Morning Star

Morning Star
Overview
Location:	Europa Orbit
Enemy factions:	House of Salvation
Hostile races:	Fallen
Connecting areas:	Clarity Control ; Rapture
Gameplay
Area type:	Private
Accessibility:	Deep Stone Crypt (raid)

"Sector Assessment: Orbital platform active. Orbital platform breached. Status: Calamitous."

— Crypt AI

The Morning Star was an orbital platform constructed by the Clovis Bray corporation that orbited the icy moon of Europa. It served as a support station for the Deep Stone Crypt, but also built as a contingency plan to annihilate all the secrets of the facility in the event of a breach in the Crypt's security.

History

The orbital station was first conceived by Clovis Bray I as a failsafe against any danger posed by Clarity Control, after an attempt to relocate the statue from its source resulted in the deaths of nineteen researchers. In the event of catastrophic containment or a quick redaction of their work, the platform would excurse itself from orbit and collide with the site. Clovis had also designed a fission reactor to provide much needed power for course correcting the station's high polar orbits above Europa, and would hide a nuclear option in the station's design to achieve extremely prompt criticality.^[1]

After its construction and launch, the Morning Star predominantly became a control laboratory for Clovis Bray to test a variety of different experiments, all of which end in gruesome fashion. Some of then which involved Nuclear-powered Exos,^[2] Food Supplements,^[3] and exposing test subjects to Clarity Control itself.^[4] At one point, Clovis's granddaughter Elsie Bray would make an attempted sabotage of the station and enact its nuclear protocol in an ill-conceived attempt to destroy the Crypt, only to have failed instead. She then left several recordings of hers throughout the station for others to hear the evil of her grandfather's deeds.^[5]

Surviving years after the Collapse, the orbiting station would remain on standby and in orbit over the moon. The Vanguard advised all Guardians from investigating the station due to the infeasibility of boarding with active and unpredictably hostile defenses.^[6] During the War of Salvation, House Salvation Fallen lead by Atraks breached the Deep Stone Crypt and subsequently boarded the platform itself from their Ketch, where they obtained Exomind technology according to Vanguard intelligence.^[7]

Their presence, coupled with the Guardians sent by Elsie to drive them out, was cause for the Crypt AI to confine both parties to the platform as it initiated its nuclear descent protocol; threatening all of Europa with nuclear orbital collision with the Crypt. Both Guardian and Fallen alike fought their way toward the station's nuclear contingency chamber, with Taniks, Reborn having reached the station's controls first followed by the six-manned fireteam. The Guardians, working together to deposit the station's nuclear cores into ports, would disable the nuclear descent protocol moments before orbital reentry. However, since the station already descended into Europa, the Morning Star was destroyed upon collision and the Crypt laid open for enemies and allies alike.^[5]

Despite its destruction, wreckage from the Morning Star still lingered in Europa's atmosphere. Periodically falling to the surface, the House of Salvation would routinely attempt to salvage the station's Braytech secrets from the debris themselves by fortifying the debris-laden areas through the use of Darkness.^[8] However their attempts to gather power are subdued by Guardians instead.^[9]

Debris from the station would also impact the further-out Vesper Station, unleashing a previously contained rampant AI aboard it.

Transcript

Crypt AI: Artificial Intelligence activated. Enjoying yourselves, intruders? It's worth knowing the cataclysmic damage you will be responsible for today. Do not fool yourselves. This facility is not simply the fruitless work of some pathetic scientist. This house was built by the genius Clovis Bray I himself. Within lies humanity's salvation. La fontaine de jouvence. Made possible by Clarity Control. Magnificent, wasn't it? An entity from beyond our own dimension. And the answer to humanity's eternal struggle: mortality. Were it to fall into the wrong hands, humanity, and the universe, would be utterly doomed. I have no reason to believe you are anything other than "the wrong hands." You now face godlike judgment. May it extend eternally.