Synthesis of a Comba

by NineKat

Nul Comba, quite a troublesome enemy of the Tenno as their technology in nullification can prove to render even the mightest of Warframes unusable. One such Comba finds herself as being one of the biggest providers in the Corpus' efforts in developing technology to further combat the Tenno- yet how long can she go unnoticed? Perhaps she should have taken better precautions before

Pluto, such a beautiful dwarf planet to gaze at with its dark blue tones and iced over landscapes. Despite its size, it still seemed so large when this close. One of the Corpus ships floating just above in the weak orbit was home to dozens of nameless crewmen. Of these was a woman currently staring out at the planet along one of the walkways of the ship. This was her routine view on her way through the ship, her own reflection shimmering in the spotless windows that automated robots kept clean. It all seemed so quiet this far away from the conflict especially with attention directed at Venus, however, she did not mind the silence one bit.

This woman, of the Corpus, was one of the higher up crewmen on this vessel, a position known as the Comba. Her helmet was currently folded down behind her head and around her neck, exposing her face that showed the usual markings of a Corpus. This was normally ill-advised, some crewmen giving her a side-eyed glance of disapproval. Even so safely on their unimportant ship, the Corpus was always to be alert for possible intruders of any variety.

It was hard for her to feel such worry though while being one of the leading researchers on combating the most dangerous enemy they have encountered: The Tenno. This thought brought her attention down to her emitters weighing down her forearms that were altered compared to her fellow Comba. Being one of the best at developing this technology, she had made vast strides in improving it to better counter anything thrown their way. This was not the bread and butter of her technology though- that would be her helmet.

With it currently folded down, it could not be seen that it was slightly different than what a Nul class of Comba wore. Several more sensors laid along the normally bare metal as well as powerful emitters to further amplify the nullifying fields. A soft smile spread across her lips at thoughts of how it would perform in actual combat. Her power packs as well gave the modified tech far less uses, but much more effectiveness.

Speaking of which, she finally turned from the window to begin heading down the hallways of the Corpus ship. Such large spaces still annoyed her as she hated how easily it could be taken advantage of, however, changing such features of a large ship was out of her expertise. The bright lights lit her way as she rode an elevator up, making her way to the living quarters that went largely unused. It gave her more privacy in her own room at least.

It had been months since she was contacted by a Scrambus who occupied Orb Vallis- such a horrible place to work she thought. They were appreciative of the advances in nullifying tech she sent them to aid in their work against the Fortuna residents gaining the aid of the Tenno, however… it apparently was not enough with word of two Orb Mothers falling. This information she probably should not know about, yet it was hard for the Scrambus she stayed in contact with to keep his mouth shut.

She paused for a moment, chewing on her lower lip as she thought over the different tech she had sent them like what has aided in making the Jackals and Raknoids far more resistant to Tenno abilities. Her favorite development was with the Icemire Hyena that was outfitted with a much more powerful version of her own nullifying tech that all but immunized the robot from the Tenno's specialized weaponry. Of course, this was nothing compared to what she outfitted on her person.

Before she continued her walk, a spike of anxiety surged through her enough to stall her breath. Being such a proud creator she left her signature on almost all of her tech and- and…

Her walk became a fast jog on her way to her quarters that she quickly shut the door of. Unknown to her fellow crewmen, she made sure to keep her room tightly secured due to dealings with her friends on Orb Vallis not exactly approved by the guilds. There was no time to think about that though as she quickly opened a communication line with her heart thumping in worry.

"Yeah, what is it?"

The static-filled voice of a male came into her earpiece while the image of a Slo Scrambus helmet appeared on the screen. The Comba was still with her helmet down which was unusual for him to see, yet the worry on her face made him visibly tense.

"You made sure to wire my devices with self decay, correct?"

Her own voice was dry causing her to have to lick her lips as she awaited the response, even fiddling with the lining of her head cover just to quell her nerves.

The Scrambus on the screen slumped, sitting down fully to take this call more seriously despite the distant noises of alert going on in the background of his own station. This was normal for an area such as the Orb Vallis in a constant state of being attacked, yet it was not helping with the Comba's fears.

"All proxies are outfitted with such, you should know this. The explosion of the rest of the unit should easily destroy y-"

"No! I told you to specifically attach one to the inside of the main hub as I specifically made them highly resistant to outside damage," she just about shouted over the communication line that had the Scrambus startled. The anger in her face had her pale skin reddened as the Comba was starting to feel dizzy now with the anxiety building up.

