I used to think that the Lotus was just illogical, merely a wise human who had her flaws. Now I know otherwise. It was logical throughout – but its emotions clouded its mind. Why 'she' willingly chose to suffer those things I do not know…
Chapter 13: The Ship
The Lisets blur through space seeking their target, seconds later the bulkier mantis drops into formation above us and we all accelerate in unison. I am so glad that the cephalons are piloting our ships for us because at the rate we're travelling I wouldn't be able to detect – not to mention avoid – an asteroid if one were to come at us. As it just so happens we're close enough to Jupiter for asteroids not to be a problem...
The Lotus has warned General Ruk of the developments and it is becoming clear that he has taken action. The blockade around Jupiter is still present, but rather than existing in one solid spherical blockade it is now a set of multiple staggered rings with the larger vessels positioned at key points – gravity nodes, orbiting asteroids, shipping lanes and the blasted shells of space structures are now all decorated by Grineer Galleons. It is quite smart; if any one ship is infested then the other ships can back away to a safe firing distance and blast it out of existence within minutes of contamination. While the spores will travel through space even after such an ordeal, Ruk is organizing a sort of impromptu decontamination route. Several ships have been anchored and one or more of their main engines removed to form a tunnel of engines all pointing inwards. Since this structure of welded and riveted engines is fairly high up in the atmosphere any ship can reach it within minutes and pass through to cleanse itself of any spores. Unfortunately, there is no specific way of dealing with the infestation as of yet because it was only recently released but the Grineer have discovered that the infestation as a whole will actually try to escape from flames since fire seems to be especially damaging to their unique type of flesh. Which means a tunnel of inward facing afterburners could actually work to remove infestation spores although it has yet to be tested.
Our targets however, do not seem deterred at all by the preparations for their arrival. If anything the approaching ships have sped up, the large Corpus armored super tanker that is leading the arrow-headed formation is looming closer and closer. That thing is huge…
In seconds it becomes even bigger as the distance between us decreases. Then the Lisets and Mantis simultaneously turn off the main engines and swivel with the maneuvering thrusters before magnetizing onto the hull in a neat line and proceeding to – through use of magnetic eddy currents – violently rip open gaps in the armor for us to enter through.
We all drop down from the tears in the hull into a corridor of the ship. The doors at either end of the corridor sealed it off as soon as the corridor was depressurized – standard safety procedure on any space vessel. We planned to override the emergency protocols within the mainframe of the ship to temporarily open the doors and then seal them afterwards therefore avoiding depressurization and any threat of serious cooling… shields and cold did not mix well. The plan was good, in fact it was almost ingenious, and it would have worked excellently as well were it not for the fact that Antonio had decided it was far too sensible…
The grenade launcher belched once, removing the entire door with the ensuing explosion and ripping it off its mountings towards us as the next room depressurized and locked down… great.
You know… it's not that bad an idea actually…
"No-one asked you Beta…"
Maybe, but I thought I'd point out that since the infested cannot breathe without an atmosphere we literally can just walk to the reactor and destroy it without having to fight anything.
"Actually… I hadn't thought about it that way…"
You see? I am useful for more than just bossing the Grineer about.
"Make yourself more useful, tell me if there's any way the infested could cope with being unable to breathe. If it were this simple I'm sure someone would have done it by now…"
Nah, their only chance would be to grow some sort of air sac or a long breathing tube that could stretch back into a pressurized room – through a sealed blast door… Neither of those sounds very effective and they cannot adapt that fast… something like that would take them weeks...
"So there's no way they could use some sort of mechanical aid? No air tanks or something?"
Dunno, I doubt it. The infestation is purely biological and they don't have anything resembling human mouths to fit into respirators or oxygen masks… as you can see by the amount of infested-guts that flies past after every room gets depressurised.
"If there is a God, remind me to thank him for that… the last thing we need is space-based infested! Can you imagine the chaos?"
Yea, it'd be beautiful. But do bear in mind that regardless of whether there is a God or not we won't ever meet him. Tenno are immortal and invincible. You'll have to send the message with someone we kill… preferably Alad…
"I think I can manage that… actually… We'll have to do so before we let Valkyr near him…"
Simple enough to do that, isn't it?
"You've been paying attention to coordinating everything while I had to calm her down… You have no idea… when she snaps it is not good – and it is NOT 'easy to restrain' her…"
A tenno should always have control of themselves. We're assassins, not berserkers.
"Were you even cognizant when we rescued her? Do you have any idea what she's been through!?"
No. I was organizing an invasion… can we do that again by the way? I'm not sure Beta could sound more disinterested if he tried… I'll have to have a word with him about it later… and maybe not introduce him to Valkyr until after that…
"Maybe… speaking of organizing invasions, aren't you supposed to be making yourself useful?"
Yea. Call me if you need help.
