Chapter 2 boys and gals. Anyways, don't expect me to update this regularly. Also be sure to write down a review. Anyways, since i forgot to stick this into the first chapter
"Thoughts" "normal dialogue" "sudden switch/ demonic/ certain mechanical voice"
All characters belong to their respective owners.
Ch. 2
According the the memories "liberated" from that soiled soldier, the weaponry that was found in the crash site had been placed in a research room within what Sumeragi personnel referred to as West Command. The locks placed upon Tenno weaponry would hold, especially considering how primitive these people seemed to be, though it would still be safer to reclaim his weapons back first before going towards the crash sight. "I hope Ordis is alright..."
While actively thinking up his future actions, Umbra moved undetected in the cover of the blizzard. This storm had quite the fortunate timing, being heavy enough that Sumeragi couldn't reliable use long distance communication or use any of their various flying vehicles.
After dodging a patrol, keeping to the snow and shadows, I eventually snuck into West Command. Strangely enough, the buildings seemed different from the Corpus or Grineer. There was no chance that it was Grineer, the buildings too angular to be. But the tech wasn't advanced, in fact it looked extremely and internally a step or two more primitive than the Corpus.
Things were rather frantic, justified considering how East Command had suffered a complete communication blackout. Still maintaining cover within the shadows, the layout of the base came to Umbra, his traversal being like a fish to water.
When the Warframe came upon the room found within that soldier's memories, he found a small group of 3 guarding the room, standing outside. He made short work of them, ending them with swift, fatal injuries to the neck. All of the strikes dealt with finesse and in complete silence. "It wouldn't hurt to try out some of their weaponry, even if they'll probably prove inferior to my preexisting armaments." Umbra began to pick through the inventory of the fallen soldiers. In the end the haul Umbra came up with were a few Grenades, a pistol, and a laser rifle. Taking a few straps from the men's armored uniforms, he slotted each weapon into place.
After doing a once over on the security panel, Umbra took off the helmet of who he presumed to be the highest ranking officer among the three corpses, using their glazed eyes to fool the eye sensor.
The research room was very similar to where he was kept in but instead of an autopsy table and surgical tools lying on some sanitized mobile tables, there was something akin to a metal work bench, various tools you'd see in a workshop strewn about. "It seems they weren't able to crack open my guns, good."
Picking up the familiar and sleek form of the Battacor he found disappointment in the magazine. Empty. Allowing the void to render it intangible he moved onto the next weapon that had been left to the side. The Zakti was intact, one of the gas casings missing, he shrugged it off and picked up what looked like a miniature buzzsaw. Armored gloves held within the rather ornate, gold accented cutting tool. "The Glaive Prime, well it'll be a good substitute to simply punching and tearing with my bare hands." Umbra's veiled eyes locked onto the ruined form of an ornate, gold, pear shaped machine. "So it's still in that damaged state, well I still need it for what I'm gonna do." Taking a few spare straps that he had stripped off of the soldiers' bodies he tied the ruined machine to his hip. Shifting his weight, he nodded at how adequately it was secured. The Tenno's gaze then fell upon a massive turret, bearing a blue teal color and as long as Umbra was tall. "That, will have to wait." Umbra then left the room as quickly and silently as he came.
It was a simple matter, taking out West Command's command center. After stealing and eavesdropping on the Sumeragi soldier's radio lines, Umbra was on the move again, this time towards the crash site.
It was child's play dispatching the few Sumeragi soldiers patrolling the crash site. The Orbiter itself was still intact, though the Liset landing craft was strangely missing. "No doubt due to the crash, that Corpus ambush did take out a few dock locks keeping the Liset and Orbiter connected." Umbra then began scaling the downed ship, his hand finding its way onto a seemingly blank sheet of metal on the Orbiter's surface. A glow came about and a door into the Orbiter was open.
The scene that I came upon could be summed up in one word: dead. All lights were off and any modules out and about were completely shut off. Wordlessly, I banged the side of a door frame within the ship. In a split second the lights turned on. "IF YOU THINK YOU CAN TEAR APART MY SHIP THEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING ELSE COMIN- oh Operator, you're back! I knew a mere crash wouldn't put you down!" Ordis's voice colored with relief and happiness, then Ordis began to babble in a panicked manner, "ifyousochoosepleasedeletethisincompetantcephalonand..."
