Angry sort-of deities

"What?"

The chorus on confusion came from all around Brianna as she focused on the golden skinned being in front of her. His mind was reaching out for her but this time, she could feel him trying to take control and more importantly? Stop it. She rebuffed his mental influence with ease. She had access to every system in the tower and the tower felt her rage, felt her determination. It didn't want her angry with it, so it offered everything it had.

He knew. She could see it in his eyes. He hid it well, but he knew that he was outmatched here. He couldn't access as much as she could and she was just as enhanced as he was now. He was far more experienced though. He rallied.

"That is not true." Lorinos didn't bluster, didn't even quiver. "Your information is inaccurate."

"Is that so?" Brianna inquired. "Well, in that case, I will be sure to tell the Empress of Orokin that she is wrong the next time I see her."

Utterly flat. Utterly calm. Utterly devastating. Lorinos flinched, a first in Brianna's experience. Then again, he more than likely hadn't recently faced someone like her. A furious equal.

"But… he is..." Gretchen's confused voice came from behind Brianna, but the enraged female Executor didn't take her eyes off her enemy.

"No, he is not." Brianna replied. "I do not know what he did to get kicked off the Council, but it was likely something foolish. It must have been pretty spectacular. Orokin was all about money and power, and he had lots of both. His name was not on the list."

"Whatever list you saw was not the right one." Lorinos tried again.

"Oh?" Brianna was ready. She knew what was coming and she could see Lorinos did too. "Obviously, Gilliananhorisa and Graj who were on the list were not Council members. Because you say so." At those names, Lorinos went totally still and Brianna nodded. "Yes. You see, Gilliananhorisa survived to this time and made a hell of a mess. She tried to enslave a Tenno Healer's daughter and Iriana took extreme offense to that."

She did. A golden from appeared nearby. The Orokin shade was shaking her head. Lorinos, you idiot! Stop this silliness before she loses her temper!

"Shut up, Gillie!" Lorinos snapped. "I have this!"

Gillie? Brianna felt faint. Was this the shade of the Executor who had hurt Iriana? Who had killed Karl? How? Diana had killed that one and the assassin very rarely left such things half done. Was this her? There were no expletives that Brianna knew of that came close to that level of bad if so. Nikis, Eliza, Oracle, the Reverend Mother, Iriana... Everyone would be pissed!

All you have is a world of hurt, heretic! The golden shade nodded as Briana looked at her. I am not Gilliananhorisa. I am an illegal copy he made of her energy. He was kicked off the Council for this heresy. I was linked to her and saw what she did. She was not amused by what he did to her.

"Are there no limits to the blasphemy you contemplate, Lorinos?" Brianna asked into the silence that fell. She looked at the golden shade who eyed her impassively. "I cannot trust."

Such would be foolish indeed. The shade agreed. Almost as foolish- She broke off and gasped as Lorinos' eyes flashed. The golden form was wavering as power flared from the tower walls to strike her. As…. believing a word… he says…

"Enough." Brianna said in a very quiet voice and the tower responded to her wish. The energy assailing the golden shade winked out. Brianna slowly shook her head. "Gillianahorisa's crimes are many, against many. Human, Tenno, other. I may be Orokin now, but I know I am not qualified to judge such. I was a doctor, not a judge."

"That is my property." Lorinos said with a glower that was wasted. Brianna did not even look at him.

"Stolen property." Brianna corrected absently. "Yes, you are Orokin and high caste, so you may legally take anything you wish from lower caste." The last had everyone tensing. "Gilliananhorisa was your equal. Stealing from her was a bad idea." She looked at the shade. "Has he followed any of the protocols?" She asked carefully.

"No." The golden woman was just as angry as Brianna, if not more so.

"I see." Brianna sighed deeply. "I cannot trust you, but such a crime against a high Orokin demands some form of retribution." She shook her head. "Tower, secure this revenant in a meat shell for transport to judgment."

"What?" Lorinos demanded even as an organic form coalesced around the shade.

More than one person gagged, but Brianna did not react as the form took shape, built before their eyes from the inside out. Bones, muscles, skin, hair… The Orokin who suddenly stood before Brianna appeared just as stunned as Lorinos. She started to cover herself but a thought from Brianna had a formal gown sweep around her. The stunned shade shook her head but before she could speak, Brianna did.

