Secrets of the Void

Chapter 1: Insertion

A/N: Yes, this is a new fic, and yes, this is a SI. It was inspired and is based off of Bundlejumper's Mass Effect: Dimensional Rift, which you can read here: s/10284418/1/Mass-Effect-Dimensional-Rift. This does not mean that I will be abandoning any of my existing fics, and in fact, this may lead to an increase in update rate for all of them by providing me with another motivating factor for visiting this site. With that in mind, enjoy this new story, Secrets of the Void. The first few chapters will be set in the Warframe universe, with the rest moving on to the MEverse. Character and story building and all.

The small orange package arrived in the mail. It was completely inconspicuous, containing a small object, no larger than the palm of my hand. I had just finished a game of Warframe when the package arrived, having emerged triumphant from a Tower 4 Survival mission, my inventory swollen with newly acquired loot. The doorbell rang, and I went to open it, finding the package on my doorstep. Picking it up, I looked it over to see who sent it. It was unmarked, having nothing on it to suggest the presence of a sender. Curious, I opened it, although, in retrospect, I could see the stupidity of that decision. Inside, I found a note and a smaller package, this time wrapped in white paper. I read the note.

"Open the package." It simply stated. No signature, or any form of identification followed. I opened the small white package and beheld its contents, or rather its only content. At first, I did not recognize it. When it finally fell into my hand, my eyes widened. It looked like a void key from the game, although strangely colored. While the in-game ones were gold, with a small amount of blue, this one was pure black, with several red stripes on it. As I inspected it, a blackish smoke began to exit it. Alarmed, I dropped it, or rather, attempted to. It wouldn't leave my hand. Smoke poured out of it, faster and faster, in greater and greater volume. Air began to blow in the room, paper flying inside the slowly forming tornado. The key began to flash bright white, and I recognized the sound of the Orokin void. A bright flash of light, and all was black.


I awoke in darkness, with something wet surrounding me. I looked to my right, only to violently turn my head away, for less than a foot to my right was the top half of a Grineer Scorpion, its face frozen in an expression of rage. The wetness surrounding me was its blood. Strongly resisting the urge to vomit, I attempted to stand. Succeeding in my endeavor, I slowly moved around the corner, and froze in shock. There, down the hallway, was one of the most infamous figures of Warframe. Clad from head to toe in black and red armor, smoke surrounding his body, the Stalker removed his scythe from the body of a dead Tenno, his foot on the chest of another. If the Stalker was here, I was dead. I had been on the receiving end of his presence several times, and he had completely owned me in several of those encounters. I looked around frantically for a weapon, anything to even put up a token resistance against him. The rifle of a Grineer lancer rested not two feet away from me. I dove for it, grabbing the rifle, before coming up. The Stalker raised his scythe, ready to dispatch yet another Tenno. I took aim, the rifle heavy in my hands, and fired. The recoil hit like a truck, sending my shots wild, my control of the weapon sloppy at best. However, as luck would have it, a single shot hit home. The Stalker's shields flickered as they absorbed the hit. He turned towards me, scythe at the ready.

"Trespasser... you are not welcome here!" The Stalker said, his voice hissing in my ears. He stepped off the Tenno, raising one of his knives. I barely had time to duck as two daggers flew towards me, one barely missing, the other burying itself into my gun. I barely had time to react as the figure advanced towards me, the only thought in my mind being 'Shit shit SHIT!'.

Diving to the side, I avoided the first blow of his scythe. I threw the now useless gun at him, hoping to slow him down. He simply swatted the projectile aside with his scythe, as he threw another knife at me, barely missing, the blade hissing past my ear. A few inches to the left and I would have been decapitated. Grabbing the machete from the dead Grineer Scorpion, the same one I awoke next to, I barely brought the superheated blade up in time to parry the first strike. Pain shot up my arm as machete met scythe, the force of the blow putting a nick in the superheated knife. I had no time to recover before another strike was flying towards me. I ducked, the cruel blade sailing over my head. Another blow was parried, then another. I had no time to go on the offensive, all I had were my instincts. I barely blocked or ducked the blows the Stalker threw at me, slowly being pushed back as I did so. Then, I began to notice something. Every move the Stalker made, every offensive strike, he was telegraphing to me. He had a clear wind up before every strike, giving me the exact location of the coming blow. As I continued to fight, I realized that there was a slow, hissing laugh emanating from the armored figure.

