Excalibur stood in the outskirts of Beacon as he scanned the sky. They were coming. He could feel it. He hoped that the older Tenno would get here before the newer ones did. A single Liset broke the cloud cover and headed down towards Excalibur. Loki was off with Glynda, helping to evacuate civilians, so Excalibur would have to deal with whoever was in this first Liset. The bottom hatch opened, and a white-green Tenno dropped down, a massive Magistar mace in his right hand. Excalibur nodded his head.
"Oberon?" The paladin-like Tenno pointed his mace towards Excalibur threateningly.
"You betrayed us, Excalibur. You betrayed the Lotus. The Tenno have no choice but to eliminate rogues like you, Excalibur." Excalibur nodded, and drew his Nikana. He flipped the sword, wielding the blade in a reverse grip.
"Then so be it. If you intend to kill me, you should do it quickly, before the others get here."
"The older Tenno? They are relics of an older time. Old, defective machines beyond repair. You can't expect them to best us, do you? Even if they side with you, us newer Tenno outnumber you two-to-one." Excalibur chuckled.
"Good. Then it will be a fair fight." They both charged towards each other, Oberon dragging his Magistar behind him and Excalibur dashing with his Nikana in hand. Both of them blurs of white and grey until they collided, cracking the ground beneath them. Oberon pushed Excalibur back, and tried for another swing, bringing the mace down towards Excalibur's head. Excalibur raised his Nikana, and the Magistar struck the blade, but slid down the side and smashed into the ground, missing him. Again and again, Oberon swung the massive mace at Excalibur, but each time, he dodged it cleanly. Excalibur saw an opening, and struck as quick as lightning, stabbing through Oberon's leg.
"Damn!" Oberon yelled, and Excalibur pulled the sword out, and flicked the blood onto the ground. Oberon had his hand over the wound on his leg.
"You've gotten faster, Excalibur." He seemed to grin behind his helmet as another Liset broke the cloud cover and dropped a Tenno to the surface. Excalibur looked to see who it was, and started to become nervous.
Valkyr. Excalibur took a couple of steps back. She had no weapons, only her super-sharp claws, which could tear through a warframe with a well placed swipe.
"Let's see how fast you are now, Excalibur," Oberon said. Without warning, Valkyr charged towards Excalibur screaming a war cry, the light from her extended claws leaving behind a trail of orange energy. Excalibur tried to block her swipe, but she batted the sword out of his hands, sending it clattering away. She launched a flurry of attacks towards Excalibur, who was trying to dodge and weave between the strikes. For the most part he was successful in avoiding the berserker's attacks, but he forgot about Oberon, who slammed his mace into Excalibur's chest, sending him flying several meters away. He landed hard facedown, and rolled over, clutching his bleeding chest. The flanged spikes of the mace had punctured his Warframe, cutting into the flesh underneath. Oberon approached the downed Excalibur, ready to execute the fallen Tenno.
"Defeated before the Tenno could even reach you? That is pitiful, Excalibur. I've defeated Prodmen who put up a better fight." Oberon turned to look at the clouds, where no other Liset was seen.
"In a way, Excalibur, I feel sorry for you. Left alone on an alien planet, with nothing but inferior Humans surrounding you. I admit, I would go insane as well." He leaned down, closer to Excalibur's face.
"Once I am done here, Excalibur, I will do to the old Tenno what I will do to you. The Lotus doesn't have to know. I will explain to her that the older Tenno were becoming liabilities, that they were becoming dangerous to the Tenno cause. She won't know, and honestly, she won't care. We are all tools of the Lotus, Excalibur. That is the plain truth. However, a craftsman favors some tools over others, and you, Excalibur? You have outlived your usefulness."
"I always knew you were jealous of me, Oberon. I was the original, the default choice for a leader. But you had to have all of the power to yourself. For a paladin, I would say that is quite dishonorable." If Oberon's face was visible, Excalibur would see his features twist into a furious sneer. Oberon raised his mace.
"Enough talk. Goodbye forever, Excalibur." He started to bring down the Magistar as a sniper's bullet struck the mace, deflecting it away. Excalibur turned his head towards the newcomer, and was shocked with disbelief. It was the strangest sight he had ever seen: Four girls stood in front of the Tenno. Red, White, Black, and Yellow.
The Stalker boarded the Lotus's mothership, a massive sprawl which looked more like a space station than anything else. He held his bow at the ready and scoured the nearly empty vessel.
It seems that all of the Tenno had headed for the planet, he thought. The Stalker headed towards the flight deck, where he was sure there was somebody. The door opened, and revealed a massive, Orokin based room, gold decoration and all that. The Lotus herself was standing in the middle, facing the windows.
"I know you're here, Stalker. No need to sneak around." The Stalker tightened the grip on his bow.
"Let's use my real name, Lotus. The one you gave me." The Lotus turned towards him.
"And what is that?" she asked.
"Progenitor."
Lotus sighed.
"I did what I had to do to preserve the Tenno, Progenitor. If I didn't, who knows what would have happened?" Progenitor shot an arrow, which flew by her head, slicing through the wall.
"Tell another lie, and the next one goes through your neck." He drew another arrow.
"I am telling the truth, Progenitor. The Warframes were too… radical. Too unpredictable. They were too different from each other."
"And isn't that what a Human is supposed to be? Different? Radical? Unpredictable? Humans are not Corpus machines, Lotus. I tried to stop you, but you turned the first one, the Alpha, against me. Almost killed me on the spot. So I ran while you created more and more of those monstrosities you call Warframes. You hunted me down with those new ones, didn't you? With every new Warframe produced, another Stalker hunter was created. They were so loyal to you, Lotus. But now the tables have turned, haven't they? Now Excalibur fights for me, along with the old ones." The Lotus laughed.
"Progenitor, you aren't the only one who has trained for battle all these years." She held out her arm, and a destructive blue beam shot out of her palm, hitting the Stalker and sending him flying towards the wall. He fell to the ground, winded.
"This ends here once and for all, Progenitor."