Chapter 2 - Meet n' Greet
A/N - Sup everyone. So in response to one question I got, I will be using Lore Tenno for the story, for the most part. What I mean is, things that haven't been explained in the lore that may be needed in the story will be hand-waved in (ie - Tenno can speak through the Warframes). Just wanted to get that out of the way. On with the story!
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Unknown Time
After getting dropped off in the forest, Aaron wandered for a bit. He hadn't yet detected any signs of lifeforms in the area, but with the state of vegetation here, the Tenno was sure he'd to run into something sooner or later.
Easily leaping over a small stream, he examined his surroundings. While it was much obvious he was in a forest, something about this place seemed... different than what he used to. Normally on Earth, such woodland like this would have been flourishing with life. Birds, insects or creatures of any class. Mammals or reptiles, regardless of their size.
The Tenno stood next to a tree, his right hand touched its bark and caressing it. An unremarkable perennial woody plant as this would be very difficult to look for nearly everywhere on the homeworld of humanity. All trees there were as tall as skyscrapers, yet relatively the same. Little to no variety of their species nor appearance.
Not only that, this forest seemed so... oddly tranquil as well.
Normally, whenever he went to Earth, it was only for performing a mission. Take out another Toxin Injector, or eliminate a Grineer garrison. He didn't pay much attention to admire the scenic view all the time. The only sight he always received on that planet was the bodies spreading their vitriol across the ponds.
His somber thoughts were interrupted by Ordis chiming in private communication channel. "Operator, I'm picking multiple bio-signatures. 50 meters out."
Each of his sensory faculty was instantly on high alert. The Tenno raised his Lanka slightly. "Hostile?"
"Unknown. The creatures don't seem to know you're here. Otherwise, they'd be-"
"Approaching me. Termination will be executed if hostility is confirmed. Keep me updated, Ordis."
"Affirmative, Operator."
He jumped and reached up to a tree branch, pulling himself upward to it before kneeling on the branch. Sighting through the high-magnification scope on the Lanka, the Tenno realized with some annoyance that the intense foliage in the forest was heavily restricting his sightlines. 'I guess that's one good thing about Toxin Injectors; it makes it easier to gain proper headshots at 200 yards,' he sardonically thought.
All thoughts immediately ceased as the first signs of life poked it's head out of the bush in the distance in front of him.
What in the Void?
A fairly apt reaction, taking into account at the creature emerged from the undergrowth which looked unlike anything he had ever seen before. Its appearance bore some resemblance to some bears on Earth. But that's where its similarity ended as the bear-like creature was covered midnight black fur, with bone-white plate on its face and a pair of glowing blood red eyes.
Any normal people would have been easily shocked, their heart racing in either fear or concern at the sight of such an abnormal beast. He would have reacted the same if the Tenno had not been a hardened and cold-blooded killer of nightmares for centuries. For that matter, his first reaction to such an encounter was what some of his kin would call smart, while insipid by others.
He planted a round into its head.
At best, a sniper rifle of similar caliber on this world would have injured the Ursa but not killed it. However, the Corpus Lanka that was in use for years by either Corpus or Tenno, had been steadily developed and perfected to be one of the ultimate tools of precision and elimination with satisfactory effectiveness. Particularly in the lethal hands of the Tenno. A single round from the Lanka could take the head off a Crewman hiding behind 5 meters of Corpus warship plating.
As such, it came as no such surprise to Aaron when the round blew apart the entire upper body of the Ursa, before its corpse collapsed to the ground, leaving a faint smell of burning ozone in the air.
Looks like I can save my rifle for heavy targets.
His self-felicitation was short lived as he watched the creature's body slowly dissolved and evaporated into black smoke. A sight which eerily reminded him of any Infested units he killed right before their carcasses disintegrated into thin air.
The Tenno's recollection was cut short by a transmission from Ordis. "Operator, I'm getting something. A few seconds ago, every single bio-signature started moving towards you. It's like something triggered them."
Of course.
He slung the Corpus sniper rifle onto his back, allowing it to dissolve into the Void. As he did, a Mara Detron swiftly materialized onto his right hip. A powerful hand-shotgun, it had once been the favoured weapon of raiders and pirates. Now it served a much more noble purpose, though there were many who would argue that point.
