Strange...
Was the only thing the Guardian could think of; all of this was unknown to him the seemingly humongous jungle with exotic trees and chattering local wildlife. Insects, bugs, spiders anything a person could get scared of was here.
"Anything Blink?" The Guardian questioned.
A light appeared and out came a maroon colored robotic drone, flying through peaceful yet menacing jungle. It scanned its surroundings searching for any signs of live.
"I detect no hostiles… We must be the only ones here." The Ghost replied, its name being changed to Blink shortly after the Guardian and Ghost met for the first time back on Earth.
"No one huh." The Guardian said looking through the Stillpiercer's scope checking around, the Hunter had climbed a large tree beforehand scouting the area.
"Well, it doesn't quite look like Venus." The Guardian stated. "Possibly Earth's Amazon?"
"If it was the Amazon, we would've encountered a hostile by now..." The little drone thought hard.
"We won't know sitting around all day." The Hunter said sliding his rifle in between his back and cloak until a click sound was heard, indicating it was stuck on his back.
"Let's move." The Hunter leaped off tree's branch unto the moss-covered ground, the Ghost vanished in a flash of light.
The Guardian's senses were fully attuned to the environment and focused on locating any hidden threats. With no knowledge about the place he was currently located at, he'd have to be cautious on how he would navigate through the place.
As he moved through the foliage, he noticed that it was quite peaceful the water that flowed through the canals, the birds singing, the light of the sun that covered most of the jungle.
"I must say these trees are enormous. They're are almost the same height as some of the trees back on Venus." The Ghost said. The environment was like that of Ishtar the only thing that missed were the deserted ghost towns.
"By the way Blink do you know which planet where on?" The Hunter asked looking to the side of his helmets HUD where a small window of his Ghost was displayed.
"No, I'm afraid not. There's nothing in my data banks about this place." The Ghost shook his frame. "It's possible we've discovered a new planet."
Finding a new planet could be a positive thing or an incredibly dreadful experience depending on the current circumstances. Either way the Vanguard needed to know about this.
"Can you contact HQ? They need to know about this." The Hunter asked.
"Negative…" His Ghost responded sad. The Guardian had raised an eyebrow to his reply.
"What do mean negative..." He stopped, looking at his partner.
"I can't seem to connect to Vanguard frequencies, we must be to far from the Last City." Blink explained.
Great… He groaned, if they couldn't contact the Vanguard it meant they were stranded… And who knows where at that, they had already lost their ship not being able to use their coms wasn't helping.
"Are there any other frequencies you can link us to?" The Guardian tried. Blink checked, but to no avail, there were no broadcasts available.
"None."
The Guardian sighed. No Vanguard and local transmissions that sure was bad, but if the radio didn't work, he hoped this would.
"Well, coms are out of the question…" Blink thought out loud. "I'll drop a distress beacon it'll be a while before anyone finds us…"
"Let's hope it doesn't take long..." The Guardian murmured.
After some time, the sun had dipped below the horizon and the night was approaching fast and yet the Guardian walked on. Blink continued to scan but held out little help of finding anything usable. Hours had passed and the night had set in with came the breeze of the night.
"We should setup camp for the night and resume our journey in the morning." Blink suggested.
The Guardian looked up to the sky the moon overhead, it had become night rather quickly or it was already late noon we they arrived here. Either way setting up camp wasn't a bad idea.
"Yeah, maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow." The Guardian responded.
His eyes landed on a big tree. He extended out the metal claws in his gloves preparing the climb it, once he was near, he jumped to its base climbing to one of the top branches.
Having made his way to one of the branches he pulled out a robe out of one of his pockets that he tight around his legs and the branch.
"Let's hope nothing disturbs us." Blink said.
An unknown planet, no way of contacting with our allies and no form of galactic transportation… We really do have rotten luck don't we partner The Ghost chuckled to himself as he powered down.
"Wake up Guardian." Was the first thing he heard as his eyes opened slowly. He blinked a couple of times, then looked at his partner.
"Nice to see you awake. Dawn has risen." Blink stated the sun that started to appear far away. "We should get moving. While you were resting, I found some sort of ruin it's not too far from here. Its possible we might find some usable tools we can make work of."
The Guardian undid the tie from the robe, held one hand firm on the branch and dropped himself except his remaining hand. He let go and fell on the ground with a thud.
