"Operator?"
The Tenno hummed in acknowledgment as she thoughtfully looked through the port-side window.
Like many of those who had awoken from the second dream her orbiter had been modified for some additional comfort, one of the additional cargo bays had been converted into a makeshift lounge. At one side was a couple of large bean-bags which she had brought from Cetus, next to them was a shelf filled with Ayatan sculptures and several datapads containing various subjects including biology, and philosophy, as well as stories. In the centre of the room was holographic Komi table with two cushions on either side. On the right wall what was not covered in shelves was covered by pictures depicting sunrises and sunsets over oceans and deserts while the left held a fish tank which contained three Troyzoids and another set of shelfs, this time holding floofs (she particularly liked the Sawgaws). Despite the various trinkets and knick-knacks, the room was organised, with each object given its own place.
She sat, or rather knelt, at a low table, as she looked into the black emptiness that was space. She saw her reflection, her own dark skin, blue eyes, short cut black hair and the white vein like marks which marred her face, surrounding her eyes. Her appeal seemed to be more fitting for a Ventkid rather than a Tenno, with yellow cloth tied around her black jumpsuit arms and a makeshift belt along with equally makeshift shin guards, but she felt comfortable in this clothing and last time she checked the Tenno didn't have a dress code.
"Logi, please call me by my name." She requested to the ship Cephalon.
"Forgive me opeeeer- I mean Mara." Logi quickly corrected himself, a electronic buzzing underlined the half formed word operator, Mara made a mental note to check if he wanted her to run a diagnostic later to see if she could find the fault that caused the buzzing when he was stressed or correcting himself.
"You have received a message."
"From who?" Mara asked, already going over the usual suspects in her head. Even though she operated independently with little contact with the Lotus compared to other Tenno, she would still answer summons from her for major incidents such as Ghoul outbreaks, Fomorians, Razorback assaults, that sort of thing. It could also be Baro Ki'Teer, advertising his latest wares that he found on his forays into the void. As much as the junk mail annoyed both Logi and Mara, she admitted that plenty of the stuff he brought back was good. She was hoping though that it was Nemo, or his Cephalon, Ordis; she rarely formed friendships with her fellow Tenno. While she would have no complaints about joining a squad which had an open slot, she was somewhat of a self-imposed exile. However she had always been friends with Nemo, and made an effort to keep an eye on him, especially since he had awoken from the second dream, there were a few fleeting memories of him before the Zariman's ill fated jump.
Before everything fell apart... before she lost everything...
She pushed aside the memories and focused on the present.
"The message is an audio recording from Little Duck."
"From Little Duck?" That had caught Mara's attention. She had worked closely with Solaris United, and, by extension, Vox Solaris as well as the Quills. She had quickly learned that the one thing these three organisations had in common was that they preferred to speak face to face, even though the comms channel used by the Tenno were well encrypted. Usually it was a short text based message with a meeting place, and a heads up on what they wanted to discuss. Audio messages were reserved for things which couldn't be left waiting.
"Play the message." Mara ordered as she stood up.
"Beginning playback." Logi responded before the former rail agent's voice was heard over the sound system.
"This is LD, I know you're busy dealing with cleaning up the mess of the outbreak at Selkie, but we need you here." Mara began to pace as she listened to Little Duck; the usual swagger in her voice was nowhere to be found. "To cut a long story short, we've been getting reports of anomalies close to a space route to Venus. Usually it wouldn't bother us but it's close to a route often used to smuggle supplies for SU, the kind of supplies that Anyocorp won't allow into Fortuna. To make matters worse the anomalies match those reported by a Corpus Security ship before it went missing. Euicido wants to know if the route will be safe, we need confirmation. Contact me as soon as possible."
"The message ends there." Logi stated. "How will you respond?"
Contact Little Duck, tell her that I accept, usual terms." Mara answered firmly as she stood up and began to exit the lounge. Smuggling routes acted as a lifeline for SU, they didn't just provide weapons but could also supply medical equipment, parts for rigs, food and and anything else that was vital if the Taxman decided to squeeze supply lines in order starve SU out. "Prepare orbital loadout B."
"Affirmative. Message sent, now loading Itzal with biiiig guuu- Duel Decurions and Veritux into the Linset. Zephyr is still loaded in the Linset, do you wish to select another Warframe?"
"No, I'll be fine with Zephyr." She answered before she opened the door. As soon as she had opened the door Mara heard a throaty bark before the distinctive clacking of claws on the orbiter's deck. Before long a Kubrow with grey fur, a white underbelly and dark grey markings along its back greeted the operator with excited panting.
Mara couldn't but chuckle; Sakura was an intelligent animal, she was invaluable as she allowed her mistress to find ammo and supplies by opening up storage lockers and even finding packs which had been buried, not to mention she was often more than capable of finishing off anything or anyone which survived the Tenno's onslaught. Yet she continued to acted like an oversized puppy on the orbiter.
"You've been behaving yourself?" Mara asked as she scratched the side of Sakura's head, causing the Kubrow to lean into the Tenno with a playful growl.