The Grenade launcher in Antonio's hands belched again – removing another door… He must have modified that thing a lot because we've gone through five rooms-worth of doors and he still isn't worried about ammunition… Or perhaps he's just Antonio and he just doesn't care?
As the sixth door is removed from its hinges – with three grenades, this one's tough for some reason -we're surprised to see that nothing comes out. No guts. We all move through it and look around, we're standing on an observation bridge part way up the inside of a massive tank – presumably for some sort of liquid. There are lights on the bridge but they are dim and point upwards… I look over the edge and stare into the inky darkness that obscures anything below us. Refusing to let the pang of unease get to me I turn on my helmet lights. What they illuminate is not encouraging…
The bridge is about 4/5 of the way up the inside of the tank… and everything below it is full of infested matter. It seems to be some sort of stringy grey flesh with red splotches… and its moving. Gross. Fortunately, that is inert infested flesh, it is not a living being. Which is good because since the tank must be about 5 kilometers in diameter and roughly cylindrical that would be a REALLY big infested life form. That's when I realized that the door had sealed somehow. I look at it and notice that there were safeguards – another emergency blast door. Not a problem. We'll deal with it on the way back if we need to and it gives me an excuse to stop Antonio from blowing off every door in this accursed hunk of an infested plague ship…
Then the lights flicker, and go out… not good…
"Alpha" comes the voice, more of a growl… "You have committed crimes against the stability of the system and you must pay…"
"Who's there?!" I ask, slightly more nervously than intended…
"I am your doom, I am Justice, I… I am your end!"
Bloody marvelous… and I thought we didn't have enough problems already…
I'm about to ask Beta what he means when something nudges me to the left a little… which means that the energy-tipped arrow misses me by literally millimeters and instead skims Isaac – passing straight through his iron skin and drawing blood! Shit…
Almost immediately I surge forwards, who or what ever this is can use a bow and it has very nasty arrows… nothing can cut through Iron skin armour and a rhino warframe in one shot…
I leap over another arrow which zips towards my shin and yell a warning to the others to cover their eyes. I hope that hasn't given away my intentions to the intruder… I raise my heat sword and unleash a radial blind. The flash illuminates the whole of the tank. It bathes the whole 5km of thin bridge in harsh white light – and it does exactly as intended.
The intruder, some sort of black shadow covered figure, covers its face and screeches. It had been using night vision to deal with the darkness… and the burst of light from a radial blind is enough to blind people in daylight… through night vision he – because the shape is masculine and vaguely familiar – has likely had his eyes burnt out completely.
As I rush towards him I realise that the interloper is wearing something like a warframe… cloaked in a familiar black mist… Brother? What?!
Then it all floods back, before Valkyr we had that talk, he told me to 'kill' him if I got the chance because he could reform… I don't have time to debate whether I trust him or not, the others are watching me. I can't give the game away…
Without a second thought I blur towards him and slam the blade into his gut – all the way to the hilt. He grunts slightly, and then whispers "Well done, now kill me. Quickly before the others suspect."
I'm not sure why, but it actually hurts me as I twist the sword – still in his flesh – and wrench it upwards as I begin to channel energy into it to allow it to cut through his warframe-like thing. It's not that slicing him in half from guts upwards bothers me… it's not even the reassuring smile I see on the two halves of his face in my mind as he dissipates into black mist… it felt, strange. I had killed before, but until now it had always been mindless infested, or mindless clones, sometimes indoctrinated Corpus puppets… but killing a free thinking being… that felt really good! But somehow the victory felt hollow at the same time, he was my brother and I had just killed him… even if he would reform that was still a bit unnecessary, couldn't he just have avoided me?
"Well done Alpha," comes Isaac's praise from somewhere behind me on the bridge. "That was quite impressive… you certainly did better than I could, he got me the first time he came for me. Pesky bugger…"
"What was that?!" I ask, the shock in my voice is genuine, but not for the reason the others think it is.
"We don't know, Lotus thinks he's some sort of crazy rogue tenno… but he isn't very talkative about it when he attacks, so we don't know for sure." Isaac's voice still has a lot of admiration in it, probably not without reason either…
"Are you OK, Alpha?" comes Valkyr's softer voice – she too sounds thoroughly impressed… all I did was think quickly and then stab someone. It's not that big of a deal, even if that someone is actually a rogue tenno who was capable of taking down Isaac…
I'm about to answer when the lights flick back on, dazzling us momentarily before our vision is automatically adjusted. That's when I look back to the others and see it.
