ASSIMILATED: A Destiny Vex Fan Zine has arrived, fresh from an alternate timeline! This is a free fan zine where over 30 artists and writers have contributed their time and talents to craft works centered around the coolest robotic alien faction in Destiny 2, the Vex. 🤖 We hope you enjoy seeing everyone's creations!
P.S. There are 30 little Nessus frogs hidden alongside and within the art and writing, see if you can find them all!
Here is my submission to the Destiny 2 Vex Zine.
This is Asher and Ayma receiving all their memories from within the vex across timelines, and each other's.
Go check out the full PDF Zine at the google drive link here -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1okOhm9sTOOCpTA1e9xquZ6uZJNY_SJgZ/view
This was my contribution to the @assimilatedzine Vex edition.
I find it funny that my first ever fan zine happens to be dedicated to the enemy that made me rage quit so hard I left the community and the game for a decade.
And now I'm back. But I love Tevis, and since he interacted with them on Venus and in the Garden, I had to include him.
Go and check out the rest of the zine, and show the talented artists and writers some love, as well as the people who put it all together!!
"Why didn't you just say we were goin' to the Vex hole?" the Drifter whispered into her ear just before he dismounted the Sparrow from behind Eris.
"The what?" Eris asked, likewise keeping her voice low.
Eris was able to compel the lesser Hive to avoid their route but they were entering a space where that ability was going to prove less useful. They killed the engine, spoke only in whispers and approached on foot.
"The Vex hole," the Drifter continued as she leaned against the same rock he was peeking out from behind. "That's what everybody calls it."
"Everybody does not call it that."
The Drifter shuddered and grinned as Eris' lips grazed his ear while she whispered to him.
"I have never heard it called that," she continued. "And I should think that if anyone would be able to comment on what things are named on the Moon, it would be I." Eris tugged gently on the Drifter's arm and crouched through a small hole in the rock leading to a sheltered outcropping.
"This way."
The Drifter licked his lips and followed her.
Outside of their barely audible whispers to each other, they moved together cautiously without sound. Through an opening in the rock a large Vex portal loomed in the distance.
The Drifter looked out and scanned the area. Two Goblins down near the portal and a twitchy Harpy far to the right. None of them looking their way. He pressed in close next to Eris, perhaps closer than he technically needed to but she did not seem to mind, and continued to gently goad her.
"It's a hole… on the Moon… full of Vex," he whispered. "Vex hole. It's simple. To the point. And it makes sense. Ya don't need words with seventeen syllables when two of 'em will do."
Eris turned to him, brushing her nose against his beard as she did so.
"I am surprised you even know what a syllable is," she whispered sharply.
He shuddered again and stifled a nervous laugh.
Eris sighed. "This is not a fruitful topic of discussion."
"Nah, the fruit is in the Black Garden, which is where that portal goes to." He pointed. "We should definitely not go through there."
"At least we are in agreement upon that."
He winked at her with a smile.
"Is that your weird Harpy down there?"
"Yes."
"Other than looking kinda broken, what's so interesting about it you needed me to come look at it with you?"
"Come this way so that you can see for yourself."
She led him even farther along the partially covered outcropping to the right, ducking under another low-hanging rock until they were almost directly above the twitching sparking Harpy.
The Drifter looked down, frowned, looked back at Eris and then returned his gaze to the malfunctioning Harpy.
Much like many Sol Divisive units, it was covered in bits of moss and seemed almost diseased, but this one in particular was listlessly repeating the same movements as it blinked and sparked. One of its three fins was extended beyond the others and it dragged on the ground as it went through whatever movement subroutine it was stuck in.
Seen from directly above, however, it was clear that its movements were not random. Its one dragging fin was being pulled through the loose Moon dust below it. From this angle it was clear that what it was drawing was Eris Morn's symbol, the icon she wore emblazoned on her chest piece, inscribed on all of her charms and incorporated into her magic: the Bane of the Swarm.
"Well that's definitely not what I was expectin' to find."
"You see now why it warrants investigation."
"You think it wants… to talk to ya?"
"That is my theory but, as you have so often pointed out, such things have improved outcomes when one has… backup."
The Drifter reached out and gave Eris' upper arm a gentle squeeze, just below her pauldrons, above the armour of where her gauntlets began.
"Thanks for that." His voice was soft and grateful.
Eris placed her own hand on top of his briefly before climbing down toward the sparking blinking Vex.
Weapons drawn, they approached it slowly. It did not react to their presence and continued its movements.
"It's like it's sleepwalking while havin' a seizure or something," the Drifter whispered.
Eris nodded.
