Short Story (Operation: Ghost Protocol)

[Phobose]

Operation: Ghost protocol

 

 

It all started off as a Regular mission. Get in, Capture the person of interest, and ghost the Grineer Battle Galleon from it’s original course towards the Orokin Tower Delta team was raiding for data. Azure, the first frost released.... My long time friend. I still remember our days fighting along side one another in the war of the sentients, though I don’t remember what we fought for. Cryogenic Stasis took most of my memories away, perhaps they were un-important. All I remember is, I’m Phobos, a legend of sorts. A feared opponent and the best representation of a long forgotten ancient deity. I remember fighting the infested, the images of the sentients are too blurry for me to remember. But i remember their name, I remember saving my bretheren and sisters from the infestation by cleansing them of their plague. Lotus had hand picked my team members for this mission, she said it was of utmost importance that we succeed. We had Etheros, an Excalibur donning his golden Primed armor. and Shiva, a Mag Etheros was fond of.

 

We boarded the ship with ease, it seemed too easy and as we walked the halls something was wrong. I felt as if something was watching us, perhaps it was that fiend that left me with the scar on my face. The Stalker. Azure reassured me it was just my nerves getting to me and I trust his judgment, he’s usually never wrong. Shiva suggested that we might have caught them at a period of grace, where they usually rest or eat, but that didn’t seem possible. The Lotus sent Jacks, one of our best loki’s to recon the ship just a few weeks ago to detail their patterns and the information given was on point. Our suspicions were wrong, we encountered a maintenence crew repairing what seemed to be a badly damaged reactor. We dispatched them with ease, Etheros suggested overloading the reactor and destroying the ship once we completed our objective, I disagreed saying it would have been too loud of a message, the ship needs to dissappear not light up in space. Shortly afterwards we encountered some Infested chargers in the nearby prison sector of the ship, it seemed as though the infestation had been captured and escaped before killed and dissected by the Grineer. Our map pointed towards the "Priveat  Rooms" Which was Grineer for Private Quarters. There was a problem, It was Locked for Quarantine. Whatever it was, we were prepared for it. We bypassed the lockdown protocol and entered. The place reeked of death and decay. Blood was splattered all over the walls and floors. Azure found a corpse of a Grineer Commander, horridly mutilated with clean punctures in his armor. This couldn’t be Corpus or Infested he said. My suspicions grew. Suddenly a crazed Grineer Scorpion came bolting out of one of the rooms, missing her arm and waving her machete like she was surrounded. we knocked her to the ground. She was screaming Tenno Skum, I weell khll all of you! “Tenno Scum, I will kill all of you." She expired shortly afterwards from her wounds. No Tenno would cause this much blood and dishonor to our enemies. Azure become uneasy, I’ve never seen him react like this before to such a gruesome scene. We arrived at the Generals Kuarters and there was no sign of our person of interest. We split up into 2 groups to search the rest of the quarters. 

 

Azure and I searched the lieutenants deck while Etheros and Shiva searched the commander’s lounge. As we entered the lieutenants deck, the scene explained what happened here, there was a big fight. The Grineer were defending themselves against something, some Grineer didn’t have their gear and armor fully set up from what it seemed, some only carried their side arms. They were Ambushed by something.  We continued searching and found nothing but dead bodies, desecrated. dishonorably mutilated. Some of the faces of the Grineer were frozen with fear, as they witnessed death it’self before losing their lives. Azure found our target, dead. But he had his PDA chip still undamaged on his dismembered body. I radio’d Lotus that our target was dead, but we retrieved his PDA logs from his suit, but we had no response. Only Static. I radio’d Etheros and Shiva to head to extract, but there was interference. Something was wrong and I knew it from the beginning. “Azure, head towards the Commander’s lounge, look for Etheros and Shiva, I can’t radio them. Azure felt nervous but I reassured him that I will head there  as soon as I’m done investigating. I examined one of the fallen Grineer lancers and his wounds. They were too clean, too precise. I pulled out one of my Dread arrows and compared it to the wound. It matched and my heart began to race. 

 

I radio’d Azure but received static. I rushed towards the exit. I heard gunfire in the distance. As I reached the Commander’s lounge Azure and the other two were under fire by a platoon of Grineer units, crazed and badly injured but still fighting to the death. I teleported to the closest one, stabbed his vital suit components with my Ether daggers. he fell quickly. I repeated to the next and threw a modified variant of the despair into the rest. Azure and the others were unharmed. We met resistance as we left the Private Quarters. Etheros: Cat’s out of the bag guys, we need to get to the flight deck and reroute this ship. we proceeded, killing all that got in our way. As we got closer to the flight deck I began noticing the same scene as in the Private Quarters, blood, mutilation, death. I felt more and more tense. We rerouted the ship. I, aswell as the others began remotely routing our ships to our extraction point. It became dead silent as we proceeded. 