The MOA is standing behind them. It should be long gone. The infested growths all over its body suggest that it was in the process of being digested by the infestation… but then how is a dead MOA standing on a previously empty bridge? It wasn't there when I went past and it's not like there's anywhere to hide on the inspection bridge – being corpus in design it is basically a reinforced sheet of metal plates that connects one side of the tank to the other. It doesn't even have handrails… how did it get…
Then it moves. The MOA lurches forwards! Only by one step, but that's still a lot. The others see me standing motionless and turn to see why…
Antonio uneasily tightens his grip on the Penta grenade launcher as the half-digested MOA takes another shaky step towards us… then another… and then it falls flat on its face.
I start over towards it to investigate when it twitches and then begins to wriggle in an attempt to right itself. We watch the half dead MOA in fascination… robotics are always programmed with the necessary calculations for walking, but this one seems to be unable to walk? What on Earth is going on?
The MOA finally rights itself and then takes another step towards us. Progress… I guess…
Then it opens its eyes. The infested growth on the torso contains multiple glowing green eyes?! It's alive? That question is immediately answered as it bucks and launches three projectiles of some sort at us. We instinctively dodge all three but I end up a lot closer to the edge than intended. I happen to glance down, and regret it. The infested matter below us is changing, moving… the solid parts are pulling aside to let objects move up from below… the objects are pushing their way through the grey flesh, like zits as they burst… and then they do burst – releasing another of the same type of MOA… and another…
The first MOA raises its head and lets out a gargling call, and the others below reply. Then the ones below begin to leap up onto the bridge! The stumbling MOA must have just taught them how to walk through the hivemind! They must be adapted in some way, seeing as they're easily jumping the 20m gap between the bridge and the flesh below…
Finally, Valkyr comes to her senses and draws her energy claws and charges the newly arrived MOAs. "They're infested! Somehow the infestation is controlling the mechanical parts!"
We're broken out of our reverie as the set-upon MOAs scream as they're slashed and beaten by the raging female tenno… We once again raise our weapons, but there is absolutely no cover. The bridge is devoid of anything except a support column at the center – 2km away. The bridge erupts in flashes of light as we all fire our assorted weapons at everything that moves… MOA, infested flesh, pieces of MOA that are flying from the approximate direction of Valkyr who is now digging into a new horde of MOAs...
I had thought to bring a Braton Prime this time, expecting to have to deal with weaker hordes rather than tough individuals and it came in handy. Every time the muzzle flashed a MOA fell… but almost immediately another took its place. So I kept firing... The MOAs were firing their own cloud-like projectiles at us now… and that's when I realized something; the projectiles travelled like rockets… but they weren't exploding. They were hitting the bridge and dissolving it. The MOAs were firing nanites!
"Run!" I yell on all frequencies, "They're firing nanites, the bridge is going to get dissolved!"
The others take one look at the now half eaten bridge between us and the door, and then turn with me and run towards the center of the tank. Unfortunately, it's at that point that I remember that the infested are telepathic as well…
The projectiles of nanites suddenly stop aiming for us and begin hitting the bridge! I'm running at full sprint but the nanites are flying past us and hitting the bridge ahead of us. The infested hivemind is coordinating its attacks… not good.
Woah, you've managed to get yourself in quite some trouble... Beta whistles in my head.
"Unless you have useful advice, stop distracting me!" I growl back – the last thing I need is for Beta to be the cause of my death…
I actually don't, for once…
"Then go away!"
That's when I have another eureka moment…
"Head for the column, but don't go past it!" I yell to the others, this time only on our channel – I'm not making that mistake again…
The others acknowledge with nods and hand gestures… and I think Valkyr was signing 'acknowledged' as well, but it's hard to tell because she's trying to sign it with a hand that has large orange energy claws and is halfway through a MOA… causing the whole MOA to bob in an odd manner, and then she focuses and tears it in half. Note to self: Don't annoy Valkyr…
We reach the circular platform that circumnavigates the central column, but is also attached to it. I Immediately spin around and draw my exalted blade and begin slashing at the swarms. The energy waves do exactly as I had hoped and ignite the nanites causing fairly sizable explosions, but causing them far away enough not to be a problem. We're safe. Or… we're as safe as any 4 beings onboard an infested Corpus supertanker filled with hostile infestation forms can be… (which is not very)
And then we get safer, because the bridge between us and the MOAs collapses with a painful shriek as the metal tears… and then a squelchy thump as half a kilometer of bridge lands in the moist grey flesh below…
The MOAs stand on the other part of the bridge and watch us, we stand and watch them. The only movement is the fluctuation of the energy around my blade and the blinking of hundreds of sets of six green eyes…
Standoff.
That's when we hear the infested shrieks from behind us… from the other side of the tank… coming across the still-intact other half of the bridge. Great…
"Valkyr, go back and cut the bridge will ya?" I ask in as light-hearted a tone as I can manage.
