Fear the Silence, Dread the Screams
Foes of the Tenno have long since learned to fear the silence that they are known for. For many years, the Grineer and Corpus tried to devise a means of detecting them, but no new way has been discovered, or will be. This silence has been known to drive some Corpus into paranoia, and even cause unease within Grineer ranks. Although on this day, the Corpus have quickly learned that they not only must fear the silence, but they must dread the very opposite of what heralds the Tenno. Screams. Piercing, agonized, and furious screams. This is what the Corpus stationed on a small vessel orbiting Mars learned very quickly.
Four Tenno, or, to a very skeptical Elpis, three Tenno and something else, infiltrated the Corpus vessel orbiting the Red Giant quietly. So far, everything was going according to Elpis' plan. This was surprising, because she expected the "Tenno" Kalani to be much less cooperative. Elpis used an Excalibur Warframe, complete with a Latron, Marelok and the Dex Dakra, twin blades gifted to her by the Lotus herself. She was accompanied by Magnus, Baldomar and the previously mentioned Kalani for this mission. It was a simple task. Exterminate all Corpus in the vessel, find a terminal with some specific data on a secret Corpus project, and extract. Despite the simplicity of the mission, planning was required. From the infiltration point to the extraction zone and everything in between, Elpis had planned it all. Quickly and quietly, Elpis planned to clear each room using sudden ambushes.
"Alright, people. Quick and quiet. I've got most of the vessel mapped out, so we can position ourselves perfectly for each ambush. We're not going in guns blazing on this one, everyone got that?"
Magnus grunted in approval.
The paladin nodded his head. "Affirmative."
There was no word from Kalani. Elpis knew from the start she was going to be a problem.
"Kalani, did you hear me?"
Still no response. When Elpis turned to where Kalani should have landed, she noticed the berserker was gone.
"Where is Ka-"
Elpis was cut off by an echoing scream. This was no scream of pain or terror. This was a scream of pure, unbridled fury. Not long after, alarms were blaring. Elpis was fuming. Hours were spent devising this plan, hours of debates, observation and noting were spent on making this plan a good one, and what did the barely sane woman do? Destroyed it. Ruined it entirely. It may not have resulted in the loss of the mission, far from it, but now it was not unlikely that the Corpus knew where the Talons were aiming, and might just move before they beaded in.
"How did she leave without us noticing? Surely we would have seen her." Baldomar was obviously baffled by this.
Magnus nodded up at a vent. "If she even followed us to begin with. I feel we are slightly at fault for not noticing her deviating path." He shrugged. "No matter. I'll catch up with her; I suggest you two find the data we need." At that, Magnus leaped back through the vent he came through in pursuit of the madwoman.
The other two Tenno nodded and moved on. For a while, there were no signs of Corpus anywhere, but they soon discovered where they gathered when they opened a slightly damaged door. What they found on the other side was a bloody mess. Mutilated corpses of the crewmen and MOAs were strewn all across the spacious room. None of the corpses were in one piece, eviscerated extremities, organs and machinery were splayed everywhere, not all of the corpses were on the ground, either; some corpses were found hanging from the rafters by their entrails. If Elpis had not known Kalani was the one who did this, she would have been sooner to guess a pack of giant feral Kubrow ran through the place. The crewmen were not all that were torn to shreds, though. If it could be broken, Kalani thoroughly destroyed it. Terminals were torn from the walls and floors and smashed to pieces, one was even found embedded in an unfortunate crewman's cranium. Not even the walls were safe from the madwoman's wrath. Kalani seemed to have torn a hole through a wall, and even into the ventilation system. It was safe to say nowhere was safe from this animal of a Tenno, for she was quite literally in the walls.
Baldomar shivered. This was very uncommon of him, as it took a lot to cause unease within the steadfast paladin. "She showed those men no mercy. Not even in death. It couldn't be possible to inflict so many wounds on a body such as the Corpus' before their death. Whatever they had done to her surely broken her. Swiftly and thoroughly, just as she brutalized them in return."
Another scream was heard, this time louder and angrier. The scream made both of the Tenno uneasy. It wasn't the sound or proximity of the scream which unsettled them, but the fact that it came from a Tenno, or at least, what once was a Tenno.
"Let's move on. The data has to be here somewhere."
