The Soul Conflict

Chapter 18: Down Under

After a second or two we all made hard contact with the rock floor. Goddamn did it hurt, too. I heard things cracking as they hit the rock, including things on my own body. I really hope that those were not the cracking of our bones. Oh god...my visor is cracked really badly too. There is even a good size hole in it now. I landed right on my gun too, which deepened the tear in my abdomen from that damn knife.

"Ugh..." Marshall said as he rolled over. The shoulder pads of his armor are bent and his gloves are torn apart from the impact. His own visor is pretty scuffed up too, along with the helmet. I really hope he is not mad at me for what  I did. I am so glad that he is okay.

"Everybody okay?" I said. Cutter gave me a thumbs up as she stood up again. She has quite a few tears in her suit, a couple of which are visibly bleeding. "Ouch." I said. And of course, the OUCH menu popped up. At least this time I actually need it.

"Visor is nearly compromised. Main torso is damaged. Left arm is damaged. Right boot is damaged." My helmet told me helpfully. I can't see the entire menu anymore, given that there is a giant hole in my visor. That is going to cause me problems in the future.

"Yeah, we are ok...thanks. For what did you back there. Good call." Marshall said. Phew, I did the right thing after all. "We need to get going. They can handle themselves up there."

"Are you sure? They just took three of us down into a gorge." I said.

"No, that was you. Nigel and Peter are both Strikers now. And with magic on their side, I would only begin to be worried if thirty or more troopers came after them." He said, and then looked up at the ledge. "This was quite a fall. We must have fallen forty, if not fifty, feet."

"So we are pretty deep into this crater now, then. We're that much closer to whatever they are looking for." I said.

"Yes we are. Now lets move." He said. I followed him down the rocky slope that leads deeper into this catacomb. I took another look around the place. There is more of that partial brickwork embedded within the rocks. Again, some of it was coated in that brownish moss. We reached a point where the cave split into a two sided fork.

"Right or left?" I said.

"Right. We all stay together."

"Do you mean the direction or are you just stating-"

"Go to the right, dammit." Marshall swore. Ok ok, Jeez. 

This place is really creeping me out now. We have to be nearly a hundred feet deep underground. And from the looks of it, this part of the cave hasn't even been explored by the Unity Lance yet. No doors, no footprints, no anything. Eventually we reached a large circular chamber of the cave after a few minutes.

"Stop. Bodies." Marshall said and pointed at something.

I looked to where he was pointing. There are three human skeletons lying there on the stone, their hands clutched onto clearly medieval swords and iron shields. What the hell is this? One of them has a helmet on that obscures its skull. The skeletons seem to be picked clean, too. Not a gram of flesh on them. They must have been down here for a long time.

"Well, this isn't creepy at all." I said.

"At least we know they aren't Unity Lance or Sunai soldiers. These guys perished long ago." Marshall said. "Nathan, I mean Green, come here. Check out this symbol. Does it look familiar to you at all?" He said while crouching down next to the helmeted one.

"You don't have to call me Green just to stick to your Sunai principles. You met me as Nathan." I said and walked over to him.

"In Sunai, it is a show of respect to call your fellow soldiers by their last name. But at you wish." He said.