Fireteam- Series Finale- Steel Meridian

[Doozy84]

Yay more writing!

Anyways, a Tenno without mods is pretty much useless, so I hardly think that they will be too much of a threat.

But then again, the Avenger is deadly on full auto.

 

You kind of have to conveniently ignore the fact that mods exist, because they're a gameplay element and not really a lore element. A level 1 Saryn will just crumple like a dry leaf in a rain gutter, but my mult-forma'd potato'd rejuvenation-efficiency build Saryn with 1k health and spammable 25 cost miasma fundamentally can't die unless an entire platoon of elite lancers is standing fifty feet away and stacking slash procs on her, and anything that even gets close to her will instantly die before I can even shoot it because my sentinel uses Carrier's auto-shotgun with a viral proc and it always hits with every pellet because you can make a sentinel only fire at point blank range by using a low level attack range mod.

I don't think anyone in the in-universe lore ever sits around the dojo and says, "Yo dawg, my Lato was junk, so I shoved a potato up the barrel and put some Yu-Gi-Oh cards in it, and now that son of a *@##$ shoots double shot radioactive explosive bullets that hit one guy and keep going and it does 5 times as much damage as it did when I woke up from cryostasis! I don't even know where the second bullet comes from, but Barrel Diffusion is the S#&$!"

Ah, but this is a special Tenno. They don't need mode.

 

What'd be interesting is some sort of thing where the fireteam has to do something for the Lotus - or get ret.

 

They're already playing right into her hands.

So Doozy what would be your take on Grineer Combat Doctrine? Lore wise of course. I would have thought they just do nothing but pure brute forces and rush tactics, course we have the tactical units like seekers...

They're late-war Red Army, after Stalingrad when they kicked the Nazis out and went on the offensive. You can see more or less how the Grineer work just by what they're using. A lancer has an SMG, which is a short ranged weapon with poor penetration that has been largely phased out of modern popular military use by carbine-length rifles. The elite lancer has a burst-fire rifle that just poops 5 bullets, which in game terms is really cumbersome and ineffective in a lot of ways, but it has a huge chance to slash proc and ruin S#&$. A grakata is basically a Soviet Ppsh. (Peh-Peh-Sheh) Its pretty obvious that the Grineer don't really value the lives of individuals and everyone who has any tactical role in the infantry like a ballista or a seeker is probably a cut above their peers and has proved their worth. But since all the Grineer are clones, (And the devs have posted work in progress shots of a Grineer murder-blender that eats one marine and poops out 2) its pretty obvious that the foundation of their combat doctrine is to just throw human waves and mountains of bullets at everything and engage in attrition warfare, because all their mainline infantry weapons are based around short ranged spamming and getting as close as possible and filling the air with lead.

This is the opposite of say for example, USMC combat doctrine- The Marines are the first boots on the ground pretty much every time and the most likely to get screwed, but they value human life a lot more than a Soviet Red Army or the Grineer Marine Corps does. The USMC still uses a full-length M16, even though every other branch of the military uses a carbine length M4, because every Marine is a rifleman and they're supposed to be able to fight at a rifle engagement range and land shots and make kills. The Marine Corps is more invested in the idea that a single man can actually accomplish something with his own skill and training than a Soviet/Grineer system, where the answer is, "Marksmanship? I've got a better idea, bring all your friends and just unload until they stop shooting back, something will hit them eventually, get closer- There's another ten guys behind you and Stalin's meat grinder won't crank itself!"

[Kaokasalis]

Was the escaped Tenno a Saryn or is it going to be a new kind of Tenno? Also will the introduction of syndicates affect the future of our beloved fireteam or is that to early to say?

[Doozy84]

It was a Saryn, wait til you see what Dedam has to say about that, instant classic.

What's the deal with syndicates? I'm obviously working back in the canon... The archwing doesn't exist yet, Captain Vor isn't a spooky tier 4 orokin ghost yet, most of the bosses are still alive.

 

I'm actually not even playing warframe right now, my day is basically divided between working out, working on my current novel, and Borderlands Pre-Sequel. Is there any event going on right now attached to archwing that rewards a vandal or a wraith weapon or anything? I'd come back for like a day to grind out a unique weapon, but otherwise I'm not really in warframe until I hit 50 in borderlands.

