Please note that I do not own Warframe or the characters I have borrowed from the universe. I have taken some liberties with the lore, as it's inconclusive from what we get in game. There will be spoilers for The Second Dream and War Within quests. Warframe is owned by Digital Extremes. Destiny is owned by Bungie. Thank you for reading.
The Tenno. Ancient beings capable of harnessing the untold power of the Warframes. They were masters of war, capable of using not only a gun, but the blade as well, proficient enough to make even the most impressive and trained Dax look like a toddler in comparison to their power. The Warframes were capable of many things. They defeated an enemy that could adapt to anything, and once that was done, they rebelled against their own masters, and brought an end to the Orokin empire. After that, they left. Overnight the Warframes, the protectors of life, dissapeared. For years they slept, no purpose, no call to wake them. Then, centuries later, they returned. They fought with the Grineer, the Corpus, the Infestation, and their most ancient and most ferocious foe: The Sentients. Even though they were massively outnumbered, they fought nonetheless.
But no matter how hard they fought, the Grineer, the Corpus, and all the threats never stayed down. The war was endless, and they were in a constant arms race. Large scale space battles became more and more neccesary, so they adapted. While Orbiters and Dojos carried weaponry for defensive purposes, they were never meant to fight a war. So, as a solution, some of the greatest Tenno minds came together to form a new type of Tenno ship, independent of an Orbiter or Landing Craft, the Railjack came to be.
However, the Railjack was not the only thing to come from the adaptation. A secret project, known only to a few, was formed. Very few knew of the project, and even fewer knew the details. Project: FAR-SIGHT was formed. The purpose was to create a large orbiter-like exploratory vessel capable of long-range void jumps, while housing four landing crafts, four transference pods and enough space for four Tenno to potentially find another system capable of supporting life.
12 Earth years later, the ship had finished construction. The Tenno had already found a system that they believed already hosted intelligent life, and now all they needed was the volunteers.
In an orbit around Mars, a lone tenno busied himself in his Orbiter. Glancing over at his currently inactive warframe, a Mesa Prime, as he performed maintainance on his gear. Usually, a Tenno would have their ship cephalon do these menial tasks, but there was something about the way cleaning his weapons helped Quentin relax. By no means did the Tenno believe himself to be a gun nut, but he found peace in the repetitive task of weapon maintainence. As Quentin slowly sharpened his blade, his ship cephalon decided to make himself known to the Tenno.
"Operator, someone is attempting to reach you. It appears to be the IDIOT- I mean, leader of a clan. He is requesting your presence at their dojo."
Setting down his blade down on the foundry, which was inactive and he was using it as a table, Quentin glanced towards the top of his Orbiter before making a hasty reply.
"Did he explain what for?'
Ordis made a negative tone, simply giving him a reply. "He said that is was of the utmost importance. WHAT A BLOWHARD"
A slight nod from Quentin was all that was needed as the large craft slowly began to shift as it's engines began to push themselves forward, towards the Solar Rail that would eventually lead them to Jupiter, which is where the dojo was located near for this specific clan.
In Earth time, it would be accurate to say that the journey took over 17 hours as Solar Rails were relatively busy, and it didn't help that the Grineer and Corpus loved to try and monitor them as close as possible. Luckily, Void Cloaking tended to help with that particular issue.
The ship suddenly made a sharp halt as it finished travelling through the solar rail, and Ordis did not hesitate to start the engines back up, ordering the ship to go towards the coordinates that the dojo was supposed to be. Almost an hour later, the Dojo was finally close enough to be seen easily, and once within range, the Liset landing craft seperated from the Orbiter being piloted by the Warframe, Quentin already back in his Transference Pod, even though he didn't need it anymore it was the only place in the ship comfortable enough to sit and be protected.
As the small ship neared the Dojo, the radio instantly buzzed with a loud voice.
"Liset craft 1102, this is Tower, please state your name and intentions."
Without a moments' hesitation, Ordis replied, "Tower, this is Liset 1102, my Operator has been requested by your leader. We request permission to dock."
There seemed to be a pause as the man most likely attempted to confirm this, before their voice came through the radio again, "Alright, we have confirmation, please go to hangar B, and dock with docking port 7 please."
