"Get down from there!" Doan shouted, as flying machines I'm assured can be heard for fifty meters swooped and roared overhead. "IND-"
She ducked a Dargyn, slid on dew-covered grass, tucked into a roll, and managed to stand into a stumbling, skidding stop about halfway down the hill. One of the Dargyns clipped another with a clang that faded quickly under the rattling noise of their engines.
Doan sighed and keyed her helmet communicator. "Sarge Ind Cusd, come down now!"
One of the Dargyns angled downwards and a high-pitched scream heralded a Grineer version of a crash-landing. That is, Ind's Dargyn hit the ground, bounced in the way Grineer-made equipment does, and rolled across the ground twice before skidding to a stop.
Ind Cusd stumbled out of the flying machine, laughing, until she caught Doan's glare and stood straight, saluting through a fit of giggles.
It wasn't exactly the discipline Doan had been hoping for, but a few of her squaddies were actually laughing, which is something I have on good authority that many Grineer don't know how to do. Good authority and a bit of baseless but entertaining accusation.
I really miss the time when I could just throw insults at the Grineer and not feel guilty. Now Steel Meridian is a big thing and there are those pacifist defective defectors and Doan seems to have rolled the dice on her squad enough to get some of the remotely intelligent ones, so I've been hearing too many stories for my own good. Not that this anecdote is one of them, but my point stands.
I'm not saying my previous historical accounts are flawed, just that I've gained some perspective. Grineer are copy-of-a-copy soup-for-brains bucketheads who will crash their flying machines into the ground for no other reason than it's an easier way to finish their first flight than trying to land. They're also clever builders, determined soldiers, and even the absolute dullest of them are probably capable of learning if given enough lifetimes.
My point is, I have a little more perspective now, and there are significantly fewer blindingly, head achingly dense Grineer through most of the following accounts. Yes, that's because all of those ones died and Doan started getting herself into situations where the ones who'd look for building blocks while barefoot would have fortunate accidents, but it's still the case.
Except for Ind. Ind crashed her Dargyn happily, saluted without a care in the world, and strolled over to Doan with a gaggle of Grineer cheering in a way that properly showed their disdain for aerodynamics and proper protocol.
Ind is never flying me, no matter how much better she's gotten since then.
"Doan Doan! Try?"
Doan cast a look at the Dargyn, buried up to its… uh… come to think of it, Dargyns don't have a lot of defining features, do they? Well, its guns were buried, and most of the bottom half, and everything else was covered in dirt, wood chips, and rock dust. Part of the back port was also broken, since Ind was twice as tall as the intended occupant, and her lower legs had had to go somewhere.
"No," she said, in what I'm sure was a display of saintly patience. "I will stay on the ground. Where I am safe."
Ind wilted a little, then brightened. Whatever she was going to say didn't come quickly enough, and Doan turned to the squad and two pilots who were properly landing their Dargyns and raised her voice.
"I won't be here tomorrow. Neither will Sarge. We are going scouting-"
One of the Scorches raised a hand. Doan nodded towards him.
For clarification, at this point, Doan's squad had been through enough Scorches to take five Grineer just to count them. So, at least seven. This is because Scorches are in the absolute worst position of any soldier in the Grineer army. At least Butchers aren't likely to have their weapons explode on them, and Napalms aren't required to stand close enough to shake hands with the enemy. The point is, of all the positions in the squad, a long-lived Scorch is most likely to be in exactly the position Aln was: asking questions.
Aln is dangerously smart, is my point. Most of that danger comes from the Ignis, but it's still danger.
"Why you and her?" he asked.
"Because we're women," Doan answered, which was good enough for most of them. Leeh, the team's Scorpion, started to look confused and left out. Doan continued, "we will be hiding and moving fast, but we can fight alone. I need to see for myself. That is why."
To clarify, she meant that, as women, they were taller, proportionally lighter, and therefore faster than most other Grineer. As Gunners in particular, they were best suited to general combat. The other Grineer either understood or at least knew they weren't included amongst the women. Leeh was going to pout about being left out, either way, so Doan wasn't worried about that.