"Of course, both ends or do you just want it tilted so they can't get up"
"Just tilted." I tell her, even as she rounds the corner at speed…
Seconds later we hear the screams intensify as the infested realise what she's doing, and then the shrill whine of steel shearing under immense weight. Then there's a snap and more shrieking. Followed by a squishy thud…
Valkyr rounds the corner again, and shrugs her shoulders at me in an amused fashion. I'm not sure I want to ask…
"What happened?"
"I only cut the end of the bridge closest to us, but the infested were too far along and their weight has collapsed the bridge. Hope it wasn't important?"
"Fortunately, it wasn't… bloody abominations…"
The MOAs are still motionless except for blinking every now and then… it looks wrong to have multi-faceted eyes on a robot…
The fleshy floor below us is still squeezing out semi-translucent white capsules… but these are smaller… and they aren't bursting? Then they burst. We hear the whine of Osprey engines and instinctively look up to see where they are… I think all of us have at least once been shot from somewhere above by one of those things. There are no ospreys… odd.
The osprey is often described as the Corpus equivalent of the Grineer regulator. It isn't. Both are airborne machines, but that's one of the only similarities between them… The Corpus have access to much higher tech so their ospreys are fully mobile, better shielded and have a variety of functions – everything from shield projection, observation, scavenging, full on attack, mine laying and leeching off shields – in order to make them a vital part of the Corpus battlefield support arsenal. But they do not have stealth ospreys… all of them are fairly loud and quite brightly coloured, and yet I can't see any ospreys. I look down again to check on the pods… and figure out where the osprey engine sound is coming from… the smaller pods contained ospreys – which they are now 'hatching'. The problem is that these are infested ospreys, and they can still fly – although they seem to be currently in the process of learning to do so for the hivemind. Ospreys buzz in erratic patterns all over the place, bumping into each other and walls, zooming up to hit the ceiling, having their engines cut out and falling before sinking slightly into the soft floor. That stuff is gross…
Fortunately, the others are less fascinated and more interested in shooting… so the air is suddenly filled with a rain of lead, molten steel, grenades and plasma… I lift my exalted blade and join in. The ospreys fall to the ground in droves but unlike normal ospreys they no longer self-destruct when killed…
This of course riles up the MOAs, so I immediately have to redirect my energy waves to intercept the wall of nanite-swarms that they launch at us. Fortunately, none of the swarms gets close and so I'm able to, with one colossal swing, send a massive energy wave horizontally towards the MOAs. One or two of them manage to jump the wave, but the jumper's numbers are insignificant compared to the sheer volume that die from that one swing… on this bridge there is no cover, and that works to the advantage of the side with the best weapons – which is us.
I replace my exalted blade with the Braton Prime and pick off the last few as they land… and turn to see that the others are now finishing up with their infested osprey genocide. Good, now there's only one problem… how do we get to the other side of the tank?
Fortunately, I had done my research… Valkyr had an ability that formed a contained force field of magnetic energy – allowing the end of the tendril to latch onto things. This 'grappling hook' was strong enough to lift objects of around 50 tonnes before the power usage became too great and the force field collapsed. Fortunately, a tenno was barely 1 tonne… and Valkyr was easily strong enough to take the strain of ferrying us over. So I put the idea across to her, suggesting Loki go first… and then it occurred to me to question where exactly Loki was… again.
Fortunately, as it turned out, Loki was causing trouble elsewhere - having been locked out of the tank by the emergency door's abrupt sealing off of the area. And in traditional Loki fashion, he had just 'found himself' inexplicably in the command center… or what was left of it. Unfortunately for the infested Loki was not happy about having been locked out, and so had done some digging around. The only problem was that the infested had done a number on the command center – which meant Loki had succeeded in electrocuting himself multiple times before managing to achieve anything… and Loki did NOT like being electrocuted. At all.
As a result, it was hardly surprising when he announced that not only was he safe and alive, he had also sealed himself into the command center and had located an interesting display. The display was the ship's log, which also held the cargo manifest. The cargo manifest stated that the adjacent tank was filled with Hydrogen Chloride gas… and he was feeling very malicious towards the infestation…
I didn't even think I just told him to be ready to release it into our tank. Because I knew my chemistry, and Hydrogen Chloride gas (HCl) was used in the production of hydrochloric acid, and the way to do that was to expose the gas to humidity. Humidity like, for example, several kilometers of moist infested flesh just like the stuff below us…
I convey the instructions to the others, and as Antonio – who decided he would go first due to being able to quickly whittle down the crowd of infested that eagerly awaited our next move with a couple of electric discharges. I consented and as he hugs Valkyr I pray that he won't make an inappropriate comment…
Valkyr's ripline fires into the ceiling and jolts both of them upwards, before Valkyr cuts it and fires another one to further along, causing them to swing quite dramatically…
Thousands of confused pairs of eyes watch as their 'lunch' swings from glowing line to glowing line along the ceiling… thousands of heads swivel to follow them; tracking their every move… predicting where they will land, their trajectories and their nutritional value… and then Isaac – who has borrowed Antonio's Penta - 'accidentally' puts a grenade into the largest cluster of infested. Resulting in a beautiful explosion and a significant distraction from the hivemind's calculations.
