Panic Attack- A Loki Fic

[Haraswift]

Hey guys. Just so you know, this is after the events of Bloody Snow Chapter Two. Same universe, different frame.

 

----CHAPTER ONE----

 

Marx panicked. Not that this was new. Marx always panicked. The Loki was... well, a word that wasn't terribly offensive would be... erratic. Years of sneaking, watching a ticking timer that told him when enemies would point guns at him had taken thier toll on the fragile frame. He jumped at every ding and sound, and often reflexively became invisible. His armor was stark white with gold and blue highlights, one of the horns on his helmet cut short by a Grineer butcher. He remembered that face. It was everywhere. 

 

The comm sounded, prompting Marx to jump and shout "Invisible!" before going, well, invisible.

 

Lotus sighed. She'd picked a real winner with Marx. Once his timer finished, he strode to the desk, shaking slightly, and retrieved his contract. A Deception. Easy in and out, take a case to a computer, upload a virus, make a ship turn fourteen degrees. Don't get noticed. He was good at that, right?

 

Marx cautiously nodded. He was good at stealth. The little panic screams hadn't attracted attention yet.

 

He picked up his arms- A primal bow, firing thin tipped arrows, a set of throwing knives, and a pair of ceremonial daggers he'd salvaged in pieces from the Void. He mostly used those, as of all of them, the daggers made by far the least noise. 

 

The dropship slowly drifted alongside a Corpus cruiser. Marx jumped through free space only a moment, cutting through an air duct, before immediately sealing it. It began.

 

The crawl through the vent was agonizing. Miniature security drones didn't notice the slight shimmer of invisibility, but he was always afraid they would. He eventually made it to the exit of this vent, carefully removing the grate and dropping down. boots barely whispered against the ground.

 

He grabbed the case. It puzzled him sometimes. How did she get these on the ships before he got there? The thought vanished as steps echoed down the hall, Corpus guards casually conversing. He cloaked, amd against perhaps better judgement, stepped out.

 

They didn't see him. They walked right past, on either side. Two knives apiece felled them. There wasn't even time for them to panic. Marx blew into a full blown run, one eye on the timer ticking down. He looked up. 

 

Moa. 

 

*The crash and tumble was followed by the Moa chirping and firing a volley into the cloaked frame- unfortunately disrupting his cloak. Marx panicked.

 

The panic was accompanied by a small scream, and a swift dagger to the face of the Moa. It kicked twice, fell silent. Corpus yelled in the distance. The alarm sounded.

 

Marx... panicked more. with a shout of "INVISIBLE!" he cloaked again and darted forward. Corpus attack squads rushed by him, as he danced through the crowd. As he passed the last crewman, he spun, and several throwing knives found homes in armor joints and shielding systems, and pairs cut into skulls. 

 

The ship broke into alarm. Of course it did. Marx whipped around a corner right as his invisibility wore off for the third time and hyperventilated. A lot. Peeking out of the corner, a Osprey drifted past but did not notice the Loki. It was still a long way to the target, and they knew he was here. Cloaking again, he broke into a dash.

 

There were way too many Corpus on this ship. These numbers weren't right. Entire rushing legions.

 

"Marx."

 

He panic-screamed, alerting a mass of nearby Corpus troopers. Energy bolts hailed in his direction.

 

"LOTUS NOW IS NOT THE TIME!"

 

"Marx, I need you to do something for the Tenno."

 

That made him jump. Well, he was already jumping anyway, but Lotus didn't use those words unless it was big. He laid down a decoy, cloaked, and fired off the Radial Jammer Wave, causing a bevvy of malfunctions in the surrounding Corpus weapons, before darting to a nearby rafter.

 

"You used the words, Lotus. What."

 

"There is a Corpus Clergywoman aboard. I need her killed. The Tenno need her killed. It will disrupt local Corpus operations, allowing the Grineer to embattle this place, pushing traffic lanes away from an emerging tower."

 

A tower. Emerging in local space near Venus. It was big.

 

"How do you know, Lotus?" A few knives found homes in nearby Corpus proxies. He was already moving. 

 

"You never were told, were you? The Corpus aren't just merchants, it's not just a giant company. It's a whole religion. Losing a leader will panic them more than your numbers running down do you."

 

That was all he needed to hear. He was at the first objective, anyway. Talking to Lotus always... helped. Dropping the databox on the computer, the cables shot out from it's sides and hacked their way in. Onto the scarier mission.

 

He knocked back into the vent systems, creeping along. He calmed himself as best as he could, breathing slowly. It was... uncomfortable. He knew nothing of his opponent, only the stakes at hand. Towers held Tenno. Sometimes, new Tenno. The more Tenno there were, the easier it was to manipulate the enemy lines. Especially now, as the Badlands Travel Systems loomed. He needed allies. 

