Thinking ahead: Tau

[Djolltax]

We know the story behind the Sentients, Orokin drones equipped with hyper adaptability sent to the blue star Tau, who gained sentience and turned on their creators, eventually coming back and waging war. And I was considering the possibility of a major game update that spans for quite a while. Not DLC or anything, just kind of endgame style things. Here's the rundown:

1) The Tau system is added as an inaccessible area lurking in darkness and static with 1 planet, which in turn is called another Greek letter like Omicron or Epsilon, however, the Tenno cannot access the system due to the final rail of Pluto being shattered eons ago. Sentient fighters up their attacks in this update and the war intensifies, some Sentients attacking players of MR10 and above, like an assassin, but possibly a few times throughout the mission. Each time a Sentient targets the player, the Lotus says 'Hold on Tenno, a Sentient has tracked you down.' or some such.

2) In the next mini-update, an event to rebuild the Solar Rail takes place similar to the fomorian events but the other way around. The event involves getting into an archwing and delivering a stash of building materials to a band of operatives in a given area. The stash takes up one of your weapon slots, meaning you only have one weapon to deal damage with. And guess what's in the space around you? Sentient fighters! Well, more specifically, the unused sentient dropship-style things, which shoot and you and so forth. Possible rewards from the missions could be parts for sentient-style archwing and arch-weapon parts (Greek letters galore). The event lasts for about a month or so, with no progress bar, just various rewards.

3) On the next big update, the Solar Rail is rebuilt and a quest is initiated to board and launch from the Solar Rail. You fight through sentients which are on board the rail, and reach the launch station, firing you millions of miles in a matter of seconds. You crash land in a broken Orokin ship, and as you reach an observation station, you realise where you are - Tau, alone, with the height of Sentient power lurking on the planet below you. The Lotus manages to establish contact after a while, and guides you to a safe place. The Orokin ship becomes an outpost, a haven for stationed Tenno where they can launch into Sentient missions. The missions are standard, with various sentients (possibly new types of them too) attacking you like standard enemies, but much harder. As you fight, you find parts for sentient weapons which do much more damage against Sentients than your own Tenno weapons - for their weakness is themselves.

4) A while later, while Tau is still a battleground, a new quest is started. Hunhow finds your sanctuary and wages war. You fight to defend it, and launch a counter attack, finally boarding your archwing and working to take down Hunhow himself. Research is done into taking him out, through Sentient spy and interception missions. Eventually, you find his weakness lying in plain sight, void energy. The quest is completed.

5) For those who have completed the quest, a new quest is given to board derelicts and find parts to create a long lost weapon, a void-energy cannon never deployed against the sentients due to the timing of the weapon's creation. Once built, the quest is over and an assassination mission is started to try to fight against Hunhow himself. Hunhow proves too challenging and the Tenno are forced to retreat.

6) Time is spent working on the best ways to take down Hunhow, now more angry and violent than ever. Eventually the Lotus contacts you with a breakthrough, but you will need help. A staged Trial is released, its target Hunhow. Work with other Tenno to defend the cannon against onslaughts of sentients, to end Hunhow once and for all.

 

Shortened version:

- A campaign of quests and events with a backstory about taking the fight to the Sentients on Tau

- New archwing, made of sentient parts and tech

- (I didn't include this in the long version) New sentient weapons, such as the following:

Spoiler

Sword and shield

Gunblade

Heavy single-shot rifle

Light, spread rifle

Energy pistol

Energy SMGs

(Other ideas, let me know)

Yeah... What do you think?

[rand0mname]

I like it. Was always thinking what the Sentients left in Tau is up too? And Hunhow is definetely going to be a great threat. The only thing i would add: a way for players like myself who never done a trial to face Hunhow. Could be done in Balor or Acolyte Hunt way - as a community goal.

Sentient weapons... *_*

Edited March 19, 2016 by rand0mname

[(PSN)AngelShur]

Not bad, not bad at all! 

[ajoman]

44 minutes ago, Djolltax said:

Orokin drones equipped with hyper adaptability sent to the blue star Tau, who gained sentience and turned on their creators, eventually coming back and waging war

did you come up with this yourself or is this stuff confirmed? If so, where did you get this information?

sounds like a cool concept though.

Edited March 19, 2016 by ajoman

[TARINunit9]

Just one little tiny itsy bitsy problem...

The Orokin Empire at the height of their power were unable to build a solar rail that large. How the hell are we, the Tenno, a mere twenty million soldiers, expected to accomplish what trillions and trillions of day laborers couldn't?