After a few more moments of observation, the Drifter reached out a hand and pushed the Harpy as it floated by. It continued its movements, seemingly unaware it had been shoved, and the drawing of Eris' symbol continued, now slightly offset from its original location.
The Drifter raised an eyebrow and stood in the Harpy's path, reaching out both hands to hold it in place. It continued to spark and jerk but did not attack or otherwise respond. After a moment he let it go and the Harpy continued a third offset drawing of the Bane of the Swarm symbol in the dust.
"Definitely seems to be stuck on that subroutine," he whispered. "Someone put it in there and left it for ya."
"But what would be the point of that if there's no further instruction or way to carry a message back?" Eris asked.
"I dunno. Kinda wanna take it apart to see if it's got something else inside of it but I don't wanna wreck it."
"Hmmm…" Eris mused. "Part of me questions if this is one of many. Between the Hive, House Dusk and the Guardians, a malfunctioning harpy on the Moon is unlikely to last long."
"Hold up," the Drifter's eyes glinted. "You. Ghost."
The Drifter's ghost obediently materialized in front of him, shell slightly wide in surprise at being summoned somewhere this dangerous.
"Scan that," he commanded. "Record the glitchy sparky bits. Pattern analysis."
"What are you thinking?"
"We been watching this thing for a while now. I think the way it glitches is repeating."
"A message?"
The Drifter's ghost began excitedly blinking red then blue and back again.
"Yeah, yeah. Datapad." He held out his hand.
The datapad the ghost transmatted into his hand was already on and had words on the screen.
"What does it say?" Eris asked, keeping watch to ensure none of the other Vex were taking notice of this small interesting corner of the caven.
"It's straight up binary but it's just three words and some numbers and I dunno what in the hell this is supposed to mean."
"What three words?"
"Gallant. Mystic. Scribe."
Eris spun around and grabbed the Drifter by his fur-covered pauldrons. Her mouth half-open in surprise.
"Asher," she whispered. "What are the numbers?"
"Dunno yet. They don't translate like the rest so they probably are numbers."
"A numerical message? Perhaps in code?"
"Yeah or… maybe a place?"
"Coordinates! Yes. Where?"
Both looked to the Drifter's ghost as it spun its shell and made soft clicks.
The Datapad screen changed.
"Nessus," the Drifter interpreted.
"We must inform Ikora," Eris whispered, her voice trembling with emotion.
A sizzling sound echoed through the air and the entire cavern filled with light. The large portal at the other end was activating.
Dozens of Sol Divisive Vex began streaming into the area.
"Vile creatures!" Eris cursed. "We have been perceived."
The twitching Harpy beside them seemed to come to life. It stopped its listless drawing in the dust and began to glow.
The Drifter's eyes went wide and he gunned it down without a second thought.
"Time to go, Three-Eyes!" he said as he began picking off the oncoming swarm of Vex.
. . .
The sound of croaking multi-eyed Radiolarian-resistant frogs filled the air as the Drifter and Eris reached the top of the jagged half-broken Vex architecture. Eris reached down and helped the Drifter clamber up while Ikora stood watching her ghost, Ophiuchus, scan another non-violent, twitching, Sol Divisive Harpy. Eris and the Drifter had to climb. Ikora simply flew to the top.
"That's like the one back on the Moon," the Drifter said. "Completely non-responsive."
"Catatonic," Eris added.
"That's what I said!" the Drifter said indignantly.
Ikora turned to glare at him. He raised both of his hands in mock surrender and rolled his eyes.
"I'm detecting no patterns in this Vex. No signal. Nothing," Ophiuchus said quietly beside Ikora.
"Perhaps this Harpy is not the message," Eris countered. "Help me examine the surroundings."
They split up and began to look around the small flat area around the Harpy.
"Anything?" Ikora asked after a few moments.
"Nothing," Eris said, her disappointment plain in her voice.
"I mean, this wall is weirdly bumpy," the Drifter said, pointing behind him, "but beyond that I got nothin'."
"Bumpy?" Ikora asked, not hiding the irritation she felt toward the grubby companion Eris had insisted come along with them. "How?"
"I dunno how to explain it," he said. "Come feel it."
Eris walked over and reached out a hand while Ikora raised her eyebrows and nodded for Ophiuchus to scan the wall again. Her ghost looked back at her and shook from side to side.
Eris let out a soft hiss between her teeth and began to pull off her gauntlets.
"What is it?" Ikora asked.
"A message," Eris said quickly, "I am certain of it."
"Ikora I'm not picking up anything," Ophiuchus told her, "why would it not be showing up on the scans?"
