After some time on Titan, Adora, Bow, and Glimmer headed over to a place called Nessus while Zavala prepared to take down the Almighty. Nessus was a centaur, essentially a rock on the outer reaches of the solar system, so expecting to find something there was strange but when it comes to Cayde – strange is usually the norm. As they got closer to the centaur, it seemed to have trees with red foliage and a green sky, but what was odd was that there were several structures that were nowhere near natural and were all too familiar with the fireteam. They all landed on one structure and began their search for the hunter Vanguard.
"Here we go. Tracking Cayde's signal now." Light Hope said as she began to search for any signal that might have originated from Cayde. "I think I'm getting something"
"In over my head… Vex trap… Failsafe?"
"VEX TRAP?! What is Cayde getting us into this time?" Light Hope asked knowing full well she would not like the answer.
"Okay so something must be blasting that signal into space. We find whatever is blasting the signal, we find Cayde. But where to look?" Glimmer asked.
"How about that crashed ship?" Adora pointed to the crashed ship just a few feet to the right of them but several feet down.
"As good a start as any. Let's move guys." Bow said with enthusiasm as he decided to take the structure's weird tube thing as it slowly let him to fall to the ground.
Once they got to the ship, Adora saw a part that looked like it might be what's sending the signal, she pressed it and thought she would either hear Cayde or a warning that the ship was going to blow up but she heard neither.
"Hello! Are you here to rescue the Cayde-6?"
"Whoa! You're not Cayde!" Adora exclaimed to the new individual.
"The Cayde-6 is currently caught in a teleportation loop. He's over there. Now he's over THERE. Oops!"
"He's moving? Well that's… complicated." Light Hope said.
"I can help you! But I'm going to be super unpleasant about it." The new female sounding individual said in a strange tone shift out of nowhere.
"I'm sorry-what?" Adora asked.
"I have uploaded his new coordinates to you! Against my better judgment."
"Uh… OK…?" Adora says, not really sure how to respond.
"May I help you with anything else?" The new person asked as the fireteam followed the coordinates she provided.
"Yeah… are you OK? You sound a little… off." Adora said with as much tact as she could muster.
"I am the Exodus Black's failsafe. Call me Failsafe! I boosted the Cayde-6's signal in hopes he would be rescued. And look! Here you are!"
"Oh, I see! She's just an AI. A malfunctioning AI." Glimmer's Ghost Angella said, with that last part as a whisper.
"I heard that. At your service!"
"So centaurs are just supposed to be giant icy rocks but there's a bunch of trees and weird structures everywhere here. What the hell happened?" Glimmer asked as she both marveled at the beauty of the nature but also a bit worried about how it all came to be, even though Cayde's message gave an idea as to how.
"A robotic alien entity called the Vex has achieved 92.014 percent conversion of the centaur Nessus."
"Okay so the Vex terrafomed Nessus. Good for us to survive here but bad because Vex now have a big spot to do who knows what who knows when. Great, wonderful spot to chose to be Cayde, just wonderful." Bow said with a sigh. He thought he would be used to Cayde's antics by now but he was horribly mistaken.
They saw a deep pit. They all looked down with caution, except Adora who started to slowly walk back.
"What do you think is down there?" Bow asked.
"Um, death." Bow's Ghost George said.
"Yeah – but ours or the Vex?" Glimmer asked as she and bow both heard heavy footsteps and turned to see Adora running.
"Let's find out!" Adora said as she jumped into the pit with a swan dive heading for the bottom as fast as possible.
"Ugh, I hate it when she does that." Bow exclaims as he and Glimmer jumped in after their leader.
Once Adora got close enough to the ground she landed on her knees with a single fist to support her. Bow merely jumped down from ledge to ledge and landed near her while Glimmer simply hovered slowly down next to the both of them.
"So how'd I do?" Adora asked Light Hope.
"I'd say 9 for the dismount but a 6.5 for the landing." Light Hope said jokingly, making the fireteam giggle a bit before they continue their search. Soon they found Cayde suspended in the air in some kind of Vex trap.
"Cayde!" Adora said with relief and joy.
"Someone there? Listen, don't ask me how this happened-I don't have time to explain what I don't have time to understand." Cayde said before he was teleported to who knows where.