Silence befell the communication line besides the distant alarms continuing to go off on the other side. After a moment, the Scrambus reached forward towards the console and spoke in a rough whisper, "I'm sorry."

The screen cut off that had the Comba gasp in surprise, immediately trying to regain the signal, yet every time she did the line was blocked. Her fingers trembled at her desk to not believing the Scrambus had just cut ties with her due to a mistake on his end. This enraged her as she slammed her gloved fist down on her desk and continued to try to open communications again in a desperate attempt to fix this. Perhaps she could have him round up any pieces of the tech that had been destroyed, but that could be in the hundreds by now…

Her frantic attempts to trying to open channels with any of her contacts in Orb Vallis was interrupted by banging on her door. That was unusual, no one bothered her directly at her quarters which brought her attention to a horrible realization. The sounds of muffled alarms she was hearing in her call with Orb Vallis did not stop after the line was cut.

Those were the alarms of her own ship.

"Get out here! We need you now, we have an intruder!"

The voice outside her door spoke through a button communicator as her room was normally soundproof. The alarms were loud enough to be heard just barely though as the Comba began to shake. This could not just be a coincidence, this was not happening. All of her confidence in her safety began to drain from her face as sure, she had the tech to deal with most situations, however- she has never been in combat.

The banging on the door continued before there was noises of the crewmen on the other side suspecting she may not be coming out. He was beginning to hack the door open, but she was not paying attention to that while she tried to hold her hands still in her growing fear. All she could think is that she was about to die to the very thing she has spent so long building tech to fight against. Never seeing combat and always focusing her attention on developing the tech is what made her advance so fast, yet now she did not know how to utilize it.

Were there really intruders already coming for her? Was her paranoid getting the better of her? Perhaps it was just a coincidence and the intrusion is something small. She is safe out here on the edge of the galaxy on an unimportant ship, right?

Her door finally slid open as a crewman stood there, letting out a long breath as he looked down at the woman practically having a panic attack. It was not too rare to see a Corpus get terrified at the sounds of an intruder coming aboard their ship, but he expected more out of the leading engineer of the technology to even combat most of the dangerous foes they had.

"Come on, it's no-"

"I know!"

Her interruption was screamed, expelling some of her fears in the sudden outburst. Of course, she knew someone was infiltrating the ship. She was the only one of the Comba class on this vessel and she knew the nullifier crewman could only do so much even with her advancement on their packs. She was still shaking though while she pushed herself to stand, rubbing tears and sweat from her cheeks.

"You done now," the crewman questioned, doing his best not to be too cold, yet here in a situation like this anxiety was only going to kill this Comba faster.

"Yes, sorry," she muttered, turning to try to find her Detron. The crewman continued to stand at her door, waiting on her as he gave glances out into the hallway where a few other crewmen ran by. The alarms continued to blare, but beyond that only heavy footsteps were heard and gear being equipped. When the Comba finally got her gun she holstered it to her side then gave a questioning glance to the crewman still there.

He turned his attention back towards her before hefting his Lanka onto his shoulder as he pointed towards some of the equipment in the side of the room, "I'm going to need one of your packs."

It took her a moment to register, but she nodded, heading over to the corner of the room where she stored some of her latest advancements. This power pack was much heavier than normal as she began to pull it from its resting spot. It did not have a projector drone like the rest as instead was outfitted with powerful emitters much like her own helmet and with the added power it would be able to sustain a field of disruption.

"Here," she huffed, the large pack being a bit too weighty for her as she simply dragged it to show the crewmen as he made his way over. It was not until he came over to look at the pack did she recognize his uniform to be someone she knew. Granted, it was difficult to tell between her fellow crewmen in their full getup and distorted voices through their helmets, but a smile still came across her face to have someone familiar next to her.

"Did you have to make it so heavy," he grunted at pulling the device up onto his shoulders.

The Comba sighed while moving to help him fasten it on as she spoke softer in being familiar with him now, "It's a prototype, so of course I haven't trimmed it down yet. You should know being the one that tests my junk."

She could hear a short laugh from inside his helmet as he went to pick his Lanka back up. It was strange how this moment made the alarms vanish- hold on. She gave a wary look towards the doorway as the crewman beside her seemed to have noticed as well that the alarms were no longer blaring.

"Is it already over," she asked in confusion as she was so certain the intruder would be there for her, but perhaps it was just a fluke. The ship was not exploding though and no one was passing by her open door. It was as if the ship had gone back to normal.

"Maybe," the crewman huffed, still struggling with the new weight of the pack as he made his way to the door to give quick glances out of. No alarms and no other crewmen running by which had him suspicious as he made his way out.

