Reincarnated Into Destiny Universe

(Day 166)

     Isaac had informed his fireteam that he planned to finish off both of his other classes, before going after Crota. They, of course, followed suit and started finishing up their own classes.

     During Isaac's Titan training, Zavala had him running more or less the same courses only with increased difficulty and there was a minimum time limit for completing each one. There was also a strength and endurance requirement. Then, of course, he was off to the Peaks of Prestige, once again. Knowing that one of his tasks would intentionally be made impossible to accomplish, he was actually quite pleased with his performance, after passing all of the other tasks.

     During his Hunter training, he faced the same increased difficulty and additional time limit, as with the Titan training. Additionally, there was a wilderness survival challenge, that required him to live off the land and navigate terrain without his ghost's or equipment's assistance.

     After passing the Hunter's Peaks of Prestige challenges two days ago, he entered the Light Fortress and, since then, has been attempting to reach level forty.

     One of the major benefits of being able to meditate in the Light Fortress was not only the standard increased saturation of Light. The Light Fortress also had a Light Energy Meditation Chamber that increased the saturation of Light past that which one would normally experience inside of it.

     Sitting inside this meditation chamber, Isaac studied the patterns in the Light, tracked its movements, and felt out its rhythms. As he concentrated on the Light's various characteristics, something suddenly clicked inside his mind, though it felt very similar to receiving an intention from the Traveler.

     Isaac gathered all of the information that he had learned about the Light and began organizing it into a cohesive pattern. Being careful to place every detail precisely in its correct position, the acc.u.mulated knowledge began to form an incomprehensibly beautiful mosaic...or was it a symphony...a mosaic made from a symphony...no it's an equation...no it's random numbers...no it's random numbers that form an equation that plays a symphony that paints a mosaic…? 'Ughhh...What kind of nonsense is this?'

     Just as that thought entered his mind, Isaac was enveloped in Light and his Light Body and Organs and his proficiency in wielding the Light all underwent a final qualitative change. The Light washed over his body like a slow moving tide, completely encapsulating his body and then gently retreating. As the last bit of Light subsided, Isaac stood up, flexed his arms and fingers, summoned a few minor abilities, and then grinned madly at having finally reached the fabled level forty.

     Just like every other breakthrough he had in his understanding of the Light, he was always left with more questions than answers. This time, however, he felt completely lost. After reaching this level of understanding, he now had no idea how to proceed from here. The path ahead of him seemed completely unnavigable.

     He decided to set this aside for now, though, as he had more immediate matters to deal with. 'With this under my belt, now I can start getting serious.' Isaac thought, as he made his way towards the control deck. "Emcee, take us to Mercury, Caloris Basin. I need to speak with Brother Vance."

     "As you command, Captain. We shall arrive at Mercury, in approximately twenty minutes."

     "Excellent! Now, a couple of customization windows, if you don't mind?"

     "Not at all, Captain. There you are."

     "Brother Vance? What exactly do you need him for?" Wraitheon asked.

     "Well, he and Osiris obviously keep in touch even if only rarely. Why else would he bother staying so close to his mentor? As you well know, we may have defeated Atheon but the threat of the Vex is far from over. We need to learn as much about the Vex as possible as quickly as possible. Who better to ask about the Vex than the man who has dedicated his life to killing them. 

     "Failing that, our next best option would obviously be his disciple. Also, we need a large supply of radiolaria and Vex parts for our research. Where better to find everything we are currently looking for than the one place where everything we are looking for is located?"

     "Can't argue with that. I'm assuming you have a safe method of handling the radiolaria?"

     "Yep, I got it all figured out, Wraitheon, ol' buddy. Don't you worry your little metal casing over it?"

     "Alright, I'll take your word for it."

     Isaac poured over the customization options for the Light Fortress' laboratory facilities. Some of what he wanted was already installed, some were in the available options, and a few he had to design himself. He needed devices capable of storing and isolating unused radiolaria, devices for running it through various elemental environments and pressures, and he needed scanners capable of constantly monitoring and analyzing the radiolaria within those other devices, while also recording and organizing the data.

     Once he finalized his laboratory customizations, he entered a meditative state and began to form a connection between his Light Condensation Organ and his Light Wielder's Organ. With this connection he planned to increase the variety of applications for which he could use the Light.

     Nearly an hour after arriving on Mercury, Isaac had connected his two Light Organs and devised the ability he would need to handle the radiolaria.

