Dark Places

Dark Revelations - Chapter 1

Cobalt-9 trudged through the snow with his Ghost, Carbon. He kicked at the bigger chunks of snow that was scattered on the path, making little trails that chased after the rolling balls of snow.

“Is it toward that glacier looking cliff?” Cobalt asked Carbon as he booted another chunk of snow.

“Just to the right of its face, yes,” Carbon replied with a shine, “There should be a cave entrance leading down Into a Bray facility, according to these records anyway.”

“You think there’s more reason to Variks asking us to investigate it?” he asked innocently.

Carbon turned toward his guardian with a puzzled shape on his shell, “He said there were some vex hanging around outside the entrance from the report,” he replied, “why so you ask?”

“I don’t know,” Cobalt replied coolly, “Just seems a bit weird. I get he knows that I will happily tear Vex apart, but he specifically asked for us to do it. There has been floods of guardians here since word went out about the shards of stasis. He could have asked anyone. Why us? And just us?”

“I didn’t think much on it honestly,” he replied back, “Maybe he trusts us a lot? He has asked us to do a lot of things for him of late. And we are effective.” He finished proudly.

“I guess.” Cobalt replied as he swung his sniper from his shoulder and started fiddling with it, “I could be overthinking it, but he seemed like he wanted to keep it quiet. He kept it short and to the point. And again, it was only us he asked. Just seems different when we’ve been doing tasks in fireteams for weeks.”

Carbon’s shell shifted around in thought for a few seconds in thought, and then replied,

“Now you’ve explained it I can see how it would seem unusual, but this is Variks, if he’s asked us to do it alone and keep it quiet, there must be a good reason for it.”

“I hope you’re right.” He sighed as he reloaded his sniper and cocked it, ready for action.

The pair carried on toward the face of the glacier, gleefully picking off the handful of vex that were lurking around the entrance and scared off the fallen that were sneaking around toward the tunnel on the far left. When they got closer Cobalt spotted the entrance to the cave that lead to the facility, which was like a jagged rip in the face of the glacier. The cold sharp wind scooped up the snow from the floor and carried it through the hole and on into the dark. Cobalt approached the entrance and glanced around for any obvious signs of a trap, but didn’t find anything. He turned around and looked into the distance, over the mounds of snow and to the Pyramid in the far distance, aware of it watching of them, it’s menacing presence putting him on guard. He turned back to the cave and moved closer to get a better view inside. The pair stood peering into the cave for a few seconds, then Cobalt turned to his little ghost and spoke with a snarky smirk, 

“Well. You first.”

***

Carbon lit up the way into the cave, casting his warm light across the dark cold ice that spread down into the festering dark. Cobalt followed closely behind Carbon, his sniper clutched in his arms and his eyes scanning the line of darkness being pushed back by Carbon’s light. After some time, the two of them came to a short icy drop. The other side of the drop was ice, but after a couple of meters grew from the cold ice into cold white wall, with the end of the hallway having a lone doorway, that presumably headed deeper into the facility.

“Well, that looks promising,” Cobalt pointed out, looking up at the debris surrounding the start of the facility, “that certainly looks like a Braytech facility. What do you think about the damage?”

“It doesn’t look like Vex did this damage, it’s too substantial; looks more like the leftovers of an explosion.”

“Well, whatever did it, it’s a great way in. lets get on with it.”

Carbon nodded in agreement and shone his light down into the drop. It was a good couple of metres deep, and looked like it could cause some damage if they accidentally fell in. As carbon turned to Cobalt to give him the plan when Cobalt snatched him from the air and leapt over the drop, gliding to safety on the other side. He gently let go of Carbon and he slowly floated back into the air, his eye slightly flashing with dizziness,

“I was going to suggest we do that,” he groaned, “You know ghosts can get dizzy too right?”

“Is that an actual fact or are you making that up to make me feel bad?” Cobalt replied with a sarcastic smirk.

They continued down the path until they turned a corner, where they entered into a large hallway; the walls had receded from the cold dark ice to big industrial walls that were white on the top three quarters and orange on the lower quarter, there were shelves at the end of the hallway next to a doorway into the next part of the facility, and there was a big insignia in black on the wall.

“This is a Braytech facility alright,” Cobalt confirmed as he ran his hands along the faded walls, “each one tends to be somewhat unique. I wonder what this one was used for?”

As he moved along the wall he kicked a bit of metal plate, which he looked down to see that there were bits of Vex parts on the floor, and Cobalt crouched down next to it and inspected the debris,

“hmm,” he grunted, “definitely some Vex down here. Be on your guard, could be a good few of them.”

He got back to his feet and crept down to the end of the corridor and through the doorway. On walking through they came out on a steel walkway, which stretched to the right. Below the walkway was the facility; there was machinery in the main room further up, there were Exo body parts mounted on shelves, and the thing that caught Cobalt’s eye immediately was the number of Vex that were wandering around. There were several Harpies, Goblins and even a few Minotaurs. 

“Now, maybe this is why Variks asked for us,” Cobalt grinned as his eyes bounced from target to target, “He wanted the best damn Vex exterminators there are!”

He brought his rifle up in front of him and swung over the walkway’s barrier with a malicious chuckle, landing with a dull thud on the floor with the Vex. The Harpies that were nearest all swung around to see what the noise was, only to be met by the bullets of a powerful rifle, and the bloodthirsty roar of a guardian.