"You can leave that form. I do not recommend such." Brianna warned. "I warn you not to flee. If you do, I will notify the Tenno Grandmaster of the Dead and he will exact vengeance for the destruction of Tenno Karl." What Nikis would do would almost certainly be neither pretty nor quick.

"I will not. I swear it on the name of Talia the First." Gilliananhorisa slowly knelt and put her arms in the proper places for obedience to a master. "You are true Orokin." She hissed at Lorinos as he sputtered. "He is a fool. Emperor? Ha!"

"As jokes go, that was not very good, no. I think I will let him explain to the Empress his desire to take her place." Brianna replied. "If he is lucky, she will just destroy him on the spot. If he is unlucky, she may show him why he is utterly inadequate for such a responsibility. In such a case, his suffering would be eternal." Her tone moderated. "I may be Orokin, but I will not be cruel. What do you wish to be called?"

"The kids call me Gee. I like them." The meat clad shade replied with a nod. "I… I never imagined what he was doing. None of us did. The link was one way. I could see some of what she did, but she blocked me out. She would not hear my pleas."

Part of her was focused on Gee, the rest of her was watching Lorinos try to salvage something from the shambles of his plans. She was not, therefore, surprised when he spoke.

"Shade 312, Brianna Executor is tired. Help her rest." Gretchen gave a tiny cry as she slid from her mother's hands and a small silver thing flew to her hand from a wall socket. The woman grabbed, but couldn't touch Gretchen. The girl was grimacing, trying to fight the command as her body took a step toward Brianna. But she couldn't fight. She couldn't even speak as the rest of the pack stared in horror.

Brianna glanced at the male Executor and shook her head. She went to one knee as Gretchen extended the small hypo towards her. She didn't even bother with power. She just plucked the hypo from the girl's hand, tossed it into the air and it vanished in a flash of gold. Then she canceled the male Orokin's commands and Gretchen immediately started crying. Brianna shook her head as she drew the crying girl into her arms.

"It is all right, pup." Briana said as the girl cried. She hugged the girl gently, but the newest Orokin felt from the girl was wrong. So wrong, so twisted. As if someone with no knowledge of anatomy or decency had tried to make a human looking form and failed miserably. She only needed one guess as to who. "It is all right, Gretchen. It is going to be all right."

The gaze Brianna turned on the male Executor…

"Oh dear." Gee said weakly as power flared around Brianna. Shields and more. Much more. Very few had ever seen a fully enraged high caste Orokin. Fewer still had survived seeing such. The Sentients had proven to be more than a match for Orokin technology, but none of them were here. Tenno were laws unto themselves but even they knew not to face an enraged Orokin on the Orokin's terms. Even such mighty beings as most Tenno stepped carefully around Eliza in the heart of Avalon. For good reason. Nikis? Not so much. Then again, he generally didn't step carefully anywhere.

"Gee, who do you serve?" Brianna's words were not a demand, not quite. They were to be answered.

"Until judgment? You." The shade responded instantly. "I am bound by the protocols that he has ignored. You have followed them precisely. I obey. Command me!" Brianna looked at her and nodded. Such were iron clad for a reason. Lorinos didn't care, but Gee would not betray Brianna. Not now. And since Brianna held her until judgment? Lorinos could not take control again.

"Take Gretchen to her mother. Stand with the pack and shield them the best you can." Brianna rose to her feet as the shade did. She held out the crying girl and the meat clad shade took Gretchen gingerly despite the girl's cries and feeble struggles.

"No!" Gretchen begged. "Miss Alpha! No! Don't fight! He will hurt you!"

"He will try. It is all right, Gretchen." Brianna did not look away from Lorinos who looked unsure. As well he should. This was not the woman he had known. Not the woman he had cowed and beaten more than once. The woman he had sold to a madman. This was someone new. Someone who had been around scary Tenno for quite some time. Someone powerful and angry. "I am sure any members of the pack who fought him fared badly. Because even a fool like him will have implanted obedience protocols in any energy form he created. I am not energy form. Whatever obedience I might have owed him was negated when he changed my form against my will. We are of equal rank, but my access to the tower is full. His?"