They moved on through the mass grave. When they left the room, the only blood visible was a trail, most likely left by the madwoman who had torn the previous room apart, although this room was equally vandalized. Hand railings were torn from their places, wall paneling was utterly destroyed, and even sections of the ceiling were torn down to reveal power conduits and other essentials, all of which were severed, including a water pipe. Water poured down from the ceiling, finding its way into other systems, and even causing some systems to fail or short-circuit. Lights were beginning to flicker and doors started to fail, refusing to open. This problem did not seem to bother Kalani, however, for when they arrived at the end of the curved hallway, a giant hole was torn into the long and sturdy door at the end.
"What fury could drive a woman into such a state that she would rip and tear through a door made of solid steel to get to her victims? The suffering Kalani endured at the Corpus' hands must have been unimaginably cruel." Baldomar said as he observed the remarkable damage caused. "She has my pity."
The two entered another room flooding with blood and water, there was so much of both one would roughly estimate the pool was nearly half a centimeter deep, if, of course, the many, many corpses had not covered the floor so thoroughly neither Tenno touched the actual floor often.
"She's going to have my displeasure if she doesn't get in line. We spent hours on that plan, Baldomar, almost an entire day! Then the madwoman flushes it all down for her revenge."
"I would suggest patience, Commander. She will know her place with time."
"She'd better." Elpis only hoped the berserker hadn't destroyed the data in her rampage. "The ship's blueprint tells me that the main database is in the next room. Let's hope Kalani didn't rip it apart, too."
When they arrived at the next room, Elpis was relieved to see the room still intact. It seemed Kalani had dug another hole through the wall into the vents. She was going to be difficult to track down for Magnus.
"Thank the Lotus the terminal is intact. Let's get the data and finish the mission." With little effort, Elpis hacked into the terminal and looked for the specific file. There were whispers of a certain "Project E." There was little about what it was, just that it would make the Corpus much more powerful, and that it had to be stopped.
When Elpis searched these keywords, she found the file, if only for a moment, before it was immediately deleted by a failsafe mechanism, most likely triggered by the alarm.
"Fucking damn it!" Elpis punched the terminal. Sparks flew from it as her fist destroyed the monitor. "The alarm triggered an autonomous deletion of the file. It's gone."
"Are we sure the alarm caused this? A facial recogni-" Baldomar was interrupted by an obscenely furious Elpis.
"I am fucking sure it was the alarm! Do you see a fucking camera on this piece of shit!?" Elpis was fuming even more at this point. She and the madwoman Kalani were going to have a talk after this. "I am fucking done! We're leaving." Elpis swiftly pivoted away from the terminal and stormed towards extraction. Before he catches up with her, Baldomar tries to get a hold of Magnus.
"Magnus, this is Baldomar, do you read?" Baldomar is greeted by a confirmatory grunt. "What is your status? Have you found Kalani?"
"Affirmative, but not for long. She's fast and angry." Baldomar winced when screams belonging to both Kalani and Corpus overpower anything else. Shortly after that, the screeching of metal being ripped apart pierced Baldomar's ears.
"Try to pacify her, Magnus. We can't afford bringing that into the dojo, and Elpis is furious enough. We can only guess that the alarm caused a system wipe and deleted the data we came for."
A concurring grunt was the only sound Magnus made before he cut comms. Baldomar caught up with Elpis with little difficulty.
"I have told Magnus to pacify Kalani, Commander. I am sure she will be calm by the time we catch up."
Elpis did not respond, but nodded.
Unfortunately, calming Kalani had been proving to be much harder than originally thought by Magnus. She would not respond to any attempt to communicate, and would simply barrel past Magnus, even when he was in his Iron Skin. Kalani could not be stopped head on, so Magnus decided to take it from another angle. Despite having killed anything not in a Warframe, Kalani was still screaming in fury. She ripped and torn apart anything that could be destroyed. She shattered terminal displays, tore power cables from the walls, and even brought down several catwalks located in the larger rooms. If Magnus stood in her way, he was sure she would get fed up with him at some point and lash out at him, too. So he didn't. Instead, he crept up behind her as she was furiously clawing away at one of the dysfunctional doors and trapped her in a bear hug, holding on to her as tightly as he could.
It was difficult to keep her in his grasp. She writhed, squirmed and thrashed against Magnus, all the while clawing at his arms with little effect. She spoke no words, she only screamed at Magnus, which was more than enough to tell him she was furious now at him, although, gradually, her screams turned to yells, her yells turned to curses, and eventually, her curses turned to silence.