On seeing him leave, the Comba quickly moved to follow, not wanting to be alone during such a situation. They headed down out of the personal quarters section, riding the elevator to the central hub of the ship. The both of them were silent, although the trip was short. When the doors opened the smell of burning flesh and rubber hit the Comba hard enough to make her cough.

"You should put your helmet back on," the crewman said gruffly as he readied his weapon.

Once she stopped coughing, the Comba looked up to see trails of flames along the formerly pristine metal floors, but that is not what alarmed her. Bodies of her fellow Corpus were strung about, most completely burnt by an almost ethereal fire. This should not startle her, but it was her first time seeing corpses in such horrible states. Some still making their last motions of life and others nothing more than black marks on the walls. Her hands remained over her mouth as she was in a moment of shock before a nudge on her shoulder pulled her to reality and the crewman beside her came into her view.

"I said, put your helmet on. You're going to die if you don't listen," he said bluntly and reached to press the mechanism that unfolded her helmet to form over her head. The smells were blocked from her nose and her world went black for just a moment until the light in her helmet powered up. A clear hud formed in front of her face and she took several deep breaths of the fresh oxygen that flowed in.

She did not even have time to relax before gunfire startled both of them. The crewman moved first, making fast strides towards the direction of the sounds which left the Comba on her own, still frozen. Shutting her eyes tight she shook her head and made off behind him as if her body was now on autopilot.

As they turned a tight corner, the Comba suddenly felt herself shoved back behind it. The crewman had stopped her from progressing and pressed himself against the edge as well as he peered around. Down the way, the room was filled with trails of fire and what sent the Comba's blood cold was hearing screams of another crewman. Only the crewman with her could see the horrifying scene of another in uniform just like him impaled upon a spear made of pure energy. He was engulfed by flames to silence the yells of agony while a figure stood harmlessly within the blaze around them. It was a Tenno.

The Comba was getting far too curious, needing to see too as she managed to squeeze by fast enough to look around the corner and what she saw she would never forget. How merciless and cold the Tenno looked while moving his hand down to allow the spear to slam the burning corpse onto the ground effortlessly, killing what life remained of the unfortunate man.

The crewman with her gripped her shoulders to pull her back just enough that she did not give them away, but she had seen enough to know what the Tenno looked like. Taller than any Corpus, yet with a slim body more like an armorless man. The adornments were almost beautiful, made of gold metals and bizarre cloths hanging down his chest, but leaving his midsection to his thighs exposed. The body itself looking neither flesh nor metal along with equally confusing style of armoring on his legs. There was nothing she could compare the Tenno's appearance to, yet the way his helmet had no human features besides glowing cracks that resembled eyes reminded her more of a robot than any human.

She was hyperventilating which was heard even through her helmet while this went noticed by the crewman beside her. He knew they would be outmatched, but there were not many options they had in such a place. The sound of metal clanking echoed down the way as the Tenno was stalking around, probably unsure which direction to go next to whatever he was looking for.

The static of the communication earpiece in the Comba's helmet flared up as the crewman beside her used it to talk quietly, "You need to evacuate."

This caused her to look up at him through her helmet, confused by his remark even though it should make sense given the situation. She was silent for a moment, yet when looking around she realized the way to the escape ships would be to go through where the Tenno was. Surely he realized this as fast as she did, both of them being on this Corpus ship for quite a long time together now.

"How and why? We don't kno-"

"Alba… we both know the only thing worth anything on this ship," the crewman interrupted her as hearing her name made her tense up. It was not something she was used to hearing, especially from him while she knew he had figured it out by now. The guilt hit her hard as she glanced back at the bodies of the other crewmen knowing that they died because of her.

She opened her mouth to reply to him, to say his name too and deny leaving, but her words died on her breath and she stood in silence. A tremble went through her as in her mind she saw herself bravely standing up and saying she would protect him with the remaining crew of their ship by using her tech- but…

He moved before she could say anything, revealing himself out from the corner with his gun at the ready just as the buzz of his power pack went on. The bright blue nullifier field formed without the overhead drone normally needed and expanded far more rapidly as lines of yellow spread through it in a geometric manner much like a Comba's nullification field.

The whole scene felt slow motion as she watched him walking out to confront the Tenno on his own which was obvious why, he was a distraction. He was not dumb, he knew she was unfit to fight even with all the technology in the universe. Her coward nerves would lock her up and get her killed. This was the least he could do to try to preserve her knowledge against the Tenno.

