Recon

Where are they? Dust asked in gestures. Jasmina, at his side did not reply, but both were feeling a sense of foreboding. This part of Mars always felt a bit… lost. But this was ridiculous.

Karl's clan had been very generous, offering unlimited access to the clan's armory. Dust had picked a few extra mods for his weapons and gone from there. The same MK-1 Braton, Lato and Skana were better modded than they had been. Both firearms had full noise suppression and the sword now had ice damage that would slow any enemy down. Before, he had been geared for assassinating an Infested target. Now? He had no idea at all what he was going to encounter. So he was set up to take virtually any enemy quietly. Jasmina… had gone the other way.

He didn't need to glance at her to read her loadout. It gave him the willies at times to have her behind him. He knew that she knew what she was doing, but still… The Ogris in her hands made him very nervous even if he hadn't known how powerfully modded the weapon was. He did, he had seen her mod it. The Prime Sicarus and Prime Glaive that she carried just made things worse. The Glaive had made him nervous for some reason, but he couldn't explain it so he had ignored the feeling. Only the Glaive was a true 'silent' weapon. Not that he expected her to use it that way. It was a sword with more reach for her, not a stealth tool like his Skana.

It had been…odd to visit the clan's armory. Not bad. Just odd. They had a preponderance of Prime weapons. All kinds of Prime weapons, including some he had not seen for… Well, he wasn't sure when he had last seen a Bolto Prime. Or a Vasto Prime. But they had both. Not his preferred style, but very cool. Then the rest. It had taken all of Dust's stern control not to fawn over some of the gear that Karl's people had collected. Somas, Tigris and Vectis had been prominent. Small wonder in a well-stocked Tenno armory, but… so many of them. The room had been massive and filled with weapons of all description. Not just normal Tenno weapons either. There had been a few that even Tenno in warframes would have had difficulty managing.

Dust was all about mobility. Stealth, speed and mobility were his hallmarks, but even he had seen the armorer's pride and joy and nearly had a gun-gasm. He wasn't sure where he had seen the odd weapon before. He had, he knew that. It was hard to forget. A minigun, but not just a minigun. (As if that wasn't enough!) It was a massive chunk of death spewing metal with a rocket launcher attached! Admittedly, it only had ten rounds of rocket ammo and reloading it in the field would be impossible. But still… Dust had nearly swooned when he saw it. He, Aeron and Miguel, the other armorer, had spent ten minutes talking about it before Jasmina had –pointedly- urged him to 'get on with it'. Dust had promised to come back and talk about the 'chain gun' as Miguel called it, when he had time. It wasn't really a Tenno style weapon. Moving with it would be difficult and parkour would be impossible. But it was beyond cool.

Then… Jasmina's ship had been fast and efficient. They had reached Mars quickly and been dropped near where Dust had been for his Assassination mission. The habitats and greenhouses were exactly as he had left them. Well… Mostly. The signs of battle were everywhere. Dead Corpus robotics lay in places, some of them torn to pieces. No bodies were left of whatever they had been fighting but from the claw and bite marks on some of the remnants? Both Tenno knew it had been Infested. No Infested remains were to be seen, however and that made sense. If the Infested had won, they would have... um… absorbed the remaining bio mass. If the Corpus won, then no one sane wanted Infested flesh just lying around. But neither of them could tell which side had won. There were no signs of Corpus in the area currently. Corpus did not just up and leave an area they fought so hard for. But if the Infested had won… where were they? This area was completely deserted!

Doesn't feel right. Dust signed to Jasmina and she acknowledged.

Trap? Jasmina signed and Dust nodded. For who? Dust shrugged and she nodded. Keep going.

Dust recognized the area. He had ambushed the Ancient and been ambushed by Brownie just ahead. All of his senses were on hyperalert as he eased into a clearing and… What the hell?

Something new had been added. A large square stone had been moved into the middle of the clearing. Dust inhaled sharply as he realized that the stone had been moved to exactly where the Toxic Ancient that he had killed had fallen. Jasmina remained in cover, her Ogris tracking around as Dust slowly approached the… was 'plinth' the right word? It sounded right. It looked as if the stone was meant to hold a statue or something. There was writing on it and Dust scrutinized it. What he read had him recoiling.

'Marishia, a friend, gave her life here for Lisa, daughter of Lars and Helga. She is missed.'

Lisa? Dust asked himself, backing slowly away from the stone. Someone had named the Infested Ancient? How? Why? This made no sense. No one had ever been able to decipher the Infested language, if they had one. Then again… The voice in Brownie's mind had spoken of 'the lesser cousins'. So… The sapient ones considered the others 'lesser'? He needed more information. He turned back to Jasmina, but…

The Ember was gone! Dust cast his Smoke Screen instantly and dodged to the side as something flew through where he had been. Nothing should have been able to sneak up on a Tenno! Nothing should have been able to disable a Tenno of Jasmina's skill without making a sound, without letting her get off a warning. He walked slowly and carefully away from where an odd net of some kind sparked on the ground. There had been no noise. He moved to where Jasmina had been and yes… The faint signs of something being dragged led away from the clearing. He heard something and dodged to the side as another net fell. He looked up to see a pair of humans standing on a tree branch overhead, their faces filled with hate.

