Eyes wide shut [Story]

[DaffyKur]

~I hate myself. Lust was my sin. I wanted her, but I do not think I loved her. Not then. And I am unsure if even now I know. But I know she was right. They blinded her, but, still, she loved them. We saw them as creatures. No longer human. No longer Orokin. We saw them as subjects. 10-0. Tenno. I used her children- No. I used our children. I used them in ways that no child should ever be used. I used them to make up for our mistakes. Creating a being that would change worlds so we could inhabit them, then make them so they would become extinct, but intelligent enough to know. We fought the Sentient with another mistake. A disease that turned flesh into mindless devourers. We did not suspect it would work too well. Now. Now I make the gravest mistake. I turned my beloved children... into weapons.

My beloved Lotus. Forgive me, where ever you may be now. I pray that our children will see what we have done to them. I pray that our children will make -us- pay.~

Dalenar closed the window of his inbox, and looked about his tiny cell. "Aldar"

A cephalon appeared before him, broken, but still functional, "Yes, Operator?" The masculine voice said, obviously concerned.

"Who sent this message?"

"I... Do not know, Operator-" The cephalon malfunctioned once again, "So stop hassling me!- Er... Sorry, Operator"

"That's fine. Do you know where it came from?"

"Checking origin and relay locations. This may take a while, Operator. Would you like to start another mission?"

Dalenar shook his head, not really paying attention, "Is Maniul available?"

"She does not seem to be in a mission, currently. Do you want me to contact her?"

"Yes please"

A new screen came up, with the face of another Tenno. Scarred, with almost no hair on her head. Dalenar remembered her from the Ten Zero ship. She was in the lower class passenger containments, which were close to the fires that had erupted from the Void jump.

"What's up, Dale?" Her voice, like usual, was cheerful. Despite all the pain she endures daily, she still maintains a positive outlook on life.

"I'm going to start a mission. Could you, perhaps, join me?"

"Sure! I was just giving Oberon some new colors. What are we doing?"

"I want to go to Mars, and get some information from the Corpus"

"You always did love to be sneaky. Sure! I'll get my Ivara, with the Rakta Cernos, and the Ballistica, and Glaive Prime. What about you?"

"Loki Prime, Vulkar Wraith, Spira Prime, and Bo Prime"

"Alright. I'll tell you when I'm ready"

The screen moved over to the side, and silenced, as Dalenar looked to his cephalon, "Aldar."

"I heard, Completing the loadout now. And what companion would you like to bring?"

"Bring Tiberius"

"Chesa Kubrow will take thirty minutes to recover from stasis. Would you like to rush the recovery?"

"No, not this time. Bring the Carrier, but with the burst pistol"

"Alright. The loadout is ready."

Dalenar leaned back, and closed his eyes. His vision moving from his own eyes, into those of his warframe's sensors. He preformed his usual checks. Motion, weapons, and control. Yes, everything was ready. "Ready, Maniul?"

"Ready!"

The two ships began to move towards Mars, and dropped the Warframes into the ventilation shafts. The two Tenno began to crawl through the shafts, before breaking a vent grate, and falling to the ground. Dalenar looked to Maniul. Her ivara was very neon looking. Would be easy to spot her on the blue and grey backgrounds. He couldn't help but roll his eyes, drawing his sniper rifle. His carrier floated just to his right, above his head, and immediately began to silently strike down the nearby containers, and pull the credits towards himself. Energy began to rush through the warframe, the power levels obvious to the operator.

Maniul's kubrow flopped onto the ground from the same grate that she had come from. The tenno could not help but giggle, while Dalenar looked ahead, and began to move. Silently he crept through the halls, striking down any Corpus machine or crewman he could come in sight of.

Maniul moved as well, just as silently and stealthfully, but out of range of Dalenar's knowledge. He could not be certain where she was, or what she was doing. How the two became such close friends was unknown to either. All either of them knows is that they've been working together since they awoke. When a grineer clone tried to have them destroyed for its queens.

Dalenar did not think on that, however. He worked silently, and efficiently, ignoring all of Maniul's attempts at conversation.

"DALE!!!" Maniul finally screamed at him, catching his attention.

"What?! What happened?! Do we have Bursas?!"

"No. I just got worried. You're quiet. What's the matter?"

"I.... Got some weird message in my inbox..."

"The Shadow Stalker?"

"No... I don't know who it's from. But it appears to be a journal. From before the Second Dream"

"Huh... Well, we have only one more computer to hack. Let's get going"

Dalenar did just that. Sprinting in silent stealth. Every camera and enemy he came across was struck down with his argon scope. He hacked the computer before rushing into the room, only to be met by several moving laser walls, which he did not notice until it had already knocked him to the ground.