"Lead the way." He said his Ghost appeared guiding him to the direction of the temple.
…
After a couple of minutes walking, they came near a big rock mountain its lower part was covered by the large trees that corralled it. The stone ruins' entrance was off to the side, being concealed like this its possible the previous settlers didn't want it to be discovered.
"Here it is." The Ghost turned to the Guardian, He examined the entrance it was a stone pathway similar like that of a labyrinth. He really hoped it wasn't one though.
"You think we can find something in here?" He asked Blink.
"Not entirely." Blink shook. "However, even if we don't find anything these ruins can possibly tells us about the planet's history."
That was something valuable, knowing information about this planets inhabitants or religions could be useable in the future. Since they had landed on another planet it was highly possible the people here used a different language.
The Guardian stepped onto the path he took a left and then a right, some parts of the walls were cracked, also partially covered in vines and some hard weeds grew out of the ground.
As the Hunter continued to walk a large gap stopped him, he made his way to the edge. To his surprise as he looked down there were spikes at the bottom along with bones covered in dried blood.
"Well… That's unexpected." Blink gazed down at the travelers that fell in the pit. "We could end up like that if were not careful."
"Alright, I'll take it from here." The Guardian said.
The Ghost nodded in acknowledged and vanished.
The Guardian took some steps back for a run-up, once he was far enough, he dashed forward and closing the distance to the edge he jumped over the gap landing on the other side perfectly, though something happened the thing he was standing on seemed to have lowered and made a weird sound.
"What the-"
He looked down the stone it had lowered for some reason, something else resounded as he spotted a distant gate starting to close, his eyes narrowed.
A trap? The guardian thought.
"Guardian, the gate's closing hurry." The Ghost advised.
"I'm on it." He broke into a sprint up ahead there were also gaps in between, but instead of covering the whole path it only covered half of the it, he stepped to the right side and another one came that went through the middle leaving out the left and right side.
He made it past leaving the last gap, however the last one was on an even wider than the first one. Just like before as he approached, he followed it up with a jump. But instead of one he did a double jump midair landing on the ground with a dive roll.
The gate had closed halfway at this point, the Guardian closed the distance quickly sliding under the gate. The gate closed off entirely he had to find a different exit unfortunately, getting up from the ground the Guardian dusted off his armor.
His Ghost popped up on his screen. "Okay, we've managed to get inside let's explore further."
The Guardian nodded moving further into the ruins… Again, he looked at his feet yet again he activated a trap only this time he heard something behind him. He glanced up and his eyes widened a bit… in came a giant boulder from a huge hole ready to thrash him.
Not today. He said mentally, crouching till his knees almost hit the ground, he stretched both his legs up leading to an explosive jump upward avoiding the boulder that came crashing down.
"Hmm… I guess the people that made this weren't really fond of unwanted guests." Blink commented.
"True that." The Guardian replied, once more moving further into the ruins. Something that shocked him that is was rather clear to see it wasn't dark normally he'd have to turn on his night vision until he came in a room where it was preferable to turn it on.
"Blink, night vision." He requested, the night vision switched on the HUD turning into a somewhat greenish-gray tinge. They entered a room with a total of 3 paths one to the left, the second straight and the last to the right.
"Which one do we choose?" The guardian asked as Blink's window showed, the little robot thought about their decision.
"Normally in a situation like this people usually say rights the right way." Blink elaborated his choice. "But, then again those same people are usually the first to die so…"
"… Screw it, we started straight were staying straight." The Guardian made his choice going for the second path.
The went through a long passageway filled with arrow traps placed in the walls, The Guardian sprinted through the passage evading the arrows and spikes that descended from the ceiling after a quarrel with the booby traps the Guardian made it to a spacious area.
Stone pillars were off to the outer side of the circle shaped room, the room was mostly flooded with sand. On the opposite side was an open door.
"Strange a great amount of sand in a room like this seems out of place." Blink wondered.
"It doesn't matter we have other things to worry about. I really hope coming here isn't a letdown." The Guardian cracked his knuckles.
"You're right let's go through the door we could potentially find something of use."
The Guardian neared the door as he got closer it seemingly closed in front of him. He raised his eyebrows he touched to door with his hand and pushed it. No luck though as the door didn't move an inch.
"Really…" He stared in disbelief.
"A dead end. We should check another route we could possibly find something in the other… Guardian… I'm picking up an energy signature!" The Ghost warned.
