Operation Ahamkara

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Previous:	Hunt for Riven's Clutch
Next:	Upheaval on Nessus
Operation Ahamkara
Conflict:	War against the Witness
Fronts:	The Pale Heart, The Traveler
Outcome:	Operation Ahamkara is initiated as Zavala, Ikora, and the Guardian venture towards the Pale Heart The Guardian is separated from Zavala and Ikora At the Lost City, the Guardian reunites with Cayde and later finds Crow before finding Zavala and Ikora Zavala is tempted by the Darkness and leaves alone to commune with the Witness The Veiled Statues reveal how to "unmake" the Witness Targe sacrifices himself to save Zavala's life The Guardian wounds the Witness by destroying dissenting statues with a sword granted to them by the Traveler before retreating after being wounded by the Witness Retreating to the monolith, the Witness roots itself into the Traveler and begins preparations to enact the Final Shape The rest of the Coalition arrive within the Pale Heart The Witness is uprooted from the Traveler and driven back from its monolith by a Guardian fireteam The united forces of the Coalition alongside the Lucent Brood launch one final attack against the Witness and its forces A fireteam of 12 Guardians confront the wounded Witness, unmaking it with the Traveler's Light The Ghost briefly dies due to channeling the Traveler's Light into its body to destroy the Witness, however he is brought back by Cayde-6 who uses his Light to resurrect him Cayde dies his final death, returning to the Light of the Traveler An Aurora of Light and Darkness seeps out of the Traveler after the Witness's defeat Multiple Echoes depart out of the Traveler as a result of the memories from the Witness Parallel Operations: Kargen, the Technocrat clone killed and Freeborn Otzot attempt to steal Vex data about the OXA Machine and the Veil thwarted Xivu Arath's attempt to explore the space-time fractures on Mars thwarted Xivu Arath manages to regroup and move massive amounts of forces from her brood using the Ley Lines Sepiks Prime copy killed and Eramis, Kell of Darkness's attempt to trade weapons in exchange for the Prime Servitor with House of Dusk thwarted Navôta, Eir Spawn, either a disguised wizard or her resurrection, killed and Savathun's plans involving the Hive on Earth thwarted Data about the Psions ancient past involving Nezarec, Final God of Pain and the Witness recovered on the Lunar Pyramid
Belligerents Forces of the Coalition: Last City Vanguard Six Coyotes Imperial Cabal House of Light House of Spider Reef Neomuna Cloud Striders Hive: Lucent Brood (briefly) Forces of the Witness: The Dread Taken Scorn Xivu Arath's Horde House of Salvation Shadow Legion Sol Divisive Hive: Lucent Brood Cabal: Shadow Legion Deserters Commanders Vanguard: Commander Zavala Ikora Rey Cayde-6 The Crow Micah-10 Imperial Cabal: Empress Caiatl House of Light: Mithrax, Kell of Light Reef: Mara Sov Lucent Brood: Savathûn, the Witch Queen (briefly) Forces of the Witness The Witness Herald of Finality Kataxiia, Tormentor of the Ahamkara Rhuna, Subjugator of Chasms Rhaska Subjugator of Thresholds Vrihn, Subjugator of Gardens Lenurae, Subjugator of Fluxion Molak'al, Subjugator of the Traveler Araaxen, Reverent of the Witness Eshkin'tuk, Witness's Blessed Kholon, Taken by the Witness Voxelos Taken by the Witness Koftiks Taken by the Witness Pillar of Denial Dolgith, Blade of Reasoning Icon of Finality The Unwaking Mind Pillar of Devotion Lii'liks, Harvester of the Witness Pillar of Silence Korha, the Hollow Pillar of Stillness Artillery Commander Lucent Brood: Savathûn, the Witch Queen Ir Okmarr, Devoted to Savathûn Nolakh, Star-Eater Mharuk, Sky-Stealer Luzaku Shadow Legion Deserters: Freeborn Otzot Kargen, the Technocrat (Clone) Strength Thousands of Guardians Countless Imperial Cabal troops Imperial Cabal Carriers Countless House of Light soldiers Eliksni Ketches Dozens of Corsairs Spider's Crew and Associates Countless Lucent Brood Hive (briefly) Hundreds of Hive Lightbearers (briefly) Countless Dread units Countless Taken Thousands of Scorn Thousands of Hive Thousands of House of Salvation Fallen Eliksni Ketches Thousands of Shadow Legion Cabal Thousands of Vex frames Countless Lucent Brood Hive Hundreds of Hive Lightbearers Hundreds of Shadow Legion Deserter Cabal Casualties Targe The Ghost (briefly) Cayde-6 Dozens of Guardians Hundreds of Imperial Cabal troops Several House of Light soldiers Several Corsairs The Witness Thousands of Dread units Thousands of Taken Hundreds of Scorn Thousands of Shadow Legion Cabal Hundreds of Hive Hundreds of House of Salvation Fallen Hundreds of Vex platforms Thousands of Lucent Brood Hive Dozens of Hive Lightbearers Hundreds of Shadow Legion Deserter Cabal

"A final shape is coming."

