Editing SIVA Crisis

{{quote|The [[House of Devils]] is back. And they're digging into old [[Golden Age]] research labs across the system. This isn't a simple smash-and-grab. They're on a mission. At first, the [[Vanguard]] wasn't particularly concerned. At least, not in the Devils decided to move back into the [[Cosmodrome]]. Now the Devils are shifting a massive amount of resources to an area that's been dark for centuries. Normally, I'd say it's just another day. Except what's really got everyone talking is that Lord Saladin has left his post at the [[Iron Banner]] to take charge of the situation personally.|[[Ghost]] highlighting the start of the Crisis}}

The '''SIVA Crisis''' was a major conflict fought between the [[SIVA]]-infected [[Fallen]] [[Devil Splicers]] and the [[Guardian]]s. The crisis was triggered when the Fallen [[Splicers]] rediscovered SIVA within the long-sealed [[Plaguelands]]. While the orthodox leadership of the Splicers saw SIVA as another technology to be worshiped, the sect loyal to the [[House of Devils]] was more ambitious: they sought to use SIVA to make themselves into gods. Imbuing themselves with SIVA's power, the Devil Splicers began subsuming the rest of their House and spreading the techno-plague. Recognizing the ancient threat his fellow [[Iron Lords]] had sealed away long ago, Lord [[Saladin Forge]] issued a call-to-arms to the Guardians.

===Prelude: Transmission Incident===

The Owl Sector reconvened for the first time since an event called the Dawn Calamity in response to field reports from Guardians whose armor had become infested with "tech mites", which manifested as swarms of colorful specks that swirled around their heads.<ref name="OS">[http://owlsector.bungie.net/archive.html#en Bungie.net - Owl Sector Records]</ref> Five varieties of tech mite were documented, each with a unique coloration: Brilliance 3.2 (green), Glory 2.1 (white), Splendor 2.6 (yellow), Magnificence 2.0 (blue), and Fortitude 3.1 (pink). The tech mites originated from the [[Dust Palace]] on [[Mars]], but rapidly spread to other Guardians. While this phenomenon, designated "Transmission", initially alarmed the Vanguard as it overrode Guardians' armor systems, Guardians responded to it with enthusiasm and mocked attempts by the Owl Sector to quarantine them.<ref name="OS"/>

Unable to contain the mites' spread among the Guardians, the Owl Sector and Vanguard instead implemented a quarantine on the [[Last City]] in order to prevent non-Guardians' exposure. Meanwhile, Bypass Authority Berriole traveled to the Dust Palace to learn the origin of the tech mites. She followed sets of tracks to a lab, where various locked storage cabinets had been cut or blasted open. At a console in the lab, she discovered the mites were linked to a [[Clovis Bray]] project overseen by a Dr. Zarin Shirazi who worked under [[House Bray|Dr. Willa Bray]]. Berriole transmitted records of Dr. Shirazi's experiments with the mites, which had been encrypted to an unusual degree, to the Owl Sector. The records revealed that the tech mites were a nanomachine therapy to improve subjects' intelligence and strength for the Golden Age's colonization effort, but they produced several unforeseen side-effects including manic and paranoid behavior, loss of voice, levitation, and comas. Shirazi developed a countermeasure and saved the test subjects, but she had become disillusioned with the project and recommended to Dr. Bray that it be abandoned.<ref name="OS"/>

Eventually, a third of all Guardians became affected by at least one variety of tech mite, prompting the Vanguard to further tighten the City's quarantine. The Owl Sector's Liaison to the [[Vanguard]], [[Shun Li]], accidentally became exposed to a sample of tech mites and lost consciousness soon after, forcing his fellow operative [[Ramos]] to take on the duties of Acting Liaison. Fortunately, the countermeasure was discovered among Shirazi's records, and the combined efforts of the Owl Sector's research corps, the [[Hidden]], and the [[Techeun]]s succeeded in replicating it. Shun was revived, and the cure was administered to the Guardians, much to their disappointment. With the crisis ended, the Owl Sector was returned to standby status.<ref name="OS"/>

Upon the Guardian's success, Saladin arrived and finished off any cloaked Fallen. Unfortunately, the victory was bittersweet as Sepiks revives itself and flees. Having been ordered to track Sepiks escape, [[Shiro-4|Shiro]] detects several breaches on the [[Cosmodrome]] [[The Wall|wall]], prompting Saladin to send the Guardian to track Sepiks down.