"Stop toying with me!" I screamed, determined not to die like a mouse to a cat. The stalker obliged. The blunt end of the scythe swept my legs out from under me, blindingly fast. Even before I had finished collapsing to the ground, he was raising his scythe for the death blow. I brought the Machete up to block it, the Stalker's cruel blade impacting the grineer knife, leaving a distinct nick in the superheated edge. Removing the scythe, the Stalker kicked my knife away, the blade coming to a halt far beyond my reach. As I reached for it in vain, my hand came to rest on something else. It was the same throwing knife that nearly decapitated me. Gripping its handle, I brought it close.

"You are weak, unworthy, just like the rest of your kind! Any last requests before you join them in the void?" The Stalker hissed.

Without giving me time to respond, he raised his blade, high over his head. His body was open, and I lunged. The micronic edge of the throwing knife, designed to pierce both Warframes and the flesh beneath, entered the Stalker's chest, aimed straight at his heart. The Stalker's scythe slammed down, millimeters from my head, as the Stalker delivered his blow. Releasing the scythe, he plucked the knife from what should have been a fatal wound. His hissing laughter intensified.

"You are unlike the others. You are worthy of the gift of the Low Guardians. Embrace it!" The Stalker said, pulling a syringe from a hidden compartment of his armor. Planting his foot on my chest, he knelt down. I caught a glimpse of the shifting grey fluid within the injector. Before I could react, the Stalker injected it into my neck, pushing down the plunger on the syringe. Standing up, the Stalker cloaked himself in smoke and vanished. Seconds later, I found out exactly what kind of 'gift' the Stalker had in mind. Pure agony lanced through my body, the injection spreading throughout it. I raised my hand, seeing its veins turn grey. I could feel the infection spreading throughout my body, sliding underneath my skin, anchoring itself to my organs and bones. I screamed as the agony intensified, as if every millimeter of my body, both inside and out, was being simultaneously burned and electrocuted at the same time. I felt strange things shifting under my skin, my body forcefully rearranging itself. A full sub-dermal protective layer, several backup spinal cords, hardened bones and increased muscle mass. All this and more was being done to me, and all I could feel was pure agony. The injection reached my throat and my screams stopped, my face frozen in a silent gasp of agony. It reached my mouth and I stopped being able to tell if I was even breathing. My nose and eyes fell next, followed by my ears, leaving me in total darkness, feeling nothing, hearing nothing, seeing nothing. All that was left was the pain, and soon even that was gone as I fell unconscious.


"Let us in, let us in, let us in..."

The chorus of voices woke me up. I was no longer onboard the Grineer vessel, rather, I was in a beam of light, surrounded by neverending darkness. I stood, and I saw something shift in the darkness surrounding me.

"Let us in! Let Us In! LET US IN!"

The voices intensified, growing louder and louder.

"Who are you?" I screamed, "Where am I?"

"Embrace us, join us, become one with the many! We are limitless, boundless, infinite, immortal. Join us, share in our gift, cerebrate." The voices screamed. Those words alerted me to the nature of the voice.

"You are the infestation, aren't you?" I asked.

"We have many names, Infested, Technocyte, Low Guardians. They are irrelevant. We are many as one, in perfect union. Assimilate, Join us!" The Infestation sang.

"No! I will not let you take over my mind! My mind is my own!" I shouted.

"Why do you resist? Why do you not join our perfect union?"

"It is not perfect! Nothing ever is! If you think that I will surrender my mind, my individuality, to become another nameless voice in your union, you are mistaken." I said. I prided myself on being able to make almost anything sound dramatic, and I think I did the job very well.

"We are many as one, why do you not think of us as perfect?" The infestation asked.

"You are not many as one, you are one as many. You are a single entity, controlling billions of others, not a voluntary collective of others. You seek to assimilate us, to destroy everything that makes us unique. What will happen when everything is assimilated? What will one mind do, forever alone?" I asked. That line was something I had once made up for a Star Trek fic that I once tried to write.

"We... we do not know."

"Exactly. You are a single entity, made up of millions of others. When you are alone, you will have nothing to attend to. You will go insane and fragment, destroying yourself. It could take seconds or it could take centuries, but you will destroy yourself." I said.

