteam, and then the people who retook the Dust Palace."

Cayde-6 snickered. "Don't let other hunters catch you being humble like that. For me, though, I can appreciate it. There aren't many people I can just shoot the breeze with, you know? Too many people overwhelmed by my aura of magnificence."

"Or that are willing to put up with your antics."

"You know, that sounded exactly like Ikora just then. I am wounded, Whisper. Deeply wounded."

She rolled her eyes. "Somehow, I think your self-confidence will survive the injury."

Cayde nodded sagely. "People say I'm a real confident guy. That's true enough. Out in the field I never had a second thought. My old friend Andal—he used to stand here, right in this spot—he'd come up with these wild stories. He'd say, you know, Cayde, I've been examining the evidence, and personally I've come to think it's you. You're Rasputin, legendary Warmind, defender of Earth. And I wish you'd remember that, so you could reclaim your full power and save us all."

"I'm sure you just loved that."

"Well, sure, in private maybe. But you can see how that'd be embarrassing, especially when he'd say it right in front of Zavala, who already thought I was wasting my life scrounging for engrams. You know how Zavala gets. But I'd just say, well, Andal, you might be on to something there, but if I'm honest with you I think coordinating our defense throughout the solar system sounds exhausting, so I'd best leave it to you."

Cayde smiled, eyes distant and tinged with sadness. "Then Andal goes and plays his final joke, and I end up as the punchline. So here I stand, reading reports, giving orders, and getting my worry on. Hmm. Where was I going with this? Oh, right Ikora. So, earlier today I ask Ikora, hey, of course I know all about Rasputin, but really, what are we looking for? When Rahool asks for crashed warsats, when we send Holborn to Mars to look for computers, when Zavala gets all gruff about the Fallen in the Cosmodrome—what are we really after? If I left my post and got my ship and just went out there tomorrow and I found Rasputin, what would happen? Would we all be saved?"

"Good question, she says—hang on, let me do my Ikora voice. As you know, Cayde, Rasputin pretty much ran the Golden Age, especially all the secret military business. Rasputin had antimatter-powered death rays and a hundred thousand satellites and nearly as much brainpower as me. Rasputin fought the Collapse. It knows things we need."

"Right, I said," Cayde continued in his own voice. "But Rasputin Lost. The Traveler saved us."

He switched back to his Ikora impression, which definitely needed some work. "But the Traveler's silent now, Ikora said, and Rasputin lives. Right now Rasputin is out there, reaching out, rebuilding, growing."

"So I say what I want to say every day, it's no secret, I say—well, I'll go find it, then. I'll go tell Rasputin we need its help."

"And Ikora looks at me with one of those looks that—you know sometimes you talk to Ikora and you just think, wow, you are not even using a fraction of your brain on me, are you? One of those looks. She says: Cayde, the problem isn't just that we can't find Rasputin. The problem is that it's not clear to any of us Rasputin wants to be found."

Cayde paused a moment, then spoke quietly, the boisterous story-telling voice gone. "That's the way things seem to turn out, up here in the tower. Nothing simple to do. No easy answers. And all I can think is, if Rasputin had all those mighty tools, and it lost—what did it learn? What's it going to try this time around? When I hear about the Dust Palace, those Psion Flayers getting into Rasputin's mind, I wonder… what did they talk about, Rasputin and those creatures?"

He looked down at his mechanical hands, watched as the fingers flexed and moved. "I was a servant, too, once. I was an instrument of war, bound to the will of a lesser master. But I learned to be something more…"

Whisper, too, looked at her face of complex alloys in the reflection off her burnished-metal arm.

Cayde looked up at the sky again, as the first stars twinkled in the twilight. "Whisper, you ever think about how far some of those critters have come to kill us? Cabal Centurions sometimes spend time in cryo to deploy to the Mars or Phobos garrisons. That's dedication. I mean, it's not the same as getting dunked into an exo, but you have to respect it," he added, his playful attitude returning. "Too bad they're all going to end up the same way: disappointed. And, you know, dead."

"We can only hope." Whisper hesitated a moment, then shrugged. "I'm going to do something that's probably a dumb idea. I'm going to trust in the word of a strange exo to jump through a Vex gate into the Black Garden. Any advice?"

"Vex? Nothing creepier than Vex eyes peering at you from the dark."

