With his new, powerful Dreadnaught complete, Oryx sets out to accomplish two of the last objectives we’ll hear about: Hunting down the Nicha Thought-ship and discovering the location of the Gift Mast.

These last two objectives are… interesting… because we’ve so heard very little about them. The first we hear of the Nicha Thought-ship is after Oryx’s twin daughters have grown up and become powerful wizards. Ir Halak gifted her father with a charting (prediction?) of the Nicha Thought-ship’s course. so Was this ship something Oryx had know about previously? Likewise, we only hear of the Gift Mast as Oryx’s Dreadnaught nears the Nicha Thought-ship. We’re not really sure why he thought it might contain the Gift Mast’s location.

So, what has really happened here? Is this Gift Mast some kind of fantastic legend Oryx and the Hive have heard of but have not yet been able to find? Is the Nicha Thought-ship similar? How did Ir Halak chart the Thought-ship’s course and how was she able to do so when Oryx, the First Navigator, was not? Unfortunately, there are no answers to these questions. At least not yet. And that feels a bit odd to me here so close to the end of the Books of Sorrow. Perhaps we’ll learn more about this point in the Hive’s history later? Or the Vex’s? I hope so, because right now this part of their story feels a little short changed and incomplete to me.

Anyway, having likely used Ir Halak’s predictions, Oryx approaches the Nicha Thought-ship only to find it guarded by a fleet of ships known as the Harmonious Flotilla Invincible. A battle presumably ensues, though we are not told that specifically, and one way or another Oryx’s Dreadnaught ends up surrounded. As it turns out, this is just fine by Oryx. He thrusts his sword into the hull of his Dreadnaught and further extends his Throne World into the real world destroying the Harmonious Flotilla Invincible. This is the same super attack we see him use against the Awoken fleet at the beginning of The Taken King. All that is left is the Nicha Thought-ship… which turns out to be an ill conceived trap.

On the Nicha Thought-ship, Oryx is ambushed by Quria, Blade Transform, the Vex mind that first deduced the Hive’s sword logic and discovered that worshiping the worm gods could lead to physics breaking paracausal results. Was the Nicha Thought-ship some kind of Vex ship? If so, was the Harmonious Flotilla Invincible a Vex fleet? Or was a Vex ship being protected by one or more non-Vex races? Another possibility is that the Nicha Thought-ship is not a Vex ship, but Quria, Blade Transform somehow convinced its owners to allow it to wait in ambush. Again, we have a lot of interesting possibilities but not a lot of information, much less answers.

Next, Oryx advanced on Quria, Blade Transform even as it springs its trap. It looks like Quria, Blade Transform once again tries to invade and take over Oryx’s throne world. We can see its thought process in a series of short, three part codes:

• <interdict>|<simulate>|<worship>
  
  Here’s what Quria, Blade Transform was trying to do. It interdicted Oryx’s dreadnaught then attempted to simulate Oryx’s power through worship of the worm gods.
  
  
• <insinuate>|<subvert>|<replicate>
  
  Next it is trying to subvert something (perhaps Oryx’s followers?) to its side and it tries to spread itself… to gain power? Note what Oryx says here. He recognizes that Quria, Blade Transform is trying to steal his ship from him and fill it up with its spawn.
  
  
• <observe>!<imitate>!<usurp>
  
  Again, we see Quria, Blade Transform attempting observe and imitate Oryx in an attempt to steal away his power. And again, this is confirmed by Oryx as he tells the Vex mind that it will never be as powerful as he is no matter what it does and no matter how much computational power it has.
  
  
• <unknown>|<enigma>|<shortfall>
  
  True to Oryx’s word, Quria, Blade Transform is not able to comprehend Oryx and his power.
  
  
• <abort>!<halt>!<abort>
  
  Having failed to usurp Oryx, Quria, Blade Transform attempts to back out of its ambush, but it is too late.

Oryx advances on Quria, Blade Transform’s Hydra platform seemingly immune to the Vex’s onslaught of weapon fire. In a last ditch effort to accomplish something before it is defeated, Quria, Blade Transform sets in motion the closest best guess simulation of Oryx that it could come up with. This incomplete simulation isn’t of the present day Oryx who has vast power after conquering hundreds of worlds and ending trillions of lives. Instead, what Quria, Blade Transform has come up with is Aurash, the oldest of the three brave royal sister who were once exiled from the Osmium Court long, long ago.

The simulated Aurash expresses shock and outrage at what Oryx and the Hive have become. Oryx responds by boasting about all the mighty things he has accomplished. Quria, Blade Transform spends its final moments observing Oryx’s reaction and transmitting the data it records to the rest of the Vex in the hopes that it will be useful at other points in space and time. It knows that its fellow Vex will use the data it has gathered to further study Oryx’s power. In the end, Quria, Blade Transform gains one last glimpse of Oryx’s power as The Taken King takes it, just as he has done to so many other powerful foes.

I really liked this sequence. In a way, Aurash get to see the end result of her folly. Turns out the old Leviathan was right, after all! She did become a monster!

We do learn one other very interesting thing from Quria, Blade Transform’s demise: The Vex were in some way or another present around the same time that the Hive destroyed the Ecumene many thousands of years prior. The simulated Aurash knew to question Oryx about his sisters Sathona and Xi Ro because the Vex learned about them from the intelligence given to the Ecumene by Taox…It makes you wonder where else have the Vex been present and what else they might know.

Oh, and one last fun tidbit. The Grimoire Card where Quria, Blade Transform is defeated is named: “End of Failed Timeline” This a reference to the timeline hopping that happened in Marathon Infinity… except “End of Failed Timeline” does not actually appear in Marathon Infinity’s terminals. As far as I can tell, it only appears on the Marathon.Bungie.Org Story Page making the title of this Grimoire card one of the most awesome Bungie.org in-jokes ever! :)

Sources:
XLI: Dreadnaught
XLII: <>|<>|<>
XLIII: End of Failed Timeline

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Next: 24: The Gift Mast and Dragons?!