Flash!
Who the what?
Tenno Aziz simply stared at the man and then around as much as he could. He was surrounded by a hostile force, but none of them looked… Wait a minute. Many of them looked wrong to his senses. Through one of the many windows, he could see a Grineer Galleon explode in the distance but his focus was on his own predicament.
"Hawkman scum!" One of the soldiers nearby struck Aziz with some kind of polearm, but the weapon bounced off his armor and did nothing to his warframe. Aziz looked at the soldier, it wore some kind of uniform and face concealing mask. Such was probably supposed to be frightening. Too bad Aziz was Tenno and far more frightening than any soldier could be. "The Emperor asked a question!"
He is not my Emperor. Aziz said snidely in his mind. Lotus I am on a weird looking spacecraft commanded by someone called Ming the Merciless. He couldn't resist a snicker at that. I guess all the good names for evil scum were taken.
What? Great, another fictional character brought to life. The Lotus sounded almost punch drunk. I will do some quick research.
I will just… hang around. This time, Aziz's chuckle must have been audible.
"You think this is funny?"The soldiers demanded, raising his weapon again.
"I don't know about you, but I think it is hilarious." The loud voice from the woman was both dry and cutting. "Your Legions of Terror are getting a bit softer in the brain, huh Ming?"
"Be silent, woman." The one called Ming backhanded the restrained woman and she fell to the floor of the dais, dabbing her lip. "You will learn your place, Human Ardan."
"Oh, I know my place and this is not it." The woman, Ardan, said with a smile as she stared at the Tenno. "Even a fool can see that is not a Hawkman, but hey, your legions are recruited for strength, not brains." Aziz stared at her. He was starting to like this human. Even bound in chains at the feet of an obvious madman, she was enjoying herself. "I don't know what that is, but it is not a Hawkman. Not that your 'superior' mind can fathom such things. I am surprised you can walk with that amount of brainpower.."
"Be silent!" The one called 'Ming' raised a hand and a ray of some kind shot from it to slam into the woman who gave a small moan and fell over to lie still. Aziz had seen enough. He cut the ties to his Archwing and as he had half suspected, when the it released him, the shields that it projected to provide life support in space held the immobilization beam away from his warframe. He landed on his feet and drew his Sydon. He hadn't had a chance to get any new weapons, but the Grineer ones he had re-purposed served just fine. The Gorgon, Nukor and Sydon were not pretty, but they worked.
You cannot hurt them! The Lotus warned. If they are hard light, they are force fields. Not flesh and blood. They can adapt to project many kinds of energy.
Which can hurt me. Aziz said grimly. Well, hard light or no, that scum is torturing a human in front of me. I won't stand by and let it happen.
Tenno Aziz… The Lotus said weakly and then sighed. Be careful.
Hey. Its me. Aziz treasured the sputtering sound that came from the Lotus as he looked from side to side. The soldiers all had weapons in hand now, some rifle like things, others held nasty looking swords and pole-arms.
"You will speak or you will die!" The one who called himself Ming said in what was probably supposed to be a dramatic voice. Kela De Thayam did the same in the Rathuum broadcasts he had seen that were the sole form of entertainment Grineer were allowed to watch. It worked almost as well for Ming as it did for Kela. That is, not at all. Aziz was not impressed. His silence seemed to infuriate the other who snarled. "So be it. Kill him."
The closest ranks of soldiers all leveled weapons at him and he stared. They were not going to… They were! He dissolved into his Undertow as both ranks on either side of him opened fire at the same time. Instead of bullets or beams, or whatever, he saw some kind of energy he could not define fly. Whatever those weapons were, they were powerful. He heard the woman chortle as at least thirty of the soldiers shot each other. Most of the ones who were hit fell without a sound. That was less that tithe of the number of troops in the bay, but the look on Ming's face was priceless. The human at his feet was laughing.
