Chapter 2-Interlude 2

Money is power, as the old adage goes.

History has proven it correct time and time again. You can get anything you want with wealth, provided you have enough of it. Power, influence, friends, even lives are ultimately for sale. It is a principle on which the Corpus Merchant Cults have been founded and prospered for centuries. One might even call it a law of nature. Others might call it gospel.

Frohd Bek never considered himself quite so dramatic. As a member of the Corpus Board of Directors, he didn't have the time to view his money in a near religious light like his underlings often did. In his opinion, spirituality was an easy way to control the masses, but a man of his station should be above such things. Besides, beliefs often got in the way of pragmatism and Bek didn't get to where he was by being inflexible. That, and seeing your money as sacred often kept you from spending it and enjoying the finer things in life.

Things like a delightful glass of wine.

The door to his office opened and his head of intelligence stormed through, brandishing a datapad. Normally, Bek would have objected to such a rude interruption, but when a woman like Kyria Zoram decides to grace someone with her presence, even the Void itself wouldn't be able to stop her. "Your reports, as agreed upon." She said, her voice impassive as ever. "Financial data of your competitors, predicted vectors of the Technocyte infestation, and Grineer troop movements are inside."

"Please, Kyria, sit down. Why don't you enjoy a glass of wine with me." It was more than a common courtesy, of course. Wealth meant status amongst the Corpus, and fine wine was incredibly rare these days, especially one of such quality as this. A man of his stature was entitled to showing off, after all.

The woman took the glass without a word. She tasted it, then visibly began examining it with her mind, like she did with everything else. "This is a natural wine. Grown on actual soil, rather than the product of a hydroponics plant or a synthesizer. How did you get this?"

"I am a very wealthy man, miss Zoram."

The answer wasn't enough. "There're only a few places in the System fertile enough to grow grapes and neither you nor your allies own any of them. Even if you did, you wouldn't be sharing something this precious with someone like me. Unless…You've been making deals without telling me, haven't you?"

Bek smirked in response. She was always a smart one. "It was a gift from a mutual acquaintance."

"Alad V." The woman replied after a while. There was no hint of doubt in her voice. "You are still in business with that madman."

"Do you question my decisions, dear?"

"With all due respect, sir, he is unstable."

Bek shrugged. "Brilliant men often are."

"Brilliant or not, he nearly got us all killed. You know he acquired live Tenno for his experiments and tried to hide it from the Grineer. In doing so, he violated a decades-year old agreement with the Empire that all Tenno are to be handed over to the Empire for destruction. I had to call in every favor I had to keep those homicidal maniacs from declaring open war over this."

Bek involuntarily clenched his fist. The Gradivus Incident, as it was being called, was one of the greatest crises the Corpus had ever faced. Alad V had earned himself the ire of the Empire by taking what they considered their 'property' on Mars and the Grineer Queens sent the brutal General Sargas Ruk to take it back. Both sides bribed the Tenno to fight for their side, often to deadly effect on the receiving party. Alad offered the enigmatic warriors wealth along with freedom for the civilian population on Mars. Ruk said he'd give the Tenno a chance to steal their brethren back. The resulting slaughter lasted for weeks and cost both sides billions of credits in resources.

In the end, the Tenno were the only real victors: Alad was forced into hiding and most of his 'test subjects' were recovered, but General Ruk's army had been crippled and the Grineer were forced to withdraw from Mars soon after. The question of whether or not the Tenno had planned this from the beginning still kept many analysts awake at night.

"Alad took a foolish gamble." Bek concluded. "The Tenno are far too dangerous and the Grineer Empire far too profitable to provoke. Nevertheless, I would be an idiot to let an intelligence such as his go to waste."

"In spite of the fact that Alad unleashed the infestation on one of your fleets to cover his escape…"

"A small loss. One that has already been more than compensated for. All I had to do was to provide the Tenno with some pocket change and the directions to Alad's last known location. My quarterly returns barely took notice."

"I see." Kyria said, in resignation. She knew better than to think she could change her boss's mind, after all. Not when money was involved. "How did he even escape? From what I can tell, the Tenno were unusually determined to kill him. I can't imagine him lasting more a week on the run, unless he found a way to tunnel to an adjacent universe…"

"Yes, that is a good question, isn't it?" He replied with a grin.