"Language" Maniul stated, chuckling at what her friend had just said, "Where did you hear that?"

"I heard it from some Grineer. What does it mean?"

"I don't know. You're older than me. All I know is that people keep telling me not to use it"

Dalenar rushed through the laser gateways, and used ciphers to hack the consoles at record speeds. He had to remain in stealth, and keep a decoy out, to distract the corpus proxies. Once he got the information, he sprinted from the room, without bothering to hack the alarms.

"Operator, my sensors are picking up a bursa in your area. Might I suggest- Killing it with fire!" Aldar did not bother to correct him, and neither did Maniul. It seemed that the both of them wanted to destroy the robot. The two warframes kept in stealth, confusing the bursa's sensors. The two used their heaviest impact weapons, their bow and rifle, to reduce the shields. They then began to rip at its armor with their sidearms.

"Operator! I have found the source of the message you have received!"

"Who?" The tenno remained focused on his objective. Bringing down the bursa. Its armor began to rip apart, piece by piece, beginning to show vital parts and mechanics within the machine.

"I... do not know who, exactly. But I do know where! It's from the Mercury Relay! Larunda!"

Dalenar stopped, confused. Why would one of the tenno sympathizers send him a message in secret? And why would they send him this message in particular? This did not make sense.

"DALE! Watch out!"

Dalenar was suddenly knocked to the ground. The impact from the warframe's fall hurt himself badly. His shields had become depleted, and his carrier was no longer in service. The bursa hooked a cable around his ankles, and pulled him away from his friend, but Maniul chased after him, shooting a sleeping arrow into the bursa. It stopped, but it would only last briefly. Briefly enough for Dalenar to get back up, and slam his bo into the head of the bursa, breaking it off its platform. The console lit up, but it was not worth doing. The two began to sprint again towards the exit, leaping into their landing crafts, and escaping. The alarms still blaring.

"Aldar! Can you specify the location?" Dalenar demanded, immediately going back to his navigations.

"I am sorry, Operator. The ciphering is beyond my capability. It appears to be corpus in origin. Perhaps Cephalon Simaris could-"

"No. I think I know who. To the Relay"

Aldar did as commanded, sending his operator to the Larunda Relay, on Mercury.

Dalenar, still in his Loki Prime, rushed to the Perrin Sequence. The Syndicate he first allied himself with. They were very close to him, and he was close to them.

"Ah, Dalenar. Good to see you again. Are you hear to buy, sell, or discuss?"

Dalenar looked to the leader of the Perrin Sequence. "What did you send me?"

The Corpus deserter looked slightly worried, and even taken back, sweet beginning to form on his face, "I-I... don't know what you're talking about."

The gripped at the man's throat, the nearby Perrin Sequence workers looking over to the two rather worryingly.

"Can we discuss this elsewhere, Tenno?"

Dalenar dropped the man, motioning for him to lead. As they walked, the man began to speak. "You are not our oldest ally, Dalenar. But you are our most loyal. You have helped us in everything we have ever needed, and have worn our sigil on nearly every mission you've completed. On one of our excavations of a Corpus controlled settlement, we've discovered an old tome. Ancient pages preserved through the elements of the area. They were hard to make out, but they said some interesting things. Things we could not, morally, make a profit on. So, instead, we gifted the pages to you"

The man sighed, looking to the Tenno in the small room, with only a table, a chair, and a few gadgets. "We believe they are of the creation of the Tenno. And how you were... implanted... with a desire to rebel. Even before the Lotus contacted you"

Dalenar tilted his head. The warframe's facial expression begin a constant.

"We believe that is why you Tenno have a reluctance to trust anyone. And why when your trust is betrayed, you tend to take it harshly. That is why we believe you Tenno were so hurt by the Lotus's inability to tell you the truth of who she was, or what she convinced you to do. Or even kept the secrets of who you really were away from yourselves. It's why we believe you have a reluctance to work with any faction that does not earn your trust, including Simaris, or even ourselves"

The Tenno thought on this for a while, before simply turning, and leaving. As the door opened, many Perrin Sequence fell, attempting to listen through the soundproof doors. The warframe simply stepped over them, not caring anymore.

As he returned to his landing craft, he thought on the situation. He suddenly felt a distrust to the Perrin Sequence. And that made him think... What if they're right?