When the other two Tenno arrived, Magnus appeared to have made no effort to restrain her, but in truth, he was exhausted, his arms were sore and screaming to be rested, but he held tight until Kalani raged no further, and was still.
Magnus looked back from her to Elpis and Baldomar, for a moment they were both shocked by how bloody Kalani was. Her dark-coloured Warframe could not be seen past the crimson of blood and the small pieces of viscera that stuck to her Warframe.
Magnus nodded towards the extraction zone. "I suggest you two move on ahead, we'll catch up." Elpis only nodded before storming past the rest, her fury was obvious. Before Baldomar left, he stopped to look to Kalani. "I should warn you, Kalani. Elpis will want to talk to you upon our return, and she won't be calm about it." When Kalani gave him no response, Baldomar took his leave.
Kalani did not move at all. For the most part she had calmed down. When Baldomar was out of sight, she spoke. "You can let me go. We're all that's breathing now." Magnus waited cautiously before he complied, as soon as he let go of her, Kalani dropped to her knees, the exhaustion from battle having caught up with her.
Magnus kneeled beside Kalani, his head turned slightly towards her "Can you walk?"
"I'll need a moment." Kalani sat on her knees, panting. Her back was slumped as she stared at the ground and her damaged hands were resting lazily on the floor, blood had begun to pool at her fingertips. Even after she appeared to have regained her strength, Kalani remained on her knees, staring at the floor, almost as if savouring something.
"We need to move on, Kalani. The Commander is angry enough as she is, we shouldn't keep her waiting."
Kalani slowly looked toward Magnus and spoke calmly in an off-putting fashion. "Have you ever... heard silence before? Felt it?" Her helmet recedes into her Warframe as Kalani looked back at the spot on the floor. Her hair, which may have once been a fiery orange, has long since turned a silvery-white, all colour having been drained from it by years of cryosleep. Regardless, it contrasted greatly with the blood on her Warframe, and this bothered Magnus slightly. "It isn't quite the absence of sound, but, something else... I can't explain it, but, I can hear it, feel it, almost. Don't you?"
Magnus had no idea what Kalani was talking about. How can there be silence if there doesn't have to be an absence of sound? "I don't quite know what you're talking about, Kalani."
Her, strangely enough, now silvery-blue eyes drifted back to Magnus, and they held what almost seemed like pity. "A shame. It feels..." She becomes distant for a moment, trying to find a word to describe something. "... Good. It doesn't please me, it doesn't make me happy, but it feels good."
Slowly, she stood, ignoring any wounds that would cause great concern in an ordinary Tenno. "I'm ready now." Kalani did not wait for Magnus to stand, nor did she say anything else, despite being questioned by the tank of a man. She was back in her own world, distant and apathetic.
Cordi's train of thought was disrupted by the loud opening of the large airlock door that lead from the docks into the main hall. Normally, she would dismiss the sound by the time it opened but this time her eyes were locked on a horrific sight. The Tenno whose name she recently learned was Kalani, the quiet, distant and apathetic Tenno who didn't care for questions, was soaked in blood. Being covered in blood was another thing, that was normal and inevitable. This, however, was not normal. There was not a spot she could see on Kalani that wasn't bloody. Whether the blood was of her enemies or herself, Cordi could not tell, but she knew that whoever Kalani was fighting, she had a deep hatred for them.
Cordi could confidently guess that Kalani had a bad run-in with the Corpus. The damaged Warframe and blank thousand mile stare gave that away, but what happened to her in detail was unknown to her and everyone else, as far as she knew. When she spoke to Zora about Kalani, Zora knew as little as she did, and Cordi had learned Zora was one of the most inquisitive Tenno in the clan. Kalani hadn't given even a moment of her attention.
Cordi wasn't the only one who had noticed the bloody figure. Many others had dropped what they were doing to stare in shock, disgust, and for a few, fear. Cordi didn't feel these. She felt sorry. Cordi couldn't come close to imagining what harrowing experience had driven this woman to such heights of violence as to soak herself in blood, she couldn't come close to imagining the pain and the suffering she had to endure. As far as she could tell, Cordi seemed to be the only person in the room who wanted to know what happened to her not just because she wanted to know, but because she wanted to somehow help her.
