Plans of the nefarious kind

"You idiot!" Violet was almost as happy with what had happened as everyone else was. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I needed a place to hide." The Tenno now called 'Jack' said firmly as the Lavos warframe scrutinized the Foundry system, waiting for the weapons that had been queued up to finish building. "They were not going to stop hunting Jac. They couldn't. She knew too much."

"And this is better?" Violet snapped, but then slumped a bit. "I… Okay. Yeah. That is a heck of a hiding place, but…" She trailed off, clearly still upset.

"You cannot do the same, I know." Jack was being kind but firm as the warframe turned to the pair of liches who had been watching Violet's reaction. Juil wasn't sure if amusement, chagrin or absolute agreement was the right response, so the lich had remained silent. Kol likewise. "The Clergy will hunt you."

"They won't be rough about it unless I resist, but yes." Violet sagged against one wall of the small ship. "They want me alive and intact. Sane? Not so much."

"You know better." Jack's rebuke was mild, but Violet jerked anyway. "You of all people know how stuck they are. They have to remain where they are. To keep doing what they do. If they try to act otherwise, far too many people will get ideas. Especially now, after Nef Anyo's brainstorm."

"I know." Violet said very quietly. "I know that Brianna among others would stand up for me, but I cannot put her in that position. I cannot. My own wishes versus…" She trailed off and shook her head. "And here, I used to think that knowing things was a good thing."

"Too much information can harm just as surely as too little." Jack turned to Juil who had been watching this byplay, bemused and the Lavos warframe shook its head. "Jesse knows. I have to assume that others will too. She can keep secrets, but the fewer who know the better."

"Even as a clone, my feelings are clear. This is not right." Juil said slowly and Violet nodded in agreement. "That said? It is an inspired hiding place." The lich gave herself a shake and continued. "I have news. We have a new ship. One that will not draw attention." Both other females looked at her and Juil shrugged. "One Grineer Galleon among the thousands in the system will not be remarked on."

"Peter and his people took a Galleon and did a great deal of damage." Jack was just as slow to speak. "Won't the Queens adapt?"

"No." Juil shrugged as Violet made a face. "Why would they? Any losses they incur can be replaced in short order. Clones, ships, whatever. Only the Fomorians give them pause on the loss of because of the sheer amount of resources it takes to make them." The lich paused and frowned. "Takes to make their weaponry anyway. The hulls and crews are meaningless to the Queens, but the Oxium that it takes to power the reactors is hard to come by."

"It used to be hard to come by." Jack retorted. "The Corpus are stripping every Orokin era wreck they find to scavenge such and they set up excavation sites everywhere. It will be time consuming and a bit tedious, but if we need it, we can either steal it from them or excavate it ourselves." Everyone looked at him and he shrugged. "I owe you for your assistance, the least I can do is help you be more self sufficient. Esther would want no less."

"We exist." Juil said after a moment. "We are in between what we were and what we can be. Many will not take that well."

"I don't care." Jack replied. "You helped me and you have offered more aid. I need to find a way to to deny the database to those who would defile it, use it for evil purposes." All three of the others looked at him and he nodded. "That is my duty now. Aiding you is my wish and I will do that as I can."

"There was no way to save anything of Esther, was there?" Violet asked softly and all three of the others shook their heads. "Well, damn."

"The Queens lost a powerful tool when Esther sacrificed herself." Jack was just as quiet as he turned to look at the pair of liches. "I will make her sacrifice mean something. I am not sure how just yet, but I will." He gave himself a shake. "That said? I know some places we can leave the immature clones. Places where they will be found quickly and taken to care."

"That would be for the best." Juil replied. "We are not nannies."

"No, you are warriors." Jack agreed as the Lavos warframe shook its head. "Asking you to act as nannies was a bit insulting." He paused and shook his head again. "The scans I saw were not all that clear. The Zanuka robot asked you to?" Juil nodded and Jack shook his head. "I wasn't aware it had that much free will."