"It is currently the 4th 'accident' free day." Logi replied with some enthusiasm.
"I didn't ask you Logi."
"Correct, but Sakura is a daaamn Kuuu- non-verbal."
Mara just sighed as she realised she had walked into that comment. Part of her wondered if ship Cephalons came with humour precepts, but instead of asking a silly question and getting a silly answer, she decided to see if she could do something productive with her time. Close to the ship's foundry was a whiteboard and a marker. On it was a list consisting of 6 items.
Item 1: Clean blades (done)
Item 2: Clean Infirmity door. (Done)
Item 3: Take stock of ammo, especially incendiary grenades (done)
Item 4: troubleshoot the Plink
Item 5: Check Somatic readings using Rhino (done)
Item 6: Socket new Ayatan sculptures (done)
Mara didn't feel like she wanted waste more time banging her head against the proverbial wall; she didn't doubt the Plink would not be useful, it went without saying but a side arm which didn't consume ammo would certainly be valuable, but she had accidentally gotten the 'training' version of the weapon which was far too weak to be used in live combat. As a result would effectively need to overhaul the gun from the ground up. Maybe she should talk to Zude and see if she could get any advice from her?
Sakura began rubbing her head against Mara's arm, as if sensing her mistress's frustration. The operator couldn't help but smile a little.
"Maybe a little bit of Stargazing?" She asked, earning a confirmative bark from the Kubrow.
Mara spent the journey looking into the depths of space, fussing over Sakura, playing Komi against Logi, or pouring over the intel Little Duck had sent her. From what she could tell the Corpus ship detected unusual Void energies and moved to investigate, all contact ceased shortly after. Once she determined how far the ship was before it dropped off the face of the origin system, she came up with a plan, she would have the orbiter linger well away from the anomaly and see if there was an anomaly, depending on the results Mara would launch the Linset, and deploy using an Archwing.
Mara was on the navigation deck, scratching Sakura's belly when the journey came to an end.
"Mara, we have reached the coordinates... but... there's no anomaly; the scanners have picked up no abnormalities."
Mara raised an eyebrow before she looked out of the window, sure enough the route was pretty much empty. Then again, while she was not an expert in the field of void anomalies, she doubted that they would always be visible to the naked eye. Still she noted the puzzlement and concern in Logi's voice.
"Perform another scan-sweep, and check again, I'm going to prepare to deploy." She said. Just because the scanners had found nothing didn't mean nothing was out there was nothing was out there.
She began to exit navigation, leaving Sakura to sleep close to the codex terminal; as the ramp descended to the lower decks she felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. She stopped at the base of the ramp, it felt familiar.
"Opppp... Mara, is something wrong?" Logi asked.
Mara waved a hand dismissively. "It's nothing." She said. Part of her just shrugged it off as nothing worth worrying, that this familiarity was deja vu. But the other part of her screamed that something was dreadfully wrong and that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She felt her chest tighten, like a vice had wrapped around her lungs . She managed to keep her breathing steady but it was far more difficult than she expected.
"Mara... I've detected the anomaly." Logi's electronic voice was laced with the all too human emotion of panic.
"Where?"
"Right on top of us."
Suddenly her body was set ablaze with pain. She tried to scream but no sound came out as she fell to her hands and knees, her fingers bloodied as she scraped them down the cold metal floor. It felt like her entire nervous system was attempting to rip itself away from her body. She was no stranger to pain, yet even this was more agonising than anything she had felt before. Logi's desperate calls for a response fell on deaf ears and Mara barely registered the ship lurching violently.
The one small fraction that remained lucid remembered where she felt that chill on the back of her neck before.
The last thoughts before she finally fell unconscious, was of her tragedy aboard the Zariman Ten-Zero.
That was 11 days ago. 11 days since she awoke to find herself in a strange land, 11 days since she discover that she probably in a different universe. She was fairly certain she had been close to driving herself mad trying to figure out how and why she ended up here, but she had decided on day 3 that she had bigger concerns.
"Operator?"
The Tenno hummed in acknowledgement as she looked thoughtfully across the scorched plains, the only sound was the padding of her Rhino's footsteps, like her other Warframe's he bore her personal colours, grey, white and oche. She cradled a Veldt rifle in its arms and a pair of Boltors were attached to its sides.
"Report." Mara quite frankly didn't have the energy to chastise the Cephalon about not using her name.
It was day 11 after crashing onto Aqshy. After she awoke she had discovered that the Orbiter was now grounded, however the majority of its cargo was thankfully intact, including the Zephyr and equipment that was loaded into the Linset, though Sakura was wounded. Thankfully the orbiter was designed to be self sufficient for long periods of time, however she knew that she wouldn't have supplies indefinitely, water was especially problematic since it was apparently scarce on this 'realm'.
Logi's avatar, a black cuboid against a white staticky background which appeared to 'open' with each syllable spoken by the Cephalon.
"Logiiii... I believe that your suggestion of cannibalising the Linset's engines to help give the Orbiter limited atmosphere capabilities may be viable."
"I'm sensing a 'but'." Mara said quietly.
