The creation of an arch enemy (Fan fiction).

[Finkelfantomen]

The creation of an arch enemy, (Also known as the tale of the tragic demise of "Puffly".)

 

The setup.

Outer space. A… well… space, filled with lots of nothing. And most of that nothing was darkness.

But there was also light. Bright sparkling dots of illumination.

The stars though, were not the only shining things in space that added brightness to its darkness.

In this particular sector of outer space an enormous Corpus spaceship sat in the middle of the nothingness. Its shiny metal hull reflected the light of the stars right back at them. Small cleaning droids worked tirelessly to keep the hull mint and shiny. Shiny was important. It added value, and value was the core value of the Corpus.

The inside was kept as clean and shiny as well.

A large corridor ended in a t-shaped intersection. The path continued both to the left and right. But straight ahead a wall awaited, and in front of that wall stood something shiny, and big.
In the centre – an enormous statue of a golden hand, all fingers pointing upwards. To profit!

On either side of it stood a corpus soldier with a loaded Supra rifle in their hands. 

They looked serious. So, if any serious business approached… they were prepared to get very serious!

The one to the left, in the great Corpus register only known as “Expendable Footman #128313”, had something on his mind. To make it a bit more personal we can call him Bob. Bob spoke: “So how important is this thingamajig we are guarding again?”  

The soldier on the right side of the golden statue (Expendable footman #1413719, but we will call him Steve) replied with “Well it’s made of gold, innit? So just that alone makes it worth a fortune. And it’s a tribute to our glorious leader, which raises it’s worth to priceless, or at least two fortunes. Anyway, it is worth more than this ship we are on, for sure!” 

The soldier then took a short pause while reflecting further on the matter. “And then we get paid about 50 credits per hour to guard it, which seems to be a bit of a low investment in the security of something so valuable.  So, I estimate it’s worth between 50 credits to about a few gazillion.”

Bob scratched his head (he had to remove that really, reeeally, shiny and polished Corpus helmet before doing that) and then said “Soo… If we are paid 50 credits to guard something worth potentially millions. Then I don’t think anyone would mind if we took a quick smoke break? I mean, the minimum wage should go hand in hand with minimum expectations, right?”

Steve the soldier didn’t even need to remove his helmet. His body language showed that he was in total agreement with his colleague. The two premium Venusian cigarettes he suddenly held in his hands, instead of his rifle, openly displayed his approval of the suggested activity.

They took a few steps away from the statue towards the nearby airlock 8, opened it and walked into the room, fully aware that there were no smoke detectors there. They closed the door behind them, turned off the light and lit up a 'Venusian'.

After a minute of puffing in silence Steve said, “We must not forget to ventilate out the smoke before we return to our duty.”

“I know you and computers. You’re going to open the outer door and send the smoke, and us, into space.” Bob joked. He made a soft laugh for a second, before it was cut short from a strange sound accompanied by a blue light coming from the outer door. 

Someone on the outside of the ship was cutting it open with a plasma cutter! 

The safety protocols noticed the breech and instantly locked the door back into the corridor.

The great Nothing awaited them.

 

The entrance.
The blue flame continued its squared journey around the door. But they noticed that no oxygen seemed to be sucked out of the breech.

“Someone must have docked on the outside and secured the airlock!” Steve whispered.

Bob nodded. His mind raced and panic froze his face stiff. It was the bloody Tenno! He knew it! 50 credits per hour to be just another id number scratched away from the register. Then his brain found reason for more panic. “I think I left my rifle at the hand.”

“Drat… me too” Steve replied. 

They watched the blue flame reach the starting point. Then a few seconds of silence followed before the whole door fell towards them and landed on the floor with a banging sound.

Suddenly a bright light greeted them. When their eyes adjusted, they realised they were staring into the barrels of two highly modified Karak rifles. The rifles were held by two humans in some kind of camouflage outfit. 

One of the men spoke. “Oh, look Maximus. Two grunts decided to greet us. Unarmed it seems too."

The other man addressed them directly. “You might want to put that out son. You are already in enough trouble. Charred fingers seem to be an unnecessary bonus.”

Bob and Steve both realised they had forgotten all about their smokes. And those had now burned down to the filter. And to their fingers.
In unison they dropped the cigarette butts to the ground and raised their arms to surrender.

