The Buried City

Chapter 1: The Exclusion Zone

All four left the room guiding the Exo to the open area of the restaurant. Soren looked at the Exo and realised that the public cannot be allowed to see him due to the extensive damage dealt, so he stopped the Exo just before he left the room whilst undoing his cape and told him,

"You can't go out into the City without being covered up, people will see you and get freaked out by your... Holes." The Exo blankly stared at the Hunter with his bright green flashlight-like eyes and nodded shortly after. He took Sorens cape and hood and equipped them with ease, masking his appearance from the public. "Perfect. Only problem is that I feel naked without my cape so... Try not to damage it okay? I've had it for a very long time." The Exo stared again but with a small but noticeable smirk across his face.

They both walked out of the room and into the open area where Eric and Sect were stood, arms crossed and somewhat annoyed but pleased at the creativity Soren displayed. Sect looked at them both and pointed to the door with her head implying to leave. Just as they were about to walk out into the street the bartender waved and told them "If any of you are hungry or just want to hang out then you can always come here. Opening one closing times are on the door. Traveler's light be with you all." He stood smiling at the Guardians for a few seconds to then carry on with his day-to-day life.

The street buzzed with life, people squeezing through crowds of buyers and sellers with shopping bags full of food and water, children playing in the streets, city ships flying overhead and the sound of tears of loss and laughter of joy all around. All three Guardians stood and took in the surroundings to remember why they fight. They fight for the Tower, the City, the Traveler... Humanity. All three smiled in awe and true happiness thinking to themselves 'how is that we survived and manage to keep day-to-day life without going into complete chaos? How I wish to be down here more often.' This was quickly disrupted by the sound of the Exo twitching and corruption error messages, to which Sect swiftly fixed. "Eric, if you're going to go and sort this guy out then I'd do it soon. His circuits are completely fried... No thanks to you." She glanced at Eric in frustration as she knew that this problem would've been averted if he had just left her to fix him herself.

"You're right. I'll head to the tower now with him. You two head to Mars, I'll meet you both there." He signalled the Exo to come with him as they went off to the City-Hawk-transport-ship. Its engines ignited in a bright fiery blue as the ramp at the back lowered down for them to enter. Eric and the Exo walked up the ramp and sat down whilst securing themselves onto the transport, while Soren and Sect pulled out their Ghosts and transmatted up to their Jumpships. Before Soren transmatted to his ship he turned to the Exo and asked for his cloak back when the Exo nodded and proceeded to give him the cloak. The Hunter nodded in appreciation at the Exo while his Ghost transmatted him up to his ship. The Hawk started rising from the ground and retracted its legs back into the body of the transport to then jet off toward the Tower that looks upon the City and the Traveler from the walls of the City.

A few minutes went by, and the Hawk arrived at the Tower Hanger where a hanger support frame guided the transport ship down to the hanger bay floor. The Hawk extended its legs gently down to the bay floor and lowered the ramp again to let the Warlock and Exo out. Once they had left the transport they were greeted by a small onsite Health and Safety team that Eric called in for during the flight to the Tower Hanger. "Be careful with him, he's badly scarred both physically and mentally. He may be a little unstable, so I'd advise Ikora Ray or someone to help him become stable." Eric rested his hand onto the Exo's shoulder and informed him "everything is going to be fine; we will get you back to Mars. In the meantime, I need to speak with some people so I will return to you later."

Several minutes afterwards and several thousand miles away, Soren's and Sect's Jumpships came out of NLS Travel (Near Light Speed) and sped toward the Martian surface. Sect was taken aback by the scenery, by the destruction. "Look at all this debris. There must be dozens of Golden Age Jumpships floating around up here!"

"Yeah, and a bunch of tech too. And, you know... Loot." Soren's face lit up at the idea of loot and the amount of Glimmer (currency) he could gain from all the wreckage.

"Well let's first head to these coordinates I was able to snag from the Exo and find out what happened ey?" Sect's Jumpships blasted its engines all the way down to the planet's atmosphere where is was quickly caught up to by Soren's Jumpship.

"I didn't realize it was a race down to the surface, shoulda warned me first!" Soren ignited his NLS drive for a split-second thinking he could get an upper hand when him and his Jumpship suddenly met the Martian surface in a massive ball of flame and smoke.

"Soren you absolute tw..." Sect shouted down towards the communicator when her Ghost interrupted.

"Um Sect, you do realise that he just used an NLS Drive to fly towards a planet. He may be a Guardian, but no one can survive that. We need to get to him now." Sect coming to realise the actions of her squad mate she powered up her Phaeton class jumpship's boost drive and sped down to the planet surface. The jumpship, cracking through the Martian atmosphere, tilted upwards before hitting the ground causing dunes of sand to deform and chunks of sand to be spread across the area.

"Ghost, transmat me down and land the ship somewhere safe as quickly as possible. If Soren is injured, he needs help, and I don't want to sit around looking for a spot to land while he has lost an arm or leg." The Phaeton class jumpship swooped down to Soren's downed jumpship and within inches of crashing Sect transmitted out of her jumpship and ran towards the crash site to find Soren's jumpship scattered across the dune and his's motionless body trapped inside the cockpit.

"Oh Traveller... Soren." Sect sprinted towards the cockpit to find him trapped inside. She tugged and wrestled at the wreckage to free him but failed at every attempt. She then looked at his lifeless face to notice a large metal beam that had pierced his head with sparks emanating from each end of the beam.

"SOREN!! Talk to me!" Sect, starting to give up hope on freeing him knowing that he is in fact dead, heard the cry of a Ghost coming from one of the other parts of debris nearby. Sect glanced over to where the cry was coming from to realise that it is his's Ghost, and he is trapped underneath some rubble too. Almost within seconds she lifted the debris from the Ghost and told him what happened.

"So, you're telling me the reason why we crashed is because Soren engaged his NLS Drive and directed us towards the surface!? That sounds like Soren alright. Are you okay?" Sect nodded with distress.p towards the small bot. Soren's Ghost, not entirely fazed by the events that had just occurred looked up at Sect with his single eye and noticed it was just her. "Where is Soren by the by?" Asked the little Ghost when Sect looks over to the cockpit where Soren's lifeless body lay. "Hmm. Okay, shouldn't be a moment."

The little Ghost quickly flew over to Soren's body and inspected the damage dealt to him. "Yup, he's dead alright. That big metal bar in his head is a dead giveaway... Haha get it. Dead giveaway...? No..? Fine I'll get on with it." Soren's small Ghost separated into smaller parts with his shell floating round the centre eye with a blue field of light protecting the centre when the Ghost suddenly ignited a thin blue beam of light and directed it towards Soren's chest, filling him with light and power. Soren's body began to 'wake up' as he opened his eyes and gasped for air. He coughed a few times before shouting out "Man that was fun! Sect did you record it? You should've seen the look on your face."

Relieved to see him alive again Sect sighed in disbelief at Soren. He can still joke around in spite of his own death occurring. "Soren, it's good to see you alive and happy again but we need to get to the Buried City of Freehold." She turned to pull out her Auto Rifle from her back when she turned her head towards Soren and his Ghost whilst grinning "and we need to get that metal beam out of your head, no matter how stylish it looks on you."