Just as Aaron landed from the tree, his radar picked up several pings close to his position as several wolf-like creatures burst out from the bushes. They shared the same unusual external features to the creature he dispatched earlier. They all bared mouths lined with dozens of needle-like fangs, growling in an animalistic display of strength.
Back in the safety of the Somatic Link within his Orbiter, Aaron inwardly smirked behind his emotionless facade at the position he was in.
"Very well," he flatly said to the beasts as they growled menacingly at him. His Warframe's digit rested gently on the gun's trigger with discipline, waiting to pull the weapon's mechanism at its initial target. "Who's first?"
-VotS-
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Beacon Academy Initiation
Blake and Yang crept through the bushes at a steady pace, sticking to the shadows in the trees as they approached the temple. Both girls were hoping they would meet other initiates soon. Suddenly, the calm of the forest was shattered, as the pair heard what were clearly loud, inhumane shrieks emanating from somewhere inside the forest.
"Was that one of the other teams?" Yang asked.
Blake shook her head. "No, it sounded like Grimm. Someone must have come under attack."
The blonde girl frowned. She didn't like the idea of someone was being attacked by Grimm, even if everyone inside the forest was well-trained for such things. "Shouldn't we go help them?"
Her raven-haired partner turned her gaze to the source of the screech in the forest. Despite the fact that she also felt a bit of concern for whoever was under attack in the woods, she was confident that they would manage to get through the trouble unharmed. "No, they'll be fine. Besides, I think they'd call out for help if they needed it."
Yang shrugged, unable to deny the logic in Blake's statement. "If you say so."
The candidates continued to proceed to their objective, traversing through the Emerald Forest for minutes, until they cleared the foliage. Walking out from the forest into a clearing, they could see that at the center of the glade was a ruined temple with circular platforms within, along with a dozen pedestals with the relics on top of them, which surprisingly enough were black and gold chess pieces.
"Chess pieces?" Blake asked, a confused expression on her face as she examined the artifacts, noticing there were eight of them left, with some of the the pedestals devoid of any such pieces.
"I guess we aren't the first ones here," Yang said, also aware of the amount of relics left in the temple. She inspected them more closely, looking at each chess piece before she stopped to the one that caught her interest the most. "Well... how about a cute little pony?" She asked excitedly as she picked up a golden knight chess piece.
Blake rolled her eyes at the blonde's childish demeanor, but smiled all the same. "Sure."
However, neither of them realized the screeches that had gone on for several minutes, deep in the forest, had suddenly fallen silent.
-VotS-
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Beacon Academy Initiation
Headmaster Ozpin and Glynda, his ever-dependable friend and fellow teacher, stood on the edge of the cliff facing the Emerald Forest before them, watching the progress of the candidates from their Scrolls. A network of cameras spanned the entire forest, allowing the two teachers to easily observe anything that happened during the initiation.
Ozpin watched from his Scroll as several new pairs were made, such as Cardin and Russel, as well as Blake and Yang. Good, those pairs would do well in their studies. He was about to switch over to Ruby Rose when Glynda called him from behind.
"Professor Ozpin? There's something you need to see."
He sipped his cup of coffee in his other hand before replying to her. "A new pair?"
"No. There's an anomaly." Glynda walked up to the headmaster, showing him the live feed from one of the cameras on her Scroll.
Ozpin looked over the screen and for a second, he didn't see anything wrong with it. "All I see a Grimm's lower body. I presume one of the candidates managed to tear off a Grimm into half."
"And the Grimm pinned to a tree by a piece of wood?" She added.
"I suppose some of the candidates may be a bit more aggressive than we realized," he calmly replied.
Glynda frowned at his nonchalant response, yet she continued. "That's all fine, Professor, but that doesn't address my real issue with this. This location is nowhere near any of the candidates. It's a good 2 kilometers away from any of them. Not only that, we have no confirmation that a team of Huntsmen supposed to be operating in that area. If there were any, we should have been informed of their presence from the beginning."
Her reasoning caught Ozpin's interest as he turned to her. "So you're worry is that whoever did this is not a Huntsman nor our candidates."
She nodded. "It's not normal for Grimm to fight themselves and I've never seen this many of them killed on a scale like this."