— The Witness

Operation Ahamkara was a massive conflict that took place shortly after Crow's entry into Pale Heart of the Traveler. With the way now open, Zavala, Ikora Rey, and the Guardian are all separated but ultimately succeed in entering the Pale Heart. Arriving at the Lost City, the Guardian reunites with Cayde-6 before finding Crow, Ikora, and Zavala. As Zavala begin to be tempted by Darkness, he would seek out the Witness who would offer the Vanguard Commander a chance to join them. Ultimately Zavala's Ghost, Targe heroically sacrifices himself to save his Guardian's life at the cost of his own. However his sacrifice would not be in vain as Zavala discovered that the Witness could be "unmade" thanks to the knowledge given by its dissenting voices.

Arriving at its monolith, the Guardian destroys multiple of the dissenting statues before retreating with the aid of Mara Sov, wounding the Witness in the process. With their Coalition allies now within the Pale Heart, the Vanguard begin preparations for an assault against the Witness to uproot its hold over the Traveler. Climbing to the top of its monolith, a Guardian fireteam uproot the Witness from the Traveler and force it to retreat from the monolith. The forces of the Coalition with the assistance of the Lucent Brood would then launch one final assault against the Witness and its forces. A fireteam of 12 Guardians would confront the wounded Witness and unmake it using the Traveler's Light, avenging the countless civilizations devastated by its conflict with the Traveler. The Guardian's Ghost dies as a result of channeling the Light of the Traveler, however Cayde-6 altruistically uses his Light to resurrect the Ghost, resulting in the former Hunter Vanguard returning to the Light of the Traveler.

Prelude

When the Vanguard discovered one of Riven's uncorrupted eggs and uncovered the existence of the fifteenth wish on Savathûn's wings, they would contact Mara Sov who would begin to assemble her Techeuns to awaken Riven's spirit so she could grant them the wish. In retaliation, the Witness would respond by sending the Sol Divisive to invade the Dreaming City to halt their efforts. Entering into the Keep of Voices on the orders of the Awoken Queen, the Guardian fights their way through the invading Vex forces to retrieve one of Riven's teeth. Granting the tooth to the Techeuns, the Guardian then enters into the Wishing Wall and enters the code for the wish while the Techeuns successfully reawaken Riven. However upon reawakening, Riven astonishingly refuses to grant them the wish. Confronting Riven within the Spirit's Anchor, Mara demands to know why the Ahamkara refuses to grant the wish. Riven would state that she has no reason to grant the wish because she and the rest of her kind are dead. The Ahamkara would then speak of how the Awoken Queen had ordered her forces to destroy her eggs, however would reveal that she hid some of her eggs within her lair and if Mara secured them, she would grant them the wish. Although she understood the risks of allowing the Ahamkara to terrorize the people of Sol once more, Mara agrees to Riven's bargain.

Infiltrating Riven's Lair to retrieve the eggs, the Guardian discovers that Riven's eggs were missing, with the Techeuns uncovering that they were scattered across the Ascendant Plane. Using the Ley Lines, the Coalition over the coarse of weeks would pull the eggs back into Riven's Lair, retrieving them from the forces of the Sol Divisive, Taken, and Scorn. However they would face an unexpected challenge when the Sol Divisive succeeded in transporting the egg into the Black Garden. Arriving into the Black Garden, the Guardian retrieves the egg after slaying the Vex Mind responsible for stealing the egg within an Ahamkara lair. It is uncovered shortly after that this lair belonged to Riven's mate, Taranis, who made his own wish to scatter the uncorrupted eggs to protect them, resulting in his demise in the process.

As the Coalition continues to retrieve the rest of Riven's Clutch, the Ahamkara eventually reveals to them that the fifteenth wish only allows for one individual to pursue the Witness into the Pale Heart. Despite this setback, Crow comes up with the solution that he should be the one to enter the Pale Heart and that he and Mara could use their connection to open the way for everyone to enter. Eventually the Guardian receives the final egg from Scorn under the command of Fikrul, the Fanatic before entering the code for the fifteenth wish. With their bargain complete, Riven grants them the wish, allowing Crow to enter the portal into the Pale Heart. Ultimately Riven's essence becomes spent as she fades away just like Taranis before her, with Mara promising to look after her clutch.

