I found myself back at the Tenno's cell once more. They seemed to increase the intensity of the siphons that sucked energy and life away from the prisoner. They're stockpiling energy, more than before. Gathering power for a hostile takeover maybe? I wonder what theories Prasanna and the other two have about this. I spent a good portion of my shift hanging around the area. I've softly declared this portion of the outpost my 'spot' that I normally make my rounds in. No-one really objected it, though Sisu teased me for it sometimes.
I look at the dormant Tenno as it moved slightly from one side to another as its precious energy is being taken from it in amounts unheard of. I would keep to myself most of the time, and the same would be for the scientists and watched over the hulking metal being, determined in their work. I respected them for working around the clock on this project, I don't think I'd be able to pull the amount of hours they have. Maybe they have motivation, they work directly under Vor after all.
Suddenly, I felt the facility rumble. I noticed it, but I doubt the scientists did. They're too invested in their' work. I sighed and ignored it. Must be the planet shaking after our multiple planet cracking excavations.
I wonder what the Tenno is thinking right now, about how screwed it really is. Is it even aware? It looks dormant and it probably is, but with how long it has been here… I don't know. Thoughts about the Tenno circled my head as the hours went by. It wasn't long until it was just me and the Tenno inside the room. My curious thoughts only started imploding in my mind as I approached the being. I looked at the armor as it hanged.
"Do you hear me?" I asked the Tenno. Receiving no verbal answer. Although I did notice something odd. It glowed for a split second after I asked. Is it really aware? Or was that just a coincidence?
"Can you understand me?" The Tenno's armor continued to glow, not intensify, or change. It's constant. It has be happenstance. I sighed, bored in my own mind as I paced around the room. I found myself thinking of the Tenno once more. I wondered what it was like for them. What do they end up seeing when they're 'out there'? While I despise them for what they've done, there's a small portion of me that envies them, their freedom. Prasanna worked hard for something similar. Will I have to prove myself my whole lifetime to do the same? I thought as I paced closer to the slumbering mass of armor. I was close to it, a foot maybe, eyeing it. I put my weapon down for the moment and starred at the Tenno, frustration and curiosity building.
From the moment of my birth, I was told what I was going to be, what I had to live up to. I've failed my masters and lost my prestige and freedoms of my title. I was a proud Grineer soldier and I was humiliated and tortured for my failures. I knew what was going to happen to me the moment I left my position on the battlefield and fled from the Tenno. I willingly came back to the Grineer and they mutilated and ruined me, even though they probably should have just… recycled me because of my debilitating and heartbreaking failure. They didn't, but I don't know if it was the right choice to let me live. I felt like… I was trapped within the cycle of my own inaction, trapped within my failure. Trapped to the people that made me who I was. Who was I? Why am I even thinking this? In my mindscape a stray feeling found its way to the forefront of my consciousness. What is this feeling? Sympathy? For who? The Te-… No. I can't feel that. I just can't…
I felt the powerful urge to strike the Tenno with my fist as my mind was raddled with thoughts of failure and regret and feelings that I didn't even understand fully. I stopped myself, because if anything screwed up because of me, Vor would have my head on a platter and that would be it for me and my dre-… the dream. There was a soft trickle coming up my throat, making it hard to swallow. I tried my hardest to calm myself. I took a deep breath and rested a hand on the shoulder of the Tenno.
"I won't let the fear control me. Not again. I promise you that." I spoke with as much passion as I could muster and looked straight at it with the hardest face I could make. I sighed and grabbed my things. I didn't want to hang around here any longer for the time being. This place is making me feel and think things I'd rather not put too much thought into right now, especially when I'm so close to an opportunity to prove myself to… to who? For what?
"That is correct sir, we've lost connection to the outer outposts. Outposts 0-162 and 1A-12 have been offline for a total of… two hours." The voice of my brother said over comms from another outpost as I leaned back in my seat.
"Do you know what happened?"
"We don't know. We sent in some recon squads to both of the outposts to find out. They haven't been gone long, so we're just going to sit tight until we receive word, Captain."
"You will let me know when something changes, or I will have your head." I ended the transmission with the sister outpost. Could it be the Tenno have already figured out what we've found? No, that's not possible, unless we had a mole and even then it shouldn't be possible. We are on the most remote part of this planet. It's hot and miserable here. It must be an issue with the technology. Has to be.
My frustrations require me to take a walk and think. Might head down to my prize to check up on the progress with the siphoning. I made sure my office was close to the Tenno's cell, seeing as I would be moving between the two rooms frequently to assure my prize has not gotten smart and escaped. I asked myself, is it even aware? The scientists think not, but I have my suspicions. The Tenno are capable of so much, so I find myself vindicated in my cautiousness.
The Tenno was still hung like a fish as we produced more power cells from it. I walked to and fro within the cell. Thinking of what could the future hold, but also apprehensive at the possibility of losing it all. While losing contact with two outposts around the same time isn't very probable, it's not impossible. It just has to be an issue with our machines, it just has to.
I look up at the Tenno, my face defying the very concept of these old warrior gods. "I will break you, and soon after I will break all of the system."
It's cold. Lonely. My mind isn't strong enough to string any viable thoughts together as I float in the pitch blackness. There used to be something. A presence that brought some color to this place. It was a soft auburn glow. It was... calming. I think it was trying to talk to me. It used to come around every so often, I wonder what it is. Maybe it's just my imagination… I don't know.
Is this hell? Did I do something wrong to be banished to this place? This deathly void of space and time. What could have I ever done to deserve this? I'm subject to all these feelings and voices that aren't mine. I have no words to describe the emptiness I feel. I have no sense of self, no sense of feeling. I feel a heat built up inside as I thrash around in my environment, trying to get a reaction out of it or even myself.
