Unexistence. Existence. Both or none. Emptiness. Repleteness. It's all but both conditions. I can't feel much, my existence, or lack thereof, or both of these, is limited to… being there. Unseeing. Seeing. Both. None. It is a state of being, and not being. Wait, what was that? A charge like a lightning bolt. What was it? An actual feeling over the permanent stasis? A stricken line of actual change, instead of the perpetual nothing? What is it? Can I fetch it? Can I go to it? Can I get to it? Can I eat it? Can I… exist? I'll try. Reach out to it. Get it. Munch on it. Or not. Depends. I. Need. It.
It wasn't too late after the portal came to an engulfing halt, right after John narrowly avoided being stranded behind, dropping the group in a now eerily silent location. Vi noticed his late arrival and approached John silently:
"Why were you so late? What happened?" Vi questioned.
"Oh, the usual." John deflected. "Holding up, miscellaneous threats, violence. The usual Wednesday."
Vi, in spite of being suspicious, accepted John's answer, and turned around, not before scoffing a little towards the silent hallways that led before them.
"Pretty hi-tech stuff," John commented.
"Lua." Vi marveled at the decrepit surroundings. "I've… it's been a long time since I've last been here."
Vi then flourished into a sprint. John was forced to follow and Travis lagged behind trying only not to get lost. In a race of melding memories of the past with the present, Vi found herself running in a crowd of like-minded people. Racing in between people, jumping beside them, the collective chatter of the crowd illuminated the room and filled her ears. It's as if she never left! The hallways shone bright gold, the doors resonated that familiar sound and the steps echoed as they always did. She arrived at an intersection before a sudden thought crashed into her mind.
"Rubi!" She called out, as she fastened her pace once more, zig-zagging past the faceless people across the hallways, jumping through the undying plants, until she hit a conforming door, with no particular distinguishing features amongst the thousands they've passed through or around. Once the door slid open, reality's weight crashed upon Vi's eyes, as the now darker, decrepit and ruined room stared at her in resonating silence.
"Rubi…?" her voice quivered, containing tears. She looked around once more, finding only dusty panels and tiles. The small bed beside the wall showed no signs of anyone laying on it for a long time. The abandoned circuitry still emitted light from the depths of the satellite, though it kept no life. Vi dolefully sat in the old bed, seemingly stuck in memories past.
John eventually caught up with Vi and Travis filled the room after they've momentarily lost her in the race. Noticing her silhouette sitting across a bed, the sprinting led to a sudden stop and skid until the pair found themselves by the door frame.
"What… got into you?" Travis panted.
"I… can never tell… when you're tired, Travis." John pitched in, before noting Vi's state. "Vi? What happened?"
"This is… was… Rubi's room." She said, now expelling said tears and drawing a bitter smile. "She used to be one of my best friends. I had known her forever until a cataclysm happened. I can't remember exactly what happened but I left her behind. I couldn't be brave enough. Not even for her."
Vi took a pause to raise herself, soaking her sleeve with her tears. Travis took the opportunity to enter the room and inspect it, while John simply stared into space, absorbing the information.
"I've had this stashed away for the longest time. I have no idea where it all went. But it was suppressed inside of me. I can't… even remember when or how I did that. It's been far too long." Vi let out.
John takes this opportunity to get in and attempt a heartfelt hug, leading Vi to recoil, pushing away his arms, and approach the wall on the other end of the room. For a bit, the droning hum of the surviving circuitry reigned the ambiance before John let out:
"So. Orokin. How were they like?" He finished, sitting on the bed.
"It's… been a long time. I've... come at peace to the fact that I've mostly forgotten them." Vi replied.
"Were they… that bad… to you?" Travis chimed in.
"No! Not at all. At least some of them weren't. Rubi was one of my best friends and… one of them."
"What, Orokin? I thought you and them didn't see eye to eye, know what I mean?" John let out.
"Oh, that I don't know. She was a bit different. Didn't really believe the whole 'grandeur' thing. More of a simple person, you know? Look at her room." Vi finished, lifting her arms up, alluding to the rest of the room.
