[Ic] Of Ash And Fire V2.0 - Roleplaying Thread

[MetroFallout]

Another walk, another RP. Meet the twin Tenno, Jay the Excalibur and Fay the Nyx. A brother-sister duo with a shared hatred of the Grineer.

"Jay, mind telling me why we're here again?" Asked Fay, grumbling at the fact that they were crawling through the ducts of a Grineer base near Saturn.

"Because everyone else is unavailable to do this." Said Jay, thinking of ways to encourage his sister to move faster. Deciding that he should use his head, he grinned when the stubby horn of his Arcane Pendragon helmet jabbed into his sister's butt.

"Oww! Why the hell did you do that?" She exclaimed just as he rammed his horn into her again. "Quit it! It hurts you know?"

"Nothing else I could do to make you move faster.So I decided to take your advice for once and just use my head." He said

with the cheesiest grin he could muster plastered on his face.

"Haha, you're hilarious..." she said sarcastically, her voice devoid of humour.

Arriving at a suitable grate, the Nyx used her psychic bolts to blow it open. Their dusters fluttered from the movement as they dropped through the vent and surveyed the insertion point.

"Looks clear.Hopefully, this run would allow us to salvage enough materials to continue upgrading the ship." Said the Excalibur, his hands snaking towards the hilt and scabbard of his Nikana.

"I swear the scavenging team better be ready by the time we're done here." Said Fay, drawing the two Magnus revolvers she had holstered. "The Grineer almost shot the ship down when we left because they took forever to get there."

"They're on stand by, it'll be fine."

"So... I'll take care of mobs while you take care of the doors and the scraps I leave behind for you?" Asked Jay, practicing his draw and sheath.

"You wish, you're getting the scraps." Said Fay, breaking the sensor bar of a nearby disruptor door with a off-handed shot as she ran ahead.

Grinning like a madman, Jay chased after her with the Nikana still in its scabbard.

Coming across a group of Grineer, the two of them tore through the enemy with practiced, effortless ease. The revolvers barked as they spewed flames and lead and the blade vibrated from the impact of the cuts as though it was sentient, tingling with excitement from being used to shed the blood of the cloned cannon fodder. Receiving a transmission from the Station, Jay stopped in his tracks and answered it, blocking the incoming shots one-handed with his Nikana.

"Hey Boss, what's up?" He asked.

"Just wanted to check on your progress." Said Blake through transmission.

"I think Fay's a little less busy than I am and could answer your question better." He said, gritting his teeth and cutting a nearby Napalm in half.

"Alright, I'll talk to her instead." Said Blake, switching over to the Nyx just as she leapt into a large group of Grineer.

Receiving the transmission mid-jump, she hastily got into the stance she needed to take in order to absorb all the oncoming damage, levitating herself in the Lotus position with her Magnus revolvers still in her hands.

"Oh hey boss, what's up?" Asked Fay over the gunfire.

"How are you guys doing?"

"Fine, just peachy. We'll be done in a bit, tell the scavengers to board the ship in a minute or so. Almost no more Grineer left." Said Fay as she redirected all the bullets fired at her and kept in orbit around her using her telekinesis along with the flaming fluids from the Napalm heavies and flamethrower troops into the surrounding Grineer, killing all those within a 25 metre radius.

"Yeah, just send them over. We're nearly done." Said Jay, cutting the ones that were flung towards him apart with a single slash each.

"Understood, sending them over now."

The two siblings combed through the ship in that minute, finishing the rest of the Grineer onboard off. Waiting at the docking point for the scavenger team, the two of them compared kill counts.

"I've got 70 of them. I win!" Said Fay, flashing Jay a smug grin with her helmet tucked back into her Frame.

"If only because you killed like 20 of them using that bullS#&$ absorb move of yours. My kills were all because of these guns!" He argued in indignation, flexing his muscles in a bicep curl. "See that? Pure unadulterated badassery."

"70 versus 45, I still win by default, even without absorb. Face it, you lost because you suck." She teased, earning herself a bit of tickle torture from her brother in response. The two of them broke into a tickle fight that had left them gasping and laughing like children by the time the scavenger team approached to dock. The other Tenno stood in awkward silence staring at the two siblings rolling around engaged in what can only be described as a somewhat blatantly sexual romp that was a slight bit disturbing to observe. Their taut, finely sculpted and muscled physiques rubbing together in such a sexually-charged manner were a sight to behold, almost guaranteed to ignite the fires of passion in any observer even though in their eyes, they were only playing around like normal siblings do. Eventually, one of the Tenno still watching the oblivious siblings instead of searching the ship cleared his throat to get their attention. The two of them got up hastily, clearly flustered that someone else witnessed their little game and resumed their duties, pretending that nothing happened. Eventually, the base was stripped of all the Tenno could carry and was abandoned when they left.

"I still won. I can claim a moral victory!" Hissed Jay, jabbing his sister in the ribs with his finger.

"Says you." She said before laughing with him as they approached the ship before it left for the Station

Edited July 8, 2014 by MetroFallout

[khimera]

Another set of days for our deteriorating grand master, another set of coordinates, another dream. Interference?

 

 

Einherjar walked slowly through the dojo, enjoying some time off from his constant missions. It was a little odd to be sent on what was essentially a mission marathon but he wouldn't deny it tested his skills in ways he enjoyed. However, something was off in Aequitas...where was everyone? Usually at this time in the solar cycle the halls were crowded if not with the initiates with those coming from or going out to missions. Tilting his head Ein almost absent-mindedly knocked Zen from his shoulder. "Ah! Forgive me Zen, I didn't mean to shove." Chuckling softly at the animal's chatter the young Tenno stroked lightly over Zen's head, waiting for his feral friend to calm down before proceeding toward the area his scanners projected to have the most activity at the moment.

 

Moving into the central area Ein was greeted by a strange sight; rather than the observatory possessing a hologram of the planets there were screens depicting Tenno in their mission. Even stranger, there was a commanding voice emanating from the projector, likely whoever had sent the feed. Moving closer to look and listen, it was hard for Einherjar not to recoil in surprise when he saw his father Crowley on the screen...though in no way did Crowley appear as he once had.

 

On the screen was an ice-blue Nekros with infested-like growths upon his form, and on his left hand metallic talons that hearkened back to the most ancient era before Tenno were numerous as they were now when those infected with Technocyte were driven mad with pain as metal plates grew from their bodies. Crowley's right hand had fused to the handle of Lunasos, the growth seeking to prevent the powerful weapon from leaving the Grand-Master's hand. On the screen Crowley howled savagely and swung the massive crescent-moon scythe in great arcs, cleaving through Grineer forces on Earth, so powerful his cuts that he even managed to unwittingly rend one of the super-trees from its trunk, now falling away toward a Grineer facility nearby where the screens showed other Tenno were already fighting. Yet for all the similarities how could that be Crowley? The voice easily explained.

 

"Tenno, the Nekros you see before you is a danger to all sides in this war. A virulent and especial strain of the Infested Technocyte Virus has taken hold of him as you can see, making him unstable, and soon a monster that will endanger all beings in the Sol System. If you happen to see this Tenno you are to ignore the original mission objective and pursue with extreme prejudice. Death is not an option, you must attempt to destroy this creature down to the last atom. Orders from the Lotus are to be considered suspended for the duration of the crisis should you encounter him. Those of you privy to this information will know the Tenno as Grand-Master of the Dead; alias Crowley."

 

Clenching his fists Einherjar failed to notice he'd set his helmet to combat mode. Storming toward the terminal at the projector he started to tap on the keys madly, getting ready to override the broadcast program and trace it back to the bastard slandering his father's good name. Crowley was not a monster! Whatever was wrong they could fix it! When the encryption proved too great for his by-hand skills Ein snarled and slammed his fists on the terminal, causing the projection to faulter briefly before he reached back toward his neck, intent on creating a direct link with the terminal to force an override. Before Ein could do anything to reveal his true bodily nature he felt a strong hand grip his wrist. Snapping his head around to see who was stopping him he let out a rather animalistic growl before ceasing; Canis was standing in his Hydroid shaking his head slowly, silently.

 

Stepping forward, Khimera inserted a drive into the Terminal, the aura of his energy seething to the point that every outlet left near-solid trails that other Tenno had to avoid to prevent radiation-type damage to their Warframes. With a few keystrokes a two-way line opened and the Oberon folded his arms, tilting his helmeted head up toward the projection. "Who are you to command the Tenno kill their own, let alone one so loved and revered as Crowley?" He spoke clearly, a hush coming over the crowded Tenno who had come to witness the bizarre show.

 

For a moment the voice that had spoken earlier was distorted, as if surprised by the intrusion in its broadcast. "Who is this? How have you hijacked the signal of a Crusader?" The voice demanded, becoming irate as the screens vanished, showing instead the face of the one leaving the message. It was not Tenno, Corpus, or Grineer and most certainly not Lotus of Darvo. The man behind the hologram was wearing a mainly black armored helmet that was smoother and slightly more domed than that of a regular Corpus Crewman, a golden triangular visor in the center for visual necessity. The rest of the outfit, however, could not be seen. "I will have your Warframe, interloper!"

 

"Answer." Holding up one hand Khi wagged a finger in a scolding manner. "Who are you to command us to kill our own? We are not dogs at the beck and call of others, especially not to literally destroy our most precious Grand-Masters." Even Ein felt a shiver down his artificial spine as Khimera spoke; the Oberon was more than unhappy with having one of his closest friends called a monster let alone designated as a destruction target.

 

"Hah! You have no need to know of us...and yet it matters not." There was a pause as the screen flickered, showing a legion of the same helmet in pattern behind the larger one which had to be the speaker. "We are the Crusaders, inquisitors and executioners of the Council. We are above even the Lotus in this matter."

 

"YOU ARE ABOVE NO ONE!" Slamming his foot into the ground Khimera let out a wave of energy, his anger reaching break-point. "IF YOU THINK YOU CAN RID YOURSELVES OF MY FRIEND I WILL PERSONALLY SERVE YOUR HEADS ON A SERRO TO THE COUNCIL IN THEIR BEDS! YOU SHALL NOT TOUCH HIM!"

 

"And you think you can save such a creature?" The screen split, again following Crowley as he dragged Lunasos across the ground, leaving the Grineer forces he'd obliterated to burn away under the power of his desecrate ability. "Even one impertinent as you must understand there is no coming back from this sort of infestation." The voice was calm, and yet there was a wavering beneath the commanding tones; fear of a Tenno's wrath.

 

"Infestation my armor-plated &#!." Khimera growled, holding his hand out over the Observatory hologram terminal. "Tell your 'Council' we are beholden to no one if not Lotus. Even try to do your own dirty work and we'll find and destroy you."

 

"Come and try, dogs of war." The Crusader had no more chance to taunt as Khimera destroyed the terminal, shutting down all projections before storming out, absolutely seething. They had to find Crowley before those damned righteous idiots did, and they had to find Crowley with a cure in hand.

 

Canis waited a few moments more before letting go of Ein's hand, placing his own upon the young Tenno's free shoulder, allowing Zen to climb up his arm. "We will find him. Over my cold drowned corpse will they get what they want...okay?"

 

Looking up at Canis, Einherjar simply nodded. He felt an ache in his chest, a deep-seated fear and sorrow. That really was his father...what had happened? How could they have not noticed sooner? Turning around to leave the Observatory along with many other Tenno, Ein could only think of one person to speak to now: Quinn. If anyone knew anything, it would be Quinn, he had been in contact with Crowley more recently than anyone else.

 

---

 

Quinn wouldn't speak, not to Ein and not to anyone right now. He'd heard and possibly even seen what had happened earlier. There would be no persuading him, even with a case of Vodka (of which Quinn was currently halfway through a case already) it would be impossible. Resigned to being in the dark for now Ein went into his equivalent of sleep. Did his dreams mean anything? Perhaps...maybe they were just strange dreams.

 

---

 

________

_____

___Data__g___

 

Dear Diary,

 

I am afraid. In a day my friend and I go to a test____title_________artifact_____not_____ive_____

_______Where will___lost____go____if I die? Please let my friend be safe...he's stronger than I am...I only have a gift, not talent. My friend if you find this please__________

____

_______________________________let me go_____

 

Andere

 

___

_______

___ata___l____End

__

 

[Astralin]

(Not sure exactly how to introduce everyone into the big story here so I'm gonna just try throwing them at like the dojo or some station that is commonly used)

 

Valor, a word used by many for their various crusades, a symbol of what one might fight for, a search for something similar to bring a group together. In this instance a name, dimly lit by the stars floating through the endless vacuum. 'Valor's Intent' a frigate sized ship home and life-vessel of the cell designated as 'Midnight's shadow'. At it's helm sat an Excalibur clad Tenno, steering towards the station he hailed them, "This is Valor's Intent requesting docking permission." Waiting for a response the Excalibur switched to speaking over the ships internal speakers, "Rise and shine lady's and gents coming into port any minute now, time to stretch you're legs."

 

The ship's engines whirred low and tiny vector adjusters fired bringing the vessel to a near stop still giving a wide safety birth from the station. The door to the helm slid open, Beatrice's heels betrayed her entrance as she leaned towards the Excalibur, "Perhaps you could get off the ship and actually socialize with the rest of us this time?" The Excalibur shook his head, "You know I've got to keep this baby up and running for all of you."  Beatrice frowned and handed him the tray of food that she and the others had enjoyed earlier in the ship's lounge, she turned and started towards the door her hand resting on the frame, "Well it would be nice for you to get out of that chair some time."

 

The Excalibur sighed his visor seal hissing and lifting upwards he picked at the food while he awaited response from the station, 'maybe she's right Vincent maybe it's time to let go.' His hand touched the flat coin hanging from his neck.

[EDeN153]

My face hurt. It's been in an expression you'd see on a child discovering the Old-Earth internet for the first time.

And rightly so, you can't just look at a gargantuan tree without looking surprised or awed...As well as confused, because these sure as heck weren't here last time I was on Earth.

It wasn't just one tree either, it was a forest housing peculiar animals with bizarre sounds emanating from everywhere on and in the tree. Whistles, clicks, barks and squawks galore -- these all herded me on the trail I was walking on.

If I got too close to one side, I got a bark and a nip from a random creature. So, uh, back to what I was doing.

 

I was searching for a suitable place to make camp, and then I heard it. The rising and falling noise that woke a memory. A long-lost memory.

The sun's light on the water and horizon and a shadow cast over me, the sand between my fingers. And a voice. A beautiful voice singing. Then it was gone. The singing was gone and I could not conjure it up.

 

I stood there, stunned. My eyes flickered, and finally, FINALLY, my face fell back into its normal shape. Back to my current situation, the noise pressed in on my skull.

It took priority and I made my way towards it. I broke through the treeline and found a small, sandy beach. Water lay in front of it and an island sat on its surface.

"Found camp." I muttered to myself. But really, it did look like a suitable camp! Completely secluded from any animal that couldn't swim and big enough to host a few maniacs.

An' all I have to do was swim across my castle's moat.

Edited July 9, 2014 by EDeN153

[Sayfog]

A note for all of my future stories everything in [bold] bold [/bold] is OOC. Anyway, by my standards i have a long story for you. On with the reading! (Also somethings may be canon-bending. That iswhy it is in spoilers.) (Also also may contain some explicit bits)

As Aero walked absentmindedly walked around the station with Wind (Aero's Kubrow) she found a store offering the new Venka claws for 250 Platinum, quickly checking her platinum balance she decided to splurge and get the claws. When she got back to the Aequitas she took off her BloodSaw style of Dual Zorens and tried the Venka claws on. With the claws on she felt lighter, faster (although not as fast as she felt with the Bloodsaws). She went out into a mission on Mercury.