"My guess would be that the message is intended for someone super sensitive to touch," the Drifter said with a grin. He was pleased he'd found something Ikora's ghost hadn't and had, in fact, been a useful contributing member of the group, despite the Warlock Vanguard's reservations.
"Yes," Eris intoned. "Here. Ikora? Your hands. Here. And here."
As Ikora approached, Eris gently took her hands by the wrists and placed them in position before stepping to the side and placing her own hands in a similar configuration.
"Push," the three-eyed witch commanded.
Ikora nodded and did so.
Several lights appeared between cracks in the seemingly solid stone wall. And then a moment later, the wall itself began to move.
"Ikora," Ophiuchus called out.
The Drifter had his hand cannon trained the now blinking Harpy as it spun slowly, its three flaps opening and closing.
It did not attack them and, once the wall had fully opened, exposing a passageway, the moss-covered Harpy silently floated through into the dark interior.
As Eris moved to follow it, Ikora caught her arm.
"It could be a trap," the Warlock cautioned.
"It is not," Eris insisted, grasping Ikora's hand in her own. "It is Asher. I am certain of it."
Ikora looked back to the Drifter who was nervously chewing his lips and walking toward them.
"You do not have to come with us," she said, giving him an out. "You can keep watch out here." He was not known for his bravery.
"Nope," he told her. "Where she goes, I go." He nodded toward Eris.
Eris nodded back and then stepped through into the darkness.
. . .
The stone room was dilapidated and crumbling. It had once been set up as a circular hub with a vaulted ceiling and several entrances spaced evenly on the surrounding walls, but now all of the tunnels were caved-in except for the one they had entered through. In the centre of the room were four portals and in the middle was a pillar.
The strangely pacifistic Sol Divisive Harpy hovered high above the pillar. And on the pillar itself a datalattice cube shone brightly in the dark abandoned room.
The Drifter shook his head between Eris and Ikora. "I don't like it."
"Clearly it wants us to take the object," Eris said as she approached it.
"If it was so easy why didn't it just give us the thing on the Moon?" Drifter asked. "The way those Vex spilled out of that portal it was like they knew something was going down and they wanted to put a stop to it."
"Or we were simply unlucky and their presence was coincidental." Eris countered.
"Be careful, Eris," Ikora said.
The Drifter winced. Eris squared her shoulders and tilted her chin up at Ikora's words.
"You know that's the last thing you should tell her in order to get her to be careful, right?" the Drifter said, exasperated. "You've known her longer than me. How do you not know that?"
Ikora glared at the Drifter as Eris walked swiftly to the centre of the room, reaching her hand out to the glowing cube.
Just before Eris' fingers could touch the object one of the nearby portals lit up. Eris ducked and rolled as a Warp Lance Turret blast impacted the datalattice cube, shattering it.
Ikora's Nova Bomb hit the Wyvern before it could even finish stepping out of the portal, knocking it back away from Eris.
Eris kept rolling and came to her feet with her sword drawn, lopping off the head of a Minotaur.
Harpies, Goblins and Minotaurs began pouring into the room, not only from the portals, but also from the entrance behind them.
. . .
"Crap. This is not good," the Drifter muttered as he crawled over to Eris across the bright green lines in the floor.
The seemingly non-violent Harpy they'd followed into the room had upended itself in front of a portal ring behind them, activated it, and then flown at high speed toward the other oncoming Vex, glowing brightly and beeping.
The concussive blast when it exploded had knocked all three of them through the portal, which had promptly closed behind them.
Ikora stood and looked around, assessing the situation. Green and white lines formed the environment in the floor walls and ceiling around them.
"We're inside the Vex network," Ikora murmured, half concerned, half in awe as she observed the box-like room they had found themselves in. A short corridor formed an exit before turning sharply to the right.
"Yeah and we need to not be here," the Drifter said as he and Eris stood up.
"We can find a way out." Ikora said. "I've run tactical for the Guardian in the Vex network countless times."
"Can you see anything?" the Drifter asked Eris, his voice full of worry.
"I can perceive you and Ikora. I will likely be able to perceive our assailants as well but… not the terrain."
Ikora's eyes widened. She and the Drifter locked eyes for a moment. He bit both his lips.
"If I die here, I will be reconstituted within my Throne." Eris said. "I am a liability to the survival of you both. It may be better to simply-"
"NO." Both the Drifter and Ikora said it at the same time, with equal severity.
"Not a chance, Three-Eyes," the Drifter added after.
"I agree," Ikora said. "You should both stay here while I find a way out. I'll come back once I do."
"That won't work, Rey Rey."
Ikora glared at the Drifter.