This was getting irritating, I should- need to stop him, "Ordis, ORDIS. Please. Calm down. I'm not going to delete you or punish you, that crash was inevitable. I wanted to check and see if you're fine and a damage report on the ship" there was a pause before Ordis's voice piped up "Oh Operator, you're much too kind for this… broken Cephalon… well, I am alright though the ship HAS been damaged. Warp drive engines, propulsion engines, camouflage systems, a few external sensors, Warframe storage, and Weapon storage have been damaged. Nothing has leaked out of the ship itself besides the exhaust from the engines. Regretfully, the storage containers have been damaged in such a way that the doors have been crushed shut. There is no way to brute force open storage without damaging the internal contents." The weapon and Warframe containers have been broken? Thats a shame.
My curt voice echoed through the Orbiter "What of resources?" a brief pause before Ordis replied "All raw material storages have come out unscathed, though if you want to repair the engines, weapon, and Warframe storage, we lack the hardware to repair those, also the lack of the Liset will hamper progress."
Damn. It was something I was wondering about, "Ordis how long has it been since we landed?" Ordis's response was prompt, "Approximately 5 months. My apologies Operator, I was keeping myself in a sleep state, set to only wake up if someone attempted to take apart the Orbiter."
Five months? That was concerning, especially being on Earth with the presence of Grineer. "Wait, you didn't mention Camo systems, we can repair those right?"
Ordis's response was immediate "Yes, we can repair the camo systems, but such things require automated external workers and a few days. Though the outside weather is clearing up the most worrisome factor are the various life signs meandering about. Tell me operator, are they benign?" The immediate response was no. It was apparent they were investigating my weaponry and they pumped me full of drugs, cut me open, and ordered essentially a shoot on sight order. Suffice to say it was apparent that they were hostile, especially now when Umbra and I had slaughtered a good chunk of their personnel. "Yeah… at this point no." Another brief pause. "It seems that you'll have to- RIP THEM ALL APART. I suggest striking before the blizzard completely lets up." fair enough.
"Yeah, that sounds like the correct course of action. Also is there any spare ammunition available?" "My apologies Operator, there isn't. They were all in the weapons storage, is there an issue with your current armament?" Another curt reply from Ordis, "My apologies, spare ammunition was in the armory storage compartment." No ammo resupply? "Well, I'll just have to improvise then."
Walking up towards the upgrade and customization kiosk, Umbra's hands grasped a familiar, sleek black sheath. After dismissing the weapon into the void Umbra's hands fell upon the Zakti's ammunition chambers, emptying the clips and feeding it to the mostly incapacitated but still functioning Carrier. As the damaged machine chugged along, recollections of that soldier's memories came to mind, Sumeragi had an aircraft runway. Three helicopters were there and were rugged enough to fly in heavy snow. I would be prudent to go for the aircraft runway during this... mission. "Ordis, it seems that the best course of action is the perform a full on extermination mission, I would like you to provide any kind of information you can get with what external sensors that are undamaged alright?" as I said those words I conjured the communication ear module and radio I had taken from the East Command center, placing it into a slot next to the Vitruvian. "Of course my operator, I bid you good luck and- SPILL BLOOD IN UNFETTERED VIOLENCE- good health on your excursion."
"Snow… snow… AND MORE SNOW. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURGH" "will you shut up Leeroy?!" "oh fuck off Johnson, I'm freezing my butt off here." The two blue dome headed soldiers glared at one another. I could only sigh. This was the 2nd time in an hour they got into a verbal conflict with one another. Fiddling with my rocket launcher holster, I addressed the both of them "Look, can we just calm down and keep doing our jobs?" "No way!" replied Leeroy, "This job is garbage and we've lost contact with command, probably because of this strange ass blizzard. I'd rather be indoors sipping a cup of hot cocoa than be here. Bet those lucky bastards stationed to guard the scientists must be laughing at us too." It was at this point that I expected Johnson to cut in, but there was near total silence, the only sound being the howling of the wind.
