The Gun, The Blade And The Frame.

[crusnic02]

Tapel was straightening the cuff of his sleeve. His assistant came up to him and said,

“The team that made contact with ‘Z18’ has just sent their report; 632 survivors.”

Tapel let out a deep sigh and said as he looked at the elevator coming down,

“Zero point seven percent, our second lowest yet.”

The doors of the elevator opened and a lean man with blonde hair, dressed in white and gold stepped out. He was about in his sixties but something about him clearly said that he was not to be trifled with.

“Grand Executor Priam.” Tapel gave a small bow while the others bowed deeply.

But Priam crossed him without even looking at him. Tapel turned and followed him; Priam spoke in a calm voice,

“The council of Emperors was . . . ‘displeased’ with your pet project.”

Tapel observed the pause and the stress on the word ‘displeased’. But then he frowned.

“Was?!” he asked.

Priam turned and said,

“Twenty ships lost; normally, you would have been injected with the virus and left to your fate, Tapel. But since your little gambit worked . . . let’s just say you have their curiosity . . . for now.”

Tapel gave a smile and a small bow.

“Hmph!” said Priam and turned front.

“So, where are these things?” he asked as he started walking again.

“The Tenno?!” Tapel asked.

Priam looked over his shoulder with a frown.

“Tenno!?”

“Named after the clan of the one who was the first to assimilate and adapt to the Technocyte virus predating the Great Plague.” explained Tapel.

Priam’s frown deepened as he said in a low but clear voice,

“I don’t care what they are called. What I do care of is what they can do.”

“Of course.” said Tapel and led the way.

They were walking down the hall that ended with a massive golden door. Tapel began,

“We studied all the subjects of the ‘Zariman’. One thing was clear, only those exposed to the virus survived and all of them exhibited . . . ‘abilities’.”

“Abilities?” Priam asked.

“When the Zariman returned, an investigator broke protocol and came into contact with one of the survivors.”

“Yes, I remember reading something of that kind. They were all children, weren’t they?”

“They were. We found that if the virus was administered to those of a specific age, there was a low possibility of rejection.”

Priam had a distasteful look on his face. Tapel knew Priam was a soldier and to resort using children as guinea pigs to win conflicted with his code of honour.

Priam took a deep breath; Tapel continued as they entered a large room,

“We don’t know if the Void energy enhanced the virus or if the virus allowed them to wield the Void energy.”

“You are not sure which one is the source of the abilities; the virus or the Void.”

Tapel hesitated as he stopped but said,

“Yes. Though it ‘is’ the Void that empowers them.”

Priam looked unimpressed. They were standing facing each other in the middle of the room with two massive cylinders. Tapel went on,

“Their abilities were unruly. As such they could not be used effectively. So we turned to the archives again. We came to know of a ‘frame’, sort of an exoskeleton that channelled the powers of the Tenno in the way he needed. There were two actually; the Proto-Armour.”

He waved his hand to the cylinder on the left. The shielding covering the cylinders lowered. Priam now saw that the cylinder that Tapel pointed to had a humanoid shape floating in mid air. It had two different shades of grey on it; dark and light and white on its ‘face’ which had a horn that looked like it was sawed off just an inch or so above the base.

“And the Nemesis.” waving at the cylinder on the right.

This too had a humanoid shape floating in mid air in it. But it was larger and more muscular with vein-like marks all over. It was missing its left arm; its waist looked more metallic than its legs, arm and head; all of which had a fleshy tinge. It had a thick strip of metal bending backward over its head; it seemed to be purely cosmetic.

“Who comes up with these names?” asked Priam as he observed the ‘frames’.

“Actually the records show that ‘Nemesis’ is its name. ‘We’ named the other one Proto-Armour. We also found an odd thing, the Technocyte virus that the first ‘Tenno’ was exposed to seemed to originate from the Nemesis. We are not sure if it was from the frame or from her with the frame merely channelling it.

“Her? The one who wore it was a female?”

“We found female genome traces inside it. We can be sure of one thing though. Nemesis was the first Warframe but we are not sure if she was the first Tenno.”

“Warframe?!” Priam asked.

Tapel could tell that Priam was amused. Tapel smiled and said,

“Well, they were frames used in war; so, ‘war-frames’.”

Priam shook his head in exasperation as Tapel directed him towards another door. The elevator was going down when Tapel spoke again,

“We have observed that the abilities can be categorised and each category has specifics.”

The elevator door opened and they both stepped out. Priam saw that there were portal gates all around.

“What do you mean ‘specifics’?” Priam asked.

Tapel led him to the one of the portal gates and opened it. After they stepped through,

“The abilities span over a broad spectrum of aspects; bending light around the body effectively becoming invisible, covering oneself with a protective casing, distorting matter into volatile anti-matter, summoning the dead.”

Priam actually stopped and turned to Tapel. Tapel looked back at him and gave a nod meaning to say ‘it’s true’.

“The ones with the power over magnetism have always been females. Ones which cryogenic abilities have always been males. So on and so forth. We have experimented on hundreds of them and yet to find otherwise.”

“How many are they?”

“As of this moment,” said Tapel and looked down at the hologram that appeared in the palm of his hand, “17,258.”

“Out of?”