Ozpin sighed; he supposed she's right about this. It was unusual for something like this happened during the initiation. He hoped that who or whatever killed the Grimm in Glynda's Scroll wouldn't harm his candidates. He took another sip of the coffee before addressing her. "Let's just wait and see. I have faith in the abilities of the candidates to defend themselves."
-VotS-
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Beacon Academy Initiation
The Grimm were the most fearsome monsters known to mankind on Remnant. Driven by negative emotions of the living, they were fear incarnate, spreading destruction to wherever they went. But even fear had to bow to death. As death was exactly what the Tenno were.
Aaron narrowed his eyes at the situation upon him, completely resolute as he looked at the forms of the bizarre wolf-like beasts that were surrounding him. With an instantaneous thought of demand, a Nikana Prime quickly materialized on his left waist. His left hand slowly grasped its sheath near the sword's guard in a delicate manner, which prompted the beasts to charge at the Tenno.
Faster than a person's normal eyes could see, the Excalibur Prime swiftly raised his Mara Detron and rapidly fired five consecutive shots at the first five wolf-like creatures before him from left to right. Two of them instantly received a massive hole on their chest, the other two beasts had their lower jaw blown off to bits and their neck was almost shredded, while the last one lost entire upper part of its head with only its lower jaw left intact.
All five of them were killed within two seconds.
As time became slower for the Tenno, from his peripheral vision he saw two other beasts coming at him from his left. With swift movements, Aaron holstered his sidearm to his right hip before pivoted on his heel, turning left towards the creature. Pushing the guard with his thumb, the sword thrusted slightly out from its sheath. As the Tenno bent down a little, his free hand grasped the Nikana Prime's handle before he dashed forward. He pulled the sword out of its sheath and swung it in a golden arc, cleanly bisecting both creatures that were about to pounce on him.
Two-and-a-quarter seconds was all he needed to slice off the two.
For all their fearsome appearances and capabilities, the Grimm might as well be mere insects to the Warrior-God. With several more Grimm before him, Aaron blurred forward in movement, becoming a quick smear of alabaster and gold against the greenery. Within a few seconds, four more Beowolves found themselves bisected as their upper bodies flying.
An Ursa charged forward and he flipped over the beast. As he hung in the air above the Ursa, Aaron produced the Mara Detron and fired at its head. The gun's radioactive pellets ripped through the creature's armored head like it was nothing, before blowing its head off in the process by the pellets' sheer kinetic energy.
Even before the bear-like creature's corpse hit the ground, the Tenno fired another blast straight into a Beowolf in below front of his right, denying its head from its body permanently. He slid as soon as he landed on the ground. Without turning his head to another Beowolf left of him, he lifted the Mara Detron to his chest level, directing its muzzle at the Grimm before firing the weapon, sending the beast flying backward.
The clearing was interspersed with streaks of turquoise produced from the muzzle of his hand-shotgun, and flashes of gold from his blade. The weapons spoke and death answered his call for his targets' inevitable demise.
As Aaron stood up, he quickly holstered the Mara Detron before using his free right hand to catch a punch from another Ursa, stopping the attack dead in its tracks. His arm didn't move by the slightest by the momentum of the punch he stopped. In Aaron's next move, he promptly lifted his right leg for a front push kick.
The Excalibur Prime's foot connected in the middle of the Ursa's chest. With the Warframe's highly enhanced and dense musculature allowed him to kick it like a plush toy. The Grimm didn't know it of course, but he had pulled that kick. It was propelled backwards, slamming into a tree with such force that the trunk exploded, sending metre long shards of wood flying around the clearing.
With the motion tracker identifying a target behind him, the execution was simple. Smoothly turning around, he grabbed a rather sharp and rigid piece of wood on the one fluid motion, he tensed his arm, before hurling the shard of wood at the nightmare-wolf sneaking up behind him. Like a Zeus's thunderbolt, it hit just below the neck, sending the wolf flying and pinning it to a tree, which made pained sounds at the impact.
He released his left hand's hold on the Nikana Prime's sheath before the weapon disappeared into the Void. The Tenno took a few seconds to examine the result of his performance. Fourteen unknown creatures dead in under 30 seconds. Sloppy.
Teshin would be more than a little displeased if he saw this now, he sourly thought.