It felt like days pass as I expend my energy to do… something. I don't know anymore…
I'm tired… but I must keep trying. I don't want to waste away in this hellish nightmare.
I won't…
I…
I look at my weapon as I sat within the barracks. It's not really in disrepair, but it hasn't really been used since the time of my failure. I felt a pinch of boring cross my mind. I didn't wish to spend my time starring down the dormant Tenno in its cell, so I'll just keep my gear ready to rock in case anything happens.
Like that will ever happen. We're in the middle of nowhere.
I spend hours just tending to my things. My armor is heavy, but it gets the job done. I wished I didn't have to wear it everywhere, at least around here. My gear is in peak condition, but why do I feel compelled to continue? To waste time? To keep my mind off the Tenno? I don't know.
"Hey, Mara. We've been ordered to head out." Sisu spoke, poking her head through the door.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. Come on!"
I sigh and equip everything I've spent hours up keeping. I walk with Sisu down the halls and rooms of our outpost as we meet up with the others near the airlock leading to the outside travel tubes that provide us the ability to travel between outposts.
"Oh, there you are. Was wondering when you were going to get here." Prasanna spoke with a cough.
"I didn't know I was needed. What is happening? We gotta go outside?" I replied, stretching my shoulders.
"Apparently, we've lost communications with the closest outpost for nearly two cycles. Most of the other personnel have been taken by Vor, and we've been ordered to see what's going on."
"What do you think is going on?"
"Personally? I think it's just a broken transponder or some such component in our communications. They might already be working toward a solution, but Vor is just getting a bit unsettled. So…"
I sighed once more as my group was getting their appropriate gear. Even though our kin has devised ways to travel across the surface of the planet without getting burned alive, it's always good to have protection in case anything happens.
"Hopefully they have some extra ration packs on them." Prasanna spoke.
"We're running out?" I asked.
"The others that Vor brought in here have been consuming more than I would like." Sisu replied, sighing. "Sometimes I'd like to have the boring atmosphere ba-" She tried to say, but stopped.
"What did you say?" I asked as I looked up. The woman's eyes were wide and blood started falling from her mouth and neck.
"Guys…?" Sisu coughed out as a shimmer moved through the air with the swiftness of wind. Sisu's head fell to the ground with a deafening thud.
Everything started blurring as I bolted for my weapon and drew it. We all opened fire from within the building. Something got in. Something that we can't really see.
"We have to fall back. I can't see anything!" Prasanna called out as we bolted into a far room that was meant for storage. Prasanna got behind some cover, we peered over to find Thrasth getting dragged out and gutted. I heard gunshots from behind the wall. It wasn't ours. It was to finish Thrasth off. I was right. I was fucking right. Dread shot up my spine and my hands shook.
It was them. The Tenno. They've come for their kin. They've come to kill us all.
"Mara! Get a grip!" Prasanna yelled as she was throwing bullets down into the door to make sure the shimmer doesn't get in. I steel myself and grip my weapon harder. I follow suit and also open fire toward the door and walls. It might be hiding being there. We fired for what felt like a minute or two. Then it was silence. Our guns smoked with the aftershock of lead.
"Did he leave?" I said to myself quiet enough that Prasanna couldn't hear.
"Mara. Come with me. We're sitting ducks in he-" She was interrupted a shimmer approaching from behind and sent her flying across the room. It was in the room and we had to leave. We had to let everyone know, if the gunfire hasn't already. I ran to her side and looked to where we were. There's nothing there, I don't see anything.
I felt a force strike me in the belly, throwing me away. I dropped my weapon as I hit the wall. Pain erupted from my gut and shot to every part of my body. I have to do something! I tried to get up, but with every movement it only made the pain worse. I felt like I wanted to throw up, and I nearly did. I stumbled up to my fight as Prasanna was pinned to the wall… only difference now is that I can finally see what was happening.
It was a horned warrior. A devil. It pinned my superior officer to the wall with its sword. The wall dripped with Prasanna blood. I dropped to grab my weapon but then I felt pain in my shoulder as the Tenno drew a sidearm and blew a hole in me. Fucking Tenno! I pushed through the pain and rose my weapon at the Tenno. My weapon was cut to pieces with the same sword that killed my teammates. I was stuck again and forced to the wall again, trying to keep the sword from doing to me what it did to my gun. I know in my heart that it won't matter, I know this is my end. The strength in my body is leaving me and the Tenno towers over me with its weapon ready to kill.
I heard a gunshot ring out as a bullet hit the Tenno in the back and bounced off, hitting the ceiling. The gunshot distracted it and he approached Prasanna's bleeding out form, she looked at the Tenno in defiance as it brought down its sword upon her. It was in this moment that I felt like I was brought back in time, back when I was a leader myself, back when the Tenno invaded and ruined me. I felt rage and fear rip through my body. I could stop this here as Prasanna was being murdered by our enemy. This is my chance.
But… I also felt paralyzed as I watched my leader be butchered. I think she's disappointed in me. I didn't capitalize on my opportunity… or maybe I decided not to. My mind descended into fear as I lost my mind in the nothingness that was my life.
My life… it is mine… isn't it?
I felt my legs move without me telling them to. I found myself trying to make distance between me and the Tenno. I bolted through the halls as Grineer soldiers ran the other direction. I wanted to yell, I wanted to scream, I wanted to help them… but all I wanted to do is run.
After everything… I'm still a coward.
As I ran through the halls, I heard the screams of my kin and their useless gunfire as they were butchered and thrown across the walls. I kept running.
"Attention. The test subject has escaped. Attention! The test subject has escaped!" A machine voice yelled over the outpost communication system. The other Tenno escaped?
Oh, Fuck me.