"I can, yes, absolutely," Declan replied, jerked back into the real world and out of whatever thoughts he'd momentarily drifted on. He gestured for Aoba to start taking things out, wordlessly encouraging him to explore. Everything that was taken out and inspected, the Titan detailed. The variety of rocks, of course, were the different colors and textures of worlds distant and foreign. Some were known, like Venus, Mars, the Moon. Some were from stranger places, like the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, or even a place he sad existed somewhere between time and space, called the Black Garden.
The smooth black stone with the blue glitter to it he explained was a warp fragment. A piece of Golden Age tech from a derelict ship. The sparkling dust permanently fused to it? Particulates from another solar system entirely.
The scale was from an Ahamkara - a feathered, dragon-like creature presumed to have been hunted to extinction. The bones, scales, and feathers are all still used by Guardians when found, being exceptionally good armor against energy weapons.
The brassy metal pin with the red glass orb inset was called a Continuum Pin. A piece of a Vex portal, it created eddies in time. Essentially, it granted the wearer the ability to remain in a loop in one spot. Useful, he said, for those who needed a breather in battle. Not the most reliable technology, however, he explained that they weren't often used as anything more than prestigious decor.
The stone totem; a Hezen Totem, paraphernalia of the Vex Hezen Corrective or Protective, a massive hive mind race of bio-organic robots. Not friends to humans in the slightest, they are at least fascinating from a distance. The totem itself is something like a gate key, though the gate near which it sat was, Declan insisted, thoroughly destroyed.
The metal cube was an intact warmind core. For all intents and purposes, Declan explained, the box was a brain. Inside lay the consciousness - so to speak - of a warmind. A Warmind being a type of powerful artificial intelligence designed for strategic warfare purposes. They were so complex and intelligent that the Vex had difficulty simulating them. The only known conscious warmind was Rasputin, buried deep under the Cosmodrome in Russia. This one, Declan remarked, was called Martel, best as he can glean from what little information was accessible. No warminds were desired for reactivation, so it really wasn't more than a paperweight without orders to do anything else. May as well bring it home?
The stone with the moths is a piece of the internal chitin of a Hive ship. In the Hive's ontoformic reality, the glow was the manifestation of bound, dying souls. The material the Hive made their ships out of was their own people. Much in the ways bees pulled scales from their bodies and crushed it down into the wax for the honeycombs, the Hive had a way of refining their own dead into a solid material they could build ships and cities out of. While no one believed the whole thing about the moths being the souls of the Hive and humans used to build the ships, pieces of moth-lit material were often taken as a sort of portable shrine for the missing. Warlocks, however, just liked to use them as lamps. Declan admitted that he liked the gentle green glow.
The sparkling gem floating in the metal crescent was a Prismatic Heart - an artifact from the Cult of Osiris. Declan didn't know much about it, not being part of the Cult himself, though a hunter friend said it was used in some sort of meditative ritual. Something about "learning to tease apart the hues of your own heart", which he assumed meant it was something to do with self-reflection. Admittedly, it was pretty and he wanted Aoba to have it. Simple as that.
The rainbow blade was a sacrificial dagger he knew little about, other than it was so incredibly sharp, it's edge could be measured in angstroms, one hundred millionth of a centimeter, usually used to express wavelengths and interatomic distances. Basically, really strong and immeasurably sharp. And again, pretty. The utility of it was interesting, though, and Declan felt it was a weapon good for Aoba to have available to him, even if only for decorative purposes.
The container with the sparkling, swirling dust was actually spectral dust direct from The Reef. It was captured particulate of a kind unique to The Reef where the Awoken - like himself - made their home. It was the mysterious material that held The Reef together, creating a world entirely out of cobbled together derelict ships and other space debris on a massive scale.
