Disclaimers: I do not own Warframe.
A/N: Last of the three updates.
I always said that the Prime warframes would play a part in this story and here they are. But I couldn't just have it where they are just an "Oh look, I found a new warframe to upgrade into" type of deal because that would be too easy.
Excalibur Prime
Queens' Dominance
The gold alloys that adorned its body shine brightly in the hangar bay's lights as the figure slowly came closer and closer to them with a walk that gave away no emotions. All across its metallic body were small black discs, pulsing blue energy every few seconds.
If it was not for those features, the figure before them would almost pass for Excalibur….almost.
It didn't give off the same swordsman's pride that the Alpha Tenno did nor did it command the same authority and respect.
Though going off of experiences alone, both Trinity and Atlas knew that with the two instruments of death it held in its hands, the warframe was just as deadly if not more.
"Ordis, were you able to identify those swords?", Trinity quietly asks.
In response to several incidents where a Tenno has been cut off from the Orbiter A.I. through either the enemy machinations or space phenomena, Volt, Mag, Gauss, and a number of other Tenno with scientific backgrounds, were assigned the task of finding a way around this obstacle.
What came forth from this combining of the minds was a duplicate of the Cephalon upload into each of the warframes that could operate separated from the main network establish by the Orbiter.
While this version of the A.I. wasn't as nearly as useful as the one the Tenno usually used, he was still able to perform a number of limited tasks, such as local hacking and data retrieval. Plus, information was uploaded hourly from the ship's archive, so data logs and intelligence were still available as well as short-range communication between a squad.
"Negative, nothing in the Orbiter's archives could be found on those weapons. The only thing I know is that they match the schematics of the Nikana, much like the Dragon Nikana, though they are of a completely different style."
"Behold, the despicable yet useful tool that is Excalibur Prime! He is the very symbol of the depths that I am willing to go to in order to eliminate you Tenno maggots and your sinister Lotus!", Vay Hek resumes, "For you see, I have made a pact with Tyl Regor! I have begrudgingly come to a mutual agreement with the vilest of the Corpus, Alad V! Finally, I have cast aside my personal feelings and have allied with that loathsome, detestable, abhorrent upstarting pile of garbage, Vor!"
"But what about the Prime itself? Were you able to conclude who is in the suit?", Trinity then asks, ignoring the Councilor's rant.
"Seeing how it is most likely Alad V behind its construction, I can conclude with a 98.72% certainty that it is advance robotics piloting the warframe", Ordis replies before Trinity notices movement from the enemy warframe.
Excalibur Prime takes both of his swords and flings them sideways, his hands still latch on to their handles as the sheaths go shooting off of them and crash into the walls of the hangar bay, each leaving a massive dent in them upon the impact that reverberated throughout the hangar.
The blades glisten in the light, showing off their deadly edge as he steadily closed the gap between him and the Tenno duo.
And then he stops all of a sudden, frozen in place like a statue. He began slowly turn his head from side to side, from Atlas to Trinity, and looked each of them both up and down as though he was sizing them up.
"What is he doing, Ordis?", Trinity asks.
"If I didn't know any better, Operator Trinity, I say he was studying you."
"Target Acquired", Excalibur Prime suddenly says in a robotic voice, devoid of any emotion but sounded quite familiar to both the Healing and Rock Tenno.
Subject Warframe: Trinity
Subject Tenno: Information not found
Combat Role: Healing Supporter
Fighting Style Data: 70% Long Range. 20% Mid-Range. 5% Short Range. 5% Melee.
Threat Level: Impotent.
"That last part sounds an awfully like something...", Atlas began before Excalibur Prime focus on him.
"Target Acquired", he voices.
Subject Warframe: Atlas
Subject Tenno: Yauhsa Naimor
Combat Role: Defensive Brawler
Fighting Style Data: 10% Long Range. 35% Mid-Range. 15% Short Range. 40% Melee.
Threat Level: Inadequate.
"The Jackal would have said...", Trinity finishes, referring to the powerful Corpus robot on Fossa, Venus that was defeated by Excalibur, Volt, and Mag, "This is not good."
"It seems to have somehow acquired sensitive information on you and Operator Atlas as well as a composition of your fighting styles. I advise extreme caution", Ordis chime in.
"That would have been nice to know back on Mercury", Atlas says.
"My apologies for that, Operator Atlas."
