"Lotus?" Vi asked, having a rushed, confused fit. "I've met her before, I mean, she helps - helped - me in virtually every mission. But after a while she stopped. I can't… remember..." Vi tried to finish her sentence, though she was unable to recall what had happened and hit her head a few times instead.
"It's alright kiddo, you don't have to… do that. It's creepy." John intervened, stopping her self flagellation.
"Where… do you… find her?" Travis walked in.
Vi stared at Travis, not long before stammering a few syllables out.
"L-lua? I mean we could use a teleporter and..." Vi managed to let out, before they were inadvertently interrupted by Ordis.
"Corpus fighter detected at increasing proximity. It seems that they're coming straight at us, Operator. Actually, they're right he-" Ordis then chimed in, being rudely interrupted by unprovoked fire of the chasing Corpus fighter, throwing the ship in a momentary shake.
"Do we have any weapons?!" John said in an unusual tone of desperation, straining his voice as he regained balance.
"We have - had - a sentry turret, but its ammo reserves are empty." Ordis replied.
Another turn, another strafe of beams that the orbiter's shields sustained.
"We're sitting ducks here! Ordis, full throttle to..." Vi started.
"Anywhere!" John quacked as he collapsed over the ship's controls, right after the constant fire managed to pierce the shields, shaking the orbiter in its entirety. This emergency led Ordis to jumpstart the idle thrusters into full power, plunging the ship straight forward without care or notion of the path ahead.
The action seemingly infuriated the fighter, which pursued in aggravated prejudice.
"Ordis! There's an asteroid ring nearby! We could use it to escape the enemy radar!" Vi loudly announced.
"Good idea, Operator! Maybe the random debris won't do much to our shields as we protect the ship with our own bodies."
"Ordis!" Vi grunted.
"I'm sorry Operator, but I cannot recoup the shields fast enough for us to-"
But before Ordis could finish his orderly thought, he was interrupted by the sound of John ripping the control panels off their place.
"What are you doing?! You must not fiddle with the ship's inner components!" Ordis violently shifted his attention to John.
"You talk a lot for a ghost machine, you know that?" John replied, finally reaching the thrusters' controls.
After a single fist thrust into the ships internal components, the ship took a deep dive into the debris cloud. The somewhat apart asteroids served only as background, as the hand-controlled ship waved its way between the closer and sharper of the debris that occasionally prickled the hull. The erratic movement of the ship, caused by its violent plunge, in turn caused turbulence inside of the orbiter. John eventually lost his balance and was knocked to the back, right before the arsenal, this caused the thrusters to shut off.
As everyone else grasped something in attempts to have a still foot on the ship, a voice whipped out the ever trembling silence:
"You're surrounded! Please activate your counter-thrusters and remain idle. You have no means of esca-"
Without rhyme or reason, a sudden giant Corpus capital ship was drawn on the cockpit of the shuttle, and it was getting closer at incredible high speeds. Before anyone could muster a reasonable response, the ship's unexpected velocity and inability to respond to the threats smashed head-on into the hull of the Corpus capital ship, cleaving through the hardened metal and crashing into the cockpit.
Comically, or not, the ship's sudden barge was halted by the strengthened alloys of the Corpus, allowing the ship to sink itself in just right, and avoid a disastrous decompression. The commanding Comba let out a familiar voice:
"What… the living hell…?"
From the ruined cockpit window, there rose Travis and Vi. Almost outflanked by Scrambi Corpus, John took the opportunity to rise up from debris. Again.
"Ormah'lore!" The rash voice erupted from the temporarily fallen crewman.
"What the hell did you just do to my ship?" The identified Comba stepped forward, ordering his fellow crewmen to surround the three.
John stepped out of the oblique ship and stepped once more in Corpus flooring.
"You attacked us!" John said in a reasonably pissed-off tone.
"Right." The Comba limited himself to say, as the surrounding Crewmen and Scrambi tightened their circle.
"John, I'd love for you to stay and chat but I'm afraid that I've gotten what I wanted." Ormah'lore hissed maliciously.