"Warning! The Vex will vaporizer you!" Failsafe warned as several Vex began to teleport in.
Time traveling robots, the Vex's sole purpose was making everything into them bad. Whatever it was that Cayde was trying to take from them was probably worse so they needed to hurry before they lost him permanently. After a few shots to their glowing white stomachs the Vex went down. When there was only one left its head was missing but was still walking around like… well, like it lost its head. Adora just punched its stomach and it fell with a screech. When they thought they were done several portals opened up around them and even more Vex came. Thankfully they had the Light. Adora rushed several with her shield while Bow danced around several with his staff and just hit them with ease. Glimmer was just high in the air launching several blasts of sol fire from her blade and just enjoying the explosions. Once they were done, they began to follow Cayde's signal once more.
"So, Failsafe. What exactly happened here?" Adora asked.
"The Cayde-6 attempted to manipulate the Vex portal system. He is now trapped in a nonlinear loop. In my defense, I tried to warn him. He's, like, not that smart."
"This is not going well." Light Hope exclaimed. "How long have you been here exactly?" she asked Failsafe.
"Long enough to see the Vex convert this entire planetoid, kill all living organisms, reformat molecules, and digitize brain waves for further study. It's a fascinating process!"
"She sounds way too excited about that." Glimmer whispered, with the whole fireteam nodding in agreement.
They soon entered a cavern and were ambushed by even more Vex. Nothing they couldn't handle without a little teamwork, the Light and rocket launchers.
"You are very good at destroying the Vex! Much better than my crew!"
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but… Failsafe, what happened to the Exodus Black crew?" Light Hope asked with dread.
"Only my captain can access those memories! And he's super dead."
"Well that's… sad." Adora said as they continued to move through the Vex infested cavern. They soon found an active Vex Gate that had now Vex coming through.
"The Cayde-6 is just beyond that Vex Gate. Please proceed."
"Won't we get stuck like Cayde?" Bow asked, afraid he might be right.
"Oh, no. My judgment module is much more reliable than the Cayde unit's."
"You know I want to argue with that but I can't." Bow joked as he and his team walked through the Vex Gate.
"We're through! We're ok!" Light Hope exclaimed.
"Of course. The Cayde-6 is not far now!"
As they continued on they were met with a similar tube from when they landed and decided to take it to the bottom where they saw Cayde again.
"Hey! Over here! Get me out of here!" Cayde yelled. Just then several familiar sounds of Vex teleportation could be heard. "What's that? A Hydra? OK, yeah, yeah-no, handle that first. Then me!"
The hydra flew towards them with its three shields protecting it. Thankfully, Bow was able to find a sniper rifle and land a good amount of hits for some massive damage. When it looked like it was on its last leg, Adora pulled out her rocket launcher and fired a single shot that caused the hydra to explode in a blaze of glory! They checked to see if any more Vex would show up but found nothing and they turned to Cayde.
"Good job! Now get over here before I disappear again!" They walked towards their friend and tried to think of how they could help. "Quick! Hurry, come on! I don't know how long this portal is going to stick."
"Cayde! What have you-?" Adora asked before Cayde interrupted.
"Stop-stop-stop-stop. Look-look- long story, and it may look like I don't know what I'm doing, but I do- K, maybe not-doesn't matter. Killing the power source at the origin point should break the loop and get me out of the portal system. Have you got that? Say you've got it. Say something!" Cayde yelled in fear and exhaustion.
Adroa was about to answer, "Fine, I'll say it! We got it, Cayde." Light Hope interjected, making Adora give her Ghost a bit of annoyed shrug. "Now how did you-"
"Oh my cotton socks! Did you not hear what I just said?!" Cayde tried to complain more but was teleported away again.
"I'm guessing this is why they don't like him leaving the Tower." Light Hope surmised and everyone nodded in agreement.
After a quick transmatt they were once again on their ships and flew back to the surface of Nessus at a set of coordinates from Failsafe. They began to look for the power source that was keeping their Exo friend in limbo.
"Failsafe, we're at your coordinates. Cayde is stuck inside a Vex portal system. Can you help us find the power source so we can get him out?" Light Hope asked.
"Oh yes! By locating the original Vex teleporter the Cayde Unit used, you can shut down the loop and free him. I can guide you there."