"Okay. That I did not expect." The woman whistled in appreciation and Aziz smiled as the Tenno reformed himself. Prisoner or no, she had spirit. "Cool ability."
"Kill that thing!" Was Ming frothing at the mouth? It sure looked like it.
Even the stupidest of soldiers could learn and the ones with rifles slung them to draw swords. Aziz looked at the human, shook his head slowly and summoned his most powerful ability. The area was suddenly filled with screams as the tentacles that he summoned sprouted out of many surfaces and started slamming around. Aziz had never really been sure if the Void spawned the things, if there was an actual creature that they came from, or if maybe they too were hard light, but no matter. They worked. That was enough for him. The Tenno kept his eyes on the 'Ming' person as the army that had been crowding close was suddenly fleeing. Some of them hacked or shot at the tentacles. It did almost as much good as when Corpus or Grineer did the same. None.
The would be Emperor was spouting curses, promising foul retribution to the cowards who were failing him even though there was no way for them to fight this.
Aziz raised a hand off his polearm, looked at Ming, held up one finger and slowly wagged said finger from side to side. The human woman was laughing hard now. Then she screamed as the robot fired its weapon. She fell and lay still, a burnt patch on her chest. Her chest rose and fell, she was still alive. Ming was raising his hand at Aziz who held his Sydon to parry when a large bolt of energy came from above and the robot fell, sparking.
"MING!" A loud angry voice called from near the roof of the craft and Aziz was hardly the only one to gawk as a human in some kind of tight costume jumped down from there to land in the dais. He had blonde hair and a furious look on his face.
"GORDON!" The one called Ming produced a sword form somewhere and the newcomer snatched up a fallen sword. They fought back and forth as Aziz watched other humans appear from the ceiling, these sliding down on ropes. Others hidden up there were firing similar weapons to the ones the soldiers had and were far better trained. Aziz could see they were picking their targets and hitting what they aimed at where the 'Emperor's legion were spraying the area and not hitting much besides the walls and ceiling.
Then the world turned red.
Aziz jerked back as both sides of the room he was in showed large holes after the red flash. He stared out at open space as the humans who had been fighting turned from combat to survival. That had been the Fomorian's main gun. It had to be. But,… he knew how strong Grineer hulls were, very well. He knew how powerful the Fomorian beam was, both from research and seeing it fired at his own ship. The holes that the beam had made were barely human sized. That wasn't possible.
Aziz kicked himself. How much of this was possible?
"DALE!" The one called Gordon shouted as the human woman slid towards one of the holes but Ming was striking at him and he had to defend himself.
Aziz was in motion before he even realized he was. He Tidal Surged forward, throwing a few luckless soldiers off their feet, grabbed the unconscious woman and pulled her away form the hull breach, which wasn't acting like a hull breach. He had seen hull breaches on the Jolly Roger. The atmosphere was venting, but slowly. Far too slowly to be natural. He shook his head as he carried the woman from the fighting that was general now. All of the combatant skirted his still writing ability tentacles, which was wise of them.
"Dale!" An older human appeared nearby as if by magic. He wore a white tunic and his face was serious. "Give her to me." Aziz nodded and handed her to the human who laid the woman at his feet. Aziz took up a guard position, seeing a human in green doing likewise. The other was aiming not quite at Aziz who ignored him.
"Zharkov?" The green clad man asked carefully as the older human worked. "Flash is getting tired and Ming has a lot more troops on this tub."
"Dale is alive. Hurt but alive. That bot was set to kill her if she tried to escape. She didn't." The one called Zharkov said with a grunt as he sat back, a satisfied look on his face. "She will be her usual self in a few days, Barin."
"I don't know whether to be thankful for that or not." The one called Barin muttered. Aziz did not react, simply watched as the battle became a rout. "We need to go. I don't suppose you can teleport us off this barge?" He asked Aziz who shook his head. "Figured."
Tenno Aziz, I need to speak to these. The Lotus sounded wary in his head. I think I know who they are, but if so, we need to know how they got here.
