_-~Wolfe~-_

Drake, Wolfe, Roman, and a few others walked with the slow cautious precision of an elite task force formally known as "ghosts". Of course this precision was mocked repeatedly by Drake. However Wolfe had convinced him to, temporarily, shut his gob so the mission wouldn't be jeopardized. The mission was pure recon, the area they were searching was in friendly territory but some strange things had been seen in the zone. The area had been recently dubbed "no man's land" by both sides in the war. This no man's land was the previous home to a few of the task force members so they elected to remain at base rather than see what had become of their home. Once again more mockery from Drake; three ghosts had been sent here to investigate a deep crater that apparently housed an alien artifact. Wolfe didn't believe in such things but in a fit of paranoia he called Drake to come and help. Most of the time military personal would be against having a highly dangerous fugitive join them on a mission but the ghosts were used to…unconventional warfare. So here they all stood at the edge of a crater that was a deep wound into the earth.

"Y-you guys destroyed the thing that did this right?" Drake said in awe

"No…no we captured it" Wolfe said in horror, he had helped capture it

"Great just great" Drake said "The thing that did this is still operational"

After a few moments of respectful silence, even from Drake, the group moved forward into the crater. This wasn't like a quarry that was meant for people to travel down but it was twice as deep. That meant dangerous hikes downhill, rappelling down while connected to unsecure areas, and to make matters worse they kicked off their way down with a base jump.

"No, its reckless and going to get people hurt" Wolfe said

"C'mon, we'll be hiking for hours otherwise. We got the gear and this is a good spot to jump, high elevation, and minimal updraft."

A few of the others began to agree with Drake that it might be a good idea to BASE jump into the pit. After a few minutes of bickering Wolfe finally conceded to the base jumping idea. Jumping up in triumph Drake rushed over to a diving board that had been connected to a pool before the pit swallowed it.

"Hey! Hey wait for us!" Wolfe called out but it was too late Drake was already sprinting of the board and into the black abyss. Plenty of thoughts raced through Wolfe's head, most of which were insults to Drake.

"Roman! You're in charge, get everyone down their stat" Wolfe barked

"On it!" was romans response as he set about double checking peoples gear.

And with that, a few curses, and a flipped stomach Wolfe jumped into the abyss after Drake.

~Drake~

Drakes parachute wouldn't open so after a few moments of insufferable panic he opened his sudo wing suit. It's not the best considering only the upper half of the wings suit is usable without considerable preparation. Of course that was preparation Drake didn't have time for. His suit jacket could make an airtight seal to his waist and that was how it worked. Drake hated using it, it was hard to control, terrifying, and dangerous but he had no other choice. Pretty soon he started flying though wrecked buildings, poles, and spikes of rock in the air. The wind nearly blinded Drake. How fast am I going? He thought shit to fast to fast! He jerked to the right as hard as he could and narrowly avoided becoming a human shish kabob on a telephone pole. Drake was nearly on the ground now, only 15 feet or so between him and either brutal pain or safety. Drake prayed for the later, sadly he got the former. He landed on his chest and knocked the wind out of himself, but this isn't how he stopped Drake had built up too much momentum. He skidded on his chest for a brief moment and flipped on his back, then chest, then on his back again. A collision with a waist high wall is what stopped him fully, lucky he had lost most of his speed, unluckily he was still going fast enough to knock himself out. As the black unconsciousness his body was forcing him into began to swallow him up he light a flare with one final effort of will. The darkness was warm, so warm and Drake was tired, beat, and hurt so he welcomed it gladly. Outside of the warmth was a noise, deep and menacing. There was also a sharp pain that racked his face every few moments. Drake ignored it, tunneling deeper into his respite but the noise and pain were persistent so out of aggravation Drake began to pay it some attention. He soon realized the noise wasn't mumbled nonsense it was a few words. Drake tried to study them closer, stretching his ears to understand it. After a few moments the words became clearer, the pain was sharper.

"Wake up!" the voice said

Drakes only response was a dull groan

"Drake WAKE UP" the voice said once more, moments later the pain struck against his face and awoke him fully

Drake woke up coughing, followed by sputtering, spitting and cursing. He sat himself up against the wall he had collided into and gratefully took the water bottle Wolfe offered him.

"Anything broken?" Wolfe asked

"Only my pride" Drake said with a chuckle that light his side on fire "Okay maybe a rib too"

"I assume this means you're not going to mock the slow and careful approach anymore?" Wolfe asked with laughter lining his words

"Like I said, pride broken, head pounding, throat on fire from screaming for my life" Drake said "Your probably not getting any of that outta me"

"You good to finish this?" Wolfe asked while offering him a hand

"Probably not, but let's do it anyway" Drake said as he took Wolfe's hand and stood onto his feet, wobbling for a moment before gaining his balance"

Wolfe motioned for Drake to follow as they made their way through broken buildings, shattered dreams, and a bakery.

"Where are the others?" Drake asked

"We got separated after the jump and coms are down" Wolfe said

"We'll probably find them at the artifact, were all going to the same place" Drake said in an attempt to lessen Wolfe's worry, it didn't work.