[Sixty5]

It was a Saryn, wait til you see what Dedam has to say about that, instant classic.

What's the deal with syndicates? I'm obviously working back in the canon... The archwing doesn't exist yet, Captain Vor isn't a spooky tier 4 orokin ghost yet, most of the bosses are still alive.

 

I'm actually not even playing warframe right now, my day is basically divided between working out, working on my current novel, and Borderlands Pre-Sequel. Is there any event going on right now attached to archwing that rewards a vandal or a wraith weapon or anything? I'd come back for like a day to grind out a unique weapon, but otherwise I'm not really in warframe until I hit 50 in borderlands.

Nothing fancy is here just yet, we are very much in the calm before the storm of U15.

As for my previous comment, I was mostly being facetious (read nitpicking scumbag)

I definitely can't wait to see Deadams reaction to Saryn.

I have a small glimmer of hope that said reaction will be to dissolve into a greenish puddle, but that is just me

[Doozy84]

Why does everyone hate Dedam so much? I think he's hilarious.

 

REMEMBER WHEN I SAID I'D KILL YOU LAST? I LIED.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Doozy84

[Sixty5]

Why does everyone hate Dedam so much? I think he's hilarious.

 

REMEMBER WHEN I SAID I'D KILL YOU LAST? I LIED.

I don't hate him at all, he provides one of the best sources of humour.

That said, Grineer dissolving into puddles of green goo is something that is extremely satisfying.

Either way I'm just here to read.

[Netsuki]

Why does everyone hate Dedam so much? I think he's hilarious.

 

REMEMBER WHEN I SAID I'D KILL YOU LAST? I LIED.

I also like Dedam :D The reactionary statements Deeve says to Dedam are some of the funniest lines I've read!

[Doozy84]

“Demeg! They let you off!” Dedam said with enthusiasm.

 

“They let all of us off.” Deeve reminded him.

 

“We thought we’d all be up against the atterax and you’d be on the first ship to Grustrag for sure.” Derew nodded.

 

“Belay that comment, Derew. You know there is no such thing as Grustrag. That’s just a screwball story that the drill instructors use to scare new recruits fresh out of the clone vat.”  Deeve said.

 

“But sir-” Demeg started to contradict him.

 

“I don’t want to hear it, Demeg. I don’t want to ever hear it again. We all got off the hook because command thinks that tenno popsicle is floating in the sewer somewhere and they need every pair of boots on the deck. Queens know I should have let the narcs take you in a long time ago, but you’ve saved our asses too many times for me to let you rot in the brig. I sent your squadmates into your bunk while you were in the brig to ransack your effects and make sure there wasn’t anything in there that the MPs might have missed.” Deeve explained.

 

“She was clean, sir.” Derew reported.

 

“You didn’t send Dereb?” Demeg asked.

 

“No. Why?” Deeve asked.

 

“You’re not very smart.” Demeg shook her head.

 

“Don’t give me that insubordinate crap. You won’t get exonerated a second time, if you want to talk about who’s not very smart, why don’t you tell me all about how the MPs found your contraband?” Deeve asked.

 

“They didn’t find my most important little toy, and you didn’t either. I’ve had it on me the whole time.” Demeg said.

 

“What?” Deeve asked.

 

“Huh?” Dedam added.

 

“Seriously you guys. Where does every woman in the whole Grineer Marine Corps hide something private she doesn’t want men to find?” Demeg asked, rolling her eyes.

 

They all looked at each other.

 

Dereb sighed. “In her feminine health kit.”

 

“You didn’t look in there, did you?” Deeve asked Dedam.

 

“No sarge! That’s... Girl stuff. Vagina stuff.”

 

Demeg smiled. Dereb shook her head.

 

“You wouldn’t have found it if you did look for it. I’ve had it in the brig with me the whole time.” Demeg said.

 

“How the hell did the guards in the brig miss it?” Deeve asked.

 

“Because they’re men.” Demeg said.

 

“Well whatever it is, you need to get rid of it. Right now.” Deeve ordered.

