Warframe belongs to people who are not me.

For people who wonder: Sindr is taller than regular Ballistas because she is an Eximus. But since the word is used for all special enemies, I assume that it's a Tenno designation that she wouldn't use for herself.

"Train them as if they were flesh!"

That's what they told you from the start. As soon as a Grineer without legs or arms received their prosthetics, the first thing they tell you is to train with them. You can't train the metal, but you have to train the stump. The prosthetics put pressure on bone and muscle, even more so than the real arm, so train the stump.
Sindr followed this suggestion to a tee. Squats, jumps, lifting weights. She did it all with both legs and her right arm. But right now, she had a dilemma. Push ups had become much more difficult since her ordeal. Or rather, the pushing distance had become dramatically small.
"Dumb tits! Optimize their victims, my ASS!" she groaned, laying prone on the floor.

Music was playing in the background. Sindr hadn't known how much until now, but apparently she liked music. She had no idea how the music was made, who had recorded it or what it was called, but she liked it. She would recommend "Track 42" in Ria's music folder to anyone without hesitation. She also like pictures of planets now and Ria.

"Grineer were builders. Or rather: Slaves"

"They had no choice but be happy."

"These drones optimize their victims to serve…"

She looked over her right arm. Golden and beautiful. Ornate and much better than before. "Is that why I like the little bitch so much?" She asked with a sigh "Cause she is the next best thing in line?"
She got up and stretched. It felt good. The sweat, the endorphins, the fact that she didn't have to screw open that vent that used to be on her side and drain the lactic acid her body couldn't handle, it felt good.

"They had no choice but be happy."

Sindr sat down on her cot.
Grineer obedience was a simple process: They gave you an order and you did it because you couldn't refuse. And if the order was to report for execution by Atterax, you had bad luck but you followed.
But the thought that this happiness might not be her own. Just another thing those Orokin had put into her. At least Grineer are honest… Grineer don't trick you into doing shit with a dumb grin.

She sighed and felt a bit of hunger tug on her. "What's the time?"

She went over to the screen and pushed a few buttons. Her jaw dropped. "I've trained for four hours straight?" she gasped. Her hand went over her body. Nothing more than a decent feeling of strain and fresh adrenalin. A shudder went through her whole body. She was stronger than ever before. And yet, it felt wrong. This strength was not her own. "Don't let it get to you… you're safe, you're warm, you're-" *growl* "Hungry!"

Some food would get her mind off this. Sindr looked for an option or button for something to eat.

There was none.

"Great…" Sindr groaned. She really didn't want to get into Ria's personal space right now. She needed some distance right now and, Sindr hated to admit it, the Tenno did have a certain effect on her. "Well, I'm not gonna starve myself."

The Grineer left her cell slowly. She had no idea where Ria was and for some reason, she had the feeling she would walk in on her showering or do something else that was completely embarrassing for both of them. This was how these things went, right?
The Orbiter's hallway had 5 doors and one big portal that led to the main deck. Oposite that portal was the Transference room and on the other end of the corridor was the bathroom. Ria's room was probably somewhere on that side. Sindr began to walk.

The door opposite of her. Didn't open.

The door next to hers. Didn't open. Though it had a little piece of paper next to the button saying "Water twice a day!"

The next door didn't open either.

Sindr began to wonder if "paint can" had been too generous. "Wait! That frame is gone…" she noted. She walked up to the biggest door.

It opened and Sindr was greeted by the magnificence of the biggest chamber of the ship.
Excalibur was kneeling in the middle of the room, his eyeless gaze straight on the door. To Sindr's surprise, Ria was kneeling behind him, eyes closed, both hands extended, barely touching the Warframe's back.

Sindr gave it the mental note of "Weird Tenno Shit" and approached. "Hey… how are the repairs?"

"The foundry is doing what it can. Sicarius has completed his first diagnosis run. Right now, we can do little more than wait." Ria answered, eyes still closed "Is there anything you desire?"

"What are you doing?" Sindr asked and stepped closer "You talk funny."

The Tenno opened her eyes and relaxed, her hands dropping to her thighs. "Trying to improve my offline transference." She said with a sigh "Some Tenno can fully control their Warframes without the need for the chair. I still need full contact to make them move."

"It's scary enough that you can make them move, if you ask me…"

"It used to scare me too." Ria answered and got up. She placed a hand on Excalibur's shoulder. A breath of life went through the body and he rose slowly.

"You can move it without any wires? Void, this is amazing!" Sindr laughed "I thought it was like some Corpus machine, but this is something!" A grin invaded her features "So… since they are equipped, have you…?"

"No!"

"Can I?"