The group fell silent once again. Vi looked down as if defeated.
"She didn't deserve what she got." Vi finished, as she started walking to leave the room. Travis left soon after, as to not lose Vi again. John stepped across the room.
"Well, if you excuse me, Rubi," John said as he crossed the doorway, approaching the still awkward situation.
"So. We better get going to those flowers, huh?" John let out.
Vi limited herself to say nothing and moved forward through the ruined hallways. They still emitted a glitter of light, but nothing compared to the blinding beauty that the rose-tinted glasses Vi saw them through.
"So. How are we going to call upon your ship, your majesty?" John added.
Vi remembered a control room. Not too far from where they were, but directed the group towards a large chamber that held a few terminals, still carrying the decaying power of the Orokin. The old gold still glittered through the small number of lights still turned on. Plantlife overtook the ground, and the glass panels that circled the terminal were all but smashed. The group ran upon the first functional terminal once it was sighted, Vi doing most of the work to recall the shuttle.
"You know, I've never actually even seen a bathroom around here. How did you guys…?" John let out amidst the typing symphony Vi was producing.
Before Vi could draw a conclusion, the terminal's holographic projector let out a familiar shape, alongside a familiar voice.
"Operator?! Oh my, I'm so relieved! They said you were left behind in the void. I thought it was lingo for getting shot!" Ordis let out.
"Ordis, can you hear me? Are you able to fetch us at the location I'm calling you from?" Vi's voice echoed through the empty chamber.
"Yes. Thankfully, or not, the Ormah'lore retrieved part of the blueprints back in Neptune and they were able to repair me. I'm not sure if those blueprints are in safe hands with him. I just… need… " Ordis let out, before cutting to clashing metal and explosive sounds, then returning to silence.
"Ordis? Ordis?! Where are you?!" Vi cried out, with no response, in spite of Vi's numerous attempts at contacting him.
Vi cursed the air with a sharp grunt, while John approached.
"Hey now, kid, that sounded like an exit explosion. I know one when I hear one. Ordis can call any time too." John added.
It wasn't too soon that John's prophecy came to fruition, the terminal lit up as Ordis' voice violently shredded the silence.
"Operator! I have managed to get off from the Corpus hands! I am heading over and I should be there in about ten to twenty minutes." He let out.
Even though this calmed Vi, worrying was not completely off her mind, but she was eased up. The group unanimously agreed to sit around the terminal, hoping to read Ordis once more. Vi decided to take it upon herself to lie next to the terminal, Travis invested his time in inspecting the old machinery, while John tapped his helmet alongside the large windows that peered into space.
In the corner of John's eye, he saw a small gash slit across the skies. It wasn't anything like he'd ever seen before. It looked as if someone had cut space with a knife, letting out whatever was on the other side of the fabric of the universe. It looked… big and in the distance. It wasn't. It was small and right by the window John was leaning against.
It was strange. The small full bright white spewed a small tentacle that immediately filled it and tore it the more as it tried to cross. The strange colored tentacle crashed against the window multiple times but it was frail where it couldn't penetrate the decayed windows.
John barely even looked at it before scoffing at its attempts to break the window. It wasn't until the small cut in space and time slashed across the outside of the building, and let out dozens of bigger tentacles. These crashed against the structure and woke everyone up from their somnolent boredom. It wasn't too long before the invading tentacles breached the aged metal, leading towards the group amassed within.
"What was that?!" Vi woke up as the building rumbled.
"It's… tentacles?" Travis pondered, looking to the outside, peering into the bright white portal that expanded, launching even more tentacles, trying to seemingly grapple the entire satellite.
"I have no idea, something just appeared outside and now they are everywhere," John exclaimed.
Soon enough, the tentacles moved both rock and metal alike in order to find the stranded group. The violent tentacles crushed through the already broken moon and trashed the metal within, finally showing themselves to the group.
Vi was immediately grabbed by one as she attempted to escape towards the tunnels, letting the beast take a hold of her. With this physical contact, the beast abruptly invaded Vi's mind, torturing her with the voices of the beyond. Unable to maintain her mental fortitude, Vi collapsed, unconscious and still in the grasp of the beast.
