Chapter 1: Tenno's Rude Awakening

Dreamless, he slept, yet he was aware. He was aware of the surrounding stone and metal, metal which had decayed, stone which had cracked and grown spines. He did not know exactly how it was before, only that it had not always been this way, and that what little awareness he clung to had observed it change over his long slumber. Time was meaningless down here, no way to see if it was day or night, no will to move, only sleep. Stasis, waiting, waiting for something, anything to wake him, anything at all.
It had persisted like this for what felt like an eternity, even in his altered consciousness, and it continued to persist for what might as well have been an eternity to him, nothing but stone, metal, and was that dust? It didn't matter, only sleep. Keep waiting, someone will come eventually. Now, sleep, rest, wait, more waiting, waiti-

'What was that?'

Something had changed around him. The stone was still stone, the metal still decaying, what was different here? Movement! A shape, familiar, but only the barest of detail could be discerned. When had it entered the chamber? It was erratic, difficult to focus on, but it was the first significant thing that he'd perceived in ages. It must be somehow important! What was it!
A shock of urgency, then his awareness dulled again. Sleep, waiting, it's probably nothing, they'll call when- who where they?

'No, no, enough waiting! Whatever this is, I need to know! It's moved again, come closer. I still can't see any detail! Wake up, WAKE UP!'


She was scared, oh so scared. Things had seemed fun just a short while ago. She and her friends had gone out beyond the gate, without the permission of their elders of course, exploring, gathering strange stones and trinkets, and playing tricks on each-other out on the Eidolon-moh. Few were permitted beyond the gate, those who knew well the dangers, and could deal with them accordingly if the need arose. Now she was being pursued by one of those dangers. She'd gotten separated from her friends, and now was probably beyond the plains themselves. She had been driven so far, the only saving grace being her pursuer's apparent physical weakness, their decrepit stamina no real match for her young heart, even as idle as she normally was. What they lacked in stamina, they made up for with single-minded resolve.
Grineer. Conquerors, desolators, they'd been a common subject back home, apparently they'd taken much of the world beyond her home, but she'd not payed them much mind, until now. Now, they took up nearly all her thoughts. Their ugly faces, their bulky armor, the smell of decay and machine oil, most of all the crude weapons in their hands, weapons that even now were searching her out. She'd tried to loose them in the cave, but one of them must have seen her enter, because the sound of their hollow voices continued to get closer. She crept deeper into the small cavern she'd stumbled upon, hoping for anything to hide her from them. A pebble shifted under her foot, sending her tumbling to the ground with a loud thump, and a squeak she could not suppress in time. She despaired, death becoming an inevitability. She heard a loud crack, and instinctively shut her eyes, expecting it to be the end.


Whatever it was had fallen. It had to be something alive, that much was becoming evident. Why had it taken so long to figure that out? So drowsy.

'No time for that, wake up!'

A great expenditure of will, and he felt movement. A part of him had responded to his will, good, he could do this, it just might take time. He had plenty of time, he'd been here so long, what were a few more seconds. Seconds, what were those?

'Come on, one more time!'

Another force of will, and he moved again.

'Why is this so difficult? Ugh, it feels like my head's stuck at the bottom of the ocean! What's an ocean?'

Gradually, he clawed at his awareness, opening it, widening it. Yes, whatever it was, it was definitely alive, and it seemed distressed. Had he scared it? He vaguely remembered that other beings were usually scared of him for some reason. No, it looked like it hadn't seen him, its eyes were shut tight. Eyes, optical sensory organs, living beings typically possessed two of them. Good, he remembered something other than just a word, even if it was mostly mundane.

'What was that? How's she tickling my, what are they- oh, right, sound, sound is good, I've been sitting in silence for who knows how long, sound is very good. What kind of sound is that? It doesn't sound happy. Come on, move, move! I've got to get a closer look!'


Why was she not dead? That sound had been like a crack of thunder in the enclosed space, she had assumed it had been a gunshot, but she was still breathing! Ay yo, this was a cruel trick, making her wonder like this, unable to know if the end was here or still coming! She slowly opened an eye, only to be nearly blinded in the darkness by a flash of rahd light. She closed her eyes tightly again, shuddering at what that might have been, before an inkling of curiosity made her open them once more.
What she saw, bewildered her even more. Kneeling near the back of the cavern, there was something that seemed like a statue of a man, maybe in armor since she couldn't see his face, and there was a weird horn sprouting near where his nose should have been. Only its arm was quivering, shaking loose a layer of dust, and there were points of light around its surface. Abruptly, with another loud crack, its head moved. It turned, and looked STRAIGHT, AT, HER! She scrambled back, gasping terrified breaths, until the fear overwhelmed her.