Excalibur twisted out of Ria's grasp and took a step back. "Sindr! It would still be me!"

Sindr ignored Ria and addressed Excalibur. "Don't worry, cutie, I'm not into you. The big guy is more my kind of-."

"Sindr! I'm not gonna pimp out my Warframes to you! This isn't a brothel!"

"You're right. It's a buffet, cause I have no intention to pay!" The Grineer laughed "Speaking of buffet, I can't figure out how to get something to bite. Can you show me how it works?"

"I'm sorry. I guess we badmouth Sicarius a lot, but he is very useful." Ria said as she led Excalibur into a corner and let him kneel down.

"Yeah, yeah, who cares if cogs squeak as long as they turn?" Sindr shrugged "By the way, do you have a table? It feels a bit awkward to eat and drink on my bed."

The Tenno let out a giggle. "Sorry, Sindr, this ship was created with Warframes in mind. It has no dining area, no tables, no chairs."

"So you eat in your bed?"

"Please! I have some standards! It's Tenno custom to take our meals in piety and humility, without the luxuries of tables and seats, kneeling and calm."

"You eat off the floor?"

"No, I eat off a platter… which sits on the floor."

Sindr's expression was indescribable. "You Tenno are weird."

"Our traditions and norms are about being inside our Warframes." Ria said with a shrug "They never expected us to walk around and have those pesky human needs."

"Speaking of human needs. No, don't give me that look, I'm talking about food. Can I have some?"

"Oh, of course! Sorry!" The Tenno answered quickly and rushed past the Grineer. "The dispenser is in the control room." She said over her shoulder.

Sindr followed quietly. The two stopped next to a pedestal on which a giant egg was slowly turning. "Is that a Drahk?" she asked.

"Oh, it's a Kubrow egg. Different breed. I used to have one in the past." Ria said as she reached for a panel next to the machine "But it turned out, I'm allergic to Kavats and Kubrows, so I had to give her to Lotus. It wasn't a problem before I was a separate person. Warframes don't get runny noses."

The Grineer nodded. "I'm kinda glad. Those monsters freak me out… They only give those to complete nutters. I swear, they do more than just *play* with them."

"Sindr, change the subject or you risk me throwing up onto your platter." Ria said with a groan and pushed a few buttons. A small tray extended from the wall, filled with several plates, spoons and a dispensing nozzle. "All we get on here is nutrient paste, but you can have whatever flavour you like and as much as you can stomach."

"I'll take something spicy… And trust me, getting food that doesn't taste as if it had just dripped out of someone's nose is luxury. The price for flavours was a joke. And booze was way cheaper."

Ria nodded, pressed a few buttons and filled a deep plate with a beige, steaming paste. It had the visual appeal of a bucked of limewash, but Sindr still felt her mouth watering as the accepted the plate. Suddenly a horrible thought crossed her mind. "WAIT! This is right next to… are we eating Kubrow food?"

"No!" Ria answered as she made herself a plate as well. Sweet curry flavour with a bit of nut aroma. "We are eating human food. It just comes out of the nozzle that is supposed to serve Kubrow food." She sight as Sindr's horrified face "Look, I this ship is a rush-job. Your cell is a repurposed mediation booth, the bathroom is originally designed to disinfect Warframes and my room was supposed to be for the escape pod. Knowing that I might one day blow up with this thing is far worse than eating from the same dispenser as my Kubrow would."

"Look, I'm not picky, it's just… ugh… you guys are so fancy, your Kubrow food would probably taste better than what we got."

"What do you want to drink? We water in several flavours with different degrees of temperature and fizzing." Ria explained calmly "I usually take a green tea before sleeping. Doesn't taste as good as real tea, but what can you do?"

"I'll take plain water. It's probably better than the stuff we had to press out of Ruk's Claws…" Sindr showed her tongue in disgust "Mars water was a nightmare. And the sand went everywhere."

The Tenno offered her a glass. "Who doesn't hate sand? Your tap only has plain water, so if you want something with flavour come here. I also have a coffee maker if you want some for breakfast."

"Thank you, but no. Took me a year to kick my caffeine addiction, not gonna risk a rebound." The Grineer answered and took the glass. Both hands full, she took a step back.

"You can have seconds as much as you like. Our protein tanks are full and the bio compartments are unharmed."

"Good. Big girls need big fuel."

Ria nodded "Say… I was wondering: You're much bigger than most Ballistas, I've ever seen. You're even taller than some Heavy Gunners, right?"

The Ginreer smiled. "Yup, that's my batch. We were all tall and all had pretty good hands, so they gave us Vulkars. The little girls called us 'walking vantage points'."