And then without warning, Excalibur Prime bolts toward Trinity, his swords sliding along the ground, leaving a line in the metal. The Healing Tenno ditches her sniper for her Twin Vipers and unloaded a full magazine each at him, only for the warframe to jump right and latch himself high up on the wall. Atlas has also abandoned all forms of subtlety and was now unleashing the full might of his dual Soma as well. But the Prime proves to be simply too fast for them as he bounds through the air at the other wall before landing and repeating his actions and dodging any incoming fire. Every now and then he would drop to the ground and made a run at one of them but he was warded off from his attempt by the other spraying him with gunfire thus forcing him to return to the walls.
But all the while he was doing this, he never got behind them or to the side of them. He always kept positioning himself between them and the door leading out of the hangar bay.
"We cannot afford to get in melee combat with him! Last time, only the melee specialists like Excalibur and Valkyr could match this warframe and not even they lasted long! Atlas and I would not stand a chance!", Trinity told herself while she switches out her magazines, the Earth Tenno providing her with cover as she did and vice versa whenever he had to reload. Unfortunately, they were so engrossed in the combat that they were unaware of their rapidly diminishing ammunition supply even as their HUD began flashing warning signs.
It wasn't until both the Healer and the Rock heard the audible clicks of their weapons and realize that they were now completely out of ammo did Excalibur Prime cease his sporadic movements.
"Using an ammo pack!", Atlas screams as holsters one of the Soma and his empty hand moves to one of his suit's gear compartments, but that was when Trinity spots Excalibur Prime grabbing something off his hip and throwing it directly at Atlas before she could even shout out a warning.
"Ahh!", his voice fills the comm channel as he was now holding his hand where a metal object was protruding out of his palm and his Soma on the ground, "What the hell? Is this a Hikou?!"
"Comparing its appearance to other weapons in the armory, much like Excalibur Prime's Nikanas, this appears to be a more advanced version of the Hikou", Ordis states.
"Good to know!", Atlas screams, his frustration starting to rise as well as his heartbeat as Trinity saw through her HUD.
"We need to move and get the toxic!", she tells him.
"That's easier said than done!", Atlas grunts as he takes the advanced Hikou out of his hand with a grunt and a pull.
Excalibur Prime then turns his sights to Trinity who instantly felt her heart increase even more in beating.
"Stay calm. This isn't Mercury, you have a better understanding of his abilities", she thought as she slowly put away her empty Twin Vipers and pulls out her Orthos.
"Forget all that transpired at Mercury where you were first introduced to Excalibur Prime during your pathetic assault against Vor, for he has been vastly upgraded since then! Cast aside the fact that you barely survive such an encounter only due to sheer luck because it will not happen again!", the councilor began to rant once more as the Prime warframe continue to watch Trinity, "You two vermin will be the first on the chopping block and your heads will go nicely in my quarters! Once that is done, I shall hunt down the rest of you like the kubrows you are!"
Excalibur Prime then once again broke into a run easily side-stepping Atlas who try to get in his way as he made his way toward Trinity who readies her staff as the enemy warframe leaps high into the air and beings to come down straight toward her, his swords poise at the ready to strike the Healer Tenno down in one blow.
"And when that glorious day comes that the Tenno maggots are nothing more than a forgotten memory and your Lotus is dragged in heated chains before the Queens, the stars will at last be free of your wretched kind and you can finally STOP! BREATHING! MY! AIR!"
Cetus
"I'm going up there", Chroma tells Revenant as the two converse on the docks, away from the prying eyes of the Ostrons.
"But you have orders to stay here", Revenant point outs.
"Your point being?"
"We are just saying that Trinity will not be happy about this"
"That's something I can live with", Chroma shrugs as he calls his Landing Craft to him, "You can stay here and keep up the show with the locals."
"We think it's best we come with you", Revenant says.
Chroma lets out a small chuckle at this, "Ha, if you think Trinity isn't going to be happy about me going up there to check on them, she is definitely not going to like both of us going up there."
"This is something we can live with", came the Sentient Tenno replies before heading down the docks, "We will join you once we fill Konzu in on the details."
"You know this will only leave Atlas' Landing Craft circling the valley, right?", Chroma tells him as he checks on the ETA from his Landing Craft's position to his own.
"Not at all, because you'll be going in our Landing Craft along with us", Revenant response, causing the Dragon Tenno to snap his head at him.
"Wait, what?"
Queens' Dominance
"Operator Trinity! Operator Trinity, please wake up!", she hears a voice calling to her and she slowly opens her eyes, and Vampire Tenno is surprised and a bit baffled to find herself face down on the floor. As she moves to get up, a painful jolt originating from her rib cages shoots through her body.
