[i]Onyx Guard, why are you posting this nonsense in lore?[/i] Remember a few months ago? When I asked about the relationship between the Vex and the Hive? Well, this is part of it. Congratulation [i]Lore[/i], you're a daddy. [spoiler]Also the general "is this direction technically possible" question is imposed.[/spoiler] [spoiler][url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/242853482/0/0]Archive[/url] Story 2 Act II Part 3[/spoiler] The tunnel section comes to an abrupt stop with one side open to the bottom of a tall, flat chasm. Stepping forward, the team realize that the gravity has shifted back to that of Earth's natural orientation. What was a chasm is revealed to be a long, symmetric area with a somewhat low ceiling. And unlike the emptiness previous tunnel, this room is highlighted by a dim, inconsistent green flicker, a low hum, and the faint smell of death and rot. Lights from the three ghosts begin scanning the room to reveal countless Hive corpses in various states of dismemberment and decay. Neither worm nor host spared as closer inspection reveals them to be victims of precise, drawn out torture rather than battle. Though the faction responsible is likely Vex given the construction of their surroundings, Fireteam Grace is unable to theorize a reason or exact method of how this could have been done on Earth without alerting the City. "And back I go," Patterson says as he swivels on his heel. Bee grabs his shoulder and pulls him back to the rest of the group. "No you don't. Vex are your thing, so start explaining." "I can't," he says looking around at the piles of bodies. "This isn't anything like what we've seen them do before." Further in, Lee and the Onyx Guard move to explore the source of the glow before coming to a stop in front of a flat extension from the wall. Embedded in the slab is a soul crystal, and from insertion nodes in the top of the slab runs what appears to be a series of wires twisting together before inserting into the base of a Vex-Hive hybrib construction gate several meters away. Above the slab is a different shard, but Lee is unable to identify it. Inserted into the other side of the gate's base is another cable which branches off to two large domes of pulsing Hive symbols. Lee recognizes these domes as the dimensional forges of two tomb ships. Pointing to the domes, Lee says, "see those? There one of those things inside of Hive troop transports. It's how they get around so quick: tear a hole in one dimension and come out another." As Onyx Guard looks at the two domes, he follows the power lines back to the with eyes before replying, "[i]so these two would just be for redundancy, not for going to two different places.[/i]" "My thoughts exactly," Lee half-heartedly chuckled. "This is Vex doing. But that mess there... way more messy than anything I've ever seen before. This Collective would have likely been shunned if the other knew about it." "Guys," Bee calls a few yards back down the tunnel. "Did you not notice the Traveler shard?" "I'd hardly say it still qualifies," Patterson's voice bounces off the walls as Lee and the Gear walk to join the other two. "Look at it: the corruption. This thing hasn't been drained of light; it's been consumed by... just look at it." With the light now focused on it, the shard can now be seen trained rusted brown and battleship grey. A dark green haze flows sporadically like a multilayer vortex swarm as the side that that the light touches seems to sizzle and drip inky black droplets that fade away before reaching the surface below. "Sure it's safe to breath?" Bee asks. Lee leans forward to look at the shard from another angle before answering with, "nope. Let's get the light off of it." Wiggles turns away to take its light directly off the shard before the gate suddenly activates. Lee looks over at the Gear who was currently pointing his gun at the new light source. "Easy tiger," he says. "We don't even know if the thing works." The Onyx Guard slightly lowers his gun and asks, "[i]so how do we test it? Throw a rock in it or something?[/i]" "No," Patterson answers. "We need something more attuned to the gate. In this case, Vex or Hive." "Way ahead of you!" Bee shouts cheerfully, carrying the severed forearm of a thrall. "Bee, NO!" Patterson shouts before she tosses the limb through the portal. "Well," Lee says, "it didn't come out the other side." "[i]Good enough for me,[/i]" the Gear asserts before taking his first step into the portal. Lee slouches his shoulders and looks at the other two as he stares at the portal. "That isn't... if he wanted to die he could have just asked.... Come on, let's go get him."