Destiny 2 story recap: Episode Echoes

Destiny 2's latest and final Episode, Heresy, has arrived and aims to close off a tumultuous year for both the game and the studio. The decade-long Light and Darkness saga of Destiny culminated in the rousing defeat of The Witness at the end of the Salvation's Edge raid and the Excision mission. There were, however, some loose threads to deal with.

Different from the usual Seasonal model, Episodes are much larger in their narrative structure, with a greater focus on specific factions and their existing storylines. Episode Echoes primarily focused on the Vex faction, which was in disarray after The Witness's death, but it also expanded upon the nature of the Echoes itself.

Peering back into the past: How Episode Echoes forms Destiny 2's future beyond The Final Shape

The Echoes leave the Pale Heart as three shimmering beacons of power (Image via Bungie)

Episode Echoes began with a brief recap of our actions against the First Knife, The Witness. At the pinnacle of Salvation's Edge, six brave raiders bested the seemingly invincible foe, and twelve guardians dealt the final blow in the following Excision mission.

As the titanic clash between the forces of Light and Darkness concluded, the Sol system was bathed in a peculiar Aurora while three objects were ejected from inside the Pale Heart. One such object struck Nessus and began terraforming the planetoid, slowly converting the machine world into one with more plant life.

The mystery begins

Nessus pierced and bleeding out (Image via Bungie)

The Vanguard, obviously on high alert after the death of The Witness and not anticipating such an immediate reaction, sent Saint-14, their resident expert on Vex activity, to investigate. Our player character, The Young Wolf, accompanied the veteran Titan as a force multiplier against any hostile Vex response. (Not that Saint-14, the greatest threat to The Vex, needs any assistance)

Like clockwork, the Vex attacked, and after quickly dispatching a new faction of Vex enemies, we figured out that the object had burrowed deep within the core of Nessus and was causing all kinds of havoc. As these events transpired under the proverbial nose of FailSafe AI, we recruited her to bolster our efforts against this brewing crisis.

An Echo of the past

Maya Sundaresh finds Salvation of her own making (Image via Bungie)

In the following weeks, we learned that after The Witness's death, the powers of Darkness inside them and the light within the Pale Heart coalesced into three objects. Each of these objects represented a facet of The Witness's memory of countless decimated alien races, given physical form through the paracausality of their death.

The object that struck Nessus was the Echo of Command, giving the wielder almost complete control over beings. This Echo sunk into the radiolaria of the Sea of Flames and was claimed by none other than the original Maya Sundaresh, the founder of Neomuna and Future War Cult and the spouse of one Chioma Esi (This will be relevant in a minute).

A jaunt through the past

Maya Sundaresh, in possession of the Echo of Command (Image via Bungie)

Both were researchers of the Ishtar Academy and were married at some point after their undergraduate studies. During their time at the Academy on Venus, they researched the Vex and the Ahamkara. One of their research topics was "Subject 12", a captured Vex unit that inspired them to delve deeper into the Vex Network.

The Vex Network is a trans-temporal and trans-dimensional supercomputer-esque simulation of potential reality, where the Vex run simulations on all potential past and future timelines. The Vex aim to integrate themselves into the fabric of the universe itself, and the Network is simply their way of mathematically calculating the perfect future.

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From the Vex Network, Maya, Chioma, and their team recovered 227 identical copies of themselves, which were released back into the Network to act as researchers. At some point in the past, after the founding of Neomuna, Maya Sundaresh used the Veil in Neptune to immerse herself in Darkness and infiltrated the Vex Network.

Unbeknownst to her, Chioma would also join the Vex Network in search of Maya at the end of her natural life. As the Echo struck the Radiolaria and, in turn, the Vex Network, every being inside, simulated or otherwise, felt the paracausal artifact's power and was drawn to it. The original Maya reached the Echo first and with its power, compelled the Vex to give her a new body.

Through a Mirror Darkly

Thus begins the tyranny of The Conductor (Image via Bungie)

With a new body modeled after Lakshmi-2 (who was, in turn, modeled after Maya herself), Maya Sundaresh fashioned the Echo as a cape and began wandering the wilds of Nessus. During this time, she formed a lab and began her research on finding the true Chioma Esi, who was still inside the Vex Network.

She also controlled all Vex she came across, who formed a new Nessian Scishm collective. Indicated by Prismatic marks around their necks, these Vex forces followed every whim and wish of Maya, who began calling herself The Conductor. In the heart of Nessus, she began extracting copies of Chioma, putting them in Exominds, interrogating and degaussing (killing) them, to find the "real" one.

In one such instance, she came across Saint-14 near her lab. Aware of the Titan's past deeds against the Vex, she quickly took control of him and questioned whether he was the real Saint or just a Vex simulation. Saint broke free of her control with our and Osiris's help, but not before The Conductor warned us of the impending doom of a dark Golden Age of her making.

Preventing a dark future and a paracausal power vacuum

The greatest Titan and the greatest threat to the Vex, who ever lived (Image via Bungie)

After concentrated research and many a dead Vex in the Battlegrounds and other Nessian activities, The Conductor's true plans were revealed. Maya wanted to reunite with her Chioma and lead humanity into her simulated version of the perfect future, free from all paracausal threats but also every free will and choice.

In her zeal and obsession, Maya had degaussed the original Chioma after the latter was horrified by the actions of her beloved and rejected her dream of a perfect future. After defeating Exodos, the third Choral Mind and guardian of Maya's lab, The Conductor is confronted by the combined forces of The Young Wolf (the player), Ikora Rey, Osiris, and a very angry Saint-14.

After explaining what she had done to her wife, The Conductor rebuffs the idea and emphasizes that her Chioma is still in the Vex Network. She uses the Echo to compel all four to drink the Radiolaria and become her Vex. Saint and Ikora break free from her control and use their Light-borne powers to incapacitate Maya.

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Broken but not dethroned, Maya warns the quartet of a future where her predictions will come true. Following this, The Conductor disintegrates into the Radiolaria, presumably joining the vast Vex Network. Following this confrontation, all Choral Vex within the Nessian Schism begins to wander the planetoid as a part of the greater Vex collective of the Sol.

In the wake of an Echo's departure, the Sol System changed dramatically. Beyond the Vex becoming slightly more fractured than before, a House of Dusk fallen faction under the command of Baron Kalliks emerged. Remnants of both Dread and Shadow Legion forces fell in ranks with the Psion Yirix. Unbeknownst to all, a second Echo made its way to the far reaches of the Reef, toward a Revenant.

Although the story of Destiny 2's Light and Darkness saga has concluded, the complex narrative between factions and characters who've lived through several centuries will keep the story moving toward the upcoming Expansion Codename: Apollo.

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Edited by Aatreyee Aich