I had always wondered, how was it that even the 'innocent civilians' that we rescued from detention facilities knew how to use any and all of the weapons we gave them… I know now of course, that they were not 'innocent civilians', in fact, they were dangerous terrorists. Many of them had been trained in using the weapons we gave them, and all were familiar with weapons and how to use them. The Lotus wanted us to spring them out of jail to make the Tenno into a force of terror. A force of terror so terrifying, that no-one would dare approach them to ask. And if no-one asked why they did what they did, then the Tenno assumed it was because they all knew why we did what we did. Oh how blind we were. Even once I knew the Lotus was misleading us, it took an innocent child to bring me to my senses…

Why Do I fight?

Go on, admit it: You fancy her really, don't you?

No. She's a clone. I'm not interested in a clone!

Yes, you are, I'm you remember. I get some of your thoughts. And I'm telling you: you do fancy that chick!

No I don't.

Yes. You do!

Beta. Save it for later. We have a mission to focus on!

Aye, and yet you can't think of anything else except the woman with the combat knife in her boot.

I am thinking of something else! I'm thinking of the mission. We can continue this pointless argument later if you really insist, but right now the warden is coming.

It's only pointless cause you know I'm right.

Beta, I really do wonder if we are actually the same person... clearly you do fancy her, but I feel nothing for her except professional admiration – which she really deserves.

Hmpf. Whatever, warden's almost here.

I have been running rescue missions for Red Veil agents for almost three weeks solid now. The other Tenno I helped rescue in that defence mission, has been doing the same. He doesn't remember his name – cryonesia seems to have hurt him more than most, so we just call him Loki – after the frame he wears. Between the four of us - myself, Loki, Isaac and Antonio – we have caused enough damage to warrant a Corpus system upgrade and the Grineer to import heavier troops to the lower priority planets. Earth now has an abundance of napalms and bombards, if I didn't have to run rescue missions all the time they could provide good entertainment. Unfortunately, I am running stealthy rescue missions, and while the homing rockets their weapons fire are way too slow to be a threat, they are also way too loud for other soldiers not to notice. Napalms are just awful, and I often find myself going out of my way to remove them from the equation even when it isn't necessary. That particular activity has only got me caught once so far, and even then it wasn't too severe because the low level grunts that get stationed on Earth don't actually put up much of a fight.

Antonio specialises in sabotage missions, whether it's a toxin injector or a reactor, so long as it needs to fail he's happy to do it. Coincidentally, the guy cannot fix anything to save his life, so we always ask him about what he's fixed when we meet him. It goes down quite well because he has the best, but also crudest, sense of humour of anyone I've ever encountered. Isaac on the other hand, follows a more noble calling - defending our brothers and sisters in cryosleep. However, he hasn't been able to find anymore Tenno since Loki, sure he has found plenty of human operatives, but no Tenno capable of donning a warframe. Loki prefers to do spy missions and occasionally rescue missions. He is feeding information to Isaac about the whereabouts of cryopods, and if he finds the location of a Tenno in cryosleep Isaac will know within minutes.

Which leaves me; stuck doing rescue missions. It is rewarding, the Red Veil have given me enough spectre blueprints to last a lifetime. They even gave me a rakta syndana at some point. But they have many agents and almost all of them were captured in the purge of the colonies. The grineer have decimated the colonies in their desperate search for more hostages, and it has gotten so bad that a new group has formed. The Steel Meridian. They dedicate themselves to protecting the innocent, especially the innocent colonists. A very noble cause, especially bearing in mind they had to sabotage an entire cloning facility to remove the mental controls that prevent the normal Grineer from rebelling against their queens. If they had been caught... it doesn't even bear thinking about.

I drop from our vantage point, slice through the the warden's helmet and roll into the shadows -dragging his body with me. In seconds it dissolves, leaving me safely behind cover and everyone else oblivious to my presence. The cameras are still watching the area directly in front of the door to the cells, and the second warden continues on his patrol completely oblivious to the fate which awaits him. I drop down from the platform and dive into a ventilation shaft, silently sprint along it, and come out the other side just in time to yank the warden's armoured boots. He hits the ground and falls down below the catwalk to where I am without making a sound, his death is no louder than his fall.

