Foreword: I've been especially active in the r/DestinyJournals subreddit as of late, and began writing a number of different shorts. I'm going to start re-posting them here.
TYPE: Statement
DESCRIPTION: Debrief AAR-ENC-SS-2020
PARTY: One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate [REDACTED]
ASSOCIATIONS:
Darkness; Darkness, House of; Enceladus; Cabal; Cyrell; Fallen; Hive;
Loveks; Red Legion; Savathûn; Savathûn, Blood of; Shikar; Vadison; Vex;
Zela Tatu
//STATEMENT BEGINS\\
Look,
I'm only making this statement once, all right? I don't wanna get
pulled into some windowless room to have questions demanded of me by a
bunch of Praxics or whatever. They can have the cam-feed from my helmet
and my Ghost's data, but that's it. I'm done after this.
So,
it was a basic scouting run, yeah? I'll do jobs for the Vanguard as and
when I have to, long as I don't have to come to the Tower. A lot of us
have done scout runs to Enceladus, especially since... since Cayde, you
know? Rumor is that's where the Deep Stone Crypt is, and ... to be
honest, a lot of Guardians think if we can find the DSC, we can maybe
bring him back. I know, I know, it doesn't work like that, he's gone,
RTL, never getting rezzed again. But a Light can dream, yeah?
Anyway,
rumor goes that Cayde found something on Enceladus. Or at least that's
what he claimed. There's that Paladin Orin message got leaked a couple
years ago, just after he died. Lotta stuff was pointing to Enceladus.
I've been doing runs out in cis-Jovian space for a while, and when this
run came up on Van-Net, I took it. Give me an excuse to chase down the
dream.
Ha. Sure. More like a nightmare. Motherfu--
Sorry.
If I'm honest, I don't really like it out in cis-Jovian these days.
Io's nice and all, but you spend too long on that rock, you get that
grouchy Mir snapping in your ear about something or other. "Cabal
again!?" Ugh. And you look up while you're on Io, you have Jupiter
overhead, and the Spot is ... it's like it's looking at you, yeah? Creeps me out. And that's before you take all the Taken into account.
Mind
you, Titan's not much better. Hive crawling all over the arcologies,
all the Fallen scavs showing up to try to grab anything-- well, I'd say
anything that's not nailed down, but the thieving bastards have even
stolen the nails, these days. And don't get me started on the smell. The
methane's bad enough, but then there's the smell of the arcologies,
overgrown and rotting and all that. And you look up, and you see Saturn
there, with that hole still in its rings around the Dreadnought. Don't
tell me that's normal. The rings should have healed up, but it's like
there's something there that ... Ugh. Hive magic creeps me out.
Sorry. Right. Enceladus.
So
me and Ghost head over there, we're heading for the Samarkand Sulci
canyons, planning to do some deep-rock scans we can to see if there's
anything there. Only, wouldn't you know it, there's one of those
[EXPLETIVE DELETED] Pyramids there. Shouldn't be surprised, damn things
are literally everywhere, but... you know how it felt, the first time
you looked up and saw one of those things sitting there? That bone-deep
dread and chill you get, while you'd swear there was some kind of
high-pitched note playing in your spine, or a deep droning noise that
shook you to your core? Yeah, you do.
Ghost is
freaking out, and so am I, but we've only just arrived, and I figure,
let's touch down, do a quick scan, say that's enough, and get the
[EXPLETIVE DELETED] out of there, yeah? I don't want to spend a second
around one of those Pyramids longer than I have to. Damn sure don't want
the thing taking over my Ghost.
Anyway, we
transmat down, and I swear to heaven, the moment my boots touched, the
ground went brittle or something. Fell into these caves and tunnels. I'm
about ready to cut and run, but Ghost says he can't reach the ship,
we'll have to find a way back to the surface. Go figure, right? So we
start following tunnels, and I could tell, right away, that we weren't
alone down there. Don't ask me how I knew, but I knew we weren't alone.
Sure
enough, it wasn't more than ten, fifteen minutes later the dogs show
up. Big Cabal ones, you know. Red Legion bloodhounds or whatever they
are. I'm picking them off when I catch the glint out of the corner of my
eye-- a reflection, off a scope. I juke out of the way, and the shot
goes wide, but the sniper's out of sight before I can get a look. More
dogs are out, but then I hear the shriek of Hive Thrall. One of the
walls collapsed, and out of it poured this swarm of the bastards. The
dogs and the thrall tore into one another, and I got to cover while I
reloaded.
Then I see the sniper, this Psion in
some messed-up Red Legion gear. Whoever he was, he'd painted up his
armor for camouflage, but some red still showed through. Had some tattoo
work around his eye. I was lucky I caught the glint of the scope when I
did.(1)
But just as I was trying to get
my auto-rifle out to keep the Psion pinned, out comes this... I think
it was a Hive Knight, but didn't look like any Knight I'd ever seen.
