Chapter 2: Buried in The Frontier

I drowsily awoke, and my vision blurred and shifted till it adjusted back to normal although it was still as dark as ever, yet I still felt as if I could see. I tried slowly moving my arms, but alas they could barely move at all, stuck in place by some rough material, same with my legs. A dull throb made itself known in the back of my head as my drowsiness wore off, rhythmically thumping against my skull. Everything felt the same, yet so different. My neck felt longer and my legs felt... different. My mind was blank, clean like a slate, but yet still so full. All this was absolutely mindfucking me.

"What happened..." I muttered, my voice sounding robotic and metallic to my utmost confusion. I would've jumped in surprise but I appeared to be a little bit stuck at the moment. "Am I... dreaming?" I asked. It was extremely claustrophobic here, trapped under what felt like truckloads of rock and silt.

Panic began to build as I realized I couldn't move at all in the slightest. I tried moving every part of my body, I tried reaching my arms out, I tried extending my legs, I tried craning my neck, all to no avail. I was completely frozen in place. My breathing grew rapid and my body trembled as fear overwhelmed me. "I'm going to die here..." I muttered. I lay frozen underground, waiting for the pain of suffocation to kick in. I waited and waited, awaiting my inevitable doom. But after maybe about half an hour, nothing had happened. Like at all, no dizziness or fatigue, there wasn't even the slightest twinge of pain.

Needless to say, I was confused, like extremely confused. I was still buried don't get that wrong, I just... I wasn't breathing, nor was I dying. Guess this really is a dream

The panic slowly died down, as I realized I wasn't in any danger as of now. But I was still trapped, and barely able to move. But as I lay dormant, looking about my chamber, I noticed something. Just a little something that's extraordinarily hard to miss. Right there in the corner of my vision, was a HUD. Three symbols lay beside an empty wheel of sorts. Each symbol with its own little picture inside.

I have literally no clue about how I'd missed that, I mean it was literally right there, being the only thing I could see, asides from the darkness.

The far left symbol bore some sort of weird portal thing, the middle symbol had a picture of a thruster, and the far right had a pair of missiles. Missiles hmm, missiles equal explosion, rocks are weak to explosions. Well by Jove I've got an idea! I looked down to the right symbol, Well, here's to hoping these aren't decorative... I focused my vision down on the symbol, staring at it with hopeful intent. And as I stared down at it, it went gray.

A clang rang out, throughout my tomb, originating right beside my head. And I had not a moment's notice to realize what I'd done.

My vision filled with light, and my ears rang out with loud explosions and the crumbling of stone. Fire engulfed my vision as I heard the short whistle of missiles followed by a great boom. Bomb after bomb, explosive after explosive, each wrought their destructive power upon my prison. My ears were ringing the moment the chaos had ended, and my vision had blurred greatly, but I no longer sat in darkness, much to my joy.

My vision eventually corrected itself and my ears stopped ringing. I gazed up, looking to the dark clouded sky. Well, looks like I'm free! I sat up and gazed upon my new environment.

I was surrounded by multiple dilapidated field shelters and garages, some were even crushed beneath piles and piles of stone... huh, wonder how that could've happened... Just then it began to rain, the rain pattered against the thin rusted sheet metal of the field shelters before flowing down into their broken gutters, gushing out onto the mud. Then, a sharp pain tore through my head as all this new information flooded my brain. I clutched my head in pain and agony. A loud metallic clang rang out as I grasped my head, but I completely ignored it, completely distracted by the horrible ache that plagued my mind.

The pain tore through my head like a bullet, but eventually, the ache died. From a sharp ringing to a dull throb once more. I slowly brought my hand away from my face, but as my hand drifted away, I noticed something was horribly wrong. I didn't remember much, but I knew my hand didn't look like that. It was almost entirely made from metal, it was scratched and dented, also charred completely black. It had two fingers and a thumb, this was reflected onto my other hand, excluding some sort of hole in its palm, and the fact that it wasn't charred to a crisp.