"So he did…" Zoram didn't seem that surprised. Annoyed, but not surprised. "Throw me to the Void and leave me penniless. The rumors were true after all."

Bek narrowed his eyes. Working with Alad V at all was extremely dangerous. Kyria hadn't been wrong in that regard. He had done everything he could to keep his business dealings with the outcast a secret, going so far as to hide it even from anyone who didn't need to know, including her. Apparently, he hadn't hidden it well enough. "You never mentioned anything."

"I get dozens of fantastic sightings thrown on my desk every single day. I'm not going to bother you with stories of Alad V travelling to a mystical place called 'Earth Bet' unless I'm sure it's not a hoax. Besides, dimensional travel is highly impractical. The only devices we know of with that capability are Void Keys based on Orokin derived technology we barely understand. Even those require an immense amount of resources and energy to use. Sending large volumes of products or troops is infeasible with our current level of technology. If Alad V is on this Earth Bet, it would be impossible to send a force after him."

"Indeed. That said, it works both ways. We cannot hunt him, but he can't influence our affairs here in any significant way."

"Yet…"

Bek laughed. "My dear, even with the best dimensional travel technology, he could only send a dozen men or a few tons of product our way every week. Even Alad won't be able to change that. He could spend his life learning its intricacies and never achieve success. He is smart, but not that smart. Besides, I have a man inside his organization. If he ever decides to turn on us, my contact will handle the matter…permanently."

Zoram was still concerned. "And what of the natives on Earth Bet?"

"Primitives. Their technology is centuries behind our own. They are of no concern."

His head of intelligence sighed in response. As smart as she was, her rampant paranoia was quite annoying at times. "I barely know anything about this Earth Bet, sir. With all due respect, I don't think you do either. If there is anything of value on that alternate Earth, do you really think Alad would tell us about it? Would you, if you were in his place?"

"Kyria, Earth Bet is an insignificant speck of dust two steps away from oblivion. It has no raw materials that we cannot harvest from the asteroid belt and no technology that we do not have ourselves. There is nothing for Alad to hide on that planet. All he can give us is some luxury goods and whatever designs his twisted mind spawns next. We have nothing to fear from that man."

"Let me be the judge of that, sir. It is, after all, what you are paying me for."

The boardmember sighed. "By all means, investigate. I will not stop you. But please, do not waste my precious resources on the words of an exiled madman. I have plenty of enemies in this dimension already."

"I never waste resources. Even if the stories surrounding Earth Bet turn out to be nothing more than rumors, at least we know Alad isn't selling you short."

Bek smirked. That was something to consider. "Very well. You are dismissed."

Kyria politely bowed before leaving the door as quickly as she'd come in. To say that she was annoyed was an understatement. The Corpus as a whole revered knowledge and wealth, but some always went too far, forcing people like her to pull their asses out of the fire when things inevitably blew up in their faces. It was a thankless job. When your entire society lived by the motto 'expand or die', people that tell everyone else to slow down and think about what they're doing are often ignored until it is too late. Then, when things inevitably went to hell, she'd be the one having to fix it.

Zoram knew how the world worked. After all, she was the one who had been warning Bek for weeks that Alad V's obsession with Warframe technology was going to get them all killed. He only listened to her after General Ruk launched his invasion.

Now…Now Bek was doing it again, ignoring good advice in his endless quest for profit. One would think that he'd have learned from his earlier dealings with Alad V, but apparently he hadn't. Now, that madman was about to be unleashed on a hapless world. Truthfully, Kyria couldn't care less about Earth Bet, but she didn't dare to ignore it like her boss had. If Alad V conquered the planet, what would he do next? Would he be contend with ruling a primitive backwater or would he try to carve out an empire of his own? Or worse, what if the people of Earth Bet defeated him? Would they demand reparations from the Corpus in this dimension using Alad's technology? Would Alad V's madness start a trans-dimensional war?

Kyria shuddered at the thought.

Earth Bet was primitive, but that didn't mean its people could be discounted right away. Not if the more outlandish rumors about that planet were to be believed. Apparently, the planet is swarming with something called 'capes', a term used to describe ordinary humans with abilities that would even leave the most senior Corpus scientists speechless. Kyria hadn't given the matter much thought before: between the encroaching Technocyte plague and the Grineer's saber-rattling, she had enough to worry about already.

Still, the possibility that there was another group of people with physics-defying powers terrified her.

She needed to investigate.