I looked around the vicinity, yet no trace of Johnson was anywhere to be found "... Johnson…?" "Uuurgle….." Immediately I turned, finding Leeroy, held by the throat with a sword sticking straight through his chin and out the top of his helmet. He was being held a foot off the air by some sort of armored figure. A scream belt out. My scream. Adrenaline was pumping and I unholstered the rocket launcher. "LOCK ON" the mechanical voice built into the rocket launcher announced. Without hesitation I fired as the figure turned to look at me. There was a flash and a ringing in my ears, then I was falling…
Dropping the now still soldier, I walked up to the mangled body of the one who used a rocket launcher. The pistol in my hand still smoking. It was a spur of the moment attack, the pistol piercing the rocket as it was leaving the barrel, the impact strong enough to cause the rocket to prematurely detonate right in the soldier's face. "Kill…. Me….." a nearly hushed voice said. I looked down at the broken man lying before me. The arm that once held the rocket was merely a burnt stub, an entire side littered with shrapnel and burn marks with the leg on that same side also being a broken mess akin to his burnt side. There were no words left for this dead man. I unsheath Skiajati, and finished off the soldier with a stab to the neck.
"Operator! That explosion, are you alright?" As the smoke cleared around me, I responded "Yes Ordis, i'm fine." though there was a little bit of static, Ordis's voice was still easy to make out, "that's good news but that explosion alerted all the life signals my sensors picked up, they're coming towards your location!" Well that's convenient, for me "That's good, let them come." Finishing that line, the shuffling of snow came to my ears, already I could see their silhouettes amidst the blizzard. "Ordis, patch my communication receptors to those troopers' lines" As the silhouettes came to firing distance, Ordis's voice answered "... done Operator." Umbra's body coiled like a spring, wordlessly I charged forward with pistol drawn and pointed at the closest target.
The light of gunfire sparked throughout the wide expanse of snow, some bits of the engagement obscured by the persistent blizzard. The armored figure of Umbra dashed between gunfire and rockets, those he got close to were slashed to pieces either by the Glaive or the Skiajati. When too far, Umbra exchanged gunfire with the soldiers, dealing debilitating wounds that left them open for more bullets or a melee finisher. After eating up all the ammo left in the pistol the pistol was discarded and Umbra switched over to the laser rifle. It was a semiautomatic weapon with a large kick to it. That recoil to Umbra was nothing. Body shots from this was more than enough to melt through body armor and down a solider. At a certain point a squad consisting of Grenadiers carrying riot shields and a firing squad of rocket launcher troops came to bear. In the end their formation was meaningless. As Umbra fired round after round of hot plasma at the wall of shields, Umbra tossed a grenade, the explosive unknown to the grenadiers due to their focus of maintaining formation and their fellow man firing rockets. Their precious formation shattered the instant the grenade detonated.
Swooping in like a vulture, Umbra tore apart any stragglers from that formation, managing to lift a rocket launcher off of the still cooling corpse of a soldier. As he prepared to face off against an incoming platoon of riflemen and troopers on snowmobiles, all collectively making moves to encircle Umbra, a certain piece of radio chatter was picked up, "Dammit!, that monster is still tearing our men apart. At this rate we'll all die! We need reinforcements!" "Calm down, first we need to evacuate the remaining scientists and their data to warn the rest of Sumeragi; with the blizzard lightening up, we can evacuate via our 3 helicopters." "But that beast will undoubtedly catch up!" "Don't worry, we'll deploy all of our Mantis units to stop it. "U-understood, begin defrosting process on all helicopters and Mantis units!" With a several stabs, slashes, clotheslining, and well placed shots with the laser rifle, both snowmobile riders and remaining soldiers were decimated.
Before a step further could be made the sound of machinery moving at high speeds through snow could be heard. With the blizzard having mostly lifted the distinct silhouettes of massive machines nearly twice as tall as Umbra became visible. They sped across the snow with attachments built onto the legs, highlighted by glowing exhaust. The contraption's purpose no doubt being to give each mech a speed boost and stopping their massive frames from breaking ice and getting stuck. As the leader of the pack of 10 came close, Umbra made out the details of a boxy, quadrupedal machine armed with two high powered machine guns, shoulders that seemed too blocky to be just shoulders, and a beak like face positioned in a seemingly hunchback position. All 10 were colored white to match with the snowy environment though their glowing yellow eyes gave each one's position away. As the first 2 encircled Umbra the internal mechanisms of their turret guns began to warm up.