I don't even bother with the cameras this time, instead ducking back into the ventilation shafts. I run along the all too familiar route, and don't even bother to check for traps as I clamber up into the area behind the blast door. I look at the cells, and then picking one at random I approach it. We have learnt since the first time, so we knock on the door. No answer, we move to the other door and knock on that. The infested creature within gives a low growl. I move back to the other door and let Beta hack it, and it opens to the show the hostage asleep within. I'm startled, I have honestly never seen any of the hostages asleep in their cells, they're usually wide awake. It's probably hard to sleep knowing each day could be your last, or that a Tenno could show up to free you at any moment.

I poke the hostage who is still deeply sleeping, and upon receiving no response, simply pick him up and start going again. He'll probably wake up at some point so I'll have to keep an eye on him. Last thing we want is for a newly awakened human to dazedly ask where we are when we're about to slit a crewman's throat silently from behind.

The Corpus facility is unusually quiet, but I have more sense than to let my guard down. Beta is positively paranoid that there's a trap, and that the corpus secretly know we're here. I doubt it, although an ambush might be considered more cost effective than a normal attack, so it can't be ruled out...

Nothing went wrong. There was no secret ambush, no excitement – we literally didn't see a single crewman on our way out. That makes me even more concerned... well, it doesn't matter now; I'm at the airlock. And the hostage is finally awake, clearly he is not a morning person though...

"Congratulations operator, a fully successful mission. The Red Veil have given you three more points" Ordis' announces from somewhere as I step into the airlock – having just manhandled the still barely awake hostage in before me.

"Three more points? But I only killed two wardens, there are always at least three and the third point is for killing all the wardens..."

Beta and I are both thinking like mad. Did we actually kill the third warden and not remember it?! Is that possible? Or did something else, or someone else kill the warden? I type out a message to the usual suspects.

To: Antonio, Isaac, Loki

Were either of you in the Linea sector in the past standard earth hour?

Alpha

Ordis has set a course for a drop off point for the hostage so I go and check through my mods while I wait for the replies... I check my messages and see three replies, all of which are in the negative. Oh.

So no-one was in the same sector, but the third warden was definitely killed?

No-one we know of at least, I asked the Lotus and she says she doesn't know of any other awakened Tenno.

Is it possible the warden might've fallen and died or something?

What, like he fell over and cracked his skull through the helmet? Not likely.

So, he was definitely killed?

Yea. Red Veil just replied. His vitals spiked suddenly and then flatlined. They say we should get bonus points for scaring the guy.

Scaring the warden?

The spike on the heart rate indicates fight or flight response. He was scared for a second or so before he died.

And we definitely didn't do it...?

I'll get the Lotus to ask Cephalon Cordylon to review our helmet cam's footage, but I'm pretty sure we don't have any gaps in our memory.

Is... would it be possible for something to be following us?

No, don't be silly. For starters Lisets are completely undetectable, for seconds most of the system already fears us – and hence is unlikely to stalk us – and third, we're very stealthy almost all the time because we've been doing rescue missions this whole time.

Yea, it does seem more or less impossible when you put it like that...

I guess someone might want to stalk us for information though – especially if they're scared of us...

The not-quite-a-warframe watches from the back of the Liset as the Excalibur directs the shuttle to the next mission, before kneeling and disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Neither of the Excalibur's consciousnesses notices. Even if they had noticed, they wouldn't have heard the red and black warframes parting words; "Stalker, yes.. I quite like the sound of that, perhaps that is what I shall call myself in this new era of Tenno... They will need a name for me, a name to fear."

The Liset drops us off at the colony, I've never been in one before, but I have finally saved up enough platinum to buy myself a decent weapon and the colony is home to several arms dealers who will sell me modern weapons – perhaps even Tenno weapons – far cheaper than Darvo would. Darvo is a nice guy, but based on his prices he doesn't get much business... I just have to hope that the humans won't panic if they see a warframe in their midst.