 

The footnote:
1.    The two men with the rifles were Maximus and Gesturum. Once storage supervisors for the Corpus. Then defectors, Plain of Eidolon survivors (The Plainwalkers), Miners of the Orb vali, Raiders of the Kuva fotress (but it really wasn’t them, honestly), and the masters of the Sentient coin (who had tricked them and left them empty handed). At present known as working incognito for the Perrin Sequence while being hunted by just about everyone in the galaxy (except the Tenno and the Ostrons). Oh, and the narrator forgot to mention that the two friends also was responsible for creating the 'Deimos cookbook', which was banned in seven planetary systems and had added a good deal more people to the list of those who wanted their heads on a plate. 

Now back to the main story. This was just a footnote.

 

The heist. 
After overriding the door to the airlock, the two entrepreneurs peeked out of it.

“See.” Maximus said, “This airlock was the closest one to one of them hand thingies. And in a very calm part of the ship as well. No frequent patrols here.” He then walked out in the corridor with his Karak rifle raised, scanning here and there for potential threats. 

“What about the prisoners” Gesturum said. “They’re all duct taped up now. But we can’t leave them in the airlock. Then they’ll be sucked into space when we leave. And we do not murder defenceless people.”

“Drag them into the corridor then.” Maximus replied. “I’ll go take a look at the big hand to see how big it really is.”

He walked up to the golden hand and smiled. After a quick ocular inspection and a calculated estimation, he smiled even wider. This bounty was worth exactly two million three hundred and seventy-three thousand credits. He was good with numbers.

Gesturum walked up to his side. “Ok then. We have the golden statue at our disposal. How the hell do we get it to our ship? We only discussed how to get to it. But this thingamajig must weigh at least 800 kilograms. We cannot carry this with our own arms”.

“Just bring out the Nosam cutter and set it free from its base.” Maximus replied.

Gesturum nodded, trusting his friend, and got to work. 

Two minutes later he stood up. “Done.”

Maximus smiled at him, and then proceeded to high five the enormous hand.

“That’s your plan???” Gesturum exclaimed. “A good ol’ clap clap is going to solve everything?”

Maximus smiled with mirth, removed his hand from the statue and revealed a small octagonal shaped disc sticking to it. “I bought this gravity device from a Tenno while visiting The Plains. All he wanted was some information about the Grineer camps. And we had plenty of that to share.”

Then he lightly kicked the base of the statue and it rose slowly upwards, like some kind of awkward party balloon.

Gesturum poked it with his finger, and the golden hand started to drift sideways.
“Amazing” he said.

“Indeed.” Gesturum replied. He hadn’t smiled this much in a long time.

 

The sister is annoyed.
This would have been a good night. First some stress releasing yoga. Then some “dismembering your enemy” training, followed by a good workout at the gym. And as a finale, finally after an intense week, a hot bath, soothing music, good wine, and the latest battle reports from the sisterhood to soothe the brain. But no…

The alarm went off just when the water started to pour down into the bathtub. And in her sector too! Flashing, beeping, taking away all the calmness.

Sister Grinelina of Parvos changed her smile to a grimace and put the glass of wine on the bench beside her. Getting into her combat suit while still all sweaty from working out was not a pleasant task. Someone would pay for this!

“Come, Puffly!” she commanded with a stern voice. 

What looked like a pile of random bricks and electronics in the corner of the room suddenly rose to the form of a robotic dog. It tilted its head and looked at her, awaiting her command.
 

“Mommy gotta kill before she can chill.”

 Grinelina then squeezed into the blue combat suit, ignoring the chafing and itching. Sweat and leather doesn’t love each other. But duty called.

Meanwhile the dog walked out of the bathroom, and then came back a few seconds later carrying her Arca Plasmor in its mouth.

This sister was now officially annoyed. And whoever set of that alarm was now branded an official disturber of the peace.

There would be blood.

And pain.

And some dismemberment.

Much dismemberment!

 

Good doggy!
Maximus and Gesturum pushed the hoovering golden hand in front of them towards the airlock, when they heard fast steps approaching them.
Along the corridor a robotic beast came rushing towards them.

“A friggin robodog is attacking!” Gesturum shouted, as he released the statue to rise his Karak rifle and fire off a salvo towards it.

*Ka-rackrackrackrackrackrack*

Six hits in an instant, but the monstrosity didn’t even slow down. Its shields just made it look like raindrops hitting an umbrella.

Maximus dropped his rifle instead of raising it, and fiercely looked for something in the pockets of his battle jacket. He then quickly dropped to his knees, removed his backpack, and frantically started rummaging about in it.

Meanwhile Gesturum kept firing at the closing encounter with teeth’s of metal.

The dog kept going, intending to please its mommy ,and with combat mode set to dismember (a lot).

The murderous beast was just a few steps away from them when Maximus pulled out a yellow circular shaped object and threw it at the dog. It hit the floor with a clinking sound.