"It was odd." Juil admitted. "It wasn't what I expected. More than one mind was inside it." Jack went totally still, but Juil continued. "They were not very coherent but they did ask me to remove the boy and the others. They would not say why."

"More mysteries. Joy." Jack's tone was so sour that everyone smiled. "Ah well, for now, let's just plan on getting the clones somewhere else, then we can take a look at this ship you purloined."

"Requisitioned." Juil corrected the Tenno with a small smile. Jack just looked at her and Juil shrugged.

"Requisitioned without authorization, I bet." Jack retorted, but was clearly amused. Juil tried to look innocent. It didn't work well on the huge clone. "In other words, you stole it."

"What was the saying?" Juil inquired with a wide smile. "'You say 'Potat'o' and I say Po'ta'o?'"

"Be careful what you study." Jack shook his head again at the lich's odd humor. "Humans messed up so much over so long that it can be hard to tell what was real from what was fiction in the writings. Add to that? Some knowledge is just plain dangerous."

At that, all of the others nodded soberly. That was plain truth. When Orokin had fallen, so much had been lost that now, it was hard to tell fact from fiction. Then there was the fact that Orokin bio-tech had been self replicating and in many cases, smart. That made things fairly dangerous on occasion, especially in old Orokin structures. The Grineer knew that better than most.

"I know." Juil reassured the Tenno. Then she paused and Jack looked at her. "Something…" The lich shook her head and red-black code swirled around her hands. "Something is wrong."

"Oh?" Jack asked, power staring to swirl around the warframe as its snake like appendages writhed, seeming to taste the air.

"I am not sure what it is." Juil admitted. "But something is definitely-"

Everything stopped as Violet screamed. Everyone spun to see the human soldier gripped by odd looking energy. Blue, but not. Black, not not. Kol moved before anyone else could, grabbing at the soldier and managing to grasp her arm. But then he too screamed and then, both were gone in a flash of dark power!

"What the hell?" Juil demanded.

"Ordis! Full stealth! Maximum evade!" Jack commanded and the Scimitar's engines whined. Although how they could escape something that could track a Tenno landing craft through the Void so easily was an open question with no good answer. "How the hell did they track us? Or her? She is protected from such!"

"They took Kol, whoever they are." Juil snarled. "That cannot stand."

"It will not." Jack agreed and the mismatched warriors shared a grim nod. "We will get them back."

"Or avenge them." Juil calmed just a little. "That felt familiar. The same as the one who accosted us when we boarded this ship." Jack stiffened and Juil paused. "You didn't know about that?"

"I was hacking the ship." Jack said slowly. "I was focused on that. I didn't sense anything off. Who was it?"

"It wasn't him, some kind of projection." Juil replied. "He said his name was Granum."

"Parvos Granum? Oh crap." Jack slowly shook her head. "That is not good." Juil eyed the warframe as it moved back to the forge and started a project. "If we are facing him…" He paused and then continued. "He loves his Spectres. Luckily, I have enough parts to make another Xoris. I had all kinds of stuff, but it is all on my Liset or in my old accommodations. If I go back, all kinds of people will be waiting. I won't be able to get away."

"Who is Parvos Granum?" Juil asked as Jack moved back to stand in front of her. "Someone said he founded the Corpus?"

"Eh, he founded the original Corpus." Jack replied after a moment's thought. "You know enough history to know how diverse humanity was under the rule of the Orokin." Juil nodded, still mystified. "When the Empire collapsed, almost all of the institutions faded in the need to survive."

"Yes. And?" Juil prodded cautiously.

"And the Corpus we know today were founded by a group of survivors. I don't know much more than that." Jack admitted. "They are not the original. I don't know if they found some original texts or just thought the name sounded cool, but everything I have read says they are nothing like the originals."