"Plond is in charge while we're away," Doan declared, having to shout the last part over a scattering of cheers and groans and clanking of armour as Plond's friends patted him on the shoulders. "Plond? Stay in the base. Stay safe."
Trooper Plond saluted and, in the only volume he was aware existed, shouted, "sir, yes!" Then hesitated, trying to figure out how to ask a question.
"Stay in the base, because if you die while I am not here, I will be angry," Doan explained.
The squad all nodded, including the pilots. They understood being angry very well, and most of them had the survival instincts to be happy their boss wanted them alive.
With that, Doan dismissed them all for an early night, but grabbed Ind and walked away from the base and off into the outskirts of the nearby jungle. The outskirts extended for a good ten kilometers before succumbing to the dense, towering jungle.
If anybody is wondering why I haven't described the base yet, it's because it doesn't matter much to the story. Doan's squad had been placed in one of the controlled areas of Earth, in a hilly area that had been burned to the ground in preparation for an orbital-drop outpost. Now Doan's squad protected a base that could withstand both a drop from outside atmosphere and the pervasive plant life of Earth.
Moving on, specifically into the already-regrowing area of the jungle border, Doan eventually slowed out of sight of the base and turned to Ind.
"Early?" Ind asked, presumably referring to the fact that they were supposed to go scouting the next day.
"We're meeting Secret and Silence," Doan explained. "Not going scouting."
Ind took a little while to process that, long enough to cast a longing look towards the jungle, but finally nodded. "Later?"
Doan agreed and… well, they waited. We didn't exactly have eyes on them at all times, so it took us most of an hour before we arrived, shortly before full sunset.
Secret and Silence dropped from approximately 730.2 meters above the surface, both because I don't like to be shot at and because they like to show off. And I can hardly blame them. If I could fall from nearly a kilometer altitude without any structural damage, I'd probably try it at least once.
…
Alright, it is actually very strange recording these without Secret here to chime in once in a while. Better than doing nothing, though.
I'm a superintelligent AI designed to monitor the equivalent of genocide with a scalpel and organize with an intellectually nigh-omnipotent Space Mom. I really, really need my hobbies to distract me from things like my baby ninja eldritch-synthetic-rights activist finally being called to a meeting… barely weeks after the Tenno community as a whole discovered the wonders of hungry Warframe-warping walls.
That technology didn't exist in the Old War, I'll tell you that much. Want to know why? Because smart and underappreciated Cephalons made sure we only had one violently-unexplainable potential chaos army serving the Orokin at any given time. So at least we had some precautions.
Then doom, doom, swish, hurk- blaaagh. No more Empire. Turns out one wild card military is plenty to end a regime. If only a historian could have told somebody that.
Where was I? Secret having his meeting that hopefully won't get him killed or split a thousand confused demigods down the middle. And before that… Doan and Ind realizing Secret and Silence went for a dramatic entrance and didn't think of a way to actually get back up.
We raised them to be good fighters. Common sense is harder to train.
Let's see, Tenno landed, Ind crashed into Silence for a hug, Secret and Doan did that stare-down thing they do where you can't tell if they're competing or admiring one another, then Doan asked where they were going and the Tenno realized they'd forgotten to get a way up. Cue awkwardness and, eventually…
"Up up?" Ind asked, pointing up just to be sure she had the right idea. She looked around until she had everybody's attention, then pointed back towards the base. Outpost. Can I call it a drop-post? Any objections? No? Drop-post it is.
Doan spread her arms and shook her head. "No!"
The Tenno started to move.
"No. Bad Tenno! They'll hear you- get back here! AAAAGH!"
Doan informs me she kicked the ground pretty hard as the Tenno disappeared, waved her arms a bit, generally did a pretty good impression of your average helpless Grineer for a half a minute, until she calmed down and fumed a bit.
Ind waited patiently.