I follow the HUD's directions through the spaceport, everywhere I go I get strange looks. Some people look like they've seen a ghost, some look angry, some look scared. This was to be expected, but a bargain is a bargain. And humans are not going to be able to put me off just by looking at me funny.

Alpha, don't worry yourself about them. Seeing us is going to do them good once they get over the initial shock.

How do you work that out?

Well, the Grineer rule by fear. If something scarier than the Grineer shows up... The Grineer lose whatever support they may have and suddenly find people resisting.

But won't the Grineer just kill them if they resist?

I don't mean resist as in rebel, the humans aren't that stupid. But all of a sudden, the Grineer will suddenly find that when they ask for something – it will take longer to be found, and when they need repairs – it will cost slightly more, and when they need to spy – everyone will act off around them. No open rebellion, but just a little bit here or there to make the Grineer's lives just a tiny bit more unpleasant.

Why? Why would humans do that?

It's just human nature, if the rulers seem weak, then the ones being ruled begin to resent them. They subconsciously welcome the stronger ruler, the one that will benefit the community more. Historically speaking, when one nation occupied another, sometimes to trigger a rebellion all it took was for one soldier to stand tall and defy the occupier to their face.

Nations?

Yea, a bit like territories. They existed back before Orokin.

How do you know about them then?

We had to study history, psychology and manipulation. And old Earth history offers some very good examples of manipulation...

I thought Tenno were warriors only?

We are warriors first and foremost, but an uneducated soldier makes the same mistakes as his predecessor. We learnt a lot about military tactics too. When fighting the Grineer and Corpus it doesn't seem necessary, but when we fought the sentients... we had to use every trick in the book, and then improvise.

We continue onwards, following the HUD and trying to pay attention to our surroundings. Small crowds of people part to let us pass in the middle of the street, and we soon get to the marked address. We knock on the door, taking care not to dent it and a small hatch opens at human head height. I duck down, so that whoever is looking out can see my helmet.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it!" comes the voice from the other side of the door.

We're not here to arrest you

"Why are you here then?" The human is female and of about average height, for a human, but other than that I can't make out much through the small hatch.

We were hoping to inquire about the possibility of purchasing weapons, do we have the right address?

"Oh, well I guess you'd better come in then..." The human's voice is now noticeably more relaxed.

We hear the sound of various different locking mechanisms being undone, and then the door slides open. It's several inches thick! Clearly my earlier concerns about accidentally denting it were unfounded. I'm not sure I could dent that if I full on punched it...

I duck under the door, and then follow the human woman into a room. The room itself is quite small, mostly dominated by a colossal bookshelf. Wait, are those actual paper books? The woman reaches out and pulls one of the books half out, but then lets it drop back into it's place. I'm about to ask her what she's doing, when the whole bookshelf swings out! A hidden entrance! The space behind is a small elevator entrance. She beckons and we follow her into it.

The elevator moves almost silently down, by now we must be quite deep underground. Finally the woman speaks:

"So, what kind of weapon are you interested in?"

What do you have available by way of sniper rifles or long ranged rifles?

"We have most of the up to date snipers and a few from antiquity, I think you'll like them. Might I ask what kind of targets you will be using them against?"

Most likely both armour and shields

"You don't work for either faction?" She seems wary again

I serve the Lotus

"Ah, forgive my curiosity. So you will probably want a weapon with a lot of puncture damage, but still a fair bit of impact... Aha. I have just what you need. You'll be wanting a Vectis, single shot sniper with a fairly decent spread of damage. It's mostly impact, but has a lot of puncture too and isn't lacking when it comes to slash damage. Right?"

That does sound ideal, what condition is it in?

"Oh, we got a brand new one in the other day. Not literally brand new, no-one has made them since the collapse, but a well maintained one. The other Tenno guy brought it in."

The elevator has finally stopped, and we follow her to a large door. She inputs a code, and it opens to reveal a room absolutely full of weapons! Beta is mentally drooling over some of the stuff, clearly this woman has access to Tenno weapons too... I can see Latrons, Boltors, what appears to be a badly damaged Panthera, a couple of Attica crossbows and an entire wall rack of Boar shotguns. But no Vectis...

