A/N: Hello again! Once again, thanks for reading! I have a few things to say this time.
1) This chapter starts a bit dark so hopefully it isn't too bad.
2) I am planning to make a series of oneshots with the characters in this story (both main and background characters) so if you have any suggestions for things you'd want me to write about for those, please let me know through review or personal message!
3) As always questions, comments, suggestions or tips, and corrections are encouraged!
4) Enjoy the chapter!
The light was blinding. As soon as she opened her eyes, Valkyr closed them again. After a bit she tried again and looked into the light. It was stronger than any light she had ever seen before. She had no idea where she was or what was going on, it was just the light restricting her view of the area.
She went to move her hand to block the light. But it didn't move. She tried again and once again her arm wouldn't budge. She started to panic and looked left and right seeing that her arms were bound tightly to a table. She tried to move her and couldn't do that either, presumably because they were tied down too. She panicked some more, this time screaming for help, confused as to why she couldn't move.
"Don't strain yourself Tenno," said a taunting voice that Valkyr couldn't locate, "we don't want you tiring yourself out before the main event now would we?"
"Show yourself!" she yelled back.
"As you wish," the voice responded as a head moved to block the light slightly.
She instantly recognized the face. How could she forget it? It was the face of her target, the face of the man who had been kidnapping and killing her fellow Tenno, the face of the psychotic Corpus executive. Alad V.
In a sudden burst of hate, Valkyr tried to launch herself at Alad V. She pulled at the restraints while her vision turned red, wanting nothing more than get at the taunting executive and tear him to literal bit. She wanted revenge for her fellow Tenno but couldn't achieve it, the restraints wouldn't budge at all.
She suddenly felt an overwhelming calm take over for a few seconds as she caught hold of her thoughts, thoughts she never imagined she would ever think about anybody. She started to cry as the panic rose again. Bitter tears of defeat and disappointment fell from her eyes yet she didn't take her eyes off Alad V.
"What… did you do to me you filth?!" she said darkly.
"What did I do to you?" he asked innocently. "Well nothing much. I'm just trying some things out. Experimenting if you will."
"Why are you doing this?" Valkyr asked, her voice on the edge of rage.
"Well isn't it obvious?" Alad V asked, "It's for profit! And I can get a lot of profit out of you!" he finished with a horrifying laugh.
The panic in Valkyr rose again as the restraints tightened even more and Alad V moved closer with a maniacal grin. The tears were still falling, this time in fear though, as Alad V grabbed various instruments and started roughly pushing them into Valkyr. When he finished, he grabbed a small knife and started looking at Valkyr's body while slowly sliding his hand over her body.
The panic skyrocketed and she tried to fight back. She tried getting out of the straps again to no avail all while screaming loudly and shaking her head around violently in an attempt to do something helpful. She screamed again suddenly as she saw a flash of the knife and was swiped by the knife directly across her face.
"Shut up Tenno!" Alad V yelled before going back to work.
She tried again. Kicking, screaming, shaking her head as hard as possible but stopped suddenly as the knife flashed again but this time found the knife driven deep into her right arm and then ripped out violently resulting in a giant gash across her arm.
"You know," Alad V said, "it doesn't matter if you are mutilated as long as you are still alive. I can just keep applying more wounds if you misbehave."
That was when it hit her. She could see the wound on her arm and feel the blood dripping down her face from the cut across her face but there was no pain. She started to panic even more. He was experimenting on her but she wouldn't pass out from pain so she would be conscious the whole time.
She started to cry even more as the terror set in and looked down just in time to see Alad V cut a giant slash into her stomach and look inside. He was dissecting her alive and there was no way out. She felt only pure terror as multiple more cuts were made. She felt pure disgust and hatred as she felt the executive's hands all over her and tried to withhold the stomach contents that she could feel trying to find its way up her throat. She tried to look away but couldn't as multiple metal attachments were roughly connected to her body.
After what seemed like hours of horror he finally seemed to stop and look at his handy work with an evil smile.
"It seems I'm about done," Alad V said smugly. "I will miss our time together," he added causing Valkyr to quickly shift her gaze at her captor. "Oh yes," he said gleefully, "I have everything I need already so it is time to get rid of you." At the he grabbed a giant knife from a table and moved closer to the Tenno.
Valkyr panicked even more than ever. She couldn't control the fear as he slid his hand over her body one more time and raised the knife above her heart. She saw it plunging towards her body and cried out at the last moment in defeat and terror.