On the ride back, he calmed down slightly. His warframe connected to the Arsenal, "Rhino Prime, Fragor Prime, Twin Grakata, and Soma Prime"

The Warframe suit began to change, as Dalenar returned to his own body. He opened up the message once more, and began to read on from where he left off...

 

[More to come]

Edited May 21, 2016 by DaffyKur
Accidentally hit "Submit" when the Stalker attacked...

[Wrath_Of_Chrysalis]

I like it, and I wait for more

[DaffyKur]

~I know what I must do, Margulis. My beloved Lotus. We have used them as tools, but they are not. We have objectified our children. But they are not objects. They are not devils, as I have proclaimed them. They are angels. Sent to us from beyond the Void. From beyond the Heavens. From beyond even our imaginations. They have been brought to us by something we can never possibly understand. And for that, I grant them what we have sought to use against them. I grant them freedom.

Margulis. The council does not know where they lie. And I never intend on letting them know. Because of my revelations to them, they are beginning to distrust us. I am pleased by this. They begin to question their attacks against the rebelling corpuses, and the distant laborers. They even begin to question their motivations towards the Sentient. In fact... they have brought me one. I do not know her name, but I know she is different from the rest. She is sterile, like all others, but she's... almost human. Her mind shows sign of emotion beyond lust and hunger, unlike the other sentient. She feels compassion, and concern. She cares for her people, but she also cares for those she fights against.

Margulis. I know what I must do. I shall call her... The Lotus.~

The Rhino pushed onward. Dalenar remembered exactly the location that he was told about by the Perrin Sequence. A Corpus settlement on Europa. The location was swarmed with Corpus crewmen, and proxies, and he fought them all as a Tenno spy infiltrated the area.

"What am I looking for, Sir?" The young voice asked, without knowledge of what was happening.

"I don't know! Just keep looking!" Dalenar demanded, growing aggressive as the corpus brought out heavier and heavier machinery. So far he had run into three bursas, each of a different type.

"Sir, I think you should extract. You're taking heavy damage, and your Warframe is on its last restoration. You're out of ammunition, and you can't keep using that Fragor against the bursas"

Dalenar cursed once again, before shouting, in agreement. He began to rush to the extraction. He was out of power, and his iron skin had fallen away. With his Carrier destroyed, he had to grab his ammunition and energy cells by hand. Being pursued by several corpus drones, crewmen, and even worse, that was no longer an option.

"Operator! The doors have been locked! You cannot proceed until you hack the console!" Aldar proclaimed, concern in his voice.

"Shoot!"

"Dagnabbit! I'm locked in! Sir, there's no way I can reach the console in here, and a Mine Drone just spotted me!"

"Aldar, which ship did I bring?"

"Your Mantis, sir. I am sorry, I am unable to unlock the doors"

Dalenar threw down an energy restorer, and stood on it, immediately gaining enough power to cover his body in ferrite. Another burst of energy, and he stomped, making all of his enemies float into the air long enough for him to unlock the doors. Another two bursts, and the corpus fell to the ground, but he had enough power to get away, safely. "Get moving!"

The Rhino Prime changed through the crowds of machines and flesh, causing bodies to fly into the air, and off to the side. Once at the extraction, he looked about, "Where are you?!"

"My exit is blocked by a Denial Bursa! I have an idea. Give me a second!" The sound of a Bounce pad being launched was the next sound, and the two warframes, on opposite ends of the area, stepped into their landing crafts, leaving for safety.

"Tell me what you got, Telgis"

An oncoming Liset attached itself to Dalenar's Orbiter. A Vauban stepped out of it, and into the other ship. It walked to the Codex and plugged in several information inserts, "Mostly audio files. Some random journals, others... uhm... Less than appropriate discussions..."

Dalenar didn't care. "Show me the oldest of them you've found"

Telgis waved for a new window to open up, and a scratchy sound came from it. There was no image to go with it, but only a few words could be heard. "Margulis-..... Done it-.... Soon-..."

"That's all it has, Sir. I'm sorry. It appears to be ancient. Older than the Arcane Codices"

Dalenar, in his Rhino Prime, looked to the screen, showing only blue at this point, before speaking. "Get Maniul and Hanith. We're going to the Orokin Moon"

"The-... The... Moon?" Telgis sounded worried. He did not like the Moon. The one time he had been there, he was attacked by Conculysts, and that warframe still was not repaired.

"We're getting information"

Telgis sighed, and left for his Orbiter, and arsenal.

It did not take long, but, soon, four different landing crafts flew into the broken moon, held together by large posts and rings. Four primed warframes fell to the ground, and looked around to everyone else. A Volt, controlled by Maniul. A Mag, controlled by Hanith. A Loki, controlled by Dalenar. And an Excalibur, controlled by Telgis.