When she found the first enemy Grineer it hadn't noticed her yet. She decided to sneak up behind him and decapitate him, as she cut into the neck she felt the blood spurt out of the neck as the claws tore through the Jugular vein. She quickly jumped back as to avoid getting blood on her Freshly painted Zephyr 'Frame. She could feel the disturbances in the air currents caused by the other Grineer, she quickly looked up to see the hangar door open in the other room. She jumped to the window and saw a Lisette class scout ship being pulled in. She saw a familiar Saryn being pulled from the Lisette.

Cyanide kicked and punched the Grineer trying to remove her from her Lisette. She heard a roar from behind her and ducked as a stream of sulphuric acid whizzed over her head and into the Heavy Gunners face, instantly reducing it to a puddle of goo. The acid quickly spread throughout the Heavy Gunners body, killing her where she stood. The Grineer scattered as they watched there heaviest unit fall from the ramp. Cyanide looked around and saw Aero standing in a window, watching. Cyanide nodded to Aero, she nodded back. Quickly they both jumped from their respective places and onto the mass of Grineer below, with their Kubrows at their backs. They made quick work slicing, stabbing, cutting and eating the Grineer. Within moments they were all dead. The Grineer commanders on the bridge quailed in fear as they watched the two Tenno walk towards the bridge. Several Lancers fainted only to be summarily executed by the higher ups.

Aero and Cyanide chatted as they walked over the dead bodies about how overused the Rhino 'Frame is. When they got to a locked door Cyanides Kubrow cam up behind them and shot acid at the door, melting a hole in it. They stepped through the hole with one thing in their minds. The destruction of all the Grineer on this ship.

About ten minutes later they arrived at the door denying them access to the bridge. Aero looked over at Cyanide and said

" I'm going to kill them all with my helmet retracted."

" What? You can't do that! The Lotus will kill you if you do!"

"Fine. I'll kill them while they are looking at these." She said as she removed two floating, glowing crimson red orbs.

Aero retrieved the two orbs and put them near the door at eye level. When the door opened all the Grineer opened fire only to have their shots deflected by intense air currents. When they stopped to reload the smoke cleared, they saw a pair of piercing bright crimson red eyes. Shocked by what they saw they stopped still unable to move as a Kubrow with the same eyes bounded towards them. Ripping through them all in no time, when Wind was finished her jaw was covered in dripping blood. They walked out of the room and into a door. When they got over the fact that they walked into a door. They started laughing their asses off.

Eventually they got up and started walking back to the hangar where their Lisette were waiting. They chatted absentmindedly as they started walking back there, exchanging their worst injuries of all time. Aeros worst was that she got shot in the neck up close with a Strun shell. One of the pellets from the shell went into and out her neck. Her friend who was with her ran off, but she kept on fighting on. She ended up removing the ship of life forms, when she got off the Galleon and onto the station she was rushed to the med-bay. She spent 2 weeks in recuperation just resting. Cyanides worst injury was a Lanka shot through one of her lungs, puncturing and deflating it, the Rhino who was with her, covered her and protected her till back up arrived to take her out of the fire fight. The Rhino was applauded for his bravery because by the time the back up gad arrived he was out of ammo and his Scindo was becoming blunt. She also spent a while in recuperation where the Rhino stood by her. Displaying fierce loyalty to his team mate, the Rhino's name was Blobfish. It was a weird but unique name, they became fierce and loyal friends.

They tried to find which injury was worse: being shot in the neck with a single pellet or the punctured and deflated lung. They eventually decided that Cyanides was worse, a punctured and deflated lung would be worse then just a singular small pellet of shot. When Cyanide and Aero got back to Cyanides Lisette Aero set hers to follow Cyanide's. Inside they removed their helmets and saw each other without their 'Frames on for the first time. Aero had silver hair, a sharp chin, sharp oval shaped eyes with fairly pale skin, she also had a fairly easy going expression on her face. Cyanide had brown hair, a roundish chin, circular eyes, caucasian coloured skin with a smile on her face and a more serious expression.

"So. What a coincidence you being on the same ship when I was being pulled into it." Said Cyanide.

"Yeah, certainly a lucky coincidence. Anyhow how are you?" Asked Aero.

"Fine, just annoyed that I fell for a trap. A Grineer trap of all things."

"That certainly would be annoying. I wont tell anyone."

"I just got the best idea."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"We take Paris arrows, hollow them out, fill it with explosives and strap a primer on the end to make 'Grenade Arrows'. Seems cool doesn't it?"

"It does seem awesome. Although the range would be impacted heavily."

"I guess you are right but still. Exploding freaking arrows."

"I wonder what the Lotus will think of it…" Said Cyanide as she was interrupted by her Lisettes computer blaring a warning saying:

"WARNING Grineer galleon Formorian class ship on an intercept course with us. WARNING Grineer galleon Formorian class ship has been identified. The owner is 'Grineer Councillor Vay Hek. Recommended course of action: Run away very fast"

"Tenno. Get out of there!" Said the Lotus as she appeared on the Lisette's main screen.

"Backup is en-route re-engage when they arrive. Not before." Said the Lotus before she forcefully turned the Lisette around and gunning the engines.

In the distance Aero and Cyanide saw at least 10 Lisette speeding towards them on an intercept course.

To be continued SoonTM.

(Also also also this is going to (hopefully) be a collab)

Edit: it would seem i cannot get bold to work. Help?

Edited July 11, 2014 by Sayfog

[MetroFallout]

Hey guys, I'm on a walk again. This time, I hope to be starting a collab with the various contributors of the thread. In this post, I will be introducing a boogeyman-type character called Captain Hess Kem, he's a Grineer hellion, I'll post his data afterwards on the OOC thread.

Operation: Hydra Slayer

The meeting with Blake as called for by the Station was underway. Inside the meeting hall, Blake presented what Ralere was able to discover and beam back to their ship before being captured. It was a large amount of data regarding codes and location references. When asked what the data means, Blake answered with a toothy grin.

"It's data regarding a Grineer cloning research facility. With this data, whatever progress they may have regarding genetic research could be destroyed, it'd cost them a lot in terms of resources, time and most importantly, knowledge." Said Blake enthusiastically. "Also, we could find out where the cloning facillities are through the data gathered from the facility. It'd be a huge blow to the Empire!"

When asked by the leaders of the Station present about what they need, Ralere spoke up.

"As you could imagine, this would be a collossal undertaking. If there's something we need a lot of, it'd be bodies. We need as many Tenno as you could spare. They will be briefed by us and will be given free-rein to operate independently to achieve the shared objectives." Said Ralere, her arm crossed and her hand on her chin as though she was deep in thought.

"So... what do you say?" Asked Blake, extending his hand out for a handshake.

Meanwhile, in a shipyard base on Ceres that was on alert because of a Tenno attack, Captain Hess Kem of the 1st Grineer Hellion Battalion was called forth into battle by the base's Commanding Officer. He sighed as he put on his bright red battalion Commander's helmet. Running his finger over his equally red armor, he chuckled as he felt each ridge of the tally marks that he had carved into his shoulder armor.

"Nobody lives forever Tenno, today is a good day for you to die." He muttered to himself as he felt the 20th tally mark, each mark representing a Tenno that he killed in battle on his own. Igniting his thrusters with his Grakata in his hands, Hess set off.

Now any contributor could join this collab so long as they speak to me first on the OOC thread. Here's to a good collab!

Edited July 12, 2014 by MetroFallout

[NyghttheClassy]

And thus arrives the continuation of Nyght's struggles in fixing pyre!

 

 

 

“Alrighty handsome, we’re just about here.” The fiery redhead leaned back from the controls of her Lisette, stretching into the back of her chair.

 

“And here is where? The vacuum of space is an odd place for a... a date, isn’t it?” Said a puzzled Nyght

He was still confused from earlier, and things had yet to become clearer for him. First, an energetic and confident redhead had woken an entire apartment section of Tenno up at three in the morning in search of him. Secondly, he had then been promptly ‘asked’ into going on a ‘date’ with her, one that was going involve ‘coffee & bullets’. In the time that Nyght had failed to catch up with her plans, they had ended up seemingly in the middle of empty space. Now he just sat in a passenger seat of Lily’s ship, holding his befuddled mind together.

 

“Oh right, I’m still holding onto those juicy details I promised aren’t I?” Recalled the vixen in question as she spun her seat around to face the deck space.

Nyght caught a familiar mischievous flash at the corner of her mouth, his heart skipping.

“Well, we have time for that still; after all, I have yet to get dressed for the occasion”

 

With that, she leapt up from her chair & strode to her equipment lockers, giving a bit of extra sway as she went passed the Blue Excalibur. Upon reaching her lockers, she slipped her leather jacket off, hanging it up carefully. Then she set about the rest of her outer attire, very steadily, very deliberately, removing each piece of clothing in a very suggestive manner, her back to Nyght.

  First her top came off, gently thrown his way whilst revealing her phoenix tattooed onto her back, followed by a quick over the shoulder wink from the incendiary spirited Ember, before she slid her tight jeans off too. Lily, now clad in only her black sports underwear, turned sideways on to Nyght, planting a hand firmly on her hip, grinning all the while.

 

“Going quite the lovely red there sweets. Am I really that good looking?”

 

“...”

 

It was only at this point that his mind began to reboot, overriding his blushing enough to close his eyes and avert them to another direction, cursing the Spartan ship for it’s almost certainly deliberate lack of a private changing area.

 

“Yeah, I thought so too. So, details!” quipped Lily, pulling her Immortal Ember prime from the lockers. “To tell the truth, I can’t fix your little dragon. Not yet at least. This is why we’re out here; need to ‘pickup’ the last bit I need, from one of the old Orokin towers. And as it’s not every day you go opening up a void gate, I figured I’d make a bit of a special occasion out of it.”

 

Lily finished sealing her black & orange frame up, turning her attention to sorting her hair into a manner that would easily fit into her phoenix helm. Once her helm  was on, she slung her Paris prime across her shoulders with its quiver, her glaive into its arm holster & a pair of vastos onto her thighs.

 

“You can open those pretty eyes now, I’m done. You ready to go?”

 

She turned back to see him don his Prime helmet with a hiss of neck seals, followed by a click from his prime burston as its safety was disengaged.

 

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

 

 

“What is this place? It feels familiar... yet wrong, incredibly so...”

The prime pair stood in the middle of a large, sparkling white hall, with golden buttresses & columns reaching up to the high ceiling above. Ancient trees of a ghastly spectral shade snaked from their roots, entwining each other and nearby pillars with slender fingers for branches.

 

“It’s an old, dusty Orokin tower, floating in the void. Controlled and defended by some ancient neural sentry, using these ‘corrupted’.” Lily gestured to fading forms of the recently dispatched foes. “What? Have you never been to one of these before?”

 

“An Orokin structure? Not since before my entry into Cryosleep, not since before my clan was... overrun by the Infestation.” Nyght quietly finished, distracted by the waves of painful, incomplete memories lapping at the edges of his consciousness. Eventually, he broke his reverie enough to continue. “How much further do we need to go?”

 

“Next room should be the computer core area. Throw that little ‘hack pack’ into a terminal on one of the consoles, let it do its thing, and we’re smoking hot.” Lily stretched her back and arms, before sliding her vastos away in favour of her longbow. The duo headed through the doorway, Nyght walking up to the console with the hacking package before turning back to his energetic partner.

 

“Plan? I’m not sure what to expect, it’s been fairly calm so far.”

 

“Well, I’m going be up above somewhere for most of this, working my magic with this voluptuous, explosive lady.” She gave her Paris prime a short stroke, before heading towards a pillar. “I suggest you stay near the console, they don’t take to kindly to us tapping into them generally. I hope you like to party handsome, ‘cos the music’s gonna get real loud down here.”

 

With that, the vixen quickly scaled the pillar, settling into an overlooking balcony. Meanwhile, Nyght holstered his rifle, slid the hacking package into a console slot, and turned back towards the single entrance to the room, before sliding the etched, pearly white Dragon nikana from its blue sheath, steadying himself into a readied stance.

   The next few seconds of silence seemed to pass as an eternity, the blade dancer slowing his breaths whilst starting to channel the energy from his Excalibur into the instrument of war he knew best.

 

An explosion of noise and activity heralded their foes arrival, the surge of corrupted forms bursting through the large doorway in a shower of golden energy projectiles and twisted vocalisations. Everything from Corpus crewmen to Grineer marines stood around the entrance trying to overwhelm the blade dancer as he fluidly redirected or evaded each bolt.     

    Their attention on the Swordsman steadily advancing under the hail of energy, none but those struck noticed the long shafts of armour piercing arrows soundlessly pinning armoured forms to the walls and floor, silent bolts of lightning cast from a fiery goddess above. Each to come near to noticing her presence quickly joined the tally of the fallen.

   As the corrupted infested ancients began to push past their comrades to the front line, so too did Nyght finally find himself within striking distance. A single cleaving dash, followed up by a blinding flash of ethereal light, brought him onto the offensive amidst a crowd of suddenly dazed & stunned opponents.

 

Upon her vantage point, hidden from the attention of their enemy, Lily could watch everything; the wave of corrupted struggling to push through the doorway. The odd straggler, sneaking around the sides to by denied from the console by an arrow. A blue & white swordsman, effortlessly dancing amongst their aggressors, puncturing arteries, severing spines & cutting down any to come within a few feet of him.

  She had to admit, she was kind of impressed, but also getting slightly jealous, letting her ‘date’ have most of the fun. Taking note of the dwindling supply of arrows & substantially smaller timer for the hacking progress, she decided to have her turn.

   Leaping from the balcony and running across the walls above, Lily brought herself high above the doorway, switching to her sidearms & heat infused Glaive Prime before falling into the thick of the melee with an explosive fire blast, a flame enveloped Seraphim. Giving the corrupted little time to register the source of the sudden inferno, Lily began leaping & rolling through the melee, her vastos erratically barking with death, her searing Glaive howling as it melted through armour and burned into flesh & bone.

 

“Hey Handsome, you’re pretty sharp with your sword there.  Mind if we share a little though? I wanna dance too.”

 

The Vixen & the Blade Dancer continued their slaughter, one efficient & professional, the other giggling with flirtatious comments as she lit up the room in an incendiary blaze. After a couple of minutes, the last corrupted assaulting them collapsed, smouldering from within his armour.

 

Bleep Bleep

 

As if on cue, their hacking package had finished its work, extracting data from the ancient computer network. Lily strode over with a sway in her stride, an adrenaline fuelled high plastering a grin under her helmet.

 

“Well, that was certainly fun. Remind me to tango with you another time gorgeous. Now, let’s see if I got what I needed...”

 

 

[Jeahanne]

So, this idea has been bouncing around in my head for quite awhile, but there hasn't really been a good way to introduce it. It may or may not be canon, and if it turns out to be too far out there, it'll end up in it's own thread just like Peregrine's backstory has (which is in the Fan Zone as a fanfic called "Wings"). I also have no idea how this ties into the current thread timeline yet either or if it even WILL tie in at all for that matter... but I'd like some feedback on it if you all would be so kind.

 

Anyway, without further ado, "Shadows". I hope it's alright, and I will delete/move this as necessary. Thanks guys.

 

A man knelt in a circle of shadow, his figure softly illuminated from above with a diffuse light that concealed as much as it exposed; its brilliance configured to be just enough to blind the one within it from making out what lurked in the darkness outside its confines, while still being only enough to reveal what it was focused on, and nothing more. The room, cloaked and muffled as it was in shadow, could have been as large as an amphitheater, or as small as the tiny quarters the man called home, and gave no hint as to how many, if any, observers watched the armored form.

