Author's notes:
Swazdo-lah hunters! Hope you are doing well and that humanity is finally going to go extinct. That would surely be good news for me! My brine shrimps will conquer the world easily.
Now, I didn't update my fanfiction for a while, my bad. My studies are taking more of my time than I expected... AND MORE LIFE ENERGY THAT WE COULD CONCEIVE. Probably I will proceed slower with the updates (three weeks per update) at least until the end of November.
I think that is all I had to say. Here is chapter 9, I hope you'll like it. See ya next time, hunters!
The Empire Game
Chapter 9 - An Orokin Weapon
We were orbiting around Mars' atmosphere, beyond the space stations and the traffic of ships. I was kneeling on the floor of the control cabin, Celeris silently lying beside me. He appeared to be worried.
Once, Aetheris had talked about a kind of bond that can take form between an animal and its owner. Was that one of the effects of such a bond? Feeling bad when your master is not doing well, why? Where was the logic in that? It's completely inconvenient.
Inconvenient, just like my feelings. There's no point in being upset for a bunch of children, it was a hindrance to my mission, a hindrance to the Emperors' command. Why did I feel sorrow, then? I didn't even remember whether I always had such feelings or if they appeared out of nowhere, like an error inside a system. I wanted to take those Yuvan back from the Tower.
It seemed to me like that gigantic Orokin structure was still there, in front of me. I almost felt it observing me from far away, through the glass of my Orbiter's window. A never sleeping eye. The Orokin eye? Could they see what I felt?
AETHERIS: "My beloved Operator, put your heart to rest, the Orokin need those Yuvan, otherwise the Origin System would fall."
I was feeling oppressed, I didn't want to see Mars for a while, I wanted to try to evade the Tower's eye. Maybe it was just a sensation, or maybe not. I didn't want to discover it. I didn't want to think about it.
I stood up, walked to the other side of the Orbiter, leaving behind the control cabin. The girl's words were echoing in my head, I remembered the moment I saw the Dax soldiers and those children for the first time in my Orbiter. I reached the door to the same room where they stayed and it opened. Their figures took the same positions they had, nothing more than phantoms of my mind, immediately they disappeared.
Celeris pushed my leg, bringing me back to reality. I headed to the window, passing the aquariums, and Celeris accompanied me. I kneeled, looking at the stars, Celeris stayed behind me, looking at the fish in the side aquarium.
Why do I feel so tired? Many people, many children have been sacrificed for the Empire, it has been always like this. It is... normality.
With the intention of forgetting what had happened, I tried to sleep. Images appeared to me, memories, even of a distant past. The Sentients, the Grineer, the Orokin, my first fights. They came to me before I fell in the sweet embrace of the dream.
The girl took form in my mind, tears streaming from her closed eyes. Her pink skin began to mutate, becoming gray and then gold, the tears evaporated. A malicious grin appeared upon her lips and she opened her eyes. They sparkled with golden light like torches, the girl was no more.
She was walking in a golden hall, decorated with white plants and even artificial streams and waterfalls of pure cleaned water. A door opened in front of her, she entered another hall. There, other Yuvan were celebrating. Drinks and many types of food were served upon a white long table, in golden chalices and plates.
They turned towards the girl, the same grin, the same shining eyes. The girl laughed and they laughed with her, rising their calyces. Those were not Yuvan, those were Orokin.
Suddenly everything disappeared, a black veil enveloped everything and silence replaced the laughs. There was peace and quiet until a distant sound came to me. Someone was breathing, the sound was coming to me, became closer and closer and then a boy's voice.
VOICE: "You... Marked eye."
AETHERIS: "Emergency maneuver!"
I suddenly woke up and clashed violently against the tough glass of the window. The alarm was echoing in my ship. A huge shining yellow light passed in front of me, followed by an orange trail, near the Orbiter. It became smaller and smaller as we rapidly distanced ourselves from it. Then, the Orbiter abruptly stopped and I fell on my back. Celeris had been thrown away, he was near the door, barking furiously, when I got up, confused.
Who? What? When?
AETHERIS: "I'm sorry Operator, I didn't see that coming. You know... Maybe someone requires your intervention, and with maybe I mean for sure! It looks like those meteors hit a ship."
Wait, what?!
