Attack

She was chortling when it happened. CCX-2 was not a standard proxy by anyone's stretch of imagination. Mari had been assigned to the proxy exclusively and the pair had turned into an efficient team. That stood to reason, the proxy had been programmed to serve and so had Mari. They understood one another, and while there was a bit of friction occasionally - mostly since CCX-2 was essentially an innocent- Mari did not hold it against the proxy. She -Mari had difficulty remembering to call CCX-2 an 'it' now- had made Mari laugh. Mari had commented on how times had changed since her last memories and the MOA had asked for some basic history files. It had taken some time for the request to work its way up the chain of command and back down, but then Mari had been given a huge file of...stuff for the MOA to peruse. All kinds of stuff. Ancient records mostly. She had looked for the records of what had happened to her colony, but some thoughtful person had deleted that file. Probably for the best even though the pang of grief still hurt. But then CCX-2 had dredged up something that had made Mari giggle.

The proxy had been trying to get Mari to laugh after she had looked for her colony's information. It had depressed her a bit that she didn't know what had happened. So CCX-2 had taken it upon itself to lighten her mood. One of the things that they had managed to hook up properly on the chassis was a hologram projector. Mari didn't know here CCX-2 had gotten that particular image, but it hilarious. CCX-2 had asked Mari how it looked and when Mari had turned, she had seen the MOA with a tall hat of some kind, an odd hairy thing that moved attached to it's beak -was that a mustache? Mari wasn't sure- and what looked for all the world like a large glass lens of some kind over one ocular sensor. All holographic of course, but still... Then it had asked if she wanted some tea in an odd dialect. She had burst out laughing and all the other techs had spun to see what she had seen and all had been chortling at the MOA's odd sense of humor.

She was turning back to her terminal after dressing down the MOA for misuse of company property. Not seriously, of course, but with everything recorded, she wanted to make sure that the security types didn't overreact to the childlike MOA's joke. So she had told the MOA never to do that again while at the same time, laughing. CCX-2 had understood. But then Mari had gone back to work and seen something that had made her freeze. It wasn't anything that she understood.

The odd silhouette was in one of the large air vents. That duct always had cover, but it was gone. The shadow within the duct was humanoid in shape, but...not. From somewhere in her mind, she dredged up the feeling that it was a female shape, but from the shadows it clung to, she couldn't be sure. It had an odd thing on it's head, it looked kind of like a crest. Or... Mari went completely still as the shape catapulted itself from the vent to land silently in front of her. She stared at it, now revealed. It was proportioned like a human female, but...not. It had white and brown coloring, with reds and oranges in various places. The crest was odd. It looked like a flame, sort of. Mari stared at it and then her eyes went wide. Not Corpus. Other! Intruder! She jumped for an alarm panel nearby.

Something slammed into Mari from behind as she slapped the panel and every alarm in the facility suddenly went off. All eyes turned to Mari as she fell, her lower body suddenly numb. She heard someone scream a word. One she didn't know.

"Tenno!"

Then there were more screams as Mari fell to the floor, trying to get up, to help, to do anything. She couldn't. She managed to roll onto her back despite pain that immediately seared through her to see the other unarmed techs herded to one side of the room as the odd humanoid form moved towards the MOA which was cowering in a corner. Mari managed to get her voice working.

"Leave..." Mari was amazed her voice was as clear as it was. "Leave her alone..." She called in a weak voice.

The intruder paused, turned back to look at Mari and then something flashed from it's hand. It happened too fast for her to even cry out, but suddenly warm liquid was running down her face as one of her eyes stopped working. It didn't hurt, but she knew it should. She heard CCX-2 scream.

"Mari A-73! No!" The MOA shouted and suddenly it darted from the oddly shaped humanoid and moved to stand protectively over Mari. "Bad! Bad person!" CCX-2 shouted. "Go away!"

Shouts nearby heralded the arrival of a squad of security troops who opened fire immediately. The odd female humanoid dodged through the plasma fire effortlessly and jumped back into the vent. Then it was gone. The guards pursued it as one of the techs ran to a first aid locker and pulled the kit before running to Mari's side.

"Mari A-73..." The MOA said, stepping away a bit. "You are leaking...That is not good. Is it?" It begged, pathetic in its need for reassurance.

