DISCLAIMER:Because the lore of Warframe is more often than notinconsistent (or just sometimes doesn't make sense), I will be doing as I please WITHIN REASON. Don't expect me to fly off the rails with crazy theories and ideas, I'm just interpreting things in my own way and going with the more reasonable conclusion of how Warframe lore works (whenever itdoes).
It hurt. A new feeling for him. Simulating what his frame felt was one thing, but feeling it in person was different. He looked to his left to see his frame scattered across the burning field in pieces. Could he even re-energized it at this point? Probably not.
'Are we on earth?' He thought. The forest looked like that of earth. Tall trees stretching up to the sky, luscious green leaves and somewhat comfortable grass. No point in being curious – at least not right now – he could barely sit upright.
Facing forward once more he saw another frame, heavily damaged with railjack metal shoved though, laying on the grass. Outside of it was a female operator, one with long brown hair. Her face was covered in glass shrapnel, some close to her hairline and mouth.
She was breathing, although faintly. He scanned the area around them, finding three more eviscerated warframes around the ground. Only two operators were visible and both appeared to be alive. 'Where are the others?' He thought, almost panicking. 'There were supposed to be eight of us onboard.'
Finally he stood. His vision was hazy, almost completely blurring out the scene before him. He approached the glass-riddled girl, gently nudging her when he arrived. "Hey, Kleo. Come on." He nudged her shoulder a bit more before she began to open her eyes. It was straining her a bit, likely due to the glass shards so close.
"Vernon?" She languidly responded. "What's going on? Why aren't you in your frame?" She reached out to his arm, surprised to see her bare hand from her torn apart glove. "Why am I not in my frame?"
Vernon sat down in front of Kleo. He carefully propped her up as to not agitate any wounds. "Something is blocking transference. I'm not sure what it is, but I can't re-energize good 'ol Atlas over there." He jerked his thumb back towards his frame - or at least its scattered apart pieces.
"So, my Gara...?" Kleo continued, looking towards her impaled frame. "...is completely useless. Where's her head?"
"No clue," Vernon answered. He turned towards the other pair, two boys about a similar age of his seventeen. "You stay here. I'll check up with those two." He stood again and his vision blurred. Vernon stumbled forward, barely catching himself.
"Vernon!" Kleo exclaimed while rushing towards him. No void dash, she was forced to run. She upset something inside her, easily noticeable by the cracking noise in her ribs. She too fell to the floor. "Neither of us are in a position to be walking. We should up a beacon and wait for extraction. Help will arrive."
Vernon tried to think of an excuse not too. He huffed slightly, defeated and agreeing with his teammate. "Fine. There should be one near the reliquary drive." He let out a short and heavy breath. "I know I shouldn't be asking you this because you can barely move, but can you do it? You're a lot closer than me."
"I can," She said. Kleo limped her way over to the mostly intact part of the railjack. Ever so slowly, she made her way to the golden containment vessel. It was well preserved compared to the rest of the crash, with only a few scratches on the metal and some scuffed up paint. Orokin metal was tougher than Kleo thought. If only the rest of the ship was like it. She searched around the drive for a beacon. While she may have had little luck with that much, she did find a shiny spare firearm nearby. "Vernon! Lex, coming your way!" With Vernon's full attention she tossed him the gun. He fumbled around with it a bit, but managed. It was untouched aside from a busted sight.
"You find it yet?" He called to the girl.
Kleo sighed, "No. Let me try something else." She paused, catching her breath before picking her words back up. "Cy! Are you there!"
A sort of static came across the speakers of their ship. It was Cy's voice, but it came across as broken and sporadic. "Location: Unknown. Distress beacons: damaged beyond usage."
"Any suggestions?" Vernon asked.
"None."
"What now?" Kleo asked after a short silence. Vernon lowered his head, facing his lap.
"No clue. We can only hope friends get to us before Grineer or Corpus." Kleo laid down at her friend's response.
"How did this happen?" She asked.
"We let Anais pilot the railjack," Vernon answered, hoping to get a laugh out of Kleo. She gave a slight chuckle, wincing while doing so.
"But really, how did we crash?"
