"Sir! I don't understand these readings!"
"Neither do I!" Bob panicked over to another console; all of which were reflecting red. The frenzied state of the control room in Strata Relay only reflected one thing...something was approaching.
Something big.
No.
Something beyond big.
"What the hell does this mean?!" Bob demanded, still unable to recognize what he was seeing.
"I'm not sure sir!" A man flipped through a book, trying to match what was presented on the screen to numbers in the book. Ultimately he tossed it aside, deeming it useless.
"Unknown object arrival in 3...2...1!"
A white ball darted out of space and parked itself next to Earth, smiling back at Strata Relay as it enjoyed its welcome and eventual stay. The console screens went back to their usual blue, confirming that Strata Relay was out of danger.
"What the hell.." Bob muttered.
The group rested on an white rock, breathing while they tried to gather their lost senses. Levon stood upright, hands on his hips as he observed the scene before his eyes. Some sort of black hole had formed in the Void; some sort of hollow tube that darted out of the Void and drilled out into the jet black space; also creating a pathway big enough to pull a planet out.
"I'm sorry about Freyarch," Felon sighed.
Levon shook his head.
"It's alright. But he would want us to find a way out of here, so let's do it. Any ideas?"
"Could that thing fly us out of here?" Trey asked, looking at the Archwing.
Levon shook his head again.
"This? Nope. It's built for space travel but it was never meant for long-distance travel."
"I could try to send out a distress signal," Grett suggested.
"It would take too long to reach the nearest Relay. Or it might not reach at all, given the signal interference here." Levon shrugged the idea off.
The group remained silent for a while.
"Felon?" Levon hinted.
"Hm?" Felon continued to stare at a tall tower that had been circling the crumbled rock.
"I know you have a plan."
"Maybe."
"Don't be shy. I mean, we've survived worst." Grett gestured at the bunch of steaming hot debris floating behind them.
"That thing orbiting around us right now...that's an Orokin Tower," Felon articulated as he pointed at the golden structure that was drifting about in the Void.
"And how does that help us?" Grett questioned.
"Remember Gate Crash Grett? Weeks ago Strata Relay intercepted a Grineer transmission; the cloned faggots are using Void Keys to power up Torsion Beam Generators to force open a Void Portal. So-"
"So we can enter the portals from this side and end up back on another planet. Another Grineer planet, sure, but at least out of the Void..." Levon finished the sentence, nodding in agreement.
"The Grineer would've left the Torsion Beam Generators here in case they want to come back. So all we need now is a Void Key."
"Which renders this plan useless! Where the hell can we find a Void Key?" Trey rebutted.
"Yeah, where..."
Felon looked at the exploded ships; peering through the fried bodies and hot metal debris to spot the only corpse that mattered. A Grineer whose body had been split into two; his top housing a golden Void Key.
The three operatives then locked their eyes onto Levon.
"What?"
"Thought you were doing all the...ahem...heavy lifting," Grett clarified.
"Fine...Wait for me here." Levon ambled over to the Odonata. The wings latched onto the Warframe comfortably and he was soon ready for another flight.
The Volt took off.
"Approaching debris field," Levon reported, his voice breaking the silence of the dead scene. He clawed his way through broken metal pieces and pushed himself forward, searching for the target amongst the carnage.
With another slight hover, Captain Vor's corpse floated into sight.
And on it, the Janus Key; still in perfect condition.
"I have eyes on the prize."
Levon flew forward, swimming to the dismembered corpse and clutching his hands onto Vor's cold arms. The Volt then shuffled his hands to the Janus Key, and easily plucked it off the Grineer's body.
"Levon? You got it?" Felon inquired.
"I got it. Hm. That was eas-"
"TENNO!" Captain Vor jerked upright and grabbed onto the Warframe, hugging the Volt in place.
The Janus Key sparkled, emitting a disturbing link that connected to the abdomen of the should-be-dead Grineer. The swirling energy at his waist burned brighter and started to reach out for his missing torso closer. His legs seemingly had a life of their own as they drifted closer, wiggling as they did.
"Thief!" He continued, trying to reclaim his Janus Key. The cloned arms wrapped around the Volt squeezed tighter now.
"Get off me you fucker!" Levon struggled, shaking violently as he tried to wiggle out of Vor's grip.
Levon finally remembered; he was in a fucking Warframe.
Grabbing Vor's arms equally tight, Levon channeled his energy into his palms and fried the Grineer's arms with a jolt.
"AAAGGHH!" Vor's tight grip on the Volt relented as he painfully tried to shake the numbing pain off. With a kick to the stomach, or at least what was left of it, Levon pushed himself out of Vor's reach. Vor continued to scream as he drifted backwards through the friction-less Void; actually dead this time.
"What the hell was that?!" Levon shrieked as he watched the cursed Grineer disappear.
Not wanting to be anywhere near the damned place anymore, Levon quickly flew out of the debris field. The Odonata carried the Volt back to the three operatives who were sitting in a circle, waiting patiently for the Volt's return; as relaxed as they could be.
Levon landed shakily, the Odonata carelessly coming off the Warframe.
"Woah! You alright?" Trey asked.
"You look like crap," Felon continued.
"What? Me? Yeah! I'm fine! Nothing crazy or weird or spooky or abnormal or shitty happened back there! No! Nothing! I'm really fine!"
"He's not alright," Grett whispered to Felon.
"Yeah, maybe he remembered all the porn he watched before the Collapse."
"I got the Key! Let's go!" Levon finally chirped, boasting the Janus Key off triumphantly.
Four people skulked through an abandoned Orokin Tower carefully; observing their surroundings intently as they vigilantly raised their guns to their chests and not allowing a strand of detail to escape their eyes.
"Careful, these Towers are rigged with traps beyond our capabilities," Levon sounded off, pointing his Angstrum straight.
A door ahead of them twisted opened as they neared it; a dormant machine was presented inside as it idly sat on a raised platform.
A device painted in white and decorated with golden ornaments with blue energy flowing through it. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that that was something Orokin; or something related. The tip of the machine pointed at a giant, empty hole. Like the machine, the portal had been dormant as well. Two consoles sat at the front of the open hole.
Levon made his way over to the machine and inspected it. A hole had been drilled into the back of the device; a hole matching the Janus Key that he was gripping firmly in his hands. He pieced everything together.
"Alright, this must be the Torsion Beam Generator. And this is where the Void Key goes to." Levon comfortably pushed the Janus Key into the hole.
"Fits like a glove," Felon commented, walking by the Beam Generator.
"It's...not working?" Trey questioned. The Torsion Beam Generator was still inactive despite having a perfect Void Key inserted into it.
"We have to activate the consoles first. That way the Generator will work; that way we will have our portal," Levon explained as he brushed his hands across a console, sweeping off the specks of dusts that were sitting on the abandoned console. The Volt pressed a button on the console.
The procedure started.
A golden beam boiled out of the Janus Key and went for the ceiling; also causing a laser to shoot out of the tip of the Torsion Beam Generator and hit the circular hole. A doorway of pure energy started to swirl at the mouth of the hole, forming their needed portal.
"Alright, it's starting!" Grett announced, watching the portal expand bigger.
"As soon as the process is halfway completed we'll activate the second con-"
"Levon. We get it...we're not that dumb," Felon interrupted.
Aside from the noise of the Beam Generator working and the Void Portal forming, the room was silent as the group continued to oversee the creation of their way back home.
Something Levon appreciated; for he heard something.
The Volt turned around and faced the door they had entered from; the grip on his Angstrum tighter now.
Footsteps.
