Loyalty, Exile, Betrayal (Open IC RP)

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

Jes looked over to Balgaire as he boarded the Spectre. "We'll figure out what happened soon enough. But right now I need you here, in the present. I don't like the silent treatment their giving us either, but there's good reason for it. All i've been told is that all information is now on a strict need-to-know basis and everyone's been told the bare minimum. Apparently there's someone among our high command who's leaking intelligence to the Grineer. I don' know if it's true, or if it's a story to keep us preoccupied. Now let's get going". Jes boarded the craft and helped Balgaire up.

Once aboard Jes stood as there were no seats, just bars on the ceiling to hold on to. There was only ten other Crewmen in the cargo compartment with them. Jes recognized Rugyle among them.

"Take off procedures are set, hang on it's going to get really rough back there". The pilot said calmly as the doors slid closed and the craft lifted in the air.

Jes almost fell to the floor from the shaky flight and when he asked about the asset the current squad leader (Rugyle) only said "We'll meet her soon" as he put in a command on a console to lock all the weapon lockers.

Edited January 1, 2017 by (XB1)LONE RANGER23

[HailDropDevil]

Balgaire had noticed that his prosthetic leg had locked into the ground to keep him in a steady position. He kept a firm hand on a bar, listening in to a fellow Crewman complaining to him about the aircraft not having seats. He went on for a good while, and the two seemingly became friends. A brooding Private next to him snapped at him to quiet down, which bothered Balgaire a bit. He frowned, before turning to Jes. 

"So...uh...how's the arm doing?"

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

Jes looked at the Colonel. "It's not as good as the one I lost. I'll make 'em pay for that." Before Jes could continue the hull shook with a loud 'thud' as something landed on the roof.

"All personnel stay where you are and remain calm." Rugyle said calmly.

Jes looked around and noticed a vent hatch was now missing. He saw the Tenno leap down, hitting Rugyle on the way. It was a Nyx warframe with white armor and dark blue highlights. On her back was a Tiberon, on her hips were two Stilettos, and in it's scabbard on her left hip was a Nikana.

Jes unfolded his baton and yelled "Tenno!" as the Nyx unsheathed her blade and raised it strike. Before anything got out of hand Rugyle jumped up and screamed with a violent boom. "Stand down! She's the asset! Stand down!"

Edited January 1, 2017 by (XB1)LONE RANGER23

[HailDropDevil]

Balgaire was halfway into drawing his revolver until he heard Rugyle confirm that she's the asset. He hoped he heard him wrong. A tenno was the asset? Of course, he never agreed with some of the things that the Corpus did but having a Tenno as an asset? That's a whole new thing. Tenno were unpredictable, violent, and just too dangerous to trust. Things went really downhill if they were asking the Tenno for help.

"I'm sorry, but that's the asset?" The same brooding Private in the back began to silently laugh. The Colonel just facepalmed.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

"Yes that Tenno is our asset for this operation."  Rugyle calmly explained. Jes backed off and went back to his ceiling bar away from the Tenno.

He started hearing a voice in his head. "You know when we thought you tinnys should fight alongside your fancy proxies, this wasn't what I had in mind. What happened to your arm? Actually don't answer. I already know. You and the one called Balgaire lost your limbs in a desperate attempt at sabotage. Sloppy work. Though I am truly surprised that you guys hired me to help. The only reason you and your friends here aren't dead is because your commander made a deal with me and unlike all of you I have honor and as long as we're comrades in this conflict then you'll get to survive to tell stories about it.

Jes looked around frantically and saw nothing. The craft was empty but it wasn't. It was the Tenno's mind games.

"Get out of my head!" Jes yelled as the Tenno left his mind and reality was given back to him.

"Alright everyone listen up! I'm only saying this once! We're using a new tactic called: 'Sword and Shield. We are all going to be behind the Tenno as she deflects Grineer fire with her sword. When the incoming fire stops you open fire and keep 'em supressed while she get's ready for the next assault. We will be constantly moving forward! There will not be enough time to take cover! If you don't move up with the rest of us i'll have the Tenno kill you herself! When we're eventually on top of the enemy: she'll fray the Grineer's minds giving us all time to gun them down. We will repeat this until the Grineer at this outpost are dead. And one more thing: We are the attacking force. All thirteen of us, including the Tenno! There will be no reinforcements! There will be no air support! We are taking this position by sundown! We're two minutes away from our LZ. I'm unlocking the lockers. Grab a Derra Vandal and as many magazines as you can carry. Move!" Rugyle finished his mission briefing and unlocked the weapon lockers from the console.