"Anais pulled up a particle ram, aimed for the big scaly fucker and he smacked us."
Kleo groaned in agitation. "Where the hell is she?"
"No clue, but her frame is there." Vernon pointed to the Nidus Warframe that began to secret vile liquids. Slowly they formed cystic pustules on the ground, each one bloating before popping. From the cysts, various little maggots started popping out. They appeared excited and hyper, each and every one of them bouncing about and secreting a viscous fluid that trailed on the ground behind them. "Gross."
"I think their cute," Kleo said, opposing Vernon's opinion as one of the maggots hopped over to her."
"You're weird." Vernon heard a maggot squeaking, closing in on him. It was from behind him. The moment it came into contact with the nape on his neck he recoiled. "If I had the energy I would squeeze this thing til' it popped."
Kleo rolled her eyes as she played with the maw of the maggot; Vernon nearly threw up. It wasn't long until Kleo's gaze shifted towards Anais' frame with a wondering visage. "I know her frame is a bit messed up, but compared to ours that thing has sustained little to no damage."
Vernon looked over to the frame. It had a few cuts, some slash marks and shrapnel sticking into it, but not through it. "Maybe it's all the spores?"
"You think that her frame's extra mass cushioned some of the impact?"
"Could be," Vernon answered. "It is squishy enough."
Kleo began stroking the slimy back of the maggot, distracting her from the pain she was in. The other infested larvae near Vernon began running around his limp body.
Vernon was stuck watching the sky above him. Clouds rolled by, taking various shapes and sizes. The sun was far enough behind them that it didn't glare into his face. He kept staring off into space, almost looking right through the other pair of eyes that soon started staring into his.
"Who are you?" Vernon asked the figure standing above him. It was a woman with long blonde hair that draped over her pointed ears to touch his face. She stared at him confused. "Swazdo-lah?"
Vernon felt a hand wedge itself beneath his body. Soon he was being cradled by some strange humanoid woman. She looked back towards another set of her kind, who were carrying the other Tenno away. She said something to them in a language he didn't recognize.
"Kleo, what's happening?"
"I don't know."
"I just hope their friendly."
Wonderment struck the village as the sound of a boom came overhead. They all looked to the sky, taken by surprise to see a large metal vessel hovering overhead. It was long, stretching over the entire village's ground-level road. Any previous fear from the Flame Dragon had subsided as the hovering vessel began to engaged in combat with the beast. Large streams of bright-red magical energy shot from the top of the ship towards the dragon.
The vehicle began to strafe sideways, continuing the fire from its top. It began to back up from the dragon. Further and further it strayed, its top weapon still active, then a bright green energy surrounded its face. It expanded outwards, knocking over trees in the process.
It stayed stagnant for a few minutes, launching a barrage of explosives to stagger the dragon. Then it moved forward. The sound of roaring came through. Further and further it rode, taking several trees with it, and smacking the dragon in the chest. It fell over and hit the forest floor with a loud thud. Its tail however moved upwards towards the victor. The tail smacked against the side of the ship sending it into a spiral.
The whole village watched as the vehicle was forced to crash into a separate part of the forest. An explosion was heard not too far from the elves in the direction of their savior.
"We gotta find that thing!" Shouted a member of the village. He was the first to leap down from the elevated bridge.
"Tuka, are you coming?" Asked a man with a warm smile. She nodded, though hesitantly and ran off with the man.
More followed the other elves while the rest stayed behind.
Vernon laid down on a straw mattress next to where Kleo was sitting. Her other two companions still laid unconscious in another room, but still breathing. Most of the weapons brought with them on the expedition were found broken and mangled in the wreckage. Their frames were no better, aside from the Nidus brought by Anais.
Speaking of, the girl was found barely alive just outside the wreckage zone. Her emissary jumpsuit was found in better shape than the other's standard. Still, it was damaged around the hood to where you could see her eyes beneath the closed mask. It could only be assumed she was the most physically able of the crew out of all of them. At least at the current moment.