"Gunners are made without hands?"

"Yeah, Gorgons are a bitch to hold steady, so they clone them without hands and put huge shock-absorbers into the prosthetics. But the cheap starter-arms aren't good for dexterity, so sniping is out of the question. Mine was hand crafted for me after I lost my arm." Sindr explained proudly. "Brass-level stuff." A small pout snuck onto her lips. "Even if I know now that I didn't actually kill anyone to get it."

"If it consoles you, the Tenno was out of commission for a while. If they had the Oro to restart the frame, they'd have finished the sabotage and-"

"I have no idea what Oro is. And please don't start explaining. I'm too hungry." She said quickly, her smile fading. Pity didn't go with supper. "Thanks for the food and good night!" The Grineer turned to go.

"Erm… do you want to eat together?" Ria asked carefully.

"Thank you. But I want to shovel this down, roll over and sleep." Sindr answered on the way "And there is no way in the Void, I'm eating Drahk-chow off the floor!"

"Ok, sleep well!" Ria called after her.

The Gineer stomped back to her room. She had lied. She wanted to eat with Ria. It was fun to have the little Tenno around, tease her, talk to her about small, silly things. But right now…
Sindr sat down and began to eat.
Right now, she couldn't trust "fun".

'Grineer were everywhere'
'Attack Conkwuer Rule!'
'Or rather: Slaves'
'Disobedience leads to death!'
'They kept them infantile'
'Be Good or be Gone!'

Sindr finished and flopped down on the bed, only taking her arm off. She looked at the prosthetic for a moment. Shiny, golden and much better than it had been a few weeks ago.
"Things don't change…" she muttered and closed her eyes.

"IF OUR ENEMIES DESERVED PEAKE, THEY WOULD HAVE DEFEATED US"

"Do we?"

The night was long and when she awoke, Sindr felt the grim certainty that she would be refreshed and full of energy for an entire day. Which meant that she couldn't waste an hour or two napping. It was galling that the most meaningful decision for the day would be if she should eat, train or shower first.
Food won out.

After putting her limbs back on and washing her hands and face, Sindr made her way back to the main hall, plate in hand. She was greeted by the most adorable view imaginable. Her favourite Tenno was kneeling next to the foundry, head and both hands in a panel in the wall, rear high up in the air. Her light figure was delight to watch and as she walked behind her, the tight Zariman suit left nothing to the imagination and the blue stripe down the middle just stressed the cute heart-shape of Ria's butt.
Sindr allowed herself a full minute of quiet enjoyment before she cleared her throat.

"Good morning!" Ria said cheerily, without looking up.

"Hey, if I can do anything to speed up repairs, you can just tell me." Sindr said and went over to the food dispenser.

"That's nice, but it's fine, these aren't really repairs." She pulled some long, glassy tube out of the wall. It was seemingly filled with whitish flesh. To Sindr's surprise, she had her Zariman hood on, fully closed. It made her head look a bit like a grumpy fish. "The Orbiter has a few components that I don't ever get to see, but now since several systems are offline, I can snoop around."

"That bored?" The Grineer asked with a sigh.

"I might as well do this now. We'll be running out of stuff to do soon enough. And Sicarius always complains when I'm rummaging around in the ship's parts. He says it tickles him."

"What's up with the mask?" Sindr asked, focusing on the dispenser. Maybe something sweet for breakfast? And what was this cinnamon?

"The organic components are kinda gross. I'm always worried that something might drip in my face." The Tenno answered and opened her hood. She gave the Grineer an inquisitive look. "Is something wrong?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm holding a fleshy rod and I'm talking about stuff dripping in my face. Even Excalibur would have made a joke by now…"

Sindr ignored the question. Her eyes drifted to the Kubrow egg. "Why do you keep that thing if you don't hatch it?"

"The egg? It's fertilized and in stasis. I don't want to kill it, so I'll see that another Tenno can adopt it."

Sindr let out a humourless laugh. "Especially now, where you have a new pet…"

A pipe fell to the ground. The Grineer turned. Ria stared at her, eyes wide, mouth agape, a pained shiver all over her. Sindr felt a twinge of guilt.

"Sindr, you-"

"I'm sorry!" The Grineer interrupted quickly "I don't know where that came from. Just… it was a bad one. Ignore it!"

"No!" Ria said and took a step forward "Sindr, that came from somewhere! Please! Did I do something wrong?"

Sindr turned to the dispenser. Then to Ria. Then to the egg. And then to Ria again. "NO! Look: I've had time to think… and I… I don't like what you told me…" She said with a groan "Not that or how… just… Ugh!"