One second later the dog put its paw next to the object and the object exploded with beams of electrical lightning.

The hound let out an electronic “yip” and curled itself into a ball.

“Hit it now!” Maximum yelled.

Gesturum changed mag and emptied it into the beast.

*Ka-rackrackrack* *Ka-rackrack*

With the shields depleted from the electrical shock the bullets hit home and dug deep into the robotic servant.

When the Karak rifle finally fell silent, the dog lay still on the ground. Small beams of electrical lightning could be seen here and there on it, where its husk had been torn off and exposed its inner, now destroyed, wiring.

A few seconds paused while the two friends regained their breath.

“We need to return to the plains again and raid some camps soon. That was our last Arca trap.” Maximus said.

Gesturum nodded. “Would be good to se Konzu again too.” 

The two friends once again turned their attention to the floating golden hand.

“Puffly!”

The heart piercing scream echoed through the hallway and almost made their eardrums shatter.

Sister Grinelina had just entered the scene and stared at the robotic pile of scrap parts that lay on the floor, tears running down her cheeks. 
“You will be devalued into nothing!!!” she screamed as she raised her Arca Plasmor in their general direction and fired.

*whoom*

Luckily, she was also far away enough for them to have time to react.

They ducked for cover as the ball of vaporising plasma bolts closed in. It hit the golden hand right in the centre and shattered it into an uncountable number of pieces.

“Leg it!” Gesturum yelled as they took of around the corner, towards the air lock. 

When Grinelina finally arrived at the airlock she saw the troublemaker’s vessel detach from the main ship. Opening the airlock now was pointless, as well as suicidal.
Still, she hit the door with her fist and screamed at it. 

Back to where we started.
As the two friend’s vessel hurried to get further and further away from the Corpus ship they started to relax.

Some time of silence passed before Maximus spoke. “Well, that could have gone better.”

Gesturum agreed. “Back to square one again then. No worries. We’ll pull another few shifts at the Perrin Sequence and plan our next job. Fortune favours the brave, and those who are well planned.”

Maximus nodded. This wasn’t their first rodeo. The plains of Eidolon had taught them to be resilient. Survive first, then accumulate wealth.  

 

Mothers’ wrath.
Grinelina sat down with crossed legs beside what was left of Pluffy the cute, loving, caring, murderous and happily dismembering pet of hers. She caressed the remains of its head before gently flipping the tail of her gone darling one last time. The tail rose and then hit the floor with a clunking metallic, and slightly whimpering, sound.

Slowly she rose to a standing position and clenched her fists for a few seconds.

Then she walked back to her quarters in silence and with a determined face. 

Once back at her room she logged the attack in the computer and specified for the clean up crew to treat the remains of Pluffy respectfully.

She sat down, poured a large glass of wine and emptied it in one sip. Another glass was filled to the brim. Grinelina tapped her fingers on the table for a few seconds. Then she emptied the second glass and filled up a third one.

Her right hand almost touched the comm screen on the computer before she hesitated and pulled it back.

Could she really sink that low? Then her heart reminded her. Pluffys gone…

Her hand returned to the screen and selected “secure comm”.

 
Grinelinas mind was in turmoil. She never thought this day would come, that she would seek the assistance of worms… maggots… of those who she normally reserved a place for that was under her boot.

She took another sip of wine, just to bear the thought of what she was about to do. 

This wasn’t treason, was it? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, it is said. But can my hated enemy really be my friend? I guess it depended on which of your enemies you hated the most.
The sister of Parvos entered a comm-code in the computer. It rang for a while before someone answered. On the small screen the face of a Kuva Lich appeared. “You again? Are you calling to taunt me again? I can assure you that what you perceived as a victory the last time we met was…”

Grinelina raised her hand and spoke. “Hush Arberdaan. I am not contacting you for a mere taunt. Last week commander Kayesh presented you with a contract to take out two annoying humans. Don’t ask me how I know this, but you might want to re-evaluate your encryption on relay 5. Even though it disgusts me to my core, I am proposing that we pool our resources together to bring these two to the sword.”

The lich gave up a  surprised face and seemed to ponder this for a while. His arch enemy (except for that damned Tenno…) contacting him and proposing an alliance…

“Tell me what you have in mind…” Aberdaan said.
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And that’s it for Gesturum and Maximus for this time. I hope you had some fun reading this.  If you like it, the please let me know. Feedback is always appreciated.  Oh, and... There are a handful of their previous adventures already published here, including the Deimos Cookbook (illustrated). 

See you on “The Plains”.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Finkelfantomen