JavaScript is required to use Bungie.net

Group Avatar

CentauriAlpha Fan Fiction

"To See With Eyes Unclouded - Hayao Miyazaki"

Request Join
  • Mission Statement

    This group is a place where other writers and I can share out work with people who love to read about Destiny, as well as to get updates on everything I put out. If you join, I promise, you'll get the best fan fiction I can provide in a reasonable amount of time and I will write to the best of my abilities. I also promise to adhere to the lore of the Destiny universe. There is still much to write about, so I hope you'll take this exciting journey with me.

  • Membership

    332 Members
    Total number of users that have joined this group
    9 Years as a Group
    Total number of years this group has been active
  • Admins

  • Tagged

originally posted in:CentauriAlpha Fan Fiction
Edited by Black Lister: 4/8/2015 1:25:24 AM
1

The Apostate

They didn’t mean to be heroes. They didn’t mean to save the world. Between the Fallen picking apart what little the human civilization had left on Earth, the Cabal dominating Mars and using it as a beachhead for what might well be an eventual invasion, and the Hive already sending incursions onto the planet’s surface in preparation for their unholy crusade, the Guardians of the Tower and the Last City on Earth were certainly overwhelmed. And probably worst of all, the Vex, bio-mechanical monsters they were, held some sort of secret allegiance to their otherworldly god, who through time and space seeks to… well, no one knew what the Vex wanted. For indeed the Vex motivations defied comprehension. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. If I’m to tell you this tale, I must be more intelligible. Ah but where to begin? Hmm… Oh yes! I shall start where they did. I must preclude you from interrupting. This will be quite a tale and I dare to say that it is one that must be told. They began where all Guardians do. Dead. Oh, no I should skip some of that shouldn’t I? Yes, yes that seems prudent. I shall start with their victory. Yea, their victory over the Heart in the Black Garden. You know about it, young Guardian? The Heart? That abominable mass of Darkness that was worshipped by the Vex. The Vex in their timeless clairvoyance, wisdom and power, came to worship the Heart as a God. It was something they could not understand, in all their knowledge, and so they chose subservience. It is certain the Heart was of the Darkness, but were the Vex always so? To this day we do not know, but we are slowly, piece by puzzling piece, fitting the clues of their existence together. Tell me young Guardian. Your Ghost must have spoken to you of them, but do you truly know them? It has been many years since their threat has been imminent, and I find it hard to imagine a time when we weren’t living, terrified beneath the shadow of their impending machinations. But you surely…? Only those who have fought the Vex know the feeling. That inspiring fear we all felt at one time or another; the fear of our own ignorance – of the difference in magnitude between their thoughts and ours. They stood there once. The three Guardians we call legends. They violated the Black Garden with their Light, stamped on its ancient flowers, and stood against the Heart. Its efforts were for naught against the three Guardians, as they destroyed the Heart’s Vex servants, smothered the Heart and claimed the garden. We now bathe it in our Light. But the Heart was not, or perhaps I should say is not, and won’t be the only Vex threat. For it was in our hasty foolishness that we opposed the Vex. How could we think them so dissimilar to us? What children we were – are! Oh, I’m sorry. I’m getting ahead of myself. Right then; the Vault. You’ve heard of it, yes? Once a strange labyrinth of evil and danger. On Venus, during the Golden Age according to records, Humanity found the Vex citadel. But we never had time to understand it before the collapse. And so with ancient fear and terror Guardians were sent to investigate the Vault of Glass; that’s its name. So many were lost to its maddening realities. It’s soothing tones. Hm? What is the Vault? I will explain it soon. As best I can. Long ago, a Guardian, Kabr, entered the Vault and penetrated its secrets. He did not return. But he left a legacy. Years later, six guardians rose to take his place. Among those six were the Three. It was thanks to Kabr’s efforts that they were able to enter and defeat the horrible fates inside. I dare not attempt to explain the Vault’s strangeness to you. Ultimately, they encountered an unbelievable Vex entity. We fought it, in our arrogance, and though half the fellowship was lost, the Three