"It will take another week if it is and it will effectively be a hovercraft, a slow hovercraft with extremely sort range. Not to mention it will most likely require a significant amount of Oxium."
Mara sighed; not the best news but it could be worse. The Orbiter was incredibly vulnerable now and if someone or something found the Orbiter, the only thing that would save the Tenno would be an amazing turn of luck. So far the only threat that could have amassed a sizeable force was King Marrow. Even though he was no longer in the picture, there were still roaming bands of raiders and Orruks; not united but could still pose a threat. Getting the Orbiter mobile would massively reduce the chances of the Orbiter being found, however it wasn't designed for extended atmospheric use, at most it would be able to slow itself down if it entered a planet's atmosphere so that it wouldn't obliterate itself on the ground. However there still was a very real chance that it would not work.
"Anything else?" Mara asked as she began to head back to the Orbiter. It would be mid day soon, she would perform a long range patrol tonight once night set in and it was cooler.
"Well I do have some good news, Sakura is stable and recovering though she is still comatose and will be out of action for the immediate future."
Mara sighed, waking up to see that Sakura was comatose was certainly not a pleasant experience. As a war-hound, Sakura had been wounded on multiple occasions, but she was never out for long. She missed the Kubrow's barking greeting her when she returned from a mission, or the sound of her claws scraping against the deck. She had forgotten just how much stress Sakura relieved. Nevertheless, the Kubrow lived, that was a small victory in of itself.
"I've managed to complete the overhauls you suggested to the Plink." Logi added quickly.
"You have?" Mara could hardly believe that the damn Plink was operational, it was undoubtedly good news as having a weapon which didn't consume ammo would put even less stress on her supplies.
"Yes, I do believe that there is a 93.48% chance that it will not explode the first time you pull the trigger."
Mara sighed at the Cephalon's estimation; even though there was a little more than a twentieth of a chance of something going wrong, he still had a way of making it sound like it was almost assured that it was going to happen. "Way to rain on my parade. Anyway I'm heading back to the orbiter, there's nothing to report and the only living thing I found were more of those white Condroc like birds. I've not seen any Stormcast patrols yet."
"Perhaps someone higher than the Lord-Aquilor has decided you're not worth the trouble?" Mara could not miss the slight nervous, hopefulness in Logi's voice, like a child who had broken something and was asking an adult to let them off the hook.
Mara shook her head, or rather her Warframe's head. "I doubt it; while its been two days since the ghoul king's death, they've probably been busy tying up the loose ends with that matter; making sure that the surviving abominations will be unable to create a new court and that the civilian population is safe." Part of her wondered if Logi was afraid that he was going to be dissected. Given the fact that she had found him on a corpus vessel due for Europa, the home of almost all of the board's more secretive projects (some of the exceptions being Alard V's pet projects), it was a likely theory.
"Speaking about the Stormcast, have you manage to determine anything from the scans I sent you?" Mara asked. She had managed to get a few quick scans of the Stormcast while she shadowed them two nights ago. Enough that Logi could analyse them and give her some information. Knowledge is power was a mantra she fully embraced.
"Well, there is an interesting detail you should know." He said, his tone slow in deliberate. "As we both expected, the Stormcast have had significant improvements to their biology."
"The kind of things we should be keeping out of Tyl Regor's hands?"
"The kind of things we should definitely keep out of Tyl Regor's hands." Logi agreed before returning to the subject. "But after some analysis I found that they created a noticeable amount ambient energies, similar to the Tenno, but... it does not seem to be void energies."
Mara paused for a moment before she spoke. "The Lord-Aquilor said that I was able to use my abilities despite counter measures set by king Marrow."
"Perhaps they weren't correctly attuned to deal with warframe based powers? Remember that the lightweight Nullification units used by the corpus can only disrupt certain types of powers."
"But the back pack models are able to just shut down any Warframe abilities." Mara pointed out. "Its a brute force approach compared to the Comba and Scrambus gear but it does deny the use of any type of ability. So why were the counter measures unable to disable Ivara's abilities?"
"I think it might be best to put a pin on this particular matter until another time when we have more information available to us." Logi stated, a slight tone of disappointment underlying his voice. As a Cephalon, Logi's duties centred around taking care of his operator and aiding her wherever possible, intelligence gathering and management were two duties he often had to undertake. He was undoubtedly was beginning to feel frustrated at the thought that they were fumbling in the dark, Mara certainly didn't like that fact but the truth of the matter was that they had barely even touched the surface of Aqshy and knew nothing of the other mortal realms.
"Seem like it. I was able to confirm that the Lord-Aquilor is in change of a 'Vanguard Auxiliary-Chamber' and that each Stormhost is divided up into Chambers, with different types of chambers fulfilling different battlefield specialisation."
"So I assume you've also confirmed that the Vanguard Chamber primary function is recon."
"They have other duties but that is correct." Mara answered before she carefully slid down a steep slope. "I've only heard of two other chambers; the warrior chamber, who seem to act as the backbone of a host, and the Sanctosanct chamber, whose purpose is unknown. It can be assumed that the Lord-Aquilor was sent here to seek and destroy King Marrow, but will now stay to assist the town guard until further notice."