As soon as this was said, the three were simultaneously pounced by the subordinates of Ormah'lore and, when met by the expected resistance of the trio, they gladly removed their prods and tazed them to high hell. Soon after their bodies quivered in electric essence, they were knocked unconscious.
Once John gathered his senses, he slowly rose from the cot he was haphazardly thrown onto. With back pain, he looked around only to find himself in a small prison cell. The walls were white, solid metal and the blue force-field stopped his attempts at walking away into the one way hallway in front of him. Several times.
Discontent with his attempts at fleeing, John resorted to squash his palms on the force-field and exclaim for his friends. Several times.
"I heard you, I heard you." Vi's somnolent voice echoed through the hallway.
"Where are you guys?!" John asked.
"I'm… here." Travis' voice erupted from John's right.
"I can see your voice's location but I can't see you, Travis." John declared.
"We've been jailed." Vi perceptively described their situation.
John gave up. He sat down at a corner and banged the corner of his helmet against the line where the walls met.
"By the way Vi, what were you saying back in the ship? Before we were attacked?" John asked.
"Well, as far as how I remember reaching Lotus, is by using one of those teleporters, you know, with the keys." Vi replied.
"Yes I know." Said John, not knowing.
"I was thinking we could… you know. Try." Vi finished.
The interrupting Corpus noticed their consciousness and walked in, accompanying Ormah'lore to meet up the three caged birds. Many armed, Ormah'lore stopped right in front of the jail cell belonging to Vi, gazing upon her own figure.
"Oh I still can hardly believe it." Ormah'lore's words echoed through the hallway, leading Vi to recoil her facial expression into disgust.
"A Tenno child." Ormah'lore continued, despite the social cues not to. "With you I can finally harness your power."
"You're wasting your time." Vi said with a disappointed tone, after grabbing her right elbow and sitting on her cot, defeated. "I don't have the transference. I'm all out. Empty. Kaput."
"I don't think that's how you use kaput." John added.
Ormah'lore narrowed his eyes and frowned his eyebrows, tilting his head up in somewhat disbelief.
"Is that true?" Ormah'lore asked.
"Yes. I can't even do the most basic movements, and they have a section just for that!" Vi said, standing up and wildly gesturing to no avail, before giving up and perching herself on the cot's corner once more.
"But we can!" John jumped like a child. "Vi, quick, tell them about Lua."
"Lua?" Ormah'lore inquired.
"John!" Vi scolded John. "No. Nothing, never mind about that."
"Go on." Ormah'lore said, turning to John, not convinced what Vi had to say.
John went to relay what Vi had previously told him. Ormah'lore drew a swift smile and rose his left hand, signalling the crewman to punch the keypad and release the force-fields. The three were then instructed to leave in an orderly manner, such an order disregarded by John until he was prodded back in line.
"Here is the deal." Ormah'lore barked. "I'll take you to one of those void portals, and you swear you'll take us to the source of the power."
"I'll have to discuss it with my peers." John eloquently put.
"Fine." Ormah'lore conditionally said. "But you only have five minutes before I barge in and demand a yes."
As soon as the doors closed behind the leaving Corpus, the group dismantled the organized line and faced each other. Vi resorted only to glaring at John while he calmed her vitriol by assuring it'd be fine, asking questions like "what's the worst that could happen" or "what if we can't retrieve it" or "can I go to the bathroom now". Travis limited himself to listening.
"We just have to get off their hands." John prudently says. "This seems to be our best shot."
"What if we can't get to Lotus? I don't really remember how to.. get there."
"Then we leg it to whatever that portal's leading us. Whatever fate is inside of that portal oughta be better than what Ormah'lore has in store for us."
Silence reigned in as the group decided what was best. Vi took a mental leap of faith and sighed in defeat, admitting to John that'd they go for it. John, presumably, drew a smile under his helmet and jumped to Travis.
"You with us?" He asked.
Before Travis could muster a response, the safety doors slid across and Ormah'lore's frame stepped inside, holding a taser prod and a handful of evil intentions.
"I told you I'd be back in five minutes to get a yes out of…" Ormah'lore intruded.
"We'll do it." Vi interrupted.