'GAH!'

Why was it making that piercing sound! That, that, what was it? It was a scream. A scream of abject terror. It was looking directly at him, and it was terrified. Why? All he'd done is look at it, what was so scary about that? He tried to raise a hand, make some sign of peace, but his movements were halting, imprecise. Something about that was irritating, but he now considered that it was only natural that such long idleness would obviously result in some, stiffness, to put it mildly. Giving the back of his hand a modicum of attention, something about it felt off, like it wasn't really his, but he couldn't say why, and it responded like it was his, so why wouldn't it be his?

Returning his full attention to the being across from him, he realized the screaming had stopped, replaced by rapid sucking and blowing noises. Breathing, it was breathing rapidly. Still scared then. No use trying to speak with it, he wasn't even sure if he could right now. He let his hand drop to his side, and it hit something solid that was attached to his leg. Looking down, he saw a weapon. Pistol, Furis pattern, worn down and covered in the same dust as the rest of him. It'd be a minor miracle if the thing even worked in its current state. He saw a curved shape in the periphery of his vision. His Cernos bow, it had to be. The string must have worn away, it was sprung wider than it should be. One more weapon was available to him, his staff, just as worn, he vaguely remembered that the Bo had been inferior to its contemporaries even in its prime, but it had seen him through too many battles to abandon it. There was more to his arsenal, but the information refused to readily present itself to him. All these weapons, that went a ways towards explaining the other being's reaction to him, it probably thought he was going to kill it. It- no, that wasn't right, it wasn't an 'it', they were a person, and they (she?) looked young.


She calmed down slightly when that THING didn't immediately move to attack her. In fact, it seemed to have difficulty moving at all. Only when its hand fell to its side did she realize it was armed with more than fists, but it somehow appeared perplexed by that information, just studying the weapons attached to it for a moment. Only when she heard the heavy clunk of a cybernetic footstep did she again remember why she'd fled here, and her heart began to resume its pace as her terrified gaze flew to the entrance of the cavern. Illuminated in the rahd light of the not-statue was the wrinkled and discolored face of one of her pursuers. The Grineer's gaze, on the other hand, was squarely on the mysterious figure toward the back of the cavern, seemingly having forgotten she even existed.


What was that? It loosely resembled the first being, but it was decidedly uglier, and had a big shell covering it. He spent a moment to refocus himself, whatever the newcomer was, he appeared to be armed, and the younger one's terror was now focused on the wrinkly one. Why did the newcomer look so quizzical? What was he so hung up on? Was he really that scary? Another one came in behind the first, and also stopped in his tracks. After a moment, one turned to the other, and they began to converse in a language he couldn't quite make sense of. They seemed to come to a decision, and began to sweep the room. They were looking for the younger one, and it wouldn't take them very long at all to find her, even without lights of their own. It would be very unfortunate to be woken by her only for her to die moments later, but he didn't know if he had the strength to intervene yet. Something nagged at his mind, willing him to try. But how?

One of the ones with the shells suddenly turned, he must have seen a sign of the young one in the darkness. Time was running out, for the first time in a long time. His mind began to race, fighting back the thick fog that still lingered, looking for anything that might help him protect her, but nothing was forthcoming, other than abstract ideas based on what he'd seen of his visible armament. The searching of the bulky armored form closed on the location of the girl, and he called to his companion in that gargling dialect of theirs. Time was up.

Panicking now, he raised a hand, when he felt a surge of energy. It wasn't physical, like a jolt of excitement, it was more abstract than that, but not intangible like a mental concept such as force of will. Some instinct told him that this energy was what he was looking for, but he didn't really know what to do with it. He just sent it forward, extending it down his arm, and hoped it worked. A channel opened, like a kind of muscle memory, and he began to shape the energy, focusing it, to what end he couldn't remember. Sparks appeared, converging to a single point in front of his hand. The light-grey lights instantly attracted the attention of all three, now four, of the others as a new armored figure entered the cavern. Then it exploded in a flash. An intense, painful flash made all the more potent by the mostly dark cave.

BOOM!