"Okay." Juil blew out a deep breath and then shook her head. "That is for later. For now, we get Violet and Kol back."

"Agreed. I can track Violet a little. You can track your comrade?" Jack inquired.

"Yes, but if they left us able to track our taken people, then this is likely a trap." Juil warned.

"And? What is your point?"

"Fair enough."

Veil Proxima

The Galleon moved through space with the bravado that only Grineer could show. Others might call it arrogance, but when numbers were meaningless, such as with beings who could and did clone as many soldiers as needed to crush their enemies, did it matter? Confidence or arrogance, the result was usually the same. Lots of dead clones. Sometimes victory, sometimes, not, but always a mess.

"This isn't right." Jack said softly as Juil moved to scrutinize a nearby readout. None of the crew paid her any mind after Juil and her compatriots had made a few abject lessons in courtesy towards the odd Tenno. The Cyberlancer lich looked at Jack who had a frown in his voice. "I did a mission here yesterday. This whole area was swarming with Grineer."

"The Corpus mounted a major offensive it seems." Juil replied as the crew of the Galleon worked around them. No one was bored. A lot of Corpus ships showed on the scans and no Grineer ones but theirs. But it was odd. They knew the Galleon was there. Two had shifted course to avoid the Galleon's path! None were attacking! That made no sense. Grineer and Corpus hated one another with a passion. The only beings they hated more were Tenno and that was just as much fear as hate. The clones and the Profit seekers detested one another. Always had, always would. "But if so, there should be debris. Wrecks. Distress beacons. Even Grineer ships have such, if only to show the Queens where they died." She shook her head. "Nothing."

"So, whatever happened here was not a battle. This is not good." Jack said softly and Juil nodded. "It is clearly a trap, but Violet and your soldier will need help."

"A trap for you?" Juil asked carefully.

"Probably for the both of us." Jack said after a moment. "From what you said, the Spectre that confronted you wasn't hostile, but he clearly wanted to open communication of some kind." The Lavos warframe shook its head. "I wasn't involved in what happened when Nef Anyo freed Granum from the Void, but I heard about it." Juil looked at the warframe and Jack made a noise of disgust. "Granum made a lot of enemies in his time. Said enemies tried to assassinate him. He survived because of a warframe that he may or may not have been in love with…" Jack broke off as Juil went utterly still. The Tenno nodded. "Yeah. That is part of why it was such a mess. Anyway, that warframe was his bodyguard and it saved him from the explosion of his ship's engine the only way it could. By trapping him outside of time in the Void. No time passed for him, but a lot did outside."

"So, he came back to find his Corpus gone and the modern one nothing like what he had known." Juil said slowly and Jack nodded. "Ouch."

"It gets worse." Jack nodded agreement. "It didn't help that apparently Nef Anyo was some kind of a descendant but not one that Granum was very pleased with. Daddy not happy." That was snide.

"Sometimes I am so glad I am not human." Juil muttered.

"Me too." Jack admitted and the unlikely pair shared a grim nod. The Tenno paused as a beep sounded and Juil spun to another monitor. Jack waited while Juil scrutinized the readouts.

"And things just got stranger." Juil said after a moment. "That was a hail from Parvos Granum."

"Let me guess. An invitation?" Jack was calm now.

"Yes." Juil shook her head. "He 'requests' our presence to open negotiations." The sarcasm around the word 'requests' might have cut through titanium.

"And if he is anything like most Corpus I have dealt with, if we go in there, we won't leave with any shred of free will." Jack replied. There was something in the warframe clad being's tone, something dark and terrible. Juil looked at the warframe and the Lavos gave itself a shake. "No. Esther freed you. I have no intention of letting anyone else enslave you." The calm sincerity in his tone took Juil aback. "Nor me. The Corpus tried once with me and I do not wish to go through that again."

"So… what?" Juil asked, her face turning back to the main holo display that showed the area. "Several Corpus ships are moving to surround us. The correlation of firepower is adverse."