"Get him!" One of the humans screamed and the brush around the clearing seemed to come alive. At least a dozen human forms stepped out into view. None of them showed on his warframe sensors and suddenly he knew that the Corpus forces hadn't just been beaten here. They had been slaughtered. All of these humans carried Dera rifles, probably scavenged from the Corpus.

Dust dropped a small device and moved away. The speaker squawked and the humans paused, aiming at it.

"Did you know the Corpus can track those weapons?" Dust asked in a mild tone through the speaker. "They will know where you are." Normally, Tenno did not speak in the field, but he really did not want to fight these humans.

"Where is my daughter, you filthy piece of betraying crap?" The man who had shouted at Dust before said, pushing to the fore. The man's dark hair was ragged and his face was weathered from stress and long work.

"The girl who shot me is alive." Dust replied through the speaker he had dropped, seeking a hole in the ring of humans. There wasn't one. His Smoke Screen's invisibility wouldn't last forever. He couldn't get a reading on the humans in the trees to teleport. They were staying out of the range of a visual lock. They had learned. "How long has she been disabled?" At that, the humans paused in their encirclement.

"What do you care, Betrayer?" The man snapped, but his expression was guarded.

"Because unlike some…" Dust said, still in that same mild tone. "I remember what the Tenno's primary duty was. Before the War, during it and now. Protecting people like you. It is still my duty."

"You hurt my daughter." The man snapped. "You hurt her and took her, killed her friend! Probably killed her too when you were done with your sick fun!"

"She is alive. Look." Dust said through the speaker, still moving even as his invisibility faded and they turned to track him. "She shot me. She was acting very strange. I could tell she was hurting just by looking at her. She was…wrong." Dust said with a sigh. "We needed to know what was happening here. We might be able to help her. Probably not, but maybe. Isn't that worth the chance?" He pleaded. "I didn't hurt her beyond digitizing her! What was I supposed to do? Carry her kicking and screaming from the forest? She lives!"

"You lie!" The man said firmly. "Take him!" With that, the ring of humans charged.

Three of the humans threw nets like the first one, but Dust managed to dodge each in turn. He didn't want to hurt these people, but he couldn't let them take him either. Whatever they had planned wasn't going to be good for him. Just from the looks on their faces, he could tell that. They had all slung the Dera rifles and now held Prova shock sticks as if they knew how to use them. Who knew? Maybe they did.

"I am not your enemy." Dust said as he leaped clear over the head of the nearest human, dodging in mid-air as shock sticks swung at him. "Don't make me your enemy!" He pleaded as he darted away from the ring, following the barely visible trail that led from where Jasmina had been standing. But then, he jumped high, catching a low hanging branch and swarmed up into the tree. He hid there, covered in foliage as the pack below thundered in pursuit.

"After him!" The loud male screamed. "Don't let him near the 'Home'."

Home? Dust thought to himself, not moving as other forms ran through the trees. One of them passed nearly close enough to touch, but Dust remained silent and still. He wasn't here to hurt these humans. He was here to find out what was going on. Now, as well, he had to find Jasmina. He checked the remote speaker and the human's hadn't touched it. He keyed a search pulse through it and winced at the feedback. Whatever was holding Jasmina was powerful. Powerful enough to scramble her warframe's positional sensors. Dust shook himself. Only one way to find out what was going on. The hard way.

He ghosted forward, eyes and all other senses poised as the forest came alive with shouts of consternation, calls back and forth from the human hunters. Then his blood ran cold as howls started in the distance. Infested.

Aw crap. Dust's options had just slimmed even further. If he had sense, he would fall back, get reinforcements and come back to search. But in that time, who knew what would happen to Jasmina? He couldn't leave a sister in peril any more than he could hurt humans. He would, if he had to. But not until and unless he had to. He shook his head and keyed the speaker to emit sound at regular intervals. That would draw many of the enemies away from where he was moving, cautiously along the tree branches. Luckily these trees had been growing since the Collapse and had huge branches…

He stilled as he felt vibrations on the branch. He slid down and carefully grabbed hold of the bark, holding himself up against the underside of the branch as some people, or some things, ran along over top of him. He couldn't travel like this, but as long as he remained motionless, it would take a special miracle for any of the enemy he could see running around below him now to see him even if they looked straight at him.

"He has got to be here!" The male from before yelled. "He isn't back at the memorial and he didn't get past us. He has to be here!"

