Under the banner of the Lotus, the Tenno are made to slaughter innocents. I did not understand, did the Lotus not know that every reactor she had us destroy killed civilians as well as combatants? Now I understand; she – it – knew all along, but she knew the Tenno were killers, and she knew they could never reach their goal. She had to stir up the factions by killing their civilians, if she did not peace might have been achieved. But if there was peace the Tenno would no longer fight, they would think. And when they thought they would find answers, answers the Lotus could not let afford to let them find.
A Mysterious Rescue
"Tenno, can you hear me?" My brain can recognise that the Lotus is concerned. Why is she concerned? I did my job and I survived. All is well, isn't it?
"Just" I reply mentally. At this point I'm glad for the telepathy, I don't think I could move my mouth enough to articulate speech. My body is paralysed, it will be till the warframe dissipated the excess void energy.
"Are you alright? Your vitals are stable, but something looks... off."
"I'm alive. I am paralysed till my warframe sheds the excess energy. That is all"
"Paralysed? That's not right... You shouldn't be paralysed... Aching all over yes, but not paralysed..." She sounds genuinely confused, this is probably not a good thing...
The all knowing Lotus doesn't know what's happening... This is really not good...
Would it be possible for you to change your tone? So that only the part of the sentence intended to be sarcastic actually sounds sarcastic. Because this really is not good...
You're always so particular. You knew what I meant, so why complain?
Because one of these days, I'm going to be focusing on fighting and you'll give me some advice sarcastically, and I won't be focused enough to realise you're being sarcastic and it'll get us killed.
Really? Got any examples in mind?
If we're fighting infested with a glaive, and you sarcastically suggest I throw it to hit an ancient. That'd get us killed because we'd be defenceless at close range until it returned.
No it wouldn't, we could just beat the infested down with out hands.
Really? Chargers are usually the first ones to get close, and they usually have a segment of Grineer armour protecting their upper half. Steel Grineer armour. Our punches would have no effect whatsoever!
...OK. I'll give you that one. But that's unlikely to ever happen, where would we even get a glaive from? I haven't seen one for centuries!
Is there not a blueprint on the black market?
Nope. There's a 'platinum only' deal, which if I recall correctly, means that you get a pre-built glaive.
Well, we don't have platinum, but if we did we could just get that then. So it's not too implausible.
No, no. You don't get it. It's pre-built. It's also Pre-used, and sometimes even has an Orokin catalyst pre-installed. By it's previous owner!
You're saying, we'd be using a dead man's weapon? So what?
No, not a dead "man's" weapon. Only the Tenno make and use glaives. We'd be using a weapon, taken from one of our dead brothers or sisters. Likely killed while they were in cryo-sleep. It would be a very disrespectful and dishonourable thing to do. We may not exactly be upstanding, moral galactic citizens, but we do respect our own!
Oh...
Yea. And the Lotus would probably have a fit anyway... speaking of the Lotus, she's being awfully quiet...
"Tenno, we may have a problem..."
Speak of the devil and she shall appear...
What?
Old saying.
"What kind of problem?" I intentionally let a hint of unease slip into my mental voice.
"Have you had any... other issues?"
"Like?"
"Inability to move at times, hearing voices, seeing things or coughing up blood..."
"Nope, only voice I've been hearing is my guide. And he's really annoying."
Hey, show some respect! Without me you wouldn't even know how to talk to her.
"'Your guide'?" The Lotus sounds really uneasy now.
"Yes, the one who helped me when I awoke, the one who does the hacking and uses the abilities... is something wrong?"
"Um... Tenno, Tenno do not have 'guides'..."
"WHAT?!"
"You will need to come in to a relay for a full scan, it may be a lingering effect of that ascaris thing! The last thing we need is for you to be hearing the instructions of Captain Vor..." She sounds... not quite scared, more a combination of scared and angry.
"Certainly, but right now I can't even move. Any suggestions?"
"I'll activate your distress beacon. Hopefully it will wake one of the nearby Tenno and they can come to your aid."
I feel, no, I sense a signal emitting from the back of my helmet. It fluctuates and undulates, and I cannot focus on the wavelength because it keeps changing... Fascinating. I still cannot move, and the telepathic channel has been cut. So I wait. There's nothing else I can really do.