Ria took another step closer, reaching out slightly. "Sindr, you can tell me…"

"You said that Grineer were slaves. NO! We ARE slaves!" Sindr hissed "We get it implanted, then bashed into our skulls and enforce it constantly on each other. Just that it's no longer the Orokin, but the queens now. But it was… I don't know… honest?" She let out a rattling groan "You follow orders and if you can question them, you better shut up or you get a trip to Rathuum or the Atterax until you're all over the floor. But the queens don't trick you into being happy! You know that your life is shit and you fight and kill and maybe die to make it less shit. When you get enough credits to waste on booze or a cig or the time for a shag, it's yours." She raised her metal arm. "But this Orokin shit… it feels so wrong! I mean… this arm is better than anything I could have ever gotten on earth! There is no more draining implants, wiring scraping my spine or keeping my kidneys connected. And I can disobey! I know it! I don't feel that nagging urge to beg for orders!" Her gaze dropped "At least I think so… Cause now, here, I'm kinda happy… and I don't know if that's me… or that drone fucking my head."

"Sindr, I-"

"AND YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" The Grineer yelled "I like you! You're nice, you're smart and you're really cute and I want to like you and I don't know if I do like you or if it's that fucking drone again!"

"Sindr…" Ria said calmly, though her face was twisted in sadness. One of her arms reached up, stroking the Grineer's shoulder. "Your conditioning… would it ever allow you to hurt the queens?"

"What? No!"

"You think the Orokin would let you hurt their own?"

"No, I… I don't think so!"

"Then you're not conditioned! Because you just hurt me… a lot!"

The Grineer felt another red pang of guilt in her chest. The Tenno's sad face… it was too much. Tears began to flow. "Ria…" A clang rang through the ship as the woman fell to her metal knees. "Ria! I'm so sorry!" she yelled and wrapped her arms around the Tenno. "I'm such a dumb bitch!"

"No, you're a smart bitch!" Ria muttered, her heart beating hard "And because of that, you think too much."

"What can I do?" Sindr sobbed loudly "My head! I… I can think shit, I'm not supposed to think! And I… I don't know if those are my thoughts!"

The Tenno padded her big friend, nestling her cheek against Sindr's head. "Those drones… they attack Tenno viciously. The Orokin would never allow us in their tall towers. If you were not yourself, you would have tried to kill me at every step of the way. They would never allow you to hug me or console me." She pulled closer, her lips close to brushing against the Grineer's ear "Sindr, you're free."

"It's just… I'm scared!" Sindr sobbed louder, her grip slightly tightening "Grineer is Duty! Grineer is Duty! Grineer is DUTY! I can't get it out of my head! What am I without duty? I'm nothing! I can't go back! I have no place to go! I'll be all alone! I… I… don't want to be all alone again! I… saw… I saw what it does! I don't want to go mad! I…"

The Tenno pushed back a bit and gently touched Sindr's tear-soaked cheek with one hand, while looking deep into her orange eyes. "You're free now, Sindr. But not alone. You're not my prisoner or my guest or my pet. You're my friend and I'll never leave you alone!"

Another burst of tears flowed from the big woman's eyes. "Ria!" she wailed and held the Tenno close. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"Don't be! It's the Orokin! They are messing with our heads even when they are long dead!" Ria returned the embrace tightly. Her body was flaring up but her friend needed this. "It's ok to be scared." She said gently "You're free now. But that doesn't mean that you're alone." She rubbed Sindr's broad shoulders. "I'm your friend! And even when this is all over, I'll be your friend!"

"You know…" Sindr sobbed and sniffed loudly "For someone who has so few friends… you're really good at making them…"

"Maybe I just have really exquisite taste?" Ria giggled, giving her a pad.

"If I'm the friendship equivalent of blue lipstick…" The Grineer said with sobs between the words "Then please throw me out the airlock."

The Tenno let out a laugh. "Stop making me laugh when I want to console you. It's hard to be comforting when I'm rolling on the floor."

Sindr swallowed. "Seeing you laugh makes me happy…" she muttered "That's why I thought I was-"

Ria pulled back and looked into the woman's eyes, a big smile on her lips. That blue smile... That smile made Sindr's heart beat faster. "How about you get some food while I plunge that fleshy rod back into the quivering walls. And then we go to your room and watch a few videos together?" The Tenno said slowly, one hand on Sindr's cheek.

"Now you're trying too hard…" The Grineer said softly "But it sounds great…" She reached up, wiping her tears away with her good had "So, is it your turn next to burst into tears or can we stop while I'm ahead?"

The Tenno let out a giggle and shook her head. "How about I get one more and then we flip coins?"