The sound of his Lanka firing woke her up just as a hot ring of fire sailed towards the crewman. It immediately fizzled out of existence the moment it hit the nullification field, the prototype proving its worth in this moment. All the flame trails were erased as he walked forward towards the Tenno, his Lanka's shots slamming into them. Victory was short lived as the Tenno did not flinch to such a powerful shot, a ring of fire spinning around him that shrugged off the energy bolt with ease. Thankfully the crewman's intention was only to gain the Tenno's attention as he turned to immediately run towards a hallway away from both Alba and the path leading to the evacuation dock.

As predicted, the Tenno followed the crewman at inhuman speed, almost catching up to him in mere seconds, yet what stopped him was this new nullification barrier being completely impassable. The ring of fire around the Tenno vanished in a hiss and he himself could not even go through it, perplexed by this development. Still, as the crewman continued to run the other way, the Tenno pursued, determined to get through this new barrier.

Meanwhile, Alba stood pressed against the corner in a terrified state as the hallway the crewman took was across from where she hid. This allowed her to watch her friend being chased by one of the most feared beings in the galaxy. She tried not to move too soon, but she turned the corner to make a break for the path she needed to take. This movement caught the attention of the Tenno making him pause for long enough to try to look her direction. Before he could, another shot from the crewman's Lanka connected with his helmet unprotected by the ring of fire.

This did not do much damage despite going through the near supernatural defenses, but it did cause a nasty burn mark against the Tenno's head. It was enough to bring his attention back to the crewman. Something neither Alba or the crewman saw before was the weapon mounted on the Tenno's back that he reached back to pull out now. Alba glanced back, pausing out of guilt halfway down the hallway the Tenno impaled the previous crewman. She saw the Tenno holding a more familiar weapon, yet it was so modified she almost did not recognize it. An Arca Plasmor was now being aimed towards the crewman being pursued.

All Alba could see was the barrier moving away as the Tenno continued to follow, but now the sound of an over modified Arca Plasmor rang through the ship. She needed to continue to head towards the exit, but she knew the barrier would not hold up to such a powerful gun for long. Now she was stuck with a choice of helping her friend or escaping to preserve her knowledge.

She was an idiot.

At first, she made her way to the evacuation ships, most already being taken as only a couple remained that she needed to use- she would have used… if she had not turned back. Finally gaining some of her nerves back, she activated her skates to move quicker back into the direction of where the Tenno and her friend were fighting. The closer she got the louder the sounds of the Arca Plasmor and Lanka going off were.

Soon, she found the trails of fire and followed them with haste until she reached one of the storage rooms of the ship that was a dead end for her crewman friend. She saw the Tenno firing one more shot before the barrier finally gave out, exposing the crewman as his Lanka clicked empty of ammo. At seeing the crewman now without defense or offense, the Tenno paused, lowering his gun as he approached. It was like watching a predator about to kill its prey.

Alba was still too far away as she reached for her Detron desperately. She needed to distract the Tenno, get his attention away from her friend so that he could find cover- get away, anything! The crewman looked past the Tenno to see Alba standing there raising her weapon she had no experience in using. Her trembles were almost knocking the gun out of her hands. If she could see his face she would realize how she just threw away his efforts.

"You reckless woman."

Long before she could fire her Detron, the Tenno raise his hand as energy spears came from the ground to run right through the power pack on the crewman's back, yanking him in the air just before a second sliced through his body sending searing pain through him. His gurgled scream caused Alba to stiffen with her gun aimed their way, realizing she was too late. Just to cap off the kill, the Tenno raised his Arca Plasmor once more and fired a shot at the crewman that impacted so hard that when his body vaporized it slammed into the nearby wall before it was completely gone.

Alba was in a state of shock, tears forming in her eyes as her hands shook too hard to hold her gun anymore causing it to clatter to the ground as she muttered the dead crewman's name, "R-Remus?"

- Several months earlier -

Alba groaned while wearing a tight getup unlike her usual Comba attire. She hated it as she pulled on some goggles to complete the look, a disguise identical to the outfits those who worked on relays wore. It took her so long to figure out the exact suit and recreate it to the very fiber, although it was tighter than she anticipated in her fumbling with not knowing how to fit clothes. It would serve the purpose though even if she had to pull at the legs to get rid of the uncomfortable wedgie.

"Not a bad look," a voice from the corner of the room came along with a gruff laugh. This lit Alba's face red as she tugged again at the tight material in embarrassment.

