[Mission Debriefing] Terminus, Mercury | Extermination

[Kavric]

I'm going to preface this by saying that I have not written any works in over a year, and it shows in the poor quality of what you are about to lay eyes on. However, I have decided against giving this an editing sweep, as I feel that raw writing is far more suited to better yourself with than looking at an edited version and trying to improve off of that.

 

This is a concept that I decided upon last night, and typed out in about thirty minutes a little while ago. I will be doing more of these, regardless of if they are well recieved by the community or not, as a way to get my writing talent back up to where it was when I was writing my book, Azure Roost.

 

The following text is incredibly repetitive, and I apologize for the headache you're about to experience. So without any more excuses, here is the product of thirty minutes of an incredibly out of practice writer's time.

 

 

 

 

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Terminus | Seventeen Weeks, Four Days, Thirteen Hours, Twenty-seven Minutes, Fifteen Seconds

 

 

 

I was dropped on the exterior of the Grineer ship. Exposed. I watched while the energy I had left in my exo-suit flared, signaling that it was draining what little reserve of shields I had left. It was something we've all been though a thousand times over. There was no hatch to enter though, so I took it upon myself to make one. After a bit of scrapping, I had managed to push into the vessel and reseal the hole I had created, more or less. The oxygen depletion rate of the ship dropped by a fraction of a percentage, easily noticeable. I guess that's why the alarms triggered.

 

 

So I waited. It could have been hours before I made contact again, I don't know.  Your records should have the time stamps for this. The Grineer had sent technicians and drones topside to repair the damage of a mid-sized asteroid impact. At least that is what they called it over comms.

 

I was in the clear. So I kicked the venting panel out from beneath my feet and dropped down into an empty observation deck for the maintenance crew. I would say that they didn't mind my presence, but they weren't there at all. I suspect they were outside of the ship at the time, fixing my damage. They'd cleared out a larger vent system, fan blades removed and leading to a sheer drop onto the deck below. Courteous of them to leave me such an obvious entrance. You would think of it like a housewarming gift. Not that you would know what a house is.

 

That's when The Lotus contacted me. I'd toggled my comms back on and she had obviously picked up the signal. I was given the orders to 'Leave no one standing'; something I am very good at.

 

 

As I surveyed the first room, I made a note on my heads up of how many life forms were currently on the ship. Forty. Thirty-nine if you took me out of the picture, and forty-five if you took the idiots on the outside of the hull into account. I wouldn't have to worry about them, of course.

 

Within seconds I had identified the room's threats. Two beings, both Lancer class soldiers. I pinned them into my targeting system and let my Helios dispose of them silently. No alarms triggered. The only noise in the ship were the two bodies hitting the floor. And that was a problem.

 

I kicked the support skin into overdrive and started running. I was next to a blur as I vaulted over the lower half of the door into the next room. Six of them. And I hadn't quite remembered to ensure my weapons systems were online, or if my weapons themselves were still working.

 

I leveled the Karak, that's the Grineer tech level rifle we just started deploying to the field not long ago. Always best to take a gun with you that the enemy shares ammo with. Keeps you from running out.

 

I could see two of them, Butcher grade. I'm not sure if I fired first, or if my Helios had taken the credit, but both of them fell to the floor. Within the span of a heartbeat I had snapped off three more bursts, and took out two others. I think one of them may have been a Seeker. Or a 'Napalm'- those are the ones that carry the Ignis Class flamethrower. I didn't pay attention, there were rounds flying past me.

 

Two left in the room, and I had a clear line to the security panel. It didn't take a scientist for them to realize that running for the panel was futile, and they didn't. But I noticed that the open comms was far louder than it should be on the ship.

 

They knew I was there.

 

It happened in a flash. I'd never been issued a SARYN Exo-Armor before. First mission running it. They didn't even let me give it a break-in on the way there. And they're all the same. You can train as long as you like, but you never know how it will hit you until you activate it in the field.

 

Miasma. That's the word that flared across the top corner of my heads up display. They didn't tell me what it did, and I didn't bother asking. All the explanation in the world doesn't prepare you for what it does to you when you use these 'abilities', so there was no point. I inhaled deeply…

 

.. And then my breath was stolen from me. The Exo-Armor contracted around my stomach, knocking every ounce of air I had out and into its ventilation system. I don't know what technological wonders were at work, but within an instant a wave of corrosive gasses exploded from the outbound ports of my Warframe. They didn't have a prayer of survival, and I remember saying a silent one for them as they lay on the ground convulsing.

