{"id":105221,"date":"2019-12-09T17:56:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T17:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BungieNet_ContentItem_48439"},"modified":"2019-12-09T17:56:43","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T17:56:43","slug":"desperate-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/12\/09\/desperate-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Desperate Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Chronometric emissions cut across Mercury\u2019s surface, and radiolaria steamed from fissures that erupted like open wounds in the machine soil. White-blue streams of Arc energy carved borders around a circular sector about a hundred miles wide. Walls of chronometric flame tore through Vex spires that came tumbling down in halves and sheared Minotaurs in two along the boundaries of the region.<\/p>\n

The Red Legion stood watch as these eruptions flared around every Cabal machine, structure, and soldier inside the sector. They showed no sign of panic as ethereal fire burned over the world and their Vex opponents. Instead, they waited, watched, and mobilized purposefully around the phenomenon.<\/p>\n

The circular shape that these walls cut were further segmented into three sections: Red Legion soldiers found themselves staring across the chronometric walls at each other from inside Mercury\u2019s past, present, and distant future.<\/p>\n

Under three different skies, three different suns, and on three different elevations of Mercury\u2019s gradually descending surface, the Red Legion went to work.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this time they would win the Red War.<\/p>\n

\u2756\u2756\u2756<\/p>\n

Somewhere deep inside the Vanguard halls in a secure meditation chamber, a trio of Warlocks surrounded Osiris: one Praxic, one Thanatonaut, and one Vanguard.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid the Vex corrupt him?\u201d Aunor wondered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Order just wants to know if he\u2019s real. Or some kind of Vex simulation. An Echo?\u201d Harper said, paging through a datapad in his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t left the Forest in years,\u201d Ikora said to Osiris, the only one to address him directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need help,\u201d Osiris replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d Ikora responded, hands clasped behind her back. She stared intently at her former mentor. Back in her Crucible days, that uncompromising gaze was often the last thing her opponents saw. Aunor glanced sidelong at her superior. Harper coughed and looked down at his datapad.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago, Guardians entered the Infinite Forest,\u201d Osiris continued. \u201cThey aided me in defeating the Axis Mind Panoptes, preventing a Vex apocalypse from befalling this system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the process,\u201d he looked between each of them in turn, \u201cSome Guardians reported a body they found in the Forest depths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ikora sighed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaint-14 never came back from that last mission to Mercury. We finally knew why. I reacted to it the only way I knew how.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy turning Mercury into a temporal weapon for the Cabal?\u201d Aunor asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are awfully tranquil for a man who just doomed this system,\u201d Harper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should rethink your career in Thanatonautics, Warlock Harper, if death frightens you so,\u201d the exile replied. He nodded at Aunor. \u201cI\u2019ve made mistakes. I will continue to make them. The nature of my work requires it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should lock you away,\u201d the Praxic replied. But there was no fire in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are others you\u2019ve allowed to roam free. These are desperate times, Aunor,\u201d Osiris said. \u201cI think you know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper opened his mouth to ask another question, but Ikora cut him off. \u201cGive us a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aunor ducked her head and Harper bristled, but both left without question. Alone with Osiris, Ikora said, \u201cThe Speaker was right to exile you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all make our own choices,\u201d Osiris replied. \u201cLike the Vex gateway you built to the Undying Mind. A strategy like that is exactly what the machines would not expect. And you knew the Guardians would deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s your point?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think like I do. But you\u2019ve done what I never could. Found a way to coexist with the Vanguard while keeping their fool necks above the water,\u201d said Osiris. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think you\u2019re helping your case, you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is broken on Mercury. I need help from our mutual friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that. My Hidden have scouted your Sundial. The Red Legion are loose in a time rift that\u2019s localized to the past, present, and future of Mercury.\u201d She took a step closer to him, shoulders tense. \u201cIf we don\u2019t contain it, it\u2019s not going to stay that way for long. The rift will expand across the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve created a mitigation network across Guardian space. I\u2019m in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are anything but\u2014!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSaint deserved another chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo did Cayde! So did everyone we lost in the Red War.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll hunt the Cabal across every timeline they create within the Sundial. They\u2019ll never be able to exploit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re damn right. Because you\u2019re going to mobilize the Guardians. You\u2019re going to fix this. And then you and I are going to have a long talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMercury should be the least of your worries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s save it for the long talk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chronometric emissions cut across Mercury\u2019s surface, and radiolaria steamed from fissures that erupted like open wounds in the machine soil. White-blue streams of Arc energy carved borders around a circular sector about a hundred miles wide. Walls of chronometric flame tore through Vex spires that came tumbling down in halves and sheared Minotaurs in two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bungie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}