Destiny, Episode XXII: The Gate Lord's Eye

Previous Episode: Episode XXI, Winter's Run
Next Episode: Episode XXIII, A Debt

The Ishtar Sink, Venus

Day 053

   The Paladins dismounted their Sparrows at the mouth of the tunnel leading to the dig site. They moved carefully now, especially Basilisk - a good deal of Glimmer had gone into repairing his breastplate where the Hobgoblin had pierced it.

   They had left as soon as the Cryptarchs had finished their work. Even with all the time they had been given to sort through the Vex encryption, it had proven to be a massive task to complete. The language of the Hive and the Fallen were static, and every artifact taken to the City further illuminated their tongues. Not so for the Collective Mind.

   Venus was quieter now with Winter broken, but the Vex were taking their place at an alarming rate. That much was evident when the Paladins had made landfall, and found Harpies prowling by the statue overlooking the Sink. It would only be a matter of time until the entire region was theirs.

   “I finished compiled what the Tower knows about Gatelords.” Kita spoke. “I'm not sure how accurate the data is, though.”

   “Why, is it outdated?” Lisset asked, concerned. She glanced over at Koga, his Ghost still hiding inside his robes. “I knew we should have done more recon first.”

   “It's not outdated, just… incredible.” The Ghost replied, somewhat indignantly. “Three story tall black-armored war machines that, and I’m quoting here, ‘defend the realms the Vex keep locked out of time.’”

   “‘Time?’” Dal repeated. “That can't be right! How do you lock anything out of time?”

   “How do Ghosts bring Guardians back from the dead?” Basilisk flatly asked, an otherwise dry witticism turned hollow by the Exo’s emotional dampeners. “Dwelling on the impossible is something I leave to Koga. Let's get this done so we can get off this damn rock.”

   Koga didn't reply to the vague jab, only turning to look back at Lisset. She sighed, but also stayed quiet. If Basilisk was paying attention, he didn't make the others aware that he was, instead silently trudging forward, taking point.

   He was driving them all slowly towards a confrontation - his mood wasn't improving since he had begun selectively neutering his emotions, nor had he sorted through his blinding rage against the Vex. Koga and Lisset would have to intervene, before it was too late.

  “Through here.” The Titan barked, maneuvering through the grey Vex architecture to reach the other side and out in front of the Ishtar Collective’s long-abandoned structures. Beyond the site was a path leading into yet more Vex structures, the road they needed to follow - the Endless Steps.

   “Be ready.” Boudica started. “I’m detecting a lot of activity ahead. The Vex must be on alert.”

  “They know we are coming?” Koga asked, surprised.

  “Yes.” The Ghost answered. “And more are arriving by the minute.”

   Sure enough, the skies began to darken as black clouds sparking with Vex power began to appear above the prefabricated structures. Basilisk brought his rifle to his sights, waiting for the first cursed machine to appear.

 “Let’s not keep them waiting.” He growled, before pulling the trigger.

  The arriving machines were met with lead. Their aggressive deployment was no longer met with surprise and confusion, but with lethal determination - the trick had run its course. As the Goblins struggled to form coherent battle lines, the Paladins began their advance, closing and annihilating the frames that remained.

   The Endless Steps was considerably more Vex in nature than any of the spots previous, safe for maybe where the Nexus Mind had made its last stand. Pillars rose out of the ground humming with energy, and wide circular devices as tall as Basilisk glowed and churned with power as more machines began to step through them.

   “Shoot those portals!” Basilisk barked, the triple staccato of his pulse rifle echoing sharply against the white Vex monoliths. The Titan wasn't overly sure if conventional small-arms rounds would do anything to the devices, and was more than willing to launch a rocket to see the job done, but luckily the fusillade was to cause the transfer gate to collapse into pieces, its doorway to another realm forever shut.

   The Vex did not take the loss of one of their gates kindly. A mechanical screech announced the arrival of a Hydra, eager to wipe the Guardians off the map. “Scatter!” Lisset shouted as the first wave of void rounds impacted at her and her comrade’s feet.

   “We seem to have hit a nerve.” Dal noted dryly.

   “Do you think they know what we’re trying to do?” Kita asked.

