zavala did say in the strike that they tried to reach out to rasputin before, and found the poor saps' bodies spread out all over the cosmodrone. So perhaps he has some kind of bots he can use to cleanup/move stuff?

This has to be post your discovery that he is operational, otherwise your Ghost would not be surprised that he survived.

The strike mission info should indicate much more activity right after the collapse. Especially if the Fallen didn't arrive in system until well after the city's founding.

The plan is a contingency, and I view it as part of the more realistic military planning like we saw in the Halo backstory. There is no indication that the war actually went that way, just that Rasputin had a plan.

Destiny's story really has lots of uncertainty around the Traveler, if it's motives were truly benign or partially/completely self serving. This line seems to support that even golden age humanity had reservations.

The Traveler's participation in creating the "God Wave" is the first hostile act that I've seen it take in the fluff thus far, and I'm trying too square it up with the Alpha Lupi:

The Traveler
You have lived as invisibly as possible, flicking from solar system to solar system, making grand plans, overseeing the culturing of civilizations, before leaving in a blink. But you have no recollection of ever wanting worship or even thanks from those blessed by you.
But memory is heavy now.
It feels like lead and neutronium and electroweak matter fashioned into a moon-sized ball that you must carry as you move.
Now, your flight is rapid, your vast mind infected with such dread and toxic doubt that you find yourself afraid of the simple act of thought.
And it is your children you must turn to now, in time of need.
The Traveler 2
This has been such a long chase. This will be the place you will fight. Fight and win.
But do you really know why you go where you go, and where this journey is taking you?
The chase leads you where you need to be, you believe.
Unless...you are being pushed.

We know the Hive have been hunting the Traveler from the time of their inception, but that means that the Travelers later gifts came with the knowledge that there was something worse out there, coming after her. Or did she not know of the failure of the commune of civilizations to contain the Hive, and discovered the Darkness Oryx was also pursuing?

We know from the new grimoire that Rasputin himself attacked the traveler, to disable it and force it to create ghosts and guardians to defend the darkness. It was going to do exactly what it did with the fallen and run away, but Rasputin shot it down forcing it to fight for its life. That's why we see damage on the underside.

The question is whether he did that to save humanity, or just himself. Judging by your observations, it seems like it was just self preservation, and he only cares about humans insofar as they can protect him.

.....but i told you so

Posted on Oct 15, 2014

We are told the traveler made a last stand on Earth to save humanity, but all the damage to the sphere is on the bottom. If the Traveler was protecting us, wouldn't the bulk of the damage be on the upper part? It looks like WE were shooting UP at it, rather than our enemies raining DOWN on us.

• A lot of Oryx's power comes/came from his son and lieutenants. If it weren't for killing Crota and the champions at the Court of Oryx we might never have beaten him. I imagine this is why he's so angry that we killed his son - it's not sentimentality, we literally made him weaker by doing it.

I think he is drawing his power from somewhere else. His doomsday attack in the raid is labeled as 'Doxology' if it kills you. I looked it up:

"A liturgical formula of praise to God."

So it seems when he is charging his attack, he is drawing that power from a God. A Taken God? A god of the Darkness? Who knows. But it's not his underlings :-)

You brits.