A/N: So I may have forgotten to upload this chapter yesterday... oops. To make up for it I will be uploading another chapter today shortly after this one.
Once again, thanks for reading! Questions, comments, suggestions, and corrections are still encouraged!
The entire dojo was quiet other than the occasional sound a single Tenno walking the halls. After constantly attacking Alad V's ships over the past several days, all the Tenno in the dojo were exhausted. Nobody was excused from duty other than those who were not fit to fight and since most were able, everybody shared in the collective tiredness. Everybody was relieved when the Lotus had announced that there were no new ships to attack so the collective of Tenno had taken the time to finally rest.
Spud, Lonewolf, Hayden, and Falken were all in their usual spot but were just as tired as the rest of the Tenno in the dojo. They had all checked up on their respective partners but didn't stay long since the tiredness quickly took over. At the moment, the room was completely silent. Hayden had laid herself across a furniture piece known as a couch and was nearly dozing while playing with her hair which had become a force of habit. Spud was sitting in a chair trying desperately to stay awake in case he was needed but very clearly was losing the battle. Falken had elected to try and read but the tablet was now residing on the floor as he had dropped it while dozing off and was now completely asleep as far as everybody could tell. Only Lonewolf was the only one that could even be considered awake but that was more due to the fact that Alad V's return was bothering him continuously, even in his fatigued state.
Outside in the hallway to the room the sound of footsteps started and slowly got louder as they approached. Hayden's attention was caught quickly but after a bit of listening and realizing that the footsteps were actually the sound of heels hitting the floor, she groaned loudly as it was most certainly the Lotus coming to ask them to do another mission.
Now slightly more awake due to the groan breaking the silence, Spud straighten up slightly and yawned before standing up to slowly wake up Falken from his accidental nap. As the Lotus walked in Lonewolf turned towards her and greeted her with a slight nod while starting to walk towards Hayden to get her to at least sit up. The Lotus waited for them to get up and ready since she realized that this group in particular was extremely tired and soon everybody was mostly awake and ready to listen to their guide.
"Tenno, we have a problem," she started as the Tenno all looked up at her waiting for more and being too tired to ask questions. "Alad V has developed a way to direct the spread of the Infestation. Using these newly engineered 'hive' organisms, the Infestation is able to corrupt a new ship or colony almost instantly."
"Why can't this guy take a break once in a while?" Hayden groaned as she put her head back to look at the ceiling.
"What is a hive?" Spud asked ignoring the complaints of the Trinity.
"We aren't completely sure but they spread the infestation," the Lotus said. "As far as we know, these could be the ships that we weren't able to deal with over the past few days. But that isn't all," she added. "There are also disturbing reports coming in that the virus has evolved. It is now capable of absorbing and corrupting non-organic beings. Not even the robotic soldiers of the Corpus are safe now."
"Well isn't that great…" Lonewolf said sarcastically. "So, what do you need us to do?"
"The only way to stop the spread is to destroy these hives," the Lotus started. "There is a massive outbreak near Eris. An entire fleet of Corpus ships has been exposed to this new bioplague. If the hives are allowed to gain a strategic foothold here, the Infested will become unstoppable. They will overrun the system extremely fast."
"So, go in and destroy the hive," Falken said. "How do we destroy the hives?"
"That is also something we don't know for certain," the Lotus answered. "We will need you to figure it out. We have noted multiple main hive masses in each of the ships and similar smaller masses nearby so we assume they are related. Other than that, we have no idea."
"When do we need to be ready?" Spud asked. "We are all still really tired."
"You will need to be ready in a few hours," the Lotus said while she turned and started to walk to the door. "You will need to get some sleep."
The squad dropped into the now destroyed Corpus ship. There was infested biomass everywhere and they could already hear the growls of nearby infested chargers. In the room was also multiple bodies of Corpus crewman probably killed when the ship got destroyed and was left to float around Eris. The area was horrific but they still had a mission to complete so they started off.
As if by clockwork, a transmission of Alad V appeared on their HUDs. "Tenno there you are! I thought you'd never show up," he said. "Come test out my new fighters and let me know what you think!" and the transmission ended.
No longer being disturbed by the transmissions, they quietly entered a room which was along the way to the first hive mass to get the jump on the enemies when Spud's Helios beeped signifying that it was scanning something new. Spud notified his squadmates and they all looked around for anything different. It took a little while but they finally saw what looked like an infested moa with a cloud of organisms floating around it. Knowing they would have to face it eventually, they all jumped out at started attacking the infested.
