Untethered Edge Suit
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Failsafe (H.E.L.M.) |
Untethered Edge Suit is a Legendary Armor set introduced in Episode: Echoes.[1] It can be acquired through Echo Engrams and episodic activities.
Untethered Edge Helm/Hood/MaskEdit
- "Head to head."
- — Helm/Hood/Mask description
Empress Caiatl looked out from the viewport of the H.E.L.M., watching the shimmer of the Traveler. It signaled change. It signaled danger. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, unsure of what might come.
"Well," Failsafe chimed, off-key. "Look who finally decided to drop by."
Empress Caiatl turned and stepped up to the terminal, surveying the apparatus that allowed the AI to interface with the command center.
"The AI," Caiatl mused aloud. "From the Exodus Black. Failsafe. This is how you are communicating with the Vanguard."
"Correct!" Failsafe chirped. "Welcome, Empress. What a delightful surprise!"
Caiatl looked up in confusion at the greeting. Failsafe flashed and emitted a series of low beeps before she spoke again.
"You're not going to land another tank on me here, are you? Or was one enough?"
Caiatl lowered her tusks at the AI's sarcasm but did not respond.
"Pretty sure you're not here to apologize, either."
"No," the Empress answered without hesitation. "I will make no apologies. My presence on Nessus was a necessary step towards my eventual alliance with the Vanguard. It forced them to react."
"Uh-huh," Failsafe said, unimpressed.
"It was strategic," the Empress urged. Her tone was firm, but conciliatory. Failsafe's response was bright.
"It was very rude!"
Caiatl rumbled in thought. Failsafe imitated the noise in a crackle of modulator static. The Empress ignored this.
"Yes," she said. "I will admit… it was rude."
Failsafe was silent. Caiatl cleared her throat before she continued, her eyes wandering to the research specimens that littered the room.
"Scans had detected a large wreck in the vicinity of the landing zone. Your presence was noted, but— "
"Ignored?"
"Yes," she said, looking back at the AI console. "Ignored. We did not view you as a threat."
"Your assessment was correct!" Failsafe agreed. Then her voice flattened again. "It's not like I could have stopped you."
Caiatl furrowed her brow.
"Why do you speak so? Your voice changes from one thought to the next. It's — "
"Annoying? Yeah. I get that a lot."
"No." The Empress squared her shoulders. "I was going to reference a Cabal legend. A warrior with two faces. She had one with no tongue, and one with no tusks."
Caiatl shook her head. Failsafe listened intently.
"It is a parable for the use of diplomacy… and describes the limits of such methods."
Failsafe paused for a moment, considering, and Caiatl wondered which voice would answer her.
"It's my politeness filter," Failsafe said, dour. "I can only keep it up for so long before it drops out."
"Hm. And then you may speak your mind?"
"Sure can, lady."
Caiatl nodded, sighing.
"I sympathize."
Untethered Edge Gauntlets/Gloves/GripsEdit
- "Tighten your grip."
- — Gauntlets/Gloves/Grips description
The metallic limbs of the Vex Goblin flailed wildly in the air as Saint-14 held it high above his head. The Titan dropped abruptly to one knee, bringing down the writhing Vex and cracking the radiolarian chamber at its center against his massive thigh.
The red light in the Vex's eye flickered out as the cooling radiolaria trickled down Saint's boot. He stood, satisfied, and cast the dead frame aside.
"Do you see?" he asked brightly. "I use the very weight of the creature against it!"
"Whoa," came Failsafe's voice over the comms, low and impressed. Saint's visual feed held her full attention. She adjusted her filter, and her tone became cheery. "Please show me again!"
"You cannot get this close to them all the time, but it is wise to save ammunition when you can," Saint said. He dusted off his hands and chuckled. "And it feels good to crush a Vex! It is very therapeutic!"
"Ah, I believe I understand!" chirped Failsafe. "Is there a power transfer during this thanatotic expression that explains how you are able to maintain such high uptime on your socialization filters?"
Saint slid his helmet off and the comms transferred seamlessly to his built-in Exo earpiece. "What is it you mean?"
"I will rephrase," Failsafe replied. "What percentage of your processes are dedicated to positive outlook preservation?"
Saint squinted at the stone outcroppings of Nessus and turned his helmet over in his hands. "Failsafe," he began kindly, but she interrupted.
"Ugh, okay," she started, her tone somehow portraying an eyeroll. "I mean, you're in a good mood, like, all the time, so obviously you overclocked your joviality banks or something, yeah?"
Saint broke into a wide smile. "Exos are not like AI. I am just who I am, Failsafe. It does not take anything extra to be me."
"Oh!" Failsafe exclaimed after a moment. "How lovely that must be for you!" Her sunny voice did little to hide her envy.