"Ok. So we find this Vex teleporter and shut it down. Easy." Adora exclaimed.
They began to enter into a sort of cave system in the Vex structures until they came by a sort of small pond of strange white and electrified liquid.
"Ew. This looks like the stuff inside the Vex." Glimmer said in disgust.
"It's called Radiolaria. You know, mind fluid!" Failsafe said unnervingly happy about that information.
"If I remember what Ikora said, it's an organic compound. Which means the Vex are not pure robot." Angella surmised.
As they continued and dealt with severely Vex Harpies, Light Hope could not stop thinking about something.
"What could have possibly brought Cayde to Nessus?"
"I know the answer!"
"One: stop listening in on us. Two: what's the answer?"
"He asked me not to tell anyone!"
Adora could hear all of their Ghosts grumble a bit. She thought they didn't like her very much but she found her a bit silly and she liked Failsafe. Soon they found a small enclosed area with radiolaria pouring out of some tube. If they weren't on high alert they'd probably enjoy the strange beauty of its glow. But several suicide Vex were making it difficult to enjoy anything as they blew up upon getting close enough to their intended target. Once enough Vex had been dealt with, they soon found what looked like a teleporter. It was a strange round device that opened up with a portal right above it.
"This is the Vex teleporter?" Adora asked.
"Yes! The Cayde-6 will want it. You should pick it up."
Adora slowly grabbed the teleporter and lifted it off its pedestal. Once she did, it closed itself up and the portal in front of them closed as well. And just as it did they heard a familiar horned blue robot.
"Take that, you scrap heap! I'm out, baby! Out! Woo!"
"Cayde! Where are you?" Light Hopes asked the question all of them were wondering. Hoping he wasn't in a far worse place than before.
"Hey! You got me out! Ha! Haha… And… wh-where- where am I?"
"Cayde Unit, you are near the remains of my reactor core. Welcome to the Exodus Black. Where all your dreams come true."
The team walked through a conveniently placed short ranged teleporter and began to head to Cayde without him moving around wildly.
"Seems like you met my new friends, Failsafe and her evil twin, Failsafe."
"Which is the evil one?" Angella genuinely asked.
"If I had feelings, they would be hurt."
They were now outside of the Vex structure and were able to easily track Cayde's signal. But of course things were never simple.
"Uh oh. The Fallen's got the Vex in a tizzy, and by tizzy I mean murderous rampage."
"Is there any other definition for a tizzy? Come on guys, double time!" Adora commanded as her team began to run like hell.
"You guys do that. Meanwhile I'll hunker down in the Exodus Black."
"Here? But my hull is in 108 pieces. Decks 1 through 20 are buried. And my coolant system - I am a mess."
"Oh, we know, Failsafe. We know."
"Intruder alert!"
"It's me! It's–the Cayde Unit?"
"False. I mean, true. But you are attracting large numbers of Fallen to my position."
"Dagnabbit! Failsafe, they're shootin' at me!"
"Then I advise not getting shot."
As they arrived to what was left of the Exodus Black, they could see the Vex had blocked their way forward with a giant shield, as a three story Gate Lord that attempted to exterminate any Fallen in its path.
"And here I was hoping the Fallen and Vex would finish each other off on Venus." Glimmer complained.
"But then you'd miss all the fun!"
The fireteam began to go to work. Bow and Glimmer took the heat of Adora by taking out the smaller Vex and Fallen while she got the Gate Lords' attention. Once the cannon fodder was dealt with the Hunter and Warlock distracted the Gate Lord long enough for Adora to bring out her shield. She charged right into its leg, letting fall to the ground, allowing her to throw her shield in its face. Once her shield returned to her she jumped high into the air and brought her shield right down onto the Gate Lord, vaporizing it in seconds. Once it was destroyed the shield went with it.
"The Gate Lord's down. Hold on Cayde, we're on our way." Adora told her friend.
"Uh, that's good to hear, 'cause the Fallen just found us."
"Activating defensive shield. The Cayde-6 must stand back."
"Hey, nice one Failsafe! The Fallen can't get to us now! That's – that's right though, they – can't, right? …get to us?"