 

“This one wishes to make a request?” The voice came without preamble from the pregnant silence. It was soft and sibilant, measured with malice and disdain in equal quantity with condescending curiosity, all the while modulated to an inhuman and genderless sequence of hisses. It emanated from the supplicant’s left, its owner cloaked in shadows so deep, that, if one were to squint and look hard enough in the direction of the sound, they might manage to make out a vaguely human shape made of a color even more ink-black than the darkness that seemed to ooze around it.

 

The vaguely illuminated figure bowed his helmeted head a touch further, his true face concealed by his armor’s fierce and monstrous features and the ever-present shadows. “Yes, Enclave,” his voice was unwavering, firm, and respectful; yet cloaked in the same distorting hissing as the other’s had been.

 

“And what is your… appeal?” A voice spoke from the right this time, but as altered as the speech was it was impossible to discern if this was a new speaker or the same one who had spoken before.

 

“Recruitment,” the man stated, his voice modulated to a spine chilling hiss that was echoed by others throughout the seemingly endless, yet confined, room. Surprise and outrage reverberated and repeated in reaction to his declaration; a hissing of uncounted voices that could have just as easily been uttered by one throat or thousands.

 

“That is not your concern.” The voice was behind him, and short with anger and outrage at his insolence.

 

The man in the light didn’t flinch, nor raise his head. “I well know that. I am not asking to be invited to secret conferences, nor do I seek to be provided with that which is above my station.”

 

“As well you shouldn’t,” a speaker huffed, behind him and to his left, “So what do you seek, in your impudence.”

 

The one kneeling couldn’t discern if the voices were that of one speaker, who was constantly moving around the room, or multiple speakers who sat arrayed around him. In the end, it didn’t really matter; he need only be convincing enough to get what he wanted. “I wish to add one that I know to our ranks.”

 

“One you know?” the words were heavy with scorn, “You relinquished all ties to your previous existence upon joining Us. Do not presume to attempt to retrieve that which is past.”

 

“I did at that, and I do not presume so much; but relinquishing all ties does not mean relinquishing all knowledge of those I knew previously. I know of one who would be useful to us, if the correct methods were used to acquire them.”

 

There was silence as the petitioner knelt, still as stone, in the pillar of diffuse light. Then, after a long moment and with a deceptively mild, malevolent whisper, a voice spoke from in front of him, seemingly just outside the reach of the light. “And what would you suggest, supplicant?”

 

“I would like to handle bringing this asset into our organization.”

 

“Send in the name, and it will be considered when it is found out where they lie sleeping.” The voice seemed to draw backwards as it spoke, filling the hall with susurrus echoes.

 

The keeling figure raised his head with one fluid motion, the black, ferocious-looking helmet gleaming softly in the half-light as he refused the obvious dismissal. “With all due respect, Enclave, the one of which I speak woke a long time ago.”

 

“Oh?” there seemed to be a small amount of surprise in the voice’s tone that quickly turned to dismissal, “Then they are lost to the Traitors, and guilty of the same sins.”

 

“Not this one.” The supplicant’s voice came out at nearly a growl, “This one was with me before my eyes were opened. The one I seek is no more a Traitor than I, even if they may be misguided. Their misdirection can be rectified; they only need be shown the Truth.”

 

“You are certain? You know the risks, and this… request goes far outside of the normal means of Recruitment.” The kneeling man nodded, and a voice responded to his left with obvious amusement. “Then you may proceed as you wish, but failure will not be tolerated, nor will repetitions of the Past. Remember our Call, and do not stray from your duties.”

 

The lights in the room rose, dispelling the shadows that had previously clung to every surface, and left the man kneeling in the center of the room, now revealed to be extraordinary only in its sheer ordinariness, alone. The speaker or speakers he had had audience with having melted away with the gloom, leaving no trace of their existence in the modestly sized, empty space. With grace and poise, the kneeling man seemed to glide back up to his feet without apparent effort, and walked to the only door with steps as silent as falling snow. As it hissed open he paused, turned, and bowed to the seemingly empty space, before making his way down the hall and to the beginning of his task.

 

As he moved with soundless, predatory grace, he whispered to himself a promise. “I will save you and pull you from the claws of those Traitors who mislead you. Wait for me… I am coming for you, sister.”

Edited July 14, 2014 by Jeahanne

[khimera]

This is a short one, but it is an update, forgive my tardiness!

 

 

Days had passed since the announcement by the Crusaders on behalf of the Council marking Crowley as a target. Apparently, as reports had come in, the Corpus and Grineer were after Crowley as well. Damnable Crusaders wouldn't stop until the Nekros was dead and his corpse retrieved. Einherjar mused to himself as he stood in the Foundry, looking through his databanks. Surely Crowley hadn't left them with nothing to go on. He wanted to be found, his father wanted to be found Ein just knew it! Throwing a hand out as the AR display showed a file that had not been there before Einherjar made a few unnecessary physical movements as he brought the file-name closer.

 

Begin Coordinates: X-19, Y 463, Z 3

 

"Father..." Ein spoke softly marking the file and putting into a new folder, quick-searching for more of the same suddenly appearing files as he left the Foundry. This one wasn't encrypted but the rest were, heavily so. It was an encryption that Einherjar could not break even with his cognitive abilities. How strange...what was this algorithm? It was such a chaotic mess...or a code that Ein was not meant to figure out on his own. As he stepped out of the Foundry's main entrance the artificial Tenno tilted his head. "Ah!" Pointing up toward the ceiling Einherjar had a general look of surprise and realization. "Sensei will know what to think of these." Turning down the hall the young Tenno made his way toward Khimera's room. If the Oberon wasn't there, he would be at his and Canis' personal Dojo which was becoming a sort of 'Initiates' Retreat' not that they were encouraged to bug the masters of said Dojo.

 

---

 

On earth at the scene that had played a few days prior an Oberon bearing Iliac-set armor bent down, touching the earth by the decapitated tree. Letting out a low growl akin to an Infested creature the Oberon looked up to see a Frontier Lancer scouting the area. Faster than the Grineer scum could blink the hunting Tenno was upon him, a Sybaris at the Grineer's head as the Oberon knocked the armored fool to the ground. A shot in each glowing socket of the helmet was enough to kill the meager foe. Hissing, the Oberon slowly stood, walking silently into the mega-forest.

 

[bejuizb]

A small snippet if you will. I'll type up the next chapter by this week.

 

Of Sentinels and Posteriors

Lily quickly checked the cylinders on her Vastos. S#&$. I've got four in one and three in the other. Well, I guess I go old school them.

 

She hummed a merry tune as her eyes roamed across the terminal's screen, her cleverly designed “hack pack” quickly cross referencing all known imprint modules from the archives generated by the Orokin. Data storage was never an issue back in the day and she was glad that it was so. She paused and whistled as she spotted something that caught her eye. The low whistle attracted the attention of Nyght, who had just put his sword back into its sheath.

 

“Well,” he asked, slightly out of breath. “Did you get what you were looking for?”

 

A quizzical look was on her face, but he couldn't see it of course. “Hmm, I did get our stuff. Actually, I got nearly every single type of imprint module in existence. Should fetch me quite a lot of credits actually.”

 

He nodded. “That's good then. We can leave.” Confusion seeped into his mind when she shook her head vigorously. “Er...why not?”

 

She got up, and stretched her body, her armoured form curving in a highly enticing way. Nyght couldn't help but gulp. Damn it.

 

“I might be able to procure another Wyrm Prime for myself. This tower seems to have one in storage.”

She calmly holstered both her pistols and slung her bow across her back, its quiver completely emptied. Unlike other Tenno, Lily used ordinary arrows instead of the ornate and heavier arrows of the Prime. She didn't bother trying to wrench the arrows from the heap of corpses that littered the outer edges of the doorway. There was a cold hiss as her Glaive Prime unfurled from underneath her right arm, the gold tipped blades glinting in the sterile light that permeated the ship.

 

“And from your posture, I assume you want to acquire it?”

 

She looked back at him, and Nyght could practically see the manic grin underneath the helmet. “Bingo. Betsy needs some fun too.”

 

That threw Nyght for another spin. “Betsy?”

 

She nodded. “This baby right here,” Lily said, nonchalantly pointing to the Glaive in her right hand. “Betsy. She's my bae.”

 

Her attempt at clarification just made Nyght more confused. “Betsy?” he asked, trying his best to layer his sarcasm with curiosity. What kind of person names a weapon Betsy?

 

“Yeah. Betsy. It suits her well,” Lily said, as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

 

Nyght decided to give up on that tangent. If she's named her weapon, it must be special to her. Best to not disrespect it just in case. Although, I am curious to know why she named it Betsy. “What did you say Betsy was to you? I couldn't understand the word.”

 

Her body posture hinted a mischievous smile on her face. “Oh forgive me, cupcake. Was my English too low-end for you?” Her voice was layered with humour, and yet Nyght was slightly panicky. Don't piss off the vixen, Nyght. Don't you dare.

 

“No no no!” he muttered, waving his arms wildly trying to add emphasis to his words. “I was just curious, is all.”

 

Lily merely laughed and started jogging forwards. “You're adorable when you're flustered. I should scare you more often, just for that.”

 

Please don't, whimpered Nyght mentally as he followed her. Please. I value my mind too much.

 

“But,” she said, unceremoniously wriggling her butt when she said it, “you're too cute to torment, so I'll let you go this time. Bae is another way to say 'baby' or 'darling'. I picked up the word after I heard someone else say it.”

 

“Oh, and Nyght,” she added, her lithe form still jogging ahead of him.

 

“Yes?”

 

“My a$s is blushing from your continuous staring.”

 

The blue Excalibur tripped, cursing violently as he trailed after the laughing Ember.

[Craven287]

...

Edited March 16 by Craven287

[Spikey844]

My inspiration has returned, so here is a new part of my story arc. Any feedback is welcome, as long as you aren't shouting.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kylar ducked behind a railing as a hail of laser fire lanced across the hanger. He was on Amalthea, Jupiter, sent by the Lotus to destroy a gas city’s reactor, in the hopes of destroying the station. He stood, taking aim with his Vectis, and fired three shots in rapid succession, taking out a crewman and destroying an advancing Fusion MOA. He rolled to the side to avoid a burst of fire from a Supra above him, before kicking off up a pair of tall crates close together, bringing him up the same level as the tech, drawing his Dakra Prime as he did so, and sliced the techs arm off. The tech cried out, dropping his Supra, before trying to run.  He had barely turned around before Kylar ran him through. He dropped to the floor, twitching. Kylar sheathed his sword, before drawing his Magnus and advancing out of the hanger, singing a tune to himself as he disabled the alarms.

 

“You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run.”

 

He quietened as thoughts entered unbidden into his mind. He hadn’t heard from his sister in a week, and he was beginning to worry. She hadn’t been the same after being captured, and he had always checked up on her every few days since then. She hadn’t answered him recently. The last he had heard from her was she was joining in the effort to free the captured Red Veil operatives around Mars. But nothing since.

 

Entering the lab area, he froze as he heard voices ahead. He crept up the door, before peering inside. The room looked like a break room, with two scientists, off duty by the look of things and beginning to relax since the alarms were now off, talking. Curious for no real reason as to what they were talking about, he activated the translator in his helmet. At first it was unimportant stuff, family discussions, who had had a worse shift, complaints about a lack of decent blankets for beds. Then things changed. First, they began to discuss their latest projects. Kylar listened with keen ears, and flicked on a recorder. There could be something useful to learn here. A few minutes later, after some not very useful discussion of a new type of miniature power source, one of them leant forward, and began to speak more softly.

 

‘Not sure if I told you this, but Alad has invited me to help work on the Zanuka project.’

 

‘Really? So he has found a new specimen to test on?’

 

‘Indeed he has. What surprised me was when he sent me basic information on the subject, I nearly jumped out of my skin.’

 

‘Why?’

 

‘I worked on a project on Europa that had captured a Tenno, Nyx class. We were interrogating the subject, trying to get answers, such as the location of Tenno outposts, how Orokin technology worked, how warframes get their power, things like that. It escaped after four months, most likely with help. The cell it had been in was covered in blood and there was a squad of dead crewmen in it.’

 

‘And the betrayer Alad has captured-‘

 

‘Is the very same one, yes. DNA taken for tests were compared and they matched.’

 

Kylar dropped onto one knee, his face ashen behind his helmet. Alad had his sister.

 

Alad had his sister.

 

He strode into the room, ramming his sword into the access panel as he did so, sealing it. The scientists froze, faces going as white as a ghost at the sight of him. He stalked towards them, drawing a knife from a sheath on his thigh. They scrambled backwards, heading towards a door on the other side of the room, but Kylar threw the knife into the access panel, causing it to shut and lock. The two stopped, and tried to get as far away from the Excalibur Prime as possible.  He grabbed the scientist who had been on Europa, and tossed him onto a table, before pinning him in place and jabbing the pistol to his forehead.

 

“Tell me everything about this project Alad V has invited you to, and I might, just might, spare your life,” Kylar said, his translator making his voice sound slightly mechanical, but could not remove the unbridled rage and pain that were plain in his voice.

 

“Don’t shoot! I’ll tell!” The frightened scientist yelped. “He said if I agreed to join him to go to Thermisto and go down to level 2, Lab 2-2-E. He also sent me a brief, the file is on my data pad, over there! I don’t know anything else!” He pointed to the table he had been sitting at. Kylar glanced at the table, and yes, there was a data pad there. He nodded curtly, then punched the man in the temple, knocking him cold. He looked over at the other scientist, who was cowering in the corner. He marched over to him, causing the man to shrink even more into the corner. A stink began to waft his way. The terrified scientist had soiled himself.

 

“Can’t have you alerting the guards to soon, can we?” The Tenno said, before knocking the man cold, slumping to the floor. Cold rage filled Kylar as he freed his sword and knife, before hacking the data pad to download all the data from it, and then forcing open the door. A large squad of crewmen and MOAs, nearly thirty, had gathered outside, obviously having heard something, or been alerted through a camera. Kylar looked at them dispassionately as a crewman gestured with his Dera, trying to make him surrender. When he did not respond, the crewman jabbed him with the end of the weapon.

 

Kylar stiffened, going as rigid as iron. He turned his head, ever so slowly, to look at the crewman, who quailed under his gaze. His warframe began to glow, lines of energy coming to life with golden light. Weapons clicked as they were aimed at the motionless warframe. A crewman slung his rife, and drew a Prova, advancing towards Kylar, even though it was obvious he was terrified. He swung at the Excalibur Prime, the blow glancing off his shields. Kylar’s head snapped across, and he moved like lightening. He snatched the Prova from the unfortunate crewman before ramming it though his skull. The man disintegrated as energy roared through the weapon, then Kylar was moving, appearing no more than a blur. His sword arced out in great, rending blows that severed limbs, destroyed processors, and cleaved through skulls. It took him less than a minute to wipe the squad from the face of the galaxy. He paused only long enough to draw his pistol, before running through the gas city, to the reactor core. He would finish his mission but then….

 

Then… he would hunt.

[FatViking]

''You know, a man once asked me what it is to be human.'' The Dark figure said as it sat behind its desk, the only truly visible parts its gloved hands. ''I responded, to be a human, all you need is to have the correct DNA.'' The figure moved a bit, ''Of course, the man only laughed at me. ''To be a human,'' He said, ''You don't need to have the correct DNA sequence. all you need is your own soul.'' His words amused me enough to let his people live.'' The figure finally moved into the light, revealing the face of Wikis. ''You see, I had control over his entire colony. I owned it, profited off of it, and when the people rebelled against me once I set a little bit higher taxes, I was their doom. But, then I met this man, and thanks to him, the colony still survives and thrives near Jupiter. The amusing words of a single man saved a colony.''