Ordis let out a small beep of confirmation before cutting the transmission entirely, following the orders given. The craft slowly came to a stop at the docking port, before the airlock hatch spun around with the Mesa Prime Warframe standing inside of it. The Warframe stepped down onto the very clean and impressive hangar hall, making their way towards the Observatory deck, where they had been instructed to go.
Walking into the large observatory, Quentin could tell instantly it had been heavily modified. While most of the room stayed intact, there was a large catwalk build alongside the large glass window. There seemed to be a small command center at the front of the large walkway as well. Assuming that's where he is supposed to be, he made his way over to the stairs, following the catwalk before coming up to the command center he saw from the ground.
The command center seemed to only be a few terminals, but it was certainly busy with humans going between computers and making what seemed to be really complex calculations. In the very center of the commotion, however, was a single frame, stoic even in the bustling commotion. The Rhino Prime frame was excellent is it's term of adaptability and strength, but also looked incredibly intimidating, which helped for leadership roles. The Rhino quickly noticed Quentin, as his head snapped to him before making his way over towards the Mesa. Reaching his hand out for a shake, he took the time to speak.
"Thank you for meeting me here Quentin. I called you here because, for the last few years, we have been working in conjunction with your plan on completing Project: FAR-SIGHT. I called you here because as of today, we have finally managed to complete the ship. It has been completed recently and now all we need is the Tenno to pilot it."
Quentin's shock was evident as the frame visibly recoiled, not expecting the visit to be about a project that's been years in the making. Quickly recovering, he instantly made a reply.
"I thought the ship for Project: FAR-SIGHT wasn't due to be complete for another Earth year, are we that far ahead of schedule?"
Nodding, the Rhino Prime continued, "We weren't supposed to be done for another few years, but with the assistance from your clan, we were able to complete the ship much sooner than expected. I also have another request. You are one of the most diplomatic Tenno in any clan, and everyone with the project agrees that you should go with three others, so that if we do find any intelligent life, we do not end up coming to blows with them, so to speak."
Quentin hummed in agreeance, before nodding his head. "That makes sense, someone with diplomacy should be going. Personally, I would enjoy this expedition myself."
The Rhino Prime clasped his shoulder with a comforting laugh. "Thank you for agreeing with me old friend. We have also found something exciting. We have found a distant universe and we believe from what we can tell by our long range telescopes, it is capable of supporting life, and there seems to be intelligent life in it."
For the second time in just a few minutes, Quentin was shocked. "Are we sure? How long is the journey to be expected?"
The Rhino nodded. "We are completely sure. Our telescopes have picked up what looks to be a debris field. It doesn't look natural at all. We believe completely that there is, or was, intelligent life in that system. To answer your other question, I believe it should only take a few minutes. We recently installed a newer Void Drive on it, which should make travelling through the void much quicker."
Nodding in response, the Mesa Prime glanced over at three Warframes walking into the Observatory, speaking what was already on his mind, "So I take it that those are the three others that I'll be going with."
Focusing on the three Warframes, he made a few observations. The first frame, an Ivara, was obviously designed for long range silent engagements. Their primary, from what he could see, was a Vectis Prime. While the Rubico Prime was usually favored by the Tenno for it's massive stopping power, the Vectis Prime was a great alternative. Since the Vectis was strapped across the back of the Warframe, he couldn't see much of it. From what he could see, however, it was designed for extremely long-range engagements. The barrel that was poking out implied that the Ivara was used to engaging targets from multiple kilometers away from the target. The Ivara also had a Ballistica Prime as their secondary. 'Quick and quiet, good for taking out targets in close range if needed', he thought. Finally, the melee weapon was a beautiful Nikana Prime. There were only 3 known in existence. 'How in the hell did she get one of those? She's either really good, or one of the first few Tenno to awake, if she woke up at all', was the first though to go through Quentins head.
The third Frame was a Wisp, a newer design that had recently been unearthed after a group of unknown Tenno had taken down a new Sentient enemy they'd never seen before called the "Ropalolyst". He could tell that she preferred closer-range engagements. Her primary was a Latron Prime, a semi-auto rifle that could be used at longer ranges, but still was just as effective in close range. Her secondaries was the Akjargara Prime. Dual burst fire pistols, the Akjargata Prime was incredibly deadly and effective at both close and medium ranges. Her melee, similar to the Ivara, seemed to be a Nikana. However, it was different in that it was not a Nikana Prime, but seemed to be a Dragon Nikana. The Dragon Nikana, for all intents and purposes, was the same thing as a normal one, but infused with an Argon Crystal. This process prevented the blade from being blunted quicker and made it tougher to break. 'A good choice for a mission we don't know how long we'll be there for', Quentin mused.