As Aaron inwardly reprimanded himself for his mediocre execution, Ordis' voice filled his thoughts. "Operator, I'm picking up an artificial structure 2 clicks south-west. Presumably built by the local inhabitants."
I guess that's where I'm going, he thought. "Thank you, Ordis. Keep me posted. En route to destination now." The Tenno paused for a second to make sure everything was ready with his equipment. In a flash, the Warrior-God was gone. Sprinting and weaving through the thick forest to his next objective.
-VotS-
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Beacon Academy Initiation
Yang and Blake had just retrieved their pieces when they heard another shriek penetrate the dense forest cover. This one, however, was more obviously human. Both of them whipped around, trying to find the source of the scream.
"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang exclaimed, looking around in concern.
However, the blonde noticed that Blake did not respond as she did, as the girl was staring slack-jawed at something in the sky. Yang followed her gaze upwards and saw something falling from a Nevermore circling above.
"HEADS UUUUUPPPP!" Ruby screamed as she fell towards the ground. There were chances that she would have a painful and possibly fatal landing if she actually hit the ground. As fate would have it, Jaune, who had been flung by a massive Deathstalker, intercepted her, causing both candidates to slam into a tree.
Soon afterwards, the woods to the left of Yang and Blake suddenly burst apart, revealing a massive Ursa. Both girls was about to prepare themselves for a fight when a familiar orange-haired girl jumped off its back as the Ursa collapsed to the forest floor.
"Aww, it's broken," Nora sadly stated as she pouted.
Her partner, Ren, came from behind the dead Ursa, looking exhausted. "Nora… please… Don't ever do that again," he asked the girl while visibly short of breath. He might as well have saved his breath as Nora had already darted over to the temple for the relics.
She inspected each chess piece on the pedestal carefully, gazing at them with captivation like a child until she stopped in front of a golden rook chess piece. After a short moment, she grabbed the piece and put it on her head as she danced around with it while singing excitedly. "I'm the queen of the castle, I'm the queen of the castle!"
"NORA!" Ren shouted, snapping the orange-haired girl to her senses.
She caught the chess piece as it fell off her head before walking to the irritated boy, giggling. "Coming, Ren!"
Yang looked like she really wanted to say something at that moment, but her train of thought was interrupted when the treeline before them exploded again. This time it was Pyrrha being chased by a Deathstalker, which was massive enough that it produced tremors every time it stepped.
The blonde girl snapped, her eyes flashed red and a miniature explosion erupted under her feet. "I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"
It was at that moment when Ruby pointed at something above, showing that Weiss was also falling from the Nevermore, on an intercept course for the ground.
All of this added up to a scene extremely confusing for a particular being watching the teens afar.
-VotS-
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Beacon Academy Initiation
What in the Void is going on over there?
Aaron had reached a large rocky outcrop that overlooked the artificial structure, which turned out to be a massive stone construct. Looking at its design, the structure appeared to be a temple or almost like an open altar almost similar to old Earth ruins. Such remains of an old structure was not uncommon to find, even on a Grineer-controlled Earth.
Of course, that didn't prepare the Tenno also for finding humans in the area. Human children in particular, and all of them didn't look much younger than he did.
Analytically observing through the scope of his Lanka, he watched as more and more children gathered in the clearing. Interestingly, a girl rode in on one of those bizarre bear-like creatures he had encountered earlier. The thought of riding the beast had never occurred to him. Interesting choice of travel.
All of a sudden, Aaron heard an explosion coming from the treeline. He turned the scope to the source and saw another female child in bronze armor, running from with what appeared to be a giant scorpion the size of a Landing Craft. This one also shared the same features as the beasts he killed earlier—covered in bone-like armor with red markings on them.
As the Tenno observed the entire scene from the scope, he noticed one of the girls was looking at something above, which followed suite by other children standing beside her. Aaron pulled himself away from the Lanka's scope and inspected the sky. That's when he saw another female child dressed in white clothes of unfamiliar design fell from a giant bird in the sky before getting caught, and consequently saved by a young man in a breastplate.
He'd be lying if such a nonsensical scene he witnessed in front him didn't amused the Tenno by the slightest. "Ordis, are you getting this?"