Vernon was wrapped in bandages the moment they arrived. These people – if they could even be called that – were friendly enough to care for the Zariman children. They removed the glass in Kleo's face which was much deeper than she had thought. 'Bad day to wear the cogna equipment.' One shard of glass stretched to her ear all the way through her orbital, sticking out of both ends. She's lucky it didn't pierce her eye entirely. Still she was forced to wear an eyepatch
Before her hosts left they gave her a large gourd filled with a sweet smelling drink. Tea maybe? It was good, better than what the Ostrons made.
She heard a knock on the door across the room. "Kleo, it's me." Anais voice she recognized.
"Come in," She replied.
Anais opened the door. Her hood was off completely, showing unkempt silvery-black hair. Her skin was pale, complimenting the older teen's bright silver eyes. "I'm sorry for doing what I did with the railjack. I almost killed all of us."
"What matters most is that we're all safe."
"Well..." Anais droned on, catching the attention of Kleo. "...we don't have any idea where Haim, Iyana and Kharon are."
"I know." Kleo confirmed. She looked towards Anais who sagged her head towards her lap. "How's everyone's equipment?" Kleo asked hoping to clear Anais' mind with another topic.
Anais sat up. "Mostly broken. The only things that can be used are a Lex, a Cernos, a Zhuge, a Hind and a Skana."
"Huh," Kleo said. "I thought hammers could take more damage."
"You mean your Volnus?" Anais asked for clarification, getting a nod from Kleo. "It's actually mostly fine. Just a bent handle. I didn't include it because that would assume you could lift the thing without your frame."
"Speaking of-" Kleo went on.
Anais interrupted her, fully knowing what she was going to ask, "Mine is fine. He just stands there and watches people – I've been getting complaints. Everyone else's frames are destroyed or missing... aside from Haim's."
"So his is also fully intact?" Anais nodded in response. "Where is it?"
"Stuck in the rift," Anais answered. "It's still near the crash site, just entirely inaccessible."
"Do you think Haim is also stuck in the rift?"
"Probably not," Anais returned with a shrug. "But we won't know until we find him."
The air between them fell silent. Kleo took another sip of the drink she was gifted and offered some to Anais. She accepted, enjoying the flavor it brought.
They looked out a nearby window to see children chasing each other across a wooden bridge. It shook with every step they took, but seemed stable enough. Some parents and other adults walking by glanced through the window and gave a quick wave.
It wasn't anything they expected. They were told to assume that everyone was hostile and shoot on sight, but this gave a new outlook to the world. These people, they were nice, friendly, welcoming. It could be that they just killed a large monster that was about to annihilate their home, a welcoming culture towards outsiders or both.
Anais looked back to Kleo who stared out the window to the tree line. Boredom perhaps? Mesmerization?
"Transference isn't working," Anais spoke up, breaking the short silence they had. Kleo returned an undisturbed look. She had taken in enough of the scenery to calm her down. "Any ideas why?"
"None." Kleo replied, just as equally curious.
Anais huffed. "I guess I could go check with my frame. See what's up with him." She looked towards Nidus who still stood on the balcony, his only actions to turn his head towards passers-by.
"Alright, I'll be here." Kleo yawned.
"Where else would you be?" Anais teased before leaving for the door behind her. "Get better soon."
The next morning had arrived. Vernon reacquired his ability to stand and Kleo could move her facial muscles better than she could yesterday. Their other two teammates were awake, wandering the village and taking in its sights. The other three were still missing – unsurprisingly given that only a day has passed.
Anais had been interacting with her frame for the entire night. The frame did nothing but turn its head to track her. It would also move itself from place to place on its own accord, but aside from that it did nothing. Then there was the secretion, something all the team believed to be a sort of malfunction with the frame.
Some of the villagers would try to talk to her and her companions, likely about who they are. It would be easier if they could understand what they said. They could pick up on their names, given specific words some villagers would respond to. Some of the words that stood out were Tuka, Hodor, Deka and Zavala – though given how many people responded to the last one they could only assume it to be a common greeting. Picking up on their language was another thing. It wasn't like the Grineer language which was just degraded Orokin, or the Corpus language that had more Y's than needed. The language was so alien to them, something that sounded like a strange offshoot of the Ostron language.