She climbed over the final rise that separated her from the crashed Orbiter. The graceful dark grey craft laid in the red sands. Once it glided through the vacuum of space like a shark. Now it looked like a fish out of water.
"Still... I have to say that the more things change, the more they stay the same."
"I beg your pardon oppp... Mara?" Logi said, finally remembering the directive Mara had given him days early.
"Well for starters, this region reminds me of Mars." Mara commented off hand as she looked towards the distance, into the far off unknown lands as the sun glared at Rhino's back. "But besides that... I can see parallel's between the Tenno and the Stormcast; both were effectively born from tragedy, the Zariman Ten-Zero and a hero's demise respectively, and both became something other than human."
She looked up, towards the skies, towards were the 'realm' Azyr laid according to the people of this place. "I don't believe in concepts such as fate... but this feels more than a simple accident."
Logi was silent, not truly knowing what to say before Mara spoke again.
"Sorry for the rambling, you know how I'm like." She apologised as she began to move towards the airlock.
"Looo- I understand. Anyway what loadout do you wish to utilise for this evening's recon mission?"
"Prepare ground loadout A2, but replace the Magnus with the Plink, I want to test it in the field."
"Are you sure you want to use Ivara instead of Zephyr?"
"Yes." Mara answered decisively. "I'm planning to take a closer look at the supply route I found, see if any of the merchants let slip anything that can give me a little more insight as well as scope out what sort of supplies are being transported should the the worst happen. Ivara's cloaking systems are useful for getting in and out of trouble, plus she has a few more little tricks which should come in handy if things go wrong."
Helena moved through Franzburg with purpose one would expect from one of Sigmar's champions, her cloak billowing behind her as her gear, including her war helm, clattered reassuringly with each step.
The settlement was fairly typical of frontier towns. Though the architecture was what one would expect of a Azyrite settlement, Helena could see that these people were different from the people that dwelled in Azyr or most of the free cities. Though they weren't staved or sick, it was clear they were no strangers to hardship; despite the traumatic experience of being captured by King Marrow's court, they spent little time dwelling the horrific memories. Some silently grieved those that did not return home, they still made an attempt to carry on, though their loss could still be seen weighing on their shoulders.
In many ways these downs along the boarders of reclaimed territories reminded the Astral Templar of her mortal tribe; with their constant battle for survival they didn't have much time to mourn, they had to be ready for the next battle. That wasn't to say that the dead were not forgotten about; the local priest, despite suffering grievous wounds, had performed last rites for those who did not survive the ordeal. Yet there was an understanding that time would not stop just because family and friends had died, those that still lived would need to carry on with their lives, and survive.
It was perhaps Helena's, as well as her brother's and sister's, understanding was why the Astral Templars were often deployed along the frontier to help protect more isolated pockets of civilisation. It was common knowledge that the Stormlords, who were often Lords and ladies who upheld the responsibilities that their position demanded they fulfil in their mortal life, were often deployed at city states when some political tact was required or for the sake of keeping the peace in areas which the servants of chaos were attempting to destabilise.
It didn't take long before she reached her destination, the guardsmen's headquarters, referred to as the Manor house by the locals. It was a small compound surrounded by walls and with a tower located on its northern side, it was designed to be a holdout should the walls fall, and with a tunnel leading to the Duradin keep of Forgeward, it could by time for the civilian population time to evacuate if it was fully manned. However Franzburg's freeguild guard was currently trying to restore their numbers after King Marrow's attack, even with Duradin reinforcements they would struggle against another attack. Thankfully for them Helena was planning to stay for as long as needed.
She strode towards the entrance of the headquarters, a two story building. A sturdy door with barring and metal studs dotting the woodwork was the only way into the building from the ground. The structural reinforcement combined with the thickness of the wood would prove to be difficult, but not impossible, to break. Before it stood two freeguild guardsmen, dressed in bright vermillion and white and carrying halberds. Both their plates, while relatively clean, were scratched and chipped noticeably. The guard on the right was a bearded man with a eyepatch who held himself with the pose of a veteran. The man of the left was fresh faced and stood straight to attention and seemed to be over correcting his posture.
"Lord-Aquilor, Captain Arronson is waiting for you in the map room, along with Wardan King Kurik." The younger guard stated. To his credit, despite being a a new recruit and despite the fact this was likely the first time he probably spoke to a Stormcast, he did not stutter or hesitate.
"On which floor?" Helena asked before the older guard answered in a gruff voice.
"It's on the first floor, first door on the right to the stairs. There should be two Duradin guards stationed outside of the door, you won't miss it."
Helena nodded in understanding. "Thank you guardsmen." She said before she entered the Manor House.
As one would expect it was not a decorated building; stationed on the frontier meant that there was little budge which could be spend on decoration, though a banner baring the township's crest a, black shield with a rampant bear holding a hammer (an homage to the Astral Templars), was the first thing that met anyone who entered the building. A few guards could be seen, they clearly weren't enjoying the chore that was guard work, but were still alert.