Lotus… For once, Aziz had no humor in his mind tone. The Fomorian fired on this ship. The beam punched two small holes in this ship. It has to made from hard light.
Can you set up a hologram for me? The Lotus asked. Instead of answering, Aziz raised his hand and the guide of the Tenno sent wordless thank you. Both the one called Zharkov and the one called Barin recoiled as a small blue image appeared over Aziz's palm. The Lotus was frowning.
"Is Miss Ardan all right?" The Lotus asked through the hologram.
"Who are you?" Barin demanded, aiming at Aziz who ignored the weapon to focus on the fight that was still going on between Gordon and Ming. They seemed evenly matched. Every time the blonde haired man seemed to gain the upper hand, the robed one slammed him with some kind of energy, Every time the robed one started to come out on top and started to gloat, the blonde haired man sucker punched him.
"I am called Lotus." The Lotus said quietly. "Dr Zharkov, is Miss Ardan all right? Do you require medical assistance?"
"Our energies are not compatible." Zharkov said flatly. "We are not from this place, this time. This reality." The Lotus shook her head. Barin tensed, but no one paid him any mind. "She is hurt, the disintegrator beam bit deep, but she should live if we can get her back to our ship quickly."
Dis-integrator? Aziz decided he really didn't want to know.
"How did you come to this place?" The Lotus asked, concern rising. "We have had other incursions and we need to know how they came to be to stop them."
"See, Barin?" Zharkov muttered. "Talking works sometimes."
"Not against Ming." Brain retorted, but that as obviously an old and well fought over argument.
"You have to use brains in order to talk and he prefers to speak rather than think." Zharkov agreed and nodded tot he Lotus. "We scanned an odd source of energy. Ming detected it too and sent a fleet to take it. We argued the point, but then Flash's ship was attacked by Ming's shock troops and they captured Dale before we could beat them off. We came after her when he fled with her. He and his fleet ran into an odd portal. We chased them in."
"And you wound up here." The Lotus said softly. "That…" She sighed. "That is not supposed to be possible, but nothing that has happened recently was supposed to be possible. Now that you have Miss Ardan, you will go?"
'We can return through the portal that led Ming here. He will likely pursue when Flash leaves. He is a bit single minded about that." Zharkov eyed the battle on the dais. "Barin is right. We better go. Vulkan!" He raised his voice. "Time to go! If you would, please!"
"Glad to!" A loud voice called form overhead and Aziz stared as winged man literally crashed onto the dais. But his landing -if you could call it that- was obviously planned. He slammed Ming with a large mace and grabbed Gordon before flapping his wings and flying up into the air as Ming cursed.
Zharkov and Barin wasted no time on words. Barin scooped Ardan up and ran with her. Zharkov followed with a smile and nod to Aziz and the Lotus. Then he was gone too and the soldiers who had come with them were falling back as well, those who were still standing as more of Ming's troops flooded the area.
Get to your Archwing. I doubt their exit will be peaceful. The Lotus warned. Aziz needed no further urging. He ran to where the mechanical wings hovered in mid-air. When he jumped up, they slid into place as if he had never left. Whatever field had held them was gone.
Some instinct warned him and Aziz dodged to the side as bolts of energy came form the newly come soldiers and from Ming. He darted here and there, not bothering to cloak since it had been defeated so easily.
"You will not escape!" The would be Emperor declared, his ring flashing as he threw power at the impossibly quick Tenno. "None of Gordon's allies will survive! I will have my revenge."
"Still a fool, Ming." The voice of Gordon taunted. Then it turned serious. Where was it coming from? Aziz could detect no transmissions. "Whoever you are, thank you for saving Dale and you might want to brace yourself or whatever you do."
That was the only warning Aziz had before a tremendous explosion sounded. Most of the room that had been there was destroyed by whatever had detonated. Aziz saw Ming protected by some kind of force field, but all of his troops in the room were washed away by the blast. The remaining atmosphere blew out and Ming snarled at Aziz where he hung.