The woman keeps walking and that's when I realise this is only one room, probably of many. We walk past several rooms filled to the brim with Grineer and Corpus weapons and finally stop at the last room on the left. She inserts a rather longer code than last time, and the vault door slowly swings open. She clearly has a thing about thick doors... We follow her into the room and the stop and gawk in amazement. There are all sorts of weapons, including many Tenno melee weapons.. and on a maintenance bench right at the front, is a Vectis Prime alongside two other Vectis rifles!

You have a Vectis Prime? I am impressed.

"Aye, but it's not for sale yet. I'm trying to modify one of the other rifles to function as well. If all goes according to plan, the prime one should be available for sale soon. I take it you'd like me to contact you when that happens?"

Yes, certainly. Did you say you were trying to get the other rifles to be functionally the same?

"Yup, the shiny one has two bullets per mag. And it hits much harder, but I'm not sure why. So I'm still trying to get up the courage to disassemble it and see what the difference is on the inside. Some of that Orokin stuff is molecularly bonded together, so disassembling it wrong would cause damage that I don't have the facilities to repair."

We might be able to help with that... I realise too late that Beta has taken temporary control over my body. He might be doing something useful though... So I just sit back and let him do his thing. Almost immediately, he and the arms dealer are both chatting away animatedly about all sorts of technical things... I find my mind drifting to the Vectis Prime, it's so shiny and the white and gold colour scheme makes it look very... almost majestic. The Orokin certainly knew how to build things with style. I get the feeling I might be here for some time though... And as they talk, I think back; did she say another Tenno delivered the newest Vectis? I'll have to ask the others where they got the blueprint from...

After almost four hours of Beta talking to the woman about things, field stripping the Vectis and the Vectis Prime and explaining more boring things that I don't understand... he finally announces:

So it's agreed then? And you're sure you want to give it to us this cheaply?

"You've improved my understanding vastly, and knowledge is worth more than platinum. So thank you Tenno, it's yours."

Beta picks up the Vectis Prime and hands her the agreed upon sum, and then the realisation strikes me; he's bought the Prime instead of the normal one! As we follow her back to the lift, the beautiful rifle now holstered on our back, I decide I have to get him to do the sweet talking with arms dealers. I could never have persuaded someone to part with a Prime weapon without using intimidation... and he seems to have gotten it quite cheaply.

I leave the deceptively small house with my head held high, and the beautiful rifle glinting on my back. Now people are staring again, but I no longer mind. We decide to take a shortcut to a closer landing pad though, because the others will likely be questioning our absence with the Lotus... I duck down an alleyway and realise it's the wrong one, but then I stop short.

There are three men dressed in black surrounding a woman and her child. Based on the knives in their hands, they don't mean anything good either. I step further into the alley, and intentionally stand on some sort of rubbish. The metal snaps under my weight, and all three men look up. If it wasn't for the situation, it would have been quite amusing to map the expressions that pass over their faces in the short time between when they see me, and when they turn and run. If I had to guess, what started off as arrogance and aggression, quickly turned to confusion and then pure terror as they realised what was in the alley with them.

I approach the almost-victims slowly, and quickly check them for injuries. They show up as unharmed, better to be safe.

Are you okay, ma'am?

"t..tt...Tenno?"

Yes, ma'am. Are you or the young one hurt?

"n..nn..No, we're fine. I mean alright, thanks to you."

Do you require any assistance?

Beta reads my thoughts and declares that there isn't time for such things, even before I ask.

Would you like me to escort you home?

She looks up at me, apparently surprised.

"You'd do that for me?"

Yes. It is likely whoever those people were will try again, they don't seem the sort to accept defeat. The least I can do is ensure you make it home safely.

"I...I don't know what to say... Thank you, they were going to kill us because we didn't pay the protection money on time. I have it at home, but they refused to listen."