"Splendid!" Ormah'lore exclaimed, before throwing his deactivated prod across the room and leading the group out into the main cockpit.
Even though they were out of the prison cell, they now felt more imprisoned than ever, as the darkened sky of the Milky Way drew across the windows, surrounded by equal helmets in gridded unison. Some were preoccupied with the flashy screens and buttons while others silently contemplated the group's existence.
After the anxious walk came to a stop, Ormah'lore introduced them to the cockpit. The ship was being steered towards a nearby facility that could facilitate their objectives. The group was briefed on their objectives, to activate the portal.
"I'll provide an escort. To ensure your safety and to make sure you don't have any funny ideas." Ormah'lore explained, turning to the silently agreeing group. He was used to receiving silence as a response, so he cheerfully took it as a yes.
"Now, the trip is going to take a while, feel free to lolligag however you please inside this room - once we're there we'll let you know." Ormah'lore finished, before turning away into the blue-streaked console ahead of him.
As per the prophecy, the ride took a while, leading the group to let the guard down and wander off, sitting in crevices or half walls to cradle their boredom. Once a lifetime of waiting was over, one Corpus henchman called them off.
"Get up. We're here." He said, poking each one of them with a turned off prod.
"Oh hell, I was liking the lactic acid on my joints." John dusted himself off as he rose.
The sleepy trio was conducted to the loading bay, where a myriad of soldiers awaited them to board a transport shuttle. Upon seeing the vast amount of soldiers, the group stood in a moment of awe before being pushed to walk further.
"Just like my incarceration." John let out before leading the group into the shuttle.
As soon as the three hit the closest seats next to the wall, the small army of crewmen poured in, taking the remaining seats. The prodmen stuck close to the group as the shuttle's door finally closed. In an uneasy, awkward silence between the group and the soldiers, the ship rumbled into life and was let out into the void, before entering the atmosphere of Europa.
Not too soon the ship came to a halt, and the ever so soft crash of the landing gear hinted towards the fact that they might have landed. Shortly after, the shuttle door came down, letting the frosty breeze bite the ones inside and realize they're in an icy corpus facility. The soldiers poured out towards the facility and the prodmen prudently led the group towards the portal.
After a while of navigating throughout corpus machinery infused with ice, they found the portal. It was there. Vi automatically glared at the immensity and unconsciously walked forward, seemingly trying to absorb the ancient Orokin architecture. A prodman tried to pull her back into formation but was ultimately stopped by Ormah'lore's hands. Her mind wandered into a spiral of seemingly lost memories and fragments were returning to her. Words that she recalled but couldn't finish - feelings that once were true that no longer could be described. Faces that she remembered but couldn't nail down the details. She then lost her balance and knelt before the projector of the portal, the machine that opened up the portal from a void key. John instinctively reached his hand over, before Vi rose alone.
"You okay Vri-anna?" John blurted out. "That was creepy."
"Yes, I'm fine." Vi responded.
"Well?" Ormah'lore interrupted.
"This is it. I remember this faintly from a very long time ago." Vi replied, who started messing around the projector.
After a while of fiddling with the machine, whether by the remaining Transference in her blood, by a fluke, by a combination of both, or by an unknown force still connected to her, the projector roared on. The portal area flourished in void energy and sudden winds grazed by the dozens of denizens inside of the room. But the portal was different. It was pure white. It wasn't violent, like many void portals. It was soft, caring, almost protruding a loving aura.
In spite of its aura, the Corpus took up arms and defensively aimed towards the portal, as they've never seen a portal open without a key. And the times it happened they were vehemently attacked. Vi stepped forward to meet the portal, but John and Travis kept in tow. Ormah'lore gladly reminded them of their deal and sent a squad of crewmen to cross over with the group.
Once everyone surrounded the portal as close as their toes, they took the initiative to cross over. In a rushing blast of white, they arrived. The room was ivory white, clashing with golden highlights, cladded with ancient orokin furniture, flora and memorabilia. No sound was to be made other than the intruding footsteps of the gang. Even the portal that took them in respected the silence.