"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" Despite the lack of atmosphere, Ming's words came through clearly. That didn't make any sense, but then again, none of this did, so Aziz just rolled with it.
Your pickup is there. A waypoint appeared on Aziz's HUD and he smiled as he Blinked away from the doomed ship. He glanced back and shook his head slightly as he saw it break into two pieces. The Fomorian in the distance fired again and the beam did little to the ship, far less than whatever had hit it before.
Itzal Archwings were very fast. In less than a minute, he was at the coordinates and was not surprised when a Liset landing craft appeared nearby. He slid out of the Archwing and it was pulled into the ship. He spun and let the ship pull him to the airlock. But what greeted him inside…
He froze as the Frost Prime warframe nodded to him. He knew who this was. Every Tenno knew who Cyberlancer Olim was.
"I didn't know you were in the area, Cyberlancer." Aziz said with a nod. He knew Olim's reputation about dealing with people who tire dot be too formal. It wasn't generally pretty. He didn't hurt them, just made it very embarrassing.
"I wasn't." Olim replied with a nod of his own. "But this was odd, and I have the best sensors available. We got some decent readings on that whatever-the-hell-it-was."
"That was the flagship of Ming the Merciless, arch villain of the Flash Gordon series of comics. That was also Flash Gordon and his companions." The Lotus appeared in a holo nearby. "Again, hard light holograms, but they knew they were."
"A comic?" Aziz asked, incredulous.
"A very popular one." The Lotus agreed. "All of the manifestations have been of fictional characters from ancient entertainment media and all were very popular in their time. This doesn't make any sense to me, Cyberlancer. The Library was created by a non-violent Tenno as a means of storing knowledge. This… This was violent. Aziz could have been killed. Several Grineer ships were destroyed and many Grineer killed. Many of the hard light beings, artificial as they were, were killed. Anatoly would not have done this according to every record. We need to find out what is going on. We need you at the colony."
"I am on my way." Olim looked at Aziz who shrugged.
"Nowhere else to go." The Hydroid clad Tenno said with a snort. "At least around you, I won't be bored."
"That I can guarantee." Olim snorted in matching humor. "But we may have a problem. I tracked the energy discharge that made the portal thing or whatever the hell it was that those ships came out of and went back into. The energy came from the colony."
"Then it has to be related to the Library somehow." The Lotus sounded sad now. "Ah damn. Iriana is so much better. If Anatoly is playing with us… She won't take it well."
"Until we know more, any decision we make will be a shot in the dark." Olim said quietly as his ship powered up. As with all Tenno assault ships, there was no sense of movement even though Aziz knew the ship was moving far faster than physics should have allowed it to. Orokin and Tenno tech had always allowed such craft to sidestep most laws of reality nicely.
"Can I help?" Aziz asked. "This is weird. Way weird, even for someone like me."
"I don't know." Olim stiffened and Aziz did as well. "Oh dear."
"What?" The Lotus and Aziz asked at the same time. Aziz bit back the snide comment he would have made as Olim started working controls.
"The Grineer must have detected the same energy pattern I did, although I have no idea how." The Cyberlancer was working feverishly now. "Lotus! You need to warn the colony! The Fomorian just altered course and is pushing its speed to their max! They are on course to intercept the colony!"
Aziz felt his guts clench as the Lotus' holo vanished.
"Colony?" The Hydroid clad Tenno asked tightly.
"A Tenno colony." Olim said as he worked."Noncombatants. Hidden in an asteroid. Hidden from everything. But the Grineer are on a direct course. They know where it is. Even if we beat this Fomorian, they will be sending more. Lots more."
"If they get the ship into range, that colony is dust." Aziz said weakly. "How many civilians?" Olim just looked at him and Aziz had his answer.
Too many to evacuate.