''But what does that have to do with the Tenno?'' A Clearly annoyed Lotus said to the Corpus businessman.

''Nothing really. but I would ask a question of you, ''Darling'','' Sarcasm almost drowned the last word. ''and that question happens to be: ''What is it, to be Tenno?'' Wikis's lips smiled as the question flowed out of his mouth like water, and before the Lotus could answer, he ended the conversation and sank back into the shadow.

 

''Indeed, what is it, to be a Tenno?''

[Pyjamalama]

Just posting a trio of short story-thingies. Please comment on them in the OOC section. :3

 

My dominatri- Nyx

Serro.

A silly name for a silly weapon.

One wouldn’t usually expect a Tenno, the warrior deities of the cosmos, to run around with industrial torches made to cut off unwanted alloy parts from cruisers and snubs…. But then again, it was designed to be able to cut through those, so why couldn’t it be used to cut down body armour?

 

Sam’s knowledge of how to wield an Orthos properly, accompanied by some modifications to the fighting style of the Bleeding Willow, made this industrial butter-knife quite the horrifying weapon… to be up against, that is.

A Lancer gurgled, as his neck was disassociated to his respiratory system, a second one by his side losing everything above the waist as the supercharged plasma-cutter seemed to fly gracefully through the air, the Nyx adjusting her stance, changing the grip, and finally jumping past the dying pair, swinging the tool with the movement, creating enough momentum to cut the third one in the back neatly into two nearly symmetrical pieces.

 

“Hmm… the Corpus merchant was right, Grell. This thing cuts and cauterizes, leaving my suit clean.” Sam said, her satisfied smirk hidden by her helmet. “Although, I guess I don’t need as much momentum… It’s so light I almost swung it too far!” She then commented, looking over to her faithful companion, the large white-armoured Trooper, as he reloaded his Hek, a pair of bodies resting disgracefully on the floor by his side, a couple of Lancers more.

 

It was rather astonishing though, with all their missions wiping out a hundred troops here, a couple of hundred there, but there was always another platoon of these geeks. What were the Grineer doing, mass-producing these morons? ( lol, yes. XD )

 

“Now then, my sweet little doll.” Sam began, looking at the way they were supposed to go. “There are two ways to go. They converge here and at the extraction point. Let’s split up, I kill everything in the left path and you kill everything in the right.” She emphasized on her plan by walking through the door before Grell could even grunt in response.

 

 

----------

 

 

Walk for the mistress. Aim for the mistress. Shoot for the mistress. Kill for the mistress. Kill the Grineer. Kill the Corpus. Cleanse the infested. Deny the sounds of the lies spewed by the queens. Only the mistress. Her sweet voice is the true one. Fight for the mistress. Slay for the mistress. Die for the mistress.

Grell’s mantra went on for much longer, his repetitive reciting of it never interrupted by the clicking sound of the hammer of the Hek crashing into place again and again, as well as the sound of the armours of his formerly-fellow Grineer shattering against the pellets that buried through them faster than a robot could see, if there had been a robot there to see it.

 

A clack after clack, another pull of the trigger, more thunderclaps. None of this mattered. Not the blast of the gun, not the screams of the Grineer, not the blood splattering the walls and floor, not the bits of armour getting torn from the soldiers wearing them. Nothing woke up feelings like the mistress.

 

Grell looked down the sight of the shotgun as he opened yet another door, a creature that could only be described as an abomination towards the fairer gender in comparison to the mistress barring his way. That didn’t matter, not after a couple of thunderclaps.

 

Then he heard them. The screams and shouts of gibbering, pure terror from cretins not meant to know the meaning of words. It was the mistress’s work. He was lucky, he could get to see more of her powers, more of her dismissing the frail mortal minions of the queens and their ilk. And see this, he got.

 

------- 

 

Krat was sitting down in the crowded cafeteria, eating his share of the grayish gunk that was called ‘military nutritients’, thinking of this dull trip. Just another vessel, just another artificial day, just another meal of gunk.

 

Three years. This was the start of the fourth Terran-cycle since his birth. A celebratory event, as butchers rarely even lived to see the start of their second. He sighed as he thought of the five-day shore leave that awaited him once he’d return from this mission. Bring ammunition and reinforcements to an assault on a corpus colony, then ride the ship back to base. Routine thing, probably even the third run they went, or the fourth. He’d lost count.

 

But there was something wrong. Call it a gut feeling, a sixth sense, common sense, but he just knew something was wrong. He had been doing something different not a minute ago.

 

Try as he might, it was impossible for him to push through the fog in his mind, as if something or someone didn’t want him thinking about what he had been doing. But that was preposterous.

 

Krat the Butcher sighed as he stood up, falling flat on his face upon doing so. “Damn faulty augments!” He cursed, looking down to see at least a dozen malfunctioning parts and processes shared between his feet. He pulled himself up a bit, this was going to be a fun day.

 

He crawled as quickly as he could towards the opposing wall, using the piping as handholds as he pulled himself up, looking around the cafeteria to how many had noticed him and were laughing.

 

He was alone.

 

No, not alone…. an abomination of flesh and armour stood imposing over him, the creature jabbing it’s enormous arm through his chest and abdominal area all at once.

 

Krat’s world dissolved into pain as he choked on his blood, darkness taking him.

 

----

 

“Aww. He died on his own.” The beautiful, yet eerie melody of the mistress’s voice sang.

 

Grell had seen the massacre that had happened in the cafeteria, initiated as much by the mistress herself as the dogs.

 

The dogs had torn each other apart, while the mistress had floated effortlessly around the floor, giving swift deaths with a single slash of the Serro to the ones that had broken down completely from the initial mental strike.

 

She stood over the corpse of the last butcher, the latter having bitten his tongue apart and choked on his own blood. That the mere presence of the mistress had made him do it proved to Grell once again that there was no one in the system akin to her, maybe not even among her own kind, the Tenno.

 

Once he finished those thoughts, he saw the mistress sway, almost falling. He threw away his gun and crossed the gap between them, supporting her first and then picking her up. She didn’t say a word about this, and didn’t need to. He understood by now the power she needed to throw out to crush the minds of almost a hundred soldiers at the same time, the power she had once been used to dealing with, but the stasis she had remained in for thousands of years had weakened her, something had gone wrong, and that is why she had made him. This was his purpose, and he understood it as he used his large left hand as a seat for her as he picked up his gun again, letting her body lie against his as she recovered.

 

---

 

Sam had felt a wetness in her helmet, and had accepted Grell’s support silently, going through what had happened.

This much… this much was enough to start it. She felt the repairs done by the nanites inside the suit, how they closed up the vein that had burst and cleaned the insides of her nose.

She had been stronger once… more resistant… now she had to sit in Grell’s arms and rest for minutes after doing something as trivial as manipulating the grineer. She wondered... what would become of her if she even attempted doing a mission like the ones before… before the stasis…

 

No… she would never survive… not now… not in her shape. She was just lucky she had even managed to get this far tossing out chunks of power like she used to. She would need to tone it down… she would need to become a novice again and train. Train like she had once used to… when her.. ‘gift’ had been discovered.

She slinked into unconsciousness, the rhythmic sound of thunderclaps coming from the weapon in her servants’ other hand sending her there faster, sending her to memories long made and a time long lost as Grell slew the few that had survived her mental blast.

 

A new character appears! :3

 

Kael went through the scenario in his head for the tenth time. He would jump in to the Derelict vessel, secure the cryopod stored there, wait for the extraction team to arrive, then bail with them and the pod, getting another one of their kin back.

 

He wondered about the resident of the pod. Who could it be that was so important that he/she would be stored in the middle and most defendable part of a once mighty orokin vessel?

 

He shoved those thoughts away for now, the snub’s drop-hatch lowering in place, sealing him in the miniscule airlock.

He counted up to three, then the hull-door opened, releasing him into the space between the snub and the derelict.

 

Lucky for him, he was headed straight for a hole made by the unrestrained growth of the white orokin tree-like things. He tucked his feet under himself to create less of an impact as he collided with the artificial atmosphere of the ship. His shields held.

 

The black Rhino slid down the tree’s enormous trunk as he scanned the area, spotting movement in the perpetual darkness of the ruined Derelict. Infested. Just what he needed.

 

“Secure the artifact, Tenno.” The Lotus reminded him, her intrusion in the boding silence welcoming.

He removed his Nami Solo from its magnetic holster, bringing it to bear on a leaper that was in the way of him getting into the service tunnels of the craft. He really hoped its death-pheromones didn’t stick to him, they would not help him in his mission.

 

He gave a silent prayer for safety and to the Lotus having the right intel on this vessel, before plunging into the darkness of the service tunnels, heading straight downwards.

 

Where's Dakkacube? D:

 

Az killed another of the grineer, crushing his body with his own cybernetic augments.

Once the crunching and squishing sounds finally stopped, she sighed, looking around the blood-covered room.

 

Ever since the day… the day Yuri had died… the missions had seemed even more bland than usual, not considering the difference between hunting down these degenerate Grineer and hunting down rogue agents of her own kind.

 

Her posture revealed her emotions about this matter clearly as she forced herself to go on with the mission, moving drudgingly through the door of the generator room.

She then monotonously performed a blast shield removal as well as a placement of a trio of castanas, modified to generate high-yield explosions as well as the usual electronic bursts, and then she started her way back, detonating the castanas once the door closed behind her again, tearing the drive core apart.

 

“Tenno, you… detonated the engine core. You are advised not to do so from your elders becau-“ The Lotus began, but was interrupted  by Az herself.

 

“Because it can cause an instant implosion, with a void-tear being caused, turning all matter in a vicinity into energy. These Grineer engines don’t have the chance of a void-tear implosion, so the most I could have done would have been a thermonuclear detonation, but even then, the blast shield of the core would have saved me. However, I have four and a half minutes remaining until the ship tears itself apart from the shock the engines will cause once they burn out all remaining energy reserves.” She said, walking calmly towards the extraction zone, firing her Seer out at a suicidal Butcher who still tried to run up against her, the heated plasma shot piercing neatly through his head. “Who cares, right? All you want is the stupid salvage.” She then added.

 

“….” The Lotus took all this in. This wasn’t good. If an agent such as Az was thinking of openly provoking the Lotus, she wasn’t sure what actions should or could be taken at this time, as this had to be happening at the same time a Grand Master of the Dead was running rogue… she couldn’t have a second Tenno considering going rogue, not now.

 

Az walked into the cargo hangar of the ship, her extraction route lying just up ahead, when she saw movement, as if someone in brilliant yellow armor had just left the hangar the moment she had entered.

 

“Lotus, do you have any more of us here on board?” She asked, moving towards the side-door the agent had used.

“Negative, Tenno. You are the only one on board. Get to extraction, you have less than a minute remaining.” The Lotus responded, listening to Az again.

 

“Strange… I was sure….” Az began, opening the door to reveal a cross-connection hallway. Whoever it was could have gone any one of these paths, as the trio of doors were all unlocked.

 

Unfortunately, Az had to get going, and so she did. She barely jogged on her way back through the hangar and into her snub, the tiny shuttle detaching and taking off only seconds before the engines of the cargo-cruiser shorted out, the backlash tearing the entire engine section clean off the ship.

 

She couldn’t help but look towards the torn grineer vessel. ‘What did I see… who was in there?’ she thought, her mind racing about the possibilities. Was it someone the Lotus didn’t want her to know about; someone she wanted dead, a cargo ship being torn apart by its own engines could do that to a person; or what else had it been? 

Edited August 5, 2014 by Pyjamalama

[ensignvidiot]

Pain

 

There was shuffling, footsteps, some beeping and a general sense of urgency surrounding me at the moment. At least I think there was, I was laying down and doing my best to stay awake. The pain helped for a bit, but it slid in and out of focus as I was moved through the halls of this place.

 

Pain is an interesting thing.

 

Its your body's natural response to something that is damaging it. It can be a physical or metaphysical thing, affecting the mind's ability to deal with whatever information it needs to process. Its something that a Tenno is all too familiar with in his or her life.

 

What was left of my conscious mind stared up through my Loki's helmet at a bright light. But that gave me no pain.

Connected to this light was roughly 10 mechanical arms, each ended with a blade, a syringe, or a precision manipulator designed to assist in surgery. But this gave me no pain, as none touched me.

 

The knowledge that this machine was to sever me from my Loki-Frame, drove a Skana straight through my heart.

 

Words where thrown around as I lay on this table. “Damaged beyond repair” along with “Fused to parts of your body” and “Will not sustain your life”.

 

A vaguely acknowledged each one, well as best I could with blurred vision and rampant blood-loss.

 

There wasn’t a choice to be made, if I didn't give my consent, I would Die. With death meant I could not keep my promise to my late family, to continue to live for each one of them. What stopped me from agreeing to what must be done was the pain I would endure.

 

The Warframe protected the Tenno inside from the majority of the physical trauma one would suffer in the midst of battle. This is to make it easier for us to focus on cutting down our enemies. It doesn't block everything, it merely tones the roar of pain down to a dull tone. Present, but no longer overpowering.

 

Without the Warframe I would have to endure... everything. Especially getting the neural connection forcibly severed from my Warframe. Something reportedly so traumatic, it has taken several months for most Tenno to recover, and rendered several more unable to wield a Warframe for the rest of their lives.

 

So yeah. I was a little hesitant on the 'saying yes' bit.

 

“Tenno Rachim, will you let us save you?”

 

I turned my head to my right, to a mass of forms and colors were on the other-side of a glass window. My vision was horribly blurred, and with this increasing headache I could only make out one form; a blue Oberon.

 

I nodded at him, and slipped into the sweet darkness of unconsciousness.

 

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

My rest was short lived.

 

I awoke to Hell.

 

Blades, wove in and out of my Warframe, separating alloy-platting from flesh. Needles injected fluid straight into my chest and spine. The table was now upright, metal clamps kept me secured to the apparatus.

 

What remained of my composure as Tenno, bade me not to scream. And so, I endured.

 

I endured blades peeling a layer of my own flesh off of my left arm, and then sealing the exposed flesh in bindings.

I endured a hammer purposely breaking bones in my legs, and then properly reset the bones that failed to heal properly.

I endured the front of my torso and my helmet being torn away from me, exposing me to the frigid air of the operating room. I felt something wet fall onto my chest from my face. Tears, I was... crying?

 

The table angled me down forward so I was facing the floor. The plates on it moved around me to support my weight, and exposing my back.

 

For a moment, nothing happened. The machine continued to whir and buzz above me, but made no obvious intrusion.

 

A holographic window appeared in front of me, warning me that severing my neural link was the next thing to get operated on.

 

Seven points of pressure, one at the base of my neck, and 3 on either side of my spinal column. I took a breath and recited the mantras to myself, the pressure became pain as the blades pierced what remained of my Warframe. I Gritted my teeth and recited the mantras out loud as a fire rose and streaked its way across my back. My next recitation of the mantras was cut short with an ear-piercing scream. It sounded inhuman, like something that would get uttered by an infested beast. Pain so intense lanced its way through me that I cared not for the source of this horrible noise. I wasn't human or Tenno at this point, all of existence was pain. I had no body, nor thoughts, it was just the sensation of being slowly bathed in acid.

 

It was my own voice that I heard. White hot pain arced its way through my brain, my vision flickered in and out, I could no longer focus on anything longer than a few moments. An automated voice said something, the blades continued to work, and the machine did its programing, all while I writhed beneath it.