Helena began to make her way towards the stairs, as she began to ascend them she began to mentally review what she had to report. She had sent several patrols into the wastes that surrounded Franzburg after the remaining ghouls. Her brothers and sisters and returned triumphant; they reported that, while some still escaped, none of King Marrow's vassals had escaped. While this didn't mean that the danger of a new flesh eater court springing up was still present, it would not be imminent.
That was were the good news ended; Alric had reported sighting Kairic Acolytes close to the boarder. Said cultists immediately retreated when Alric moved to intercept them, obviously they were attempting to scout the area, and were able to get into the canyons. Alric, in a moment of level headedness, decided that it would be unwise to pursue them and broke off.
Helena had very little doubt that the minions of Tzeentch were coming, if they weren't already here. This was not her first encounter with the disciples of the changer of ways; they were challenging foes who favoured trickery and deceit, two talents they had in abundance. Naturally she aimed to bring this up to the captain, and warn him that they would most likely attempt to infiltrate Franzburg if they hadn't already.
She was already silently debating requesting for a Lord-Veritant to help secure the town. Given their unique talents they were extremely well suited for rooting out chaos cultists and countering the tactics often used by the Disciples of Tzeentch. However they were somewhat intense, and their presence could sometimes set ordinary mortals on edge. In addition the town was smaller compared to the cities cultists often targeted, meaning that even slightly suspicious behaviour that might be missed in a city could be noticed in a town. In the end she decided to hold off that decision until she had an idea of how well the Freeguild guard could protect the town.
On any other day just dealing with Tzeentch cultists was enough of a headache, but Helena had to also deal with a mystery assassin. Of all the matters that she now had to handle, the assassin was the one which frustrated her.
She had very little doubt that it could pose a threat to almost anything that had the misfortune of getting in its way. It was well equipped and experienced, a combination which any being with half a brain would tell you would be absolutely lethal. That wasn't what bothered her; the fact that she knew nothing of it did. Helena was completely in the dark about the assassin. Part of here wondered if it was a demon created by Tzeentch, and only just unveiled as part of some elaborate scheme; Helena wouldn't put it past the changer of ways to engineer some sort of method which rendered enchantments that blocked magic useless, but it didn't bear the mark of mutation which so many minions of Tzeentch possessed. In addition her gut instinct told her that this assassin was unlike anything that anyone had encountered before.
She pushed aside her theories for later once she reached the first floor.
The venerable guardsman was correct, she sighted the room the moment she turned to the right along with two Duradin long beards who both seemed to in a conversation.
"Muskets; bloody useless I tell you."
"Oh, and why do you say that?"
"You need to keep the bloody powder dry, it takes a bloody eternity to reload, and even when you do everything right it still can fail. Why the bloody guardsmen put their faith into them is beyond me."
"Or maybe your jealous that you didn't get an opportunity to kill a Terroghiest."
"I beg your pardon, that was killed by one of our Organ guns."
"Still works on the same principle, plus you were saved by a musket shot."
"I had that ghoul!"
"Swallow your pride and admit that you were in trouble. You don't get to this age without admitting that you needed help."
Helena cleared her throat, gaining the long beards' attention.
Both the Duradin stood to attention once they realised the Lord-Aquilor was standing before them. The left one (who had been complaining about black powder weapons) looking a little sheepish.
"Warden King Kurik Grundson is inside, along with the captain." Both the Duradin guards moved their axes out of the way, allowing the Stormcast to pass. Helena gave her thanks before she entered the map room.
It retained the same pragmatism as the rest of the Manor, the walls were undecorated, unless you counted the barred window and a map of Aqshy. The room itself was fairly well lit, with a large map of the region surrounding Franzburg on a table, with four stool surrounding the map table. The Wardan-King and the captain occupying the west and east sides of the table.
Captain Dietrich Arronson, the commander of the local freeguild forces, was the youngest in the room, having lived for 25 winters, and with slightly messy brown hair and stubble he certainly looked young, but he had already earned a reputation for being a excellent commander. The only reason his forces had suffered heavily during King Marrow's reign was due to poor luck and having only limited resources, considering this his men had proven their worth and punched above their weight when it came time to draw King Marrow's forces away from his keep.
Warden-King Kurik Grundson, head of a clan of Dispossessed who had reclaimed their hold in Aqshy, certainly looked the part. Dressed in ornate, albeit battered, armour and with a long platted grey beard. Despite the fact he was standing on his stool he still managed to retain a dignified air. Many a ghoul had met their end at the sharp end of a Duradin axe, and many a grudge had been settled, due to the Wardan-King's leadership during the battle against the flesh-eater court.
The mortal captain gave a nod of respectful acknowledgment before Grundson spoke.
"Lord-Aquilor Tempestborn." The Duradin spoke with a hearty tone, briefly lightening the atmosphere of the room. "I take it wasn't too much trouble to set up camp on the Ashen plains?"
"No, it wasn't, Warden-King." Helena responded as she took her place at the southern end of the table. "As of now we have a forward camp which we can use to strike against those that would threaten Franzberg and Forgeward, my brothers and sisters have already begun to carry out patrols."
