[b]Continued from above[/b] “Yes…sir,” Charles said slowly as he stood up. “Here you go Charles,” Henry said as he handed Charles the DMR. “You’re the designated sniper of this outfit, only fitting that you get the longest ranging weapon. You seem to enjoy giving people long range brain surgery…” “An Exo enjoys nothing,” Charles remarked as he checked the scouting rifle out. “I hate aftermarket junk like this; I wish I had my rifle.” “Wait a minute!” Bm-Bx exclaimed. “What do I get? I need a weapon too.” “You know, you’re right,” John said, digging into a small metal drawer that was in the ships console. “Heh-heh-heh,” Bm-Bx chuckled as he walked over towards John, rubbing his hands together. “Here,” John said, handing Bm-Bx a wrench. “Hit’m with this.” “What?” Bm-Bx exclaimed as he was handed a wrench. “This is an outrage!” “Hey, you can fix their downed ship at least.” Jk-Bx poked at Bm-Bx. “Or tighten down some loose nuts or bolts on the side of our ship.” “Shut up,” Bm-Bx said. “I’ll make it work…somehow.” As everyone began to disembark the ship, I was still sitting in my seat as Charles walked by me. “Who broke it?” I asked. “Broke what?” Charles asked me in return. “Your ‘weapon’ of a body,” I say. “What’s it to you?” Charles asked as he got into my face, looking into my eyes. I noticed that around the iris of his eyes, it looked like there was crosshairs rotating around them. His eyes looked like they belonged to a hawk, constantly searching for its prey. “I may know him.” I say. “I doubt that,” Charles said to me (the crosshairs in his eyes locked in place) before he walked away. “We’ll see,” I say before I got up and followed Charles into the fog. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We searched the surrounding area thoroughly, but didn’t find anything in the first half-hour of looking. The ground was moist, as if it had just rained and the terrain was mostly like gravel. Pits and holes were all over the place, had to be careful where you walked. “Where the heck are we?” Max called out. “There are no landmarks or anything to go by; just gravel, pits, and the occasional big rock.” “See anything?” John asked, ignoring Maxs’ words. “Anybody?” Everyone reported that they hadn't seen anything yet. “We’ll keep searching north,” John said. “That’s where the ship supposedly went down.” We began our long hike towards the north in a horizontal line; John was in the center, Max to the left of John and Henry to the right. I was on Henrys right… “I hate carrying this thing,” Henry remarked to me. “Why?” I asked. “I’m a medic, not a combat Marine.” He remarked. “You know how to use a shotgun?” I ask. “Point and shoot,” Henry said. “That’s about right, isn’t it? It’s what they always give me.” “You shoot anyone before?” I inquired. “Not really,” Henry said. “I prefer to be the medical person keeping people from dying and stitching them up, not the killer trying to take life away.” “How does Cicatrix know where we are?” I asked quickly changing subjects. “I don’t know,” Henry said. “He does whatever he wants it seems; he could be anywhere. What was with you and Charles back at the ship?” “Nothing,” I say. “I just asked him a question, should have kept my mouth shut.” “Ah,” Henry began. “He’s a strange fellow, that Charles, never know what may set him off.” “Know anything about his injuries?” I ask. “Not much,” Henry begins. “I can tell you this, his Exo skeleton is ancient; I mean the one that’s his base skeleton. His outer body was destroyed long ago, broken by some explosive force. He’s been trying to get it repaired, but it’s not easy to find someone to repair armor like he had; some kind of flexible, yet durable material. He really doesn’t like it when I touch him, no matter how bad the injury may be…” “Quiet,” John said. Charles couldn’t be seen or Bm-Bx for that matter. Henry pointed out that Charles stayed out of sight ordinarily in these environments, putting his Omega series abilities to good use. I could see him occasionally in the distance, hiding among the fog and rocks. Bm-Bx had some kind of cloaking ability, made him invisible to almost all forms of vision and radar. I could see Charles because of some advanced tech that I have inside my head that Exos didn’t quite have developed yet, but I couldn’t see Bm-Bx, his tech was very different than mine. “I see something,” Bm-Bx reported. “Looks like debris from a ship…can’t be sure…but I’m pretty sure.” “Alright,” John said. As we drew closer to where Bm-Bx spotted the piece the wreckage (a piece of the hull we presume), more and more pieces of the wreck became present. “Spread out, investigate the area.” John ordered. We spread out, but kept in shouting distance of each other for the most part. The wreckage was all over the place, I suspected that most of the ship was broken up before it hit the ground, because there were no signs of a trench or skid marks from the vessel dragging, that it perhaps fell strait to the surface. I came across some chairs and a few console looking things that had some signs of electricity still working in them. Henry reported finding what he thought was an engine part of some kind, but couldn’t confirm it because it was on fire and it was too bright of a blaze to make out any details. Charles said there was some distant movement around the wreckage area, but nothing serious yet. When Max said he found what he thought was a whole piece of the ship, we gathered at his location. “Looks like we’ve found the downed ‘ship,’” Max said as I came walking up. “Yeah,” John said. “We’re going in?” Bm-Bx asked. “Yep,” Max said. “Awesome,” Bm-Bx replied as he nodded his head. “You stay out here Exo-0300…we got to get you a name, seriously.” John said as he and the others walked into the wrecked ship through a hole in the hull. “Looks like it’s just you and me,” Charles said to me over my com link. “Yeah,” I said. I walked around the ship and looked at the damage it may have received. There were two large blast marks that looked like they were from rockets and some red colored spots that were blazing hot. The outer part of the sip was bronze colored and showed some signs of age; scars from battles long ago could be seen along the hull and makeshift repair work from other ships could be spotted. Some of the equipment and material used in repairing the ship looked familiar… “Movement,” Charles said. [b]Continued below[/b]