Lost in the Sands
A raging sandstorm swept over the desolate plains of Phobos. Four figures, four unlucky wanderers, caught in this black blizzard, were pressin onwards in search of a shelter.
Four warframes, controlled by four operators, safely hidden in the black void of space above Phobos. Their minds anchored to the bodies below, together forming a 'Tenno' - a master of gun and blade.
Stuck on this sandball, the four were unable to return to their ships. The heavy storm interfering with their ability to contact their ship's cephalon, and relay their location. Thus the only thing left to them was finding a shelter and waiting out the sandstorm.
An Ember warframe, mistress of all things fire, colored in bright red colours caught up to their leader - a completely white Frost warframe.
"Vaan, have you any idea where exactly are we heading?" she shouted, to be heard over the storm, for it was strong enough to interfere even with their short-range communications.
"Straight, Dala! Straight. Does it look like we have a big choice of where to go?" the paragon of winter shouted back. He was irritated, as their mission had failed. The target had escaped, they'd been driven into the desert by a whole goddamn platoon of Grineer Napalms, Bombards and Elite Troopers, and, to make matters worse, a storm of massive scale had arisen soon after. At least they'd lost their hunters.
The Ember let out a dissatisfied sight, and fell slightly back. The Mesa warframe, at the end of the line stopped, and soon after so did the Loki in front of her. The trickster looked back, as the sharpshooter was observing something to the right of the group. The Loki walked up to the woman and waited as she lifted her Vectis class sniper rifle.
After a moment she lowered it, looked at her squad-mate, and said:"Ruins. Tell Vaan."
The Loki gave her a thumbs-up and ran to catch up with the two Tenno in front. The other two had put a sizeable distance between them, but their bright colors stood out like a sore thumb, unlike the Loki, who always changed his colors, to fit the environment he was heading to.
A moment later though, the group had huddled together, and Shera, the Mesa, pointed towards the ruins, saying: "It's hard to make out, but there are some structures in the distance."
Vaan pulled out his Codex Scanner, and zoomed in on the approximate area where the Mesa had pointed. After a minute of searching, he noticed the scanner drawing an outline of some structure in the distance.
"Alright. Good job, Shera. Let's go, everyone!" the Frost said, and headed down the dune they had been standing on. The others followed, as the sandstorm buffeted them.
The path to the ruins was littered with steep slopes, and openings that led to desolate tunnels, abandoned long ago underneath the ever-shifting desert. Vaan tried his best to point out these and other dangers they came across, although once Zeifer, the Loki, managed to fall into one of these tunnels.
Other than that, the trek to the ruins was uneventful, albeit not easy. The sandstorm did not let up even for a bit, taxing both the bodies and the minds of the Tenno. The frames might be just shells, but the fact that the operators' consciousness was embedded in said shell, ensured that they felt every grain of sand pelting their shields.
Approximately an hour had passed since they spotted the ruins, when they finally arrived at them. Circling around the few structures peeking out of the sand, they soon spotted an entrance to tunnels below, and all of them quickly got in, sitting down a few steps away from the entrance.
"I swear… Treks like this, make me feel like Orokin pudding…" the Loki said after a moment of rest.
"Can it, Zei. We all feel like crap. Pointing that out does no good." Dala snapped at the trickster.
"Alright, cool it." Vaan interjected. "Let's see where this tunnel leads to. If we're lucky, might find something useful."
The Frost started down the tunnel, heading deeper into the darkness. The others groaned with displeasure, but seeing how Vaan had already made good headway, got up and followed the man.
They all soon turned on their flashlights, and the Mesa caught up with him, and tapped on his shoulder, drawing his attention.
And what if we're unlucky? I have no wish to deal with a swarm of Eximi, or yet another Manic." Shera stated her concerns.
"Relax. We've not heard or seen any Grineer in hours. So I doubt will find any here." the Frost shrugged.
"We've also been trekking through a dense storm out in the desert. Whereas this is a structure. And you know full well, that Grineer keep almost exclusively to their settlements." Shera pointed out.
"Hmm… fair point…" Vaan noted, and stopped. He drew his Cernos class bow, and proceeded forwards in silence. The others seeing this, prepared their weapons as well.
In a short while the tunnel grew lighter, and they found themselves in a spacious room, with light pouring in from the holes in the center of the pyramid-like ceiling. Sand was tossed in every now and then by the wind, but it was in miniscule amounts.
The walls were covered in carvings in a strange language, if it could be called that.
"This… ain't even remotely similar to any language in the Origin system." Zeifer stated, after inspecting the writing closer. It consisted of circles, joined with sharp-angled lines, organised in a seemingly vertical pattern.
"Hmm… well, this sure warrants investigation." Vaan let out a slight laugh, looking at Shera, and then addressed the others: "Spread out, and catalogue as much of the writing as possible. Look for repeated patterns or any specific symbols."
Dala and Zeifer looked confused for a moment, but hen nodded, put away their weapons, and produced their own Codex Scanners. They started to catalogue the walls, to the left and right of the entrance, and Shera headed to the opposite end of the room, while Vaan inspected the broken obelisk in the centre of the room.
They all soon noticed that one specific symbol stood out. It consisted of an upside down arc, atop a circle with lines extending from it's sides and bottom.
Zeifer ran his fingers over the sandstone, and came up on an indentation in the wall. He gave it a light press, and it revealed itself to be a button.
A loud crack echoed throughout the room, and everyone looked around for something happening, as the floor started shaking.
"Zei, what the hell did you do!?" Dala stormed up to the Loki that had frozen in terror.
"Wh… what makes you think it was me?" He stuttered.
"Because it's always you. You either wander off, prank a guard or go around pushing random buttons…" Dala raised an accusative finger to the Loki's helmet, voicing her irritation.
"You have to agree, Zei. Dala does have a point…" Vaan pitched in, having replaced his Scanner with the Cernos. The echoes filling the room sounded like massive gears grinding.
"I guess... " the Loki lowered his head. "... but my pranks are funny!" he argued back.
"Psh… maybe to a child…" Dala scoffed, and drew her Ignis class flamethrower. The noise died down, and the trio looked around.
"Well, then your squad leader is a child... " Vaan let out a hearty laugh, and Zeifer joined in. "But you have to admit - that Napalm, stuck atop a radio tower was hilarious…"
"A moronic waste of time. Zei should have just teleported him over the edge of the platform and be done with it." Dala sounded disgruntled.
While the three were busy bickering, Shera had inspected a gap that had opened up nearly in front of her. She drew her Vectis and shone a light in the pitch-black tunnel. Not seeing anything dangerous, the Mesa crawled in, and rose to her feet. The walls in the tunnel were the same as outside, and she headed in a bit deeper, inspecting the writings.
A few steps later she stumbled on something, that turned out to be a tattered, red garment. Preoccupied with it, she did not notice the darkness and silence closing in around her.