Void darted through the wastelands. The night sky shimmering with stars, marred with a carpet of dense clouds. The light twinkled through the gaps, a bleak but surreal glow entombed the dark side of the jagged cliffs.

-

{Legendary Guardian System}

+ Golden Age Scavenger (1/15)

[objective: Clear the golden age vaults within the cosmodrome.]

[rewards: +Golden Age Schematics, ++Golden Age Blueprints, + Golden Age Access Key]

remarks: "The past haunts us guardian, make sure its put to rest."

-

Void's eyes narrowed, he could feel the power lines underground, surging with arc energy. His gaze traced it to the end, it was clear that something was siphoning all that power for use.

"Obsidian, track the power grid."

He knew the vault was under him, it was close. Yet he couldn't exactly enter. All exits and gates were likely buried beneath centuries of rubble and rock. But the power grid was functional, which meant only one thing. There was definitely an entry point.

"I got it, the power grid stretches for miles underneath the Cosmodrome. But there is a hub nearby. We might have to dig a little. Sending to radar now."

His visor flashed, Void dashed towards the new location, zipping through, quiet as an owl. Eventually, his footsteps halted, the red dot on his radar coinciding with the mountain ahead.

"When you said a little....This is not what I expected."

Obsidian flew closer to the rocks, his laser swiftly scanned all of them.

"Strange, the mountain is fine, but the surrounding rocks don't match the geological database. They're far more brittle."

Void traced a finger along the rock, feeling the mountain's rigid exterior. He could also tell that the rocks surrounding them, were not of the same quality. Albeit the difference was very subtle. Almost to a fault.

"There is only one way to find out."

Before Obsidian could interject, Void's hands blurred, a heavy rocket launcher resting on his shoulder. His feet kicked the ground, leaping into the air. A strange ember lingered, sparks flew.

Then, well there was no then. Instantly, Radegast's fury struck, an eruption formed the crater, and within it, everything burned, engulfed in flame.

As they expected, the surrounding rock crumbled, revealing a thick layer of rusted metal underneath. At first glance, the metal seemed weak, yet Void pressed on it, and it didn't budge an inch.

"Reinforced plating, they sure tried everything."

His fingers flicked, as he carved the metal with a conjured dagger, his light corroded the material lining at a rapid pace, allowing him to shear through it. Void carved out a small crevice, one he could crawl into.

Carefully squeezing through the gap he had made, Void clung to the crevice, peering down. Below was a tunnel that stretched for miles, the floor was lined with a hundred thick insulated wires that carried voltage.

Void softly landed on his feet, he looked behind, but the tunnel seemed to stretch far beyond his eyes could see.

"Where are we?" He said with some awe.

Obsidian seemed curious, comparing the current location with hundreds of city record's as he scanned the place.

"Not sure but, in the golden-age, they had power tunnels. It seems like we struck one of the service lines."

Void trudged along cautiously, though the voltage running in the lines was secure, it didn't feel safe being so close.

A few seconds later, Void detected the odd transfer of energy, hundreds of meters ahead, the walls of the service tunnel caved in, a strange neon light pierced the sullen dark, flickering every few seconds.

"There's a gate nearby."

Not wasting a single second, Void raced along, darting through the tunnels, he stuck to running on the side walls.

Reaching the gate, Void inched closer, eyeing the door. He wasn't foolish enough to believe it to be secure. Whoever had made this, had surely expected some intruders.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Void's eyes narrowed, a strange instinct implored him. He stood to the side and pulled the door open.

Instantly, a rattling echoed, in the next breath, a turret propped up, hundreds of bullets shot through the door with a deafening eruption, the heavy stench of smoke lingered in the air.

The turret whirred, firing blanks, as Void swooped inside and got behind it.

"How much would these scraps sell for?"

He kicked the turret's gun and it cleanly broke off, halting machine.

"Estimates range around 30,000." Obsidian remarked, scanning for the quality of the metal.

"Quite a piece."

Void shamelessly dismantled whatever he could. gathering it in his inventory, as for the rest? He ripped it off its mount and took it too. Who would stop him?

Venturing forwards inside the gate revealed a fleshed out underground facility. Lined with golden-age state of the art technology. Unfortunately, Void was a few centuries late. Rust had crept in through the ages, not much was salvageable.

"Shame, these processors could have been used to extend the city's network." Obsidian lamented as he floated over.

"You can sulk later, extract the floor map and layout. The facilities too big to not have loot." Void shrugged, tracing his fingers along the screens, hoping to get a response from the system.

Obsidian muttered something and rolled his eye, he immediately got to cracking the network. Golden-age of humanity was its peak, but Ghost's were simply beyond civilizations. Capable of the impossible and so much more.