Thankfully the people were nice. Many of them would stop by to check in on them, which would sometimes lead to an awkward silence. There was one boy in particular who would visit them. He appeared to be in his teenage years with emerald-green eyes and dark blonde hair. The kid apparently was interested in talking to Vernon and Kleo – void knows why. He would constantly avoid Anais, at least when she was tending to Nidus outside their room. Whenever Anais was available to chat he would try, only for whatever words he spoke to go through the girl's ears. He was quite the gab which Vernon found to be entertaining.
Anais saw the creature from yesterday fly off in the distance, away from them in their luck. It was missing an entire arm and a finger on its remaining hand. It flew crooked for some strange reason. The villagers looked depressed but were happy to see it retreating anyways.
Anais turned around to see that kid again. He said something, but she didn't understand. "Hey... what's up?" The kid looked at her with a nervous and embarrassed smile.
"Heyo?" He said with little confidence.
Anais was taken in slight surprise. It had only been a day since they were dragged here, and the boy had already picked up pieces of their language. "Need something?" Anais kept it to a short response.
"You... good?" He asked. He said something else before degenerating back into his native tongue.
"Busy," Anais said slowly while pointing to her frame. The boy looked on in nervous horror watching Anais poke around the Nidus.
"Dick?" He said, likely picking it up from Kleo retorting something towards Vernon or Achus. He was likely asking if it was aggressive or mean.
"No," Anais laughed. "At least not if I'm using it." The boy didn't understand what she said just then, leaving him confused.
Just as she turned to the frame a spark lit up in her head. She put her hand on the frame and sent a blast into it. In that moment she was able to activate transference and move around in her frame. She could move its arms, head and legs of her own will before being violently ejected from transference. Strange how she didn't end back up in her orbiter, but at least she did something. Anais hit the door behind her with a loud thud, resulting in a slight crack at its bottom. "Sorry," she groaned while rolling to her side.
Footsteps rapidly approached the door from the other side. On opening Anais the kid were greeted by a concerned looking Kleo with Vernon staring at them from the back. "What happened?" Kleo asked as she stood directly over Anais.
"I sorta fixed the transference issue." She answered through a pained voice.
"Are you okay?" Kleo asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just hit my everything a bit too hard."
Kleo took a quick breath in. She looked towards Anais them towards her frame, then back to the girl on the floor. "So what did you do?"
Anais laughed a bit. "Step one: blast frame with void energy. Step two: activate transference. Step three: be violently ejected the other way after ten seconds."
"So void energy allows for transference to reactivate?"
"Well-" Anais said with a small huff, "remember that weird radiation the others were picking up near the old Monument? I think my blast disrupted the radiation for a moment before I was booted from by frame."
Kleo hummed slightly. "What makes you say that?"
"Ever since we got here everyone's transference has been weird. I think it might have some to do with the air about the planet."
Kleo seemed to nod in reluctant agreement. As far as she knows there could be any reason for the poor connection, but Anais' assumptions seemed to be the most reasonable one – and the only one. "I guess that means we should report this to the outpost when we get back. If it's correct."
"Correct or not, it should still be stated. Any possible reason should be given."
"Right," Kleo agreed. "So how you feeling down there?"
"Not much, to be honest. I'm starting to get pins-and-needles in both my legs and my arms feel tired. But I can move."
"That from the impact?" Kleo asked while chuckling.
"Likely," Anais responded with a small laugh of her own. Anais finished her laugh to see the boy from earlier offering her a hand up. She moved her shoulders and arms, but their movements were slow and lethargic. She moved her hand towards his, leaving him to do the rest of the work. She was able to stand before nearly falling down again. "Ahh, fuck! Pins-and-needles!" She managed to prop herself up against the balcony across from her and wait for the feeling to return to her legs.
Kleo put a hand on the boy's shoulder as she inched herself forward towards her teammate. "Come on, you."
Anais was slung over Kleo's shoulder slightly, her lower half slightly propped up by the teen who helped carry her. "Nice view." She teased while staring down Kleo's back.
"I will drop you."
"Please don't."
AN: Thank you for stopping by and checking the story out. I am very grateful that you took the time out of your day to read this because it really gives me a reason to keep doing this. Please feel free to leave a review of what you thought and let me know how to improve. In the meantime, I hope your day goes well.