The third Warframe was where things got surprsing, to say the least. If he was in his Tenno form, he'd probably have visibly paled. The Frame was a Volt. Not just any ordinary Volt, however, but a Volt with no customization, an MK1 Braton, a Lato, and a Skana. It was a Tenno who had recently been awakened. The first thoughts to come to his mind were just two words, 'Oh no'.
As Quentin turned to look at the Rhino, he noticed that said Rhino was very visibly pleased with Quentins' reaction. Speaking with a tone that implied he was holding back laughter, the Rhino spoke, "What's the matter, old friend? Something wrong?".
Quentin replied, in a very annoyed tone, "What is the matter with you? This is an incredibly dangerous mission and you are sending a Tenno who probably doesn't even know how to use his Warframe properly? You're sending me and the other veterans because we know what we're doing, we've spent god knows how much time fighting, and we can handle ourselves, this is just someone who doesn't have any of that experience!"
The Rhino nodded, before lowing his tone towards a friendly, but serious, tone, "I know you don't always believe in the decisions I make as a leader, but as a friend, please trust me on this one. I may not be as experienced as you by a few years, and I certainly don't have your very impressive weapons collection, but I promise you, I thought this extremely through and I believe this is the right action to do. He's only a few months old, but he's already mastered his Warframe. I believe he can do this."
For a moment, Quentin wanted to argue, but he dropped it. Instead, he replied, "Fine. We've got a local version of the Simulacrum that Simaris was generous enough to bestow upon us. At least we have some way to train the new guy."
Chuckling, the Rhino patted the Mesa Primes back before speaking, "Thank you old friend, now I believe it's time to meet your squad. Oh! Before I forget, the ship is ready, you can leave whenever you are ready."
With a nod of it's head, the Mesa Prime walked away and towards the other Warframes, who were waiting in their own briefing area. They'd already completed their briefing, and were talking to the Volt, giving him pointers on how to make his weaponry more effective. As he got nearer, he tapped his fingers on a nearby crate, drawing the attention of the other three.
The Wisp was the first to walk, well more like float, over as she held out her hand and a feminine voice eminated from the frame, "Greeting Captain, I am Alicia. I'll be handing the medic roles, as well as the Engineer ones. I'll be the one keeping your Warframes, and you, in the best shape I can."
Nodding, and shaking her hand, he replied, "Welcome Alicia, I am glad to be working with you. I hope you keep your promise at keeping us in the best shape."
The Ivara came over next, their voice also female, "Greetings, I am Maria. I'll be your Sniper. I can also do recon, either through infiltration or simply viewing the target site through my scope."
He simply nodded as she didn't put out her hand for a shake, before moving over to the Volt.
The Volt followed Alicias example and held out his hand for a shake, speaking in a male voice, "I am, uhh, James. I don't really know what I'm here for. I'm not good at much."
Quentin nodded, before shaking James' hand softly, before replying, "Don't worry James, you got put on this team for a reason. We'll help you find your role in all this."
The Volt seemed to perk up a bit as he stepped back with the others.
Once he was sure nobody was going to say anything, he spoke in a stern voice, "Now, we all know why we're here. The ship's done, all tests are green, and it's ready for it's first journey throughout the stars. We have decided to call it the 'Shooting Star' off of an old Earth legend. Let's all wish upon this shooting star to guide us safely to out destination. We'll recap over all of the data we've gathered about this new galaxy aboard the ship. Once we jump, we'll have a multiple hour delay on all communications, and it'll be text only. Anyways, it is time. You've already made your requests for what should go on the ship. I made mine back a few months ago. Get aboard the ship, you should have your Tenno forms on the ship as well."
Everyone nodded, then made their way out towards the elevator. It was a private one, specifically to deliver people and goods to the hangar where the very large ship was residing. The ship wasn't really inside of a hangar, so to speak. The drydock was larger than most, but mostly held supplies and tools, while a large connector extended from the drydock to the 'Shooting Star'. Quentin noticed as he was walking towards the connector, a previously empty spot on the hull flickered a bit before the words 'Shooting Star' appeared as a hologram in a golden color.