And the amber bird skull was called a Traitor's Die, another Hive artifact. While warlock's tended to carry them around as conduits for their power and good luck, the real purpose of the item wasn't known. It was simply something occasionally found on slain Hive soldiers, or in places the Hive inhabited. A relic of the race, symbolic to those unfortunate followers of Oryx, the Taken King, and the only thing of artistic value that indicated any level of independent creativity in the species.
no subject
The smooth black stone with the blue glitter to it he explained was a warp fragment. A piece of Golden Age tech from a derelict ship. The sparkling dust permanently fused to it? Particulates from another solar system entirely.
The scale was from an Ahamkara - a feathered, dragon-like creature presumed to have been hunted to extinction. The bones, scales, and feathers are all still used by Guardians when found, being exceptionally good armor against energy weapons.
The brassy metal pin with the red glass orb inset was called a Continuum Pin. A piece of a Vex portal, it created eddies in time. Essentially, it granted the wearer the ability to remain in a loop in one spot. Useful, he said, for those who needed a breather in battle. Not the most reliable technology, however, he explained that they weren't often used as anything more than prestigious decor.
The stone totem; a Hezen Totem, paraphernalia of the Vex Hezen Corrective or Protective, a massive hive mind race of bio-organic robots. Not friends to humans in the slightest, they are at least fascinating from a distance. The totem itself is something like a gate key, though the gate near which it sat was, Declan insisted, thoroughly destroyed.
The metal cube was an intact warmind core. For all intents and purposes, Declan explained, the box was a brain. Inside lay the consciousness - so to speak - of a warmind. A Warmind being a type of powerful artificial intelligence designed for strategic warfare purposes. They were so complex and intelligent that the Vex had difficulty simulating them. The only known conscious warmind was Rasputin, buried deep under the Cosmodrome in Russia. This one, Declan remarked, was called Martel, best as he can glean from what little information was accessible. No warminds were desired for reactivation, so it really wasn't more than a paperweight without orders to do anything else. May as well bring it home?
The stone with the moths is a piece of the internal chitin of a Hive ship. In the Hive's ontoformic reality, the glow was the manifestation of bound, dying souls. The material the Hive made their ships out of was their own people. Much in the ways bees pulled scales from their bodies and crushed it down into the wax for the honeycombs, the Hive had a way of refining their own dead into a solid material they could build ships and cities out of. While no one believed the whole thing about the moths being the souls of the Hive and humans used to build the ships, pieces of moth-lit material were often taken as a sort of portable shrine for the missing. Warlocks, however, just liked to use them as lamps. Declan admitted that he liked the gentle green glow.
The sparkling gem floating in the metal crescent was a Prismatic Heart - an artifact from the Cult of Osiris. Declan didn't know much about it, not being part of the Cult himself, though a hunter friend said it was used in some sort of meditative ritual. Something about "learning to tease apart the hues of your own heart", which he assumed meant it was something to do with self-reflection. Admittedly, it was pretty and he wanted Aoba to have it. Simple as that.
The rainbow blade was a sacrificial dagger he knew little about, other than it was so incredibly sharp, it's edge could be measured in angstroms, one hundred millionth of a centimeter, usually used to express wavelengths and interatomic distances. Basically, really strong and immeasurably sharp. And again, pretty. The utility of it was interesting, though, and Declan felt it was a weapon good for Aoba to have available to him, even if only for decorative purposes.
The container with the sparkling, swirling dust was actually spectral dust direct from The Reef. It was captured particulate of a kind unique to The Reef where the Awoken - like himself - made their home. It was the mysterious material that held The Reef together, creating a world entirely out of cobbled together derelict ships and other space debris on a massive scale.
And the amber bird skull was called a Traitor's Die, another Hive artifact. While warlock's tended to carry them around as conduits for their power and good luck, the real purpose of the item wasn't known. It was simply something occasionally found on slain Hive soldiers, or in places the Hive inhabited. A relic of the race, symbolic to those unfortunate followers of Oryx, the Taken King, and the only thing of artistic value that indicated any level of independent creativity in the species.