Tenno. This will be your last mission under my guidance. Good luck.
The Lotus pauses for a moment as if to give her words time to sink in. There really is no need. I have long resigned myself to this journey's inevitable end. If humanity is to survive- no- if humanity is to have any chance of defeating the Sentients once again, the Tenno must be reactivated. The Betrayal was swift and brutal but our masters knew that our actions were inevitable. The corruption was too contagious for them to stop, too quick, too mutable, and far far too ingrained in the Warframes that they crafted for us. In the end, they knew that they too would fall to the Sentients but… they gave us a chance. Just one. Dragged kicking and screaming, our brothers and sisters were forced into their cryopods; there, with their Warframes inactivated and stripped they could be given immunity to the Sentients' final weapon. Only I and Lerak remain.
This Tower holds the activation sequence for all the cryopods holding your order in stasis. When it is activated, your family will awaken; they cannot see or recognize you. You know what to do. Go.
Lerak quietly slips his bow from his back. Rarely does he let his helmet show his true face but when he turns to look at me I can see him looking at me in quiet pleading through the temporarily transparent metal. He took the loss of his wife so hard. She was not immune like he and I are. It is the greatest irony that the woman that the Order considers our finest doctor was so easily conquered by a virus. He has not smiled since the Betrayal; now, he is smiling silently but I can see the tears streaming down his face.
His helmet speakers click on and he speaks, "It has been an honor serving with you, my friend. When we reach the Citadel, it would do me great honor to give my life and my frame to Wakening. Please... let me rest..."
He does not need me to change my own helmet. I am well aware that he knows exactly what he is asking of me, what I would be condemned to bear. In the century we have worked to bring our brothers and sisters back from their sleep we have not discussed the final step; the last act of this great journey is nothing less than the willing sacrifice of a Warframe- and its Operator. He knows that I will be alone for the rest of my life. It is an anguish that we both know I could survive, after all, I'd already survived it before. He could not. It would utterly destroy him if he had to remain behind, forever haunted that his wife is so close and yet so far... she will not remember him. She cannot ever be his wife again.
I bow my head for a moment and seal my fate, "Of course. I could not ask you to subject yourself to this... void... that we must fill. Rest easy, Lerak the Patient Hunter, Lerak the Relentless Stalker, after this you may rest. I promise to watch over her as you would during this long Vigil."
The relief and gratitude in his eyes almost breaks me. All the self-doubt and fear that I keep hidden away in my soul nearly overwhelms me. I will be alone. Will I truly be able to stand the test of time? Will I shatter under the burdens I will take? I do not know... but it doesn't matter... I will fight for our family until my end because I must. There is no other option or choice.
We make our way out of the docking bay into the Tower HUB. These places have become so dangerous to us after the Betrayal. Even if the Orokin knew what would occur, their automated defenses did not. The once comforting defenses that the Towers provided its visitors have been turned on the only beings capable of accessing them regularly. No Tower could mistake the signature of a Warframe now, not after the blood of the system's masters was splattered against the pristine white halls by Technocyte enhanced weaponry.
Immediately drones spill out of the barracks in the wall and we begin our deadly dance.
The rest of the battle is a blur to me. I remember the pull on my Galatine as it passes through body after body. I remember poignant moments of death and fire when Lerak saves me with a well-placed kunai or I nail a defender to the wall with my Boltor Prime. I remember the intermittent lulls in the fighting when we check each others weapons and armor over for damage or supply needs. I remember the Lotus' instructions when we reach impassable regions of the Tower and she guides us through the sub-levels between the floors and ceilings and walls.
Fighting in the Void is a bittersweet experience. Nowhere else is our skill as Tenno tested as deeply and thoroughly as the in Towers. We both have memories in these towers. We remember as we fight; there are children running between torn corpses, couples dancing between bullet-storms and energy beams, and Tenno challenging their brothers and sisters to run with them in the expansive free running sections on every floor we explore.
When we reach the Citadel, we are both tired and low on ammunition and energy. Thankfully, this Tower will never need to be opened again. The Liset can blast a hole in its side without fear of leaving behind a ruin. After the Wakening, this place will be inaccessible for all time.
"It is time, brother." Lerak speaks quietly and with a bit of awe. His journey is so close to completion.
"Then let us begin." I reply solemnly; I do not let my own doubts leak into my voice. The Citadel is lighting up as we speak. The domed ceiling rises hundreds of meters above us and the rotunda's clear floor is coming to life with the machinery that houses the Citadel communications spire. In the center of the room, a large hologram displays the Citadel's current status and the extension of the massive, kilometers long spire that is the subspace transmitter.
Lerak nods to the hologram before silently laying down his uniquely crafted weapons. There is no ceremony or posturing. He simply moves toward the disassembler on the far side of the room. There is nothing more to be said.
Suddenly, before he can reach the machine, a deafening explosion rocks the Citadel and we are both knocked over onto our backs.
Tenno. There are foreign lifeforms below you. They have breached the Tower. Hurry.
Lerak scrambles to his feet and sprints toward the disassembler but once again, an explosion forces the Citadel to shudder and shake beneath our feet. Before he can recover, the doors behind us buckle and a pressure wave sweeps me across the room. There is nothing I can do to stop myself. I cannot switch teleport away without energy. Lerak is yelling and fighting in unarmed combat as I fly through the air. I cannot even turn to look at him before my body and mind are engulfed in agonizing fire.
I have fallen into the disassembler. Our mission is a success. His mission is a failure.
A/N: Grammar and spelling corrected.
