Eventually, the time came for me to return to my universe-crossing adventures. I had prepared a force I believed would be able to steamroll all opposition I encountered, or, failing that, at least keep them busy until I could determine and exploit their real weaknesses. At this point, I had probably passed the point for overkill in regards to most foes I would face, despite some saying that there was no such thing. When you actually want to take prisoners (at least, most of the time), overkill IS a thing.
So, steeling myself, I activated my multiversal gate and sent my Commander through.
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My first opinion of my new surroundings was 'wow, that was a lot of trees'. I had found myself surrounded by jungle, where I saw strange cones littering the ground. Occasionally, pale colored rodents would nibble on the cones, before disappearing into the underbrush. Once in a while, large, grey feathered birds would swoop down and try to attack the rodents, occasionally catching their quarry, but more often then now coming up empty clawed. Oddly, all these sights felt familiar.
Now where was I-
"GET CLEM!"
I was pulled out of my pondering by a shout, followed by the sound of gunfire and then a familiar death groan. Turning toward the sounds, I watched as a familiar, one horned being charged into a group of green armored figures, using a sword to cut them to pieces. Following the figure were three more beings: one with a pair of long horns on its head, another with brownish armor and a muscular physique, and the last was pink in coloration, and also the only female among the group.
Excalibur, Loki, Rhino, And Mag.
Which would make the green armored dudes Grineer.
It would also mean I had arrived in the Warframe universe.
...SWEET!
Also, crap, because Sentients.
For now, though, I could focus on killing off the Grineer.
Extending out my sensors, I noticed that three aircraft seemed to be heading my way. Their appearance matched up with Furbolg dropships, so it appeared they were moving in to help out the Grineer. Given that the sun was setting, it appeared that these were Tusk troopers coming in to relieve their Frontier counterparts.
Well, that wasn't going to help them.
I locked my weapons onto the aircraft and waited for them to come closer - too much foliage in the way to get a good shot at the moment. Meanwhile, I started moving some gremlins through the portal and directed them toward the Tenno. Might as well try to ingratiateyself to them as soon as possible.
Also, why did that Excalibur look so different from what I had seen normally?
...WAS THAT EXCALIBUR UMBRA!?
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"Tenno, I am detecting an unknown gigantic entity approximately half a kilometer west of your position. It appears to be mechanical in nature, but does not match up with any designs used by the Corpus or the Sentients."
"How big is it, Ordis?"
"...Larger than an Eidolon Hydrolyst, Operator." replied the Cephalon.
Etran winced as the purple lotus image was replaced with that of Ordis, who seemed to deflate when referred to. Part of this was guilt at ruining Ordis' moment as Mission Control. The rest was unease at the Cephalon's statement. Larger than a Hydrolyst? Just what were they dealing with.
"Tenno! Detecting energy buildup in the unknown entity. It appears to be getting ready to..."
A trio of explosions filled the air, followed by three blue orbs of light flying above the Tenno. A moment later, another three explosions filled their air, followed shortly by the sound of crashing metal.
"...Detecting metal wreckage near your location, remains match up with those of Furbolg dropships. It appears our unknown has no love for the Grineer...waiti, detecting new contacts, heading your way. Lock and load."
Sighing, Etran reloaded his Tiburon, before scanning the battlefield, trying to find the new arrivals. A momentary ache in his side, though, made him uneasy. Umbra was holding up well, but the fact was that their last firefight had caused him to sustain quite a few injuries. While Umbra himself was powering through it, Etran could tell that he was very uncomfortable right now. Hopefully, he could find a health orb soon.
The sound of a Vulkar firing brought his attention back to reality. Even if the Cell had no idea what the unknown wanted, the Grineer were still a problem that needed addressing. Sighing, Etran opened fire, trying to take down the remaining Grineer.
The sound of whirring next him moved his sights to a bush to his left, just behind a sunlight thresh cone. For a moment, nothing happened, before a strange looking drone emerged, which promptly took shelter behind a trio of barrels the Grineer had left out in the open - apparently meant to store Cicero Toxin. Etran stared on for a moment, unsure what to do, before returning his attention to the Grineer and opening fire. The sniper went down a moment later, removing the most dangerous threat among the clones...at least for the moment.