"S-shut up, Remus, this was your stupid idea," Alba swore at the man, now without his crewman helmet. They were in her quarters as she had been changing into the outfit. He was no different than the other crewman as she too was pretty average looking, yet different enough to tell apart in the face.

He walked around the room, picking up a small ear device from the table of junk that Alba kept a lot of her work on. Heading towards her, he held it out with a cocked smile, "You really are helpless, not even putting your communication in yet."

She puffed her cheeks at him while swiping the device from his hand and quickly lifting her head cover to place it in her ear. All the while he was watching her to the point she gave him a confused look at his constant staring, making a blush appear on her cheeks.

"W-what? Did I put it in wrong?"

"You sure you want to do this, I could go inst-"

She shook her head, cutting him off briskly, "You don't know my scrambler well enough to use it for this."

Remus' eyebrows scrunched up with obvious concern, but he turned away from her with a long sigh. He was not going to argue especially with how sensitive this mission would be. Infiltrating the Orcus Relay was not an easy task even if he preferred going himself. He glanced down at Alba once more while she continued to fiddle with her uncomfortable suit that made him think of how she had the motor skills of a child. What she made up in that was her unrivaled learning and expert social skills which made her perfect for such an endeavour. Not even the higher ups in the guild knew about this.

"You're staring at me again, Remus," she hissed, obviously getting annoyed at his gawking which snapped him out of his thoughts to give her a dorky smile. She hated when he did that cause she knew he had the best fake faces she came across on their ship, it spiked worry in her chest.

"How can I not? I can see everything in a suit that tight," he cheekily presented that knocked all the worry out of her and replaced it with raw embarrassment. She quickly dismissed his perverted thoughts by throwing a notebook at him a bit too hard that he fumbled.

"Shut up and follow this plan," she sighed, rubbing the blush out of her cheeks as she headed over to pick up a shoulder bag. Remus nodded, although still giving her a lopsided smile to ease her nerves as he looked over the notebook. It was a fully detailed layout of how the plan would go starting with the ship she would be using to get into the Relay. It still impressed him how she could really pull off this half-assed idea he presented her with actual methods. It had only been a few weeks ago when he told her that she should just find out how some of the tech worked that the Tenno primarily used which started with one of the biggest knowledge figures allied with them: Cephalon Simaris.

"All this work just to steal a synthesis scanner," he whispered under his breath, flipping through the lengthy plan book as Alba readied herself, not having heard him. He kept glancing towards her, even with the goggles on he could not help but be enamoured by her both physically and mentally before he pulled his eyes away.

"You ready? We need to leave now," she said quietly, obviously nervous herself, yet also excited to actually see the inside of a Relay. There was no response from Remus as she raised an eyebrow at him, "You o-"

"Yeah, let's go," he said suddenly, startling her as he snapped the notebook shut. He turned immediately without letting her look at his face that left her frowning while they headed out. He was far too good at hiding that emotion of his.

- Present -

The sound of the gun hitting the floor alerted the Tenno, turning around as his attention was fully on Alba now. She had not even noticed, still looking past him to the spot where Remus was just vaporized. The metal clink the Tenno's feet made on the floor brought her out of her shock, eyes darting to him approaching her. She was going to be the next to die, seeing the Arca Plasmor still raised now towards her. The plasma on its barrel still glowing that she stared at frozen in fear.

It would be over in moments, she knew it. Her eyes closed, ready to be vaporized as well.

Those moments passed though as she heard more footsteps towards her and when she opened her eyes she saw the Tenno staring her down. He was observing her as he pulled out a small device having holstered his gun when she had her eyes closed. Confusion overtook her before easing up when she recognized the device.

A synthesis scanner is what the Tenno pulled out that at first, sent a spike of terror through her as she had taken one of those apart and learned every bit of it. She knew exactly what it could do to someone and the fact he was not killing her told her he was not here to do that. She was a capture target.

Still frozen by the events, she kept looking over to where Remus had died, hoping maybe she had imaged it and he was going to jump out and save her at any moment. His Lanka laid on the ground having been discarded right before his death which brought her to stare down towards her Detron she dropped earlier. She needed to act, just standing there to be an easy target was not how she wanted to go out, her body slowly moving to ready herself to grab the weapon.

The Tenno seemed to have noticed, seeing her begin to move as he stepped forward in a fiery stomp, incinerating the Detron as he crushed it under his foot. The action caused Alba to squeak in surprise, falling backwards enough to slip on her skates and land on her rear. She needed to remember even if he was not going to kill her, he could still very much hurt her.

