Battleground: Conduit

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Battleground: Conduit
Game:	Episode: Echoes
Player(s):	1-3
Location:	Nessus
Enemy faction(s):	Shadow Legion Nessian Schism
Hostile race(s):	Cabal Vex
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Battleground: Conduit is a mission accessible during Episode: Echoes as part of the Battleground: Echoes activity. It can be accessed via the director in the H.E.L.M.

Objectives

• Delve into Nessus
• Eliminate Vex
• Follow the Radiolaria
• Hack the Conflux
• Defend Ghost
  • X%
• Eliminate Kamarian, Radial Overseer
• Shield regeneration in:
  • 0:47
• Collect Your Rewards

Transcript

(Mission Begins)

• Failsafe (Depressed): So, I'm, uh, calculating the volume of radiolaria running through these tubes…

• Failsafe (Cheery): It is about 20 million cubic miles! Per hour!

• Failsafe (Depressed): That's a lot. Like, a LOT a lot. You need to find out where it's going.

• Ikora: Follow the flow, Guardian. It's all moving somewhere, and the Conductor is controlling it.

Or alternatively

• Ikora: Massive amounts of radiolaria are moving through these tunnels. Follow them, Guardian. We must find out where they lead.

Or alternatively

• Ikora: Maya's Vex are taking over Nessus from the inside out. It's destablizing the entire planet. Be careful, Guardian.

Or alternatively

• Ikora: The Vex here are still following Maya's instructions. She might be gone, but the Vex aren't. Yet.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: You must delve further into Nessus, Guardian. There is much to uncover here.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: We know what Sundaresh seeks to accomplish with the planet's radiolaria. We must halt its flow.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: Engaging with the Vex deep within Nessus yields important information. Continue your exploration, Guardian.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: Follow the radiolaria, Guardian. We must find out where it goes.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: We cannot allow the Conductor's plans to proceed. The Vex are draining radiolaria. We will destroy them.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: The Vex are still up to no good here, even without the Conductor. Cut off the flow of radiolaria!

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Cheery): Vex infrastructure has been co-opted by the Conductor! Do what you do best, Captain.

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Cheery): Continued study of the radiolaria will grant us important data! Please proceed into the planet's mantle.

Delving deep into Nessus, the fireteam eliminates Vex and Shadow Legion to traverse across the cave.

• Ikora: The Shadow Legion are an… unnecessary complication. Cabal Psions have always had a keen interest in Vex technology.

• Ikora: And the Echo is a strong incentive.

• Saint-14: We crushed them on Neptune, we crush them here.

• Ikora: Whatever it takes to keep the Echo out of their hands.

Or alternatively

• Ikora: I'm not seeing any changes at this level… But there's no telling what may have been worked below.

• Saint-14: Between Failsafe and the Guardian, Nessus will not go without its sentinels!

Or alternatively

• Ikora: Everywhere they build, the Vex work in shapes. Spheres. Rectangular prisms. Platonic solids.

• Ikora: There is meaning to every shape, if we can only find the right approach to their geometry.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: With all this radiolaria still flowing underground, it is possible the surface of Nessus may fully drain at some point.

• Osiris: I-I must study Vex replication. They may be replenishing the surface even now.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: This architecture… what purpose does it serve? It has the look of an aqueduct.

• Ikora: To a species that lives suspended in liquid, an aqueduct may be the closest thing to a highway.

• Osiris: That is a… valid hypothesis.

Or alternatively

• Ikora: Follow the radiolaria. Find the point where it stops flowing down.

• Osiris: There, you will uncover the Conductor's plans.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: The Vex's retreat has left you a straight path to their nerve center!

• Saint-14: All the better for you to find and crush it.

Following the radiolarian path, the fireteam arrives at a large cavern filled with radiolaria. They destroy Vex units to bring down the barrier into a small room with a Conflux.

• Failsafe (Cheery): With my data and your Ghost's interface, we can divert the radiolaria and allow us passage! Please proceed.

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Depressed): Looks like you need my help, huh Captain. Interfacing with the Vex terminal now…

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Cheery): Taking control of that Vex terminal will allow me to grant you further access into Nessus.

A member of the fireteam uses their Ghost to hack into the Conflux while the Guardians destroy incoming Vex forces.

The Ghost interfaces 50% of the Conflux.

• Failsafe (Depressed): More Vex incoming… I'm getting this done as fast as I can.

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Depressed): The good news is we're halfway done… (Cheery): the bad news is that more Vex are converging on your position!

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Depressed): Halfway there… we've got our work cut out for us, huh?

Eventually the Ghost completes the interface.

• Failsafe (Cheery): Access granted! Good luck, Captain!

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Cheery): Standby… hack complete! Please proceed to the route.

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Depressed): Aaaaand… done. Time to get going, Captain.

After the Conflux is hacked, the Guardians delve deeper into the planet.