The tower systems did not understand her rage, but they understood her desire just fine. Information flowed back and forth at light speed. Plans were suggested, considered, discarded or amended at the speed of thought. A plan of action was set before two heartbeats had gone by and she implemented it before her heart beat a third time.

"You cannot kill me." Lorinos said slowly. "Not in a tower." Orokin towers had been built to safeguard Orokin lives, so, no, she couldn't. However...

"Your life is secure." Brianna replied absently, seeking communication conduits that had long been disused. None of them functioned and she directed the tower to start alternate plans. Such took maybe three milliseconds. "You will live to face judgment for your crimes, heretic." Her tone was ice cold now as a golden energy field shimmered into being behind her, shielding the others from what was about to happen. There was no way Lorinos was getting past that. "Now as to how hale you are at the time of judgment? We shall see. My only true hope is that you are given to the Tenno. They can do far worse to you than I can for far longer than I can. And you have earned every ounce of pain."

She slowly reached up, intertwined her fingers and cracked each knuckle in slow, deliberate sequence. Each crack had Lorinos flinching. He remembered. Only when she had cracked each of the knuckles in all ten fingers did she unravel her fingers and slowly tilt her head from side to side. A crack sounded and Lorinos flinched harder and yes, that was a puddle that was forming at his feet! Then her eyes flashed and she smiled. A full face smile of bared teeth that held no mirth, only dreadful promise.

A howl came from her lips as fire, ice, lightning and worse things started to fly back and forth between her and him, each shunted aside by shields that would easily shrug off any amount of Grineer space borne artillery. A howl that was echoed by many throats behind her as she finally let her rage loose.

Nearby

"What the hell?"

The place had been quiet as a tomb and Corpus Survey Team 378-Aleph 98 had become a bit lax as a result. Survey teams were not very big, usually less than ten Crewmen strong and this one was no different. All seven of the human forms were well armed. One did not enter an Orokin structure, even a seemingly abandoned one, alone or unarmed unless one had a death wish. Far too many Corpus to count had vanished in such places seeking profits for their employers for any of the team to have any illusions of safety. They had a full complement of proxies of course but those were less than useful in such a place. The walls of most Orokin structures were impervious to all but the most sophisticated Corpus communication devices and few of those would be wasted on survey teams. So, the MOAs and Ospreys needed to have line of sight to accept commands. Add to that, proxies were not very good at being quiet. So, they had them, but they kept them back as the team scouted carefully. Warily. Jumping at every shadow.

But this place… This was any Corpus worker or soldier's dream. An Orokin tower. Intact. Not filled with Infested or worse, Corrupted. Not packed with Grineer soldiers trying to claim it for their queens. Untouched. Functional! Oh, they could all smell the profits.

That said, they were not stupid. The Crewmen moved from cover to cover while the two leaders herded the proxies carefully avoiding floor sections that looked like trap panels. The Tech and Nullifier were already on edge when the sound of an explosion ahead had all of the Corpus moving to find what cover they could.

"Anyone see anything?" Gerald F-23 asked as he hefted his Supra. The tech was on his fifth survey mission and knew his luck was likely running out. Few Corpus lived past three. He was loyal and had his orders, but that didn't make him happy to be here. Especially now in command. But he had been given orders by his superiors and if they could get home? He was set for life. Everyone else shook their heads. Rachel Z-98 looked at him and he shook his head at the Nullifier. She was powerful, no question, but she was also fairly hard to hide. That big blue bubble was anything but covert. They hadn't seen anything hostile so far, not even a drone! Gerald F-23 would like to keep it that way. He had run into Corrupted twice on missions into the Void and had barely escaped with his life both times.

"Negative, I..." Rachel gasped as golden energy flared around her. "Wh- NO!" She gasped and then fell to lie still, golden energy sweeping over her. Her pack hissed and sparked, obviously disabled somehow.

Gerald F-23 turned to run and he wasn't alone. Every proxy was shutting down! Was that a man running down the hall towards them? A golden man? A gold flash dazed Gerald F-23 for a moment and then-

Wait. Why was he face down on the ground? Who was turning him up so he could see out of his helmet? What was the golden face that was eclipsing his sight? She was beautiful. Oddly symmetrical. Not human looking in the slightest, but beautiful nonetheless. Also annoyed.