The infested quickly swarmed them making long range weapons completely useless. There were flashes of metal as melee weapons cut the infested apart, loud bangs of pistols going off, the high fire rate of Lonewolf's Soma, and the occasional sound of a shuriken striking an infested or a shock shooting through multiple enemies. Falken and Hayden kept everybody healthy and dealt significant damage as well even though the infested just seemed to keep coming.
Suddenly, Hayden was hit with a cloud that slowly ate away her shield and slightly blinded her. She yelled out and rolled quickly leaving the cloud of organisms where she was originally. She quickly located the infested moa that was staying back and fired a few shots with her Marelok. To her surprise, the moa jumped into the air effectively dodging her shots but as it landed she shot once more and took it down completely.
Instantly she found herself stuck in a pile of tar, slowing her down. She quickly noticed another infested moa nearby but this one was clearly different than the other given the difference in attacks. She quickly tried to move out of the tar before she got mauled by multiple other infested and started taking shots at the new moa. This one didn't jump fast enough and was soon lying on the ground as sparks shot around it.
After a while, the infested seemed to slow down so the squad moved on through the ship towards the first hive mass. As they approached, some more infested showed up so they fought while looking around for clues relating the destroying the hive mass.
"There is no telling what effect destroying these hives will have. Stay alert," the Lotus said in their comms suddenly. "Try to seek out some smaller masses nearby. My scan indicate five of them but I have no reading on location."
At that moment, Spud found a large mass and shot it making it explode into biomass. The destruction of the mass had some small effect but it was very unnoticable.
"I think I found one," Spud said. "They are orange and have some weird orange light coming out of them. And there might be some organisms as well. It was easy to destroy."
"Oh," Lonewolf said, "then I just found one too."
"The strength of the hive mass is weakening," the Lotus said. "I think it is working."
After a bit of searching, they found all five masses and all ran back to the hive node.
"All the nodes have been destroyed," the Lotus began. "My scans say the hive mass in vulnerable."
Without wasting any time, Spud pulled out a Lex and emptied a clip into the mass. The mass faded in color and a tremor shook the ship suddenly. Nearby lasers started turning on, partially blocking the path of the Tenno.
"Killing that hive seems to have triggered nearby laser traps," the Lotus said quickly. "Proceed with caution."
The group of Tenno moved on towards the next hive mass dodging the lasers with relative ease. As they got near, they noticed two different types of new infested among the battling monstrosities. These two were larger than most of the infested. One seemed to be more closed up while the other had infested flesh on its top.
As the infested took notice on the Tenno, the closed up one seemed to puke and multiple little maggot looking thing spewed out and started running towards the Tenno. One jumped up on Lonewolf and ate away his shield quickly while also slowing him down. He quickly rolled and killed the one that was one him and fired his Soma quickly to kill the rest off. At the same time, the other one shot some small seed like things in the air which created another infested mass next to it. After a little bit, the masses exploded and new infested ran out of them.
The group fought them off little by little, making more progress once the two new infested had been taken out. They quickly fought towards the hive mass and located and destroyed the smaller masses around it. When they destroyed the hive mass, they instantly felt lighter.
"Destroying that hive damaged the stabilization module, expect reduced gravity," the Lotus said before any of them even had to ask.
The lowered gravity made dodging the lasers a bit harder but they easily made their way to the last hive mass, this time not finding any new infested to take note of along the way. As Falken was destroying one of the smaller masses, he suddenly saw something flying towards him. He ducked just in time and the things flew past him but left a trail of poison along the way. As he ran out of the poison stream, he noted that it looked like an osprey and then quickly shot it, watching it explode in a cloud of sparks.
Once the last hive was destroyed they started making their way towards the extraction zone as turrets fired at them. The Lotus said that the hive mass was disrupting the defense systems of the ship so they now worked and were shooting at everything. It came almost as a blessing since the system also shot the infested but it slowed down their trip to the extraction point.
As they reached extraction, another transmission from Alad V appeared.
"Impressive isn't it?" he said like a proud father. "I just can't wait to see the looks on the faces of the Corpus Board when I give them a demonstration."
When the squad returned, they met the Lotus to explain their findings. The Lotus had already sent other Tenno teams to various hives after passing along the information about how to destroy them. Other teams had also come across the strange new infested and enough information had been found to determine that they were a threat that seemed to be there to stay.
"You've done well Tenno," the Lotus said as the meeting ended. "You deserve some rest before your next big mission."
"And what mission is that?" Lonewolf asked.
"Well," the Lotus said, "Alad V is responsible for everything going on here so I think it is time we track him down and take him out. And I want you four to do it."