Not a conceptual problem, more of a "willing suspension of disbelief" one

Edited March 19, 2016 by TARINunit9

[Djolltax]

ajoman, this is confirmed. The sentients were designed by the Orokin to terraform the planets in the Tau system to expand the Orokin empire. They were given adaptability to survive any kind of problems they would face in the system, but became sentient and felt like they were nothing but tools, thrown away to labour.

TARINunit9, I only created this thread as a concept and I'll most likely be editing it as I go through. I get that it doesn't seem possible, but first off, the Corpus are working to rebuild it. Perhaps a deal could be struck? (Hail, Prodman!)

[PsychedelicSnake]

Here I was hoping this was a fan thread for the Tau Empire.

 

[Hieulelam]

6 minutes ago, PsychedelicSnake said:

Here I was hoping this was a fan thread for the Tau Empire.

 

aren't you on the wrong wiki and forum for that? :v

[BornWithTeeth]

Uh....what happens if we rebuild the Rail and make the jump to Tau....to find a peaceful Sentient civilisation there, with multiple mature Sentient minds who have left the war behind them? What happens if we find Sentients at the height of their power, who now see that the Orokin Empire is long fallen, and who do not share Hunhow's desire to destroy everything that remains?

[Djolltax]

A good idea, BornWithTeeth! I suppose in that instance, we team up with these sentients to destroy Hunhow together?

[Azryte]

20 hours ago, ajoman said:

did you come up with this yourself or is this stuff confirmed? If so, where did you get this information?

sounds like a cool concept though.

 

20 hours ago, TARINunit9 said:

Just one little tiny itsy bitsy problem...

The Orokin Empire at the height of their power were unable to build a solar rail that large. How the hell are we, the Tenno, a mere twenty million soldiers, expected to accomplish what trillions and trillions of day laborers couldn't?

Not a conceptual problem, more of a "willing suspension of disbelief" one

Extract from the crewman synthesis:

On command, the guards backed away from the cart and readied their weapons. Their leader took careful aim and fired a whisper round into the body of my creation. Two of the limbs tore off the frame revealing a glossy, gelatinous interior.

Silence gripped the dome as Tuvul shook his head. Then suddenly, the creature moved, convulsed, the hard surface started undulating. In a moment the wound closed and the thing was whole again. Beside it another machine had grown from its severed parts. Their surface had changed however - brighter, harder, resilient to whisper rounds now.

I tried to catch my breath and speak, "The crossing to the Tau system is perilous. Adaptation and replication are the only way a terraforming journey can be made. They will build an interstellar rail as they travel, they will adapt to the host planet and prepare it to our arrival. They will save you."

"The Void is poison to them. Once they have reached Tau they will be marooned there. To travel the rail here would destroy them. Whatever the risk, the Origin system will be-"

 

Extract end.

This demonstrates the fact that the Orokin made what would become the sentients, it also shows how travel between Origin and Tau was possible.

[Djolltax]

Thanks for the lore backup Azryte :D

[TARINunit9]

2 hours ago, Azryte said:

This demonstrates the fact that the Orokin made what would become the sentients, it also shows how travel between Origin and Tau was possible.

Right, the Orokin created the Sentient Project in an ATTEMPT, a FAILED ATTEMPT, to travel to Tau

So again, if the Orokin tried and failed, how are we, a vastly smaller civilization, supposed to succeed?

[Djolltax]

Tarin I already suggested that, as the Corpus have been working to rebuild the rail, a deal could be struck. Perhaps Prodman from the Warframe Elections could tie in, or maybe Frohd Bek himself.

[TARINunit9]

1 minute ago, Djolltax said:

Tarin I already suggested that, as the Corpus have been working to rebuild the rail, a deal could be struck. Perhaps Prodman from the Warframe Elections could tie in, or maybe Frohd Bek himself.

That's assuming the Corpus have any idea whatsoever what they're doing. My reading of the Corpus is that they can't hope to actually replicate anything the Orokin have ever built, using what little morsels they can reverse-engineer to build their own tech. Even the Detron, a makeshift blunderbuss used by pirates, is too complicated for the Corpus to replicate correctly

[VoidNomade]

There could even be Tenno Survivors in the Tau System since Warframes travelled there. (Mag Codex)

[IrisDragoon]

alright but before we deal with the sentiants we need to deal with the Tau first...

[Azryte]

2 hours ago, TARINunit9 said:

Right, the Orokin created the Sentient Project in an ATTEMPT, a FAILED ATTEMPT, to travel to Tau

So again, if the Orokin tried and failed, how are we, a vastly smaller civilization, supposed to succeed?