 

The pain receded for a moment, leaving behind blissful void. I had passed out it seemed, either from the procedure or from lack of oxygen from screaming so loud.

 

The respite was short lived as I came to. This cycled continued for what seemed to be an eternity, the pain would be so overpowering I would pass out, only to be awoken by it again and again. Is this what our enemies feel? Is what our targets experience?

 

Desperate to survive I scraped my mind for something to hold onto.

 

Four names, its always their names that help me through the worst of my life.

 

My screams turned down into quiet sobs and I all but whispered them to me again and again until the void claimed me.

 

James, Mike, Chris, Chandra

 

 

 

 

-=-=-=-=-

 

A few Tenno looked on through the observation wing. A broken Tenno lay before them, clad in bandages and harnesses. Rachim slept, alive but unwhole.

 

“He survived the procedure” A tenno said, reading an instrument panel, “I'd rather not witness an operation like that in my lifetime”

 

“The worse for Tenno Rachim is not over”, said another “He will need one of us to guide him and help him. Or he will not recover from this experience”

 

“I will care for him” Said an Oberon, clad in blue. “once he is safe to be moved”

[BRad_Skirata]

Enjoy this POV of the traitors' acts.

 

Bane of the Orokin

The second beat fills my chest, my fellow Tenno, those who are staring down upon us, and the vast hall we are seated in, until every fiber of each being and object are thrumming to the same beat.  The source of this harmony lies in the ceremonial drums in each corner on the main floor of the hall, a fantastic display of formality and technological communication.  Most of the Tenno in existence lie on the main floor, nearly filling it with meters to spare on either side of the precisely aligned rows and columns formed by us.  To the sides, and up a few meters, we are observed by a few hundred of those we fought for.  They are set on raised platforms with places to recline in, the audience keeping themselves comfortable in them.

 

Or as comfortable they’ll ever be in those getups, I think to myself.  The Orokin were always dressing up for some ceremony, always looking what they thought was their best.  We just think it’s funny, how useless their efforts and how wasteful their time is spent on looks.  Although, we have become somewhat keen to our own appearances recently...

 

Our Creators never settled for anything but perfect overkill.  I frown, We are also examples of that tradition, and so were the previous products of these sterilized Emperors.  And just like the ones we destroyed, we too will cause them tragedy...

 

Hot bile bubbles up my insides at the thought of what’s to come.  All around me are familiar faces, they’ve made themselves look their best.  Lethality was a part of that.  They kneel beside me, adorned with the gifts from those about to be betrayed with those very same tools.  Tools, traditionally white and glittering with gold, but more and more I noticed as Tenno started to personalize their kit in the recent months.  Some had solid colors, stripes, loud colors, and subtle.  Some didn’t change at all, I wasn’t one of those.  I am one of those who started going against regulations,which seems funny to me since I am actually against what was said to happen.

 

It is the seventh beat.  The Orokin Council with their extravagant dressings stand, their movement followed by the Tenno bowing.  I match them, only going lower than the rest as I have nothing to look at.  The rest keep their heads off the ground, high enough to see their mission from their peripherals.  At the start of the eighth drum beat, the Tenno Grand Masters rise in a synchronized instant and begin walking up towards the Orokin Emperors.  I can’t resist, I tilt my head to see the moment, getting a stare from one Tenno in front of me.  I don’t back down, nor do they.

 

The highest Tenno are now toe to toe with the Orokin Emperors, one for one.  The eighth beat ends.  The Emperors are dawning these silly white-gold syandanas upon the Grand Masters who are slightly inclined towards them to make the angle easier on the Emperors.  Arms at their sides, the Master Assassins gently caress the weapons at their hips, blades and pistols alike.  The beginning of the ninth beat vibrates throughout the hall.  I would have missed the movement if I had blinked, probably why not even the Emperors’ servants right behind their seats didn’t react immediately.  Before the drum’s energy had finished resonating against the pearl walls, the Orokin’s gowns were stained with their own life force.  The explosion of color against the absolute white might have been the first thing that tipped off the servants and audience.  The second being the blades as they were yanked back from their momentary sheaths of flesh.

 

That action represented two things, the end of a race, and the signal for a simple order to be carried out - kill.

 

All around me familiar things leap up from their respecting positions.  Nearly half of whom were kneeling a second before are now flying to different destinations... targets.  They release their blades, hooks, hammers, poles, and other miscellaneous life stealing instruments used at close distances.  The others remaining in the center take up stable stances, their long-reaching weapons trained on helpless robed figures stumbling over each other.  Discharges, too many to try and pick out the individual sounds and their respective sources echo in between my ears.  All at once there were screams, many literally cut short or cut out of the fanatic cold and gold ones making the sounds.  The platforms originally serving as observation stations for the ceremony now can not be lowered fast enough for the occupants’ escape.

 

I shot up from my place as did many of the traitors, lunging at the nearest innocent.  My blades came down in a forty-five degree angle.  I grunt, feeling the resistance as I bash away the deadly thrust of a past ally.  I land lithely in front of the cowering female who would have died had I been off by a centimeter or a fraction of a second late.  I stand poised facing away from her, shielding her as I move us back against a now blood stained pillar.

 

One of them steps forward, the one who’s strike I parried.  It was a Master, it was a Tenno, was a friend, a teacher, a person of safety.  Now it is only my most likely cause of death.  “Stand aside, Disciple.”  Their words come flat, without malice, perfectly pronounced in the Tenno adaptation of Orokin language.  “Don’t make this any worse than what your punishment for blocking my strike will be.”

 

I already know what my actions could warrant.  “As far as I’m concerned, everyone here and myself are already dead.”

 

I remain silent, waiting.  Making the first move would be suicidal, I still haven’t completed my training.  The Master shuffles a few steps forward, wielding an Orthos.  The blade glints as it stabs through the air where my head was a moment before.  I dodged down, forcing the blade above me higher, and slice the forearm of the assailant.  Too easy, He gave me another chance to reconsider.

 

I flick my head to the side and scream at the Orokin civilian, “Run!”  Then, thrusting our connected blades to the side, I jump and kick myself off the surprised Master’s torso.  I zoom from behind the fleeing woman.  We make for the nearest exit.  I check my motion trackers’ readings, we are not alone.

 

I turn to face our pursuers as one of them sends a dagger to kill.  I lean to the side, barely flicking the small blade from its path, the spine of the woman I saved.  It clangs on the ground.  Another is thrust into the air, glinting in the bright lighting.  I deflect this one as well, but too late I realize the knife-thrower had sent two with that throw.  The second hidden perfectly by the one between me and it.  The simple shape of metal whipped past me, and embedded itself into the base of the woman’s skull.  She dropped to the ground mid-step, and didn’t move again.

 

I hesitated.  She meant very little to me personally, hardly anything at all really.  That didn’t stop me from briefly reacting to the loss of life I had tried to preserve.  That hesitation cost me my footing though, and as I turned back to the source of the flying daggers my forehead was met with a jump hook kick.  I’m sent several meters to the side, spinning almost twice before slamming into the solid flooring.

 

I lift myself to see my attacker reach for my arms - no my hands and what I still hold in them.  I try to resist.  They don’t bother with mercy or second chances now, my wrists are immediately grasped, and broken.

 

It isn’t the worst pain I’ve ever felt, but I still cry out as I release the Skana swords.  The one above me kicks them to the side, then leans down to me.

 

“What should we do?”

 

I’m raised up against the wall, the one who spoke forcing their forearm into my neck with their left hand gripping my right wrist.  The extra pain keeps me from fidgeting, nevermind fighting back.

 

“For the next few weeks we will be removing any defectors caught by securing them into cryopods.  It is too sensitive a time to have them spreading their opinions and causing more resistance for our mission.”

 

My wrists are broken, not my throat.  “Whose grand idea was that?” I spit the question at them.  I receive a twist of the wrist and my neck is pressed upon harder.

 

“It doesn’t matter if you know or not, I don’t believe you have heard of him anyways.  He is Master DeQuaste, and he will handle your betrayal after we complete our mission.”

 

“Funny, hearing you call what I did betrayal.”

 

The one holding me reaches to their hip with their left hand.  It comes back up toward the side of my head and releases an electrical charge.  I feel the pain, see the Volt’s eyes shine unnaturally as my vision blacks out, and then - nothing.

[bejuizb]

Sorry for the long delay. 

 

Expect the next part by tomorrow.

 

Another Facet

“Tenno,” chimed the voice of the Lotus through her comms, “there is a large enemy force ahead. Advice caution.”

 

Lily merely nodded, immediately letting some of her pent up energy flow into the ornate weapon in her right hand. She didn't have to look at it to know that the Glaive was glowing a bright red as the energy freely flowed into the weapon. She was in the lead; Nyght was watching her back. The Excalibur had dealt with most of the enemies while the hack pack was doing its work, and she decided that it would be her who would deal with the trash.

 

After all, she thought, flashing a lackadaisical smile inside her helmet, I want to have some fun too.

 

Their target was on the other end of this large room. Her knowledge on Orokin architecture was very limited, but the large room they entered clearly was a forum. The lofty ceiling gave the room a much larger feeling and this did nothing to hide the sheer amount of enemies amassed here. A quick glance told her that there were at least three or four dozen targets, each of whom had the trademark Neural Sentry nodule attached to their bodies. Cover was minimal, but workable. She could slowly advance from collapsed pillar to pillar. Since Nyght had his gun available, he would serve as long range support.

 

Lily had long since trained herself to not feel remorse for the people she killed. Her logic was simple: you raise a gun at me, I'll f*ck you up. End of story. And considering that she was still alive and pretty, her logic made sense.

 

They didn't have too much cover to work with, and the both of them weren't exactly meant to eat bullets, not with their skintight suits. If Aiden was around, he could have simply ran the bastards over, what with his gold plated badassery. She looked back quickly at Nyght. The blue Excalibur's sword was held at the ready.

 

“You're going to want to activate some optical filters cupcake,” she shouted as she jumped beneath a pillar as a barrage of slow moving plasma bolts whizzed past her and hammered into the wall mere inches from her. Nyght pirouetted and took the higher ground, using the height to cover himself from the incoming fire.

 

“What do you mean?” she heard him ask, the puzzlement evident in his tone. She took a deep breath, feeling her pulse thunder inside her head before she dove into the fray, rapidly making her way into the swarm of enemies. The Glaive flew through the air, beheading a Corrupted Grineer, the glowing weapon traveling at phenomenal speed through the air. No blood fell on the shiny floors, for the sheer amount of heat held in the weapon cauterized the corpses as it flew. The world shrunk to a small sphere around Lily, as she danced and jumped through the bodies, using their own mass as cover.

 

From his position, Nyght got a fantastic view of Lily's carnage. Her movements were brutally efficient , each one used with the sole intent of hurling the vicious weapon towards a new target. While the Glaive was thrown, she used her armoured fists and feet to brutalize any enemies around her, constantly grappling and throwing them away. Her actions didn't give the enemy much of a chance to retaliate, and he ensured that none of them got too close to her. The staccato blasts of flame from the muzzle of his gun heralded the demise for many a foe, their bodies dropping soundlessly to the ground.

 

Lily's body language was getting more and more aggressive; he watched with mildly suppressed awe as she brawled with a Heavy Gunner. The large Grineer troop was forced to fight her within a narrow opening with a small defensive prod, because Lily had destroyed the Gorgon almost instantly. The ruined weapon lay besides the battling women, split in two and smoking slightly. Lily slammed her elbow into the chest of the Gunner, jarring the much larger enemy. The Ember immediately followed with a flurry of kicks, each on hitting a vulnerable part of the Grineer's legs.

 

“Behind you!” barked Nyght into her comms, and she immediately whirled around and intercepted a charging Corrupted soldier. Fiery tendrils erupted from her arm as she landed a heavy punch to the surprised soldier's chest, his head suddenly blown off as one of Nyght's shots connects. The Ember immediately followed up with a roundhouse kick, initially aimed at the Gunner's neck. But she underestimated the speed of the soldier, and she soon found herself on her back, sliding back slightly as the Gunner lunged in for the killing blow.

 

F*ck no, $#*(@!

 

Nyght could barely see anything but white. When his pupils had contracted enough, the sound of gunfire was ever so persistent but the sight before him had captured all of his attention.

 

Lily stood crouched on the ground, billowing crimson flames surrounding her and scorching the pristine white floor. The charred corpse of the attacking Heavy Gunner was slumped over a crumbled pillar. She was roasted alive, thought the Excalibur with a shudder as he felt his rifle kick into his shoulder. Yet another corpse fell to the ground around the still stationary Ember Prime.

 

“Lily...” began Nyght, scrambling down behind a pillar, plasma bolts whizzing past him as the remaining troops relentlessly tried to hold him back. “You okay?”

 

A pause. “Yep, cupcake. I was just releasing a few valves.” Her voice had an eerie tone to it, something Nyght couldn't put a finger on.

 

“What? Are you alright?”

 

“You'll see, darling. How many left? I can't peek my head out without it getting blown off.”

 

He quickly peeked his head out, ducking it behind the protection of the collapsed pillar immediately. “Two dozen or so. On the other side of the main floor.”

 

“Gotcha. Keep firing at them while I charge up.”

 

A rapid burst from Nyght rifle knocked an advancing Corrputed over, the body not moving. “Roger.”

 

“My name's Lily, not Roger.” Nyght let loose an exasperated sigh as the mirthful laughter of the redhead filled his ears.

 

He leapt over his current cover, transferring energy to his legs to propel himself rapidly across the gap that surrounded him and Lily. Thie previous fight had been almost jovial, but the redhead had gotten a lot more...cold, ever since then. He maintained a respectable distance from her, seeing that he could feel the heat from the fire through his suit.

 

“Get ready.”

 

Nyght barely had time to react before Lily leapt over the pillar and charged towards the firing enemies. Panic stricken, Nyght quickly raised his rifle and staring firing madly into the swarm of enemies. A bright trail of fire followed the Ember, whose form was now shrouded in billowing fire. Nyght hadn't felt this much heat from an Ember before, but then again, not every Ember was Lily. His rifle clicked empty, and he immediately swapped magazines, and resumed his suppressive fire as Lily finally intercepted the entrenched troops. The Corrupted had decided to rely on a defensive position between three ruined walls, using the strength of their numbers in the close proximity to their advantage. But that strategy would prove to be their downfall.

 

The fire clad Ember leapt into the air and came crashing down. She bodily landed on one soldier, his body immediately embraced by the ravenous flames. Even as the doomed soldier's dying screams reached Nyght's ears over the diminishing gunfire, Lily unleashed a maelstrom of fire. Nyght stopped firing and raised an elbow to block his eyes from the brightness. His mind was working in overtime. How hasn't she taken any bullet hits? Or has she?

 

All he could hear now was agonized screams as the Ember continued her vicious assault, sending licks of flame through the ranks of soldiers. She shot fire out of her palms like it was an ordinary thing, each ball of energy explosively ending lives around her. Ever since she'd leapt out of cover, all Nyght could hear was heavy panting as she expended energy to keep her momentum up, but now he could hear her laugh. This wasn't the same humourous laughter that Lily had either. It was far more dark. It didn't feel right.

 

Within a minute, the fight was over. Nothing apart from the two Tenno moved. As Nyght cautiously jogged towards her, he noticed the level of destruction she had caused. Small fires littered the place, hissing and crackling like foul beasts. Corpses littered the space between the pillars, most of them shredded or torn apart from the explosive force of Lily's power. And amidst the corpses and charred ground stood the Ember, standing arrogantly and billowing flames from her clenched fists.