 

The thought of the Stalker started gnawing in the back of my head, there is something horridly wrong and we need to get out of here fast. As we reached extraction the lights began to flicker. I Yelled for Azure to Snow globe the room. He did so. He showed his face. I dashed towards Azure and barked at the others to their ships, that if they didn’t they will surely die. Azure turned to begin heading towards his ship and all I heard was a shatter. A Dread arrow swiftly pierced through the snowglobe and landed right into Azure’s back. I acted swiftly. I tele-ported to Azure and flung him towards Shiva, who pulled him into her ship. Another swoosh of an arrow, this one was headed for Etheros. I threw my despair at it’s line of fire, it shattered. GO! I screamed, DON’T LOOK BACK! They extracted and my ship was there waiting for me. I knew if I ran, I would never forgive myself. I drew my bow, and began our fight. He mockingly said as we fired at each other:“your tenno skills are useless. You are my prime target, I will kill you here.”

 

I teleported towards him and drew the hidden blades out of my armor, he predicted this and drove his despair kunai directly into my hand, shattering the blade right into my wrist. I winced, recovered and pulled out the dagger with my other hand. I could no longer use my bow. He knew my methods of assault, as if he were watching me since that encounter. I felt helpless, but at that same moment I knew what to do. I threw a smokescreen up, broke a vent open and threw myself inside. the maintenence tunnels shouldn’t be far. I need to find another point of extraction or find a way to gain the upper hand. I punched in for a new route for extraction to my ship, interference. I didn’t know if it went through or not. I proceeded. I heard the echo of a sinister laugh and footsteps in the distance as I reached the maintenence tunnels. I pulled the blade out of my hand, the pain felt good, I knew I was still alive. I pulled out a small medical pack and feverishly patched my hand up.

I ran towards a possible exit route. I heard a loud thunder and the tunnel became filled with black smoke, he found me. With daggers in hand I ran foward. The sound of arrows  flying by me filled my ears, I rolled, flung myself and dodged with ease. He’s toying with me, mocking me. That’s when I realized, he’s making fun of who I am. Phobos fleeing in fear. 

 

I stopped, turned around and parried an arrow. His Scythe can roaring in. I blocked it, my mind went blank. The sound of weapons clashing rang in the tunnel. Stalker kicked me through a duct in the tunnel and I went tumbling into the docking platform. My Ship was there, waiting for me. He flew towards me swinging his Hate at me, I blocked and we were at a standstill. Whose strength would fail first. “You, pathetic little tenno. I remember what you did. The drum beats of the ceremonial Naga drums, your onslaught of our masters. I will hunt down each and every one of you and eradicate you from exitance. Just as you did to our masters” I had no idea what he was talking about. I teleported behind him kicked him in the back and  slashed at his helmet. and all I saw was a red eye, the same as my own staring at me. 

 

I bolted towards my ship. “You cannot run from me Phobos! I WILL KILL YOU!!!” Stalker flung himself to his feet and began chasing me, throwing his kunai at me. I jumped, spun around and threw my ether daggers at him.  the daggers connected exactly where I wanted them to.  Stalker tumbled to the floor with my daggers impaled into his legs. His Kunai pierced my armor as I came tumbling to the floor in front of my ship. I began crawling towards the loading ramp that descended. Stalker pulled the daggers out and got up, as if he wasn’t hurt at all. He pulled off his helmet. a partially deformed face stared at me from the distance. You won he said in a calm voice. “Those kunai in your body will not kill you, I made sure of that. Train, I want to kill you in your best. Like when you slaughtered the hundreds who stood in your way, sentinent and Infested alike. You’re pathetic, weak and frail now. You’re too easy of prey.” I managed to barely get on my feet as the loading ramp began pulling upwards.

 

In that moment I thought to myself. He spared my life to kill me another day. I won? I dragged myself towards the medical station on my ship and lay’d there trying to catch my breath as i pulled the kunai out of my body. Heh. I’ll give him something to fear, My blades driving into his heart. I set the ship to take me back to Mercury. I need to return, the others might wonder what happened to me. I wonder if Azure lived. The thoughts echo’d in my head as I passed out from the pain in the medical station....

Edited July 2, 2014 by Phobose