"Are they here yet?" Dealer asked while sitting on top of a table.

The passageway that they've discovered didn't go on for too long and led them to a room with an elevator, there was also a ladder that led down as well. The group held a discussion on which way they should go down but Dealer complained that she would rather die in an elevator accident than climb down a ladder. They had to do some work to get the elevator serviceable again but in the end they all took it down except for Fred, Sweeper and Mirabelle who had to use the ladder since they would've gone over the carry capacity.

The descent was pretty smooth but it took a while before they reached the lower level, in fact there was only two floors and probably no plans to make anymore since the elevator had two buttons which were up and down. Once they exited the elevator and entered the lobby they tried to contact the others but something was jamming them so now they have to wait for the arrival of the rest of their group.

"Couldn't they have waited up top and called the elevator back up?" Emma said.

"Even with the three of them I don't think they'll be under the weight limit because of Corporal Mirabelle." Savage explained. "And I don't think she should be alone... because, uh, she's scared of being alone... yeah."

"How much does Mirabelle even weigh?" Richard laughed.

"It's not nice to ask about a girl's weight y'know." Guard nicely deflected answering the question.

From what little they explored of the room they were in, it doesn't seem like the lights worked at all so they had to make do with what they had.

"I wished we had night vision..." Dealer stared at the cool goggles that the Special Forces were using. "All we have are these dinky flashlights." She waved it in the air.

"Oh right... the rest of you can't see in the dark." Reaper said while not holding anything.

"Wait! Hold on! You have night vision installed?" Dealer shined the light into her eyes which cause her to wince. "All those times we were lost in the dark you could've led the way instead of watching me bumble around?"

"You never asked..."

They both fell silent in the dark. It sucked not being a combat android they get all the cool things Dealer thought. Though in this case it might just be Reaper because Dealer remembered Savage struggling to navigate through the forest at night and how she always had a hard time finding the light switch. So in this case it sucks not being a modern combat android.

Footsteps could be heard coming towards them, everyone looked over to source of the sound. Logically speaking, it could only be the others finally reaching the bottom floor. Illogically speaking, it could be ghosts. Thankfully a shine of the light revealed it to be Fred, Sweeper and Mirabelle.

"That was a very long ladder." Sweeper pointed behind her. "And rusty. It's a good thing I'm not human or I might have just contracted something from touching it. Oh! Are you fine Fred?" She looked over, concerned about Fred's condition.

"I'm wearing gloves." He lifted one of his hands up, he then looked over to Mirabelle. "What the hell is that anyways?"

"What do you mean?" Savage replied, unsure of what he was asking.

"It didn't even use the ladder... just punched holes into the wall."

Mirabelle is a hefty young(?) lass and from analyzing the rusty ladder she could tell that it wouldn't be able to hold her so to prevent the removal of a travel option for her teammates she decided to cling onto a wall and head down. Of course what made this stand out even more was the fact that the walls were metal.

"That size... and power... could she be from the Knight Unit?" Cid wondered.

Before Savage could nod her head and agree to prevent anymore questioning, the Sergeant opened his mouth.

"No. I've worked with one before. They wore power armour. I can see the similarities but she gives off a different feel from them."

With that option shot down there was only one choice left that Savage could make to conceal her identity.

"She's a model. A basketball model."

Most of the Special Forces nodded their heads and said how they can see it now. It didn't explain how she managed to scale down the wall but seeing how everyone had already moved on, Fred decided to ignore it.

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With everyone finally together they moved on from the lobby room that they appeared to be in. Opening the door revealed a large hallway, it was too dark to see down the two paths so they weren't sure where they ended but they did see other doors to the side. It seems that the hallway continued the existing theme of dust and rust, the place was deserted with no signs of life not even rats scurrying around.

"Talk about spooky, you'd think that we were in some kind of haunted house." Richard looked around.

Haunted house would be an apt description to the place if ghosts didn't have any self-respect. There is an argument to be made on whether or not ghosts have feelings other than misery, let's just say ghosts are real in this case to save some time, but why would they choose to live in some kind of industrial nightmare zone when they could be anywhere else? You could argue that they could be tied down to this place if they have fond memories of it but that's a big if. Another argument is that they could prefer to be secluded but again they could be anywhere else because the world is pretty empty.

Putting the topic of whether or not ghosts would like the place aside, the group had two paths to explore.

"We can cover more ground if we split up." Hallengir suggested.