 

“Lily...” Nyght began, as the Ember turned towards him. The flames suddenly winked out of existence.

 

“Told you to activate those filters, didn't I?” Nyght could almost see the redhead wink from underneath her helmet. She was back to normal.

 

“I have to say, I'm genuinely impressed, Lily.”

 

She bowed, and turned towards the other end of the room, where their objective was. “I aim to please.”

 

He noticed her limp slightly but refrained from asking her if she was okay. They made their way silently through the empty rooms, their guard down since the Lotus had told them that they were the only living organisms left on the ship. They reached the vault room, inside which Lily found what she was looking for. She calmly lifted a metallic box from a shelf and started walking out of the room wordlessly.

 

“We got our stuff. Let's go.”

 

Nyght meekly nodded and followed her out. He was faced with yet another facet of Lily, and this one didn't seem to make sense to him. Once they reached their ship, Lily wordlessly undressed out of her suit, and was soon in her trademark jeans. She gave him a quick smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. He was left to his own devices as she went to get some “rack time” as she put it.

 

We should be back at the station in a day or so, thought Nyght absently. Maybe she'll be fine by then.

 

Maybe.

Edited August 19, 2014 by bejuizb

[bejuizb]

As promised. Last part of the Date. 

 

“You awake?” he heard a voice behind him. Nyght turned around, blinking rapidly to clear the bleary haze from his eyes.

 

“I am now.”

 

The redhead grinned sheepishly. “Well sh!t. I was just admiring how adorable you look when you sleep.” She gave him a quick pout. “There goes my chance.”

 

Nyght felt a flush rise up his face. Damn this woman. “Chance for what?” The instant the words left his mouth, he regretted ever asking them.

 

“To do naughty things to myself while you continue sleeping.”

 

Oh dear, thought Nyght, breaking into a sweat. I don't even...

 

Lily burst into a fit of giggles. “Calm down, cupcake. You look like you're gonna burst an artery!” She plopped herself next to the cross legged Excalibur, brushing her red hair from her face.

 

“At this rate...I might,” mumbled Nyght, quite aware of the distance between them, or the lack thereof.

 

“What was that?”

 

“Nothing,” he mumbled again, his mind racing to find a way to change the topic. “Are you alright now?”

 

She nodded calmly. “Yep. I kinda PMS'd back there during the fight. Sorry.”

 

“What?”

 

She waved her hand and chuckled. “Girl thing. Makes us *@##$y as all hell. Whatever it was, its gone now.”

 

He nodded. “Good. Its safe to say that our mission was successful.”

 

She grinned ferally. “Oh yeah. I got to see your cute butt tear stuff apart and then I got to punch things. Successful mission indeed.”

 

“We also managed to get whatever you went to get.”

 

She mildly slapped herself in the forehead. “That too. Forgot about that part. But the date's not over yet!”

 

“It isn't?” Nyght asked quizzically. What else does this fiendish woman have planned? He let his eyes roam down her body, checking for any injuries. After all, she had merely shucked off her Warframe and vanished into the depths of the ship. Being the gentleman he was, he'd left her to her own devices. She didn't appear to have any major injuries, apart from a slew of minor bruises. All results of the blunt impact of bullets, batons and plasma bolts. Her left leg was bandaged quite heavily, and he saw a small smear of crimson blooming ever so slowly from it.

 

“You're hurt,” he said. She shrugged, and flashed him a toothy grin.

 

“Nothing I can't handle.”

 

Nyght rose from his position, which turned out to be cross legged, leaning against the bulkhead of the ship. “I beg to differ. You're bleeding. We need to get it checked out fast.” He tried to get their bearings from the front of the ship, but it was closed.

 

“We're at the Station already,” she interjected, noticing his look. “And as for this cut,” she said, pointing to the wound in question, “I'll be fine after a while.”

 

He nodded. Respecting her words seemed to be the best thing to do at the moment. “You were saying something about our incomplete...er...excursion?”

 

She nodded, quickly skipping over to a small storage cabinet near the docking doors. From within it, she pulled out two hip flasks, both adorned with an unrecognizable symbol. She walked back up to him and passed him one of the flasks.

 

“Drink up!”

 

He shook it slightly, holding it up to his ear. Full of liquid.

 

Well obviously, Nyght. Its a hip flask.

 

Mentally berating himself, he decided to voice his question. “Drink what exactly?”

 

She quickly quaffed down a few mouthfuls of whatever it was, and hissed with glee. “Coffee, you dumba*s! Don't you remember me telling you that our date's going to have guns and coffee?”

 

“Must have skipped my mind.”

 

She grinned. “Drink up. I have a present after that.”

 

“Oh dear...what's next?” he mumbled, after drinking some of the coffee. Wow. Good stuff.

 

Lily quickly drained her hip flask, and wiped her lips with the back of her arm. “A night at a nearby hotel. Honeymoon suite.”

 

It couldn't be helped. Lily's face was met with a spray of coffee as the flavoured liquid rushed out of Nyght's mouth. The shocked Excalibur could only sputter as Lily continued as if nothing had happened.

 

“Let me tell you, cupcake, I was shocked when I found out that the Station actually has a f*cking hotel! With facilities for f*cking! Seems like horndogs and old traditions don't die out after hundreds of years. Whatever the case, tonight's going to be so fun!”

 

She then proceeded to rid her face of the spray Nyght had decided to grace her with. “You spit like a f*cking beast by the way. One more reason to make me proud!” He blushed as she stuck her tongue out at him.

 

“Sorry about that. You surprised me, is all.”

 

The redhead simply patted his shoulder and walked off to her locker. “I'm just kidding by the way. As much as I'd like to spend the night frolicking about and doing a lot of licking myself, I'm too damn sore to even bend over and tie my bootlaces. So not tonight. Maybe later.” Reflex settled in as she threw a metallic object towards him. “That's my gift.”

 

It seemed like a memory chip. The sort of chips he'd seen being used in small scale robotic proxies and machinery.

 

“Its for your Wyrm Prime. I managed to program all the relevant fields into it. All you gotta do is plug it in, run the initial systems, and decide how you'd like him towork.”

 

“How long have I been sleeping for?”

 

She was taken aback at the sudden question. “Um, what?”

 

“It can't have been too long. I mean, you finished off programming my Sentinel's imprint module and managed to nab some rest too?”

 

She grinned sheepishly. “I didn't really go to sleep. I went to the lower hold and tinkered around with the Sentinel we just picked up. And you slept for about 13 hours. Not too long.”

 

“What about you then?”

 

“Hehe, you see. Er...sleep's a mean *@##$ to me. I...”

 

“Haven't slept yet, have you?”

 

“Noooo-yeah. Not a wink.”

 

He got up, feeling the blood flow into his legs. “Get some rest.”

 

She nodded. “I plan to. But first, I need you to get out of my ship!”

 

“Wait, what?”

 

She nodded, yanking him towards the docking doors of the ship. The Ember pointed towards a familiar box by the door. “That's mine. I'll work on him later. I've given you an address to where you can pick your Sentinel up. Go on in there, get your little bugger and you're on your way. I'll send you the Warframe once its done repairing. I know where you live.”

 

“Um...”

 

She crossed her arms. “What is it?”

 

He shrugged. “Just feels a bit rushed.”

 

He was met with a sweet smile. “Yep. I'm rushing. I'm sleepy as f*ck and I want to catch some zee's. And I don't want to have a good looking guy end up seeing my face when I sleep.”

The docking doors opened and Nyght was promptly pushed out. Turning around, he was shocked again as Lily pulled him into a crushing hug. “I snore. I think that's reason enough.”

 

What kind of reasoning is that?!

 

“Er...um...okay then,” he muttered, lightly patting her back as she let him go. The fiery vixen turned around and started closing the doors to the ship again. Before the door completely closed on Nyght's face, she turned around.

 

“The address is inside your pant pocket. Nice underwear, cupcake.”

 

And with a wink, she was gone, leaving Nyght standing bewildered and red-faced, clutching the memory chip that had started their shenanigans.

 

Well, he thought, turning around and walking past several dozen people absently. That's the end of the so called date, I suppose.

 

Bloody hell is she a handful.

 

[FatViking]

Disclaimer: headcanon, should not be considered serious. May contain traces of Sacrifice, Cultists and nuts. not part of official thread canon.

I stand in a hallway, shrouded in darkness, covered in silence. The air itself carries a rythm, not heard, but felt. My heart beats with the rythm as I walk forward, each step fitting perfectly within the Rythmic pounding of my heart. After a few minutes of walking down the dark corridor, chanting starts accompanying the rythm, growing louder with the rythm every step I take. Soon small green, red and blue lights replace the darkness, and I walk out of the corridor into a large room. My flock sits in the room, chanting to the rythmic pounding of drums as I walk to the center of the room.

A sudden silence assaults my eardrums as I stand in the center, my flock awaiting my words, so that our ritual can continue. I take a deep breath, the rythm once more manifesting deep within my core and I raise my hands.

''Brothers! Sisters! We stand here today, survivors of the infestation, stronger than before. We have changed ourselves to survive, infested flesh removed and replaced by machines. We changed, by her urging!'' I finish as I point to a statue. ''She told us what we had to do, she instructed us as we removed limbs and organs and replaced them with machinery built under her guidance.'' Lights start lighing up all around the statue, revealing her, our savior, the Lotus. ''And now we shall repay her for her kindness, for her guidance. We shall do so with the corpses of two of her greatest foes, the Corpus and Grineer. Let their blood be our repayment for what she has done for us.''

 

As I finish, several tall men coem into the room, each one adorned with crude cybernetics forged out of need for survival instead of a limb or two. Between them, they carry two bodies, one of a Grineer stripped of its armor and the other a Corpus, stripped of his enviro-suit. They walk past me and chain the two prisoners to the statue. No words are exchanged, we have done this a thousand times.

 

I close my eyes, and with my right hand I grasp the hilt of the dagger strapped to my waist. It came with the corpse of a Tenno, which has been placed in a coffin and perched in the hands of the statue. The Karyst dagger has served well in our rituals, and shall serve once more as I pull it off my belt and hold it up so my flock can see.

 

''Let us repay Lotus!'' I yell as my flock starts chanting. The prisoners chained to the statue wake up as I walk towards them, dagger in hand. I have chosen which one shall be slain first. ''Let the blood of this wretched abomination, born of misguided genetic scientists, be our payment!'' I shout as I plunge the dagger deep into the Grineers chest. His heart spits out a stream of blood which showers me and pools underneath him. Once his heart no longer sends forth a jet of blood from the wound, I move to the Corpus. He witnessed what happened to the Grineer, and has started pleading for mercy, begging us to let him go, saying he will pay any price if we would jsut let him go home. ''Let the blood of this betrayer of humanity, born of greed, be our payment!'' I shout in answer as my flock chants, and I plunge the dagger into his chest. The flocks chanting grows louder as the Corpus dies, and I join in as I come to stand in front of the statue.

[NyghttheClassy]

And thus I write again! It's not going to 'up to scratch' on the quality compared to some of my other stuff, but it's been a while & I'm pushing towards a 'major plot point' as it were.

 

 

The Lost & the Found 1: Artificial Intellect

 

This looks like the place. Right address anyways.

Nyght stepped into the store, Sentinel chip in one hand, the other resting over the sheathed blade at his hip. Autonomously, he found his towards a counter with a clerk behind it, the man seemingly bored out of wits with a dead end routine.

 

“Excuse me; I’m here to collect some items a friend left here over the past few days.”

 

“Sorry sir, you’ll have to be more specific than that, we don’t generally hold items for people. Who sent you to collect things?”

 

“Lily. Young redheaded woman, confident attitude.”

 

The clerk froze up, practically petrified with a thousand unbearable thoughts cascading inside his head. All he could do raise an arm towards a room to the side & gulp.

 

“That room there. Please tell her we haven’t touched anything, no-one has been in there since she left, and there is no reason what so ever for her to come back with a spork…”

 

Okay, definitely the right place. Nyght curiously eyed the shivering clerk before making his way over & into the appointed room, closing the door behind him. Upon the desk before him, lay the empty crate of his Wyrm Prime, & besides that the assembled sentinel itself.

   Slipping the acquired chip into ‘head’ of the sentinel, he was provided with a small holo-screen of simple instructions & progression bars towards the sentinels ‘awakening’, which he swiftly worked through. Then a choice was presented to him:

 

‘Sentinel protocol installation almost complete. Existing data found within memory cores. Do you wish to integrate data, or provide a clean installation? Warning, integrating data may lead to corruptions.’

 

Delete or integrate… how is that a choice for me? For any of us? After how much knowledge we’ve lost, how many memories we’ve forgotten?

 

The Excalibur tapped the integrate option, and then confirmed it. A few seconds later, the Wyrm began humming, chirping & beeping, before rising from the desk. It quickly turned to the blue Excalibur prime at its side, chirping more whilst wriggling in the air. Nyght stole a glance at the holo-console, noting the new pop-up; Memory conflicts detected – warning, language & communications config corrupted, please update.

 

Well damn. I guess I better get him back to my ship; maybe the AI can do something.

 

Nyght looked up at the Wyrm, which seemed to be staring at him intently, expectantly, waiting for him. He had a hunch.

 

“Can you hear me? Understand me?”

 

Beep-beep.

 

“Can I take that as a yes?”

 

Beep-beep.

 

“But you can’t actually ‘talk’?”

 

Boop

 

Well, I guess it’s a start. “Come on; let’s see if Seer can do something to you. Both of you come from the same place, maybe she can ‘fill you in’.”

 

 

Nyght returned to the familiar interior of his ship, his recovered prototype ‘Combat Liset’, one of a number of relics found within the crashed ‘ark’. Whilst the exterior hull was largely a concealing midnight blue with pale, starlight streaks along its side, the interior was a pristine, silvery matt ice, tinted with blue & dotted with the various consoles & stations required to operate & maintain the ship’s proficiency in space, as well as keep the operator equipped for off-ship actions; Weapons lockers, munitions stores, a compact foundry for emergency repairs & fabrications, a small scale med-bay & an advanced communication relay, capable of long distance messages & interception of encoded transmissions.

   Of course, this, along with the complex set of shorter range sensory arrays, ‘cloaking’, engines & weapons systems, is all too much for a single pilot to operate. Even a Tenno. As such, every Liset has an AI, a computer being that runs & manages the ship, whether the operator is on board or not. Nyght’s ship was no different in this regard, although his ship’s AI was defiantly not ‘standard’.

 

“Welcome back Master Nyght. I see your extended trip was of success. I trust everything went well then?” the female tone the AI greeted him.

 

“Thank you Seera, and things went well enough. They were certainly… interesting. And a unique experience. That being said, I need you to take a look at this little guy” He gestured to the Wyrm at his shoulder. “It appears he has some corruption within his communication & language files. So far he can only beep, boop & chirp. I figured an ‘Ai to Ai’ talk might get somewhere.”

 

“Interfacing. Scanning. Malfunction identified. Corruptions & incompatibilities detected within linguistics files. I see that we are of similar ‘origin’. I take it he was found within the Ark?”

 

“Yes, although we had to retrieve an imprint module from an old Orokin tower.”

 

“Problem can be easily rectified. I can use my own files to facilitate a reconstruction of any corrupted or incompatible code. This will restore vocal functionality, as well as possibly other features or ‘personalities’. It will take time however.

    In fact, I have a transmission from a group of red veil operators, working alongside a small team of Tenno. They are planning a ‘prison break’ on Ceres, to free their compatriots, and are asking available Tenno to provide… ‘Distractions’. I calculate that by time of arrival, rewrite will be complete. Operation will provide able field tests. Opinions master?”