Fancier cape for one thing, fur lined and everything. Even his Boomer
looked different, longer, sleeker. He was all pale-colored.(2)
So
the Knight yells something and raises his Boomer, actually sighting
with the damn thing, and blasts the Psion's cover to pieces. Psion does
one of those psi-blast things they do-- you know, with the Void launch
and everything-- and jets for more cover. The two of them have forgotten
about me, or maybe they're just trying to find out which of them gets
the kill.
I wasn't sticking around to find
out, so I smoke-cloaked and beat tracks. Wasn't bothering trying to
figure out where I was going, I didn't have time. I'm heading into
tunnels, hoping that one will lead top-side, so I can transmat out of
there. As I'm going, I notice there's Vex tech under the ice. So now I'm
thinking I'm gonna have to deal with them, but thank the Light I wasn't
getting swarmed by Goblins and Harpies and whatnot.
The
tunnels opened up into this wider cavern, with Vex columns and
platforms and stuff throughout it, but I saw a ramping tunnel on the far
end that looked like it might lead upward. I head that way, and I
caught something on the air. It was like a faint jingling noise, not
like chains, but... something else. I was on guard the moment I heard
it, and then I saw a ripple in the air, and I flung one of my knives
toward it.
Sure enough, there was this big
Fallen, popped out of its cloak. Big one, Captain probably, and it was
wearing these gray colors and it had this polearm on its back, spear on
one end, hook on the other. It also had ... I think it was a Fallen
crossbow, not like the ones the Scorn have. This one had a cleaner look
to it. Had the House Dusk sign on his banner, but wasn't wearing purple.
And as he reacted to the knife, I heard the jingling again and saw what
was causing it-- Ghost shell fragments, all strung together on a wire
it wore around its neck.(3)
But here's
the thing, in the moments I saw him, he raised a hand and hissed
something, and my knife stopped in mid-air. Frozen in place, like,
literally. I saw the frost forming on it. Snarled something in
Fallen-speak at me-- I've never had the knack for translating or
transliterating what those things say-- and then he snatched my knife
out of the air and flung it back. I had to dodge out of the way, and I
saw ice snap out from where he threw my knife, like a spike or
something.
I tried to get a bead on him with my
rifle, but then he fired the crossbow, and the damn thing flung a
bundle of flechettes at me. Did my best to avoid them, but one caught my
shoulder. Stung like hell, left my arm feeling cold and numb. Made it
hard to try to draw on my Light to try to tether him too. Bought him the
time to cloak himself again. So now I was having to try to find my way
across this cavern, trying to keep hidden, while also keeping an eye out
for the Fallen stalking me.
It got the drop on
me, though. I tried to double-jump up to one of the platforms, but I
felt something hook my ankle. There was the Fallen, with that billhook
of his, and he used it to yank me back and then hurl me into the wall.
Knocked the wind out of me, probably cracked my ribs and vertebrae. It
hurt to move after that, but I did manage to juke my head out of the way
of the spear-stab he made.
I don't know what
caused it, whether it was specifically him burying his spear into a Vex
spire, or if it was just us running around and shooting at each other,
but we both heard the sound of Vex tech waking up. I saw it before he
did, but ... it was like this Vex Hob just folded itself out of a wall.
Didn't look like any Hob I'd seen before, only reason I knew it was
there was because I'd seen it show up-- it blended in that well with the
Vex tech around the cavern, and its eye was there. Its juice-box was
covered up by some kind of plating, too.(4)
The
Hob fired off a shot from a slap rifle, which caught the Fallen in the
shoulder. By the time the Fallen had turned to look at what had shot
him, the Hob had turned around or something, so it blended in against
the walls again. I used the chance to use another smoke grenade and get
out of there. Like I said, I don't speak Fallen, but I don't need to, to
know that whatever he was screaming behind me, it wasn't polite.
Good
as my smoke-cloak was, though, it apparently didn't help against the
Hob, because next thing I knew, it was unfolding itself from the wall in
front of me, trying to grab me. I had to leap over it, and even then,
it almost grabbed my cape. I turned in mid-air and let it have it in the
brainpan, or at least the back of the head, with my cannon. I don't
think it even noticed.
And then the Fallen
flung a knife of its own at me. I wasn't fast enough to avoid this one.
It caught me in the stomach, and ... I froze solid. Trapped in ice.
Couldn't even feel the Light. I could just make out the Hob look toward
me, then refocus on the Fallen. I guess it decided if I was trapped, I
wasn't a threat at that moment. Meanwhile, I'm desperately trying to get
any Light I can. But it all went a bit dark on me.
Then
I'm freed from the ice, I don't know if it wore off on its own or
something, or if the guy who'd shown up did something. But this guy...
he had bad news written all over him. Maybe it was the armor he wore,
which was this scrapped and patchwork stuff that looked wretched, or if
it was his face-- that tired resolve in his eyes... This was a guy who
seemed to pity me or something, but at the same time, there was this
pitilessness in them-- like, this guy would kill me without a second's
hesitation.
No, I take it back-- it wasn't any
of that. It was the chain he wore around his chest. It had a bunch of
dead Ghosts hanging off it.