Turning his attention back toward the drone, Etran was surprised to see that it was now right next to him, and reflexively tried to strike it with his Skiajati. The drone dodged back in surprise, only to charge toward him when the Grineer started firing on it. Etran readied to strike again, but when it became obvious the machine would not attack, he relaxed. Curiously, the machine never seemed to stop staring at him though. As he wondered why, he was surprised when the machine began releasing a blue colored mist all over him. He drew his Skiajati again, only to be surprised when he discovered that his biometric had gone back up - it appeared that the mist functioned much like the one used to revived down Tenno or those the Tenno had been contracted to rescue.
Another blaze of gunfire flew past them, but this time, the drone did not shrink from it. Instead, it flew toward the nearest enemy, a Heavy Gunner, and, much to his surprise, shot a burst of electricity before the Grineer could react, causing her to collapse, convulsing, and with a rapidly falling pulse. The nearby Grineer were also stunned, leaving them sitting ducks for the Tenno, who quickly cut their foes down. The few Grineer who had not been slain knew better than to hold their ground and fell back, with the Tenno pressing their advance.
As they did, more drones appeared, as did...something else. Resembling an insect, but lacking the third pair of limbs, the new arrival quickly advanced on one of the Grineer and ripped the poor clone apart. It stared at the Tenno for a moment, before continuing its advance. More of its kind followed, pushing the Grineer even further back. Soon, the retreat turned into a route.
It wasn't long before the Grineer finally broke ranks. The majority had been wiped out, while the rest new it was time to give up and were already falling back into the few safe areas they had in this forest. Etran wondered how Vay Hel would react when he heard about this - the Councilor was exactly the most reasonable of people.
The new arrivals, however, did not seem to be willing to allow their foes to escape, and were already charging into the tunnels after them. Joining them were several humanoid robots, which also appeared to be carrying breaching charges. One of them looked at the Tenno and waved before following its comrades into the tunnels.
Well, that was odd...
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While Hearth waves at the Tenno, apparently wanting to see just how they reacted, I sent the rest of my forces after the Grineer, trying to wipe the rest of them out. With the lead they had, though, one squad was able to reach a firbolg and blast into space before I could kill them. Oh well. I could have killed them if I went for heavier firepower, but that would also destroy part of the forest, and I did not want to make Sylvanna angry. I wanted to fight those Spectres when I felt like it, not all the time.
While all this was going on, I quickly moved a firefly through the portal and started scouting Earth, searching for a suitable base. Eventually, I found a location: a large wasteland two miles East of my arrival site, unoccupied even by the Grineer. Apparently it was the sight of some big Orokin screw up, and Sylvanna had not had time to fix it before undergoing Transference into the Silver Grove. Well, that wouldn't take too much time to fix.
I quickly moved in a transport to take me to the wasteland, after which I set up a vehicle factory and got to work building more fabbers. My Commander, meanwhile, had been put to work purifying the soil, as well as examining the toxic materials still polluting the area and seeing what might be useful later. I quickly set up some stealth systems to hide me from the Grineer, as well as an Orbital factory, so that I could start getting more bases up across the system. Already, my forces were setting up shop on Lua.
While all this was going on, I monitored the comm channels, trying to find out what the native factions in the Origin system were doing, and how the Grineer were reacting to my presence. The squad that had evaded me had apparently been requested to appear before Councilor Bay Hel for debriefing. Poor sods. Meanwhile, the Corpus were busy trying to decide who would be in charge of the next line of proxies, Ergo Glast and Cressa Tal were busy trying to deal with their former comrades, the Arbiters and the Veil were still trying to kill each other, Suda was busy helping Simaris with some big sanctuary project, and Amaryn was busy trying to evict another Grineer force from Earth's forests.
Also, the Tenno I had encountered earlier were now trying to contact me. Apparently (at least as far as my decryption software could tell), Ordis had managed to figure out what frequencies I was using and managed to open up a channel on one of them, asking for a chance to talk to me. I obliged, and told them that I would like to go help them with their endeavors, though I would prefer to coordinate my actions with the Lotus.
...What do you mean the Lotus isn't available? I thought she had eyes everywhere in the system?!
...THE LOTUS IS MISSING!?
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!