   “Impossible to tell without tapping in.” The other Ghost replied. “For now, I’d focus on what they’ve thrown at us.”

   “We can’t stay put for long.” Basilisk said, grimacing. “They’ll throw reinforcements at us until they drive us from the field.”

   “Then we need to push, and hard.” Lisset replied, slapping a new magazine into her rifle. She looked over at the Titan, who had already switched to his bulky rocket launcher. “I can be the bait. Make sure you don’t miss.”

   “Got it, go on my signal.”

   Lisset moved to the lip of her cover, and tensed herself for the sprint. There was a rock formation a few meters away that would be adequate enough to withstand the Vex, but the few seconds she had inbetween one haven and another were going to be dangerous. All she could do was hope that the Exo was on-target.

   “Go!”

    Lisset darted out as a hail of Vex fire immediately centered on her. Red bolts from Goblins and the burning orange streaks of Hobgoblin rifle fire turned into a rain hot enough to make her sweat beneath her armor. The Hydra growled in machine speak a milisecond before opening fire itself, glowing orbs of purple streaking towards her. She almost didn’t hear the whoosh of a rocket in flight over the din.

   The others watched as the projectile hurtled out of the firing tube of Basilisk’s launcher, streaking like a bat out of hell straight for the glowing eye of the Hydra, its eye unprotected by its slowly rotating shield system. The explosive detonated with enough force to cover the machine with a thick plume of smoke, and the shockwave shook them all through their armor. The Hydra, destabilized, fell to the ground before detonating in a violent flash of light.

   “Excellent shot!” Boudica cheered in her Guardian’s ear. “The Vex are drawing back.” Her sensors detected what his eyesight could not, and as the smoke settled the Titan became quickly aware that the firing positions the war machines had been using seconds before were now vacant, drones retreating backwards deeper into the Endless Steps.

   “On their heels, Paladins!” Basilisk barked, leaping up from his cover, his weapon blazing. He rushed forward, ducking beneath what little return fire there was left, towards the path that the Vex had guarded moments before. The others followed close behind, or at least as close as they dared, making sure to mop up whatever the Exo missed, which turned out to be damned few.

   The next section of the ruins turned out to be not much different from the first. More Vex waited for them, more transfer gates summoning reinforcements from beyond. The Hobgoblins had found nice little sniper perches on top of bleached white stone platforms, though their altitude advantage came with little cover or concealment. Any Hobgoblin that bent over to engage a self-repair protocol was passed over by the Titan for his comrades as he switched his attention to the next target.

   They were an efficient killing machine, moving through the defenses less like a wave and more like an extremely lethal stream, bending and curving with resistance in order to best proceed onwards. The Vex seemed to be aware that they were faltering in their defense, because all to suddenly they vanished entirely, leaving the Guardians alone where they stood in the depths of the Vex architecture. Through the thick Venusian clouds above peeked the Sun, little shards of sunlight giving warmth to the wet grass and the tired Guardians alike.

   “They are gone.” Koga muttered, wary.

   “For now.” Lisset added.

   “For now.” The Warlock repeated. “They must be preparing for us ahead.”

   “Let them.” Basilisk interrupted. With the Vex gone, life began to slowly seep back into his voice. It’d be a matter of time until it would be gone again, driven out of him in the heat of battle by his own hand. “Catch your breath. Check your gear.”

   Seconds passed. A low hum echoed across the Endless Steps, reverberating against the stone and the brass of the place the Vex had made. Power was flowing somewhere, and somewhere close.

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   The Vex were absent the rest of the walk through the ruins, though no one was fool enough to think that they were being ignored. Imperceptible eyes were watching them from every shadow and every corner, waiting to strike.

   “I advise keeping your helmets on.” Boudica said to no one in particular. “The air is thick with nanomachines. I’d hate to see what they could do to a respiratory system.”

   “Boudica, is our air filtered, or do we have an internal supply?” Koga asked, cocking his head at Basilisk and the Ghost hidden inside his armor. “I had not thought of that until now.”

   “Internal, but it can filter in a pinch.” She answered. “I’d advise we don’t stay here long - the Vex will likely try to use the machines to destroy our armor, but it will take them some time to do any meaningful damage.”