"Affirmative, Operator. Quite extraordinary to find -lowlife scum- humans here. Perhaps we have stumbled upon a lost Orokin colony?"
Aaron mused over such implication from the Cephalon. If Ordis was correct, then they had stumbled upon a monumental discovery— there were humans existed outside of the Origin System. Whatever had happened today on this world, he needed to report back to the Lotus over the finding of great importance.
His thoughts were interrupted when one of the children, who dressed quite strangely in a red cloak, yelled something to her companions. Aaron amplified the audio sensors on his Excalibur Prime, where her voice finally reached him from the distance.
"Not if I can help it!" The girl in red cloak yelled out, before she produced a collapsible scythe twice her size and promptly charged into the open field towards the giant scorpion.
As she swung the scythe to the back, that's when Aaron found out it's also a firearm—a dual-purpose weapon similar to Redeemer and Sarpa gunblades—as she propelled herself forward at great speed by aiming the weapon behind and firing it.
The Tenno had not yet to fight such a creature, but he could tell that the sheer bulk and armour on the thing could probably withstand several shots from even an Ogris rocket launcher. From a tactical standpoint, the girl's actions was absolutely idiotic. What's worse, she didn't even try to carry out any evasive maneuvers against the beast.
His hypothesis was proven correct when the girl's scythe bounced off of its bony plates and the subsequent shot from its built-in gun had no effect. She was knocked back by the scorpion's massive pincer and flew back into the ground. The girl then pushed herself up and yelled to her companions that she was fine.
How she able to survive such hit without broken bones, internal bleeding nor any physical injury on her body was a mystery to the Tenno. He wasn't sure whether she had some kind of personal energy shield that was invisible to the naked eye, or the girl in actuality was genetically enhanced.
Realizing that her attack didn't have any damaging effect on the giant scorpion, the girl with red cloak attempted to flee from it. He then saw a blonde girl ran out to the field and shouted "RUBY!" at the girl with red cloak.
Without warning, the giant bird circling in the sky shrieked and flapped its wings, sending a hailstorm of huge feathers that stabbed the surface like spears, aimed with deadly intent at the fleeing child.
The girl with the red cloak swiftly weaved in between the feathers, avoiding them. Just when it looked like she was about to make it home free, fate decided to step in, and one of the feathers stabbed her cloak, pinning her to the ground while the other feathers continued to spike around her, preventing the blonde teen from moving any closer to the little girl. As she frantically trying to remove her cloak's restraints, the giant scorpion was approaching the girl for the kill.
Aaron mentally grimaced in the safety of his pod at the view. Every muscle fiber within the Warframe tensed as the Tenno became lightly on edge in his seat. "Ordis, any suggestions? Help out or keep quiet?"
The Cephalon hurriedly replied. "Operator, that girl will die if you don't move! You're a Tenno! -ACT LIKE ONE-!"
For a brief moment, the Tenno contemplated his current situation. He needed a way to contact the Lotus. The Orbiter wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, as the Void Jump core had been severely damaged by the reckless jump before. He wasn't sure if the locals here possessed the appropriate technology and resources to repair the core. He wasn't sure if he would stuck on this planet indefinitely. He did not know if these locals would accept such an abomination like him. All he knew was that they were his best chance for survival, and possibly their own.
The Warrior-God made his choice. Training the Lanka's scope on the giant scorpion, he took a couple of seconds to counterbalance the projectile's travel time to the target, before letting his finger slipped onto its trigger.
-VotS-
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Beacon Academy Initiation
Yang was screaming her little sister's name, while Weiss quickly brandished Myrtenaster as she prepared to save her partner. Before either of them could react, however, they heard a loud crack split the air in the valley, just as they saw the Deathstalker stumble back.
Ruby risked a glance, peering over her raised hand. The Deathstalker was shrieking in pain, a huge, smoking gash in its head. She heard another crack, as though it came from a high-powered rifle, before another similar wound opened up instantly on its back. The Grimm whirled around looking for the source of its pain. Ruby took the time to remove the clamps of her cloak before she rushed back into the safety of her group. Everyone was just as confused as to what was happening to the Grimm in front of them.
Until they saw him drop down between them and the Deathstalker.