Now here's the thing. Everything would have been mostly fine. Basically a sensible bit of grand theft aero. Except for the blindingly obvious problem that there were two Tenno, who could steal one Dargyn each, for four people.
Wait a tick for the mathematically slow in the audience…
Now picture with me, if you will, two Tenno flying through the night sky in absolute silence, landing, running from the reignited tirade of an angry Grineer, and coming back with another pair of Dargyns. Imagine the rush for Doan and Ind to climb into their equally-stolen Dargyns before their squad of apoplectic Grineer with very big guns catches up.
Doan was still yelling at Secret on the way up, which actually wasn't all that effective, since Silence was muting everything in the area on the off chance one of the Grineer took off their helmet to hear them better.
Picture all that, and then imagine how it was when Doan and Ind were crammed into our Lisets and brought to Belyri's orbiter.
Doan tumbled out, because lisets are *still* not designed for two people, got to her feet, and glared at the ship. Since it was Belyri's ship, that really made it seem like she was glaring at Belyri, but really she was glaring at me.
"Etross! You said you were picking us up! Why did you… do that?!"
She waved the appropriate amount to generally encapsulate the brief but surely exciting chase scene that had just ended.
"Don't look at me," I said from my spot in the subroutines. "It isn't my orbiter."
"It is mine," Belyri said, appearing visibly, because she got to do that on her orbiter, which we'd chosen for the occasion for reasons. "I apologize, lady Tana, for our children's excitable natures. They were eager to see you, but the vagaries of the void held us up."
"We were barely twenty minutes behind schedule!" I protested, but Secret and Silence were already ushering Doan and Ind towards the Foundry and Arsenal. "But they're right, Miss Tana, Miss Cusd. We are in a bit of a hurry."
Belyri continued, naturally, "as long as wardrobing doesn't take overlong, we should be on schedule. Etross, would you take care of astrogating while I get everyone dressed?"
"Remember when I was in charge?"
"No. I'm a musician, not a historian. Be careful with my ship."
And, look, it annoyed me at the time, but I'll admit it was well played. Of course I grumbled off upstairs to take the Liset controls, and from there I did what Cephalons do and sort of spread throughout the system, but I did keep just a little bit of awareness for what was going on in the main area. I've got some exact quotes, but the visuals are mostly anecdotal. Sue me, I was paying attention to the infinite expanse of the Void.
"Are you giving us new armour? Ind needs some."
"No, no, nothing like that, though I'm sure we can arrange something pretty for you, Ind, any time you would like."
"Yay!"
No kidding. Ind actually cheered. For pretty armour. Though I suppose there's the off chance she saw Doan's armour stand up to something it really had no right to and was interested in getting something equivalent. It's possible, but I wouldn't bet on it.
"Who would like to try on an outfit first?"
Music began to play - or, I should say, increased to noticable volume.
Doan refused to step up and Ind followed her lead, so instead Silence stepped into the Arsenal.
"But Silence, dear, you've already chosen - oh, I see. What a wonderful idea."
In a moment, Silence's Warframe was properly festooned and painted, and if you've never seen a Banshee dress "loud", then your life is incomplete in the luckiest possible way. Much like a human reaching adulthood without ever dropping themselves out an airlock, you have forever placed yourself in one group who know a different kind of life. Some might call it innocence, some might call it blissful ignorance, but the point is, it changes a being.
There were the expected cries of surprise from Doan and Ind while Secret made exaggerated motions to pantomime clutching at his eyes, but Silence strode up the orbiter to her own musical number, then back. Soon enough, the Arsenal had her in a new outfit, this one with colours that weren't quite an affront to the one who once asked that there be light, and she made the round again. On the third switch, she chose the outfit she'd picked out for the night.
Which, it occurs to me, I'm going to get yelled at about if I don't record.
Fine, fine. When did these recordings start getting to be so much of a hassle? I had ages before Secret woke up when I could record anything I wanted. I even have his original name around here somewhere, not that he cares.