"Cayde…"

"Alright, alright. Look, you know the truth. We're at war out there. The folks in the Tower and down in the City don't like to think about it. Stay focused. And don't get dead. Now, for the Vex, there's no hierarchy there—just specific functions. The ones you're after serve the purpose of being tough and mean. Let's see, advice, advice… when the going gets tough, two guns are always better than one, so keep your friends by your side and your weapons loaded."

Whisper nodded. "Well, okay then. Thanks."

"Wait."

She turned back, and Cayde looked her in the eye. "Seriously, Whisper, my best advice is this. Survive. Sometimes, when you just survive, everything works out fine. We need you down here, so win or lose, you make sure you come back home."

Stella held up the glowing cloak with pride. Taking down a Psion Flayer was something to be proud of, and she had finally managed to work the energy strings from the Flayer's armor into a blue cloak. Now people would remember her.

Commander Zavala stood on the balcony of the Tower looking up at the Traveler, as he often did when he needed to think. That had been a near thing. A few moments here, a mistake there, and they could have an entire Cabal fleet over the City even now. And given their failure to repulse even the Cabal scouts, the prospects for defending the City were not good. The Traveler would protect them… probably. It was always difficult to say what the Traveler would do, if anything at all.

The world was changing. He couldn't say why, but he could feel it deep down in his bones. The pace of the conflict was picking up speed, hurtling towards the unknown. He sighed and leaned against the railing, looking down at the City whose inhabitants it was his responsibility to protect.

We can't afford to be purely defensive anymore. The thought floated through his brain almost against his will, but he knew it was true. They could not afford to sit back in the City and wait, not any longer.

He looked up at the Traveler again, as still and silent as ever. And we can't afford to simply hope the Traveler will save us again, either.

Perhaps it was time to revisit the old proposal to build Skyline Defense Systems. It would be a significant undertaking, from wall-mounted gun emplacements all the way up to putting satellite detection systems in orbit, but it would leave them in a much better position should the Cabal ever decide to mount their invasion.

"Well, I suppose that's acceptable. Okay, I'll talk to you again," added the gun recalcitrantly.

Vistrek blinked. "Thanks, I guess."

"Hey, that doesn't make us friends. I'm not enthusiastic about this new arrangement, you understand, but we'll see how things go from here."

"That was nice work up there on Mars." Shiro-4 nodded to Whisper as they again walked through the woods just outside the City.

"Thanks. Your advice and training helped a lot, and I couldn't help but ask if there was more you could teach me before I head back out there. There just seems to be so much more I don't know yet, even the most fundamental of things."

Shiro considered that as they kept walking beneath the glistening trees from the first frost. "If you really want to understand the fundamentals, then you'll need to talk with a warlock, not with me. They use the Light to manipulate matter on a scale most of us can't even fathom. For example, did you know that they can make gloves precise enough to pluck an atom from a molecule?"

Whisper scoffed. "That's impossible."

Shiro-4 glanced at her, then shrugged. "You really want to tell me Ikora isn't capable of that?"

Whisper opened her mouth, then closed it again thoughtfully.

"Exactly. But I can talk you through some of the basics, at least. And speaking of Ikora, she told me once that we don't know which came first, the Light or the elements. But we do know that they are fundamentally linked, like twins who finish each other's sentences."

"When you say elements, you mean solar, arc, and void, right?"

Shiro nodded. "Yeah. The universe is defined by fundamental forces like these. Energy is carried by quanta, tiny messengers of change. The key to Solar Light is in understanding these messengers. Arc energy is more about the forces holding together complex matter. Void isn't about matter so much as it is vacuum and absence. Personally, I think it's kind of fitting that we've weaponized the unknown, but you have to be a little cautious using void light."

"Of course, it's void light that comes easiest to me. Alright, I'll bite – why do I need to be careful using the void?"

Shiro-4 paused, looking out over the misty forest. For a moment they stood in silence, listening to the quiet rustling of leaves. "It used to be… controversial to harness the Void. Some people thought the void was the Darkness itself. The titans, in particular, didn't like it. They used to call Warlock Voidwalkers vampiric and grotesque. Sometimes still do, actually, what with them sucking the life out of people." Shiro shrugged. "It wasn't until Saint-14, a hero of the City everyone knew and loved, starting using the void that it became more accepted, and even then, he was just using it as a weapon – he wasn't exactly probing at the nature of the void itself. I always wondered if he switched over from solar to make the void more acceptable, or if he actually preferred it."

They continued walking, each lost in their own thoughts.