"Show off..." Hanith said in spite. He shrugged, grinning inside his Transference pod. The others silently agreed with the teenage girl.

Maniul dropped a large team energy restorer on the ground. Soon, every warframe, aside from the Volt, had maximum power, and rushed to their locations. Telgis, being the one with the least experience on the Orokin Moon, simply began to slaughter through the Grineer and Corpus. His fits of giggles were rather creepy, but to see him in action would make one understand.

Telgis was not very good with stealth. He was an open, destructive force. He tended to favor his Excalibur Prime, or his Atlas, for their ability to destroy. His second favorites were Valkyr and Rhino Prime. It made a good distraction, but one problem came up. "Hey, guys. I know you tend to take a while to do those... but Okin just told me there are Sentient coming in..."

"Going as fast as I can!" Maniul cried out.

"Did we bring a variety of weapons? Mine are all elemental. Ignis, staticor, and shaku" Hanith declared.

"I brought the paris prime, hikou prime, and the glaive prime" Dalenar stated.

"Vectis prime, spira, and furax wraith" Maniul proclaimed.

"You know me," Telgis boasted. "Braton, lato, and skana, all prime. Along with my dethcube"

"I think we have variety enough to take them on. But let's try to rush to the end. I can't afford to lose this data"

The others agreed. The Sentient scouts were in their path, spotting them, and calling in reinforcements. Each one called a battalyst, and conculyst.

The four did not bother to attempt to slaughter the drones, having all the insights from the past. Instead, they bypassed them, Maniul using Speed to help them escape.

It was not easy. Hanith was forced to use a Bullet Attractor on one of the drones, but that did not stop their attacks, as they did not use bullets. And they easily slaughtered through the Corpus and Grineer that attacked them. The team soon found themselves out of energy, and still on the run, having to navigate the broken halls of the shattered moon, and the odd tiles of the ancient Orokin.

The four managed to escape the moon, but not without severe damages to their warframes. While they were repairing, the four Tenno, without warframes, gathered on Dalenar's ship.

Dalenar always found it remarkable to see his friends in person. He did not get to see their faces often, aside from audio-visual conferences, outside of missions.

Telgis was the oldest of them. His hair was long, and dark, not likely to have been cut, ever, in his sixteen, maybe seventeen years awake.

Hanith was next in age. Fifteen. But she was the tallest. Lanky, thin, and wearing dual oculus. Her hair was long and red, put in a tail, similar to Telgis's

Maniul was the youngest of them. Only about ten years awake. Her hair was raven black, and straight as a board, swept to cover half of her face. Her skin was bronze, showing her heritage on Phobos.

Dalenar looked down at his hands, the skin as dark as night, and his hair cut short, being so hard to control if it grew out. The center of his brown eyes, however, shined gold, showing his relation with the Orokin empire.

"Well, let's see what we got, Dalenar"

The Tenno plugged the information into his Codex, and the screen was suddenly filled with trials, plans, and maps. But there was one filed that was closed, and locked. "Ballas" is all it said.

[More to come]

[DaffyKur]

"What is a Ballas?" Dalenar asked. "Aldar?"

"I am checking my information- You sorry excuse for a- Er... uhm... I apologies, Operator"

"Don't worry about it. Just get me that information"

Maniul snickered, a grin on her face. The other two Tenno could not prevent themselves from grinning as well.

"Operator. I have found Ballas from a census, before the Old War"

"Tell me who they are, then. The name... rings a bell..."

"Ballas was a member of a high ranking corpus, assigned to create a way to traverse the void, and terraform worlds so that humanity and Orokin could thrive. He created the Sentient with a fatal flaw once they travel the Void. Sterilization. When he helped create the Solar Rails, the Ten Zero ship was the first used. Erm... You know what happened there..."

The Tenno nodded, before Aldar proceeded.

"When Margulis was sentenced to death, Ballas looked after the- Tenno skoom!- Er... After the sleeping Tenno, never revealing their location. He also designed the Warframes, and suggested that the- TENNO SKOOM!- What is wrong with me?!"

The whole group began to buckle over, laughing at Aldar's mistakes and malfunctions.

"Suggested that the Tenno pilot the Warframes, soldiers with a higher pain tolerance and capability to withstand void energies used as the systems for the Warframes. After that began to succeed in the destruction of the Infested and the Sentient, he began to fall into depression. He began to be by himself, keeping journals. And he also- Uhm... There is nothing more... Operator... I am sorry. I do not know anything else."