Her eyes burned, and her ears may as well have bled. Unable to be more distressed than she already was, her mind sped. Now was she going to die? It didn't seem Grineer, so what was it? The Corpus didn't hold any real sway over Er, so it couldn't be theirs. Something about it was recognizable, not as seen personally, but as heard second-hand. Many of the tribe spoke of warriors of old that sometimes went on hunts for them, but she'd never witnessed one of these warriors herself, they mostly stayed in the marketplace near the gate, and she usually remained near her home, only straying beyond it to play with the other village children.

Was it one of those warriors? Was it, Tenno?


Sparks danced around the heads of the beings in front of him as they writhed in pain, blinded and deafened, heads surrounded by sparks of energy, though for how long that would last was impossible to say. The blast seemingly hadn't done anything beyond that, which was just as well. He reached for that well of energy again, trying to figure it out now that he'd bought a moment to think. It was still there, but significantly depleted, there wasn't enough remaining for another blast, if they recovered he'd need to deal with them another way. Time to get mobile. Leaning forward, he lay his palms on the ground in front of him, and pushed. Dust wafted away from his legs, a layer seeming to flake away with audible crackling as they were forced to extend. It took several moments for him to feel confident in controlling his legs directly, and even then every movement was drawn out and halting.

He stood, uncertain, but under his own power. He reached back, and unslung his staff, planting one end in the ground and leaning against it. Preferably he wouldn't have to fight, but observing the murderous intent of the armored beings, it was likely going to be necessary sooner rather than later. The sparks around the heads of the others began to fade, and in moments the only illumination was again the crimson of his armor lights. He took a hesitant step, trying to close the distance before they fully recovered, and nearly collapsed again.

'Weak, the weak die, I can't afford to be weak when another is vulnerable.'

Another step, then another. He had gotten within the reach of his staff when one of the armored figures shook his head forcefully and looked up, squinting. The being uttered a surprised phrase in their native tongue, and leveled their weapon. Acting on autopilot, he shifted his weight off his staff and went to bring it up between him and the threat, but he was a touch too slow. The first few rounds tore into his chest, the force of the impacts rotated his torso to the left, and nearly threw off his efforts to deflect the subsequent rounds. He glanced down in disbelief.

'That hurt, why did that hurt?'

Another shot slipped past, striking his shoulder. He saw the other armored figures were coming around. This had to end quickly, or they might actually take him down. As one of them grimaced at him, no doubt contending with intense afterimages in addition to the muzzle flashes from their friend's weapon, their eyes widened.

"Tenno!"

One word, yet it had the power to distract him. It was too personal, even with most of its meaning obscured by the shroud over his mind, it tugged at his consciousness, revealing the frayed ends of memories, cords leading into shadow where he could not yet see. Images flashed through his mind, and while mere moments ago he had been grasping for anything to keep him alert, he now struggled to shut them out. Two more rounds hit home as the third enemy added his fire to the fusillade, one in the chest, and one in the thigh. Desperation struck, and he broke from his defensive stance, sweeping one end of his staff forward and up, what remained of a bladed edge now aimed at the face of his closest opponent.

The haphazard strike merely glanced off his enemy's armor. However, enough of its power was delivered to upset their balance. As they staggered, he lunged for the next one, adjusting his grip and thrusting like a spear. This attack hit home, and the second of the group fell back, headless. He advanced again, and punched out with the near end of his weapon. His opponent tried to back up out of range, but was grazed at the elbow joint, where their armor thinned. Turning, he brought his staff around in a sweep, glancing off the armor of the first opponent again as they raised their arm to deflect it, but again delivering enough force to upset their balance. Letting the far end of his weapon bounce high, he brought it down, and it lodged into the helmet of the fumbling enemy. He knew the second was still alive, and was probably about to open fire again, so he let his weapon go, to fall with his dying victim. Not trusting the ancient firearms at his sides, he dove for the corpse of the third, grasping at the clumsy looking carbine with fingers that were still not fully compliant. He felt more than heard the shots of his opponent, the first two went high, and he rolled onto the headless body, bringing his looted weapon to bear. A third round from the enemy struck him in the side as he returned fire. Two shots glanced off his targets armor, one bit in, and two more struck his enemy in the face.