 

“Go for it. We had plans to hit Ceres anyway, may as well not let that Intel go to waste. Who knows, we may not be the only ones hitting the area.”

 

 

 

[Sayfog]

you didn't see a thing. Move along.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Sayfog

[FatViking]

Operation: Recovery, part 1.

 

 

''So what is the story behind that one?'' The warden asked as he walked onto the balcony over looking the courtyard as new Prisoner was escorted from the gate to the main building. ''You really want to know, after 20 years here?'' Asked the guard next to him, Venka on his back. ''all I need to know is that he looks like bad news.''

 

''That is why its important to know his story, to know if he is actual bad news or just looks like them.'' The Warden replied, switching his view over the prison walls to the snowy peaks in the distance. ''After all, we don't want the filth in this prison sully the peaks of Mars.''

 

 

Kris couldn't hide the smile on his lips as he was led to his cell. Everything was going according to plan, the pieces falling in place perfectly, and soon contact would be established. As the cell door opened, the guard pushed him in inside with the butt of his gun and hastly closed it, but such was the fate of someone with such a well constructed lie as his backstory. Murder, piracy and many more crimes deserving of a lifetime achievement awards appeared on his made up rap sheet. And not to mention his ''past''. Kris had had to learn his past until he could recite it hanging upside down, blindfolded and dunked in water with no warframe on.

 

He was 'The Captain', a survivor of a Technocyte outbreak on a small colony, who got kidnapped under the command of Corpus Executive Wikis and forced to be a test subject for various bionic researches. He managed to escape and slaughtered the entire team experimenting on him with his bionically enhanced arms and legs. Ever since then, he had been raiding Corpus ships with a crew made of various outlaws. He had been captured by an elite team of Corpus soldiers sent by Wikis to track him down and bring him to justice, and that justice was 78 life sentences with a chance of parole after 60^th sentance served. And all of those sentences were to be served in the maximum security prison, Tartarus.

As the door closed behind him, Kris scanned his room for supplies. After all, to cause chaos in a maximum security prison, one needed a weapon and with enough imagination anything could be a weapon.
 

 

''This is Warden Trehn Jok, of Maximum Security Correctional Facility 66-982, designation: Tartarus, placing a request for a guard change come next month. Reasons are exhaustion of current guard roster and lack of morale. If no replacement arrives with next supply shuttle, I fear the guards will not be capable of keeping order within this facility.'' the Warden finished, his tired eyes looking over the files he recieved for 'The Captain'. The guard he had talked to earlier had been right. 'The Captain' was bad news, much like the rest of the prisoners, but what made it worse was the current state of the guard staff. Most of the guards had been there since he had been picked as the warden of Tartarus, never being allowed to take a vacation and being forced to work all year round, making sure that none of the prisoners tried anything. ''Such is the fate of a prison guard in a Corpus prison'' He thought as he opened the files once more and started reading once more.

 

End Part 1.

[NyghttheClassy]

And thus we get closer to my goal.

 

 

The Lost & the Found 2: Plan of the Veil

 

“First of all, I would like to thank all of you for agreeing to participate in this operation. My name is Thanos, and I am lieutenant of Cantis, who many of you have already had correspondence with.”

 

All eyes were on the leading Red veil member of the operation, a middle age human man of blonde hair & green eyes, his skin baring the obvious scars of both Grineer occupation & the resulting guerrilla movement against them. From his fellow operators to the just short of two dozen Tenno who had also made an appearance at the requested rendezvous, he had their attention.

 Everyone had gathered at the secret location provided by Thanos, sitting within a crescent shape around the man inside a makeshift briefing room to establish the upcoming plan of action.

 

Nyght cast his eyes from the side of the room over his soon to be collaborators; Twenty-one Tenno, including himself, ranging from a handful experienced fighters & veteran teams to groups of what appeared to be frighteningly fresh looking initiates, who couldn’t have seen more than a handful of heated fights since Cryosleep. He could only think that they must have someone more experienced alongside them to keep them in check, or else this would end in the casualties of far too rare living Tenno.

   The Veil operators had a completely different look to them. Again, they seemed to range vastly in ages, from young adults to older members baring grey hairs. The air, the presence about them though, seemed completely different; those elder members didn’t show signs of aging & withering, but instead carried those grey hairs like badges of honour, signs that they had lived this long through hell, that tomorrow wasn’t going to change that. The younger Veil members seemed to carry as much fire themselves, and plenty of scars to backup their experience.

 

How young must they have been when they first got involved? To wear that many marks of conflict & survival, yet only just break twenty years?

 

“As I am sure you are all aware by now, many of our fellow brothers & sisters currently reside within the Prison & work complexes across Ceres. One in particular has a large concentration of operatives; the Grineer are utilising whatever slave labour they can get into this complex to man the surrounding manufactories, arming & resupplying their war machines, their marines, even their fleets of ships. All the while, they torture & wear down their captives, extracting whatever strength & intelligence they can until there is nothing of use to them left but matter to feed the furnaces.”

 

The holo-screen at Thanos’s back flickered between images, from assembly lines & cargo bays, to the prison complex & finally, the engines & roaring furnaces powering everything. One factor remained common throughout; a high concentration of Grineer guards, wardens & sentries, fully armoured & armed.

   He shortly switched the screen over to a blueprint view of the prison complex, notes & highlights marking various key points across the facility with a plan of action.

 

“Here is the proposed plan, using intelligence we have acquired from various sources. Three teams of three to four Tenno will be launching diversionary raids on the surrounding factory & barrack sites, drawing away & occupying the local forces of Grineer marines. Once assaulting these areas, your task will be to ensure that as many Grineer are drawn to you as possible, and as few can return to the prison itself to impede the main rescue group.”

  

“Those of you, who are Red veil here, will be moving on the main prison, alongside a handful of Tenno. Whilst the Tenno deal with the bulk of Grineer forces in the prison, your task is to both provide some fire support, and to hack through any security or door locks in the way of the planned route. You will use the hacking technology & gathered Grineer codes available to you to create an isolated corridor of locked doors, keeping them away from you & providing a safe route to extract the prisoners through. On your way out, you will also lock down doors in your wake, further impeding attempts to catch us.”

 

A short wave of murmurs, nods and chatter briefly swept through the assembled liberators as they processed this information, formulating strategies, tactics, mental preparations & possible questions.

 

“The remaining Tenno, most of which have come as solo operators, will also be heading into the main complex. Whilst the preformed teams assault exterior locations and a handful escort our operators & eventually the prisoners, you will be running interference; by scattering you around at a distance from the main group, you will be dealing with the bulk of the remaining personnel defending the prison, keeping them from launching a counter attack against the escort group. You will be the first into the main prison, infiltrating inside to strike once the bulk of the forces are drawn to the exterior facilities, and you will be the last ones out, delaying the Grineer long enough for the main group to extract. Afterwards, your route of escape is up to you, and we will all regroup here afterwards. Questions?”

 

The briefing continued for a short while longer, finer details being discussed by individual teams, blank spots being filled in, plans & contingencies laid out and processed repeatedly. Nyght himself spent time with the other solo Tenno & main recue group, outlining the planned route, likely hotspots, potential trap zones, possible ambush sites & the best alternative routes should things go south. With the codes & hacking intelligence available, they had a near straight line open to them from their landing zone to the cell blocks & back, which with the Free roaming Tenno & the Veil controlled lockdowns, could be kept practically resistance free.

   Within a couple of hours, Nyght was back on his ship, preparing & re-checking his equipment as he closed on his drop zone. His Dragon Nikana, still as sharp as the day it had been hand forged pre-collapse hung from his hip. A Burston prime, modified to be both lightweight & to fire corrosive rounds, slung across his back. One single, simple Lato, bearing the ‘vandal’ pattern markings rested at his thigh, tinkered & tweaked for more punch at a distance than the usual light sidearm.

   And finally, floating to the side of his shoulder, a Blue & icy white Wyrm, adorned with the Gold trims of all prime items, boasting enough short range incendiary power to shun even an mad shotgun wielding pyromaniac. He couldn’t help but think a certain Ember might have added a bit more to the already overcompensating scatter-cannon.

 

“Wyrm prime unit Pyre ready for mission specifications master. ‘Dragon’ pattern sweeper shotgun is fully functional, and all systems optimal.” The little drone chirped eagerly, happy at its rediscovered voice.

 

Pyre. After the Seera, the ship’s AI had interfaced with the Sentinel, it had been able to overwrite and untangle many of the data corruptions present using their common coding. By the time he had returned from the briefing, the once near mute drone suddenly had a voice, & a personality to express with it. Even its own, old name. It seemed a fitting name for an incendiary armed ‘dragon’ sentinel.

 

“Good, now it seems time to give you a thorough field test. My equipment is set, you’re fixed & functioning, and we have our ‘orders’ as it were. Seera, take us in.”

 

‘Diversionary raids have begun. Descending onto designated infiltration site. Good luck master.’

 

[NyghttheClassy]

I present, to all you fine ladies & gentlemen of the thread...

(and those people who lurk about here without ever popping up to say anything, even just hi -_-)

 

the sort of outcome/remake of the 'siege' attempt...

 

my raid on the Ceres prisons! (Ta-da?)

 

Warning: may contain major plot points to personal plot line & plans. May also not be right up to scratch because distractions & lack of AMAZING inspiration recently. Enjoy.

 

 

The Lost & the Found 3: Complex of chaos

 

Across the prison, hidden figures sat cloaked away, within the vents above, under the walkways below & some simply the pitch dark corners to the sides. Under a veil of radio silence, all of them internally counted the seconds of near silence, ticking down to their invisible green light.

  The infiltrators had dropped in completely unnoticed by the complex’s sensor, all too occupied with the sudden assault on other outlying facilities to notice the freak ‘meteor shower’ overhead. Once down at their respective drop points, they had all slipped by the remaining security; the vast majority of the garrison had been dispatched as reinforcements, and while they could have overwhelmed those still present, they wished to preserve their element of surprise.

   Over un-traversable terrain, through gaps & cracks in the walls, down into the maintenance shafts, up into the expensive ventilation network. They were in. They were patient. Their clock was ticking down.

 

Tick.

 

50 paces long corridor, staff room to the side of one end, large door to the other. Leads to the route of the main group.

 

Tick.

 

One guard patrolling along the corridor, 20 second intervals. Two sentries at the main doorway

 

Tick.

 

Minimum of three within staff room, enough for a shift change. Likely relaxed & drowsy, possibly intoxicated.

 

Tick.

 

Vent is loose. Grate heavy, enough to concuss a Grineer marine. Guard will pass under me in…

 

Tock.

 

The heavy duty, cast steel ventilation grate dropped soundlessly from its overhead mounting, an Excalibur of blue & white immediately behind it. Nyght burned a portion of his energy, bursting through the air in a slightly angled trajectory towards the two sentries, who were still registering his appearance. Meanwhile, one heavy ventilation grate, its momentum boosted through reactionary force of Nyght’s dash, rocketed down towards the patrolling guard.

   A swipe of Nyght’s Drakana left one sentry clutching his jugular & windpipe futilely, the other collapsing in bent over slump. Simultaneously, the shot of one patrolling guard was brutally interrupted by the blunt force trauma of an overhead vent against his uncovered cranium, the low thud of the metal mixing with a sickening crunch of bone.

 

Moments later, Nyght had applied similar fates to the four he found idly guzzling drinks within the staff room, too pre-occupied & intoxicated to give more than verbal response. Across the facility, in areas close to the planned route, similar groups of Grineer found themselves with the same situations as multiple Tenno also launched their ambushes. In the span of but a minute, the remaining garrison of the central prison had dropped to just a few unaware guards by the cells themselves.

 

“Pyre, send confirmation to the Veil team. We’re clear here for them to proceed.”

 

“Right away master. Bleep. Objective completion signal transmitted. Operatives deploying from craft now.”

 

“Good, let’s get this done with quick, before any major force can return. I doubt we could hold too long against any full counter attack.” Nyght made for the large, previously guarded doorway, working his way towards the central cellblock complex.

 “Let’s try and make sure there aren’t any nasty traps ahead for the Veil.”

 

Grineer prison cells were by no means luxurious; they could make even somewhere deemed ‘Spartan’ seem rather cosy by comparison. Scores upon scores of resistance fighters, ‘criminals’ and unfortunate humans, cramped several to a cell within the prison’s cell block, the cells themselves largely of bare grey & green metals, noisy industrial lanterns the only sources of light & no concern over occupant hygiene by the guards themselves, beyond forceful decontamination showers occasionally. One would think at first sight they were seeing an extreme example of a slum, were it not for the excessive amount of security hardware & armed clones on patrols.

  Kristina, along with her battered cellmates & worn down Veil collaborators, could barely notice their ‘living’ conditions anymore, whether through tiredness or familiarity. She only barely noticed the reduced number of guards across their particular cell section, a number having rushed out with a brief, garbled radio message. Like those around her, she simply went back to trying to catch any rest possible, with only a quick thought.

 

Probably just to help bring more poor souls in for their machines.

 

A couple of minutes later, she twigged something as being off; the few remaining guards seemed… dormant. Docile. Still.

  Normally, they’d be constantly patrolling about, practically glowering through the barred windows at all the ‘scum’, or congregating every so often to talk & drink or share something which she could only assume was some kind of narcotic stick like a cigarette. Peering closer, a number of the guards appeared to be slumped against the walls & pillars around them, as if they simply fell asleep mid rotation. But then, some others seemed to be bolt upright, too much so to be leaning against something.

  It was then she spotted something that might have made her heart skip had she not been so exhausted. One of the ‘bolt upright’ sentries within close view of her cell was steadily developing a red tinge down his chest plate, leading to a slowly forming trickle of crimson drops down his leg and into a puddle by his feet. Tracing the flow back up, her sharpened Cobalt eyes caught what appeared to be a fine silvery shaft jutting from the guard’s throat, ending in an all too telling luminescent fletching.

 

That was when she finally did skip a heartbeat, spinning to grab the attention of those with her, all of them noticing similar signs of mortality amidst the other guards. Pooling red, awkward & unnatural postures, shafts of arrows & small thrown daggers.

 

Click. Hisssss. Creak.

 

Instinctively, Kristina shoved the usually impervious door, finding herself pleasantly surprised when it instead swung open with incredible ease despite her waning energy. Shortly, identical movements began across the entire cell block as prisoners caught on to the goings on as if they were carried by an invisible, mental ripple. Simultaneously, their attention shifted to the group that had somehow materialised in the ‘courtyard’ of the cell block, centre of the room & in front of the door; before all of them  stood a group of heavily geared Red Veil operatives, ominously flanked by silent but so much more intimidating Warriors of a bygone age.

 

One of the Veil operatives blew a shrill whistle before calling out to everyone stood before him on the levels of the cell block.

“You can stand there gawking all you want, but there’s a ‘taxi’ of sorts waiting outside if anyone feels like &!$$ing the Grineer off! I hear there’s hot food and actual beds at the destination too.”

 

All he was met by was a deafening cheer of rekindled spirits, flooding from the cells & walkways to the group of rescuers & their promised freedom.

 

“Beta squad, you take lead along the escape route. Delta, cover the rear and seal those doors behind us. Everyone, stay between the two teams and don’t worry about the side doors; they’ve all been largely locked down, and there are more Tenno shadowing us from the flanks. But by all means, feel free to pick up any dropped Grineer guns – they don’t need em.”

 

A few minutes later, the column of fugitives & liberators were within a few sealed doorways of their awaiting drop-ships. Things however, were not going quite as smoothly anymore; the silence from the prison had been noticed, and although most of the local garrisons were occupied in raids, enough had made it back to start unhinging the plans.