I meditate for an hour, and then I try to move parts of my body to see if I am regaining any movement. I'm not. I meditate for another hour, still no movement. Another hour, still no movement! I'm about to re-enter my meditative state for the third time when I see something! A flash of red? Infested? No, the infested are all dead. The cascade bomb ensured that... but what was it then?
"Can you hear me?"
I jerk in surprise as a soft voice comes through my auditory receptors. It seems to be coming from behind me. I certainly can't see the speaker.
"Yes" I reply, telepathically.
"Can you move?" The voice is gentle, soothing, female. This woman's voice reminds me of the Lotus a bit, but it is almost more caring.
"No. The cascade bomb has disabled me somehow. Who are you?" Its odd, she is speaking, and I am thinking into her head. To anyone listening, it would seem she is talking to herself...
"I am not important. I am simply here to help. Are you aware of any reason I can't move you?"
"Other than the fact that I'm in a warframe that probably weighs as much as you do, not including my weight? Nope. IF you can, then please do move me."
I see her step into my field of view. She's wearing some sort of body suit. It is black, but has stripes of blood red. Probably the flash of red I saw out the corner of my eye, I realise.
She waves to someone in the distance, and then four other black and red suited people emerge from the shadows. Wow, even I couldn't detect them, and my warframe's sensors are back online and I was searching to find the flash of red... That's kinda worrying.
The four men, I can tell by their physique, move in sync and bend down to lift my warframe. Whoever they are they are organised, and quite strong. In my warframe I am still a lot heavier than what four average strength men could carry...
"OK, we're probably going to have to knock you out for a bit... is that alright with you?" the leader (atleast, I assume the woman to be the leader) asks me.
"Go ahead" I say, and I'm about to add an 'if you can' to the end of that reply, when she puts a finger to the side of her head. Suddenly I feel very fatigued, and I realise all of the pain has taken its toll on me, as I slip into peaceful sleep...
Did she just knock us out?
Hello? Oi! Me, are you even listening?Oh...
Wow, whoever she is... she's gotta be quite good to knock out a Tenno... And did she do that using her mind? Is she a psychic? Wow...
"Tenno? Tenno, can you hear me?" Lotus' voice is echoing through my psyche, sharply.
"Yes, I hear you Lotus" I reply, slightly snappier than I should have
"What happened?" She almost demands "You started meditating, and when the other Tenno operative arrived you were gone! And then you showed up here at Larunda Relay. And none of the Guards saw you arrive!"
"The men in the red and black body suits... they rescued me."
"What men in red and black bodysuits?!"
"I dunno, the woman showed up first and then she called the men over to carry me... I get the feeling she was the most dangerous of them, and she was scouting ahead to see if it was clear."
"These... 'men in red and black bodysuits' what did they look like? Were they armed?"
"Chill Lotus, the poor guy's just woken up after being hit by a cascade bomb. Give him a minute to order his thoughts."
"Who on Earth are you?!"
"The aforementioned 'guide', and no I have absolutely no idea how I ended up inside this lunatic's head. But I am sure I am not a product of that ascaris thingy!"
"This... this is unprecedented... do you have a a name?" She sounds about as confused as I feel...
"Nope. But I guess we are going to need names to distinguish ourselves... any suggestions? It's not like we can just call ourselves 'one' and 'two'..."
"How about 'Alpha' and 'Beta'? Greek for 'one' and 'two'?" she says speculatively.
"Yea why not. I guess I'm gonna end up as Beta though..."
"Yes, the one who controls the body is Alpha. Is he still paying attention?"
"Yes, I am. Just thinking..."
"So, Beta... is it possible for you to somehow mask your psi signature? I think we should probably still do that scan, since you're already here and all... and it'll get even more confusing if we get two intermingling sets of brain patterns"
"Certainly" Beta replies
I get the feeling that this is not going to get any less confusing... but I follow the relay guard as we head to the medbay. For some reason the door is red - 'locked', but once we pass the elevators he touches the side of his head and it unlocks.
Beta? Is everyone here psychic?
No. Human psychics are quite rare. They're yet another product of the Orokin messing with stuff they shouldn't really mess with... but only a few have the genes to allow them to use their powers. The Tenno are psychic by default, since we have a modified brain structure specifically to allow us to be psychic.