• Saint-14: Look at all this radiolaria… It fills the planet like a… a water balloon. What does the Conductor want with it?

• Saint-14: If the Conductor can control the flow of radiolaria here, it means they can control the Vex on Nessus.

• Ikora: Spreading it throughout the system would mean the Conductor can bring more collectives under their yoke.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: You have descended so far and still I see no end.

• Saint-14: How deeply does this radiolaria flow?

• Ikora: We'll find the answer. Soon.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: This view… it reminds me of the Infinite Forest.

• Osiris: The Vex build from templates. But their patterns may change.

• Osiris: As yet, we cannot predict what changes the Conductor will inspire in them.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: Osiris, I didn't want to compare our experiences. But now, I truly understand what you endured with Savathûn.

• Osiris: It was an experience I never wanted you to share.

• Saint-14: Yes, yes, we both would sacrifice ourself for each other. But we did not have to... We survived.

• Osiris: We did.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: As a singular organism, a Vex is microscopic. As a hive mind, they build on monumental scale.

• Ikora: Is this a note on biology, or an object lesson on the value of teamwork?

• Osiris: The former.

Or alternatively

• Ikora: It wasn't long ago that this whole chamber was filled with radiolaria.

• Osiris: The Vex leave no room in their plans for any life that could compete with them.

• Osiris: If they succeed, all of Sol will be this barren.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: Vex collectives work together towards a single goal.

• Osiris: Influenced by the Conductor, will each Vex now decide on its own goal? It would make the Vex even less predictable.

• Ikora: I have the Vanguard's computers running counter-scenarios for that possibility. We will find a way through.

Finally the Guardian fireteam arrive to another room where they confront Kamarian, Radial Overseer.

• Ikora: The radiolaria moves through here. Taken control, Guardian.

Or alternatively

• Failsafe (Cheery): This Vex force facilitates the movement of radiolaria through the planet. Please destroy them!

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: That Minotaur controls the flow of radiolaria. Crush it!

Or alternatively

• Osiris: There! The radiolaria flow is controlled from this chamber. Disrupt their operation.

Dispelling its immunity by destroying Vex nodes, the Guardians slay Kamarian.

• Saint-14: The radiolaria is flowing, but we cannot follow it further.

• Ikora: We need a plan. Following it blindly will take precious time. There has to be a faster way.

• Failsafe (Cheery): The radiolaria here may contain abnormalities to the samples I have collected over my centuries of isolation.

• Failsafe (Depressed): I've had a long time to study this stuff. Bring some back, and I'll figure out what to do.

• Ikora: Failsafe, you need to know: if we succeed, it'll be because of your hard work here.

• Failsafe (Cheery): That is kind of you to say! However, if we fail, I abdicate all responsibility and will strike all of my involvement from our records.

• Failsafe (Cheery): See you back at the H.E.L.M., Captain!

Or alternatively

• Ikora: The Shadow Legion presence on Nessus doesn't surprise me. After Calus was defeated, his forces served the Witness and its Disciples.

• Ikora: But when it died, they were leaderless. Plenty of Cabal factions have jumped at the chance to control them.

• Ikora: They're thoughtless clones made for war… and as loyal as you might expect.

• Ikora: I'm sure we'll soon find out who's taken over.

Or alternatively

• Ikora: Yirix was behind the plot to assassinate Zavala when he signed an armistice with Empress Caiatl.

• Ikora: The Psion went to ground when the plot was discovered. But now…

• Ikora: We thought she had allied with Calus. But it seems like she had her own plans from the start.

• Ikora:The Shadow Legion are leaderless Cabal clones. Taking control of them would have been trivial for Yirix.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: It is a mistake to see radiolaria as disease. It does not exist only for infection and assimilation.

• Osiris: It is the medium in which all Vex simulations may take place.

• Osiris: The minds that work in tandem, may calculate all possible outcomes in any situation.

• Osiris: It is where their simulations are compiled. It reaches out for more data, folding everything it touches into itself.

• Osiris: The amount of radiolaria… it - it is being hoarded. We must discover why, before it drowns all of Sol.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: Introducing individuality to the Vex is a dangerous endeavour.

• Osiris: The Vex's greatest weakness is in their homogeneity. Their singular mind responds predictably. They have blind spots and limiting paradigms.

• Osiris: Much as the sword logic limits the Hive.

• Osiris: But now, thanks to the Conductor, the Vex may gain versatility in thought and action.

• Osiris: They could soon adapt and respond. So too must we.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: It wasn't just Sundaresh looking for her lost love. In Chioma Esi's logs on Neomuna, she spoke of wanting to find her Maya again.

• Osiris: She entered the VexNet to do so. And after everything she experienced, Esi let go and allowed it to subsume her.

• Osiris: I had assumed it was out of shame or guilt. She did not intend for her logs to be found.

• Osiris: But perhaps it was the same desire that inspired Sundaresh. A moment of happiness, preserved forever.