Her eyes were still fogged with the tears of her emotions, yet the more she panicked the clearer her mind was becoming. The synthesis scanner was pointed towards her as the device zoomed in on her person as she remained prone, only moving her arm slightly up to her chest. As the click of the scan went off, the device suddenly sparked and fizzled in a mess of glitches as her helmet let out a ringing ping to blocking the scan.

It worked.

If she was not so scared she would be grinning right now to seeing the synthesis scanner being overloaded with a backlash of interference, one of her many tools in her suit at countering Tenno's technology- especially tech they allied with. She had too many fellow Comba from other ships give horror stories of their crewmen being synthesized and she wanted to put a stop to it.

This development must have confused the Tenno as he started to shake and hit the device, probably not knowledged enough to actually fix it. This was her chance to do something, anything!

Out of panic, she brought both her arms up to her chest, the large emitters on her forearms clicked together and immediately became the center of the Tenno's attention, but far too late for him to react. A shield of electrical damage flooded out in front of her, smacking into the Tenno and causing massive damage to him which made smoke flow from his form as bolts of energy trailed up his body causing black marks to all they touched. That defensive flame around him had been down when dealing with Remus, so the Tenno was taking the full damage from Alba's energy shield.

As he was stunned, Alba scrambled to her feet, knowing she needed to escape now or Remus' death would be completely in vain. The Tenno struggled to move against the stunning effect, reaching out a clawed hand towards her as she was already on her feet and powering her skates to make her escape. With only defenses, all she could do was run now and hope to outpace him. Adrenaline fueled her now being switched into flight mode.

She could hear her heartbeat in her ears as she pushed herself to get to the evacuation bay the fastest she ever could. Her thighs burned from exerting herself, that even despite her shakes still took effort to go fast enough through the larger hallways of the ship. On her way through, she saw crewmen in front of her looking over the remains of their fallen comrades, completely unaware there was still an intruder on board.

Moving too fast to stop before them, she skidded to a halt just after passing through them, a few looking her way in confusion as she turned only to see the Tenno had more than recovered. He had outright caught up to the point he was not far behind as she shouted through her helmet in a static crackle, "Look out!"

Worry struck her as she realized that even though there was a good crowd of crewmen there, they would not be able to do much as none of them were outfitted with a nullifying power pack. All she saw was Remus being vaporized again as the Tenno was engulfed in his ethereal ring of flames just as the crewmen prepared their weapons.

"Please, you need to run, don't fight," she tried to say, but the crewmen were already shouting over her as they began to open fire. She watched as every energy shot and bullet simply bounced off or completely dissipated against the Tenno. He was invincible in her eyes while he had those rings of flame around him. She had to do something, her nullification was the only thing that could.

Standing behind the crewmen she fiddled with a control in her suit, her helmet making loud pings like it did when breaking the scanner. The emitters that lined her helmet flared to life, but as she was ready to send out a field of nullification the Tenno was moving. In mere seconds he closed the gap between him and the crewmen with a toss of a ring of fire that he appeared through.

What resulted next caused Alba to be pushed back by the explosion of fire, making her not set off her device. Dazed by being knocked back, she was snapped awake by the sounds of screaming men as around the Tenno the floor was lit with fire that engulfed the crewmen. She had to act fast as the Tenno raised a hand and energy spikes emerged from the floor, impaling crewmen around him as it approached her and the men beside her. She was going to die if she did not work quick enough while her helmet pinged again.

A yellow grid of energy spanned out from her, just barely protecting the few crewmen beside her and herself from the spears that fizzled out the moment they touched it. The expansion grew in speed the more it spread and the Tenno could not react before being hit by it. Immediately, he gripped his head in the sudden disarray he experienced. All the flames disappeared even if it was too late for those impaled or burned to recover and the nullification grid vanished outward being expended. The crewmen beside her were first to act, getting back on their feet as they readied their weapons once more while the Tenno was dazed.

Staring up at seeing energy bullets impact with the Tenno made Alba's chest tighten, watching a seemingly invincible monster being pushed back. Some of his armor was chunked off by the blast of a Sniper Crewman's Lanka that immediately broke the confused state the Tenno was in. He retreated backwards in haste, rounding a corner for cover as the crewmen gave sounds of advance in their small victory. Alba was stunned, realization that she could do something; her technology worked.

Pushing herself up she was going to help the crewmen in their pursuit, being a good bit behind them as they rounded the corner. Before she could turn the corner too, a brilliant flash of particles blinded her as a sound that drained all hope from her was heard- an Arca Plasmor.

