Inside The Plant
As the plant's inner airlock engaged, Bill removed his helmet, inhaling the acrid, recycled air. Before the blast door to the facility itself opened, he held out Cee to the door.
"Any hostiles inside?"
"Nothing. That patrol might have just been an advance force. We shouldn't linger here for too long. Their buddies might show up soon and you know… kill us all horribly."
"Agreed. Once we're inside, let's find whatever useful data we can, and then we're getting out of here. Hopefully we can get a good idea of where to go next."
Kahlee took her own helmet off, and nodded to her friend before keying her comm. "Dak, you gonna be okay out there all by yourself?"
"Of course. Might get a bit lonely, but hey, Vera and I can pass the time with old knock-knock jokes."
"Please, no." Vera said, the pain in the little robot's voice was clear and present.
"Oh, I have a good one! Knock kno-" Kahlee shut her comm off to avoid the joke.
"Now THAT is cruelty to Ghosts." She muttered.
"Alright then, let's focus. We've still got a job to do. Cee, open the door." Bill readied his rifle out of habit, and the two Guardians moved into the building. The door shut behind them with a hiss of steam.
The plant seemed to be running on emergency power. The main lights were offline, and dim red backups were the only light sources above them. Cee popped up on his left shoulder and activated the flashlight built into his "eye." Bill also activated the flashlight underneath the barrel of his gun. Kahlee followed suit, and they walked down the hallway until they came into the main production room. Large stills that once contained helium-3 gas stood empty on either side of the room. Several computer terminals were in the center. There were several display screens on the walls, flickering messages in pre-Golden Age Chinese. Val's language program translated what little of the scrolling text was still legible, some kind of emergency message.
"Cee, find out if any of these computers are still functioning, and get us in." He scanned the room. "That one there looks like the best bet. That's Fallen tech attached to it." Bill pointed to a terminal behind a shattered glass window.
"Hmm, looks like this was the foreman's office. I'll see what I can pull from the banks. Cee floated through the broken window, while Bill bashed in the door lock to get inside the room himself. Cee began to scan the ancient terminal.
"I've got signs of life in this thing. Looks like these Exiles managed to get in. Let's see what they were looking for…"
Bill scanned the room through the sights of his rifle. He couldn't help but feel as though something was amiss. He heard Cee reciting back what he had found.
"…and it looks like there's some kind of seal, or crest in these files. Is it… no, no it couldn't be…"
"What did you find, Cee?"
"This." A symbol appeared on the screen, what appeared to be a winged diamond.
"What am I looking at?"
"Rasputin. Or at least, his mark."
"Who?"
Cee turned from the monitor. "A legend among artificial constructs. A Warmind. I thought for sure he had been destroyed centuries ago. All Ghosts know the tale."
"Why haven't I ever heard of him?"
"You wouldn't have. The Vanguard have been trying to keep him a secret for years. Back in the early days of the City, young Guardians often went out in search of him, eager to find something to drive back this Darkness. None of them ever came back. Eventually, Zavala buried all knowledge of Rasputin, but since he has no control over what Ghosts know or are able to find, he has been instructing us to be well-versed on Rasputin, and to inform Guardians about him on a need-to-know basis. And right now, it looks like you need to know."
"Right then. What do the Fallen want with him?"
"Well, from the look of things here, the Fallen aren't exactly looking for him. They appear to be looking for something that can destroy him."
"Didn't you say he was already dead?"
"It looks like I'm wrong."
"Well, then how did the Devils get involved?"
"It would appear that the Devils discovered the Exiles intent to destroy Rasputin, and launched their own counteroffensive. See here? The Exiles intercepted Devil transmissions, direct orders from their Kell to stop the Exiles and attempt to claim Rasputin, or whatever they found up here, and use that against the City."
Bill shivered at the thought. "Well, neither option is preferable, but we do have a choice here. Do we find the Devils, or pick up the trail of these Exiles?"
Before Cee could respond, Dak's voice came through the radio. "Guys! I've got more Fallen, incoming. A Pike scout discovered our position, I neutralized him, but Vera says he managed to get a message back to wherever he came from. Looks like he was from the same group as our new friends here!"
Bill put his helmet back on. "Copy that. Hold your position and give us some covering fire. We're on our way out now!"