Where Light Trembles

Where the dead hide

She awoke with a start to find herself tied and lying on the floor of some kind of cavern.
"What's the meaning of this? I am here on behalf of vanguard business, you would do well to release me"
She said irritably into the low light area. Her helmet had been removed and she had to let her eyes naturally adjust.

She tried to roll to get a better view, her hands and ankles bound, making it more difficult. She rolled until she ended up on her back, not much happier about this position.
She ascertained that she was in one of the many natural caverns of Europa. There were heaters a plenty and there was the smell of food, she could hear what sounded like music, though she used the term loosely. The sound quality gave her the impression it was from before the golden age, maybe from an old archive, it was loud and aggressive.
There came a click and it was off. Sitting behind her, right past the reach of her vision, was the towering titan known as Bo.

"Vanguard business... doubtful, the hidden more likely. I figured enough of you had given up trying to keep tabs on me by now. Yours have tried tracking me every which way, but shooting me with poison cartridges? Well that's a new one to me. Can't imagine you seriously intended to kill me with them though. If I was to take a guess, I'd say you either intended to capture me, or you're that confident as a marksman to think you'd bring me down. How you'd have handled my ghost I can't imagine, so tell me new light, what does the hidden want with me now?"
His voice was low and held a tired somber tone, he spoke with an aire of authority and confidence about himself that she imagined must have come with a lot of scars to prove it.

"How dare you, I am no new light I'll have you know, and any business concerning the hidden would be classified. I demand you release me at once and surrender for your own sake. You'll return with me to the tower and be placed under jurisdiction of the vanguard."

"No one is coming for you."
He said so cold and unfeeling as to chill her worse than the frosty air.

"What?" She said a bit confused.

"The hidden maintain a status of M.I.A. for guardians lost during classified operations. Unless the commander or deputy commander are aware of your mission, or if you've told anyone. No one will come to save you. Snuffing out light can be a gift mind you, there's far worse things. Ways I can break someone that leave scars on the soul and psyche, the worst thing for someone is to die from it and come right back. Ready to experience the cold longing for death all over again."

Her ghost stayed hidden in her pack lest revealing herself make her a target and put both their lives at stake.
"Leave Angel alone! If you release her we'll depart and say we never found you." Came a muffled voice from her pack.

"Quiet, I'm not a coward" came the guardian's retort.

"So... you call yourself angel... ironic that you were woken up and have fallen so far."

He laughed.

"Listen new light, I have no intentions of damaging you. I hope however, that I have gotten my point across. You'll be released on your ship -after you've been blinded and drugged of course, can't have you knowing how to find this place. It works out for both of us actually, my ship has an engine that's failing and needs parts. I'll rummage through your supplies in your cargo hold so I can get back Star side, and you... get to live."
He let that last statement sink in as he let out a long exhausted sigh.

She rolled herself again and using her own momentum managed to prop herself up on to her knees. The titan before her was sitting on a rock staring at her. He was big by titan standards, he was no Lord Shaxx but he couldn't have been much shorter. He was holding her rifle across his lap.

"That's mine, what have you done with it?" She demanded.

"Made repairs. You keep up with your maintenance clearly, but for a hunter your eye isn't as keen as you'd think."
He tossed a cracked firing pin in front of her.
"Putting off replacing parts is one thing, missing a serious crack that could result in a malfunction mid firefight is another. The way you're kitted, you do your best work at a distance. Pretty normal for a hunter, so turning a perfectly good nightwatch into a club wouldn't do you much good."

He tossed her helmet to her.
"None of your gear is properly insulated for this planet either. Hell the lining is virtually gone in that helmet, it's a miracle I didn't cave it in on you. Far be it from me to tell you how to operate in the field, but frostbite is a bitch just so you know."

She was growing angrier be treated like a new light. She wasn't brought back yesterday after all, she had her fair share of scars, seen plenty of missions, been mentored by senior hunters. She spit on the ground in front of him.

"I won't return a failure, nor will you cost me a chance at the hidden. If you won't surrender I'd rather you leave me for dead."
There was such indignation in her face. Her fiery caramel skin contrasted by the visible snowstorm outside of the cave a ways behind her.

Bo smiled.

"Leave you so you can escape, contact the hidden and get multiple agents combing the planet for me? Or better yet, your usual fireteam? Not hardly, but I have no use of a corpse either."

"Nor will you, Angel, calm yourself, you'll get yourself killed, you're in no position to argue" Came the voice of her ghost in her pack.

Bo's ghost materializes.
"Bjorn, two skiffs are close, I'm detecting multiple scav parties containing numerous captains closing distance. the fallen have found us brother. We need to mobilize or prepare for conflict."
His ghost had a heavy accent.

"Thank you heimdall. Well hunter it seems its your lucky day."
He moved towards her and she immediately shuffled back as best she could.

He continued and begin untying her.
"Relax, in a very short period the fallen will be here, you have two opt-"

She swung on him once her hands were free. She went to draw her knife to find it had been taken off her and instead turned her would be stab into a right cross. She connected with his chin and Bo recoiled a bit. It was enough opening as she went for her rifle, her hand feeling like she punched a stone.
Even with the blurred vision his instincts in a fist fight were bar none, he slammed his body into her and she struck the stone wall, she felt a rib crack and was in severe pain as she crumpled.

"Damned new light, listen, because if we're fighting when they arrive we're both going to be fucked!"

She glared up at him.

"I was going to let you make an escape and you could use the flight back to say you lost me in a firefight and I must have gotten off planet because the trail went cold.  Now I'm thinking you'll sooner blow your own brains out than admit when you've lost. If you had knew what you were up against you maybe could have managed in a battle of bullets, but in a fistfight I'll crush you, I was trained by the best. Now listen, I'm going to hand you your rifle, it isn't loaded, we have to get out of my little hide away and get to a nearby defensive position. You won't navigate the blizzard without my help. As long as we're in close proximity, I will destroy you. Use your helmet holder hunter. Once we're in the clear we will go from there. Until then you can die in here, you can die out there, or you can follow me and prove you can put rounds down range."

She wasn't given the liberty of choice as her rifle was thrust in her hands and he freed her ankles from the last of her bindings, he grabbed a pack and an old looking belt fed machine gun.

"Your mags are in my bag, you want a chance to put a bullet in my back your choice is to follow me. Stay close."
He took off into the sheet of white in front of him as he left the cave. She sprinted after him, refusing to be left behind.

"This seems like a bad idea." Abigail chimed in from her bag.

"Of course it is, but I wont die in a cave or a hole or hiding, and I need ammo. A few fallen are a small price to pay to get my mags back. Besides, he's not wrong. I'll need a bullet if I'm going to take the bastard down."

And into the wall of snow they charged.