Ikora Rey stood atop the Tower, looking up at the Traveler as Alice approached. She gave a small nod of assent, and the young warlock stepped beside her. "Hello, Alice. What can I do for you?"

For several long moments the Awoken was silent, choosing her words as she, too, looked upwards. Finally, she spoke. "I am… concerned about Whisper's plan to seek this Black Garden."

Ikora gave a small smile. "It certainly has a hunter's audaciousness. But then, that is why we need hunters." Her smile faded. "I have lived this second life for a long time now, Alice, and it has given me a certain… perspective. We have faced moments more desperate than this, our backs against the wall. But we have never faced such great uncertainy, so many unknowns, since the Risen were first brought into being. Something is happening, though we do not know what. Forces are mobilizing. We cannot afford to simply sit back and wait."

It was Alice's turn to nod. "I understand. Perhaps I'm just nervous about facing Darkness—true Darkness—when we know so little."

"The true extent of the Darkness cannot be explained, even with all of our knowledge. It must be experienced, so you learn not only the Darkness, but the Light and the Traveler as well."

Alice nodded slowly. "I had not considered it in that way."

"Few do. But be cautious – do not get lost in study of the nature of the Darkness, as some have. You are a Sunsinger. And while a Sunsinger's Light has many uses, its primary function is to burn away the Darkness."

Alice looked down at her gloved hand, even now filled with the power of the Light. "But is a Sunsinger's Light strong enough? We are not as capable of destruction as the Voidwalkers or Stormcallers."

Ikora turned and faced Alice directly. "Never doubt it." She pointed to Alice's gloved hand. "A Sunsinger's palm strike is a prime example of absolute power born from minimal force. The Light does the work. If you need more evidence, then consider that a young Zavala once espoused the beauty of Sunsinger Light—until he saw the full extent of its power. As a Sunsinger, you are a child of the sun, gifted with the ability to restore and rake life. When you bask in the wake of Radiance, you will have Light enough for your enemies, their friends, and the friends of their friends."

Ikora put her hands on Alice's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Knowledge is well and good, but sometimes you need to hear the words from others, so hear me now. You are a Light in the Darkness, Warlock. Always remember that you are our beacon. Guardians like you and your fireteam keep us on the path, make us feel safe at night. We look to your Light to make our lives brighter. I have every confidence in you, so go forward and trust in your fireteam. And if you wish to learn more of other aspects of the Light, return to me when you have completed this mission."

Vistrek marched forward to Commander Zavala resolutely. "Commander."

"Vistrek. Your training is progressing nicely. The call of the Striker is a difficult one, putting us on the front lines of a skirmish. Your heavy fist will turn the tide in many battles to come."

"Thank you, sir. I have come to ask for any advice you may have before I undertake this mission."

"Hmm." The Vanguard commander considered the young titan before him, measuring with eyes that had seen generations of guardians. He nodded approvingly. "You have survived the dangers of the Hive, the Fallen. You should be proud. But do not become arrogant. There are plenty of shadows in the system, plenty of places for the enemy to hide. You've seen what we're up against. We don't like to tell guardians newly reborn just how bad it is out there. But you are ready for it. You're strong, prepared. You've done so much, and you can do so much more. Remember, the Walls hold because of a joint effort, not because of any one guardian. Trust in your fireteam."

Vistrek nodded, grateful for the advice, and started to turn away before he took more of the Vanguard leader's precious time.

"One more thing, Vistrek."

He turned back, and the Commander put a hand on his shoulder pauldron. "You carry the dream of the City with you, titan. As you ready yourself to step back into the wilds, always remember those of us behind the Walls. We count on the strength of your shoulders. We're counting on you."

A/N: As ever, great thanks to my beta reader, DragonGU. The help and encouragement have really helped keep this story moving along. Thank you!

Referenced Lore

Bounties:

Valus Ta'aurc

Primordial Competitor

Lest It Stare Back

Void Strike

Void Storm

Flame Touched

Sheathed in Flame

Focus Fire

Quests:

Complete the Path

Building a Wall

Dark Places

A Touch of Flame

Early Days

Slay Enemies

Front Lines

Items:

A Mournful Gun

Beyond the Sky

Ghost Fragment: Rasputin

Against the Darkness

Dark Places

Aim for the Juicebox

Heavy Duty Models

Heroic Challenges

Lighting the Night

Hard to Kill

Arc Flayer Mantle

Apex Harmonic

Talk to Ikora

Grimoire:

Super Good Advice

Solar

Arc

Void