A voice in my head seemed to "harumph" at having some confirmation that these Sumeragi guys were aligned in some way with the Corpus due to their with usage of these proxies. All the more reason to wipe them out. Firing a single laser rifle shot to no effect I was forced to dodge. It was a combination bullet jumping, rolling that minimized the damage I would've received by the hail fire. At the end of the assault my shields had taken quite the beating, being at about half capacity. The shoulders of the 2 mechs that had sped ahead of its brethren began to open up. "As I suspected" what lay underneath the shoulder armor were missile pods. Unlike the Raptor series of proxies though, the missiles were larger and simply perfect targets for me. With two well placed shots from the rifle both shoulders on one of the "Mantis" mechs lit up, the explosion leaving the machine armless. After dodging the missile barrage of the 2nd Mantis I was prepared to simply wait until Mantis #2 decided to open its shoulder missile pods again but a humming sound briefly took me out of focus, turning back to what I had thought to be an incapacitated Mantis.
The Mantis's beak-like face opened up, releasing a torrent of hot plasma straight at me. I dodged out of the way, the laser dealing a glancing blow on its brother unit, taking one arm and carving a little into the main body. The brother unit collapsed immediately, a glowing, orange pod of sorts popping out of the main body. Steam flowed out of the pod "An overheating problem?" With little hesitation I switched over to the Sumeragi bazooka, locking on and firing at the exposed, glowing pod. The pod exploded, along with the mech though the majority of its external chassis was intact. "I can use this to my advantage." It was then that a barrage of missiles and gunfire lit up the snow around me. "Damn, the others got here all at once." The 8 that had lagged slightly behind the lead duo was upon me now, each seemingly cycling between one another with either missile volleys or bullet hail fire, all in a formation.
"This is getting ridiculous." After dodging a beam fired from the armless Mantis, the beam fizzling out before it could hit one of its brethren, I began to notice just how much each one moved in tandem with one another. "You're kidding right? They have a basic learning AI built into these things?!" So fooling one into firing on the other was out of the question, but how do I induce an overheat on one of these things? I rolled out of the way, one of the units having enough guts to try and ram me. "They're extremely mobile too," Before I could pursue, bullet fire halted my attempt at a run. Getting close enough to use Exalted Blade is ill advised especially with how open this battlefield was. My situation was worsened by them covering for one another whenever they make a pass. My actual weapons would be able to breach their armored hulls easily but I had to conserve my ammunition, I only had 1 clip for the Battacor and 1 clip for the Zakti after all. The Zakti… wait a minute didn't I modify it to be able to deal with the Corpus? Summoning the Zakti from the void and into my hands I took aim at one of the fresh Mantis units. The pellet that lodged itself onto the alabaster white face of that unit began to emit a cloud of toxic fumes and magnetic waves. The sparks from the machine made it apparent that it caused some internal system to short circuit, that glowing orange pod rearing its surface to the frigid air. I shucked the Glaive at the core, detonating the Glaive as it made contact with the core. The Glaive twirled and landed in the snow from the explosion.
"That option is gone, for now." Since I was retrospectively too greedy, I had taken the Skiajati with me earlier along with the Glaive. The hammerspace provided by the Void for Warframe platforms could only hold 3 actual weapons. Those stored within the hammer space would eventually return to the void and back into my hands; I'll have to manually retrieve my Glaive from the snow. After dodging even more gunfire, I shot another Zakti dart, the magnetic gas disabling the Mantis just like its previous sibling unit. Bullet jumping over some bullet fire, no doubt meant to support its kin, I took aim with the bazooka, "Last shot," before firing and allowing the now spent Bazooka to be carried out of my hands from the recoil. I narrowly avoided the fireball that burst forth from the now blazing remains of the Mantis. As I rolled to maintain my momentum something in the ground cracked, Umbra's foot getting caught in the snow and tripping me up. I felt the brisk air of the Arctic as I was tossed up by the explosion of missiles.