She watched as the crewmen that rounded the corner were sent back by the hard impact and their bodies vaporizing in the brilliant particles of the over-modded weapon. She wanted to scream, to cry at the moment they got a leg up on this monster that he only came back with something even more powerful. Was nothing ever going to work?

She should have kept running.

Silence befell the hallways now as there were no more crewmen, the Tenno slowly walking around the corner to eye her emotionlessly. His injuries were seemingly recovered as if able to regenerate on a whim and the fire ring around him burst forth once more. It was so hot she could feel it through her suit from the few feet away she was.

He really was a monster.

In a snap, a flaming ring closed the gap between them, slamming into her midsection that sent her flying. The blunt force knocked all the air out of her even as the flames fizzled out immediately against her nullification suit. She skidded on the ground from the sheer force of the ability despite it not being able to harm her, it was still an impactful object. There was no time to be a scared little girl anymore while she crawled on the ground, out of breath and trying to get back up.

A hard knee slammed into her back, pinning her to the ground that caused her to scream out in frustration. It felt less like a man's knee and more like a metal beam had just fallen on her, a crack in her back proving how little she was armored to physical trauma. Nothing broke, but she sure felt it while she heard the scraping of metal claws against her helmet. The Tenno pinning her down was trying to pull her helmet off, her only advantage. She could not let it happen this way.

Another loud ping rang off as she sent her nullification field into overdrive, emitting a strong pulse from her helmet that shown a distorted red grid. The overload would shorten her uses, but it would be much stronger than before as the moment it hit the Tenno he was sent back immediately, leaving claw marks on the surface of her helmet that was not enough to damage it.

With the knee removed from her sore back, she was able to push herself up but not before looking back at what the pulse had done to the Tenno. It made her pause at seeing him gripping his head and thrashing on the ground in agony as if it had disrupted his whole systems. It was unsettling to watch, not being aware she could cause such damage to them with previous versions of the nullification field only disabling their abilities for a short time. Her stronger version seemed to have impacted the very inner workings…

There were no screams from this monster despite the confused pain he appeared to be in. It still made her feel ill watching him. Her expression growing colder as she reached to activate her nullification field again. Perhaps she could kill him, get revenge for what he did to Remus and all the other crewmen of her ship. Her hand shook before she activated it, her morals coming back to her as she hesitated against doing such an act despite so badly wanting to.

Did she really want to be a monster herself?

Just before she could do anything, she looked up to another figure rounding the corner, glancing around in haste. Alba's eyes widened at realizing one horrible fact…

Tenno rarely went on missions alone.

Another Tenno, standing there not as tall as the one she had been running from, but far more mechanical. His form was slick in design as electricity sparked off the metal of his body. There was no face, as just a bizarre metal adorned helmet looked towards her polished enough to almost see her own reflection before it directed down to its fellow Tenno. The coils around his upper arms reminded her of devices used to conduct electricity which fit with how much was sparking off him.

Without another thought and only throbs in both her abdomen and back, she turned to run, unsure if she would be able to make it with two of them on the ship now. She did not look back as she just tried to head towards the evacuation bay now, the ship so empty now as she passed by charred corpses. Only now she realized only a few of them were done by fire, the others by electricity.

The newly arrived Tenno started to chase after, but paused by his partner, staring down at him still in pain. He bent down to check on him, trying to see what was wrong only to get a hand swatted at him. A clawed finger pointed towards the direction Alba ran with frustration as the electricity-based Tenno gave a roll of his head, not taking her escape too seriously. Despite being told to give chase, he pulled out a small device that began to emit a healing field to the downed Tenno. Only then did he nod and began to give a few hops as if getting ready for a race. The energy around him sparked into tendrils of lightning growing by the moment, causing nearby lights to overload and flicker.

Alba gasped for breath, looking up at there only being one ship left in the bay. She had made it, surprised she had not been pursued yet. All she had to do was open the door that lead to the ship and it would lock down behind her, securing her escape. Hope filled her chest as she punched in the code on the panel near the door. The moment of relief left her drifting to her thoughts, a sullen feeling coming across her as she finished the code, only having to press enter. She wished she could have escaped with Remus, but now she was alone…

Static crackled beside her as something gripped her shoulder and slammed her back into the door she had been so close to opening. The wind got knocked out of her through the surprise and force as her hud flickered to the image in front of her of the streamline helmet and slender robotic figure. The electric-based Tenno's helmet was so close the tip of it scraped against hers causing a hot static noise. He had caught up to her, but how? She had not heard or seen him at all in her way here.

