The Buried City

Chapter 2: Freehold City

"Look, I can see one of the buildings just behind that dune there." Sect's Ghost relayed all information he could gather on the Buried City but couldn't find a anything of value. These two Guardians are the first to venture into this devoid and wrecked city of a once prosperous age. With each step they took the more they could feel themselves sinking into the sand and dust.

"I hate this feeling, sand in my boot. It makes me feel dirty and just horrible... I don't even know how it got into my boot!" Soren stopped and lifted his foot and shook it, patting off any sand that was present. He stared at the city then looked down to his boot and lifted his head up towards the city once more. "Now I know how you must feel, being swallowed by sand for centuries with no one to help you." He then shook off the rest of the sand off his boot and proceeded towards the city. He could hear Sect yelling at him to hurry up in front of him when he stood on something hard, something like metal. He looked down onto what he stood on when he noticed it was an old Golden Age recording device that was beyond repair, the sand had fried the circuitry inside. However, when he turned the device to look at the back of it he saw that there was some sort of leaflet showing the Buried City of Freehold before the Collapse. It had the words 'Welcome to Freehold City, where you can make your own discovery." Soren looked at it and moved his robotic facial features into a somewhat recognizable smile and proceeded to place it into his pouch he keeps at the back of his belt.

Suddenly Soren could hear a scream coming from where Sect went and ran as fast as he could towards the area to find a sink hole that led to a massive room filled with scientific equipment and terminals. Soren, not knowing what to do, yelled down into what would seem to be a lab of some sort. Puzzled and worried at the response of only an echo of his own voice he takes a few steps back before taking a deep breath in and closes his eyes. He then opens his eyes and jumps into the sink hole to then activate his second jump ability to land safely without breaking anything of value to him or the room. The only thing he is met with is the dark expanse of a long-abandoned room that showed no signs of disturbance.

"Ghost, are you able to make some light? I cannot see anything." Soren whispered as he reached for the holster carrying his Hand Cannon when he senses something dangerous nearby. Suddenly his Ghost appears to the left of his head emitting a beam of light as a normal torch would do directly onto the remains of a skeleton. Soren sees the skeleton and freaks for a second. He then calms down and starts mourning the remains of the skeleton internally when he turns to his Ghost. "Was this what I was like when you first found me before you revived me but with less bone and more machinery?" The Ghost looked at his Guardian and simply nodded then proceeding to say "Every Guardian started like this. Sect, Eric, even Lord Shaxx. All thanks to the Darkness and the Collapse it created." He looks down at the skeleton in despair and sighed. "Come on Ghost. Let's see if there's a power switch that still works and see where that scream originated from.

The Ghost split apart his shell leaving only the center eye piece surrounded in a blue protective shield and started scanning the room. He then made a couple of beeps and formed back into his shell before highlighting a circuit board on Soren's HUD and lighting the way for him. Once they both had reached the circuit board the Ghost flew down to the various wires and switches hanging out of the box and starting using his small blue beam to fix the circuit before the lights turned on. "Ha Ghost, ya did it." Soren, being able to see, made his way over to a broken open door in which he noticed footprints leading from the room into the rest of the building before going down a flight of stairs and turning round a corner. "I don't know about this; I know we go into old Golden Age ruins as a job, but I think going down there is a bad idea." Soren looked at his Ghost and laughed before taking a few steps back. "Ghost, it's me. I live for danger and usually at the end of danger there is loot. Plus, we need to reclaim Mars, so we need to explore. What's the worst that can happen?" Soren then proceeds to walk down the stairs and follows the footsteps around the corner and comes starring down a long corridor that had three doors spaced out from each other along both sides. Feeling his inner circuits acting weird as if they were uneasy, he started walking towards the other side of the corridor to face whatever he felt was wrong when he meets the end of the footprints and the start of something much bigger.