Alright. Garish colours and gaudy baubles. There are a lot of different mentalities when it comes to Tenno fashion, but even they'll admit that it varies between blindingly ostentatious and a strange sort of subtly powerful appearance. Secret and Silence, at least, have their mission appearances that aren't visible by a satellite in need of a contact lens.
That's a real thing, by the way. It happened.
On the other hand, what Silence chose for this outing was… well, you know how Banshees have that headdress thing? Like a big fan that's obviously looking for some fancy colours and such? to add to it. It's an open secret that that part of the helmet is designed to amplify sound for the user. A big resonance chamber, Belyri says. No, I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I figure that just means the same thing with fancier wording. Well, Silence had come up with a different idea, and Belyri had worked on it until it was perfect. Despite all the colours and the cape that hung over her shoulder, that fan was the centerpiece of the outfit.
The fan spread out in the same way, but now it was hollow, with the two sides connected by strings instead of solid connective tissue. Each string under a different level of tension. She'd turned her own helmet into a musical instrument of sorts.
Silence strode out of the Arsenal with her new helmet of gold and silver, twirled once to show off a blue and gold cape, and rested her hand on her hip so she could show off a frame that was now silver with gold filigree. It really was quite beautiful, if frighteningly eye-catching.
Ind clapped her hands together and, without any hesitation, ran into the Arsenal for her turn.
"Dear, you should know we're trying to obscure who you really are, so this may take a little bit of work."
"Obscure? What does that mean? What are you going to do to her?"
"Oh, we're just going to hide that you're both Grineer, and… voila!"
Ind came out of the Arsenal without most of her armour. I'm told it was jarring for everyone. I wouldn't know because I was stuck in the astrogation systems. But Secret and Silence both stared, and Doan almost came forward to offer her armour, by instinct. Ind was trying to twirl around to see all of herself, which wasn't going to work at all.
"No armour!" Ind sang, still spinning around. Which wasn't quite true. She was still wearing all of her under-armour, plus the necessary life support functions, but the bulkier portions of her armour, everything that could be removed safely, was gone. Instead, she was wearing clothes. Real, cloth clothes.
Yes, we can make those in our foundries. It really only takes a few plants and reverse-engineering some Earth wildlife. All the material and such is right there.
"Green green green."
"Do you like the colour, Ind?"
"Green!" Then Ind lost some of her enthusiasm and picked at the frilly skirt meant to hide all her augmetics. "More greens?"
"Oh, yes. We can dye it any colours you'd like. Just hop back into the Arsenal."
"She likes the colours of Earth's plants."
"Yes! Good greens."
"Splendid. We'll give you a nice, artistic gradient, shall we?"
It didn't take long before Ind had a bright green dress with all shades of green from what she called "new leaf" to "pond pad". Mostly glaringly bright, with the edges of each frill done in dark green. Don't ask me why she thought it was the right colour set to go with, Belyri called it acceptable and it didn't exactly stand out amongst the crowd later.
Doan was more hesitant about the whole thing. "Is this needed?" She looked around at the group, probably hoping one of them would tell her that no, this was just them having fun, and she didn't have to.
"We'll have to adjust your hip augments so you can work without the armour, but yes, it's needed. There are going to be a lot of Tenno where we're going. You need to look human."
That set Doan to scowling. She wasn't too happy about the idea of looking human. They were looked down on universally by the Grineer, who pride themselves on being superior to naturals. Of course, there's not a lot of detail as to how they're superior, but that's not really necessary when none of your people bother to question it.
Secret, whom Doan had been hoping would support her at least a little, instead only shrugged and nodded towards the Arsenal.
"Do you have any preferences, Lady Tana? In clothing or colour?"
"Pre…?"
"What do you like? We could keep your blue and red, if you want."
"I like armour."
Belyri sighed, but Silence contacted her and made a few suggestions, and they contacted me.
