"Welcome to New Pacific Arcology, the bright future of space colonization in the shadow of Saturn.” Titan has become my favorite D2 area, mainly because of one major location: The New Pacific Arcology. Based on that, I figured I’d put together some lore since there isn’t much going on lately. TL;DR [spoiler] The New Pacific Arcology is human built colony on a non-terraformed Titan, intended to exist without the Traveler’s gifts. In time, it became one of the first victims of the collapse.[/spoiler] The New Pacific Arcology is basically a biosphere where Golden Age humanity lived on the moon Titan, orbiting Saturn. That large, glass roofed structure you see with Hive growths extending from it is the Arcology. Prior to entering the Arcology in patrol, looking out over the vista you can see a second Arcology tilting to its side and partially sunk in the methane sea. These pods are where Titan’s colonists called home. While most of our time in the Arcology is consumed fighting off the Hive who have taken residence, there is more to the story. Titan was not terraformed by the Traveler. The Arcology is a pioneering human achievement and the only known non earth colony that did not rely on the Traveler. In fact, according to one of the founders, Dr. Shanice Pell, it was built to “challenge the Traveler at its own game.” Dr. Pell fought through Golden Age bureaucracy (Ishtar’s endless audits and Bray’s network protocols) and obstacles (securing mining rights in the Asteroid Belt for materials) to make it happen. Why? “..freedom and silence to pierce the interstellar space for our own answers!” It appears that some of Golden Age humanity wanted to be less reliant on the Traveler’s gifts and for humanity to explore on its own. This raises some questions that while humanity obviously benefited greatly from the Traveler during the Golden Age, some had to wonder what if the Traveler left as suddenly as it came? Where would humanity be left? The Arcology was built for that scenario. A self-sustaining colony who could operate regardless of the Traveler. The natural environment of Titan is uninhabitable by humans (so let’s ignore the lore gap of how a ghostless Sloane and Zavala are standing there without any protection and chalk that up as…reasons). Humans could only live within the Arcology structures. And as you explore the Arcology, you’ll see the evidence of this. Some of the Titan “sweeper bots” (think like a Roomba) still wander the halls. From a ghost scan: [spoiler] Ghost Scan, The Rig: “The idea was that the facility produced zero waste. Everything organic ended up fertilizer, and everything else got used in manufacturing.” [/spoiler] I could go on a Soylent Green tangent on the statement that [i]everything[/i] organic ended up fertilizer, but I won’t speculate on that…. [spoiler] Save a google for those that don’t know about Soylent Green. 1970s U.S. Sci Fi movie about a futuristic New York City with massive population overcrowding and starvation. Populace is fed something called Soylent Green, which is later discovered to be made from reprocessed human remains.[/spoiler] There is also ghost scans that discussed the ability for crops to be grown inside the Arcology and vegetation can be seen growing inside chambers in the Arboretum. And though, according to the Arcology AI, 34% of Titan’s citizens hoped that the Traveler would still come terraform their moon, the vision of the colony was human self-reliance. The Arcology AI also notes that the some members of the Ishtar Collective were making presentations at the Arcology about the terraforming that the Traveler was doing on Io at the time. This helps place this as late Golden Age timeframe, shortly before the collapse. Io was the last place the Traveler visited, leaving its terraforming incomplete before returning to Earth where it remains to this day. A nice easter egg that the Ishtar presentations were occurring in the “Cassini Library”, a reference to the Cassini mission by NASA which sent a probe to study Saturn (the probe recently ended its mission by crashing into Saturn in April 2017). The Cassini probe actually placed a lander on Titan in 2005, which to date is the furthest landing by a human device in our history. It could be reasoned that the New Pacific Arcology project is a golden age extension of the spirit of the real Cassini mission. From the New Pacific Arcology, new ventures into space would occur solely produced by Human ingenuity. Optimism seemed high for a time, until a launched navigation probed picked up something unexpected. From the Lost Specific gear set: [spoiler] “Send a deep-space probe toward the anomaly. I want to know what it is.” (Arms) “The probe’s initial data makes no sense. And then the signal died. What have we found?” (Chest) “I need more data. And…put the lab on yellow alert.” (Head) “This research has to get out. Even if I don’t. People have to know what this ‘anomaly’ is.” (Legs) – Last recording of Dr. Shanice Pell. [/spoiler] Situated further out in the system than nearly every other colony, Titan was among the first to detect the coming of the collapse, the same anomaly that Rasputin would be detecting at this time on Earth. Something outside their context. Dr. Pell appears to have figured out some details, wanted to share it. However there is no evidence she ever was able to get that information out. Events deteriorated from a yellow alert into a full blown evacuation of the Arcology. [spoiler] A golden age console – and a user is still logged in. Leilani Valero, Marine Tech number 426. She was in the middle of logging an emergency of some kind. Ghost Scan – Sinking Docks. From this console, a Golden Age technician locked down the shipyard and forbade all future arrivals. The entire arcology was undergoing emergency evacuation. She signed off...I wonder if she made it out?” – Ghost Scan, Sirens Watch. [/spoiler] In the Arcology, evacuation alarm screens are still lit, eerily preserving the events of that day. Some even show the evacuation routes from the Arcology, to what appears to be two different rescue boats that would take the colonists away from the Arcology. Despite the excellent visuals of the Arcology, what I think is missing is a clear picture of how terrifying the events must have been. Colonists fleeing to boats as an ominous threat approaches. The fate of all those people and their families lost, drowning in methane seas as the world died around them. As vague as the lore around the specific of the collapse is, it was a near extinction level event. To be on the outer edge of colonized space as these events unfolded with no hope for escape must have been a horrible experience. That is why I like Titan so much. More than any other Destiny location, as I walked through the Arcology, I can actually imagine people living there, what life might have been like before it all went to hell. And I make sure to spend a little extra time clearing out the Hive as I go along… Links: http://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/lost-pacific?highlight=Pell http://www.ishtar-collective.net/transcripts/utopia?highlight=Pacific http://www.ishtar-collective.net/items/lost-pacific-helm?highlight=Pacific http://www.ishtar-collective.net/items/lost-pacific-vest?highlight=Pacific http://www.ishtar-collective.net/items/lost-pacific-grips?highlight=Pacific http://www.ishtar-collective.net/items/lost-pacific-boots?highlight=Pacific https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huygens_(spacecraft)