"Guardian?"

A small mechanical, yet strangely feminine voice, chirped away in the dusty, arid air.

"Guardian, are you awake?"

Groaning slowly emerged from the pile of rubble, rusted sand, and shell casings that covered over a white, robotic figure. Standing up shakily as if from a long, almost century old, nap, the man slowly replied.

"I'm up, god… Who are you?" He asked, his optics slowly adjusting to the glaring rusty atmosphere, opened up freely due to a large blown out hole in the wall and ceiling. He noticed the figure that beckoned his attention: a small orb surrounded by 8 pyramids, more long than wide with the ends flattened down, a small square shaped eye with a smaller circle inside emanating inside the sphere that made its inner body up. Floating. Almost like spirit in the mist.

"I'm a ghost. Well, I'm your ghost, to be specific."

"Ghost? Am I dead?" He almost shot to a conclusion he was dead, and this was some angel to take him to heaven or beyond. She quickly replied, "No-no, you misunderstood. I revi-" However, an interrupting loud, guttural grumble echoed outside of the sealed room, it seeming to echo inside of the hallway. Punctuating it, a loud clashing of metal against metal, as if someone was beating a shield against the sealed entry repeatedly. "They found us, we need to find you a weapon, a stick.. S-something!" The 'ghost' was almost freaking out as if a human was the basis for its emotions. Odd, but still, 'she?' was right. Whatever was past that door, sure wasn't handing out cookies.

"Should we book it? This doesn't exactly look like an armory."

"An armory! Good idea! The Clovis Bray facility should have an armory nearby!"

"Wait, Clovis Bray?" It was a shock to hear that all too familiar name: Clovis was the top research facility for building what he was: An exo, a willing but deceived test subject whose 'humanity' was uploaded onto a data chip, and put into a robotic husk. If it's nearby, this must be near the Bracton Armories, where Exo soldiers were armed.

"Yes! It should be just 750 meters away." She anxiously said, her voice cracking under the pressure of the 'guest'. "Out the hole, or past Smashy-Mc-Door? Both don't seem a good idea outside a 3 story tower."

"Sand swept through the city, it's less than 2 stories now."

"2 stories? Great, I got a weird floating robot who wants me to break a leg."

"Guardian, you're a warrior of the light, a simple fall won't kill you."

"I'm not jumping, you're crazy!"

"It's not the time to argue!" No matter how balls-to-the-walls crazy this orb was, she was right. Either break my legs, or get shattered to bits. He looked down out of the hole, the red sand of Mars evidently filling up most of the streets. Taking a deep breath, he walked back and sprinted out, 'closing his eyes' as he landed into the rusty soil.

"Alright, now we have to go northward."

"I just jumped out of a building, give me some time to get my bearings." He said, his optics shut off, leaving the 'sockets' for his eyes blank.

"We have to move! The Cabal don't just leave a target behind!" A sense of urgency rushed over her voice like a wave of arrows over an attacking army.

"Cabal?" He never heard that name before, but it did sound like something of concern. She almost seemed to sense his uneasy and questioning nature, as she replied, "Yes, Cabal: Their Empire is heavily militarized and industrial, with a full determination to expand and conquer any galaxy or race, even destroying planets that get in their way."

"Why not destroy Mars then? Seems like a bad planet to be stationed on." His immediate retort seemingly made sense, but she almost shot down that idea with a more pronounced approach, "It's closer to Earth, and again, Conquering galaxies?"

"Right, Right." The Exo 'guardian' got up to his feet, determined to walk the three-fourths of a kilometer to get to the armory, ready to arm himself against the onslaught of these 'Cabal', whatever they may be.