M.R.L.N-7

Ch. 9 - The Sting

The iridescent surroundings of hyperspace illuminated the cockpit of Merlin's jumpship. He and Sibyl had been waiting to arrive at Nessus for hours; close to twenty times as long as the fifteen minute trip to Mars was. The comfortable silence between them was broken by Merlin's question. "What do I need to know about Nessus then?"

"Before the Traveller came and terraformed the system, it was little more than a micro planet in the Kuiper belt. It was apparently quite lovely until the Vex arrived and twisted the Traveller's work into metallic angular worlds with rivers of radiolaria."

"Vex? Radiolaria?"

"Time-travelling, hive-minded organic robots. Radiolaria is what the Vex truly are technically, and are just piloting different robotic frames. Radiolaria's a silica based white liquid that slowly converts all it touches to Vex," Sibyl clarified. "Bray supposedly used the Vex to perfect Exo technology. They were first discovered on Venus, dating back billions of years before Humanity even existed and their sole goal seems to be 'remake reality according to Vex image.' The only reason they haven't wiped out Humanity yet is because they can't simulate the Light so won't be able to find a way to beat us."

"So, we're destined to be at war eternal against them?"

"Seems that way," Sibyl said a little deflated. Her eye drifted to admire the kaleidoscope-like patterns that passed them by at great speed then turned back to her Guardian. "That said, some Guardians like Young Wolf, Cayde-6, and Osiris have given some major figures a lot of trouble – killing some outright. Don't even get me started on Saint-14. He's killed legions of them with his bare hands! He runs the Trials of Osiris games now. That's where I suspect Katake got his fusion rifle, by the looks of it."

"Cuboid world; don't touch the water; hostile robots; Fallen. Did I miss anything?" Merlin asked.

"There is a small Cabal presence too, but I don't foresee them being a problem." After the few more minutes of silence that followed, they came to the end of their time in hyperspace. A red and green planet with veins of white forked across it appeared before them. Sibyl took control of the ship and brought it down to the designated safe landing zone of the Arcadian Valley, known as Artifact's Edge. She transmat Merlin to the surface below and he observed his new surroundings.

He stood atop a rectangular tower perhaps a hundred meters above the ground. A green haze hung over the land. Red foliage sparsely covered areas yet to be converted. Tall cliffs, with sharp edges and straight sides with occasional flat ledges almost entirely surrounded the area. They stretched away from him in front and below where they landed. An elevator derived from Vex transportation technology ran the length of the tower, providing safe ascent and descent. Rolling hills and angular replacements could be seen in the distance, split only by Vex decision or rivers and waterfalls of radiolaria.

Scattered about on the ground were a handful patrolling of Vex, varying in shape. To the south east was a square pit so deep the bottom was not visible from the edge, but it was safe to assume a lake of radiolaria lay below below. Sibyl materialised and gestured toward a corner where a ship had crashed possibly centuries ago. "The Gofannon Forge is through a short tunnel that way. Our meet-up point with Aunor and Siegfried is back there a bit," she said as she floated just behind Merlin. He turned around and saw a red canopy of leaves, held up by large trees with massive branches that spread mostly outward.

He travelled down the elevator and snuck around the tower to avoid detection from the couple of Goblins transfixed on some plant matter. Once they were out of danger, Merlin mounted his sparrow and gently rode down the dirt trail. Crimson and scarlet flora lined his path. He took his time to admire the haunting beauty of the Traveller's gardening, in stark contrast to the straight-edged transformed sections.