"How have the hunting parties fared?" The captain asked, speaking in a measured tone. In many ways, Dietrich was the opposite of Kurik, he was quiet where the Duradin was loud and seemingly preferred to act with his head rather than his heart (though this didn't mean that any of them relied purely on their head or heart). However they respected each other because both of them had similar duties which both of them had carried out for many years.
"They have fared well; most of the remaining ghouls have been killed, and all of King Marrow's 'vassals' have been laid low. The court has been broken and its unlikely that the remaining ghouls will be able to form a new one any time soon." Helena reported. "While they are no longer an immediate threat, they should not be ignored as they could still attack convoys coming into the Cinderlands."
"Duly noted." The captain commented. "Is there anything else to report?"
"Yes, and unfortunately it is not welcome news." The Lord-Aquilor sighed. "One of my patrols reported Kairic Acolytes close to the fringes of the Ashen Plains here." She tapped her a gauntleted finger on the map at spot the edge of where the Ashen plains gave way to a maze of rocks known locally as the Labyrinth. "The patrol attempted to engage them but the acolytes retreated into the crags. Rather than risk pursuing them into a ambush the Prime in charge of the patrol decided to return and deliver the news."
"Wise decision." Captain Arronson stated. "The Labyrinth is an ambusher's dream; no doubt that they intended to lead them into a trap."
"Ancestors damnit, and here I was hoping we would have a moment of peace before we had to deal with another crisis." Warden-King Grundson mulled. "Still, at least they'll be plenty more opportunities to settle a few matters with the enemy."
"I cannot stress that the importance of remaining on your guard." Helena advised, her tone stern. "Expect them to perform any underhanded tactic, be wary that they will to attempt to undermine the region from within and most importantly, do not underestimate them."
"They'll find us with sharp axes and loaded guns." The Wardan-King banged his hand on the table. "We will not be found wanting."
"I have little doubt that, with some support, my men can protect Franzburg and its people." The captain leaned against the map. "However its the convoys that head into town that I'm concerned about."
"You don't have enough manpower?" Helena asked, she was expecting a problem regarding the number of freeguild soldiers that the captain had available to him.
"It's more about who we lost during the raid on Franzburg rather than how many we lost, though I won't pretend that lack on manpower is not part of the problem." The captain answered, a weary tone of frustration entering his voice. "During the attack, the damn ghouls killed most of our outriders and pistoliers while they were attempting to mount a counter attack, and to make matters worse the a ghoul broke into the stable, to make a long story short, we are now also short of suitable horses. Usually at a time like this I would send outriders to escort the convoys, but we do not enough to put together anything that would help them if it is attacked tonight."
Helena knew what the captain was going to ask, and as much as she wanted to focus on long range patrols and seeing if she could figure out where the Disciples of Tzeentch were, but the guard needed those supplies as well as the town folk. "I'll lead some of my brothers and sisters to ensure it reaches Franzburg, it will mean I'll have to push back some missions I had planned, but we need the supplies."
"The convoy is due to arrive at sundown, from the west, here." Arronson pointed at a long road which lazily wound its way to Franzburg. "Its a safe bet that the cult will attempt an ambush on the convoy." Helena could see why the captain would send additional men; she could see a few spots which could be used for ambushes. She had little doubt that the enemy knew that the town needed those supplies, and that they would do everything they could to prevent them from reaching Franzburg.
"I will ensure that Palladors will be in position to aid them." Helena stated. "Hunters and raptors will join them later."
"That will be enough to protect them." Once the captain was satisfied with Helena's plan of action, he turned to the warden King. "Lord Grundson, do you have anything to report?"
"Other than I'm annoyed at Tzeentch for having to delay celebrations?" He answered, half joking, before he became more serious. "The clan council convened on the fate of the now deceased King Marrow's hold, while they understand that it would be useful to your brother and Sisters, but it's location makes it impractical for our purposes. Due to these reasons, and how it being used to subjugate the region again would be shameful for its original creators, the council has voted to have the fortress demolished rather than risk letting it fall into the wrong hands for a third time, however they, admittedly reluctantly, wish to seek your blessing before beginning the task.
Helena knew that, while the fortress was in a poor position to protect Franzburg and Forgeward, in the future it might have use, either protecting any new settlements that were constructed on the Ashen plains, or as a staging point for a liberation campaign. However in the short term the risks outweighed any benefits.
"Tell them that I am willing to allow them to demolish the building, however make sure that any hex found within is dispelled."
"Aye, I was planning to send a rune-Lord to make sure to deal with any nasty surprises anyway. It will be gone by tomorrow afternoon."
"If that is everything else, there is one last matter to address." Captain Arronson turned to Helena. "The Assassin."
It shamed the Lord-Aquilor had nothing that could give a clue to the assassin's identity, origin, intent or motivation. She was an officer of a Vanguard Auxiliary chamber, the eyes and ears of the Astral Templars. Yet even she had to admit that, despite being somewhat more than merely mortal, she was not aware of all things, she had her limits.