 

The vent systems rattled. A femalve voice spoke, "I know you are here Tenno. You'll have to do better than that to assassinate a Priestess. Vent plasma into the ducts. I don't care, captain. Do it." 

 

Underneath his helmet, Marx's eyes shot open wide, and he started carving out of the ducts as fast as he could. Alarms wailed around him, hundreds of different warnings in Corpus Trade Language. 

 

He dropped out, onto a Moa, again, this time not stopping to do anything but jam a knife into it's face and move. The roar of vented reactor fire filled the ship to deafening levels, a stream of heat and energy narrowly missing the moving frame, so close that the heat ate at his shields. After the burn finished, the ship was practically alight. Whoever this was, she was serious, and she was willing to cheat.

 

The place was a hazard now. Any room that had windows to open space were vacuums, anything else was filled with flaming debris. There were, however, noticeably less Corpus, and noticeably more charred corpses. He followed the waypoint, striding through the ash. He was so scared that panic had just shut down. It was so far beyond what he'd ever felt before, he couldn't even freeze up. He could just march slowly towards whatever chaos awaited him.

 

It was frighteningly quiet. What few Corpus he passed didn't even bother lifting their weapons. Noone was on their side now, and loyal or not, they knew when to flee a sinking ship. The bridge awaited.

 

She was there. Not what he'd expected of a Corpus clergywoman, to be frank. No dress, no golden trim. No, just a black bodysuit with bulky Corpus Biological Accelerators built over the legs and arms. She drew a sword as tall as she was in blade, and then again in size of handle. A humongous monster that put the Galatine to shame. She tapped a button on her belt, and his energy began to drain. "Tenno. Betrayer. Die."

 

Christ she was fast. It was lucky he'd leaned right to dodge the blade swipe, as it passed through the space where his left horn used to exist. electrical arcs jumped and administered minitaure shocks from the blade. And then gunfire. 

 

Some proxy he'd never seen before was hailing fire on him, energy bolts sizzling around him to such extent he could barely dodge. A stroke of genius hit him, but he had to act now. Energy Siphon could only hold the drain back so long.A short jump allowed him to kick off of the flat of the swinging blade, arcing long and horizontal across the room towards the massive bipedal... mech. It looked like someone had taken a Moa to the next perceivable level, the immense proxy's lower half being everything BUT the head of a very large moa, and the upper half was a narrow body with long, similarly styled arms. Someone had slaved several Supras together to fire concurrently, and jammed them on one of the arms, so the proxy could ably fill the air, save the silhouette of the clergywoman, with firepower. What shots did go her way merely fizzled against an intense shield.

 

He cloaked as he landed, pushing up a wall as fast as he could manage, before the clergywoman slammed the ground. His cloak fizzled out. S#&$. Continuing up the wall, followed by a hail of firepower, His bow. He had a bow. Pulling it of his shoulder, he fired a pair of arrows at the proxy, knocking it over with paired explosions. Now all he had to deal with for a mom- the blade nearly cut him in half. His shields were just strong enough that it didn't kill him, only leaving a bleeeding gash in his side. He couldn't make a mistake like that again. Dodging around rapid, angry slashes of the Clergywoman, he loosed a hail of awkwardly thrown knives at her face. It had the intended effect, allowing him a moment to set up. The proxy was getting up- a slow rise, followed by the raising of one foot. Perfect.

 

He slid right under the foot, and utilized his least utilized ability- the switch teleport. he and the clergywoman switched places- and the monster proxy's foot crashed down onto her armor, tearing off one of her legs whole. She screamed, but only for a second as Marx closed the distance again, somersaulting through the energy wave from the stomp, burying a knife in her face. She was done. He grabbed the monster electrical blade and cloaked,  pushing away from the remaining threat. 

 

He had anticipated a battle. No, just a countdown. A very short countdown. He hurled the blade at the proxy, lodging the weapon in it as he ran full tilt for the nearest window, calling for his dropship- the explosion was immense. It vented most of the ship's air supply in moments, exposing Marx- who grabbed onto a nearby doorway to avoid being vented into space without direction. His shuttle came around to the nearest breach, and it took him only moments to get inside so Environmental could fix him.

 

"Good work, Marx. The tower will be safe." 

 

Mission rewards materialized into his locker, but he didn't bother with them. He needed to lay down and scream a while.

Edited April 3, 2014 by Haraswift

[DJSeraph]

This is fantastic.

[meIody-]

I LOVE it.

[Haraswift]

Aww, thanks guys! I appreaciate the feedback. More coming soon!