I looked down at my torso, it was broad and strong, and also made from the same metal, half my torso was burnt black just like my hand, and certain strips along my chest glowed a brilliant blue, pulsing with power and glowing through the black coat I donned. My neck was almost twice as long, guess my superstition was correct, it was craned like a swan and it could turn far enough for me to nearly perfectly look behind me. My Shoulders were extended, made from three sections of metal plating. They connected to my arms, they had many strips of cyan light which all pulsed with the same power as all the others, acting like veins if I had to guess. And behind all the plating there was some sort of hexagonal metal, that worked as a muscle, contracting and releasing as I moved my limbs.

"What the hell happened to my body?!" I shouted

I was completely overwhelmed, from my body to my environment and literally everything! It was like I was in a dream of sorts, just an extremely realistic dream...

I just then realized the gravity of my current situation as a raging river of memories flooded into my head, from my early life trauma and some happy moments of my life to hated experiences and cherished memories, nearly every key memory I harbored flooded back to me, including my death. I winced as I remembered bleeding out and dying, I don't think anyone would enjoy remembering their death in the slightest, and the ball of light wasn't something to celebrate remembering either. I cringed as I remembered the horrible pain I was put through, it sent shivers down my spine... if I still had one.

"Wait... Did I die? Oh fuck...I died..." I muttered. My breathing grew fast as I glanced around, "stupid stupid cyclone..." I muttered. "I won't be able to see my friends ever again, I can't talk with my family, my life's gone...forever..." I mumbled. "I promised my parents I'd be fine... Oh, I even told my fiancé I'd be fine... I can't believe it..." I muttered. I buried my face in my hands and let the rain fall harmlessly upon my hull, deep in thought.

I sat solemnly, tears would've been streaming down my face if I could cry. But this body didn't offer any favors. I still sobbed without shame though, I sobbed and cried, my sorrows echoing throughout the alien forest that was still so mysterious to me. The amount of guilt that was weighing down on me was crushing. I'd promised them... Oh, look what I've done...

I sat in sorrow for what felt like hours, crying uncontrollably, the rain had dissipated and the clouds parted, gently shining sunlight down into the dig site, making the dewdrops that'd garnered on the blades of grass and old cobwebs sparkle in the light. The sight was one for sore eyes, and it did cheer me up just a little bit. I swallowed down my sorrow and got up, with slightly renewed vigor, I didn't want to be caught off guard here after all, who knows what could be hiding here? I pushed myself off the ground, with my legs now easily tearing through the crumbled rock. I wobbled about, unfamiliar with my new body. I'd mastered my upper body motor functions, but my legs were definitely something to work on, especially with their strange, three-jointed design.

I took a cautious step, each joint extending to support me. I stumbled but took a successful step. I took step after step, slowly getting used to the idea of walking with these weird ass legs, till I got the idea down, it was vague but it worked.

I just now realized how tall I stood, the rusted field shelters stood taller than me whilst I sat, half-buried in a pit, but now that I was upright they were tiny. The tallest of buildings went halfway up my torso. It was confusing, to be honest, as well as extremely disorientating, everything was new, and just so hard to wrap my head around. I looked around the site, it wasn't only filled with buildings. There were charred rusted titan chassis laid about, though I haven't seen their model before... They were smaller and barer when it came to armor, they were about half my size too. One of their hand was replaced by a vice claw and the other was replaced by a shovel head, sometimes they were replaced by a hammerhead, there were about 5 about from what I could see. Guess this place really was a dig site.

But there was one titan that stood out from the rest, this titan was a little less rusted and had an old coat of paint, unlike all the others. It was slumped over in a garage instead of sprawled out on the floor or propped up on a wall. I'd only spotted it due to a massive hole in the ceiling of the garage it was kept away in. I walked up to the building that harbored the titan and reached down through the ceiling and hauled it out, it was a lot lighter than I'd expected, I'd expected it to be something like a 100kg Gorilla, but it was more like an 8kg plastic dumbbell. This body might just have its benefits... sometimes.

I brought the titan over to a flat spot in the middle of the excavation site, which was rather hard to find due to all the pits that'd been dug out, I'd nearly tripped over multiple times from those blasted holes. I laid the titan down on the ground and inspected it closer, its right leg had dull white text printed out on it, upon closer inspection it read out 'JOURNEYMAN'. Eh, it was probably the model of titan it belonged to.