Moving through the old wreckage and saw what was left of the Exodus Black and most likely where Cayde is. It helped that a bunch of Fallen were surrounding it and firing at the shielded area.
"Hey, you probably wanna hustle. I think I heard they just said something about ripping my beautiful horn off my face? My beautiful, beautiful horn. Then again, my Eliksni is pretty rusty."
"Intruder alert!"
"Ugh. IT'S US!" Glimmer yelled.
"Um, I actually thought she was talking about them." Bow said as he pointed to the giant Fallen Captain shooting at the shield.
Bow activated his super and went to town on the Captain while the other two focused on reinforcements. Bow used his staff to disorient the Captain and then knock the cannon out of his hands. With a final strike, he swung his arc staff at his opponent with enough force that the Fallen had become nothing but sparks of electricity. Once they believed it was safe to enter the ship they looked around for Cayde but found nothing, until a familiar Ghost popped out behind some panels. It was Cayde's Ghost Sundance, who was currently being slightly shoved back down, by most likely, Cayde.
"Hey-hey! Down, down, down…" Cayde popped up from his hiding spot and saw Adora waving the teleporter around and Bow and Glimmer giggling at his silliness. "So it's true. The Light found its way back to you. Not that I'm jealous or nothin', but take it easy out there, will ya? You're making me look bad."
"Oh come on now Cayde, we all know that's not a very hard thing to do." Adora joked before she threw him the teleporter.
"What, may we ask, were you going to do with a Vex teleporter?" Light Hope asked.
"Get up close and personal with Ghaul. Put a bullet in his head. Then maybe eat a sandwich." Cayde said as he began to fiddle with the teleporter. "Gotta work out a few kinks first. Fun fact about Vex tech: not as intuitive as you would think."
"Cayde, you can't do this alone." Adora pleaded.
"The hell I can't." Cayde said as a spark flew from the machine and almost burnt his hand.
Light Hope sighed, "Even if you manage to kill Ghaul, when the Red Legion leave a system – defeat or victory – they leave nothing behind."
"The Cabal are bad guys who do bad things. Yes. I get it." Cayde retorted as he continued with the teleporter. While his attention was drawn towards Light Hope, it closed itself but not entirely as Cayde's hand was now stuck.
"I'm sorry, but I do not think you do. The Cabal literally leave nothing behind." As Light Hope continued Cayde did his best to pull his hand free. "They have a weapon that can destroy a star! And it is pointed directly at our sun."
As Cayde was finally able to free his hand he remarked, "Hey-hey-hey! Easy, easy, you're going to blow a bulb." Picking up the teleporter he walked toward the fireteam.
"Zavala has a plan. He needs you, Cayde." Adora implored, hoping that Cayde would let his sense of adventure go and focus on the big picture.
"Yes, well Zavala always says he has a plan, but sometimes he just – wait – Zavala said he needs me? As in, you heard those exact words coming out of Zavala's mouth?" Cayde asked.
"Yes, we did." Light Hope replied.
"Please tell me you recorded it!"
Everyone shook their heads, no, while Bow just whistled innocently, thinking he knew Cayde would bring this up but considering the situation on Titan it didn't seem appropriate.
"Well did Ikora at least hear it?"
"Actually, Zavala lost her after the City fell. We don't know where she is." Adora said sadly.
Cayde turned away from them to think of all the possible places she could be. He's had his fair share of secret stashes hidden around the system so he knew a few places she could be. But with all that happened there's only one place for sure he knows Ikora would be now that they'd all lost the Light.
"Io. Io… it's – it's where she'd go to look for answers." He began to leave the team but stopped after realizing there was something important he forgot to say. "Hey um… thanks. I owe you one."
"Don't mention it. Anything for a friend." Adora said as they all gave a small nod in agreement. Even though Adora and Cayde were two different classes, they had a strange understanding of each other. It was kind of endearing.
Now that Cayde had been found and was heading straight to the farm, Adora and her friends took a quick breather with Failsafe before they headed to Io. And they also stocked up on any loot they found lying around. If anything dangerous was on Io, they would need to be prepared. Thankfully, they knew Ikora could handle herself. The legends surrounding her in the crucible were nothing short of a beast taking out its prey with vicious efficiency, and that's when she's not using her shotgun!