 

“I can’t do that, sarge. I’ve got new intelligence and its too valuable.” Demeg shook her head.

 

“You better start making sense, marine. As your sergeant I have the authority to discipline you. Don’t think I won’t stomp your &#! on this deck right now just because you’re a woman, you’ll like my boot a lot more than you’ll like getting court martialed for sedition again.” Deeve growled.

 

Demeg took a tampon out of her uniform pocket. There was a tear in the wrapper. She pulled out the plastic applicator and showed Deeve the contents. There was a small ball of cotton which she plucked out, and behind that was the tiny speaker and receiver of a Grineer communications bead ear bud.

 

“What is that?” Deeve asked.

 

“Its tuned to the command channels. Everything we’re not authorized to hear. I get chatter from the science deck, the bridge, the private comm channels from the top brass. Figured out how to wire it up reading a tutorial on the Red Veil network.” Demeg explained.

 

“Destroy it.” Deeve ordered.

 

“You’re gonna want me to keep it when you hear the next part.” Demeg insisted.

 

“I don’t give a S#&$, marine, now smash that listening device before I-” Deeve started.

 

“The cryopod is a sham. This whole operation is FUBAR.” Demeg interrupted.

 

“What do you mean?” Deeve stopped.

 

“Red Veil is playing us. I’ve been listening in on the chatter from the science deck and all the records are doctored. The Corpus briefs we took from their data core when we boarded their ship,  the onboard cryopod log recovered by the engineers... The  serials on the pod’s data unit and the sarcophagus itself don’t even match. There’s a point in the pod’s log where the data has been tampered with... Fabricated. It’s some kind of bait and switch, wherever the Corpus found it, it was planted.” Demeg explained.

 

“Why would the tenno do that?” Deeve asked.

 

“Isn’t it obvious? It was an assassination plot on Alad V. He’s been in the market for Orokin-era  biotech ever since his little infested pet project that cleared out all his rivals on the fat cat board. But what could make that pot even sweeter? What if Red Veil managed to leak it, and get us to come out and fight over it. Corpus and Grineer fighting over the pod for the valuable genetic-science data inside... Whoever loses, they win. If the Corpus hold onto it, it goes straight to the king of the fat cats. If we take it from them, it goes to-” Demeg said.

 

“-Tyl Regor. They get a high value target either way, and we bleed each other out in the process.” Deeve realized.

 

“Still want me to throw this out?” Demeg asked.

 

“Put it away. And I don’t want any of you to ever mention this or we’ll all be up on sedition charges.” Deeve ordered.

 

“That’s bullS#&$ sarge, why wouldn’t command tell us? They told us how valuable the mission was in the first place, why would they hide this information if they knew it?” Dedam asked.

 

“For the same reason they exonerated our whole unit.” Deeve grumbled.

 

“I don’t get it.” Dedam shrugged.

“The point is, Dedam- That the tenno sneaking around this ship isn’t just some bag of frozen peas fresh out of the vegetable crisper. It’s an active, veteran lone wolf unit and its not going to be as weak as they are when they come out of their first thaw.” Demeg explained.

[hijinks_the_turtle]

Dat plot twist.

[Domesticon]

Dat plot twist.

Indeed.

[Evanescent]

Huehuehuehue

[Sixty5]

I hope for the Grineers sake that the Saryn in question isn't running a Miasma spam build

[WarframeStigma]

I hope for the Grineers sake that the Saryn in question isn't running a Miasma spam build

i'd say that'd be doing them a favor instead of the slow pain of venom

[Doozy84]

Don't worry, I've already picked out the worst, most painful toys.

[Sloan441]

There's no good death facing a Saryn.

 

I find the Red Veil tie-in...satisfying. My own Saryn often runs a Wraith motif and I just like the idea of it.

[TrashSpider]

I actually would have expected the Grineer to have modified a Grineer heavy/ballistia "female kit" since their mainly all machine below the waist. 

[Doozy84]

If you look at the models, Grineer females are all woman down to their knees, and that's where their legs are chopped off and replaced with prosthetics.