This is why when Kalani had left the med bay, riddled with stitches and bandages, she was followed by Cordi. The greenhorn didn't expect much talking from her; she wasn't aiming to start a conversation. She wanted to show Kalani that not everyone thought she was a monster. Cordi eventually caught up with the now much cleaner woman, outside of her Warframe and in some normal clothing, some pants and a sleeveless shirt, made of nanoweave, a light, silky material that could hold itself together longer than any fabric originating from Earth. Cordi noticed that both of Kalani's arms were wrapped in bandages below the elbow, and that her fingers looked as if they were just beginning to heal after being used to dig through a sea of glass and sharp rocks.
Cordi matches Kalani's pace, walking beside her. "Hi, uh, Kalani, right?" The distant Tenno's eyes drifted lazily towards Cordi, and while still blank, her gaze appeared different in some way. Kalani looked ahead once more, and only nodded slightly in response to Cordi's question.
"I guess your mission went well? I mean, you're here, and not dead." Cordi got no response from Kalani. Seems that confirming her name was as far as Cordi could get. It didn't matter to Cordi, however. It seemed nice to talk to someone, Cordi didn't care if Kalani listened or not, she just wanted to talk to someone about something, and Kalani made no sign that it annoyed her, as long as she didn't ask any questions. This worked for Cordi. So when they arrived at the garden they sat in the other day, Cordi spoke after making herself comfortable beside Kalani, who sat with her knees tucked to her chest while her arms were wrapped around them. Cordi herself sat in a similar fashion, but nearly as tight as Kalani did.
"This is so exciting! Today I'm going to get my first mission. Getting assigned to my own squad and everything!" As expected, Kalani doesn't make a single sound. She stares a hole into the ground by her feet.
"I mean, I know it's nothing much for you, you're probably used to it, but, like, for me, this is amazing! I thought I'd be doing these things alone at this point, but I'm in a clan!" Cordi almost lost herself to excitement and leaned to hug Kalani, but quickly caught herself and resisted the urge, afraid that she might startle her.
Strangely enough, Kalani blinked. It was a slow, almost drowsy blink, but a blink, nonetheless, and suddenly, something Cordi would never expect happened. She spoke.
"Do you hear silence, too?"
Kalani's voice almost startled Cordi. She had expected to hear a rough, strong voice, like that of Elpis.' Instead, she heard a soft, almost calming voice. The question itself confused Cordi to no end.
"H-Hear silence? What do you mean by that?"
Her eyes shifted towards Cordi, they appeared distant as always, but they carried something else within their gaze, something that unsettled Cordi.
"Do you hear silence? I could hear it." This was the first time Kalani had maintained eye contact with Cordi for more than a brief few seconds, this stare was nearing a minute long, or so it felt to Cordi. Her gaze caused Cordi to shift uncomfortably in her spot.
"I-I don't think I have... Wh-What does it sound like?" Cordi was genuinely curious as to what "silence" sounded like to Kalani.
Her gaze did not move. It bore a hole into Cordi's very soul. "I can't describe it... but you will know it when you do hear it..." It was obvious now what other emotion Kalani's gaze held. It held desire. Whatever she thought was "silence," she sought for it. To Cordi's relief, Kalani shut her eyes and appeared to be trying to concentrate. "I... can't hear it anymore... it helped me forget..." Kalani's eyes suddenly flutter open, and she looks as if she realized she made a mistake. Maybe she did.
Cordi tilted her head, she was almost afraid to ask the question which burned in her mind, but she didn't let that fear get in the way of an opportunity to help. "Forget? Forget what?"
Kalani broke her soul-piercing gaze almost immediately after being asked the question and returned to staring at the floor.
"K-... Kalani?" Not a word left her mouth after that. Cordi guessed that it must have been a slip of the tongue, that she said it by accident.
"I'm sorry for asking. Can you tell me more about silence?"
Nothing. Cordi let off a soft sigh, and was about to resume talking about how excited she was, until Elpis entered the room, looking angry.
"Kalani, follow me. You and I have to straighten something out." She looked at Cordi briefly with a look that struck fear into her heart. "In private." Without a word, Kalani stood and met the Commander's angry stare with her own blank gaze, waiting for her to lead.
So Cordi sat alone. She would have been lying if she denied having tried to listen for the sound of silence. Unsurprisingly, she failed to hear it.
Elpis' already angry demeanour changed into fury once she and Kalani were alone.