 

 

I watched as the counter on my HUD ticked down. I had killed eight of them. Eight otherwise innocent lives, destroyed in forty-five seconds.  But, I wasn't given the chance of taking a moment of silence for them. Their comms were still active, and I could hear orders being shouted over them.

 

'Heavy Assault Team approaching.. Watch your back.' That was the transmission. The only words that The Lotus bothered to speak to me. 'Watch my back'. What kind of advice is that? These were crewmen, not Vey Hek's hand.

 

As it turns out, I should have watched my back. A Bombard Class soldier slammed his OGRIS into the back of my helmet, jarring my HUD. I was flying blind, and I knew it would be a few seconds before I would have the advantage of technology on my side again.

 

I spun, manually unlocking the MagLock holding my Orthos in place, and took out his legs. I brought the flat of the blade down onto his helmet and severed his head from the rest of his body. Mostly. There was no time for an autopsy, and as I pushed forward into the reactor room, I knew why. Six more crewmen were there, two locking the ship's core into a safe-mode and the other four not having the decency to say 'hello' to me before they opened fire. I took several rounds to my cameras, and had to switch to auxiliary. Which meant my targeting was offline. 

 

I shouldered my Karak and flung my Marelok to ready and tilted it to the side, firing off several rounds. This let the recoil carry the gun instead of me having to do the work. I dropped everyone in the room in the time it has taken you to write the words 'Send Help'.  Projectiles travel quickly.

 

Of course I took their energy core offline. It was going to be destroyed anyway, I may as well have shut it off so the stagnant radiation in the sector wouldn't increase by much. I'd go into detail of why that is important, but I doubt you care.

 

Back to the action, no? I thought so.

 

Hallways are wonderful, terrible things in battle. Luckily, my Helios excels in them, and the patrol guard was dispatched within moments. I was approaching the ship's targeting controls for their weaponry. I knew it would be a bit more heavily populated. I knew that I would meet resistance.

 

I knew wrong.

 

The room was empty. Not a soul in sight. That should have been a clue, but it struck me as too odd to register. I didn't notice as they slid up from behind. And I didn't notice that I was picking myself up off of the floor until I was standing again.

 

Nine bodies. Helios operates even when I'm not conscious. The report it gave me showed that there were nine of them waiting in the scaffolding above the doorway. One had fired off a rocket and sent me flying across the room. Helios obliterated them. It also took out the two maintenance crew that I passed as I sprinted towards the extraction point, and the five Lancers that tried to rush me.

 

My HUD showed several broken bones and fractures. I was bleeding from both ears and one of my eyes ruptured. If you're ever given the option of taking an explosive to the back of your head, I'd suggest not.

 

I helped Helios with the remaining five crewman when we entered the cannon room. They're massive, you know. The scale doesn't sink in until you're standing behind the firing chamber of one of them. We could fit this ship in one of those barrels.

 

That's when she spoke to me again. 'No further life forms detected'. I assume she meant other than myself, but it sounded like she'd not picked me up. I'm not even sure if she was talking to me or to someone else. I maxed out the Exo-Armor's muscle structure and nearly flew to the extraction point.

 

The rest, you've been here for."

 

She sighed, the ragged, torn noise breaking from her throat like a blacksmiths' bellows.

 

"There is only one question I have for you, Carrier. Before you deliver this debriefing. How long was I unconscious for?"

 

Waiting, she laid back into the firm slab of bed that the medical bay called 'comfort', waiting for a response. The Carrier sentinel floating above her flared it's processing lights, and then projected a screen in front of the wounded soldier.

 

MISSION: TERMINUS | ASSIGNED: SARYN CLASS EXO-ARMOR | ASSIGNMENT COMPLETED IN 5H:26M:12S

TIME SINCE MISSION: 17W:4D:13h:27M:15S

 

There was no response from the wounded. She simply stared in disbelief as the Carrier floated out of the medical bay and off to deliver his debriefing.

 

She died six hours later from complications following surgeries.

 

…Another Tenno must be brought out of Cryo…