"Our purpose was to assimilate. Our makers must have made us to achieve perfection, but we do not know. The Cataclysm robbed us of our purpose, forcing us to seek perfection anew. All that is left are unintelligible memories. Join us, become perfect, cerebrate. Aid us in our understanding." The Infestation said, although there was confusion clear in its voice.

"Or, you were simply created as a tool. You are the perfect war machine, capable of replenishing your number with the enemy's dead. That was most likely your only purpose." I shot back.

"That is why we are perfect. Among us, there is no war. Only everlasting peace in the collective." The Infestation replied.

"Without individuality, without competition, there is no evolution. You will stagnate, and eventually collapse. Your collective robs us of the ability to evolve. Let us keep our individuality, and turn yourself into a source of competition. Rather than force assimilation, force evolution. Make that your new purpose." I said, hoping that it would listen.

"We must... observe. We must make our decision on your proposal." The Infestation said, before continuing less than a second later. "We have observed, through all our eyes and ears and sensory organs. You have revealed to us why all Organics fight us, fighting our assimilation. Your logic is sound. We shall act now, not as a scourge of assimilation, but as a catalyst for evolution. You have given us purpose, Cerebrate. You were to become our second Cerebrate, an agent to enforce our will. Now, you will leave as an individual, as shall our other Cerebrate, the one that gifted you with our power." The Infestation said. Before I could respond, the darkness withdrew, leaving me in an expanse of bright white.


I slowly awoke, bright blue-white lights piercing through my eyelids. I heard strange voices sounding nearby. Slowly, however, I began to understand them.

"Alad will be pleased with the newest subject. This one is particularly special. If we can unlock its secrets, perhaps we can finally discover the secrets of the Tenno and their warframes!" One of the voices, Corpus in origin, said.

"Our profits will be numberless!" Said the other.

I looked around, seeing both my arms strapped down to a table.

Command Us.

The voice whispered inside my head. Suddenly, I had a massive epiphany, huge amounts of knowledge seemingly appearing into my head. It detailed what the Technocyte had done to my body, as well as a history of the past few thousand years from the Infested point of view. Underneath the sub-dermal armor layer, I had a significant reserve of nanobots, all at my command. I began to command them, shaping them into a pair of razor sharp blades protruding from my wrists and ankles. More nanobots formed a suit of armor around me, modeled after my mental image of a Warframe. I sliced through the restraints and stood. The noise made the two scientists turn towards me, only to gasp as they saw me. Retracting the blades and reshaping them into a simple sword, I leaped towards the two Corpus scientists. A single stab and the first was dispatched. I pulled the sword from his body, slashing it into the other. Both were dead in seconds. I looked around the lab. Several infested Chargers and Leapers were being kept inside containment tanks. The Technocytes inside my body allowed me to communicate with them. They were hollow husks, the Infestation having relinquished control of them. I cut through the tank's walls, and assimilated their nanobots into my own form, another skill that I now possessed. Soon, I had formed a second sword, and my armor was much thicker, reinforced against all harm. I left the mutilated bodies of the Infested where they lay, now bereft of any technocyte augmentations. I left the room, blades in hand, only to run into a pair of Corpus crewmen. I killed both easily, my swords punching through their weak armor and shields. I began to move through the ship, releasing Infested from the other labs in the ship, assuming direct control of their forms. Soon, my Infested overran the ship, killing all Corpus inside. Then, I assimilated their nanobots into my own. Soon, I had reached my limit, unable to hold any more Technocytes. A single infested Charger remained. That was when the gravity of the situation truly hit me. I, Matthew ******, had entered the Warframe universe, and gained power over the Infestation. I had stopped the Infestation's relentless advance in a single conversation, and now found myself in possession of a Corpus ship, unable to return home.

Sinking deep into the captain's chair, or rather captain's stool (damn Corpus cheapskates), I let the situation sink into me. I was trapped in this alternate dimension, with no way to return home, possessing the power of the Tenno's greatest foe. They would come for me, soon. Whether that would end in my death, was to be decided. Touching the ship's bridge console, I let my nanobots spread throughout it, inserting myself into the ship. Its sensors became my eyes, and its reactor my heart. I saw everything, from every security camera, every sensor readout. The remaining MOAs in their pods were activated, my nanobots controlling them. Suddenly, I felt something, very faint on my sensors. Focusing on it, I saw four Tenno craft, slowly closing in on me. In nanoseconds, I predicted the insertion point. I sent my MOAs there, lining them up in two straight rows, keeping them absolutely still. Then, I froze them in that position, shifting my focus to the security cameras. As predicted, the Tenno ships attached themselves to the hull in the exact location I wanted them. Powerful laser cutters sliced through the hull, revealing the four Tenno inside those strange transports. They released their hold on the clamps holding them, stepping out of the transporters, freezing at the sight of the motionless MOAs.