After a few minutes of hiking downhill deeper into the abyss the stone began to smooth out, buildings stopped and the area almost seemed clean, like someone had moved in. It wasn't a large area it was just a circle around an even deeper crater. Wolfe, having planned on a lot of hiking, pulled out a small portable drill and pierced two holes into the smooth cold stone to secure the rappelling gear.

"Please don't tell me were going down there" Drake said anxiously

"Command said we needed to go as deep as possible" Wolfe said "But I understand if you're not up to the challenge"

Drake understood what Wolfe was doing, trying to appeal to his competitive side. He understood that he shouldn't let it affect him but….

"Give me the rope!" Drake said as he snatched the rappelling line and began to secure himself "I hate you so much"

Wolfe laughed a hearty laugh and secured himself. Together they began their decent; well at least they were together until Drake shouted "Race you down!" and began to slide down at ludicrous speeds. Drakes left arm was robotic, some highly advanced military prototype. With this arm Drake didn't need to worry about things like rope burn. Thus he could do things most couldn't, the first time Wolfe and Drake spared in hand to hand after he got that arm Wolfe had thought to go easy on him, big mistake. Drake light a flare and dropped it down as he descended but panicked as he saw how close to the bottom he was. He used his left arm, the robotic one, to grip the rope and stop his descent but he kept his speed. Drake gripped harder and when he showed no sign of stopping grabbed the rope with both hands and clenched both hands at tight at he could. He screamed until he realized he wasn't moving and hadn't for a good few minutes, appaRently Wolfe had a ring side view, his laughter could be heard a hundred time due to the echo. Drake let go of the rope and dropped mere inches onto the ground. He looked at his right hand under the flare light. He was burned pretty badly and blood was sprouting from the parts that had gotten the worst of it. He took the few moments he had to inspect himself before Wolfe saw how injured he really was. He started with his left leg; from there he removed a thin sliver of metal from his thigh. Then to his right leg; he put pressure around the area above his knee and silently screamed. It was definitely fractured, badly from what he could tell; he pulled some bandages from his pocket and wrapped them tightly around his leg. He then inspected his chest; he had a gruesome cut from his stomach to his right shoulder. The sight of it took Drakes breath away but luckily it wasn't too deep and there was only small amount of blood, well small for a cut across his entire chest. Next was his right arm, he didn't fancy losing both of them though he was fond of his robo-arm. Luckily there was only some scrapes and bruises there, mid-way through his inspection of his arm something dropped into his eye blocking his vision. He cursed and felt across his face, his hand came down covered in blood. He had light cut along his hairline, the cut was small but it was enough to hamper his vision. He only had enough bandages left to cover up this wound so he wiped his face with a sleeve after he wrapped his head with a few layers of sterile cloth. Just as he was tying off the bandage Wolfe dropped behind him.

"You're more hurt than you let on, you sure you're okay for this?" Wolfe asked unwilling to endanger someone that was injured

"trust me I just figured out how bad it is, just a few cuts that were a little deeper that I'd like but I'll be okay" Drake said unwilling to abandon his friend

"Listen I think you sh-"Wolfe was cut off by a blinding light that appeared a few yards away in the cave

"That must be it, Come on!" Drake said as he limped towards whatever it was

Wolfe jogged in front of him and stood at the edge of a smooth metal cylinder that was as big around as a monster truck. Now that their eyes had adjusted to it the light was much less severe, comforting more than anything. Drake wobbled over next to Wolfe and stood shakily at the edge.

"Did you hear that?" Wolfe said turning to the darkness behind him "I can't see anything"

"I didn't hear anyth-" Drake words were cut short as some sort of animal pounced on him sending his hurtling into the light

"Shit! DRAKE!" Wolfe said as he lept to grab Drake's hand, missing by inches. "NOOOO!"

A blade shot out from Drake wrist and he decapitated the beast, throwing its corpse aside. Drake was getting closer to the light and there was nothing he could do, the walls were smooth and hard there was nothing for him to hold onto. This is it Drake thought this is how I die. He was strangely at peace; he was tired hurt and had no way of fighting this. Right before he collided with the light and what he assumed to be the bottom on the pit Drake closed his eyes. It will be quick at this speed He thought there are worse ways to die. A few moments after he collided instead of becoming floor jelly he felt his entire body light on fire, it felt like every atom of his body was being razed, even his left arm hurt. Then the pain stopped, the air felt cool and fresh unlike the rancid stale air of the cave. He opened his eyes and saw a forest below him; a city with walls a few hundred feet ahead he pulled at his old parachute, realizing he had only cut the strings of the main chute not removed the whole thing. Luckily for him the spare worked and slowed him considerably. He thought for a moment that his luck might be turning around, he would be able to glide into the city easily and the wind was low so it wouldn't even be a fight to go in the direction he chose. Then he saw smoke rise from the buildings, followed by gunfire and shouting, explosions and screams. Drake now realized the fight wasn't nearly over.