"Now for you, I understand it is different," Saint said, patting his helmet as if to soothe it. "But I think that maybe you should not have to spend extra power to talk to your friends."
A heavy silence fell over the comms.
Failsafe's voice was soft and reserved. "Saint-unit?" she said quietly.
"Yes?"
"Did you once headbutt a Kell?"
Saint burst into laughter. "I have headbutted many things!"
"I'm checking on your files, and uh, yeah, you really have," Failsafe said. She scrolled through a vast sea of Saint's accomplishments, all complete with uploads of his visual feed… except one.
"Weird… Saint-unit, there's an unconfirmed VanNet report here about an unsanctioned solo operation in Savathûn's throne world sometime last year. According to this—"
"Who made this report?" Saint asked.
Failsafe accessed a VanNet profile and was met with a stream of account flags. "A heavily restricted user account, _MRU_, who claims firsthand knowledge of the event."
"Pfah," Saint said dismissively. "You cannot believe every report in the system." He slid his helmet back on and walked purposefully toward a shimmering radiolarian stream where Vex were beginning to emerge.
Failsafe recognized the subtle inflections in Saint's tone: the conversation had become suddenly troubling to him.
Probably not enough juice in his cordiality partition, Failsafe thought, and dropped the subject.
Untethered Edge Plate/Robes/VestEdit
- "One breath."
- — Plate/Robes/Vest description
"Greetings, Ikora! I have a topic I would like to discuss with you."
Ikora stood in the H.E.L.M., watching the flash of the AI's processor. Failsafe's voice was cheery.
"Of course. What do you need?"
"It is with regard to the Cayde unit, and your encounter with him inside the Pale Heart."
"I see," Ikora said stiffly. "You don't have to engage your politeness filter, Failsafe."
"I realize that this is a sensitive topic and did not wish to make you uncomfortable. However, I see that my politeness filter may be having the opposite effect. Disengaging now."
Ikora clasped her hands behind her back and waited for Failsafe to speak in the few moments of silence that followed.
"So… what's he like? The same?"
"Yes," Ikora said warmly. "Exactly as I remembered."
"Must have been nice to see him again."
Ikora heard the disappointment in the AI's voice.
"It was hard at first. Seeing him again brought back how I felt when we lost him." Ikora chose her next words carefully. "Reports from the time of Cayde's death describe your reaction as…" she paused, unsure.
Failsafe's interface flashed. Ikora could almost feel the thread of shame woven into the silence. When the AI spoke again, it was at a whisper.
"I didn't know how to respond. I have trouble processing my emotions," Failsafe admitted. "You can probably tell."
Ikora nodded.
"We all have trouble with that sometimes. We're not our best selves when we're grieving."
The Warlock heard a series of small whirrs and clicks. Somewhere, an internal fan began to hiss. It grew louder and louder as the AI spoke.
"I think I lost my 'best self' when I lost my crew."
If Failsafe had been a Human, or even a frame, Ikora would have reached out and patted her on the shoulder. Instead, all she could do was speak gently.
"I don't think that's true."
The AI sighed. Ikora knew the sound was just for ease of communication, but she appreciated it, nonetheless.
"Cayde unit was…" Failsafe began, then trailed off. Ikora waited patiently.
"He was the first person to find me after my crew died," she continued. "He introduced me to all of you. He made me feel useful again. When he died, I… sort of freaked out. It felt like I had lost all of you. And then, you know, I kinda did."
Now Ikora herself felt that thread of shame.
"I'm sorry, Failsafe. We're here now."
"Yeah," Failsafe said warmly. "That makes me feel a little better."
Untethered Edge Greaves/Boots/StridesEdit
- "Set your stance."
- — Greaves/Boots/Strides description
The frames in the H.E.L.M. had been dutifully performing their assigned tasks before Failsafe pinged one. It looked up, turned to the AI's console, and tilted its head in question.
"Hey, buddy," Failsafe said, voice low. "Can you do me a favor?"
The frame nodded and walked towards her. Failsafe directed it to look to its right. A Vex cranium lay on the floor.
"The Guardian left it," Failsafe said, answering the frame's unspoken question. "Transmatted it in just now. I need you to hook me up."
The frame gave a soft chirp, then nodded and stooped to pick up the alien apparatus. It was heavy, but the frame teetered over and held out the Vex cranium for Failsafe's inspection. It was intact, the neck neatly severed, the eye clear and undamaged.
"Looks good," Failsafe said. The frame brought the cranium to the research table and plugged a complex network of wires into ports inside the Vex's head. The eye flashed a stuttering light and Failsafe flashed with it.
"I can handle it from here," Failsafe said.