The lights go out… again.
I immediately turn my helmet torches on and look for the black warframe-wearing figure… I don't see him… not good.
"Oops, sorry. Wrong switch." Comes the half amused announcement from Loki… as the lights come back on. Just in time to allow us to see Valkyr gracelessly hurl Antonio at the remaining section of bridge – where he lands, face first. I can't help but assume it was something inappropriate he said.
She swings back on the same ripline and returns at about twice the speed… Antonio meanwhile fills the air with arcs of electricity and the smoke of burning flesh as the infested charge him… soon all we can see is flashes of light in a grey cloud of singed-ness that is slowly spreading out from where he landed…. It looks like a miniature thundercloud has taken residence on the bridge, directly around Antonio. We can see infested charging into the cloud… but nothing emerges except faint tendrils of smoke and more flashes of electricity.
Valkyr lands in a crouch in front of Isaac and offers him her hand.
"I'm not going to get thrown, am I?" Asks Isaac, jokingly.
"Only if you come out with something as bad as your 'brother' just did." Is the amused reply as Valkyr once again hurtles towards the roof of the tank.
That leaves me alone on the circular platform around the colossal pillar and Loki somewhere unaccounted for on the ship… that guy needs to stop wandering off, it makes my job as unofficial commander very stressful… although, if he can make a habit of finding useful things in command centers and bridges I won't complain. I briefly wonder why what would normally be called the bridge on this vessel is actually a command center, but decide that I have more pressing concerns at the moment.
I'm still trying to figure out how the purely biological infestation has suddenly adapted to be able to interface with the purely mechanical Corpus proxies by the time Valkyr swings back for me. I take her hand, and I'm propelled into the air at an uncomfortably rapid pace, before she cuts the line and we drop, only to be jerked back upwards a millisecond later as the next line connects. I have already decided that I don't like this form of travel… Next time I'm keeping at least one bridge intact.
We land fairly gracefully, due to not making inappropriate comments I'm not thrown face first but instead deposited gently on the small piece of bridge still clinging to the other side of the tank. There is a fairly thick layer of smoke covering the ground to about knee height, but the smoke is still fairly high further along the corridor where Antonio is doing his thing. I can see scorch marks on the walls all the way along which means he probably decided to go for overkill…
Irrelevant, I usher Valkyr into the corridor and then tell Loki to open the vents between the tanks. Sure enough, we hear a hissing sound in the distance and then we hear the screams. Lots of screams.
It turns out the hivemind literally shares consciousness's with each and every infested life form… which means it was just hit by the experience of millions of cells of the grey passive flesh being hit by hydrochloric acid… fairly concentrated hydrochloric acid. And this agony is experienced by every member of the hivemind – which is why all of a sudden the infested in front of us are screaming as well and writing on the ground in agony. Antonio ceases to vaporize them and instead switches to stabbing them – more efficient.
I seal the safe-guard door on this side of the tank and we walk on between the sea of screaming infested and trembling tumors that coat the walls… they aren't even attacking us they're in so much pain!
I'll remind you
"What?"
You were thinking if it would be possible to do this with other infested colonies in future, and I said I would remind you.
"I thought you liked the infested?"
Yea, but seeing them all in so much agony is still fairly endearing… I'm kinda turned on right now…
"I did not need to know that Beta… also, seriously? Are you getting aroused by infested? You have issues…"
Hey, they scream. And I like screams. A lot…
"You're fucked up…"
Ah well, you're kinda stuck with me so you might as well get used to it
I don't even bother to reply, so he quickly redirects his attention to organizing Ruk's forces for another assault. I can't help but wonder though… Are the others enjoying the screaming in that way? I mean, I like the idea of my enemies screaming rather than my allies… but being turned on by it? I wonder if Valkyr is enjoying it… I kinda hope she isn't. I don't want her to be like that…
We press on regardless as the screaming infested continue to writhe around us, and so by the time we reach the reactor room I'm almost bored… So naturally fate throws in something to alleviate the boredom.
"Tenno, oh Tenno. It soo good to see you again!" Comes Alad V's voice over some sort of speaker…
I can already see the others have heard it too, mainly by the fact that Valkyrs energy claws have reformed and she's trembling with rage… but silently.
"I did wonder when you'd arrive, Tenno. I would sooo love to meet you again, unfortunately I'm a busy man. I have an empire to organize. But I left a friend for you. Go on through, she's waiting for you in the reactor room." Comes Alad's voice…
"That doesn't sound good…" remarks Loki. Valkyr, meanwhile, has calmed herself marginally… I think. But she's already moving towards the door. We all move towards it. I happen to be closer so I'm the first through the door, it costs me.