“575,000 that were sent.”

Priam now looked really ticked off. Tapel added,

“The bad news doesn’t end there. Out of the survivors, nearly 15,000 are mentally non-functional. Their mind is too far gone for them to be of any use. They are the ones researched on. Among the ones that are of use, we found that the magnitudes of their powers vary. Many do well in a team where they compensate for each other’s weakness, they are given subjacent warframes. The handfuls that are left are powerful enough to be in it alone, like this one.”

It was then Priam noticed the humanoid figure down in the centre of the room.

“That looks a lot like the Proto-Armour.” said Priam.

“It’s based on it. We upgraded it so that it could keep up with his abilities. Even then the warframe started to break down after prolong use. We managed to prime it which was then permanently affixed to him. Presently this is the only primed warframe active.”

They had reached the ground floor where the Tenno was. As they neared it, Tapel stepped forward and introduced,

“I present to you with great pride, Excalibur, ‘our’ first Tenno. He wields pure light, forming blades of immense power out of them.” said Tapel.

Priam noticed the primitive weapons it had. The first thought that came to Priam’s mind was ‘this one’s a dead one.’

He turned to see Tapel smiling at him.

“What?” Priam enquired.

“I know what you are thinking. I won’t say anything. It would be better if I rather show it to you.”

Saying so, they left just as ‘Excalibur’ left the room as well.

“He is being sent to sabotage the Sentient mother ship hovering in the edges of the Tau system. It will take two hours to reach there. In the meantime, let me introduce you to the others.”

For the next two hours, Tapel introduced the other one and a half dozen Tenno, each with their unique set of abilities. Priam was feeling uneasy as he was showed these abominations, as if he had stepped into a bizarre reality where he, the one who was normal, was the freak.

“Opening gate to Her Majesty’s quarters.” a voice said.

Priam noticed that there were fewer guards and more sentinels until there were only sentinels and no guards. And when the doors opened, he was looking at a massive dome.

“This is Nyx.” said Tapel waving at the room in the centre of the dome.

“What is this?” asked Priam looked around the dome and the static filled holographic screens.

“Security measures. Her abilities relate to the mind. There were far few with her type of abilities. They ran amok like the others did only they have proved to be exponentially more devastating. And her power is several times greater than the rest of her ‘kin’. She may not be the most powerful but she is the most dangerous.”

“Why do you refer to her as ‘Her Majesty’?”

Tapel gave a small laugh.

“It’s just an inside joke. Couple of months ago, one of my researchers pulled a stunt to make his point. Turns out her ‘kin’ can pacify the others. So, she’s like the queen bee they all listen to.”

Priam wasn’t feeling so amused; this was a command structure within these rejects. He saw Tapel near a control panel and he started to speak,

“Hello, Nyx.”

There was silence. Then a mechanical voice came from the sentinel behind them.

“Doctor Tapel.”

There was fear on Tapel’s face as he stared at the sentinel.

“What is it?” Priam asked.

“Her psychic field expanded.”

“How-how-how are you t-today, Nyx?” asked Tapel trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

“As always. Bored.” said the sentinel.

Tapel was signalling Priam to get out of the room. Priam was backing away and just as he neared the doors,

“Leaving so soon, Grand Executor Priam.”

Priam froze. The sentinel continued,

“You needn’t fear me, Grand Executor. I have no mal-intent against you. Though, it’s not the same the other way around, is it?”

“Why is it using the sentinel?” Priam asked.

“She! Not ‘it’!” Tapel snapped at Priam.

“We are mute. The Void had taken our voices so that we cannot speak of what we saw inside her.” the sentinel spoke.

“I am . . .” started Priam as he stepped towards the control panel.

“I know who you are. You are the representative of the Council of Emperors, sent here to scrutinise the ‘Zariman project’ and to see if it is a viable course of action in the war against the Sentients.”

“How does she know all this?” whispered Priam to Tapel.

“From you, Grand Executor.” said the sentinel. “And, like I said, you need not fear me. I understand why you do what you do.”

“And why is that?” Priam asked.

“I can sense the desperation. But I can also feel the grief. This is no longer a fight for supremacy but of survival. Is it not?”

Priam was silent. The sentinel spoke again,

“So, Excalibur is the first one perfected. Frost and Mag will soon be having their own . . . what is the term . . . ‘warframes’?. When can I have ‘my’ warframe?”

“The subjacent warframes you wear are falling apart quicker than those of the others giving us less time to analyse your abilities. The Nemesis is the only one that can withstand your powers and it is proving hard to decipher. But once it is done you will have a warframe of your own.”

They saw the static on the screens decrease. They saw a feminine silhouette with its eyes glowing blue and pulse of blue light over its dark body appear.

“Thank you.” the sentinel said as the figure gave a small bow.

Tapel smiled and switched off the screen. As they withdrew from the room, Priam looked over his shoulder and saw the sentinels looking back at him. He picked up his pace.

 

hope you enjoyed it.

there is more to come.

Edited October 18, 2015 by crusnic02

[K-TheHunter]

MORE GIMME MORE!!!!!

No but seriously, great work man, really like this type of content, you use more "talk" than description which is great, keep up the work im sure there are a lot of people out there that are eager to read more of this history