Why this is common across all Grineer female marines, I can only assume two reasons- One, that the model makers are lazy, and Two, the more loreful reason, that Grineer women have some kind of inherited condition that causes their legs to be defective and inferior. There's probably something in that Double X chromosome that screws their legs up. The fact of the matter is, there's no physiological reason why Grineer females would have prosthetic legs and Grineer males wouldn't- Human muscle anatomy is pretty equal between men and women in the legs, most of the disparity between male and female strength is all upper body. There isn't a scientific reason for the Grineer to chop off girl legs and not dude legs, if the excuse is that the cybernetic legs are stronger or more mobile. If that was the case, the men would have them just as often as the women.

I think the real reason is that the Grineer know I'm a leg man and they're trying to torture me by making a clone army of women who will never wear silk stockings.

Regarding cutting Grineer in half and mechanizing their entire bodies below the waist, it doesn't make any sense. There's too many vital organs down there, and the Grineer don't seem to value human life that much. I don't think they'd spend the resources tearing the intestines out of every marine and re-wiring their urinal tracts and gastronomical systems just for the sake of making them work better.

I imagine that the Grineer wouldn't remove primary or secondary sex organs if they could help it. They're trying to repair their crappy genes because cloning is the problem, not the solution, they've pretty much crapped the bed on genetic diversity and now all the clones are inbred cancer patients. Since the Grineer are ruled by a matriarchy, I have to assume that there's a true born dynasty and probably an aristocratic class of trueborn Grineer that are made the old fashioned way, that we never see because they're never in combat. It seems likely that only the craziest, loudest, most tenno-hating Grineer bosses are the fully cyberized Robocop dudes, like Vay Hek and Vor.

[Netsuki]

I think the real reason is that the Grineer know I'm a leg man and they're trying to torture me by making a clone army of women who will never wear silk stockings.

 

 

I feel your pain :< ... which is why Saryn has the closest thing to thigh-highs :D *drool*

 

On that note however, what if the male soldiers also have prosthetics, but it's just covered in armor? For example, unlike the female soldiers, the male ones have that odd hump on their back behind their neck? I'd agree with the idea that the prosthetics are meant to fill a particular role, as you've mentioned in your stories with Dereb's legs allowing her to anchor down and fire while Demeg's allows hers to walk quietly. And then there are those guardsmen on Ceres with their amphis and weird body shape.

[Argon]

I'm actually not even playing warframe right now, my day is basically divided between working out, working on my current novel, and Borderlands Pre-Sequel. Is there any event going on right now attached to archwing that rewards a vandal or a wraith weapon or anything? I'd come back for like a day to grind out a unique weapon, but otherwise I'm not really in warframe until I hit 50 in borderlands.

 

Go go Borderlands! What's your progress there? I tried farming around before I started a second playthrough but that didn't work too well and now I'm too lazy to continue for now and since Archwing is around a very close corner I wouldn't come very far. But I'm glad I had to disagree with all the people who said this would have made a better addon for BL2 than a standalone title and it wouldn't be funny because they tried too hard to make jokes.

 

Also, you did an awesome job (again!), but no need to tell you that I guess because I have a feeling you know exactly how badass you are.

[Doozy84]

Go go Borderlands! What's your progress there? I tried farming around before I started a second playthrough but that didn't work too well and now I'm too lazy to continue for now and since Archwing is around a very close corner I wouldn't come very far. But I'm glad I had to disagree with all the people who said this would have made a better addon for BL2 than a standalone title and it wouldn't be funny because they tried too hard to make jokes.

 

Also, you did an awesome job (again!), but no need to tell you that I guess because I have a feeling you know exactly how badass you are.

I just hit 50 on my lawbringer last night but I got her build all sorted out... The nice part about Nisha is that she's a laser @#&amp;*, and the 3 best lasers in the game are quest rewards. The Spardoon, the Rose, and the Moxxi laser. If you use those with a hybrid riflewoman/law and order build, (Fan the Hammer is mostly crap, dual wield pistols to be a pretend gunzerker doesn't even count) You'll kill everyone in the room just by holding the trigger down.

I got jealous of how survivable Athena is though, so I'm gonna level her now. She's probably the toughest character in any borderlands, I think she's probably even harder than a survival focused gunzerker build.