The first three shots remove my shields and the other seven punch through weak points in my warframe, crippling me before I even have a chance to scream. I drop to the floor as my vision darkens, but immediately I see Valkyr hurdle over me, claws drawn, followed by Antonio. Isaac stops and I see the healing nanites pour from his downturned palm. I sense them entering the gaping holes in my warframe and beginning to repair the armour and the flesh beneath. Isaac staggers as a high velocity shot bounces off his iron skin, but it doesn't seem to harm him.
The nanites finish their work and I shoot to my feet, braton prime already drawn and tracking. But then I stop in surprise.
The shooter. The 'she' that Alad mentioned. She is a warframe, a Mesa. She's tenno?
She may be tenno, but that apparently isn't discouraging Valkyr from trying to rip her arms off… and Antonio is slumped against the reactor bleeding profusely… Isaac hurries over to Antonio and I jerk myself into motion, firing a burst from my braton. I catch her completely off guard and remove her shields. I fire another two rounds, taking out both her knees before Valkyr tackles her again.
The Mesa bucks and grapples with Valkyr with a surprising amount of success… by which I mean she doesn't die in seconds. In fact, she even manages to throw Valkyr off, again. By this stage though her torso is covered in gashes, and that, combined with two bullet holes that have rendered her legs unable to support her, is clearly taking its toll on her.
That's when I notice; she is wearing a collar just like the one we saw on Alad!
I step in front of Valkyr – normally a very bad idea, but at the moment Valkyr has taken so many rounds she can barely resist – and indicate for her to stand down. Then I attempt to connect to the Mesa. Nothing.
I bring my braton to my shoulder and put a few rounds into the collar around her neck. Being a fairly bulky thing it takes several shots before it comes off. Then I try to connect again. I sense… something…
"Can you hear me?" I demand.
Silence. Valkyr is already healing and looks ready to attack again…
"If you can hear me, respond or I will be forced to kill you on the assumption that you are a rogue tenno."
Silence.
"Last chance to speak."
"w… wait." The telepathic speech is so quiet I almost miss it. She can't be that weakened, surely? Most tenno are perfectly capable of speech even after being riddled with plasma or bullets.
"Are you OK?" I know it sounds like a stupid question bearing in mind I just shot her –several times - and then Valkyr ripped her chest to pieces, but I mean it in the sense of psychologically rather than physically.
Silence.
I'm already beginning to wonder if I imagined the voice when she moves.
Antonio immediately begins charging an electric attack, but I beckon for him to stop.
The Mesa hauls herself to her knees and then bows her head. A sign of submission, but am I going to get any further communication from her?
"Alpha, kill it." Comes Lotus' voice, completely out of the blue.
"Sorry Lotus, please confirm. You said to kill her?"
"Correct. It is corrupted by the infestation; we cannot do anything. The Tenno she once was is dead. It is only a husk. I'm amazed its capable of speech…"
"Shouldn't we at least try?"
"No. We cannot risk bringing a live infestation form onto a relay full of humans."
"But if she was corrupted by the infestation she would be connected to the hivemind and she'd be screaming in agony. Are you sure she's infested?"
The Mesa hasn't moved, apparently she is content to await the result of my little debate with the Lotus… although she may not be able to hear it at all.
"Honestly Alpha, I am not sure she's infested. But I'm also not willing to risk the lives of the few hundred humans who have dared to stand up to the Grineer and Corpus by bringing her to the relay. Especially bearing in mind she is almost certainly infested, I just cannot be 100% sure without further scans."
"But if she can be saved, she would be a significant boost to our cause. It would be illogical to kill her, especially since she isn't exhibiting any signs of being infested."
"It SHOT you Alpha! It's not on our side, it has already proven that by its actions. Now kill it, destroy the reactor and get out of there. And remember pick up Loki on your way out, that guy is stressing me out with his incessant getting lost…"
"She was being controlled Lotus, it was the collar. She had no control over her actions, I'm sure of it."
"Alpha, I know you don't remember everything about being a Tenno, but even you should know that nothing can control a tenno. IF it was controlled then it is not tenno, merely infested flesh within a warframe. Now kill it and get moving, this ship is going to impact the blockade in about 30 minutes."
"How can you be certain that nothing can control a Tenno? And how is that scientific grounds for executing her?"
"Alpha. Don't argue with me, just shoot it and get out of there."
I'm considering my options when inspiration strikes: This conflict is non-beneficial, but I see a lot of potential in saving this Mesa warframe… and there just so happens to be a shadow-cloaked teleporter who has made it clear he opposes the Lotus and is willing to follow my commands…
I quickly search for his mind, he hasn't gone far and he's already reformed… that's impressive. Or maybe he had enough energy for revive. Void energy is miraculous…
I quickly connect to him and sense his brief surprise even through the mist.
