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'''Last Days on Kraken Mare''' is a | [[File:LoreKraken.png|300px|thumb]] | ||
'''Last Days on Kraken Mare''' is a [[Lore]] book introduced with ''[[Shadowkeep]]'' in ''[[Destiny 2]]''. Entries were unlocked by completing [[Vex Offensive]] bounties. It follows a number of people on [[Titan (moon)|Titan's]] [[New Pacific Arcology]] during the end of the [[Golden Age]] and the beginning of the [[Collapse]]. | |||
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==The Sixth Seal, Part I== | ==The Sixth Seal, Part I== | ||
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No one breathes. | No one breathes. | ||
Down beneath their meeting table, pouches of farmed salmon, beef en culture, buttered carrots, and bok choy drift in the slow turbulence of the sous-vide bath. On Mia's one hundredth anniversary as the | Down beneath their meeting table, pouches of farmed salmon, beef en culture, buttered carrots, and bok choy drift in the slow turbulence of the sous-vide bath. On Mia's one hundredth anniversary as the New Pacific Systems and Facilities Administrator, she cashed in all (well, not quite all) her favors and installed a pocket restaurant beneath her table on the command deck. She liked the edible metaphor—the idea of watching your food slow-cook all day before the meal. Savor the future you're making. | ||
If she's right about what's happening now, then there will be no more long-term thinking, no more patience, and maybe no future at all. | If she's right about what's happening now, then there will be no more long-term thinking, no more patience, and maybe no future at all. | ||
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She waits for [[Xiana McCaig|Xiana]] to boil over first. Xiana's the water ocean expert. She has the most to lose. | She waits for [[Xiana McCaig|Xiana]] to boil over first. Xiana's the water ocean expert. She has the most to lose. | ||
Finch-tiny Xiana McCaig slams her fists down with not a tenth the strength that her chimp-splice muscles could summon. "Now? NOW? We can't leave now! We just finished the borehole—we're ONE DAY from a crewed expedition into | Finch-tiny Xiana McCaig slams her fists down with not a tenth the strength that her chimp-splice muscles could summon. "Now? NOW? We can't leave now! We just finished the borehole—we're ONE DAY from a crewed expedition into Titan's biggest secret! And you want us to just leave it all?" | ||
"I do," Mia says, sadly. | "I do," Mia says, sadly. | ||
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Ismail Barat opens his mouth to say something. She will remember, afterward, the way all the fine hairs of his immaculate beard whispered off each other, in that last instant before it happened. | Ismail Barat opens his mouth to say something. She will remember, afterward, the way all the fine hairs of his immaculate beard whispered off each other, in that last instant before it happened. | ||
An alert detonates in her sensorium. | An alert detonates in her [[sensorium]]. | ||
And when everyone else at the table (except Ismail) flinches in surprise, Mia knows that she has just watched a history bomb detonate, a blast of irreversible change. | And when everyone else at the table (except Ismail) flinches in surprise, Mia knows that she has just watched a history bomb detonate, a blast of irreversible change. | ||
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"I guess it's not a false alarm," Maury Yamashita murmurs. | "I guess it's not a false alarm," Maury Yamashita murmurs. | ||
The alert scrolls through Mia's mind, in that hallucinatory screen space that matches but never impairs normal vision. "[[Traveler|TRAVELER]] DEPARTS [[Io|IO]]. TERRAFORMING INCOMPLETE. ACCELERATING TOWARD [[Earth|EARTH]]. BEHAVIOR UNPRECEDENTED." | The alert scrolls through Mia's mind, in that hallucinatory screen space that matches but never impairs normal vision. "[[The Traveler|TRAVELER]] DEPARTS [[Io|IO]]. TERRAFORMING INCOMPLETE. ACCELERATING TOWARD [[Earth|EARTH]]. BEHAVIOR UNPRECEDENTED." | ||
Sometimes Mia thinks she can feel the New Pacific Arcology moving beneath her, as if the flex of that 160-meter substructure of plasteel and [[spinmetal]] that anchors New Pac to the ice shell is also a flex in her sinews. Maybe, like Xiana, her bones are more than bones too. And whenever that happens, she thinks: gasoline rains from the sky here, and it is -180 degrees Celsius outside, and no matter how comfortable we grow, life is tenuous here. Human life, especially. | Sometimes Mia thinks she can feel the New Pacific Arcology moving beneath her, as if the flex of that 160-meter substructure of plasteel and [[spinmetal]] that anchors New Pac to the ice shell is also a flex in her sinews. Maybe, like Xiana, her bones are more than bones too. And whenever that happens, she thinks: gasoline rains from the sky here, and it is -180 degrees Celsius outside, and no matter how comfortable we grow, life is tenuous here. Human life, especially. | ||
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She looks at him in surprise. "YOU want to liaise with the military? No offense, David, but you seem like a rough fit." | She looks at him in surprise. "YOU want to liaise with the military? No offense, David, but you seem like a rough fit." | ||
"I knew her." | "I knew [[Morgan-2|her]]." | ||
"Who?" | "Who?" | ||