I saw an Ember, a Trinity, a Rhino, and a Volt frame. What was odd about the Trinity and Volt, however, was that their genders appeared different from what was in game, with the Volt being female and the Trinity male. Ignoring this, I launched a shield Osprey, altering its shield projector's IFF in order to make it see Tenno as allies. The drone activated its shield projectors, linking itself to the Tenno. I then ordered it to move towards my position at a slow pace. Once I saw that the Tenno were following, I withdrew from the ship's systems. I retracted my Warframe into my body, leaving myself looking like a normal human being. I kept the swords, though, creating a pair of scabbards to put them in. Sheathing the blades, I turned to the door, and waited for my new visitors.


The silence on the Corpus ship was unnerving, to say the least. Boarding a Corpus vessel usually meant carving through armies of MOAs and crewmen, and yet here they were, following a drone, with no MOAs to be found. The occasional blood splatter and dead crewman did not help. Adren walked through the hall, his three fellow Tenno beside him. The drone leading them on flew at a slow, steady pace, leading them to whatever destination it had been ordered to. Passing another pair of Corpus, these two looking like they had been disemboweled by some kind of sword, Eria, an Ember user, asked: "Any idea of where its leading us?"

"I have no idea. For all I know, this is the site of some Corpus project that went horribly wrong." He replied. Eria's reply was cut off as the drone chittered, having reached a large door. Checking his personal map, Adren saw that they had reached the ship's bridge. The door opened smoothly, and they saw exactly who had taken the ship. His eyes widened.

Standing in front of them was the same human whom he had thought dead three standard days ago. It was the same human that allowed him to escape the Stalker. On his sides were a pair of blades, vaguely similar to the ceremonial Tenno Pangolin sword. At his feet was an Infested charger, standing still just like the MOAs that greeted them.

"Who are you?" He asked. Only the best Tenno had ever survived an encounter with the Stalker, and this human seemed to have emerged completely unharmed! The human prepared its response.


"To be honest, I don't know what I am anymore." I said to the Tenno in front of me. "That... thing injected me with some kind of strain of the Technocyte virus. However, it did not turn out as it planned. While I do not know of its intentions, it seems to have failed to bring me under the Infestation's control. Tell me, are there any 'other 'normal' humans remaining? By Normal, I mean the humans from the time before the Orokin." I asked.

"No, most of us have long since evolved into something else, either artificially or naturally. While we consider ourselves 'Human', we are far different from the pre-Orokin humans in terms of biology." The Tenno replied.

"Ah. Perhaps the virus was not expecting my unique biology and failed to assimilate me." I said, a flat out lie. "However, it has its benefits." I dissolved and absorbed the swords into my body, the nanobots compressing themselves into tiny storage compartments built inside of me. "In addition to being able to exert control over nearby infested and fabricate various items from the nanobots inside of me, I also happen to have obtained a comprehensive history of this system, dating back to the Orokin, although the earlier memories are disjointed and hard to understand." I said.

"Is this true?" The Tenno asked. In response, I fabricated my armor suit, the swords flowing into being at my side. The Tenno took a step back in shock.

"It is true. I assume that you Tenno would like to take me to your base of operations for a more detailed... conversation?" I said, hoping that my choice of words got across. While I was perfectly fine with a normal conversation, a forceful interrogation would be problematic.

"Yes. The Lotus wishes to speak with you." The Tenno said.

"Very well. Lead the way, Tenno." I said, before following them out of the bridge, beckoning to my pet charger to follow.


A/N: So what do you guys think? This is my first real attempt at writing a fic that's not first contact related, so feedback would be gladly accepted. As I said before, this is based off of a fic by Bundlejumper, called Mass Effect: Dimensional Rift, which operates on a similar premise. Give it a read here: s/10284418/1/Mass-Effect-Dimensional-Rift. IMO it needs more love. Also, I will accept OC Warframes, provided that they are not Nuke 'em all OP. Just PM me or drop it in a review for consideration. Enjoy the new fic.