Haters are just bent that the game costs 60 bucks and they need a reason not to buy it until it gets tagged in a steam sale. The fact of the matter is, everything is worth it, and Pre-Sequel does deserve to be its own game.

-The lasers are fun and every manufacturer's laser does something different.

-low grav/butt slam is actually awesome, not just a gimmick.

-Cryo is so much better than slag its tragic. I hated slag, slag was a pain in the &amp;#&#33;, and the harder the game got, the more you needed it. In Pre-Sequel they re-balanced the weapon elements so now stuff actually works.

shock- Still destroys shields, still has no downside, still the king of weapon elements.

fire- Better and worse. Enemies can't ignite outside of atmosphere, but more enemies are organic now, so when fire is useful, its top tier.

corrosive- Took a dump because you no longer spend half the game shooting hyperion loaders. Corrosive is the loser element now.

Cryo- Freezes, is awesome.

Explosive- IS AWESOME. It was pretty terrible in BL2 except for a few legendary Torgue guns, but explosive damage is actually real now. Mobs that are frozen by cryo weapons take bonus explosive damage, so if you combo cryo with an explosive, you kill everything. This makes me happy because I'm a Torgue fanboy.

 

The way weapon elements work now is way better. Shock is still the best element but at least now you aren't constantly slag-swapping, and low grav and freezing makes melee-centric builds more fun and easy to pull off.

[Doozy84]

Go go Borderlands! What's your progress there? I tried farming around before I started a second playthrough but that didn't work too well and now I'm too lazy to continue for now and since Archwing is around a very close corner I wouldn't come very far. But I'm glad I had to disagree with all the people who said this would have made a better addon for BL2 than a standalone title and it wouldn't be funny because they tried too hard to make jokes.

 

Also, you did an awesome job (again!), but no need to tell you that I guess because I have a feeling you know exactly how badass you are.

The lump on the marine's back is part of his plate-carrier system that combines with his shoulder armor to protect his upper body. It looks like it attaches to his alice pack and it provides a sloping surface to deflect fire from attacks to the side or rear. Marines don't have a chest rig and it looks like they carry all their gear on their backs or in their thigh pads, so their armor system covers up their alice pack that they're more or less always wearing even while deployed on a ship, because they've got nowhere else to keep their stuff.

The full conversion cyborg guardsmen are only found on Ceres, which is the highest level Grineer mission hub, and in the lore its their fleet-building facility where their navy is constructed, so it makes sense that the Grineer would spend resources on soldiers there. The guardsmen prosecutors are also Vay Hek's personal bodyguard, so its not really a surprise that uncle shouting chicken Grineer robot man would hang around with a bunch of other high-powered robot men to keep him safe from assassination attempts.

[Doozy84]

Fireteam will update some time this weekend after I screw around in Borderlands and Warframe, write a chapter full of gratuitous sex in this novel I'm working on, and then decide how many dead Grineer marines I'm going to wallpaper my home with in this week's chapter of Fireteam.

Also Steel Meridian faction boss is my waifu. For a girl with crappy clone DNA, she sure won the genetic lottery on lips. Mmmmmm.

[duhadventure]

The lump on the marine's back is part of his plate-carrier system that combines with his shoulder armor to protect his upper body. It looks like it attaches to his alice pack and it provides a sloping surface to deflect fire from attacks to the side or rear. Marines don't have a chest rig and it looks like they carry all their gear on their backs or in their thigh pads, so their armor system covers up their alice pack that they're more or less always wearing even while deployed on a ship, because they've got nowhere else to keep their stuff.

The full conversion cyborg guardsmen are only found on Ceres, which is the highest level Grineer mission hub, and in the lore its their fleet-building facility where their navy is constructed, so it makes sense that the Grineer would spend resources on soldiers there. The guardsmen prosecutors are also Vay Hek's personal bodyguard, so its not really a surprise that uncle shouting chicken Grineer robot man would hang around with a bunch of other high-powered robot men to keep him safe from assassination attempts.

Prosecutors cant jump high lol. Just stand on high spot and they will sit there and stare at you.

