Cult
I place my weapon on my back as my ship slowly descends down to the surface of the planet. The Sun would nearly blind my eyes, but my helmet blocks most of it out. I can feel a bead of sweat run down my cheek. It has to be at least one hundred and twenty degrees here. Luckily, my armor would keep out most of the heat and Ghost would keep my body temp regulated.
That's when I saw it. Several chimes and symbols leading towards the mouth of a cave. The whole thing was tinted orange from the sun. The place looked lived in recently, but abandoned without warning. Everything was just as the Cult had left it.
"That looks like the Station." Ghost chattered over my radio.
"Let me down here." I said.
"Sure thing." Ghost answered.
I felt my body lighten, and my vision fade. When my weight and vision returned, I turned around to face where I had just come from. Behind me, the Sun blazed indefinitely, and several otherworldly spires rose into the air. I faced forward again, and entered the Station.
I say station, it was more of a temple. I examined my surroundings. Many dishes with incense and different prayer charms lay scarred all over the tables and ground around me. Ghost spoke up over my radio.
"We're here to investigate what happened to the last crew sent here."
"The Cultists?" I asked.
"No, Hideo's first team."
"We're his second?"
"It looks like we're his backup." Ghost said.
"After all I've done for the Monarchy." I joked. I looked around, and listened to the chimes blowing in the warm wind. "Seeing anything unusual?" I asked Ghost.
"Well, I still can't get over the engraving behind that buckle on your robe." Ghost remarked.
"Still haven't dreamed of teeth..." I whispered. "Look."
I extended my hand towards a flight of stairs leading to something. "Down there." I moved slowly down the stairs to find a containment field blocking the doorway to a room. Behind the containment field, there sat a massive cache of glimmer. The most I had ever seen.
"Offerings to Osiris?" Ghost asked.
"Osiris is just a man," I remarked; "The Cultists know that."
We continued until we found another containment field. The temple stretched even further behind that one, but we decided not to crack it just yet. It was then I got a feeling. An extremely bad one, like someone was watching our every move. Judging us.
"You see anybody Ghost?" I asked him just to be sure.
"Nobody." he answered.
"Keep looking."
We continued down the corridor to find a transit ship. Used to arrive, obviously, but it hadn't seen much use since then.
"Heat sigs suggest the last time this was used was a few months ago."
"Humans?" I asked.
"Mostly."
The wind blew again, rustling the chimes. I reached for my pulse rifle on my back, but stopped.
"Ghost, scan again."
"Scan? For what?"
"Signs of life. We're not alone here." I said.
A few seconds passed. "Yes we are." Ghost insisted. I don't know what he was talking about. Whenever those chimes sounded, whenever I took a step I felt like someone was recording it.
"Are you sure we're alone here?" I asked.
"Yes."
"We're not."
"What do you mean?"
"Something is here."
"Something?"
"Something that made the Cultists disappear." I said. Everything here looked like someone had left in a hurry. Three days ago Executor Hideo had sent three agents here to research what had happened. Only two of them returned sane. The third wouldn't stop babbling about Osiris.
My vision blurred, and my legs felt weak. I heard a high pitched chime coming from somewhere I couldn't pinpoint.
"We need to go." I said.
"Your vitals just spiked-"
"I know. We need to leave now!" I said.
"We haven't found anything yet!" Ghost said. I hated to admit it, but he was right.
"Keep a lookout." I said.
We continued until we reached a large round, open room. In the middle of the room, a catwalk led out to a box. Atop the box sat an image of the Old Earth Goddess Isis. I had read up on her, and many other Gods and Goddesses before coming here.
"I'm opening it." I said. My ear caught the faintest drum beat in the distance just then. "You hear that?" I asked.
"No."
I continued to the chest, and pressed on a small eye sigil where the lock should have been. Gears turned, and the box opened. Inside I found three things. A golden sniper rifle, the likes of which I had never seen before. I gave it to Ghost for safe keeping. A stone tablet also lay inside the chest, with markings the likes of which I had never seen before. I gave that to Ghost, too. Lastly, there was a pair of gloves. They matched the sniper rifle. It looked to be woven from gold, and had an eye emblazoned on the shoulder. I put those on. The drum beat got louder.
"What do you think this tablet means?" Ghost asked.
"We need to go." I said again.
"Are you sure?"
"We'll be back. With help. We need to find whatever did this." I said.