The harsh roar of the sandstorm outside battered the walls and whistled through the corridors of the ancient factory. Production lines ran half-buried by sand through garganutan manufacture halls laden with all sorts of products, from rusted pre-collapse weapons to Mk. 1 Exo units. This made Brazen uneasy. Exos did not like coming to Freehold for this reason; it was where many of them had been born. Cleo was indifferent however and had spent the evening scouring the factory for parts to upgrade herself, as she had done so many times before. Brazen watched her with a look of partial disgust as she tugged plate metal from bodies that had never been activated.
"Don't you think you could go about that in a more respectful way?"
"Why? These units were never activated, Brazen. They do not even posess the first level of synthetic intelligence. They would not care."
"If they had been activated though then they may have been just like us. They could have fought alongside you in the Fallen Assaults or with me at Twilight Gap. That one there..." He winced as Cleo tore the chestplate from a streamlined-looking female Exo model. "...Could have been a Vanguard."
"But instead they sit here with the most meticulously designed aesthtics and rust, Brazen. I am taking what the City smiths cannot provide; plating not made of spinmetal alloy. This is pure Relic Iron. You would be wise to take some also."
"I'm made of Relic Iron already, Cleo. Golden Age Prototype model, remember?"
"Ah, of course. The fancy build," Cleo sneered as she looked him up and down. "Lucky for some, my dear."
Brazen shook his head as she returned to her scavaging, it was clear there was no way to change the mind of someone so stubborn. He glanced around at the alcove they had set up camp in, a small research laboratory set aside from the main chamber by a glass wall. Cracked computer screens powered down long ago lined the walls, alongside different research tools and devices. Their equipment was piled against one wall - scanners and cloaking devices working overtime in order to avoid another sneak Cabal attack. All was silent bar the whir of the machines and the crashing of Cleo's destructive looting.
A sparrow sat close to Brazen running wires from its main auxiliary power port into the small of his back, giving him a quick power boost in case it was required. A common misconception most other Guardians had was that an Exo could charge themselves with Arc energy. Brazen wished this was the case, it would be so much simpler in the field, but Arc light was actually more similar to superheated plasma than electricity and did not conduct along wires or an electrical synapse in the same way. He had lost count of how many times he had stated that fact.
Ghali had disappeared earlier on in the night in the general direction of Freehold. Brazen assumed she hadn't left the factory due to the proximity of the Cabal legion though he resigned to go and look for her after he was finished charging. Jacob, having heard Cleo's tales of the hyper-advanced technology that had been manufactured in this very building, decided that he wanted to explore and see if he could come across anything useful that he could bring back to the city. Brazen was proud of the way the young Titan had turned out. Jacob was far more level headed and sensible than many of the others he had trained - almost to the point that he would have made a very adept Warlock. He had also accepted his responsibility as a Guardian quickly and with passion, having only been four weeks since his revival. Brazen was certain he would go on to great things. Comfortable and contented, the great Titan reclined in the office chair on which he sat - which looked comedically tiny compared to his huge frame - and closed his eyes, concentrating on the invigorating warmth of the electricity flowing through his spinal column from the sparrow.
---
Dipping into his innermost reserves of Light, Jacob revelled for a moment in his power. He let it fill him, as a conduit of the Traveller's will, and then channeled it through the Void. The long emptiness called to him and he answered, filling it with Light energy. He focused it into his right thigh, then shin, and then boot as his leg plating began to glow with purple fire. Raising his knee to chest height, he gave a short cry and launched his boot through the thick metal door, tearing it from its hinges as the full ferocity of the stored Void energy blasted it apart. The door crashed against the opposite wall of the room beyond, a crushed smouldering wreck.
YOU ARE READING
Beneath Infinity
Science Fiction"There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world." - Carl Sagan, 1995. In the distant future - beyond an age of gold, surpassing a dark fate - the soul of a young man is torn from t...
