Chapter 2

"Remind me why I'm here again Sloan?" Kleio-9 asked over her radio.

Kleio was sitting on her sparrow in front of the entrance to the New Pacific Arcology. Strapped in her Bindcaster I armor and her Zhalo Supercell slung over her back, she glanced around at the entrance that was defiled with hive creep as if trying to find the answer herself.

Sloan cleared her throat on the other end and the sound of shifting paper and metallic objects could be heard. "The increase in hive activity after the strike against Savathûn's Song is way too high for the blow that fireteam dealt. We need someone to go in there and investigate. It's only been a week so there's no reason they should have this many numbers."

"How far into the Arcology do I need to go?" Kleio asked as she slowly proceeded her sparrow inside of the giant complex. The familiar surroundings of light peeking through the darkness that the hive left behind always left an eerie dread in the air. She hadn't been down too far into the complex herself, mostly just the top levels to help keep down the hive and fallen populations.

"Deep. I'm talking further than we even have maps to. It seems like it goes below the liquid methane seas but our scanners aren't reliable at that much depth and hazardous conditions."

Ada, Kleio's ghost, materialized next to her while she rode her sparrow into the entry way. "Why are you sending just us inside?" Ada asked. "This seems like something that's better off for a rather sizeable fireteam." Ada and Kleio glanced at each other. She could hear the concern in Ada's voice. It mirrored her own reservations about this.

"This is just a recon mission. If we send tons of people inside and our scans turn out to be correct?" Sloan paused. "No, we don't have enough information to deploy the troops yet and I'm not sacrificing good guardians to some possible unknown."

"But perfectly okay with sending just us to our deaths." Kleio responded flatly.

"That's why it's just you. One person can get in and get out without being noticed. Besides, you've been doing this kind of thing for years for Ikora, haven't you?" Sloan's tone hid some amount of secret knowledge that she was taunting Kleio with. She stopped her sparrow and glared at the wall in front of her, trying to will her indignation to be felt by Sloan from far away.

"I've been working for the vanguard for a long time." Kleio said with a similar intonation but with much more irritation. Sloan wasn't supposed to know about her dealings with Ikora's group, the Hidden.

Sloan simply huffed in response. "I'm sending you coordinates to get you as far in as I can. You'll have to take it from there on your own. Keep in touch, Sloan out."

Kleio turned off the radio without a word and got off her sparrow, allowing Ada to transmat it away. "I still think a hunter would have been better for this, at least to accompany me." Kleio said as she unslung her Zhalo and held it casually in her hands as she walked down the empty hallways. Kleio is six foot tall with a gun-metal gray chassis, red glowing eyes and inner core, a white arch painted on her face that goes from cheek to cheek, and two antennas pointed diagonally up where her ears would be.

"You've always got me to help!" Ada exclaimed happily, bouncing around Kleio in the air. She couldn't help but smirk, chuckling softly.

"Yes, yes, I know. You've always been there for me Ada. Sloan just loves to get on my nerves."

"It was a little weird that she sent us on this mission."

Kleio raised a brow behind her helmet and looked over at Ada near her right shoulder. "What makes you say that? Other than the obvious death trap we're likely walking into… Or not! I hate low intel gigs…"

"See, that's just it. It's low intel because there isn't any." Ada said as she flew slightly in front of Kleio while they walked to the solarium.

"You're not making any sense, Ada."

"I got curious after Sloan mentioned not having good scans of the deeper sections of the Arcology and decided to check the Vanguard mission records to see them for myself. Problem is, there isn't one."

Kleio stopped and furrowed her brow at Ada. She took that as her cue to continue. "Either someone screwed up the paperwork or this is an unsanctioned operation."

"What?" Kleio said, perplexed. "Why the hell is Sloan sending us down here then?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Ada shifted her frame in a confused manner. "But she's definitely right. I'm getting readings of tons of hive signatures the more we walk in. We need to be careful."

The Solarium was just in front of them, entering the door way that lead to the gigantic open area that separated the different areas of the Arcology. The directions that Sloan gave her were almost direct tracks that lead to the depths towards Savathûn's Song. That would mean they would likely encounter a lot of this hive resistance on the way down. Except there wasn't any. The enormous area that acted as a crossroads to the different areas was usually teeming with activity from either the fallen or the hive but there wasn't a soul around them. Kleio crept in slowly, checking every corner she could see while Ada hovered around her, checking the areas she wasn't looking.

"You hear it too, don't you." Ada stated.

"Silence." Kleio said back. She quickly became tense and put the wall to her back. "Stay close to me, Ada. Regardless of Sloan's reasons I want to find out what's going on for myself."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Ada muttered while basically sitting on her shoulder now. Ada wasn't easy to scare which just made Kleio more nervous. The further into the Arcology they went, they could see signs of devastating battles involving guardians. Giant craters where nova bombs were dropped, smaller craters but jagged scorch marks indicative of only a titan's strength, and bullet holes littering every wall, ceiling, and floor that they went down. Even with all this left over chaos, there were no hive to be found. They both agreed to stay silent as they moved further in, not wanting to take any chances of getting ambushed. They even passed broken crystals that left a residual feeling of light when she got close to them. These must be those crystals the hive used to capture guardian light, she thought to herself. Even Ada had her eye glued to them every time they walked passed one. Ghosts are sensitive to feeling the Traveler's light. This must be terrible for her to see.

They eventually came across the remains of the last strike team to come down here. The area was scorched, burned, and blistered from both hive and guardian alike… but no signs of life. Pieces of the supposed giant shrieker weren't here, no hive bodies, no scattered weapons, nothing.

"Looks like the hive have cleaned up their messes for once." Ada joked, finally floating away to investigate for herself once they entered the empty chamber.

"This is where Sloan's directions end, too." Kleio remarked, peering inside of the small caves that littered the giant room to see if they went anywhere. "See anything?"

"Just this giant pit."

Kleio sauntered over to the edge of the large room where Ada was looking down. "I'm getting strong readings down here but I can't see anything, it's too dark."
"I have a feeling that's why it's so dark. Remember the dreadnaught?"

"How could I forget?" Their time spent on the dreadnaught, while not as long as some guardians, was enough to see the horrors it held.

"What do you think we should do?" Ada asked.

Kleio looked around the edge of the barren cliff. She had a horrible feeling of dread just looking down the cliff into the bowls of the rest of the Arcology. "What else can we do?" She responded wryly, taking a step back while still looking over the edge.

Ada did a double take between Kleio and the edge. "Whoa no no no. You are not jumping down there!" Ada protested but Kleio had already begun her run and leaped over the edge. "Kleio, no!" She shouted, following her guardian down the pit.