Fireteam will update some time this weekend after I screw around in Borderlands and Warframe, write a chapter full of gratuitous sex in this novel I'm working on, and then decide how many dead Grineer marines I'm going to wallpaper my home with in this week's chapter of Fireteam.

Also Steel Meridian faction boss is my waifu. For a girl with crappy clone DNA, she sure won the genetic lottery on lips. Mmmmmm.

I picked Steel Meridan and Red Veil

[Doozy84]

Prosecutors cant jump high lol. Just stand on high spot and they will sit there and stare at you.

I picked Steel Meridan and Red Veil

Grineer ally faction master race.

 

No surprise in this thread, all you smartypants Arbiter and Perrin losers can GTFO this thread.

update soonish, sometime this afternoon.

[Doozy84]

Oh hey, how's your weekend?  Havin fun? Yea... That's nice. Not anymore.

It only gets creepier from here. Bad news- If you thought Nekros was the spooky frame in this game, you're wrong. We can do so much worse.


 

“Sarge, can you go over the briefing again?” I wasn’t paying attention.” Dedam admitted.

 

“The F*** is wrong with you Dedam?” Derew asked as they trudged through the sludge in the underdecking.

 

“What? I was checking out the archive photo of the tenno attached to the briefing document, its some kind of alien babe. She’s got rockin $* and long legs and these big fetish boots...” Dedam started.

 

“So you’re an idiot and a creep.” Dereb rolled her eyes, her heavy hydraulic legs making a sucking sound in the slime.

 

“Ladies, we can discuss Dedam’s lack of charm later- For now, is there any way you can kill all the noise your ‘long legs and big fetish boots’ are making?” Deeve asked.

 

“No luck sarge. It’s even @(*()$ up my prosthetics, and mine are a lot lighter than Dereb’s.” Demeg said.

 

“Great, so in addition to Dedam’s crush on the 20 billion year old orokin space assassin that’s going to kill us all polluting the atmosphere, there’s also the fact that everything within a mile will hear my two biggest guns slogging through the tunnel.” Deeve grumbled.

 

“This is FUBAR, sarge.” Derew said.

 

“Why’s it FUBAR?” Dedam asked.

 

“If you had paid attention to the briefing instead of checking out space $*, you’d know, Dedam.” Deeve said.

 

“Aren’t we looking for salvage team Acheron 420 or something?” Dedam asked.

 

“It’s Acheron-426, and they’re missing. In the same maze of tunnels and darkness we lost the tenno in.” Demeg explained.

 

They had been slogging through the tunnels for the last half hour. A dozen other fire team patrols were doing the same. Their standing orders were to locate missing salvage or engineering teams, and to report the location and attempt the capture of the tenno if found. Alive, if possible, intact if not. They were assured by command that a recently thawed tenno posed no threat.

 

Unfortunately, Demeg’s unauthorized intelligence gathered from command channels proved that to be a lie. Deeve had no intention of taking anything alive, if he was taking it at all. He was dragging his feet, he’d recon to the designated point, and turn right back and double time back to where they started. He had no intention of being the fire team that found the beast that was lurking in that dark swamp... He’d get in, get out fast, write a bullS#&$ report.

 

“Why is there so much @(*()$ sludge down here? Does this S#&$ even work like this, or is it just neglected and unmaintained?” Deeve grumbled.

 

Dedam was on point.  He dropped to one knee and held up the hand signal for silence.

 

The entire fireteam plastered themselves against the sticky walls, and waited, afraid to exhale.

 

“I see something.” Dedam whispered. “Its ours.”

 

“Clear it.” Deeve hissed.

 

Dedam raised his grakata to his shoulder and stepped forward carefully. In a puddle of sludge was what looked like a human form, a salvage engineer by the uniform. Deeve couldn’t see from where he was standing if there was a person in it or not, the uniform was filled, but it was inhuman and lumpy.

 

Dedam lowered his Grakata and tapped the dead marine’s helmet with his boot toe, and it rolled off the mass and dropped onto the floor with a loud, echoing smack.

 

“You fuckin idiot.” Deeve shook his head as the sound reverberated up the tunnel.

 

“Well, he’s either dead or there’s a naked engineer sneaking around here somewhere.” Dedam shrugged.