I went close to the window, placing my hands upon it to keep my balance. I saw many small meteors heading to Mars. They were just like the ones I saw when we were floating around Earth. Ships distanced themselves from those shining things.
My eyes followed one meteor that reached a huge ship, collapsing upon its surface. It was a huge space station, a city in the empty space. Parts of the ship were exploding, flames came out from a few breaches. Orbiters were moving to that position, I could only imagine how many people were there.
AETHERIS: "Operator, we have just been authorized to act. Shall we proceed?"
We got near the ship following the other Orbiters. We took position under the base of the ship and docked, at the other side, far away, I could see columns of flames rise from the surface. Few Orbiters were docking near the impact area.
The meteor shower was over, those that passed the ship continued to travel. They were going to fall upon Mars. Hopefully, they would burn up before reaching the surface, or at the very least, they would not fall in the middle of a highly populated city.
I entered the ship and found myself in a room with white and gray walls. Upon the two screens, high at the corners of the room, there were writings and symbols of warning. The alarm echoed loud, and a voice was giving instructions to the passengers through the speakers.
There were few cubic containers near a gray door, at the other side of the room. Celeris was behind me, near the entrance. We got closer to the door and it opened slowly. Beyond it, there was a spacious room with the same colors and appearance of the previous one. Two other Tenno were in that room and they turned to my direction when I stepped in.
I knew one of those two Warframe models well, he had horns rising from the head and gold spikes from his dark gray armor. That was an Oberon, exactly like my Warframe.
The other Warframe had a smooth black body with a few parts of dull gold. He looked like a ghost in a dark cloak. Upon his knees, there were two great spikes, and gelid vapors were coming out of his arms. His face had a golden slab with a fissure through which I could see his energy shining, appearing almost like a single eye, and upon the head there were four golden arcs. It was a Frost model. A golden Carrier was floating upon his head, looking around.
Behind them there were two entrances, probably they came in from those. I returned the glance and we proceeded together. The other Oberon took position in front of a large door, many voices were coming from the other side. It opened after an instant, and the chaos caught me unprepared. There were few soldiers who were trying to calm down a crowd of passengers; men, women, children they were in a huge hall.
Those people were making so much noise... they were terrorized. The children were crying, their mothers were keeping them close trying to give them comfort, trying to make them feel safe. Other people were coming from another large door behind the crowd, running in fear. All those humans were just a small part of the entire ship's crew and many others were still somewhere on board of the giant city in the sky.
AETHERIS: "What a chaotic air. Operator, I received data about the situation on board, I'm sending over a map of the ship."
A small map appeared to me. It was showing me only the hall where I was, a quadrilateral figure with small rectangular corridors to right and left. I wanted to see how big was that ship inside, I selected the map. The area became smaller and smaller, a point into a greater design made of many geometrical figures.
AETHERIS: "You do not have to worry about the areas around, the security agents will take care of those. Your objective is further. Save those who are in the impact area."
Probably Oberon and Frost had similar orders from their Cephalons, after all, we were using Warframes designed to protect. They began to walk forward, and I followed them. In the meantime, other doors at the sides of the hall opened. From them, few Warframes stepped in, heading in the same direction.
We all wanted to reach the door at the other side of the hall, behind that crowd of scared passengers. Suddenly they noticed our presence, their fears almost faded, someone exulted, the soldiers went out from our way when a voice said, "The Tenno are here. Let them pass."
The crowd opened up, forming paths for us all. Many children were enthusiast to see a Tenno at such short distance, others were afraid and tried to hide themselves behind their parents. We, Tenno, were always respected or feared by the others, except by the Orokin.
I felt their eyes upon my Warframe, eyes of hope, but also of hatred and rage. We were always Orokin's soldiers, not very appreciated by the people at the low ranks of the Empire. We could be useful, but we would sacrifice them all to the Golden Lords if given the order.
Finally, we got out of the crowd, just as other people entered from the large door. When they saw us they stopped to run and began to walk slowly, trying to keep distance from us.
We and the other Tenno proceeded. The echo of the alarm accompanied us during the mission, sometimes the lights flickered off due to the damage to the ship. The monitors were malfunctioning, images appeared and disappeared randomly, and even doors opened and closed continuously.