"Argh!", as she grits her teeth and puts her hand on her side and gently feels around, "Feels like more than a few broken ribs."
"According to your suit's diagnostics, you have four mild fractured ribs, Operator Trinity", Ordis chimes in.
"Lovely", Trinity said as she focuses her energy to mend her injury, "What happened? I can't seem to recall."
"You were incapacitated by a single kick to the ribs by Excalibur Prime after you block his initial downward strike attack. You were sent flying across the hangar bay and into the wall, Operator Trinity", Ordis answers.
"Okay, it's all coming back to me now", Trinity said as she now remembers the kick in question after she blocked Excalibur Prime's strike from the air, "It seems that he has indeed gotten faster since Mercury."
The clashing of metal draws Trinity's attention to one of the catwalks above the hangar bay where she spots the Rock Tenno in the middle of fighting the Prime warframe, his hands full just trying to keep from getting cut up as his Tekko was working overtime deflecting the slashes and strike from the enhance Nikana blades. Now and then he would capture the blades within the razors of his gauntlets and seem about to deliver a devastating blow only for Excalibur Prime to somehow break free of the hold and continue his assault.
"As you can see, Operator Atlas is currently engaged with Excalibur Prime right now but he seems to be the losing end of the conflict."
Trinity says nothing as she gets up and rushes to grab her Orthos which was on the floor in front of her a couple of yards away. Upon snatching it up, she vaults upward into the air and lands behind Excalibur Prime. She then quickly moves to deliver a slash to his right leg while he was busy with Atlas in hopes of severely limiting the Prime warframe movement.
CLANK!
Those hopes were quickly shattered as Excalibur Prime skillfully blocks her attack with one sword while using the under to keep up his attack on Atlas. What happens next could best be described as a fury of slashes, thrusts, and punches as both Atlas and Trinity attempted to coordinate a combined onslaught against the Prime only for all their efforts to be easily countered in turn.
Trinity parries a thrust aim at her chest with one end of her Orthos only to follow it up with an upward slash from the other end of it at the prime's abdomen. But the target eludes her as Excalibur Prime uses his other sword to deflect the bladed end of the polearm away from him while simultaneously sending a kick squarely into Atlas' chest, which forces the Rock Tenno to use both hands to block it.
The sheer force behind the kick sends Atlas through the handrails, off the catwalk, and down onto the hangar floor beneath it, though he was able to maintain his balance as he lands.
"Damn it", Atlas says as he looks back to the catwalk.
Trinity was currently lock in single melee combat with the Prime, a position she was trying to avoid but nevertheless found herself in. Force to rely upon every last bit of melee training she has received from various Orokin trainers to a few of the more melee-oriented Tenno themselves. Using her polearm, she returns every slash thrown at her, defending with one end of the Orthos while attacking with the other. When that fails to create an opening for her to land a blow on the Prime, she decided to switch to a more traditional style.
Despite her reluctance to get into melee combat solo with any skilled foe, Trinity was well-versed in all of the fighting stances for polearms and she knew when and where to use them.
Adopting the stance, Argent Scourge, Trinity crouches and performs a slash aim at Excalibur Prime's chest which he blocks. She then spun around, twirling the Orthos in her right hand while doing so and ending with another slash to the warframe's left arm, landing a hit. Finishing the maneuver, she latches her other hand onto the shaft of her Orthos and performs a powerful thrust, this time going for the lower abdomen.
"Cutting Tempest!", she shouts as her strike hits home and Excalibur Prime is forced to jump back away from the Healing Tenno...right into the Atlas who was behind him waiting. Now the Prime warframe found himself caught between a rock and a hard place as he was forced to divert his attention to the Earth Tenno while Trinity rushes him from behind.
"Increasing parameters of Multiple Combatants Engagement to Level Two", Excalibur Prime says.
A strike to Excalibur Prime's head from Trinity is blocked and she had to dodge just to avoid the dual counter slashes to her head in response. Atlas spots an opening from enemy warframe upon him turning around to attack Trinity and delivers a precise Landslide punch to the middle of his expose back, only for the Prime warframe to jump backward out of the way and flip over the Titan, his blades narrowly missing the top of the Atlas' helmet. This also almost causes Atlas' punch to collide with the Healer Tenno who manages to lean back in time for it to pass harmlessly over her, barely missing her by a fraction of an inch though she felt the power emitting off of it.
"Sorry about that", Atlas quickly says before turning around to face Excalibur Prime who was now eyeing them, "I say we got him on the ropes now."