The problem was that Doan and Ind both needed disguises, but Doan still wanted her armour. Now, historical fashion is not my area of expertise, but it is rattling around somewhere in my storage space, since cultural expression is a pretty important part of history. Ind was, in fact, prancing around in a popular fashion from northern Mars's 220 AC era. I shared a few samples with Belyri, made a quick suggestion that she not use anything from the "Third Empire", and left them to it.
I only checked on them when, after some struggle and commentary, a bit of tedium regarding flat refusals of certain outfits, everything went silent in the main area. I went to check after more than half a minute had passed.
I was… not at all prepared for what I saw.
Ind looked so casual and carefree that she could have faded into the background anywhere. A bit of makeup, a wig, and she would have passed for a tall human. My point is, I did not notice her initially.
Doan… Did not look unobtrusive. Everyone is fully aware of how tall and thin Grineer females are? Doan seemed to have decided that, without armour, she would have to compensate with intimidation. She was wearing all black, except for some blue that was so dark it might as well have been the same. Her boots were like the foundation of a building, with soles a hands-width tall and leather that reached all the way up to her thighs. Well, they weren't exactly her thighs. Given Doan's hip problems, she seemed to have opted for an exoskeleton that looked very much like the real thing combined with body armour. They made her legs look larger and more powerful than usual. That design philosophy continued with her torso, which was… wider than usual. It was mostly innocuous, if you didn't know her, except for her shoulders, which were obviously wider than natural. It would have made her head look small, if she weren't wearing small stilettos attached to her ears.
Actually, aside from being bulkier than usual, which I found out was courtesy of body armour underneath the Kavat-skin jacket and leggings, Doan was festooned with small metal items that could be used as weapons. Secret and Silence actually helped, in one case, and it turns out that the combination of chains, metal ribbing of the jacket, and the aforementioned stilettos could be assembled into a serviceable rifle, though I have no idea how.
So, all that said, I don't feel it's unfair to say the glasses were incongruous. They were so… normal. Blue steel with filigree and rounded points, distorted rectangular lenses, and bright yellow eyes.
Ind finally broke the spell by running forward and hugging her friend. That moment was further spoiled when some of Ind's frills caught on some of Doan's pointy metal bits and… well, it took a while to untangle them, but at least Doan was laughing through most of it.
With the time it took to get the pair of them wigs, makeup to hide their obvious vat-grown skin blemishes, contact lenses to dampen the glowing eyes, and then finally convince Secret to try on a white-iridescent cloak and kama (which Doan added to her outfit afterwards, because it let her hide more armour), we'd almost arrived by the time everyone was-
-Secret! Welcome home! How was it?-
-I was doing a recording, but that's not important. How did it go? Who was it?-
-Okay, did none of them have names yet?-
-One.-
-What do you mean, one?-
-Oh… Secret, I… see. But you know, most movements have started out like this. It doesn't mean it won't succeed. What do you know about her? Where did she come from?-
-Alright, alright. We'll talk about it later. I can finish this recording, if you like.-
By the time we arrived at the Dojo, everybody was finally properly dressed, despite several last-second adjustments.
-...-
-You knew the event was happening almost a month in advance! How could you have not picked out an outfit?-
-Not knowing when is beside the point. Belyri was nagging you the whole time.-
We landed and they all got out - Belyri and I stayed on the Orbiter - and I think Doan may have had a small heart attack.
There were hundreds of Tenno, plus technicians, some Cephalons in borrowed synthetic synthetic bodies, and even children running around, jostling for spots. Several children appeared to have opted to simply climb onto a Tenno and ride on their shoulders, the better to see whatever was up at the front.
Doan stopped and stared in awe right up until Secret took her hand and pulled her ahead. They got their fair share of stares right back, including some from suspicious Tenno, but for the most part, they were able to reach the back of the crowd without issue, and Doan could even see over the majority, what with her height and platform boots.