   “I wasn’t planning on staying anyways.” Basilisk grumbled. “I’m guessing these nanomachines aren’t everywhere on Venus, are they?”

   “Unknown, but most of the Ishtar Sink seems to be clear.”

   “If the Vex keep expanding, that won’t last.” Lisset noted quietly.

   Silence returned as the Guardians continued deeper, moving through the twisting architecture until suddenly the small courtyards opened to reveal a massive space. In the center was a rise surrounded by low marshland, orange water reflecting and glimmering in the low sunlight. Up the rise was rough stairs leading up and up until they came to a stop at the foot of a massive ring, larger than any of the transfer gates they had seen before.

   “That must be it.” Koga breathed, awestruck. “That must be the gate the Gatelord is protecting.”

   “But where’s the Gatelord?” Kita asked. “I don’t see any three-story tall Vex, do you?”

   The Ghost was right. Aside from a few Hobgoblins, the top of the staircase was empty.

   “We need to get closer.” Lisset proposed, turning to look at her comrades. “It might be on the other side of the gate, waiting.”

   “Closer it is.” Koga nodded, readying his gun. Slowly, he started down a snaking pathway leading into the marsh at the foot of the climb to the gate, careful to not miss a step. It was a long way down, after all. The others followed closely behind him, careful to match their footing with that of the Warlock’s.

   Basilisk’s eyes darted between the floor and the tremendous Vex gate, maintaining his silence. To be in its shadow made him feel wrong, though he could never begin to explain why. He hated the Vex, their cold precision and their lifeless geometry and their need to strip life away from person and planet. His dreams were of them night after night, flashes of memory and imagination all rolled into one. All of them ended with a final bios screen scrolling past his vision as he died over and over again, torn to pieces under the shadow of some Venusian tree. He had stopped turning in for the night a while ago now.

   Something about the gate triggered some dark impulse in his mind. A feeling swept over him, powerful enough to bypass the inhibitors he had set for himself in order to keep from falling into another frenzy like he had in the library of the Collective. He shook his head, and the feeling passed for the most part, but not the undercurrent.

    The Exo felt dread.

    The Hobgoblins that had been maintaining their vigil of the gate disappeared long before the Paladins reached them, called away. The Vex had no need of the snipers, it seemed. The three climbed the bleached stone steps in peace, the soft hum of hidden power echoing in the empty jungle.

   At the apex of the climb, the stairs came to their end at a level plateau. The gate stood before them, silent but far from inactive. Power swirled around its edges, its potential yet untapped. Somewhere on the other side of this was uncharted territory, so far off the map that it could never be truly charted. Perhaps beyond this portal was the Black Garden. Perhaps it was something else entirely. Keep locked out of time. The Ghost’s words echoed in Koga’s mind.

   “Now what?” Basilisk said, tentatively lowering his rifle. “There’s nothing here.”

    “The Vex know why we are here.” Koga replied, thinking as he spoke. “They pulled themselves back for a reason. We are being tested.” His eyes glanced to something he hadn’t noticed before - a bronze ring in the circle. Faint energy patterns floated from it, looking strangely like white cubes. “Kita, what is that?” He asked, pointing at the Vex device.

   Kita flashed into reality before cautiously floating over to the ring. He began to scan it, though it was obvious that he was ready to cut and run back to the relative safety of the Warlock’s robes should anything go wrong. “I’m not sure, but…” The Ghost answered as he poured over the ring. “I think it might have something to do with opening the gate.”

   “Opening it?” Lisset repeated, looking over at the Ghost. “How?”

   “All I have are guesses right now.” Kita replied. “But I think we’ll have to step inside the ring to find out.”

   “Any volunteers?” Dal dryly muttered.

   For a moment, no one moved. It was Koga who was the first to break from the trance, pacing up to the ring’s edge. “Stay outside.” He said, his Ghost floating by him. “If this is a trap, you will need to be safe.” Kita nodded, and obediently flew a few feet back - but his eye never left his companion.

   The Warlock took a breath, braced himself for the worst, and stepped in.

    A soft hum began to emanate from the Vex machine, and suddenly a white grid began to form from its base, building slowly higher and higher until it formed a low open-ended cylinder around him. And then, suddenly, it vanished. The massive gate roared, the energy so far restrained flooding to fill it and create a portal far larger than any they had seen before.