The being which stood before the students had the same appearance as a human, but it was solid eight feet tall and appeared to be wearing an armored suit of unfamiliar design. Alabaster and cinereal circled its body, with aureate veins tracing a glimmering filigree, sparkling in the sunlight. But most unusual was the helmet, where a horn was visible on it's head. Whether that was part of the armor or the mystery person's actual anatomy, they had no idea.
The group could see that it was well-armed. In its right hand was some kind of an oversized pistol with bronze frame, while the other held a long, katana-esque blade as its sheath resting upon the warrior's left waist. The blade's entire aesthetics was similar to the armor the creature wore. Gold and white; regal yet utilitarian.
It turned to them for a second, resulting in each student became wide eyed as they stared upon a golden circle over where its face would have been. The creature looked at them for a moment before it turned its attention back to the Deathstalker.
Ruby was the first to break the silence that had fallen on her group. "Wh-Who are you?" She hesitantly asked.
The mystery Warrior remained quiet, it didn't answer her inquiry as its attention was focused solely on the giant scorpion of nightmare in front of it.
Impatient with the person's silent treatment to them, especially to her little sister, Yang stepped up to the figure. "Hey, are you gonna help us or what?" It kept ignoring her question, treated the blonde girl with reticence which upset her. "Yo, buddy! Are you listening to me?!"
Before her hand reached the figure's back, it abruptly dashed forward in a gold-white blur in the blink of an eye, leaving the teen behind as she stood there and gaped at its shocking swiftness, comparable to Ruby's Semblance. A wail far from the front drew her attention back to the Grimm.
Having recovered from its injuries, the Deathstalker now glared at the being that had caused them, who was sprinting towards it at high speed. With a bone chilling shriek, the angry giant scorpion charged, intent on killing its prey under its claws. Little did it know, the 'prey' had other plans for the Deathstalker.
As the gold-white Warrior rushed to the target, it directed its massive handgun at the Grimm and rapidly fired three successive shots at the beast's face. The glowing turquoise pellets that burrowed into its bony face caused the Deathstalker screeched in agony. As the Warrior was closing in, the large Grimm thrusted its stinger towards the attacker.
In a split second, the Warrior abruptly stopped in its tracks before it dodged the stinger in a quick sidestep, nearly hitting its head. The Warrior turned to the giant scorpion and saw its face was still exposed, which prompted the Gold-White to raised its pistol at chest level, fully confident the muzzle was directed at the beast's face. Without having to use the weapon's sight, it pulled the trigger.
The Deathstalker shrieked again as another of those pellets hit its face again, causing the beast more pain than before. As the Grimm recoiled in agony, the gold-white swiftly holstered its sidearm and grabbed the sword's handle. Some parts of the Warrior's body gleamed instantaneously in an intense tint of dark azure. Not wasting anymore time, the Tenno rushed to the Deathstalker and jumped on its right pincer, launching itself upward towards the stinger.
The Warrior pulled the sword out of its sheath and swung in a vertical arc, effortlessly severed off the Deathstalker's stinger from its tail. The entire blade glowed in faint navy aura, while the strong part of it shone in intense blue light, producing sparkling white particles from it.
As it was in mid-air away from the Deathstalker, the warrior rebounded mid-air, angling back to the Grimm. Holding the grip with both hands, the Warrior pointed its sword downward to the beast before gravity started to pull the figure to the surface. It stabbed the Grimm in the head just as it landed on the creature, instantly killing it.
As the Warrior pulled the sword out from the corpse and walked away from the slain giant scorpion, indistinct bluish light quickly poured over the dead Grimm as it was slowly and viciously disintegrated from existence. Within seconds, nothing was left of the creature on the field.
-VotS-
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Beacon Academy Initiation
"A job well done, Operator. The Lotus would be proud of you." Ordis complemented over the private channel.
"Thank you." Aaron calmly walked to the awestruck teenagers as he sheathed his Nikana Prime, before the weapon vanished back into the Void.
He couldn't understand why there were children, armed children, in a dangerous place filled with hostile creatures that wanted to kill seemingly everyone. Each of said young people were still looking him with wide eyes, as well as their mouth was hanging open. Such reaction from the natives who first witnessed the capabilities of a Tenno wasn't uncommon. It wasn't very different to the responses Aaron received from the colonists he saved from the Grineer on Mars, which was a few weeks after he was awakened from eons of sleep.