"Brother, I need a favour. Now."
"Name it" he replies in a businesslike manner
"Abduct this Mesa, I wish to talk to her. Make it look like a kidnapping but do not harm her."
"Consider it done, just step back slightly"
I step back, momentarily confused. Which is fortunate, because it means the stun grenade misses me and hits Isaac in the chest – just as he was about to pull the trigger on Mesa! Instead the electricity arcs over his armour and he collapses in a smoking heap – unconscious for now…
Before I can recover Stalker lunges at me and I have to evade, I bring my exalted blade up but he waves a hand and it vanishes! He picks up the Mesa by the scruff of her neck and vanishes in a puff of black mist. All this happens in about 2 seconds, before the others can even react. We all stare at the spot where the Mesa had been kneeling in a state of shock… the others due to the whole 'rogue tenno appearing, knocking out Isaac and kidnapping a potentially tenno' thing… and I'm just in shock from the suddenness of it all. I hadn't realized he could teleport that quickly, or that quietly…
"Thank you." I whisper to him in my mind.
"What would you like me to do with her? She's unconscious but will awake soon…"
"For now just keep her safe, if you have to then restrain her but I'd prefer if you kept her free. We need her to trust us."
"Acknowledged. Shadow out." With that he's gone. I think I can still feel a faint connection to his mind though… now I will be able to find it at will, I hope.
I'm just glad that Beta wasn't here to see-
So that's what you're up to…
Bugger, Beta reconnected in time to witness that.
"Beta, can I trust you not to tell anyone?"
Yes. I actually agree with you on this. There was no way the Lotus could have known that that Mesa was infested and even if she was we should have taken her to one of the many quarantine zones under the Lotus' control for study. She wanted her gone… why?
"Your guess is about as good as mine… I guess we'll have to ask her ourselves. Mesa that is, not the Lotus."
Agreed. I won't say a word about this… I'd prefer to work with the all-powerful omnipresent goddess Lotus rather than against her… but on this matter I'm with you.
"Good"
I realise Valkyr is shaking me and snap out of psionic communicating mode to see what she wants.
"Are you OK?" She demands. She's already completely healed from the previous barrage she received. Impressive.
"Yea, just. Shaken. I didn't think he'd be back so quickly…" I'm pretending to be confused, and injecting a fair degree of shock into my voice. I don't like lying to a sister, especially Valkyr, but it's not like I can exactly confess my affiliation with the shadow-cloaked assassin…
"Me neither…" She admits… "That really caught us all off guard…"
"Yea…" I agree as I turn to survey the damage Antonio is doing to the reactor. Sure enough its visibly overheating and the others are all heading for the door carrying the colossal hunk of Isaac's armoured form… I join them, taking up a bit of the weight. The Rhino warframe is bloody heavy…
Which is how we end up looking like funeral procession by the time the Lotus reconnects to our feeds. Apparently Stalker hit her with something to jam her signal…
The others don't seem overly concerned at the abduction of the Mesa. I guess they think its preferable that she be kidnapped to them having to execute her, or maybe they think Stalker will kill her alone. Doesn't matter. While my brothers and sister are fairly unconcerned the Lotus is the exact opposite. I'm just ignoring her, but I can still hear her angry voice faintly in the back of my mind telling me that it's my fault the Mesa got away, that I should have shot her when I was ordered to. Just the usual. She'll calm down eventually.
Fortunately, Isaac wakes up before we even get back along the corridor. He awkwardly falls out of our hands and onto the floor and even before he rights himself he demands to know what happened.
"She got away" replies Antonio.
"Stalker kidnapped her" proposes Valkyr.
"Alad V is allied with Stalker and had him rescue her at the last moment as Alpha was about to shoot her" postulates Loki from somewhere, apparently he's made his way down to join us and is happily stabbing screaming infested with Antonio.
Actually, I think Loki is right. Proclaims Beta to everyone. It seems probable that this was a trap or a way of planting a traitor, one which Alpha wanted to exploit against Alad and the rogue tenno. Unfortunately, the Lotus messed it up. Alpha planned to take her back and then drop her in for interrogation so that we could learn more about Alad and the Stalker.
"Yes. That was roughly what I had in mind," I lie. "But I wasn't able to say so because she could have been connected to tenno frequencies and then she wouldn't have come willingly. And as we all witnessed she's a fairly capable opponent. Sorry, I had hoped you guys would play along."
"In that case I formally apologise. I was about to follow the Lotus' orders and kill her." Admits Isaac slightly sheepishly.
"Its fine, I would expect you to follow orders I had just hoped to turn the situation to our advantage. No hard feelings?"
"None."
"good. Now just to convince the Lotus to stop having a go at me…"
"Good luck" comes Antonio's voice from somewhere down the corridor.