The first thing she heard when her senses returned was gunfire. The second was a sound like a heavy sack hitting the floor, if that sack contained metal scraps. Opening her eyes, she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. An Ostron hunter starting from the same position would have been killed, even if they could replicate the stunning blast this warrior had utilized, and yet here all three of her pursuers lay dead, while she and her savior still lived! A stifled gasp escaped her as her gaze fell upon the second of the Grineer, what remained of his face upturned and settled in a wide-eyed expression of surprise. She quickly looked away, and decided instead to focus on her rescuer, who was struggling to his feet, looted weapon still in hand. The faceless creature went about pulling his staff free from one of the dead, seeming to ignore her. When the weapon was free, he knelt and began to inspect it in the low light, occasionally running a hand carefully over one point or another.

She watched, unsure, for what felt to her like an age, before the silence began to eat at her.

"Are you, a Tenno?"

The warrior froze. For a moment she feared she'd said the wrong thing, and edged her way to the entrance of the cavern. Abruptly, the warrior nodded, before resuming his inspection. So he was a Tenno? Why did it take so long to answer then? And why did he not speak aloud? She watched as he slung his staff over his back, and started inspecting the Grineer weapon. Apparently satisfied, he attached it to his back, some unseen mechanism keeping it in place. A few small shapes were looted from the corpses, perhaps more ammunition, but with no prior experience with Grineer she couldn't say for certain, then he turned to her, and extended a hand. She took it after a wary moment, and he helped her to her feet. The Tenno's hand, which she'd assumed to be covered in armor, felt surprisingly warm, almost more like skin than metal despite its toughness.

"I'm Tashya, what do I call you?"

The Tenno paused again, cocking his head thoughtfully.


'Good question, what do you call me?'

Tenno was a descriptor of what he was, but it wasn't really a name. A few halting sounds came to mind as he searched for an answer, hoping to trigger a memory. The names of his weapons had come easily to mind, but then he could see them. He opted to stare at his hand, to see if that did anything. It still felt alien, only his in that it answered his commands. If it wasn't his, then who-

"Excalibur."

Raspy from disuse, the voice was only distantly familiar, but it was his. The name also didn't feel right, like it referred to a part of him, and not him personally, but it was the best he had. It would have to do for now.


"Excalibur."

That was the first she'd heard him speak, and she barely understood him. No mouth visibly moved, the body in front of her as impassive as ever, but he was capable of speaking.

"Excalibahr? Swazdo-lah Excalibahr, I'm fortunate to have stumbled upon you, fortunate indeed, much longer and these Grineer would have…" She shuddered, glancing again at the corpses to make sure they hadn't moved. The dead remained as they were, their relentless pursuit brought to an unfavorable end. Excalibur's head turned slightly, seeming to follow her gaze, but otherwise revealing nothing of his thoughts to her. He then jerked it to the side, indicating the opening to the cavern.

"Oh, oh yes, we should go, before more of them arrive," her voice nearly shook. Excalibur stepped over to one of the bodies, and took another of the Grineer weapons and some more of the strange containers. Turning back to her, he held out the weapon in offering, as they made their way to the entrance. Hesitantly, she accepted the weapon and ammunition, storing the canisters in the pouch she would normally have carried small bartering items in. The killing implement was an uncomfortable weight in her hands, she wasn't even sure how it worked, all that was certain to her was it was noisy, nothing like the bows she'd seen hunters practice with.

As the Tenno walked ahead of her, she realized he was favoring his left. In the low light, she couldn't see why, but he must have been injured in the fight.

"How bad is it?" she knew some rudimentary remedies, but those were for small cuts and bruises that the village children would constantly score in their little adventures, hopefully it would be enough. Excalibur hunched over a bit, continuing on another two unsteady steps before answering.

"Not good. Deal with it later. Not safe," he grunted out, extending a hand to support himself on the wall. They continued on in silence the rest of the way to the surface.


It was near as dark outside as it was in the cavern, but at least it was outside. Clouds covered the sky, and trees obscured the horizon, it would be impossible to detect the approach of the enemy, at least until they were almost on top of them. On the other hand, it would be easy for them to disappear once they left. He gestured for Tashya to follow, and she did, albeit hesitantly, clutching the Grineer carbine tight to her chest. He himself kept his arms held close. Every one of the impact points burned, and he felt something liquid seeping onto his flesh from inside.

'Blood. I'll need to bind the wounds sooner rather than later, but it will have to wait for now. I feel like something should have stopped me from being injured, but what?'

He shook his head. Survive first, think later, that was the way it had always been, hadn't it?

Hadn't it?