Then she woke up.
It had been months if the traditional earth calendar and time system was used. Lonewolf sat in a padded room watching over a sleeping Valkyr who was tied tightly to the bed in order to protect herself and anybody who watched her. Recently that had most been Lonewolf.
Today was just like any other day. The first time he watched her, he panicked when she tried to fight against the constraints in her sleep but now it was like clockwork. At almost the same time every night she would fight the constraints to the point where Lonewolf could not look at her wrists anymore. He had found it best to wait for her to wake up before he tried to help.
This time she woke up with a scream and Lonewolf was instantly there. He saw the panic in her eyes mixed with a feral rage that never left. She fought the restraints violently before finally noticing the Tenno she trusted so much right in front of her. She settled down quickly but burst into tears as she realized she was still living a lifelong hell even though the Corpus executive was now dead.
Lonewolf moved in quickly and held her while she cried, trying to stay strong for her and only barely succeeding. They didn't even need words anymore. She trusted him and he couldn't stand to see her in this state. They both cared for each other and it helped even though recovery was still very slow.
Not long after, Lonewolf was summoned to meet with his squad.
"Seems like I have to go," the Ash said sadly as he saw the Tenno flinch but nod slightly. "Hopefully you will get back into the field soon after they get these contraptions off," he said as he eyed the attachments that Alad V had connected to her. The attachments that no Tenno doctor had successfully removed.
He started to move towards the door. As the door opened he paused for a second not wanting to leave Valkyr behind.
"Please come back soon," Valkyr whispered just loud enough to hear. Lonewolf turned seeing the tears in her eyes, her sweat filled black hair stuck to her forehead, and the deep cuts on her wrists from the restraints. "Please," she whispered even quieter."
"Don't worry," Lonewolf said with some difficulty, "I'll be back before you know it." And he finally left the room.
When he arrived at the room where the rest of his squad was located, Lonewolf also saw the Lotus. He instantly knew that this was important and quickly stood next to his squad to receive instructions.
"So, what's the mission?" Spud started.
"Over the past several days I have detected several Corpus vessels travelling way outside normal shipping routes," the Lotus said not wasting any time. "Normally, this would not be cause for concern but these ships are heavily armoured and flying dark. My long range scans are coming back scrambled. Someone wants to keep these ships hidden. I suspect troop movement or worse."
"So, you want us to check it out?" Hayden asked.
"Yes, exactly," the Lotus confirmed. "I want you four to go to one and see what is going on. It cannot reach its destination so kill its crew."
Soon afterwards, the squad was at its destination. They quietly boarded the ship and checked their weapons before running out. Thinking the fight would be easy, Spud quickly ran out to attack with his Kronen but was instantly bombarded with bullets, quickly taking him down.
"Shit!" he yelled. "These guys hit hard!"
His squad was there instantly. Lonewolf cleared the room easily with a blade storm and Spud was up within a few seconds. As they got settled down and were discussing that they should be more careful, their HUDs crackled and a face appeared on their screens. The face of Alad V.
"Well, look who finally showed up!" he said almost sounding delighted. "I was wondering how long it would take you to find my little... operation."
They all paused in shocked as the face disappeared. They looked at each other before Spud called for the Lotus.
"Lotus," he said slowly, "it's Alad V."
There was silence for a bit before she responded. "I see," she said simply. "Keep me up to date on everything," she ordered. "I will stay in your comms for updates. This has the highest priority."
"Alad V?!" Lonewolf finally sputtered. "This can't be true. I put a bullet between his eyes!"
The picture returned instantly as if he had been listening. "What's that? You thought I was... dead?" he taunted. "Hah! That's cute. Nothing but rumors and exaggeration I'm afraid. Though to be honest, times have been tough, what with you trying to kill me and all." He disappeared once again.
"Well let's just keep going," Spud said. "We still have a mission to complete."
They started off instantly and ran into room after room full of soldiers. Even though the fights were more difficult than most, Hayden and Falken kept everybody healthy well enough that nobody was seriously injured. After a few rooms they ran into a locked door.
"My scans show this door will be impassable without outside intervention," the Lotus said cutting in suddenly. " Access the panel so that I can hack it remotely."
Spud quickly set up a connection and the squad waited. While they waited, Spud took the time to gain a status report.
"Lotus?" he asked, "What is the mission's status in terms of number of enemies?"