Attempting to prevent Crow's entry into the Pale Heart, the Sol Divisive would recreate the Black Heart with the guidance of the Witness, taking the place of the Veil in the entanglement. To bring an end to their intervention, the Guardian enters into the Black Garden, destroying its Heart once more by defeating its new vessels known as the Temporal Progeny. With the interference halted, Crow enters into the Pale Heart before being vested in a dual by the now resurrected Cayde-6. However upon noticing Crow's Ghost, Cayde lowers his weapon and helps Crow to his feet as they glance in the distance to see pulses of Light emerging from the Witness's Monolith.

History

Crossing the Threshold

"You live without purpose. Anguish. Bliss. A meaningless cycle... of action and reaction. Let us bring an end... to your futile exertions. A final shape is coming. Chaos untangled... made knowable... with immaculate intent. Let us know you... and be reborn into perfection."

— The Witness speaking to humanity as it finalizes earth

As the people of the Last City were continuing their everyday activities, they would be interrupted by the unnoticeable voice of the Witness. It would pronounce that they lived a purposeless existence of both anguish and bliss before finalizing the entirety of Earth into a frozen stillness. With the finalization complete, the Witness would declaring that a final shape is imminent, which would see the malicious chaos of the Light made knowable. However the Traveler would successfully undo the finalization, resulting in the Witness continuing to torture it for its resistance. Back at the H.E.L.M., Mara Sov as she looked at her hand in horror would reveal to Zavala and Ikora Rey that the Witness is close to enacting the Final Shape. Understand this was their only chance, Zavala declares that they are now initiating Operation Ahamkara to enter the portal into the Pale Heart. Mara would warn them that the Traveler could not prevent it for much longer and that the portal was unstable. Remaining determined despite the danger, Zavala would enter the portal alongside Ikora and the Guardian. While Zavala and Ikora successfully entered the portal into the Pale Heart, the Guardian would be unable to avoid the hurdles in their way, crashing into the Threshold between the outside world and Pale Heart.

With their ship destroyed, the Guardian is forced to traverse the Threshold on foot, while Mara uses her power to keep the portal open long enough for them to enter. Defeating Taken sent by the Witness, the Guardian discovers a fount of Darkness and interacts with the resonance shell in the middle, manifesting a pathway of possibilities. Using the icon of Light dropped by a Taken Centurion, the Guardian interacts with the shell once more to make the pathway physical, thus allowing them to traverse closer towards the portal. As they navigate across the platforms, the Guardian encounters the Witness's new army known as the Dread, specifically Weavers, reshaped Psions wielding the power of Strand. Along the way, they also encounters Taken bound with shielding of both Light and Darkness energy, forcing the Guardian to retreat. Despite Mara's strength beginning to diminish, the Guardian successfully crosses the Threshold, entering the portal into the Pale Heart.

Shortly after entering the portal, the Guardian receives a vision form the Traveler itself. In this vision, a falcon of Light flies above Earth as the Light from its wings creates the Ghosts, an astronaut on Mara touching the rain from a storm, before switching to a drop of water falling of a white leaf. It then transitions to a sun being destroyed before showing the falcon being consumed by the Witness's corruption as the Traveler is subsumed in shadow. As the Witness's corruption begins to spread, it then changes to show Astronauts wielding Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, Strand, and finally an unknown power. The vision then ends with the Traveler sounding out an outburst of Light.

Waking up from their vision, the Guardian finds themselves on a platform within an empty place. Spotting a spike of paracausal energy located on a dead tree in the distance, the Guardian travels towards the spike thanks to further platforms being created by drops of Light falling from the sky. Finally they arrive at the tree as the spike of energy dissipates, allowing them to travel further across the branches, the Guardian enters into a cave entrance located within the tree. Eventually the Guardian crosses the Threshold, exiting the cave to find themselves within the Pale Heart of the Traveler itself. Unlike the place of nothingness they emerged from after entering the portal, this place was found to be brimming with nature and beauty. As Ghost fails to reach out to Zavala and Ikora, the Guardian journeys further into the Pale Heart, eventually finding themselves in the Lost City, a place similar to the Last City itself.