"Vex portals wink in and out of existence all the time, you'll find one and by the time you get us back there it'll be gone. But, more important, Vex network hates intruders. They're gonna know we're here. There's no way they won't. And I'm tellin' ya, Vex intrusion countermeasures do not mess around. We gotta keep movin'. Stay still too long and one wall's gonna turn red, slide across everything, and wipe us all out. We-"
"Tsch." Eris interrupted him. "Ikora knows what she is doing. She has-"
"He's right," Ikora broke in. "Much as I dislike it. He's right. We stick together. We keep moving."
Eris growled in frustration.
"Climb on my back," the Drifter told her. "I'll carry you. You shoot."
"What?" Eris asked him, incredulous.
"You can see the hostiles. I can see the terrain. Ol' Rey Rey can Nova Bomb. Plus, if I miss a jump or somethin' you can do that hover thing with your Hive magic to keep us from falling. Rey Rey can fly. All I can do is fall and hope my ghost can rez me if the floor disappears. You'll be keepin' me alive too, Moondust."
"Hmmm… Very well."
Initially, they were doing quite well for themselves, Ikora taking the lead, shooting her Fusion Rifle and Shotgun, launching Pocket Singularities, and tossing Axion Bolt grenades. She was able to eradicate almost everything in their path while the Drifter ran after her. Eris picked off any stragglers one-handed while her other arm was wrapped around the Drifter's shoulders as he carried her, piggy-back, jumping from one neon green-lined or ice-blue platform to the next.
But the longer they stayed within the Vex network, the more formidable the resistance to their progress became. Ikora became engaged in a more prolonged firefight against two Wyverns and several Harpies while the Drifter and Eris were pinned down behind a convenient but very small piece of simulated wall as several Minotaurs sniped at them from multiple angles.
With a grunt of frustration, the Drifter tossed a Glacier grenade and took two shots in the chest to take out the snipers. He succeeded in eliminating the crossfire but the last shot spun him around and knocked him off the ledge they were on.
Eris, able to see him but not where the ground ended, crawled carefully to him to help him climb back up as he dangled above oblivion while Ikora continued to to be a one-woman army above them.
Eris almost had him back on the platform when she sucked in a breath and pointed her hand cannon at something below the Drifter.
Her finger partially depressed the trigger and then stopped.
Slowly, rising from below the Drifter's feet, a twitching and sparking Vex Hydra floated up, first providing something for him to stand on to get back on the ledge and then hovering above them, the walls of its three semi-circular shields giving them cover from the firefight going on around them.
The Drifter also pulled out his hand cannon when he saw the giant metal centipede hovering above them. But Eris put her hand on the muzzle and pointed it away from the twitching Vex.
"It is a friend."
"How do you know?" he asked.
"We are not dead."
"Uh… Ok, I guess that makes sense."
The Hydra continued to hover above them, shielding them as the Drifter's ghost quickly healed his wounds "just this one time" since he loathed the use of it otherwise. Once he was able to carry Eris again, the Hydra began to move, guiding them while keeping them within its shields.
"Hey Rey Rey! We found a friend! And I bet it knows the way out!" the Drifter called back to Ikora.
The Hydra gradually picked up speed as it guided them through the simulated architecture of the Vex network, the Drifter jogging alongside its elongated many-legged metal body while Ikora flew behind them. The other Vex in the area began to target the Hydra as well as Ikora. It took several hits but did not return fire. Ikora did her best to protect it, the people within its rotating shields, and herself. Sure enough, it brought them to a square neon tunnel ending in a large portal.
Eris and Ikora turned to the Hydra together in front of the portal as the Drifter waited on the edge of the sparkling circular exit. Little metal centipede legs reached out and, twitching and sparking, gently touched both Eris and Ikora's outstretched hands. It seemed to pull them into it slightly before shuddering and falling apart into multiple segments at their feet.
"Asher!" Eris called out and sunk to her knees as the Hydra collapsed.
At the centre of the broken Hydra body was a glowing square datalattice cube just like the one that had been destroyed before they found themselves in the Vex network.
Eris picked it up and held it to her chest, looking up at Ikora.
"People, it is time to leave! Now!" the Drifter shouted, running forward and grabbing on to both Eris and Ikora, dragging them back. Ikora seemed about to set off a Pocket Singularity in his face when she saw his terrified expression. She turned to look, saw the wall of angry red energy rapidly approaching, decorporealizing everything in its path, and helped him pull Eris through the portal.
They stepped out of that same portal on the Moon, the entrance to the Black Garden, where Eris and the Drifter had found the first Harpy drawing her symbol in the dust.