A flash of light caught my eye as I looked over the strange titan, I brought my attention to its vice claw where the flash originated. The vice was clamped shut with something stuck between its jaw. I grabbed hold of the titan's arm and pulled the mech up so the object in its grasp would be at my eye level. Turns out it was some sort of golden key, glistening in the light like a great jewel, the key was normal sized for me but for your average person, I'd guess it would probably be at least a meter long. It was almost like it was made just for me...

I grabbed hold of the vice claw and ripped it free from the titan's arm, dropping the titan to the floor with a thud, before prying the clamp open like a clam. I tore the key from the clamp's grasp and studied it closer, it looked like a mix between a house key and a skeleton key, and the end was sharpened to an almost unsettling degree. maybe I should hold on to this... I closed my hand and kept it close, keeping a tight grip on it, it seemed important so I might as well keep it.

I dropped the vice claw to the ground, it almost punched a hole into the torso of the 'Journeyman' titan, but it's not like it mattered. It was already dead after all. I made one round around the site, one last time, maybe I'd uncover more secrets hidden in this mysterious place. As I wandered through the site, peering down holes or through open doors, something caught my eye through the shattered window of a storage building. I crouched down and peered down at whatever it could've been. From what I could tell it was made of sleek metal, almost exactly like the one my new body was made from. After I had a moment to ponder on it, I'd figured out what it was, and to be honest, I felt a little dumb at not connecting the dots sooner.

I pushed myself off the ground and walked up to the building that harbored my new set of gear. I balled my pure steel hand into a fist and punched a hole through the ceiling, I grabbed hold of the jagged ceiling and tore it apart like a ragged cloth, it wasn't that strong after all, being made from rusted sheet metal and all. I tore away at the ceiling till I had a clear view of the items. One was some sort of sword, and the other was a strange energy pistol, they were surrounded by random objects and boxes, I didn't care much for them though. I was more focused on the easily recognizable weaponry.

I reached down and grabbed the pistol first, it looked dull and dead before, but the moment it came in contact with my hand, small strips and slots along the gun glowed a brilliant cyan as it made contact. As if transferring power from my body into the weapon.

I looked over the gun. It was a replica of the Mek's TEK Pistol, well lucky me.

Next, I reached down and grabbed the sword, the key nearly slipping from my grasp as I did so. The moment I grabbed the sword, just like the pistol, it lit up, the hexagonal transparent metal that made up the blade, lit up like a raging fire. The dull edge it'd carried sharpened and burned. I pulled the sword free from the wrecked building, before examining the blade. I touched the blade down onto the ceiling of the building, and it tore through it like butter, with little to no resistance in the slightest. Interesting.

I raised the pistol and aimed it towards a building, before reaching for the trigger, until I realized, it didn't have a trigger. I stood there confused, looking down at the pistol, still completely silent, sadness still floating about through my subconscious. And in a sudden burst of anger, I raised it and aimed for a nearby building and fired, three bolts of Plasma flew out, all hitting for home, blowing holes into the building that could put artillery shells to shame. Guess it shot only when I wanted it to.

I brought the pistol down to my side and it shot out of my hand before magnetically connecting to my hip, like some sort of holster. It was convenient alas it didn't quite lift my spirits, I mean you're obviously still going to feel like shit after what I've been through.

But alas, it seemed this site didn't have much to offer anymore, and I didn't want to go insane talking to dead titans and dried-up skeletons, so maybe I should get out of here, preferably as fast as I possibly could. I looked off into the jungle that surrounded the site, the sounds of alien insects echoing out into the distance. It unnerved me, to be honest.

I looked down at the golden key, it glowed like a diamond beside the light of my gear. Maybe I'd keep the thing as a good luck charm... I shut off my visor before slotting it in my head for safe keeping, it felt a little strange having a key rattling around in my skull but I'm sure I'd get used to it sooner or later.

I took in a deep breath, and I walked off into the foliage, pressing on into the wilderness...

sorry, 4 maybe fuckin up the chapter.