finally stood alone in the Vault. Only now do we know a little of the Truth of the Vault – what it was, and what the entity was that we supposedly destroyed in there. Supposedly, yes. For I doubt you’ve heard the truth of it. It’s a dark secret, even here in the Tower. Many older Guardians do not speak of it. Even the Speaker is loath to touch the subject. But the three did not destroy the enigma. Its form changed, but it was not gone. I don’t mean to deceive you, this is not the story of the Three. Not really. This is the story of it. Of the mind within the Vault. Listen well Guardian and I will tell you of him, her and it. I will tell you of the Guardian Atheon. [b]--------------------------------------------------------------[/b] It existed. That was all. It, that which was called Atheon existed. It knew from the mind of Kabr. The Guardian, he who ripped a gash in its precious Vault, was no more. But his legacy lived on, inspiring another team to tread upon the muck of the Vault’s depths. Had they been ordinary, like so many pitiful children before them they would have perished within. Nay. They never would have been. But they, by sacrifice of the Legionless, forever may he be remembered, punctured the blanketing night of the Vault. Trial after trial they advanced. The Templar. Smashed. The Gorgons. Eluded. The Gatekeepers. Crushed. The infinite ranks of the Vex that were and were to be. Beaten aside. And finally, the end of the Vault. It was roused to action. It became and straddled the path to our salvation. The six did not waver. Through time and torment, shattered space and expunged matter, they succeeded. The broke the entity of Atheon and brought the Vault into the realm of the Light. Though valorous, victorious and celebrated, the elimination of it was not as we expected. To this day we do not know much about the Vex; indeed, they befitting their namesake, they are infuriatingly vexing. Yet there is one truth we know about them. About the Vault, and the Sol Imminent and Primeval. It has become popular belief that the Vault Vex were planning something big. Groundbreaking, even for them. They sought to a part of the universe. To become a necessity to reality; a constant entity. Had they succeeded, the Earth and her outlying colonies of Mars and Venus would belong to them. I wonder if even the Hive would have been able to withstand them… They did not succeed, thank the gods. Or at least, that is what we thought. But for all we assumed about the Vex we ignorantly bypassed one key note. The Sol Imminent was not what we thought it was. To think of the Vex as a conventional civilization would be unforgivable. But there are a few distinctions we can compare. First, the Sol Divisive, the Vex subtype found… worshiping, if such a word can be used, the Beating Evil. We might call the Divisive a, or rather, the “religious subtype.” The other distinction is the Sol Imminent and the Sol Primeval, the Vault Vex. They might be defined as the “research subtype.” But in our foolishness, we believed the Vex were of one will. Separate Minds guiding Vex legions in concert with an ultimate goal. We were wrong. The Vex are more like ourselves than we could imagine. We know this now. The Vex were not unified. We did not question why the Heart did not form the Vault around itself. We did not ask why the Vault held the ability to dictate reality within itself. We did not wonder why the great Kabr named the entity Atheon. In ancient pre-Golden Age language, we find many words etched and scrawled in data and paper, stone and tile. Some of them belong to a language called Greek. Most Guardians don’t learn it, but besides English, it is the most prominent of the pre-Golden Age languages we find. In it, the word Atheon means, quite literally, “godless.” So many questioned begged and yet so precious few answered. Why would Kabr name a Vex entity as godless? Perhaps the Vault was not what we thought it was. Perhaps the Vault, was a prison. A jail built by order of the Heart to contain the atheistic heathens who denied its authority. This in mind, it is plausible to think Atheon was the will of the Vault, and desired to, perhaps, ascend beyond its brethren’s incomprehensible deity. Atheon and his Vex would become gods themselves. Perhaps Atheon wished to free the Vex. In our foolishness we did not consider this. In our foolishness we invaded. In our foolishness we ordered its destruction. And in our foolishness we thought we’d succeeded. We thought that if the Vex had managed to ascend into reality, Earth and the universe would alter, become theirs as they conquered our past present and future unstoppably. The terrifying truth was that they’d already ascended.

