After the previous encounter with his first adversaries, he almost always checked his weapon, now strung around his shoulder, for a full stock of ammunition, hoping he was forever ready for his next encounter. A continued trek across the martian surface showed no finding of complete, or even semi-complete, space worthy vessels. Every ship or fighter had been scavenged, destroyed, or presumably taken off this red rock of a planet.
"We've been walking for hours, and no passage off."
"Some Clovis Bray facilities come standard with DNH-3 Blockade Runners, unusually going against their name as use for cargo carriage."
"Well, nice of you to mention that halfway through." He half-way joked, a little frustrated still from the fact that she kept mostly useful information until it was convenient.
"It wasn't mentioned because I was sure most vessels WERE space worthy."
"Either way, can you perform a scan of all nearby facilities?" He suggested the small orb, with her suddenly materializing out of him, that same familiar shiver shuddering through him. "C-c-can you please warn me next time? That feels too weird to be doing it a million times."
"Sorry, Guardian." She sheepishly apologized, the small eye inside of the eight triangular prisms looking to the side, as though she was embarrassed. However, she recovered from the 'embarrassment' quickly, floating upwards into the air above him, seemingly having her eyepiece surrounded by a sphere of blue energy, the pyramid pieces being at their original places on the inner orb, but moved to the outwards edge of the sphere. Eventually, she reformed back into the standard form, drifting back towards his shoulder, where the small mechanical ghost was located.
"Alright, Facility 3 has an Intact Runner, although it still needs a warp drive to get farther than the surface."
"Warp Drive? There might be a replacement in the facility or in one of the crashed ships we've seen scattered around."
"That's not a bad idea, how about we temporarily split up and look around? I'll look in wrecks around here, and you can go find the ship. We'll keep in touch via comms." After the explanation, the two agreed to temporarily part ways. He moved on, trudging through the sands into a large theater shaped structure, with various different numbers scattered around the walls, along with an ancient poster that reads along 4 lines: 'Двигайтесь к лучшему завтра, с Кловисом Брэй!', along with 'Будущее начинается с Сива.', but a large amount of words were scrawled out or illegible. Either way, he found the third facility, or at least that was the presumption, as the doorway was signed with the words 'Залив Ангар, Объект 3'. His communication device, mounted on the side of his helmet, crackled to life, testing the transmission to Ghost. "!e-ti~g? Te~+in=, 1 ^ 3, Gh*st? Do y+u read?" Even though the helmet itself was intact, the device was incredibly damaged and stagnant. The message was still a bit scrambled, but a response still eminated back. "G+=rd1an, I -~ar you, h+v3 you f%u^d the 5h!p?" "N`t yet, ~u+ I've f()u;d the fac!;ity." A static response from Ghost wasn't even audible, and eventually, the comm almost fell apart off his helmet. He 'rolled' his eyes, due to having a terrible comm, and not having the ability to communicate again. Slowly, he descended up the slightly lit hallways, winding around stairwells and elevators, and finding a large empty room with more broken Blockade Runners, although their was one, third out of four ships, that had a slight gray paint job: a square shaped ship, engines a similar blocky shape, 4 engines at the very back with a triangular positioning, all being placed backwards in one direction, without any sideways directing thrusters. The ship was obviously meant for forward direction, breaking hostile lines, and not maneuverability. He almost smiled, moving over to investigate the quality: Mostly untouched, the bottom of the ship had a large hole on the bottom, guessing someone gutted the warp drive out, be it a Cabal Soldier or someone hoping to escape someway else.
"Ghost, this message may not come through, but if you get it, I found the ship, and if you found the warp drive, deliver it to my coordinates; I'm seeing if some parts are rearrangeable into a usable form." Various wires were disconnected from the engine compartment, the theory about being gutted seemed to be holding truthful. After some major modifications, everything was connected back together and ready to connect into any form of engine.
A blue flash behind the ship, along with a light crash indicated that Ghost had found a warp drive of some caliber, her mechanical chirp signalling her arrival, "Guardian! I've found a compatible warp drive off the same model of ship as this one." The warp drive seemed bulky, and extremely heavy. "How am I supposed to pick it up?" "Try, you might be able to drag it along the ground towards your new jumpship." Really? Drag an engine that weighs possibly a ton? Oh well, might try to humor Ghost with it. He got out of the crouching position under the ship, moving over to the drive, eventually holding onto two handles, moving into reverse. It followed behind him easily, surprising him to the point of letting go. "How... How did I move that? How?" He stuttered, completely shocked by his abilities. "I've told you before. Warrior of the light." She said, as if carrying a ton with ease was a simple act. "But, it's over a ton. I don't have an immense amount of strength. It's a complete miracle!.." He loudly proclaimed, appalled a little at this act of 'light', as Ghost seemingly keeps rambling about. "It's probably better to ask the Speaker, he knows most about the light. The more time we spend here, the less time we have before more Cabal find us." She was right. No matter how much this made him question everything he once believed or thought. But he had more important matters, such as repairing his ticket out of here. Surely enough, mounting the engine into its compartment, reconnecting all the wires into the final piece, lifting it up to click into it's final resting spot. Finding a piece of metal, he placed it over the hole from getting gutted, welding it shut. It was pretty easy to climb onto the ship itself, sliding himself into a hatch to its cockpit, finding buttons, levers, and two joysticks for easy control. Ghost floated into the ship, floating close to him. "Shall I input coordinates for Earth? I'll turn it to autopilot for ease of access." "That would be appreciated, as all this 'light' business is a lot to absorb at once, might have to sit down for a while to reflect." "Understood, Setting coordinates to the Last City." The ship clicked and whirred into life, almost a weightless feeling washing through him inside of this metal rocket. A slight grinding sound was heard above him, presumably hitting the ceiling, the thrusters flaring in the back, blasting out with a shock of speed, finally granting a rite of passage off this rock of pure blood red sand.
Now, it was time to go to the last stronghold of humanity.