John took this opportunity to scatter lasers alongside the appendage that held Vi. Usually, these pitiful weapons would bounce off the thickened skin of the beast of the beyond, but these bullets shimmered with seemingly powerful hate stemming from John. It tried to riposte by grabbing John and squeezing the life out of him, but his strength and demeanor (and shields) withered the tentacle away. The beast was taken aback, as he had an aura it hadn't felt in a long time.
Repulsed, the beast dropped Vi and retracted a few of its tentacles. John took this opportunity to throw Vi over his shoulder and escape through the maze of tunnels. Travis managed to crash through the tentacles, avoiding narrowly being captured by the beast.
The two met up as the beast worked to encapsulate Lua. It attempted to stave off the group by completely engulfing the satellite and demolishing it. It felt the aura that Vi put out. It got angrier and angrier by the second.
After a few minutes of running, the group met a breach upon the ground they walked, a cliff hanging over the infinity of space, struck between structures of the Orokin.
The tentacles approached. They scoured the ground and filled the ground. Not even the occasional sentient could survive the onslaught as it was engulfed and crushed beyond recognition. As fate would have it, Ordis appeared in the distance, gleaming the bright sunlight in the distance.
The orbiter came along and shot out the landing craft, shooting its way to the crevice where Travis and John were cornered. Ordis had seen them. The landing craft hastily opened its door as John haphazardly stored Vi within and grabbed onto the machine. It wasn't until the ship took flight once more that he had seen the giant Corpus capital ship chasing Ordis.
Once the Liset clamped to the docking bay, the group fled to meet in the cockpit. John took a detour to sit Vi at the somatic link. Travis already set himself on the cockpit as John approached, leading him to scream at the circuitry.
"Ordis, you bastard! You brought them with you!" John let out, with an uncharacteristic enraged tone.
"Ah, Mr. Rhodes, very pleasant to see you again. And smell you again. I was unable to shake them off my tail. What have you done to the operator?" Ordis let out.
"Something… attacked us. Big… tentacles, the entirety of Lua… has fallen." Travis explains.
Ordis takes the time to scan the outside. Thousands of hundreds of tentacles have wrapped around Lua, locking it much like grapevine on an old wall.
"Almighty…" Ordis uttered, almost not believing what his sensors were picking up, forgetting that he was now heading towards the Corpus capital ship.
"Ordis! Corpus!" A familiar voice shouted up the cockpit. Vi pushed John aside and sat in front of the terminals alongside the cockpit.
"Operator! Oh, I was very worried that these brutes had done you wrong. Did you make it?" Ordis asked as it reversed the flight away from the capital ship.
"I talked with Lotus. There's a way to fix it but we need these ingredients." Vi let out, shoving a paper down a crevice, which gleefully swallowed it and let Ordis take a look.
"Alright. This plant life can be found in Eris, this one in…"
"What… about the Corpus?" Travis let out, insinuating to the capital ship still pursuing them.
"Moreover, what about that giant-ass thingie they have over there?" John presumably pointed towards the beast from the beyond.
"That wouldn't be a problem." Ordis let out, introducing footage from behind the orbiter, showcasing the Corpus capital ship infested with thousands of tentacles, crushing the ship to bits, leading John to become quieter than usual.
"Turn this ship around." John let out. Vi, Travis and, presumably, Ordis looked at John with disbelief.
"You seriously cannot expect us to go back there." Vi directed.
"Please, just turn the ship around." John deflected.
"I cannot possibl- oh he's doing that again." Ordis tried to speak, but not before John ran to the docking back, trying to forcefully dislodge the landing craft.
Vi sprinted to meet John and shouted with a confused, irate face:
"You can't possibly be going back there. Do you know what he's been trying to do to you? To me? To all of us?"
John paused his work to silently eye Vi. In a momentary push of sincerity, John let out, before ripping the landing craft from the orbiter and jump:
"I can't expect you to understand, Vi."