Chapter nine of my story Origin. As always leave a comment and enjoy the read. Part two and three will be listed below. Chapter 9 “So you are a… War Mind?” Azrix asked more than slightly confused. “Yes. The body you see sitting in this chair is not mine. It is the body of a guardian that has been helping me for quite some time. Do not be alarmed. His mind is still his own and he has given me permission to speak to you through him.” Azrix and Velox stood not knowing what to think of this. A War mind was usually a cluster of processing centers and data banks scattered across a planet. To actually be talking to one, let alone seeing one in an Exo body was a concept they were still trying to wrap their heads around. “You must have no end of questions guardians. I will answer what I can.” Azrix looked at Velox. What kind of questions do you ask a War Mind? An intelligence that has survived for hundreds of years and learned things that humans could only dream of. “Why are the Vex helping you?” Velox asked. “The Vex that you have been fighting have been corrupted by the Darkness. The nature of their corruption could be related to that of a computer virus. Once I captured a Vex, I decrypted the biological encryption and learned everything that I could about them. While digging around, I was able to detect the virus and wrote a program that was able to delete it. After this I allowed the Vex to communicate with me. It was not built to be an enemy of humanity but to protect it.” “Who built them?” Azrix asked. “The Traveler. Thousands of years ago, while the traveler was fighting the darkness, it decided to make an army to defend itself. It created the Vex to defend itself and the other planets it was visiting. The darkness, or rather one of its armies, created the virus and turned the Vex against the traveler. “So the Vex were created by the traveler to protect it, but the darkness found a way to corrupt them.”Azrix said. “Yes.” “Why are the Vex outside different?” Velox asked. “The Vex in this area are using the excess amount of Void energy, caused by the human experiments years ago, to try and create a portal large enough to enter the void and eliminate Hexcleous. Their intelligence is a culmination of all the different Programming of Vex, the closest to the original Vex intelligence. The Soul.” “Wait a minute, who is this Hexcleous and what is a Soul?” Nymph asked. “This is a rather lengthy and complicated answer that I do not fully understand myself. When the Vex were created, the traveler built the Soul. The Soul was a machine unlike any other. Almost the size of the traveler itself, its function was to create Vex and link all of them together. The Soul cloned its intelligence and created the five Primes. The five primes were Hezen, Vergo, Sol, Atheon, and Hexcleous. The primes were supremely intelligent and powerful. Each prime then cloned their intelligence and created their own armies. Each army was tasked with protecting a solar system. The cloned minds were only a fraction as intelligent as their primes but by our standards, nearly as intelligent and capable as War Minds.” “As Vergo and his army were falling to the virus, Hexcleous knew it was only a matter of time before the virus took him and ultimately the Soul as well. He took his army in a ship as well as the Soul, and tried to flee to the void. While making the jump, his ship was damaged. I believe he went to the void to try and find a way to protect himself and his army from the virus. His ship was damaged and he may not have the resources needed to repair it.” “How are there Vex structures on planets in our solar system?” Azrix said raising his hand like a child in school. “Atheon was instructed to protect our solar system. This was thousands of years ago. When he arrived, he had decided to research time travel to try and set up an early warning system. While conducting his experiments, he made a mistake and was sent millions of years in the past. For all that time, he waited and had his army build structures and research installations deep within our planets. Left with only a hand full of resources needed for the time travel experiments, he had to find another way to get the materials he needed. He sent a small scouting party to the future. When they returned, they had been infected with the virus. As a last resort, he locked all of the Vex, including himself, in a place they called the vault of glass. Knowing that there was no way to contain the virus, he activated his machine and removed the Vault from time effectively saving our solar system from annihilation.” “How did the darkness make the virus?” Velox asked. “After Atheon, Hezen was the next to fall. After years of fighting, an army of the darkness caught him and studied him. From him, they gained the knowledge needed to create the virus. After taking control of his army, the Vex turned their attention to Sol. After Sol, Vergo was next.” “What is your plan?” Gaia asked. “My plan is quite simple. I take this ship, find Hexcleous in the Void, bring him and his army back here, and destroy the infected Vex and the Hive.” “Why just the Hive and Vex? What about the fallen and Cabal?” Azrix asked. “The Fallen will follow strength. Right now the darkness is the strongest force in the galaxy. If we show them we can defeat the darkness, they will turn to our side. The Cabal are running from the darkness and looking for a new planet. If the new Vex army defeats the darkness here and starts pushing it from other solar systems, the Cabal will help us as long as we help take back their home world.” “The Hive on the other hand are darker and more evil than any other race I have come across. They found the darkness and embraced it. They became its hands and feet and have taken hundreds of worlds for it. They only want one thing. To see all other life extinguished. They will be destroyed first.” “How are you going to get to the Void? I thought only the darkness could go there.” Velox asked. “This ship is unique. In order to travel to other solar systems, humanities scientists thought it would be faster to bend space and time rather than travel at faster than light speed. In essence, this ship is capable of creating and traveling through a black hole. The interesting thing about a black hole is that if you manage to force your way out of it while in transit, you can enter the void.” The Exo stood up and descended the polished grey metal steps, his eyes bouncing from Azrix and then to Velox. His footsteps were heavy and made a soft cracking sound on the metal steps. He was larger than most Exos, standing at least seven feet tall. “There is something I need from you two. The final preparations for the ship are under way. My attention is needed here and I do not want to risk sending my Vex out only to risk them being captured and studied.” “What do you need from us?” “The ship in theory will work but, in order to break free from a black hole while in transit, I need to understand them fully. All my attempts at sending probes to the nearest black holes have failed. The gravity inside a black hole is so strong that all radio waves can’t escape it so I have not been able to collect any data on them. I need you to get in contact with someone who has actually passed through one.” Azrix and Velox stared at each other for a moment and then returned their attention back to the Exo. “Who is this person?” Nymph asked. “Not a person, a race. They are the only other living things that have been able to cross the void and survive. The Ahamkara.” “The what?” Azrix asked. “They don’t exist any longer. They were hunted to extinction by guardians over a hundred years ago.” Velox answered. “That is what the Vanguard think. Little do they know that most of them either returned to the void or went into hiding. The only one that I have even been able to detect is somewhere deep in the jungles of Venus. I need you to go to it and ask it for all knowledge regarding black holes and worm holes. Be cautious though. These beings are older than perhaps even the traveler and the darkness. They have powers that even I cannot comprehend. If you ask for knowledge, he will give it. But there is always a price to be paid for learning the unknown.” “Wait why did the Vanguard almost eradicate an entire species?” Azrix asked. “Because the Ahamkara suggested something to a group of high ranking guardians that would shake the very foundation of the Vanguard order. Only five guardians heard this suggestion and as punishment for asking the question, they were banished. Their names associated with horrible deeds. Shortly after their banishment, the great hunt began and the Ahamkara went into hiding.” “What did they suggest to the guardians?” Velox asked. “I will let the guardians tell you in person. After you leave here, head to these coordinates. I will let them know you are coming.” The Exo said holding out a data pad. Velox took the pad and saw the coordinates led to one of Pluto’s moons. “They are stationed on Hydra? That is at the very edge of our solar system. No one has been there for hundreds of years.” She said. “Which makes it the perfect place for a group of banished Guardians. Now, time is short and I do believe you need a power core for your ship. You can find one waiting for you near the lift you came in on.” “One more thing. On our way down, my ghost was granted access to the onboard computer systems. There was a massive amount of data that he detected. Why do you need that amount of information?” Azrix asked. Part 2 can be found here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/109143595 Chapter Index can be found here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/101226805/0/0