The stinging of burns and concussive force actually hurt, the explosions this time managing to breach my shields. As I flew I noticed the closeness of a destroyed Mantis. Landing on my back, I rolled on my side into the safe coverage of a the armored husk. "Their shots are getting more accurate, probably with the blizzard's heavy winds fading away. The constant bulletfire and missile explosions are also making the packed snow fragile" checking my inventory of looted gear, I found I had 5 grenades left "Three'll work". Focusing, the sensations I felt upon exiting my Warframe was absolute cold, the air flowing up and around my hospital gown clad body. My bare feet feeling like they were burning against the subzero temperatures of this frozen wasteland. "Should've tried switching clothes when I was on the Orbiter."
The feelings were numbed when I went into void mode, jumping straight above the husk Umbra had taken cover behind, I dashed down then slid, directly underneath one of the Mantis units. Just like how Operators could turn themselves into energy and shuck that energy long distance over to their Warframe, the same in reverse was true. My human form vanished, in his place now sliding underneath the Mantis was Umbra with three unpinned grenades. Dropping them directly under the snow camoed Mantis and going into a bullet jump, the explosion of three grenades, though not dealing any real damage to the Mantis, caused the packed snow beneath to destabilize and fall apart, entrapping the massive mechanical frame in snow. In all likelihood a measure to prevent total freezing of external and internal systems, the core sprang out and began emitting heavy amounts of steam. Skiajati drawn, I leapt and fell upon the core, it's structure compromised by the the Nikana's blade.
Taking cover behind the still flaming husk, I spotted a familiar gold glint some ways in open snow directly in line of sight of a Mantis. Taking a few potshots at the other Mantis units with the laser rifle I then ran, sliding adjacent to the Glaive and grabbed it. I then shucked it at the glaring face of the nearest Mantis. The beaked face had a deep gash, the razor sharp blades digging into the face like a butcher knife to steak. Detonating the Glaive, causing further damage and said weapon returning to my wrist, nearly slashing out my hand, the Mantis collapsed. That familiar core bursting forth in a cloud of steam. Shooting a burst from the Battacor, it was more than enough for the quadruped tank to explode into a ball of fire. Five down, five to go.
"Last Zakti shot". The pellet lodged itself dead onto a Mantis's face. Collapsing as regular, I jumped and spun the Glaive like a buzzsaw, the corrosive effects I had installed making the already sharp blade be slick with armor eating acid. The fragile core stood no chance and detonated. I rode the explosion and as I hit the apex of my jump height, I saw the remaining 4 open their beaks collectively. The light of plasma building up in their mechanical maws. They were aiming squarely at all potential spots where my current flight path would take me to in 1 second. "Trying to box me in are you?" Letting out a Battacor burst into the gaping maw of one of the Mantises, its face distorted into a mess of metal further warped by the destabilization of its energy build up. The accrued damage was enough that the entire chassis that held the head and core detonated. Using the void and killing my momentum instantly, I landed right where that downed Mantis was once aiming at. As that Mantis's resounding explosion echoed through the frozen wasteland blanketed by heavy snowfall, my gaze turned to the 3 yellow visors glowering at me, their maws already having released their payload and closed. No doubt all three were collectively calculating their next moves.
Behind the 2 intact Mantis, the first of this series of mechs that I squared off against hung behind all the others, being the sole robot to be firing lasers throughout most of the battle. Though now its shots were less interspersed with the others and much more haphazard, no doubt born of their dwindling numbers. That would be my next target. Going through the snow was now troubling, the heat from all the explosions and laser fire making some parts slushy. It was a bit of a relief to find that my adversaries too were suffering from this to a certain degree, forced to hover over more solid patches of snow lest their leg contraptions fail on them thus killing their ability to maneuver around. Sprinting forward, the target was clear, the contraptions on the feet of Mantis #1 were to be taken out. As I approached one of the 2 intact Mantises attempted to fire a volley of missiles at me, due to its positioning it was out of sync with the others and thus leaving it open for a counter. Taking as careful aim as I could considering the circumstances, I shot with the Sumeragi laser rifle, the viridescent shot detonating the missile pod and leaving that Mantis with one arm less.
Now before Mantis #1, I drew the Skiajati. Sprinting next to the arm-less mech, the robot seemingly panicked like a soldier of flesh and blood with its charging of its laser and attempt to backtrack. I sliced out the white walking tank's leg boosters. Now off balanced and firing its laser at a tilted angle I swiftly camel kicked the side of the mech, the trajectory changing and slicing into the 1 armed Mantis I had dealt damage to in the earlier sprint. The beam sliced center mass and caused that machine to detonate. Now in such close proximity, I then conjured the familiar, yellow glow of Umbra's Exalted Blade and stabbed upwards, dismissing the blade as I drew it out of the sparking machinery. Diving for cover, the mech exploded.