"Let me make one thing straight to you, Kalani. Get in fucking line! I will not have a mission ruined by your revenge! I get it that they fucked you up in the head, but that does not mean you get to run around hap-fucking-hazardously, set off the alarms, and fuck up an entire operation that could have kept the tide from changing in the Corpus' favour! Because of your stupid fucking idea, we have lost our only opportunity of learning how to destroy whatever they ar-"
Elpis' rant was cut short by two short and simple words, spoken with almost eerie calmness. "I know."
"Did I fucking say you cou-"
"I know what it is." Elpis' fiery stare is met by Kalani's blank and now cold gaze. "What they are making."
"Oh, so you here are so much better than the thousands of other agents that died trying to get that info?"
"Yes." Her expression is blank and cold.
"What makes you say that?" Elpis could feel her anger rising.
"Because I know, and they're dead." Kalani said this with an unchanging expression of apathy, almost as if she didn't care about the other Tenno that had died.
This almost struck a nerve in Elpis. Kalani brushed aside thousands of deaths of their kin as if they meant nothing to her, but she calmed herself.
"Then spit it out already." She spoke curtly.
"They want to make a Warframe." Kalani gives Elpis' anger no heed. Or at least she looks the part.
"How could they possibly make a Warframe? They're a closely kept Tenno secret." Elpis was fuming inside. The nerve Kalani had to dismiss the deaths of thousands of their kin, claim she was better than them, and make up something as ridiculous as that.
"Not anymore." Kalani gestured to herself, and for the first time, her speech faltered. "They... They tore my Warframe apart... They studied it, studied me. They talked about this, project; they didn't think I understood them. Zanuka was only the first step. It was to dip their foot into the pond."
Her face suddenly twists into a harsh, cold anger. "So if you think for even a moment," Kalani stands. "that I am lesser than you, or anyone here," She grabs the table she was seated at and pushed it into Elpis until she was stuck between her and the wall behind her and leaned towards Elpis until her face was mere inches from her own. Her voice harboured a frigid and harsh softness, her cold and angered gaze overpowered Elpis,' so she made her message clear. "I will personally share my pain with you." Her voice almost seemed hoarse for a single moment. Kalani turned away and left, no one was brave enough to stop her.
Cordi pondered alone what Kalani could have meant by "hearing silence." She went to the Archives, located in the Rec District, in search of a codex to use. Thankfully, she did find a vacant codex there, as most of them were being used. Cordi sat staring at the screen for a while, thinking of what keywords to search. She decided to start with looking for Codex entries related to mental conditions related with extremely traumatic experiences. Of course, there were many on the all-too-known PTSD, but that didn't have anything to do with what Kalani claimed to hear. After a while, she did find something that wasn't related to PTSD, but instead, a state of mind that was only rumored to exist. The researcher called it the "Sanctum."
There have been many old tales of some Tenno falling into coma-like states, and almost never awakening. Most have come from the years of the Old War, but a few have come from years not so far behind us. After questioning a Frost Prime user, named Sulvus Attano, the story tale hero himself, on this subject, the brave warrior told me that this was called the Sanctum.
Cordi lost focus upon reading the name Sulvus Attano. He was one of the few Tenno that had lived since the beginning of the Old War itself, maybe even longer. He had many titles, but he was most widely known as Lord Sentinel. Leader of his clan, which was well known as the Sentinels of Shadow. His name was spoken in many tales; he performed astonishing feats of bravery and valour, leading the Orokin to victory. She shook off her excitement and resumed focusing on the subject at hand.
It supposedly happens to those who have experienced the most harrowing things a Tenno could ever face and lived to tell the tale. Attano continued to describe the many "phases" of this mental state. It began with merely a feeling of peace, harmony, or safety. There was never a pattern to this feeling's arrival, but whenever it passed, the affected would more often than not feel at danger, regardless of location. This progresses to not just a feeling, but a trance. The affected at this stage will sometimes fall into a daze. They do not register anything that happens around them, and feel truly at peace. When they leave this stupor, they are immediately overcome with panic, and will often flee from those they do not know well. Close friends are able to approach and attempt to calm them, but results vary from Tenno to Tenno.
The rest of the entry goes on about the different stages, which progressively puts the Tenno, as mentioned, in a coma-esque state. When and if they are awakened, they more often than not attack anything on sight; however, it didn't seem to be related to Kalani's silence.
A deep and gravelly voice coming from just behind her caused Cordi to gasp as she fought back the urge to scream. "You are looking into Kalani's silence too, it seems?"