Jes grabbed one of the many Derra Vandals and tossed another one to Balgaire. They all had the same white metallic paintjobs with a Lotus symbol on the reciever. They were masterfully crafted to say the least and had 75 round cartridges instead of the standard 50. "Let's lock and load." He said as he slammed a clip in, and charged the rifle.

[HailDropDevil]

Balgaire was just a bit concerned about Jes. He carefully but quickly loaded his gun, and put a few clips into his pockets. He glanced back at the Tenno, feeling even more anxiety than before. He had never been this close to a Tenno unless they were actually about to kill him. He patted his pants pocket for the Rhino's horn, making sure it was still there. As he finished reloading, he looked at the Sergeant.                                                                                                                                                                                                          

"Are you alright? You seemed to...zone out there for a second."

Edited January 2, 2017 by HailDropDevil

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

"I- i'm good. Let's just get ready." Jes said.

The last few minutes of the flight were uneventful until they landed. "Go go go!" Rugyle yelled into the ship's internal speakers as the doors slid open. The desert sun was almost blinding at first but his eyes adjusted quickly enough and the ship's thrusters threw sand and dust around the LZ like a small whirlwind.

Jes was one of the first ones out, right behind the Nyx. There was already a sizeable Lancer patrol of at least twenty. They almost immediately opened fire from behind blunt cover while the Tenno deflected several shots.

"Alright! Let's do this!" Jes yelled as they ran forward right behind the Nyx into hell.

Edited January 2, 2017 by (XB1)LONE RANGER23

[HailDropDevil]

Balgaire was the second crewman out, rushing into the chaos and gunfire. He followed the exact words of what Rugyle had said, and was in no mood to fall behind. He didn't want to be slaughtered, much less by a Tenno either.

'Focus...' He reminded himself in his head. Everything had to be timed perfectly. One wrong move, a misfire, or even a slow soldier could jeopardize the whole mission. He pushed himself to his limits, now waiting for the Grineer to stop firing. 

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

The barrage of fire finally ended when the Grineer needed to reload, giving the strike team precious seconds to open fire. The Tenno released an aura of blue energy that went into one of the Lancers.

"Open fire!" Rugyle yelled at the top of his lungs and Jes did exactly that until his 75 rounds were depleted.

When the Grineer got back out of cover the Lancer in the front turned around and opened fire on two of his own, cutting them down almost instantly as he started to wildly opened fire on a third when he was finally killed by the rest of his allies.

[HailDropDevil]

The Colonel had opened fire but ceased it once the corrupted Lancer opened fire on his own friends. He was practically startled by it.  The Lancer's allies seemed to have no sympathy or remorse when they had to shoot him down. He kept his eye on the asset. He didn't trust her for a second, and after seeing how she could corrupt others, he decided to focus on shooting the rest of the Grineer.

He emptied the rest of his clip into a Lancer's head, which was soon reduced to bloody remains of bones with traces of sand in it.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

The asset deflected the Grineer's return fire. Most of the rounds were atomized into dust upon impacting the energy infused Nikana, although some bullets hit their mark.

"Keep moving!" Rugyle moved onward next to Jes and Balgaire after an unlucky Crewman in the rear of the formation took repeated rounds to the chest. He went down in seconds.

"Rugyle! We're leaving him behind?!" Jes asked loudly as bullets whizzed past them.

"Keep going! The minute we stop for the dead is the minute we join them!" Rugyle yelled back with strong conviction.

Edited January 2, 2017 by (XB1)LONE RANGER23

[HailDropDevil]

Balgaire nearly yelled something back, but remembered that Rugyle was many ranks above him. For most of his training, he was constantly reminded to leave no man behind.

'The strength of the team is each member, and the strength of each member is the team.'