"The woman on the radio. Crown Six." Two centuries of practice tell Mia there's heartbreak behind that calm voice. "Before she was uploaded." | "The woman on the radio. Crown Six." Two centuries of practice tell Mia there's heartbreak behind that calm voice. "Before she was [[Exo|uploaded]]." | ||
"Uploaded?" | "Uploaded?" | ||
"She's an | "She's an Exo now. A troubleshooter for SOLSECCENT." | ||
"Well," Mia says. "That'll be a weird reunion." | "Well," Mia says. "That'll be a weird reunion." | ||
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"Administrator van der Venne," the woman says, with careful consideration, "thank you for your welcome." She turns back to collect some item of equipment. An etiquette flash blinks in the air beside her, totally unpersonalized: it is just the standard warning against substrate chauvinism. | "Administrator van der Venne," the woman says, with careful consideration, "thank you for your welcome." She turns back to collect some item of equipment. An etiquette flash blinks in the air beside her, totally unpersonalized: it is just the standard warning against substrate chauvinism. | ||
"Hi, | "Hi, Morgan," David Korosec says, with a softness Mia has never heard before, a softness not meant for her ears. "Are you happier?" | ||
It is as if he has waited a long, long time to ask that. | It is as if he has waited a long, long time to ask that. | ||
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"You'll do nothing," Morgan says, confidently but incorrectly. "I'm killing all your satellite uplinks except for text and basic flight telemetry." | "You'll do nothing," Morgan says, confidently but incorrectly. "I'm killing all your satellite uplinks except for text and basic flight telemetry." | ||
"Who ordered this?" Mia demands. "On what grounds can SOLSEC impose some high-handed protocol on my Arcology?" | "[[Rasputin|Who]] ordered this?" Mia demands. "On what grounds can SOLSEC impose some high-handed protocol on my Arcology?" | ||
Morgan does not make the obvious correction: not who ordered this, but what. | Morgan does not make the obvious correction: not who ordered this, but what. | ||
==Kalki's Burning Sword, Part I== | ==Kalki's Burning Sword, Part I== | ||
The beam kisses the rising shuttle and cuts through it, like a wire through a block of butter, as if the ship and everyone inside were as thin as the hydrocarbon sleet. Thunder booms, louder than Earth's, through heavy nitromethane air. | The [[Warsat|beam]] kisses the rising shuttle and cuts through it, like a wire through a block of butter, as if the ship and everyone inside were as thin as the hydrocarbon sleet. Thunder booms, louder than Earth's, through heavy nitromethane air. | ||
Mia watches the debris strike the smooth black ocean and sink. She can't breathe. There is something like a whittled mulberry branch stuck in her throat. | Mia watches the debris strike the smooth black ocean and sink. She can't breathe. There is something like a whittled mulberry branch stuck in her throat. | ||
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But Morgan-2 had just covered her glowing eyes. "Administrator. Didn't you understand that I was the humane option? Didn't you think?" | But Morgan-2 had just covered her glowing eyes. "Administrator. Didn't you understand that I was the humane option? Didn't you think?" | ||
And down from the sky, swift and stealthy as the | And down from the sky, swift and stealthy as the Warsat that fired it, came the invisible discharge of an X-ray laser to light the shuttle's propellant like a lantern. The beam path was hot-white, straight as poured silver, collapsing instantly: a crash of pure-tone thunder as the tunnel of burnt air closes in on itself. And the shuttle opening like a ghastly blossom, the shape of a thing going upward very quickly, no longer in one piece. | ||
"Oh, no," Mia had gasped, not understanding at first: Was it an accident? Had the phantom disaster finally arrived on Titan and struck its first blow? This was the age of life, and governments did not, ever, use force against human beings. There were always alternatives. Every soul sacred. Every evil treatable. | "Oh, no," Mia had gasped, not understanding at first: Was it an accident? Had the [[Black Fleet|phantom]] disaster finally arrived on Titan and struck its first blow? This was the age of life, and governments did not, ever, use force against human beings. There were always alternatives. Every soul sacred. Every evil treatable. | ||
Then she understood what the Warmind had done. | Then she understood what the Warmind had done. | ||
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Her moon is squashing. | Her moon is squashing. | ||
Titan is deforming from a spheroid into an egg. | Titan is deforming from a spheroid into an egg. Something out there is pulling on Titan—a hand with a force greater than Saturn's entire mass. And the moon is answering the only way it can, by bulging outward: already fifteen meters, still growing. | ||
The pull will cause strain, tremors, tides. And when that pull lets go, there will be a wave to make Ziusudra and Atrahasis and Noah and Manu and Deucalion cower in fear. Bergelmir might have navigated a deluge of blood, but not even he had to sail on liquid methane. | The pull will cause strain, tremors, tides. And when that pull lets go, there will be a wave to make Ziusudra and Atrahasis and Noah and Manu and Deucalion cower in fear. Bergelmir might have navigated a deluge of blood, but not even he had to sail on liquid methane. | ||