"Quite frankly I'm in the dark like the rest of you." She shook her head tiredly. "I can confirm that the assassin did manage to infiltrate the fortress some time before we entered. It then proceeded to kill any ghouls that were in its way using throwing knives and a sword before slaying King Marrow. We attempted to confront it but the assassin ran and evaded capture. It was able to summon, what I assume was some arcane bow, and was able to turn invisible and made use of some sort of repeating gun when it attacked King Marrow."
"In other words you only know that it's dangerous."
"Dangerous, and illusive. While we were breaking up camp on the way back to Franzburg, one of my hunters found tracks close to the camp which we have reason to believe belonged to the assassin."
"You kept this hidden?" The captain wasn't angry, maybe a little surprised.
"People were still in the process of recovering from being held captive" Helena reasoned. "I didn't want to risk hysteria breaking out. In addition tracks lead away from the camp before they were untraceable. From what I could tell the assassin observed us, before leaving. So far we have had no further sightings."
"I believe it was encountered before by us."
That caught Helena's attention. The Lord-Aquilor listened closely to captain Arrson as he made his account known.
"About three days before King Marrow's attack, a few of my men had been drinking while off duty. I had advised them not to in case they had to be called upon, but said advice fell upon deaf ears. After they were kicked out of the Three-tailed Griffin, they staggered back to their homes. On the way there, private Marcus apparently cried out, causing a bit of a disturbance. When asked why he called out he swore blind that he saw a 'hooded figure with one glowing blue eye' sitting on a roof top before vanishing into thin air. I assumed that it was a ghoul siting and reacted accordingly but found no trace of the figure despite Macus's insistence. Now I see that it wasn't a alcohol infused imagination, but our mystery assassin. I wish I could tell you more but unfortunately Marcus's was among the dead during the attack on Franzburg."
Helena nodded, it was only offered scant new information about the assassin, but she was more than happy to discover a fact which she hadn't known before. It was certainly more than what she expected when she walked through the front door. She committed the captain's story to memory before the Warden-King presented a question.
"Any idea on what this blasted assassin is?"
"I only have theories, however most of them are flawed." Helena stated, at this point she could only give loose theories. "The first one is that it was a Shadowblade Assassin; given that they have the annoying habit of acting without any allies knowing it would seem likely, but it's 'armour' and weapons were not of Aelven design. The second theory is that it was a demon created by one of the chaos gods, given how much of an advantage Tzeentch would have over Khrone if he had access to an agent who could ignore magic nullification, this is a much more likely theory. However after seeing this assassin, I can say that it does not carry the normal stench or characteristics of a demonic creature." She did her best not to sigh or sound tired, though she could feel her frustration at the situation seep through in places. "In any case I have sent word of the assassin to the High-Magister of Hammerhal via a messenger as well as nearby Hosts, in addition I have sent one of the throwing blades that were recovered so that they study it. Perhaps they'll find something that will lead to an answer."
"Any suggestions on how to approach this matter?" The captain asked, his full attention on the Lord-Aquilor's answer.
"Cautiously; I do not recommend you approach it, and I certainly do not recommend that you attempt provoke it. That being said I do intend to try to keep an eye on it, maybe discover more about it. At the very least I don't want to be caught off guard."
"How do we know that it hasn't already left the region?"
"We don't... but I have the feeling we haven't seen the last of it."
Helena knew that you should not ignore your instincts. Sometimes that gut feeling that something was on the horizon had saved her brothers and sisters as well as herself more times than she could count. In the realm of life, it allowed her to strike at Lord Bileglut directly, in Charamon it saved her host from a horde of Ironjaws, even in the few blurry memories of her past, she could recall times were her instincts had proven to be her saving grace.
Mara placed her hand against the glass of the incubator as she looked at Sakura as she laid, awaiting her time to awaken. Before her a holographic display showed the Kubrow's heart rate, brain activity, DNA stability, and every other vital sign. Even through the rubbery fingertips of her jump suit, she could feel the cold hard glass.
She often favoured isolation, she never considered herself to be extrovert and she was used to acting on her own during the old war (usually to the chagrin of the golden lords). However she knew that she could never withstand true solitude, that was way she was thankful for the company she had, namely Logi and Sakura, or on occasions, Nemo and Ordis.
Many people believed that isolation would allow them to numb themselves, to protect themselves from the sorrow that followed loss. However Mara found that was not the case, in fact it was somewhat the opposite. She learned to value the small circle of friends and companions she kept, this meant that she would feel their loss or hurt more keenly.
"Mara, it's time."
The operator nodded in response to the Cephalon, before she moved down the slope. Passing her stationary Ivara, the Plink in its gaudy orange and blue on the warframe's hip, along with her trademark Nikana, while a modified black Vulkar was mounted on her back. On the way down she passed the infirmary door, the red holographic circle in front of it marked the door as locked, a few scorch marks remained on the floor after she reminded her unwanted, but unfortunately irreplaceable, passenger that they were not welcome beyond the confines of the infirmary; she knew well enough the necessary evils that were performed in the name of the greater good, she didn't need another reminder.
She came the door towards the Transference chamber; since mastering the required techniques she didn't need to walk to the chamber, but often she took the walk so she could calm herself before a sortie.