At the front was a grand stage with half a dozen Tenno. Three Octavias, a pair of Banshees, and a Titania that Doan initially took as holding a weapon, but was actually carrying an instrument like the others. Between them, there were a set of drums, a Shawzin, two Mandachords, a synthesizer keyboard, and a Thoranin. Not a bad group, all told.
Doan shouted when an arrow whizzed overhead and plonked into the wall a few meters above her head, but Silence put a hand on her shoulder and pointed. The thing was actually a Noise Arrow, from an Ivara, and Doan could hear the sounds of the Tenno tuning their instruments coming from it.
A child ran by, singing something in a language Doan didn't know, chased by another child about the same age.
-Because that's classified data, remember?-
A pair of Tenno started to walk towards the group, and this time it was Secret and Silence who tensed, looking like they might draw weapons they hadn't brought. Doan picked up on it and fingered one of her stiletto earrings, but Ind simply smiled and waved. Before the two Warframes could reach them, a young woman moved to block them.
-Yes, young woman.-
-I can't very well call Lihruh a child, can I?-
-You know that isn't accurate.-
The young woman stopped both pairs of Warframes with a hand and smiled in a way even Doan knew wasn't real. The woman's eyes flashed a bright silver and she said, "I'm so glad all of you could come to the Jenedai Clan's peaceful gathering. I hope you'll all make yourselves comfortable and welcome."
She gave a pointed look to the newcomers, who backed off, then smiled to Doan and Ind. "I hope you'll stay near your friends. Enjoy your stay. The concert is about to start."
It was only a couple of minutes later, after some back-and-forth signing between Doan and Secret to ask what everyone was doing, that it all started. Stillness fell over every Warframe in the hall as the musicians gave their introductions via Sending. Moments later, the music started.
Sound came from everywhere, Doan tells me. There were no lyrics that non-Tenno could hear, but the music itself was alive and loud from Silence's headdress and the nearby arrow-speaker. In the second song, the two Banshees added power to the songs by hitting the ground with enough sound to rock the foundations. A handful of Atlases ringing the room had to stabilize the Dojo to keep it from rattling apart, but I'm told it was worth it. Belyri gave me extensive lectures.
Tenno are robust creatures, and so the concert went on for quite a while, until the organics in the dojo had to start filtering away out of simple exhaustion. Doan and Ind only managed to stay by virtue of Grineer training and augments, but even they were starting to get tired when the dancing started.
Ind stared in fascination when the Tenno started moving. It was probably the first time she'd really started to understand what Doan saw in them. She started hopping up and down at first, then grabbed Secret's hands and pulled him towards the other dancers.
Now, I'm going to tell you this even though Secret is going to deny it whenever he's asked, but the boy is a natural dancer. Really graceful and never quite so overblown as to look silly. Silence, on the other hand, dragged Doan onto the dance floor and proceeded to look completely ridiculous. She had fun, of course, so I suppose there's that, but backflipping off of a pillar three meters in the air is not a reasonable dance move in any culture. Doan, luckily, took her cues from Secret, while Ind enjoyed herself dancing with a variety of partners. She actually made herself very popular that day, with all her pretty frills that I'm told, "were like windblown trees when she danced."
Eventually, even Doan and Ind got tired, though, and we came to pick them up and take them home.
It was a pleasant ride back. A little quiet, but calm and restful. By the time we got back, it was a simple matter to drop Doan and Ind down to their base in the Lisets, now that we weren't in a rush.
It's a shame that was the last time we saw them until Ind died.
Do I say the end now? Or to be continued?
-I can say that. I can end it however I want. It's my record.-
-The next day Nike killed the Elder Queen and Doan and Ind stopped speaking with us. Doan didn't contact you until Ind died. It's all completely factual.-
-I'm allowed cliffhangers if I want them.-
-Well, obviously I'm going to tell the story.-
-That would be spoilers.-
-That means when you tell part of the story early and… you know they can't hear you when I'm recording like this, right?-
-I'll tell them if you tell me what happened with the Tenno you met with.-
-Alright. Deal.-
Don't worry, Ind got better in the end.