     After being transmatted to Mercury's surface, Isaac took his time hiking over to the Lighthouse. Killing all the Vex he encountered along the way, Isaac had a healthy supply of Vex parts, by the time he arrived at the targeted Vex portal.

     Stepping through the portal, he almost immediately noticed that this little hideout was much larger than what was portrayed ingame. This was expected, however, since Vance probably lived here and would obviously not just stand around waiting for Isaac to show up.

     Isaac noticed Vance standing beside some sort of work station tinkering with some spherical artifact. "Ahem." Isaac coughed politely, so as to alert Vance to his presence.

     Brother Vance was slightly startled, upon realizing he had visitors, but quickly gathered himself. "Ahh, it seems some unexpected guests have arrived. Wait...I wasn't expecting you was I?"

     "No." Isaac replied, with a slight grin. "I don't believe you were, unless you're prescient or something. We simply dropped by to see if we could have a chat with Osiris and failing that, perhaps you could try to channel your Master for us?"

     "Well, I suppose most people would drool over the opportunity to speak with my Master but, if it were truly that simple, I'd have people lined up around the planet. Was there something specific you wished to inquire about? If it's about the Vex, I might very well be able to help. I'm quite knowledgeable in that field, though I'm quite lacking when compared to Osiris."

     "Truly unfortunate. I hadn't expected that Osiris himself would be available but I still had quite a bit of hope that it would be so. Since you are willing to assist, however, then I'll trouble you for a moment, if it isn't too much to ask?"

     "Not at all. I rarely have any visitors these days. If anything it'll do me good. Ask what you will."

     Isaac spent the better part of the day picking Vance's brain, in regards to the Vex. A lot of what he divulged were things Isaac already knew from the lore he recalled from his past life. Some of it, however, he took note of as it was truly revelatory. 

     Apparently, Osiris had hypothesized that the Vex, instead of being multiple millions of individuals working together as a whole, actually started out as one single entity that eventually spread its consciousness out into the millions in order to expand its reach and power. 

     Vance also revealed that radiolaria is not only purely biological but also has the ability to self replicate. Although metals and inorganic material allow it to replicate faster, anything other than pure energy could theoretically feed the replication process, given enough time. The last part Isaac had half suspected, since he knew that the Vex couldn't simulate or understand the Light and the Darkness.

     Nearly twelve hours later, Isaac bid Brother Vance farewell, after asking that he send Osiris his regards whenever he sees him. He then went to the bank of the radiolaria river and conjured his new ability.

     Isaac had very closely studied the nature of the Warlock's Rift ability and the Titan's Barrier ability. He spent quite a bit of time comparing their characteristics to Motes of Light and eventually developed a method to conjure any shape or size of solid Light that was non-permeable. He called it the Photocapture and it was here at this radiolaria river that he would employ it for the first time, to acquire a great quantity of radiolaria for his research.

     "Emcee, prepare the space that I designated earlier, for the radiolaria transfer."

     "The designated space is prepared, Captain. Transmat will commence on your signal." Emcee responded, through her connection with Wraitheon.

     Isaac pulled out more than three quarters of his Light Charge and formed it into a massive almost spherical basin that was shaped like the current Traveler but upside down. After dipping  the almost complete sphere, that was three times larger than a wrecking ball into the radiolaria, he raised it back out and completed the sphere, leaving only a tiny portion at the top that wasn't filled with radiolaria. Maintaining the Light sphere's position with his Potential Energy, he then signaled to Emcee.

     "Transmat."

     Immediately after giving that command, the entire sphere was enveloped in a brilliant light and disappeared. Only one second later, Isaac himself also disappeared from that place and reappeared inside his Captain's Chair aboard the Light Fortress.

     "Alright, Emcee, I believe a trip to the Vault of Glass is long overdue. I need to set things up over there, time yesterday."

     After arriving at the Waking Ruins, Emcee transmatted Isaac directly into the Throne of Glass. Isaac quickly went over the customization options and added all of the same research facilities that he had placed inside the Light Fortress. He then ordered Emcee to duplicate herself and position her duplicate as a permanent fixture, there in the Vault of Light. 

     Once this had been done, the Light sphere filled with radiolaria was transferred into the Vault.