...Holy [EXPLETIVE
DELETED]! I just realized I know who he was! I remember my Ghost talking
to this other one, Strain, I think they were called. Strain was telling
us about their former Guardian, Cyrell(5). Went crazy or something, and was hunting Ghosts. Holy [EXPLETIVE DELETED], if my Ghost hadn't stayed out of sight...
Sorry, sorry, right. Back to-- yeah.
So,
I come out of the ice, and there's Cyrell, looking down at me. Had this
sniper rifle in his hands, looked kitbashed or something. But he's
looking at me, and he asks me, "Where's your Ghost?" I tried to thank
him for getting me out of the ice, but he just shook his head. "Don't
thank me. Where's your Ghost?" I tried to change the subject, tried to
say we should either deal with the Fallen and the Hob, but he just said,
"They'll keep. Where's your Ghost?"
Now I was nervous. I just told him, "He's at Nunya."
He looked puzzled by this. "Nunya?" he said, like he was trying to work out where it was.
And I snapped, "Nunya business. I'm just trying to get off this rock."
Then he gave me this look, before he said, "You're not here for it?"
Don't
ask me how I know this, but... when he asked me that, I realized that
he meant the Pyramid. The Pyramid had drawn him to Enceladus. And when I
realized that it... it was like there was something crawling up my
spine, into my head. It... I realized that I'd felt something like it
every time I looked at one of them. Only this time, it was stronger.
Like, thinking about going to the Pyramid had made it stronger.
I
just shook my head and told him I didn't even know it was there until I
got here, and now I wanted to get out. He just looked at me, like... I
don't know. I didn't like it. He repeated himself, asking, "Where's your
Ghost?" I tried to snap-draw my cannon, but then he suddenly had a
weapon at my throat. It was... like this sickle-thing, only it was made
out of ice or something. It never touched me, but... that close to my
neck, I swear I could feel it leeching the heat out of me. Or... no. Not
the heat. The Light.
"Where's your Ghost?" He
kept saying that, kept asking that. And then he was saying, "You
shouldn't have been brought back. Not for this. You belong dead. We all
belong dead. It can help us. It brings power to help us. It brings
truth. It brings salvation."
I... I'll be
honest, I don't remember a whole lot of what he was saying, what I was
saying. I think I was screaming and pleading. I'm not proud of that. But
I was terrified, okay? Ghost had the sense to stay out of sight.
I
was about ready to just pop a grenade in his face and let it kill us
both, when the Fallen's billhook came out of nowhere and caught him in
the shoulder, dragging him back. The Fallen was shrieking something, and
then he was firing his crossbow-thing at the Hob when it turned up
again and cast Void-fire at him. Cyrell was trying to drag the hook out
of his shoulder with one hand, while the other fired wildly at the two
of them.
I could see behind them, down the
cavern, the Hive Knight had stalked in and was lining up a shot with his
Boomer. And more than that, the Psion I'd seen had gotten up on one of
the platforms and was trying to line up a shot, too. Everyone wanted a
piece of me, it seemed like.
But no one was
looking at me. So I popped a smoke-cloak again and ran for it.
Eventually I made it back to the surface and Ghost got us up to my ship
and I ran like [EXPLETIVE DELETED] back home.
So...
yeah. That's it. I don't want to ever think about Enceladus ever again.
I ever hear another Hunter talking about going there, I'm going to tell
them why it's a bad idea. And I'm going to stay here, dirt-side, for a
while. Not going out into cis-Jovian for a long time.
Maybe by staying close to home and hearth, I can stop feeling so cold.
\\STATEMENT ENDS//
~
TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES
(1)
Based on the description, corroborated by Ghost footage, we can assume
that the Psion in question was Shikar, styled "the Patient Eye."
Heavily involved in hunting Guardians during the Red War, especially
around the City's Magpie District. Credited with at least ten confirmed
Guardian final-deaths. [cf. REP # 9914-SHK-2911]
(2)
Consulting captured Hive records, the Knight is likely Zela Tatu,
"Huntmaster of Savathûn." A member of the Hive brood known as the Blood
of Savathûn.
No known Guardian final-deaths on his record, but Zela Tatu has been
involved in several high-profile assassinations of notables across the
Reef and cis-Jovian space. There's no known pattern or commonality to
the victims that has been determined. The working theory is that Zela
Tatu has been set his targets by the Witch-Queen, who has her own
reasons for wanting them dead. [cf. REP # 9914-SAV-2021]
(3)
No question about this one. The Fallen is Loveks, "The Light-Hunter."
Presently wanted for several Guardian final-deaths throughout the
system. We're not sure what House he belonged to before the Dusk
consolidation, but current intel suggests that Loveks has now joined up
with the new aggressor faction we're calling the "House of Darkness"
until we get better intel. [cf. REP # 9914-HOD-2029]
(4)
This Hobgoblin Vex Mind has been sighted only a few times, so little is
known about its capabilities. It is known to respond to conflict
between various races in the vicinity of Vex architecture, seemingly
deployed to remove dangerous targets from posing a threat to the Vex
Collective. Its ability to seemingly camouflage itself is one of the
reasons we have dubbed it Varison, the Stalking Mind. [cf. REP #
9914-VRS-2495]
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