"Hrm... Can you open the file here?"

"I... can try. But I will need time. And help. These encryptions are ancient, and I am not as well versed as I used to be. Can you help me in finding a few parts for myself? I can provide them for your Cephalons as well, Friends of the Operator"

Hanith nodded, as did Maniul, and Telgis. It was agreed.

"Let's get you those parts. What all is needed, Aldar?"

The Cephalon gave an excited sound, speaking in a higher tone. "You will need to retrieve the blueprints for this piece from the Corpus. The best place to look would be on Jupiter. However, the parts to make it will likely come from Grineer settlements. Might I suggest Saturn, Phobos, and Mercury?"

Telgis nodded, "Let's head to Jupiter, then. And get this blueprint. Maybe we'll get lucky, and have all the pieces needed"

The Tenno returned to their ships, and to their Orbiters, and prepared for the fight to come. Each one prepared themselves for stealth, and a heavy fight. Bows and sniper rifles equipped, and warframes of the Primed caliber.

Dalenar readied his Ash , while Hanith brought her Loki. Telgis equipped a Rhino, and Maniul readied herself with the Trinity. Into the mission they fell. The Corpus and their cloud cities. Inefficient they were, but profitable they seemed to be. Likely due to their aerial defense systems, and capability to be hidden in the dense clouds of Jupiter.

The four rushed through the area, destroying any that came within their sights, forcing their way to the one computer on the terminus. The room was well guarded, however.

Cameras surveyed the area, watching for any intruders. Corpus patrolled the edge, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Laser grids blinked on and off to allow Corpus to walk through, and to prevent Tenno from infiltrating.

"No good..." Telgis muttered to himself, just loud enough for the audio sensors to relay to the other Tenno.

"Alright. We can't let them destroy this. This is our one and only shot at getting this... what are we getting, Aldar?"

"It's a program to enhance my language capability. With it, I should be able to decipher more encrypted messages, in more languages. I hope it will work on this information you wish, Operator"

Hanith was already at work. She pulled her sidearm out, and struck down a camera overhead with a hikou. Immediately after she lept towards a grate, smashing it to pieces with a sibear. With her sniper rifle now drawn, she took down the Nullifier with several well placed shots.

Maniul began to copy her moves on the opposite side, striking down the grates and cameras in her sight. One corpus remained, however.

Telgis leapt behind the nullifier, shoving a skana through his heart, and allowing his body to fall to the ground.

Dalenar timed his movements so that he would not touch either grid, or camera. His sidearm, with no one to worry about hearing him, struck down the camera overhear. Unfortunately, he was unable to time the last grid. So he looked for another way, moving to the other side. Still no luck. Perhaps a ventilation system would work?

Still not luck. Dalenar would have to trust dumb luck. And his trust was misplaced.

Zap! He fell to the ground. The Ash immediately tossing a smoke bomb to the ground, all of his allies being granted invisibility for eight seconds.

Dalenar rushed to the console. No more ciphers. He'd have to hurry. His hacking skills coming to the rescue. As the door opened, he was greeted with a Corpus drone. The Tenno could feel the power being sucked away from his warframe, but the MOAs began together, encircling him with shots and shockwaves. Hope seemed lost on this fatal attempt.

"It looks as though someone thought they'd go to my old nesting grounds. Why didn't you tell me, Tenno?" Alad V's voice came strong, and sarcasticly, though the audio of the Tenno's pod.

The MOAs began to shake, and fall to the ground. Immediately, Hanith leapt into the room with the console, managing to save the blueprint just in time.

"That's what you wanted, Tenno? I would have sold that to you. Cheap. It's just some design to decipher any code the Grineer come up with. Never really worked" Alad V snickered. "Either way, it looks as though you owe me again, don't you? Don't worry, this next time will be a lot easier. Hopefully... I make no promises, Tenno"

The Tenno rushed to their extraction, their stealth having been broken, and their location obvious. Their weapons drew blood and mechanisms from everything they came across, but they did not leave without their scars. Most of which were psychological. Why did Alad V help them? Did he sympathize with the Tenno, now? And what hope was there if this blueprint was not working?

[More to come]

[Teloch]

It is all nice n' stuff, but this thread belongs to the Fan Zone

[Drakeardian]

Indeed.

[Lady_Viper]

OP, please contact a community MOD and move this thread to proper section.

[DaffyKur]

Moving this thread to the Fan Zone, as requested. Don't know if the moderators will remove this one from this forum, but I did contact them about it.

Thread moved to

 for those interested.

Edited May 21, 2016 by DaffyKur
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