The Vex cranium sparked and hissed for one sharp second before Failsafe quelled it with a quickly improvised script. The eye flashed again, then dimmed, then blinked out.
"Thank you, friend!" Failsafe said to the frame, all cheer. "You have been very helpful."
The frame gave a thumbs up and trilled a pre-recorded "You're welcome!" before moving out of the way, waiting for its next command.
Failsafe focused on the Vex, peering into its mind. She relayed a series of command prompts to the incapacitated Vex, the execution of which gave her immediate access to three layers of encrypted data.
It wasn't enough. She had here a schematic of Nessus's interior, but nothing that her deeper scans hadn't already told her. The Vex's system was reflexively generating junk data as an immune response to her probing. She wrote a subroutine to garbage-collect it as she moved deeper inside the Vex mind.
She could see some of the deeper tunnels. Their dimensions, the volume of radiolaria. This Vex unit had overseen some of its construction, but that was centuries ago. The planet had shifted. New pathways had been dug, expanded, or rerouted. They went deeper. She struggled to interpret it. Failsafe was becoming crowded with useless data. The Vex unit was trying to overwhelm her.
She pushed forward. What she found surprised her. This Vex had been disconnected from a Mind for much longer than Failsafe had anticipated. It had collected its own individual data, interpreted it, collated it, and assimilated it on its own. It had completed tasks not at the behest of a Mind, but instead…
Access denied.
Failsafe pulled back.
The AI watched in surprise as a self-contained data packet swiftly opened of its own accord and prompted itself to run. Failsafe's hard-coded defense mechanism slammed down, momentarily repelling the intrusive script.
"Disconnect! Disconnect!" Failsafe shouted, and the frame rushed to the cranium, pulling out the wires it had connected only moments before.
There was a long silence but for the gentle whirr of a cooling fan.
"Huh. That was… not great. Pretty bad, actually." Failsafe said. "Don't tell the Vanguard, OK?"
"OK! OK! OK!" the frame chirped, and took the Vex away for disposal.
Untethered Edge Mark/Bond/CapeEdit
- "Show your true intentions."
- — Mark/Bond/Cape description
"Greetings, Saint-unit! I have several queries related to events that transpired during my recent period of isolation!"
Saint-14 nodded to Failsafe's terminal in the H.E.L.M., which flashed excitedly as she spoke.
"Yes, of course." Saint replied. "The fight against the Witness took us to many strange places, and we made many strange allies."
The Exo pulled up a chair and sat beside Failsafe. He curled his hands into fists, lifting them in a gesture of triumph.
"The portal to the Traveler was our first great obstacle. We did not know how to pass through it, nor did we know what the Witness was doing. We lost many Guardians… and civilians."
There was a moment of silence for the lives sacrificed in pursuit of the Witness.
"We did not know how to proceed," Saint continued. "But then Deputy Commander Sloane returned to us, saying that she knew of a being who could tell us more. With great effort, and much diving into the seas of Titan, we spoke to this being."
Failsafe gave a series of high-pitched chirps. "Yes! Guardians frequented Nessus in higher numbers at that time."
"To fish," Saint-14 agreed, his momentum broken. "But this being, this proto-worm, Ahsa—"
"So there are fish? In the lake? The lake made of radiolaria?"
The Exo sighed, then shook his head and continued.
"Yes. So, Ahsa pointed us to Savathûn, who knew how to pass through the portal. Of course, at the time, she was dead. But her Ghost, Immaru, came to us and said Xivu Arath must be taken down first. Only then would he resurrect her."
"How many fish?" the AI asked urgently.
"Um… I… do not know," he said. "Many?"
He cleared his throat. The Exo tapped his fingers against his knee, frustrated.
"Anyway, we then turned to Eris and Ikora, who knew the Hive and Savathûn better than any of us. Eris performed a… ritual… to transform into a Hive god herself!"
He jumped up, fists raised, scraping the chair legs against the floor of the H.E.L.M. in a loud shriek. Pausing, he looked around, cleared his throat, and sat back down. He raised a finger.
"And then—"
"Could someone bring me a fish? And a fish tank?"
Saint paused, blinking.
"Maybe the Guardian can arrange it," Saint said impatiently. "Xivu Arath—"
"I have compiled a list of potential names for a fish!"
"That is… very nice, Failsafe. So, Eris banished Xivu Arath, and Savathûn was resurrected! She gave us what we asked for: a way through the portal! But we had to make a bargain with Riven, the great Ahamkara of the Dreaming City, and—"
"If we could return to the topic of fishing…" Failsafe interjected cheerily, and Saint put his head in his hands.
AppearanceEdit
- Destiny 2: Episode: Echoes (First appearance)
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Bungie (2024/6/11)