"Even a Galleon full of clones cannot match an entire fleet of Corpus ships on its own." Jack agreed. "So… We need to shift the odds a bit. Use our strengths against their weaknesses."

"Before you do anything, you should hear me out." Both of the mismatched warriors stopped short as a hologram appeared in front of them. Parvos Granum hovered in mid-air, his face calm. "Your warrior has not been harmed." He said to Juil who growled at him. Then he turned to Jack and his face held surprise. "I… see. That was an odd choice, but masterful."

"Taking our companions was not a good idea." Jack was stone now.

"I did not." Granum replied. "The clone warrior appeared on my deck, bleeding." Now Granum paused. "More than one?"

"Two." Jack snapped. "And the traces led here."

"Of course they did." Granum said heavily. "I told him 'No'. He cannot abide that." Neither of the other two reacted and after a moment, Granum continued. "I assume you know of whom I speak. The puppet master behind all of this."

"You had that reputation." Jack replied.

"I did." Granum allowed. "But I never brainwashed my followers. I led them, showed them a better way to profit under the golden overlords, but this…" He actually hawked and spat. "The Orokin wanted mindless obedience. I preferred followers who could think." Now, he looked sad. "That had its own problems. Hence why so many of today's cheap copy want the same as the Orokin did."

"What do you want?" Jack demanded.

"Me?" Granum asked. Then he sighed. "What I want, I cannot have and I know better than to ask you of all people for it." He knew what Jack was! How? "I learned my limits."

"Trust will not happen, Corpus." Juil warned.

"After all of what was done to your people, no. It won't." Granum agreed. "You are different enough that we may eventually become allies or at least not enemies." Juil scoffed at that but Granum just shrugged. "Is that idea truly any odder than a Grineer standing beside a Tenno?"

"Tenno have a code of honor." Juil retorted. "You have your profit."

"And you have your wars." Granum replied. "We are different. All of us. Physical anatomy aside, human, Tenno and Grineer are three different species. We have few common points of reference. One of those is an abiding distrust of anyone with golden skin."

"That is true." Jack sounded as if he was pulling teeth to admit that. "So? What?"

"He probably expects us to fight. To slaughter one another as useless as that is." Granum replied and Juil tensed. "You are immortal with the Kuva running through your veins, my dear. The Tenno may or may not be. I am not."

"No, but you cheat." Jack retorted. Far from offended, Granum smiled!

"If you are not cheating, you are not trying hard enough." The founder of the Corpus was amused. Then the Galleon rocked and Granum's amusement faded instantly.

"One of the Corpus ships just fired on us." Juil said flatly. "The time for talk has passed."

"That was not at my orders!" Granum snapped.

"Prove it." Juil snarled as her red-black code swept around as alarms belatedly sounded, signaling the ship to combat.

"I will." Granum's tone held hate that might have graced any Grineer now. "All ships, target errant vessel and open fire."

The Tenno and Grineer stiffened as every single other Corpus ship in the fleet that had surrounded them fired on the one that had shot at them! The bolts of energy hit shields that suddenly glowed golden and held under the fire of at least dozen ships that looked just like it!

"You are going to have to do better than that." A familiar voice sounded and a hologram appeared on a screen nearby. Violet, but not. Her armor was different from standard Corpus. Golden. But that paled beside the veins on her face that pulsed red with Kuva. And her eyes were flat, blank. Empty. "Surrender now and live. Fight, and you will die."

"What have you done, Violet?" Jack asked, horrified.

"I obey my orders." Violet was still flat, empty.

"Whose orders?" Juil snarled.

They had only thought themselves stiff. Both the Tenno and the Grineer went painfully still as a woman in a golden gown appeared beside Violet's holo. Eliza's face was serene, but then she smiled and hell itself seemed to quiver as the former Empress of Orokin gave full rein to the madness behind her eyes.

"Mine."