Vex

The Vex are time-traveling robots who are hostile to the Guardians. Located on Venus, their fortress is known as the Citadel. The Vex also have a presence on Mars.

Overview
Their heads are cone-shaped, with a red photoreceptor at the center. They arrive in the solar system via warp gates, likely from another time in the past or future. Their robotic bodies still carry a hint of organic components (particularly their mind cores, which contain a milky radiolarian fluid), and individual bodies might be humanoid, creature-shaped, or in-between, but often with long, vicious clawed fingers. The seemingly illogical geometric designs of their structures come together like giant ant hills. Headshots do not do much damage and cause them to go berserk, so shoot their abdomen power cores instead, which will cause them to explode.

The Vex appear to be mass-produced units, constructed of an unknown metal alloy resembling hammered brass. All attempts by Guardians to communicate with them failed. It is said that Vex encryption is unbreakable.

Humanity had known about the Vex as early as the Golden Age, when the Ishtar Collective discovered their ruins on Venus, as well as captured a live specimen. Interestingly, according to Ishtar Collective records, Vex are capable of generating simulations of real-world events with perfect fidelity and predictive ability - essentially running a parallel reality in their minds which is arguably indistinguishable from the "real" universe. To Collective researchers, this ability raised profound philosophical quandaries about the nature of reality. Eventually the researchers were driven near to the point of madness when they discovered the Vex had simulations of themselves and perfectly predicted their every action, as they started to wonder if they themselves were just Vex simulations, so they decided to bring in a Warmind to intervene on their behalf. Warminds were many orders of magnitude more complex than humans, and it was believed that the Vex would be unable to simulate them; thus, the Warmind's presence and actions would be a sufficiently chaotic variable to allow the researchers to discern which universe was real and disrupt the simulation.

The Vex maintain active forces across multiple worlds in the Solar System, including Mercury, Venus, and Mars, and it is thought that their structures are buried within every known celestial body and linked together in a massive trans-dimensional and trans-temporal network, ostensibly with the goal of inextricably incorporating the Vex into the fabric of the universe itself. On Mars, the Vex wage an intense war with the Cabal, who manage to repel the machines despite the vast numbers of them that continually assault Cabal positions. The reason for this massive, if ineffective, offensive against the Cabal is that the Vex are surging to protect the Black Garden, their birthplace, which the Vex are being summoned to for an unknown purpose. Guardians who manage to break into the Black Garden discover that the Vex in fact worship the Black Heart, an abomination that lends power to the Vex.

Programming Collectives

 * Aphix Invasive - Vault of Glass
 * Descendants - Vault of Glass
 * Hezen Corrective - Venus
 * Hezen Protective - Venus
 * Precursors - Vault of Glass
 * Sol Divisive - Black Garden
 * Virgo Prohibition - Mars

Named individuals and mini-bosses

 * Atheon, Time's Conflux
 * Corrective Mind
 * Divisive Mind
 * Prohibitive Mind
 * Sekrion, Nexus Mind
 * Sol Progeny
 * Eschaton Mind
 * Imminent Mind
 * Primeval Mind
 * The Gorgons
 * The Templar
 * Zydron, Gate Lord

Command structure

 * Infantry
 * Goblin
 * Goblin Zealot
 * Goblin Disciple
 * Fanatic
 * Hobgoblin
 * Axis Hobgoblin
 * Minotaur
 * Axis Minotaur
 * Praetorian
 * Aerial
 * Harpy
 * Axis Harpy
 * Harpy Zealot
 * Supplicant
 * Hydra
 * Axis Hydra
 * Emplacements
 * Cyclops
 * Oracle

Weaponry

 * Slap Grenade
 * Slap Rifle
 * Line Rifle
 * Torch Hammer

Trivia
The Vex may have their name derived from the VEX Robotics Design System, a kit intended to introduce newcomers to the world of robotics. In The Black Garden story mission, when the door just before your encounter with the Heart opens, you can see a touch outline of the Orion constellation, suggesting the Vex may have originated from a planet around on of Orion's stars.

List of appearances

 * Destiny