"Oh hey!" the Drifter said, cheerily. "It's the Vex hole!"
"The what?" Ikora asked.
Eris sighed. "He insists everyone calls it that."
"Calls what?" Ikora did not hide the irritation from her voice.
"This location. The Vex… hole," Eris explained, gesturing with one hand while holding the glowing cube in the other.
"That is not what it's called in any of the Vanguard archives," Ikora said, curtly.
"It's a hole," the Drifter explained. "On the Moon. Full of Vex. A Vex hole. I dunno why you-"
The portal hummed to life behind them.
"Uh… We can talk about that later," the Drifter added.
. . .
In Eris' personal quarters in Sanctuary on the Moon, the three of them sat around a small work table with the datalattice cube resting in the middle of it. Both Ophiuchus and the Drifter's ghost were scanning it. The Drifter held a data pad and watched the other two women as they examined the strange object.
Ikora reached out a hand and placed it on the cube.
"Mithrax said he was gone. All the information we have indicates he was completely subsumed."
"Indeed," Eris murmured. "And yet something of Asher Mir still persists. This artifact, and the circumstances of its retrieval are a demonstration of it."
"What do you think it is?" Ikora asked.
"I do not know," Eris answered solemnly. "But… I suspect. And… I hope."
"If I was a angry Awoken, too smart for my own good, that everyone thought was dissolved by the Vex, an' I figured out a way to still exist somehow, probably the first thing I'd try to make would be a communicator," the Drifter said softly.
"Yes," Eris answered.
"Our knowledge of Vex technology is very limited." Ikora cautioned. "This will likely need Vex components to function."
"I got two disassembled Minotaurs in duffle bags in the Annex right now. I'll kitbash somethin' together. Might take a few tries but I bet we can make it work."
Eris' three Hive eyes met with Ikora's and Eris' lips quirked into a small smile. Ikora smiled back.
The datapad in the Drifter's hand showed the readout from his ghost's scan of the energy the cube was emitting. Three words kept repeating on the screen at regular intervals:
"Gallant. Mystic. Scribe."
This was also written during the May Mixtape challenge and was based on 3 songs/days:
16 - Infected Mushroom - Heavyweight
17 - Astrix - Agate
18 - OIIA OIIA (Spinning Cat) - W&W
Playlist on Spotify
Playlist on Youtube
Link to all stories in the May Mixtape series.
Also, also: the idea of the Drifter carrying Eris on his back has absolutely been shamelessly stolen from @tracerifleenthusiast's ongoing story Guardians of the Deep which has Eris, the Drifter and Sloane on an action-filled sexy romp through the Ghosts of the Deep dungeon and if you haven't seen it yet you absolutely should go read it because it is cute and awesome and funny as hell.
A curtain of blue-violet fire filled an entire half of the sky, pebbled with granules, seething with promontories and flares. We stood beneath a blue hypergiant, titan of suns, looming over all.
Our instruments identified glints of brighter light against the sunfire. They were orbiting mirror clusters, gathering the star's radiation and focusing it back, burning wounds in the photosphere. These solar stigmata hemorrhaged endless flares, geysers of energy and precious metals.
Above those cutting mirrors, rings encircled the star like garrote wires. These were particle accelerators, generating blades of electromagnetic force that stabbed down into the star's skin, through photosphere and tachocline, towards the core.
There was no trace of Clarity's influence here at all. Except perhaps in that mysterious tower...?
My second piece for @assimilatedzine ! Again, not an artist usually, but I had such a vivid image of this place ever since I first read about it: it's Volantis, the Forge Star, an incomprehensibly ancient place the Vex have inhabited since the dawn of time, described by Clovis Bray in his logbook aka in the Beyond Light Collector's Edition.
Against the howl of star-wind |the fountains of the Great Deep burst apart and the floodgates|, the black |screen of tomorrow| fell open. Within the rip |without form known nor ever to be seen| a monolithic hulk of fluid and steel convulsed |eternal and always| and excreted coils of shimmering |glorious| life. Probing |host of multitudes|, clattering tendrils |an ungodly horror that no time would accept| slithered down |the gullet of the Heavens| to make landfall.
Chrome-hooked appendages |breached sky, counted in triplets| stretched for miles through sun-soaked atmosphere. They bored |with deepest intentions| into the marigold sands. From the great temporal chasms |wailing mouths of creation| flowed an ocean |a second conception| of radiolarian fluid.
My first piece for @assimilatedzine ! I'm not an artist usually but I could not rest until I did this. A symbolic representation of the Vex conversion of Mercury into a machine world based on the bizarre and baffling description of it I posted an excerpt from.