Ahem, mag prime codex:

The punch came - and our windows became blinding. When we could see again our ship was somewhere else, shattered and dead in an instant.

My lungs were flattened, eyes full of death. Ship debris glittered like a night snow. The alien blue star was dark and blinding beyond us. The countless articulating worm-ships of our enemy, ringed in glowing discs, undulating and heat-bursting the surviving soldiers like me.

 

Sounds an awful lot like the Orokin did eventually reach Tau, just rather then finding a new world prepared for them they found an enemy that sought nothing less than their utter annihilation.

[Demogarose]

After some contemplation, I'm fairly certain that the Solar Rail to the Tau System WAS completed, and then used by the Sentient to invade the Origin System.

 

Then Orokin figured out that it was unfeasible to launch assaults on the Tau System Sentient through that Rail, and they attacked and destroyed the end of it they could reach to prevent further Sentient reinforcements coming through. (attacked and destroyed because it was likely under Sentient control. This is evidenced by the fact that the Orokin didn't simply shut it down instead of destroying it.)

 

[AnOldAlias]

2 minutes ago, Demogarose said:

After some contemplation, I'm fairly certain that the Solar Rail to the Tau System WAS completed, and then used by the Sentient to invade the Origin System.

 

Then Orokin figured out that it was unfeasible to launch assaults on the Tau System Sentient through that Rail, and they attacked and destroyed the end of it they could reach to prevent further Sentient reinforcements coming through. (attacked and destroyed because it was likely under Sentient control. This is evidenced by the fact that the Orokin didn't simply shut it down instead of destroying it.)

 

Problem with that theory is that the Solar Rails use Void Energy. Sentients cannot survive Void Energy(Or they can, but they'd be SEVERELY scarred/hurt in the process).

[Demogarose]

Just now, Nelizar said:

Problem with that theory is that the Solar Rails use Void Energy. Sentients cannot survive Void Energy(Or they can, but they'd be SEVERELY scarred/hurt in the process).

and they WERE, as was pointed out in the Natah quest. They DID use the Void to return to the Origin System, and it made them all infertile.

 

[TARINunit9]

Just now, Nelizar said:

Problem with that theory is that the Solar Rails use Void Energy. Sentients cannot survive Void Energy(Or they can, but they'd be SEVERELY scarred/hurt in the process).

The Sentients were created to simply build the rail, which does not use Void energy in and of itself. Traversing a built rail is what requires Void energy

1 hour ago, Azryte said:

Ahem, mag prime codex:

-snip-

Sounds an awful lot like the Orokin did eventually reach Tau, just rather then finding a new world prepared for them they found an enemy that sought nothing less than their utter annihilation.

That's assuming that the rail in question was the big rail going to Tau, as opposed to an inter-system rail going to, like, Uranus or something after it had been temporarily conquered by Sentients. I'm not saying you're wrong, but we can't say for certain you're right either

[AnOldAlias]

1 minute ago, Demogarose said:

and they WERE, as was pointed out in the Natah quest. They DID use the Void to return to the Origin System, and it made them all infertile.

 

That was in reference to Natah(and Hunhow?) themselves. We don't know what other Sentient(s) lie within Tau themselves. Hunhow may be the biggest and baddest, but he isn't the main part of an entire Cluster. I'd imagine it'd be a bit like a Hivemind, King dies, another will take its place. Afterall, Sentients are adaptation machines, and they'll always find a way to adapt to a scenario, eventually.
Besides Void Energy, but yeh.

[321agemo]

Erm... Isn't hunhow in the sol system? Why would we fight him in tau?

2nd of all, we're still dealing with our sol system and its still a handful. We would have to have taken care of here before we could send our warfame over there.

Sending only a few of us would be equivalent to a suicide mission.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

it's a cool idea, but very ambitious. the way I see it, the Sentients are likely planning a major attack, and it will be up to us to convince the Grineer and Corpus to band together with us and destroy the Sentients once and for all. we cannot hope to beat the Sentients singlehandedly, there are too many of them, and unlike the other factions, they are actively out for OUR blood. the other factions need to see the bigger picture here, but they're too busy fighting to notice. such is the curse of humanity: who cares about major, universal levels of change, let's just kill each other instead!

as an added twist, it would be interesting for the Infestation to side with the Sentients and make Hybrids. perhaps the Sentients could use the Infestation to make their much-wanted children that they couldn't otherwise have due to infertility brought on by travelling into the Void. it would make for a very interesting scenario: the Military Might of the Grineer, endless resource of the Corpus and the almighty Tenno warriors, versus the relentless, horrifying Technocyte and the tactful, adaptive Sentients!