That was a quote from a deceased Lieutenant that Balgaire had befriended a while ago. It was stuck in his head whenever he went into combat. If he could, he would rush back to help their fallen teammate, but he knew it would be against direct orders. He continued to rush ahead, still keeping his own distance from the Tenno.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

The Corpus assault team was now on top of the Grineer Lancer patrol. Jes slammed the butt of his rifle into the faceplate of a clone who didn't fall back in time. The other six still alive were firing their Grakattas when out of nowhere they dropped the guns and started rolling on the ground as if they were on fire. Jes saw the Tenno's blue energy pulsating around them, but it had seemed harmless. There was no fire, no more heat than there was a moment ago.

"Rugyle, what's going on?!" Jes asked confusingly as the Nyx walked ahead towards a console.

"I don't know!" The Lancers stopped moving. Jes and Rugyle checked a few of the bodies and found that they were dead, without any external trauma, no wounds, nothing. Until Jes found one without a faceplate. His eyes were still open and had a look of agony and horror, as if he had been burned alive.

"They're dead." Jes announced. The Tenno was starting to scare him with what she could do so far. He hoped he wouldn't end up fighting her.

The Tenno had finished hacking the console and the main entrance opened. They were now in the outpost.

"Move it up nice and slow. Greann, take point with Ayo and the asset. Rest of you bring it up behind them. I want at least one rifle in each direction. Move." Rugyle ordered with an inhuman level of calm as he took position in the center of the formation.

Edited January 3, 2017 by (XB1)LONE RANGER23

[HailDropDevil]

Balgaire scowled and hastily, but quickly moved up next to Jes. He just wanted to get this mission over with and get away from the 'asset' as quickly as possible. There was no way to actually tell of his expression, obviously, but his somewhat slip of body posture told of how unhappy he was. He simply decided to direct his attention towards eliminating any enemy in sight and focusing on the objective, unless told otherwise. What the Tenno had done to the Grineer somewhat scared him. They were killed without being physically hit. It could've been a provoked heart attack, if anything, but it still didn't make him feel any better. 

He straightened up a bit and decided to keep moving.

"I don't like this one bit..." He muttered.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

Jes heard Balgaire mutter under his breath. He wanted to tell him something along the lines of 'it doesn't matter if you like it or not' or 'orders are orders'.

The Sergeant had finished reloading his rifle when he heard a sniper shot from a Vulkar. Time seemed to slow down for a second when the Tenno leaped mere inches in front of him and cut the projectile in half. The hot halves of lead grazed the sides of his helmet, leaving thin lines going across. It would have hit him between the eyes if it weren't for her.

"Sniper!" Jes dove when he heard a second shot go off. He turned in awe to see that Rugyle had been hit in the throat, but was still in the fight with the Tenno's energy around him. He fired his rifle in the sniper's direction to no avail when another shot was fired, this time hitting the floor near Jes. Rugyle tried to say something but it came out as gurgling sounds.

The Tenno amplified her voice through everyone's minds. "I will ensure he doesn't die laying down. He will die a warrior, with a weapon in his hands, and honor and courage in his heart. Push forward. End the sniper. My Liset's scanners show only three more squads of Grineer. Victory will be ours. We will not fail."

Jes leaped up and took charge. "Keep moving forward! We don't stop until they're all dead!" He fired a suppressive barrage of plasma rounds towards where he thought the sniper was. He knew in the back of his head that he should be scared. But ge was filled the vigor and inspiration to see this mission succeed. Was this the Tenno's doing? Or simply natural valor and courage? He didn't know which it was, and at this point in time he didn't care.

Edited January 4, 2017 by (XB1)LONE RANGER23

[HailDropDevil]

Balgaire was in a state of shock when he saw that Rugyle had been hit. A few enemy shots skimmed past them, to which he finally threw himself behind cover. Everything was happening kind of...fast. He aimed blindly with a few shots, a futile attempt to demoralize the enemy troops. He would continue to keep the heavy fire on the Grineer but wasn't very confident himself. A few of the hostiles fell dead, but there were still much more to come and replace them. It's rather hard to keep up your confidence when you're in the moment and a couple of people in your squad had been killed on enemy territory.