People stopped at the sides of the way when they saw us coming, then moved again towards the hall once we passed them. The corridors had a rectangular shape, floor and ceiling were made of gray grates, the walls were white with metallic gray columns surfacing every few meters.
The more we proceeded further, the fewer people we met, then the wounded began to come accompanied by other humans. Some had difficulties to walk, other had blood flowing out from legs or arms. We arrived into a small hall with a tall green plant growing in a large vase placed right in the middle of it. Around the vase there were three seats for each side, facing four screens at the corners of the hall. A Rhino headed into the corridor to our right, a Banshee, and a Trinity followed him. Then a Valkyr followed by a Frost and two Excalibur models took the way to the left. Oberon looked at me and Frost. We had to proceed straight.
We didn't see a human for a while, the monitors were off, even the alarm was not making that annoying noise anymore. The lights didn't work, what remained were the yellow flashes of the alarm. Around us, there was a creepy atmosphere, the only sound we heard was our steps on the grates of the floor. Even Celeris didn't dare to make a sound.
We almost reached another crossroad when suddenly I heard something, and my very being almost jumped inside my Warframe. It was only the transmission's opening sound of Aetheris starting contact with me.
AETHERIS: "Strange. Operator, I tried to contact the defensive planetary system and discover why they didn't alert us about the meteors ... There is no response from the nearest defensive station. I will amplify my research range."
Celeris barked and walked to a pile of fallen containers. He moved away one of them and started to act like he wanted to dig, then he turned towards us and barked again.
We got closer, taking the containers and placing them somewhere else. There was a square hole, the grate that should have covered it was right there, at the side of the hole, near a toolbox. Forst's Carrier illuminated the hole, a man was lying inside it, under the floor of crates. He appeared to be unconscious.
I bowed, placing my arm into the hole, I grabbed the man's suit and pulled him out. I placed him on the floor, to have a good look. The man had blood upon his face, probably he was trying to get out from the hole when the containers fell on him. He had a bad leg injury, the blood was flowing out.
Celeris sniffed the man's leg and then shook his own head as if he was disgusted. In that moment we heard a metal rumble coming from the distance and the alarm flashes turned off. I could see the energy lights of Oberon, Frost and his Carrier sentinel, like small stars into the sky.
We turned on the torches of our Warframes to see in the shadows. In the beginning, they flashed so brightly to my optical sensors that everything became white, then the light weakened, and my sensor adapted to the new luminosity. Oberon took the man and rapidly headed back to the great hall. Frost and I looked at his light fading slowly into the darkness.
Once it completely disappeared, Celeris started to growl, his eyes were fixed on a point into the corridor ahead. I touched him on the head, trying to keep him calm. I felt the tension of his muscles, something was threatening him. Frost's Carrier suddenly turned towards the same direction. It stopped to move as if it had become a small flying sculpture. Our lights were pointing the same direction but we saw nothing.
I felt something under my feet, the grates were vibrating. Then, even the grates of the ceiling vibrated, they violently shook as if there was an earthquake. Celeris' growls became louder, the vibrations intensified.
Frost and I looked at each other for an instant, then we took out our weapons. I pointed my Akstiletto to the empty, dark corridor, Frost loaded his Latron and took position. Nothing was coming, there was nothing in that creepy place, but the grates were vibrating just like they would have done if there was someone running with heavy steps towards us.
Frost slowly walked further, keeping his Latron ready to shoot, right in front of his face. His Carrier sentinel followed its master. I went with them, Celeris was right behind me, proceeding slowly and showing his teeth, prepared to attack. We stepped into a crossroad, and looked around us, the corridors were empty.
The grates vibrated more and more, Frost's Carrier started to rapidly turn at every direction, facing the way in front of us, then our right and left. We heard a metallic sound, the grate on the ceiling fell upon us, but we moved fast out of the way.
White, cold vapors were coming from the hole in the ceiling, left by the grate that now was on the floor. Those vapors were covering the entire area, something was there. A dark figure, standing on four legs, with pink shining bulbs. Tendrils were rising from it, its sounds were echoing in the corridors.
That was an Orokin weapon, like the Tenno. A life being with the purpose of war, one of the many Orokin attempts to fight the Sentients, that was the greatest plague that was afflicting the System.
AETHERIS: "Infested?!"