I will destroy the Lotus for what she has done. And I will use any means necessary to achieve my goals! But to be unstoppable, I must make my enemies fear me... More than they already do... I have an idea, but it is risky... All good ideas are.
Chapter 2: Aftermath (2 standard Earth days later)
Ugh... my head... Why does everything hurt? What on Earth is going on?
"Actually Operator, we are currently in orbit around the planet Mercury, don't you remember?"
Shut up Ordis! What happened, I don't remember anything...
"Well, you saved me on Earth, and then we went and... PILLAGED... acquired, all the modules that were missing from the Liset. Then we freed that... CONVINNING, USELESS... gallant Corpus arms dealer: Darvo. He provided us with locations to... STEAL... find more resources to build the Ascaris Negator. Then the countermeasure set in and you were rendered unconscious."
Ordis' voice changes from adoring to violent, then helpful and then becomes angry thinking about Darvo. Darvo, he was an odd one. But I liked him, he had been helpful. Ordis on the other hand, was just annoying. And unstable.
So... what now? Wait, what countermeasure?!
"Why the explosive of course, you have approximately 1 hour till it detonates, I managed to buy you some time but I can't slow it any more. I HOPE YOU APPRECIATE IT... It was a pleasure working with you operator."
The explosive? How much is it going to hurt when it goes off? More or less than being shot?
"It won't hurt at all Operator, it will however be fatal."
Great... and there's no way to disable it?
"Not that I know of, I am sorry to have failed you operator."
Ughhh... can you please shoot that thing. The headache kills...
Ah, you're back. I did wonder where you'd gone.
Yea, I'm back. Whoopity-do. Now, our useless cephalon can't figure out how to get rid of the bomb, but I bet I know who can...
You have my attention. Go on...
Well, how about the guy who put it there? I say we go find him, capture him, and then hurt him until he tells us how to deactivate it.
And what then?
Then we carry on hurting him until he dies. Have some fun while we're at it. The lotus will reward us I'm sure, she wants him dead after all...
Well, I see no major flaws in this plan... Ordis, where can we find Admiral Vor? My feral grin is only in my imagination, but somehow I get the feeling my other self is having similar thoughts.
"I'm afraid I don't know. I do however have the coordinates of a ship that should have his current location in its database."
That'll have to do... plot a course straight to it.
As the ship accelerates to an insane speed, I wonder if I will be able to get to Admiral Vor in time to make any difference. No matter, even if I don't survive, I will at least prevent this fate from befalling others. Vor must die. The other me was right...
Over the past few days we have developed a very... peculiar relationship, we both like the same things, but we differ vastly when it comes to other aspects of our respective personalities. I am choosing to refer to him as a separate entity to make this less confusing for myself. While I prefer tact and guile, he seems to thrive on sadism and violence. While neither of us is exactly saint material, I believe my methods are way ahead of his, by way of morals and results.
Not that I know much about morality. I remembered a few things about my former life, including that I was a psychopath. I had Ordis look that up in the Lotus' archives. It turns out psychopaths tend to have absolutely no concept of morality, but do often suffer other ailments: such as multiple personality disorder, sadism and kleptomania. To name but a few... On every enemy ship or base we have visited, I have ended up stealing literally everything. Emptying lockers, crates, corpses and anything that looks valuable – and then burning anything flammable. My psyche profile is not going to look good...
Fortunately, due to my effectiveness at killing with more or less any weapons, Ordis thinks the Lotus will overlook this behaviour. I hope he's right...
Upon arriving on the ship, I decided to go for the.. direct approach... so the floor is literally coated in fresh corpses and blood. I'm currently standing in front of a terminal, and wondering if I shouldn't have kept at least one soldier alive to operate it for me...
Don't be stupid, the Grineer are genetically engineered to be almost incapable of fear. And they are indoctrinated since birth to never help an enemy of the queens. Your best bet is to hack the data vault.
How? I've never hacked anything in my life.
The let me take over for a minute. I promise not to do anything to our body.
Go on then...