It was a strange feeling for him. Almost like anxiety and fear. The veins in his head nearly popped out of his head, but he kept his calm composure.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

The Grineer sniper ran out of cover to relocate to a better position. This was her undoing. Jes fired a shorst burst and nailed her in the legs, incapacitating the Ballista.

He saw Balgaire gun down a squad before diving back in cover. The Grineer were starting to fall back to the command center. They had them now; just one last push. Before Jes could even get the Crewmen moving the Tenno already stormed through the vent into the center.

There was a deafening high-pitched scream. What followed was several minutes of Grakatta fire after which was complete silence. It was unnerving to say the least. Eventually Jes mustered enough courage to get the squad moving again.

"Storm the command center!" Jes sprinted to the locked door and asked Balgaire to hack it open. "Balgaire, we need this door open. Be careful i'm picking up one hostile. Looks like the Tenno killed the rest of them. Magnetic signature has nothing around his hands. He might be unarmed, try to capture him. Might be the officer in charge." Jes raised his weapon anticipating to shoot the hostile in the legs for an easy capture.

[HailDropDevil]

The Colonel rushed to the door, and began hacking it. It was actually more complex than he thought. He had it under control, but it didn't sound like it. He managed to open it but it appeared there was a hostile hiding, or just not there. "One point for the Tech..." He muttered.

He walked through, and saw the one hostile attempted to hide. Balgaire was about to scream out of shock but kept quiet, but it wasn't the same case for the Grineer. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and the Colonel kicked his ankle with his prosthetic leg. There was a snap and the hostile was holding his apparent broken ankle. Balgaire did a quick fist pump and said 'Two points for the Tech'.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

Jes looked over to Balgaire. "Nice work. I'm going to radio for a garrison force and check on Rugyle." Jes walked out of the command center and found Rugyle leaning against the wall. There was an impact mark on the throat of his helmet but it didn't seem to have punctured.

"Rugyle, i'm going to remove your helmet. See if your injured." Jes pulled the helmet off of his squad leader. His face was old and he had a large scar over his left eye. He had a grey stubble and a tattoo over his right cheek. It was a credit symbol.

"I'm fine. Just took a hit, shields took most of the impact. Was hard to talk with my windpipe being nearly crushed though. Thought for a second I was dead. Gonna need a new helmet though." Rugyle seemed mostly ok. Mostly. Something seemed off about him now. But Jes couldn't figure it out.

He opened a comm link to commander Ky'ber after walking a good distance away.

"Commander. This is Sergeant Ayo, Spectre two, over." He started. "Roger Ayo what's the status of that Grineer outpost?" Ky'ber's voice was stern and impatient. "Outpost is secure, one casualty, one wounded: Rugyle, and we have a prisoner. A Grineer Lancer Captain by the looks of his helmet. We are awaiting the garrison force."

"Roger that Sergeant. I'm coming over with seven landing crafts; a whole platoon. We'll be there in an hour. I'm putting you in charge of the prisoner. I want all of the information he has, and then I want him dead. I say again Jes: after you get everything he knows, kill him. We cannot allow the risk of him alerting the other outposts for reinforcements. And as for Rugyle i'm bringing a medical team to inspect him. One more thing Sergeant: what is the status of the asset?" Just then the Tenno leaped from the ceiling behind Jes. He was startled and quickly turned around to face her.

"Asset is still alive and well. Sir I might inform you that there are concerns about having her fight with us. Concerns such as: 'she's our sworn enemy' and: 'her kind have wiped out entire ships full of our people'."

"Your concern has been noted. We are departing. See you soon, Ky'ber out." Ky'ber cut the comm link.

Jes walked back to the command center with the Tenno in front of him. He still didn't trust her not to kill him or his Corpus yet, but he could at least trust her to kill the Grineer too.

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by (XB1)LONE RANGER23

[HailDropDevil]

The Corpus Private was beginning to get an attitude of impatience yet again, reloading a sidearm. He was tired of waiting for the others to get back.

"Let's just kill him already. We have what we came for." He used his rifle and poked Balgaire's makeshift leg to get his attention.

"No-" The Colonel nearly stammered. "Stop doing that. It's not a toy, and we are going to wait for further orders."