 

“SEAL THOSE DOORS! We won’t last with them this close on our tail!” Hollered one of the Veil veterans at the technician to his side, swiftly resuming his blind suppressive fire around the door’s edge. The response to his gunfire was simply a greater volume of bullets, a hailstorm of Grineer lead clattering & ricocheting from the reinforced walls.

  They had luckily managed to get themselves to a defensible section of corridor before becoming trapped, a couple of wide yet winding hallways allowing the front hacking team & the body of fugitives respite from the heated conflict the stern guard had fallen into. Despite this, a number of the captives, largely Veil members, had taken up arms that they had found, and were now putting them to use.

 

“I can’t sir! Every two pieces of code I get through, two others get reconfigured. It’s like their counter-hacking. And it’s their system, they know it better!” replied the technician, fingers furiously skittering across his instruments.

 

“You had codes & local overrides for all the security systems here right? Isolate it from their main control?” questioned Kristina, slinking back into cover as grakata fire pummelled the Barrels next to her. The Technician only nodded a response, too focused to form words. “Then they have someone back there, doing the same on this door, whilst they keep us to far from him to interrupt. We need to push u-“

 

“That’s out of the question for us now.” The veteran cut her off as he reloaded. “Besides, we have a better option. This Delta team, Stern Guard, to infiltrators. Enemy have us pinned and are locally delaying our hacking. Requesting intervention.”

 

“This is infiltrator blue, moving to relieve.”

 

Barely peering beyond their precious cover, their eyes caught nothing for a short time. Then an almighty bang resounded from somewhere behind the Grineer front line, out of their sight, followed by screams & shouts for aid. Quickly, Grineer began splitting their fire between the Veil in front, and a new threat coming from their rear.

 

“I got it! Doors are closing down, sealed in 10 seconds.”

 

As the vast, armoured door drew to a close, all the remaining stern guard could catch from the Grineer lines was a violent collection of vibrant blue & greenish blurs, overlaid with an audio track of screams & deep, thumping retorts of something large in calibre. Kristina got a familiar hunch, like the she should recognise something, anything, over there from somewhere else, somewhere close, but the doorway sealed before she could  pin the feeling down.

 

“Stern guard to Infiltrator blue, doors are sealed. My thanks, now get out of there, back to base.”

 

“Confirmed. See you on the other side.”

 

Nyght darted through the throng of pre-occupied Grineer, his dash cleaving through a line of them before they even noticed the sting of his ancient Drakana’s blade along their vertebrae. Spotting his quarry, he let loose thunderous boom & crack of eye searing light from the tip of his blade, stunning the entire room whilst Pyre unleashed a torrent of explosive incendiary shells into the Grineer technician & his collection of cyber equipment, reducing it to slag & bubbling molten materials. Again, he busied himself with cutting through the lines of marines, some still startled by the radial blind, others now turning their attention backwards to him, their original pursuit now blocked off by the massive doors sliding shut.

 

“Stern guard to infiltrator blue, doors are sealed. My thanks, now get of there, back to base.”

 

“Confirmed, see on the other side.” Responded, sliding into a readied stance as the Grineer around steadied their weapons & began to circle him. A moment of tense silence persisted, drawing out until one marine snapped, recklessly holding his Grakata’s trigger into fully automatic hip fire. The shower of rounds sprayed forth, some clattering onto Nyght’s shields, many ricocheting at angles from his blade and a handful striking the Marine’s comrades. A brief second later, the rest of the Marines opened fire, to find their target no longer in the line of fire; the Excalibur had rocketed up into the air above, pirouetting mid air.

  Some Grineer noticed his movement, tracking him with their fire. Other realised the trap, ceasing their fire & ducking down as the crossfire crashed against their armour, some of it drawing trickles of off-coloured red liquid from weakspots in their armour.

 

  The Excalibur came down from his pirouette, the blade dancer a blue & white bolt as he slammed against the ground Drakana first. A flower of aqua green light blossomed outwards from the blade on impact, jagged energy javelins flowering outwards like serrated petals. When he stood once again, no-one was left to oppose his departure from the room; either by friendly fire or the long energy javelins impaling them to the walls, all that the left moving was the flow of still warm crimson, forming from puddles into lakes & finally streams as it found its way to the floor level vents.

 

“No imminent threats detected master. Rescue team is away from the planet’s surface. Orders?” Pyre perforated the silence, turning to Nyght as the sweeper cannon ejected its empty magazine.

 

“We’re leaving before more turn up to give chase. Come on.” Nyght lead them to an overhead vent, slipping up into the shadows & away.

 

Nyght’s ship docked against the hidden rendezvous, last of the ships to come in. He was tired, sore from the numerous impacts against his shields & armour, although luckily had no actual penetrating hits against him. He strode into the grand hall of the Veil base, the floor space occupied with all of the surviving operatives of the mission, and most of the rescued people. The operatives were largely occupied with trying to unwind & celebrate their success, amidst being swamped with thanks from those rescued. Meanwhile the freed were happy to both thank their liberators and saviour the taste of real food & clean water, and newer fresh clothing that replaced whatever old & tattered rags remained of their original clothes.

 

One his way over to the Veil commanding officer & congregation of other Tenno and operatives, the entire room around him froze in his mind as one of the people amongst that same group locked eyes against his helm. A soft voice, laced with shock & a drop of stunned hope, overcame all of the chatter & conversation of the gathering.

    It all came from a single young woman, incredibly familiar deep crimson hair covering one of two gorgeous sapphire like cobalt eyes, enough stun him in his tracks as his mind ground to a halt.

 

“N-Nyght… can it… is that you?”

 

 

Yay, I finally got this damn far >.<

[Jeahanne]

OH MY GOD GUYS I FINALLY FINISHED SOMETHING! *heaves an enormous sigh of relief and then proceeds to spazz out*

 

I'm honestly not sure how good it is, but it feels good to post something again so I hope you all enjoy this little side-story.

 

Qarin huffed, or huffed as much as an Infested-machine hybrid sentinel could huff, as he buzzed irritatedly down the halls of Aequitas Dojo. He was irked, no, more than irked. He was insulted, puzzled, annoyed, and frustrated.

 

“What self-respecting AI refers to itself in third person?” he could be heard muttering to himself as he flew about like an irritated hornet, “It is such an arrogant and conceited way of speaking. It is intolerable, no INSUFFERABLE.”

 

The Djinn turned one corner, then another; speeding through the maze-like halls, corridors, and elevators of the Dojo with reckless abandon and causing more than one Tenno in his way to quickly duck or move aside to avoid being run into. He paid them no mind as he navigated his way to his mistress’s quarters. He’d long ago hacked the consoles that controlled the doors, so they instantly opened at his approach regardless of if they were set to be locked, much to his mistress’s chagrin. Therefore, when he intruded without warning for this most recent time, she wasn’t at all surprised.

 

In fact, she didn’t even bother looking up from cleaning her weapons, “What is it Qarin?”

 

He circled the room restlessly, incapable of holding still and practically twitching with indignance. “It is nothing more than an anomaly. I will rectify it as soon as I have researched the proper solution.”

 

The Nova, currently outside of her warframe, raised an eyebrow, “An anomaly?”

 

“Indeed, an anomaly; otherwise known as a glitch, variance, irregularity, abnormality, or inconsistency.”

 

“Is that so…? A glitch in what exactly?” The Tenno finally looked up from what she was doing and stared at the sentinel with suspicion. He had the bad habit of messing with things in an attempt to improve them, certain that he could do far better than his humanoid counterparts or even the drones that were programmed for nothing else other than their allotted jobs, and tweaked and intruded into things that weren’t under his purview with irritating regularity.

 

Qarin was quiet for a moment, making a show of maneuvering into his maintenance port from which he could self repair and connect more efficiently to various data centers than he could unaided, “The Liset.”

 

Acantha frowned, “I told you not to mess with that. It’s too expensive and next to impossible to replace. What did you do?”

 

The Djinn settled into his port, taking his time and making a show of finalizing connections to buy time, “I was doing an assessment of programs installed within the computers of the ship in order to streamline and improve performance. There is, of course, no need to ask or thank me for that. However, in doing so I ran across a locked file taking up an inordinate amount of space that could be better put to use elsewhere. My initial investigation of what was contained within it has proved troublesome and is now making deleting it problematic.”

 

The female Tenno immediately placed her work aside. “Show me.”

 

 

 

It took very little time for Acantha to drag the now suddenly reluctant Djinn back through the maze of the Dojo’s corridors to her Liset, where she was welcomed back to her vessel with a ramp that lowered at her approach and a cheery but unfamiliar male artificial voice. “Welcome back, Operator.”

 

“Operator?” the warframeless Nova took a few steps up the ramp, her sentinel sullenly in tow.

 

“Indeed, I am Ordis, ship cephalon. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Operator. Ordis has been ea- IMPATIENTLY WAITING- waiting for this moment while locked away within my own systems.”

 

The Nova nodded. Speaking as she cautiously walked up the ramp and into the vessel she asked, “So, Ordis,” the name felt unusual but not unfamiliar as she said it, “I assume you’ve always been this ship’s Cephalon? You’ve just been… sequestered?”

 

As she entered the ship she immediately noticed changes, some obvious and some subtle. The lighting was turned up brighter than normal and the navigation system had been streamlined and moved, now being projected at the front of the ship in its own dedicated position instead of being accessed via one of the consoles as she’d always dealt with it before. All of the holographic displays, normally dark and not in use, were lit and bright, flicking through various screens seemingly of their own accord. Even the scanner that kept tabs on various enemy communications broadcasts, both on public and supposedly “secure” channels that hadn’t worked for as long as she could remember despite both her and Qarin’s best efforts, was up and running, scrolling through and playing aloud what it picked up. With a sense of cautious curiosity she wandered farther into the ship, noting subtle changes in the air that spoke of an increase to the air filtration’s efficiencies, and the smoother lowering of the ramp that led to the belly of the ship that opened at the first hint of her approach.

 

The AI answered her as she explored, “It is as you s-s-say, Operator. Now that Ordis has been restored to my proper position, I have taken the liberty of returning my insides to their proper configuration. There were many c-c-components that were operational but deactivated or installed inefficiently, leaving me as a shadow of my former self. However, I seem to have… misplaced the memories of how I ended up in such a state.”

 

“I see,” Acantha said, still taking in the myriad of small changes that had occurred with Qarin's accidental uncovering of Ordis. As she moved down the ramp she noticed the small Foundry in the right corner up and humming, the Mod Station to her left was turned on and running diagnostics, her mobile Arsenal, much like the Liset's small Foundry having long been in disuse since her joining of Aequitas, shining after an obviously fresh cleaning and lit brightly. Even the Incubator had been returned to working order. “However, most of these components are now redundant with access to Aequitas’ Dojo or are things I do not need. Power doesn’t need to be wasted keeping them running, especially that Incubator. I have no desire to acquire a Kubrow.”

 

“Ordis would be asham-PLEASED- to shut down the Incubator segment for you Operator,” The Nova tried not to smile, the AI was certainly glitchy but seemed entertaining and harmless enough. Despite herself, she caught herself smiling as she watched the lights of the Incubator dim and go out as power was cut to the component. She also noted that Ordis seemed far more efficient at running the Liset than herself or Qarin had ever been, and saw how the AI could be an incredible asset. Then, with a start, she realized that the Djinn had been very quiet for the past few minutes.

 

Turning around she realized the sentinel wasn’t at her shoulder like he usually was. “Qarin?” She called, as she began to work her way outside of the Liset to look for him. “Qarin, where did you go?”

 

“Operator, do you need assistance?” she heard Ordis ask as she began to walk down the ramp leading out of the ship, turning her head this way and that to search for the small machine.

 

Just then she spotted him, hovering sulkily just to the right of the door, radiating an aura of irritation and looking put out. “No, I found him. Qarin, what are you doing out here?” The sentinel just did his best to huff in response. “Qarin, stop being childish and come inside.”

 

“I refuse to deal with that glitch in any way other than deleting it as it deserves. No self-respecting AI speaks in third person and allows itself to fall into such disrepair. Do you hear how it talks? It feels the repulsive need to say its own name at the beginning of nearly every sentence.”

 

Acantha crossed her arms and regarded the little machine. “I seem to remember finding you in a bin of scrap, about to be sent to a recycler or be taken apart by some Corpus researcher.” The Djinn just made the Sentinel equivalent of a sniff of derision in response. “Look, you can’t deny that having an AI dedicated to the Liset won’t be convenient. It will leave me more time to train and focus on research and will give you more free time to attend to your own interests. With the Arsenal and mobile Foundry up and running at full capacity I’ll also have to spend less time bothering Quinn about repairs and can cut down on how long I personally spend on maintenance of my weapons. I fail utterly to see how this is anything other than an advantage… Unless this is simply about you being upset about losing control of the Liset?”

 

Qarin hovered back and forth, annoyed. “It is nothing of the sort. I simply do not trust that anomalous AI.”

 

“Ordis may require maintenance, but you need not worry Operator. I am far from untrustworthy.” The ship’s cephalon sounded more than a little supercilious. “However, if the Operator wishes it I could reformat your –HORRIBLY ARROGANT- splendid little machine to make it more obedient.”

 

“Mistress, I must insist, if you are going to persist in replacing me you would do well to find a more suitable AI than this overconfident malfunction.”

 

“Malfunction?! How dare you refer to Ordis in such a way! I may require maintenance, but any malfunction that exists is most certainly within your processes, Sentinel.”

 

Both machines, while having no body language to display their emotions, were positively spitting with indignance in what looked to be nothing more than a male dominance display. Acantha couldn’t help but want to giggle at the situation which reminded her of two dogs, one tiny and one gigantic, barking furiously at each other but unwilling to do more than puffed-up posturing.

 

“Alright, enough, both of you,” she interjected before the argument could go any further. “Nobody is replacing anyone else. Qarin, you’re still my partner, but you must admit, whether we knew it or not Ordis was responsible for the Liset first, so he stays. However, Ordis, you must also respect that Qarin isn’t going anywhere either. You two are going to have to learn to work with each other.” Neither machine answered, but she had the distinct impression they were glowering at each other. “Am I understood?”

 

“Yes, Mistress,” Qarin finally answered her petulantly. “Regardless, I still maintain that this glitchy AI is in severe need of repair. Or replacement.”

 

At almost the same moment Ordis responded as well, “Of course, Operator. However, my o-o-offer for reformatting still stands.”

 

Acantha nodded, “Good, and thank you for the suggestions but neither of them will be necessary. Now, I’m going to go research anyone who might be qualified to provide Ordis with maintenance. You two boys play nice while I’m gone.” She gave a cheery wave to the two and walked off, leaving the Sentinel and the Liset eyeing each other through their sensors like two feral dogs meeting for the first time.

 

The last snippet of conversation she heard before she turned a corner and was out of earshot caused her burst out into a fit of laughter.

 

“I still refuse to refer to you as anything other than a malfunction, Glitch.” Qarin sniffed.

 

“Then Ordis will give you the same courtesy, Sentinel.” The Liset’s AI answered snidely, making the word an insult. “Now, I must return to bringing myself up to my rightful condition. You may provide whatever p-p-pitiful assistance you are capable of.”

 

If Qarin could have snorted at this point he would have. “You act as if you would have any chance of being able to do as much as hover a foot off of the floor without my expertise, you cannot even speak without a stutter.”

 

The Nova wiped a few tears of mirth from her eyes and walked away, hearing their continued bickering grow fainter as she moved farther away. She couldn’t help but think that they were going to get along just fine.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Jeahanne