"I don't know boss man... Richard's right, this place might just be haunted." Cid was sure he felt a chill breeze just passed his shoulder, his nerves were on fire. He absolutely preferred missions that didn't take place this far below the ground and in buildings that weren't so deteriorated.

"I don't know why you are so terrified of these apparitions they're weak as all hell, I mean they did die." Savage had met quite a number of people that were shaking in their boots because they thought they saw a phantom of some kind, it seemed like the nuclear blasts had reignited the fear of the supernatural and it only seems to be slowing down quite recently. "If the dead were so invincible why would anyone choose to be alive?"

"That's a... way of looking at it." Emma nervously chuckled.

"Whether or not this place is cursed we still need to explore it, the higher ups have shown interest in old buildings on former US soil." Hallengir cut the ghost chatter short.

"Two teams sounds good. We could have the teams consist of members from each group since we could learn things from seeing how the other operates." Sweeper proposed.

"Not sure learning anything from an android would be useful for what we do." Fred remarked.

"Can it Nielsen. Two teams is fine." Hallengir then worked with Savage to divide the group up. Team A consisted of Savage as the leader, Cid, Emma, Mirabelle and Guard while Team Thunderstruck Death Typhoon (Dealer and Richard suggested the name) consisted of Hallengir as the leader, Dealer, Sweeper, Reaper, Richard and Fred.

Team A would explore what they considered left and Team Thunderstruck Death Typhoon, TDT for short, would go right. Without radio communications they plan on meeting back up in the lobby room in an hour to discuss their findings. With how old and abandoned the facility seems to be they weren't too worried about having to fight anything but they still have to be cautious since the place looks like it's falling apart.

Hallengir led his team through the dark corridor checking the rooms to the side from time to time. Nothing of interests appeared to be in the rooms, it was full of old equipment that have broken down long ago. There were no bodies or signs of struggle so he assumed that whoever were here just left, maybe they finished whatever they were doing or something forced them to leave.

"Hey look! Is that the end?" Dealer pointed up ahead, she didn't want to run up to confirm it in case there was something hiding in the dark.

Fred and Reaper took point and surveyed the area, Dealer was right, it was the end. They reached a dock that was built underground. This was much faster than they had anticipated and they still had nothing to show from it.

"Hmm..." Sweeper went around to examine the diving equipment that was lying on the ground. "So they had two ways of entering either the elevator in the forest or diving, most likely from one of the rivers that run through Former North Dakota."

"Talk about inefficient couldn't they just have an open door with a giant sign like the rest of us?" Dealer kicked over an empty canister that rolled towards a pile of clothes.

"Woah hold on!" Richard kneeled down and picked up the clothes. "This is a UCNA uniform! And more importantly..." He brought the clothes closer to his face. "a girl wore it!"

"H-how do you know that? The UCNA military doesn't have separate uniforms for gender..." Behind Fred's mask was a look of confusion.

"It looks too nice. And it's scented! Strawberry scented in fact."

That look of confusion changed to concern as he wondered how he was able to smell that while wearing a gas mask.

"Is your mask on properly?"

"What? Why yes it is, can't smell a thing." Richard looked up at Fred.

"Then... how... wha... nevermind."

TDT continued to search the room for more evidence of what's going on but they found nothing else except some guns lying around.

"I... I think this person got ghosted." That was the conclusion Dealer came to.

"Shit you're right. That's the only explanation for this we have a bunch of weapons, one uniform and no bodies here." Richard looked back from where they came. "I think the ghost wanted us to split up..."

"I'll play along for a bit." Hallengir sighed. "I've seen enough horror movies to know that you're not suppose to panic, just remember your training and stick together."

"Well I've seen them too. If it's not the couple that does the dirty, it's the stoic guy that gets killed first." Richard glanced at the Sergeant, this might be the last time he ever sees him alive. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, does the comedic relief go right after the stoic guy?

"I've never watched a horror movie before and you appear to be an expert on what's going on so I'll follow your lead." Reaper casually said to Richard.

That boosted his spirit. He never had someone look up to him before and in his squad he's at the bottom of the pecking order, though he will argue that he is above Cid. As his confidence shot up, his fear of ghosts vanished.

"Don't worry Reaper, I'll show you a thing or two about handling the supernatural!" He started walking back. "Quick we gotta tell the other group about what happened."

"You can't order us aroun-" Before Fred could finish Hallengir stopped him.

"You know what, just let him have this moment."