I see... So that woman...
Yes, she was very powerful, even for a psychic. I'm not sure you could have withstood that sleep pulse even if you had your defences up...
My defences?
Yea. Psychic defences. The Orokin built them into the second gen Tenno after the sentients were discovered to be capable of using psychic attacks.
Second Gen?
Yea. The Orokin made the primes. But each prime took a long time to produce. And each new one took a long time to design. They had a set of the lower guardians' scientists start work on 'second gen' Tenno. These Tenno had to be able to adapt to any warframe. If a prime came their way, they should be able to use it. But they should be equally capable of using a basic frame. And then right at the end of the design process, there was the battle of Outer Terminus. The sentients unleashed psionic attacks that absolutely devastated the Tenno. I remember hearing about it. One Tenno, could usually take ten or twelve sentient drones. At that battle, there was a sentient carrier, so maybe 20,000 sentient drones and 40,000 Tenno, Elite Tenno, better trained and armed than even some of the royal guard. They were defending the Emperor who had gone to watch the Elite's Parade. None returned.
What happened?
The sentients used psychic and psionic attacks. First they made the Tenno turn on each other, and then they ripped the survivors apart limb by limb. However, a few were unaffected, it didn't save them. 300 survivors vs 20,000 sentient drones was never going to end well. These 300 were the half-Tenno. Psychic humans who wore warframes. It was discovered that they all saw what was happening, and used a psionic power to block out the fear so that they could say goodbye to their families. That blocking power turned out to be a lot more powerful than anyone imagined... So were were built with that in mind. Our brains are closer to human, specifically so that we could use that blocking method.
So the emperor died?
Nope. He escaped. Along with two advisors and three journalists. If anyone there was truly expendable it was the journalists, and they survived!
So, once we had psychic defences everything was alright?
No. Far from it. We Tenno had psychic defences. The emperor did not. He was assassinated using a psionic attack. And then the Tenno had to learn how to protect other people psychically as well...
Who killed him? A sentient?
No. some crazy man in the crowd. He kept yelling about getting revenge for some girl called 'Margulis' or something... Kerry shot him once she traced the attack back to him. It did not go down well with the media...
Do you know anything about this 'Margulis'? Was she anyone important? Her name sounds familiar...
Not that I recall... some sort of scientist or something... I get the feeling I knew her... But I don't remember... I should remember...
You met her?
I think I knew her... I'm getting the feeling she was someone important to me, to us, but I honestly can't remember...
The doctor and the guard lower me onto the scanner and then the doctor, a kind-looking old guy with greying hair, ask us to relax and meditate. I do.
"Ah, he's awake." The doctor says to someone I can't see, but I can sense. She appears to be a nurse of some description. "Everything's good Tenno, you have no abnormalities. The Lotus asked to speak to you as soon as you awoke. Would you like me to show you were the viewpoints are?"
"The viewpoints?" I ask him mentally
"Just kneeling pads by the windows, good for meditation or relaxation. Also good if you need to focus on talking to someone..."
"Thank you, I'll follow your lead" I think to him
We walk out of the medbay, past several empty rooms and over to a large window. It is probably shielded on both sides. And as promised there are three Tenno style kneeling pads. I kneel and search for the Lotus as the doctor returns to his ward.
"Lotus, do you hear me?"
"Yes, I hear you Tenno. Proceed"
"I was told you wished to speak to me?"
"Yes, I still want to know about these men in red. They are a mystery... and I am slightly concerned... They appear to be human, but they succeeded in sneaking past security and the perimeter patrols and left you by the monument in the centre of the relay. We know they arrived in your ship, but the cameras don't show anyone coming or going once it landed. We did see another ship, a red and black grineer dropship, that sped through the docking bays and seemed to pick something or someone up on one of the landing platforms."
"Well, I can tell you they definitely weren't Grineer, they wore bodysuits rather than armour, they could sneak well and they looked like they had normal human physiology. Although they did seem quite strong..."
"That... helps, but doesn't narrow it down much... perhaps they were Grineer special forces... but then why would the nightwatch corps help a Tenno... no, they wouldn't... but then who could they be?" The Lotus thought out loud. "This is something we will need to look out for, if they contact you, let me know discretely."
"As you command"
End of Part 4