He got the records and displayed the layout on Void's radar, highlighting a few highly secured areas.

Void chuckled seeing the markers, he surveyed the layout and immediately understood what was going on.

"Good job, although we won't be needing the highlights."

Obsidian jerked back to look at Void, perplexed.

"What? But that's all the highly secured stuff. I thought we came here for loot."

Void walked towards one of the many exits, as he calmly explained, a sly smile rested on his face.

"You're thinking like a machine. Humans, they're far more, cunning. They don't often follow rules. See the real loot, is not even on there."

Obsidian took another glance at the layout, contemplating Void's words, realization struck as he noticed a pattern.

"You mean, the undermarked sections? Power's flowing in, but there's no floor plans. It's just an empty space."

"Right about that. For a facility so meticulously planned, they wouldn't disregard any layout, unless specifically told not to include them. There's four unnamed and unmarked sections in this place."

Void highlighted the areas on his visor, followed by highlighting the power grid, ventilation and other resources.

"Two of them don't have any inlet ventilation, which means that they're probably storage, excess space. We rule those out. The two remaining have all the utility grids."

Obsidian quickly followed up, rerouting the maps on the radar, he listened intently.

"We'll hit this one first, it's surrounded by security all around, but we can breach the supervisor's grid and gain access."

With the plan in hand, Void paced towards the first mark. Swiftly dashing through a few corridors and halls landed him right in front of a dead end. Void aligned the target as the wall.

A closer glance revealed that the power lines were connected behind the wall, or perhaps through it. Void walked over, placing a hand near the seams.

He took in a deep breath, and thrusted, his fingers were akin to sharp razers, piercing through the reinforced plate. As he managed to squeeze in a finger, Void deftly conjured a dagger and swiped, cutting through the gaps he had created.

The faux well fell apart as he pushed it over. Behind it, was an empty hall. Dust filled the room, a dense humidity flushed across the now unsealed wall.

Void fanned with his hand as the dust cluttered around. The hall remained dark, he stayed a few steps clear of the floor, glancing around.

"How creative. Pressure sensors, light detection, and wow, is that a trip mine lining the exit? Very thoughtful."

It was a very cliché setup. He would walk in, trigger the traps, probably fight whatever mechanical abomination was guarding the hall and end up with spoils.

"Sorry but, I am not playing games."

Void smirked, he had no intentions of sticking to the script. If a player walked in, he would've had no choice but to follow the rules. But him? He was different.

Void put one foot forwards, his eyes gleaming with an umbral spark. Like a specter, his figure permeated within the dark. It was a movement technique he had picked up from Pahanin.

Although it was fairly slow, and required concentration. The effect was nothing to scoff at. Void could at will, dissociate and reappear anywhere within his range. Alas, his current range was only a few meters.

A teleport skill that was slow.

It seemed unbecoming of a hunter to utilize some slow blink or warp, but since when did hunters care about rules? The only dogma to follow was simple, keep your head down and your pockets full.

Void seemed to flicker through the hall, not triggering any alarms as he performed some dubious warps. But once he reached the end, Void spotted a cache.

It seemed no different than a normal cache, except that it was far too beat up. To the point that Void had almost assume it was left-over scrap. The only distinction was a strange symbol.

A symbol that Void had been searching for in the Cosmodrome. His heart raced.

"The Mark of the Tyrant." Void shivered.

A diamond rhombus, painted in crimson red, wings by its side. Had he finally struck gold? Finally found it? The last savior and the final crusader of the collapse. It was definitely his insignia.

"Rasputin."

Would humanity have fallen if the Warmind was sustained? The answer was a definite no. No force could conquer earth until the Warmind was destroyed. Now, its remains were scattered across the planet.

Its final consciousness, split and buried in bunkers beneath the surface, waiting for a new spark to awaken them from a deep slumber.

Void didn't dare to move a muscle and held out his palm, as Obsidian appeared within it. His faint light dimly lit up the room.

"Find out what you can, if Rasputin is really here. We might have to make a run for it."

Rasputin was humanity's greatest ally. But make no mistake. The Warmind was extremely specific about intruders. If the AI mind truly awakened and found Void, he would have zero chance of survival.

Obsidian stayed soberly quiet, afraid that any sound might cause some abomination to awaken. A few minutes later, he heaved a sigh of relief.

"No, the Warmind isn't here. As we thought, it's just a hidden storage facility. Cache's are old Rasputin weapons. Prototypes stored across facilities for testing."

Void eased up, and opened the cache. A click resounded. The box seemed to mechanically expand, revealing its contents.

Within it, encased in metal, was what seemed to be, a singular javelin, dismantled into components.

Void sucked in a cold breath, he gently lifted the javelin's head.

A notification popped up

-

[Obtained 1x Valkyrie Prototype]