   Through it stepped something massive, its pieces coming together as it walked through. It was truly incredible in scope, as large as the Vanguard database had claimed it to be and then some. The flowing white Vex milk that powered it was visible for all of a second before a metal sheath surrounded it. At the top of the bipedal, twin-armed frame was a rotating round head, much like a Vex Minotaur, only its eye glowed brighter and with a malice that none of them had ever seen before. In its hand it carried a tremendous weapon, one that had been built for one purpose and one purpose alone - to destroy any who came to this hallowed spot.

   They had found the Gate Lord.

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   The massive machine opened fire without a moment’s hesitation, great bolts of void energy streaking down like mortar shells straight at the Paladins. They barely had time to think before diving just barely out of the way, the stone they had been standing on turning into shrapnel and debris in an instant.

   They all had jumped clear, save for one. Basilisk remained standing, impossibly untouched despite the brutal fusilade. His Light and his armor steamed in sympathy with the rock beneath him. The others realized they hadn't moved at roughly the same moment the Gate Lord did.

   “Bas, what are you doing!” Lisset screamed. “Get out of there!”

   “Basilisk, we have to go, now!” Boudica joined the panicked chorus.

   Slowly, the Titan shook his head, and leveled the rocket launcher he had summoned on a whim. With growing horror, Lisset realized what was happening - the snap, long delayed by emotion limiters and Golden Age tech, had finally come. The Exo would not budge, not until he had slain his demons.

   It did not matter to him anymore if he lived.

   “Come on!” Basilisk growled before loosing his first missile. The rocket exploded at the Gate Lord’s chest, making it stagger back a pace. “Do something!”

   The Gate Lord acquiesced.

   The arm not connected to a cannon opened. The others saw it and immediately opened fire, hoping to cripple it, but their rounds bounced uselessly against the plate. Basilisk saw it too, and fired the next rocket into its palm. The explosion caused it to jerk back for a moment, before rapidly recoiling back on course. In an instant, the Titan was snatched up in the Gate Lord’s massive hand, lifted off the ground. Basilisk’s launcher fell to earth uselessly as he struggled against the grip.

   Bullets sparked against the Gate Lord’s sloped dome-like head as the other Paladins tried their best to free their friend. It ignored the impacts like a horse ignores a fly, its focus solely on the Titan it held in a death-grip.

   The Exo struggled alone. His fists rose and fell as he pounded on the massive hand that held in him, his Light sparking as it strained to keep him alive. His punches were slowly denting the armor of the Gate Lord, but not by any meaningful degree. At this point, there was no way to free himself. Slowly, the punches stopped coming, and the Titan closed his eyes. It was time to let go.

   “Get out of here, Boudica.” He said, his voice unnervingly calm.

   “I’m not leaving!” The Ghost shouted back.

   “Stand by for resurrection.” Basilisk continued, ignoring her. With a thought, he materialized her at his palm. Before the Ghost could do anything, his fingers clasped around her shell and in one smooth motion he flung her down towards the others. Boudica sailed for a good few meters before she managed to stabilize her flight, but by then she was too far away to stop what would happen.

   Basilisk turned to look at the Gate Lord, which had begun to slowly close its fingers. He could feel his armor and body failing - he would be snapped clean in half soon. The Exo’s eyes met the massive Vex machine’s, and he braced himself for oblivion.

   There was no defiant last words, no hackneyed one-liner before the end. With one thought, Basilisk-15 detonated every single explosive on his body. He was vaporized instantly, consumed in a fireball that ripped the Gate Lord’s arm and most of its body armor off in a single blast. The shockwave sent centuries of dust on the Vex stone into the air like a storm, and blew Koga’s robes and Lisset’s cloak back like they were walking into a rising wind.

   Rage took hold. Even despite the impermanence of death, to the remaining Paladins Basilisk’s last stand seemed as final as they came. They gave the wounded Gate Lord no mercy. Machine gun fire from Lisset penetrated through the broken Vex armor, ripping apart sensitive machinery. A Nova Bomb lanced through the air before impacting the Gate Lord in the chest, sending it to the ground in a heap. The two Guardians clambered on top of the crippled machine and began to fire down into its abdomen, where its fluid container was hidden. Under a relentless, furious barrage, the armor failed, and the white milk-like solution began to leak onto the floor beneath the tremendous machine. The lights died in the Gate Lord’s eye - it had died.

