Destiny 2: Putting "Horse" Into "Horsepower"

Chapter 20: A Vexing Problem

Taiki-9, Spe-7 and Suzuka both took off from Titan in their ships and suddenly began receiving a strange signal from a ghost named Sundance.

"Sundance...? Who is that?" Spe-7 asks.

"That's... Cayde's ghost, but where in the world... 7066 Nessus?" Taiki asks. "I thought centaurs weren't supposed to have anything there... Centaurs are just giant space rocks so how in the world did Cayde end up here? With a means to boost his signal let alone?"

"Well, whatever the case might be, let's head over and see what's going on." Suzuka replies as the trio enter warp speed. Once again it only takes a few minutes before they can see the centaur and it's very clear that the centaur sports more life than it normally should.

"So much for not having any life." Taiki mumbles. "Let's head down there and see if we can find Cayde." And with that they head down into Nessus' atmosphere where they see that the centaur has been transformed into an eerily lush land with lots of mechanical structures jutting out in perfect fashion.

"Whoa... What are these?" Spe-7 asks.

"Those structures... Oh boy, we're about to be in for quite the gunfight." Taiki mumbles. "Those structures belong to the Vex, a group of time traveling beings. They don't stop at anything until whatever task at hand is done, whether that be convert an entire world into their liking or annihilating an enemy."

"We're reaching a high point, shall we head there?" Suzuka asks.

"Let's." Taiki replies as the three guardians are dropped off at said high point.

"Let me track Cayde's signal." Ghost says as he comes out and tries to pinpoint where Cayde might be. "I think I got something!" Cayde's voice comes online but it seems like it's going through heavy interference paired with the cries of Vex automatons.

"In over my head... Vex trap... Failsafe..." Cayde's voice crackles.

"What the... Vex trap?!" Taiki shouts. "What in the world did Cayde do this time?"

"I think I see a crashed jumpship down there!" Spe-7 says as she spots said wreck and the three head over there. It's then that a new voice comes online, and it sounds feminine and very cheery.

"Hello! Are you here to rescue the Cayde-6 unit?" It asks.

"Huh? Who is this?" Fang asks. "This isn't Cayde."

"The Cayde-6 unit is currently caught in a teleportation loop. He's over there." The voice replies before a strange "voop!" sound is heard. "Now he's over there. Oop!" This time the voice sounds very pessimistic.

"Wait... He's moving? This is gonna be tough." Taiki mumbles.

"I can help you!" The voice says before that voop sound is heard again. "Against my better judgement." She replies more pessimistically.

"What's up with this woman?" Spe-7 asks.

"I heard that." The depressed voice says, making Spe-7 jump.

"Hey, what is that?" Suzuka asks as she spots a strange floating sphere. Ghost then goes over to scan said sphere and returns with some interesting results.

"This is like a... cornerstone of Nessus. Put here by the Vex to mark linear time. It's been 127 of our years since Nessus last travelled through our system. I don't know how many Vex years that is." Ghost explains.

"Can I help you with anything else?" The cheery voice asks.

"Yeah... Are you okay?" Twinkle asks back. "You sound off."

"I am the Exodus Black's Failsafe. Call me Failsafe! I boosted the Cayde-6's signal in hopes he would be rescued, and here you are!" The cheery voice identified as Failsafe replies.

"So that explains!" Fang says. "She's an AI! A malfunctioning AI to add to that."

"I heard that." Failsafe's pessimistic voice says. "At your service!" Her cheery voice quickly follows.

"Nessus was supposed to be just a giant icy rock... I'm assuming the Vex got their hands on it first?" Taiki asks.

"They have achieved approximately 92.014 percent conversion of this centaur." Failsafe replies. "I would suggest looking in that cave over there, it is where I last tracked the Cayde-6's signal."

"Thanks, we're on it." Suzuka says, and with that the trio heads inside to find Cayde, floating around in a vex portal.

"Cayde?!" Taiki asks in shock.

"Someone there? Listen, don't ask me how this happened - I don't have time to explain what I don't have time to understand!" Cayde shouts before he vanishes. Instead a bunch of Vex automatons emerge. They sport a big crest on their head and a single red eye, and they constantly teleport. Their rifles look very much like halo plasma rifles but they fire red laser blasts.

"Warning! The Vex are very angry. They will try to vaporize you. Please don't let that happen!" Cheery Failsafe says as Spe-7 shoots the head off of one of the goblins. "Oh by the way, please don't shoot off their head. It just pisses them off." Bitchy Failsafe says, evident as the goblin that Spe-7 just decapitated gives her the middle finger before wildly firing it's rifle.

"Shoot their core!" Taiki says as he shoots the big white core in the middle of the headless goblin, exploding it. Spe-7 and Suzuka then start targeting the cores as ordered, gunning down the goblins and bringing forth a minotaur, a towering Vex foreman with a torch hammer and a shield. "Well these guys look different from what I've seen. Never seen that little core on them before." Taiki doesn't get to say any more as the minotaur proceeds to slam it's fist down on Taiki's head, leaving him dizzy. "Ooh... Look at all the pretty stars..." He says before he flops to the ground.

"Take this!" Spe-7 shouts as she fires off a grenade from her grenade launcher, destroying the minotaur's shield but also blasting it's head off. "Uh oh!"

"You've seriously got to stop doing that!" Suzuka says as she bisects the angry minotaur. "Now we need to find out where the hell Cayde went. Whatever he did, it's going to make this rescue mission pretty tough."