Dust waited until the vibrations on the branch ended, then swung himself back up onto it. He found himself face to face with a scared young human. Before the boy could scream, Dust had a hand over his mouth.

"I don't want to hurt you." Dust said in a tone far calmer than he felt as he secured the human's arms to his sides with his other hand. "Don't make me hurt you." He said sharply. "There has been enough pain already." The boy snarled under Dust's hand and… to Dust's horror, threw himself backwards. Into open air! Dust pulled him back to solid wood, but to do that, he had to let go of the boy's mouth.

"Here!" The boy screamed. "He is-" Before he could finish his shout, Dust slapped a nerve cluster on the idiot's skull and the boy's eyes rolled up into his head, instantly unconscious. Dust laid the human down gently as shouts started again. He slumped a bit and then sighed as howls started again. Right below him.

"So be it." The Tenno warrior said sadly. Then he threw himself off the wood. The mass of infested below were far too many to fight one on one. He didn't care. He landed on an Ancient Disruptor, his Skana slicing down, deep into the monstrosity. As he rolled upright, he saw the humans falling back and smiled grimly under his helmet as the Infested charged. Then he did it.

Bladestorm was the Ash warframe's ultimate ability. It's most powerful skill and deadliest trick in the arsenal. Teleporting was not a natural skill, even for Tenno. But it was a powerful one. Before the first Charger even reached him, Dust had vanished. He chose a target and reappeared behind said target, his forearm blades coming out to slice deep into the Leaper. Before it even fell, dead before it knew what hit it, he was gone. Again and again, he did the same.

Before the stunned humans could even blink twice, Dust stood alone in a clearing filled with dead Infested. Fifteen total Infested, from Crawlers all the way up to Ancients, slowly sank into cooling masses as he sheathed his forearm blades and laughed coldly. All of the watchers flinched from his mocking amusement.

"You were saying?" Dust said in a dark and dangerous voice as all the humans took a step back. "Oh, don't start!" He snapped. "None of you are dead. Yet." He singled out the male who had spoken. "You just had to push. I know you don't believe me, but the girl I took lives. I can't change your mind. I don't have the power or the right to do so, but if you push a war with me, I will give you one. A war you won't believe."

His rifle came into his hands and he strode from the small clearing, all of the humans making way for him. All but one. The man who had accosted him did not move. Dust did not slow. Indeed, he ran into the human, knocked him down and stepped over him to continue. He felt the human try to hit him and he kicked out. A sick crack and scream told him he had broken bones, but Dust did not slow until he reached the underbrush. He followed the path ahead of him, the signs that something had been dragged away. Odd that he hadn't heard it. Dragging something as large as a warframe…

He followed the path of barely disturbed vegetation until he approached a cave entrance. At it, two humans trained rifles on him.

"I am here for my sister." Dust said flatly. "Unless you want to die, point those elsewhere." The threat in his voice came through loud and clear even when his rifle wasn't up and tracking. "My rifle is set to penetrate Grineer armor. Your garments won't even slow my bullets down." He said as he came even closer. Both looked at one another and shook their heads, lowering their rifles. "That is the first smart thing I have…" He started to say and then froze as an impossibility reared it's way out of the cave.

Aw shit…

The J-3 Golem Infested had not been seen for some time. It had originally been most commonly seen around the Jupiter subsystem, harrying the Corpus attempts to reclaim the areas lost to Infested during the Great War and after the Collapse. But then it had disappeared. Dust had fought it before, always a part of Tenno strike teams. He knew what was coming.

We are Countless. Consume us. Be reborn. The large Infested strode forward, both humans moving away. Dust as well retreated a little, his rifle coming up. Why do you destroy us? We are your flesh.

Not mine. Dust snapped internally, only to pause as the Infested seemed to freeze. Do you hear me, monster? Not today!

"Indeed, Dust." A quiet voice sounded from the cave and Dust's eyes went wide as a Mag warframe stepped out of the cave to stand beside the huge infested. A familiar Mag! "No one else needs to die today. Not Tenno, not human, not Infested. No one."

"Elenia." The name slipped out of Dust's mouth. "What have you done, sister?'

"What do any of us do, Dust?" The Mag asked sadly as she raised her hand, a halo of golden energy appearing around Dust as both humans raised their rifles again. Bullet Attractor. If he fired his weapon, the bullets would hit him. Dust stared at his one-time lover and she sighed sadly. "We do what we have to do. Drop it." She commanded.

"With all due respect, traitor." Dust said softly as he slung his rifle and drew his Skana. "Kiss my butt."

"We can stop you, Dust." Elenia said as sounds came from behind, Infested and humans alike, closing.

"Can you?" Dust asked. "Can you really?"

"Dust!" Elenia pleaded as the Ash sank into a combat crouch, his Skana at the ready. "If you ever loved me, don't!" She pleaded.

"I don't know you." Dust said calmly and then his world dissolved into pain and fury.