After he stopped in front of the group, the little girl who lost her red cloak was shaking as she stared at him. The Tenno wasn't sure what was wrong, until her mouth opened, and he was barraged by excited questions.
"Who are you?!" Ruby quickly asked enthusiastically, before rapidly firing a multitude of questions. "Are you from Atlas? Are you a Huntsman? Where did you get those weapons? They're so cool! Wait, where's your weapons now? And how did you make that Deathstalker disappear?! Was that your Semblance?"
Ruby stopped for a moment to catch her breath, she was really hoping this mysterious warrior would answer all her questions and satiate her curiousity. However, several seconds had passed and the tall armored person remained tight lipped as he stared at her. Even though there were no visible eye-slits nor a glass visor, Ruby couldn't help but feeling a little uneasy at his stare, especially from that featureless face of his.
"Uh... are you okay mister?" Ruby nervously asked. A part of her wondered if he didn't like the way she gave her questions or whether this man was actually a mute.
The mysterious warrior was staring at the girl for a moment before he turned away from her and inspecting each teen in the group, ignoring her. A sad look was on Ruby's face, she felt a bit depressed that her chance to get some answers was quickly washed away.
Yang glanced at her sister and saw the down look on her, which made the blonde upset at this man's intentional disregard at Ruby. "Hey, she asked you some question, buddy. Don't you know it's rude if you don't answer them?"
The warrior regarded Yang for a while before he turned his gaze to Blake, who stood next to her. Yang's eyes flashed red and she gritted her teeth, clearly angry at the guy for treating both her and her little sister with no respect.
He slowly continued inspecting every teenagers in the group, where all of them except Yang were unnerved by his faceless, stoic gaze which seemed to be staring deep into their soul. Adding that he was silent the whole time made most of them slightly more queasy.
After he had done his examination, the mysterious warrior turned from the group and left them as he walked towards the forest. As he was about to pass the giant Nevermore feathers spreading all over field, Ruby stopped him again. "Wait, what's your name?"
The silent warrior stopped in his tracks, paused for a moment before he continued walking. This made Ruby dispirited a little more, while Yang seethed silently at the man. "Man, that guy was a total jerk!" Yang exclaimed angrily.
Unexpectedly, the mysterious warrior stepped towards one of the Nevermore feathers on the field, the one that still had Ruby's hood stuck below it. They watched him held the feather with one hand and to their amazement, the warrior slowly pulled it upwards until the pointy end of the feather came out of the earth and out of Ruby's cloak. Their eyes widened a bit at the incredible strength he had for pulling the Nevermore feather, which was sunken deep into the ground, with only one hand. What really made them look at the mysterious warrior in disbelief though was the fact how quick and easy for him to lift it.
The warrior tossed the feather away before he picked up Ruby's cloak that unfortunately had a hole on it. He walked back towards the group and silently held the damaged cloth back to its owner.
"Oh, thank you!" Ruby quickly grabbed her cloak from his hand, holding it close to her chest and mentally made a vow never to lose the cloak again. She was so happy to discover that this person was actually not as bad as it seemed. "You were saying, Yang?"
"Hmmph! He's still a jerk for not answering your questions, sis." Yang pouted as she crossed her arms over her chest. One single act kindness was not enough for her to change her mind about this person before them.
"Tenno."
Everyone jumped, they were caught off guard by the mysterious warrior who they almost thought was a mute, who possessed a deep, rugged, masculine and electronic voice. Not only that, for some weird reason, they felt a slight chill creeping down their spine and legs as the man first spoke, as well as getting goosebumps from it.
"I-Is that y-your name?" Ruby shakily asked, the unexplained chill was rubbing off on her.
"It is what I am."
The teenagers felt a little uncomfortable and cold again as soon as the warrior talked. He turned away from the group and walked, leaving them behind before he suddenly dashed towards the treeline at incredible speed, melting within the shadows of the forest.
Silence was emanating over the group over what had just transpired before them. Jaune was the first to break the quiet. "W-Who the heck was that guy?
Blake tore her eyes away from the forest to the rest of the teenagers. "His armor suit was something like Atlas tech to me. Maybe it's some kind of a prototype?"