Cordi looks over her shoulder to see a giant mountain of a man looking back at her with a surprisingly gentle expression. "H-How did you know?"
"I'm Captain of Security. I had a few people keep an eye and ear out. She spoke to me about this "silence," as well, although she never told me anything about forgetting, which is strange, because she had no reason to tell you anything. That was the first time she spoke to you, correct?" The giant man's tone is surprisingly gentle for how deep and rough it is, it almost doesn't suit his voice.
"Y-Yeah, th-that's right." Cordi nodded slowly.
"Ah, where are my manners, my name is Magnus. I believe your name is Cordi, correct? I dislike the powers I have as Captain of Security sometimes, so I try not to pry, but oftentimes Elpis commands it." There is a truly apologetic look in his eye.
"I-It's alright. It's nice to meet you, Magnus. S-So why are you talking to me about this?"
"Because I think we can help each other help Kalani. Don't bother searching for any diagnosable conditions, after hours of pouring over the subject; I have concluded it has nothing to do with this."
Cordi nodded concurringly. "O-Okay. What do you suggest we look into then?"
"I had pondered looking into more codex entries on this "silence," but I myself would seem rather strange doing so. You, however, don't know many people, but you know Zora. She can be valuable to us."
She tilted her head. Honestly, Cordi didn't want to involve Zora in this. She was afraid that Zora would let her curiosity get the best of her and ask one too many questions to Kalani. "H-How so?"
"While it would look strange to see "hearing silence" or "sound of silence" in our inquiry history, such a thing would not appear as strange in Zora's. Not only that, but she would pour over the Codex much more enthusiastically, which usually heralds thoroughness." He had a good point, although Cordi was unsure about getting Zora to look into this for her for the sake of her reputation. Sure, it was precious to her, but to use her only friend to preserve it? She was uneasy at the thought.
"What about Zora's reputation? Wouldn't people start to think she was going a little mad? I don't want to use my friend to protect my reputation."
Magnus sighs. "Do not think I make that suggestion without regret. I'm sorry to say your reputation means a lot here, if Elpis does not take you seriously, there is very little chance that you will progress far. Zora can afford that stigma that comes with searching things like that in the codex, she's asked stranger questions. You however, cannot. I doubt much will be asked of Zora if she searches it."
This comforted Cordi slightly. Magnus was most likely right, knowing Zora; she has most likely already asked the Codex stranger questions. So she nodded. "O-Okay. I'll ask her about it next time I see her. Is there anything we should look into?"
"Her eyes. They have changed colour since the mission. They were sky-blue before, but are now a silvery-blue. It doesn't appear fully natural." Cordi didn't even notice that there was a change until Magnus brought it up. Kalani's eyes had indeed changed colour. It's not that she hadn't noticed the silvery-blue of that deep, piercing gaze that had lasted several minutes, that was one of the key factors that made it unsettling, but she had never got a good look at her eyes before.
"That's right. They did change. Her stare, as well." Cordi resists shuddering at the thought.
"Hm?" Magnus wasn't familiar to it, he made it obvious with his expression. Cordi then remembered Magnus was only informed of it, he never saw it himself.
"Wh-When she told me about the silence, she stared at me, for minutes on end. I-It looked different too. She was still as distant as ever, but, it looked as if she sought after hearing this "silence." It... It was unsettling."
Magnus seems to ponder for a moment, but is interrupted by a soft beep coming from a small device on his wrist. He looks at it and raises an eyebrow. "It appears Elpis has brushed Kalani the wrong way, she has received her first death-threat from her, it seems." He sighs. "I was afraid they would butt heads so soon. You will have to excuse me; I need to report to the Commander."
Cordi nods, slightly worried about Kalani. Elpis didn't seem like someone who messed around, then again, neither did Kalani. If something wasn't done to calm this, one would be on the floor bleeding. "O-Okay. Should I look into her eye colour?"
Magnus only nods as he turns to leave.
Cordi returns her focus to the codex and makes a few searches regarding natural changes to eye colour. Her searches eventually began to find some useful information, after digging through several hours' worth of vanity entries. She finally found an informative entry on adverse effects of damage to the Warframe in the equivalent of an evening on Earth from the equivalent of an afternoon. She certainly looked the part, too.