• Osiris: She never found it. I can only hope that other copies of Chioma Esi did.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: The radiolaria is flowing down to the center of the planet. The Conductor can control it, but we do not know why yet.

• Saint-14: To the Vex, everything is glass, or milk - or cubes! Many, many cubes. But these Vex are different.

• Saint-14: For a long time we thought the Vex were just machines. But then we found the connection with the Exos.

• Saint-14: The Conductor knows how to manipulate Exo minds because of it. We need to know what they will do with that power.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: We lost much information about Exos after the Collapse, and even before, it was a guarded secret.

• Saint-14: But since the Guardians opened the Deep Stone Crypt on Europa, we know that creating Exo minds involved exposing radiolaria to Darkness.

• Saint-14: Clovis Bray called it "Clarity" to hide what he had found. People went to him to become Exos, and became experiments instead.

• Saint-14: Hmm, I wonder if the Conductor knows about the big head on Europa? Ah, we will not tell her.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: Guardian. Osiris tells me that he understands Maya, in a way. That he sees how he could have become obsessed the same way she has.

• Saint-14: I know he feels guilt when he tells me that he stopped looking for me. But I am proud of him.

• Saint-14: He felt such sadness, and shame, for losing me. But he did not use those feelings to harm others.

• Saint-14: That takes great strength. Strength we need. And now that I am here, we can be strong together.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: Guardian! Do you want to know what I felt when I took my own memories out of my other head?

• Saint-14: That I am wonderful. I am a marvel! A man made mechanical, then made immortal, then pulled from the grip of a Vex simulation.

• Saint-14: I have cheated death so many times that I make it look easy. That, is Saint-14. That is me.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: Ikora, you met with Cayde in the Pale Heart. Spoke to him after you had put your grief behind you.

• Saint-14: He was brought back from a Wish… Heh, that is close enough to a simulation. How did you-

• Ikora: I was grateful. I got the chance to say goodbye to a friend… A friend I was worried never knew how much I cared about him.

• Ikora: You coming back didn't open any old wounds, Saint. It healed them… and not just for Osiris.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: [sighs] I cannot comprehend what Maya Sundaresh did to Chioma. I-I don't understand how her love could have been so twisted.

• Ikora: Hm, Maya didn't want her wife back. She wanted an extension of herself. Someone she could control… or didn't need to control.

• Saint-14: That is not love.

• Ikora: No. It is not.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: The Echo is lost. Will we ever be able to recover it from the radiolaria?

• Ikora: I don't know… My Hidden are searching, but I don't expect them to find it.

• Saint-14: And if there are others?

• Ikora: All we can do is stay vigilant, and prepare for the unexpected.

• Saint-14: Always bracing for a danger we cannot know. I had hoped, there would be a time beyond danger.

• Ikora: One day, Saint. Vigilance and preparation are important… But so is hope.

Or alternatively

• Saint-14: What would have happened if Maya had found the Chioma who agreed with what she was doing? The one who would stand with her.

• Ikora: Maya would have never found that Chioma.

• Osiris: Even if such a woman existed, there would always be some flaw, some friction that would make Maya reject her again.

• Ikora: And when Maya did find the one she said she wanted, the one she killed other Chiomas for, she rejected her anyway.

Or alternatively

• Ikora: Nessus, Mercury, Venus, Io… All slowly repurposed by Vex terraforming.

• Osiris: The Vex subsume everything they touch, including Guardians.

• Osiris: They cannot be reasoned with. They do not accept bargains, or extend mercy. And they do not stop, until their purpose is fulfilled.

• Osiris: We can only hope, that is not true of their Conductor.

Or alternatively

• Osiris: Nimbus should know about what we've discovered here. Neomuna is Sundaresh's legacy.

• Osiris: Her experiments, however inhumane, became the foundation of the CloudArk.

• Ikora: Do you think she knows how Dr. Esi used her research?

• Osiris: I imagine she views that information as immaterial. She's not concerned with Neomuna. She seeks the Golden Age, before its founding.

• Osiris: She has a singular goal and will pursue it without distraction.

(Mission Ends)

Enemies

Vex - Nessian Schism

• Choral Goblin
  • Uplifted Choral Goblin
• Elite Compelled Hobgoblin
• Choral Harpy
  • Uplifted Choral Hobgoblin
• Choral Harpy
  • Coryphaeus Harpy
• Choral Minotaur
  • Uplifted Choral Minotaur
• Precursor Axis Minotaur
• Uplifted Choral Hydra
• Coryphaeus Hydra
• Choral Cyclops
  • Uplifted Choral Cyclops
• Compelled Aggressor

Cabal - Shadow Legion

• Honored Psion
• Legionary
• Gladiator

Champions

• Barrier Hobgoblin
• Overload Minotaur
• Barrier Colossus

Boss

• Kamarian, Radial Overseer

Appearance

• Destiny 2: Episode: Echoes (First appearance)