I'm about to reply when we hear the reactor go critical. Throwing caution to the wind we all proceed to run for extraction, Isaac lags behind due to the weight of his armour, but its fine because there are only 4 airlocks so at least one person has to be gone well before he gets there so that his Liset can dock to pick him up.
We run past a few clusters of writhing infested, but the corridors are mostly clear over here… I have no complaints on that matter. The infested are still fairly repulsive in my mind.
We all reach the airlock room and I join the others in stepping into the airlocks. Isaac stands on a firm piece of floor and magnetizes his feet to prevent being blown out by the momentary decompression. I'm last to step into my Lisets rotary airlock, which means I am still turning into my Liset when I see Isaac get hit by an ancient's grappling hook and dragged across the floor towards it.
I immediately connect and ask him if he's fine, only to receive nothing. No communications at all. And that ancient looked really odd, even from a distance… never good.
I yell to Ordis to re-dock. He makes some sarcastic comment about me needing to make a list so I stop forgetting things, but obediently turns the Liset around. I psionically call out to the others and sense nothing. Not good!
The ship re-docks and I practically fly out of the airlock, only to be confronted with the sight of a colossal ancient that seems to have meshed with several sorts of construction tool. It has the standard magnetic aura of an ancient disruptor, but it also appears to have a row of circular sawblades along one arm. The other arm is wrapped around some sort of energy saw on a stick and seems to be interfacing with it. As I watch it begins to glow brighter and then the ancient brings it down on Isaac. His iron skin shatters off completely. That infested ancient is channeling?!
Without a second thought I shoot it. The first round bounces off a saw blade, but the rest hit home and rip out sections of flesh and muscle shredding the ancient in a matter of seconds. Isaac slowly stands, and brings his boltor prime to bear and then the air is filled with golden flechettes and the ancient is pinned to the wall… in several hundred little pieces.
Isaac goes over and retrieves the energy saw on a stick and then walks towards me. I tilt my head to the side and wait for him to explain, but he just takes my arm and directs me towards the airlocks. We both get in, check the other is secure and only then do we depart. We're going to have to be much more careful, or make smaller groups… That wasn't a particularly dangerous situation – I don't think… - but it has highlighted that a lone tenno can easily be picked off. As we head away from the infested Corpus supertanker I sense Isaac connecting to me.
"Thank you. You just saved my life."
"You couldn't have taken that ancient?"
"No, I could have, but it would have taken me too long."
I'm about to ask what he means when the supertanker crumples and fractures out into space. Components, modules, docked fighters and ships fly in all directions, some of them are held together by strands of infested sinew. That would be survivable, were it not for the sudden spike of radiation that rips into the rear sensors on our Lisets and almost completely destroys both ship's shields. That would be enough to kill any tenno ten times over… now I see what he meant.
The others have noticed our absence and come back to enquire as to what happened. Isaac briefly explains that I just 'heroically' returned at great risk to myself to save his life and so on… basically he makes me out to have taken a calculated decision and decided to potentially risk my life for him. Because one of the only ways to permanently kill a tenno is to expose them to an overdose of radiation because they cannot reform. If the radiation is left to dissipate then the tenno is generally alright, but radiation and an exploding ship? The supertanker is close enough to Jupiter now that there were enough gasses for a proper explosion, which comes a second later and blasts all five ships off course with its shockwave. That would have actually permanently killed Isaac… that's a slightly worrying thought.
The others agree with Isaac that I was a 'hero', but Valkyr seems especially impressed with my feat of 'heroism'… and I don't think admitting that I kinda forgot about the whole radiation permanently killing tenno thing is really appropriate anymore. Ah well, only several hundred more plague ships to deal with now… yay…
Fortunately, the massive chunks of supertanker actually end up swerving off and crashing into the other ships. Those that aren't immediately hit have to plough through the debris field and between that and the radiation a good 20 something smaller ships are destroyed. Which is when Beta finally announces his surprise to us.
I got us a present, could we all steer out of the way please?
All of the ship cephalons redirect us in the direction Beta indicates, which means we're in the perfect position to watch as three Fomorian class Grineer warships come around the planet. Their central guns charge up in unison, and then with three simultaneous blasts they rip three Corpus vessels from existence. Each of those explodes violently and fills the upper atmosphere with more burning debris… and then the Fomorians fire again, and again… soon the atmosphere is layered in falling debris that is burning up on re-entry… the main guns pulse every second or so and every second another three infested Corpus ships perish. Within about five minutes the entire armada is gone. All that is left is burning shrapnel that falls towards the lower atmosphere… beautiful really.
The Fomorians head past us, they aren't exactly agile… but they are following some interesting navigation data Loki found for them. Namely the origin of these plague ships: Eris.
End of Chapter 13