"No." Mari admitted as the other tech started working. "But... I will be all right, CCX-2." She grunted as something hurt, but kept pain from her voice through sheer effort. "Start... Start working on the redesign for the secondary motor assembly please? I will be... a while."

"Stop talking and moving, Mari A-73." The commanding voice of nurse Ginger L-89 came. "You have an embedded object and other injuries." Mari stopped moving as the nurse came close, taking the place of the tech who moved aside gratefully. "Sleep, Mari A-73." A hiss sounded and Mari fell into blackness.

"What happened?"

The voice of what had to be an executive sounded, pulling Mari out of a troubled sleep. She was lying on something soft and nothing hurt, but she couldn't move and didn't want to. She tried to open her eyes and couldn't. But it didn't matter. Nothing did. She listened, disinterested.

"A Tenno got past our security." The voice of a guard sounded. "It entered the research lab through one of the supposedly secured ducts." His voice was sharp. "I have crews sealing all the ducts now."

"What was it after?" The executive demanded. "And how did it get past the outer perimeter?"

"We do not know what it was after but as to how it got in? It killed two patrols." The guard replied with hate in his voice. "Ambushed them and slaughtered them all along with all their proxies before any could sound an alarm. No survivors."

"Blasted Tenno." The executive swore. "It just isn't fair. They are our property! Why can they not accept that?" No one answered and the executive sighed. When he spoke again, it was in a calmer voice. "The damage to Mari A-73?"

"Her spinal cord was cut at the second lumbar vertebrae." The voice of Ginger L-89 was clinical and precise, but held anger. "The blade went right through her armor and then through her. It tore through her intestines and made a mess of her right kidney and spleen before exiting out her front. We found it embedded in a wall. We were in time to prevent any organ death, but she will need extensive repairs. The second blade that hit her was aimed to kill, but it was slowed by her helmet armor, and she must have been turning at the time, so it caught in her left eye socket. She lost the eye, but the blade did not penetrate to her brain. Again, time consuming to repair, but not long term damaging." Mari should have felt fear, pain...something. But she was suspended in a gray haze. "She is alive and she was speaking, so no cognitive impairment. She is coming around."

"I see." The executive said calmly. "How soon can she be back up?"

"If we get her into surgery quickly..." Ginger said quietly. "By the end of shift today. She was scheduled to go in anyway for repairs to her excretory system, but not for two more days. All her preliminary tests were done."

"I am being pressed for results. The Board wants something now." The executive said with a sigh. "I will expedite her entry into surgery. But, how can we keep this from happening again?"

"Sir." The guard said quietly. "My department has repeatedly requested more personnel and funding. We don't have the manpower or proxies to cover the areas we need to. We are stretched too thin."

"I know that." The executive snapped and then sighed. "My apologies. I know you are doing the best you can, but with everything else going on and the Grineer threatening our stockpiles... I keep putting your requests for personnel and funding up the chain and they keep punting them back to me as non-essential."

"Well... We do have one ultra secure facility on planet, sir." The guard said quietly. "No way a Tenno would get in there."

"You cannot be serious." The executive sounded thoughtful rather than dismissive though. "Medic?" He asked.

"She is going to need time to recover no matter what. At least a day." Ginger said calmly. "There are facilities in there for research and development. If we sent her in with the MOA...She can work on it there, maybe help them streamline the process? From all accounts, she does more with it in minutes than all our techs have managed in weeks."

"I don't know if I can swing that." The executive said with a frown in his voice. "She hasn't been fully indoctrinated yet."

"She sounded the alarm, sir." The guard said diffidently. "From her recorded reactions, she had no idea what the Tenno was. When she realized it wasn't Corporate, she acted in our best interests and nearly died for it."

"I don't know." The executive replied with a sigh. "I will ask. But they may ship her off to HQ for full decompression and analysis while they fix her up. Don't grimace like that, Medic Ginger L-89." He said with a snort. "Mari A-73 is a priceless asset. We must protect her until we can duplicate her expertise."

"I know." Ginger replied. "The Company comes first, but she is fitting in here."