Posting in language:

 

Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Edited by Black Lister: 4/8/2015 3:34:55 PM
    Metal groaned as the small construct shifted forward, shambling as it sought to adjust to its smaller frame. Beside the once smoking ruins of its charges, the Vex it governed. It could feel its strength fading. The Light was here. The Light should not be here. But strangely, it did not feel the Light’s pain; the prickling sensation that plagued all who were consumed by the Night. Instead it felt… comforting. A strange notion. For it. As it moved, it’s single, red photoreceptive eye glanced at the husks around it. Without a gesture, the metal twisted and groaned, crawling like worms toward its frame. It shifted as the additional mass seized into position, melding and merging with its body. Every step took it closer to the door. The Guardians of the Traveler had left a path of obliteration in their wake, and it was easy to follow it back up through the winding passageways of the Vault. The Gorgons were gone. It did not know where. The Templar’s existence could hardly be felt. It would not be easy to revive. And then… It stepped forward, the mossy, wet, dripping cave drying out as the path opened up to a large vaulting cave, where the half circle shape of the Vault’s door stood. It was wide open. It stepped out. There was no noise. No cry of alarm. No shrill cry of terror. No echoing pulse of energy or shattering of sound that followed tearing pain of hardened matter. No scorching heat of stolen sun flares or plasma flesh. There was nothing. Tentatively, it looked left. Then right. Up. And down. Not a living thing could be seen, save the flora of the verdant ground around it. It stretched. A foreign feeling of tenseness in its joints. It almost started in alarm. It had not intended to stretch. It had never done so before. But it felt so… natural. Familiar. Relief washed through its body as it relaxed. Confusion compelled it to gaze at its hands; spindly limbs that, despite their lean appearance, it knew could crush steel and shatter stone. Five fingers adorned each hand, dirty and brown, segmented and not quite smooth. It was used to less. It looked down. Its midsection was thicker now, though not quite parallel to its shoulders. Its legs were thicker than it was familiar with. Its hips not so wide. It raised its head, running an extensive diagnostic of its new carapace. Results poured in, leaving it silent and still. There was no time for celebration, though certainly in its mind celebration was due. Another strange concept. It had succeeded. At the sacrifice of its kind and many Light warriors, it, Atheon, had ascended. Its body was as perfect an amalgamation of human physiology and Vex material as it could make. Biomechanical joints simulated muscles, internal body structure mimicking a human skeleton with a Vex skin. Radiolarian fluid flowed through small veins, strengthening and sustaining its new body. It paused, noting how it could see the milky liquid trickle through its veins. More diagnostics came in. The assimilation of necessary human intelligence and brain replication. An unintentional, but not unexpected side effect. Human emotion; wonder. It was marveling at its own work. Its eye refocused on the scene before it. Time could not be wasted. So few Vex remained under its command. Though it could draw from the Vex of other times, it would weaken the fighting force of those temporal planes. Atheon needed to make sure it had enough troops for every time period, in and out of time. It was no surprise why the humans were clueless about the Vex and the Vault. Their feeble minds could only grasp a certain level of sequential understanding. Even so, it was frightening. It could see how fast Humanity was beginning to decipher the truth of the universe again. Atheon remembered their Golden Age. It remembered how far Humanity pushed itself. Unlike the Vex, Humans couldn’t cumulatively process, sort, or transfer information. Each Human unit was capable of self-intervening sufficiency, and this included the accumulation of knowledge. But Humans were only capable of transmitting that information through speech, pictograms and gestures. Too much information lost in transmission. And even so, they grew. It wondered… if Humanity were like the Vex, would they have reached universal permanence and omniscience long ago? Wonder. Again. It noticed Vex husks around the entrance. No doubt Guardians would be on their way to secure the Vault in the Traveler’s Light and cleanse the scene. It needed to leave before they arrived. Its body was new. “Young,” a Human would call it. Indeed, it was a fusion of Human and Vex bodies and minds. Its states could not be described by either species’ grammatical functions. Another strange thing. Language. Not Binary. Or rather, language was binary codes assigned to alphabetic characters, which were then displayed or verbalized in comprehensible order. Unreliable. ‘But inevitably necessary,’ it knew. Twisting its hips, it turned, carefully monitoring the feedback its body gave it. It could not afford to assume its new form would be without complications. It stepped down from the plateau, bypassing its dead cousins as it searched for a weapon; it could not be without a weapon after all. It quickly found some that were intact. The shell of a pitted and scorched Praetorian lay atop a relatively intact torch hammer. Weapons did not have names in Vex nomenclature, only virtual designations. Yet leaving them unnamed felt… wrong to it. It would use the Human designations until it found an alternative. A slap rifle also lay nearby implausibly in mint condition, still gripped in the dead goblin’s appendage. Ripping it free, it placed both weapons on its back; one over the shoulder and the other at the lower center of its back. It turned to leave, but stopped when a notion came to it. One of the assimilated Human minds was that of what the Guardians called a Hunter. A blade dancer. Although it only had a few Human minds with which to create its new form, the connection the Hunter had to his blades could only be described as unhealthy. Now a part of him, that connection made Atheon feel apprehensive about forgoing a bladed weapon. However, Atheon was also a Vex. The emotions and whims of dead Humans would not get the best of it. But the logic of the Hunter’s mind was convincing; a close combat weapon would be useful if it ever came across quick moving melee enemies. It may have been able to teleport, but its Human instincts now told it that it shouldn’t rely on one aspect of combat, that being ranged. An appropriate conclusion. Optimally it would be a micronic edged carbyne blade, perfectly suited for piercing and slicing lesser materials such as flesh and steel. However, until it could produce such a tool, it would have to make due with more base metals. Directing the purposeless bodies of its fellows’ carcasses, the metal of their bodies twisted off of them, forming together into a suitable weapon two feet long, but included a lengthening mechanism that permitted it to extend another two feet, should the melee range exceed its appendages’ reach. Sliding it horizontally across its back above the rifle, it looked across the small plateau. It needed transport off the planet’s surface. Though it could travel through space, its power had not yet returned in full, and the only two spacefaring vehicles were those of the Light warriors, and those of the Fallen houses. Scavengers though they may be, they were capable enough to resist Vex incursions against them. It did not want to cross them. Not yet. That left only a Guardian’s ship. Usually left in orbit, the ships were called down to retrieve a Guardian at the behest of their ghost. However, that being true, then the Guardians it had assimilated no doubt still had ships in synchronous orbit. A swift search of its half-realized memories revealed the emergency activation codes used in the event of the loss of a Guardian’s ghost. All it needed to do was replicate the string and broadcast it into… A responding ping. It raised its eye. Already it could identify the sleek, silver vehicle descending towards it. It had its ship. A way away. Now the next phase of the plan, it predicted, would be infinitely more difficult. How fortunate it was no stranger to infinity. [i][b]--------------------------------------------------------------[/b][/i] [i] [b]//Thanks for reading. This is sort of a pilot for a story I'd eventually like to flesh out a bit more. I hope you liked it! Give me your criticisms please! Honest thoughts, now![/b][/i]

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

    5 Replies
    You are not allowed to view this content.
    ;
    preload icon
    preload icon
    preload icon