The door opened to reveal the transference pod, a bulbous bronze thing which was suspend by the long pure white Arboriform 'vines'. The pod sat open, awaiting the operator to seat herself. Even though many of the systems carried by the pod were now unneeded by her, Mara still used it to control her warframe's out of habit, Nemo also insisted on using his own pod on his Orbiter despite the fact the transference circuit was broken beyond repair (what was he thinking charging into the Twin Queen's den?), and from what Teshin told her other Tenno who had awoken did the same.
She walked towards the pod, welcoming the chilled air. While the temperature was tolerable inside the orbiter, it still felt stuffy to the Operator. This room however often remained at its current temperature due to the strange Arboriforms that helped maintain the pod's functionality.
She slowly climbed into the chair, her hands laying at the end of the arm rests. She close her eyes as the pod slowly closed, surrounding her in darkness.
She relaxed her muscles as she felt the Void. She felt the flowing energies that she was familiar with, akin the waves the ocean on a normal day; rhythmic and calm, but with underlying strength that only a fool would underestimate.
She slowly untethered herself from her physical body, she felt her normal senses leave her as she cast her mind outwards. She felt the minds of her other two warframes, an agile Zephyr and a brutal Rhino, waiting in the Orbiter's cargo hold until they were called upon. She reached out towards her Ivara who stood at the arsenal terminal.
She felt the Ivara's consciousness, faded but still present, waiting for the operator. Mara began the process of transferring her own consciousness to the warframe, their minds becoming part of a single whole as the operator's energies began to animate her limbs.
When Mara opened her eyes, she was looking through her warframe's eyes.
The Tenno reached for the black Vulkar and detached it from the back mag-holster. She cradled the modified Grineer weapon in her hold as she walked towards the airlock.
Helena stood next to Squall as her brothers began to mount up on their Gryph-Chargers underneath the Aqshyian dusk. She watched as they rallied to her and Alric.
The camp was always a hive of activity; the Astral Templars were somewhat restless and her host was no exception. The Stormcast spent every waking hour either on patrol, seeing to their weapons, sparing, wrestling or recounting sagas, stories and songs from their mortal lives or their various journey. To some of her brothers and sisters in other hosts, this chaos may seem overwhelming, to Helena though it was comforting to an extent. She remembered the constant bustling energy of her mortal tribe's camp, those few fleeting memories brought her a sense of calm, allowing her to find her centre and focus on her mission. In the mist of the organised mayhem that was the Astral Templars mustering to ride out, she had gained her composure and was ready for whatever was thrown at her tonight.
She turned to her right to see Alric on his own Gryph-Charger. The Pallador-Prime was almost finished readying up, checking his Boltstorm pistol. Despite being on one of the longest patrols that day, Alric and his steed were not tired. If anything they were eager to be out in the field again.
Helena climbed onto Squall's saddle, placing her feet on the stirrups before addressing Alric.
"You ready for tonight?"
Alric gave the Lord-Aquilor a nod of affirmation before he placed his Boltstorm in its holster, the vertical limbs folding against the pistol as it was stowed.
"Truthfully I'm looking forward to getting to grips with the enemy, particularly after they eluded us." He said as he placed his Warhelm over his head.
"The disciples of Tzeentch like to have the element of surprise." Helena reminded him as she donned her own Warhelm. "I would like to think they would like to get to grips with the one who warned everyone."
"Oh they can try, but they'll be disappointed."
"Funny, just be careful." Helena advised before she turned to her assembled Palladors.
"Brothers! We ride!" She roared as she urged Squall forwards. Her own voice was soon joined by her fellow Stormcast before the sound of hooves and claws against the dusty ground.
AN: Sooooo... I really wasn't expecting this to blow up like it did (by my standards, at least). As mentioned before I wasn't sure if it should remain a one shot or continue as a full scale project, well I think I got my answer!
I will warn you; there may be a delay between CH2 and CH3, since I'm going to actually try and plan things out as well as do some world building, or rather world connecting (the relationship between chaos and the Void is going to take up a good chunk of that.) Honestly I feel like I rushed this chapter as I wanted to communicate that I intended to take this project up a notch.
A few things other things. The operator for this story is female and not the 'prime' operator, meaning she did not participate in any of the canon quests (though has second hand knowledge of some of the prime operator's misadventures). Sorry for any confusion caused by some innocent pronouns, the gender of the operator and the warframe used changed several times, I'm probably going to go back and correct some mistakes sooner rather than later.
Timeline wise, this story takes place post-necroquake in the Mortal realms but prior to events unfolding during forbidden powers and in between the war within and the chains of Harrow in the Warframe universe.
Off topic: I watched the Tennolive stream on the sixth, I can describe it like so: Holy shit, the new war! Holy shit, Railjacks! Holy shit, zombie Dax! HOLY SHIT, THE OPERATOR GREW UP!?
Yeah... I'm exited for the New War, Ephemera and the Duviri paradox.
Anyway, please favourite and follow if you like what you read, and please leave a review. Hope you have a nice day and I'll see you soon!