Levon walked to the command console of the abandoned Liset. Were it not for the airlock that had been tightly sealed, the aircraft should have been filled to the brim with sand and Desert Skates.
Something Trey was rather happy about.
"Thank god, none of those ugly, disgusting, horrifying, Desert Skates..." Trey said to no one in particular.
"There's one behind you!" Steve shouted.
Trey jumped in fear, raising his Baza Rifle at nothing as he tripped foolishly to the floor with a thud.
"Dumbass!" Steve laughed, slapping his knees.
"Should have just left you to die," Trey clipped, slinging his Baza back over his shoulder.
Felon left the two children to bicker, walking to Levon.
"So? Can we fly this thing?"
"Yes...yes we can. I just need something sharp, something that's a good conductor of electrici-"
Levon turned to Felon's chest, and ripped his badge off the man's chest.
"Hey! That was given for saving a whole squad on Eris!"
"Yes, yes, and I'm very proud of you," Levon jested.
Felon rolled his eyes.
Levon inserted the badge into a hole in the command console, and gave the dead console a quick jolt of electricity; a visible spark danced around the metal badge as the console revived. Energy flowed within the deserted systems of the Liset once again as the lights in the aircraft lit back to life.
The Warframe gave Felon a thumbs up as he passed the valuable badge back.
"Op...Ope...Oppeeeratorrrrr...Operator?! You're back!" A voice from nowhere echoed throughout the ship.
"What was that?" Grett asked, slightly tensed.
"My Cephalon, Freyarch, how have you been buddy?"
"PRETTY BAD...Never better Operator!"
"Good. I need us in the air now, Freyarch."
"System reboots will take approximately 6 minutes. Starting now," Freyarch asserted.
"Alright."
"So...Levon? Where the hell are we going? Could you fill us in now?" Grett questioned.
"Ah right, sure. Gather around here."
The operatives sat in a circle around the Volt, like children who were eager to hear a story by a campfire.
"So...I'm going to th-"
Levon stopped abruptly in his words, his head tilted.
"Real funny," Trey jeered.
"Shush!" Levon raised a single finger to Trey's lips forcefully, listening.
Listening very intently.
Piecing together what Levon was doing, the operatives followed suite, straining their ears and extending their hearing as far as they could...and then...they heard it too.
Footsteps. A bunch of them. As if a whole stampede was coming. The ground outside was shaking as something was storming its way over.
Felon was the first to get to his feet, bringing his Strun to his chest vigilantly, already ready to fire.
"Steve, you're injured, stay here," he ordered.
Levon followed the operative.
The duo made their way down a hatch from the Liset, back out into the open desert of Mars. They looked to their left ; the source of the noise, and were greeted by a horrific, cursed site.
"Well this ain't gon' be good," Felon sighed.
"Go! Go! Go!"
A Grineer Commander pointed at the uncloaked Liset as he pushed his troops forward. Lancers slid down the side of the canyon, leaving a valley of sand as they approached the Liset cautiously. A whole squadron of Lancers had been dispatched to get the Warframe back, alive. To drag his struggling body back to the person that stood and watched over them all.
Captain Vor.
Vor gave off an evil smirk on his wrinkled face, watching his comrades storm forward towards the revealed airship.
"Everything going as planned, Captain!" The Commander reported.
Vor gave an impatient frown as he shook the commander off with a single nod. All he wanted now was success.
All he wanted now was the Warframe.
Felon rushed back into the Liset, facing his confused friends.
"I don't think we can shoot our way out of this one."
"Ah don't crap us Felon, we already won one battle..."
Trey's words slowed to a solemn stop as he strolled down the hatch, watching the stampede of Lancers rushing towards them.
"...on second thoughts let's just stay in here," Trey gulped, retreating back into the Liset.
"Come on! We have to hold them off for 6 minutes!" Grett retorted, getting to his feet and ready to advance.
Until Levon butted in.
"No! Stay here! I'll deal with these...what are they called?"
"Grineer."
"Reindeer. Stay here, stay covered. Call for me once Freyarch's done with the reboots."
Levon dashed back into the Liset, and unfolded a shelf.
His weapons.
The operatives gasped as they got a glimpse of the weapons made for a God.
A Nikana, an Angstrum,
And a Warframe.
All that was needed to win a war, some said.
Levon marched down the hatch, ready for battle.
The operatives stared in awe as they witnessed the Tenno jump back into action.
