Happy Fourth of July guys! I hope you're enjoying yours! I have some news; all of my stories except a select few are going to be on hiatus until further notice. I'm not abandoning them, just putting them of standby for now; I hope you understand.

Disclaimer: I do not own Warframe

-Location: Tenno Medical Facility; Orcus, Pluto-

A lone soldier lay in the hospital bay. His doctor had informed him not long ago that he would never leave the facility alive. His wounds were too severe to treat. He accepted the news with grace, crying over them once the doctor had left. "I'll never see my family again." He thought; not with sadness or regret, but with the kind of composure that only the nearly dead can call upon. The kind of composure that makes others wonder if you've fallen into madness. As he felt himself slipping away, he remembered an Old Earth song he was taught by his friend, Isaac.

"Oh ,say, can you see by the dawn's early light"

Flashes of his squad cross his eyes: Quint, ever the leader; always keeping them together when times got hard, never letting his rank go to his head; that was Quint, steady, likeable, reliable. Aria, their scout, and the only Tenno to ever posses the female Ash Warframe; she was nice, but kept to herself. He wondered if he could've talked to her more. Isaac, the jokester; always having a joke to match the scenario. He wished that they could've made his dream to become a comedian come true. They all had a small fortune of resources and supplies dedicated towards each other's goals. Always supporting each other; like friends should, like family.

"What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?"

The soldier remembered the first time he gave the salute and swore to serve the Lotus without question. His right hand on his heart, with the other in an Old Earth army salute. He had been so excited for his first assignment, looking back, but it had just been a measly exterminate mission on Mercury.

"Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,"

The soldier thought back to his drills with the command center's Cephalon, Ordis. He had first thought that Ordis was insane, but soon, he saw the harmony in the seemingly random drills that Ordis had made them do.

"O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?"

His first defense mission went off without a hitch; they defended the cryopods until their occupants could awaken, and Aria and Isaac joined them.

"And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,"

But then their command center was attacked, and Ordis was lost. The soldier mourned the Cephalon, but did not allow his loss to affect his training. His squad mourned with him, as they missed the erratic AI that made their time at the center so meaningful. The replacement Cephalon, Simaris, was understanding, but relentless. No matter the loss, they would have to get back to their training.

"Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."

Their resolution paid off, because not a full cycle after the attack, Ordis was sighted drifting in space not far from Europa. Quint had begged their commanding officer to let them go after Ordis, even going as far as offering to scrub the whole command center with toothbrushes. Their officer gave them a serious look, and asked. "You care about this 'Ordis' Cephalon, don't you?" They had all answered that they did, and were prepared to sacrifice anything to get him back. The officer sighed, and reluctantly gave them the access cards to the Liset hangar.

"Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave"

They had pushed the Liset's thrusters to their capacity in their haste to reach Ordis. Aria had pre-programmed their Lisets for emergency retrieval of solid chunks of mass, so they were feeling more than ready to rescue Ordis and report back to base ASAP. Their mistake was not watching the radar for anything other than electric signals. They found Ordis in an asteroid cluster just shy of Europa's gravitational field. They managed to get Ordis onboard Quint's Liset, the Aiedail, and were preparing to make the void jump when a Corpus battleship found them. Instantly, their engines were shut down, and their shields dispersed. Aria, ever the tech-head, managed to get Quint's ship online and evacuated him from it. She set the ship to return to command, and instructed Ordis to report what happened and to send help.

"O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

As the ship roared away, the soldier had the feeling that he would never see Ordis again. They were brought onto the Corpus ship, which to their bad luck, was playing host to "The Sergeant", a Corpus with the habit of dissecting his still-alive captives. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, the soldier followed his captors into their lab. Just then, a loud crash sounded from the hangar. Quint jumped to his feet and sped out the door, with everyone else following him closely. It was reinforcements! They never saw it coming. The roar of a fully charged Lanka sounded in his ears as the bullet sank into his back and detonated. Quint and Aria pulled him to his feet and threw him into the hold of their rescue ship, where a medic waited, pacing quickly. The medic took one look and shook his head, it was too late. The most he could do was prolong the inevitable. They managed to get him to their Orcus facility, where the most advanced medical gear was. That led to this moment, where Ordis watched over his vital signs; mourning in his own way.

As his body gave out, and all the monitors flatlined, he saw his squad holding back tears; Quint didn't move, but the tears poured down his face. Aria was visibly crying into his shoulder, trying less hard to hold them back. Isaac was desperately trying to tell him jokes to keep him alive, thinking that is he laughed, he would stay with them. The soldier addressed his squad. "Quint," Quint looked down at him. "Keep Isaac and Aria safe will you?" Quint shuddered and more tears came down his face, but he didn't wipe them away. "Aria," She glanced down slowly. "You were a good friend, thank you. I wish you godspeed with your scouting." Aria nodded mutely, unable to speak. "Isaac," he said gently. "Look at me." Isaac hung his head, but met his eyes. "I hope you achieve your dream someday. I wish I could've been around to see it fulfilled." Isaac nodded and whispered through his tears. "I will, and I'll dedicate my first performance to you…" He couldn't say more, for he was crying too hard. The soldier drew his last breath, and as his last action, whispered "Long live the Lotus, may she watch over you forever…" And while his squad broke down next to him, the lone soldier passed away peacefully.

I hope you enjoyed this July 4 story. I'm going to be releasing a holiday-themed story from now on, so look forward to them!

'Till next time, DeoxysSpeed out!