"It looks like Alad V has a small battalion guarding this ship," she responded. "What I don't know is where he is getting all the troops. My scans say there are still a significant number left so there will be more resistance to come. But Alad V is clearly up to something." she said as she worked. "The door is open. Get moving," she ordered as soon as the door was open.
The squad ran in but didn't see the troops they expected to see. What they found was a glass cylinder in the middle of a room. Inside they could clearly see infested biomass and an infested crawler climbing on it.
"What in the wor-" Falken started before being cut off by another transmission from Alad V.
"Tenno! Tenno! You're not supposed to be in here!" he said. "You're going to ruin the surprise!"
"Lotus?" Hayden said into her comms. "You are going to want to see this."
Instantly, a connection was made to Spud's Helios to use the camera. She gasped slightly upon seeing the infested biomass and crawler in the glass. Helios followed Spud as he walked around the tube. On the other side, there was a Corpus soldier inside the tube partially consumed by the infested matter and was seemingly grasping towards Spud, trying to escape.
"Oh my god," Spud whispered in disbelief as he pulled out one Lex pistol and aimed it at the soldier's head. A single shot rang out as he put the crewman out of its suffering, driving a bullet straight through the glass and into his head.
"Recent events have led me to diversify my business." Alad V continued from before. "Biotics are such an underappreciated sector. The Corpus Board wants nothing to do with them. I disagree. I think they are the future. Your future Tenno," he finished before the transmission ended once again.
Suddenly, a roar of types was heard in the next. The squad ran towards it quickly and entered the door with guns ready to go. What they saw was a terrifying scene. The room was filled with Corpus soldiers but they were fighting the infested. The watched as the soldiers tried to defend themselves from the onslaught of infested beasts quickly making their way towards them. One infested jumped on top of a Corpus crewman who fell over and was instantly swarmed as he screamed in fear.
The Tenno quickly jumped into action to ward off the infested. Spud pulled up his weapon and quickly located ancients standing around and started taking shots while Lonewolf started to spray bullets down range to start work on the smaller infested. Hayden's Sybaris took shots at various larger infested while Falken got in close, laid down a Hollowed Ground and started rapidly firing his dual pistols at the infested monstrosities. Once he had taken out the ancients, Spud slid in to help Falken with the smaller infested. His Kronen came off his back and the flash of metal showed that his strikes hit true and strong. He grabbed his Lex and started taking shots as well as Falken grabbed his glaive and started throwing it through multiple infested, cutting them cleanly in half. Once the infested had thinned, Lonewolf activated his blade storm and finished the rest of the infested and leaving one Corpus soldier still standing. As the ability ended, the Corpus fired one shot at the Ash who quickly dodged and pulled out his Acrid to fire a single shot into the soldier which quickly ate at the soldier's body as the poison rapidly spread through his body.
"Ungrateful," Lonewolf growled as he put away the pistol and quickly followed his squad.
Throughout the ship, the squad found less Corpus and more infested. The fights were still tough but surprise was no longer an advantage the enemy held and the group always found themselves victorious. As they headed towards the extraction after finally finishing off the last of the infested, Alad V sent another transmission.
"Have you guessed my business plan yet?" he asked with a taunting laugh. "Well, do not fret. You will find out soon enough. Though, I must say, I will miss this ship, but there are more where it came from, and I can assure you, you won't find them all." and the transmission ended.
"Tenno," the Lotus said suddenly, "get back to your dojo right away."
When they returned to their dojo, the Lotus was already waiting for them. They went off to their room and the Lotus allowed them to sit and take off their helmets before she started. When they had sat for a while Spud started.
"What information have you discovered?" he asked.
"Shortly after you four found the infested I ordered many more squads to attack similar ships," the Lotus started. "Many found the same things as you. Varying number of infested and Corpus, the same exact room with the glass cylinder but some were broken and the infested biomass had spread throughout the room."
"What does this mean exactly?" Lonewolf asked.
"Well unfortunately, my suspicions have proved warranted," the Lotus responded. "We now know that Alad V is up to something and it involves the Infested. Our attacks on his shipments will have set him back but the Origin System is a vast place and I fear some of his vessels escaped detection."
"He did say that we wouldn't be able to find them all," Hayden mused as she played with her hair.
"So, what do we do?" Spud asked, concerned.
"For Now we must wait and prepare," the Lotus said after a pause. "When Alad V makes his next move, you must be ready. The real battle is yet to come." Then she turned and left the room to leave the Tenno to their business.
A/N: That tricky Alad V am I right?