<The Charge> [b] Alien entity or construct known as the Traveler, you are hereby charged with either willfully or by negligence destroying 90% of the human race in an incident known as the "Collapse". We will hear the cases for prosecution and defense. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, after hearing the evidence, cast your votes for "Guilty" or "Not Guilty". Leave a comment explaining your judgment below.[/b] <Prosecution> Your honor, this case could not be clearer. Consider what we know of the Darkness: [quote] the Traveler's ancient enemy, which hunted it across space.[/quote] It strains the limits of credibility to imagine that the Traveler was unaware the Darkness would come looking for it. Clearly, it hoped to use us as a shield, if not a sacrifice. Consider the physical evidence as well. Outside the cosmodrome are a thousand empty cars, none apparently built before 1998. If the Traveler brought such great miracles, where are the sparrows? The flying cars? Well, if it didn't give us jetpacks, what did the Traveler bring? Dragons! [quote]Think of how mysterious this system is, I said. How much life sprang up when the Traveler came. Like the Ahamkara. Do you know the legends? The dragon that made promises?[/quote] A species so terrible, it had to be hunted to extinction after the Collapse! And what of the Traveler itself? We don't know what it is, but it definitely isn't biological. You know who else isn't biological. The Vex! It appears damaged, to be sure, but we have only the Speaker's word that this was caused by the Darkness. If it was defending us, why is it damaged on the [b]underside[/b], the side facing Earth?! It is true Your Honor that after many centuries we have no "smoking gun", no direct evidence, but every evidence that we do have points to a single conclusion: the Traveler caused the collapse. The prosecution rests. <Defense> What hogwash, Your Honor. By the prosecution's own admission, there is no one scrap of evidence proving that my client was in any way responsible for this calamity. Quite to the contrary, even a minimal analysis leads one to the inescapable conclusion that the Traveler is innocent on all counts. Let us begin by refuting the prosecution's claims. No advanced technology? Then who made the colonies on Mars and Venus possible? Damage on the underside? Your Honor, we fight enemies able to warp time and space--an attack can come from any direction. And dragons? A wonder by all accounts! Now, let's look at all the Traveler has done for us. First, the Ghosts and Guardians. If the Traveler wanted us dead, then why would she grant superhuman powers to our champions? It is not because she wants to rule over us. In the words of Alpha Lupi: [quote]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.[/quote] Your own warmind, Rasputin, even says that it was precisely the Traveler's refusal to abandon us that left her near death: [quote]IT is alone and IT is strong and IT won. Even over the gardener and she held power beyond me but the gardener did not shrug and make herself alone.[/quote] In light of this evidence, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask for the immediate dismissal of all charges against my client, and that the prosecution be forced to spend a week in Cryptarch Rahool's company as punishment for spreading such slander. The defense rests.