"Well, crap." The vision in Gerald F-23's sight spoke, She didn't sound like any angel that he had ever imagined. "Tower, disable all robotic forms and sequester these until I can speak to them. Where is-? Oh..." She groaned. "Damn. A portal of course. I knew he would flee. Asshole. Tower? Set security to warn of unauthorized portal activity and continue rebuilding com station Sierra Six Delp. We need to contact someone, soon. Especially with Corpus on the premises."

Gerald F-23 could do nothing as the world vanished from around him and gold was everywhere he could see. He couldn't move even as his weapon lifted away from his hands, bouyed up by unseen forces. He felt fear as hands laid him out straight.

"I won't hurt you." The golden vision said quietly and his fear vanished as if it had never been. "That said, I can't have you hurting me either. I dislike this but… Look at me, Corpus." He didn't want to, but the words floated through Gerald F-23's mind and he found himself staring up at the most beautiful golden eyes he had ever seen in his life. He was drowning in them as she smiled gently and his world was perfect. "What is your name, soldier?"

"Gerald F-23." The Corpus soldier said softly, not wanting to disturb her smile.

"What are you doing here?" The woman asked, her hand now stroking his chin. Wait. Where was his helmet? His armor? "Be at ease, soldier. I am not going to hurt you. Any of you if I can help it. But… You are Corpus. Who holds your contract?" She asked.

"Survey. I...shouldn't say..." Gerald F-23 felt sorrow pour through him as she looked sad. He didn't want her sad. "Alad V."

"Oh, not him again." The golden woman was rubbing Gerald F-23's scalp now. It tingled. "He treats his people like garbage."

"Garbage he can recycle and make money on. People are cheap." Gerald F-23 said weakly as something wafted over him and he felt good. Warm. Clean. Whole for the first time in long, long time.

"Well..." The golden woman smiled at him and his world turned bright. "Want a job? I cannot let you go. You have seen far too much for your own safety. But I don't want to hurt or kill you either. You Corpus are human. I find myself in a bit of trouble and could use some help."

"What is wrong?" Gerald asked as he suddenly found himself lying on a bed in a golden room with shimmering walls. The woman was sitting beside him, her hand on his forehead.

"What is right is much shorter list." She frowned and then she sighed. He looked at her in confusion and she shook her head. "No. No, I won't. I could alter your mind and you would never realize it. But that is wrong. That is what your masters do. That is what Lorinos would do. I refuse to be him." She sounded sad again.

"Why not?" Gerald F-23 asked. He really didn't want this woman sad. "If you need us, and you offer us work and cannot let us go, I don't see a problem if you take control of us."

"As fuddled as you are at the moment, you won't." The woman groaned but she was smiling. "Rest now, soldier. We will talk again when you wake."

She patted his forehead and he fell into darkness comforted.

Reality

Brianna stood up from where the soldiers lay on the floor of the hall and sighed.

"I won't be him." She said firmly. "I won't!"

Various forms were approaching slowly as she stared around at the fallen Corpus men and proxies. She turned to Beta who was eyeing her warily.

"We have a mess to clean up." Brianna said with a shrug. Beta stared at her and then grinned.

"Why do I get the feeling that is going to be fairly common with you?" Brianna glared at the energy form who shrugged. "Tell me I lie."

"You don't." Brianna sighed. "I refuse to be him. Okay. Get these to secure holding, dismantle the Corpus bots." Energy started playing across each fallen proxy. "These will just disappear. That happens a lot to survey teams from what I understand. Gretchen? Um, wait. Gretchen's mother? Can you bring her here? I want to see what he did to you all. See if I can fix any of it."

"My name is Savina, Alpha Brianna Executor." The woman said meekly as she carried Gretchen closer.

"What a mouthful!" Brianna said with a growl. "Call me Brianna please unless it is a formal occasion. That goes for all of you." Everyone looked at her, even Gee had appeared, and then everyone smiled and spoke in unison.

"By your command."

"Oh, hush!"