gasping for air a single body amidst an ash covered waste barely clung to life.

She slowly forced herself upright, jet black hair in sharp contrast against her ghostly white skin, brushing some dust and dirt out from between the blues of her hair though she soon enough noticed a sharp chunk of metal in her side, forced through her black and white suit, staining it red.

looking over to the metal she touched it and quickly regretted it as a sharp pain flooded through her body, grinding her teeth she knew not to pull it out without someone around to help treat her injury yet as that thought crossed her she looked around to see if there was someone around but she fell silent as she looked at her surroundings.

her surrounding was simple a large expanse of burned land, piles of corpses lying everywhere, weapons and chunks of shaped metal equally as abundant, yet she recognized them, her enemies, grineer, but more concerning was the corpses of sentients, machines built to adapt and overcome any threat... with these ones around, that meant she needed to get out as soon as she could.

looking around she tried to find something specific, something she needed. "come on. where are y-"

she froze when she looked to her side and saw a severed helmet, fairly large, pitch black with gold accents, she slowly reached towards it, her hands shaking badly as fear and disbelief began to set in.

"u-umbra?" her voice was little more than a whisper as she held the helm, almost as though she expected some kind of a response from it though the only response she received was a drop of dark blood from inside the helm, splattering on the ground.

she dropped it after a few more seconds, her hands still shaking, she looked around again, a renewed sense of dread and vulnerability sinking in that only became worse as she slowly realized something.

she had no memory of why she was here or what had happened prior, she barely remembered the name of the being that helm belonged- no. was a part of, umbra excalibur, the names of her enemies and some other small things, but as she tried to focus her head throbbed intensely with pain and she failed to recall anything further.

it didn't take long for her afterwards to regain some degree of focus. she tried to rip off a section of her clothing to make a temporary bandage for her wound, working herself up she eventually grabbed the chunk of metal and after a few more painful seconds was able to rip it out, she couldn't recall exactly where she picked up the know how to treat her injury but she was grateful that she did though her actions seemed to catch the attention of something, she heard the telltale sounds of sentients coming closer, recognizing it and fearing it she tried to conceal herself amongst the dead till the monstrous killers were gone, minutes passed, she had lost track of time as she tried to keep her breaths quiet while knowing she couldn't wait too long here, it felt as though eternity was skipping by before the sentients finally left and she could limp away cautiously, though before she began her retreat she looked over to umbra's helm and grabbed it, taking it with her.

her mind was racing a mile a minute, trying to work out where to go as she slowly left the burned landscape and reached a more arid grassland, soon enough she set out to a destination she recalled being, safe, somehow.

'come on karin. keep going.' thought the teen, trying to keep herself motivated as she forced her way forward, keeping the helm pressed firmly against her chest, it somehow gave her some small degree of comfort despite the situation.

She lost track of time as she continued her slow march, despite the bandage and small amount of field treatment blood slowly began to trickle out again, slowly soaking the bandage before dripping down her side unnoticed.

Slowly the bright light of day began to dim out as she continued, giving way to new problems as the first glimpses of moonlight began to bath the area around her, movement was soon followed, she heard things in the distance and knew she needed to get to safety as fast as she could but the only safe haven she saw was a cave further off.

She picked up the pace, wincing slightly as she was reminded pretty quickly of her injury but she couldn't risk slowing down, not now.

The cave finally was close enough and she headed inside, trying to conceal herself behind a series of rock formations, her breathing heavy as she tried to look to the entrance between the rocks.

A pair of floating forms came close to the cave and one floated off though the other seemed to turn to the cave entrance, what looked like a creepy face made of stone with glowing blue eyes hovered in the air in front of the entrance.

Karin felt her heart skip a beat as she tried to stay incredibly still, hoping that the thing would go away, after some time of it hovering around further it eventually turned and floated off like its companion, having her sigh in relief afterwards, muttering something about annoying vomvalysts.

Sitting down she looked at the head of umbra, holding it before just hugging it as she stayed behind cover, trying to get a moment's rest to recover what little strength she could.

Unfortunately her sleep was disturbed by the sound of loud explosions outside, looking between the rocks she saw one of the vomvalysts zip over to the cave entrance facing something, pulses of blueish energy coming off of it to hit something though several metallic pellets were embedded into it, causing it to explode, a second noise was heard shortly after followed by another bright flash of light that temporarily blinded karin.

"Come on! We need to keep looking!"

"it's the middle of the night! We can't! It's too dangerous!"

Looking up she raised her brows in surprise, hearing voices that she felt she could trust somehow.

"If you want to run than fine!"

"That's not-"

"You can run back to cetus or keep looking for her with me. But i am NOT leaving without her!"

Slowly she tried to stand up. Remaining behind the cover for now before slowly inching over to the entrance, she knew those voices but she just couldn't remember.

"Look lets just head back. And continue-"

"Shh. there."

Karin froze in place, still holding the helm tightly though she began to wonder if she was wrong, if she had just hoped the voices were trustworthy, all she could do was wait, her body refused to move back not that it would matter.

She saw two figures quickly reach the entrance of the cave, aiming simple rifles at her, both of them were rather tall though one of them was much larger than the other, heavily armored, while his counterpart seemed to have a pair of points jutting out the sides of his head.

She knew them both and the sight had her smile before finally relaxing, rhino and loki quickly rushing over towards her, noticing the helm she was gripping so fiercely.

They both looked at each other before the bulkier one, rhino nodded and reached towards her, picking her up before they both headed to the exit and sprinted off as quickly as they could considering they seemed to have suffered some pretty harsh damage themselves.