It has been a long time since a wrote something and this story had been bumping around in my scatter brained head for a long time.
He had expected it to bad. Excalibur hesitated slightly before placing an armored foot amongst the rubble. Aside from the spastic flickering of sparks flying from a torn cable the room was almost pitch black. The small cone of light projected from his lex side arm displayed a grim image. The ceiling had partially collapsed in this section of the labs, steel panels warped and mangled by their fall. Here and there wires sparked and crackled, the tenno stepping carefully around each one as he advanced through the darkness. His finger rubbed nervously against the safety of the pistol, torso turning as he swept the room one last time before stepping into a long since defunct elevator shaft. Energy flowed through his warframe, legs tightening before sending him to the next floor, the Excalibur landing with the silence of a practiced assassin.
Although this floor was just as dark as the previous one the signs of destruction were far more evident. A blast door, the entrance to the main hallway had been stripped from its hinges, the thick metal shredded and tossed aside as if it was merely a paper construct, easily toppled by a light rain. The cone of light swept the mangled hall way before moving onward, Excalibur stopping halfway to raise a scanning device to the general area of his eyes. He removed it as though any sudden movements might startle some great beast lurking in the darkness, his lex once again raised and guided him to the next elevator shaft. This one was still in order, the lights revealing the tawny color of accumulated dirt from numerous missions as well as the lanka sniper rifle and heat dagger magnetized to his back. She had always teased him about that. The Excalibur who can't use a sword. He had given up arguing a long time ago. A slight grin tugged at his normally battle weary face as the elevator opened its doors granting him a view of the first of many production levels. His lex left his thigh as he slunk across the open catwalk spanning the now abandoned corpus robotics plant. At one point it had been the personal lab of, depending on who one asked, either a visionary or a mad man. Now though it was little more than a pile of scraps waiting to collapse on anyone foolish enough to enter it. Excalibur considered Alad V distinctly in the mad man category, despite Vauban's ravings on the Zanuka's mechanical perfection and his own personal attachment to a product of the labs. Product was an ill-fitting word. Victim conveyed the situation much better.
Perhaps she had always seemed fragile to him. Then again most everything seemed fragile from behind the scope of a lethal corpus-made coil gun. Now though she just seemed broken, like a beautiful vase shattered against the unfeeling ground. Her orange clad shoulders shook occasionally, the Valkyr emitting a small sniffle before the room was returned to silence. The sight of it all made Excalibur want to turn away and be by her side comforting her at the same time. He opted for neither, the click of his lex magnetizing to his leg piercing the still air for a moment as he watched her from a safe distance. "Ex?" His mouth opened slightly before shutting again, words failing to form in his throat. She reached up, hands slowly removing her helmet, blonde hair flowing down as she reached for something at her waist. "I'm sorry…" She brought the khomak level with her temple, eyes shutting as Excalibur reached for his own side arm.
He always had been faster. The first shot sent the shotgun skidding across the floor of the laboratory, Excalibur unloading his clip into the mangled weapon as he closed the distance between the elevator and the kneeling tenno. Reaching her he dropped to his knees, arms encircling her in a tight embrace. "Ex… I-"
"You're ok Val. Everything's going to be ok."