I just walk alongside her, knowing that actually the best thing I can do is to strengthen her with my presence – not my words. Eventually we strike up a conversation anyway though, and by the time we reach her home I'm almost wishing we could walk a little further. She is a fascinating person, and more importantly; she knows a lot about the colony and how it is run. Information I would be hard pressed to find elsewhere... But as I turn to go, I hear a small voice:

"Mr Tenno?"

Yes? I haven't heard the child speak at all so far, so this is an interesting change.

"Momma told me stories of what the Tenno do, is it true that you fight the evil clones?"

Yes, it is.

"Is it true that they're scared of you? Mummy says they are, and Daddy did too before he left."

Only the intelligent ones are scared of us, the rest cannot feel fear. The little boy must be less than 5 standard Earth years old, or perhaps around that age... but still very young...

"So, Mr Tenno, why do you fight the evil clones and the company?"

I... I'm sorry, what?

"Why do you fight the clones and the company?"

Ah, I see what you're asking. I really don't, I honestly hadn't thought about it before... I fight the clones and the company because they kidnapped my friends, and my friends friends. I'm not sure how much sense any other explanation would make to the five year old, but friends are probably something he can relate to.

"So, once you've got all of your friends back... will you stop fighting them?" he asks hopefully, his face beaming all of a sudden.

Probably not, they are a danger to my friends, so I must fight them. I am literally running out of answers here. I should have given this more consideration in hindsight.

"Please, Mr Tenno, could you not fight the company? My Daddy works for the company and I don't want him to get hurt. Please?"

Child, do you know where your Daddy is working? If you can tell me I can try and avoid that area. I try to sound sympathetic, but I'm not sure how well it came out...

The child stares at me, and then rushes inside crying. I look at the mother, who shrugs and looks back at me. Its the sort of gesture that indicates that she knows exactly what's wrong, and that there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

Was it something I said? I ask softly

"No, it's that he doesn't know where his father is working. The company keeps things like that secret. They have to, Profit help us all if the Grineer find any way to monitor company troop movements... He's going to blame himself if his father dies, since he couldn't ask you to save him."

I am sorry

"Don't be, you have your duty, it is what you were created for, you must do it. If you do not do your duty, another will be awakened to do it in your place."

There's really not much I can do if I meet his father. I will likely have to kill him or risk being killed myself. Now that I've said it, that sounds so bloody selfish...

"I know, and I understand. The only way you can soften the blow is by making the company's soldiers deaths swift and humane."

She seems upset, so I turn and leave, intending not to upset her further. But as I walk, I think furiously fast; why do I fight the Corpus? Yes they're a cult, but so what? They don't harm innocent people so long as the innocent people pay their taxes... They're not like the Grineer who live only to destroy, the Corpus build up colonies like this one... Come to think of it, they've basically rebuilt half the system since the collapse... They're almost the good guys...

Alpha, the Corpus are hardly the 'good guys'...

No, but by comparison to the Grineer or the Infested? They seem pretty good...

They have conscription on most of their colonies...

At least the conscripts have control of their own bodies, and aren't likely to be sentenced to death by Atterax for hesitating before following an order.

True... But they're a cult, they indoctrinate their soldiers and keep them like that for ten whole years!

But then they let them free, to go back to their homes.

Yes, but ten years...? What if some poor bloke is conscripted right after his child is born. The kid wont see the dad till it's hit puberty!

But it will see the father eventually. And so what, that's hardly a reason to kill them.

The upper ranks are hopelessly corrupt, and do evil science experiments. Experiments on live human test subjects!

Yes, but that's only the upper ranks. Why not just assassinate them? Why kill the innocent footsoldiers who get in the way?

Please don't tell me you're developing a conscience...

Don't worry, I'm not. I am however, still firm in my belief that unnecessary bloodshed is abhorrent. Especially of innocent people who have no choice but to be in the way.

Urgh, I guess we can ask the Lotus.

We argued back and fourth as the Liset flew through space towards the Relay, but I couldn't get the question out of my head; Why do I fight the Corpus? And now that we are asking odd questions... why do I feel like I'm being watched?

End of Part 8