Grineer Lancers halted in their tracks as the Volt swaggered into sight, his feet planting themselves firmly into the sand. Their cloned hearts beat harder and faster, now war drums.
The cloned troops felt a cold shiver run down their spines.
Levon clenched his fists, cracked his neck, and rolled his shoulders. The Tenno had already missed this. Missed the feeling of adrenaline pumping through his veins as his muscles tensed; a hand already on the deadly Angstrum and the other gripping the unsheathed Nikana firmly.
The Volt leaped into the air.
"Fire!" Lancers bellowed, panicking.
The Volt swooped down, deflecting the bullets expertly as the other hand unleashed the deadly capacity of the Angstrum; rockets darted out of the muzzles and roasted Grineer troops wherever they landed. Bringing such a huge army only meant more people to slice and burn for Levon.
Levon slid on the ground, his left hand holding the Nikana, leaving chopped bodies as he spun; then he pulled the Angstrum's trigger with his right hand.
From within the Liset, the operatives gazed...just stared.
Watching the Volt fly from place to place, streams of electricity following him as he left behind a trail of blood in the sand.
"Wow..."
"Wish I could do that."
"Never seen something like that in all my years," Felon confessed.
After what seemed like a quick few minutes, the huge Grineer army instantly reduced to a handful amount, all while Captain Vor continued to watch from the top of the canyon, standing still, unwilling to leave despite the sheer amount of casualties.
"We have to retreat!" The Commander pleaded.
Captain Vor whipped his Seer out, and fired it mercilessly at the commander's heart, dispelling any thoughts of retreating.
The remaining Lancers advanced towards the blood-stained Warframe, who was chirping.
Levon sprinted through a valley of dismembered corpses, rushing forward to meet new victims that fired foolishly at the Volt, only to have their bullets hit the Warframe's shields but do no damage otherwise.
But perhaps only one target mattered...
Levon snapped his head to the left, meeting Captain Vor eye to eye. Even without being a genius, the Tenno knew that that was the man leading this pointless battle. He knew what a leader looked like, and that man...
He leaped into the air, gliding towards Captain Vor as he aimed his Angstrum steadily.
A mistake.
Vor unpinned something from his chest; his Janus Key.
And unleashed its power onto the Warframe.
A beam of pure energy darted out of the golden key and raced in the air towards the gliding Warframe.
The golden, burning beam met Levon; slamming into the Tenno mid-air and knocking him out of his jump, leaving the Volt falling through the sky and crashing into the sand below.
Levon groaned as he shook his head, regaining his lost senses; Lancers had already surrounded him as they pointed their weapons at him. But they didn't fire; they waited.
Captain Vor soon stood over Levon as well, smirking victoriously as the old man held some sort of device in his hand.
The Lancers breathed an air of fear as Vor made his next move.
The Captain bent down, latching the orange device onto the Volt's calf.
"You are mine now, Tenno," Vor triumphantly scoffed.
The Grineer Captain walked away, waving his hands in the air and signalling to his brothers that the battle was over.
They had won.
Witnessing this sight from within the Liset, the operatives had to do something.
"Freyarch! What are we looking at?"
"10 seconds to reboot! 9...8...7" The Cephalon counted down.
Outside, the remaining Lancers were already dragging Levon's helpless, exhausted body and trailing behind Captain Vor.
"...2...1...0."
Energy coursed into the command console as the navigation section of the Liset came back on; the ancient aircraft was fully revived now.
"This thing got any weapons?"
"Yes, we have..."
"I don't care! Just fire!"
Automated turrets and rocket launchers emerged from the Liset, aiming for the fleshy targets in the distance.
And they fired.
The bullets quickly dispatched the unaware, unready Grineer; except for one. Vor encapsulated himself in a golden buble of protection, his Janus Key shining. A rocket flew towards the Captain, crashing into the impenetrable energy bubble but dealing no harm. Flames and projectiles converged onto Vor, but only gliding off the golden capsule. The old man was helpless as he unwillingly watched Levon shakily get to his feet.
"Over there, fly low," Felon commanded.
The Liset hovered over to Levon, blowing away tornadoes of sand as the aircraft inched its way towards its operator; its hatch still open.
With his final might, Levon leaped into the air; landing clumsily on the hatch and dragged back into the safety of the Liset by Trey and Steve.
"Alright, let's go!" Grett shouted, flicking a lever and sealing the hatch shut.
The Liset boomed back into space, leaving Captain Vor staring into the open sky as the howling winds blew by; sand already covering the mountain of corpses around him.
But Vor smirked.