Hearing the distinct sounds of missiles launching and rapid anti personnel fire, I knew that last mech was panicking to a certain degree; It was hoping to take me down in a fiery blaze via unloading everything it had at me. My response was prompt, the Battacor's alternate fire melting through the armored form of the Mantis like a hot knife through butter. What was left was a smoldering set of legs that quickly sunk into the slushy snow beneath. Soaking in the afterglow of accomplishment, Ordis's voice cut through the silence, "Operator! The blizzard's winds have completely stopped. I believe it is prudent that you make your way to East Command, movement of life signals suggests moves towards evacuation!" Snapping out of my reverie, Umbra sprinted off, East Command some 80m from my current location clearly visible now that the blanketing blizzard had faded into mere heavy snowfall.
His approach was swift, Umbra clearing the fence and making his way to the massive aircraft runway. It was there at the pathway before the runway opened up that he was met with a platoon of troops, split into three distinct types. The ones at the forefront wielding shields, those behind wielding energy rifles, and the ones behind the riflemen wielding bazookas. "I've got no time for this" With unprecedented speed the armored alien warrior sliced into and through all the troopers obstructing his way. Leaving behind smoldering corpses, he ran onto the runway and spotted the closest vehicle attempt liftoff. The primitive aircraft spun its propeller blades, clearly projecting its attempt at departure. Taking the pin off one of the last two grenades he chucked it right into the helicopter's still open door. There was distinct panicked shuffling before the aircraft detonated, not even able to get 2 feet off the ground. Same couldn't be said for the remaining 2, the second closest to Umbra managing lift off and unveiling its specialization as a combat helicopter with the whir of miniature miniguns on the beak of the chopper.
The spray of anti personnel rounds sparked across the runway as Umbra brought his Skiajati to bear, managing to block off a good chunk of the rounds. Despite his solid defense, the sheer quantity and caliber of the bullets nearly took out Umbra's shields. Going into a sprint, Umbra ducked behind an armored vehicle whose windows rapidly shattered into an innumerable amount of pieces, the armor plates becoming a dented mess. In the pitter patter of metal against metal, the Tenno thought of something. Taking out the last grenade and energy rifle, he stuck the unpinned grenade into the rifle barrel then, like an Olympic javelin thrower, threw the rifle. The combat helicopter shot the un-aerodynamic projectile, the explosion bright enough and the shrapnel of the grenade gaining enough strength to briefly blind the pilots and cause them both to flinch from the sound of window glass cracking. In that brief moment, the Warframe brought out the Battacor, shooting a burst of rounds, the helicopter's front windows crumpling and pilots pulverized by the shots. Hot plasma melted through the entire helicopter and thus it was lit aflame, descending like a falling funeral pyre.
Past the flames and snow, it was apparent the larger, non combat oriented helicopter had taken flight and was beginning to leave the base and to parts unknown. In haste the frame of war sprinted. Jumping on the falling, flaming combat helicopter and using the main rotor as a springboard, he bullet jumped up, appearing like a swan emerging gracefully from a watery surface of a pond. While falling like a snowflake, Umbra took aim. A single laser beam more akin to a railgun shot rang out, the remaining helicopter going down in a blaze of fire.
On the ground now, the Operator's voice echoed through the now clear Arctic wasteland. "Ordis, are there any more life signs?" A voice only heard by the Tenno responded "With my now clear sensors, no. There aren't anymore signs of movement within the bases surrounding your Orbiter." After the motions of a breath, the Tenno mused "So, mission accomplished…."
There ends the 2nd chapter, apologies for that broken promise of getting this out last night. Anyways, if you have any criticisms, feedback, mistakes, and advice on writing please submit a review. I apologize if the fighting was a bit clunky but I'll be sure to try and improve as this story goes on. Anyways, till next time.
Just like DE and its hotfixes some 15 minutes after an update, I'm here updating the chapter with corrections and adding description. This is what I get for uploading with haste after finishing a chapter.