 

“Check the body.” Deeve commanded.

 

“Ah, come on sarge...” Dedam complained.

 

“Go on Dedam, maybe there’s a woman inside, with rockin $* and long legs.” Dereb teased.

 

“You guys are never gonna let me live that one down.” Dedam frowned.

 

“If the tenno doesn’t, we won’t.” Demeg jeered.

 

Dedam reached a tentative hand out to touch the mysterious evidence. He rifled through the pockets and rigging, and as he opened the uniform, nothing came out but a burping puddle of sludge.

 

“There’s nothing in here but the goo that’s plastered all over this dump.” Dedam said, “And his sidearm, ammo, and rations are gone too.”

 

“His rations?” Deeve asked.

 

“His synth-choc and synth-veg bars, his lacto-protein liquid cartons... Water purification tabs... its all gone, sarge. His whole survival kits been emptied.” Dedam explained.

 

“Great. So we know the tenno likes chocolate and protein shakes.” Derew grunted.

 

“Where’s the corpse though? Where’s the blood? There’s no sign of battle damage on the uniform.” Deeve asked.

 

“Beats me.” Dedam shrugged.

 

“And what the F*** is with this chemical sludge?” Deeve growled, the funk sticking to his boot. He pulled his foot up, bits of goop sticking to it, and dropped it down again. There was a metallic crunching sound.

 

“What did you just step on, sarge?” Dereb asked.

 

“I dunno.” Deeve leaned down to check. He kicked the sludge around his boot and found some small objects.

 

Checking the seals on his gloves to make sure they were tight, he reached down and began pushing them around in the muck, trying to reveal them. They were three brass shell casings, a fingernail, and a tooth.

 

“What the F***?” He asked, shining a flashlight on them.

 

“Holy S#&$.” Demeg gasped. “This isn’t industrial grease.”

 

“What do you mean?” Deeve asked.

 

“Wipe your fingers off on your chempatch.” Demeg insisted.

 

Deeve smeared goop onto the plastic hazmat detection patch that was on the front of every Grineer uniform. It changed color in proximity to chemicals and toxins so that the marines knew when to seal their helmets and armor so that they were less vulnerable to gas or radiation.

 

The patch turned purple.

 

“Who remembers what purple is?” Deeve asked.

 

“Its bio-matter.” Demeg said, choked, and then leaned on her vulkar as she vomited into the sludge.

 

“Demeg, what’s gotten into you?” Deeve asked.

 

“It’s bio-matter, sarge! When the patch turns purple its detecting high quantities of amino acids... Protein. Blood, flesh. The corpse isn’t missing... We’re standing in him!” Demeg explained.

 

“Oh sick! I touched it!” Dedam shouted.

 

“Nice one idiot, just tell the whole fuckin universe we’re here!” Deeve growled.

 

“But if its organic matter, how come there’s no evidence of decay? If its nutrient rich, bacteria should be feasting on it. It should smell like a slaughterhouse killing floor in here.” Dereb noted.

 

“Then the kill had to be recent.” Derew realized.

 

“Let’s move on.” Deeve said.

 

“Are you fuckin crazy, sarge?” Dedam asked.

 

“No... We can’t report back without reconnoitering to our designated objective... They won’t court martial us this time, they’ll just send us back out again. I don’t know where that @(*()$ tenno is, but if this is a fresh kill I know I want to be anywhere but here. Let’s just keep going and hope that orokin freak went in the other direction.” Deeve commanded.

 

“What if it didn’t?” Dereb asked.

 

“Then we run into it, and we kill it, or it kills us. But the chances of that happening double if we cut our patrol short and they just send us back out again. I don’t want to do this twice in one day.” Deeve explained.

 

“That’s the safest idea.” Derew nodded.

 

“Demeg, you squared away?” Deeve asked.

 

“Let’s just get the F*** out of here.” Demeg lurched, her liquid breakfast of lacto-protein and half-digested vegetable bar on the front of her uniform.

Further down the hall, away from the corpse, the sludge thinned out until it was just normal industrial runoff again, offering more proof that the gore painted on the walls really was formerly human.