"Hmmm", was Trinity's response, "Something doesn't feel right. This warframe tore through most of our forces on Mercury, yet now just the two of us are holding our own against him."
"Data Analysis. Current parameters of MCE (Multiple Combatants Engagement) deem ineffective. Current levels of maximum efficiency deem inadequate in eliminating the warframes Atlas and Trinity. Now raising levels to twenty-five percent and MCE to Level Three", Excalibur Prime suddenly spoke.
"Oh, that can't be good", Atlas voice.
Landing Craft Approaching the Queens' Dominance
"You know just because a Landing Craft can support up to two Tenno, doesn't mean it should", Chroma grumbles from his position on the other end of the spacecraft, his knees in his chest while doing so.
"We will take note of your discomfort and relay them to the Lotus in hopes that she will modify all of the Landing Craft in our arsenal to make them more spacious in regards to your needs", Revenant answers as he looks over some ship scans.
Chroma stares at Revenant's back for a moment, "That wasn't very funny."
"We merely made the jest in hopes of improving your mood."
Before Chroma could say anything though to counter...
"We found them", Revenant says, "They're in the portside Hangar Bay."
Chroma crawls over and gets a better look at the screen and take note of the situation the two Tenno were currently in. Both the Rock and Healing Tenno were down on the floor, either one showing signs of movement while an unknown figure was steadily approaching them.
"Is that Excabliur? What is he doing here and what is he doing?", Chroma asks.
"We hardly doubt that is Excalibur for he is the source of the disturbance we have been sensing. Nevertheless, he must be defeated and his existence brought to an end", Revenant says.
"Well then what are we waiting for?", Chroma asks as the Landing Craft comes bursting through the Hangar shields. Chroma leaps out of the auxiliary hatch while Revenant flips out through the Insertion Platform, both of them landing in between their comrades and the approaching figure who seem unfazed by their entrance. As the Landing Craft speeds off back out into the coldness of space, Chroma and Revenant find themselves having a stand-off with the enemy warframe. Both Tenno have already drawn their respective swords and were merely watching to see who would make the first move.
"Ordis, what's the condition of Atlas and Trinity?", Chroma asks.
"According to their suits' diagnostics, both operators are merely unconscious at the moment."
"At least they're okay", Chroma says, "Now who is this in front of me?
"This is Excalibur Prime, Operator Chroma. He is one of the main reasons the assault on Mercury failed."
"And the reason I am just now finding out about him is?", Chroma asks, remembering that he has been trying to find out what exactly happened on Mercury with no success. It didn't help that not even Excabliur wanted to talk about it, even Trinity was tight-lip about what occurred, and the Lotus was definitely no help.
"If Ordis had to make an educated guess, it would most likely be attributed to the amount of pride that was shattered that day."
"Lovely", Chroma grumbled just as Excalibur Prime spoke up.
"Target Acquired", as he looked at Revenant.
Subject Warframe: Revenant
Subject Tenno: Information not found
Combat Role: Mind Controlling Eidolon-Predator
Fighting Style Data: 15% Long Range. 12% Mid-Range. 23% Short Range. 50% Melee.
Threat Level: Weak
Special Instructions: Live capture is a top priority. Return to home base for experimentation and dissection.
Finally, the Prime focuses his attention on Chroma.
"Target Acquired."
Subject Warframe: Chroma
Subject Tenno: Aguu Anchin
Combat Role: Versatile Elemental Hunter
Fighting Style Data: 10% Long Range. 10% Mid-Range. 10% Short Range. 70% Melee.
Threat Level: Caution Advised depending on the element.
Special Instructions: Due to his interference in Project Zanuka that concluded with his theft of the warframe Valkyr along with numerous other crimes done against the Corpus, he is to be exterminated on sight with extreme prejudice and his body brought back for taxidermy.
Chroma and Revenant both share a look at one another, trying to pieces together what they just heard. But this was only for a moment as their attention went back to Excalibur Prime who now raised his swords in the air.
"New targets have been assessed. Now raising maximum efficiency levels to thirty percent."
A/N: Will the Tenno make it out of this situation alive? Will they be able to withstand the might of Excalibur Prime? Will they continue to breathe Vay Hek's air?
Just a note, the FSD (Fighting Style Data) doesn't mean that a Tenno is skilled or unskill in one of the four areas of combat, it's just how often they use it according to Excalibur Prime. Trinity tends to stay away from short-range and melee combat due to being a Healer and thus having low armor. Doesn't mean she isn't good in these types of fighting, she just rather not have to use them.