From nothing, a violent wind encompassed the group and slashed them all, excluding the now confused Vi. The Corpus crewmen were immediately torn apart and dematerialized - whereas Travis and John withstood the wind at full force, covering their faces with their arms, as if that'd help. Vi stepped back, confused and frightened, she continued her path until she hit an astounded figure. Once she turned around, her eyes widened to the face of Lotus, drawing her arm out, as if commanding the winds.
Lotus ignored the little girl and focused on the pair resisting the void so elegantly. John was pure blue at this moment in time and Travis didn't seem to be succumbing any time soon.
"What IS this?!" Lotus exclaimed.
Vi snapped out of her childhood trance and leapt forward.
"Stop! They're my friends!" she cried out, clinging to her arm desperately.
Lotus dropped her friends. John took the time to bray a relieving exhale, with Travis following the same suit by catching his breath.
"Fellas… we gotta… stop bullying… us…" John coughed in between wheezes.
"I... agree..." Travis limited himself.
"My child… your friends?" Lotus turned to Vi.
"Yes, and… we've come here to ask for help." Vi announced.
Lotus looked into the eyes of Vi and let her guard down. She paced forwards and allowed Vi to follow her further into the white room. Vi approached Lotus, who stopped by a small canal of flowing water.
"I can't use the transference." Vi put it bluntly.
Lotus didn't say anything, but instead placed her hand across Vi's forehead. This triggered a sequence of faded memories to once more arise in Vi. She lost the power of her legs and collapsed, forcing Lotus to envelop her arm around her back. John and Travis once more tried to leap to her safety but the situation was quickly controlled.
"You poor thing." Lotus said, letting Vi regain her consciousness.
"You must find these plants." She finished, handing Vi over a small holographic card.
"Trimming jobs, my favorite." John said.
Lotus seemed to look up at John, presumably with a piercing stare as John felt mildly to extremely uncomfortable being near her, taking the opportunity to take a few prudent steps back.
"Once you're done collecting this, combine it all into a tea and drink it my child. The power should flow back, and I'll talk to you once you do." Lotus turned once more at Vi, rising as she does.
"What will it do?" Vi inquired.
"You'll see my child, once you've drunk it, you'll see." Lotus assuredly finished.
"That wasn't very assuring, but there's still a mighty problem." John interrupted.
Lotus violently traced John's position again, this time John stood steadfast against her aura.
"The Corpus are waiting to siphon your energy from the portal. If we go back there empty handed they'll throw me into a pit of fire, cook your daughter here and I don't even want to start what they're going to do to you, Travis. They're going to mess you up." John added.
"Is that so?" Lotus turned to Vi, as if not trusting John.
"Yes, we need your help further. I'm sorry." Vi sorrowfully put it.
Lotus smiled. She cast her right hand at a corner and opened a small portal for them to cross.
"Take this portal. Call upon your ship." She directed at Vi.
Lotus then marched towards the white portal, before crossing in front of dozens of Corpus troops. Ormah'lore could barely contain his excitement at seeing the pure form of the void materialized in front of him. He ordered Lotus' seizure, which led to the Corpus crewmen charging the elegant silhouette of Lotus. She then cast her left hand towards the masses, which led a familiar wheezing wind to perforate their lines and send flying those lucky, killing those unlucky.
She quickly aimed the flurry to the projector, with the intent of destroying it, but not before she stepped inside the portal herself. But before she could do this, a familiar figure erupted from the portal behind her, to which she snapped to.
"Oh, whoops, wrong portal." John snickered, before melding himself slowly back in the portal.
Once she knew it was safe, she threw her hand and collapsed the projector. But by the time the portal disengaged and the winds of the void settled, the silhouette was now missing. Ormah'lore cursed his being once more, after finding out his only chance was ruptured.
Both returned to the ivory room, Lotus stopped John by suspending him in the air, she wrapped around him and looked him in his very face.
"I'm not sure why she chose to trust you. But you keep her safe. In case things go south." Lotus let out, releasing John.
"Go north then, gotcha." John presumably winked at Lotus, dusting himself off.
Lotus then saw to it that the crewman's form dissipated in the portal completely, so that she knew it was safe to close the portal.