"Where?" He turned swiftly grabbing Stillpiercer "I don't see anyone."
"I don't know where, but its here." His Ghost confirmed.
The Guardian scanned the room, the door the Guardian entered from had also closed. There was nothing in sight. Nothing jammed Blink's motion sensor as he also got a signature on his.
Are they cloaked? He thought.
The sand in the room slowly moved towards the center, the Ghost could feel a presence as the sand changed into an unclear shape. Both the Ghost and Guardian watched something abnormal happen.
They watched baffled as deep, round eye sockets lit by a bright red color gazed back at them. The ground began to shake as the sand picked itself up and thrashed upon awakening. It had two arms, a wide body and a dirt covered head. The lowered parts of the body were seemingly buried beneath the sand or were missing entirely.
The Guardian raised his rifle as the creature roared loudly in his direction, grains of sand whirled around and made their way to the Guardian. Fortunately, his helmet blocked off any sand that could've possibly went in his eyes or mouth.
He pulled the rifle's trigger, the bullet buried into the creature's side destroying a huge chuck. To his disappointment the damage he dealt had been for naught, the creature renewed the blown off part with new sand.
"Any ideas?" He ducked as the creature took a swing at him. The Guardian noticed his inactivity and started running.
Blink studied the creature that resembled a golem. Bullets weren't going to much, because the golem would simply absorb sand to restore itself.
The Guardian continued firing his rifle, the shots landed on the golem's torso. Blowing off its side, sadly the same thing happened it regenerated its body. The Guardian's eyes widened as he was sent flying by the golem's fist crashing on the ground.
The shields of his suit had absorbed the damage giving him no trouble getting up. The golem sure packed a punch if he didn't have his shield up, he could've been injured. Staying in the open wasn't the best idea so the Guardian sprinted to one of the pillars. He took peek from behind.
"Did you figure something out?" He asked.
"If we can't dwindle him down bit by bit then we'll simply need to take him out in one blow." Blink proposed.
In one blow… So, I'll just need to use a grenade. The Guardian concluded.
Only thing that mattered was where he was going to throw it. Straight at the golem could possibly let it regenerate its body, but if he found a way inside that would probably do the trick and he saw the perfect place too.
Though the golem was big, and it also had a big mouth, a fine place for a flux grenade. He materialized a flux grenade to his hand and put away his rifle. He left the pillar that provided cover running to the sand golem. In response the golem hoisted his arms and slammed both on the ground, the Guardian evaded the attack and ran up the monster's arm. While ascending the golem he activated the contraption it radiating a blue light. He made it all the way to its head.
Shoving the grenade down the golem's mouth the Guardian quickly leaped a save distance away. As he landed the grenade detonated causing a huge explosion, sand spurted everywhere flooding the room with more sand then before.
"That takes care of that." The Guardian brushed off some sand. While doing his thing the doors had reopened again.
"The doors have reopened let's check it out." Blink said. The Guardian obliged making his way to the unlocked door, he stepped inside and let out a whistle.
A room full of treasure, wooden chests filled with gold coins, golden bars, necklaces, cups, vases, rings along with some pouches. He now partially understood why there was a golem it guarded the loot.
"How much are we going to take?" Blink asked.
A reasonable response, because there's no way after fighting something like the golem a sane person wouldn't take anything
"At least a full bag off coins. We'll need some money." He said grabbing one of the large pouches loading it full of coins. He figured if they at gold as treasure people probably used it as a currency.
"The money could help us a great deal. We could possible buy a ship with it… Assuming they're affordable or even purchasable." Blink muttered the last part.
"I hope they are the sooner we get out of here the better." Instead of one bag he'd grabbed several just for good measure and dematerialized them. It would've been bothersome carrying everything.
As the bags vanished a bright light appeared blinding the Guardian, he blocked off the light with his hands and when luminous died down they were back in the jungle. Only this time were the treasure used to be was replaced with sand.
"Huh?" The Guardian looked around confused as to what had occurred.
"An illusion?" His companion questioned. "Quick, Guardian call back the loot."
He did exactly that he materialized back the items he stored away just seconds prior. The items appeared again and to their dismay turned to sand. Both were silent they went through a maze, death traps and fought a massive monster and got nothing to show for it.
It felt as if the stepped in a pool of excrement. Needless to say, both the Ghost and Guardian, felt their journey home was going to be a long one.