As tasked by Saladin to investigate the breach in the Cosmodrome and to confirm Saladin's fears, the Guardian arrives at the wall and finds a section of it in ruins with a heavy Devils presence. Tracking Sepkis, the Guardian fights through the wall and finds a pattern outside the wall and with Ghost scans, discovers that a nanotechnology is consuming the building, thereby confirming Saladin's fears that SIVA has returned. Instantly Hive ships appear, apparently driven out of their holds. Fighting both Hive and Fallen to a sensor grid to restore the sensor network for Shiro-4, the Guardian encounters a new enemy of Fallen: The Devil Splicers. After defeating the new powerfully-augmented Fallen, Saladin now knows for sure that the Fallen have restarted production of SIVA for their own desires. Shiro-4 tracks to Fallen to [[Plaguelands]], an area that has been quarantined for years, but has now become the Devil Splicers territory.

To open up a new front for the war and to establish a beachhead in the Plaguelands, Saladin and Shiro-4 have the Guardian infiltrate Splicer defenses for reinforcements but find that the Splicers have repaired a gun emplacement that was destroyed during the Collapse using SIVA. Any reinforcements would be destroyed but thanks to the Guardians efforts, they destroyed the SIVA nodes powering the cannons, allowing reinforcements to arrive and Guardians to explore the quarantined zone.

{{Quote|The Young Wolf has stopped the flow of SIVA to the Devil Splicers, ended the torment of the Iron Lords, and lifted centuries of grief and regret from Saladin’s shoulders. My old friend is a changed man. Centuries ago, I thought the story of the Iron Lords was finished. I see now that it was waiting for the next chapter.|Tyra Karn.}}

After returning to the Iron Temple to learn the full history of SIVA and the fall of the Iron Lords, the Guardian and Saladin agree that SIVA is still new to the Fallen and therefore haven't mastered it yet. Regardless, both wonder how the Fallen discovered SIVA in the first place. With Tyra Karn's help they follow a trail left behind by Lord [[Timur]] who was obsessed with the works of [[Clovis Bray]], the original creators of SIVA. The trail led to [[Mars]], deep in [[Cabal]] territory. With the Cabal nearby, the Fallen couldn't learn all of SIVA but after fighting through the Cabal, the Guardian was able to reach the lab where the SIVA prototypes were located, hopefully to find a solution to SIVA. The solution turned out to be a self-destruct sequence.   

After retrieving the SIVA prototypes from the Clovis Bray lab on Mars, Shiro and Lord Saladin task the Guardian to go into [[Site 6]] and destroy the SIVA replication chamber to end the SIVA Crisis. After fighting through the Fallen in the Archon's Keep and cutting off their control of SIVA, the Guardian enters into the Site 6 deep beneath [[the Warrens]]. Once the Guardian enters the replication complex, the Guardian finds the remnants of the Iron Lords that died during the attack on Site 6 in the [[Dark Age]] and are being controlled by SIVA. Once the remnants were defeated using a discarded [[Iron Battle Axe]], thus putting the Iron Lords to rest, the SIVA self-destruct sequence is initiated and the Guardian successfully escapes, preventing any more SIVA from being created.

To further prevent the Devil Splicers from creating other monsters or weapons out of the Hive, Shiro-4 orders the Guardian to invade the [[Hellmouth]] on the [[Moon]] and stop the Splicers from abducting any more Hive Ogres. Fighting though both Fallen and Hive, the Guardian reaches the [[Summoning Pits]] right before the Splicers capture a [[Hive Abomination]]. Despite the struggle of facing the Abomination, the Hive and the Devil Splicers, the Guardian was able to slay the monster and therefore prevent the Splicers from gaining any more test subjects.

The SIVA Crisis was not fully averted though, since any remaining SIVA was still out there and in Fallen hands, not to mention the Splicers' latest Archon was still alive, [[Aksis, Archon Prime]] inside his [[Perfection Complex]] and Sepiks Perfected was still in hiding since the Iron Temple raid.  

{{Quote|Variks has brought unsettling news. The Devil Splicers have used SIVA to resurrect an old foe: Taniks the Scarred has become Taniks Perfected.|[[Commander Zavala]].}}

[[Category:Events]]