"And uprooting her on top of the extensive repairs she will need will cause more psychological trauma." The executive agreed sourly. "Is she awake?"

"Yes sir." Ginger said after a moment. "But not all the way. Mari A-73? Can you hear me?"

"Yes." Mari managed to get the word out.

"You are hurt, Mari A-73." Ginger said gently. "But the executive and the guard captain wish to speak with you. Your eyes are covered and you are strapped down, so don't struggle, okay?"

"I understand." Mari said, her words coming as if from far away. "I obey."

"Yes, you do." The executive's voice was gentle now. "What do you remember?"

"I was...working..." Mari said slowly, her drug fuddled brain operating far slower than it should. "CCX-2 was trying to make me laugh and succeeded. I was... distressed not to find information on my colony."

"The proxy was trying to make you laugh?" The guard captain asked in disbelief.

"CCX-2 is not a normal proxy." Mari said defensively, but then her ire faded as something clicked and she drifted a little.

"Easy, Mari A-73." Ginger reprimanded her gently. "Don't stress yourself. We have you on support, but there are limits. Guard Captain, check your recordings of what she has done with that MOA. It is not a normal MOA by any stretch of the imagination." She said in reproof.

"I will take your word for it, medic." The guard replied evenly. "But it is my job to be suspicious."

"Indeed it is." The executive sounded as if he wanted to laugh. "I just perused that file and... I would have laughed too at that hologram." He chuckled but then his voice turned serious. "And then?"

"I saw something in the shadows, in the duct. There was supposed to be a cover on that duct. There wasn't." Mari said slowly. "I couldn't make it out. And then it jumped out. Nothing human can move like that. What was that?" She asked, fear coming despite the drugs.

"Easy, Mari A-73." Ginger said as a hand rubbed her arm. "It's okay. It's over." Warmth spread through her from her arm and lassitude eased her. "It was a Tenno."

"A Tenno?" Mari asked, scouring her memory, but coming up blank. "What is a Tenno and why did it attack me?"

"Tenno are relics of ancient times." The executive said with a snap. "Dangerous relics. We use the ones we acquire. But they have minds of their own and are very dangerous. As for why it attacked you? We don't know."

"It was moving towards CCX-2." Mari said slowly. "The techs had run -there was no way for them to fight it unarmed- and it let them. It was focused on the MOA. Why?" She said softly. "CCX-2 isn't armed. It was less of a threat than the techs were. Why did that...Tenno..." She worked her mouth around the odd word. "...do that?"

"We don't know." The executive said with a sigh. "We need to find out."

"What can I do to help?" Mari asked after a moment. "CCX-2 is a priceless asset. She...it is a.." She broke off.

"Are you empathizing with a proxy, Mari A-73?" The executive asked softly.

"It is hard not to." Mari replied. "It...trusts us. It has the mind of a child and wants to be good." Her breath was coming in gasps now but she continued as best she could. "It... It trusts me. It considers me a friend and it is hard not to reciprocate." She slumped, spent.

"Well..." The executive said after a moment. "Your results speak for themselves. Rest for now, Mari A-73. I will report to the board, see what they say. But your first priority now is to heal. We need you whole and functional."

"Yes sir." Mari said quietly. "Did they find out who hacked my somatic unit? I am scared to sleep." She admitted.

"Not yet." The guard captain said quietly. "The signal came from a disused terminal in an abandoned section of the base. It should have been isolated from the network, but apparently someone managed to hook it back up. We have disabled it permanently now."

"Am I a threat?" Mari asked, scared despite the drugs.

"No." Ginger snapped. "Will all due respect, Executive Seim, Guard Captain... You are stressing my patient. While she is injured, she is my responsibility and she needs sleep to rest and gain strength. Especially if she is going into surgery today."

"She is right." The executive said in a placating tone. "I will lean on some people to get Mari A-73 into surgery today. And you guard captain, will find out who tried to hack her and why the Tenno tried to steal our prototype and kill our best robotics tech." The quiet words were a command.

"Yes sir." The guard replied calmly.

"All right, they are gone. Enough excitement, Mari A-73." Ginger said gently. "Sleep now." Mari drifted off into a world populated by violet MOAs, crying children and oddly garbed strangers with otherworldly powers.