As they reached the connector, a human security guard stood infront of a large gate and held up his hand in an open palm, motioning them to stop.
Once they did so, the man spoke in a calm voice, "Identification please."
After seeing their identification and confirming it on a datapad, he simply pressed a button and the gate opened up, and motioned for the four frames to go through the connector.
When the reached their ship, the interior was incredibly basic. There was a lot of space for just four Tenno, and was about the size of a large capital ship. The first thing they did was go up to the bridge. Instead of just a navigation console, they had a multi-seated bridge filled with human crew, with robotic backups in storage to replace them if they died. Not only did this ship have the capability of holding four Tenno and their landing crafts, but it had crew quarters and storage for food as well. There were many rooms required for human crew to operate, and their clans spared no expense.
As they looked around the bridge, a voice came over the loud speakers. Robotic, and one he knew too well, "Operator, Ordis is glad to be the Cephalon for this PILE OF SCRAP MET- fine ship!"
Well, at least he knew his friend still had his sense of humor, giving him the Cephalon he knew was frequent to...outbursts. Of course, he knew they were still safe with Ordis and Ordis was still capable of everything a cephalon could do, he just yelled...a lot.
A crew member took this time to speak up, glancing at Quentin, "Captain, the coordinates for the B221Z Galaxy. Should we undock and prepare for a Void Jump?"
He nodded, and instantly the bridge was much louder as chatter from everyone began to fill his ears.
"Shields charged, we have 100% shield capacity"
"Hull is looking fine."
"We've cleared the dock, no damage to the airlock or connector reported."
"Port and Starboard thrusters are green"
"All systems are green."
One final voice took his attention, "Void Drive has spooled up, we're ready to jump on your go."
With a nod, he said two words, "Do it."
The ship began to shutter and shake as a large Void Portal opened up infront of the ship and they were sucked through it, the whiteness of the void opening before them. Thankfully, there was protection against the madness the void brought upon the minds of humans, as well as any leftover Orokin neural sentries laying around.
Just a few minutes later, another portal was opened infront of them, and they were once again pulled through it. The portal left them with a good view of the system that was their destination. From here, they had a better look than their incredible telescopes could ever offer. From here they could see the debris field. While it looked like a mesh of something on their scopes, from the ship they could tell that it was most certainly a debris field of spaceships.
The first thing they did was to engage their Void Cloaking. It'd make them invisible to practically every sensor imagined unless they got extremely close, but since Void Cloaking displaced the ship into the void, it was non-damageable in this state. The only downside is the power consumption. They can keep the shields and Void Drive on, but they had to keep weapons and the systems that were not required offline. Another downside is that they can't deploy their landing crafts in this state, but they were safe.
After letting the crew, and himself, take in the new galaxy, he spoke his first words in a new place, "Alright, let's get to work."
THE LAST CITY
EARTH
SOL SYSTEM
Larry, a Warlock, was currently making his way to the Hall of Guardians where the Vanguard resided. Ikora was going to definitely want to see this. As he made his way down the steps, he walked into the room, silently putting down the datapad infront of her. Cayde looked quite annoyed to be ignored.
Ikora was the first to speak up, "What is this?"
"Readings, from far beyond even the furtest planet. It's not Hive, it's not Cabal, it's not Fallen. It's completely different from anything we've ever faced. It's not darkness, but it's not light either. It seems to be neutral, but completely chaotic. It's definitely a ship, but what purpose they have here? Well, to be completely honest, all of us have no fucking clue."
She thanked him for the information, and told him to get back to his post. Once the large doors were locked, the order was given by Zavala to seal the chamber. They had things they needed to discuss.
Cayde was the first to speak, "Alright, so, we got a bunch of bad guys"
Ikora interrupted him, "Maybe."
Cayde seemed to listen, for once, "Alright, maybe bad guys. So, what are we going to do? Wave hello and hope they don't shoot us?"
Zavala shook his head, before speaking up, "No. I think it's time that we bring Fireteam Gamma back into the fight."
Ikora seemed to agree with Zavala, before speaking, "I second this motion."
Cayde just shrugged his shoulders, "Eh, sure, why not?"