   Koga and Lisset stopped shooting only when their weapons finally ran dry, clicking uselessly. A silence fell over the Endless Steps, the two Guardians turning to look at the solitary Ghost.

   “Can you bring him back?” Koga asked, breaking the still. The Ghost slowly nodded, and floated over to the point in space where the Titan had made his final stand. It flashed, and suddenly Basilisk materialized again in blue light, falling limply to the ground. He hit the stone hard, not moving.

   “Basilisk!” Boudica shouted, hurrying over to her companion. Koga and Lisset were seconds behind her, dropping their weapons where they had stood.

   Underneath several hundred pounds of exoskeleton and plasteel armor, the Exo groggily groaned as consciousness returned to him. He slowly pushed himself up off the ground, looking at his reformed body.

   “That was a damn fool thing of you to do!” His Ghost chastised, relief slowly replacing fear in her voice. “What the hell were you thinking?”

   “I was thinking I could trust my Ghost to bring me back.” Basilisk painfully replied, shaking the kinks out of his joints. “I wasn’t wrong, was I?” He was ill-prepared for the bear hug he received from Lisset, the Hunter tackling him.

   “Idiot.” She managed, stifling her tears. “We didn’t think you’d come back this time.”

   Basilisk looked over to Koga before returning the embrace. “I wasn’t running that much of a risk, was I?”

   “The Traveler does not shine so brightly here.” Koga replied. “There was a chance you might not have ever come back.” The Warlock shook his head, sighing in relief. “I am glad you are alright.”

   “Better than alright.” Basilisk replied, pulling away from Lisset. He looked down at the Gate Lord at his feet, and for the first time felt nothing. Not because he had limiters running hot to keep it so, but because he truly felt a blank. HIs hands remained at his side, unclenched.

   “Ever since we met the Vex at the library, all I could think of is death.” The Exo muttered. “I couldn’t see them without remembering what it felt like to watch my friends die, one by one. It’s why I put on the limiters in the first place - I needed to be able to think again.”

   “It did not work.” Koga said. “You became distant. Lost.”

   The Titan nodded. “When I saw the Gate Lord, I knew it had to end. I needed to face the past and let go.” He clenched his fists one last time, before letting them hang open again. He looked down at his Ghost, hanging silently before him. “I will always hate the Vex. But they will not rule me anymore.” Basilisk extended his hand, and Boudica floated to a rest on it, her one eye staring up at the Titan.

   After a moment, Basilisk looked back up at Koga. “So, what now?”

   “We take the head back to the Queen.” The Warlock replied, turning to look at Lisset. “Are you up for another trip?”

   “They’re expecting me.” She answered. “Dal, can you-”

   “Already on it.” Her Ghost finished for her. There was a hissing noise as the Gate Lord’s massive head suddenly vanished, dematerialized as it was converted into an engram for travel. It was stored safely aboard the Ghost as data, incapable of being anything other than a nuisance for anyone.

   “You should head out soon.” Koga spoke. “I can escort Basilisk back to the Tower. We need to find the Garden.”

   “I know.” Lisset said. Her eyes bounced focus between the Warlock and the Titan. “I’ll see you soon.”

   In an instant, she was gone. Basilisk and Koga stood alone on the Endless Steps, the wind blowing softly from the orange sea beyond. There was a loud mechanical groan, and both Guardians turned to see the Gate, still channeling power, suddenly begin to collapse. The portal closed noiselessly as pieces of metal fell to earth with a crash. What was left of it stayed idle, permanently silenced.

   “The gate must have suffered a sympathetic effect.” Kita noted, curious. “I guess one can’t exist without the other.”

   “We can worry about research later, Kita.” Boudica said. “Basilisk, are you…” She trailed off, but the Exo knew what she had wanted to say.

   “Yeah, I am.” He looked back at the Warlock. “Let’s go home, Koga.”

   “Alright.” He replied, a thin smile on his face. “It is good to have you back, Bas.”

   “It’s good to be back.”