Weiss shook her head. "I don't think so. I've never heard of Atlas making anything like that." If it was made in Atlas, she and her company would be the first to know about it, as any research and development activity in her country was run or overseen by Schnee Dust Company.
"Do you guys think we should tell Headmaster Ozpin about this? Because I really don't think that guy was part of the initiation," Pyrrha spoke up.
However, their conversation was cut short as the Nevermore that was circling up in the sky squawked again, gaining every student's attention. Yang pumped her gauntlets, preparing for another battle. "Let's take care of that Grimm first, then we can worry about our new pal."
The others nevertheless agreed, quickly brandishing their weapons before charging into their first real fight in the initiation.
While she charged alongside them, Ruby's mind continuously strayed back to the mysterious warrior who had saved her. He called himself 'Tenno'. Was that his real name? Or a title? What did he mean by it was what he was?
Another squawked from the Nevermore pulled her back into reality. Ruby shook the thoughts away, she could wonder about that later after she, Yang and her friends returned safely at Beacon Academy.
-VotS-
Milky Way Galaxy, Orion Arm
Remnant, Vale
Emerald Forest, Atmosphere
Aaron slowly stepped out of the Somatic Link's chair. Staggering for a few seconds, he leaned on the smooth, almost organic metal of the pod. He was still shocked at what just occurred on the below. Just as the Tenno ran his hand through his hair, staring at the floor and trying to process what happened down there, Ordis' voice came through the speaker.
"Operator, are you feeling unwell? Do you require assistance?"
He shook his head. "I'm fine, Ordis. I... I just need to digest the information I just got."
"Very well. But I have to inform you that just before you fought those unknown creatures below, I detected numerous hidden cameras placed within the forest. All of them were sending feeds to a large compound 5 km away, every structure there was of 'modern' yet obsolete design."
Aaron tore off his gaze from the floor to the ceiling above him. He needed to think about that information later. "I assume you had that taken care of?"
"The level of security was primitive. Ordis easily hacked into the cameras' wireless network and disrupted every footage just before you enter the view. What they got instead was static and it would only return to normal once you're out of the camera's sight. -TAKE THAT-!"
He nodded, grateful to have a Cephalon who always took the initiative for him. "Good work, Ordis. Thanks."
"Anytime, Operator."
As soon as the Mad Cephalon's voice disappeared from the speaker, Aaron's mind flashed back to what he had witnessed out in the forest on the planet below.
"Humans," he muttered. What were humans doing this far from the Origin System? As far as the Lotus and the Tenno were concerned, not a single colony of the Orokin Empire had survived the Old War with the Sentients. Only Origin had managed to survive.
Not only that, but if they were a long lost Orokin colony, then at least they should've recognized the signature golden appearence of the Prime Warframe which he had wielded, a near legendary symbol of Orokin might. But the children he had met, according to what he had seen from their expression, had reacted with utter surprise that one would show when they met something very unfamiliar.
This was a troubling discovery for the Tenno. If there was a significant human population on this planet, developed far away from Orokin culture, then by any means he had to ensure that no one but the Tenno found it. The world below seemed peaceful and stable enough, but if the Grineer or Corpus, or heavens forbid, the Infestation discovered it, the repercussions could be calamitous for inhabitants.
And what were those bizarre beasts he had faced? Pure malevolence had radiated off of them and he had felt it. Their foulness was something he never encountered before, yet it was nothing he couldn't handle. As a Tenno, it was his duty to protect the Orokin and humanity... but what did that mean here, far from home and centuries after Orokin's collapse?
There was only one way to find out. He needed to speak with someone who's in charge down there, preferably a reasonable authority figure. He also would like to have a proper word to whoever sent those children into a such dangerous area filled with those hostile creatures. Were they trying to turn those kids into child soldiers if the weapons in their possession was of any indication? The Tenno didn't like it one bit. It reminded him too much of the horrific experiences he and his brothers and sisters had endured, suffered in the hands of the Orokin to become the Warrior-Gods they were now.
Alone. Stranded. Too many unknowns and far away from home. Aaron felt a slight apprehensive at the situation he's in because there was no one for him in this unknown system to rely on from here on out.
Was this how you felt, Mirage?