With all her strength she reached up to shove him away, but he was as solid as the strongest built robotics she had ever encountered. The static on his body lapped at her suit every time she touched him making her pull back and instead try to remove his arm. Her motions turning into a frantic struggle, yet all he did was hold his forearm against her collar bone, curiously watching her reactions. He was not budging while she began to panic and brought her arms where her energy shield emitters were up between them. Just before she clicked them together to cause the blast of energy, the Tenno grabbed both of the emitters and dug his fingers into the metal to the point they came in contact with the wiring inside.

A massive surge of electricity rushed into the devices from the Tenno, overloading them and getting under her suit enough to give her whole body a weak jolt. She screamed out in pain under her helmet as the hud in front of her glitched out despite getting only part of the voltage. The emitters on her forearms were completely fried as they began to spark dangerously before the Tenno gripped them hard enough to yank them from her suit taking her gloves with them.

The shock had her stunned to the point she nearly fell over, her suit's insulation protecting her from anything fatal, yet it still had her seeing stars as her skin tingled. Her senses did not return until she felt cold metal grip her bare wrists now without her gloves to protect her. She could hear the electrical current buzzing in the Tenno before her, realizing he was going to shock her again more directly. Desperately, she tried to yank her arms away but to no use while she knew just how painful electrical shocks could be. He hesitated though, feeling her trembling as his attention went down to looking at her hands and his grip even becoming softer. Was he aware of how scared she was?

There was no time to think about that as she needed to expend all she had left in her suit for this last ditch effort. All she hoped, for now, was that her helmet still worked after that first shock. Closing her eyes she muttered the code to overload her helmet emitters with the rest of the power in her suit. The loud ping caused the Tenno to glance up quickly towards her helmet as the emitters glew an angry red. He was smart enough to start to move back, letting her go in such speed she could barely see him. The nullification field expanded out from her helmet causing the nearby door control panel to instantly spark; the door she was pressed against slid open causing her to fall backwards through it.

While she was recovering from the fall she saw the sliding door rapidly closing again, scooting away from it as her helmet had made the electronics nearby begin to go haywire, the door starting to open and close so rapidly it was smoking. When she looked out through it opening she saw the Tenno standing at a safe distance, not having been hit by the smaller field she sent out before her power packs went dead. Now without oxygen in her helmet, she quickly pulled at the latch to yank it off without power to fold it behind her head. The heavy metal clanked onto the floor as she gave gasped breaths when her face was exposed. She looked back up to the moving doors to see the Tenno observing the broken panel and then to her in a silent exchange. When she shifted to stand she let out a pained gasp, the injuries she had so far weighing her down as her adrenaline wore off.

"You there! Get over here now, we're leaving," shouted a voice from the nearby evacuation ship. A couple of crewmen were loading it up, getting ready to leave as they saw Alba on the ground. One of them rushed over to her, pulling her to her feet as she continued to stare at the rapidly opening and closing door even as she was rushed onto the ship. The Tenno was gone.

She should be relieved, she should be happy- she escaped. Why did it feel so bittersweet? She sat in one of the seats of the ship, her bare hands reaching up to rub at her shoulders with discomfort hitting. She remained quiet as the two crewmen tended to the small escape ship's navigation. Her attention shifted towards the window where she stared at the Corpus ship she had called home for so long, now being abandoned due to Tenno attack moving further away.

As she watched it, she witnessed two vessels leave from it that she did not recognize the shape of, but as quick as she saw them they vanished into the darkness of space. She shook her head, not wanting to think about it. She could not let paranoia consume her, yet…

"Where are we going?"

Her voice felt foreign in her question, her head down while she only stared at the floor as the crewmen looked to each other for a moment. One of them finally cleared his throat and approached her slowly.

"Venus."

The response was unexpected, causing her to look up at the two in confusion as they appeared as uneasy as she was. After a moment though she sighed, staring down at her hands, "Remus told you two to get a ship ready to leave, didn't he?"

They did not need to say anything as she already knew, but they nodded anyway and returned to their business on tending the smaller vessel. It did not take an idiot to realize this ship was far more prepared than for a simple escape. She pulled at her head cover, yanking it down to reveal her messy hair up in a bun, sweat sticking strands to her face immediately that fell down.

It did not take long for her to lean forward, burying her face into her knees brought up to her chest as she barely held back tears. This world had been kind and easy for her up until now, considering herself one of the more fortunate of the Corpus due to her fast learning, yet… for it all to be thrown into disarray was still so jarring. Could she even move forward as weak as she was?