Less than a minute later the hack is complete. Okay, it wasn't the most elegant hack. And maybe he did set the alarms off. Twice... but I'm still quite impressed with the other me.
Tolstoj sector.
What?
Vor is hiding in Tolstoj sector. And you'll be pleased to hear he got demoted, he's a captain now.
So he has less of a bodyguard?
Probably... he has certainly been stripped of his elite bodyguard.
Let's get going then. We have 34 minutes and we still need to get there...
We seem very calm counting down to our own deaths, do you think that has to do with us being one of these 'psychopath' thingies you were reading about?
Most likely yes. No emotions make people a lot less prone to panic.
I still think it's a bit odd... not that I'm complaining. Lets get to extraction.
Upon arriving at the 'base' I enter via a ventilation shaft, and then tenderly replace the panel I knocked out to minimise the amount of noise. Vor is dangerous, and while I am vastly stronger than before, he is still a threat to be taken seriously. It is to be noted that the 'base' is dug out of an asteroid in orbit of Mercury, with only a few jagged bits of machinery visible on the outside. It is quite a remarkable idea, the only problem is how badly the Grineer have gone about doing it... The floor is littered with broken bits of machinery and rock. So I presume I have landed in a waste section. Sure enough, the doorway ahead of me is cordoned off. It takes a single swing of my skana to remove all the debris that is blocking my route.
I proceed unchallenged for several rooms, until I reach a large one with two columns of smoke rising from below some walkways. I can feel the heat in this room even through my warframe. Having been momentarily distracted by the heat, I neglected to listen for footsteps.
As the Grineer scorpion walks around the corner she is surprised to note that there is a warframe standing barely a meter from her, staring into space. This is obviously too much of an opportunity to pass up, so she takes careful aim and then fires her grappling hook...
I catch the hook in mid air, side on. This surprises both of us, but I recover much faster and deprive her of her chance to recover – with a kunai to the head. Clearly, this body has faster, and more deadly, reflexes than I ever remember having had in my last life... Slightly surprised I continue on, into a much colder room with stone walls. This room is neither quiet nor deserted, in fact, it is so full of Grineer that I decide to switch to my assault rifle before engaging...
30 seconds later I regret it, I'm hiding behind cover as rocket after rocket streaks by over my head. As I engaged, I had fired indiscriminately, unfortunately, I had also failed to notice the Grineer butcher who sprinted for the alarm console. This of course led to more Grineer rushing in, no problem. The problem occurred when 3 of the incoming Grineer turned out to be a troop called 'bombards' – basically, very heavily armoured troops with rocket launchers. So heavily armoured I was having trouble hurting them as most of the few rounds I'd let off before the first rocket hit simply bounced off their armour. Not good. More Grineer were pouring into the room now, firing at me from several angles. I eliminated the ones I could, but was left with no means of destroying the bulk of the defenders. And to make matters worse I was running low on ammunition...
So... how brave are you feeling?
Why do I get the feeling this is another of your bad ideas?
Because you know you? The idea is quite simple, you have other abilities than just your slash dash. So you charge in, let the shields take the hits and activate that new radial javelin ability. And then turn off the alarms and...
My train of thought was interrupted by a transmission from Captain Vor:
"I can see you Tenno, nowhere to hide" he exclaimed in a gleefully singsong voice.
Yea, great. Thanks for that valuable contribution Vor, I think to myself. Some of us are being serious. But yes, that is a brilliant idea, other me. How do I use this 'radial javelin' though?
I'll do it, just get me close enough. I promise it'll be gory.
I vault over my cover and sprint towards the Grineer, my shield taking a few hits along the way. I leap over a rocket, and land in the middle of the group. There's a flash and then a disgusting tearing sound. Then silence. I look around, at the pile of bodies impaled to the walls of the room. Some of them quite far away... Wow...
Isn't it beautiful?! Cries the ecstatic voice of my other consciousness in sadistic glee as I turn slowly and take in all of the corpses in their disarray... There were a lot of them, maybe even a hundred. All dead, in a split second...