     "Good. Now, Emcee, while you're here in the Vault use the Fallen Servitor pieces to construct Light Servitors. Then use those Light Servitors to lure in Vex and trap them. If you need more Vex specimens or parts, that's how you should do it. While you have plenty of radiolaria and parts, however, reconstruct any Vex you acquire as lab assistants and run all of the tests and experiments that you can.

     "I've already downloaded a lot of experiments for you to run and I'll probably contact you with more in the future. It's probably going to be a while before anyone besides me and my fireteam actually uses this place so feel free to add or subtract features at your discretion. As long as you're doing research and achieving results, I don't care how you go about it.

     "If we want to eventually reconstruct Atheon and the Templar, then we'll first need to know how to reconstruct the weakest amongst the Vex, namely the Goblins. Study them first and, once you're able to successfully replicate a Goblin that we can control but that still has access to the Vex network, then move on to Hobgoblins and continue working your way through stronger Vex, until you've unlocked all of their secrets."

     "I'll get started right away, Captain. This is truly a large amount of radiolaria. I suspect I won't need any more for quite a while. Would you like to return to the Light Fortress now, Captain?"

     "Yes, I would and thank you, Emcee."

     Isaac found himself once again sitting in the Light Fortress' Captain Seat.

     "Emcee, reduce the size of the Light Fortress to that of a Fallen Ketch by transferring the excess Light into the Vault of Light. Once that's done, give me some customization screens, take us back to the EDZ, land next to the rest of the scraps, and begin reconstructing all of them. Now that I'm level forty, I won't need the Light Fortress for much of anything, until you finish all of the reconstructions."

     Isaac watched as the Light Fortress was slowly diminished in size and then a few customization screens appeared before him, as the Light Fortress headed back to Earth. On the way back, Isaac restructured the Light Fortress to serve primarily as an exploratory vessel. He downsized some of the training facilities, expanding some of the living areas and scanning capabilities, and created some production and greenhouse type facilities.

     After arriving back at the Tower, Isaac made his way into the Potential Energy Meditation Chamber and spent the rest of the day there.

----------

                             (Day 167)

     "Ikora, I need to speak with Eris. Do you know, if Is she available?" Isaac asked, as he entered the command room.

     "She's currently keeping an eye on the Drifter's movements, which is actually something I've been meaning to get your opinion on. I know in that game our avatars allowed him to stay in the City but Zavala, Cayde, and myself have spent hours discussing whether we should permit this given everything we know?" Ikora responded. 

     "Oh, the Drifter? Yeah, don't worry about him. Just make sure that whenever he makes his move to establish Gambit, which shouldn't be until after Oryx is defeated, that he isn't up to anything else. As long as he is only running his Gambit and nothing else, I actually have plans to make use of his little game.

     "At the moment, however, speaking with Eris is much more important than the Drifter. Do you happen to know where I can find her?"

     "Oh, yes, of course, Isaac. I apologize. Give me a moment." Ikora looked away from Isaac for a few seconds and then addressed him once again. "I've just sent word to Eris. She should be here within the hour. In the meantime, would you be willing to talk about your plans for the Drifter?"

     "Hmmm...well, you do remember the ritual the Hive were performing to drain the Traveler of its Light, don't you?"

     "Of course, how could I possibly forget such a thing?"

     "Well, they had to be doing something with it, like destroying it or consuming it for their own sustenance. If not, then that Light would just end up returning to the Traveler, at some point. Based on what we know from the game's lore, it would seem that the Hive have some method of feeding on the Light, a way of devouring it so that it is no longer the Light and cannot return to the Traveler.

     "If this is the case, then why can we not perform something similar? Let's use these Motes of Darkness, as they're called, to research methods that we can employ, using our newly found Potential Energy, to drain the Predator of its Darkness. And, yes, I'm suggesting that the Darkness has a manifestation similar to the Traveler and, because it hunts the Traveler wherever it goes, I'm referring to it as the Predator."

     "Isaac...that's...brilliant! If such a thing were possible, the advantage we would have would be...well, it would be an advantage, which would be a first. Ever since the collapse, humanity has been on the defensive. If this turns out to be possible and we consider all of the other advancements we've made, this could very well put us ahead in this fight, for the first time since the Traveler was crippled."

     "Good. I'm glad you agree. Coincidentally, the reason I need to speak with Eris is in regards to this very matter. I have a proposition for her that she probably won't like but it's very important that she agrees to this little mission I have for her."