Mission: Disruption

Mission: Disruption is the first mission in The Gorge Strangelet quest. Evade towering Vex Minds casting a protective signal to the Collective, and find a way to bring them down to sow chaos into the Vex defenses.

Objectives

• Locate the Golden Age Lab
• Follow the signal towards the Lab
• Crush the Dampening Minds — Dampening Mind Minotaurs eliminated (×3)
• Access the Golden Age terminal
• Extract any viable data from the Golden Age terminal

Transcript

(Mission Begins)

Location: Assimilated Easement, Kepler

Ghost: I… think we can get through here now.

The Guardian enters a dark matter portal in a nearby train and exits out to another part of the Easement.

Ghost: The signal's getting stronger, and it looks like I was wrong before. The dampening broadcast isn't emitting from one point, it's three. Wait — there's something else. There's an old colonial research terminal still running from when the Aionians landed here. I didn't notice until we were close, but it looks like the Vex are trying to access it.

Ikora: Interesting. Let's kill two birds with one stone. Bring down the dampening broadcast, and in the chaos, we'll crush their incursion into the old colony systems.

Orin: Your plan is cracked knuckles. I like it.

The Guardian fights through Choral Vex forces.

Orin: I'm glad we're taking the direct route. Without you, Guardian, my steps would be mouse-speaks on the floorboard. I've always been more gauntlets and thunder.

Ikora: We don't have time to be anything but gate-crashers. It's the Guardian's forte, anyway. If you're looking for quiet, Orin, come back to the City with us when this is over. Rebuild your life in your own hands.

Orin: Hmm… the City sounds like bitter medicine. We'll see.

The Guardian uses Mattermorph to move Vex structures to let them progress. They then encounter three colossal Minotaurs with immunity shields.

Orin: Argh! My head is… buzzing.

Ghost: That is not a tower. The broadcasts are coming from those giant Minotaurs!

The Guardian is forced to take cover in a nearby building.

Ghost: Stay low, Guardian!

The Guardian enters another building and finds a Matterspark point.

Ghost: Look, another concentration of dark matter. Might help keep us out of harm's way.

Using Matterspark, the Guardian is able to use the vent system to evade the three Dampening Minds.

Ghost: I'm detecting shield projectors nearby, but it's protected by a security lens. One step at a time, Guardian.

The Guardian emerges into a large area with holograms of Maya scattered around. Evading fire, they approach a Vex pillar covered in slime mold.

Ghost: This should help us get to the security lens.

Using Mattermorph, the Guardian is able to move nearby rocks hiding a Vex shield generator. Once destroyed, the shield of Stichos is dropped.

Ikora: Check their shields. The interference is dying down.

Orin: Let the pine-lance splinter, Guardian. Charge!

The Guardian destroys Stichos.

Orin: The Vex mind curdles, and the dampening field weakens.

Ikora: Orin, contact the Nine! Punch through that Vex interference!

The Guardian destroys another Vex shield generator sustaining the shield of Choros and destroys the second Dampening Mind.

Orin: I see. A flat vision of… you, Guardian. A timely message. A globe spins below you. The planets, above. An event into the encoded horizon.

The Guardian destroys the final Vex shield generator that powers Coda's shield and destroys the third Dampening Mind.

Orin: I see it. You. The message as a Weapon. The Weapon is the message. Fate-forged. Nine hammer-strikes ring. Scattered sparks. Cupped in hands. A Weapon, buried in the coals of the forge. I see a molten purity, waiting to read the hammer-strikes and direct the shock. No volition in given roles. Smoke… It's gone. Damn. Damn! I could almost see it! (sighs)

Ikora: You did great, Orin! Guardian… seems like the Nine have their eyes on you, too.

The Guardian accesses the Golden Age terminal.

Ghost: Establishing uplink… Wait! These are detailed records… of the Collapse.

Orin: They catalogued the Nine's presence as much as the Collapse. The Vex study seeds planted in the past to… understand how the Nine wove plots around the paracausal.

Ikora: They know the Nine can manipulate us, and are learning how to work the same way. This data is a playbook for emulating the Nine. Ghost, download everything, then purge the console. Orin, did they know we would stop the Vex here?

Orin: Of course. They know to meet every triumph with gunpowder thank-you cards. And that we'd need to move the Vex aside to reach the singularity… III. Agency is a quantum indeterminant: known hope. I remember they spoke like that.

Ikora: I'm glad your head's clearing up. I 'quantum indeterminant' that soon you'll be able to make more sense of this than I can.

Orin: Only the quarantine is between us and our answers. I can hear victory screaming like fire.

(Mission End)