Although the Warframes of the current day cause little side-effects to the Tenno who use them, many older models were much more harmful if damaged. Early models of Frost and Ember Warframes were known to freeze or burn Tenno inside them, or even, very rarely, detonate. Although these side-effects are problems of the past, there are still problems which can be quite precarious to the unwary Tenno of the present day. One such problem resides within the material it is made from, Technocyte. Technocyte is very difficult to harness, even for the Tenno. Using a Warframe for the first time is equal to the weeks-long, constant battle for the control of one's own body, although Tenno mentally and physically prepared for this battle face no trouble with it, certain conditions will make this battle recur with greater intensity.
After reading a good section of the Technocyte's adverse reactions to critical damage, Cordi concluded that Technocyte played no role in Kalani's re-coloured eyes. She moved on to component damage, namely components within her helmet.
The helmet of a Warframe is a strange subject. The helmet, as many know, can easily recede into the mass of the Warframe, effectively merging with the rest of it, to reveal the head of a Tenno. Despite this apparent fluidity, there are some key components located within it, which in some miraculous way, remain fully intact after merging. One component is the HUDP, or Heads-Up Display Projector. This component connects directly to the nervous system to gain access to the optical cords of the Tenno's eyes, and, in some miraculous way, displays all the information needed for Tenno on the field. If one such component is damaged even in the slightest way, it will cease functioning and gradually drain the colour from the irises of the Tenno's eyes until they appear to be a silver-esque colour, mixed with whatever the Tenno's eye colour was previously. No serious eye damage has been recorded to have been caused by this malfunction, but it is advised to repair the HUDP as soon as possible, as it is a very valuable asset.
Cordi had found the cause. The Corpus must have somehow damaged the HUDP in Kalani's helmet and caused her eyes to slowly dull in colour, but this still did not explain what caused her to hear silence. Cordi hoped this entry had an explanation, so she read on in search for some form of auditory device located in the helmet, but, as she suspected, to no avail. By the time she had found all that she could and saved her findings in a portable data drive, it was less than an hour before the Archives were to be closed for the night. Cordi immediately made her way to her quarters, where she slept soundly.
When Kalani returned to the lily garden, she felt somewhat relieved that Cordi was not there. Cordi was the second person her judgement seemed to fail around. She didn't know Cordi. Kalani had no reason to tell her of the silence. Thankfully she had caught herself before she revealed her secret. Revealed her past.
She wanted no one's pity. It made her sick. They looked at her as if she were something else, something lesser. She hated it. She sat in the darkened corner of the lily garden, at anything but peace. Pain had once again returned to her. Not the pain of her wounds, no, that was negligible, the pain was that of remembering.
She sat in her corner, staring at the ground until she heard the door open. By the sound of how heavy the footsteps that followed were, she could tell it was Magnus.
"I must say you have no fear, Kalani. Elpis doesn't take kindly to threats." Magnus said in his deep, rough voice. She heard a trace of sympathy in his voice. She hated it.
"She thought she was above me. I told her where her place was." Kalani gazes towards Magnus, her silvery-blue eyes pierced his, and the emotion that her distant eyes carried couldn't be identified.
"I would suggest you do nothing more than say. Elpis is a powerful woman."
Her gaze did not break. Magnus realized this was the gaze that Cordi had told him about. It was indeed different. It almost seemed clouded, but it was obvious she could see and hear very clearly. It made him uneasy.
"So am I." Nothing could cause her to break the soul-penetrating gaze that Kalani aimed towards Magnus.
"Do you feel different, Kalani? Since the mission? Your eyes have changed colour." Kalani did not break her gaze, but she did appear to be concentrating, although Magnus wasn't entirely sure on what. He only hoped it was on his question.
"I don't think so... The silence is gone, now..." Kalani finally broke her gaze and stared down at the floor. Magnus felt relief once this happened.
"When did you start hearing it?" Magnus leaned closer to Kalani. He did not expect to be talking to her for long, so he did not bother to sit.
"When they were dead." When she answered, a long and eerie silence envelopes the room, although Kalani doesn't seem to notice it. The silence made Magnus once again feel uneasy. Was this how the Corpus or Grineer felt when they were being hunted by the Tenno? If it was, Magnus didn't like it. A hunter was never cut out to be the hunted.
Any other questions Magnus asked were met by silence. Kalani was finished talking. Magnus stood and bid farewell, although that too was met with unresponsive silence.
A/N: Hey guys, thank you so much for reading! Hope you guys are enjoying this so far. I've made this note to let you guys know I'm really excited to hear your feedback on Broken Talon, good or bad. So go ahead and fire away.