The Tech was getting impatient himself. Not only did the Grineer hostage keep yelling futile attempts for help, but the Private would not stop bugging him about killing the hostile himself. It was the same complaint every 30 seconds. So yet again, the disobeying Private poked Balgaire's leg and asked the same question.

"Will you stop that?" He pushed his ally's rifle back. He looked like he was going to tear the Private apart limb from limb. The other crewmen stepped back, somewhat enjoying the Colonel's bad attitude.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

Jes walked into the command center with the Tenno. Balgaire looked really tense and seemed like he wanted to kill someone. The crewman closest to him kept poking him in the leg every few seconds.

"Private, go guard the entrance and leave us alone with the prisoner. Bring the others too. Balgaire, your staying with us. We need to have a talk with our new 'friend'."

The Private started to talk. Great, Jes thought. A moron who can't follow orders. "But Sergeant we gotta kill this clone. And i'm bored outta my mind."

"Well you can be bored with the rest of the squad, guarding the entrance hall." Jess was at the point of wanting to shoot him.

The Tenno glared at the Private as her energy formed an aura around him. He started talking smart in a hypnotic voice.

"Yes sir. Going to guard the entrance hall as ordered." He took the others and left. Now it was Jes, Balgaire, the Nyx, and their prisoner.

"So..." Jes began. "Let's get started." He looked at their captive.

[HailDropDevil]

Balgaire was actually glad that the Tenno had used her powers to get the Private to leave. He watched the group of crewman leave the area, feeling as if he was on cloud nine. He turned back around to the Grineer Captain, who was still holding his ankle.

"I'm not telling you dishonorable fools a word..." The captive began. "Even with all you have, you covet the wealth of the Grineer..."

His voice was raspy but somewhat threatening. His faceplate was cracked as well. The Colonel glanced at the Sergeant and the Tenno, and back to the captive. He then frowned. He was a stubborn one, quite like the Private. There were many other ways to interrogate him, of course. You could slowly cut into his arm like that first slice of bread in a restaurant, or simply use a fist every time their captive would refuse to say something useful.

"Strength to the-"

Balgaire stepped on the Captain's broken ankle to interrupt his chant. After a sharp yell out of pain, the Tech lifted his foot.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

"We can do this all day. Just give us what we want and we'll let you leave. You have the opportunity to walk out of this alive. Not many people can say that."

Jes walked next to Balgaire when the Grineer didn't respond. "Everytime he doesn't reply: you punch him in the face, whenever he gives the wrong response: you break a bone. When he gives us what we need: i'll handle that." He whispered almost silently to avoid alerting the captive to his methods.

He looked at the captive. "I'm a lot nicer than my friend here. I'm going to ask you some questions and your going to answer them honestly and without hesitation. Do you understand?"

The Grineer just sat silently, staring at the two Corpus.

"Very well. Just remember that I tried to help you get out of this." He took a step back and allowed Balgaire to continue the interrogation.

[HailDropDevil]

The Colonel stepped forward, enjoying this bit of the mission in some way. As he raised his fist he saw the Captain flinch, but he seemed to already anticipate the pain. 

There was a clear difference between both of their body languages. The Grineer Captain was clearly in pain but stayed with his method of silent denial. In the end, it wouldn't change his fate. Balgaire on the other hand was loving every bit of this, cracking his knuckles and whatnot.

The Tech finally launched a heavy strike at the Grineer's head and it landed clean and true, mostly because of bottled up anger. The Captain's head was knocked to the side, the crack in his faceplate widening. If this wasn't an interrogation, Balgaire would have kept swinging at him.

[(XBOX)LONE RANGER23]

"This can only end if you let it. No one is coming to help you. Your army doesn't even know that this outpost has been taken. A Corpus garrison unit is on it's way. Now do you understand me?" Jes asked patiently.

"Y-yes. I understand." The Grineer grinned in pain from the punch.

Jes looked at him with conviction. "Good. First question: where is Tyl Reggor?" Jes hoped that Balgaire wouldn't accidentally kill him until they got what they needed.

The captive looked up at the Crewmen. "I don't know who that is." He shrugged.

"You know what to do." Jes looked away as Balgaire dispensed his punishment.