Nessus

"Lush with giant twisted trees, deep caverns, waterfalls, and silver swamps, the origin of this planetoid remains unknown. What is clear is that the Vex have nearly transformed the entire planetoid into a Machine World, above and below the surface. For those Guardians willing to brave the dangers and explore the myriad of mysteries, treasures beyond the imagination await. A planetoid with an irregular orbit, converted by the Vex for reasons unknown."


 * — Bungie Website description

7066 Nessus or Nessus is a Planetoid with an irregular orbit. At perihelion, Nessus is closer to the Sun than Uranus; at aphelion, Nessus moves into the Kuiper belt, It is a place where Light is scarce. It is inhabited by Vex, who have transformed it almost entirely into a machine world.

Collapse
During the Collapse, the Colony ship Exodus Black crashed on Nessus on its way to Kepler-186. They were surprised by Nessus actually being where it is as it shouldn't be there, the ship's crash was due to the result of the Orbiting Centaur's added six dimensions to it's four dimensional space. They were all lost in their sense of Time, past and future went hand and hand for them. All of its colonists and crew were subsequently either captured and experimented on (such as stealing the memories of the captain) or killed by the Vex. Unable to contact help, the ship's AI, Failsafe, became dormant until she was awoken by the arrival of Cayde-6.

City Age
Approximately 126 years before the SIVA Crisis, Nessus re-entered the Sol System after an unexpected delay. The Arcadian Valley patrol space is scattered with the remains of the Exodus Black, picked clean by Fallen scavengers. At some point, the Vex, overseen by the Axis Mind Argos, Planetary Core, 92.014 % conversion of the Centaur Nessus into a Machine World.

The Axis Minds of Nessus are noted to have higher than average computational power. One such mind imprisoned Failsafe for attempting to access the Vex Network. Sagira sought out another such Mind in order to analyze a map of the Infinite Forest.

Red War
Following the Red Legion's invasion of Earth, they began to mobilize their forces across Nessus in an attempt to uncover any secrets it harbored. During this mobilization they came into conflict with the local Vex population as well as the Fallen House of Dusk which was scavenging whatever they could from the remnants of the Exodus Black.

Following the death of Dominus Ghaul, Calus' flagship, The Leviathan, arrived at the Sol System and began to consume sections of the planetoid. Doing so caused Argos to be sucked into the Leviathan's vacuum alongside a squadron of Vex, forcing Calus to call upon the Guardians to be rid of the Vex Mind for good. Succeeding in destroying the Axis Mind, the conversion of the planetoid has been permanently halted but the Leviathan continues to slowly consume Nessus into Royal Wine.

Post-Red War
When the Black Fleet arrived, Nessus was one of the few worlds in the outer system that was left untouched by the Pyramids. However, sometime after their departure, Calus and the Leviathan mysteriously disappeared from Nessus's orbit, leaving the Machine World only partially consumed.

Sometime afterword, Calus's daughter and current leader of the Cabal Empire, Caiatl, arrived at the Sol System with her legions. Nessus was the first world to be invaded, with an Imperial Land Tank being deployed in the Arcadian Valley. It was here where her forces and the Guardians first clashed against one another in a bid for dominance over the system.

Regions

 * Arcadian Valley

Story Missions

 * Looped
 * Six

Strikes

 * Exodus Crash
 * Insight Terminus
 * The Inverted Spire

Lost Sectors

 * Ancient's Haunt
 * The Carrion Pit
 * The Conflux
 * The Orrery
 * The Rift

Vendor

 * Failsafe

Trivia

 * Nessus' canyon design was based on tepui, the flat-shaped mountains in South America.