Enough sightseeing, I move on. Nothing noteworthy happened until I reached this room. This room appears to be carved out of the native rock, but has a large platform in the center along with a few badly built pipes and catwalks. I can see Grineer, several hundred if I'm any judge, but Captain Vor is nowhere to be seen... The target marker shows him as being near the center of the room, but I can see both floors in the center of the room from my position. "How long left?" I mentally whisper to Ordis.
"3 minutes, 12 seconds till detonation. And counting" comes back the chirpy voice of the unstable cepahlon.
I look around one last time. Then I see him, he's talking to a few heavy grineer, so he was obscured from view initially. Now I have him. My HUD indicates that he has shields as well as armour. I'll have to get closer. I leap onto a line of pipes and sneak slowly along till I'm nearly above him.
"2 minutes, 30 seconds" chirps the voice of Ordis
I take aim, and let fly a hail of bullets. Vor barely has time to turn before his shields are gone and his armour is being shredded. Got him.
Then a spherical shield engulfs him. And he begins to laugh... not good.
"Ah, Tenno. I did wonder if you'd find me. Well, I thank you. I thank you for granting me the pleasure of killing you myself!"
A beam of the same bright golden light hits the pipes I'm standing on, and with a screech of hot metal bending under stress, they fall. I land in a roll and immediately whip out my skana. Vor looks at me for a second and then pulls out a more curved sword. It appears to have been designed with a similar aesthetic in mind though. Where could he have gotten that? Another Tenno? Are there other Tenno?
Our blades clash and the echo rings around the cavern. The soldiers are standing in a circle, some are cheering, most are watching their esteemed leader cross blades with the Tenno. I'm beginning to enjoy this when an annoyingly cheerful voice announces:
"1 minute, 30 seconds remaining till detonation"
Then I raise my sword... the flash of bright light blinds even me for a second.
What did you do?
It's called radial blind, it is your second ability. Now get a move on and gut this guy!
I blur forwards, slashing sideways with my energy sword. Vor screams in agony... and then his armour fuses back together as the same spherical shield engulfs him!
"1 minute remaining till detonation" comes the enragingly cheerful voice of the ship cephalon
I focus and use my radial javelin ability. I am rewarded with a beeping sound.
Not enough energy, you have enough for a slash dash, use it!
I blur towards Vor, just as the shield dissipates... He teleports, vanishing in a shower of golden sparks. I look around in panic. I see him barely 3 meters away. My anger takes control. HOW DARE HE AVOID BEING KILLED!? WHO GAVE HIM THE RIGHT TO LIVE? My vision is enveloped by a red mist as I charge towards him.
"20 seconds left till detonation, you may wish to hurry it up operator" chirps Ordis through my comms.
I attack Vor in a blind fury, ignoring Ordis completely as I slash again and again.
When I'm done, I look up. My vision is clearing... the room is empty. Completely empty. Except for a fallen sword. It is the sword Vor was using...
What? I ask myself in disbelief. Have I died?
No, but everyone else did... You my friend, have just discovered the joys of channelling. Something not even all Tenno can master. And you just did it by accident. You may also have just saved us.
Are you sure?
Well, the explosive detonates in 5 seconds...
5, 4, 3, 2, time is going agonisingly slowly... 1 … 0
No explosion shatters my skull. I breath a sigh of relief. Why am I not dead? Answer me Ordis!
"Operator, it appears that when your blade dissolved Vor's body due to the channelling effect, it also dissolved the explosive that was linked to him. I have no reading on any device anywhere near where the explosive was 20 seconds ago. There is however a new cavity where it used to be, I suspect that will hurt for a few days."
That was bloody clever, I told you you know how to do this stuff!
I honestly have no idea what I just did... But here is not the place to figure out. Ordis, set a waypoint to extraction. We're leaving. Also, contact the Lotus, she needs to know we survived. And then I want to see the footage of what just happened, there is no way I just killed a whole room full of soldiers in 15 seconds!
Oh, and tell her Vor is dead. I add as an afterthought, as I jog towards extraction.
End of Part 2