Along the way they slay hordes of enemy forces, including Grims, believed by Ghost to be a reshaped species conquered by the Witness. Using Icons of Darkness they received from killing Harvesters of Light, the Guardian lowers the barrier into a building to discover Light and Dark energy colliding together to form a Wellspring. Using this wellspring, the Guardian briefly Transcends, allowing them to pierce the Bound Taken's shields. Using these wellsprings to their advantage, the Guardian pierces the Harvesters Bound shields to receive the Dark Icons and kill a Taken Ogre to lower the barrier into a building resembling the old Vanguard command center before the Red War, where another wellspring of Light and Dark energy reside. As Ghost begins to wonder if it was possible to wield this power, the Guardian steps forward to the Wellspring and interacts with it. Upon interacting with it, their body overflows with paracausal energy as they unlock Prismatic, a fusion of Light and Darkness energy that allows them to wield both powers in harmony and Transcend. Travelling towards the Vanguard transponder signal with the hopes of finding Crow, the Guardian finds themselves at the Tower's balcony and defeats forces of the Witenss led by a Subjugator, specifically a Harbinger. Shortly after the Harbinger's defeat, a pulse of Light is emitted as the Traveler is tortured by the Witness, harming Ghost in the process.

As they strangely hear a song playing closely by, the Guardian follows its sound to find Cayde-6 playing "The Man They Called Cayde" with his back turned behind them. Originally believing they were Crow, Cayde quickly recognizes they were not the former Awoken Prince and throws his instrument as he turns around and draws his weapon. However upon recognizing the Guardian, Cayde lowers his weapon and invites them to speak with him as he acknowledges they have questions. Cayde would explain that after his death he and his Ghost, Sundance were reintegrated into the Light of the Traveler where they existed in a place of peaceful nothingness. However something would pull him out of this place and transport him to the Pale Heart where he would spot Crow shortly after. Getting back to business, Cayde tells them that Crow went on a patrol after he discovered an anomaly of Darkness. Shortly after Cayde departs, Ghost reveals to the Guardian that his scans confirmed that this was truly the former Hunter Vanguard, but that he was astonishingly made of Light just like the Ghosts and the Traveler.

Searching for Crow

Due to the fact that Crow had not returned from his scouting mission, the Guardian travels to the Landing to search for him. Upon arriving, they encounter forces Shadow Legion and Dread, including Attendants, reshaped Psions with the power of Stasis. After defeating a Tormentor, the Guardian follows the bird they had seen from their vision to discover a cave entrance blocked by a barrier. They then receive a transmission from Glint, who reveals that Crow had entered into the cave and that he was unable to follow him. Searching for a way to lower the barrier, the Guardian discovers three different conduits maintaining the barrier. Defeating Taken Psions to receive Psionic Insight, the Guardian rotates the hand on the conduits to the radiating Light. With the conduits deactivated, Ghost asks Cayde what he thinks is the nature of that bird that led them to Glint. Generally, they would all come to the conclusion that the bird was the Traveler, attempting to aid them.

Returning to the cave entrance, the Guardian vanquishes the Pillar of Denial to lower the barrier to the Refraction. Upon entering, the Guardian defeats further forces of the Witness, including a Subjugator, particularly an Omen, bearing the power of Stasis. Entering further into the cave, the Guardian follows the bird into a gateway made of glass to arrive into a cave tunnel. As Ghost remarked that this tunnel felt like a Blight, he would be possessed by the Witness, while the Guardian woukd be severely harmed and collapse onto the ground. The Witness would attempt to destroy the Guardian's Ghost to free them from their "enslavement" to the Light. Despite the Witness's power, Ghost breaks free from its control and shuts it out completely, cracking his self in the process. However the Witness would still continue to speak to them. As their strength returned, the Guardian would travel into different caverns as the Witness explained it had offered Crow an eternity with his sister, and the Awoken throne with the promise to erase his Dark past by utilizing dioramas created by the Light and Dark. Eventually the Guardian finds Crow within a room containing a Veiled Statue. They are then interrupted by Glint, with Crow apologizing and promising to not leave him behind again before departing.

Arriving back at camp, Crow would speak to Cayde of what he had encountered. After Crow and Cayde's conversation, the Guardian speaks with Ghost who reveals that the cave they found acros within was not merely Darkness, but corruption reshaped by the Witness. Ghost would also reveal that they had spotted a location identical to the Cradle on Io, where they would almost certainly find Ikora. As the Guardian tunes into the radio, they would receive a weak signal from Mara Sov, who was unable to hear them. Nonetheless, Mara warns that the Dread were an army created by the Witness utilizing stolen Light. Due to the Witness intervening with their attempt to cross the portal, Mara would reveal that the Coalition was creating a method to allow their entry into the Pale Heart.

Aftermath

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Appearance

• Destiny 2: The Final Shape (First appearance)